SK18USAOn September 2nd, Viz released Shaman King Volume 18 onto US shores. This volume was part of Viz’s 40th Weekly Jump contest. For this reason, this volume was shrink wrapped and contained a bonus sticker in the back for the contest entry.

MSRP: $7.95
Length: 192 pages
ISBN: 1-4215-1881-3

This volume continues to show the excellence in terms of translation, and overall release quality. There is very little in terms of edits or changes in the entire volume. The largest changes would be with “Redseb” and “Seyrarm.” Unlike in Volume 17, which Redseb’s name was completely changed, Volume 18 corrects this and returns his name to “Redseb.” However, Seyrarm’s name is changed to “Salerm,” which I feel is a perfectly fine change, since, it’s hardly that big, and she isn’t that important anyways. With this change, however, the Shaman Character Files needed a bit of a change in the text. However, Viz pulls through again, and they created their own font which is very similar to the original Japanese version. With this change they modified a few names (such as “Pyron-Bunker” to “The Bailong Bunker”). On minor text work around, was with Ponchi’s attack in chapter 159. Rather than make reference to Ponchi’s balls, they refer to them as bubbles. It was only a quick scene, but a small change none the less. However, as a whole, the volume contains very little edits that would be noticable unless you compared the Japanese version directly to the US version (which I did).

(Edited by Jezzy, since Andy’s reporter skills are getting rusty.)