Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In the 90s the young channel that was known as Cartoon Network changed the landscape of cartoons for children in the west with their program block known as Toonami. Toonami would serve as the gateway into anime for a lot of kids in my generation. As we got older and other TV channels saw the success and popularity Toonami had, they too started importing anime for their channels. The first to do this was Kids WB who brought over Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Megaman and Astro Boy (admit it, you forgot they did that). Fox Kids and its successors would also hop on this train and import their own anime such as Digimon, Monster Rancher, Medabots, Beyblade, Kirby, Sonic, Mon Colle Knights, Flint the Time Detective, Ultimate Muscle, and Fighting Foodons. Yeah, that show is way too bizarre even for me to overlook. I need a whole review or two to dive into just how bizarre that show was. While Digimon was the show that gained the most popularity from this import, there was another show that I think also became popular thanks to Fox Kids, Shaman King. If you want to talk about classic shonen manga then look no further than Shaman King. Written by Hiroyuki Takei in 1998-2004, Shaman King follows the story of a young shaman and his quest to become the Shaman King. The series was groundbreaking at the time because no series had ever attempted a story centered around shamanism and it was a well-done story. The characters were good, the concept was interesting, the fights were cool, and the story had many twists and turns that kept your attention. The series gained popularity in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump and in 2001 it got a 64-episode anime produced by Xebec. While the anime deviated from the manga a great deal, nobody really seemed to mind as the anime was still good and showed respect to the source material. This series was very popular in Russia as it was one of the first animes to be dubbed in their language and even I became a fan of the series. I would watch it every Saturday morning and would watch the season from beginning to end a few times online. Years after the manga was finished and the popularity of the anime had grown worldwide, fans were crying out for a reboot of the series that closely followed the manga. Basically, giving it the FMA: Brotherhood treatment that a lot of animes out there deserve. Even Masao Maruyama expressed his desire to work on the reboot and while Hiroyuki was flattered by everyone’s support and desire to see a reboot of the series, he turned down an offer to have it rebooted in 2016/2017. Why did he do that? Well, he was told the reboot would be unable to use the original VAs and music which Hiroyuki really loved. So, to the sadness of fans a reboot seemed impossible, but fate had other plans. In 2020, it was announced that Shaman King was getting a reboot, one of the few good news to come out of that abysmal year. The anime would be done by Bridge and would feature cast members from the original anime returning to reprise their roles. Did this series give Shaman King the treatment it deserved? Let’s find out. This is Shaman King 2021.
Openings and Endings
In order to save time I’m just going to name all the openings and endings. For the first opening we have “Soul salvation” by Megumi Hayashibara. It’s a good song. I liked it. This song really does match the overall atmosphere and personality of Shaman King and Megumi sounds great here. For the second opening we have “Get up! Shout!” by Nana Mizuki. This was a good one as well. I like Soul salvation more, but after a few episodes this song managed to get my interest. The song does a good conveying how serious things are getting and how our heroes will have to get stronger if they hope to stand a chance against the enemies they face.
