#i'm a bit of a seiyuu freak so i'm screaming at some of these

[himebushou]

HI – I am finally watching Shaman King 2021!

The 2001 anime consumed my head and my heart (many a Maths lesson was spent discussing what had happened in Last Night’s Episode), so I’m happy to be diving in at last!

I’m grouping my rambles for convenience.  Here are some squiggly thoughts on Episodes 1-9!

Episode 1

Ep 1 of Shaman King and I'm getting emotional – the way Anna and Yoh go up against Hao in the opening sent a chill down my spine!  And wow, they didn't waste any time establishing the twin connection, huh?

There's definitely a lot packed into Episode 1, which means that it goes super fast but hey, that's fine!

It will take me a while to get used to the voices because I love and adore the 4 Kids dub – but I'm watching this subbed and having fun so far!

Episode 2

AMIDAMARU IS ADORABLE.

SHAMAN KING is one massive eco message and I loooove iiiiiit!  Having Ren spend all that time staring up at the stars rambling on about air pollution… you tell ’em!

Episode 3

Phew, the bit in the Lee Pyron episode where he starts crying... that takes me back…  (Though I think they missed a trick here by sticking with ‘Lee Pyron’ in the dub; ‘Lee Pai-Long’ made a lot more sense to me, back in the day.)

Anna literally slapping sense into everyone, including Jun fhdjdn

AND WATCHING HER USE THE BEADS GAVE ME CHILLS YAHHH!!

Episode 4

Episode 4 is my favourite so far – the introduction of Tokageroh!  There was a proper laugh-out-loud moment as well as plenty of action... though I have to ask how in the world baby!Mosuke was making swords, lol.  Him and what resources?  The knife from his father? Gosh.

Tokageroh’s backstory was delivered pretty quickly… I also appreciated Ren in this episode.

I wish that the English dub had stuck with 4Kids’ term ‘sacred hang’ – that had so much flavour.  Ryu talking about a ‘happy place’ doesn’t really have the same pizazz.

However!  Amidamaru referring to Yoh as ‘Lord Yoh’?  Amazing.  Splendid.  Beautiful.  I believe it was ‘Master Yoh’ back in the 2001 days.

Episode 5

SCREAMS

THIS

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE ONE

First of all, starting off with Ryu was cute!  Though I don’t understand how Anna summoned Mosuke to fix Harusame considering that he's dead dead (having passed on at all), but hey, I think we'll have to let it slide…

SILVA IS HERE!  I had to skip back and watch most of the episode in English because hi, DAN GREEN, HI.  He was so great and I just felt so happy hearing his voice again after all this time~ it helps that Silva is an AMAZING character and so much fun!

I cracked when Yoh lobbed Amidamaru like a baseball and tfjfj the bit where Amidamaru's spirit nearly ascends is so good –

I actually squealed when Over Soul started playing, sheesh.  Oh well.  It wasn’t too late, so I’m sure my neighbours were fine.

And man, Ren is such a lil creep at this point... The Tao family give off serious Zoldyck vibes, tbh.

(Shaman King 2021 is still super fast and I think it’s okay for people who’ve got 2001 or the manga as a baseline, but if I were completely new to the IP, I would be LOST.)

Episode 6

Horohoro is so cute.

That’s pretty much all I have to say!

Episode 7

Faust the VIII is a FREAK what the hell!

At this point, I’m flip-flopping between the sub and the dub based on whether it’s a Silva screen or not dndjkd but Faust sharing a seiyuu with Saurtobi Sasuke (from Sengoku BASARA!!) is making that complicated!

THIS EP IS FULL OF TWISTS AND TURNS

YOH LOSING

REN COMING TO THE RESCUE WITH "I DRINK THREE GLASSES OF MILK A DAY"?

SILVA'S COOL SPEECHES

AMIDAMARU INSPIRING YOH AND ANNA GETTING JELLY –

Also, the soundtrack is perfeeect for Shaman King I loooove it

Episode 8

Manta comes from money?? I don’t remember all of that stuff with his family from 2001 at ALL.

Also, the funny thought of Ryu going to America to train as a sushi chef like... surely it would be more prudent to stay in Japan?  lol

I'm pretty sure Amidamaru uses "de gozaru" when he speaks, which is super cute

This episode introduces Tamao!  I think she might be a little younger than Yoh and Anna (11?). Ponchi and Conchi were absolutely vile which was definitely, definitely left out of the dub.

I feel like we could have had more of Yoh's struggle in Yomi Cave, for sure, but that’s 2021's breakneck pacing again!  Also, I really have to question the tournament format considering that something like 10 days have passed since Yoh's loss to Faust – there wasn’t any mention of how long the qualifiers would last.  I love tournaments in anime, but they MUST be well structured!!  Or I get mad!!

Bason is adorable...... Also, I completely forgot that Ren disdains the Tao family?  What a dweeby child.  I love him.

How is it that Tamao has an Over Soul but Yoh didn't even know what it was called nfjfjd Just HOW slack was Yoh in his training??

Episode 9

YOH'S REMATCH AGAINST REEEN

THE HORSES ARE COOL

I love how much this episode focused on Yoh saying things like, “I'm not going to force myself" djdj I wish he was the shounen protag whose example I'd followed… Yoh says such important things about not working to death that many of his peers could listen to!  And me too sigh sighs

Once again, the timeline is whack – the preliminaries are over but Ren’s only had two battles?  Huh??

[artisticparade]

Voice Actor Announcements!!

Van Gogh - Yuuma Uchida (ReLife, Starmyu)

Courbet - Ryota Osaka (Tsuritama, Trickster)

Da Vinci - Yuichi Iguchi (Bakuman, Touken Ranbu) 

Renoir - Tetsuya Kakihara (Yowapeda, Handa-kun)

Rembrandt - Natsuki Hanae (Tokyo Ghoul, You Lie in April)