Tao Ren

Tao Ren is a fictional character in the Shaman King manga and anime series. Ren is the 43rd head of the Tao Family, and during the Shaman Fight, he was a member of Team "The Ren". Sometime after the tournament, Ren married Iron Maiden Jeanne and together they had a son, named Tao Men.

Appearance
Tao Ren was shorter than Yoh and most of his friends but he seems to look taller when the spike of his purple hair (a hairstyle called "Tongari") is added up. He has a relatively thin yet muscular build with visible abs. Ren's eye color is golden yellow in the 2001 anime series. However, in the manga colored pages series, they are usually gold, brown, or the same color as his hair color.

His casual clothes were his school uniform; a pair of short black pants, a tucked in, white dress shirt, a yellow school jacket, dark green tie and a pair of brown leather shoes. Like Yoh, Ren wears his school clothes as a casual outfit during the Second Rounds of the Shaman Fights. While traveling to America, Ren began wearing long pants and a yellow scarf and as his old jacket was worn out, his mother gave him a new similar one.

When he left for America, he also brought with him a new battle uniform, that is inspired by kung fu cloth. Both the pants and the vest are black and both have a triangular pattern with a yellow lining, and the pants are tied with a white silk belt. The vest also has an opening in the back outlining his Tao tattoo. Even though he brought it with him from before the start of the Shaman Fight, he never wore it during the fights in America because they were all so sudden, that he never had the chance to change.

In the seven years that passed, he reluctantly grew tall and his long hair was braided into a three-pronged Tongari. In his adult years, he commonly wears a black suit with a purple shirt and a yellow necktie.

Personality
Ren is serious, logical, and quite aloof. He tries hard to maintain a tough and confident exterior, but deep down would risk his own life for his allies. Ren is a particularly impatient person with a short temper and is not afraid to hurt the source of the anger. Because of how he was raised amongst dead corpses and spirits he began applying the survival of the fittest rule as a way of overcoming death. He also believed that his guardian ghost Bason, was only meant to be used as a tool and would to treat him as a friend would only result in the spirit taking highly advantage over him. Ren's anger and hatred came from his father Tao Yúan. Forced to train and study at a very youthful age, Ren had his childhood stolen from him and thus, hated his father for all of his suffering.

Ren is an egotistical person and usually does not care that people think that he is overly proud. He even named his own team, Team "The Ren", much to the annoyance of his teammate, Usui Horokeu. In addition, Ren is also very intuitive, quick-witted, sometimes quite stubborn and he can also be very defiant. He rarely listens to what anyone says or takes their instructions. Before and during the process in which he befriended with Asakura Yoh, he was even bold enough to disobey his father on various occasions.

As the Shaman Fight progresses, Ren begins to trust others even more. Out of all his friends, his bonds with Chocolove and Horohoro seem to be the strongest even though Ren often fights with Horohoro. However, after Ren was fatally impaled by Peyote Diaz, it becomes apparent that they really do care for one another as Horohoro tried his best to protect Ren until the rest could help him.

Abilities and Powers
As a normal human being, Ren has a very strong body as evidenced by his tough and constant training. He is very 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 Asakura Mikihisa's techniques simply by experiencing them firsthand, and also learning to use Over Soul by just seeing Chrome use his. It is mentioned that Ren is skilled in more than one area of combat and is a powerful shaman capable of performing feats most shamans of his age would not be able to, such as staring straight into the heart of the Great Spirit without fainting, a feat only a handful of shamans could do.

Ren becomes one of the Five Elemental Warriors and attunes his Furyoku to that of lightning, giving him the skills to move and attack in the blink of an eye. While fighting his way through the Plants, Kyōyama Anna looked through the Furyoku values of Ren and the others. There it is revealed that his Furyoku level is about 100,001.

Weapons

 * See More: Basontou | Bâo-Lèi Sword

At the beginning of the series, Ren fights with the Basontou, a guandao that Bason used to wield and had been passed down in the Tao Family for generations. Ren used it for both his Hyōi-Gattai and later as a medium for his first Over Soul. During the second round of the Shaman Fights, his guandao was incinerated by Asakura Hao, but Ren was later wielded another one, during his fight with Nichrom.

