Johann Faust VIII

Johann Faust VIII (ヨハン ファウストVIII世), commonly referred to as Faust VIII (ファウストVIII世), is a fictional character in the Shaman King manga and anime series. He is a doctor turned necromancer in his quest to resurrect his late wife. He joins as a member of Team "Funbari Onsen" during the Shaman Fight in AD 2000.

Appearance
Faust VIII has a number of physical traits that make him stand out from the rest of the characters in the Shaman King series. He had blue colored lips and dark bags underneath his eyes caused by lack of sleep. Another trait of his is the bone-like tattoo around his neck. He is also noticed being extremely thin due to malnutrition as ever since Eliza's death, he barely ate any food. He told Yoh during their first fight that he eats only the minimum necessary to stay healthy. Along with his height, these characteristics lend him an intimidating presence. Another noticeable trait is the skin-like grey piece sutured onto his chest and torso. This does not appear to inconvenience him in any way but only makes him look scary. According to Amidamaru, Faust reeks of death.

Faust has his own battle uniform made by Anna. It consists of a white, half-torn t-shirt with a large collar. He wears black pants which were cut off at the knee, with a pouch filled with medical supplies strapped to each thigh. On his back is an advertisement for Team "Funbari Onsen".

While sitting in his wheelchair, he wears his usual clothes: large white raincoat, a top white hat with a three-leaf clover and a blanket to cover his missing legs. He usually wears his skeleton shaman medium in chains that would be attached to his arm and would be hidden underneath his overcoat. Eliza's original head skull is either chain to his lap or hidden under his hat. During the second round, there is a flag attached to his wheelchair which is another advertisement for the Onsen.

Personality
Faust is usually a very detailed and patient person who thinks scientifically unless the matter concerned is his beloved wife Eliza. He does not tolerate interruptions while working. A good example is Eliza keeping the X-Laws at bay while he attempted to help Jeanne. Moreover, tolerates even less criticism, bad insults or bad threats directed at Eliza. Despite this, he does not get upset when someone insults him.

Faust is the embodiment of dedication, he has given up everything for his late wife and is willing to do anything to protect and take care of her. It is this single-mindedness and selflessness that gives him his own great strength in the Shaman Fight. Beyond all the mental instability and emotional suffering, his greatest strength comes from his pure heart because he knows that he only lives to love and protect his late beloved wife Eliza.

Faust was also quite insane but incredibly brilliant medical doctor who delights in saving the lives of others. Naturally, his work reveals facets of his own personality. During the time in between matches, he is usually seen reading some medical books and feeds himself breakfast, lunch, and even dinner through an intravenous therapy IV lines.

Despite his initial animosity towards Yoh and Manta, still trying to recover from his loss of his late wife Eliza, Faust eventually becomes much friendlier as time goes on upon regaining Eliza's actual soul, and is shown to be very loyal to his newfound friend's thanks to Yoh and co.'s influence on him.

Abilities & Powers
Necromancy, the art of reviving the bodies of the deceased, is Faust's most important shamanistic technique. He was able to animate large numbers of human and animal skeleton remains, but cannot by any means, arcane or scientific, bring back the dead. It was noted, though, that during the finals of the Shaman Fights, Faust does indeed master the art of resurrection, allowing him to actually revive the dead, as long as their bodies are not badly damaged or beyond repair.

To animate the remains, typically skeletons, he uses the skill Bone Dead Reborn, which calls nearby spirits to inhabit buried skeletons, which he can then fully command. By only supplying them with enough Furyoku to move, Faust can conserve energy while also extending his control to hundreds of skeletons and forcing his opponent to waste energy destroying them.

His skeletons have a powerful vice grip, and each has the raw strength of an adult male. Even his opponent in the preliminaries, Asakura Yoh, could not break free of the grip until a surge of pure desperation gave him barely enough strength to escape. He is also able to use the bones lying in graves to create cages to encase opponents.

Faust's mastery of the medical arts allows himself to patch up his own wounds in the middle of a fight. He can do (often very painful) things no normal doctor could do to themselves due to the fact he is a heavy user of morphine. Before every shaman fight, he pumps enough morphine into his body system to make him feel completely numb for a few hours, which allows him to repair any damage to his body without the feeling of pain. One instance of this was when Yoh broke Faust's leg during their fight, and instead of letting the bone heal on its own, Faust cut open his leg, ripped out the broken tibia, and had Eliza bring him another similar in size and blood type. Afterward, Faust replaced his missing leg bone and was able to stand within a few minutes. A second instance was when the shamans were dropped out of a plane to be tested on how they would survive the great fall. Faust passed by Horohoro, chuckling about how he had injected so much morphine that he would not die from the hard impact. He would just let himself fall, but stitch himself back up, and be on his merry way down.

Among other abilities, he seems to be a talented singer. He is first seen at the river bank during the start of the second round, singing about his late wife and how he lost her and later, while fighting Radim, he successfully copied the attributes of the Patch Song to create an advertisement for the Team "Funbari Onsen", called Funbari no Uta to energize himself and his teammates. The song seems to work, and afterward, he is able to revive himself, a feat he had earlier stated was impossible due to lack of Furyoku.

