Hao Asakura (manga)

"So tiny..."

- Hao Asakura

Hao Asakura is Yoh Asakura’s ancestor, a shaman who is determined to wipe out humanity, reborn as his twin brother and the main villain of Shaman King.

Appearance
Being Yoh's twin brother and ancestor, Hao is identical to Yoh in many ways physically, prominently in facial features and body structure, as they both have dark brown hair and brown eyes. Differing from his younger twin, Hao's hair is much longer in length, reaching past his waist. He also seems to be a bit taller than Yoh, being that he is the older one of the twins. He often wears a poncho cloak that covers only his upper body, with nothing beneath. He also wears a belt embedded with the Patch Village insignia and the straps are lined with it as well. When Hao uses the Over Soul or his Yin Yang Jutsu, his hair goes up in several spikes. While in public Hao wears a pair of dark blue jeans and a half buttoned white shirt with over sized collars and cuffs.

Personality
In his original life, the horror of war was always around Hao, so he saw the world as a dark and cruel place. However Ohachiyo taught Hao the positive aspects of life so he was happy until he accidentally absorbed the demon. His power of Reishi grew and grew until he started to constantly read people’s minds against his will. Hao grew into a reasonably good-natured man and wanted to help those around him, which allowed the Asakura family to prosper. But his Reishi powers caused Hao to feel all the negative emotions and thoughts of humans, creating an “oni” within his heart. Thus he became obsessed with creating a world of only shaman and becoming Shaman King in order to do so. As of his third life, Hao is calm and always smiling, but with a cruel side hidden beneath it. Only rarely does he express anger and whoever angers him is burned right down to the soul by the Spirit of Fire. Hao enjoys watching the fights in the Shaman King tournament, especially if they involve strong shaman and Yoh. He says that when Yoh has reached his full capabilities, he will make Yoh a part of him to become unstoppable. Hao dislikes associating himself with Yoh’s family via family titles, glaring at Yoh when he called Hao “Nii-chan” (Big brother) and his face darkened when his nephew, Hana, called him “Uncle Hao”. In the anime, Hao is portrayed as a straight-up villain, cruel, callous, and treacherous. He often smiles when he hurts his enemies and sacrifices his followers with no remorse. Hao is also much more interested in becoming one with Yoh, coming very close in successfully doing so.

Origin
Originally, Hao was born Asaha Douji and his mother was Asanoha Douji. But a group of humans killed her, believing that she was a demon and Hao was left to wander the land alone, thinking he had demon powers and wanting to destroy humanity. However one day, Hao met and befriended a spirit called Ohachiyo, who gave him the nickname Mappa Douji (Demon Boy). Ohachiyo convinced him to not hate humankind and enjoy life, showing him what there was to enjoy in the world. He also taught Hao a power called Reishi, which let him hear other people’s thoughts and feelings. Thus Hao lived a peaceful existence, until a guard heard him apparently talking to himself (when he was talking to Ohachiyo). Thus he suspected the boy was a demon and reported this to a well known exorcist called Monk Densen. However when Densen confronted Hao, the boy recognized him as the man who murdered his mother. Densen, who was actually a fraud was easily defeated and killed by Hao, who use Ohachiyo to create his first Oversoul. But since Hao went over the limits of his furyoku, he lost control of his powers and accidently consumed Ohachiyo. This event would begin Hao on his path to darkness. Having felt his shamanic powers for the first time, Hao continued to develop his abilities, growing greatly in power. At first, Hao had a good nature, training to become a demon exorcist. At one point, Hao created an oni out of loneliness, but was able to easily control it. Later, Hao met a stray cat named Matamune, who he considered his only true friend. He even gave the cat some of his spiritual energy in the hope of keeping Matamune with him forever. But Hao’s absorption of Ohachiyo would drive him towards evil, forcing him to constantly hear the negative thoughts and feelings of humans. From what he heard, he felt the humans were a curse that had to be cleansed from the planet and eventually learned of the Shaman King tournament. Hao believed this was the key to destroying the humans, but the Asakura Clan learned of what he was planning and managed to defeat him.

