Awesome / Shaman King

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• How about in the manga where Manta, in order to get a sword for Yoh, beats up Ryu and Co. with his dictionary. In the anime episode "Pai-Long Attacks!", this is changed to RYU himself saving Manta from the gang he was trying to get a sword from. They were both different, but still awesome nonetheless.
  • Yoh gets one afterwards when Anna sends the spirit of Shaolin, Lee Pyron's master into Yoh. Shaolin-in-Yoh proceeds to Curb-Stomp Lee, from blocking all of his attacks, to striking him down with a Kamehame Hadoken. Shaolin-in-Yoh ends the fight with a charged double fist strike.
    Shaolin-in-Yoh: "Eijuuken-Ougi Soujuuken (Gun-Edge Fist Succession Technique:Double-Gun Fist)"
  • Hell, even the dub name was awesome.
    Shaolin-in-Yoh: "Imperial Punch: Double."
• Chapters 27-31/Episode 13, Yoh vs. Silva. How do you slice through a blast from a 5-soul-powered Totem Cannon? Over Soul powered BUDDHA GIRI/CELESTIAL SLASH!!
• Yoh has quite a few moments, but one that stands out is during his fight with Horohoro, where he, acting on muscle memory, performs the Shock Wave Buddha Giri, Amidamaru's signature attack, mowing down a field of icicles created by Horohoro. What really makes this an awesome moment for Yoh is that it's the first "real" fight where it's Yoh pulling off all the awesome attacks, with Amidamaru forming the Over Soul instead of possessing him and doing the work.
  • Not to mention Yoh and Horohoro's final attack during the fight. Furyoku-pumped-up-Amidamaru Slash vs. Extreme Avalanche.
• Faust's fight with Yoh. The 2021 anime specially makes this fight look beautiful. Special mention also goes to Faust's VA Matt Caplan during the post-fight scene where Faust summons a giant skeleton and Matt delivers an awesome Evil Laugh that sounds plain unhinged and demented.
• Yoh and Tao Ren's third fight for them to enter in the Shaman Tournament. All of it. The battle was SO EPIC, the dub episode had to spoil the ending. The name of that episode; "One, Two, Three, Draw".
• "Wooden Sword" Ryu revealing a new attack from his Tokagero Over Soul and just utterly wrecking Boris Tepes Dracula with it. Immediately before doing that, Boris tries to gank Ryu while he doesn't have enough time to turn around or draw his sword. Ryu's response is to backhand Boris in the face and tell the punk that he's a street fighter first, swordsman second.
  • The anime expanded on this fight in episode 36, the only difference from above is that Ryu and Horohoro comboed him. The best part of the fight came with the group's Batman Gambit. Boris' spirit partner has possessed Lyserg (though he fights off long enough to ask Yoh to finish him off). Meanwhile, his bat spirits have a bunch of sharp spikes above Ren, Trey, and Ryu, and if any of them make a move, the spikes will fall on them. So how do they get out of this one? Yoh lets Lyserg bite him, but it turns out that he and Amidamaru performed Spirit Unity "BEFORE" the fight and Amidamaru captures Boris' spirit partner freeing Lyserg as well. Enraged, Boris has the bats drop the spikes, only for Ryu and Trey to grab and freeze the spikes, leaving Ren to finish of Boris with a Rapid Tempo Assault.
  • Yoh defending Boris from the X-Laws. Heck, he even has the stones to tell them that if they're going to kill Yoh just for stopping them from killing Boris, then they're all no better than Hao himself. Cue them all in rage pulling out their Archangels, showing full intent on killing Yoh for saying that to them. And he still stands there, sword and Amidamaru ready. Cue Boris Taking the Bullet for Yoh, thanking him for his kindness. It becomes a Tear Jerker thanks to his backstory, and Lyserg joining the X-Laws afterward, but still.
• During the "Rescue Ren from his Father" arc, we have:
  • Horohoro and Ryu Back-to-Back Badasses moments fighting four of the five Johto Guards.
  • Yoh and Ren beating Lee Pyron's Dragon form in the 2001 anime.
  • The fifth Johto Guard a.k.a. Shaolin trapped in a Jiang-Shi forced to obey Yuan beating the crap out of Yoh, Ren, Horohoro, and Ryu at the same time. And Jun and Lee Pyron show up with the latter drop-kicking him in half.
