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.