Regardless, I won't give high marks on the technicalness of the animation. It's good, but it's not great. And I wouldn't want it any other way.

Sound: The sound isn't that great either. It's pretty good, but it gets cheesy. It gets negative points on its realism (meaning, they exaggerate sound effects and stuff), but it's all part of the fun. Heck, when I blow something away w/ a spirit blast I'd like some rockin' nuclear explosions than a quite beam - who wouldn't?

The actual, soundtrack, on the other hand, isn't so hot. Why? Personally, I don't really consider it a soundtrack. There are about 13 songs: two of the songs have two mixes, and one song has 4. And guess which song was the cool one - YEP, it's Brave Heart (which was remixed 4 times). Even thought it's a cool action song, you'd get sick of it after one run-though of the soundtrack.

But points for the seiyuu (voice acting). That was awesome. You could totally tell the actors were into their roles, and it produced an excellent result. All the characters sound naturally right (I shudder at the thought what 4Kids Entertainment would do to the voice dubbing. For those who don't know, 4Kids Entertainment does Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon.) Haha, even though the Japanese "Thank-You"s and "good Luck" sounds like they were talking with arms behind their back, it's still really funny and definitely adds to the humor of the series.

Story: Shaman King isn't particularly original in several aspects. One is the band of friends trying to take down a super powerful evil person, reflecting on the power of friendship over raw strength. The other main aspects is the fusion of the characters with some other being to produce superhuman powers. Sure, it's not original, but it's still great. For the most part, the story is funny and sufficient enough to drive the series to the end.

Even though the series is shallow, sometimes I wished that Shaman King was more serious. Though the characters are absolutely adorable, their shady motives are sometimes downright stupid and pointless. I also became upset particularly in the middle of the series, where I thought there was a huge plot hole that could seriously use a good explanation.

After all, Shaman King IS a children's anime so considering the target audience, the plot in Shaman King is sufficient

Character: Shaman King's best quality is rich characters. Even though there are tons of shaman characters in the series, the writers did a very good job in making each shaman unique and sympathetic (or hateful). Each character is unique in their own regard, so it makes everybody fun to watch. Um... yea. haha. Moving on!

Value: Shaman King is a fun kiddy anime, but I don't know how it would compare from a value perspective. IMO, Shaman King is good the first time, but its lackings make the series not worth watching more than once. All Shaman King left me is the desire to read the manga and try to fill in the holes.

Enjoyment: Great Kids Anime! (though some parts are inappropriate) What am I talking about? Great Kids Anime!

Bottom Line: A funny but not really cute anime that would most likely appeal to elementary school kids. Can't really blamem them. Shaman King is fun to watch.