Over the past weekend, on his personal Twitter account, Moriyoshi Yoshida briefly discussed illegal uploads in a couple of tweets. Moriyoshi Yoshida, or more frequently referred to as Y-Da (Y田) online, is the lead manga editor for Kodansha’s Shonen Magazine Edge magazine. He currently works as the editor for a variety of manga within the magazine but more importantly is the editor for Shaman King: The Super Star and Shaman King: Marcos. He also is a key figure in the Shaman King (2021) anime’s development and other Shaman King related projects such as the Shaman King Exhibition.
The following is the text of his 3 tweets in the original Japanese followed by a rough English translation.
とても悲しいのですが…違法アップロードと戦っております。アドレスを確認してリスト化して後日社に提出します。違法アップロードは犯罪です。
この作品「好き」の想いに、世界各国に対して対応が遅れているのは大変申し訳ありませんが、違法行為とファン活動には一線を引いていだだけますようお願い致します。
こんな事言いたくないのですが、違法アップロードはファン活動ではありません。犯罪です。漫画コンテンツを正規で楽しんでいただければと。何卒よろしくお願い致します。
It’s very unfortunate… but we are fighting against illegal uploads. I will make a list of websites and submit it to the company later. Illegal uploads are a crime.
We are very sorry for the late response to the “love” of our work we receive from countries all over the world, but we ask of you to draw the line between illegal activities and fan activities.
It pains me to say this, but illegal uploading is NOT a fan activity. It is a crime. I wish you can all enjoy the manga in a legitimate way. Thanks for your cooperation.
While the third tweet specifically references the manga, this series of tweets are likely related to both the new anime series and the manga series for the Shaman King series.
The Shaman King (2021) anime started its release in Japan on April 1st with the premiere on TV Tokyo broadcast followed by the episode being streamed on Netflix Japan an hour later. A variety of other streaming platforms would then stream either free, part of a subscription, or pay-per-view the episode 8 to 12 days after Netflix Japan. The complete list of Japanese services can be found here.
Internationally, on Netflix has announced the streaming rights for Shaman King (2021) but no release date or schedule has been announced yet. A fan created term of “Netflix Jail” has often been applied to anime series that have been licensed by Netflix but are not released until after the series has been completed in Japan. Most anime series are simulcasted shortly after the Japanese release on services such as Crunchyroll or Funimation in English.
Netflix does do weekly subtitled releases of anime in regions outside of North America. For example, the new season of My Hero Academia is streamed weekly on Netflix in various Asian countries with English subtitles shortly after the Japanese release. Netflix in North America also does some weekly releases, in particular with Korean shows, but does not do the same for anime. The ongoing season of My Hero Academia is not currently streaming on Netflix in North America and is instead on Crunchyroll and Funimation with simulcasts shortly after the Japanese TV broadcast.
The news on when the Shaman King anime may be available for streaming outside of Japan has been very limited, but the Netflix France Twitter account has been the one which has provided the most amount of hints so far. On the Japanese release date, April 1st, they tweeted the following and also gave some replies:
Their initial tweet stated that they do not have a release date but as soon as they do they will use their furyoku to announce it. Then one user, Paolo asked if the announcement will be in terms of weeks or within months. Then Netflix France responded with that it needed to air first, so they are not talking about weeks. The Shaman King anime was also briefly highlighted in their upcoming anime hype trailer.
Outside of Japan, there is only a placeholder page for the Shaman King anime on the Netflix website which provides no information and a reminder can be set for when the anime comes out. When this page is viewed in Japan however, it contains the most recent episodes and also has an English descriptions for the series and each episode, including the official episode titles. The “PV2” trailer is also being streamed and has English subtitles as well. The episodes themselves only have Japanese subtitles/closed-captions and do not have English subtitles yet.
With these frustrations of having no clear date when the anime will premiere in their region, with the possibility of it being months before it being available, the number of illegal uploads of the Shaman King anime has significantly increased after the Japanese premiere. These include fan-translations for the subtitles in a variety of languages. The timing of these uploads, which include the full Japanese episode, line up with Moriyoshi Yoshida’s tweets and comments with international fans. From his tweet, these cross the line into illegal uploads rather than just fan activities. While these sites may look legitimate, any place outside of Netflix hosting the Shaman King anime in English is an illegal upload.
On the manga side, there is still an ongoing issue of websites which host the Japanese manga or fan translations (often called “scanlations”) for various manga series. Unlike Kodansha’s most popular series right now, Attack on Titan, the Shaman King series does not frequently have early leaks or spoilers from upcoming manga chapters. With the manga series being available for so long, and the renewed interest in the series with the anime, the number of sites holding the illegal uploads has increased that feature the Shaman King series. This includes within and outside of Japan.
The original Shaman King manga is available in English digitally from Kodansha USA and the first omnibus print edition is now out. The on-going series of Shaman King: The Super Star and Shaman King: Marcos along with Zero, Flowers, and Red Crimson are also available in English from Kodansha USA and are available worldwide, without region restrictions (outside of Japan). Volume 5 of The Super Star and Volume 2 of Marcos were previously listed as “coming soon” on Kodansha USA’s website but no release date has been announced yet. The Japanese manga can also be purchased digitally without any region restrictions from places such as Bookwalker.