The Bâo-Lèi Sword is a silver sword and the most treasured heirloom of the Tao Family. It was given to Ren by his father. After Asakura Hao incinerated his guandao, Ren switched to the Bâo-Lèi Sword. With this sword, he creates two new Over Souls the "Super Bushin" and the "Bushin Fish Fin".

Spirit

 * See More: Bason | Hei-Tao| Spirit of Thunder



Bason is Ren's guardian ghost. A fierce warrior from the era of Kublai Khan, Bason has always served the Tao Family, even now after his death. When Ren used the Bâo-Lèi Sword as a medium for his Over Soul, it increased the strength of Bason several times and evolved him into a Seirei Class spirit.

Ren used his first Over Soul for most melee attacks and later created the Super Bushin that was able to use Bason's military experience to create dozens of different weapons to overwhelm his opponent. Ren´s third Over Soul with Bason, the Bushin Fish Fin, allowed him to generate lightning and electricity to either strike down from the sky or channeled through his over soul in close combat.

After becoming one of the Five Elemental Warriors, Ren gains the Spirit of Thunder, which aligns with the lightning techniques of Taoism, according to Pascual Abaj.

After the battle against the Dong Family, Tao Ching released the Four Perils for Jun and Ren, hoping the siblings would manage the spirits together.

Past
Ren was born on January 1, 1986 in Guizhou, China, and is the 43rd heir to the Tao Family. Ren was trained as a shaman for years. On Ren's ninth birthday, his grandfather, Tao Ching, presented Ren with the challenge of fighting the Corpse Infantry, an army of 999 Jiang Shi. Integrated with Bason, Ren cut all of them in half with one swing.

Coming to Tokyo
Ren traveled from China to Japan to fight Asakura Yoh and take his Guardian Ghost, Amidamaru, as he wanted to become Shaman King and needed many strong spirits. After arriving in Funbari Hill, Ren witnessed Yoh and Amidamaru saving children from a burning building. While waiting for Yoh in the cemetery, Ren met Oyamada Manta and had Manta pass on a message to Yoh: He will take Amidamaru.

The next day, Ren offended a group of adult men, so they attacked him. Ren demonstrated his immense strength by defeating them quickly with Wushu without the use of his guardian ghost. However, when one of the men tried to run Ren over with a car, Ren integrated the ghost of Bason and easily sliced the car in half, destroying it. Not satisfied yet, Ren decided to kill the man but was stopped by Yoh. Ren explained that humans deserved to die for polluting the world and that he would purify the world when he became Shaman King. Ren then demanded that Yoh hand over Amidamaru, but Yoh refused, stating that Amidamaru was his best friend, which Ren found to be a ridiculous concept. Deciding to take the ghost by force, Ren integrated Bason again and fought Yoh, who integrated Amidamaru. The fight was equal until Ren, excited at Amidamaru's strength, applied 100% Integration, drawing on all of Bason's strength and landing a near fatal strike on Yoh. Yoh, however, manages to get up and considers sending Amidamaru to the afterlife, where Ren would be unable to retrieve the ghost. This angered Ren so he charged at Yoh, determined to kill him, but Amidamaru shielded Yoh with his body, refusing to let go of his attachment to Yoh. Surprised by this, Ren mocked Amidamaru's action and used 100% Integration again to strike at Yoh; however, Yoh also applied 100% Integration, much to Ren's shock. The two clashed and Ren lost.

After his defeat, Ren purchased and took up residence in the burned-out Chinese restaurant. Months later, When Umemiya Ryunosuke and his gang tried to take over the restaurant, Ren forced them out, threatening to kill them. Ren's sister, Jun, also came to Funbari Hill to help Ren acquire Amidamaru; however, she and her Jiang Shi, Lee Pyron, also failed to defeat Yoh.

Ren and Jun watched the passing of Ragoh and Keito from the cemetery. Ren was confident his new skills would lead him to defeating Yoh.

