didn't notice any problems here

crisp and clear

crisp and clear

Note that I bought the 2 DVD set by MANGA which contains episode 1 to 13. So I'm kinda surprised that it says only 1 DVD in the info since the series made by MANGA has a total of 9 DVD's, so I think some real info is missing, in any case you could still find it out on ebay. The content, I bought this on sale on ebay for 14$ for the first 2 volumes of this series, although at first I was sceptic about it due to the cover. But once I watched the first few episodes it caught my interest. Indeed it does have a ressembles towards the Highlander series on TV, Since there exists many Shamans but only 1 can become the shaman king, the one that deserves it. Starts off with Manta the little watermelong look-a-like boy, that takes another way home through a cemetery, where he meets Asakura Yoh, which happens to be a shaman who connects the living world the the dead world, in other words he can merge with a dead spirit and use it's abilities ( say a samurai skills ) to protect or attack. At some point Manta was bullied and Yoh comes to the rescue merging with a 600 years old samurai known to be a devil. And the story continues to develop so on as Yoh needs a main spirit to stay by his side all the time. along the way he'll meet Ren, a boy around his age that bears a heavy burden along with his main spirit Bason and wants to fight Yoh and become the one and only Shaman king. Along the way other shamans will appear along with other kinds of abilities by others ( like shamans, only they are called differently depending on their special powers, like one of them can call upon a dead spirit that passed away form the other side to give it to a shaman king, another is to control dead bodie with charms and make them obey any of their orders ) then the tournment will begin to find out who will become the shaman king. Also people from Yoh's past will come and surprise you a lot. This series I bought it completly becasue I think it's different, the designs are different indeed but it's interesting in my opinion, plus therE's and intriguing story that lies behind it along with some comedy and twists. Doesn't ressemble dragon ball at all in my opinion. It's worth the look a least then decide if it's good or not no??

This is a TV rip, but a decent one. It has all the small problems that come with it: slightly blurry and unsharp picture, color bleeding etc., but I have seen far worse.

Nothing to complain about.

Nothing to complain about.

As mentioned in the review below, this is a typical shounen fighting series. Somehow the story reminded me of the "Highlander" movie. The time of the gathering has come and there can be only one - Shaman King. Still, I enjoyed watching this (far more than DBZ for instance).

Video - 4/5 The video was really good and there were none of those green bars that other MI titles had. Since the R2 DVDs for the first 13 eps of Shaman King had been out for so long before these DVDs were released I would assume that the video is an R2 rip but it just didn't look sharp and crisp enough for a 5/5. Still very very good all the way through. Nothing to worry about. Audio - 4/5 No problems here. The audio was fine throughout all 13 episodes. Subs - 4.5/5 Fansubs all the way through. No doubt about it. ALL names were correct and even the phrase "My bad" was used in the subs which removed any doubts I had of it being HK original. The only reason I didn't give it a 5/5 is because there were a few misspellings and about 3 lines were unsubbed. There were no extras and there was only one OP and one ED per disc. Content - If you've seen this show somewhere else before and you like it then this is a great buy and you should definitely pick it up. But...if you've never seen the show and you're just curious like I was, then be warned that this show is EXTREMELY UNORIGINAL. This is the type of show where you know EVERYTHING that's going to happen before it happens because you've seen all this cliched material recycled hundreds of times before. This anime is not thought provoking at all with an unbelievably weak/boring/dragging plot that seems to be there only to act as a bridge between the unrealistic fight scenes where the good guy wins against someone far stronger than him simply because he has a "good heart" or because he "believes in himself". This anime uses that same old "I want to be the best fighter" story that we've seen so often in stuff like DBZ. The character designs are very poor but you probably already knew that just by looking at the cover of the DVD box. If you're looking for something new and interesting then keep far away from this. But if you don't have a problem with what I've mentioned then you might enjoy it. I'm selling mine immediately. edited by Femto821 on 07 Oct 2002 11:27 am