2015 was definitively a transitional year for Hiroyuki Takei however it wasn’t a quite one either. With the hiatus of Jumbor, the conclusion of Ultimo pending, and the unknown state of Shaman King Flowers all in the previous year… the hope for Hiroyuki Takei to continue those series in a new form was hopeful. Instead, Takei took up many new side projects and started 2 new manga series Hyper Dash! Yonkuro and Nekogahara. Every month had some type of news come out so even without much to look forward on continuations of his Shueisha manga series… there was still products coming to shelves (though less this year as in previous).

The launch of Nekogahara, in a Kodansha published magazine may be looked back as a large shift for Hiroyuki Takei’s career. It’s very rare for high profile manga artists to “jump ship” from one publisher to another and time will only tell how this will effect things such as the Shaman King series moving forward.

Here on Patch Cafe we also had some additional content launch this year. In February we launched a column called “The More Yoh Know!” a series of short factoids about Shaman King and Hiroyuki Takei’s other works. A “second season” of The More Yoh Know! is planned for sometime in 2016. In November we also launched our first-content-specific wiki called “Mankin Card Wiki.” This wiki is based around the Japanese and American Shaman King Trading Card games. This site will continue to have updates throughout 2016, especially with new information on how to play the games and full card details for the remaining card sets.

Personally, the biggest news (and followed by the most disappointing) was the announcement (followed by cancellation) of Hiroyuki Takei attending Otakon during the summer. It would have been a great opportunity for many (including myself) to meet him in person and hear him talk about his latest works. Romi Park was also a guest which was awesome as well and I am glad to have met her in person.

Overall, 2015 turned out better than expected. Would have been great to hear more about Takei’s Shueisha series, but with the jump to Kodansha, it’s to be expected that those series may be quite for a while. However Takei was fast to get a two new series started which will lead him into 2016.

Official Japanese Product Releases in 2015:

Karakuri Dôji Ultimo Volume 11 – January 5th

Shaman King Zero volume 2 – January 19th

Shooting Proud Star Mini4WD – July 18th

Karakuri Dôji Ultimo Volume 12 – December 4th

Rise-Emperor Mini4WD – December 5th

Manga Series Status at end of 2015:

Shaman King Flowers – Cancelled

Shaman King Zero – Completed

Jumbor – Hiatus

Karakuri Dôji Ultimo – Completed

Hyper Dash Yonkuro (3 chapters) – On Going

Nekogahara (3 chapters) – On Going

Top News Headlines from 2015:

Thank you to all of the readers who have stopped by Patch Cafe during this last year. This includes the international readers and websites that translate this news to your respective languages. I hope you all have an enjoyable holiday season and continue to support Hiroyuki Takei’s works in 2016.