Patch Cafe

I’m pretty sure that everyone here knows what the Mankin Kanzenban is. And if you don’t… what the hell are you doing here?!

Haha, just joking. So, the Mankin Kanzenban (also known as Perfect Edition) is the 27-volume-long special edition of the Shaman King manga, which includes the new and complete ending and a lot of extras like the Shaman Files, color pages and much much more.

But yeah, let’s get to the point. Kanzenban editions tend to be expensive, so it’s not very likely that they get released out of Japan. The thing is, the releasing of an Italian version was announced 1 or 2 years ago, and now it’s going to be released in Spanish too!!! Awesome!!

Ivrea, a famous manga publisher in Argentina, Spain and Finland has posted on its official blog that they will release it in Argentina, starting this July with a new volume every two months. You can read the whole news post here.

However! it won’t be exactly like the KZB we know!! As they call it, this is a “deluxe” edition of the Shaman King manga. This means that it’ll include all the retouching and of course the new chapters, but instead of being 27 “big” volumes it’ll be 34 “regular” ones. No further information about the covers, extras or color pages as far as I know. No info about the price either.

I also read something about Russia sharing this “new” version, but I have no idea whether this is true or not. If you’re reading this and you’re Russian, could you please tell us more about this?

Personally I’m very happy about this because Spanish is my mother tonge, and I know that a lot of you here reading us are Spanish speakers too. After all, this anime was one of the most famous ones in our countries back in 2002~2004 or so (probably because we got it before 4Kids ruined 4Kidded it)

I know it’s not as good as an English version… but keep in mind that if it keeps getting released here and there and people buy it there’s more chances that it gets released in more languages!!

So, Wonderfest (Short for Wonder Festival) is a bi-annual figure expo in Japan where some of the top companies in the industry set up booths so hobbyists can see the newest figures due out this year and the next. If you remember reading on Shaman King Nation, a Yoh figure was announced last year. Welp, now we have a final prototype!

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It’s been a while since we had a post… more will be coming soon. But I think it’s time for something different.

I’ve been collecting images of Shaman King things for many, many years. And I’ve gotten alot of weird ones in there. So from time to time I’ll dig some of that stuff out that has fallen off from the internet. Here’s today image, which I copied from the internet on Friday, ‎May ‎05, ‎2006.

Notice what’s odd about that? There is 33 volumes! Haha. I always thought that was funny. These are clearly Chinese bootlegs of the original Shaman King manga. But where did they get an extra volume of manga? Remember, this was LONG before Kang Zeng Bang.

They also took some liberties with the binding art. Granted, Viz also did the same with the English releases too. I kinda like how volume 14 and 26 both have the exact same image of Anna. And 10 and 21 have the same image of Horohoro, but scaled differently (at least they tried)!

This set of the manga was always one of my favorite editions. I really wish I could see what all the covers look like for this set of 33. They must have moved some chapters around (vol 20 looks kinda small). There are so many mysteries in this set. If anybody can find out more about this (bootleg) edition, let me know! Or maybe they will remain in mystery…

So here’s something interesting. Over the last year or so, Takei has been drawing some card art for this “Cardfight!! Vanguard” series. (That’s two !! after a combined word) Most of these are just random cards, not connected to Shaman King, Ultimo, or Jumbor in any way. But hey, he draws something, that’s cool. For the collectors out there, that’s another thing to get.

Well recently, the Card Fight Vanguard series has been picking up some steam. The anime is going strong as well as the TCG. Just last month, the first set of cards from the series was published in English too! Of course, this is on a very limited, and exclusive run. But hey, it only adds to the value, right? But since Takei had a card drawn in the first set… you can now get that in English too! As the crazy/weird collector I am… I had to have it. So I did. And here’s a pic of it, for those who are interested!

So shop around online, or go buy the Japanese version. If you want to play the English game, make some comments, since it’s a bit hard to get a TCG off the ground these days. It may be a bit hard to get right now, but leave some comments for the creators to show your support (if you are interested). Also, I put a new poll up as well to get your thoughts as well.

I hope more cards continue to come out in English… since I’ll keep on collecting Takei’s cards! (And maybe I’ll even learn how to play one of these days)

On a completely random side note, is any readers of this site interested in knowing more about the Japanese Shaman King Trading Card Game? Since I’m old and I remember that stuff very well (plus, a funny/sad story).