Shaman King

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. It follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King by winning the Shaman Fight. Takei chose shamanism as the main theme of the series because he wanted a topic that had never been attempted before in manga. The Shaman King manga was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump between June 1998 and August 2004. The individual chapters were collected and released in 32 volumes. In 2017, Kodansha acquired the rights to the series and re-launched it on 35 e-book volumes in 2018, also published in print since 2020. An anime television series produced by NAS and Xebec aired for 64 episodes on TV Tokyo from July 2001 to September 2002. A reboot anime television series adaptation, produced by Bridge, aired on TV Tokyo and other channels from April 2021 to April 2022. A sequel to the reboot has been announced. The manga has also been reprinted in a edition, and has spawned various spin-offs and sequel manga, video games, a trading card game, and many types of Shaman King-related merchandise. In North America, Viz Media obtained the English-language license for the manga and published chapters of Shaman King in its Shonen Jump magazine from March 2003 to August 2007. Kodansha USA re-licensed the series in 2020, and will release it in both digital and physical formats. The anime series was licensed in North America by 4Kids Entertainment in 2003, and aired on FoxBox. Exclusive video games were released by 4Kids Entertainment in North America and Europe. In Japan, the manga has been popular. By March 2021, it had over 38 million copies in circulation. Both the manga and anime have been featured, at various times, in "top ten" lists of their respective media. The Shaman King anime has been watched by many television viewers in Japan. Publications about manga, anime, and other media have commented on the Shaman King manga, with positive comments on the series.