Americans Hate Tingle: While Shaman King is fairly popular in Japan, its success isn't international.
Angst? What Angst?: Yoh, who ends up being revealed as a deconstruction of this as long as the series goes on. There's rarely something that seems to bother this guy, not even being killed (so that he can get some literal Training from Hell, though he wasn't informed of this beforehand). Except that time when Faust vivisected Manta, who at that moment was his only friend. But, as it's shown in volumes 19-20 where he wants to cure Anna of her Emotion Bomb powers and make Matamune a new Over Soul so he could never see him again, he is more of a Stepford Smiler.
Anti-Climax Boss: Several. Most notably near the manga's end where the end of the Patch officers' battles are skipped.
The Golem Arc is very plodding. While it does have some good character development for Chocolove and explores his past. Getting there is a bit of a chore as the pacing is slow with most of it dedicated to the heroes trying and failing to attack the Golem as well as dedicating most of it to the past of the kids who're wielding it and Chocolove's trip through Hell.
Some would say the final arc as well. Most of it is just the heroes fighting the Patch tribe in the hope of reaching Hao before his ascension, which they naturally fail by the end of it.
Megumi Hayashibara gave us two opening songs in the forms of "Over Soul" and "Northern Lights", and they're both amazing. She comes back for the 2021 reboot with two new great pieces, "Soul Salvation," and "#Boku no Yubisaki" ("#My Fingertip").
Like most opening themes of a 4Kids dub, its opening theme kicks ass. Sha-man KIIIIING. Fits for any 3 syllable TV show. (Out-Law STAAAR! I-T CROOOOWD! FA-THER TEEED!) The Russian-dubbed version deserves a mention. The first two lines are subject to some minor Memetic Mutation.
Some songs from 2021 anime's score are pretty epic as well. For example X-LAWS' theme manages to combine Ominous Pipe Organ with guitar riffs into a truly potent mix.
Base-Breaking Character: Manta. Some fans consider him a good Foil for Yoh and Token Muggle (before being Demoted to Extra), while others see him as the annoying sidekick because he always reacts by freaking out. He's got an interesting relationship with fans of the anime, due to having more presence in the plot but ultimately still being useless until his One-Scene Wonder shot at the end.
Broken Aesop: The story appears to have tried to argue for a balance between humans and nature and the innate goodness and worth in all living things despite their flaws, but breaks away from this rather quickly by having shamans make frequently hypocritical Green Aesop statements and by constantly reminding readers about how useless Muggles are in the context of the story (by depicting all of them at best as too powerless to even help themselves and at worst as callous, greedy, self-centered, corrupt, or downright evil people).
The anime changing events from the manga. Half of the fans prefer the anime's finale because Hao gets his Karmic Death, while the other half loathes it because they feel it distorts the real intention of the manga and transforms Hao into a standard villain with no sympathetic qualities. On the other hand, the manga ends with letting Hao become Shaman King and the knowledge that he has only temporarily postponed his annihilation of the human race, giving a wait time during which humanity must prove it is worth its existence, and one could argue that the ending implies it can't, any and all parts of which can be understandably hard to swallow. More was eventually added on to the manga's ending in additional spin-offs but they failed to cool the controversy.
Lyserg's story arc in the anime. Many vocal fans hate that anime's 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's 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 Revenge Before Reason 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 manga in general and whether it got worse or better in quality as the story went on. Proponents claim that the manga is a good example of Cerebus Syndromedone right, while detractors cite that characters became more unsympathetic and the plot pieces less well-constructed as time went on. It doesn't help that most of the planned character arcs and plot points were rewritten at different points throughout the manga's creation, causing some jarring Tone Shifts and Character Development in unexpected directions, which some theorize only happened due to the author's growing misanthropy.
The anime making Manta and Mosuke another Shaman-Companion Team. Half the base considers this a perfect pair for both Yoh and Amidamaru by having their best friends join the battle. On the other hand, other fans consider that giving powers to Manta misses the point by removing the only muggle friend, because his character was supposed to be the proof that humanity does have good people. Of course, it's not like the manga did this well either, considering it just dropped Manta's character arc entirely. At least the anime did something with Manta.
The manga pulling Death Is Cheap in a story about the serious relationship between life and death, which for some trivialized any of the risks the characters experienced in the first place. Especially since Death Is Cheap only pertains to main characters, and is conveniently averted for the people in any given former antagonist's past when the author wants to give that antagonist a tragic backstory to make them sympathetic. Doubly especially since, despite death being a serious consequence for everyone else, it's the go-to strategy in the plot to get the main characters their power-ups. On the defenders' side, this isShōnen. Essentially, the debate is over whether it was bad writing for the author to arbitrarily make death a horrific final sentence for unimportant side characters and a blatant cheat code for the main cast.
