This is a long post about Shaman King I started to write ages ago and I don’t have a good title for it
Let me tell you about Shaman King for a few minutes, okay. Because the new anime adaptation is coming in like 3 months and I’m still not ready for it. Also I started to write this post 5 years ago just because I re-read the whole thing at the time and it’s been in my drafts since then. Oops
But yeah Shaman King was the very first fandom I got into when I first had a real internet access, around 2003-2004. I was around fifteen. The manga was still going. And in retrospect, it was full of problems. Among other things:
Not enough female characters & questionable choices for the ones who actually have a part to play in the plot
A black character drawn with big lips (see above), and I REALLY HOPE this is gonna get fixed in the new anime ; I mean even the author stopped drawing him like that a few years ago when he did the “remix tracks” extra chapters so come on please
An imaginary native american tribe who, while pretty cool, is still imagined by a Japanese dude in 1999 soooo yeah there’s some rough corners here and there
An art quality which gets worse and worse over time due to deadline pressures and an increasingly exhausted author
Was stopped before it could reach its natural conclusion (the author drew an actual ending years later and tbh it’s great so I’m putting this very low on the list)
So yeah. Manga from 1999. Problematic. Aged badly. It happens.
BUT.
In retrospect, most of it is such a kick in the metaphorical butt of shonen manga as a whole I can’t believe it was competing against Naruto and One Piece at some point?? Like
It’s a shonen so it plays the “dramatic and sudden power jump” game, but it uses it to reach a surprising conclusion (in the “new” ending I mean)
Most of the characters are “shamans” which means they can see ghosts and spirits, and they use them to fight, to work, or to help other people. This is a manga in which you’re gonna see a Russian shaman channeling a Vodyanoy spirit into a drum to create a torrential flood. You don’t see that in every manga
It’s stated right away that no shaman can be truely, irredeemably bad, because only good-natured people can see ghosts and spirits.
So, no matter how bad a villain may be, they must have had a good nature once even if they look like a complete bastard at the moment.
How far is the author willing to go with that concept? Pretty far
Even without talking about the main villain and how the story ends because, duh, spoilers… Like
My favorite character, who gets a full redemption arc later, cuts someone open in his first chapter
He’s one of the good guys 10 volumes later
Speaking of which the amount of gore in this manga has to be seen to be believed, Jump would never let this happen nowadays
If you’re wondering why this is in the “positive” (……?) list it’s because I was 14/15 and all kids that age crave blood and angst
The main character, Yoh, pictured above, is very laid-back, and I mean very. He listens to the in-world equivalent of Bob Marley and constantly wears big headphones. Also he wears sandals, and sometimes there’s a weed leaf drawn on his t-shirt
His parents arranged a mariage between him and a girl shaman even though they’re still teenagers, so this would have potential for High Drama - but surprisingly enough it turns out they like each other and after that he just goes around saying “this is my future wife” and she’s like “hello if you touch him I’m going to end you”
It sounds weird and it……… is, tbh, but it’s also refreshing among all the “ugh, girls, yuck” tropes that nearly all shonen mangas used to have at the time
Yoh’s main goal in life is to live with minimal effort
When his grandfather tells him he must train to participate in a shaman tournament which happens every 500 years, because the winner gets a wish granted by the Great Spirit, he decides his wish will be to make everybody’s life easy so that nobody will ever be forced to work or do shit they don’t want to do to survive anymore
Yoh Asakura is a Millenial icon don’t @ me
Speaking of which
Almost everyone in this series is broke as f█ck
Yoh owns a big house but that’s only because the price was ridiculously low since it’s the most haunted place in Tokyo and nobody else wants to live there. The house is constantly full of other characters (including enemies) who have literally nowhere else to go
The only important character who isn’t broke has money because his family is super rich but he hates all of them because they’re all bastards so it’s super awkward
Another character bought a really cool motorbike but he’s going to be in debt for the next 40 years
Also he’s a hobo
And also bi
What I’m trying to say is: relatable
Also the tournament is held by an imaginary Native American tribe. They’re also broke. All of them. The two judges who are in charge of the main characters live in a cramped appartment and often try to sell souvenirs in the street to pay the rent
I know that’s hashtag problematic but I still love them I can’t help it
Just like in most shonen mangas the hero seems to amass a big collection of Friends but since everyone is a weirdo in a way or another and come from all over the world it looks even funnier
At some point during the tournament, the main characters have to form small groups of three in order to participate to the next part. Yoh’s team is one of the strongest teams among the ones we’ve met at this point, and is composed of 1) Yoh, a laid-back sleepy kid wearing toilet sandals 2) the aforementioned bi hobo who’s sad because his current crush is in a rival team, and 3) a thirty-something tatooed guy with no legs and an IV drip and who looks like he hasn’t slept since 1997
Oh and they all wear adds for a bath house
Because remember: everyone’s f█cking broke
Spoilers for the mid-point of the manga but I need to talk about it because it encapsulates everything I used to love in it
You’ve been warned
So
At some point the main character, Yoh, is asked to choose between staying in the tournament or resurrect his rival
This is framed as some kind of very heavy, very huge dilemma. Like oh no what will he do. Will he give up his dreams and hopes. Will You Push The Button™
So the choice is presented to him
In a very dramatic way
And he immediately goes “there’s a way to save him?? YES PLEASE”
He doesn’t hesitate a single second and drops the tournament in a heartbeat to save the guy
This scene greatly contributed to make me a better person I’m not even joking at all
I love Yoh
So anyway I don’t have a proper conclusion for this
Shaman King is very flawed and its flaws need to be acknowledged to fully appreciate all the good things in it, and the “old” fandom from more than 15 years ago was a very good formative experience for me because the forum I was on (which was nuked from the face of the internet by a hacker “looking for training grounds” (his words not mine, he posted it on our frontpage a full week before he did it) in 2005, rip) was full of people who were really into criticising every little aspect of the manga but still loved it dearly
And I think that’s a healthy way to enjoy things and I think we should bring this back
Anyway
Shaman King extremely flawed but full of good things
I still can’t believe it’s back
Johannes out
