This month there has been a lot of smaller news stories this month, so we’re going to include them all here!
Shaman King: The Super Star
Shaman King: The Super Star is the official title of the next manga series from Hiroyuki Takei as part of the Shaman King timetime. Previously this was referred to as Shaman King: New Chapter. The 13-page prologue was released in Shonen Magazine Edge in Japan on April 17th, 2018. It also included a color page at the beginning of the issue. This acts as a sort of “trailer” for the first 3 chapters of the new series with a couple panel drawings from them. Based on this, it appears that this story will be a continuation from the Shaman King Flowers storyline. The story also appears to be tieing together his Itako No Anna, Death Zero, and Butsu Zone ideas further into the Shaman King timeline. The first chapter will release in Shonen Magazine Edge on May 17th, 2018.
A new logo for Shaman King: The Super Star is also in development. This is being created by “Smile Studio”, who also created the new 20th Anniversary Shaman King logo. As commented on Twitter, he was originally surprised by the title, but after a half-a-second, he was convinced it was a good title.
Shaman King: New Light Novel
Included in the ad preview for the Kodansha editions of the Shaman King eBooks, the light novel for Shaman King is currently in the planning stage. This light novel is based on the results from the Character Popularity Poll that was conducted earlier this year.
While under the Shuiesha license, 2 light novel adaptions of the Shaman King manga were previously created. These were adaptions from the original first 9 volumes of the manga. These two books were additionally officially translated and released in France in a hard-cover book format.
Shaman King License Status in English
As previously mentioned on Twitter by Hiroyuki Takei’s Shonen Magazine Edge editor, they are hoping to have Shaman King re-licensed across the world. Currently, no additional publishers have announced that they have the rights to the new Kodansha eBooks or the new Shaman King manga series (The Super Star or Gaiden). However, Vertical and Kodansha Comics, both English USA-based licencors/distributors, are currently in talks with Kodansha in Japan for the license rights. This is typically a private bidding process, followed by writing a contract prior to any official announcement. Often this licensing process can take several months to complete. Both Vertical and Kodansha Comics are partially owned by the Japanese company Kodansha.
Currently Viz Media only has the license for the print volumes, but has not made an official statement as to how long those rights will remain in their hands.
Tezuka Mix Magazine Has Been Cancelled
For the 90th anniversary from Osamu Tezuka’s birth, a new limited run magazine called Tezuka Mix was to be published. This magazine would have ran for 18 issues and featured manga series, short comics, and other articles about Osamu Tezuka’s works. The first issue was originally scheduled to be released on May 30th, 2018 and feature Hiroyuki Takei’s new Astro Boy manga. However, on April 5th, 2018, the website was updated to announce that the magazine has been delayed indefinitely, or in other words, cancelled.
Nekogahara Volumes 4 & 5 Cover Art Previewed
Releasing in Japan on May 17th, 2018, the final two volumes of Nekogahara will be released. The final manga chapter was included in the May issue of Shonen Magazine Edge released on April 17th, 2018. Within this issue, there was also an ad (shown right) which includes a partial image for the two covers. These covers continue the pattern of alternating between a light & dark colored covers for the series. These volumes will be released in print and digital format on the same day in Japan.
Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai volumes 4 & 5 are also scheduled for release in English on September 11th, 2018 and November 13th, 2018. Both will be available in print and digital ebook. The English digital ebooks can be purchased worldwide, excluding Japan.
Nekogahara Volume 2 to be released in Taiwan
The Nekogahara series is also being released in Chinese for the Taiwan region under the title “貓原”. The first volume was released on February 9th, 2018 (ISBN: 978-957-26-0269-0) by publisher Tong Li (東立). The second volume is currently scheduled for an earliest release date of April 30th, 2018 with a ISBN number of 9789572602706. Due to the nature of book publishing in Taiwan, some distributors have a later release date listed for the volume. The cover art for the volume is shown to the left.