Reincarnation in the Patch Tribe
But since Hao had mastered the five elements of nature, he was able to reincarnate himself whenever he chose, via Taizan Fukun. This was one of the most powerful spells of Onmyodo and though it required getting by the 75 Lords of Hell, making a contract with the god of the underworld granted one the ability to resurrect the dead and reincarnate themself. This would be another testament to the power Hao possessed since not even ghosts could perform this act. Hao chose to be reincarnated as a member of the Patch Tribe, who organized the Shaman King Tournament. He had a wife and a child during this time. Hao also managed to obtain the Spirit of Fire, which became his new guardian ghost. He was able to defeat many opponents easily with this new spirit such as the Five Seminoa Warriors who tried to stop him after hearing of his goals. Hao tried to promote his vision of a shaman-only world only for the other shamans to reject him. Eventually he was defeated by Asakura Yohken and Matamune, but though he did not obtain the position of Shaman King, Hao did gain the powerful Spirit of Fire, which would be his Guardian Ghost in his next life. Hao’s wife and child were about to be executed, when the Patch tribe realized they had no priest. Thus they kept the two alive to continue the line of tribe priests and it was from this line that Silva, one of the Ten Patch Officials, would be born from many centuries later.

Third Birth and Before the Tournament
For his next reincarnation, Hao chose to be reborn in the Asakura family so as to become more powerful. Yohmei Asakura foresaw what Hao was planning and planned to kill him when he was born. But as Yohmei tried to strike the infant Hao, he hesitated, allowing him to summon the Spirit of Fire to his aid. Mikihisa, Hao’s “father”, tried to protect Yohmei, but he was badly burned by the Spirit of Fire. Hao then told his “mother”, Keiko, not to move since he didn’t want his important twin, Yoh, to die before disappearing. Hao would apparently be raised by Brocken Meyer and when he was still young, the two left to find followers. Hao would leave behind a path of destruction and pain as he went, killing Lyserg Diethel’s parents after they tried to oppose him, severely maiming Cebin Mendel for no reason, slaughtering a number of military units in his search for Mohammed Tabarsi, destroying the orphanage of Marco Lasso, and slaughtering his family. When he was only 8, Hao had gained a large group of shamans serving him and taught them many of his techniques, like the Fumon Tonkou.

Shaman King Tournament
Hao would observe Yoh’s first match in the second round of the tournament and noted that he was impressed by Yoh’s Spirit of the Sword Oversoul, especially since he mastered in a month. Hao then followed Tao Ren out of the stadium and when Ren noticed him, he told Hao to leave him alone. He offered Ren a place in his group, but he turned him down and attacked Hao, but he easily blocked, reducing Ren’s halberd to ash. He then headed back to the stadium to attend his own match and Ren, awed at Hao’s power, followed him to learn more about him. Hao and his teammates, Luchist Lasso and Opacho, was set to fight an X-Law team and before the match started, Hao told the two to leave, wanting to fight the X-Laws himself. The X-Laws knew they couldn’t win and decided to fight him one at a time so their comrades could learn more about how Hao fought. With the Spirit of Fire, Hao easily killed two of the X-Laws and the spirit began crushing the last one. Hao revealed that the medium for the Spirit of Fire was the very air, asking what would be a better medium for fire. Marco was infuriated by this, seeing that Hao didn’t care who knew the secret of his medium and that he was just mocking the X-Laws' sacrifice. However the X-Law being crushed pulled out a prototype grenade that was able to vaporize all the oxygen in the arena, before setting it off. The forcefield around the arena took the explosion, but when the smoke cleared, Hao was fine and the Spirit of Fire had been changed into water. Hao had used his mastery of the elements to transform the spirit, allowing it to protect him and taking away its need for oxygen. Hao then allowed the Spirit of Fire to devour the X-Laws, mockingly saying it was a reward for their courage. Later on, Hao learned that Yoh was leaving the tournament and threatened to kill the Golem and Redseb and Seyram Muzner if Yoh did so. Hao then ordered Luchist to aid Yoh in defeating the X-Laws and later went to watch Ren’s team fight a Gandhara team. Hao eventually left his base to begin the Star Festival, ordering his servants to stop Gandhara’s plans. While he was alone, Hao was attacked by a group of X-Laws who used a satellite to fire a beam at him. However he used his Armor Oversoul to protect himself and then made the Spirit of Fire destroy them. Hao later headed to the area that Marco and Iron Maiden Jeanne were, where he met Anna Kyoyama and fought her. He found her power disappointing, but she used a curse reflection against him. Thus Hao used his Armor Oversoul and eventually Kanna Bismarch, Matilda Matisse, and Marion Phauna showed up as spirits. They demanded to know if Hao had just been using them, which he confirmed and tried to absorb their souls. However Anna used one of Hao’s former spirits to protect the three and Hao noticed Yoh was with them. The two then sat down to have coffee, but Hao left after sensing Yohken’s presence in Yoh’s mind. Later on, when Ren’s team and the Funbari Hot Springs team were fighting, Hao was in some hot springs and heard through the radio that he seemed to have no friends. He revealed to his comrades that that was one of Yoh’s thoughts and he’d also learned of the new technique Yoh had learned in Hell.

