Overview
Yoh is the protagonist of Shaman King and he is the second primary character introduced into the series after Manta Oyamada. 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.
Yoh is first appears in Reincarnation 01, where he meets Manta at a local cemetery and their mutual ability to see ghosts is revealed. When they meet again, Yoh is introduced as a transfer student to Manta's school, Shinra Private Academy, having moved to Tokyo from Izumo. 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.
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.
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