Taokaka

Taokaka is a respected warrior of the Kaka clan, who is attempting to apprehend Ragna the Bloodedge and use the bounty to secure a new home-land for the Kaka, and is a playable character in BlazBlue series.

Information
A resident of the Kaka Village and member of the Kaka Tribe, Taokaka is a catgirl, wearing a large coat that obscures her face, only exposing red eyes and a row of sharp teeth; whether or not this is her true face is still a mystery. She wants to get back the sky above her village, which was sealed off. She was sent by the Kaka Elder to retrieve the bounty on Ragna's head, becoming a vigilante in the process. Despite this resolve, she is considerably food-obsessed and forgetful, often falling asleep on a whim, becoming hungry moments after a meal, or forgetting details moments after hearing them because. She is good friends with Litchi, affectionately referring to her as "Boobie Lady".

She does not seem to refer to anyone other than herself by name and creates nicknames for people she meets. She is unable to recognize that Ragna, the "good-guy", and "Rawgnya", the criminal, are the same person, though there are times she seems to know but does not care. Interesting to note is the fact that the Kaka tribe, which she hails from, is actually genetically engineered from the genes of the original Grimalkin (the name that refers to the species of the Kaka tribe), Jubei, one of the Six Heroes. As a clan, they are copies of each other, and cannot reproduce above one hundred members.

In the fourth-wall breaking mini-series, Teach Me, Miss Litchi! (which is not canon), Taokaka is studying under Litchi in order to become a great vigilante.

Continuum Shift
In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, while taking a nap, Taokaka sees Ragna fall to her village (after being wounded by Nirvana). She manages to defend Ragna from Arakune's assault and goes to fetch Litchi to heal him. Ragna leaves shortly after recovering and Tao follows after, although she ends up encountering a brainwashed Noel and Hazama. She is thoroughly beaten by Hazama, although Jubei manages to save her and brings her back to the village. Realizing that she has a lot of training to do, Tao leaves in order to get stronger while allowing her sister Torakaka to be the village guardian in her absence. She manages to catch Ragna to set the stage for BlazBlue: Chronophantasma, as he leaves Kagutsuchi for Ikaruga as Jubei told her to keep an eye on him.

Personality
Taokaka is the personification of innocence in the BlazBlue world. She is a happy-go-lucky catgirl who only wishes the best for her friends and family. Her only desire is to protect those she holds dear to her heart, or who offer her food (although in her mind anyone who offers her food is a good person).

Unfortunately, she is also the least intelligent character in BlazBlue. Like most cats, Taokaka's daily routine consists of eating and sleeping, and she can, and often will, forget anything she does or is told to do within three steps or seconds. Of course, it goes without saying that she is not totally dumb. Taokaka often gives nicknames to those she meets so she can try to easily remember them later. She does actually know who they are, but prefers the nickname routine.

Appearance
Taokaka is a rather unique take on the catgirl archetype with light brown skin and long blonde hair tied up into two braids and a black cat tail with a faded white tip. She seems to spend her entire time wearing a beige-colored hoodie with a cat hood and long cat-themed sleeves that cover her arms. She wears a pair of unusually-designed high-heel boots with the same cat theme but appear to be more fit for a creature with high ankles. According to concept art, Taokaka typically dresses skimpy underneath the hoodie, wearing only red panties with red straps. Taokaka's actual face has been the subject of interest by both the characters and audience alike; her hood has been stated to conceal her facial features and she never removes it. All that can be seen are a pair of red beady eyes and an ever constant toothy grin that tends to emulate emotions when conveying facial expressions. When co-creator Daisuke Ishiwatari was questioned about Taokaka's true appearance in an interview, he responded that he wanted to leave it to the players' imaginations. However, he does confirm that her shadowed visage is not her true face. She has fish bones that cover for her long arms and a human face with cat ears, as you can see while she is electricuted.

When she was a child, she looks exactly the same when she grows up except she was barefoot.

