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Title: Mt Osore le Voile
Series: Shaman King #19
Author: Hiroyuki Takei
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 210
Format: Digital Copy

Synopsis:

Yoh gives up the Shaman King fight to save Ren. The X-Laws begin to work on Ren to save his life and we begin a flashback sequence about Yoh and Anna.

Things start out with Yoh finding out the Asakura's have found a bride for him and the introduction of Matamune, a clan spirit of a cat that had been serving the Asakura's for a millennium. Yoh accidentally meets Anna outside an inn and she tells him to die. Quite the auspicious start. Then Yoh is attacked by a demon and once at the shrine, he is snubbed by Anna and told by Matamune that Anna bears a curse.

Turns out Anna creates demons whenever she goes outside and has no control over them. Yoh meets her at a souvenir shop and another demon appears. He grabs a sword to protect Anna and somehow she makes it disappear.

While this is going on Matamune and Yoh's grandmother are talking and reveal Matamune was a former spirit ally of the original Hao and then turned on Hao in the previous Shaman Fight. This act of betrayal, while saving the world, has haunted Matamune and kept him from crossing over. It is revealed that Hao was an empath and that is why he turned bad. Anna is an empath who can read minds and without help from Matamune and the Asakura's she'll turn out as bad as Hao.

Yoh breaks the dam of ice around Anna's heart with his heartfelt desire to be friends and they watch a music program ringing in the new year. The first steps along the path of their friendship have begun.

My Thoughts:

This had a lot of emotional content. Yoh placing the life of his friend Ren before his desire to become Shaman King, even before defeating Hao really showed us the readers what Yoh truly valued.

I was a little bit pissed off at the beginning when it went straight to flashback land, but the story of how Yoh and Anna met and how they became what they are today was very touching. Anna was a tragic heroine destined to be consumed by her own ability and while Matamune was brought on board to help train her, it took Yoh's true compassion for her as a person to help her make the first step in breaking free. She couldn't believe in herself until someone else showed her they believed in her.

Now that Yoh has given up in the Shaman Fight I am REALLY interested to see how Takei continues the storyline. I suspect shenanigans of some sort will be pulled to get Yoh back in or something. This is a fighting shonen manga after all so the battles can't be over.

★★★★☆ ( )

The best volume in the series so far. Another backstory, where we learn Anna's backstory. Plus, I now want to have a spirit friend like Matamune. ( )