Shaman King anime reboot (2021)

Woo.

So I fell behind on this series quite a bit.

So did this thread I think.

I stopped around the Matamune arc, but I just picked it back up again via Netflix and finished that.

I found it a little odd that Yoh took so long to recognize Oversoul after having already used it with Matamune, but it's possible he never caught on that it's something ALL Shamans could do, and assumed it was something unique and special to Matamune.

Still trucking along with this anime too, but truth be told it still is a D-tier show in my eyes.

Do you mean that to the anime itself or Shaman King's story as a whole?

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 10th 2022 at 10:15:20 AM

As a whole.

Ahhhhhhh gotcha.

What in particular makes it D-tier? Anything specific about the story, the characters, or the fight scenes?

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 10th 2022 at 10:50:51 AM

Well... I'm not invested in any of the characters as most of them are rather generic and one-note, Anna is the sort of abusive girlfriend archetype best left in the past, there are so many useless fakeout deaths, the fights are mostly grandstanding and throwing special techniques at each other instead of having any sort of engaging tactics or choreography, the power system needs tightening up... the list goes on.

It has that one interesting idea of the heroes acknowledging the Big Bad is too powerful to defeat so they instead plan to ambush him when he's vulnerable. That's it.

Ya know I really noticed the issue with the fights during Ryu's battle with the vampire guy.

I realized they essentially taking turns. Vampire guys does a move, then they spend 5 minutes explaining and reacting to it, Ryu counters it where they then spend 5 minutes explaining and reacting to what he did, and repeat.

Couldn't stop laughing when I noticed that. Really took the sails out of what was supposed to be Ryu's big showcase of his training.

Edited by slimcoder on Apr 10th 2022 at 11:14:47 AM

I like Shaman King, but those criticisms are pretty accurate of the material. Especially the fights, which I now realize the 2001 anime improved by adding actual choreography to them. I know some fans defend the fights by saying the show is about its characters and their development first, but the characters are also hit or miss so it isn't much of a defense.

Myself I'm more of a fan of the cultural exploration the setting's premise allows for, since it's introduced me to some pretty interesting locations and people back when I was a kid.

Appeared an anime for the sequel was announce.

...It sure sounds like an adaption of Flowers, but then why aren't they saying it's name?

So, I just finally finished this via netflix.

...that was an ending I guess.

they might lump this and superstars together

From what I remember of the manga, the main issue was that the author was very obviously making things up as he went. Which works for some things, but here there were a lot of inconsistencies. When it reaches the logical conclusion of one power system, it makes up another and just rolls with that from then on.

It’s fun to read, and has a lot of good ideas in there, but the writing felt sloppy by the end.

For me the bigger issue was the misanthropy. It got old and tiring by the end.

When you end your series validating Shaman Hitler, you know you've gone too far

But modern world is le bad which means shaman Hitler who killed a bunch of people is right

This, but unironically

Its funny to think that with Hao's faction essentially being a bunch of facists, they would all eventually turn on each other had they indeed exterminated humanity

Cause facists need a scapegoat to keep the war machine running and considering Hao's faction is comprised of Shamans from various nationalities and cultures, I find it unbelievable if there isn't conflict with each other over their regional specific Shamanism

Just constant conflict as they wind up battering the Earth in their vie for supremacy

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 3rd 2022 at 5:05:14 AM

Which Hao followers are like that? I can only think of Boris having any interest in supremacy. Most of them are just worn-out people falling for the promise of a dark savior to end the witch hunts. The only time there's any inner conflict is when Peyote gets convinced that Hao doesn't care for his pawns.

If Hao's immediate followers don't show it, the society he will create upon victory will produce people who fully embrace his supremacist ideals

Hao is basically telling people "Yo genocide is the right answer to your problems. Just kill anyone you don't like."

Wow. You guys make it sound like everybody just twiddled their thumbs and said, "this is fine," as Hao wiped out all of humanity forever.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Oct 3rd 2022 at 9:52:06 AM

Indeed, the takes here are way too exaggerated, they totally fought against Hao in order to change his mind, but nevertheless the series is pretty judgemental and preachy about humanity and is pretty sympathetic to the misanthropic genocidal narcissist.

Edited by Ikedatakeshi on Oct 3rd 2022 at 10:28:55 PM

Yeah, from what i heard, regardless if all his followers fully agreed with his goal of annihilating humanity, the story ended up supporting and agreeing with this desire for genocide and all arguments against it simply resulted in "I will annihilate humanity, but in future" or something.

Edited by VeryVileVillian on Oct 4th 2022 at 2:35:26 PM

No? Yoh, and the spirit of Hao's mother, make Hao realize how blinded he was in his hatred for humanity. So while he still hates humanity, he agrees to not judge humanity yet and give the world as it is a chance. Hao is only justified if you don't believe humanity can better itself.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Oct 4th 2022 at 7:46:48 AM

Does this "from what I've heard" mean you didn't read or watch the show you came to drop insane nuclear takes about?