Shaman King/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Angst? What Angst?: Yoh. With a few exceptions, not much seems to bother this guy. Not even being killed (so that he can get some literal Training from Hell, though he wasn't informed of this beforehand)
    • Well except for that one time when Faust dissected Manta, who at the time was his only friend. That being said, though, he managed to snap out of that funk after a volume or so.
  • Broken Base: In regard to Pirika: loved by some, hated by others.
  • Complete Monster: Dr. Oknox from Lyserg's omake.
    • Hao/Zeke, in the anime.
  • Creepy Awesome: Faust VIII.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: Hao threatening to reveal the name of the girl Horohoro loves has to count as this, after reaffirming that he can read minds.
    • Made even funnier when Hao reveals later on that his mind-reading powers don't work that way.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Say what you will about the dub itself, but the opening kicks ass.
  • Cult Classic: While moderately popular back home, it is has a small fan base in the US, especially after the 4Kids! Entertainment dub
  • Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): If Yoh treated Anna the way she treated him and his friends it wouldn't be "training", it would be treated as physical and emotional abuse.
  • Evil Is Sexy: And Hao?!
  • Ho Yay: To say nothing of Ryu's obvious feelings toward Lyserg, many of the guys fall into this. Notable cases being Ren/Horohoro, Amidamaru/Mosuke, Hao's devoted followers, and some subtext between Manta and Yoh. The omake introduces some with Lyserg and a new character, Hudson. Fridge Brilliance on the creator's part, especially if you've seen the latest Sherlock movies.
  • The Masochism Tango: Yoh and Anna's relationship.
  • Macekre: Actually not too bad, considering 4Kids' track record, but... changing Hao's name to Zeke? Seriously? He's an ancient godlike shaman from medieval Japan, not a trucker! Also, there's the minor fact that Ren, the Chinese shaman, has a British accent while Lyserg, the British shaman, does not...
    • While they could've done better than Zeke, could you imagine the reaction some people would have if they saw an Indian named Hao?
    • Well,in all fairness, while Ren only sounds British, he never claimed to be British.
      • Also, Horohoro preferring to be called Trey Racer? What?
    • It could be a lot worse if the Moral Guardians had their way. A flood of hate mail from said people came in when Hao (the bad guy) kicked somebody. Apparently, the opinion is that you shouldn't allow villains to do bad things because kids could copy them. This Troper would like to note that said opinion therefore defeats the very point of having a villain (a character who does bad things and is defeated by a character who does not imitate him, proving that doing those things only serves to get your arse kicked).
    • However, despite a number of name changes (Ryu/Rio, Manta/Mortimer, Over Soul/Spirit Control, etc.), they retained the original name for a shaman's spirit power, "Furyoku", while the VIZ translation of the manga changed it to the more generic "Mana"
    • Combined with Ear Worm : Sha-man KIIIIING. Fits for any 3 syllable TV show. (Out-Law STAAAR! I-T CROOOOWD! FA-THER TEEED!)
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Manta's vivisection at the hands of Faust VIII, made even worse in the manga.
    • When Spirit of Fire opens its mouth especially since it's normally The Blank with two eyes and markings, opening up to a wipe toothy maw.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Elder Price is Lenny. ELDER PRICE IS LENNY?!
  • The Scrappy: Pirika, Tamao and Chocolove.
    • Opacho, big time. Also, the X-Laws, particularly Lyserg.
  • Unfortunate Implications: In Funbari No Uta, 7 years has passed since the SF and Hana is 6. This means that Hana was born 1 year after the SF was over and Anna was only age 15 during the SF. I wonder when was he conceived.
    • This is largely because there was the very real fact that Yoh wouldn't survive the tournament. It's likely that in a normal setting they would have waited. And hey, Yoh was pretty much the same age.
    • Uh, are we forgetting Mr. Unfortunate Implications, himself, Chocolove?
      • And on that note, Ryu knew they could all trust Chocolove, since he looked so much like Muscle Punch, the one black member in his gang, and the only other black person he knew. To be perfectly fair, though, that really is in line with the kind of character Ryu is.
  • Villain Sue: Hao. He still has a decently-sized fanbase though, so mileages vary as to how much this trope affects his character.
    • Let's see a Furyoku Level over 1,000,000? Check (1,250,000). Uses a Kami-class Olympus Mons spirit for the tournament while other shamans have a Seirei spirit or a basic Nature spirit? Check. Obtains the Great Spirit and being even MORE BROKEN than he already IS? Double Check!
    • Can reincarnate himself if killed, which for most of the series isn't even presented as possibility despite all of his enemies, and by the end, rather than plot device introduced that allows him to be killed for good, he instead makes Heel Face Turn, effectively meaning he gets away with everything he did despite crossing the Moral Event Horizon a dozen times over before the series even began.
  • Woolseyism: One of the few good changes: renaming Chocolove "Joco". The original name is both unwieldy and potentially offensive. (Of course, this was done in the official manga translation as well.
    • In the VIZ manga, Chocolove's lips were also edited to match those of the rest of the cast as opposed to the large, thick ones he originally had. This Troper didn't like the large contrast in the change from the original art, but thinks it made sense. It pays to be racially sensitive and it was initially pretty offensive. In the anime, the lips remained. (Which is weird considering 4Kids' rep...)
      • Most African-American characters or those with similar heritage recieved the same treatment throughout the manga.



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