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Writer's pictureMiguel Galang

Shaman King Episode 7 is the weakest episode yet

You thought it was going to be a good episode, but it was not! (High-five if you get the reference…sorta)

Faust
Johann Faust VIII—the shaman necromancer.

Shaman King Episode 7? Yeah, it’s not good.


After a mildly intense episode last week, where we met the Ainu shaman Horohoro and Yoh gets his first win ahead of the Shaman Fight, things go dark as another competitor emerges and with literal skeletons straight out of his closet.


If raising the dead is considered a taboo in Fullmetal Alchemist, then Johann Faust VIII would have probably been in a whole lot of trouble. Simply known as a Faust VIII (voiced by Takehito Koyasu) appears before Yoh and Manta and challenges the former to a duel in the graveyard.


But despite the two shamans having the same level of furyoku, which is basically shaman energy, Faust likes to play dirty as the former doctor incapacitates Manta first, which nearly turned into an episode of Grey’s Anatomy (the manga’s much more gruesome though), to throw off Yoh’s concentration. Can he defeat the German necromancer in time to save his first friend?

Manta
Why this suddenly turned into Grey's Anatomy?!

This episode could have been way more exciting given the kind of material we have—it’s darker than anything we’ve seen in the past episodes, it features an unusual shaman user, and for one, the show can really lean on the its ‘supernatural’ tag. However, in reality, all we got was just some poor exposition coupled with poor animation.


Not that we’re keeping score or anything, but I can literally count in one hand the amount of times swords clashed and skeletons charged. And I can count on two hands the times Yoh and Faust threw words instead at each other. Though it’s supposed to benefit the overall storyline and of course, the characters, it’s a bit counterproductive considering how rushed this episode felt. The pacing was a mess—we didn’t have any sort of callback from the last week and we just flew to the graveyard. Like, what were Yoh and Manta doing there in the first place?? The series also lacks dynamic action sequences, which is one of the hallmarks of a great episode from a great shounen anime. So far, all we’ve had are a dozen speeches and some stills of the shaman’s power moves.

Yoh and Amidamaru
While the series boasts great characters, it lacks in dynamic and good momentum.

The most exciting aspect of this episode probably came at the last minute. Literally. Indeed, there will be huge expectations for next week given how disappointing this was. But again, Shaman King needs to do more than just tell, but actually show viewers why the show deserves the hype.

 

Shaman King airs Thursdays at 17:55 JST.


Official Anime Website: shamanking-project.com

Official Anime Twitter: @SHAMANKING_PR

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