Excellent character work struggles against meh pacing in Shaman King

 Shaman King took me a while to get around to finishing. Frankly, if I hadn’t gotten the entire series in a bundle, I wouldn’t have. When it was a slog, it was a real slog. However, when it was good, it was really good and knowing that there was good stuff kept me picking it back up.

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers 

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers

Spoilers 

Shaman King is a manga from 1998 to 2004 that’s basically about a tournament of magic users to become the titular Shaman King, who is effectively omnipotent. What I recently learned some folks call a battle manga.

I apologize to fans of Shaman King but I found it to be a middle of the road, average Shonen manga. Which isn’t to say that it’s bad. In some respects, it’s quite good. However, it doesn’t sparkle.

The biggest problem, in my arrogant opinion, is the pacing. There are points where the story just drags. During the American road trip, I reached the point where I took a couple month break. And, while some of the flash backs felt both unnecessary and poorly timed. Horo Horo’s tragic backstory was revealed so close to the end of the story there was no room for character growth from it.

Honestly, a good edit would probably remove 20% of the entire series with significant improvement. Not that a weekly manga can get edited like that but hindsight is 20/20.

So what was good?

The actual character work is strong. More than that, the characters grow and change with well developed arcs. 

In particular, I enjoyed Yoh as a character. Which was a good thing because he’s the main character. Initially depicted as a slacker who wants power so he can be lazy, he is revealed to be a convincing and striking all-loving hero. 

Enemies becoming friends is a defining characteristic of the Shaman King. Yoh routinely invites people who just tried to kill him over for dinner. Near the end, Hai joins the heroes at some hot springs and Hai’s explicit goal as the big bad is to wipe out the human race.

While the lead up to the finale is a series of slog fights that I didn’t find nearly as compelling as the earlier tournament fights (and I got through knowing the end was near), the end being hugging it out with Hai worked well for me because the groundwork for that kind of ending had been well laid.

Ultimately, Shaman King’s positives do come out ahead of its issues for me but it just doesn’t have that je-ne-sais-quoi. (And it’s not the age. I find Hajime no Ippo, for instance, compelling (but socially dated as heck) and it’s ten years older)