Shaman King, Volume 22 Book

I'm taking too long to read this manga, but there's a hurricane coming nearby so there's nothing to do at work. I feel like the fan translator I've been reading has regressed in their English skills, also.

****

Anyway, this volume seems to move somewhat fast, as a couple battles with apparently great "weight" are churned out one after the other. We barely see Djinn attack Ryu from the previous volume, but here our pompadoured buddy is already near-death and gets saved by the Buddha guys. Then the little kids' giant robot, Golem, wakes up and starts a brief rampage, killing all the black people, Chocolove's friends who have somehow wound up near the Shaman Fight which I don't remember being foreshadowed but whatever.

Chocolove is also kinda-sorta killed, and the three-peat of Ren, Ryu, and Chocolove makes it semi-clear the manga has shifted into a new gear, wherein characters are pushed to the brink of death in order to be revived with stronger spirit energy, and the whole thing is like Vegeta getting Krillin to kinda-kill him on purpose on Namek to level-grind "Zenkai" boosts. In addition to the "spirit energy is increased after near-death" thing, we also have the idea of "inner furyoku," which is like charging one's spiritual energy into an object repeatedly, over time, such that the item is overcharged like some kind of furyoku battery (and they actually show a car battery or something for analogy). This explains Golem's strength compared to the kids' weak furyoku, and I guess also sets up some more level-grinding for our heroes(?). Coming rather late in the series, this being Volume 22, I am somewhat reminded of Hunter x Hunter which continues to build upon its "Nen" ability system in recent chapters, despite having begun in the same year as Shaman King (1998). I suppose I can stretch the parallel a bit further in the sense that HxH took a couple volumes before teaching its protagonists about Nen, and SK did the same in taking some time before Furyoku was properly introduced, and with new elements building upon the basic concept coming in every so often (though maybe Takei's work feels a little more like "writing by the seat of his pants" at times).

Props to the minor twist that the Golem kids' father (who was killed by Chocolove's gang way back when) is actually possessing the little girl, which kinda-sorta justifies the suddenness of Golem's initial attacks.