Shaman King

Shaman King (シャーマンキングShāman Kingu^?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. Shaman King follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King in the Shaman tournament.

Shaman King was serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump between 1998 and 2004 and has been collected in thirty-two tankōbon volumes. Since its publication, Shaman King has spawned a substantial media franchise. The manga has been adapted into an animated television series produced by Xebec and co-produced by TV Tokyo. The series has also spawned numerous video games, a trading card game as well as many types of Shaman King-related merchandise. During the Jump Festa 2008, Shueisha announced a kanzenban reprint of the entire series. The series is called Shaman King Kanzen-Ban, or Perfect Edition.

4Kids Entertainment obtained foreign television and home video distribution rights to the Shaman King anime on May 15, 2003.Fox Box began airing Shaman King in the United States on August 30, 2003. Viz Media licensed the manga for English-language publication in the United States and Canada and has released thirty-two volumes as of January 2011 as well as published chapters of Shaman King in its Shonen Jump magazine since March 2003.

Plot[]

Manta Oyamada, a shrimpy, studious middle-school student from Tokyo, attempts a shortcut one night through the graveyard to get home after a late night of cram school. While travelling through it, he encounters Yoh Asakura and his "companions": a graveyard filled with ghosts. Yoh reveals himself to be a shaman, a medium between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Yoh also demonstrates shamans' ability to unite with ghosts to achieve a shared goal. Quickly after meeting one another, Yoh and Manta become best friends while Yoh uses his shamanic abilities to help them out through various tasks.

The Shaman Fight is a battle held once every 500 years between competing shamans to choose a winner who will become the highly sought-after "Shaman King", one who is able to contact the Great Spirit (the spirit that every soul will eventually go back to). The winner gains the ability to reshape the world in any way they want. Anna Kyoyama, Yoh's fiancée, soon enters the picture and prescribes a brutal training regimen, in order to prepare Yoh for the tournament. Thus begins the plot that will lead Yoh on a journey that will lead him to befriend Ryu, Tao Ren, Horohoro, Faust VIII, Lyserg Diethel, and Joco.

During the Shaman Fight, Yoh encounters Hao Asakura, a strong shaman who wishes to eradicate humans and create a world for shamans. At the end of the shaman battles where the remaining teams consist of Yoh and his friends, the X-Laws, and Hao's team, the remaining teams decide to forfeit the tournament crowning Hao the title of Shaman King. As Hao is led away, they decide to attack Hao during the time he is merging with the great spirit which is in a coma. To do so, Yoh and his friends must defeat The Patch Tribe members who are obliged to serve under the new Shaman King.

Once defeating the ten Patch members, Hao is awakened as the Shaman King. He defeats Yoh and all his friends and absorbs their souls.^[1] Inside the Great Spirit, Yoh, Ren, Horohoro, Lyserg, and Joco battle Hao with the five legendary spirits; The Spirit of Earth, the Spirit of Thunder, the Spirit of Rain, the Spirit of Fire and the Spirit of Wind. When associates of Yoh and his friends begin appearing in the Great Spirit, it is revealed the Great Spirit granted Hao's wish so someone may bring back his mother's spirit. With Anna's help, Hao's mother is brought to the Great Spirit. Hao's mother tells him he must forgive the Humans for murdering her in order to be saved. Hao decides to postpone his plan to eradicate humans and to observe how Yoh and his friends will change the world.

Seven years later, Hana Asakura awaits at a station for the five legendary warriors and his parents, Yoh and Anna.