Characters / Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism

Touhou Project characters index
Main characters: Main Characters
PC-98 Era: PC-98 Games (Highly Responsive to Prayers, Story of Eastern Wonderland, Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, Lotus Land Story, Mystic Square)
Windows Era — Main Games: Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil | Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom | Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night | Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View | Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith | Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism | Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object | Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires | Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character | Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom | Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons | Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature | Touhou Kouryuudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers | Touhou Juuouen ~ Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost
Windows Era — Other: Side Games | Other Official Works

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This page is for Touhou characters who debuted in Touhou Chireiden ~ Subterranean Animism.

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Kisume

The Fearsome Well Spirit

Kisume

"So is THIS the body you dropped down here?"

Another midboss with no dialogue, Kisume is a tsurube-otoshi, a type of youkai which was sometimes said to drop buckets on people. She just spends most of her time in buckets herself out of shyness.

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• Ax-Crazy: According to the interview with ZUN in Symposium of Post-Mysticism. It's taken even further with Aya's article about her, in which she threw the remains of a skeleton at some children while cackling madly. Presumably she's meant to be an example of the kinds of hated youkai who end up underground. After all, her Boss Subtitles do call her "The Fearsome Well Spirit"...
• Creepy Child: If the article Aya wrote about her, and ZUN, are anything to go by, she's a childlike youkai who throws bones at people.
• Curtains Match the Window: Strange Creators of Outer World gives her green eyes to match her hair.
• Death from Above: Her very nature is to drop buckets onto people.
• Girlish Pigtails: Wears pigtails and is quite childlike in personality.
• Leitmotif: "The Dark Blowhole"
• Playing with Fire: Her other ability is using youkai fire as a weapon.
• Shrinking Violet: Is normally quite shy.

Yamame Kurodani

The Bright Net In The Dark Cavern

Yamame Kurodani

"You're looking for the power of the youkai who got banished down here, right?"

A tsuchigumo (spider youkai), and a bright, fun-loving girl who's popular among the youkai underground. One of the many youkai that moved to the underground due to fellow youkai distrusting them for their powers.

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• Animal Motifs: She still has six buttons down the front of her dress for spider eyes, and her skirt poofs out and in again to look like a spider's abdomen with a yellow ribbon tied around it that makes her look like an argiope spider. She was even on the cover of the game's demo CD hanging upside-down (a pose fans were annoyed she didn't demonstrate in-game). This also extends to her cameo in Hopeless Masquerade, where she hangs upside-down from the top of the screen. Sunken Fossil World gives her spider legs as well.
• Animal Stereotypes: Completely averted, she's a friendly socialite.
• Arachnid Appearance and Attire: An unconventional example compared to the traditional "slender, elegant black widow archetype", but one that fits nonetheless. Her poofy dress with ribbons around it forms an approximation of a striped spider abdomen, while the six golden buttons on her chest represent arachnid eyes. There's some (possibly unintentional) Fridge Brilliance at play since, unlike insects (whose bodies are always separated into three distinct parts), spiders' heads are fused with their thorax, making it logical for these "eyes" to be on her chest.
• Bad Powers, Good People: She has the power to manipulate infectious diseases, but she'd never use it on someone for no reason. She's actually a pretty nice person. At the end of the day, though, she is still a youkai, and she did try to join the temple because she figured humans with spiritual problems would taste better.
• Bullying a Dragon: In Sunken Fossil World she decides to try eating Kanako, a god, because she's starving, which doesn't go well for her. Kanako states afterwards that if it had been Suwako who she'd tried to attack, the goddess probably would've eaten her instead, and it's not clear whether that was meant figuratively or literally.
• Cute Monster Girl: Her being part-spider does nothing to detract from her being adorable.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Sunken Fossil World gives her a quartet of spider legs coming out from her back, which she didn't possess in her previous appearances.
• Giant Spider: She's a tsuchigumo, a burrowing spider youkai.
• Good Old Ways: Sunken Fossil World reveals she is knowledgeable about the days when Former Hell was Hell and wishes that the Kishin of old would come back to sort out the current mess, even thinking that Flandre might be one.^note Vampires are classified as a type of oni by Touhou standards, but a kishin Flandre isn't.
• Leitmotif: "The Sealed-Away Youkai ~ Lost Place"
• Little Bit Beastly: Her sprite in Sunken Fossil World gives her spider legs alongside her human legs.
• Plague Master: Her claim to fame is power over diseases. She doesn't like using it on people, though. The Grimoire of Marisa speculates that her power could extend to removing diseases... but Marisa adds that Yamame is so careless that she would be a bad doctor anyway.
• Power Incontinence: On the other hand, it seems like simply being near her is enough to put people in danger. This is probably why she lives underground. Byakuren recommends washing your hands thoroughly after meeting her.
• Punny Name: ZUN commented in one interview that the name "Yamame" was appropriate for a spider because it could be written as "eight eyes".
• Really 700 Years Old: While she looks like a young girl, Sunken Fossil World strongly suggests Yamane is very old. She longs for the return of the kishin, is aware the source of the problems is the Hell of Blood Pools that were just "covered over" and even complains that just covering them over wasn't a good policy. All of this suggests Yamane has been around since the time Former Hell was Hell, and predates all the other inhabitants of the Underground.
• To Serve Man: While most youkai nominally eat humans, Yamame considers them a delicacy whose taste changes depending on what diseases they have. Apparently people with mental illnesses taste spicy.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Her spell card "Small Thread 'Kandata's Rope'" in Double Spoiler has reached a level of notoriety for people who can't figure out what they're supposed to do.

