Shaman King, Vol. 12: The Wrath of Angels

シャーマンキング [Shaman King] #12

by Hiroyuki Takei

Yoh Asakura is a shaman--one of the gifted few who, thanks to training or natural talent, can channel spirits that most people can't even see. With the help of his fiancée, Anna, Yoh is in training for the ultimate shaman sports event: the "Shaman Fight in Tokyo," the once-every-500-years tournament to see who can shape humanity's future and become the Shaman King. But unfortunately for Yoh, every shaman in the world is competing for the same prize¿

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Supernatural, Comics, Fiction, Action

200 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2000

About the author

Hiroyuki Takei (武井宏之 Takei Hiroyuki) is a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of the manga and anime Shaman King. His brother, Hirofumi Takei (武井宏文) is also a manga-ka.

Reviews

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The battle with Boris comes to a conclusion in this volume. Once again, I was truly disappointed by the resolution of it, especially how everything just happens because the mangaka wills it to happen. The progression towards resolution is just absent that way.

This volume also introduces us to the notorious X-Laws as they showcase their Archangels as Oversouls and then present their motive within this Shaman King tournament.

At least things are getting more interesting story-wise as we progress. I do have to mention that there are certain panels within battle sequences that are hard to really understand, almost asking you to skip them...

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Vikas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ryu is the man!! This one continues our fight against the man from the last volume and we learn about Yoh's character and get to appreciate it once again. And now a new power-up is introduced once again and so let's carry on and let's keep on reading.

I have always loved comics, and I have I can. I love comics to bits, may the comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and hope always to love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I just want to Keep on Reading.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yoh Asakura not only sees dead people, he talks and fights with them, too. That’s because Yoh is a shaman, a traditional holy man able to interact with the spirit world. Yoh is now a competitor in the “Shaman Fight,” a tournament held every 500 years to decide who will become the Shaman King and shape humanity’s future. The main competition begins with all the participants being dropped (literality) into the wilds of the American Southwest and told to make their own way to the Patch Village. Lyserg, a boy with a grudge against Hao, joins Yoh and his friends along the way. But before they reach their destination, Hao’s minion Boris attacks, and “Wooden Sword" Ryu displays a side of himself the others have never seen...

Ever since Amazon linked up with comiXology, so that readers could get comics, graphic novels and manga on their kindles, I have been meaning to check out what they had. Under Amazon Prime Reading you get a number of titles for free and this comiXology original is one such series.

The epic saga continues with the gang searching still for the Patch Tribe village. Their progress have been halted by the minions of the evil Hao, who wants to become Shaman King in order to destroy humanity. "Wooden Sword" Ryu is in the midst of a heated battle and Lyserg has been possessed by the seemingly Vampiric foe. Can Ryu survive the battle and can the gang regroup to continue their journey?

Easy to read and engaging, I enjoyed this and it felt just like reading a paperback manga, even on Kindle, as you have to click through the book backwards. A nice little touch. Dipped slightly in this volume with the addition of even more characters. It's all getting a little complicated now but I sure it'll come back together soon. 3 stars this time and onto the next volume.

[Dimitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love to give this volume 3 stars, but I can't...
I just got really REALLY bored...
I expected a huge and marvelous fight with the vampire dude but it was blah...
Then the other team arrived, the x dudes, but there were meh for my taste...
I don't know if I was not in the mood or if it was just a bad volume, but I didn't enjoy it at all...

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this volume Yoh and his teammates battle Boris Dracula and learn his secret.
"Wooden Sword Ryu" goes on a quest to be a better shaman.
Yoh and his teammates encounter the brutal justice of the X-Laws and their Archangels.

[Jordan Isaacson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's definitely one of the best so far, with the introduction of new characters not seeming too rushed. I am very interested in how this Hao character is going to play out.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hiroyuki Takei’s Shaman King started out like a normal shonen manga. It was very with lighthearted happy endings. All of this ending at around seven volumes in when the story kicked off. The main character, Asakura Yoh, and his friend are thrown into a competition and the winner will be the king of the shamans. When this happens, the story becomes very dark and in some cases depressing. Blood and death are very present in this story which are absent in most modern shonen series. This is not to say I do not enjoy the series, though.

As morbid as it may sound, I find the fact that character deaths is present to be refreshing in a sense. It gives the feeling that no character is safe. In volume 12, a new shaman is introduced. This shaman has an angel kill an enemy shaman which I was very shocked by. It is very unlikely that any main characters will be killed, but the series does give a scare or two. In one battle, Yoh and his friends are battling a Native American shaman whose spirits create the illusion that they are being stabbed and dismembered.

Shaman King volume 12 was a very good was a very good book in my opinion. It continued the already great series by Hiroyuki Takei and introduced the reader to the fact that there will be death. There were also some really cool secrets revealed in this volume that made me want to go to get the next volume as soon as possible. I highly recommend this series to any shonen fan and even more so to the fans of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s Rurouni Kenshin . The two authors worked together at one point, and some of the feudal spirits in Shaman King might bring back a little RuroKen nostalgia.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgot to mention this several volumes ago, but it seems we've definitely dropped the quantifiable power levels, which is great. As of this volume, it seems we're really winding down on the use of the word "Furyoku," as if the term is so perfectly ingrained in the reader's mind that Takei feels he doesn't have to constantly bombard us with jargon in order to suggest world-building; the world has already been firmly built.

Ryu gets a pretty good couple of flashback chapters. Much more fleshed-out solo material than Horohoro's story with the bear. Tokageroh expands into a new form based on Yamato no Orochi, which is cool.

