This is one of Hiroyuki's more popular ideas, but it is surprisingly not as popular as I feel it should be. This anime is not mainstream, and I often get very excited whenever I find someone who has at least heard about it.
My history with this anime is that one day my friend was spending the night. She showed me ".hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet" and I felt a rage of jealousy that she found a new anime, and I felt that if I obsessed over it, she would get mad at me. Don't get me wrong, I became a fan of it and all worked out well from what I presumed. However, I woke up pretty early the next day and was sitting in my bed, my friend asleep next to me and I was flipping through channels, hoping to find something that I could become a fan of myself.
Lucky for me, I came across a wonderful thing. I flipped to (unfortunately 4kids tv to which I later learned was purely evil, but I was an innocent 5th grader.) this station in which I saw a woman with green hair and a zombie panda on her dress talking to a group of boys. I don't know what it was that hooked me, but I felt my eyes fix on the screen and I was absolutely dazzled and felt my eyes twinkle with joy.
Thus I became hooked to this series. I spent every Saturday morning glued to my television as I waited for this series. I didn't care that I started about 20 episodes too late, I devotedly watched this up until the end, never even thinking about leaving its side. I was loyal to this anime.
The day I discovered that they made a special for it on cartoon network showing a few episodes, I nearly fainted of joy. It was sixth grade and my mother and her boyfriend were going out. They asked if I wanted to go to some place with them and I objected instantly. I would refuse to leave Shaman King's side. There would be four episodes, right there on cartoon network and I was not about to abandon that.
The day I began buying the manga too was glorious. It was the day in which I separated myself from 4kids evil curse and learned the truths about this anime. It made me fall even more in love with it. However, it soon led my youthful self into bankruptcy. I didn't care if I had no money to buy anything else, I would scrounge around for any coins and try and make something up into $8.61 (Yes, I memorized the price with tax by that point) and then beg my mom to take me to HEB to convert the coins to dollars then drag me to the book store so that I could buy the latest volume. Wow...I remember back when I bought the 7th volume. I was so distraught because I had been waiting for so long for them to release it in America, and I only had $5 saved, which wasn't enough and my mother was kind enough to give me the rest, even though she didn't really have the money for it.
In other words...Shaman King in turn kept me happy as a child.
As I grew up, I began to study and memorize many different attributes to Shaman King. I studied the characters inside and out and memorized the plot and any little extra snippets that Hiroyuki included. I ultimately became a fan of this series and I can never leave it now, not that I would want to. I try my hardest at every chance I get to uncover more and more about this anime. When Hiroyuki created Shaman King Flowers, I was incredibly excited, but I was disappointed that Hiroyuki has yet to continue it.
On to the idea of Shaman King however, I now have 30 of the manga and practically praise Hiroyuki's work. I scramble to get a new volume each time one comes out, but it is practically a commute for me to obtain them. You see, my town's book store neglects re-shelving the books and it can go for months at a time before any series is updated. Pathetic really. This being the case, it is when I happen to visit some book store from outside of town that I see new volumes of Shaman King and I unintentionally buy them when I mean to save my money.
A prime example was when I went to New York in summer's past, I was running through a Barns&Nobles, freaking about how excited I was to find the manga section. I darted through all four levels till I found it through the aid of an employee. My mother of course followed me, complaining as to how, "I could find these anywhere else and it was pointless to buy them here." But come on, it was Shaman King and it was New York City. How could I resist?
This being the case, I bought one of them. However, I somehow managed later when we were walking around Greenwich to convince them to go into another book store. (I was not with just my mother, I had a friend and my mother's friend as well) During this time, my friend got caught up in reading, and I said I would be right back. My mother and her friend stated as to how they were going to look around, so I found what level they were on and made sure to avoid them. I darted to the manga section and grabbed two of the Shaman King manga and darted for the register downstairs. I can't doubt that I looked really suspicious when I stuffed them in my purse. I made sure that the security guard saw that I bought them as I held the receipt out obviously as I stuffed the manga in the plastic bag right into my purse. It was then an adventure trying to hide behind shelves trying to avoid my mom seeing me. I soon got back to my friend, exhausted and collapsed to the ground.
These are the levels I go to for Shaman King.
When I found out that Shaman King had video games, I think I stopped breathing momentarily. Over time, I acquired two GBA games and one PS2 game, but I never beat any of them. I lost the PS2 game and am desperately trying to find it, and I got stuck on both of my GBA games. I have never been more depressed about nerdy stuff aside from the time I could not buy the Mnemosyne DVD box set. (Which will be explained on another day.)
Anyways, it is about time that I start explaining as to why I gave the post the title that it has.
Well you see, Shaman King is a story based around a young shaman named, Yoh Asakura. He is originally from Izumo where he has been trained his entire life to fight in the "500 Year Shaman Tournament" that is hosted by the Patch Tribe in which Yoh is to become Shaman King (The title given to the winner). The reason that the Asakura family is placing such high priorities on his shoulders is because the antagonist of the series, Hao, had been reborn in to the Asakura bloodline, so thus it was their fate, along with many others, to prevent him from becoming Shaman King so that he doesn't destroy the Earth.
This is pretty much narrated through Manta Oyamada, who becomes best friends with the main character, Yoh. Although the story follows Yoh, all of the explanations and deep seeded moments are displayed through Manta's point of view.
Once Yoh left Izumo, he was sent to Tokyo upon which he was set to live near Funbari Hill with his fiancee, Anna Kyoyama. Anna is essentially in charge for preparing her future husband for the tournament by sending him through back breaking, unrealistic forms of exercising that no human could truly live day to day performing. In all honesty, Yoh simply wants to be able to live a carefree life once he is Shaman King, and Anna wants to become his queen.
Anyways, over the course of the Shaman Tournament, Yoh develops strong friendships with those he meets along the way and unintentionally teaches long lasting life lessons that he never figured would influence people quite the ways it did. The guy is good as giving friendship speeches that don't make you go, "Ugh...shut up about the friendship already." It probably could be that Yoh in general is such a lovable character.
The final episodes leading up to the finale of Shaman King had me at wits end. I almost felt as if I couldn't wait the grueling weeks for them to add a new episode. Those last few weeks were the most torturous moments of my childhood. I felt as if Hiroyuki Takei was just toiling with my mind and I was about to lose it. They way the episodes ended, I had to know what was next. Unfortunately for me, my laptop at the time played no videos (since it was very old) and I had no knowledge of anime streaming sites.
He pulled one of the biggest plot twists that had me grabbing my television screen while sobbing and shouting, "Why? WHY?!" Imagine that sight. An awkward sixth grader begging a television set for answers. However, every time I awoke on a Saturday I received more answers, only to spawn more questions.
I believe I actually recorded the last episode...that way I could forever watch it's beauty. With the last episode, I was completely in it. Nothing could drag my attentions away from wanting to view the last spectacular moments of this anime. The way it ended however...
It only led me to more questions...
I was so confused...
My mind didn't know what to think. I kept rewatching it and rewatching it. Trying to understand if that truly was the end...but my heart got a little excited about it.
But just to end this with comedy:
i love this anime too! It was my first, i was watching it desperately, when the girls at school were talking about barbie, i was Shaman king addicted! It was my first love as anime and i am watching it even now, after 7-8 years. I love it! Thank you for this post! Keep writing!
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