Shaman King

Summary: 

    The manga starts with Manta Oyamada, a studious middle-school student in Tokyo , attempting a shortcut through the graveyard to get home after a late night of cram school. It is here that Manta meets another boy named Yoh Asakura, who happens to be a shaman, and is frightened to discover that Yoh is surrounded by ghosts – it is at this moment that Manta learns that he can see ghosts. Over the first few chapters, Yoh and Manta become best friends, and, over the next few months, Manta learns about the life of a shaman.

Yoh soon encounters Tao Ren, with whom he battles. Anna Kyoyama, Yoh's fiancée, soon enters the picture and prescribes a brutal training regimen, in order to prepare Yoh for the upcoming Shaman Tournament. The tournament is held once every 500 years and is a battle between competing shaman to choose a winner, who will be known as the Shaman King. This winner will gain the ability to reshape the world as he or she chooses, to make his or her dream come true. Thus begins the plot that will lead Yoh on a journey that will lead him to many friends and adventures.

Through a series of events and also through participation in the Shaman Tournament, Yoh meets and befriends numerous characters and changes their lives through friendship and authentic concern, which seems to be a pervasive theme throughout the series.