List of Shaman King Characters - Supporting Characters - Other Characters - Tao Family

Tao Family

Tao Jun (道 潤?) Chinese: Dào Rùn

• Voiced by: Michiko Neya (Japanese), Lisa Ortiz (English)

Ren's older sister is a dao-shi (a Daoist spellcaster; doshi (道士?), Chinese: dàoshì), who can re-animate corpses. She is seventeen years old at the beginning of the manga. While Jun is loyal to her family, she expresses her greatest devotion and protective nature towards Ren and is willing to turn against the expectations of the Tao family in order to ensure Ren's success and well-being. She is the one of the few people that Ren trusts and is aware of the brutality of his upbringing. In the English anime, Ren and Jun have British accents, implying an origin from Hong Kong.

As a shaman, Jun's personal jiāngshī (guardian zombie, pronounced as "kyonshi" in Japanese) is Lee Pai-Long (Lee Bailong), a famous movie star in Hong Kong who died seventeen years ago. She uses Jufu talismans to control her guardian ghost, but after she battles Yoh Asakura and Amidamaru and loses, she lets Bai-Long obey her commands only if he wishes to when she realizes that spirits have hearts too, and they just cannot be controlled. Using her skill in creating jiāngshī, Jun later modifies Bailong's body after his defeat by Jun's father; the extent of the upgrades are revealed during Jun and Tamao's fight against the Hana-gumi, where Bailong's arm is revealed to include a piston to greatly increase his punching power. Additionally, because of her knowledge in human anatomy, Jun willingly becomes the apprentice of Sati and gains the ability to resurrect people.

Tao Yúan (道円, Tao En?) Chinese: Dào Yúan

• Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (Japanese), Marc Thompson (English)

Tao Yúan is the father of Tao Ren and Tao Jun; in the English anime, he is introduced as Len and Jun's uncle. A powerful shaman who commands an army of jiang-shi, he initially appears as a giant man who is both sadistic and malevolent. Because of Yuan, both Ren and Jun had extremely painful childhoods, as they were exposed to bloodshed and death on a daily basis, as well as severe physical abuse. When Jun questions his actions relating to Ren, also asking him to set Ren free, he laughs and proceeds to "punish" her by sealing her in a dungeon for the ten days it takes Ren to return home after his fight with Yoh.

To meet Ren, Yúan creates an army of Jiang Shi from freshly killed corpses which Ren disposes of with little difficulty. Ren is unable to defeat his father in combat and is locked up and tortured alongside his sister as punishment. When Ren's friends arrive to save him, their combined efforts tear Yuan to pieces. At the verge of defeat, Yúan's concentration breaks and it is revealed that his appearance is an illusion created by his Oversoul - he actually appears as an older greatly bearded looking man very similar to Ren. He reveals the source his obsession with the family doctrine is because he must bear the weight of two thousand years of Tao family souls (in a type of mortuary tablet armor) and reveals his second Oversoul, an oriental dragon with a head similar to his first Oversoul. Ren defeats his father and they have a small moment of revelation as Yuan passes him the Thunder Sword (Houraiken), a family heirloom.

Yuan is shown much as a much more enthusiastic father afterward, such as coming to the Patch Village and cheering Ren on during his team's match, much to his son's embarrassment. When Keiko and Mikihisa Asakura approach the Tao family with the offer to teach Team Ren the secrets of the Ultra Senji Ryakketsu in order to stand a chance against Hao, Yuan refuses to accept the offer out of pride unless the Asakura can prove their strength by defeating him; Mikihisa accepts the challenge and successfully overcomes him.

Tao Ran (道蘭?) Chinese: Dào Ran

• Voiced by: Ai Satou (Japanese), Megan Hollingshead (English)

Tao Yuan's wife, the mother of Ren and Jun, an incredibly strong shaman in her own right who taught Jun how to create and control jiang-shi. As the heir to the main branch of the family, she was required to find a husband. After a formal marriage interview, qualified suitors were ordered to fight Ran; losers were made into jiang-shi while the winners were sent home if Ran did not like them. When Tao Yuan, a member of a branch family of the Tao challenged her, he defeated her in one strike and she fell in love at first sight. She still loves him, though she questions his brutality towards their children from his obsession to ensure the family's success in the Shaman Fight and is secretly amused by his attempt to disguise his slight jealousy towards her two personal jiang-shi, Shu (周?) and Kyo (恭?), because they are remarkably handsome. As a member of the Tao family, she arrives in the Patch Village and accepts the Asakura's offer to impart the techniques of the Ultra Senji Ryakketsu and participates in the meeting between the families on how to deal with Hao as the end of the Shaman Fight approaches.

Tao Ching (道珍?) Chinese: Dào Ching

• Voiced by: Hidekatsu Shibata

Tao Ran's father and the grandfather of Ren and Jun, the former head of the family. He has a considerably more flexible and moderate attitude towards accepting help from the Asakuras, commending Keiko's courage for approaching the Tao family in spite of the fact that the secrets of the Ultra Senji Ryakketsu could be used against them and that the Tao family will not stray from their desire for revenge. He is later seen participating in the meetings between the Asakura and Tao families on how to deal with Hao as the end of the Shaman Tournament approaches.