This is an editorial article. While there are references and sources to back-up portions of this article, there are additional assumptions that are needed for this story. Some of these may be proven false or would remain unknown outside of the staff working on the Shaman King series. We still maintain a high-level of confidence in the article and the assumptions made within based on our knowledge of the series and anime production.
When the news of the new Shaman King anime only lasting 52 episodes was announced, fans around the world were a bit shocked by this news. Covering the story of 300 chapters spanning 35 volumes of manga into a single year of anime is an extremely fast pace for any anime series. This coupled with the international license for Netflix has caused even more concern about this new adaptation of the series. For this editorial article, we’ll break down how we think these decisions were made to get this new anime adaptation started.
Initial Funding and Gauging Interest
The concept of the new Shaman King anime likely started in 2018. The new manga series Shaman King: The Super Star and Shaman King: Red Crimson were being serialized to help restart the series under the Kodansha ownership. The original series then had a couple of new products being created by Bandai to help tie-in with the manga series coming out in digital formats.
During the middle of 2018 the original Shaman King anime from 2001 began appearing on various streaming networks in Japan. At the time, it was specified as the “2001 anime,” which was odd as there was no announcement of any other anime series. The streaming services also had a limited rights for the 2001 anime. The original end date for the anime to be available on these services was until June 30th, 2019; a one-year streaming agreement. As the original anime series had already made back all of its production costs, so any money made from these streaming deals were just profits for the remaining members of the original production committee.
In the year prior where Kodansha was taking ownership from Shueisha, they also bought-out Shueisha’s ownership from the 2001 anime as well. The remaining members on the original production committee are unknown, but the majority stakes are likely in Kodansha and TV Tokyo. Other companies such as TOMY and Xebec have since merged with other companies and likely had a limited control of the 2001 anime production committee.
With these new deals in place, the initial funding for a potential Shaman King anime was likely being formed. The numbers from the initial sales and the streaming numbers for 2018 and 2019 would be the foundation if a new Shaman King anime could be formed. If there was a strong numbers of viewers of the old anime, they could gauge how well a new anime series could do.
The plans laid out for this likely hit an unexpected bump when Hiroyuki Takei needed to take a medical leave for several months in early 2019. While the goal for an anime could still be reached, it likely pushed back the schedule a year as the future plans needed to be adjusted with the gap in new Shaman King content that was formed due to this planned medical procedure. A gap in creation of the manga series would result in less books being on store shelves would could hurt it marketing potential.
Deciding the Structure of the Anime
While on the medical leave, Hiroyuki Takei likely had to decide what structure he wanted the new Shaman King anime to take. Generally there are two main avenues for anime series to be made. First is the “seasonal” structure and the second is the “yearly” structure.
The seasonal structure is what most anime series are currently doing. They likely run for 12 or sometimes 24 episodes for a single season. Each season needs to be re-negotiated each time. Depending on production studio timelines this could mean there are long gaps between seasons or in rare cases, different studios needing to work on the anime. With only 12 episodes are planned at a time there is no guarantee that the anime series will actually be completed and it could take years to complete a long running series.
The yearly structure is only done by a few anime series. Typically the anime production studio is contracted for an entire year. This would cover typically 4 seasons (12 episodes from the seasonal structure). With a longer contract, it can lead to more stable work for a production studio but will require a longer development period to get started. Taking up the slot for 4 seasons is tricky to get animation studios to do as they have limits on how many series they can work on at once. This would mean they would typically hire more staff to expand the studio for an entire year. With new staff that need to be hired, contracts that last at least one year, and the longer development time for the anime before production begins, the up-front costs for this structure are much higher. The risk of the series being a flop is also a danger. If it is not successful, it has the potential to become a huge financial loss for everyone involved. Having a large amount of upfront funding and different revenue streams to fund the series prior to the anime series airing would be key to reduce this risk.
While we may not know the exact decision on why Hiroyuki Takei went with the yearly structure, his comments related back to the old 2001 Shaman King anime does provide some clues. In the past he has commented some regrets on how the original anime series had ended. In the author comments for Weekly Shonen Jump issue #45 in 2002 he gave the comment (roughly translated into English):
The anime has reached its final episode. I’m very grateful to the production team and those who watched it. I’m sorry for the twisted original story. I won’t do it again.
This comment can be interpreted a couple different ways. The “twisted original story” can relate to either the manga’s story that needed to be changed for the anime, or that the anime needed to have an original ending as the manga was still ongoing. Either way, he was grateful for the original anime series and had some regrets on how this story ended.
Years later in 2017, Hiroyuki Takei commented about how he turned down anime plans given to him. He wanted to ensure that the original anime voice cast and music production were a requirement for a new anime series. Since the 2001 anime aired, some of the key voice cast has gone onto becoming major Voice Actors in Japan. With this their costs likely have increased significantly and availability to work on more series has decreased. By taking a seasonal route, they may be unable to consistently get these high-profile voice actors and the overall cost of the show’s production would have likely expanded greatly. Only a year later, and possibly sped up by his public comment, was the initial high-level talks about how to go about getting a new anime series under Kodansha’s new leadership.
Second Round of Funding
With the yearly structure decided, a significant amount of funding would need to be collected to create the new anime. This included multiple different paths for funding. A series of mobile games had collaborations. The 2001 anime streaming deals were expanded in Japan to last up until 2021 to keep a constant flow of money coming in. And the Shaman King Exhibitions were formed, which provided significant promotion and limited-time goods to help build the up the financials for the anime. These Exhibitions would help determine the financial strength of the fans within Japan would provide for the series as they targeted the older fans of the series.
Planning for 52 Episodes
Once the decision was made for 52 episodes, the next challenge was to decide on what content should fit within these episodes. Should it be a full remake? Adapt only a portion of the series? Be a sequel to the original 2001 anime? All of these were possible options they could take.