For the endings, we actually get four. The first is “Boku no Yubisaki” by Megumi Hayashibara. This song gives me major Vocaloid vibes. Megumi’s voice just sounds a little like Miku here with that autotune. I especially like the instrumental version of this song. The second ending is “Adieu” by Yui Horie. This song is more sober than the first opening and focuses on Jeanne and her dream to create a peaceful world. I’m in the neutral zone for this song. Didn’t hate it but didn’t care for it either. The third ending is “Hazuki” by saji. Yeah~ I love saji. This was my favorite ending of the bunch. It’s a beautiful song with the visuals matching up perfectly and you understand the loss of the characters the song is focusing on. The final ending is “Courage Soul” by Yoko Hikasa. Another beautiful song with great visuals. This was second favorite ending and was a good song to bring the anime to a close.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off with the birth of Yoh and Hao (or Zeke if you grew up with the English dub like I did. (Mira): Yeah, why did the dub change his name? (Nitsuj): Because it sounded like ho and they didn’t want to spread that word among the youth). Grandpa Asakura tries to kill Hao only to fail because even as a baby Hao is too strong for him (one of the things I do like about this series is how they build-up Hao as this unstoppable being. In the first anime we saw how everyone was scared of him and how nobody could stack up against his power. He remained untouchable until the final battle and presented as a god among men no one could hope to conquer. He was like Sephiroth from FFVII. No matter how strong the characters got he was always in the background stronger than them). Hao escapes and now the fate of the world lies in the hands of Yoh (we’re doomed). Fast forward 13 years later and we meet a young Manta aka Morty (https://youtu.be/Ia7513Kn7as) voiced by Inuko Inuyama (Meowth from Pokémon), running home late after cram school. He tries to take a shortcut through the graveyard where he comes across Yoh voiced by Youko Hikasa (Rias from Highschool DxD) staring at the night sky (and give this anime some credit, I do like how the animation almost matches up with the animation from the first anime). Yoh invites him over introducing him to the spirits that are there and Morty of course runs away screaming (rude much?). Morty tries to tell his friends at school what he saw, but nobody believes him and Yoh transfers to his class (gotta love how the school is okay with males having unbuttoned shirts and bare chests on display for everyone to see. Ah~, the 90s were a different time). Morty follows Yoh hoping to expose him, but he gets found out and Yoh tells him straight up that he’s a shaman who came here to train, but Morty doesn’t fully believe him. Sometime later, Yoh goes to the museum where he meets the swordsmith, Mosuke, the man who forged the famous samurai Amidamaru’s sword. Morty goes back to the graveyard where he gets attacked by Ryu voiced by Tanaka Masahiko reprising his role from the original, and his gang and Yoh goes to settle the score with him the next night. The next night comes where Yoh fuses Amidamaru’s spirit with his body and the two fight off against Ryu where they win slicing off his hair which causes him to pass out (you ruined his Jojo haircut, https://youtu.be/G59IloTmz0I. Scene here: https://youtu.be/smEK8h8IJ5A). After this, Yoh tells Morty about his goal to be the Shaman King and he wants Amidamaru as his main spirit and partner. Amidamaru voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi (Uzui from Demon Slayer) refuses because he’s held down by the guilt of his former life. In the past Amidamaru and Mosuke were best friends. They grew up as orphans but worked hard to have their skills recognized by a feudal lord. Eventually, their efforts paid off and they came into the service of a feudal lord and things were good until the lord ordered Amidamaru to kill Mosuke because he didn’t want his skills to be used against him (then treat him right and he’ll remain loyal to you). Amidamaru could never kill Mosuke, so he decided to let him escape only to find out he was killed by the lord’s men. Fueled by anger, Amidamaru killed a thousand men in battle and now stays in this world keeping a promise to meet Mosuke again and receive a powerful sword. Yoh hands Amidamaru the sword Mosuke has been working on all this time, Harusame. Yoh and Mosuke reforged the sword, Mosuke went over to the other side and Amidamaru agrees to be Yoh’s guardian spirit.
Episode 2 gives us the fight between Yoh and Ren (or Len. I don’t care. Though I have to ask what’s up with the golden jacket and short pants?). Now if you watched the first series you’ll remember that Ren voiced by Romi Park reprising her role as well, was the Vegeta to Yoh’s Goku. He’s the first antagonist Yoh comes across and gives us our first real shaman fight. In the first anime he just wants to rule the world, here, he comes across as an environmentalist. He says that humans are destroying the world and need to be eliminated in order for humanity to see the stars again. Of course, his guardian spirit is Bason the Chinese warlord (where I do like the fact that we get to see his face more clearly this time around). Anyway, the two shaman fight in the streets (where surprisingly nobody is out there to witness their fight. Either due to anime budget or Hiroyuki not getting out much) where Ren manages to damage Yoh’s shoulder because he’s using the full power of Bason as opposed to Yoh who hasn’t mastered that yet. Luckily, Yoh gets back up where after witnessing Ren’s complete control, he instantly knows how to use Amidamaru’s full power and uses that power to defeat Ren and pass out (scene here: https://youtu.be/vYdxYCVJ9RI). We then get treated to Yoh as a child (good God, he had a big head) where he didn’t take his shaman training all that seriously until his grandpa taught him about the king of spirits and the importance of shaman in the world (that, and if he becomes shaman king he can be as lazy as he wants. I’d gladly do all my work today if it meant I didn’t have to do any work tomorrow). Yoh wakes up in a hospital bed where he’s greeted by Amidamaru, Morty and everyone’s favorite female character Anna (and I love those sharp eyes).
So Anna voiced by Megumi Hayashibara (Jesse from Pokémon) quickly introduces herself in episode 3. Unlike Yoh who fights with spirits, Anna is a spirit medium. She can summon the spirits whenever she wants, even those that have passed on into the afterlife. She announces herself as Yoh’s future wife (in the first anime it was a childhood promise. Here, it’s an arranged marriage) and has come to train Yoh for the shaman tournament (scene here: https://youtu.be/B5Rbt1FvL4M). Surprisingly they skip over the mini-training arc (on the one hand I’m upset because we missed out on a few laughs, but on the other hand Yoh doesn’t really use much of his training until later on). We then turn our focus to Yoh’s next big challenge. After going to the movies to see a Lee Pryon movie (an obvious shout out to Bruce Lee), they get attacked by Jun, Ren’s hot older sister who is a dao shi (Chinese equivalent to what Anna does, except she requires corpses to control the spirits). She’s come to avenge Ren’s loss and take Amidamaru, to help her do all of this she summons her servant Lee Pryon who was killed by Jun’s parents and given to her as a gift for her birthday (yeah, Ren’s family is pretty messed up). Yoh and Amidamaru do their best to fight, but Lee is just too strong for them. Morty runs away where at first it seems like he’s abandoning Yoh, but in truth he went to find a sword for Yoh to use in battle. He comes across Ryu and after getting beaten up, got the sword and returned to Yoh. Yoh and Amidamaru manage to destroy the talisman on Lee’s head thus freeing him from Jun’s control. Once he remembers who he is and what happened to him, he becomes consumed by rage and attacks Jun trying to kill her (Corbin: Nooo~, what else am I going to fap to in this anime? (Nitsuj):. . . Why do I allow you into my house? (Seras): I’ve been asking that question for years). Yoh protects Jun and tries to talk down Lee, but it’s no use, he’s consumed by rage and won’t stop until Jun and the Tao family are dead. In order to stop Lee, Anna summons Shamon, the man who originally taught Lee martial arts to calm him down. Yoh allows Shamon to take over his body where despite being 96 years old, he manages to go toe to toe with Lee and beat him. Lee’s spirit soon leaves the corpse, and he returns to normal (scene here: https://youtu.be/JMw3G6gnUY0). As Jun is about to leave accepting her defeat, Lee stops her and says he wants to remain as her guardian spirit without the control of the talisman. He still wants to perfect his martial arts and what better way to do that than in a body that won’t age and is immortal (a lot of people who were new to this series were upset that Lee forgave Jun, but this does tie into one of the themes Hiroyuki was trying to get across with the series. Don’t let revenge consume you and turn you into something you’ll regret).
