Since his breakout hit of Shaman King in 1998, Hiroyuki Takei has continued to be a driving force in the world of manga. Unsurprisingly, the 2010 decade was not a lowpoint after the true conclusion of the original Shaman King series, but instead propelled him into his busiest time period yet! Let’s take a look at the entire decade (2010-2019) for Hiroyuki Takei and his “production house” on what the exciting and productive decade it was!
For simplicity, all Hiroyuki Takei related works will be grouped together. This would include series he contributed worked on along with series like “Danball Senki: Kaidou Jin Story.” Additionally, this article which will feature images and information from works which may not be available in your region/language and may contain some small spoilers.
Magazine Covers
One strong measure of popularity it to look at which series appear on the covers of magazines. Series that are on the cover of a magazine are the ones which are the most popular and help boost the sales for the series. Within this decade, there was 38 separate Japanese magazine cover appearances. Averaged out, a Hiroyuki Takei series would appear on Japanese magazine cover once every 4 months! It’s also worth mentioning that Takei’s untitled Astro Boy manga would have been on the cover of the first issue of Tezuka Mix if the magazine was not cancelled. Below is the gallery of all of the magazine cover appearances that were published in Japan. Ordered by Magazine then by issue/year.
Color Pages Within the Magazines
Where as a cover of a magazine is limited to a single series, there can be multiple color pages within a magazine issue. These can also be a good measure for popularity as well as a way to provide some extra details to the manga. Below is the gallery of color pages that highlight the progress over the years. Ordered by series title, then by chapter number.
Note: Full color manga was not included, as well as extra color pages that were made specifically for the volumes. Some of the images included in the gallery were from the volume releases and others were from the magazine print run. One of the pages was from the English volume release and not in color, as a color image was not available.
Year-By-Year Highlights
While there is a ton of news and events that happened over the entire decade, let’s break down some of the highlights for the news and releases that occurred in Japan as well as around the world! Bullet-points are by year, not by specifically when it happened in each year but more major events are towards the top of the list.
2010
- Ultimo continues to release in the Japanese Jump SQ (chapter 12 and volume 2 released on January 4th, 2010,)
- Jumbor begins in Ultra Jump in Japan
- Hiroyuki Takei and Stan Lee appear at San Diego Comic Con 2010 to promote Ultimo
- Ultimo begins it’s US English volume release in February
- Ultimo begans it’s French release in October
- Shaman King volumes 26 through 31 were released in English.
- Jumbor Angzengbang volumes 1 & 2 were released in Japan (a reprint complication of the earlier J”yuki Ningen Jumbor” series)
- Shaman King Perfect Editions began releasing in Italy
- Ultimo manga reaches the New York Times Best Sellers List
2011
- Shaman King Zero series begins in Jump Kai magazine
- Danball Senki: Jin Kaido Story begins it’s limited series run in Corocoro G magazine, with “HIRO” listed as the author
- The Shaman King anime is featured in a pin-up poster in the October issue of Animedia
- Ultimo manga is removed from the monthly print editions of English Shonen Jump in the US and moves into volume releases only.
- Ultimo series begins volume releases in South Korea, Spain, and Italy
- Shaman King Remix Editions begin being released in Japan
- Shaman King Kang Zeng Bang volume begins it’s initial digital exclusive launch on Yahoo! Japan’s ebook service
- The Vomic for Ultimo is shown on TV program Jump!BANG
- Self-published book Jumbor Japon receives a second printing
- Hiroyuki Takei draws some art for the Cardfight!! Vanguard (カードファイト!! ヴァンガード) and Samurai Wars (戦国大戦) card games
- Hiroyuki Takei makes a model for the Battle Break ( バトルブレイク ) trading figure game
- Hiroyuki Takei has an interview in the magazine “S”
- Megumi Hayashibara releases her version of the song ” 恐山ル・ヴォワールを歌ってみた ” on Niconico Douga and YouTube (via JumpKai)
2012
- Shaman King Flowers begins in Jump Kai magazine
- Oneshot chapter Yahabe manga and anime are released the same day in Japan
- Ultimo moves into the Jump SQ 19 magazine
- Asakura Yoh figure by RIO:Bone is released
- Shaman King and Ultimo begin their English digital volume releases
- Jumbor Angzengbang 2 volumes are published in France.
