On July 21st at 8:00pm, the official Shaman King Fan Meet-up had its first live stream on the Shaman King Exhibition official YouTube channel. The stream lasted just under an hour and the video was only available live during the stream. After the stream, the video was made private, likely due to usage of some of the music from the Shaman King (2021) anime that was used during the event and some of the footage shown.
The stream was hosted by “Y-Da” (Left in video, full name Moriyoshi Yoshida), who is Hiroyuki Takei’s manga assistant for Shaman King: The Super Star and “Y-Da The Second Generation” (Right) who also assists with Shaman King-related projects. After a short introduction, they jumped into a video walkthrough of the Shaman King Exhibition and Museum for the Izumo venue while they commented over the pre-recorded video.
Next they went into showing off the new goods that were exclusive to this Shaman King Exhibition in Izumo that can be purchased at the shop (with your paid admission). These goods are also available for an online “mail-order” (pre-order) starting on July 22nd at 9:00am until August 9th. Some items may sell out due to limited quantities (including for the pre-orders).
After the Exhibition goods, the conversation shifted to the various collaborations they were doing with the city of Izumo and the Exhibition. This included a sampling of the Shaman King themed treats that could be purchased at the museum’s café.
Next they discussed the Stamp Rally and the AR sightseeing tours fans can do to experience locations inspired in the Shaman King manga. The hosts had taken a trip to these areas and took some photos of the sights they saw. Y-Da attempted to make it to the top of the lighthouse, but had to give-up half way up the stairs. Y-Da The Second Generation was able to make it to the top and took some photos to share. When they attempted to go to the Inome Cave, they had some troubles due to heavy rain in the previous day which had closed some routes to the cave. Additionally there is no parking lot nearby so traveling to the cave may be difficult due to weather. For the latest road conditions you can view this website (in Japanese). They ended this segment with highlighting some of the goods that are available with the hotel chains in the area as part of the Shaman King collaboration.
About half-way through the live stream they quickly moved into answering some fan Q&As that were submitted previously. Below are some of the paraphrased questions and answers that Nazoren (@sasakura_i) noted from the livestream. (As the live stream was not recorded/saved there may be some errors, however these should be generally correct.)
What were some of the Shaman King goods you use? Y-Da answered with the Funbari Onsen staff lanyard, and accidently showed a bit too much of his Kodansha staff badge in the process. Y-Da The Second Generation responded with the Laid-back Palette Tote Bag that he had brought with him. In a similar questions Y-Da also notes that he uses the Funbari Onsen bath slippers at work when no one is around and showed off that he has added the Silver Patchman to his wallet, and reminded fans the $3.80 price tag is a joke. There was also a question about if there will be Oracle Bell shaped smartphone cases. Y-Da responded that early during the 20th Anniversary they were looking into it, but found the cost to be too expensive to be worth it.
How was Izumo selected as an Exhibition venue? Y-Da responded with the Izumo Cultural Heritage Museum reached out with the fact that the Asakura Family house was modelled after their building. Once that was confirmed with Hiroyuki Takei they posted about that on social media. This started the conversation for planning the Exhibition event in Izumo.
For their favorite episode/chapter the containing “Rodin’s The Gates of Hell” was selected by Y-Da. For their favorite volume covers, Y-Da picked volume 15 with the gold color for the secondary cover. Y-Da the Second Generation picked volume 20.
As the online stream was approaching the 1 hour mark, they moved into the announcements where they highlighted the on-going Raku-Spa collaboration. They also announced that they are currently in talks to have the cancelled Shaman King Exhibition in Kyoto return in February 2022 and request that we wait for more information in the future.
The final portion of the stream was a quick note given verbally by Y-Da that Hiroyuki Takei was very thankful for the fans support. Then the stream ended with another quick closing statement. Shortly after the stream ended, Y-Da thanked everyone on Twitter who were able to tune into the stream. During the stream the peak viewership was 519 viewers and maintained those numbers throughout the majority of the stream.
