Shaman King anime reboot (2021)

Shaman King has some of the best and coolest Native American characters I've ever seen in fiction in the Patch.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 14th 2020 at 12:26:53 PM

I also respect the hell out of it for featuring a pretty great Ainu protagonist by way of Horohoro. The Ainu deserve all the representation they can get.

Although I do think it was a big misstep for the manga to have a Peublo based Native American do a totem pole attack. All that research they still do a totem pole attack. Sorry, but it's a really annoying thing to me.

As much as I want this show to be on the same level as Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, there is one major thing that I want to be different, and it's for this show not to rush through the early material like FMA:B did. There's a good 107 chapters before they even get to the proper Shaman King tournament, 26 chapters just setting up the characters and premise, 34 chapters of preliminaries, 17 chapters for the Ren Retrieval Arc, and another 30 chapters of hitchhiking across America just to get to the Patch village.

I love all of that, that's easily 3 cours worth of content right there, and I really hope the anime doesn't try to rush past it and compress it all into 2 cours, or even worse, 1 cour. I understand why they did it for FBA:B, because the first anime adapted that content fine so you can just watch the old show, but there's MUCH more time and room for improvement between the original Shaman King and this one, so I'd really love to see all of that story given proper time to see in the new art and animation style.

I'd be actually upset if they skipped through the early content.

Over Soul is great, but we shouldn't forget these two great songs:

I'm so-so on it. I think the beginning has a real pacing problem where things move at the speed of a tectonic plaque until the tournament properly begins and I feel the anime did relatively well with it. But I'm open to possibilities.

This bit is wholly adapted over 24 episodes, so some 3 and change chapters adapted per episode in theory. The Ren Retrieval arc is one I could see being expanded (in the anime it is adapted over 4 episodes).

Personally this bit is not really my concern. Think the anime did fine with this portion. It's afterwards where things really go batshit.

This one is adapted over 21 episodes, so it's actually rather close in terms of pacing, but it's also where the deviations start to really kick in, particularly with Lyserg, the X-Laws and The Lily Five (though they actually have very brief appearances all the way back to the preliminaries).

I'm approaching the midway point of the anime. Stray observations:

• The fight against Tao Yuen is really enhanced by the fact "Northern Lights" plays in the background.
• In the intervening 20 years I must say my patience for Ren's edgelord act pretty much vanished. I find myself agreeing with Horohoro's recurring near Catchphrase of "What a brat" when he talks about Ren. 'Course, whole abusive family background is a thing.
• Ryu's attraction to people that are clearly 12 years old is very disturbing.
• The Brazilian dub goes back and forth between referring to the Patch Tribe as just "Patch" or "Patchí" (pronouncing it Patchee). I imagine the second one was chosen for sounding more like a Native tribal name.
• Despite all the hatred for the Lily Five, I think they're a fun bunch. They're mostly redeemed by their fight with Hao later down the line.
• The Br dub refers to Oversouls and the Great Spirit both as "Great Spirit(s)", which makes things very confusing.
• The Br dub inexplicably introduced Hao as a woman at first but from the second one onwards course-corrected.

Edited by Gaon on Jun 14th 2020 at 5:01:56 AM

Wait were the Lily Five those group of women who were like the shows Team Rocket & were stopped by Yoh so they didn’t fight Zeke?

They are Canon Foreigners?

Edited by slimcoder on Jun 14th 2020 at 5:05:23 AM

They are totally canon Foreigners.

They are indeed. One of the most distinctive anime flourishes alongside Manta becoming a Shaman, for good and for ill.

Edited by Gaon on Jun 14th 2020 at 5:13:03 AM

Wow the original anime changed & added so much shit.

Okay now I really wanna see this reboot so I can witness the original vision.

Wonder, what needs to be trimmed or expanded in this new anime?

Whoa, Shaman King?

That's a name I haven't heard in a while. I never got around to watching the original since I was clicking more with TMNT, Sonic X, and Kirby, but when those were out, we had to get by with bowdlerized dubs by the dreaded 4Kids Entertainment...

So hey, in this day and age where we strive for adaptations that are Truer to the Text, this is a great surprise.

So when are we getting a new anime version of Ultimate Muscle?

@slimcoder: The anime basically stays fairly close to the text in its first third (some rearrangements and abridgements aside), follows the framework but differs in the second third, and goes wholesale off the rails in the final third and does its own thing.