The X-Laws are formally introduced, with their fucking angel Transformers. Fantastic! A near-divine spirit such as Hao's Spirit of Fire looks like a giant from Haruhi Suzumiya with Native American war-paint. Hao's demi-god servants have face-masks like weird scifi helmets, with windows showing Lovecraftian-alien eyes. Angels are giant robots. We have yet to see them transform into cars, but I'm quite sure I am correctly remembering that that will indeed happen. Pretty excited. Furthermore, we understand Yoh a bit better, with his accusations that the Templar-like X-Laws are no better than Hao for their violent extremism.

Anna is strong-willed enough to slap Hao. Hao is carefree/Yoh-like enough to play along.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this volume we get some backstory to how Wooden Sword Ryu and Tokagero became a team. I found this pretty cool and loved how they actually did not reveal this when they first started working as Shaman and spirit. One of the guilty pleasures of this series is watching what happens to Ryu's hair and how it grows back. I remember this joy when reading this series many many years ago (probably 2 decades) and it still brings me a chuckle. We are also introduced to the X-Laws! Yoh's belief in people not being good or evil is a true testament to the lovability of the character, and I hope all the readers really see it play out. Another solid entry by Hiroyuki Takei.

[Siegfried · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this volume, specially because Ryu backstory.
But I get it why people miss the points. SK fanbase was never the size of One Piece.
So a lot of small hints and pieces are never really analyzed.
Like Hao's henchmen, some terms throw here and there, and the way Hao reacted to Anna.
It's curious how things are going (specially the number of people that died).
Also, X-Laws. Man, they suck overall.
And I remembered that Lyserg, the lil piece of... Started to show how rotten and hypocrite he is.
Glad he'll be "gone" for a while, being replaced by a great character....

[Regalia Lenzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raczej wielkim zdziwieniem nie będzie fakt, iż nasza ekipa pokonała kolejnego złola. No, dziwny jest sposób pokonania. Pojawiła się kolejna banda, banda dziwaków z ... em, no ja nie wierzę, że to są 'takie' duchy, nie nie. Prędzej jakieś łajzy nazwane od 'tych' biblijnych postaci. No i chyba w kolejnym tomie ujrzymy wioskę Paczów. Jeee, wreszcie ;-)

[James Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

The battle with Boris concludes, leading into the introduction of the X-Laws, an interesting group of holier than thou Shamans. It's a decent volume which showcases the tenacity of Ryu and Yoh as the moral centre of the group, although it feels like a story which was stretched out for this volume.

[Mosley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just wasn't a big fan of this volume. I normally love vampire lore but not so much this new Shaman and don't get me started on how I don't care for the xlaws. The best part of this volume was when Anns met Hao.

[AsianMerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction of the X Laws is cool, we get our “akatsuki” and they seem to be interesting. I didn’t like that the side characters from the beginning are budging in, hopefully they’re some consequence for that but who knows. We passed the first round so to speak so let’s see what happens next.

[Ty Ridgway · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book

[Marie Kos · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eventful volume. Shaman King is an underrated series!

[Vanessa Rincon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go, Ryu, go!

[Cztery Strony Prozy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Akcja lepiej poprowadzona niż w anime. Rozwiązania fabularne mądrzejsze i z przesłaniem. Na pewno będę czytać dalej.

[Gabriela Zambrano A · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐️
Puedo decir que si me gusto, pero fue muy corto y siento que perdió tiempo en la historia de un personaje que no fue necesario. 😑 Espero un poco más para el siguiente volúmen 13. 🤍

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ryu gets a training montage. The wrath of the righteous are a little misguided. Hao needs strength.

[Klau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uhhhhhhh X-Laws.

[Rodri · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5; I think ryu's part was a bit longer than necessary but xlaws are here!

[Jaymin Ewens · Rating 5 out of 5]

All sorts of crazy

What a ride. Just that many more twists, plus the introduction of a bunch of new characters. Happily, our original nerds are all here though not all together. Should be interesting to see where they end up next.

[Дени ★ Проданова · Rating 4 out of 5]

Много приятен том. И посланието, което носи е хубаво, а именно, че трябва да си упорит за да постигнеш желанията си.
Появяват се едни от най-досадните лошковци, които се мислят за добрите. X-laws и тяхното въдворяване на световен мир... Просто нямам търпение да ги изтрепят. Колкото до Хао, той е един от най-яките злодеи, на които съм попадала. Самата му наглост е някак привличаща. Толкова е самоуверен, че чак започваш да му вярваш. Да не говорим, че изглежда доста добре... Шамара, който отнесе беше най-интересното от този том.

[Scott Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gang moves that much closer to the Patch village, and Anna and Manta arrive to join them in "Mesa Verdede." We also see the end of the fight with Hao's minion Boris, the Vampire and meet a team of apparently "holy" exorcists who appear to channel archangels as their spirit guides. The most interesting part for me was the continued backstory of Ryu...since they've toned down his clowning from the early volumes of the series I actually find him really interesting.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

We finally get to see how Ryu became a shaman and the journey on his way. At the end of the battle, we meet the X-Laws, who are there to defeat Hao as well. Yoh doesn't agree with their ways and a slight conflict arises. Our group ends up in some ruins and the journey to The Patch continues. Meanwhile, Anna and Manta come across Hao.

Lots of stories going on at the moment.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gang has finally reunited with Anna and Oyamada and arrived at the Patch village, where they meet up with holy shamans also preparing to enter the fight! Takei gets deep and creative with this entry to the "Shaman King" series. The meeting of some of the greatest Shamans in the world has finally begun!

[Doremili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y llegan los x-laws señores, felices juegos del ... ejem... pelea de shamanes