The German branch of the manga publisher Tokyopop is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year with various promotions. While the company is more well known in North America for publishing manga, it also has a German branch that operates independently. The German branch will license manga for Germany that are not licensed by the American branch. Back in 2020, Tokyopop Germany released all 35 volumes of the original Shaman King manga in a new 2-in-1 release. These releases were unique in that they had uniquely colored backgrounds for the covers and also contained the original color pages for both the print and digital releases. They continued releasing more Shaman King manga in German with Shaman King Flowers and the on-going Shaman King The Super Star series. Additionally, they released the Shaman King Faust 8 – Für immer, Elisa light novel, and Shaman King Character Book.
As the Shaman King series has been a best seller for Tokyopop with its releases, they included it as part of their special edition volume prints releasing this year to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Every month in 2024, Tokyopop Germany is releasing a hardcover edition of the first volume from some of their series. The Shaman King volume 1 special edition was released on February 2nd, 2024. Unlike the previously published editions from Tokyopop, this is just the first volume and not a 2-in-1 edition. It features a hard cover with a metallic/reflective finish and embossed logo. The first chapter color pages are included and the edges of the pages are painted a dark grey. These special edition volumes cost 20€ and can be purchased from various retailers online and in-store in Germany (without any promotional extras).
Continuing their celebration, Tokyopop Germany is also holding a special pop-up store for a limited time. Each participating store will have additional copies of the special edition volumes as well as new exclusive extras only available in-person. One of these is a copy of brand new shikishi that Hiroyuki Takei has created in celebration. Hiroyuki Takei included the message in both English as well as in Japanese, which we have transcribed below.
Happy 20th
Anniversary
Tokyopop!
トーキョーポップ!
20周年おめでとー
ございます。
Hiroyuki Takei
The pop-up shop stops at the 20th anniversary celebration are the following locations:
Cologne – June 7-8
Hannover – July 12-13
Hamburg – September 20-21
Dortmund – November 22-23
The shikishi is not available for sale, and it may vary by location on when and how they will be distributed. Additional details about the celebration can be found at the official website. Tokyopop Germany will be at the AnimagiC 2024 convention from August 2nd through the 4th and they will be distributing additional other shikishis when purchasing the related volumes. It may be possible that additional copies of the Shaman King shikishi are available there.
