Oyamada Manta

Manta Oyamada (小山田まん太 Oyamada Manta), known as Mortimer "Morty" in the English anime and English video games, is a fictional character in the anime and manga Shaman King. In the uncut English dub, he is named Morty Manta.

About
Manta is an intelligent child who carries a book around with him every day. In the Japanese versions, the book is called the Manjien (万辞苑), meaning "Manta's Book on Everything", while the English manga calls the book the "Mantannian Dictionary". "Manjien" comes from Manta's name and the Japanese dictionary "Kōjien" (広辞苑). Manta is 13 years old and a 7th grader at Shinra Private Academy; Manta goes to school with Yoh and Anna. He is a Virgo and his blood type is "O."

Abilities and Powers
Manta can see spirits, but is not a full shaman so he cannot use their powers like his best friends Yoh Asakura and Anna Kyōyama can. He is very expressive and a bit panicky. He physically resembles a Koropokkur (known as "minutians" in the English anime), and has been mistaken for one of the shy nature spirits on several occasions. But however in the anime, he reveals that he has the power to create an Oversoul, but that was only brief during one of the final episodes.

Spirit

 * See More: Mosuke

In the anime, during the Shaman Tournament, Manta became a shaman, his spirit is Mosuke, Amidamaru's best friend who forged Harusame (Sword of Light in the English anime). He is however not capable of maintaining spirit form because he runs out of furyoku and ends up in trouble. In the battle with Hao, he used his oversoul to knockout Hao's Shikigami's. His ghost combines with his laptop, where he is usually at and cannot escape, and forms a hammer. This can also be seen as a parallel to the relationship of Amidamaru and Mosuke as neither Amidamaru and Mosuke nor Yoh and Manta were away from each other for very long and Mosuke and Amidamaru are spirit partners with Manta and Yoh respectively.

History
Manta is born on September 5, 1985(1985-09-05) and is 13 years old in the beginning of the story.

Meeting Yoh
Manta first appears in chapter one trying to head home after cram school and finds Yoh in a graveyard. Yoh asks manta to sit with him to stargaze. Manta panics slightly that he would asked this. Manta asks why yoh is alone but Yoh is not alone because Manta sees the Ghosts that surround Yoh. Manta panics completely and runs for his life. Later that night he runs straight into Wooden Sword Ryu and is beaten to a bloody pulp. The next day Manta tries telling his friends what he saw and why he is so beaten. Yoh drags Manta back to the Cemetery with Manta asking why he is doing this to Yoh responds because your my friend. They find Ryu in the Cemetery and Yoh is ready to fight him. Yoh calls on Amidimaru and combines with him to defeat Ryu and cut his hair.

Amidimaru stays at his grave site and waits for Mosuke. Yoh and Manta head to the museum that houses Harasame. The two find out that the sword is haunted by Amidimaru's best friend Mosuke. Mosuke explains why Amidimaru was called the fiend. Yoh places Mosuke inside himself and reforge Harasame. Yoh and Manta present the new Sword to Amidimaru and he so grateful that he become Yoh's Ghost.

Family
In the manga and original Japanese anime, his family owns the Oyamada Electronics Company, the biggest and number one in all of japan and therefore is very rich. Manta's parents and little sister only appear once in the manga. Manta's father, Mansumi Oyamada, is 55 years old. His mother, Keiko Oyamada, is 37 years old. His sister, Mannoko Oyamada, is 5 years old. Manta's family plays little role in the story, and, following their initial appearance, they are never seen again in the manga until a brief appearance by Mansumi toward the end of the series, where the Oyamada president leads several battle ships to destroy and capture Shamans but quickly sinks his ships like nothing.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the manga and Japanese anime, Manta has an assistant, Tamurazaki. In the English anime, Tamurazaki (who turns out to be Mansumi's lapdog and guns down at least one of Hao's followers) is "Uncle Jerry" and is Morty's uncle. In the English anime, Morty is a fan of ghost stories and the book he carries around is a ghost story book.

Trivia

 * The name Morty is a pun of the Latin prefix for "death" (with which words begin with mort-, mor-, or mori-) and the word mortal.
 * Manta's family name means "small mountain field".