The Skilled Machine Boy Ultimo

Ultimo banner

On Monday 24th, 2008, the official Jump SQ website updated it’s preview page. By clicking on the following link, you can scroll down and view the image that will be the pin-up poster in the next Jump SQ issue and a small promo banner image lower on the page.

Link: http://jumpsq.shueisha.co.jp/yokoku.html

A translation of the title can be  ”The Skilled Machine Boy Ultimo,” but this is hardly an official title. “Ki Ko Douji Ultimo” is another way of calling the Stan Lee X Hiroyuki Takei oneshot manga. For future reference, Shaman King Nation will refer to the manga as just “Ultimo.”

Based on the last image released and based on how the title is formed, it seems that this manga will have many parallels to Takei’s last manga series, “Jyuki Ningen Jumbor.” It appears that characters will fight with some type of modified hands. Either these people will be called “Ultimo” or possibly the main character is named “Ultimo.”

Ultimo will be released in the Japanese Jump SQ II on April 18th. 

Shaman King Vol15 Review

On March 4th, Viz officially released Shaman King Volume 15.  This volume begins “Funbari Hot Spring’s” first battle in the Shaman Fight’s official tournament against the “Ice Men.”

Shaman King Volume 15 cover by Viz
MSRP: $7.95USD 
Length: 200 pages (actually 192, but who’s counting?)
ISBN: 1421516578

 I am extremely surprised on how few edits there are in this volume. This volume has ALL of the original background signs and lettering on “Funbari Hot Springs” clothing remain in Japanese. Sometimes an English translation is provided, other times not. It is assumed that once you read the translation once, you’ll remember it. Thanks Viz for doing less work. Sadly, the SFX is still being translated and wrote over with English replacements. However, this volume they don’t pop-up very much, and they have done a great job of keeping it small and not removing as much of the artwork as before. If you read my previous review, you’ll also notice that I was really against the “whiteboxing.” Thankfully, the whiteboxing has been removed, and the traditional placement of text, overlapping artwork (without a box) has returned. John Hunt did an excellent job redrawing in the images, instead of just adding bigger text. Very few spots were missed. There was so few edits, I don’t feel there is a need to do a chapter by chapter breakdown! Yes, it’s very good, quite possibly the single best volume of Shaman King released to date (in terms of edits). Personally, I think the story is dragged on a bit much here, so it’s not one of my more favorite volumes in terms of story. Also, alot of the material for the Shaman King Character Book “Man.Ji.En” came from this volume. However, Viz has no plans to release this special book at this time. If the book were to be released, it would be released around the time after Volume 20. This would be a 2009 release, if it were to happen.

So, if you haven’t purchased this volume yet, get on it! Volume 16 will be released on May 6th.

Worldwide Release Updates

March 4th, 2008, it’s the begining of the end of Shaman King in Japan. So, I would like to take a moment to make note of the manga volumes that have been released:

United Kindom:
Shaman King Volumes 9 & 10
United States:
Shaman King Volume 15
Japan:
Shaman King Reprint Volumes 1 & 2

Please consult our Guide to Importing the Reprint Volumes for importing the reprint volumes from Japan. If you can, please purchase one of the books listed above. The fandom is based on purchasing these products. Shaman King Nation will have a review of Volume 15 once I go out and purchase it.

On a final note, Shaman King Reprint Volumes 3 & 4 will be released on April 4th, NOT April 1st, as originally predicted.

Mankin Net is online !

Shaman King Complete Edition (KanZenBan or Kang Zeng Bang) official website is now online.

Website front page contains :
- the 6 Kang Zeng Bang new features (Oversoul Covers, new 380 pages for the end …[see older post]) on the left,
- and the volume 1 cover on the right.

Website Menu is at the bottom, and there’s only two pages for the all website.
- The first one takes you to a page displaying all the volume, with a link to their preview via s-manga.net. Only links to released volume are available.
- The second one takes you to the message board, where you can give your opinion.

After previewing the first chapters on S-manga, I can say :

  • 5 first pages of chapter 1 are colored, and volume 1 have chapters 1 – 9
  • 4 first pages of chapter 11 are colored, and volume 2 have chapters 10 – 20
  • There’s a [SHAMAN FILE] in each volume.

For the moment, we haven’t any more informations, and nothing about the extra.
I don’t know if the first page of all the chapters are colored, or only the volume first pages. But the extra colors pages we see are already colored and published in the artbook some years ago, so no new news ….
As for the chapters colors page, we can also guess that they’re already colored some years ago, because in the old edition, these pages are printed with these colored pages (look at the contrast level).

Editorial: Guide to Importing the Reprint Volumes

Once in a while, one of our news reporters will write an editorial about some aspect of Shaman King. While none of this would be consider “new” news, some aspects of these editorials may not be common knowledge. Our news reporters have been long time fans of the series (each averaging about 4 years a piece), and have studied the series and various other aspects of the series (such as ratings, products, controversies, .etc).  Today a new editorial has been updated to the site titled “Guide to Importing the Reprint Volumes.” You can find this editorial in the Editorial link at the top of every page, or click on this link:

Guide to Importing the Reprint Volumes 

The next Editorial will be called “The History of Shaman King, Part 2,” and it is currently being written. Please look forward to this editorial and future editorials along with the latest news right from Japan!