Tao Ren

Tao Ren (道 蓮 Japanese: Tao Ren; Pinyin: Dào Lián or Dao4 Lian2), known as Len Tao or Lenny in the English anime and English video games, is a character from the anime and manga Shaman King. Ren's name sometimes is seen in Western order, Ren Tao, in artwork in the Shaman King manga.

Appearance
Tao Ren as seen in the manga. Ren has a unique appearance that divides him from all the other characters in Shaman King. He is shorter than Yoh and most of his friends, but he seems to look taller when the length of the spike in his hair is added up.

He is relatively thin, as many of the Shaman King characters are, and his spiked hair is a shade of dark purple. His hairstyle is called a tongari. Ren's eyes are golden in the anime, but in the manga's colored pages, they usually appear brownish or the same color as his hair.

Personality
He is serious, logical, and emotionally aloof. He has become like this because of how he was raised. Because of his father, Ren had adapted a deep hatred towards humanity and a strong yearning to eliminate them all. He also believed that his spirit companion, Bason, was only meant to be used as a tool and to treat him as a friend would only result in the spirit taking advantage over him. Ren's anger and hatred came from his father (or uncle in the English anime), Tao Yúan (Tao En). Forced to train and study at a very young age, Ren had his childhood stolen from him. He hated Tao En for all of his suffering.

Ren tries hard to maintain a tough and confident exterior and is aloof, but deep down would risk his life for his allies. Ren is a particularly impatient person with a very short temper, and isn't afraid to hurt the source of the anger.

Ren is an egotistical person and usually doesn't care that people think that he's overly proud. He even named his own team, "Team the Ren", much to the annoyance of his teammate, Horohoro. His overflowing self-confidence annoys some of the other characters. In addition, Ren is also very intuitive, quick-witted, and sometimes stubborn. He is also very defiant. He rarely listens to what anyone says or takes their instructions. Before and during the process in which he befriended Yoh, he even was bold enough to disobey his father on various occasions.

As the series progresses, Ren begins to trust others more. Out of all his friends, his bonds with Yoh and Horohoro seem to be the strongest. Ren often fights with Horohoro and the two do not seem to get along at all. However, after Ren sacrifices himself to save him, it becomes apparent that they really do care for one another. As Faust worked to try to save Ren's life after the incident, Horohoro did his best to protect the unconscious Ren

Abilities and Powers
As a human Ren has a very strong body as evidence by his tough and constant training. He is verry skilled in martial arts and sword fighting, in addition to also learning techniques by just watching them as he was able to learn many of Mikihisa Asakura's techniques simply by experiencing them firsthand, and also learning to use oversoul by just seeing Chrome use his. It is mentioned that Ren is skilled in more than one area of combat. He is a powerful shaman capable of doing things most shamans his age would not be able to. In the manga, he becomes one of the Five Elemental Warriors and gains the Spirit of Thunder. His element is reflected in his weapon, the Hou Rai Ken (Jewel Thunder) sword, and according to Pascal Avaf, The Spirit of Thunder follows the way of Taoism. In volume 32 it is revealed that his Furyoku is about 100.001.

Spirit

 * See More: Bason|Spirit of Thunder

Bason is the spirit of Tao Ren. A fierce warrior from the era of Kublai Khan, Bason has always served the Tao family, even now in death. Like Amidamaru, he is a supremely powerful spirit, capable of destroying an army with ease. His skills are on par with Amidamaru. He is rather submissive (reflected in his "Can I help you master Tao Ren?" or "Can I go Master Ren" statements when asking for permission to speak or fight), extremely loyal to Ren, and rarely oversteps his boundaries unless Ren is in grave danger. He also refers to Ren as "bocchama" (Young Master) in the Japanese version. Bason, other than with Ren, seems most at ease with Amidamaru, with whom he will occasionally converse with. The two are a powerful team, even against Hao Asakura's Spirit of Fire.

Weapons


In the beginning of the series, Ren fights with a kwan dao, a Chinese spear-like weapon. However, as he begins to face more powerful enemies, he switches to the Hou Rai Ken (Bâo-Lèi), the Tao's family most treasured heirloom sword. Although another reason, for chanching his medium, could be that Hao burned his Kwand dao to a crisp and he was unable to gain another at the time. With this sword, he creates a variety of over souls, such as the Super Bushin Bushin. Hou Rai Ken has the special ability of purifying and refining the spirit being integrated into it, making the spirit recall all of its past techinques from when it was still alive. This, in turn, increases the strength of Bason several times making him the ultimate fighting machine, and evolving him into a seirei-class spirit, as explained by Ren himself in Volume 17 when he was battling Mikihisa Asakura.

Ren's most powerful attack is called the Vorpal Dance, or Zhong Hua Zhan Wu, in the English manga. The attack is later called the "Golden Vorpal Dance". The attack is called the Rapid Tempo Assault in the English anime. In the Japanese anime, it's called Chuuka Zanmai (Chinese Slash Dance) and later on, Golden Chuuka Zanmai. In the manga, this attack results in the spike of Ren's hair growing outrageously long. In the manga, he is also capable of releasing a strong Armor Oversoul called Bushin Yuchi, roughly translated into Bushin Fish Fin, and can convert his furyoku into powerful lightning bolts, in an attack known as Rasiou.

Coming to Tokyo
Ren is a shaman from China who came to Japan to fight Yoh Asakura and steal his ghost Amidamaru. He would face Yoh soon and defeated him once but Yoh got right back up and used the full power of his ghost defeating Ren.

