the premise?

#####i will not be explaining what the story is about as I presume those who read this far have such knowledge and if not, then what the f are you even doing here chief?

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Both manga and the anime portray one essential theme - friendship. Also the Shaman Fights and saving the world or the concept of good and evil, but the absolutely necessary and basic structure keeping the whole narrative in place is friendship. The story of Yoh Asakura is build upon the bonds he creates throughout his journey, the main message being one evil cannot stand a chance against a bunch of folks connected by the power of bromance. That is what makes Shaman King... well, Shaman King. And it's also what makes the anime so great and what Hiroyuki Takei, the mangaka, failed so miserably at.

Basically, the anime follows the source material pretty honestly in the first half. Yoh meets a person, fights a little, has a bonding moment with them and ultimately they become pals. Quite literally every (and I mean every) single antagonist is destined to follow such path. And that's fine. We are talking about a kids show (and manga). The message here is actually pretty good - in everyone is a little bit of kindness, we shouldn't condemn our enemies straight away, don't be too quick to judge - that is the stuff we should teach children. When we spice the things up with a bit of a murder is always wrong no matter the circumstances you get the perfect family friendly product for your offspring.

That is, if such messages correspond with the story's actual narrative and aren't just faeces of a pre-established concept that's being violated on every other occassion for no other reason than the shock value.

I shall elaborate on that one.

The anime is unproblematic in this aspect. The power of friendship is the God's Testament. The fundamental laws of the Shaman King universe all originate in the Friendship. That's great. If two characters are announced to be friends, then they actually are friends. Amazing. Hiroyuki Takei begs to differ though.
In the manga, one of the worst fuck-ups in the history of fuck-ups is the absolute dissonance between the established friendships and the characters' behaviour. We are led to believe Yoh's mates are all ready to die for eachother. They argue, they fight but should the situation call for it, they are all besties who would lie down their lives for the Friendship. And then the story decides that if anyone dies, there's deus ex machina bringing them back from the dead every single time, thus completely disregarding death itself as it has no meaning anymore.
So, apart from the very obvious problems that come from this decision, there's one matter that disgusted me beyond any reasonable measure. Yoh's so-called friends are now well aware that if they kill someone, that person can be resurrected right away. So, they finally decide... to kill Yoh.

This attempt is interrupted, yet it is made absolutely clear that Yoh's crew members (there are exceceptions, mind you) were set to murder Yoh because deep down they hate him. It is abundantly transparent. Yoh is supposedly the strongest, from this famous shaman family, everyone loves him, he even has a pretty fiancé, always the centre of the attention - of course everyone envies him, living in his shadow, reduced to nothing but pathetic sidekicks only to admire the great Yoh Asakura. And now they get the chance to take their anger out on him without any consequences. And Yoh's friends take this chance without second thoughts.

A shift in the mood is a common thing in anime and manga though, so why does it not work here as well? Because there is no follow-up to this event and no resolution. We are simply shown that they just argue a bit because Yoh thought that ripping of your friend's arms is not cool but Ren responded that they grow back anyway so it, in fact, is cool and no one questions this ever again.

This embarassing example of favoritism breaks this whole manga. Hiroyuki Takei prioritizes cheap fabricated drama at the expense of literally the only functioning substance that holds this already crumbling story together. The soothing idealized world of True Friendship comes crashing down for the sake of a few action packed chapters.

Outrageous as it is, not only does this turn of events shed light onto the true nature of the comradeship between the main heroes which ruthlessly decapitates your childhood shaman-loving self, it doesn't even follow through with this plot twist and instead leaves you staring onto the screen in disbelief. This gigantic fuck up has no meaning. The whole experience is ruined for no reason. Fucking Nani
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#why cannot the manga recover from this wound?
Upon introducing the death-doesn't-exist point, the suspense necessarily has to cease to exist, too. While the shounen genre itself is embodiment of artifically manufactured tension, Shaman King takes this to another level. Not only you don't have to worry about the protagonists since they never die in these types of manga and anime, now you can rest easy since nobody is in danger anymore.

This literal spit in in the reader's face could be considered the worst decision the author could possibly ever make. But don't worry, it gets worse.

So, now everybody knows that death isn't any deal at all (being revived even makes the shaman stronger, so why not) and thanks to that the audience no longer fears for the characters. And yet... and yet the manga acts as if dying still meant something definitive. There are new and new situations in which someone goes "if you die now, you are done for good" REPEATEDLY and REPEATEDLY we are assured none of that bullshit is actually relevant because there's always a way to bring back the dead.

These repetitive punches in the throat turned this enjoyable manga into the most frustrating and bewildering bags of nonsense I have ever laid my eyes upon.