While fighting his way through the Plants, Kyōyama Anna would looked through the Furyoku values of Faust and the others. There it is revealed that his Furyoku level is about 12,500.

Shamanic Magic

 * Bone Dead Reborn (ボーンデッドリボーン): By using the basic principle of his necromancy magic, Faust uses his own Furyoku to bring forth skeleton remains that were buried in the graveyard.


 * Bone Shell (ボーンシェル): Using the skeleton remains from bone dead reborn, he creates a massive hollow shell of bones. This was defense was rather weak as Yoh was able to bust through it with little effort. In the 2021 anime series, this technique is called Schutz des Knochens (シュッツ·デス·クノッヘン Shuttsu Desu Kunohhen, German: "Protection of Bone").


 * Skull Scrummage (スカルスクラム): Faust moves the skeleton remains from bone dead reborn in a high-speed line kind of like a football scrimmage. In the 2021 anime series, this technique is called Gedränge des Schädels (ゲドレンゲ·デス·シェーデル Gedorenge Desu Shēderu, German: "Skull Scrummage").


 * 14-Ton Calcium Giant (12730kgキロのカルシウムの巨人): His strongest attack, Faust combines thousands of skeletal remains into an enormous giant, which he can manipulate with his Furyoku.

Spirit

 * See More: Eliza Faust | Frankensteiny

Eliza was Faust's first, only, and one true love. Sadly, she developed a fatal disease as a child, which would eventually have torn her away from Faust. As the only woman to care for himself, he, in return, slaved over his studies to find a cure for her, which he did find. After her recovery, they soon were married to each other and opened a clinic together. She and Faust had a happy life together, however, this was cut short, by a burglary. A robber broke into their clinic during the night and shot Eliza in point-blank in the head. As Faust grows stronger, she becomes more life-like. Although he was unable to revive her yet, Anna was able to summon her spirit back allowing Faust to communicate and see her more often. Because of this Faust's power became even stronger because of the fact that he now uses a real human soul for his Over Soul.

Past
Faust was born on April 8, 1966 in Heidelberg, Germany. He is a direct descendant of Johann Faust I, who had practiced necromancy. It was a dark secret, and Faust's family intended on keeping it hidden. Like his family, Faust wanted nothing to do with his ancestor's black magic.

When he was young, he met a girl named Eliza who was a patient of his father's but had an incurable illness. Because she was the only one outside of the family who ever showed care for him, Faust worked to his greatest potential to become a doctor and find a cure for Eliza. He succeeded, becoming a master of the medical field and Eliza was cured. They fell in love and were married, and ran their own medical clinic.

Faust got a beautiful mansion near the seaside, and it seemed that his life with Eliza could not be more perfect. Unfortunately, one day while Faust was out in town, a burglar broke into his mansion while Eliza was home alone. The criminal shot her in the forehead, killing her. Faust arrived at the home to the horrible scene and tried all of his medical skills to save his wife Eliza, whith no success.

He soon became obsessed with bringing her back to life and thus delved into the ancient practice of necromancy. He even dug up her skeleton remains to at least be with her again. For eight years Faust worked in his dark arts, never sleeping at all, which is why he has dark markings under his eyes and blue colored lips. He enters the Shaman Fight in order to become Shaman King and use the power to resurrect Eliza.

Shaman Fights in Tokyo
Asakura Yoh and Faust VIII first meet in a cemetery of Yokohama where they are to be opponents of the Shaman Fight. Arguably one of the most dangerous shamans ever, stories hinting of Faust's power have already rippled throughout in the rumors of priests who have come to referee the on-going Shaman Fights. One of the Shaman Fight Officiants, Silva, tries vainly to persuade Anna into making Yoh forfeit the match. He fears for Yoh's life because Faust had proven himself merciless. He killed his first opponent and seriously injured the officiant who tried to intervene. This match's field, moreover, is obviously in any Necromancer's favor, for it is a graveyard. This is a great advantage to a shaman-like Faust himself. However, Anna adamantly turns down Silva's request, insisting Yoh will fight for sure.

When Anna and Silva arrive to watch the match, they are shocked to find out the fight has already started. Faust has summoned an army of skeletons to attack Yoh. Faust partially dissects Manta, leaving him in intense pain. Faust's actions trigger Yoh's rage. The younger shaman tries to break free of Faust's skeleton army, and succeeds, although doing so, along with destroying skeleton after skeleton, has depleted his Furyoku greatly.

Throughout the fight, as the horrific truth is revealed, Faust used less than one percent of his Furyoku on reanimating each skeleton. The reason given by Silva is that Faust uses very little energy to animate the skeletons. While Faust is still in mint condition for the match, Yoh has become extremely battle-weary, his energy used up, and his Furyoku burning down to just a small flame of energy above the hilt of his sword. To finish Yoh off, Faust's true spirit ally finally emerges as he transfers his attention to creating Eliza's form on her skeleton. Eliza, while far from being the strongest foe Yoh has ever faced, becomes formidable now that his energy is almost gone.