Parsee Mizuhashi

The Jealousy Beneath the Earth's Crust

Parsee Mizuhashi

"I'm jealous of the light above ground. I'm jealous of the gentle breezes. I don't have anything against you, but I can make up lots of reasons to attack you."

A bridge princess youkai who guarded the bridge between the underworld and the overworld, before the two were separated. After centuries of jealousy towards those who cross the bridge freely, she has developed the power to control jealousy in others.

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• Anthropomorphic Personification: While she's technically a hashihime, she's basically become the embodiment of jealousy.
• Ascended Meme:
  • As of a cameo appearance in Wild and Horned Hermit, the ears are now canon.
  • Most fanon turned her into a extremely cranky tsundere jealous of anything and everything. Symposium of Post-Mysticism confirmed this.
• Ax-Crazy: She attacks the heroines for no particular reason. In the Reimu + Yukari scenario she even admits so, while giggling.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • She acts bright and friendly while directly conversing with someone, but in her mind and behind their back she's silently cursing and resenting them.
  • In Symposium of Post-Mysticism, she's said to secretly have a habit of puncturing wooden dolls with stakes as a way of relieving her own anger.
• Doppelgänger Attack: "Hate for the Humble and Rich" (Easy/Normal) and "Large Box and Small Box" (Hard/Lunatic), both referencing the story of the Tongue-Cut Sparrow.
• Driven by Envy: Powered by jealousy.
• Drowning Her Sorrows: According to her entry in Symposium of Post-Mysticism, the best way to counter being overcome with jealousy is alcohol.
• Emotion Eater: Eats jealousy.
• Fairy Tale Motifs: A few of her spell cards reference Japanese fairy tales like "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow" and "Grandpa Hanasaka". This might play into her Genre Savvy aspects.
• Genre Savvy: She overhears Marisa and Alice bickering over whether the Underworld has floors like an RPG dungeon and butts in, to play along and mock Marisa. She apparently knows about RPG tropes, skyscrapers, and the Number of the Beast.
  Parsee: "You're now on floor B666. Welcome to the end of the underworld skyscraper."
• Green-Eyed Monster: Pretty much her schtick. She has a spell card named Green-Eyed Monster, her boss theme is called Green-Eyed Jealousy, her Double Spoiler title is "Monster with Green Eyes", and she literally has green eyes.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A discussed variant. Satori mentions in the SA section of Strange Creators of Outer World that despite her jealousy towards everyone else she's actually kind and values others deep down.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Even if you're not better off than her in any way, she'll hate you for being less bitter about it.
• Leitmotif: "Green Eyed Jealousy"
• Pointy Ears: She's the first Windows character with visible ears, which along with their odd, pointed shape led fans to the conclusion that it was on purpose. Art from later games make clear that ZUN just has trouble with drawing ears, but by that point the popular notion stuck. They seem to have been semi-canonized in Wild and Horned Hermit, which has a cameo of Parsee with the pointed ears.
• Power Born of Madness: Mentioned several times, her power over the jealousy of others is fueled by her own jealousy for them.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: When using her spellcards she puts two fingers to her forehead.
• Puzzle Boss:
  • She is much, much easier once you know what you need to do. In particular, "Green-Eyed Monster" becomes one of the easiest spell cards in the game. Leads to Hype Backlash from people who don't get the fuss over how hard she is.
  • "Hate for Humble and the Rich" (Easy and Normal) and "Large Box and Small Box" (Hard and Lunatic) are also much easier once you know which one to shoot. The card's description mentions that you should know which one to shoot if you've read The Tongue-Cut Sparrow.
• Scarf of Asskicking: She wears a blue scarf and is pretty dangerous in a fight.
• Stealth Pun: She's a Persian (hashihito) bridge princess (hashihime). ZUN stated in an interview that this influenced her design, and the Marisa + Patchouli dialogue includes a joke about it.
• Token Minority: Going off a comment from Patcholli, she's possibly Iranian. When Marisa questions how a Persian could end up in Gensokyo's underground, Patcholli says it's all conjecture.
• Troll Bridge: She is the bridge guardian of the bridge that connects the underworld to the otherworld who fights either heroine either due to her jealousy or not understanding that they are communicating with someone else.
• Troubled Fetal Position: When flying, she curls up, and she's an embodiment of jealousy.
• Visual Pun: The "Persian bridge princess" Stealth Pun noted above, and a literal Green-Eyed Monster.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Stage 1 of SA is fairly ordinary. Parsee is the first boss to use the sort of unusual, puzzle-like mechanics that characterizes the rest of the game.

