Shaman King, to my knowledge, got a raw deal on its original release in the US years ago under 4Kids. I never watched the original, but with the Reboot coming out it was one I was watching for, especially with no 4Kids attached to the western release this time. So I was a bit excited for this one, but after ten episodes my hype was entirely killed for it.
Shaman King is an anime about a bunch of Shamans entering into the Shaman Battle to acquire the title of Shaman King. The Shaman King is something that comes about as a sort of Savior to a world in crisis. The initial problem with this premise is the world doesn't feel like it's at all in crisis. It's just the modern era, but with people going on about environmental issues, none of which the show does a good job at making feel like they will bring a crisis of any significant level. Even with the idea that certain nature spirits that live underneath a certain plant will die out if the plants die out, they could just replant. While there is a point brought up that it takes longer to restore it than it would to destroy it, the show doesn't show anything implying this is some impossible task without the need for the Shaman Fight. I just don't feel like there is a reason for any of this to be happening.
The characters are largely fine, but none of them stand out. Yoh is a fine enough lead character, but there isn't anything about him that stands out. And the more episodes I watched, the more I realize this started to apply to all of the characters. They are all fine, but in the end, none of them stand out at all. Well, that was until one of the worst lines I have seen in recent memory, one so bad it kind of killed the last of my enjoyment of the series and kind of highlighted how lame the show was getting. See, Yoh was fighting a guy who used Necromancy, and after the fight ended he went a bit crazy and tried to kill Yoh. Ren, Yoh's adversary shows up and destroys the summoned Skeleton, and has this banger of a line.
This is the character the show has been building up the most to seem terrifying and a threat. And the milk think keeps coming back after this. And this isn't a character that has tossed out one-liners at all, so it didn't even feel in character for him. The show didn't have the strongest characters as it stood, so when they suddenly drop this line from the guy who I am supposed to take most seriously right now as a threat, it kind of killed the show's momentum for me. And even after a few episodes, the show just didn't manage to recover my ability to take any of these characters seriously.
There are some interesting things about the show, the Necromancer character for example is probably my favorite antagonist so far. Fighting with objectively weaker Guardian Spirits than his contemporaries, he has a unique way of fighting by wearing his opponent's energy down with easy-to-make mobs of undead and his verbal provocations to still come out on top. It's also a fairly typical story where he just wants to win so he can bring his dead wife back from the dead and his frustration with not being able to save her despite being a doctor. It also lets him be pretty demented, along with other fairly dark moments in the show. The show isn't afraid to include some pretty dark themes despite being a show aimed at a younger audience, and it's something I always appreciate when it's handled well like it is here.
The fights also end up hit and miss. Sometimes they can be fun, fast, and intense, while others feel like not much has happened. The best example of this is the second fight with Ren, where after all this powering up Ren finally uses the horse he was given to summon the spirit of Bason's mount, and he was allegedly far more terrifying with the mount. The problem is all that happens is he just uses the same spear technique he has always used, and we are just told it's more powerful. Somehow him riding a mount feels like absolutely nothing had changed after all the buildup. And far too many of the fights in the show so far have fallen into that category.
Shaman King is not a bad show, it's just not very interesting. Nothing about it stands out, and while it does some things right none of that managed to compensate for the downsides. I can see someone being able to sit back and enjoy it for what it is, but too much about the show just turned me off and killed the enjoyment. And with nothing spectacular ten episodes in, I can't find a reason to keep watching at this point.