For the last four years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) I’ve started the year by making some predictions on what will happen within the upcoming year. So far my predictions haven’t panned out but that’s not going to stop me from trying!
Before we get into 2020’s predictions, let’s see how I did with 2019 predictions:
New Shaman King Anime Announced for 2019/2020
Didn’t Happen – I just keep trying to get us a new anime by putting it onto the predictions list on multiple years! But nothing! I guess we’ll just have to keep waiting.
New Shaman King Mobile Game Announced
Didn’t Happen – A standalone mobile game hasn’t come around yet. But there was more collaboration events in other games. Plus we did get one of them into English with Puzzle & Dragons! That was a very welcome surprise!
Shaman King Manga Licensed Worldwide!
Partially Happened – Wait a minute, I think I got a portion of this one! Right here: “Entire reprints (and more) of the Shaman King manga in France! ” BAM! The rest hasn’t happened yet, but that one point was on the money!
The following are predictions for headlines for 2020. These are guesses and are NOT real news stories until reported on later.
Shaman King Manga Slowly Rolls Out Worldwide!
Just keep doubling down on this! With France licensing the original manga and all of Flowers, that’s a great start. I’m sure more countries will follow suite. The 2-in-1 volume releases are a good way to help condense down the series and get it onto shelves in a physical form. I don’t think it will be exactly the same in all regions, but it’s a great start. For an English release, I wouldn’t expect to see print releases on bookshelves until the end of 2020… but there could be single volume sales released digitally first! Kodansha Comics USA is already rolling out a similar method with their Saint Young Men manga series.
Yahabe Anime Returns for Free Streaming Online!
Remember back in 2012 when the Yahabe manga was first released… there was actually a full anime episode that was made at the same time! It was very cool to see both a manga and an anime produced and released on the exact same day. It’s been a long time since that was released and it’s no longer available online. With the original Shaman King manga still streaming on various platforms in Japan… this would be a cool time to just re-upload the episode for everyone to enjoy again! Plus maybe it can build up some more hype for a new Shaman King anime series…!?
A New Shaman King Anime Series isAnnounced!
Please! Pretty please?
Another Shaman King Novel is Announced and Released!
This year we got the Shaman King FAUST8 – Eternal Eliza novel, which had a surprisingly quick turn-around time from being decided to released. Hopefully those sales numbers were strong enough to warrant another light novel to be produced. If i had to place a guess on the topic… I would say it’s about Hao and uses the “Relax” manga short for inspiration. A collection of short stories on how he gathers some of his team members.
Shaman King Exhibition Goes International & Opens Up Online Sales!
While the Exhibition originally only had planned for 3 venues… at least one additional venue will be added into mix! This would be a trimmed down version of the Exhibition, but it would be done collaboration with an international anime convention. For the USA it could be something like Anime Expo or Anime NYC where convention attendees could view the works for free. But it’s also possible that it could go to other conventions like Japan Expo in Europe (who previously hosted Hiroyuki Takei and had original artwork on display). It’s a great cross-promotion event and helps with the local licensors for getting the word out about how Shaman King is back!
Of course these international locations would not be able to have the expanded store of merchandise…. but the remaining leftover stock can be sold online for fans who were unable to get to the event in person. International shipping probably won’t be offered, but hey, we got to dream big here so maybe they’ll even offer it! Shaman King truly goes worldwide!
And with 2019 and the decade coming to a close… 2020 continues to use that 20th Anniversary to it’s benefit! The Smash Bomber 15th anniversary isn’t until 2021… so let’s keep Shaman King going for a little while longer!
