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Title: Song of Doom
Series: Shaman King #10
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 208
Format: Digital Copy
| Synopsis: |
Our Gang is on Route 66 but are in the middle of nowhere. Ryu and Tokagero use the Legendary Hitchhiker Thumb move and the group gets an immediate pickup by Farmer Bill. At the next town they begin their exploration for the Patch tribe, only to find out there is no Patch Tribe. The local librarian reads them a small scrap of poetry from an extinct tribe that seems to show the Patch are evil.
The librarian gives them the address of the last surviving Seminoan, a woman named Lilirara. The scene cuts away to her declaiming how the Patch are subverting the Shaman Fight so they can rule themselves. She vows to stop Our Gang so they won’t further the Patch’s aims. She subjects them to the fight the last Seminoans had and Our Gang all have their limbs chopped off,in their minds.
Lilirara shows Our Gang a vision of what happened and it turns out that the Patch were trying to create a Shaman Empire. To be more specific, someone who looked like an adult Hao with his Fire Spirit was trying to forge a Shaman Empire. Our Gang convinces her that they mean to oppose Hao and she tells them what she knows of the Patch village. Once they leave, Hao shows up and kills her. Hao does reveal that he was the evil Patch shaman from 500 years ago and that it was an Asakura who stopped him. Now he wants Yoh to grow strong so that Hao can make Yoh a great servant and thus gain his revenge.
Our Gang meets up with another shaman from England who drops his pants upon meeting them to prove he’s a guy. Yeah…..
His name is Lyserg and Horohoro and Ren attack him on suspicion that he’s an ally of Hao. Lyserg takes them both down quite easily, which is when Yoh gets involved. He warns Lyserg off and prepares to take his friends to the local hospital. Lyserg reveals his backstory of how Hao killed his parents 8 years ago and that he, Lyserg, must gather strong allies to defeat Hao. Lyserg attacks Yoh and Yoh repels the attack with one blow. Lyserg keeps attacking until Yoh destroys his shaman weapon. Yoh then smacks him around to get him to listen to reason. Lyserg joins the team and everybody is hunky dory.
Back in Japan, Yoh’s grandfather has called Anna to the Asakura shrine and unlocked the Forbidden Temple, the Temple of Hao. Turns out, Hao is 1000 years old and the ancestor of the Asakura’s. Gasp, shock, reeling…
| My Thoughts: |
Dang! Hao is proving to be one wicked badass guy. 1000 years old, the creator of the Asakura clan line AND a Patch? I’m looking forward to hearing about how he was defeated 500 years ago.
Horohoro is such a hot head. Attacking Lyserg with no real reason, he definitely earned his beating. Of course, Lyserg isn’t much better, acting so high and mighty. Good beatings for everyone and then they’re all friends. Yep, just another day in the Shonen Manga Lifestyle!
Lilirara’s death wasn’t shown, so either she was killed by Hao or he somehow subsumed her and she’ll come back in a later volume as a bad guy. She did do her part to provide Our Gang with a clue of where to start finding the Patch.
Obviously a lot of things are going on behind the scenes with the Patch and I for one am looking forward to them getting their asses handed to them for not dealing with Hao all those years ago. Exiling someone for crimes only works if you don’t care about the rest of the world. There is only one way to deal with such evil. Death. They should have chopped his head off 500 years ago. Of course, if they did, we wouldn’t have a story, right? Blasted Manga-ka!
At this point in the game, I’m pretty satisfied with how this manga is going. By this time with the Oh My Goddess manga I was just about ready to throw in the towel. I was kind of afraid I’d repeat that here but thankfully, I’m even more ready to keep going than I was after the first volume. Onward and upwards!
★★★☆½
- Shaman King #10-11 (2007 Review)
- Clash at Mata Cemetary (Book 7)
- The Road to the Tao Stronghold (Book 8)
- Voyage of the Shaman (Book 9)
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Glad you’re satisfied with how this is going- I remember Oh my goddess going off the rails for you. Hao sounds like a great villain as well!
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* shudders * OMG, sigh, what a complete let down…
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Pretty glad that this is still awesome. Does it mean that you won’t be giving up on mangas like you had to with comics post-Shaman King? 😀
Imagine… if they ever tried a live-action Shaman King movie… 😮
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I will be continuing with manga after Shaman King. I’ll probably just give up on a series much earlier than I did with OMG so it doesn’t poison my attitude.
I can’t really imagine a live-action version movie. They’d have to do one story arc and really change it to make it self-contained.
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Ahh I honestly don’t see it as a live-action movie either, but I could say that for a lot of franchises. But if they were able to make one for Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist, I wouldn’t be surprised at an attempt on Shaman King, although Shaman King seems much more quieter in terms of popularity…
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Man, did you watch that FMA movie? I watched it and didn’t really like it.
I didn’t realize they did one for bleach. From a purely “artistic” viewpoint I’d be very interested in seeing who they cast as Orihime 🙂
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Nop, I hesitate too much with it. I’m currently re-reading Death Note on the side to then watch the controversial live-action Netflix movie, which I recall you enjoyed if I stand correct. I’m thinking I’ll giving FMA a shot after re-reading it (maybe just enough to cover the movie and not the whole franchise).
Ahahahahaha I think you’d be “disappointed” in terms of proportional casting, but they went with a lady who goes by the name of Erina Mano. The movie is on Netflix as well I believe, if you ever feel curious enough to try it, and if you do, do let me know what you thought hahah
https://comicbook.com/anime/2018/05/30/bleach-anime-live-action-orihime-chad-casting/
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I really did enjoy the netflix version of Death Note, but I’m a real sucker for ANYTHING death note. Well, except that 3rd movie that totally sucked.
The FMA movie just covers the first story arc of the anime. I only read the first manga volume or 2 before giving up, as the anime did the story better, imo.
I just googled Erina Mano. I realize that japanese tend to be smaller in that department but still, Orihime is supposed!!! to be bouncy. sigh. Now I feel like a lech.
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Yep, I’m going to relive through all those great Death Note material once I finish up with the manga. Have you also seen the last Japanese movie from 2 years ago? Death Note: Light Up the New World? If you did, did you like it? 😮
Oh sweet, good to know I won’t be crying at how long it’s going to take me to finish up that series in the future hahah
Hahahahahah I’m dying! They always go for “lean and cute” and rarely ever find “lean and big”. I think it might also have to do with acting talents… As in… The more you want it to be accurate in size, the less acting skills they have to do minimally good for the movie. Erina Mano, in this case, is an already known figure among Japanese fans too I think… A pop singer or something…
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Light up the new world was the “crap 3rd movie” I was referencing. I found it completely unpalatable, even compared to the netflix version.
The japanese really do like their “cute” don’t they? Well, they can have it. I’ll take buxom any day…
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Glad to hear you are going to continue
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To the very end! 🙂
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