In episode 4 we focus on Ryu. After getting shot down by Anna (dude, she’s 13 years-old and you’re like what, early 20s?) and seeing that she’s the fiancée of Yoh, he goes to sulk in an abandoned bowling alley where he gets possessed by Tokageroh, a bandit who Amidamaru killed in the past (https://youtu.be/X6BPqhza60M. All joking aside, this season does a good job explaining more of Tokageroh’s past such as how his mother raised him by herself and even sacrificed her body just to feed him so he could survive). He’s been watching and observing Amidamaru waiting for his chance to strike and now seems as good a time as ever. He takes Morty hostage and even steals Harusame which causes Amidamaru to waver in their fight. In order to protect his current friends, Amidamaru and Yoh destroy Harusame and Ryu’s gang saves Morty as they couldn’t stand to see him acting without honor (and they say thugs have no honor). Tokageroh then threatens to kill Ryu, but Anna finally has enough and decides to exorcise him herself (oh you’re in trouble now. Scene here: https://youtu.be/UcaRBhzbSlI). Yoh stops her as he still believes Tokageroh can be redeemed and allows Tokageroh to gain complete control of his body (making Anna cry because she cares for him and Tokageroh can do anything he wants now) where he can’t bring himself to kill Yoh because he trusted him so much. Tokageroh releases Yoh and accepts his defeat.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 opens up with Ryu becoming Yoh and Anna’s servant as a way to repay them for saving his life last episode. It also seems that getting possessed by Tokageroh awakened his shaman abilities so now Ryu has the potential to be a shaman (all he needs is a willing spirit). After this, the comet for the announcement of the shaman tournament appears and shamans all over the world are making their way to Tokyo for the big tournament. Yoh and Amidamaru get approached by Silva a shaman and judge for the shaman tournament and has come to test Yoh to see if he qualifies for the tournament. Yoh’s test is simply to land one blow on Silva within 10 minutes which is easier said than done as Silva and his animal spirits are not to be messed with (they’re going to go all native on his ass). Unlike Yoh who uses soul integration in his fights, Silva uses oversoul the next step beyond soul integration (and it’s here where the series establishes its battle system and where it truly starts to become something special). Oversoul is the technique where instead of integrating a spirit with your body, you instead integrate them into items/weapons to help you fight relying on a spiritual energy known as furyoku (can’t help but feel that this series served as the groundwork for the Fate series). Yoh getting the gist of it, transfers Amidamaru’s spirit into the sword (a good fit for a samurai) and Silva decides to get serious and unleashes his ultimate weapon, the totem pole canon (I am sensing some Power Ranger vibes right here). Yoh takes on the cannon (where Oversoul the first opening for the original Shaman King begins to play. Looks like Hiroyuki got his wish) where he slashes through it and manages to land a hit on Silva to qualify for the shaman tournament (scene here: https://youtu.be/S6AfhU7naTU). He receives an oracle bell (which is like a fusion of a pager and smartphone. Man, Hiroyuki was ahead of his time) which will give him orders on what to do as the tournament begins (i.e who he’ll be fighting, where the fight will be, and when he must arrive for said fight).
We start episode 6 by seeing that Ren also qualified for the tournament where he actually killed the judge and yet is still allowed to participate in the tournament (really? Death is all right in this tournament? Okay). Back with Yoh, he learns that he must win 2 out of 3 preliminary rounds against other shamans and his opponent is. . .you guessed it, Horohoro aka Trey voiced by Yuuji Ueda (Brock from Pokémon) who is also reprising his role. Now one of the things the first anime skipped over (or rather the dub didn’t do a good job explaining) is that Trey is Ainu (the native Japanese. Hinna. Hinna) which was a real shock to me when I read this in the manga and I was still just a young teenage kid who didn’t know a thing about Japan or the Ainu culture, so I always thought Trey was a hippie (still, despite this, I did think he had one of the coolest oversouls in the series). Nighttime quickly arrives and we get to meet Trey and his guardian spirit Kokoro the Koropokkuru (spirits of the Ainu culture. It was believed that they inhabited the land before the Ainus. They were small, stealthy, and were excellent fishers). After a few funny moments stacked on top of each other, the fight between Yoh and Trey begins (surprised nobody notices two teenagers fighting in the middle of the city. I’ll just chalk it up to shaman magic) where