Before I get into the actual review I want to explain my own relationship with Shaman King. Shaman King was my first ever anime and I have rewatched it twice, all at different periods in my life. I have loved it throughout all those periods. While flawed I have always loved it a great deal and still do to this day. Many people my age grew up on Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece and while I have either watched or read some of those series at some point in my life I have always preferred Shaman King (up until reading the One Piece manga recently). In anticipation for the 2021 remake of Shaman King I found myself finally willing to do something I had been putting off for ages. I wanted to read the entire Shaman King manga before the new adaptation began releasing. I did end up coming short of this goal by a little under a week but I came away from reading the Shaman King manga with a very new perspective on the series as a whole. Fair warning in advance, I normally keep my posts and reviews spoiler free but I will not be doing so in this review. I am doing this because some of my main issues related to the Shaman King manga contain topics later in the story. I will be marking these spoilers accordingly but I HIGHLY encourage you to not press on them if you have not yet read the manga and wish to go into the new adaptation or the manga spoiler free! All of that aside, this is my nostalgia free review of the Shaman King manga.

Story/Plot:

Shaman King follows a cast of characters who are shamans (spirit mediums who can interact with ghosts and utilize their individual talents). The story focuses around the main characters' pursuit of becoming the Shaman King. The Shaman King is the most powerful shaman of all and becomes allies with the Great Spirit (roughly this story's equivalent to god). In order to determine the Shaman King a tournament is held once every 500 years in which shamans fight one another to determine who is the more powerful shaman. Essentially this is a tournament arc manga! While the plot later deviates from the true spirit of a tournament it does so in a very understandable way so that the reader is not too upset with this change. I personally would have preferred that the manga stay true to the tournament style of determining the Shaman King but I can understand why the mangaka decided to deviate in the direction he did. Overall, the plot of Shaman King is very well done and does a great job getting the reader hooked in from chapter to chapter.

Unfortunately, the ending to Shaman King is extremely underwhelming and honestly doesn't even feel like an ending at all. The mangaka leaves the reader with so many unanswered questions. For me, an ending isn't everything but it is important to feel the gratification of completing a series you've invested a lot in! Shaman King does not leave you with this feeling but instead leaves you on a cliffhanger. From my understanding there were later an additional three volumes added onto Shaman King which is now considered by the community to be its true ending. That being said, I only read the 32 volumes this series is listed under and I will be reviewing the series accordingly.

# Characters: The cast of Shaman King is great! Plain and simple they are great. Each character is great in their own way and the reader can find something they love about each character. Each major character has their own specific reason for why they want to become Shaman King and as a result you can find yourself torn between which characters you ultimately want to cheer for throughout the manga. I will say I found myself extremely underwhelmed with the spirit allies throughout the series. Very few spirit allies had much personality outside of being either goofy or very serious. That being said I believe that decision is mostly to make sure the reader focuses on the extremely well written main characters.

I'm also going to discuss some of the main characters and bring up what makes them unique in comparison to other shonen series.

Yoh is a carefree, lovable goofball who has a very interesting and complex moral compass. He doesn't see actions people make as inherently good or evil but instead judges those actions based on how they affect his ultimate goal of creating a world where all people can live a carefree life.Anna is an extremely strong willed and powerful woman. The mangaka does an outstanding job not just writing that Anna is a strong character but instead displaying to the reader just how powerful she is.Ren is a very stubborn and hard working character who is driven a lot by his and his family's past actions. He battles with a lot of trauma throughout the manga and it really does make him a very lovable character. I found his story of redemption to be especially well done and as a result I found myself enjoying him specifically more and more as the story went along.Horohoro is a knucklehead with a strong connection to nature. Both him and Ren share this and common. What the mangaka does so well is utilizing these two characters specifically to emphasize the important message of how we as humans impact the earth and the damage we have done and will continue to do to nature. Horohoro also has a bit of an inferiority complex that makes him relatable to readers who struggle with self confidence as well.Lyserg is a very complex character in that he is so driven by his central goal to overcome a specific character that he allows his moral compass to go a bit by the wayside during portions of the manga.Ryu is a goofy, loyal, and passionate guy. He grew up as a thug but throughout the story is truly only looking for a place where he is safe to be himself.

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(He also didn't develop shaman powers until a bit later in the manga which makes hima bit of an underdog to root for!)

Faust is a former doctor turned necromancer whose whole drive in life is to be reunited with the woman he loves. While initially I did not care for him too much he grew on me quite a bit as the story progresses.

The final character that I want to address and emphasize is Hao. Hao is easily one of the best antagonists I've seen in all of shonen. Without going into the territory of spoilers Hao performs some actions that are so irredeemable that you can't help but hate him. Along with that, his central reason for wanting to become Shaman King is one that would see a massive amount of people suffer. Despite all of this, one important piece of information that the mangaka introduces very late in the manga suddenly makes you care for even Hao quite a bit.

Overall, the main characters in Shaman King are extremely well done but the spirit allies and side characters kind of take a back seat in the process.

Artwork:

Honestly, I don't have too much to say regarding the artwork in Shaman King. It never really blew me away outside of a handful of specific scenes but it also wasn't terrible. I also am far from an artist so I'm not the best judge of this. I would say Shaman King's artwork is very average for a shonen manga.

# Power System/Power Scaling: Shaman King runs a fairly straightforward power system initially. In the first handful of volumes shamans form "unity" with their spirit allies by allowing their spirit allies to either coexist in their bodies or take over their bodies to increase their fighting prowess. At the very beginning of the actual shaman fight the reader is introduced to the "over soul" ability. This is basically a bond that a shaman forms with both their spirit allies and their weapon of choice. The ability a shaman has to maintain these "over souls" is quantified under the term "mana". This is how Shaman King demonstrates its way of power scaling. While initially this is a very interesting and new way to power scale it basically is thrown out of the window later in the manga.

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The reason that I feel that mana scaling becomes an issue later in the manga is due to the overwhelming mana advantage Hao holds over all other shamans. Initially the level of Hao's mana serves as a reminder to the reader of just how powerful he is but as the story goes along it becomes a harsh reality that Hao can not be defeated without some loopholes being involved.

As a result the mangaka is forced to overcome this issue by utilizing two common shonen tropes, the power of friendship and belief. Once these begin to play a role in the manga, Shaman King's mana scaling became obsolete.

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The mangaka seemingly attempts to undo this later in the manga by allowing mana to increase dramatically when characters experience near death experiences or overcome death. The main issue I had with this is that it was done WAY too frequently throughout the final fourth of the manga. Character would die and be resurrected on a very regular basis. As a result deaths became completely irrelevant because a character could just be resurrected and become more powerful as a result. Ultimately, the mangaka introduces double oversouls as another power up. I did enjoy these final oversouls but by that point it was already too late to do damage control and the entire premise of death being final was no longer true in the manga.

Final Verdict:

Shaman King was one of my all time favorite anime growing up as a kid. It will always hold a very special place in my heart. Shaman King does introduce a very unique world and even more interesting cast of characters. I still do love the series a great deal and enjoyed reading the manga a lot. Hao still remains one of my all time favorite antagonists in manga/anime and really does carry the later half of Shaman King. That being said, when looking at the series with a critical eye it is difficult to overcome its lack of a real ending and the power system becoming a bit obsolete in the late game. These two elements really did take a bit away from overall enjoyment of the manga and it pains me to say that. Do I feel Shaman King manga is worth the read? Do I think the new adaptation will be worth a watch? Yes, 100%. Should you expect a masterpiece? No, not really. Overall, it is a damn fun ride and I'm happy I revisited this portion of my childhood through a new medium!