While new character announcements have been limited now that the anime been airing, there has been a couple of noteworthy announcements they have made over the last couple of weeks. The first two character announcements only have the character designs and the voice actor announcement and did not have additional comments from the cast.
Voice Cast Announcements
Goldva will be voiced by Reiko Suzuki (鈴木れい子) and is returning from her role in the 2001 Shaman King anime.
Tao En will be voiced by Hideaki Tezuka (手塚秀彰). Masashi Ebara previously played the role in the 2001 Shaman King anime.
All of the characters who had these announcements have their profile images featured on the official website.
The BōZ Brothers are Zen Yoneda voiced by Kisho Taniyama (谷山紀章) and Ryo Sugimoto voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki (鈴木達央). Both of these are new actors, as Nobuyuki Hiyama (Zen) and Masaya Onosaka (Ryo) played the roles in the 2001 Shaman King anime.
Voice Cast Comments
Similar to the previous voice cast announcements, they asked the voice cast members the same questions for their comments. We’ve included a rough English translation below.
Kisho Taniyama for the voice of Zen
Can you tell us about the appeal of this series?
I think the nickname for series titles can be catchy and more friendly.
Isn’t “Mankin” great?
For a standard shonen manga there are many things that stick out to me… the concept, the world building, the unique characters, and the words of wisdom…
I think it is a masterpiece that will stay in the memories for manga fans and is a landmark title in the history of manga series.
Can you tell us about how you feel to play Zen?
Zen Yoneda doesn’t get much screen time, but he is rooted in homages within the original story.
As you can probably guess, he has sung quite a few songs too…
With that being his talent, it became clear why I was cast this role for him.
I hope you will enjoy it.
Tatsuhisa Suzuki for the voice of Ryo
Can you tell us about the appeal of this series?
It’s gotta be that appeal of the straightforward talk while poking fun at everyone, even Yoh, which just gives the charm to those complex characters where you need to keep flipping through the pages until you buy the whole series.
Can you tell us about how you feel to play Ryo?
I was going to wear sunglasses for a bit to give off a certain vibe while playing a sick guitar solo.
I also wanted to channel the skills of a monk who can speak to all types of people through song.
I made sure to put the vibe of the “B”, and ” ‘ “, and the “Z” into it. I got in real deep.
Character Songs Vol. 1
Both of these voice actors were selected for BōZ as they have numerous anime and videogame acting roles as well as being active members in the Japanese bands GRANRODEO and OLDCODEX respectively. The band name from the manga is a pun on the actual Japanese band B’z, which was also a rock duo, along with a reference to them being buddhist monks. Both of the actors made comments to these overt references for these characters.
In the original manga, for chapter 67, Hiroyuki Takei woke some of the lyrics for their song “Chimi-Chimi Moryo” that the BōZ Brothers use as part of their attacks. He later collaborated and also wrote the lyrics to the “Joh! Butsu”, both of which were used for the original Shaman King anime in 2001 as full songs.
With the new anime and new voice actors, both of these attack songs had new versions created. Hiroyuki Takei is still credited for the lyrics, along will Kyrie from NoGoD for composition and arrangement. NoGoD is a heavy metal band under King Records, who also does the music for the Shaman King anime series. Officially the English titles for the new songs are:
- JOH!BUTSU ~SANKIEMON~ -NIKEI-
- CHIMI CHIMI MORYO -NIKEI-
The word “NIKEI” (二経) means “Second Sutra.” From this a couple different meanings could be inferred. The obvious being that this is a new version for the second anime and that a “sutra” is a Buddist scripture. The “second” or “two” can also be a reference to the two band members, as well as it’s reference of concept of Meridians within the human body.
The word “SANKIEMON” can also be written as “三帰依文” which is a Buddhist chant/sutra, which can translate to the “Three Refuges Verse.” The verse is a chant about taking refuge in buddha, dharma, and in sangha.
Within Shaman King (2021) episode 10 of the anime, both of these songs were used as part of the attacks by the BōZ Brothers. Then on June 4th at midnight the full versions of these songs were added to streaming services in Japan as part of “Shaman King Character Songs Vol. 1.” These songs do not currently have a physical CD release planned, but they may be included in the “Character Song Collection” that will release as an extra as part of the Blu-Ray Box set 4 releasing in May 25th, 2022 in Japan.
The Single featuring these two songs was later opened up internationally at streaming service such as Spotify:
