Tao Jeanne

Iron Maiden Jeanne Iron Maiden Jeanne in her armorIron Maiden Jeanne is a fictional character from the anime series Shaman King. She is voiced by Yui Horie in the Japanese version. She was born on March 2, 1990 and her blood type is AB.

An 11-year-old young girl from France and powerful shaman in her own right, Jeanne is the leader of the X-Laws. Her title of Iron Maiden refers to the fact spends nearly all her time inside an iron maiden in order to increase her strength by keeping her in a near death state. She rarely leaves it unless she is desperately needed, believing her suffering will bring justice to the world. Her iron maiden, however, was crushed most likely beyond repair.

She is known for her red eyes and very pale hair and almost fragile appearance. She is extremely charismatic; in the English anime, a googly-eyed Tamao Tamamura calls her a "princess" after hearing her speak for the first time.

Character
Little is known about Jeanne's history or family situation. Supposedly she is named after Jeanne D'Arc (Joan of Arc), one of the Patron Saints of France. The series states that Jeanne was a French country girl with shaman powers, who received a divine revelation at the age of ten while praying in a Catholic church. A cross of light appeared and a mysterious voice revealed to her the world was to be destroyed unless it was purged of an evil force. Recognizing the evil force to be Hao Asakura, Jeanne chose to become a shaman.

Jeanne's passionate hatred of Hao derives from the fact she believes him to be the ultimate evil. While she believes herself to be a martyr of sorts and is still very soft-spoken and compassionate towards the X-Laws, specially towards young Lyserg Diethel (she defended and praised Lyserg several times when Marco was too hard on him), she has become detached from humanity and is unable to see that not everything is black and white.

In a way, Jeanne is like Hao, since she kills whoever stands in her way indiscriminately, if they don't surrender to her pleas for peace. They both believe that they are helping the world and their actions will be justified by the end results. The difference is that Jeanne honestly believes she is stopping the fighting and is blinded with the belief that her fighting is helping despite the deaths caused, while Hao is fully aware of his evil and the true nature of his actions.

When in her armored form, Jeanne wears sandals with spikes going into her feet (yet they do not pierce her) and also wears a giant lock on her abdominal region, like a chastity belt. These two items seem to represent self-flagellation.Though she is seen as emotionless, the eyes on the face of the Iron Maiden will cry tears of blood when she herself feels sad and needs to cry.

In the manga, it is revealed that Jeanne was not actually a savior with an omnipotent type of purity. She was an orphan girl taken by the original leader of the X-Laws, Luchist, who became one of Hao's followers. Jeanne, herself, is no more than an ordinary girl who was granted shamanic powers. She is attacked alongside Marco and Lyserg Diethel by Anahol, the brother of a man who was killed by Jeanne during the Shaman Fight.

Spirit

 * See More: Shamash

Jeanne's spirit guardian is Shamash (known as "Mash" in the English dub), the Babylonian god of justice. Shamash is the key to opening the Gate of Babylon and appears as a very tiny strange looking creature that proves to have immense power. Her attempt to open the Gate of Babylon to seal away Hao fails and almost cost Jeanne her life.

Jeanne (likely after manga only character Lady Sati) has the level of furyoku (spirit power) closest to Hao, making her more powerful than she appears. However, she loses all of her powers after Shamash is devoured by the Spirit of Fire.

In the manga, when Ren is killed, Shamash revives him with a kiss on the lips (much to Ren's dislike). Jeanne compares the method of resurrection she used with Shamash to the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Gate of Babylon
The events concerning the Gate of Babylon occur in the anime only.

The ultimate purpose of the X-Laws is the opening of the Gate of Babylon, which is supposedly able to seal away the great shaman Hao. Midway through the series, the Gate of Babylon was introduced to the protagonists, who were puzzled by its meaning.

When the gate is opened, anything and everything within a sizable radius is completely consumed by the Gate, which is actually a gigantic portal. Once through, the trapped will be forced to wander the bizarre environment for eternity. At first, the entire X-Laws, Jeanne, and the protagonists were engulfed by the portal and trapped. However, Hao simply breaks out of the powerful prison as if it were wet tissue paper, as right before he was trapped the Spirit of Fire devoured Shamash, gaining its significant powers.

The prison then proceeds to crumble as Hao breaks out, releasing all the trapped occupants and rendering Jeanne powerless.