Shaman King
Shaman King is both an
anime series and a
manga series by
Hiroyuki Takei.
The Shaman King manga is currently being printed in Viz's Shonen Jump. The Shaman King anime in 2003 was licensed by 4 Kids Entertainment for American television broadcasting and is currently airing on the Fox Box. Shaman King will be premiering on other networks throughout the globe somewhere in 2004.
A shaman is a link between this world and the next, and team up with ghosts and spirits to achieve their goals. A shaman's greatest dream is to become Shaman King, and be able to contact the Great Spirit in order to be the savior of the world. It is religious in a sense but not religious at all in a way that could be only described as this is how Japanese see the often literally explosive topic of religions. Various magical and religious terms are spread through out the story but they seemed to merge into something explainable.
Characters
The other characters' names are in Western order, while the names of the Tao's are in Chinese order. The dubbed anime name is to the right of the Japanese name.
- Yoh Asakura - Main character and fianceé to Anna Kyôyama. He is laid back and carefree, which makes him a perfect candidate to become Shaman King.
- Amidamaru - Samurai that died during the Muromachi period - now is Yoh's ghost companion. He is very powerful but quite taciturn and extremely devoted to "lord Yoh" ("Yô-dono" in Japanese).
- Anna Kyôyama - Fianceé of Yoh Asakura, and an Itako (A traditional Japanese shaman) Anna is Yoh's personal trainer and will stop at nothing to become the wife of the Shaman King, although she does indeed hold affection for Yoh.
- Manta Oyamada / Mortimer Oyamada - Intelligent child who carries a dictionary, and can see ghosts, but cannot use their powers like Yoh and Anna can. He is very expressive and a bit panicky.
- Tao Ren and Tao Jun / Len Tao and June Tao - One of Yoh's rival shamans (Ren) and his older sister (Jun), a Dao-shi (A Daoist spellcaster) that re-animates corpses. Ren, though younger, is the more dominant of the two and is determined to be the Shaman King. Jun, on the other hand, only wants to keep peace and wishes only what is right for her brother (whom she calls "Lian" - Or "Lenny" in the English anime).
- Bason - Bason is the ghost of an ancient Chinese warrior who serves Ren faithfully and obeys him without question.
- Lee Bailong / Lee Pailong - "The White Dragon"; he was a kung fu movie star who was murdered to be Jun's guardian kyonshii, or zombie. He is very attached to her.
- "Wooden Sword" Ryu (Bokuto no Ryu) / Rio of the Wooden Sword - A gang leader who is always on the lookout for the "Happy Place". He comes off as being not too bright, and really thinks more about girls and his "'do" than anything else; however, he is quite deep and philosophical and turns out to be a magnificent shaman.
- Horokeu Usui (Horohoro) / Trey Racer - An Ainu from Hokkaido who wants to save the Koropokkur from extinction. His spirit ally is Kororo. His sister, Pirka, trains him harshly like Yoh's trainer Anna does.
- Kororo - Horohoro's spirit ally. She has a crush on Manta Oyamada, even though he is human.
- Silva - A Native American from the Patch tribe that qualifies Yoh for the Shaman fight.