SHAMAN KING (2021)

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionShaman King
MANGA ActionShaman King Kanzenban
MANGA ActionShaman King
ANIME ActionSHAMAN KING: FLOWERS
ONA ComedyFunbari Onsen Hanjouki

REVIEWS

• 

  IscWsh

  20/100
  A failure of a reboot. It is simply bad.

  _This review contains out of context spoilers._ I remember the first time when the reboot was announced: I was so excited to start it, and because I rarely get hyped over new anime, it is pretty clear that I had some high enough expectations at that time. It may or it may not be clear by now, but I grew up watching the old adaptation, and I will try to not bring it up that much in this review. I became more and more disappointed the more episodes I've consumed. The first episode made me meh enough, there was no wow factor to get me entertained, but I was hoping that in time it'll get better, right? Right?? Sadly, there is no hope for this series. I'll quickly resume what is going on animation wise. It looks bad, it looks cheap, it looks boring, weak, uninteresting, there is no compelling thing visually. There are at times some more detailed close ups, but they do not bring anything to the table. The action scenes are just boring, nothing entertaining is going on. The far away shots look strange, the animation is cutted out, it is weird and clunky looking and the frames look junky. Boring color choices. There are times when characters don't fit with the background at all. There is nothing much to explain, it's exactly like this. It is a brand new adaptation of a 20+ year old battle shonen series, for a 2021-2022 anime it is obviously filled with some outdated and old clichees that everybody had enough of. From the start it can have some lows in its storytelling, but at least is it competent enough to pass? No, I don't think it's enough, worse, it gets worse, and worse in time, and the last third of the story gets so bad you can't even process what is going on in front of your eyes. From a basic battle shounen with some tournament elements in it, this anime becomes an incoherent mess, so bad in fact I can even compare with the Wonder Egg Priority special: in the end it became a "random stuff go", "let's just put something just to fill in" type of story, and not as so bad it is funny as the early mentioned WEP, but it actually gets frustrating to follow up the events. I wrote so much about how the story gets baaad, but I haven't wrote what's going on. Out of context spoiler warning, after Yoh and Anna's backstory, the story gets confusing, non sensical, random, things just start happening with no coherence or proper explication. Mechas? Aliens?? Random fleet raids that don't have any purpose in the story?? TRAINS!! You'll start questioning yourself what are you watching, you came for some Jojo style shamanic fights, you ended up in a state of constant confusion and fatigue. Everything is so rushed and random, it is a complete mess. I don't even like the characters in this reboot. In the first episodes the main cast was more open to each other, I think that they behaved pretty normally in the beggining, but after the tournament started it became irritating to see them interact. Everybody is so apathetic towards one another, everybody feels like they want to do their work individually and they're forced to be together. Horohoro is the best example in this situation, I may be too used to the old version of his (and I assume that) which is more comedic and fun, but here he became more and more irritated, more and more serious Bakugo-like character, he became even edgier than Tao Ren. I also dislike how Hao is portrayed in this series, he's more comedic and has so much more interaction with the main cast, it kinda ruins that mysterious vibe I'm used to (again, I assume that). Also one last thing is that I absolutely despise that Tanuki-Fox duo, they were so gross and unfunny I hate, hate, hate them. STOP SHOVING YOUR BALLS ON MY SCREEN!! It's not a review that I've put a lot of work into, but there is nothing much to say about the newest Shaman King anime. With or without the bias of growing up with the old series, the 2021 reboot is just not good. There is absolutely nothing decent or worth mentioning in this anime. It is one of the worst series I've ever forced myself to fully finish just because of my own nostalgic feelings. Were you a Shaman King kid who hasn't touched the reboot? I don't recommend to start it like me, it's a complete waste of time. You've never seen SK in any shape of form? Still don't recommend watching it.
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• 

  Azzarrel

  30/100
  More Plot in less Episodes than the original adaption, what can I say?

  The summary should give it away. Shaman King (2021) tries to adapt the original, complete story of the Manga with the same name in even less episodes than the original anime adaptation from 2001, which had an already pretty rushed alternative ending (due to the fact the manga was still on-going).

  For roughly the first 20 episodes both anime adaptations are almost identical and it has really been nostalgic to me to re-watch a visually enhanced version of the same story I watched almost 20 years ago on kids-TV. While Shaman King (2021) looks quite good, staying true to the original adaptation while using newest technology, the fight scenes, the heart of any battle-shounen anime, are beyond bland. They barely even hold up to the 20 year old fight scenes in Shaman King (2001) and have a lot of stills and images with little movement. I never remembered Shaman King for awe-inspiring images or mind-blowing fights and neither expected any of this, but the new adaptation had fights so boring, I thought about skipping them.

  Once Shaman King (2021) splits from the original anime, to finish the story of the manga, it really declined quickly, throwing new characters at the viewer in every episode, jumping through several arcs of possible plot points in sometimes as little as one episodes, killing off side characters as fast as new ones are introduced. At the end the plot becomes such a mess I didn't bother enough to keep track any more and just wanted it to end.

  Aside from the abysmal and rushed story-telling Shaman King also suffers from the typical shounen anime problems. We have a MC, who mostly only beats down foes before letting them leave, despite them repeatedly trying to kill him or his friends. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue, because important characters seem to never be in any mortal danger in shounen anime anyways - and I don't remember that I has been a big issue in the 2001 adaptation - but Shaman King (2021) is actually quite brutal in that regard, killing off characters left and right. In Shaman King (2021) characters get blinded, maimed or killed with most of the main characters still neither being serious nor apprehending the villains in any way.

  This is all topped by Conchi and Ponchi, probably the worst animated characters since Jar Jar Bings. They are lound, annoying and fight mostly with their testicles. That's right these 2 animal ghosts have extendable balls, which they use to violently shove them their opponents - and the viewer - in the face on every possible occasion. These 2 are so unpleasant, that I can understand anyone dropping the anime just because of them.

  Final Verdict: If you want to watch Shaman King, watch the 2001 version, which even though not featuring the original ending, still has a better plot than this hot pile of garbage.

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