Classic Anime Review #5: ‘Shaman King’ Shows It’s Never Too Late to Try Again

The stakes? High. The monsters? Big. The theme song? Slaps. If there was a checklist for early turn of the millennium anime, those would be the three touch points. With Pokémon and Diliman bringing Japanese animation to Saturday morning cartoons in the late 90’s, there was an influx of shows being dubbed and put out on broadcast TV. This would be the first place I saw Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ultimate Muscle, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Shaman King. 4Kids entertainment made my middle school years what they were – colorful and melodramatic. These shows had satisfying, wholly fulfilled endings (for those that have ended), with one glaring exception. Shaman King left a bad taste in my mouth through my teen and adult years. This was nothing to do with its quality as a show and everything to do with the fact the show simply never found its ending. Now, Shaman King did have an ending, in that there was a conclusion to the narrative. But even at 16 years old, I wanted -more-. I felt like it wasn’t over. Turns out there was a reason for that.

But I been watching him for 50 episodes though? (Image via Toei)

Start From the Top Shaman King tells the story of Asakura Yoh, a gifted but laid-back shaman warrior from a noble shamanic family. In the universe of this anime, a shaman is one that can commune with the dead. In real life, the shamanic tradition is one of communing with spirits both good and evil and is indigenous to both North America and Northern Asia.  I love representation, and I love lea…