Yuan Tao is the ruthless 43rd head of the Tao Family of Shaman. He is the wife of Ran Tao, the father of Ren Tao and Jun and serves as the main villain of the first third of the anime and manga series Shaman King.
Appearance
When he was first seen, Yuan Tao was an overwhelmingly tall and muscular man with a small face, a long mustache, and tattoos all over his body. When fighting, his shirt would rip off, exposing his bare chest. However, later on his true form was revealed, he was much shorter and more slim, but still tall and muscular, adorned in a purple and yellow coat covering a black robe with a red and yellow sash across the middle. He has black hair and black eyes.
Personality
When he was first revealed, Yuan Tao was portrayed as a sadistic malevolent leader and father who wants his family to rule the world by one of them becoming Shaman King and believes that friends will do nothing more than get in his way. However, later on it was revealed that he was broken and disillusioned about humanity due to how their ancestors were betrayed and ostracized by the ones that the used their powers to help, which caused him to hate humanity, and believe that if his children were to make friends then they would only be betrayed eventually.
Powers and Abilities
He is a very talented Taoist and has an extremely high Furyoku level, as he is able to maintain a gigantic Over Soul made of all of his ancestors, for several years.
Spirit
His spirits are that of 2000 years of the Tao Family who have been unable to leave to the afterlife because of their treatment of those they saw nearest. He carries these spirits on him, by wearing an armor made out of memory tablets. He can use these tablets to generate an over soul shaped like a large sized version of himself, only far more exaggerated.
He can also gather the souls in the Bâo-Lèi Sword and create a huge, scaled, Shén lóng like Chinese dragon complete with Tao Yúan's head (with his exaggerated mustache & beard) and four sets of claws.
Anime/Manga Differences
In the English anime, Yúan is referred to as the uncle to Jun and Ren instead of their father, who's death is the reason of Yúan's hatred towards humans. Also in the English anime, instead of following the way of Tao, his creed is instead changed to: "Destroy or be destroyed".
Gallery
Trivia
- His name in the English anime uses the on'yomi rendering of "Yúan". However, the actual on'yomi of his name in whole would be "Dou En".