  • When the gang is facing down Ren's father, Yuan Tao, Ren finally realizes the secret behind his father's enormous size, inhuman power, and apparent immortality. The man that he's known all his life is actually an Over Soul. So he makes several composure-shattering proclamations and observations to him, and then just stands there, Over Soul deactivated, as his raging father makes another swipe at him. The Over Soul just passes through him, proof that he's rattled his father to the point that he can't even focus on keeping his Over Soul up anymore. Then after Yoh and the gang manage to hurt him. Ren goes in full force, laying an ass whopping, and when his father uses his trump card, the Tao Family Dragon, Ren Over Souls Bason to max and puts a Golden Sledgehammer in his face.
• Lyserg gets his first moment by curbstomping Horohoro and Len only seconds after their fight.
  • He gets another one during his first fight as an X-Law against Team Nile for the second round of the tournament (In the 2001 anime, this happens a few episodes before the tournament). Using only Chloe, he increased his skills to take on all three members and crushing Anahol's arms. He would have killed them if Yoh didn't ask him to stop. Then Lady Jeanne comes in, and kills all three members in under two minutes.
• During a side-story focusing on him, Horohoro, faced with the dilemma of the life of a human-hating grizzly bear, loved by the park ranger who saved his life, being threatened (by law; if he attacks humans, he'll be put down), he decks himself out in full Ainu shaman garb, marches right up to the grizzly in question, and proceeds to sit down and offer him some sake. He proceeds to try and discuss the situation with the bear, despite getting nearly mauled several times (by the several hundred pound grizzly bear). Finally, he gets through to the poor creature; but just as it looks like the whole story will end happily, a trio of poachers shoot the bear dead on the spot, then try to run when they see the park ranger. Horohoro, a believer in the laws of nature, demands that the hunters at least take their kill with them when they leave; when he finds out from their responses that they killed the bear for sport, and not for food, he goes apeshit. The hunters panic and shoot him, only to find that he's just manifested a shell of ice around his body, stopping the bullets cold. Seeing this, they panic again and shoot at him, only for him to stop them with a wall of ice. And finally, he manifests a completely new Over Soul, which can only be described as a Laser Blade made of pure cold. With a mighty swing, he fells several trees behind the poachers, and immediately locks them right there in the air with a huge mound of ice; but he doesn't touch the poachers. His last words to them are: "I won't kill them. If I did, I'd be as worthless as they are."
  • Horohoro's second moment was him defeating Brocken. To summarize, Bill and Brocken were killing off defeated Shaman King tournament participants, and the Ice Men were next. Horohoro decides to protect them since he's mad that Ren died. He's almost killed when his dad arrives to knock out Bill and remind his son of "Survival Of The Fittest". So Horohoro comes up with a unique plan. He uses his brains, and uses the Ice Men's spirits to lead Brocken into a trap and encased him in a block of ice. With him out of the fight, Horohoro lies in victory, but Bill has survived to finish him off. Who saves him? Lyserg. With his new angel, Zelel.
  • Horohoro gets another one when his team "The Ren" are completely demolished by The Gandhara, a team with Godlike Spirits. Horohoro begins to flashback to Pascal Avaf's training and he and Kororo awaken the Nipopo Gauntlets, a new Over Soul, that forms giant gauntlets of ice that cover his entire arms. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle, and Horohoro wins the round for his team. Most importantly, however is that during the fight, Lady Sati, declares that Horohoro will be the Fifth Elemental Warrior, which means he will be getting the one of the Five Elemental Spirits (the Spirit of Rain specifically). If you need help imagining what that means, just think of Hao's Spirit of Fire.
    Opacho: "Horohoro scares me."
• Anna using one of Hao's spells and a 1080 bead rosary to force two of Hao's demon servants into submission in seconds. Of note is the fact that the book she found the spell in released said (murderous) demons the second it was unsealed.
  • Fun fact, when she does that in the manga she is in the early stages of pregnancy. At fifteen. Awesome doesn't even begin to cover it.
  • Also, Anna walking up to Hao and slapping him in the face. For badmouthing Yoh and the gang. What makes this even better is when he catches her hand and tries to flirt with her ("You truly are worthy to be the wife of the Shaman King..."), Anna flinches a bit and then she slaps him with her other hand.
• In episode 53 of the 2001 anime, the Lily Five's first match of the tournament is against Hao's team. The Lily Five are too stubborn to bow out and so Yoh challenges them to fight him before he'll allow them to face Hao. Then the most amazing thing happens, they actually manage to beat him by pulling their act together. Sadly they all ran out of furyoku and are therefore unable to fight Hao, so they drop out anyway. Still, it was pretty cool seeing the girls improve so much and hold their ground. That and they became known in-universe as "The Five Girls That Stood Up Hao". And Hao was pissed.
