For the last ten years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) we’ve started the year by making some predictions on what will happen within the upcoming year. Most years we were a bit off the mark, but before we make some new predictions, let’s first take a look back at how close we got for our predictions for the year 2025!
Incorrect – Road to the SKY – Shaman King Promotional Campaign
While all of the Shaman King fans hoped that it would be a quick turn around for Shaman King Yard (SKY) to become serialized, we all knew it could be a longer wait again. And it seems that wait will continue into 2026 as we do not have any timeframe on when this will start serialization. As part of a recent interview at the end of December, Takei did note that fans will need to continue to wait as he works towards continuing the Shaman King series. Once it does have a planned serialization start, there is a chance there may be some more cross-promotions that will happen at that time!
Incorrect – Hiroyuki Takei Artbook Released
One of these days we will get a Hiroyuki Takei artbook. 2025 wasn’t that year, but some year in the future it will happen.
Incorrect – Shaman King (2001) on Blu-Ray
As the physical home media releases continue to decline worldwide, even the Shaman King (2001) anime still hasn’t gotten a Japanese release on Blu-ray yet. Potentially when it gets closer to when the Shaman King The Super Star anime is announced? It seems like something that could be released without too much effort.
Incorrect – Shaman King GBA Games Re-released
This was a real wildcard guess. It would be great to see happen, but would require some real motivation from Hiroyuki Takei to find a publisher to make it a reality.
Correct – No The Super Star Anime for 2025
Our only correct prediction! We haven’t even gotten a trailer or official announcement yet for The Super Star anime. Bridge, the studio that animated Shaman King (2020) and Shaman King Flowers did announce that they are creating a spin-off studio called Aisle, that was supposed to be launched by the end of 2025. That still wouldn’t mean that we would have gotten The Super Star anime in 2025, but it may still be in the pipeline for development.
Incorrect – Jumbor Returns on Jump+
Another prediction that hasn’t happened yet. There hasn’t been any movement on the Jumbor front from returning from it’s hiatus/cancellation. Jump+ would still be a great place for it to land, but Hiroyuki Takei may still be in discussions on which platform makes the most sense for it to be released on.
So a total we only got 1 out of 6 predictions being correct. However most of these predictions aren’t completely wild and could very well happen in 2026. Sometimes the guesses are right, just off on when they could happen. But our annual tradition continues, so it’s time to come up with some brand new predictions for 2026!
The following are predictions for headlines for 2026. These are guesses and are NOT real news stories.
Juro Serialization Completes in 2026
While it may have just started, Hiroyuki Takei’s Juro manga is very likely to only be a short serialization. He knows that there are a bunch of other projects that he needs to do, so he can’t spend too long working on this new serialization. It’s very possible that this manga is only a single volume in length. Or maybe two volumes in total. With his new “draw an entire volume altogether”, it’s possible that he may have already finished working on the manga and is working on other projects. The series is looking to have monthly releases, so even at a single volume, we could have new chapters being released for a good portion of 2026.
Hyper Dash! Yonkuro Final Volume is Published
The opportunity to create a new manga serialization for Weekly Corocoro Online likely came from Takei’s loose end of never finishing Hyper Dash! Yonkuro. He previously noted that he intends on finishing the series before starting Shaman King Yard, so 2026 is the year it will happen.
As Juro is the run-away success from the Corociao magazine issue #1 in fan popularity, it’s very likely that they will tie the release of Hyper Dash! Yonkuro to this series. The final volume, which would contain the final chapter(s) for the series will likely be released either the same month or within a month or two of the volume release for the Juro manga. This can hopefully pull in some of the older fans of Shaman King who may not be reading Weekly Corocoro Online to experience the Juro manga and who may not have read Hyper Dash! Yonkuro.
Shaman King Zero Restarts Serialization
One of the benefits of starting a new series, like with Shaman King Yard is that you get a clean slate to work from. The style and story can be different than previous series. However there is a lot of story elements and plot that needs to be carried over from the previous works. This can make it to be a difficult starting point for newer fans of the series that need that background knowledge to fully understand the story. Within The Super Star, a ton of new characters have been added in, and a lot of their stories have only been briefly mentioned. To compound on all of this, when planning out the story structure for The Super Star anime, it’s important to know which story elements are important and what could be further expanded upon.
To help solve this, and to “buy some more time” before Shaman King Yard starts its full serialization, Hiroyuki Takei could bring back his Shaman King Zero serialization. Just like the run-up to launching Shaman King Flowers, a collection of standalone stories could be released on a weekly basis to help reintroduce the characters while providing new details on their stories not shown in The Super Star. The second volume of Zero already started crossing-over with the Flowers events, so it’s not unreasonable to continue that with the same characters from The Super Star.
The home on where Shaman King Yard will be serialized hasn’t been determined yet. If it were to shift to a different platform beyond Magazine Pocket, this collection of oneshots from Shaman King Zero could be a good starting point to transition fans to the new place to read. It’s unlikely that the chapters of Shaman King Zero volume 3 would be available in a print magazine (except maybe for one of the chapters), but a good way to boost their digital platform. When a physical volume of Shaman King Zero volume 3 is released, that can then be the promotion to tie-in with the serialization of Shaman King Yard and/or the Shaman King The Super Star anime.
No Shaman King Yard in 2026
Waiting another year before we get Shaman King Yard may be painful for fans of the series, but it might just happen. However if the other predictions mentioned above do come true, it still could be an eventful year of new releases on almost a monthly basis. Juro to cover the first half of the year, and then Hyper Dash! Yonkuro, and then if we predict correctly Shaman King Zero. This doesn’t even account for when and how Jumbor will be restarted and how long that could last. Even if our predictions aren’t correct, it still could be a good year for having a lot of fun stories to read.
No The Super Star Anime for 2026
Similar to last year’s prediction, we are likely still a ways off before we are going to get The Super Star anime. Anime adaptations like this need to have a bit of the groundwork setup to make sure that they are successful. That’s having manga volumes to sell, merchandise to sell, and cross-promotions. Those pieces just don’t seem to be in place yet that makes The Super Star anime releasing in 2026 seem likely. Maybe we could be surprised and see it in late 2025, but seems very unlikely.
However a longer development cycle for The Super Star could mean that we have a longer season for the anime. They could be developing it to be a 24 episode season, which could potentially release back-to-back without a season break. Or it could be expanded further and start adding in storylines from Red Crimson and Marcos manga series as well. Having the longer wait for the series could help make it a better adaptation in the long run.
One other aspect of The Super Star coming out in late 2026 or in 2027 relates back to the 2021 Shaman King anime. It is very possible that the anime had a 5-year exclusivity deal with Netflix for international distribution. If that deal is up, it is possible that we may see Shaman King available on other streaming services, like Amazon Prime which also has Shaman King Flowers. This can open up a better bidding war between international streaming services like Crunchyroll who could then get the past 2 anime series (Shaman King and Flowers) to also be added to their service.
As always, thank you to everyone who has come to this website or has been following our updates on social media over the last year. This is our eleventh year continuing this tradition of having a new years prediction for news headlines. Additionally, in November Patch Cafe will have it’s 15th anniversary as website. As news breaks for any of Hiroyuki Takei’s series, we will continue to report on it and help maintain as comprehensive log for documenting it. With the changes in how social media and other websites function, we will continue to have our own independent place on the internet to function as a home for both new and old fans of Shaman King and Hiroyuki Takei’s works.
