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Asakura Mikihisa (麻倉幹久 Asakura Mikihisa) (né Maki (真木) before his marriage with Asakura Keiko) is a fictional character in the Shaman King manga and anime series. He is the father of protagonist Asakura Yoh and the main antagonist Asakura Hao. For the Shaman Fight, he formed Team "Kabbalahers", with Redseb and Seyrarm Muntzer.[3]
Appearance[]
Mikihisa without his burn injuries and mask
Mikihisa wears the clothes of an ascetic monk; white and brown robe with white pom-poms on it. In part to hide the scars on his face, he wears a wooden bird mask. His movements combined with his cloth are said to make him look like a bird. After his confrontation with Tao Ren, he wears nothing but only his mask and his underwear for the duration of the tournament.[4]
Before meeting his wife Keiko, he wore nothing but a loose-fitting white T-shirt and black pants and his hair was unkempt. it was noticed without his mask and burns, Mikihisa strongly resembles his son Yoh, but with a longer and thinner face. He also wears glasses.
Personality[]
When he first appears, he acts rather carefree and a little dumbfounded and is also described as being rather laid-back. However, it is revealed that he is a compassionate person, who would help anyone in however way he can, even correcting on the bad behaviors of Team "Hana-Gumi" instead of fighting them. According to his son Yoh, he is even more old-fashioned than Tao Ren.[5] He is also a heavy believer in family, such as when he told Hao that it was not too late to call him "Daddy",[6] and his favorite expression is family love.
He once wanted to become a singer like John Lennon and much like his son, he also loves to listen to Soul Bob.
After Asakura Hao escaped during his birth, Mikihisa has been blaming himself and constantly wears a mask as a sign of his shame even though the burn wounds are already healed. This resulted in him training hard by climbing mountains all over the world one by one, eventually making it his personal hobby.[7]
Abilities and Powers[]
Mikihisa has trained for many years, climbing tall mountains and has gained a strong, fast and capable body. Mikihisa even scaled the highest mountain above sea level, Chomolungma (Mt. Everest).[5] He prefers using hand-to-hand combat, combining it with his guardian ghosts shapeshifting abilities to appear as three copies of himself while fighting. According to Asakura Yohmei, Mikihisa's practice of Shugendō gave him the ability to summon gods and Buddha spirits.[8]
Shamanic Spells and Techniques[]
- Shamanic Oracle: One of many spells Mikihisa learned from the contents of the Chō-Senjiryakketsu. Using this technique enables one to read the flow of Furyoku and determine its course. Effective use can render most Furyoku attacks ineffective and one can predict the movements of an opponent.
Spirits[]
- See More: Imari and Shigaraki
Mikihisa's Guardian Ghosts are the kitsune Imari and the tanuki Shigaraki, a pair of Mountain Spirits.[9] Their ability to shapeshift into copies of Mikihisa, in combination with his Shamanic Oracle, makes him almost untouchable when fighting.[10]
History[]
Past[]
Mikihisa was born on October 9, 1958[2] in Hiroshima, Japan. Before Mikihisa became a shaman, he was an unemployed musician who lived in an apartment with two other members of his band. He met Asakura Keiko, near a train station one night after she had been dumped by her fiancé. She paid him ten yen to play a song for her and revealed that she was dumped because she could see ghosts. After Mikihisa revealed that he had the same ability too, Keiko invited him to her rented house. It was love at first sight for him. The Asakura Family had no male heir in Keiko's generation since she was an only child and thus Mikihisa married into the family, taking up the Asakura last name and allowed them to continue the family line.
When Keiko became pregnant, her father, Asakura Yohmei, predicted that the child would be the rebirth of their ancestor Asakura Hao and made the decision to kill the baby the moment he was born, so that Hao would not grow up in time for the upcoming Shaman Fight. As Keiko was revealed to be carrying twins, and with no method to predict which baby was Hao, Yohmei made the decision to kill both the babies, just to be safe. Immediately after the first baby was delivered though, Yohmei hesitated to kill his own grandson. The Spirit of Fire suddenly appeared and destroyed Yohmei's Shikigami Kooni. When the Spirit of Fire tried to attack Yohmei directly, Mikihisa threw himself in front of his father-in-law, blocking the attack and subsequently suffering burns to his face. Mikihisa then summoned Imari and Shigaraki to attack the Spirit of Fire, but it evaded the attacks and lifted up the infant Hao, who telepathically spoke to them all. After Hao and the Spirit of Fire left, Keiko gave birth to Yoh.[11]
After the incident, Mikihisa began wearing a bird mask to hide the injuries he received from the Spirit of Fire. Mikihisa blamed himself for failing to kill Hao when he had the chance. To make up for his own incompetence, he took a rigorous training regiment, traveling around the world and climbing mountains.[5] It was then he first met Tamao Tamamura, who was an orphan girl. Mikihisa took her in as his apprentice, and he often took her on his training expeditions. Because of his frequent traveling, Mikihisa was almost always away from home and rarely spent any time with his son, Yoh.
