Yoh Asakura

Overview

Yoh is the protagonist of Shaman King who befriends a fellow student from school named Manta Oyamada during his introduction. When Manta is badly beaten by local delinquents led by "Wooden Sword" Ryu, Yoh reveals himself to be a shaman and comes to Manta's defence with the help of a six-hundred-year-old samurai ghost, Amidamaru. Yoh and Manta soon become best friends and have numerous adventures involving local ghosts until Yoh reveals his actual purpose in coming to Tokyo: he has come to train for the Shaman Fight, an event that occurs once every 500 years, where shaman from all over the world will battle to become the Shaman King and gain the power to change the world. In order to ensure he trains properly, Yoh is soon joined by his fiancée Anna Kyoyama, an itako from Aomori, who drives Yoh relentlessly and brutally so that he may stand up to the powerful opponents he will have to contend with in order to become Shaman King. While Yoh possesses an overly laid-back personality and lazy demeanor, he is noted as being a perceptive individual who is generally able to remain cool under pressure. His most distinctive trait is a pair of orange headphones and a necklace with three bear claws, both which he wears almost constantly; his usual attire consists of his school uniform with his shirt unbuttoned along with a pair of sandals. He is the latest descendant and heir to the Asakura family, a prestigious family of shaman whose lineage dates back to the Heian era.

Despite Yoh's claims that he wishes to become Shaman King merely to live an easy life, his primary motivation is the promise he made to Anna when they first met and he saved her life after her powers, fueled by her deep-seated hatred of humanity and the resulting loneliness she felt, nearly destroyed her. Because Yoh's own loneliness in childhood, resulting from being regarded as an outcast by his peers for being a shaman, he deeply treasures his friends and will not hesitate to do anything to protect them.

It is revealed in the series Yoh was born as the younger of a pair of identical twin brothers to Keiko Asakura and Mikihisa Maki. Before Yoh's birth, it had been predicted that the family's progenitor, Hao Asakura, would reincarnate himself for the second time as one of Keiko's children and attempt to become Shaman King. The circumstances allowed the Asakuras to spare Yoh and Yohmei raised his grandson with the hope that he would be able to defeat Hao once and for all, thwarting Hao's plans to create a shaman only world.

In 1995, Yoh's grandmother Kino suggests that Yoh be engaged to her apprentice, Anna Kyoyama. Accompanied by the spirit Matamune, Yoh went to Aomori and fell in love with Anna at first sight. However, her unchecked ability to read minds resulted in Anna closing her heart off and developing a hatred of humanity, which manifested as powerful demons. Matamune, who had once been the original Hao's greatest friend, used his power to help Yoh save Anna; Anna began to open her heart again out of the love she had developed for Yoh and Yoh resolved to become strong enough to summon Matamune again in material form.

Upon entering the Shaman Fight, he meets a number of shaman who would become his friends and allies. Upon the second round of the Shaman Fight, Yoh becomes the leader of "Team Funbari Onsen", which includes "Wooden Sword" Ryu and Faust VIII as his teammates. When Yoh learns of his connection to Hao and learns more about his past and personality, Yoh becomes determined not only to stop Hao from realizing his plan to create a shaman only world, but also the considerably more difficult task of saving Hao by defeating the darkness in Hao's heart.

Other Appearances

In Funbari no Uta, a series of short stories written by Hiroyuki Takei and set six or seven years after the conclusion of Shaman King, it is revealed that Yoh and Anna have a son named Hana. The child wields Yoh's Futsunomitama Sword and travels around with Ryu Umemiya in search of the Five Elemental Warriors. An older Yoh and Anna do not appear until the conclusion of the short series, apparently on their way to Funbari Hill, as they have been travelling around the world in order to resolve various conflicts. In their absence, Hana was raised by Tamao Tamamura with no awareness of who his actual parents are, though Tamao intends to tell him when his parents return at last. Yoh and Anna also appear in flashbacks in Shaman King Flowers, the sequel from Shaman King series set about six or seven years after Funbari no Uta with Hana. Shaman King Flowers also revealed Yoh became a father when he was 16 years old.

