‘Hell’s Paradise’: How & When Does Gabimaru Learn Tao?

The recently-premiered anime adaptation of Hell’s Paradise has, indeed, become one of the season’s biggest hits, which is why the fans have begun to ask additional questions about the series’ protagonist, Gabimaru, who is also, naturally, one of the series’ best characters. Gabimaru is, indeed, a highly intriguing character whose story and personality are such that they can easily attract the fans’ attention, so we have decided to dedicate this whole article to him. We all know that Gabimaru has a very specific set of powers and abilities that make him quite powerful, almost inhuman in that fact, but, in the most recent episode of the series, he was able to add yet another new power to his list – Tao. The power used by the Tensen has now been activated inside Gabimaru and in this article, we are going to tell you how it happened.

Gabimaru managed to activate Tao during the fight against the Butterfly and Centipede Doshi. He had previously been told by Mei what Tao is and how it had to be balanced out, but it wasn’t until Fuchi actually explained Mei’s words properly that Gabimaru understood the process of uniting his extreme polarities in such a way that he could harness them and use them as a unique power; the Doshi’s explanations also helped a bit. Since then, Gabimaru has been able to use Tao abilities, although he would master and perfect them later on in the story.

The rest of this article will focus on Gabimaru and his skills and abilities in the Hell’s Paradise series. Gabimaru was introduced and shown to be an exceptionally powerful character, so much, in fact, that many characters doubted his humanity in the series. But, he was human after all, as it turned out, although his powers definitely need an explanation, which is why his Tao is going to be the topic of this article. This article will contain some spoilers from the Hell’s Paradise manga, so be careful how you approach it.

Gabimaru managed to activate his Tao abilities thanks to Mei, but also the two Doshi he had to kill

Before we start, let us explain the Tao system in short. The Tao concept is based roughly on the Taoist concept known as dantian. Dantian is a term from Taoism that describes the “energetic centers” of the body. The main component of the Tao system in Hell’s Paradise is the concept of Yin and Yang, best embodied in the Tensen, who can change their Yin and Yang forms as they wish.

But, if humans want to use their Tao and manifest their powers, they must find the so-called Middle Way. Since Yin and Yang are opposing forces, the Middle Way actually means that a person must accept their own contradictions their opposing sentiments and balance them out in themselves.

And while all creatures can use Tao, the purest and best Tao is present in humans. This is because humans are the only living creatures that embody contradictions in a perfect way.

The Tensen can also use the so-called Flower Tao, a special brand of Tao derived from flowers that grant user vitality, regenerative skills, and, ultimately, immortality. Flower Tao is great for the Tensen, but it can be harmful to humans, as it is unusually potent.

So, as you can see, while humans naturally possess Tao, they cannot control it. Some of them, like the monstrous Rokurota, emanated Tao without any control, but that was a rare phenomenon. So, in order to activate Tao, a human has to know how to do it and then train, and until the battle with the Doshi, Gabimaru did not know how.

Sure, he witnessed the power when he chased Mei for the first time and later during his fight against Zhu Jin, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He then asked Mei for an explanation after the battle, and although she was able to talk and use polar opposites to explain it, she wasn’t making much sense.

Not long after that, the Centipede and Butterfly Doshi came to them, and they engaged them in a fight. Both Gabimaru and Gantetsusai wanted to activate Tao, but Mei was constantly telling them that Tao meant both ‘weak’ and ‘strong,’ while the two of them were focusing solely on the ‘strong’ part.

This is why the two Doshi were actually more than successful in fighting them, and neither Gabimaru nor Gantetsusai stood a chance against the two of them. Then Fuchi, who was accompanying Gantetsusai, stepped in and explained what Tao was and the concept of polarities they had to grasp. This confused them a bit, as they had no idea how Fuchi realized what Mei was saying, but he told them that he simply listened to her and deciphered her words, and Mei confirmed that he was correct.

Gabimaru then better understood the situation, and he could finally see the Tao of his enemies. Namely, before that moment, he could see the outlines of their Tao, but not their Tao (Chobei was, actually, the first human to activate it).

He knew that something was there, but until he fully comprehended Mei’s words thanks to Fuchi, he was unable to see it. But, at that moment, he was fully able to see the Tao of the two Doshi, and the battle was, for the two of them, over at that moment.

Despite their special powers, a Tao-empowered Gabimaru was much stronger than them, and he was able to overpower both of them, with Gantetsusai finishing off one of them while Gabimaru proceeded to kill the other one. This was, of course, just the first step, and Gabimaru would go on to continue honing his Tao skills before he completely masters them later on in the story.