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New Shaman King Anime Brings Back Motoko Kumai as Joco

The official website for the new television anime of Hiroyuki Takei's Shaman King manga revealed on Thursday that Motoko Kumai will reprise her role in the new anime as Joco (Chocolove) McDonell, a shaman from America who aspires to be the #1 comedian in the world.

Previously announced cast members include:

• Yōko Hikasa as Yoh Asakura
• Katsuyuki Konishi as Amidamaru (returning)
• Megumi Hayashibara as Anna Kyōyama (returning)
• Inuko Inuyama as Manta Oyamada (returning)
• Romi Park as Tao Ren (returning)
• Kousuke Takaguchi as Bason
• Masahiko Tanaka as Ryunosuke Umemiya (returning)
• Wataru Takagi as Tokagerō (returning)
• Yūji Ueda as Horohoro (returning)
• Megumi Nakajima as Kororo
• Michiko Neya as Tao Jun (returning)
• Tooru Sakurai as Lee Pailong
• Nana Mizuki as Tamao Tamamura (returning)
• Takumu Miyazono as Ponchi
• Noriaki Kanze as Konchi
• Takehito Koyasu as Faust VIII (returning)
• Masakazu Morita as Mosuke
• Minami Takayama as Hao Asakura (returning)
• Rina Hidaka as Pirika
• Yoko Soumi as Lyserg Diethel (returning)

The anime will premiere on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in April, and will adapt all 35 volumes of the manga's new complete edition, which Kodansha started publishing in print volumes in Japan on June 17. The first anime adaptation of the manga premiered in 2001.

Joji Furuta (The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of The Commandments, Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, Double Decker! Doug & Kirill, ēlDLIVE) is directing the new anime at Bridge (Fairy Tail, The Royal Tutor). Shoji Yonemura (Pokémon franchise, Wave, Listen to Me!) is in charge of the series scripts. Satohiko Sano (Heybot!, Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun, Talentless Nana) is designing the characters. Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia, Haikyu!!) is composing the music, with King Record as the music producer. Masafumi Mima is the audio director.

Megumi Hayashibara is once again performing the anime's opening and ending theme songs. (She performed two opening songs and two ending songs for the 2001 anime.)

Other staff members include:

• Prop Design: Yuji Shibata
• Art Director: Jin'ya Kimura
• Art Design: Masaaki Kawaguchi
• Color Design: Natsuko Otsuka
• Director of Photography: Teruyuki Kawase
• Editing: Kumiko Sakamoto

comiXology Originals and Kodansha USA Publishing are publishing all of Takei's Shaman King manga series digitally in English. Volumes 33, 34, and 35 is appearing for the first time in English along with the first 32 volumes on Amazon's Kindle Store and ComiXology's store, as well as the Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited, and ComiXology Unlimited subscription services. The new release of the manga series features new cover art by Takei. Kodansha Comics is also publishing the Shaman King: Zero, Shaman King Flowers, Shaman King: Super Star, and Shaman King: Red Crimson spinoff manga. The Shaman King manga was scheduled to launch digitally in July, with the spinoffs slated to launch in August, but Kodansha Comics delayed the releases.

Kodansha USA Publishing and comiXology Originals describe the series:

In the world of Shaman King, shamans possess mysterious powers that allow them to commune with gods, spirits, and even the dead…and Manta Oyamada's about to learn all about them, because his class just welcomed a new transfer student: Yoh Asakura, a boy from way off in Izumo…and a shaman in training!

Shaman King debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1998. The series abruptly ended in 2004, although a reprinting of the manga revealed a "true ending" in 2009.Viz Media published 32 volumes of the original Shaman King manga from 2003 to 2011, but it no longer holds the license to the manga. Shueisha originally held the rights to the manga in Japan.

Sources: Shaman King 2021 anime's website, Comic Natalie

Update: The recent releases in the franchise have used the English name Joco. Thanks, Divineking.