Ghostbusters: Afterlife Teams Up With Shaman King to Promote Movie’s Japanese Release

Ghostbusters: Afterlife has called in some back-up from the characters of Shaman King in order to sell the movie to Japanese audiences.

The new crossover promotion was announced on the movie's official Japanese Twitter account. The latest Ghostbusters film is scheduled to premiere in Japan on Feb. 4, and will feature a Japanese language dub that stars voice actors Yoko Hikasa, Romi Park and Minami Takayama, who will play the roles of Lucky Domingo, Callie Spangler and Podcast, respectively. Hikasa, Park and Takayama are also featured in the current Shaman King anime series, which originally debuted in 2021. Hikasa plays Yoh Asakura, the series' central protagonist, while Takayama portrays Hao Asakura, Yoh's estranged brother and rival. Park, who is also known for voicing Edward Elric in both Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, plays the role of Tao Ren, a powerful Chinese shaman. A special promotion video for the crossover was released, which features the cast of Shaman King talking about the movie.

In recent years, a number of American studios have partnered with popular anime franchises to promote their big-budget releases in the region. In 2021, Marvel teamed up with Sword Art Online to promote the Japanese release of The Eternals. Warner Bros. tapped The Promised Neverland co-creator Pozuka Demizu to create a new poster to promote Dune, and most bizarrely, Paramount partnered with Uma Musume, a franchise about famous race horses who have been reincarnated as singing anime girls, to hype up Top Gun: Maverick.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife's Japanese release comes several months after the movie's American premiere, which itself had to be delayed numerous times due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Afterlife was directed by Jason Reitman and stars Carrie Coon, Fin Wolfhard, McKenna Grace, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor and Paul Rudd. The film serves as a direct continuation to the original Ghostbusters film and its 1989 sequel. The film received generally positive reviews and was a box-office success, pulling in over $195 million USD during its theatrical run.

Shaman King was created by Hiroyuki Takei. Takei's original manga premiered in 1998 and has been adapted into two separate anime series: the first was produced by studio Xebec (To Love Ru, Mega Man EXE) and began airing in 2001, which was followed up by a reboot from studio Bridge (Fairy Tail) in 2021. The 2001 anime strayed from the source material and created an entirely original story in its second half, while the reboot aims to be a more faithful recreation of Takei's original work. The 2021 series is available for streaming on Netflix.

Source: Twitter, YouTube