The series primarily focuses on a teenager boy named Yoh Asakura, who reveals to his classmate Manta Oyamada that he is a shaman when fighting a group delinquents led by Ryu.
[1] The originality of characters was emphasized so that they stand out,[2] which may include incorporating designs that appeal to Takei; in particular, the fox and raccoon-dog duo of Konchi and Ponchi were inspired by Ren and Stimpy.
[4] The engagement between Yoh and Anna being introduced at the beginning of the story has been regarded as unusual for a shonen manga for its maturity and partly reflects Takei's own personal experience, but it still an ideal relationship.
Though he is too lazy to train properly, he is motivated by a promise he made to his fiancée, Anna Kyoyama, to give her an easy life once he becomes Shaman King.
She has previously appeared in Hiroyuki Takei's other works, including Butsu Zone and Itako no Anna, and is notably the mascot for the Aomori Prefecture's police force.
After being abandoned by her birth parents due to her abilities, Anna was adopted by Kino Asakura, Yoh's grandmother who resides in Aomori, as one of her apprentices.
Though most itako are blind, Anna is fully sighted and extremely powerful; her considerable spiritual strength allows her to seal Hao's guardian ghosts, Zenki and Kouki, and take control of them.
Several years later, he attends college in America, studying ways to combine shamanism with business, and brings presents for his friends at their reunion at Funbari Onsen.
Despite possessing such advantages, he was defeated by Yohken Asakura, one of his descendants, and the spirit Matamune, who reluctantly put aside his love and loyalty for Hao for the sake of saving the world.
The newborn Hao escaped the Asakura family's attempt on his life with the Spirit of Fire, while badly burning Mikihisa, leaving Yoh behind with the promise to reclaim him someday.
Hana is bored with his life and finds the appearance of his fiancé Alumi Niumbirch and his proclaimed enemies Yohane and Luka Asakura as a way to kill his boredom.
Following his defeat by Yoh, Ryu ends up being possessed by Tokagero while finding a potential hang out at a rundown bowling alley in Funbari.
Ryu joins the group in the Shaman Fight as a member of Team Funbari Hot Springs with his resourcefulness and devotion to his friends being his strong points.
Following family tradition, Faust VIII studied medicine and fell deeply in love with a young woman named Eliza, who had an incurable disease.
Faust lost his mind and turns to his ancestor's forbidden legacy to resurrect Eliza with necromancy with her skeleton as a shaman medium, but he is only able to conjure an image of her using his furyoku.
After meeting Yoh, Ren's strong sense of pride moves towards his ability to protect his friends, whom he cares for deeply despite frequently arguing and fighting with them.
Additionally, because Ren has died more than once, his furyoku levels are notably very high and he is strong enough to be one of the few shamans who can actually stare straight into the heart of the Great Spirit without fainting.
Serious and emotionally aloof, Ren has been groomed since childhood by his father, Tao Yúan, to become the next Shaman King and developed a deep hatred for humanity, desiring to eliminate them all.
Several years after the Shaman Fight, Ren is a successful businessman after studying at Tsinghua University and forming an electronics manufacturing company, the Raitei Group (雷帝グループ), with Hang Zang-Ching and Bill Burton.
The child's name and his blood-red eyes and silver hair indicate that Ren married Iron Maiden Jeanne,[10] and Men later inherits both Bason and Shamash as his guardian spirits.
While he admits that he is not particularly intelligent or good with numbers, he has a strong understanding of the flow of nature, allowing him to excel at the FumonTonkou (the "Shamanic Oracle") technique, and is highly resourceful even with a low amount of furyoku, as seen when he utilizes Kororo and the Icemen's three spirits in battle.
While his entrepreneurial effort to market a blue candy-flavored marimo ball is a commercial failure, he works hard at fighting against illegal logging companies.
Following the end of the Shaman Fight, Joco turned himself in to the authorities for a seventeen-year sentence as a model prisoner before arrangements were made for him to reunite with the others at the Funbari Hot Springs.
As the tournament progresses, Lyserg's attachment to his former friends gradually causes him to see that Yoh's way of seeing a situation is not entirely wrong and attempts to deter them from confronting the X-Laws.
Because of his shamanic abilities and combat skills learned from his time as a member of Yoh's group and as an X-Law, he garnered a high arrest rate and was eventually promoted to British Secret Intelligence Agency.
Each member holds a personal vendetta against Hao for ruining their lives in one fashion and utilizes Archangels (Arch-spirits) as spirit allies with supercars as mediums.
A trio consisting of Venstar, Cebin, and Meene, who willingly fight Team Star during the tournament with full knowledge they would die in forcing Hao to reveal his method of using the Spirit Of Fire's power.
After being killed by Peyote and saved by Anna before Hao could feed them to the Spirit of Fire, Team Flower's members are revived and work at the Funbari Onsen alongside Tamao.
With no other choice, Iron Maiden Jeanne released her full power, killing the group's leader with the spirit Shamash, and the other members with other torture devices.
Driven by the desire to prove their own worth, the revealed combined power of Yoh, Faust, and Ryu makes the Icemen realize who they were dealing with and leaving them humbler upon defeat.