Shaman Fights in Tokyo
To qualify for the Shaman Fight, Ren was tested by the Patch Officiant Chrom. Demonstrating his skill with the Over Soul technique, Ren successfully landed a hit on Chrom, who acknowledged Ren's skills and power but critiqued his arrogance. However, when Chrom presented the Oracle Bell, Ren struck again, killing the officiant, and took the device for himself.

Weeks later, when Yoh was about to be attacked by Johann Faust VIII's 12730-kilogram Skeleton giant, Ren interfered by destroying the skeleton giant with a mere kick, not wanting his next opponent to be killed, and to show Yoh his Over Soul. At that time, he revealed that he had already won one fight meaning that he would have to win against Yoh to proceed to the tournament, as the time left in the Shaman Fight Preliminaries had run out.

Three months later, Ren and Yoh meet up again, ready to fight each other. Remembering his last humiliating defeat, Ren tells Yoh that he will soon become an obstacle but Yoh laughs at this and stated that he too, could not afford to lose. Ren gets off his horse and tells Yoh that shamans like himself are not even a fist's worth, but Yoh ignores this comment and points out that Ren had grown a little taller, further angering him. Believing that Yoh was treating him like a fool, Ren went straight in attacking Yoh with his new oversoul as soon as the battle started but Yoh shields the attacks. Ren commented on Yoh's new Over Soul and charge at Yoh with incredible speed. After surprising Yoh with his barrage of attacks, Ren goes behind Yoh and strikes him. Yoh, however, manages to block Ren's hit with his back turned to him, shocking Ren. Amidamaru reveals that Yoh could only do this because he had his eyes and Yoh hits Ren, sending him flying. Ren is uninjured and was revealed to have not even used 1/10 of his power. Ren rushes at Yoh and who just manages to defend himself but is sent towards the sky by the impact created by Ren. Ren then rode on his Over Soul and attacked Yoh in the air, which Yoh managed to block just in time. Ren scornfully asked Yoh if he had thought that his attack would end there and summons a gigantic fist from Bason, which slams Yoh towards the ground. Yoh uses his Over Soul to cushion the fall but Ren starts striking him over and over, breaking Yoh's Over Soul. Yoh deduces that he would have to make an oversoul that could overcome Ren's in order to defeat him but refuses to do so since he did not know how to. Amidamaru starts worrying but Yoh assures him. After hearing Yoh's words. Ren angrily attacks Yoh with his Over Soul again. Amidamaru, however, manages to counter and penetrates Ren's Over Soul, causing it to disintegrate.

Angered that Yoh managed to counter his attack, Ren launches another Over Soul, but Yoh, at Amidamaru's words, slants to the right and goes right under him, succeeding in dodging the attack. This further irritates Ren and he attacks Yoh yet again, but Yoh dodges it again and appears behind Ren, asking him where he was looking before attacking and breaking Ren's Over Soul. Ren then asked Yoh how he managed to avoid all his attacks, but Yoh reveals that he had been hit and that including his earlier attack, it would have been four times for him and seven times for his Over Soul. Silva reveals that Yoh's Over Soul was able to defeat Ren because Ren was too distracted by his anger to notice that his attacks had been working. He adds that Ren, who had full confidence in his power, was unsettled by how Yoh remained calm even as he used up his power and attacked, and his confidence started crumbling, along with his Over Soul.

Ren remembers his reason to become Shaman King and decides to end everything. He uses his full power and places the spirit of Bason's horse inside his personal horse, Hei-Tao, and places all of his spiritual power into Bason, completely materializing his entire upper body. He tells Yoh that the world he was aiming for and the weight he was carrying was something that he could not even comprehend. He prepares to strike Yoh and Yoh, knowing that he could not avoid it, does the same with Amidimaru, and the duo clashes, creating a huge cloud of dust that engulfs them. As the dust clears, Ren's Over Soul was revealed to have completely vanished and Ren realizes that he had indeed lost. Yoh, however, reveals that his Over Soul, too, had faded away long ago, prompting Ren to fall off his horse. The two start bickering and Silva step in to stop the argument, announcing that the fight had ended in a draw. Ren angrily demanded how they were to count the result of the fight and Goldva suddenly appears, declaring that both of them had advanced to the preliminaries.