• In the manga when Chocolove comes back from the dead to face-off against the Golem, he tells the bound ghost that is piloting it: "I killed you on Christmas three years ago. But so what?" What really makes that Badass Boast work is the fact that he was previously shown feeling guilty about it. His 'so what' does not mean he doesn't care, but that he isn't going to let his guilt rule him any more. BAD. ASS.
• Marco vs. Anahol. Let's just say that there's a reason why Michael and Marco are the de-facto leaders when Jeanne's not around.
• Yoh borrowing his father's spirits to fight against Team X-II.
  • Then Luchist, Hao's second in command appears to curb stomp Marco, so Yoh, Lyserg, and Lady Jeanne lead Luchist into a Triple Batman Gambit.
• Yoh and the Elemental Warriors return from Hell. Special points go to Yoh for unleashing his new Over Soul, Spirit of Sword: White Swan on the same person who beat Hao 500 years ago; Yohken Asakura and Faust reviving him to do the same to Big Bill, Zang-Ching and Turbine, and Team Ren coming back to stop Kanna, Matilda and Marion from killing Gandhara.
  • Before that, we have Anna vs. a-pissed-off-Hao. Did we mention that Anna has over 600,000 furyoku, half of Hao's 1200000 level. Yeah. Its was a fun fight. Also, she's pregnant. Yeah. Anna rocks.
    • The reason why Hao was pissed. Team X-II destroyed his base and almost KILLED HIM with a Satellite LASER BEAM.
    • Hao later admits that he had no chance of dodging or tanking the beam; he survived only because of quick thinking and his elemental-related powers. The assassination attempt did not piss him off - in fact, it he would've respected the X-II as Worthy Opponents... if they didn't accidentally press his Berserk Button beforehand.
• The tournament battles in the 2001 anime were also impressive and showed character development for at least half of the main characters.
  • Episode 46, Ren defeated his older cousin and twin cousins BY HIMSELF, ensuring that he is the heir to the Tao throne after facing punishment from all three for their attacks.
  • Episode 47, Ryu destroying Haloune's genie using sheer will and O.S. Yamatao no Orochi, and saving Haloune's and Anith's relationship.
  • Episode 48, Horohoro using The Power of Love from Pirika's heart to beat Team Doom's Dragon Over Soul.
  • Faust using a Batman Gambit in a heartwarming fashion to let Team Spartacus lose without hurting them in episode 49.
  • Chocolove overcoming the darkness in his heart in the most funniest way ever.
  • Four words: MANTA BECOMES A SHAMAN. And Mosuke returns.
    • And the situation in which it happens is a good evaluation of how intelligent and quick-thinking he is. Manta has been kidnapped and forcefully made to fight Yoh with Mosuke also enslaved inside of his sword - forcing Yoh into a situation that could lead to his having to hurt or kill his best friend. Manta manages to avert this by speaking to Mosuke mentally and figuring out that if they can change the spirit focus, they can turn the tables. Cue Manta taking Mosuke from the sword, directing him into the laptop and proving that despite his size and anxious nature, he has what it takes to be a shaman!
• Hell, just every single time a shaman, Yoh and his friends and the X-Laws included, meets Hao and is offered a chance to become one of his disciples fearlessly refuses to join him and tears him apart for the self-serving piece of crap he truly is. Sure, it gets some of them killed and transformed into literal soul food for the Spirit of Fire, but still.
• When Hao burns Jeanne to keep her from opening the Babylon Gate, the X-Laws do all they can to keep Hao's disciples from finishing her off when Hao orders them to. And even though three of them are killed and the rest are all knocked down, they still put up a good fight. And when Hao's disciples are about to strike the final blow, Yoh and his friends come to their rescue, with Yoh's friends protecting the X-Laws while Yoh deals with Hao. Keep in mind that the X-Laws were about to use them as bait for Hao to arrive so the Gate can open and turn them all into nothingness. The reason for them doing this for the X-Laws? Even though they don't like them, that doesn't mean they're going to let Hao and his disciples kill them all.
• Yoh and friends vs. Hao and his disciples in the last eight episodes of the anime.
