Shaman King

The Shamans

After a grueling year, freshman year is finally over. So over this one week holiday that I have, I started and finished reading Shaman Kin. It’s been a while my blood boiled this much while reading a series, and frankly I was quite disappointed in the end.

Shaman King tells the story in modern time of a boy who is a shaman in training, Asakura Yoh. In this world shamans are those that can use spirits of the dead and pretty much, battle each other by “using their spirit”. It’s not really like Pokemon where the host watches as the spirit fights, but rather the host kind of merges with the spirit and gains powers. Asakura Yoh’s spirit is a 600 year old samurai and of course, he becomes the typical sword guy.

Yoh with his Spirit, Amidamaru

Yoh is very lazy, unmotivated and unemotional most of the time. For the sake of being able to be lazy around for the rest of his life, his ultimate goal is to be the Shaman King. To do this, he must participate in a selection process known as the Shaman Fight, because only the chosen one can merge with the Great Sprit and become Shaman King. Throughout his quest, he meets his companions (nakama).

The series started up really well. There was quick hook to the reader. It was clear who the main character is, what world he is in, as well as the time period he is in. And unlike most mainstream battle mangas, the whole story spread over 32 volumes is a single arc….kind of. It isn’t like one piece where the crook shows up one by one as the straw hats move form island to island in the grand line. But again, I might just feel that way because I read the whole thing in two days, and to me, that was actually a plus. Despite being a single arc, there was great character development; defeated crooks become new allies. There is that satisfaction that comes along with the conversion of a bad guy into a good guy.

The most disappointing aspect, however, is the ending. Everything is good all the way until the end. The ending is…well there is pretty much no ending. In the near the ending, Yoh and co. must defeat all the Patch guardians before facing the final boss, Hao. The problem is the series ended before Yoh even defeated half of the Patch guardians. It was like, “Oh how wonderful it would be if we defeat him and live happily ever after and…that’s it. WTH

I heard from some people though that there is an alternate ending to the series. Will check that out and update this post afterwards.