times.
Also, I am not doing a character description here, just to remind you. If you don't already know about the characters, you might not be able to understand what I will talk about below. Now I will start from the champion of the recent 'most welcome character' competition -- Asakura HAO.
HAO -- the most accurate portrait of today's (Japanese)teenagers?! With the benefit of hindsight, it is obvious that what HAO's view on human beings is not THAT special.
Today's teenagers have grown up in a rich environment of information. From a very small age, they see human beings killing each other with powerful weapons, they see hunger and war and plagues and other natural disasters, they are forced to compete with each other for things they don't totally understand. They don't know what they can do. They feel helpless. And they don't see any powerful figure which can escape from all these unhappy things. 'Human beings are stupid, small and insignificant? ' isn't such a rare thought at all. And many have had some very dark memories on how horrible human beings can since childhood, and are tortured by them. From the dark grows hatred. From hatred brings the desire of destruction. Isn't that a portrait for HAO?
Occasionally, we may believe in something like 'if all people have this ability then the world will be much better off'. And most likely this ability in question makes human being become 'superhuman'. This is exactly what HAO is believing in. He believes that if the world has only shamans then it would be a much better world.
So my point is, we all have a 'HAO' in us in some sense...
In one sentence, in my eye, Yoh is a person who is born with Tao-Zhuang philosophy in his body and mind. (Tao-Zhuang is something like Zen but isn't.)
Too good to be real, may be? And therefore he lost the first place in that voting competition to his darkish brother...
However, her Furyoku is obviously very strong because of her darkish past. Her childhood must have been worse than death... someone with the power of Youou and doesn't know one should hide their power will not be treated humanely. Treating with fright is the best thing already. Being told 'you are a devil' is better than the lack of trust and love.
Will HAO, like Anna, found trust and rest in Yoh?
In the anime, Manta was shown to be a highly talented shaman who didn't explicitly realized his own ability (though HAO had hinted to him for several times). In the manga, I hope that Manta will finally act as the 'bridge' between the 'normal' world with the shamanic world.
Although few people in reality come from bloody families like Ren's, however, a number of us actually have Ren's 'bloody-winner' complex (and without knowing so), and are suffering like Ren does.
In many situations, we were made to compete with each other from a very young age, and the losers always get punished in some form. Examinations, sports competitions, ECA acheivements etc. are bloody because if you don't do well, you get negative feedback in some way, and even if you haven't done badly, comparisons always create losers. If you strived hard and become the best, that means you have 'stamped ' on others in a way. But to prevent the potential punishment, one has to strive one's best. And if you do well this time, you get an expectation that you will do well in the next one. If you are the star of a school, the expectation comes from the whole school...
If you are not able to take this pressure of 'stamping' on others and being expected to do so, you will become psychologically unbalanced and might try to convince oneself that it is 'your style' to stamp on others, even when unecessary. The more you stamp on others, the more you are afraid of being stamped. You start to act like Ren, become unnecessarily aggressive, and 'stampy' because you are AFRAID OF BEING STAMPED IN RETURN.
The solution is simple. Just to remember that other's expectations have nothing to do with you. If you don't acheive other's expectations, it is THEM who are wrong, not you. One just needs to do what one thinks is the best to do. In addition to these, the knowledge that one is objectively strong is soothing. :)
Ryu knows whatever dream he has, when Yoh becomes Shaman King, will come true. He shows his desires clearly, without hiding them. He likes cute children and beautiful ladies, as well as spirits. Everyone will remember Ryu for his heart-shaped eyes, his weird hairstyle, and wails that pierce the sky...
Yoh is the only one who truly accepts Ryu's outbursts of desires and emotions, because there is nothing wrecked and wicked in Ryu's emotions. What is wrong with loving cute and beautiful entities?! Why should one refrain from showing such emotions? Who doesn't want to look cool (and manly, for men)?
Isn't it good if we can express our own love and and emotions freely as we like without fearing anything and scaring your friends away?
Coming up: Matamune.
I will do it for Horohoro when we know more about him.
Other articles:
0. Shaman King as a whole
1. Yoh and Hao (and Anna)
2. Anime and Manga 
Spoiler-free extract Full verion
3. Shaman King Questions (with the smell of glitches)
5. Spirits, Shamans, Oversouls and Ghosts in Reality
Doors to other rooms in MESSWORLD
Discuss about this article or anything about Shaman King with me and AKIDA! *new*
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