The answer of landing on 52 episodes for the entire series was one option to help keep some of the costs down. By moving at a fast pace, the amount of lines and time the voice actors would be needed could help reduce costs. For example, instead of having multiple episodes with Tao Ren, they could reduce the number by moving at this faster rate. The development of the series was also in-line with when the COVID-19 pandemic was causing issues in various productions in Japan in 2019. Several studios, including Studio Bridge, went under several weeks of delays due to the precautions related to the pandemic. The production schedule was then likely changed to maximize each voice actors time in the studio recording. By planning out multiple episodes at once, the studio can record a single voice actor to cover more portions of the story all at once.
The anime is also just an adaptation of the original story. While purchasing Blu-rays would be for the most die-hard Shaman King fans, options like picking up the newly reprinted manga series can help fill-in the gaps by the anime. Thus the anime may be more of the “best-of” highlights from the series, with the manga covering some of the other points not highlighted. The goal of the anime was for both new and older fans to enjoy the series and focusing on covering the core aspects of the story can help it reach that.
The Burden of Success of the International Market
One of the hidden burdens of the Shaman King series is the amount of success the original anime series had. While broadcasting in Japan it had good ratings and profitable merchandising. The videogames had sold well and the trading card game was a run-away success.
After the anime had ended and the production committee reduced, the international licensing to 4Kids created an unexpected windfall of profits. As the committee wasn’t active with a new anime series, they worked on a “Master License” agreement so that 4Kids could subcontract out additional licenses in North America and around the world. With this in hand, 4Kids marketed the Shaman King series as the next Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and locked in major deals with Konami, UpperDeck, and Mattel. They also then licensed the anime out to multiple different regions around the world. All of this led to a huge influx of money to go back to the Production committee for the original 2001 anime with little effort on their side.
After the anime finished its run airing in the US and wasn’t the run-away success 4Kids had hoped for the final stretch, the contracts with the Master License stayed in limbo for many years. The Master License had a 10 year agreement. The original contract specifically never included internet streaming and the legal case between 4Kids and TV Tokyo (one of the main financiers production committee) may have caused this contract to lapse.
With this large success of the original series with 4Kids likely led to a large over-valuation of the series in the years that followed. Other licensors for the anime around the world were likely unable to afford the cost and streaming rights were also not clearly defined even in Japan within the production committee until many years later.
Manga licensing costs also likely went up significantly during this time as well. For example the entire “Kang Zeng Bang” edition of the manga series needed to be licensed (27 volumes) and companies such as Viz Media couldn’t just license the new chapters (2 volumes). With this restriction it became a barrier to license the sequel, Shaman King: Flowers without fans being able to read the true ending first. Once Kodansha took over ownership the licensing costs have likely reduced to levels where it is financially viable for the series to be released internationally.
With TV Tokyo still on the production committee for the new Shaman King anime, they were likely looking for a similar deal that 4Kids provided in the mid-2000s. All of the major anime streaming companies, such as Funimation and Crunchyroll, likely made offers for the new anime. However it was likely Netflix that provided the best deal, and likely outbid the other companies significantly. Deals the Funimation and Crunchyroll would have offered would have likely included significant promotions at anime conventions in the US in 2021. However with COVID-19 shutting down all major anime conventions nationwide, this likely hurt their licensing offer significantely.
The Netflix licensing offer probably had a higher upfront payment for the series and worked out an exclusive 1 week streaming deal in Japan. With this single streaming deal, plus the other funding it has been gathering for the previous 2 years was enough to solidify the new anime’s creation. Individual deals didn’t need to be made for each region for the new anime, which may have been smaller in the offers and harder to manage.
This Netflix streaming deal also likely came after the creation of the anime had already begun with its 52-episode plan. With TV Tokyo as one of the main financial supporters, Netflix was likely shut-out from being a majority stakeholder. This is why the series is not listed as a “Netflix Original Anime Series” and they probably only have a minor stake in the overall production committee.
One likely challenge with working with Netflix is that they are mostly working with Netflix Japan directly. As such, the communication to how the series is being handled outside of Japan is likely quite limited. With the series also not being one of their “Originals” exclusive the communication of the plans for the series is likely a lower priority as to not overshadow their primarily-owned series. In regions such as France, where there is already a large fan base for the series, they have been a little bit more vocal about the series. However they are still limited by what the other portions of the Netflix divisions are doing.
Benefits of the 1 Year Production
With a hard deadline of 52 episodes for the anime, and a Netflix international streaming deal in place, the show did a large ramp-up to get into production. The production schedule was designed to stay ahead of the broadcast air date by several weeks. This was to create a buffer in case of worsening COVID-19 precautions or other natural disasters. Based on when they started recording the first episode, the production committee is likely about 6 to 8 episodes ahead of the broadcast date. This allows the materials to be given to Netflix and Bilibili (mainland China) for the same-day streaming. Internationally, they also have a large head-start on subtitling and dubbing the series. Due to Netflix US’s refusal to do weekly episode streams of anime, all other regions outside of Japan are prevented from doing so as well. The key character designs for most, if not all of the characters have likely been finalized. While not announced, most of the key voice actors have also been decided for the entire anime as well. The amount of input from Hiroyuki Takei for the anime series was more heavily focused in this early pre-production phase so that is less needed as they go further into development during the year.
While the Shaman King (2021) anime may not be for everyone, there were certain challenges that needed to be cleared for it to occur. Money was likely the highest barrier. The success of the Exhibitions and later a Netflix deal, that barrier was met. Other decisions could have been made along the way which would have resulted in a very different type of adaption. But Hiroyuki Takei stuck with his convictions on what he wanted to see and we are now seeing the fruits of those decisions.