Unlike most of everyone else in this thread I like the anime on its own (the fact it lacks that atrocious ending is a huge plus as of itself), but there are definitely a lot of things the manga does better and a truer to the text version piques my interest.

Also it means we will hopefully get a British accented Lyserg. I don't understand how 4kids could give a Hong Kong based character a British accent, but not an actual one. Again this one of the reasons why their dubs could be stupid at times.

I think 9 episodes for set-up, 11 episodes of preliminaries, 6 episodes for the Ren Retrieval Arc, and 10 episodes for the America Trek would be appropriate. That's 36 episodes total, exactly 3 cours ending with the start of the Shaman King tournament.

Looking through the early episode summaries, some things jump out at me:

• Tao Jun uses a lot more Jiang-Shi and comes back more often, I think in the manga it's just the one time with the martial artist.

• Horohoro is introduced earlier, in the manga, we meet him for the first time when he fights Yoh.

• As mentioned previously, the Lilly 5 are entirely anime-only.

• In the manga, the music duo attack the main characters before Bason comes to get help for Ren, in the anime, it's the other way around.

• Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the reason they have to hitchhike across America in the manga because the airplane they were taking was an Oversoul made by the Patch, who dissipated it to force the combatants to makeshift parachute down and make their way there on foot? In the anime, it sounds like it was a real plane that the Lilly 5 sabotaged to crash, which is extremely different.

• Wow, there's a lot of filler during the trek across America. I shouldn't be surprised, considering they adapted 30 chapters as 21 episodes, when a sane way to pace that out where be 10 episodes, but man there really is a lot of filler.

• In the manga, Chocolove is introduced shortly after they arrive at the Patch village, not significantly before. Also, Chocolove using Ayer's Rock to defeat Peyote originally happened during the Shaman King tournament as the first match of Team "The Ren".

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 14th 2020 at 6:58:57 AM

Actually, she only attacks once in both versions. You're thinking of another anime only character named Tao Ginny.

The dub called her Jenny Tao.

Speaking of, I rather liked Jun and Pailong. They certainly provided a different take on shaman powers, although the fact the rather dubious methods used to make Jiang-Shi naturally meant we didn't see much more of them.

Also, now that I've actually watched another series about punch ghosts, I'm wondering if someone was inspired by Jojo a little when he made his series.

It's not a one for one parallel, and the use of weapons and how the ghosts exists (actual ghosts and nature spirits vs the representation of your own fighting spirit, albeit with varying rules), but still.

Ah, ok. Here's a full list of all the anime-only characters, tell me if any of them surprise you.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 14th 2020 at 7:27:55 AM

I know 4kids the company is dead, but I hope like NYAV post dubs it so we can get most of the V As back.

I think 9 episodes for set-up, 11 episodes of preliminaries, 6 episodes for the Ren Retrieval Arc, and 10 episodes for the America Trek would be appropriate. That's 36 episodes total, exactly 3 cours ending with the start of the Shaman King tournament.

That's pretty slow. Normal anime adaptation rate is 5 or 6 volumes per cour and you're suggesting 36 episodes to cover 12 volumes. Knock a third off of all those numbers

I don't think so. Isn't normal anime adaptation 2-4 18-page chapters per episode, with 2.5-3 chapters per episode being the average? Measuring by volumes varies depending on the chapter-to-volume ratio.

Huh reading that wiki, damn that White Swan Oversoul Yoh ended with in the manga is way cool.

And he gets his own elemental spirit like Zeke does. Damn thats impressive.

Edited by slimcoder on Jun 14th 2020 at 7:49:41 AM

White Swan is legit the thing I'm most hyped about seeing animated, I was furious when I found out the anime didn't include it, it is the coolest thing ever.

Form 1: Used for short-range combat with a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, with armor going up his arms and across his back to connect the two sides.

Form 2: Yoh flips the entire thing over, turning it into a gigantic swan neck-shaped scythe wielded in his left hand.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 14th 2020 at 7:59:25 AM

I don't think so. Isn't normal anime adaptation 2-4 18-page chapters per episode, with 2.5-3 chapters per episode being the average? Measuring by volumes varies depending on the chapter-to-volume ratio.

Chapter lengths vary more than volume lengths do :/

But, it does depend on what exactly is going on. 4koma in particular are incredibly information-dense, with a single cour generally only covering 2 or 3 volumes. ...Fighting series are at the opposite end of that scale, often dedicating multiple pages to something that happens in seconds

IIRC, Shaman King was always pretty dialogue-heavy, with most fights over pretty quickly or involving a bit of back-and-forth.