Ren then attends the opening ceremony of Grand Shaman Fight and was later persuaded by Usui Horokeu, to attend a gathering at Yoh's house. The next day, Ren leaves to go to China and tells Yoh that he had one goal left in mind - to defeat him with a power even greater than his and departs.

As Ren becomes friends with Yoh and the others, Ren wishes to let go of his hatred so he could move on with his life and thus, returns to China to defeat his father. There he and Bason were met with an army of Jiang Shi warriors from corpses freshly killed by Yúan. Ren quickly smashes through all the Jiang Shi with a little major problem until his father appears, which Ren did not notice until he announced his presence, and welcomes him home with a blast of Furyoku. Yúan says that he did expect both his children to revolt against him. Two Jiang Shi bring Tao Jun and what is left of Pyron. Yúan then recaptures Ren and throws him in the Tao dungeon to be tortured for ten days. Jun laments her misery but Ren quotes Yoh's "It will work out" to calm down Jun.

Yoh finally arrives at the dungeon area and frees him. Ren tells the reason why he must do this in the fact that he came to defeat the evil inside himself. The two Jiang Shi that control the torture area come and they both kill the Jiang Shi. They head back upstairs and find Yúan's final bodyguard about to kill Horhoro and Ryu. The Jiang Shi goes behind the two and hits them with one of Pyron's moves. however, Manta finds out that the final Jiang Shi is was, in fact, Pyron's deceased master. The Jiang Shi reveals its face towards them and then Ren says that Yúan probably placed the master's ghost into a new body. just then The Jiang Shi goes behind Yoh but then Pyron stops them. Jun and Pyron take it down by cutting it half. The gang moves on and encounters Yúan himself.

Ryu and Horohoro cut off Yúan's arms but they grow back and they are slammed down. Ren attacks Yúan but only dismembers him and Yuan still lives. Yúan attacks Ren and Yoh take the blow. Pyron kicks Yúan in the head but Pyron is later thrown into a wall. Ren starts listening to his father for a bit but knows that he is only doing this because he is weak. The gang gets up and faces Yúan. Yúan is surprised that they would do this for Ren and he loses his temper. Yúan attacks but he goes right through Ren revealing that the father they knew it was an Over Soul. Yúan reveals his armor of memorial tablets and forms a dragon. Ren over souls and defeats Yúan. This finally allows Ren to move on from his hatred and try to do something good for a change.

Ren's mother and grandfather appear and manage to stop Yúan from taking it farther. They invite the gang to dinner and they are happy to go. Ren tells his family he must leave and he can not stay longer due to the shaman fight. They leave and Ren gains the Bo-lei sword from his father. His father tells him to be safe and Ren promises to be by the boundless lands of China.

Ren is next seen at the gathering of the shaman at the military base. He is eating food that is provided by the Patch. The gang takes a break and meets with Hao. The Spirit of Fire then attacks Horohoro and Ren catch him. He, in turn, attacks Hao but is stopped by the Spirit of Fire. Ren boards the plane and when it disappears Ren explains that the test is not about how well the shamans fly but if they can stay calm under pressure. Meanwhile outside from the sky the group power up their over souls and hit the ground.

Traveling Through America
Ren, Yoh, Ryu, and Horohoro landed on route 66, safe and Ryu summoned Billy Anderson to go to the nearest town. Ren, Yoh, Ryu, and Horohoro ran into Lilirara and witnessed Hao's past as part of the Patch Tribe. He encountered Lyserg Diethel the next day. Lyserg then gives a full introduction about himself and asks to join the group, to which Yoh suddenly politely greets him with the shock of the Horohoro and Ren. After a brief debate about him by Horohoro and Ren, Ryu shockingly notes that Horohoro addresses Lyserg with "he" and asks if Lyserg is a guy to which Lyserg pulls down his pants which in turn freaks out all of them while Lyserg pulls his pants back up. as Lyserg then goes on to explain his dowsing abilities and then he reveals his guardian ghost, Morphin.