In Alter Memory during the hot spring scene in Episode 5, she wears a yellow wraps on her top and another wraps on her bottom that resembles cycling shorts and is the first time to see her without the hoodie but maintains her facial features and wears a paw-like gloves.

Powers and Abilities
Unlike most characters, Taokaka does not have much in the way of abilities compared to the rest of the cast, although she is still able to utilize seithr according to Kokonoe and Litchi. She relies on her inborn instincts as opposed to a trained fighting style, and she naturally uses seithr, even without a formal education as to how. Her hands and feet also have large retractable metal claws. What's more, these claws seem to change slightly depending on what attack she wants to do at the time; even though they seem to default as curved, knife-sized flat metal blades, they can also appear as serrated saws, "can-opener" style hooks, or even more ornate blades that resemble arrowheads. What she lacks in strength, she makes up for in agility and speed and extreme mobility, wailing on her opponents and catching them off guard with lightning fast, unpredictable maneuvers and techniques.

Etymology
The beginning part of Taokaka's name comes from Chinese tao (道): "way, path, right way (of life), reason" serves as several translations, which may reflect how many different characters (namely Litchi Faye-Ling and the Kaka Elder) try to help put her on the path she wants to follow; as a Vigilante.

The last part of her name, kaka, is a suffix possessed by all members of the Kaka Clan.

