Tamamura Tamao

Tamamura Tamao (玉村 たまお, known in the English anime as Tamara), is a fictional character in the manga and anime series Shaman King. Tamao is an orphan living with the Asakura Family as the disciple of Asakura Mikihisa. As an adult, she is the Okami of the re-opened Funbari Onsen and made the guardian of Asakura Hana while his parents are travelling the world.

Appearance
Tall for her age, Tamao is a pink-eyed girl with short-cut pink hair. She is usually seen in a simple white shirt and black pants with planchette slung over shoulder and sketchbook in hand. While working at the Inn, she wears a pink kimono with a rose sash and an apron.

Personality
Tamao is a very shy girl who has a crush on Asakura Yoh, even though she knows that Yoh is engaged to Kyōyama Anna. Despite this, she states that her feelings for him are tantamount to Anna's. Initially, she is so shy that she uses her sketchbook and points to pictures in instead of speaking. But during the Shaman Fights, she steadily gains self-confidence through Anna's influence and fight Team "Hana-Gumi" and even tried to protect the dying Marco Lasso from Anahol Pokki even though he was clearly stronger.

Following the conclusion of the Shaman Tournament, Tamao undergoes a drastic personality change followed by the stress of running the Funbari Onsen and taking care of Asakura Hana on her own. This coupled with the death of her late teacher Asakura Mikihisa causes her to snap and she runs amok in West Tokyo for three years straight. By the time the Five Elemental Warriors gathers again she has returned to her senses and now reassemble Anna in both appearance and personality to the point where Hana mistakes her for his mother Anna. Her shyness is completely gone, having been replaced with an air of understated authority. Her ability to inspire fear is such as Hana refers to her as a "monster".

Years later, Tamao have gained a calm disposition and only panics when she learns that members of the Asakura Branch Family have arrived in town. Despite her own use of violence to punish people, she often urge people not to fight, especially at the inn. Tamao is fiercely loyal to the Asakura Family and after Asakura Luca and Asakura Yohane attack Hana, she retaliated by crushing the house of the Branch Family with Dai Tengu.

Abilities and Powers
Tamao's specialty is her use of a kokkuri board, which is similar to a Ouija board, in order to perform divinations. She is also an shugenja, like Mikihisa. Tamao showed a lot of potential already at a young age and as such was made a candidate to become Yoh´s future fiancé.

In her adult years, she is the full-fledged Okami of Funbari Onsen and is well-versed in Japanese etiquette, Sado, Ikebana, and Calligraphy. She has also become an accomplished songstress.

Spirits

 * See More: Ponchi and Conchi | Dai Tengu

Her guardian ghosts are Conchi, a kitsune, and Ponchi, a tanuki, in the same way Mikihisa has a kitsune and a tanuki. However, even though they are Seirei-types they have still not completely given up on their ego and therefore, cannot completely evolve.

With the pair, she can create two different Over Souls with her planchette. By using Conchi, she creates a crossbow that can shoot guided arrows while with Ponchi she creates a heart-shaped shield that can expand at will.

After undergoing intense training under Asakura Yohken, Tamao inherits the ability to summon and control the Kami-class spirit Dai Tengu while using Harusame as a medium.

Past
Tamao originates from Saitama, Japan and was born on June 17th, 1988. Orphaned at a very young age, she was found and brought to the Asakura family by Yoh's father, Asakura Mikihisa. He intended her to train with him to become a shugenja, while also training under Asakura Yohmei to learn divination. At the Asakura household, Tamao was also taught how to take care of the housework and helped out by working as a maid.

Shaman Fights Second Round
As Team "Hana-Gumi" confronts Redseb Munzer, Seyram Munzer and Kyōyama Anna Tamao and Tao Jun steps in to fights the three girls, allowing Anna and the children to reach the stadium in time for the next fight.

Invading the Plants
While Yoh and his friends were transported to the Continent of Mu, Tamao had an outdoor grill feast, with the Asakura Family, the Tao Family, the Usui Family and Hao's followers.

She later appears onboard the Soul Train together with the rest of Asakura Family.

Funbari no Uta
After the Shaman Tournament had ended, Tamao is left to bring up Asakura Hana and oversee the construction of Funbari Onsen while attending high school. During this time, both Yoh and Anna are away and Hana believes that Tamao is his real mother. Under tremendous pressure, Mikihasa's death finally causes her to snap. She runs amok and dominates West Tokyo for 3 years straight with Harusame in hand. It is at this time that she gains the training to become an Okami and to obtain the Furyoku necessary to summon Dai Tengu. According to Ichihara Ryuji, she together with Umemiya Ryunosuke became legendary thugs for uniting all the gangs in Nishitōkyō. During this time she also gained the nickname "Metal Sword" Tamao-San for wielding a real metal katana.

Six years after the tournament, Tamao has graduated from high school and is preparing Funbari Onsen for its grand opening, as well as the reunion of the Elemental Warriors. At 19 years of age, Tamao's appearance and personality heavily resemble Anna; she has grown her hair out and wears a simple black dress reminiscent of Anna's. She is seen constantly carrying a meat cleaver and has just released her first doujin album.

Flowers
In her adult years, she continues to take care of Hana, while also running the Funbari Onsen. At some point, she visited Asakura Yohmei on his deathbed in Izumo, where he warned her of the arrival of Asakura Branch Family and tasked her to protect Hana from them. While Hana was at school she received news from Ponchi and Conchi that Asakura Luca and Asakura Yohane have arrived in town and that they later made contact with Hana, most likely with the intention of killing him. Later, while stuck in traffic with Ryu, she felt Hana and Yohane's Furyoku clashing, realizing that they are too late. After finding Hana unharmed in the streets, she took Ryu's motorcycle and drove off on her own to investigate in Kyoto. She then forcibly called for a truce with Asakura Yohkyo, but not before interrogating him and destroying his house.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the anime series, Tamao is not nearly as shy as her manga counterpart: She actually talks as opposed to drawing pictures and pointing things out, albeit with a noticeable stuttering.

Tamao gets somewhat less character development in the anime series, as her other Over Soul, Angel-san, and her fight with Team "Hana-Gumi" are omitted entirely.

Trivia

 * Anna once stated that Tamao would most likely have married Yoh if she were not there.


 * A running gag in the Japanese version of the anime series features Tamao as the protagonist in a Mahou Shoujo type show titled "Kokkuri Angel Cupid Tamao", a show based on an Omake Chapter of the same name.