Taokaka

""The grudge of prey is fearsomeow!""

Taokaka (タオカカ) is a Kaka and the guardian of the village where the majority of her species resides underneath the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. She temporarily relinquished her position as guardian to aid Ragna the Bloodedge and has unbelievably keen senses despite her juvenile behavior and mindset.

She first debuted as one of the original 12 playable characters in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.

Appearance
Tao is one of the Kaka, and thus shares a lot of their characteristics - chiefly her blood red eyes and toothy smile hidden within the shadows of her signature hood, and a long black tail with a white tip. Her long blonde hair is tied into two braided tails with yellow ribbons keeping them together, and she has tanned skin. She wears a cream-colored hoodie that stretches to her hip; this hoodie her large cat ears on the hood and two long sleeves which have rounded ends with paw-prints on the palms - hidden within are multiple silver blades. The front of this hoodie has a long zip from the bottom to the collar, with the zipper being bright red and paw-shaped. Underneath this she wears red panties and bracers. Tao's look is finished with unique platform shoes with cream legwarmers covering most of their front.

Personality
"Innocent and capricious, Taokaka is the owner of a pure heart... And as such, she never listens to people's words, and judges by appearance alone. Within her hides a capability to become unparalleled."

Her hyperactive behavior and incredible ability to almost forget anything would lead people to assume that Tao isn't a threat, but her carefree personality has her always itching to “play." Tao's forgetfulness often drives characters to their breaking points as she will never remember a name, and forget even the most basic things about the world around her. In fact, the only things that seem to really matter in Tao's mind are food, naps, and breasts – the first two could be attributed to her cat-like instincts while the latter is a fascination which she seems to be only one in her clan to possess. Her speech is littered with verbal ticks such as “meow” (as a substitute for ‘me') and “neow” (as a substitute for ‘now'), although other Kaka, such as Chachakaka, also possess this trait, a select few, like Torakaka, rarely display it.

With her dim-witted nature comes the fact that Tao is undoubtedly innocent, having no real knowledge of what is right or wrong and simply doing what she wants. Although this is unpleasant to certain individuals, she has no negative intent. In fact, she will usually go out of her way to make others feel better, especially with Ragna. This all said, she is merciless to those who harm those close to her, such as Arakune.

Powers & Techniques
Since she is the guardian of her clan, Tao is one of the most powerful of the Kaka race and her power has been recognized by even Jubei himself. Hidden within her seemingly non-threatening paws are a vast array of blades, some curved, and some hooked, all of which she can use to slice away at her target with the overwhelming strength that her species are known to possess. Her ditsy personality arguably lends her more strength, as she often struggles to hold back, giving everything she's got in a fight and only really sees fights as playing anyway. Tao's Drive,  allows her to dash at lightning speeds and attack an opponent with her razor-sharp claws. Oddly, Tao has no training in how to access certain Ars Magus that she uses in attacks and instead innately uses up the seithr around her for attacks; she also has a fairly high aptitude with the substance since she needs less units of seithr in order to activate the Ars.

An impressive skill that Tao has is an unknown sense that allowed her to detect the presence of individuals such as Hades Izanami, something that even Rachel Alucard couldn't do.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Official Site Profile
''A person (cat?) from the Kaka Clan that lives in the lower levels of Kagutsuchi. The selfish humans who came to their land afterwards installed a plate that blocked out the sky from the village. In order to regain the view of the sky, Taokaka leaves on a journey to gather lots of money and search for "Rawgnya". ''

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Official Site Profile
''The descendent of a series of biological weapons created from the genes of Jubei, one of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast. Although she was living happily in the Kaka Village in the lower levels of Kagutsuchi, she suddenly felt a yearning in her heart for excitement, and bounded away from the cheerful village. ''

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Official Site Profile
''Taokaka, the descendent of a series of biological weapons created from the genes of Jubei, one of the Six Heroes. As a warrior of the Kaka Clan, and for the sake of growing stronger, Taokaka joins Ragna on a journey to the region of Ikaruga. Once there, in order to help Ragna, she looks for Noel. ''

BlazBlue: Central Fiction Official Site Profile
''A warrior of the Kaka Clan, descendents of a series of biological weapons created from the genes of one of the Six Heroes, Jubei. While the Kaka Clan was living in the lower levels of Kagutsuchi, humans visited while restructuring Kagutsuchi and built a plate that blocked out the village's sky. In order to regain the village's view of the sky, Taokaka leaves on a journey to gather lots of money and search for the "Grim Reaper". ''
 * Story

''Innocent and capricious, Taokaka is the owner of a pure heart... And as such, she never listens to people's words, and judges by appearance alone. Within her hides a capability to become unparalleled. ''
 * Personality

BlazBlue: Central Fiction Library Entry
''She is a descendant of the Kaka Clan, a race of bioweapons created from the genes of Jubei, one of the Six Heroes.

''Simple and moody, put nicely, she's innocent, but on the flipside, she hardly listens to others, but rather does whatever her primal instincts tell her. She loves interaction with others, and often forgets her objective when there is something else that interests her.

''Her short-term memory is worse than that of a bird, and she has been known to forget things after taking only three steps. She cannot remember people's names, and will give everyone nicknames based on an arbitrary trait. Her favorite activities are napping and eating, and when it comes to that, meat buns rank the highest.

''While she's the current protector of the Kaka Village, she joins Ragna on his quest, so that she might also grow as a warrior. For now, they head to Ikaruga. During Taokaka's absence Torakaka agreed to protect the village from harm.

BlazBlue 10th Anniversary Official Site Profile
''A young woman from the "Kaka Clan" that lives in lower layers of the Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. Naively moody and the possessor of an unspoiled heart, she never listens to people's words, and judges by appearance alone. Within her hides the capability to become unparalleled.''

Trivia

 * In the BlazBlue 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Taokaka placed 22nd out of the 84 candidates. She scored one place above Izanami and one place below Azrael. She had 1,090 votes.
 * Taokaka's birthday is February 22, which is "Cat Day" in Japan.
 * Taokaka is one of the few characters who does not seem to having a naming theme for her movelist.
 * One of Tao's moves, "Cat Person’s Secret Art: Hexa-Edge", is apparently one of Jubei's moves. Jubei does have a move that looks similar to it, called "Fissuring Slash".
 * In an interview in ARC Live!, Daisuke Ishiwatari, creator of the Guilty Gear franchise, stated that Tao is one of his favorite characters alongside Hakumen and Nine the Phantom.
 * In her Astral Heat, Jubei deals the final blow.
 * If Jubei is Taokaka's opponent, Torakaka will deal the final blow instead.
 * In her electrocuted sprite, Tao appears to be concealing fish in her sleeves.
 * Taokaka is the only character who can crawl in-game.
 * Tao was chosen to become the guardian of her village while she was still a kitten.
 * Tao has a nickname for many characters among the series.
 * Ragna: Good Guy.
 * Noel: Lacking lady.
 * Tager: Big guy.
 * Litchi:Boobie lady.
 * Carl: Shorty.
 * Bang: Scruffy guy.
 * Arakune: Squiggly.
 * Tsubaki: Red person.
 * Hazama: Green person.
 * Taokaka is illustrated in the following Grimoire for BlazBlue Alternative: Dark War:
 * ハラペコーズ (Hungry).
 * カカ・パワー (Kaka Power).

Appearences in other Media

 * The mobile game, Mabinogi Duel, stars Tao as a playable card.