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Shaman King takes place in a world not unlike our own. Except in this world, some people can see spirits, and join with them to gain new powers.
The story focuses on Yoh Asakura, a seemingly extremely lazy shaman who's partnered with the samurai Amidamaru. Along the way, he meets up with Manta Oyamada (Morty in the dub), a studious and otherwise Ordinary High School Student who can see ghosts, and who soon becomes Yoh's best friend; Tao Ren (Lenny), a Chinese Perpetual Frowner who was The Lancer in every way; Horohoro (Trey Racer), a snowboarder and the token Ainu; Ryu/Ryo, a delinquent turned Master of the Wooden Sword; Lyserg Diethel, who's looking for his family's killer; and Chocolove (Joco) McDonnell, a reformed gangster who wants to save the world with stand-up comedy. And then there's Anna Kyouyama: Yoh's fiancee, a bit of an Education Mama, who actually cares much more than she lets on.
The team is participating in the Shaman Fight, in which shamans from around the world fight for the right to merge with, well, God.
This series shows a tremendous amount of research on the part of the author (Hiroyuki Takei, also author of Butsu Zone), but sadly, the manga was Cut Short when its popularity faded. It's now gotten a completely redrawn re-release in Japan under the title of Shaman King Kang Zeng Bangnote a pun on kanzenban, "complete edition" in which the actual ending was released over two more volumes. A Western release of this edition has yet to be announced.
The manga ended after 300 chapters. There is a sequel called Shaman King Flowers, which is set to officially start April of 2012. Theres also the supplementary manga Shaman King 0 which tells short stories of the characters before the main one, and Shaman King Remix Track short stories in the reprinted edition of humorous nature.
One of the many animes dubbed by 4Kids. The Spanish and Latin Americans also got a translation, and had the Japanese original dubbed in Spanish with only a bit of Cultural Translation and pretty decent casts. Both the 4Kids dub and a local language dub were shown in the Philippines, leading to inevitable comparisons and some confusion.
Not to be confused with the manhwa Shaman Warrior.
Because I've always loved this show and think it deserves more love, let's talk about Shaman King