Yoh enrages Faust by calling Eliza a "doll" because she has no will of her own. This enrages Faust to a horrific level so that he appears an insane man. He starts to recklessly expend energy, leaving him weakened. Yoh focuses his remaining Furyoku at the tip of his sword, Harusame, and cuts the legs off of Eliza's skeleton. While this attack leaves Eliza complete useless in combat, it depletes the rest of Yoh's Furyoku. Amidamaru falls out of Harusame, and Yoh loses the match. Yoh breaks down crying at nearly losing his best friend, his life, and his dream. Amidamaru tells Yoh that his philosophy of letting things work themselves out and not worrying about the outcome of events is as much a form of courage as any other.

Faust, out of pure blind rage creates a boneyard giant, a 20-ton "calcium giant" made completely out of skeletons, with the full intent of killing Yoh for damaging Eliza. Tao Ren arrives however and destroys the bone giant with a single powerful kick, revealing that he did so because he needs Yoh to be alive since he is his next opponent.

Right before the opening ceremony of the Grand Shaman Fight, Faust is seen watching the fight between Ren and Yoh where it is revealed that he gave his legs to Eliza, and has become confined to a wheelchair.

Shaman Fight, Second Round
He is later shown at the Patch Village. There, he is found at the waterside by Manta, who sees Faust stitching himself up after the long drop from the Patch Jet. He is later seen coming towards Yoh with Manta saying that he found him passed out. He then tells Yoh that he is looking for teammates for the second event of the Shaman Fight. While Ryu and Yoh initially reject his offer to help in favor of Lyserg Diethel's, however Asakura Anna explains that she has never met Lyserg before, but has seen Faust's immense power and superhuman determination firsthand. She theorizes that if she uses her Itako powers to resurrect Eliza with "true necromancy," Faust will allow her to develop his powers even further and give her his loyalty, ultimately hoping that Faust will be the doctor at the resort she hopes to run. Since it would also be beneficial to have a doctor on their team, Anna gets Faust to join Team "Funbari Onsen" along with Yoh and Ryu. During the two months that then passes on Faust trains with Yoh and Ryu with the Cho Senji Rakketsu.

During the first fight of the second round, he sits with Anna, Ryu, and Yoh. There he watches the fight of Team "The Ren" and seems to get angry at Peyote Diaz for using skeleton dolls in his fight. He then later announces that if they met him in the third round he will personally take care of him.

While fighting the Team "Icemen" in the third fight, he is the first to be attacked because they see him as the weakest. Crushing his wheelchair he reveals his ability to stand up with the skeleton bones of his late pet dog Frankensteiny. He also reveals his new devotion to Yoh and Anna, and also reveals that he can use the skeleton bones of his late pet dog as replacement legs, that also have an incredible jumping power. He then reveals his new Oversouls and christens it "Mephisto E" ("E" from the initial of Eliza's name), a reference to the original Faust legend. However, he does apologize to Eliza every time he must put her in harm's way, even though she is still a spirit. Eliza then shrugs off the attack of the Icemen. Later on, he explains that the reason why he, nor Ryu has not attacked. its because Yoh has declared that he will defeat the Icemen with one blow.

Invading the Plants
As Yoh and the others begin another battle they come across the Patch announcer Radim of the Ten Patch Officiants. After a very quick conversation, it saddens him to fight his friends but decides he must be loyal to the Patch. He attacks and shatters Yoh's Over Soul to which a fierce battle starts one even Chocolove McDonell was not able to win.

During a lengthy battle with Radim, Faust continues to deplete his Furyoku by constantly healing himself and finally dies after singing the Funbari no Uta to Yoh and their companions. After his death, Faust is finally able to be with Eliza in spirit form but continues on helping Yoh in spirit form, while his and Radim's bodies are left behind. When Horohoro was hurt in his fight against Kalim and Ren in his fight with Nichrom, Yoh use Soul Integration with Faust to heal them both ironically changing his role from shaman to spirit. He and Eliza later appear within the Great Spirit as conductors of the Soul Train.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the manga series, Yoh managed to cut through Eliza's knees. From the knee down, the bones were rendered useless. In an act that shows just how devoted he is, Faust actually replaces the missing portions of Eliza's legs with his very own legs, putting him in a wheelchair. After teaming up with Yoh and Ryu for Team "Funbari Onsen" and before fighting with them against the Icemen in the Shaman tournament battles, Faust Over Souled with his late pet dog Frankensteiny into a new set of legs.

In the 2001 anime series, both of his legs are just perfectly fine as well as Eliza's, and Frankensteiny only makes a brief cameo appearance. His roles as a Team member on Yoh's team and a close personal friend are also expanded upon. Unlike the manga and the 2021 reboot, Faust didn't die in the final episode.

Also in the manga series, Faust, Eliza, and Frankensteiny are able to create an armor Over Soul.

Trivia

 * A running gag in both Manga and Anime series is that Faust is always there when someone cries for a doctor, something that is mostly emphasized in the anime series.


 * Faust is the only member of Team "Funbari Onsen" to not have a pseudo-death experience because he chose to remain dead to be with Eliza.