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Unpopular opinion, but this is the anime of the year for me. It. Is. Amazing.

Shaman King is a masterpiece with loveable characters and new takes on classic tropes. Every character (with a few exceptions) has their own fleshed out goals and motives, making you get invested in each and every one. When someone has a tragic backstory, it's not just tacked on for extra drama, it adds nuance to their actions and helps define their ambition. This series also starts off light-hearted but gradually gets darker, kinda like Hunter x Hunter.

The power system, summoning ghosts and channeling their power into things with one's own ... spiritual energy, is very unique (ik a lot of people have been comparing them to JoJo stands, but more on that later) and makes the fight scenes and superpowers interesting. However, due to the series' focus on stuff like characters' philosophies and the true nature of goals, there's a lot of talking during the fights, so if you're looking for a series with high-action non-stop fights this one might not be for you.

As for the soundtrack and voice acting, both of them are just... BEAUTIFUL! They managed to bring back a lot of the 2001 adaptation's legendary voice cast and songs, and added some new equally boppin ones as well.

The animation/art style, while nowhere near the level of *insert whatever shonen is popular nowadays*, is very smooth imo. They managed to get a perfect bridge (ba dum tss) between the style of 2001 and fairly modern production values. Call me a boomer, but I'm a sucker for retro animation, so this was a very nice surprise for me.

While I personally don't have any problems with this show, I'll address the pacing because i know this puts a lot of people off it. Some episodes go through a LOT of manga chapters, so some stuff might not hit as hard as it should, but bear in mind this is a remake. Both Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Hunter x Hunter did the same, but slowed down when they reached the part of the manga which their predecessors didn't adapt. And the recent episodes of Shaman King 2021 have been getting a less choppy pace, so it's clear they're going for the same thing here.

Overall, Shaman King 2021 is a gift from the Great Spirit. Pompadours off to Hiroyuki Takei and Studio Bridge!

TLDR: If you want high budget action, skip this. If you can't be bothered to wait for a series to get better as it builds up, also skip this. Otherwise, do yourself a favour and check it out!

Also to anyone calling it "JoJo for kids" because of the power system, you're laughably wrong (this is coming from a guy who's #1 anime is JoJo and #2 is Shaman King). Ghosts are their own separate characters rather than just a projection of the user's spirit, and they're used in a completely different way in fights. It's like calling Hunter x Hunter "Naruto for kids" because their characters both fight with innate energy, or Spider-Man "Batman for kids" because they both hide their identity with a mask.