I have to admit this fight is much better than their previous fight in the first anime (in the first anime Yoh completely wiped the floor with Trey. Pretty much burying the guy. They would steadily build him back up, but this was a huge blow to his character early on in the anime. Here, his skills seem to be on par with Yoh and he catches him off guard with his crazy moves). As they fight, Trey reveals that his dream is to create a field of butterbur plants as far as the eyes can see. This is all in an effort to save the Koropokkuru population from going extinct. In the past, humans and nature lived in harmony (and then the science nation attacked), but as humans began to develop technology they moved away from nature and began destroying it. Because of this, the land of the Koropokkuru is being depleted and in time they’ll die out due to the lack of nature (so yeah, he comes across as an environmentalist just like Ren, but unlike Ren who believes humans should be destroyed to save nature, Trey instead wants to find a way to stop the destruction and provide a home from Koropokkuru). As the fight continues between the two we also see how Yoh has improved over a short period of time as he and Amidamaru are becoming more one with each other when they fight (even Anna is surprised by just how strong Yoh’s gotten. (Baron): No doubt she’s turned on by it. (Nitsuj): She’s 13 man. (Baron): Well girls mature faster than boys). The fight soon turns in Yoh’s favor, so Trey unleashes his ultimate attack, an avalanche to bury Yoh. Yoh of course overcomes the avalanche and beats Trey who ran out of furyoku to win his first match (scene here: https://youtu.be/n07h78BgjWs). After this, Trey and Yoh quickly become friends and he hangs out at Yoh’s place until his next match where his sister Pirika shows up to drag him away for some more training.
In episode 7 we get the introduction of fan favorite Faust VIII the mad doctor voiced by Takehito Koyasu reprising his role (Dio from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure). Unlike normal shamans who use inanimate objects as a medium for their spirits, Faust uses corpses as his medium because he’s a necromancer. The episode starts with Silva talking with Anna in the hopes that she can get Yoh to forfeit his match against Faust because he’s dangerous (and is creepy which only serves to make him a likable character later on). Not only did he kill a shaman in the first battle, but Yoh’s fight against him is taking place in a cemetery which means his powers will be at their strongest. Before the match, Faust approaches Yoh and Morty in the cemetery where he attacks the two and captures Morty to dissect his body (now in the manga this scene was one of the most horrific scenes because we actually get to see Morty’s intestines and everything. In the animes, this scene was heavily censored both in Japan and in the dub. Even this anime refuses to show the intestines. That just goes to show you just how horrific this scene was in the manga). Yoh manages to save Morty, but soon becomes surrounded by skeletons controlled by Faust and finds himself fighting them off all while blinded by anger. Because of this, Yoh quickly goes through his furyoku and the match is just now starting (talk about a handicap). We get to see Faust’s spirit, Eliza the nurse as well as Faust’s wife. In the past, when Eliza was alive, she and Faust were married and ran a clinic together. Sadly, after overcoming an incurable disease, she gets killed by robbers. Faust tried to save her, but not even he could overcome death until he discovered his family’s dark shaman secrets. He soon became a shaman and resurrected Eliza as his guardian spirit vowing to become the shaman king and bring her back to life (this story is what makes Faust a somewhat endearing character. His backstory is almost similar to that of Mr. Freeze from Batman). With barely any furyoku left and Faust finally going all out, Yoh decides to use the same trick Faust used earlier and insults Eliza by calling her a doll (https://youtu.be/n0kNbZl3yGY?t=11). This of course angers Faust and he becomes enraged attacking Yoh recklessly and using up a lot of his furyoku. It all comes down to a game of endurance to see who can outlast the other. Despite Yoh’s best efforts, he couldn’t hold on for long and unfortunately ran out of furyoku before Faust meaning he lost and for the first time in his life he feels so frustrated (scene here: https://youtu.be/udMMaV3lzIU). Amidamaru comforts Yoh making Anna jealous (don’t be jealous of the bromance) and Faust using his remaining furyoku creates a giant skeleton to kill Yoh for insulting and hurting his Eliza. Just before Faust can attack, his skeleton gets destroyed by Ren not because of some noble gesture, but because he’s Yoh’s next opponent and he wants the pleasure of beating him (grudge match is on).
