The last time we got to talk about the new Shaman King reboot was back in September 2020, when a short promotional video was released, which revealed some initial details regarding the brand new version of the shonen battle series. On Wednesday, December 23rd, the holiday season was made when another promotional video was released to the Internet revealing even more details!
In terms of what was newly announced, we have five more cast members (most of which are reprising their roles from the original 2001 anime series) and the biggest reveal of all: Megumi Hayashibara is returning to performing the opening and closing theme songs!
The new cast members are (character names first):
Manta Oyamada: Inuko Inuyama
Tao Ren: Romi Park
Bason: Kousuke Takaguchi
Ryunosuke Umemiya: Masahiko Tanaka
Tokagero: Wataru Takagi
The previously announced voice cast reads as:
Yoh Asakura: Yoko Hikasa
Amidamaru: Katsuyuki Konishi
Anna Kyoyama: Megumi Hayashibara
Hao Asakur: Minami Takayama
Directing this title at studio Bridge will be Joji Furuta, while Shoji Yonemura will handle the series scripts. They will work off character designs adapted for anime by Satohiko Sano, while Yuki Hayashi will compose the background music.
Originally a manga series created by Hiroyuki Takei that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1998 to 2004, Shaman King was originally adapted into a 64-episode anime series that ran from 2001 to 2002 and aired in countries and territories all over the world (including in my neck of the woods on Saturday mornings). Viz Media published the Shaman King manga in English from 2003 to 2011, but they no longer hold the rights. These days, the rights belong to Kodansha USA, who plans to release the entire series in English digitally, including volumes 33–35 which will appear in English for the very first time.
Shaman King was a formative series for me in my youth, and I would willingly wake up early on Saturday mornings to catch the latest episode. Let’s hope the reboot is as good as the original!
Source: Anime.Eiga
