Shamans Are Underrated

"The wandering souls of the dead, the spirits who dwell in the forests, and the gods and buddhas, there exist people who can freely intermingle with these, and use their power in this world, these people... are called Shamans." Quite a rough translation. (Credits to #MangaProject)

With that I suppose you thought of World of Warcraft or something of the sort. I, however, am not. I'm referring to the Animanga (Anime / Manga) Shaman King.

Yes, Shaman King. What's a Shaman King? A Shaman King is the Shaman who wins the Shaman Fight, however, a better question would be, "What's Shaman King?"

Now the difference from leaving the "a" out leads to this response, Shaman King is an Animanga about Shamans; people who bind the world of the dead to the living. Shaman King is highly unknown and underrated for the fact that both in the Anime and Manga, the beginning is very slow.

You start off with Oyamada Manta, or Manty. He's a normal, well not entirely normal, he's extremely short and can see ghosts. This is first shown by his own surprise when he tries to take a shortcut through a graveyard and meets the main character, Yoh Asakura.

From the beginning the story is very slow paced and just shows the powers of the Shaman in little misadventures. As the stories progress more and more things take place, such as meeting new people and the start of the Shaman Fight.

The Shaman Fight is a lot more fast-paced than the beginning and is where more interest sparks within people's minds. You meet even more characters, some long enemies and some new friends who are Shaman as well. As the Shaman Fight goes on, it just continues to get faster-paced and more interesting.

Shaman King isn't just fighting and about spirits though, it adds the elements that practically everything else has, Love, Humor, Drama, stuff like that. Some of the funniest characters would be Yoh Asakura and his fiancée Anna Kyoyama, Yoh playing a careless young boy, and Anna being a strict fiancée who enforces everything with her monstrous strength.

I personally believe that the Manga is better than the Anime, but others do have different thoughts; this is my review, however, so their opinion isn't as important. The Manga has definitely taken the place of my favorite Manga because of its thrill, suspense, and humor.

If you don't pick up Shaman King after reading this, don't buy anything worth any more than twenty dollars. It probably isn't even twenty dollars, but it's definitely worth it.