On July 15th, the August issue of the monthly Corocoro magazine launched with a special preview chapter of the new manga series Mini 4 King (ミニヨンキング). This is a new manga series that is “directed” by Hiroyuki Takei and with the story and art by Yuki Imada. For the Japanese credits it uses “原案” which means more of the “original concept/design.” This series is the first to be based around the new “Laser Mini 4WD” product line of Mini 4WD toy cars created by Tamiya in Japan.
For the Shaman King spin-off and side-story manga series, Hiroyuki Takei often provides a high-level direction for the story and a series of design sketches for the characters. Then the manga-ka works on drawing the manga based on these notes and with some additional overview by Hiroyuki Takei to ensure that it stays consistent with the original series. For Mini 4 King this appears to be a similar role that Hiroyuki Takei will be taking by providing the larger story concept as well as designing the Mini 4WD cars. This is similar to the role Stan Lee had when he collaborated with Hiroyuki Takei on the Karakuridôji Ultimo manga.
Mini 4WD are battery powered toy cards that are popular with children in Japan. A battery powers the four-wheel drive cars (around 1:32 scale) that have two axles and are built with snapped together pieces and with screws. Part within the cars can also be modified to improve performance. These cars are then typically run on a track within specific lanes with multiple turns and ramps. There are no controls for driving the car, so the lanes within the track keep the car moving forward. From the success of the toy line started in the late 1980s, various manga and anime series have been created. The most successful of these manga series have run in Corocoro magazine, which caters towards a younger reading audience for manga and toys.
“Episode 0” of Mini 4 King is a 6 page prologue to the full manga series. It is included in a mini-booklet attached to the inside-cover of the August 2021 issue of Corocoro magazine. You will need to use scissors to cut open the pages at the fold lines in order to read it. The booklet is in full color and highlights the use of the “laser” lights to show speed and movement. The story hints at that various characters will compete to see who is the fastest “king.”
On the back cover of the booklet, they also reveal the main characters names. This can be paired with the previously released promotional images shown below for their names, going from left to right, with the center character being the main character for the series.
The series will have first full chapter in the September 2021 issue of Corocoro magazine on August 12th. This issue will have a special separate book included with the magazine for the 80 page manga. The series will continue monthly in the magazine.
Additionally on August 28th, the “Lord Spirit” Laser Mini 4WD car will be a physical product in Japan. This car was designed by Hiroyuki Takei and will cost 1320 yen to purchase. A website has been made to highlight some more of the features of this new product line. The box art and Mini 4WD car design is shown below. A multi-page ad for the new Mini 4WD is also included in the magazine directly after the chapter booklet.
The manga artist Yuki Imada is most well-known for the Schwarz Ragnarök, which was an original web manga from Shogakukan’s “Sunday Web Every.” This 4 volume series received a French print edition in 2020. A 19 page preview can be read in Japanese from Bookwalker and can also be purchased digitally. In 2016 they also drew a single volume called Robot Crisis as par of Shogakukan’s Educational Manga line. This earlier work appears to be more in-line with a kid-friendly work that may be more representative of what Mini 4 King will look like. A free 35 page sample can be read on Bookwalker as well as the volume be purchased digitally. They have a tumblr account which features some of their past fan drawings, mostly based around videogames. Their twitter account is also for general social media thoughts as well. They also included a special drawing on Twitter with the announcement for the first chapter being 80 pages:
This new manga series is also not the first time Hiroyuki Takei has worked with the Mini 4WD toyline and the manga publisher Shogakukan. His first published work was a design for a Dash! Yonkuro Mini 4WD car design contest in Corocoro. Many years later he would offered a job to create an official sequel to the Dash! Yonkuro manga series by Zaurus Tokuda. The manga series Hyper Dash! Yonkuro, created solely by Hiroyuki Takei ran in the now defunct magazine Corocoro Aniki. For it he designed the Mini 4WD cars used within the series as well as the ones that became physical products that you can build and use in actual races. The manga series has almost concluded and will have a final chapter that will be published in the 5th volume. A date for the final chapter and the final manga volume has not been announced yet. Hiroyuki Takei also drew for Shogakukan with a 3 chapter side story based on the Danball Senki (LBX: Little Battlers eXperience) under the name of “HIRO” while still publishing under Shueisha in 2011.