We start off in the hospital in episode 8 where we actually get to meet Morty’s family. One of the big complaints everyone had with the first anime is that they never introduced Morty’s family. Morty would talk about his wealthy family, but we never got a chance to see them in the anime. Luckily, this anime changes that as we get to see them for who they are. We see he has a bratty sister, a mom who’s a worrywart, and a dad who has high expectations for him and runs his own company (it’s also nice to see where Morty gets his height from). Morty’s dad tells him to stay away from Yoh saying he’s no good and plans to send Morty to America to study abroad once he’s out of the hospital. Morty goes to check in on Yoh where in order to protect Morty from further harm, Yoh acts mean to him. He blames the loss to Faust on him and says they’re no longer friends which gets the job done and has Morty run away crying. Yoh then focuses his attention on getting stronger in order to defeat Ren (who is going into this match for blood). In order to get stronger, Yoh decides to return home to Izumo and train with his grandpa. Meanwhile, Morty is about to go to America before he runs away from his family saying he still wants to be friends with Yoh even if that means putting himself in danger. He runs into Ryu at the airport who was about to leave for America as well in order to become a sushi chef (you live in Japan which has the best sushi chefs of all time. Why the hell would you go to America? Unless you want to learn how to make high-cholesterol food I suggest you go study the culinary arts somewhere else). Ryu decides to help Morty and the two go on a road trip to Izumo (and this is technically kidnapping on Ryu’s part). Back with Yoh, his grandpa takes him to a dark cave which will cut him off from all of his senses and increase his furyoku. He’ll be in there for 7 days and nights and have to rely on his sixth sense to keep him safe in this environment. While Yoh trains, we get introduced to Tamao, a girl in service of the Asakura family as well as a shaman who has a crush on Yoh. Her thing is divination, seeing the future, and her predictions are iffy most of the time. While doing a divination for Yoh, she sees two people one small and one tall who will bring calamity to Yoh. She tells grandpa Asakura about this, but he doesn’t seem too worried about it and decides to ignore it (good attitude grandpa). Tamao however, is still worried about Yoh and decides to face the calamity herself with her guardian spirits Ponchi and Conchi, a fox spirit and a tanuki spirit (oh my God, they went all out on those balls. I’m surprised Japan’s censors didn’t step in on that one. Actually, I do like how these two are based off of Ren and Stimpy. They’re brash and just as gross as them). Once Ryu and Morty make it to Izumo, they get attacked by Tamao and her spirits. Ryu goes down quickly and Morty gets trapped within tanuki balls (I hope he washed them). Anna shows up to save Morty (where I do like how she addresses Tamao’s crush on Yoh and is totally okay with it. In her mind, she’s the undisputed wife of Yoh and she’ll crush whoever shows up) and they go to welcome Yoh back. That night, Yoh and Morty talk to each other where Yoh apologizes and thanks Morty for still wanting to be his friend. We get to see the results of Yoh’s training where his oversoul is stronger than ever and Amidamaru is now able to talk to him in his oversoul form.
Episodes 9-13
It’s the rematch we’ve all been waiting for in episode 9 between Yoh and Ren. The fight as you would expect is good (there’s a lot of talking, but that was kind of the norm back then. A few people have said this fight lacks the emotional weight as the one in the original anime and it does a little bit. In the original anime it was said that Ren lost a battle as well meaning he was in the same boat as Yoh. One more loss and he’s out. Here, it’s hinted that this is just Ren’s second battle thus taking away the suspense of the fight). We see that Ren has more furyoku than Yoh, however his anger causes him to expend more of it than Yoh. Yoh is able to break Ren’s oversoul not once but twice, which lowers Ren’s furyoku drastically and he plays his trump card by summoning the soul of Bason’s noble horse (his horse is amazing) and fusing it with a horse he brought to the battle. With speed and strength now on his side, Ren prepares to end this battle with the next attack. Meanwhile, Jun goes to confront her father in China where she pleads with him to set Ren free. She claims that he’s a gentle soul (sure could have fooled me) who was brought up to only know destruction which has warped his mind and is causing him to suffer. In the end, Yoh and Ren are the complete opposites of each other with Ren being obsessed with Yoh because of his unwavering power that puts him in the same league if not higher than Ren and he doesn’t understand how. Returning to the battle, Ren charges at Yoh and Yoh attacks him head on resulting in a powerful explosion. Once the dust settles, it seems that Ren has run out of furyoku and he accepts his loss (scene here: https://youtu.be/dCP_0_8O2zg). He goes on to give this speech about how Yoh is calm like the wind and water while he is just brute force who’d tried to forcefully crush them (which is impossible). However, Yoh reveals that he too ran out of furyoku which means there’s no clear winner. As the two argue, Silva steps in and says they both ran out of furyoku at the same time meaning the battle is a draw. Their fate now lies with the Great Spirit who will decide who advances and it decides that both of them will advance.
