Shaman King check in 2

 

Author: Hiroyuki Takei

Translator: Lillian Olsen, Erin Procter

Genre: Manga

Quick description: The opening ceremonies are over and the first challenge of the Shaman Fight is assigned. The shamans are dropped off in North America with the mission to reach the Patch Village in 3 months - with no directions or guidance. Alongside Yoh are allies, enemies, and spirits - all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to become the next Shaman King. Most notable is Hao, the enigmatic yet familiar self-professed "Future King".

Again we will include a few more volumes here. It should be very obvious but everything from here onward will be spoilery. I don't think there is an issue mainly because well, this series is over 20 years old. 

Omnibus 4 volumes 10-12

Yoh, Ryu, Ren, and Horohoro continue the journey together looking for the Patch village. The towns around have not heard of this village or even the tribe, but they manage to run into a young woman who recognizes it. She tells them a very sad story of what happened in the last Shaman Fight, and guess whose name comes up? Hao. 

The build-up for him is fascinating. He is very popular. Lilirara has spirit allies, they were participants in the last shaman fight. They tell their stories to the gang and show them a bit of Hao's power. Lilirara's mission is to stop people from participating in the tournament. She allows Hao to show his cruelty. This makes me wonder, what happened? If Hao was already in the tournament why did he not win? Yes, that's coming in a later volume.

We see the introduction Lyserg Diethel, another participant. He also has a feud with Hao and he is very annoying self-centered at first. After hanging out with Yoh, he starts to realize fighting with rage only is not the best way. Yoh seems to attract a lot of struggling souls. 

On the other side of the world, Anna is called to the Asakura estate and learns their big secret. It involves Hao, of course. He is the reincarnation of an Asakura's ancestor. Through generations, the family has kept a text that describes a very powerful secret. Anna is tasked with going after Yoh and teaching him the secret technique. My question is, why would they wait until the Shaman fight started to try to teach him? They knew Hao was already in the world and waiting for the competition. It makes no sense, they should have taught it to him way before. It's stupid.

Hao's minions run into Yoh and his companions, they fight. It gives again buildup for Hao's power, if these are the lackeys, he must be stronger. While they are fighting, a new group makes themselves known. The X-Lwas, a self-righteous religions fanatics. They are formed by people who have the misfortune of running into Hao in the past. Their one mission seems to be to stop and destroy Hao, they are cold-blooded killers and very unlikable. Yoh is asked to join but he refuses his principles are not in alignment with X-law ideology. 

Anna runs into Hao when they reach the PAtch village. He seems to also be interested in Anna. Why? That does not really make much sense. But he continues to say creepy things, he wishes Anna to bring the text to Yoh so he becomes stronger.

Omnibus 5 Volumes 13-15

The gang arrives in the PAtch village and they get a glimpse of the Great Spirit. The collective of all souls, animals, and people that have lived. That is the great price, whoever wins the fight will have access to that spirit collective. 

A new participant shows up. Joco, his spirit ally Mic an amazonian Jaguar. He brings news. The next phase of the competition is to fight on teams of 3. # on 3 fights, winner takes all if you lose a single fight you are disqualified from the competition. 

The new problem arising is that Lyserg is missing. When they entered the village they got knocked out. So now the teams are in progress. Ren, Horohoro, and Joco are Team one. Yoh, and Ryu are still looking for Lyserg to have him join them in their team. The first fight opens Team Ren vs Boz, Hao's minions. They fight and a big spoiler coming. Another example of Hao's cruelty. Tecolote ends up using his teammates as his medium for his spirit companions.  WE get to see the amazing fighting abilities Ren and Joco have. They are impressive, so far it's the most powerful each has been shown in the series. 

Another discovery made, Lyserg is with the X-laws. Another detail, even amongst themselves they are very intense, cruel, and all self-righteous thy look down on anyone who does not share their radical views and actions. I strongly dislike Lyserg, in the manga we see very little of him and then he turns to go to the X-laws, so he is very unlikeable. 

In the next match, Lyserg and his X-law companions show no mercy and excessive cruelty and judgement on their opponents. I assume they see themselves as ruthless and excuse it to themselves because they have suffered an injustice at the hands of Hao. But really that's royally fucked up. They have something bad happen to them and then they excuse murder and torture of others that have nothing to do with the person who made them suffer? They are just like Hao, no, they are worse. They hide behind a message of justice when in reality they are nothing but power-hungry maniacs. 

The true leader of the X-Laws reveals herself, a psycho young woman named Jeanne. She pictures herself as a martyr and fanatical maniac. She believes in God, the angels like the 4 archangels and such, she thinks she will be able to bear all the sins of humanity... It's a lie, the self-inflicted torture - the real purpose is to gain power. 

Yoh fights and he is very confident in his abilities. He seems a lot more arrogant like that. Again maybe I just remember his attitude a bit different but they are growing their abilities exponentially so it's realistic to see preteens growing overconfident and think they can take it all in their circumstances. 

Omnibus 6 volumes 16-18

Hao shows now interest in Ren. The small pointy guy refuses the offer. 

Hao has his very first fight, the adversaries are X-Laws team. The whole team is destroyed, and new discoveries are made. Super Big spoiler: Hao's medium is Oxigen or air. The other thing, his familiar, the Great Spirit of Fire gets stronger after consuming souls. After killing his adversaries, Hao allows the Spirit of fire to eat their souls. In addition, Hao shows his mastery of the elements, his great spirit of fire can transmute to any of the other elements. So he practically got rid of his weakness. 

This volume is full of surprises Yoh reveals to his friends his relationship to the current Hao reincarnation, and we discover a bit more from his past. Also not super important but who raised Hao? How did he manage to get the Spirit of Fire since the day he was born? That is simply mindblowing in my opinion. He is amazing, regardless he is an evil being who plans to destroy life as we know it. 

Again the planning here is awful, the Asakura family head decides to teach the secret technique to Ren and his team in hopes of getting the advantage over Hao. Their teaching techniques leave much to be desired, but this is mainly used to let us know how amazing and Shamanic prodigy Ren is. He finds the secret and learns the technique from a single fight with Yoh's father. 

Hao sends his minions to create havoc once more. Different teams attack the gang while they are apart so a lot of damage is done. Ran suffers a deadly wound that even Faust is not able to repair. Yoh's amazing idea is to go to the Iron maiden to ask for help healing his friend. A fantastic idea to ask for help from the woman who is a fanatic and whom you have dissed before. 

Jeanne is asking for a price in exchange for her help. Yoh must withdraw from the fight. 

The end is of course here and so far the next omnibus volume is not out yet. I can preorder it but not sure I wish to wait for the publication date. I might just go ahead and go to one of the other versions, the ones that are sold volume by volume. Better yet, let's visit the library, I will continue to read the volumes and just complete my collection as they get released. Yep that's the plan.

Overall I am enjoying the story and it's something I will revisit and reread later on.