The Shaman King anime started in Shueisha's Shonen Jump in Japan, and in the same country it aired on TV Tokyo. In North America, the manga is currently being printed in Viz Media's Shonen Jump, with edits to a few comics. The Shaman King anime in 2001 was licensed by 4Kids Entertainment for American television broadcasting and finished its run on 4Kids TV, formerly the Fox Box, in 2003. It's also on YTV in Canada. Shaman King is aired on ZERO in the United Kingdom and Brazil (in Brazil it is currently being printed by Editora JBC). In Russia, Shaman King is aired on STS since 2006. Shaman King is printed in simplified chinese in Singapore with the name of 'Tong Ling Tong Zhi' by Chuang Yi with the total of 32 volumes. Shaman King also plays on Ntv7 in Malaysia Television since February 2006.

A shaman is a link between this world and the spirit world, and teams up with ghosts and spirits to achieve their goals. Many a shaman's greatest dream is to become Shaman King, and be able to contact the Great Spirit in order to be the savior of the world. This series is religious in a sense, but not religious at all, in a way that could be only described as how Japanese see the often explosive topic of religion, foreign and otherwise. Various magical and religious terms are spread through out the story but they merge into something explainable by the time the main plot arrives.