There has been 3 “fanbooks” that have been published for the Shaman King series; Man.Ji.En, “Mankin Book,” and Mentalite.

Source: ManJiEn fanblog

The release date for Ultimo volume 8 in English is scheduled for January 1st, 2013 in the USA. The ISBN-10 is 1421551535 and the ISBN-13 is 9781421551531. The volume is 192 pages long and the MSRP is $9.99. The American release cover has not been published yet. The image on the left is the Japanese edition.

The UK release of the Ultimo volume 8 will be on January 17th, 2013. The contents of the book will be the same. The French release is still scheduled to be released on October 24th, 2012 in France.

Both volumes of the set will be released in France on November 2nd. Kana had previously released the original Shaman King manga series in France. Ultimo volume 8 will be published in France on October 24th for 6,99 € by Kaze.

Rank 6th
New sales: 58,192

Week 2:

Rank: 11th
New sales: 56,459
Total: 114,651

If you notice that the copies are always just under the 60,000 mark. This is because each print run for Shaman King Flowers volume 1 was 60,000 copies. So when volume 2 goes on sale early next year, it’s likely that it will get a starting print run of 80,000 copies for the first week. Either way these are great sales numbers for Shaman King Flowers!

With this new chapter release, the release date of Ultimo volume 8 for Japan has also been announced. It will be releasing on March 2nd in Japan. The ISBN is 978-4088703503, it will have 194 pages for ￥460. The cover image is shown on the left.

(Source:http://natalie.mu/comic/news/64676 )

In the last year, the Ultimo series has seen a large drop in sales numbers, as well as the reader’s poll for the magazine. The series never built the same fanbase as did with Shaman King, and the continued excitement of Shaman King Zero and Jumbor would also be a key cause. Hiroyuki Takei is also having trouble releasing 3 different chapters a month, as Jumbor was absent from the most recent Ultra Jump issue.

With this latest move to Jump SQ 19, Ultimo has been in every magazine in the Jump SQ line-up besides the first sample issue.

(Source: Negative Syndicate at MangaHelpers) 

Shaman King Flowers was originally a oneshot published in the end of the Mentalite fanbook after the publishing of the Shaman King “Kang Zeng Bang” editions. At this time it’s not clear if this new oneshot will continue the story directly from that oneshot or if it will be re-written. Nothing about the plot of this new series has been announced.

“Shaman King Zero” will continue to run monthly in Jump Kai until it’s replaced with “Shaman King Flowers.”

The cover image of next issue of Jump X (Kai) has been released. Yoh has returned to the cover in a brand new drawing. You can see the image on the left. The oneshot is confirmed again at 44 pages in length. In the background, you’ll also see parts of the special poster that will be included in every issue. It’s a redrawing of one of Takei’s previous drawings. However this one is a complete new drawing and looks to be extremely detailed.

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In celebration of Shaman King’s return in Jump Kai, their official Twitter account is having a special contest. They are giving out 100 special “onsen mixes” to their followers. These contain a special powder to add to your bath to renergize. They are being reffered to as 「五大聖霊の湯の素」or “The 5 elements of the Holy Spirit of water.” Each of the 5 Elemental Warriors from Shaman King (Yoh, Horohoro, Lyserg, Ren, and Chocolove) are on the packaging with their respective Elemental Spirit (Spirit of Fire is with Lyserg for example). These will only be given out via this contest and not sold in stores.

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Takei is lending his talents to the recently published 「錬人」(“Ren Jin” or “Human Values”) manga drawn by  Shige Matsumoto Nobu and published by CoroDragon Comics. A oneshot of this manga series was recently published in the Spring issue of Corocoro G. Hiroyuki Takei is a friend of the author and has some special drawings in this first compiled volume of Ren Jin.

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As mentioned in earlier news posts, Takei lent his hand to the “Break Battle” Trading Figure Game with the creation of his own piece. An image of that piece, called ドゴロチ or Dogorochi is shown on the left. It combines alot of aspects from various manga series he has drawn.

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The voice actress of Yoh Asakura, Yuuko Satou, has given birth to a healthy boy on October 09, 2011.

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Towards the end of October a new official website was openned for Shaman King Zero on Mixi. Mixi is a Japanese-only social website (think like Facebook). The main page is open to the public but clicking on any link will require you to sign up for an account. The website can be found here: http://p.mixi.jp/shamanking0 . We will try to report as much as we can on anything that is posted at this site.

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【恐山アンナ】恐山ル・ヴォワールを歌ってみた【マンキン復活】, A very popular video was uploaded to Niconico Douga in late October, which can be found here: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15947771 (Requires a Japanese account to view). In the video,  Megumi Hayashibara is singing a fanmade song. This is a professionally made video and recording. The art in the background (pictured left) was most likely drawn by Takei himself. The first person to announce the upload of the video was a music producer who worked with Megumi Hayashibara on various Shaman King songs such as Oversoul and Northern Lights. And continueing further, this song was also used as background music in another video released by Jump Kai of a famous caligrapher writing promoting “Shaman King Zero.” That video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbMoY9-3FEs.

Source: Dit and http://blog.livedoor.jp/takeifan/