Shaman King

*Reviewed by rui

Japan Anime Series
# of Episodes - 64

The adventure of Yu Asakura and his power spirit, Amidamaru to become the “Shaman King” and defeat the evil monk who died several decades ago, was reincarnated to pursue his mission in person of Hao Asakura, Yu’s twin brother.

The journey to become the king has won Yu his colleagues and friends. Manta Yamada, who’s unique and has senses like shamans became Yu’s first ever human friend. Their friendship started as he avenged Manta from the outcasts led by Rio who later became one of Yu’s loyal assistants. Manta and Yu faced together the struggles and dangers attached to every shaman and met the ever ambitious, aloof and arrogant Ren Tao, a Chinese shaman. Ren, although showed a hostile impression to Yu, they became friends and even helped him freed from the curse of gloom, inherited from the Tao family. Yu also met Horo-horo whose power was acquired from the nature, Kororo, an ice fairy. Though all fought each other in the shaman fight elimination round, they all earned trusts from each other and bonded as one family.

Their journey continued as Ana, Yu’s fiancée who also obtained the Great Spirit power of shamans pursued hard trainings and motivations to strengthen Yu’s credence to become the shaman king especially after a lost to Faust, a doctor who missed in saving his wife’s life wishing to be the king to resurrect his beloved Eliza. Yu’s trainings became harder each day but with Manta’s presence, he eventually finished the trainings successfully.

After the hard and ghastly elimination round, Yu and his power spirit, Amidamaru together with Ren and his power spirit Bason; Horo-horo and Kororo; Rio and Tokegaru were all set to Patch Village for the serious rounds up to the finals of the Shaman Fight. The test was not as easy as they thought for finding the said village was the half part of it.

The travel to Patch Village opened the door for Yu and his friends to acquire more power; to strengthen their Furiokos and in the long run met the British shaman, Lizerd whose life was devoted in killing Hao Asakura, his parents’ murderer; also Chocolab, a goofy, nonsense and frustrated comedian that joined Yu’s company and the “X Laws” led by Mistress Jean who called themselves as righteous and holy, sentenced other beings that denied to join them, with malice and death. As Lizerd was blinded by his anger to Hao, he was fallen to the beliefs of the “X Laws” left Yu’s company and treated hi old pals as enemies.

The battle of good and evil continued as both parties strengthened their powers and clang on to their respective opposing beliefs; Hao’s to change the world in his own selfish way disregarding the human beings while Yu’s to defeat the devil unleashed and rule the world of shamans in peace and harmony. But what if Yu chose to join his twin? Well, it would be very contradicting as there could only be one “Shaman King.”

Shamans

Yu Asakura – an Asakura descendant, a legendary powerful clan of Shaman that ruled the world of Shamans for million of years. Mastered his power spirit Amidamaru in using the harusame. Yu, though easy going but was never been so careless in facing the fight. Being patient and calm, Yu does not judge a person easily. He accepts everybody as friends and trusts them with all his heart. He maybe the toughest shaman but with Ana’s words, Yu would become very supple.

Hao Asakura – belongs to the legendary Asakuras that once led the Shamans but dismayed for he used his powers to evil and self-interest. He was killed by Asakura ancestors to prevent his wickedness but was just made even powerful to be reincarnated. As the descendant of great power was born, in person of Yu, Hao chose his twin brother to be in flesh again and continue his vanished mission. He used the spirit of fire as his power spirit and mastered to use the nature as his shield. Like Yu, Hao has also his friends with the same belief as him.

Ren Tao – a Chinese shaman, progeny of legendary Tao family. An arrogant and tough, Ren inherited his father’s hatred to humans as their ancestors were once molested and killed. He was raised to destroy and hate people but when he met Yu, Ren started to view the brighter sides of humans. He was partnered by Bason, as his strong power spirit.
Horo-horo – a shaman from Hokkaido raised and trained from the towering coldness of snow earned his cute power spirit, Kororo. He is an easy going as Yu. He gets easily annoyed to nonsense and arrogance. Though he could never top Yu’s power, Horo-horo had showed self confidence and love to nature astoundingly.

