[Warning, this review will contain major spoilers for the ending of Shaman King (2021)]

If there's one thing that can be counted on with battle shonen properties, it's that any of them that go on long enough will inevitably get some sequel series, spin-off, or some combination of the two. From Saint Seiya Omega to Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, there's rarely any shortage of these, and I tend to have pretty mixed feelings about them. On the one hand, they can sometimes work as a gateway for introducing someone to a lengthy franchise that might otherwise feel intimidating to get through. I enjoy at least a couple of franchises I've gotten into that way (I wouldn't recommend it here, as Shaman King Flowers assumes anyone watching it has seen the 2021 anime reboot of the original). On the other hand, they can often feel like artificial attempts to extend an otherwise complete story to keep a franchise profitable. As someone who prefers stories sticking to a definitive conclusion, I find it hard not to feel cynical about them. This is especially the case for me with Shaman King, because not only did I feel like its story ended well, but the ending was arguably one of its strongest qualities, so a sequel not only runs the risk of feeling unnecessary, but could end up doing something that could potentially invalidate what worked about the original ending. While I can at least say that this sequel series has yet to run into the latter of those two problems, what we get here doesn't exactly feel like a worthy successor.

On paper, this has a pretty solid setup for a sequel. While Hao's newfound sense of empathy might have gotten him to back off on his plans to destroy humanity if they can't change their destructive ways, he hasn't exactly given up on them upon attaining godhood. The idea that his misanthropic attitude would earn him the ire of the previous Shaman Kings feels like an appropriate way to continue the story and a tournament where each of the former Shaman Kings sends proxies to fight on their behalf is a great way to expand on the clashes that made the original series so enjoyable. Hana also makes for a pretty ideal contrast to Yoh as a protagonist; he ends up being much closer to Hao in terms of personality. Unlike Yoh, whose defining character traits were his carefree attitude and tendency to avoid using violence to solve conflicts, Hana walks around with a massive chip on his shoulder and picks fights with basically anyone he meets, regardless of their level of hostility. Most importantly, like Hao, he starts with a severe lack of empathy towards others and is ultimately lonely despite not wanting to show it.

The problem is that for everything I just described, hardly anything happens throughout these 13 episodes. While it starts with the potential threat of Hana having to fend off members of a branch family of the Asakuras directly descended from Hao, that sub-plot gets dealt with early on (in a hilariously anti-climatic fashion), leaving the rest of the show to set the groundwork for a big tournament that it never actually manages to get to. I do like a few of the new characters, like Yohane, who, despite coming out of the gate acting like a rival character, ultimately turns out to be a good boy who just wants to be Hana's friend or Hana's fiance, Alumi who is just a slightly less mean version of Anna from the original series. It also sets up a pair of potentially interesting antagonists in YVS, the Shaman King before Hao, who used his reign to create capitalism, and his proxy Yohsuke, a mysterious young man who lacks Shaman powers outside of what YVS has given to him, which seems like a great way of pitting the environmentalism and meditative nature of the original series, against the harsher realities of a world run by capitalism. Unfortunately, this is all just potential more than anything else, as none of these characters get a whole lot to do throughout the show's run. While it certainly feels like there's plenty of room for them to grow, what we get here doesn't leave a lot to latch onto.

The show doesn't pick up until its last few episodes, where Hao decides to send Hana's soul into a hell of perpetual combat as a personal trial. There, Hana meets the spirit of a WWII pilot named Sakurai, who gained the nickname Death Zero for his skill in combat. Despite being a ruthless killer, Sakurai is primarily concerned about getting home to a waitress he left behind. He hates seeing how easily people can get caught up in flimsy justifications for war when they often don't know why they're fighting. It makes it all the more tragic when Sakurai and his fellow soldiers get so swept up in combat that they start shooting at enemies who can no longer fight or allies who are too scared to keep fighting. Much like Shaman King as a franchise, it does an excellent job of highlighting how cruel and pointless violence and killing can be when everyone has reasons to keep living. That makes for an excellent little story.

Beyond that final stretch, though, if there's any major focus to this show, it's in Hana's character arc, which, despite everything I mentioned earlier, is probably its biggest letdown. Hana might be an interesting contrast to Yoh in concept, but in practice, he's an insufferable edge lord who can't help but be rude or aggressive towards everyone he comes across, and I got tired of his act pretty quickly. While it at least helps that his behavior is called out or actively made fun of by pretty much every new character he meets, it doesn't really do much to make him less annoying, and since none of the other characters are fleshed out enough to help balance out his attitude, it ended up making the show feel like a slog than it otherwise would have been. His growth also doesn't kick in until his encounter with Sakurai. While seeing the tragedy of Sakurai's situation forces Hana to realize his lack of love for others, the anime ends on that realization, and pretty abruptly at that. This means that he doesn't get the time to fully take that lesson to heart, much less learn from it, and it all just makes the slow burn of his arc even more frustrating.

As far as the production quality goes, the series carries much of the same staff that worked on the reboot anime series, and it looks about the same as that did, which is to say, pretty middle of the road for an action title. The visual direction is a little stronger here than in the reboot anime and helps compensate for some limited animations. While it's not a deal breaker, it looks underwhelming when stacked against other modern battle shonen anime. The show also lacks a dub as of this review, so I can only hope that Netflix goes back to add one later on since they provided one for the 2021 reboot. No dub for its sequel feels like a pretty big disservice regarding accessibility.

Ultimately, my biggest problem with Shaman King Flowers is that it mostly just feels like a setup for a much larger story that has yet to actually happen. Part of this problem likely lies with how the manga was serialized since it ended abruptly after the publisher canceled the magazine. It came back in a new magazine titled Shaman King The Super Star. The anime seems to have only adapted the part of the story that was Shaman King Flowers, meaning that this is a tiny part of the actual story. Strangely, it was adapted this way without nailing down a continuation. Maybe someday there'll be an announcement for an anime of Super Star, but until then, all we're left with is a tease for something greater, and as is, this mostly feels like a waste.