That of course doesn't mean the plot was perfect prior to this pathetic twist. Shaman King has been flawed since the very first chapter. Nevermind the obvious plot holes in the world building itself, there have been numerous cases of characters disappearing mid-scene from the story suddenly only to reappear whenever the mangaka remembers their existence, overused tropes and plot devices or just plain idiocy, yet every single one of those imperfections could have been overlooked. None of mentioned above is crucial for manga of this sort. When visiting Shaman King, the reader craves comedy, thrilling action sequences and fun characters and the friendship that evolves between them. Sadly enough, Hiroyuki Takei masterfully fails at every important aspect that makes shounen manga great.
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#characters?
It is undeniable fact that the characters and the way they interact is one of the best things this manga has to offer. Not only are they actually quite developed, we also get to see a number of antagonists and the neutrals, all in all the palette is especially colourful yet gets mudded along the way just as well.

Another one big hit to my poor childish heart was the chilling reveal that Manta or Amidamaru are side characters. As the story progresses, it decides to abandon in cold blood those we've known the longest, people who should in fact play a decisive role in Yoh's life and pushes them into the shadow to wait for when the plot needs them again. In their stead, dozens of new characters are being introduced for no apparent reason. The story itself doesn't actually need them nor is there enough screentime to eventually develop their personalities, their storylines add nothing to the main plot.

What the manga does actually better than the anime adaptation (to a certain extent) is the portrayal of the main villain, Hao. In the anime, Zeke (alias Hao) is just some really powerful guy who wants shaman-only exclusive world and is extremely casual about it. Manga manages to humanize him. We get to see him vulnerable, emotional, fun, conflicted.

Hiroyuki goes, as per usual, too far in his attempts to make Hao likable and yet again contradicts everything that's been established only for the sake of a few laughs, leaving you quite dissatisfied with the fact that the antagonist, the guy who goes around murdering people, just stops on his walk to get in the hot springs with the heroes. And while they seem rather shocked, in the end they agree to chill with him anyway - despite all the previous efforts to set up just how much everyone involved hates Hao (there's even a dude whose parents were murdered by Hao and who dedicated his whole life to revenge them; yes, even he stayed in the bath, because funny?).

Again, there are no consequences to this bath scene, since everyone continues the next day about how they must eradicate Hao and his minions. Nothing makes sense and nothing matters in the long run. People don't die when they get killed. I hate myself.
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#why do I care?
Shaman King is a bad written manga with so many bright ideas. The story proposes fun and interesting concepts. What it fails at is the execution.
Honourable mention is for example the very ending of the story. Hao is so powerful that the heroes just straight up abort fighting against him, allowing Hao to become the Shaman King, ultimately attempting to kill him during his sleep at the crowning ceremony. Such a turn feels rather refreshing, especially considering that in the very end, it is actually the main villain who wins; it's the evil we've been struggling to defeat that becomes the King (and the next generation in the sequel Flowers actually gets to fight for Hao as his team in an even bigger god-tier tournament, like, that's fucking metal as shit). And yes, while even this twist is very problematic, at least it brings a fresh breeze into the genre.

There are couple more exceptionally good points, such as controversial justice holy league X-Laws, Hao's best friend Matamune, soul consuming terrifying spirit ally, Yoh and Hao teaming up against an even bigger threat (it made no sense but I like the idea), elaboration on Yoh's and Anna's relationship, etc.

The story of Shaman King is great. In the anime. It pulls off everything the manga couldn't and while I suppose the ending is more unique in the source material, the adaptation still manages to execute its own rather tradiotional concept in a much more elegant and satisfying way - the main hero with his spirit ally manage to defeat the evil but only with the help of everyone they met along the way. Also, the last battle in the Shaman King anime is objectively one of the best in the medium, in my opinion.
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#list of what I particularly despised in the manga in comparison to the anime

The fact that Sharona and the girls never existed. Yeah. They are anime-only. And so is Ren's younger sister. Mindblowing, right? Also, Bailong has a wife and a kid.

Manta, Amidamaru and Faust are just side characters. Side fucking characters with nearly no screentime.
The final Gigantic Amidamaru form never happens. Yoh and company don't use their spirit allies in the final battle at all.
Silva gets completely brainwashed by the Patch and no one even talks about it.
The Patch are all defending Hao in the end.
Yoh's supposed friends hate him. ¯\(ツ)/¯
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#in conlusion
Would I recommend reading this manga? Absolutely. The first 180 chapters to be accurate. If you enjoy dumb shounens and fights and random power-ups, that is. Shaman King has it all - action, romance, bromance, actually nice and lovable protagonist and even a villain worth rooting for. And Shaman King fucks it all up, too.

This manga is extremely bad, yet enjoyable nontheless, for that reason i rate it: