Shaman King, Volume 26 Book

What Providence! Getting back into reading Shaman King at work earlier this week, I was moved to look for the Yoh and Hao figures that came out in 2019 but hesitated a bit only to be greeted this morning with a re-release of both, available for preorder. So this is the power of the Great Spirit!

The battle between Team The Ren and the Gandhara Myooh team escalated last chapter with the introduction of Jackson's Fudo Myooh, an important diety in Japanese Shingon Buddhism (which I know from several Eastern religion classes in college for my "Philosophy" minor that really should have been a "Religious Studies" minor, but whatever) who doesn't seem to matter much in the context of this manga, which overall doesn't have a singular religious leaning. The significance is that all Myooh team members can nullify opponents' furyoku, and so Fudo Myooh uses his classic sword to cut his foes' spirits. But this is hardly a big deal, as Fudo Myooh's assault is partly just a distraction so the third guy's Buddha can shoot an arrow at Chocolove, having already previously disabled Ren, leaving Horohoro to take care of both standing enemies.

For ages, Horohoro has been the butt of several jokes for being the weakest member of Yoh's crew. Aside from the business with the bear some volumes back, we've not seen much of Horohoro's true self. Hao, with his psychic power, informs Luchist of Horohoro's true name: Usui Horokeu, named after the extinct Hokkaido wolf revered by the Ainu peoples of Japan. Hao mentions some grief holding Horohoro's true power away from himself, and it appears the apparent deaths of Ren and Chocolove allow Horohoro to transform Kororo into a new armor-type O.S. capable of obliterating large chunks of the Gandhara Buddhas.

I don't recall if I've written about this element of Shaman King's power system, but I quite enjoy the ability characters show to whittle away their enemies' spirit power by just constantly destroying their O.S. It's like some kind of JRPG Summon Magic. You need to use energy to summon your spirit into an Oversoul form, and you cannot simply recharge when the O.S. is broken. Horohoro is able to "win" against Gandhara by destroying their Oversouls, never damaging the humans in the process. There is thus a huge contrast when we later see the mallgoth girl gang from Hao's party flat-out murder the old witches. Gandhara preach nonviolence, and so cut through their foes' furyoku at the cost of maybe actually causing physical injury. Yoh and his friends fight because they have to, but they don't kill. Horohoro is able to get angry as fuck and end the fight against Gandhara without touching the human shamans at all. An interesting extension from the Stands of JoJo, whose bodies are directly linked to their users, making Shaman King a wee bit more distinct than otherwise appearing like Goku's Bizarre Adventure or something (combining Dragon Ball with JJBA).

There is foreshadowing for the "Five Elemental Warriors," the identities of whom I just spoiled for myself by accident when browsing the Shaman King Wiki....

The Sphinx spirit almost spooked me a bit when it teleported in front of Marco's car.