Brittany Vincent
October 18, 2021 
A decidedly more accurate affair
Shaman King was always an oft-underlooked part of the shonen anime circuit. While shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball Z pulled in massive audiences, Shaman King was content to settle in the shadows and attract its own loyal audience. Still, despite a somewhat lukewarm reception from mainstream manga fans, it did manage to run in Weekly Shonen Jump for quite some time, and received its own anime adaptation. The first run, 64 episodes long, ran from 2001 to 2002.
Now, it’s 2021, and Shaman King has been resurrected, somewhat ironically, for another chance at courting viewers with a new anime series. This time, it’s been crafted with a much more critical eye toward faithfully adapting the lengthy manga and giving the characters time to breathe. Unfortunately, while most aspects of the series have indeed improved since the initial anime iteration, even the new Shaman King suffers from a similar malady as the first: it simply isn’t doing anything terribly exciting.
Shaman King follows the young but plucky Yoh Asakura, who has a special gift: seeing and communicating with the dead—particularly, the spirit of a samurai warrior named Amidamaru. Yoh and Amidamaru combat in knock-down, drag-out battles against others who can communicate with spirits and their companions as well. Their goal? To be the very best, like no one ever was, of course, and compete in the Shaman Fight for a chance to be crowned Shaman King.
Along his journey, Yoh meets a variety of friends along the way, including buddy Manta Oyamada and Yoh’s fiancé Anna Kyoyama. He’s faced with the typical sticky situations you’d expect of a shounen series, such as enemies of the day and the fights that break out between them. These include Red Tao, a Chinese shaman who wants to steal Amidamaru away, a martial arts star that uses a sealing talisman in battle, and even a descendant of Faust looking to resurrect his wife.
These fights are generally entertaining and done well enough, and for the most part serves up a very faithful adaptation of the manga. One of the most intriguing parts of the entire shebang is by far the care that went into dressing each character and outfitting them with looks that match their personalities. The enemies are intriguing as well, though their fights always turn out in the most predictable manner possible.
The animation is a much more intricate affair this time as well. While there are a number of repetitive animations as well as clearly recycled bits and shortcuts throughout, it’s clear some love and care did go into making an exciting new adaptation, much like the new Hunter X Hunter series and what went into bringing that to life.
Overall, it’s a decidedly more accurate affair, and those concerned about the new version hurtling toward the completely unrelated second half of the series like the first anime did don’t have anything to worry about, clearly. Shaman King is barreling along at a decent clip and is working to become to definitive anime adaptation the manga fans deserved.
But while it does what it set out to do well, it’s doubtful that there’s really a place for yet another combat-laden shounen romp in 2021, where they’re a dime a dozen—and done much better and more convincingly, especially with shows like The Seven Deadly Sins and My Hero Academia to opt for viewing instead. It’s a nostalgic throwback for sure, but don’t expect this old dog to have learned any particularly new tricks in its absence. Still, if you continue to be entertained by said tricks, you’ll find something to like here.
studio/company: Netflix
rating: TV-PG
