History YMMV / ShamanKing

** The choice to cast Creator/AbbyTrott and Creator/LauraStahl as Yoh and Ren was rather divisive. While all camps agree it was inevitable that they would be recast given that Sebastian Archelus and Creator/AndrewRannells are now focusing on on-camera projects, some argue that they should've cast actors that sounded closer to the latter two while others believe casting women was an appropriate choice.

* AmericansHateTingle: While ''Shaman King'' is fairly popular in Japan, its success isn't international.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Hao is supposed to be a TragicVillain, and the audience is supposed to see [[spoiler:his eventual ascension to Shaman King as a ''good'' thing]]. Unfortunately, the cold hard truth is that most of the cast have pretty tragic backstories too, to one degree or another, and none of ''them'' grew up to be genocidal monsters out to exterminate "baseline" humanity! Many readers instead regard him as a KarmaHoudini of the highest order, and one who ''hasn[='=]t'' necessarily abandoned his plans for worldwide mass death and destruction so much as ''delayed'' them.
** What doesn't help matters is that Hao's goals come as petty, arrogant, and hypocritical. He goes on big rants about how HumansAreTheRealMonsters with them always fighting, killing each other or things that are different than them, and destroying the harmony of nature. The final nail in the coffin is that Hao is [[YouAreWhatYouHate all of those things]], and he's killed far more people than he cares to count (the body count is at least in the thousands). Many of his actions killed other humans or shamans alike; one of which that caused Lyserg's start of darkness. Compared to Hao who only lost a total of three people in his past lives: [[spoiler:his mother, his first friend Ohachiyo (by his own fault due to revenge), and Matamune (who abandoned him when Hao went off the deep end and ended Hao's second life for his monstrous actions).]] No wonder he comes off unlikable by a lot of readers. At least the anime adaption pointed out, in-and-out of universe, how wrong his philosophy and views were, and how they are most definitely not something you should sympathize with. The manga seems to try to do this, but fails spectacularly and seems to almost agree with Hao.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Manta was initially introduced as a SupportingProtagonist and narrator. But when CerebusSyndrome took hold, instead of using Manta to show the redeeming qualities of normal humans and how every person has the ability to change the world for the better ([[BadassNormal even when they]] ''[[BadassNormal don't]]'' [[BadassNormal have super powers]]), the plot drops him when the action picks up and makes a point out of how useless and powerless he is. It's especially jarring because Manta sincerely goes above and beyond to help his friends, which counteracts literally every statement the manga makes about normal humans (which mainly focuses on the idea that humans don't care and won't try to change)... which, if you want to get cynical, [[WriterOnBoard may be the reason he was written out of the story for the most part]].
** This is ''especially'' jarring because Manta is the heir presumptive of a Fiction500 company and its respective fortune. Manta is a smart, brave, selfless person who has, whether he likes it or not, the potential and probability to become someone ''incredibly powerful and influencial'' in the very Muggle society whose current problems and leadership are considered so bad that a number of Shamans are agreeing with Hao's goal of wiping them out--most of whom have never seriously considered attempting non-genocidal methods of societal change. Manta is a character whose main emotional struggle is his feelings of powerlessness and uselessness in the face of his desire to help his friends. He's also frequently exposed to both the valid and invalid criticisms levied against current Muggle society. Once he's older, he will likely have an enormous amount of power and privilege in that Muggle society to effectively utilize and demonstrate non-genocidal catalysts for societal change if he chooses to make such things his goal--that is, if he can overcome his feelings of uselessness and realize what power he ''does'' have available to him. His potential character arc could have easily refuted Hao's fatalist ideologies, demonstrating a hope for slow but real positive change for humanity, but the story does nothing with him.
** The anime tried to rectify this, but [[spoiler:considering they had to make him a Shaman to give him any respect,]] it kind of missed the point.

** Lyserg's story arc in the anime. Many vocal fans hate that Anime!Lyserg is willing to betray Yoh and his group because he put his revenge above his friends, even to the point of abandoning Morphine in favor of the X-LAWS angels, especially since the manga!Lyserg still remains friendly to Yoh after joining the X-LAWS and never abandons Morphine. Anime fans are fine with this however, as they feel it better demonstrates Lyserg's flaws regarding his RevengeBeforeReason agenda against Hao, as well as better highlighting how much character development he receives from the experience when he learns the error of his ways and reunites with Morphine near the end of the story. Since Lyserg's character arc ends in the same place regardless, the divide is about which path one prefers.

** The 2021 anime's English dub keeps some voice actors (Manta) from the 2001 dub, but changes others (Yoh), so it may take some getting used to for fans of the 2001 anime.

* EvilIsSexy: Hao due to being extremely powerful not to mention being incarnated in the form of a very {{bishonen}} young man.

* CreepyAwesome: Faust VIII is one of the most creepier shamans around, and yet his necromantic powers are some of the coolest you will ever see.

** The choice to cast Creator/AbbyTrott and Creator/LauraStahl as Yoh and Ren was rather divisive. While all camps agree it was inevitable that they would be recast given that Sebastian Archelus and Creator/AndrewRannells are mostly doing other types of acting, some argue that they should’ve cast actors that sounded closer to the latter two while others believe casting women was an appropriate choice.

** Ryu's English voice in the 2021 anime. Even taking the show's TruerToTheText approach in the English localization into account, you'd never expect what can only be described as the BadassBaritone of Creator/DCDouglas doing something along the lines of an Elvis impression to be coming out of a character like Ryu, yet it somehow just works.

* EsotericHappyEnding: 2001 anime ending gives off these vibes. [[spoiler:Hao is dead, and current Shaman King Tournament is about to continue. Thing is, all this does is to postpone Hao's victory and his subsequent plan to wipe out humanity by 500 years, since he can reincarnate and his soul was not destroyed, as far as we know. He also has 500 more years to train in hell, which pretty much ensures that the next time there will be nobody able to stop him. Unless of course they succeed to kill him right after his birth, not that it worked this time. It's also left unclear if Hao can even come back again, considering the King of Spirits may have stripped him of that power.]]

** Luchist Lasso, in the manga version. He's a [[AffablyEvil genuinely polite fellow in spite of his alliance to Hao]], [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking one of the few members of Hao's followers to able to back up his boasts with competent fighting skills]], and possesses a legitimately intimidating Guardian Ghost in the form of Lucifer himself.

** The choice to cast Creator/AbbyTrott and Creator/LauraStahl as Yoh and Ren was rather divisive. While all camps agree it was inevitable that they would be recast given that Sebastian Archelus and Creator/AndrewRannells are mostly doing other types of acting, some argue that they should’ve cast actors that sounded closer to the latter two.

** The 2021 anime gives us the ending theme [[https://youtu.be/mfI20Liavc8 "Courage Soul"]], a vocal rendition of Yoh's {{Leitmotif}}, [[https://youtu.be/aqF4h1CUxX8 "Empathic Heart"]]. ''[[DoItYourselfThemeTune Sung by Yoh himself]]''.

** The 2021 anime gives us the ending theme [[https://youtu.be/mfI20Liavc8 "Courage Soul"]], a vocal rendition of Yoh's {{Leitmotif}}, [[https://youtu.be/aqF4h1CUxX8 "Empathetic Heart"]]. ''[[DoItYourselfThemeTune Sung by Yoh himself]]''.

** 4Kids changing Hao's name to Zeke at first glance seems like one of those random Americanization edits they do to make things sound more accessible for the USA. However, Zeke can actually be a shortened form of Ezekiel, a major prophet in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. One of Ezikel's greatest feats? A MassResurrection of skeletons. A feat which Faust VIII accomplishes via Eliza.