The 2021 anime is massively divisive between fans of the 2001 anime and the manga. Especially in concern of its much faster pacing. Some people like that it’s pulling no punches and getting to the point of introducing everyone at such a fast rate (especially with the manga being reprinted by Kondasha for a fuller experience) while others see it as a cheap way to cut out many important events.
The choice to cast Abby Trott and Laura Stahl as Yoh and Ren was rather divisive. While all camps agree it was inevitable that they would be recast given that Sebastian Archelus and Andrew Rannells 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.
Creepy Awesome: Faust VIII is one of the creepiest shamans around, and yet his necromantic powers are some of the coolest you will ever see.
Cult Classic: While moderately popular back home, it is has a small fan base in the US, especially after the 4Kids Entertainment dub.
Die for Our Ship: Yaoi fangirls HATE Anna, Pilika and Iron Maiden Jeanne. Particularly HoroRen shippers have it against Iron Maiden Jeanne, since Ren ends up marrying her and having a son together. After the revelation in Flowers of Iron Maiden Jeanne's death, Horo Horo is very concerned about Ren in Red Crimson. Many of the HoroRen shippers believe that Horo Horo now has a chance with him.
Faust VIII is probably the most popular in Yoh's team behind Horohoro and Ren, despite his relatively minor role in comparison. Helping his favor is his Creepy Awesome aspects, his unique fighting style compared to the other Shamans, and his tragic backstory.
Marion Phauna is a cosplay and fanart favorite, possibly due to her Elegant Gothic Lolita appeal.
Then there's Tao Jun and by extension, Lee Pyron, who manage to gradually appear less and less prominently as the series went on. The former managed to be a unique starter villain related to Ren who undergoes her own character arc going from treating her ghost, like an emotionless tool to respecting him as an equal, treating her loss against Yoh with dignity in the process. Lee Pyron manages to be unique as he's one of the few physical type Guardian Ghost to remain somewhat relevant and one of the few that actually has his own character arc separate from being just a power source for their Shaman, going from being enraged that he was killed for selfish reasons- losing his life without his say in the matter- to accepting his new role to improve himself, and even reaching a conclusion to his teachings during the Ren rescue arc. Being a Ms. Fanservice definitely helps in the favor of the former.
Iron Maiden Jeanne due to her cuteness and unlike most X-LAWS she undergoes a character arc from Knight Templar antagonist to honorably Guest-Star Party Member and genuine friend to Yoh's group.
Esoteric Happy Ending: The 2001 anime ending kills off Hao and restarts the Shaman King Tournament not much later, to end the anime on an uplifting And the Adventure Continues vibe. To manga readers, it seems as if the anime just ignores the detail that Hao can reincarnate every 500 years, which would render the ending pointless and unsatisfying. It's pretty clear however that the anime ends with Hao's soul getting destroyed due to the power Yoh gained from the Great Spirit, so anime viewers end up preferring this ending if they disliked the manga.
Evil Is Cool: Several over the course of the series with Hao being the most prominent, but there are also some good contenders.
While Hao himself, manages to be a controversial character overall, The Spirit of Fire manages to be a truly terrifying menace in both raw power and surprising nightmarish qualities such as being able to open a wide maw to eat souls alive. Its uniquely inhuman design helps it to stand out in comparison to the rest of the Guardian Ghosts before the other Elemental Spirits are introduced later on. It manages to be so awesome that even being in the hands of Lyserg later on, does little to diminish its threat level.
The HoroRen fanbase is the biggest in the series, over official ships like Ren and Jeanne, or Horo Horo and Tamao.
Fans of Tamao usually pair her with either Horo Horo or Ryu. This last one is specially stronger in Flowers, since both of them are given a badass backstory during their teensnote Apparently Tamao and Ryu defeated all of Tokyo's gangs by themselves, becoming a Battle Couple for the readers, and end up managing the Funbari Inn and raising Hana together.
Franchise Original Sin: Shaman King always had a tendency to retroactively sympathize its most compelling villains with tragic backstories while treating "normal" human society unsympathetically and without nuance, sometimes using these reoccurring elements to create interesting story beats and other times not pulling them off well at all and making characters look like unsympathetic hypocrites. Unfortunately, while these were minor issues at the beginning of the manga (during which the plot consisted of helping random ghosts, training, and the occasional duel), the plot eventually comes to revolve around them, which for some slowly killed the manga's enjoyability.
