HATE FUN 2001! Shaman King

Following in the schedule right after S-CRY-ed was the second JoJo’s influenced show, Shaman King. Based on Hiroyuki Takei’s manga, this I have seen a lot of. Some (me) would say too much. It deals with a shaman, Yoh Asakura and his attempt to become the Shaman King, with the help his Stand Over Soul, Amidamaru.

It starts off fine, for the first 20 or so episodes, but when it starts to diverge from the manga heavily it just falls apart. Matters aren’t helped by the arrival of the one of the whiniest characters ever created, Lyserg Diethel. Imagine an even less sympathetic Sasuke from Naruto, and you’re close to the horror that is Lyserg. You wish the bad guy had killed him and not his parents.

That being said, the show was pretty popular, though a lot of shows were getting ratings better than anime gets today. The manga didn’t seem to benefit though, coming to a somewhat ignominious end in 2004.