Yoh appears as a playable character for the Nintendo DS titles, Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars. He also appears as a main character in the various video games based on the Shaman King series.

Abilities and techniques

As the heir to the Asakura family, Yoh descends from a long line of shaman founded by Hao Asakura. The Asakura family itself is well known as the foremost family of shaman in Japan. As the twin brother of Hao's latest incarnation, Yoh possesses the smaller half of Hao's original power, resulting in Hao's unusual interest in Yoh's strength and repeated statements that he needs Yoh to help him. Their connection is also the reason why Yoh is believed to possess the potential to defeat Hao, who has been extremely formidable due to his own shamanic powers and from reincarnating twice since his original life. In particular, Yoh possesses a rare potential seen in few members of the family. However, because of his general laziness, Yoh's abilities are relatively unrefined and he is lacking in knowledge of more sophisticated techniques at the beginning of the series when he first arrives in Tokyo and meets Manta.

Through Anna's highly disciplined training, Yoh's power gradually increases and he develops rapidly from first hand experience from combat. Notably, Yoh is able to develop a powerful Oversoul, despite only learning the technique after encountering Patch Officiant Silva, and through the mastery of the Ultra Senji Ryakketsu, a tome listing the techniques developed by Hao in his original life. Though the level of his furyoku, the quantified level of his shamanic power, at the conclusion of the series is not the highest, Yoh's own flexibility and insight in battle still make him dangerous against more powerful opponents, allowing him to match both Horohoro and Tao Ren when he must fight them at the same time.

As a shaman, Yoh does not adhere to a particular style of shamanism like other members of his family. His primary medium in combat is the Harusame, a katana forged by Mosuke, a swordsmith who had been Amidamaru's best friend. Yoh later gains a powerful secondary medium, the Futsunomitama, a stone sword antiquity that has been a treasure of the Asakura family for many generations. His guardian spirit throughout the Shaman Fight is Amidamaru, whose own abilities as a samurai provide Yoh with extensive combat experience while his 600-year existence as a spirit allows him to become a powerful seirei class spirit.

Because of his lack of adherence to any creed regarding the nature of good or evil, he is also recognized by Lady Sati, the leader of the neutral faction Gandhara in the Shaman Fight, as the Elemental Warrior for the Spirit of Earth, one of the Patch Tribe's Five Elemental Spirits, and one of the shaman she believes as having the necessary resolve to defeat Hao.

Reception

He has been featured various times in the Animage's Anime Grand Prix polls, ranking as one of the most popular male anime characters. Merchandise based on Yoh have been released, including action figures, key chains, and plush toys.

Critical reception to Yoh's character has been both positive and negative. Justin Freeman from Anime News Network qualified Yoh as "easy-going" person. He criticized the fact that "Yoh is a vessel for his ephemeral allies, but in reality they up end being a vessel for him, to the benefit of no one." Writing for Mania Entertainment, Eduardo Chavez commented that Yoh is "such a laid back casual character", and that "Yoh's attitude to not go beyond his own abilities might be a little lazy" but he thinks that is "a smart approach to conserve mental and physical strength." Chris Beverdige also from Mania said Yoh is "very much a laid back slacker." Alexander Hoffman of Comics Village declared "in this first novel, letting the relationships between Yoh, Amidamaru, and Manta flesh out is more important that developing every spiritual entity that shows up." Active Anime's Holly Ellingwood praised the Yoh's "much more idealistic and noble [position] than that of his rivals." A reviewer for The Star noted that while it was predictable that Yoh will meet other Shamans to become the Shaman King he noted it would be entertaining how the character will develop more powers. While reviewing the manga's twenty-second volume, Margaret Veira from Active Anime remarked the scenes in which Yoh starts feeling rage to the point she said "you can feel the anger emanating from the page! It feels so real!" In the book "Summoning the Spirits: Possession and Invocation in Contemporary Religion", author Andrew Dawson called Yoh the "Japanese Shaman" as he is not based on any religion unlike other characters appearing in the series despite noting some his relationship the with the spirit of Amidamaru who is closed on Buddahood. Dawson also praised Yoh's character for being relatable with most of the readers of the series.