Shaman King

Yoh Asakura is a relaxed teenager who wants to become the Shaman King, a figure capable of communicating with the King of Spirits to reshape the world. To achieve this goal he must survive the Shaman Fight, a tournament held once every 500 years where shamans from around the globe compete for the title. Yoh relies on Amidamaru, the spirit of a famous samurai, and his fiancée Anna Kyoyama, whose intense training methods keep him grounded as they face opponents like Hao Asakura.

The series ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from June 1998 through August 2004 and was originally collected into 32 volumes. Kodansha acquired the rights in 2017 and released a remastered version called Shaman King: Perfect Edition consisting of 35 volumes starting in 2018. This edition features updated artwork and covers, with physical releases following between 2020 and 2021. Viz Media initially published the original run in North America before Kodansha USA took over licensing in 2020.

Hiroyuki Takei created the story to explore themes of destiny and the coexistence of the living and dead within a shonen framework. The manga has sold over 38 million copies in Japan by March 2021. Two anime adaptations exist: a 64-episode series produced by Xebec that aired from 2001 to 2002, and a 52-episode remake by Bridge that premiered on Netflix in July 2021. [bearbeiten]