  • To put it simply, Hao now has a map of the Star Sanctuary, where the King of Spirits resides, thanks to Nichrom and Zinc, and his final plan is to basically say "Screw the Tournament, I've got a map, my disciples, and the Spirit of Fire!", break into the Star Sanctuary and illegally become the Shaman King by merging with the King of Spirits by force. What do Yoh and his friends, including Silva and Kalim, do? Why, drop everything and do everything in their power to stop them, of course!
  • In the beginning of the final stretch, Yoh teaching Len how to properly use Giant Spirit Control by channeling it into a smaller, yet stronger form. Yoh taught Len. THE HARD WAY. And it later bears fruit, as below will show.
  • When both factions enter the Star Sanctuary, Hao's given pretty much all of his disciples sans Opacho the kind of furyoku he has, as in over 1,250,000, to "keep Yoh and his friends occupied", which translates to kill them. And judging from all of Hao's fights that weren't against Yoh, all of Hao's disciples expect Yoh and the gang to go down within milliseconds. AND THEY ALL STILL LOSE. Yoh uses his smaller GSC to easily defeat Kanna, Matilda and Marion, Silva and Kalim take down Nichrom and Zinc with a combined explosion from both their Totem Cannons, and despite Bill going down early thanks to not being able to handle Hao's furyoku, Peyote is easily defeated by Lyserg's Archangel Advent form given to Chloe, and Luchist, Zang-Ching, Turbine, and Brocken go down to Len's smaller GSC after Ryu, Trey, Faust and Joco bring him back. Yoh and his friends didn't defeat the Smug Shamans that form Hao's brotherhood. THEY FUCKING ANNIHILATED THEM.
  • Yoh, and every single one of his friends, especially Manta, absolutely shutting down everything that comes out of Hao and his disciples' mouths. Manta isn't even fighting them; he's trailing Hao and Opacho after accidentally finding them thinking Hao was Yoh (to be fair, can you blame him?). Keep in mind, Manta isn't that strong a shaman, doesn't have a lot of furyoku, has seen what Hao is capable of, has seen the scope of the ruthlessness that Hao and his disciples employ, and is very much aware that Hao can burn him alive and have the Spirit of Fire eat his soul if or when he wants to. And even then, Manta still has the balls to call Hao delusional and the absolute worst thing to ever happen to this planet. Of course, Hao doesn't listen, and his disciples still constantly spout Hao's rhetoric, because they're all that arrogant, but it's the thought that counts. Also, when Hao's goons constantly tell them of Hao's plan when he becomes the Shaman King, they straight-up say he won't be the Shaman King, because Yoh will stop him. They have that much faith in Yoh to know he'll win the fight against Hao, and considering what happens next? It was something to savor.
• And the biggest moment of awesome in the first anime? Yoh and Hao's final fight. By this point, Hao and the Spirit of Fire are being powered up by the poached King of Spirits, making them seemingly unbeatable. What's Yoh and Amidamaru powered up by? The combined furyoku of all the shamans in the world. Needless to say, it was totally awesome.
  Yoh: "I think this is what it feels like, to be Shaman King."
  • And Yoh and Amidamaru proceed to do what couldn't be done in the manga; they kill Hao by slicing him and the Spirit of Fire in half with a single slash. After pretty much all the crap Hao and his disciples did, all the innocent people, shaman and human alike, killed, all to use their spirits to fuel the Spirit of Fire, all the destruction they caused, all the lives they ruined, all to execute that psychopath's plan for mass genocide, seeing the architect of it all finally going down is absolutely nothing short of cathartic. Of course, that's probably nothing compared to what the King of Spirits likely did to him after the battle was over. After all, how else can you explain it taking so long to start the tournament back up?
  • Don't forget the rest of Yoh's friends attempts to stop Hao themselves.
    • Ren, pissed off at Hao for absorbing Yoh's soul doesn't even manifest his third new Spirit Control, yet uses his full-powered Golden Thunder on Hao anyway. And his Ultimate Rapid Hyper Tempo Assault on Hao's Shikigamis was bad either. He even uses one of his manga's newest Over Soul's attacks, God/Machine of War on Hao.
    • Yoh's ENTIRE GROUP of friends went bat shit on Hao, even though most of their efforts were wasted. So Hao takes Anna's Shikigamis when she tries to use them against him. All of Yoh's friends recklessly attack them and failed, while Manta is watching his friends, questioning their actions. So what does he do? He and Mosuke decide to use Spirit Control on his laptop to forge a hammer and strikes the Shikigamis.

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