Chocolove McDonell

Chocolove McDonell (チョコラブ・マクダネル Chokorabu Makudaneru) known in the english anime as Joco, is one of the main characters in the manga and anime series of Shaman King.

Appearance
He is African American boy of average height. He always has his hair in an Afro shape. He wears an African wrap on the lower half of his body, an open white dress shirt and cloth booths as his street clothes. When in battle he wears a black and golden lined open vest and a different wrap to increase his speed.

When he lived in America during the cold times, he wore yellow pants, nickers, a black jersy and a red wool hat.

Personality
Chocolove likes to tell jokes to his companions a lot; the only draw back is that his jokes/puns are corny (at times involving mistranslation/mispronunciation of Japanese words and phrases) and make no sense most of the time. The others have the tendency to run after him or beat him up after telling a joke (or in Ren's case, poking his nose with one of his weapons). Typically, he gets on people's nerves with his jokes; however, the anime has shown there are a few moments where people enjoyed his jokes. Yoh occasionally let off a light chuckle to them, and both Tamao and Pirika laugh hysterically (Pirika takes some time to understand the jokes, and Tamao had her spirits explain it to her before she cracks up). One time, Ren states that he is jealous of Chocolove's courage to tell an obviously corny joke.

His goal in life is to be the Shaman King and a great comedian because he was inspired by his master. Both of them believe that laughter is the best medicine, so even if people do not believe that his jokes are that funny, he does not give up and he tries even harder to achieve his goal to give the world what it needs the most, laughter.

Abilities and Powers
Chocolove is a supposed comedian but in reality is not really funny, although one of his jokes did save his friends. His oversoul is different that most shamans since he and and Mick literally become one. This uses the full power of both Choco and Mick at the same time but is taxing since they both be synced the entire time they are oversouled. While in his oversoul, he tells a joke which only the spirits seemed to understand (the other shamans responded with an ellipsis...). Most of his techniques involve making spirits (and very rarely, humans) laugh, making them a vulnerable target to attack. After going blind, some of his other senses seemed to have been increased as he is able to smell the position, of Yoh and the others, who were currently at the time running from Golem.

His oversoul with Pascal is a giant stone head. It is the same as most other shaman in the sense that he is literally using Pascal as a weapon but it also differs than most shaman in that it uses absolutely no attacks. Instead it provides Chocolove the power to literally walk on air and move at an incredible speed. While fighting his way through the Plants, Kyōyama Anna looked through the Furyoku values of Chocolove and the others. There it is revealed that his Furyoku is about 197,500, thus giving him the highest Furyoku reserve of the Five Elemental Warriors.

Spirits



 * See More: Mic the Jaguar|Pascal Avaf|Spirit of Wind

His former master used to own a guardian ghost named Mic Jaguar(Mic in the english anime) (a takeoff from Mick Jagger), who was passed down to Chocolove when he died. With Mic he creates an Over Soul in a pair of Shaft Claws on his right hand and the rest of his body, thus giving Chocolove the speed and keene sences of Mic.

In the manga, he gains a second spirit guardian named Pascal Avaf(パスカル・ァパフ). With the power of Pascal Avaf, Chocolove creates his new armor oversoul, O.S. "Jaguarman"(O.S.ジャガーマン). Chocolove killed Redseb's and Seyram's father (the man he killed on Christmas) before he repented under his teacher, and thus decided to become blind in order to atone for his sins.

During the second rounds of the manga the also became the strongest of the Five Elemental Warriors and atoned his Furyoku to that of wind. He also gains the Spirit of Wind, that according to Pascal Avaf has the abillity to slice the wind with it's wings.

Past
After killing a man on Christmas with his gang members from Shaft (the name of the gang, not a specific person or place, and he used this name for his attack), Chocolove walks alone on the streets, reflecting on the horrible murder of his parents on Christmas day years ago (this resentment of the day and humankind is why he shot the man mentioned earlier). After making a little comment, a stranger (Orona) appears and makes a pun with a sight gag using fake blood. After telling him to go away, Chocolove shoots his gun, but Orona dodges all his shots. Saying that he could not use laughter to help Chocolove, Orona uses his oversoul with Mic to punch him. The fact that Chocolove laughs at Orona's comment about using laughter to save the world and that Chocolove sees Mic forges a relationship between the two.