Genius Bonus: The Kill Sat used against Hao possibly counts as this. Hao mentions it's SDI X-ray laser. SDI or Strategic Defence Initiative aimed to develop a defense system against ballistic nuclear weapons. There was a project that aimed to do this with X-ray laser. Said project was called Project Excalibur, which is completely fitting name for Holier Than Thou X-Laws.
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 Ezekiel's greatest feats? A Mass Resurrection of skeletons. A feat which Faust VIII accomplishes via Eliza.
Magnificent Bastard: Hao Asakura was once a shaman in Heian-era Japan where he lost his beloved mother at the prejudices of humanity. Manipulating future events and even his own reincarnations to empower himself, Hao is reborn again in modern times as the twin brother of hero Yoh Asakura. Absurdly powerful and intelligent, Hao remains a step ahead of the heroes, defeating all challengers and enemies in an attempt to become the Shaman King and destroy humanity. At the end, Hao succeeds in his goal, becoming Shaman King, but proves open to reason and opts to watch the world for himself, being as brilliant a villain in victory as he was in the attempt to get there.
Moe: Quite a few characters, most of them male. Yoh, Lyserg, Manta, and (possibly) Chocolove probably fit this trope best.
At the end of the fight against En Tao, Ren and Jun's grandfather shows up to stop the fight by threatening En. In a series about people with magic powers using Archaic Weapons for an Advanced Age, what mighty weapon does he use to do this? The mightiest weapon of all: A gun.
Ryu's English voice in the 2021 anime. Even taking the show's Truer to the Text approach in the English localization into account, you'd never expect what can only be described as the baritone of D.C. Douglas doing something along the lines of an Elvis impression to be coming out of a character like Ryu, yet it somehow just works.
Only the Author Can Save Them Now: The Big Bad was already the most powerful character in the manga's present day, but having the ability to reincarnate at will meant he could never be truly defeated. Each loss just means he had another chance to come back even stronger and possibly succeed next time. Hao giving up his plans to murder humanity is the only reason the protagonists "win".
Chocolove in the manga, since his character is fleshed out more after his backstory is revealed: He used to be a gang member in New York who killed mercilessly, until he met his master and reformed his life. But even after changing for good, he learns that his past will still haunt him, since one of the people he killed was the father of two kids who were trying to get revenge on him. It gets even better for his character after he Took a Level in Badass and actually becomes the strongest member of the Elemental Warriors.
Also Lyserg in the manga as well, since his loyalty towards Yoh and his family's memory remains intact, and also he becomes the Straight Man for Marco and Jeanne after most of the X-LAWS die and, in an ironic twist, he ends up getting The Spirit of Fire, since it would also help him deal with his hate towards Hao and keep his revenge desire grounded.
Even though she is more of a Base-Breaking Character since not that many hate her, Tamao also became this around Funbari no Uta and Flowers after her Character Development, to the point some resent that Flowers should have been about her instead of Hana.
The Scrappy: The most notable cases come from the anime version.
Pirika, since many feel her character is useless and annoying.
Chocolove, at least in the anime, for being a Flat Character that doesn't get development beyond being a black stereotype and an annoying comic relief.
Opacho, big time. Many felt that she was very pointless and only served to give Hao a Tag Along Kid.
Lyserg got this treatment in the anime for abandoning everyone (especially Morphine).
Marco is the most hated member of the X-Laws for his cruel attitude towards the heroes, and abuse of Lyserg.
Seasonal Rot: In the manga, after a hiatus. Instead of becoming more interesting, many found that characters (both heroes and villains) grew much more unsympathetic and preachy as the story went on and backstories were revealed. The fact that the manga ends on a condescending, defeatist note about the nature of normal humans and the future of humanity has caused some to even accuse the author of misanthropic ranting, given how little the manga actually does to refute Hao's anti-human views, and how, after the hiatus, the manga actually could be arguably supporting them.
Ships That Pass in the Night: Since it's mostly a case of Pair the Spares, there're quite a lot of fans who pair Tamao with Horo Horo, Ren, or Ryuu. The same goes with Pirika and Ren.
As mentioned in Broken Base above, this is the reaction most of the fans of the manga have towards the anime. Unusually, owing to the controversial ending of the manga long after the anime had ended, the anime has just as many fans eyeing the manga's ending with the same critical sentiment.
Some fans weren't happy with the new voices in the 2021 dub, preferring the older ones. Though it's worth noting that the 2021 dub brought back as many of the old voices as it possibly could, but ultimately not all of them were able to return, most notably Sebastian Arcelus and Andrew Rannells, who have long since retired from voice acting and moved on to Broadway.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Manta was initially introduced as a Supporting Protagonist and narrator. But when Cerebus Syndrome 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 (even when theydon'thave 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, 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 Fiction 500 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 considering they had to make him a Shaman to give him any respect, it kind of missed the point.