During most of his travels, Mikihisa also met Camel Muntzer when they both stayed in the same tent at Mount Kailas and they became good friends. Camel eventually asked Mikihisa to take care of his own children and Golem should anything happen to him.[12]
Shaman Fights in Tokyo[]
Mikihisa's role in the Shaman Fight tournament is to watch over his son Yoh's progress and he can often be seen surrounded by shadows, observing Yoh's battles from the top of trees. He also convinced Yohmei to train his son's best friend Umemiya Ryunosuke to become a shaman.[13]
Shaman Fights Second Round[]
During the second round of the tournament, he formed Team "Kabbalahers" with Redseb and Seyrarm Muntzer.[5]
Together with his wife, he met up with the Tao Family to tell them the truth about Hao and Yoh. They also offered to train Tao Ren and teach him techniques from the Chō-Senjiryakketsu. Although Tao Chin agreed, Tao En refused the offer and would only allow it if Mikihisa could prove its strength by defeating him. Mikihisa won without a scratch and went on to teach Ren, also beating him up while teaching him.[14]
Mikihisa and the rest of the Asakura family, including the returned spirit of Asakura Yohken had a final meeting with the Tao Family near the end of the tournament. Mentioning the incident at the beach earlier, Mikihisa presented the badly injured Brocken Meyer to the Tao Family and explained his connection to Hao. They also hoped that they could learn something very important by making him talk.[15]
Team "Kabbalahers" was one of the top six remaining teams in the Shaman Fight main tournament. During the decisive battle between Team "The Ren" and Team "Funbari Onsen", Team "Kabbalahers" withdrew from the tournament, thus allowing both teams to qualify together with Team "X-I" and Team "Hoshi-Gumi".[16]
Invading the Plants[]
When the Shaman Fights were moved to the Continent of Mu the Asakura Family, the Tao Family and the Usui Family had a barbecue party at the beach, awaiting the results of the fight and hoping that their children would make it. After he and everyone else on the island was killed by Hao, he later appeared with the rest of the Asakura Family on board the train of souls within the Great Spirit.[17]
Funbari no Uta[]
After the Shaman Fight, Mikihisa and Keiko adopted Redseb and Seyrarm into the Asakura Family.[18]
Some years later, Mikihisa was killed in a hit-and-run while he was returning home from the pachinko parlor with prizes he won there, including a wristwatch he had wanted to give to his student Tamao. His bird mask was found outside of a house 100 meters away from the scene. His spirit did not move on to the afterlife and seemed to have disappeared.[19] In truth, his spirit returned to Funbari Onsen and became Redseb's Guardian Ghost. To keep others unaware of his existence, Mikihisa hid in the closet of Redseb's room and moved around in people's blind spots.[18]
Anime/Manga Difference[]
Mikihisa appears to play the same role in the 2001 anime series as he did in the manga series; however, because Redseb and Seyrarm only appeared in the manga, he was never mentioned to be part of any team in the Shaman Fight main tournament.
Trivia[]
- The records with Soul Bob that Yoh owns were inherited from Mikihisa. The orange headphones that Yoh always wears also originally belong to Mikihisa. When he was young, Yoh stole them to feel close to his father, who was often absent.[20]
- Mikihisa's hobbies are playing guitar and mountain climbing.[21]
- Mikihisa's favorite food is yakitori.[21]
References[]
- ↑ Shaman King Guidebook - Mentalite (p.100)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Shaman King Manga - Volume 17, Character File No.86
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 148
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Kang Zeng Bang Volume 14 Extras
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Shaman King Manga - Chapter 147
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 299; Page 34
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Kang Zeng Bang Volume 14 Extras; Shaman File 182
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 9
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 143
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapters 145-147
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 143
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 202
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 102
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapters 144-148
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 255
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 257
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Chapter 300
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Shaman King Manga - Kang Zeng Bang Vol. 27 Extras, Shaman File 355
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Funbari no Uta "Mickey's World: The Tale of the Bubble Economy"
- ↑ Shaman King Manga - Kang Zeng Bang Volume 2 Extras
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Shaman King Guidebook - Mankin Book (p.54)
External Links[]
- Asceticism - A Wikipedia article about the lifestyle followed by Mikihisa
- Mountain Climbing - A Wikipedia article about Mikihisa's personal hobby
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