Rio – from a gangster to Yu’s loyal assistant, earned his power spirit as he was trained by Yu’s father and acquired Tokegaru and later the powerful spirit of guardian snakes of the mystic river. He joined the shaman fight and aimed to protect Yu Asakura. His identity was questioned for he likeably found attraction to Lizerd.

Ana – Yu’s fiancée. A shaman who can call the spirits anytime she wanted and has the ability to steal power spirits of other shamans. Very possessive and stern- strict, made Ana a very tough character in the series.

Faust – A doctor who pursued the journey of shamans even it was like chasing rainbows to become the shaman king to bring his beloved Eliza back. He became powerful and later Yu’s loyal assistant as Rio was.

Human

Manta Oyamada – Yu’s best friend and the cutest of all the characters in the series. Though he has the same age with Yu, he only stands half of Yu’s height. He’s not a shaman but possessed Shaman’s senses. He viewed spirits that only shamans can perceive. Other than that, Manta became a big help to Ana and the others for bringing them to Yu and arrived together in Patch Village.

Power Spirits

Amidamaru – A legendary Samurai who was known for his fighting abilities using his powerful harusame. Amidamaru played as Yu’s power spirit and later became holy and powerful to defeat Hao.

Tokegaru – Amidamaru’s old foe but later changed and joined Rio to be the power spirit.

Bason – A warrior and Ren’s power spirit.

Kororo – A nature fairy that maintains the balance of natural world joined Horo-horo to be his power spirit of ice.

Shaman King was one of the many successful anime series that was shown in Asia. Though its theme as “good fighting against the evil and heroism” lost its originality as in Ghostfighter and Flame of Recca, Shaman King was still original on its own.

Its uniqueness attracted the viewers and gave the series a higher appreciation. The setting, characters and the design surely sank in to every audience’ memory. The one that is also very impressive was the showing of the reunion of shamans all across the world. What gave me another favorable attention were the terminologies used by the writer such as follows:

Shaman – somebody who acts as a go-between for the physical and spiritual realms and is said to be the nature balancer.

Power spirit – spirit from anything that has life of its own; humans, trees, animals, etc associated with mediums to use as furioku.

Furioku – the shaman power.

Oracle bell – the instrument attached to shaman’s arm as a guide for schedules on their respective shaman fights.

Shaman fight – the holy battle of Shamans to determine their king officiated by shaman elders and the guardians.


I am watching the series as wrote this review. Though I have watched it many times already, I still treat every episode as suspense, feel good and funny. I’m confident to say that this animé series was better than the other drama series that only fooled the viewers with its draggy and boring presentation.

Shaman King was truly a perfection of a traditional Japanese animé which spectacled their specialty. The rocker presentation of Yu Asakura wearing his earphones showed his side as a jolly and cheerful character. On the other hand, using the sword and Amidamaru as his power spirit who was a samurai wholly showed the superiority of his power to all other shamans and at the same time, his sword weapon as we all know is symbol of a great power.

Meanwhile, the fighting scenes were completely stunning as they were showed in details; as they were executed very well unlike the other animé series. Shaman King would perfectly fit for a movie like the success of Ghostfighter, Dragon Ball Z and Cowboy Bebop.

Though this series was not as current as to some animé series, I still reviewed Shaman King to retain the fondness of the viewers to the loved series. A lot of animé lovers looked forward to this review especially to those nosy in having much information about the series.

Who said that animé series are only for kids? Of course not! Shaman King was loved by all ages. It rated so high even it was showed many times. Animé lovers crave for it as many times as it showed on TV.

Note: When Shaman King was showed in the Philippine TV several times, it was never been defeated by its rivals on ratings competition.

The Most Loved Character

You won’t have to guess, Yu Asakura of course! His charm and power plus his gentility and kindness stood out from the other characters in the series. Now, I’m an avid fan of Yu Asakura!

The Most Hated Character

It would definitely not Hao but Lizerd. I hated him for being so lame and cruel. He closed his heart to love and be loved. He was selfish. He chose his anger and left his friends in return for a great power to destroy Hao. He offered his life to Mistress Jean who’s as evil as Hao. I hated him for he just wasted the trust Yu has offered to him.

Overall, there are some familiar scenes from other animé series but I applauded this one for the writer’s great imagination in creating such a unique story; four stars definitely deserved it!
source:www.spcnet.tv