Trivia

 * She creates her own nicknames for other characters which she meets:
 * Ragna: Good Guy/White Guy (before "Good Guy"), Pinhead person
 * Jin: Creepy Guy/Ice Man
 * Rachel: Bunny Lady/Rabbit Person
 * Noel: Lacking Lady/Hat Person
 * Carl: Little Guy/Shorty
 * Nirvana: Hard Person/Not so Soft Person
 * Litchi: Boobie Lady
 * Arakune: Black squiggly
 * Tager: Big Guy
 * Bang: Scruffy-man (Or "Scruffy Old Man")
 * Bang's Subordinates: Blow Pops
 * Nu and Lambda: Flappy-flap
 * Hakumen: Mask Person/Cocky person
 * Hazama: Green Guy/Scary Guy/Hipster person
 * Tsubaki: Red Lady/Eye Woman/Average Lady
 * Makoto: Furry girl
 * Valkenhayn: Butter Man/Dog person
 * Jubei: Cat person
 * Kokonoe: Big sister/Tail lady
 * Relius: Big Fat Fibber Guy
 * Bullet: Ass Girl
 * Despite this habit of using nicknames, she refers to Torakaka by her name. This may be a sign of reverance or admiration, considering this makes Torakaka one of the only people she has bothered to learn the name of, or possibly the only one she was capable of remembering.
 * Interestingly enough, the only name she ever says in the canon story is Tsubaki, but only after Tsubaki corrects her for calling her "red lady".
 * Another interesting note is that, despite her habit of making nicknames, is that when people are talking about someone to Tao, she knows who they are talking about.
 * When electrocuted by Rachel, it can be seen that she is holding a fish in each hand under her sleeves.
 * If Taokaka fights against Bang Shishigami in Arcade or Versus modes in Continuum Shift II (and vice-versa as Bang vs Taokaka), the two will exchange a short series of blows (before the match begins) which are either blocked or dodged skillfully. This implies that every match is just another fun training session for the two, and that Taokaka really does acknowledge Bang as her "scruffy mentor".
 * If Taokaka fights against Arakune, she will call out an "Anti-Squiggly" move during most, if not all, her attacks (Ex. Squiggly punch, Squiggly kick, etc.)
 * There is an ongoing debate among fans about if the black face with red eyes and mouth really is Tao's actual face. Many people like to think she does have a real, normal looking face while others choose to believe what we see is her actual face, or even a mask of sorts.
 * In an episode of Teach Me, Miss Litchi!, Rachel outright asks Tao (who is not paying attention) if she is wearing a mask, and Litchi comments that even she (Litchi) does not know.
 * Taokaka's birthday, February 22, happens to be World Thinking Day, a day to study other countries and cultures. This is ironic in that Tao is, quite frankly, incredibly naive and forgetful, to the point of driving Litchi to exasperation and most people seeing her as simple or an idiot.
 * In one of Ragna's flashbacks, it is revealed Tao actually met Ragna when she was a kitten. Of course, Taokaka, due to her nature of forgetting things, does not remember the incident.
 * It is also revealed that Tao likes squeezing/playing with other women's breasts out of curiosity. Not only Litchi (who is the constant victim), she also felt up Tsubaki's breasts after defeating her (as an afterthought before leaving), in which she admonishes her breasts as "average", quickly flustering Tsubaki. Tao has even groped Bang Shishigami, mistaking him for Litchi in her haste. As a result, Bang suffered an embarrassing nosebleed, prompting Tao to ask how she could spontaneously cause her enemies to bleed in a similar regard.
 * In Continuum Shift Extend, during the Calamity Trigger Reconstructed chapter, it is revealed more clearly where Taokaka picked up "Lacking Lady" for Noel: after Noel passed out from her battle against Tager, she wakes up in Litchi's clinic. She then decides to accompany Litchi to the Kaka Village, where she meet Tao for the first time. Tao, after dashing to hug Litchi, turns around and gropes Noel, much to the latter's discomfort. Tao complains that she never felt any so flat, which Noel counters by claiming that they are not that flat, but lacking compared to Litchi's. She finally picks "Lacking Lady" for Noel due to the fact, to Noel's chagrin.
 * In Tao's "gag" ending, it is shown that she has an insane love for tapioca, even to the point of uppercutting one of the six Heroes and Relius's Son just to get it.
 * In Litchi's gag reel, Taokaka presents a board game called The Monarch of Life. This may be a reference to the popular board game The Game of Life.
 * Amusingly enough, it is shown that the Teach Me, Miss Litchi! versions of the characters are shown to be the game's board pieces. It is also shown that Bang's has been tipped over, possibly in reference to his fate in the game.
 * A common character that comes up during gag reels is Mecha Tao, which is a robotic version of Taokaka, developed by Kokonoe. However, Mecha Tao rarely does as she is programmed to do (if anything), and oftentimes ends up causing chaos on her own volition.
 * Tao keeps referring to herself as a kitten, even though she is a teenager biologically. However, since she is still technically a child (a minor), this is not an inaccurate way of describing herself.
 * Taokaka's crest slightly resembles the Cheshire Cat, specifically his "American McGee's Alice" incarnation.
 * Unlimited Taokaka is the character who has most Distortion Drives, adding Taokaka's default Distortion Drives, she gains another two, one is a more powerful version of Kitty Litter Special (214214A), throwing a lot of objects, and other is call a group of Kaka kittens who rush against the opponent (214214B), Taokaka's Dancing Edge can be chargeable, and if connects, it deal a lot of damage, she can jump 4 times, and her C attacks deal Fatal Counter. In Continuum Shift Extend, she gains a new Unlimited Distortion where she calls a Kaka Kitten holding a Bomb, which will chase the opponent until it explodes, also she gains an aerial version of the Cat Person's Secret Art: Hexa-Edge.
 * The shape of her skull when she is being electrocuted and that fact she is of feline descent might allude to her having a cat head and face under her hood (although it could also be viewed as a cartoonish drawing of a regular, human skull without the bottom jaw showing).
 * One of Taokaka's DLC colors resembles one of the Six Heroes, Jubei.
 * Taokaka is the only female character whose theme does not have lyrics for neither the Japanese nor the L.A version.
 * During an episode of Teach Me, Miss Litchi!, Taokaka makes a reference to Spider Man with the quote "And the best way to find that person is by using Tao's spide...err...Kaka senses!".
 * Taokaka has been drawn by artists from the fighting game Skullgirls.