Shaman King

Overview

Shamans are people who can communicate with the supernatural and join with the spirits of the dead to use their skill and power. Teenager Yoh Asakura is a shaman, engaged to the ambitious Anna. She wants to marry the greatest shaman of all, the Shaman King. Once every 500 years a great contest, the Shaman Fight, gives the winner the chance to become Shaman King and wield great power by controlling the strongest spirits. The winner also gets to meet God. Yoh goes to Tokyo for the contest, along with his three faithful friends-Manta Oyamada, an undersized junior-high student who is scared of spirits but is able to see them, and whom Yoh has taken on as a de-facto apprentice; his spirit partner, a samurai named Amidamaru; and Anna, who is also a medium and is acting as his trainer. Along the way they meet strong opposition, misfit ghosts and would-be magicians, in a series whose high concept could be summed up as Phantom Quest Corp meets Dragon Ball. Based on a manga by Hiroyuki Takei, serialized in Shonen Jump. LNV

Characters

Profile Pic	Description
Yoh Asakura	Yoh Asakura wants to become Shaman King to get the easy life. His fiance is Anna, his partner spirit is Amidamaru and his best friend is Manta.
Manta Oyamada	Manta Oyamada (Morty) is Yoh's best friend. Manta supports Yoh during the Shaman fights by assisting him by any means. For example, he tags along with Yoh during training.
Amidamaru	Amidamaru is a samurai ghost who died fighting many enemies after his friend Mosuke was murdered. He protects Yoh and fights with all of his might.
Anna Kyoyama	Anna is a special type of shaman who can summon ghosts who already reached heaven or the afterlife. Also, Anna is Yoh's fiancee and seeks the easy life as Shaman Queen.
Tamao Tamamura (will change image soon)	Tamao is a shy girl and an ascetic who specializes in divination by using her Kokkuri board.
Bokuto no Ryu	Ryu is a Japanese shaman? Ryu is the first bad guy who vandalizes Amidamaru's grave and others. When Yoh defeats him, Ryu starts to look for his happy place and is attracted to the Shaman world. Ryu's goal in the Shaman King fight is to find his happy place for his friends.
Ren Tao	Ren is a Chinese shaman. Ren Tao is the first Shaman Yoh faces. Ren Tao's goal in the Shaman King fights is to end the cycle of vengeance even if he has to destroy his family. After his defeat with Yoh (two times), Ren has changed and fights for the same goal, but with less murders.
Horohoro and Kororo	He is an Ainu shaman from Hokkaido. Horohoro's dream in the shaman fights is to create a vast field of butterbur for the Koropokkuru.
Lyserg and Morphine	Lyserg is an English shaman who comes from a family of dowsers. His goal (in the shaman fights) is to exact vengeance on Hao Asakura for killing his family.
Chocolove and Mic	Chocolove is an American shaman from New York City. Chocolove's dream is to be the world's best comedian and to save the world with laughter.
Faust VIII and Eliza	Faust the VIII is a German shaman, doctor, and necromancer, and his ambitions are to revive Eliza by any means. He has a strong devotion to his wife, Eliza.

Anime and Manga Differences

The names of the characters are change (For the Cut/original English Dubbed Anime only). Examples:

1. Ren Tao to Lenny (unknown reasons)
2. Horohoro to Trace/ or Trey (unknown reasons)
3. Morphine to Chloe (to avoid drug reference)
4. Manta Oyamada to Morty (probably to make a pun on the latin prefix for "death")
5. Ryu to Rio (unknown reasons or to make a Spanish name for his Spanish accent)
6. En Tao (or Tao Yuan) to Uncle En (unknown reasons to change his family relationships to Ren and Jun Tao)
7. Ashil to Basil (unknown reasons) *Ashil's anime exclusive

Each episode has this summary paragraph because the characters meet differently and the anime has lots of alterations in the story from the manga.

(See episode 4 for a good example)

*Names of characters that are changed also appear in the table below.

Sometimes the dialogue changes subtle to drastic between the sub and the dub.

(See episode 13)

English Dub versus Japanese and Uncut English

The English dub (on Foxbox and Jetix) had altercations on the names of people and objects. This will serve as a table of reference when watching the anime.

Do not list these name differences under "manga and anime difference" since this table already serves this purpose.

Changes in the Sub to Dub Dialogue in some of the episodes

There are times where there is a stark contrast of what characters actually say in the sub versus the dub. (See episode 18 and 14) Sometimes it's for unknown reasons or to avoid homosexual or religious issues.

This is only for the anime version.

Note

*Trey is sometimes called Horohoro by his sister in the dub. His true name is Usui Horokeu.

*En Tao is called in the manga, Tao Yuan. His name in the dub is Uncle En which suggests the dub changed his family relationships to Ren and Jun Tao.

Theme Music

Japanese version

Opening

1. "Oversoul" by Megumi Hayashibara (Episodes 1-34)
2. "Northern Lights" by Megumi Hayashibara (Episodes 35-64)

Endings

1. "Trust You" by Megumi Hayashibara (Episodes 1-34)
2. "Omokage" by Megumi Hayashibara (Episodes 35-63)
3. "Tamashii Kasanete" by Yuuko Satou (Episode 64)

English Opening

"To be Shaman King" ?

Uncut English version

It's the same for the Japanese version.

Censorships

See subs vs dubs table because most of these name changes avoid religious and Japanese references. In some of the episodes, the dialogue is change to avoid homosexuality (see first confrontation between Yoh, Anna, and Pirika in ep. 14). Also, some of the episodes are altered to avoid racism such as KKK in Boris's origin story (see ep. 35) and more.