Yoh Asakura is a shaman. He can talk to the spirits of the dead, and even channel them into his own body. Once every 500 years, shamans from all over the world battle to become the Shaman King and claim mastery over the “Great Spirit”, the most powerful being of all. Does Yoh, a laid back and easygoing slacker, really have hope of making his dream of becoming the next Shaman King come true?
Ever since 4Kids subjected some of the 2001 anime to one of their questionable dubbing and editing hack jobs, I’ve had something of a fondness for Shaman King. While it was nothing particularly special among the ranks of shounen battle anime, the characters and art style were appealing enough that I found the experience quite enjoyable. And although the 2001 anime’s 64 episodes quickly diverge from the manga and conclude with something of a non-ending, I was happy enough to sit through all of it – in the original Japanese.
It was relatively recently, however, that I realized I had never actually got that far with the original manga. And after discovering that the entire Kodansha re-release was available on Prime Reading, it felt like past time to rectify that, and find out how the story was supposed to end.
Before we continue, I cannot reiterate this enough. Do not read Shaman King. Do not be tempted to ignore this warning and proceed anyway. Your nostalgia for the 2001 anime isn’t enough. The fact that the early volumes are fine isn’t enough. If you proceed down this path, you will find yourself halfway through Shaman King, stuck reading a manga whose quality has nosedived, but which you feel compelled to continue with anyway. Don’t do it.
But what could possibly be so bad about Shaman King, you ask? Well, at first, nothing much. Our story begins when the bookish Manta Oyamada sees transfer student Yoh Asakura hanging out in a graveyard, and learns that our protagonist is a shaman who can channel the spirits of the dead into his own body. Manta and Yoh soon become friends, and in the following chapters, the usual shounen manga setup is established. Yoh gains a spirit ally in the form of the samurai ghost Amidamaru, clashes with a rival shaman, and even has to deal with the arrival of his controlling fiancée Anna. As you might expect, there are some standalone chapters about dealing with individual ghost problems, before we finally get into the meat of the story – a tournament to crown the titular Shaman King.
Tournament stories are a dime a dozen in the world of shounen manga and anime. The formula is so well-established that, even if you can’t make something compelling and original out of it, pretty much anyone should be able to turn out something serviceable. Unfortunately, the central tournament of Shaman King, the so-called “Shaman Fight in Tokyo”, is a meandering, badly-paced mess.
To give you an indication of just how bad things get, it’s worth saying that much of the “Shaman Fight in Tokyo” at all – despite the fact that shamans begin gathering in Tokyo just to participate in said competition. Instead, our heroes end up travelling across America to find the hidden Native American village where the tournament proper starts, only later visiting “Tokyo” – not the capital of Japan, but a remote island of the same name.
On its own, such a minor continuity revision in a long-running shounen series wouldn’t be much to write home about. But it’s just one symptom of the greater issue, which is that Hiroyuki Takei seems to have grown to hate the very story framework he created. Where other mangaka would have written their tournament arc to showcase the match ups that they wanted, Takei seems determined to do the opposite. Important battles do take place, but they always happen outside of the arena. Meanwhile, the actual tournament battles are merely incidental, and are often skipped over or forgotten.
It’s little wonder, then, that the narrative degenerates into a shoddy mess, propelled forwards only by whatever battle Takei felt like drawing that particular month. Irritating one-shot characters who really should have been defeated once and then forgotten keep showing up for rematches again and again. Meanwhile, our heroes quit or get knocked out of the tournament several times, but by the time it comes to the closing arc, the tournament officiants say “fuck it” and just advance all the main characters to the final anyway.
Even death becomes no guarantee of any kind of closure. Obviously, a series about ghosts is going to have its fair share of characters who have already shuffled off this mortal coil, but even so, the death of one of the shamans is a serious sacrifice – at least, the first time. For in short order, numerous characters gain the ability to resurrect the recently departed, and indeed dying and training in the afterlife becomes just another way to raise your power level.
Should you have made it this far in the story, you will be well aware that the quality has gone downhill from the entertainingly decent manga you started reading. But like Macbeth, you’ve read too far to stop now, and so you may find yourself plunging onwards, into Shaman King’s final arc.
It won’t surprise you to learn that Shaman King’s ending was somewhat rushed and abrupt. The series was cancelled in 2004, but after a break of a few years, Takei went back and added a more conclusive ‘true ending’. What an opportunity – surely after a break, Takei would no longer be fatigued and fed up with Shaman King, and able to take his time creating a more stylish and satisfying finale.
If you found yourself thinking anything along those lines, then it’s my sad duty to reveal to you that the final chapters are nothing of the sort. Far from being epic and climactic, the final battles are just another rushed mess, the final screeching halt of this hideous car crash.
While I stand by everything I’ve written above, and will continue to insist that you shouldn’t read this manga, I should at least give credit where its due. With its clean, simple lines, and distinctive spikiness, Shaman King is at least good to look at. The artwork on the latest rerelease also has brand new cover art, which is bold, colourful, and well worth a look.
Final Thoughts
Despite its early promise, Shaman King ultimately fails to deliver on any sort of promise, not even managing the relatively low bar of “averagely inoffensive shounen series”. Given the plethora of other manga available in this genre, it’s not worth spending your time on this one.
