Nov 1, 2015
Shaman King is one of those shows that uses a basic story that has been done to death yet still finds a way to make it stand out from all the other shows in its respective genre.
Shaman King is the story of You Asakura a lazy slacker who recently transfered to the school of the Manta Oyamada who after first meeting You tries to convince everyone that he saw ghosts however nobody believes him.
After discovering that through investigating him Manta was injured by Ryunosuke Umemiya and his gang You decides to teach the gang a lesson with the assistance of the deceased spirit of the
...
legendary samurai Amidamaru.
After this episode Manta and You becomes best friends and its not explained what the main plot of the show is about for a few more episodes.
That plot is that there is a tournament between Shaman known as "The Shaman King Tournament" whoever wins this tournament is able to use the king of spirits to make their one wish come true.
However not all shaman are as down to earth as You, some are actually very evil and one of these shaman Hao(also known as Zeke in the english dubbed anime) wants to use this spirit to destroy all humans so that only shaman remain.
So naturally You and his friends he meets along the way try to win the tournament and stop Zeke.
So as you can see Shaman King as a fairly generic story the very same that we see in shows like Zatch Bell and the Fate/ Series.
However what makes it stand out is the art style used.
The art style is hard to explain, its not like most anime that try to go into great detail but its not lazy either.
It has this almost cartoony look to it but not as much as like Panty & Stocking.
So like i said its hard to describe but it works for the show very well and on top of that the animation is very fluid for the budget it was given.
As for the sound i should first mention that i watched the english dub which means yes i watched the 4kids dub, however i will say this is one series that 4kids didnt completely fuck up.
Yes its a bit more child friendly than the manga but its not horrible either.
For its time even compared to the non 4kids dubs its pretty on par with everything in terms of dialogue changes and voice acting.
The changes are very minor if any were made at all, most changes are like changing Hao to Zeke or Manta to Morty.
As far as plot goes there isnt much changed from the manga just made to be more accepted for a wider audience.
Which its overall value is much better than its other shows like Sonic X or the now infamous One Piece dub.
Ok now for the many characters,
well i mean they are all kind of bland...i mean some stand out more than others but they are all pretty bland even by shonen standards at the time.
You have your pure of heart main character, his nerdy best friend and the tsundere girlfriend just to name a few.
What i mean by bland isnt that they are boring just that they are all more tropes/cliches than actual characters.
Now for the main question, did i enjoy this show?
Honestly yes, despite its generic story and bland characters it is still a very enjoyable show overall.
After rewatching when i am now 25 years old i still found it just as enjoyable as when it first came out in america.
It has aged pretty well all things considered and between its jokes and many arcs in the story its still one of the most enjoyable shows ive rewatched recently.
So now after accounting all the show does well and my personal opinion of this show i will end this review by giving Shaman King a 7 out of 10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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