At the start of episode 10 we see all the remaining shamans gather at a dome where they’re told that the shaman fights will begin in one month. More details will be sent via oracle bell so until then everyone returns to their normal life (or as normal as things can get for them). Yoh has a party celebrating his advancement in the tournament and invites Trey and Ren over where we get some good laughs and even Ren enjoys himself gaining respecting for Yoh and seeing him as his first friend. Late in the night, Ren leaves to return to China to confront his family where Yoh sees him off. The next day Yoh goes grocery shopping with Tamao (oh la la la) where they take a shortcut through the shrine and get attacked by the Boz, shaman monks who are rockers and use their music to send spirits into the afterlife. They’re here to take Yoh out before the fights start back up. They manage to capture Amidamaru and plan to exorcise him (the power of rock and roll compels you. Looks like that Aerosmith game was true. Music is power! Don’t give up), but before they get the chance, Ryu makes his return and reveals to everyone that he’s a shaman now. After being left behind in Izumo (yeah, sorry about that), grandpa Asakura trained him and since Ryu could already see spirits, his shaman training advanced very quickly. His guardian spirit is Tokageroh of all people (on the outside it seems strange, but it makes sense when you think about it. They’re both wanderers looking for their place in the world and both had their own little redemption arc) and he’s also in the shaman tournament (which makes no sense seeing as how by the time he became a shaman they were already in the middle of the preliminaries. So that would mean Ryu had to complete his shaman training in a very short amount time, qualify for the tournament and beat two other shamans before the Yoh and Ren fight which had to have taken place within a week’s time. That’s crazy). Ryu and Tokageroh manage to scare off the Boz who we find out were sent by Hao to attack Yoh (scene here: https://youtu.be/XimOiJQMwwA). Back with Ren, we see him arrive back in China where he plans to face his father. It appears that his fight with Yoh has shown that not all humans are bad and that hatred isn’t the way to live. Ren wants to destroy the cycle of hatred within his family and lead them down a new path, but in order to that, he must first defeat his father.
Episode 11 starts with Ren fighting through a horde of corpses before his father, En, appears. We see how he’s captured Jun for turning against the family and even destroyed Lee Pryon (you killed him again? Talk about overkill). Ren does his best to defeat En but sadly fails. Yoh, Trey and Ryu sense a disturbance in the shaman force (as if a young Vegeta-inspired character was going through his redemption arc alone and coming to the part where his friends need to save him). Bason arrives beaten and battered (he’s a spirit, how is that possible?) begging Yoh and the others for help. Yoh and the others of course help and journey to China where they enter the Tao mansion (all trespassers will be killed, chopped, and reassembled into Chinese zombies) and get attacked by zombies. Trey and Ryu fight them while Yoh and Morty go to save Ren and Jun. Once Yoh rescues Ren and Jun, he tries to get Ren to leave and fight another day but Ren refuses to leave until he has defeated En and lead his family down a new path. Yoh says he’ll help but Ren doesn’t want to put his new friends in danger (aww~, so he does care). However, Yoh says he’s sticking around as he doesn’t want to see his friend die on him and this wins Ren over (and I think it made his heart go doki doki). After taking out a few more zombies, Yoh and Ren get ready to make the long climb to the top with the others.
