Back in July and then in September , it was quietly announced that all of Hiroyuki Takei’s manga series that were managed by Shueisha would no longer be available. It was clear that there was some disagreements between Hiroyuki Takei and Shueisha for some time, and he was able to break away from his publisher this year. Since the availability of the digital and print manga has been removed, there has been some question on who Hiroyuki Takei’s next publisher for the manga series Shaman King, Jumbor, Butsu Zone, and Ultimo will be.
According to both the Japanese and American Patient/Trademark Offices, the new publisher for the Shaman King (シャーマンキング) manga will be Kodansha Co., Ltd. The original trademarks in the respective countries have been updated to list the new Holder/Owner. New trademarks have not been filed, only updates to the original (which don’t require as much paperwork for the change). It appears that this change has started as early as January 31st, 2017. Jumbor, Butsu Zone, and Ultimo do not have current trademarks, so it is not confirmed if they are also being managed by Kodansha at this time. Kodansha is the current publisher of Hiroyuki Takei’s on-going manga series Nekogahara.
It is important to note, that American trademark lists the Japanese “Kodansha Co, Ltd” as the trademark owner, which is separate from English publisher “Kodansha Comics.” The original American trademark also listed the Japanese publisher “Shuiesha,” not the English publisher “Viz Media.” This does not mean that any English publisher has re-licensed the manga, and Viz Media has some rights remaining.
Hiroyuki Takei has hinted on Twitter that he is working on a continuation of his popular Shaman King manga series. However a publisher hasn’t been officially announced yet, but he was hoping for an announcement before the end of the year. Currently he is hiring some additional staff for an unspecified manga.