Shaman Fights Second Round
Chocolove was first shown during the three month wait at the patch village. He was the one who explained the team stipulation to Yoh and company. Ren quickly put his team together. Ren and his team was paired against Hao's Earth team in the first match of the second round. The BoZ Brothers attacked first and was easily defeated by Chocolove's Shaft attack. Peyote then used the BoZ Brothers as mediums for his oversoul. Chocolove tried to fight back but was almost defeated by them. He then remembered his past and pulled out the winds of laughter and the Ayers Rock Sunrise. This forced the spirits within the BoZ Brothers to laugh and freed them from Peyote's control. Chocolove, however, ran out of power and fainted, beeing saved in the last minute by Ren who finished off Peyote and won the match.

Revenge of the Golem
When he goes to see his friends(the shaft gang members)he sees that they were shot in the head by Redseb and Seyram who are using their golem robot,and shot Chocolove. When he returns from his training in hell by his former master Orona, Chocolove has obtained a new spirit "Pascal Avaf" and a new oversoul he named O.S. "Jaguarman"(O.S. ジャガーマン).

Invading the Plants
Chocolove enters the plants with Yoh and his friends but does not really do much except provide assistance when needed.

When they reach the plant of the Ocean everyone else has problems getting through Thalim's plant type oversoul. Chocolove steps up and battles him. Thalim unleashes oversoul Rafflesia to combat choco's enhanced sense of smell easily overwhelming his nose. Chocolove overcomes it by stabbing his claws into his nose forcing himself to smell blood instead of the flower. Thalim then uses his O.S. Great Impatiens Balsam to attack from every angle. Chocolove begins to think about the powers the five of them have gained from training in hell, and reveals that he has yet to discover his power of wind. As Thalim fires the gigantic seeds at him, Chocolove dissolves his Armor Over Soul and uses Pascal Avaf and Mic to Over Soul with the air itself as a medium and manipulates air currents literally eroding away all of Thalim's plants. Thalim then reveals that he knew such an attack would come and hoped to defeat Chocolove before he himself would realize it. Chocolove only chuckles and asks about his full strenght and exclaims his turn to attack creating Ayers Rock one more and ending the fight.

Chocolove is later seen being carried out of the plant by Ryu complaining that Thalim was not fighting at full power. They all then enters the 9th Plant of the Glacier to face Silva of the Ten Patch Officiants. There he and the others watch the fight between Yoh and Silva, that Silva calls Yoh's final test, which he eventually passes.

As the group finally arrives at the 10th and final "Plant of the Universe" they realize that there is no oxygen and no gravity and begin to wonder how they are supposed to fight in there. At first Lyserg suggest that they all protect themself with their own personal O.S. but Ryu suddenly interrtups and suggest that they all use the heads of his O.S. Yamato No Orochi so that the rest can fight at full strenght. As Ren questions the responsibility he would suddenly have he says that he wants to be usefull too as the seven is currently his best place.

Funbari no Uta
In the "Funbari no Uta" miniseries, Chocolove is now 22 years old. He is noticeably taller and more muscular and buff. He has also shaved his head clean.

During the time skip, Chocolove has tried to make amends of his earlier crimes, by turning himself in. He is currently doing time in jail, having about ten years to go according to Umemiya Ryunosuke. On the request of Asakura Anna, Ryo and Asakura Hana was to break him out of jail and bring him and the other Five Elemental Warriors back to the Funbari Onsen, to bring business back to the Onsen.

He arrived at the meeting place of the five warriors with Lyserg who relieved him of his prison sentence early.

He goes to the party with Yoh and the others, getting hurt by mostly Ren for the jokes he still has.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the manga Chocolove met his mentor after having killed a man. In the anime, Chocolove met his mentor, Orona, on a snowy night when he was young. Orona was among the crowd of people who circled around a victim who was being robbed. The police had the robber surrounded, but he threatened everyone by threatening to kill the victim. Orona stood out from the crowd and asked the police to give him a chance. Chocolove was watching him, and before he knew it, the robber was laughing his head off and was being carried off by the police. Also, in the manga Chocolove chooses to be revived without his sense of sight when this is done by the Gandara. There is no reference to Chocolove's sight loss in the anime.

Dub/Translation Errors
Chocolove's jokes differ between the Japanese and American versions.

Typically, the Japanese Chocolove makes jokes based on puns between Japanese words and uses some visual effect to enhance it. (ex: The word for "impossible" in Japanese is pronounced "bakana". As a play on words he would hold up a banana). Since the jokes cannot make sense when translated to English, the English manga and anime have new jokes made in English

The U.S. manga edits Chocolove's lips so that they match that of the other characters. This was to avoid a blackface stereotype. His lips remain unedited in the 4Kids version of the anime and the credits for the game Shaman King: Master of Spirits.