- Jumbor begins it’s release in Hong Kong
- Ultimo manga series is cancelled in Spain after it’s 7th volume
2013
- The Shaman King anime returns to TV broadcast on the Animax channel
- Jumbor series is released in Italy
- Shaman King volumes 1-32 are released digitally in Japan
- Shaman King volumes begin release in Argentina
- Ultimo volumes 1-9 are released digitally in France as a Kindle store exclusive
2014
- Shaman King Flowers and Shaman King Zero manga end
- “Dear Tokuda Zaurus-sensei” special chapter is published in CoroCoro Aniki magazine
- Shaman King Remix volumes (2nd edition) are released in Japan
- Shaman King Flowers and Shaman King Zero begin their South Korean release
- Thailand begins it’s Shaman King Ultimate Edition releases
- Hiroyuki Takei provides character designs for the Garo anime 〈GARO〉-炎の刻印-
- Butsu Zone is released as a Remix volume
2015
- Ultimo manga concludes in Jump SQ 19 magazine
- Jumbor manga is on hiatus in Ultra Jump magazine for one year before officially “ending.”
- Hyper Dash! Yonkuro manga series begins in CoroCoroc Aniki magazine
- Nekogahara manga series begins in Shonen Magazine Edge magazine (by Kodansha)
- Hiroyuki Takei works on “Chaos Dragon” multi-media project, but nothing is specifically contributed to him
- Hiroyuki Takei was planned to be a guest at US anime convention Otakon 2015 before cancelling due to a last-minute scheduling conflict
- Hiroyuki Takei makes his red mask, which he wears for some promotional events
2016
- Nekogahara begins it’s English worldwide volume release in print and digital formats
- The final Ultimo volume is released in English
- Hiroyuki Takei has an interview in “The 12 Laws of Drawing Manga” (マンガを描くために必要な12の掟) mini-book
- Hiroyuki Takei holds 2 autograph and drawing events at Animates in Japan
- Image-Nation films a TV episode around Hiroyuki Takei in English
- Hiroyuki Takei starts planning for the 20th Anniversary for Shaman King
2017
- Hiroyuki Takei posts on Twitter about how he declined a new anime production for the Shaman King series as they were unable to keep the original cast
- Shaman King, Jumbor, Butsu Zone, and later Ultimo are all removed from digital sales and no longer list Shueisha as the publisher
- Shaman King‘s Japanese and American Trademark owner changed from Shueisha to Kodansha Co. Ltd.
- The official Shaman King App is discontinued in Japan
- Viz Media removes English volumes of Shaman King & Ultimo from it’s website and marketplaces
- Hiroyuki Takei visits his hometown and Mount Osore. This trip is documented in the August issue of Train Vert magazine
- Hiroyuki Takei creates some character designs for mobile app game “Tokyo Dragon City“
- Hundred-Art begins a print-on-demand high quality large canvas art for Shaman King and Nekogahara
2018
- Shaman King 20th Anniversary Website opens and hold a character popularity poll
- Shaman King The Super Star manga begins in Shonen Magazine Edge magazine
- Shaman King Red Crimson manga begins in Shonen Magazine Edge magazine
- Shaman King Character Book 原色魂図鑑 is released
- Shaman King Faust8 – The Eternal Eliza is released
- 3 chapters of the original Shaman King manga are printed in Shonen Magazine Edge
- Shaman King manga begins it’s digital release under Kodansha in a 33 volume edition
- Hiroyuki Takei was working on a manga chapter based on Astro Boy for “Tezuka Mix” before the magazine was cancelled. This was never released.
- Bandai begins a new line of Shaman King products for both high-end and gashapon
- The original Shaman King anime begins streaming on various platforms in Japan
- Hiroyuki Takei has an interview in Kikan S magazine
- GraffArt & A3 begins creating various Shaman King merchandise
- Amnibus begins creating various Shaman King merchandise
- Shaman King has a collaboration with Ironman of Karaoke – King of System ( カラオケの鉄人 )
- Shaman King has a collaboration with Japanese mobile game “Boku & Dragons” & “Pocolon Dungeon“
2019
- Shaman King Exhibition is held in Tokyo
- Shaman King Yoh & Hao figures are released by Kotobukiya
- Shaman King The Super Star and Shaman King Red Crimson go on a multi-month hiatus while Hiroyuki Takei recovers
- Band BiSH releases ” O・S ” song based on the Shaman King series
- Shaman King has a collaboration event with Japanese & English Puzzle & Dragon mobile game
- Shaman King has a collaboration event with Japanese mobile games Sangoku Drive and 7 Sages & Alchemists
- A Shaman King Pop-up shop sells some exclusive merchandise
- Archipel releases a short documentary interview with Hiroyuki Takei in English
For the latest Shaman King and Hiroyuki Takei related news, be sure to check out our Twitter (@ShamanKingNews)! More long-form articles and updates to Patch Cafe will be coming in 2020!