Yoh is Hao's twin but we never get to see Yoh developing a power similar to Hao. In the manga, Hao says that he wants to consume Yoh's soul but we never get what will he win. This is later rectified in the anime when he does manage to consume Yoh's soul and appears much stronger for it. Until Yoh frees himself and Hao's strength decreases accordingly.
The idea of stasis vs. change, first introduced early in the manga. Initially, when it was just a Slice of Life story, it was not uncommon to find shamans commenting about how humanity is always rushing around and changing too fast, while shamans seemed to value places still connected heavily to the past (which makes sense; their powers involve the remains of the past after all). If this idea of shamans clinging to the old ways and normal humans rushing into the new had been consistent throughout the manga, it would have made a far more interesting Grey-and-Gray Morality, as Shamans, though powerful, wouldn't like embracing technology, and humans, though weak, would be able to invoke Muggles Do It Better in many instances. After all, while Shamans are more 'one with the world' and have been such for centuries, there's a reason why it's only recently that overall health and human rights are on the upswing and starvation and plague are going down. But instead, shamans in the series seem to reject most technology due to their Green Aesop nature, except where it would allow Muggles the advantage, but still manage to ignore the good parts of human development which they themselves have adopted and constantly talk about humanity's downsides, forcing humanity as a whole into a story role of inferior uselessness while at the same time turning the shamans' perspective into utter hypocrisy.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The latter half of the series feels extremely nihilistic since, by this point, the heroes acknowledge they can't defeat Hao as he's too powerful and the story seeming to make it clear their efforts will be for naught. Add in Hao's speech about how humanity will never change and the ending where the heroes try and fail to make a difference and many fans ended up just tuning out from the series as it's obvious the author really had some mental shift at some point to reflect these views. Flowers isn't any better, nothing ever seems to go right for the heroes, we get more examples how humanity sucks and they're beaten down constantly before they somewhat gain a little ground.
Most of the human ghosts were this, such as Mikihisa in the future.
Matamune was one of the few ghosts and characters, in general, to be genuinely humble, very wise, and witty. He displayed amazing powers against the Oni and soon disappeared into the spirit realm this was because his mana for existing on the material world was fading, and seemed to imply that because of his predicament, his powers were much lesser than 500 years ago. If Yoh had continued to use Matamune as his ally, it would've been much easier to go through the preliminaries.
Ugly Cute: Sure, Chocolove's appearance is a bit outdated and offensive to those who don't realize why such Values Dissonance is in place... But that doesn't stop a small handful of fans from finding him absolutely adorable.
What might help is that he coincidentally resembles another, more famous Ugly Cute character, Usopp.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Hao is supposed to be a Tragic Villain, and the audience is supposed to see 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 Karma Houdini 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 Humans Are the Real Monsters 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 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: 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.
Also, in the English dub of the anime, Opacho was changed from a girl to a boy. Luckily, her/his gender isn't brought up much in the show, and she/he is still voiced by a woman.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: While its content is pretty standard for Shonen anime, the 4Kids dub was surprisingly liberal with its censorship. Since it's a series that involves ghosts, mentioning death was hard to avoid, but they also kept some of the darker aspects of the subbed version, like Amidamaru, Li, and Faust's backstories, and the rather violent battle of the climax (to the point where Moral Guardians actually complained).
The Woobie: Each of the characters can be seen as this, especially Ren, Anna and Lyserg. Yoh seemed to not be this but Volumes 19 & 20 proved this very wrong, after losing his first spirit ally and friend outside of the household.
It's kind of hard not to feel bad for Tamao and her resignation to her Unlucky Childhood Friend status, but she self-improves a lot in the Funbari no Uta sequel and Shaman King: Flowers.
One of the good changes from both the anime and manga: renaming Chocolove to "Joco". The original name is both unwieldy and potentially offensive, while Joco sounds like an actual name as opposed to a racial slur.
In the Viz Media's manga edition, Chocolove's lips were also edited to match those of the rest of the cast as opposed to the large, thick ones he originally had. It pays to be racially sensitive and it was initially pretty offensive. In the anime, the lips remained, presumably because it's much harder to edit lots of animation frames than it is to edit still pages. Most African-American characters or those with similar heritage received the same treatment throughout the manga.
Lyserg's spirit partner, Morphine, was renamed "Morphea" in the Viz translation of the manga and the dub of the 2021 anime. The change, while still keeping in-line with her namesake, makes the fairy spirit sound more mystical.
kicks ass. Sha-man KIIIIING. Fits for any 3 syllable TV show. (Out-Law STAAAR! I-T CROOOOWD! FA-THER TEEED!) The Russian-dubbed version deserves a mention.