Claiming the Great Spirit
When the second rounds of the Shaman Tournament ended, the Patch Tribe brought Hao’s, Ren’s, Yoh’s, and the last of the X-Laws’ teams to the Continent of Mu for the final rounds. However all the teams except Hao’s forfeited and he won by default. Thus he was brought through the Plants to the Kings Sanctuary and Hao entered a death-like sleeping state as he was united with the Great Spirit. After awakening, he sent a message to everyone’s Oracle Bells “So small.” With one glance, Hao proceeded to easily kill everyone around him except for Rutherfor, Opacho, and Yoh, who shown up to confront him. Opacho said the Hao she’d known was gone and Yoh figured out that though Hao was controlling his body, his spirit was gone, having moved on as Shaman King. Yoh said that the Hao they were looking at was nothing more than a moving corpse and managed to decapitate the body. However this did nothing to Hao, who absorbed Yoh and Amidamaru into himself. Yoh awoke, thinking he was inside the Great Spirit and Hao appeared, revealing that his brother was actually inside him and the highest society of the Great Spirit, the society of the Shaman King. The two brothers began talking and Yoh revealed that he didn’t really like humans either, since they were in fact damaging the planet, but he would never do something as drastic as kill them all. Hao commanded him to leave, but Yoh was not banished and Ren, Lyserg Diethel, Chocolove McDonell, and Usui Horokeu showed up as well. The five summoned the Five Elemental Spirits and began battling Hao. At first, the battle was very evenly matched, but Hao revealed that he’d been just preparing for their defeat. He formed a supernova, which became a black hole that started to draw Yoh, Ren, Lyserg, Chocolove, and Usui inside. However the Soul Train suddenly appeared and anchored the two down with all the people Hao killed and the dead friends and family of Yoh, Ren, Lyserg, Chocolove, and Usui onboard. Yoh managed to make Hao stop fighting by having Opacho jump into the black hole. Hao immediately closed it, not wanting Opacho to die and realized that his quest was not for what he’d become, but for something he couldn’t remember. The Asakuras told him his quest started because of his mother and Yoh, realizing what Hao really wanted, told him his mother’s spirit was always at his side. Hao was just so blinded by his goal of destroying humanity that he couldn’t see it. Hao’s mother appeared, much to his joy, even though she slapped him for everything he’d done, embarrassing him in front of everybody. Hao then returned everyone to Earth and told Yoh that while he still hated humanity, he’d let them sort out their problems before he tried to destroy them. Hao was then seen watching over Yoh and his friends, finally accepting his role as Shaman King.

Funbari no Uta
After Yoh, Anna and their infant son, Asakura Hana are killed in Middle East, they enter Hao's realm in the Great Spirit. There Anna forces him to revive all three of them through blackmail. Hao does so while implanting Oni's into Hana to act as a fail-safe to prevent him from dying.

Shaman King Flowers
After his ascendancy to becoming Shaman King, the G8 convened a meeting and with a vote of no confidence against Hao, initiated the Flower of Maize to decide the fate of the world. Several years later, after Hana dies while intentionally summoning Oni's to fight Tao Men, he appears to Hana and even lectures him on his misuse of the Oni's, before offering to resurrect him one last time if he can defeat Yoh, who appears to be himself from 13 years ago.