Shaman Tournament
During the Shaman Tournaments qualifications rounds Ren was tested by the Patch Chrom. Easily learning how to use and oversoul and place a hit on Chrom, Ren was not satisfied so he furiously attacked Chrom killing him in the process. He said that no one can doubt my abilities now. He left the scene laughing his head off at what he did.

VS Yoh for the second time
When Yoh was about to be attacked by Fausts 32 Kilo Skeleton giant, Ren interfered, not wanting his next opponent to be killed and to show of his oversoul. At that time he revealed that he had already won and lost one fight meaning that he would have to win against Yoh to proceed in the tournament. He and Yoh met up again and was ready to fight. Ren went straight in striking yoh but he dodged. Ren commented that yoh's new oversoul was pretty good. Ren powered up his oversoul and went in for an attack. Ren started to wear down Yoh's oversoul but eventually yoh came back and destroyed Ren's oversoul. Ren grew increasing furious that nothing he tried worked. Yoh said that the attacks were landing but it really didn't matter. Ren used his full power and placed Bason's horse inside his personal horse and put all of his spiritual power into Bason. Yoh did the same with Amidimaru and they clashed. When the battle ended they both ran out of power at the same time. Sivla came in and announced that both of them have passed to the second round.

Fighting his hatred
As he gains the friendship of Yoh and the others, he realizes that everything he once believed about the world was not true. He learned to trust others and that humans weren't as awful as he thought they were because Yoh and the others showed him that some people truly are kind. A new will to change himself took over. He wanted to let go of his hatred so he could be able to move on with his life, so he returned to China to defeat his father. There he and Bason was met with an army of Yian Shi warriors from corpses freshly killed by Yúan.

His first attempt failed, but he refused to give in to his father, even as he remained chained in the dungeon of his home. Thanks to Bason, Yoh and the others came to help him. He thanked them for rescuing him but was persistent in saying that he didn't want any help from them. He said it was his problem alone. Fighting there way out of the dungeon Yoh and Ren where faced with the strongest of the Jiang Shi warriors who had already defeated bot Ryu and Horohoro. But eventually all of them defeated Tao Yúan together; allowing Ren to finally move on.

Landing in America
Ren, Yoh, Ryu, and Horohoro landed on route 66 and Ryu summoned Billy to go to the nearest town. Ren, Yoh, Ryu, and Horohoro ran into Liliandra and witnessed the Patch Hao's past. He encountered Lyserg the next day. Lyserg defeated Ren and joined later. The gang later encountered Boris and Ryu defeated him. The gang entered the Patch village.

Shaman Fight Second Round
Ren entered the Patch village with a power increase but unlike other people he actually stared straight into the Great Spirit with out fainting. Choco encountered the group and explained the team stipulation to Ren. Ren quickly put his team together of himself, Choco, and Horohoro. He named his team "the Ren" without saying anything to his team. They were paired against Hao's Earth team. Choco handled most of the battle. When Choco ran out of power Ren took over defeating the Earth team in one blow. Hao talked to Ren after Yoh's match and destroyed ren's kwan dao.

Ren's Death
Ren did not like the idea of being trained by Yoh's dad so he fought him but was knocked out and in the process he revealed his new Bo-lei sword oversoul. Hao's followers attacked and Chocolove and Horohoro held them off for some time. Ren decided to go in and fight. He did that and was winning when Peyote pulled out the calevera Phantasma impaling Ren with the the small knife it carried. Chocolove and Horohoro quickly rushed in and sealed the massive wound on Ren. Yoh arrived and defeated Hao's followers. Jeanne arrived and had Shamash kiss Ren, bringing him back to life, though he was utterly disgusted with it.

Invading the Plants
Ren entered the plants and fought his way through. He fought and killed Magna and Nemari.

Family

 * See More: Tao Family

Ren is part of the Tao family, an ancient Chinese family known for their shaman capabilities. As history went on, they become ostracized for their abilities and hunted down. As a result, the Tao family became bitter and lost their belief in the kindness of humanity. Ren and his sister Jun were raised with these beliefs in mind. Ren is the current heir to the family.

Tao Ren's older sister is Tao Jun (who calls him "Len", or "Lenny" in the English anime--his Wade-Giles name is Tao Lian), who is a dao-si. He cares a lot about her, which is evident when he tries to save her from their father's wrath upon his return to China. Ren's mother is named Tao Ran. His grandfather, is Tao Zhen in the manga and Tao Ching in the anime.

Ren and Jun are utterly dominated by their father (uncle in the English anime), Tao En (rendered as Tao Yúan in the manga, En is the Japanese pronunciation of Yúan) until they are both changed by Yoh's views of the world. They rebel and with the help of Yoh and his friends defeat Tao En. En consults the Tao ancestors and sees that it is time for a change in attitude; he entrusts the family's heirloom, a sword called Houraiken (Jewelled Thunder, known as the Sword of Thunder in the English dub), as well as the hopes for the future of the Tao family to Ren.

Trivia

 * Ren's name in Chinese means "benevolent", "tough", and "edge of a knife", all of which are reflected in his character. His actual Chinese name, Lián, means "lotus" which is actually a girl's name.
 * In the English dub, he is given a British accent, possibly due to Hong Kong being previously owned by the British Empire.
 * Ren has an obsession with milk and the number 3.
 * a running gag in the series in Ren's hair spike growing when he gets irritated or shocked
 * It is mentioned in the interview part in the official Shaman King character book, that he would like a girl if she is smaller than him and is not very annoying.