The first 13 episodes of the Shaman King reboot are now streaming on Netflix.
Much of the 2021 version of Shaman King can be boiled down to "too little, too late." The manga may have once been a popular alternative to the Big Three, offering a different kind of hero to Naturo, Ichigo, or Luffy, with a laidback protagonist in a horror-inspired world full of ghouls and spirits. But in 2021, anything that could have made the show stand out feels like a duller version of better-made series. It doesn't help that the animation itself feels like a throwback to early '00s anime — and not in a good way. If you are a fan of the manga, the show's extremely faithful adaptation should be a delightful walk down memory lane, but for newcomers, the show leaves a lot to be desired.
Shaman King started out as a Weekly Shonen Jump manga written by Hiroyuki Takei, and it was first adapted back in 2001 -- a time before Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Bleach, but after Dragon Ball Z had completed its run. It's easy to see why a manga that never broke out as much as One Piece or Naruto could find a huge audience by beating its competitors' anime adaptations. Though the 2001 adaptation was well-received, it quickly caught up to the manga and started telling its own original story. So when Netflix announced a new anime remake, there was reason to rejoice, as Shaman King fans could get the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood treatment, a show that revisited the story after the manga was completed to great success.
The problem is that, just like FMA: Brotherhood, Shaman King's first few episodes assume you’re familiar with the first adaptation, so it rushes through through the initial story way too quickly. It follows 13-year-old Yoh Asakura, a boy who can see ghosts and comes from a long line of shamans. He aspires to participate in a grand tournament that only takes place every 500 years in order to become the Shaman King, so he can live the rest of his days free of worries. From the opening scene, we’re given mountains of information without a single moment to breathe. An ancient prophecy about an evil spirit swiftly gives way to the introduction of main characters, something that keeps happening every 15 minutes or so for the duration of the 13 episodes available on Netflix.
In making the adaptation more faithful to the manga, Shaman King got rid of filler episodes — arguably the two most hated words for anime fans next to "CG animation" — but in the process, it seems to have forgotten that a lack of plot advancement does not equal filler. Without moments to take it all in, the show finds no other way to convey information (and there is a lot of it!) than exposition-heavy conversations where characters explain to one another things they should already know. Worse yet, though the show features some interesting mythology and power systems, they are not nearly as complex or thought-out as something like Hunter x Hunter, making the endless explanations a colossal waste of time when many viewers are way ahead of the characters most of the time.
What little actual story we do get is quite entertaining. Yoh is different enough from Deku, Tanjiro, or Yuji Itadori to make his story interesting, while Ren's backstory is reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender in the best possible way. Yoh's laidback attitude is particularly fun to see play out during fight scenes, as he tries his best to come out on top without putting in too much of an effort. Sadly, we rarely see full fight sequences play out. The animation by Studio Bridge tends to over-rely on still frames, speed lines, or simply cutting to black right at the moment of impact.
In some ways, it is kind of nostalgic, and fits with the rest of the anime, which feels like a time capsule to the early '00s, where anime characters had more cartoonish designs and loud, over-the-top humor. The character designs, in particular, feel like they’re from another era, with exaggerated body proportions and one character that looks like a Funko figure.
Still, while the new Shaman King tries to recapture the magic of the manga, the story feels too aged to stand out among the dozens of other shows currently airing, and the rushed pacing and lackluster animation don’t help. If you're a fan, or looking for a throwback battle shonen anime, you might get some enjoyment out of Shaman King, but even then, you might be better off watching an actual '00s battle shonen anime.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3yYgMom
This could be a real lead forward for personal gaming... Revolutionise gaming
No comments:
Post a Comment