This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Over Soul
Series: Shaman King #4
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Format: Digital Copy
Series: Shaman King #4
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 192
Format: Digital Copy
|
Synopsis:
|
The Patch Tribe
have been the overseers for the Shaman Fight for quite some time.
Their connection to the Great Spirit allows them to determine if a
Shaman is capable of being part of the Shaman Fight. Silva and 9
other Patch overseers are sent to Japan to test various candidates
and weed out the failures before hand.
Silva tests Yoh and
all Yoh has to do is touch Silva. However, Silva manifests his
spirits through totems and his mana (chi) gives them physical form,
thus preventing Yoh from simply flinging Amidamaru at him. The test
is to determine if Yoh can actually channel his own mana and what
strength as a shaman he has. Yoh figures out how to manifest
Amidamaru using his sword and is able to land one blow on Silva. Yoh
now has a genuine Patch Pager Oracle, which will tell him who to
fight, when to fight and any conditions.
Ren Tao also
defeats his overseer, but kills the guy. The overseer was a friend of
Silva and Silva can't figure out why Ren is still allowed to continue
in the Shaman Fight even though he has demonstrated he is a little
psychopathic killer. The rest of the Overseers basically tell Silva
to shut up and do what they say.
Yoh has his first
fight against a young shaman named Horohoro, who uses a snowboard as
his totem. Horohoro has a dream to make all mankind live in harmony
with nature and Yoh almost gives up to allow him to proceed.
Thankfully, Anna is there and smacks him around and he gets back on
track. But now he has his own dream, of living the easy life, and of
making Horohoro's dream come true. The fight is just beginning when
the volume ends.
|
My
Thoughts:
|
I dropped this a half star for a variety of reasons.
First and foremost, while harmony with nature has been chatted up
before, here it felt like a date. I too have a dream. To pave the
entire planet. I wish more people WOULD get out into nature, REAL
nature, not the fake stuff you have around cities and suburbs. Then
maybe all those people would die and everyone else would realize how
terrible nature is and how it should be conquered.
Second, the whole Patch tribe and the Great Spirit schtick. There is
a 2 page long talk about how the Great Spirit is the supreme being of
the entire universe but that it can't actually foresee the future,
blah, blah, blah. It is a bunch of nonsense (in that it really makes
no sense and contradicts itself) and is so amorphous that Takei (the
manga-ka) can use it as he wishes. Also, the vibes given off by the
Patch Overseers is rather tyrannical.
But if you don't overanalyze things and just let those things drift
on by, this was a lot of fun. Yoh is learning new things and picking
up new allies, maybe without even realizing it. His Entourage was
already started with Anna, Manta and Ryu but now he has made friends
with Silva and I'm pretty sure he and Horohoro become good friends. A
King needs allies.
The Patch are obviously going to be involved way more than just as
Overseers. The whole thing between Silva and the others over the
death of his friend showed clearly that the Patch are just as human
as any of the shamans. Thus they have their own agendas and schisms.
I suspect corruption and collusion at some point in the narrative to
help drive the drama.
I think the most amusing part of this volume was when Horohoro finds
out that Anna and Yoh are engaged. He starts feeling inferior because
he doesn't even have a girlfriend. It made me laugh because it is SO
how a boy would think.
★★★☆½
No comments:
Post a Comment