Tuesday, 2024-05-07, 9:59 AM
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"Creativity"

Episode 1 Review (The Boy Who Dances with Ghosts)

Episode 1 Review (Yoh, Morty!)

Yes, it has begun. I’ve been talking about doing Shaman King reviews for awhile. And I have a small little background on the series. I played a PS2 game called Shaman King: Power of Spirit. I don’t think it had anything to do with the story, but if it did I know some of the story. But what I remembered most about the game was the characters, and ever since the game I wanted to check out the anime. I’ve watched maybe the first few episodes, but other than that I’m going in blind. Before I was arguing I would have to finish the series before watching it, but I can’t afford to waste so much time watching every series I review twice. So just take into account I don’t know the story, I will be blind to the future, and these are all my immediate reactions to each episode. Also I haven’t read any of the manga, am basing this off of the English dub, and basically this the dumbed down version of the story. Anyway, I think I’ve seen the first five episodes tops. But our story follows Morty. He narrates the story, and loves ghosts stories. After seeing a boy in the graveyard alongside many ghosts, he’s convinced ghosts are real, but nobody believes him. Then the kid from the graveyard, named Yoh, turns out to be a new kid at school. Yoh seems like the most lax and care free person ever, and really seems like a odd, but possibly good choice to have for a main protagonist. Morty tries to see the kid at the graveyard again, but finds out that it has become the new hangout for the Dead Enders, a gang lead by a very charismatic and almost comedic guy named Rio. Rio just makes me smile. His stupid hair, his voice, all of it. He’s a turn off for the series at first glance, but you can’t help but like him. So the gang basically beat the shit out of Morty when they find him. So Yoh seeing the problem, brings him back to the hill and expects the Dead Enders to apologize, like they were friends. When they disagree he gets all Shaman on him. The Shaman are links to the dead. Some people can see ghosts naturally like Morty, and some are Shaman, and Shaman can act as a host to the ghost. In this case a old samurai Amidamaru takes Yoh’s body, and beats up some Dead Enters, and cuts Rio’s ridiculous hair. And our episode ends soon afterward. In the end only one episode in, and I already love each character, love the idea, and I feel like I’m a kid watching a Saturday morning cartoon. And the damn catchy opening theme song isn’t helping. This was refreshing to me, and I can’t wait to continue the reviews to what looks like an excellent series.