Back in August, the publisher Ivrea Argentina made a comment on it’s Facebook page regarding the publishing status of the Shaman King manga series. At the time, they were publishing new volumes of the Shaman King manga, which would total up to 34 volumes to cover the additional content in the Kang Zeng Bang (KZB or Perfect Edition) volumes. With the transition from Shueisha to Kodansha still being unclear, there wasn’t that much information available.
Starting on November 10th, Ivrea Argentina did respond to some posts which are roughly translated below. The recap is that it appears that International publishers can still reprint previously approved/released volumes in 2017 & 2018. This falls in line with some other international manga publishers who have been reprinting volumes over the last couple of months. However, it appears that in order for new volumes to be published, they will need to be renegotiated for the rights. For Argentina, it appears the earliest new volumes would be allowed will be in 2019 as they may need to wait until other contracts/rights expire. This is only reported from one publisher, but it seems to indicate the Kodansha can’t officially create new contracts until 2019 even though they are the current license holder. Volume 19 of the Shaman King manga was ready for print, but now appears to be delayed until 2019 in Argentina.
Post 1: Nov 10th
Question: Hi, I wanted to know if Shaman King is out-of-print? And if it is true that the author has already signed with the new publisher? Thank you.
Answer: The Shaman King out-of-print volumes 2, 3, and 4 will be reissued in the coming months. The author finally signed with Kodansha and we are initiating negotiations. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Post 2: Nov 10th
Question: Are you still editing/publishing Shaman King?
Answer: Yes. The volumes haven’t been printed in a long time because of the author’s quarrel with the Japanese publisher that sold us the rights, and it was not until a few days ago that it became official that he arranged [the rights] with another one. During all this time all international editions were frozen [from being published] for the same reason. So now we are negotiating to continue.
Answer: Shaman King volumes 2, 3, and 4 are going to be reissued in the coming months.
Post 3: Nov 13th/14th
Question: Hello, I wanted to know if there was any news about shaman king?
Answer: As Martin says. We hope to have news soon.
Answer: For now we can say that only at the end of 2018 Kodansha can start processing the license with us, so yes, we will be talking about the return in 2019.
Post 4: Nov 22nd
Question: I know you must be tired of this question, but… is there any news about Shaman King or is it still the same?
Answer: The author has already agreed with Kodansha to handle the rights, but by contract only in 2019 can they begin to process licenses. So that’s when we will start negotiating with them to continue our editions.