After Hana is defeated, he decides to bring Yoh up to speed as they watch over Hana. At the same time, he gives clear instructions to Thalim and the other former Patch officials that while they may observe Hana's progress, they can't interfere in any way. At the same time he notes that Yosuke's kidnapping of Amidamaru was convenient as he pampered Hana too much. He also states his intention of having Sakurai as Hana's guardian ghost while telling the confused priests that they will eventually understand his decision to have a mere human ghost as his nephew's guardian ghost. Later, as Hao states his determination to change the world with the Flower of Maize to Yoh, YVS appears and states his intention to maintain the status quo at any cost.

Powers and Abilities
Having died and reincarnated twice, Hao is an incredibly powerful shaman, possessing a furyoku level of 1,250,000. His shamanic knowledge has carried on into each of his reincarnations and thus he knows many techniques. Hao is a master of Onmyodo, granting him full command of the five elements of nature, fire, earth, water, wood, and metal, both in a material and spiritual sense. He can easily command oni and demigods and with the Spirit of Fire at his side, he can use it to increase his Onmyodo powers. However Hao has a fondness for the element of fire and doesn’t often use his other powers in combat. He also has the ability to read others’ hearts through Reishi, but he has trouble controlling this ability and it drove him down the path to evil. Hao also utilizes the Ritual of Taizan Fukun, Taizan Fukun being the ancient Chinese name for the ruler of Hell. It allows Hao to be reborn every 500 years so that he can compete in the Shaman Tournament. Another of Hao’s techniques is Curse Reflection, which causes any curse used against him to backfire on the user and he appears to be able to use this technique subconsciously. Like all shaman, Hao possesses a Guardian Ghost, a spirit that remains constantly under his command. His first was Ohachiyo, who died a human, but became a small demon. Hao only used him as an Oversoul once, forming him into a large kanabo on his arm using a broken katana as a medium. After growing up, Hao used his onmyodo magic to turn a pair of Shikigami called Zenki and Kouki into powerful demigod spirits. He used these two to guard the Chou Senji Ryakketsu, the book that contains all of his teachings. After reincarnating in the Patch Tribe, Hao gained his current Guardian Ghost, the Spirit of Fire. The Spirit of Fire is extremely powerful and Hao often feeds it souls and other spirits to increase its power, having had to do so after his third reincarnation since the Spirit of Fire had lost much of its power returning from Hell with Hao. His main Oversoul with the Spirit of Fire is manifesting it on the physical plane using the oxygen in the air as its medium. It can send out fire blasts and deliver powerful physical attacks. Hao can also alter the nature of the Spirit of Fire to change it into any of the five elements. He can also form the Spirit of Fire into an Armor Oversoul called “Spirit of Fire Black Fowl”. In this form, the Spirit of Fire becomes black jet armor on Hao’s body, allowing him to fly at high speeds and attack with the extra arms of the Oversoul, as well as fire a powerful energy blast from the cannons on his shoulders that can incinerate the target in seconds. As with most Armor Oversouls, this form doesn’t require much of Hao’s furyoku, but it takes much of the Spirit of Fire’s energy. In the manga, Hao has discarded the Spirit of Fire after winning the Shaman King Tournament and gains the Great Spirit as his Guardian Ghost, the most powerful spirit in existence. He is assimilated with it and is now omniscient and omnipotent, as well as able to absorb other souls by looking at them. Hao’s Oversoul with the Great Spirit is forming it around himself with his body as the medium. This Oversoul can manipulate any aspect of the universe and most of the attacks center on a small star formed between the two huge pillars on its back. The heat of this star is unbearable so others can remain close for only short periods of time. The Great Spirit can use a variety of cosmic attacks. One is an imitation of a solar flare, created by generating powerful solar winds and super concentrated radiation. Another has the Great Spirit manipulating the enormous gas pillars that extend over the actual sun, allowing it to attack by increasing the heat and radiation released. The Great Spirit can also manifest a comet in its hand, but instead of throwing it to attack, it makes a slashing motion and uses the tail of the comet like a sword blade. The Oversoul can open compartments on its arms and legs to release a huge storm of meteors that it can direct at multiple targets. The Great Spirit can even generate a star and force it to undergo the last stage of its evolution, making explode in an enormous supernova. Afterwards, the remnants undergo a gravitational collapse and creates a black hole, that draws in everything in the surrounding area inside.

Trivia

 * Apparently 80% of the contestants in the Shaman King Tournament have some relation to Hao in one way or another.


 * Hao is apparently based on Abe no Seimei, a powerful Onmyoji who lived in the Heian era.