At the start of episode 12, Yoh and Ren arrive in the main hall where they see Ryu and Trey have been defeated by the last zombie who is carrying the spirit of Shamon. Using science they modified his corpse to turn him into a mindless killing machine. Luckily, Jun and Pryon arrive to beat him and the group continues their climb to En. En comes crashing down to the group (that’s usually a sign to go on a diet En) and fights the group where they receive a beating but get back up ready to fight. Ren finally realizes that the En they’ve been fighting all this time isn’t the real En, but instead an illusion created by his furyoku using Oversoul. We finally get to see the real En who is the size of a regular man (with an impressive beard and mustache combo) who reveals that in the past the Tao family was betrayed and persecuted by the people they trusted the most. This is why En can never trust anyone ever again, he clings on to the pain of his ancestors and refuses to believe in things such as friendship. En prepares to unleash the full pain of the Tao family on Ren and gathers up all the furyoku into his sword to create a dragon (why does the dragon have a beard and mustache as well?). Ren manages to defeat the spirit dragon of his ancestors with his new convictions freeing their souls and beating En. However, En refuses to give up and wants to keep on fighting but gets ultimately stopped by Ren’s mom and grandpa (Grandpa’s packing). With the fighting over they have a feast welcoming Ren back (where Jun’s welcome back dinner?). The next day everyone leaves with Ren going off on his own only for En to follow him and give him the jewel thunder sword, the heirloom of the Tao family. With this sword, Ren is officially recognized as the new leader of the family.
In episode 13 the day has finally come for Yoh and the others to depart for the main rounds of the shaman tournament. They all say their goodbyes to everyone and head towards the meeting spot where the shamans have gathered (this is where you start to see the differences between the first and second season). As they sit around waiting they get visited by Hao voiced by Minami Takayama reprising her role (Conan from Detective Conan. And I have to admit it is funny that he has a more masculine voice than Yoh). Hao attacks the group with his guardian spirit the Spirit of Fire (yes his guardian spirit is one of the five elements. Again, OP as fuck). His followers come to get him and he takes his leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/f3cSaznp_v8). After this, they all hop on a plane and make their way to America. However, a bomb gets dropped on them as they find out that they’re going to be dropped from the plane as part of their first trial. Once the shamans have been dropped, they will have 3 months to make it to Patch Village where the next round of the tournament will commence. During that time shamans are free to fight one another, but if their fight gets over seen by an official then it will be considered a tournament fight and the loser will be eliminated from the tournament. Using oversoul they land safely on the ground and find themselves in the desert on the infamous Route 66 (huh, they’re in Arizona. Make sure to visit the Grand Canyon. Scene here: https://youtu.be/AzzLZFrETHs). After getting a ride from Billy (history’s first uber driver) they arrive in a town hoping to find clues on where Patch Village is. This leads them to meet Lilirara of the Seminoa tribe who wrote songs about how dangerous the village was. She tells them to turn back or she’ll kill them, but they refuse and a fight ensues. Lilirara’s guardian spirits are Seminoa warriors who fought in the past shaman tournament 500 years ago where they unfortunately met their end. All 4 warriors attack Yoh and the others where they experience the pain of the warriors who fought in the past. Yoh and the others are shown their past where they were all killed by Hao. Despite experiencing this pain the group is still determined to go to Patch Village and stop Hao, but Lilirara refuses to tell them anything. Luckily, she changes her mind when Trey makes her laugh with his dream and she tells them everything she knows about the village. The next day the boys leave and Lilirara gets killed by Hao. In the past he was a member of the Patch Tribe in order to get the Spirit of Fire so that he could take his revenge on humans and establish a kingdom where shamans rule (scene here: https://youtu.be/TCiWErpPzXg).
And that’s the end of the first half. But stay tune because more Shaman King is coming your way. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.