Shaman King tells the story of Yoh Asakura, a shaman from Japan. Shamans are described as all types of mystics, fortunetellers, and priests, and they encompass everything from Egyptian myth to Voodoo. Every 500 years, a “Shaman Fight” is held to determine the Shaman King, and it’s Yoh’s quest to become this king; the most powerful Shaman on Earth with access to the most powerful ghost on earth, the Great Spirit. Adventure, comedy and philosophical insight make this more than just a battle manga. 

Shaman King Volume 27: Exotica continues from the last volume, where Yoh was surprisingly killed by Sati of the Gandala team (one of the  three larger groups of teams in the Shaman Fight, with the X-Laws and Hao's forces). However, Yoh finds himself in "Hell" (which apparently resides inside the Great Spirit…just go with it) for some seriously needed training. He needs to become one of the legendary 5 warriors and wield a God spirit to have a chance against Hao… who can't be allowed to become the Shaman King. He does plan to like, kill everyone. This is bad.

Highlights

"Sati wouldn't have killed me without a good reason," says Yoh. Considering we have people who can revive others now, Hell is just the world's coolest training ground, apparently. Within, Yoh gets to have a fight with an ancestor of his, and he has a really odd power where he summons a guy with a gigantic nose. We're talking enormous.  Hell is home to more than just fights; I'm particularly fond of the reuinons with two old characters there, but I won't spoil them. I'll just say they're from the most touching arc of the story, and it's good to seem them again, even for a little.
 

There aren't many scenes in the mortal realm this time; a funny bit in the men's bath and further development with the patch are about all we get. However, Sati reveals a vital bit of info. I kind of hope they get to it soon; volume 32 is the series finale, and this means we're heading to the climax. This might be Yoh's last chance to train.
 

The last fourth of the volume is a self-contained story about street racers which has nothing whatsoever to do with Shaman King. It's a fun little piece with a perky protagonist and a few unusual character designs (His father's hair is like devil  horns) but it's clear from the author's own admittance in the "how I wrote it" short afterward that he only recently started doing research on high performance cars. His enthusiam is clear (especially when he seems so excited to see rare cars in his piece on writing the story) but it's a bit rushed and more amateurish than the main story. An interesting diversion, but it feels kind of like a bait and switch. The title of the volume, "Exotica" is even from the car story and not the main Shaman King feature.

Overall

The Shaman Fight started out as interesting, but it's beginning to wear a bit thin by now.  As I stated above, the series is coming to an end soon, and at this point it's a good thing. Yoh and his friends are still charming (Yoh's casual attitude to even being killed is great) and the battles are still mostly neat. The one in this volume wasn't as great as I would have liked, though; it focused too much on Yoh's new oversoul form and less on creativity.  It felt a litte like DBZ with oversouls, so it's good to be getting the finale out before any sense of real progression is gone; I really couldn't even quite tell what was different from his last oversoul. They're starting to blend together.
 

Takei's big-eyed protagonists are expressive, and the new character in this volume is well-drawn and hooked me. Shaman King still entertains, although by volume 27, I'm pretty much a captive audience. The skeleton on the train in hell and the jutting mountain crags help evoke a barren image (albeit there are less to no backgrounds while the battle rages) and the words of one of Yoh's old friends do keep me interested in reading on, even if the fight this time is more by the numbers than I'd like.
 

It's the last bit that's just weird; so much of the volume is this car manga. Where the heck did that come from? I eventually ended up finding it decent, but I'd much rather have just had more Shaman King. Perhaps we could have gotten some of those extra chapters from the remade versions Japan got. Here's hoping they eventually release that extra material in English.
 

Shaman King is overall a more thinking man's shonen; not as cerebral as something like Death Note (not nearly) but it presents the reader with moral quandaries with more bite and a lot more to chew on than other manga in the same genre.  Combine that with Takei's always distinctive characters (even though the front of the book has a staggeringly huge 4 pages of them) and Shaman King keeps things fresh and fun, even this far in. Stay the course, friends; it's still good stuff even though this volume is partly not even Shaman King. Again, what's up with that?

 
ComicsOnline gives Shaman King 27: Exotica 3.5 out of 5 ultra ogres.