After a scuffle between Lyserg and Horohoro, Horohoro prepares his snowboard for an attack against Lyserg, to which he shows off his Over Soul and strikes Horohoro, who barely dodges. Suddenly appearing in front of Lyserg, Horohoro reveals his own Over Soul, but suddenly the Pendulum Over Soul appears next to him and suddenly the pendulum tip is right at his face. Ren prepares to cut the wire with his own fully charged Over Soul, but Lyserg easily incapacitates both Ren and Horohoro by cutting them with the wire and crushing their mediums.

The group would later encounter Boris Tepes Dracula and the rest of Hao's followers at the entrance to the Patch Village. Ryu eventually defeats Boris and the group then encounters the X-Laws who killed Boris and easily beats up "Big Guy" Bill Burton. They are about to kill Bill when Yoh stops them and in gratitude, Bill shows them the rest of the way to Patch village.

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

Ren did not like the idea of being trained by Yoh's father so he fought him but was knocked out and in the process, he revealed his new Bao-Lei sword Over Soul. 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 Diaz, wanting revenge from earlier, pulled out his O.S. "Grande Fantasma" and impaled Ren with 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. Yoh had made a deal with Iron Maiden Jeanne to revive Ren in exchange for Yoh having to drop out of the tournament. Jeanne arrived and after preparing a ceremony, had Shamash kiss, Ren, bringing him back to life, though he was utterly disgusted with it.

Invading the Plants
Ren and the group enter the volcano plant and face off against Magna. Magnascope attacks and they both use Over Soul. Magna crushes Jeanne's Iron Maiden but nothing was inside. Ren over souls and strikes Magna with the full force of his lightning-based attacks.

Magna, however, uses the Patch Song and readies himself to kill. Along with clash then starts where both fighters would constantly dodge or block the others attack. Suddenly a large amount of smoke blows up in between them something Magna uses to suddenly disappear and hide from Ren. Suddenly appearing to strike Ren, Ren disappears before he can make a clean hit. Ren reappears in the blink of an eye behind Magna and explains how he had become as fast as lightning. Suddenly Magna realizes that he needs to warn Nichrome about this but is killed with a massive lighting bolt allowing Yoh and the company to move on to the next plant.

When Ren and the remaining three teams reached the 7th Plant of the Cave, they find Nichrom who quickly revealed his medium and spirit and Over Souled Yellow Whip. He urged the group to attack him together, but Ren only revealed his old weapon and goated him to attack him alone. Nichrom proceeded to attack Ren with the scorpion tail, only to have the tail wrap itself around the arm of Bason and is used to slam Nichrom to the ground.

Ren proceeds to use 100% Hyoi Gattai, to rapidly attack Nichrom with the Zhong Hua Zhan Wu, leaving him a bloody mess and his patch cloak tattered. Nichrom slowly rose up and in a state of insanity, tried to attack Ren yet again, to which Ren easily grabbed the scorpion tail by the broad himself. Ren then tells Nichrom to fight with all his might or die. Taking in Ren's words Nichrom throws away his tattered cloak and reveals a new Over Soul on his legs, made with the spirit of Purple Kick. Nichrom thanks Ren for his words and reveal that with this new Over Soul he gains an incredible speed and is able to appear behind Ren and then kick him into a wall.

Using the speed, Nichrom charges towards Ren and grabs him with the claw of his Yellow Whip Over Soul while piercing him in the gut with the broad of his scorpion tail. Nichrom reveals to Ren that his body is now dying of a poison that will not disappear as long as he is still alive. Seeing that Nichrom is now going all out, Ren prepares his own Armour Over Soul and both of them have one final clash. The result of the fight is not seen, but as Ren is later seen being patched up by Asakura Yoh using the spirit of Johann Faust VIII, it would seem that Ren was the winner.

The group then proceeds on to the 8th plant of the Ocean, where the Patch Officiant, Thalim are awaiting them. Thalim greeds them politely remembering the tip Yoh gave earlier at the Patch Cafe and they seemingly have a friendly conversation. Ren is however unfazed by all of this and quickly over souls his Armour Over Soul and attacks Thalim with "ElecBang" only to have it blocked by a gigantic tree that suddenly grows up around Thalim. Thalim reveals that Ren's lightning is largely ineffective against him as the tree would just disperse the electricity into the ground. After Horohoro also fails against Thalim plants, but Ren and Horohoro are tied up by Thalim's Climatic Over Soul. Thalim is finally defeated by Chocolove when he learns the power of erosion.

