Forum - View topicREVIEW: Shaman King
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Soul_Punisher
Posts: 66 |
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Great overview of the series I just wished for a better handling of the Anime but I guess I was So wrong.
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2393 Location: United States |
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There's actually a reason why the VSI dub sounds so stilted: Apparently somebody had the idea to have a Portuguese man, who previously voice acted in Portuguese dubs of anime, direct the English dub of the anime.
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Mr. Toto
 Posts: 139 |
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Watch episodes 20 and 21 and you’ll start to understand why a different adaptation needed to be done. Shaman King is far from a traditional shonen and wants to lull you into believing that idea — with characters like Horohoro and Tao Ren fulfilling those roles.
This is a story where all the characters are literally on a quest to become God. There’s a darkness underneath that wasn’t present in the original series. Actions have real consequences here, too. The dub really SUCKS though! The only voices I can tolerate are Yoh, Tao Ren, Ryu, and Hao. Toss the rest 
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tintor2
 Posts: 1822 |
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When it comes to comparisons between both animes, I think MIzushima nailed Ryu as he transition from villain of the week to protagonist was better executed. In the anime he saves Yoh from Ren as they have two fights before Anna appears. When Yoh is fighting Jun's Fai Long, Ryu is the one who aids Manta rather than attack him again to provide Amidamaru with a sword. Same with Horohoro a bit.
Still, Ryu has his creepy moments when he goes around hitting on really younger girls. Still, the karma works really well for him which helped him to make him an effective comic relief. When I watched the reboot, it sure felt that Takei likes the Tokusatsu based on the amount of colors for every spirit even though the author is obsessed with the manga's message being that fighting is bad. Training also feels really forced as Yoh just spends one episode preparing to have an equal match with Ren just by staying in a dark cave for a weekend. It gets even worse latter but the anime hasn't adapted that part. Basically, spoiler[dying is the easiest way to become stronger which kills all drama] |
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johnnysasaki
Posts: 926 |
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Brazilian,not Portuguese.And the man in question is a well respected and prolific voice-actor in Brazil(he holds the distinction of voicing Pegasus Seiya the most in any language),but yeah,directing a dub in his non-native language may have not been a good idea. Brazil(and the hispanic countries) have a similar problem when some of the cheapest and worst dubs are done in Miami(the LaTam dub of My Hero Academia is done there,and the backlash is still felt) |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5317 |
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From what I've heard, the originals 4Kids version was better, or less bad, than there other titles. And wasn't as heavily censored.
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hooliganj
 Posts: 113 Location: Longhorn Central |
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Man, the pacing on the remake of Hoshin Engi had the same problem. It seems the new pattern is for studios to adapt old Jump hits from the 90s, but cut the episode count by 30-50%.
The Ushio & Tora remake got away with this by cutting out a lengthy chunk of the plot, but staying mostly faithful to the parts they did adapt. To do something similar with Shaman King they would have to take out, say, Jeanne and the X-Laws and all of their related story arcs. Instead it seems we'll be getting the entire story, just played back at x3 speed. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11191 |
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I feel like Tara Sands' Anna improves over the course of the show, even if it's a little jarring at first, and I would say as much for the dub as a whole.
I'm not sure if DC Douglas' Ryu is more or less ridiculous than the spaniard Sean Schemmel turned him into in the 4Kids dub. Actually kind of surprised they weren't able to bring Sean back. |
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Shiawase_Rina
Posts: 76 |
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I'm so glad that this anime just gets better and better with every episode!
So yeah the first 13 episodes are really the worst we will get. They pretty much did an FMA Brotherhood where everything that was already covered in the old anime was rushed (tho Shaman King cut less which makes it feel more rushed). I was kinda sad that iconic moments like the Faust fight suffered from the fast pace, but right now I'm just too happy with how well every single new episode turns out that it doesn't hurt that much anymore. Maybe in the future people will say "Watch the old anime's first 25 episodes and then switch to the remake!" as an ideal way to experience animated Shaman King. That would be fair enough (if people of today can stomach the super slow pacing of the old anime), but I would be a bit concerned since the old anime changed some things like Ren's intro episode. Anyway, I can't wait to watch the Japanese broadcast every week. It seems the remake is doing well in Japan too. It feels like I see news of new merch and collabs every day on Twitter. And there is the new gacha game it will get too. I just hope the anime stays good and successful so that we get the Shaman King Sequels animated too! |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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Like Shiawase_Rina already said, this remake pulled a FMA: Brotherhood by spending its first 13 episodes rushing through the material that had already been somewhat faithfully adapted by the original TV series before it started to diverge heavily from the manga, but starting with episode 14, the show has settled into a five-or-six-chapters-per-episode pace that feels pretty reasonable due to how decompressed the source material is.
Last edited by Zhou-BR on Tue Sep 07, 2021 8:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1207 |
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Thank you for giving such an honest review of a series that does indeed have issues. I had gotten way behind and dropped off around Episode 9, only watching the most recent 3(19, 20, 21?) earlier this week. I have to say, even if the pacing balances out a little better, the visuals and animation are still off-putting like 75% of the time.
I too, would heavily recommend the manga over this adaption(which just got a new, full online release via Kodansha, as well as print omnibus editions that are ongoing). 
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KitKat1721
 Posts: 953 |
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I left a pretty long comment on the This Week in Anime column covering Shaman King, talking about similar issues mentioned in the review and a breakdown of why the dub absolutely did not work for me. So to keep it much shorter (although not really sweeter) this time around: I could barely finish this first season, let alone the dub, and I likely won't continue with it whenever Netflix drops its next batch of episodes. A pretty big disappointment on all fronts to be honest.
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ZetMoon80
Posts: 87 |
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SK 2021 is not perfect, but tbh I'm really enjoying it so far. Despite pace issues, at least I can follow the story. Hoshin Engi 2018 is the worst thing I've ever seen. I hardly understood wtf was going on and it was one of the few anime that I got to drop. The pace on that one was ridiculously fast. |
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Matros
Posts: 268 |
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Everyone is mostly bothered by the pacing, but damn the animation leaves a lot to be desired. Even saying that feels like an understatement. The adaptation doesn't elevate the source material at all.
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Covnam
 Posts: 3650 |
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If the original series covers the first 13 eps better than the new series, what episodes of the original series would that be?
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