Shaman King: Part 2

Due to the length of this series, there maybe some spoilers in this review and it's subsequent related review. read at your own risk, you have been warned.

Well, after the last review, I'm really glad to return to some lighter fare. It's good to be back in the shonen fold. As with the Inuyasha review, if you'd like to backtrack to part 1, the link can be found here. Either that or go down to the list and find the tab labeled "Shaman King" in order to see both. In keeping with copyright obligations, Shaman King was produced by Studio Xebec, based on the manga by Hiroyuki Takei and was formerly licensed in the United States by 4Kids Entertainment, though elsewhere it is still licensed by Madman Entertainment. There's a long way still yet to go, so get your prayer beads, and make sure your connection to  the spirits is strong, because the search for Patch Village is under way as we return to our review of Shaman King.

Hey, Ren's Dad? Love the beard, man, but did it really
mean that much to you  to be big?

When we last left our heroes, the first round of the Shaman fights had just ended and the gang were on their way to save Ren and Jun from their manipulative parents in China (read "manipulative" as "do what we say or we'll chain you to a wall in a room full of torture devices"). After a very short fight and a rescue, Ren decides to face down his old man (who at this point looks like a giant), and Jun goes through a very short period of indecisivity before being reuinited with Li Pailong (who I still think should have a grudge against her, but at this point, whatever). The fight is pretty short as the gang takes Ren's old man down a peg, as well as a several robe sizes (apparently his being a giant was an illusion of his oversoul...   erm...   chi...   stuff), and then quite unexpectedly, everyone meets the rest of the family, and has Chinese food. I say that with complete seriousness. Yes after all that build-up to get to China and storm the castle, the family offers them a meal and they go home. Well, at least Ren's grandpa and mother seem sorta nice, aside from the whole "don't trust anyone, they'll stab you in the back" mentality and the affinity for working with zombies...  and the husband with the size complex...    ahem, moving on.

If Patch village is based off all the traditional Native American
stereotypes then greetings for Hao were probably a difficult
thing to get the hang of. Especially since every time someone
said hello, it sounded like they were calling for him. ^^

After the gang returns to Japan, they make preparations to go to America to find Patch village and participate in the next shaman fight. Already there are hints that something big is on the move as the night before the group leaves Manta and the other non-combatants in Japan, Manta and Yoh discuss current events (to an image song no less), such as the recent encounter with an adversary who calls himself Hao, and is almost the spitting image of Yoh, except with a cloak and some tricked out shoes. We also get some foreshadowing about these Knight Templar-type guys who call themselves the X-laws, but until the guys actually get to the U.S. of A. we don't hear much more aside from Hao bragging about how he can fly to America without a plane, until everyone actually gets across the pond.

Forget the police! I'm surprised they haven't sent the military
after this kid yet!

Where do I start about this portrayal of the United States? Well, for one thing, there's not a police car in sight. That's a fortunate thing for Yoh and his friends, because even back at the time the manga was published you couldn't get away with riding in the back of a flatbed truck (seatbelt laws) much less doing half the stuff many of the other shamans do without any consequences. Like Allen, for instance, the hippy shaman that's apparently also an eco-terrorist. (Why else would he use his powers to attack the power shovels?) Although perhaps and even better question there would be, why do the guys driving the power shovels and dump trucks attempt to drive directly at a small boy who has apparently been doing that for weeks (you'd think someone would have called in some sort of authority to deal with him by that point). Other examples could include the many many times the characters create public disturbances  such as when Lyzerg, one of the new characters whom we'll talk about below, walks up to other shamans and attacks them in public just off hand to see how strong they are. They might get away with it the first time, but if they manage it repeatedly without police interference, especially in a post-9-11 world, either the cops don't exist, or there are some incredibly addictive doughnut shops in the immediate vicinity. I could get started on the Japanese style onsen they found...   somewhere in the Midwest?... since I have yet to find any evidence of that having caught on to any degree (especially the part where you have to be nude while taking advantage of a traditional onsen. Western culture isn't generally so keen on that.) but if there is that one place hidden in the Rockies that I somehow missed, I'd rather not get caught generalizing. (If you happen to find it, I want to hear about it.)

That's right kids! In this universe, Morphine is your friend!
^^;

We also get a couple of new characters introduced. First there is Lyzerg, a British kid (though the name suggests otherwise) who has it in for Hao due to said adversary murdering his parents, who travels with the nakama for a while (after the attacking everything that moves phase he went through at his introduction) until he decides that it's better to have a strong nakama even if they are knight templars, and goes off to join the X-laws. He is fodder for so many bad jokes, though seeing as in the Japanese version his primary spirit is this fairy looking thing (wait...   the absinthe fairy from Moulin Rouge?) who, I kid you not, is named Morphine. After he joins the X-laws, we also get this African American New Yorker who is quite politically incorrect, as the name he gives is Chocolove. Yeah...   there was no way any of this made it into the 4kids dub. We also get a group of about seven girl shamans (one more reason I say Anna should be the one to get the title, the glass ceiling doesn't exist, girl!) who follow Yoh and the gang around because they think he'll lead them to Patch Village, and really, they act more like a version of Team Rocket that doesn't blast off again every time they lose, but just runs away. (In other words, not audaciously funny, just annoying.) Much of the show at this point can be bottled down to the gang gets in trouble, they get out of it, Lyzerg has doubts, they get into more trouble, solve it, Lyzerg leaves, enter Chocolove, and then meanwhile Anna brings Yoh a dangerous power-up that involves Hao. (I won't reveal what that was for now, because it kind of spoils this part of the review, so I'll save it for next time.)

 Anna! Why are you even talking to him?!
Manta is clearly so terrified he can't even move!

However, otherwise Anna has not been idle. While the gang travels the Southwest USA, Anna and Manta took a trip to this place called Mt. Terror in order to get the power-up, and when they arrive, they bring Jun, with them as well as someone I had hoped I would never see again. Remember Faust from last time. Yeah, Anna recruits him in this part of the show as extra muscle and she hopes as a doctor for the ryokan she wants to open. I don't know who would WANT to have him, especially after what he did to Manta! The nakama had some rough encounters with the X-laws before, but after Anna shows up with this powerup and Yoh refuses to join them in their quest to destroy Hao, this part of the show ends with a curb stomp for the X-laws, some back story for Yoh, and an interesting change for Amidamaru. That's all I'm going to say here.

As to how I'm liking the show so far, it's still just been okay. Some of the jokes are funny, some of them even come close to Yu-Gi-Oh! territory (in other words, a bit narmy) though not quite. On the other hand, some of the drama, while okay and sometimes even dark enough you're tempted to take it seriously, isn't consistent enough to quite bring it over that desirable line to suspension of disbelief. Another thing that kind of got on my nerves is that they use an insert song for everything in this part of the show! And it's the same one! Up until the very last fight, there's this song called "Brave Heart" by Megumi Hayashibara that they play almost every episode after it's intro. There's any kind of fight going one, they play it. Someone's having a deep conversation, they play the song. The gang has an enlightening moment, they play it. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the song, it's just, they use it way too much. They have a different one, finally, Silent Weapon by Yuko Sato (Yoh's voice actor by the way) which isn't half bad either near where I stopped, but by then the damage was already done. We also get a new intro "Northern Lights" and a new ending theme "Omokage" both by Megumi Hayashibara. The English dub, being from 4kids, has not shown any improvement at all, sorry American fans, you are still out of luck. So far, I'm still reserving my judgement overall in case the end turns out to get better, but we'll see. When we come back we'll wrap this up. Catch ya later.

Images taken from Shaman King.

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