As the group finally arrives at the 10th and final "Plant of the Universe" they realize that there is no oxygen and no gravity and begin to wonder how they are supposed to fight in there. At first, Lyserg suggests that they all protect themselves with their own personal O.S. but Ryu suddenly interrupts and suggests that they all use the heads of his "O.S. Yamato No Orochi" so that the rest can fight at full strength. As Ren questions the responsibility he would suddenly have he says that he wants to be useful too as the seven is currently his best place. Even though they are able to fight at their full strength they are still beaten by Rutherfor until Yoh nullifies her Over Soul.

When Hao finally awakens he sends a message to the Oracle Bells that reads "'so small" He arrives at the final plant and effortlessly kills everyone with a simple glance, excluding Rutherfor, Opacho, and Yoh. After Hao attempts to banish Yoh from his area in the Great Spirit Ren, Lyserg, Chocolove, and Horohoro appear within it, with the Five Grand Elemental Spirits. A fierce battle between the 5 Elemental Warriors and the Shaman King begins.

In the end, Hao reveals that he was merely preparing for their end and use the Great Spirit to destroy a sun and create a black hole that almost sucks in the Five Warriors until the Soul Train arrives and anchors everyone. Hao is eventually discouraged from his plan of destroying humanity when his mother arrives and everyone is sent back

Funbari no Uta
After the tournament, Ren studied at Tsinghua University and after graduating, Ren, together with Bill Burton and Hang Zang-Ching, formed the Leidi Group, beginning as a large electronics manufacturing company. The company would eventually expand into a conglomerate with Ren as the CEO. He reconnected with Jeanne while she was traveling Europe, eventually marrying her and together they had a son, Tao Men. After she gave birth to Men, she went on maternity leave and left Ren as the leader of the X-Laws' charitable actions.

When Horohoro, Chocolove, and Lyserg arrive for their reunion with Yoh and Anna, they all suddenly notice the appearance of a horse-driven carriage. As a small boy stepped out, Ren complained about the fact Tokyo was always messy and that no matter where you went there where always crowds and traffic jams, oblivious to the fact that he himself had caused the crowd and traffic. Seeing the resemblance, Horohoro, Lyserg, and Chocolove all thought that the little boy was Ren until Ren himself came out of the carriage and picked up the kid announcing that the boy is his son, Tao Men.

While waiting for Yoh and Anna, Horohoro asks Ren who was the mother of the child is, only for Ren to refuse to answer. Lyserg, however, tells that he has already deduced who it was. When Ryu arrives and tells that Yoh and Anna were delayed Ren stood up angry and shouted making all three of his hair spikes grow. As they wait for Yoh and Anna they all remember the end of their fight with Hao and realize that despite their promise to him nothing has changed, only to be encouraged by Yoh who has just had finally arrived. After the greeting they all party back in the where Ren attacks Horohoro at the end out of anger. Later during the night, a parcel arrives from the Patch Village and Anna comes in to reveal it is a book over the Shaman Fights that had transpired in Tokyo.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the 2001 anime version, Ren has an obsession with milk and the number three and never interacts with Iron Maiden Jeanne. In the 4Kids version, he was given a British accent and his name was changed to Len Tao.

Trivia

 * Ren's name in Chinese means "benevolent", "tough", and "edge of a knife", all of which are reflected by his character. His actual Chinese name, "Lián", means "lotus" and is usually a more feminine name.
 * Ren's hobby is stress release.
 * Ren's favorite food is peach sweet buns.
 * In The Funbari Onsen Saga, Ren is briefly shown wearing traditional Chinese clothing. Although Ren's adult appearance was later changed, this original design reappears among Hana's visions in Shaman King The Super Star.
 * 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 was not very annoying.
 * Coincidentally, Ren's Japanese voice actor, Romi Paku, has also voiced Bleachs Tōshirō Hitsugaya and Fullmetal Alchemists Edward Elric. All three characters are short for their ages and lose their tempers whenever someone mentions this.