Yuugi Hoshiguma

The Rumored Unnatural Phenomenon

Yuugi Hoshiguma

"Hey, you're pretty good. Dunno who you are, but they say a rowdy welcome is best for a rowdy guest!"

A powerful oni and one of the four Devas of the Mountain, along with Suika Ibuki. She possesses great strength, and like most oni, loves competition with others. She agrees to help guide the heroines if they'd give her a good fight.

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• Almighty Janitor: Unfinished Dream Of All Living Ghost reveals that the overall leader of the oni is Zanmu Nippaku, meanwhile Yuugi, one of the famed Devas of the Mountain and most likely her superior in strength, is content with being in charge of an onsen town.
• Berserk Button: While Yuugi's normally rather cordial and friendly to be around even she has her limits. After the actions of the Jailbreak King in Foul Detective Satori result in Former Hell being closed off, she spends the opening of the conversation locked in a perpetual Death Glare with the offender in question and making it clear in no uncertain terms how pissed she is.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Even more than Suika she loves fighting, drinking and partying, and the only reason she attacked the player character in the first place was because she wanted to see how strong humans had become while she was gone.
• Chained by Fashion: Like Suika, she has shackles and short, broken chains on both ankles and wrists. ZUN has said that he associates oni with wearing chains.
• Combat Pragmatist: In Lotus Eaters it's shown that despite being an oni Yuugi's not above dealing a cheap shot when an opponent's distracted, as she swiftly knocks out Reimu with a kick through the entryway when Miyoi interrupts the fight and inadvertently distracts her.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Her Feat of Strength "Storm on Mt. Ooe" and Feat of Strength "Wind Blowing Down from Mt. Ooe" spell cards involve danmaku made up of windswept boulders.
• Excuse Me While I Multitask: She doesn't even bother putting her drink down while fighting you.
  "Yuugi only playing around with you, her sake NOT EVEN DROP"
• Fanservice Pack: Downplayed as the series' standard for Fanservice is very low, but all of Yuugi's appearances since Hopeless Masquerade have her swap out her shirt for a low-hanging kimono that exposes her shoulders and cleavage. In Foul Detective Satori she is shown to have one sleeve of her kimono hanging free, exposing her left arm, part of her Sarashi and rather ample bust while also being fairly toned.
• Flight, Strength, Heart: "The power to wield unexplainable phenomena" is pretty weird. The wiki is not sure what to make of it (explaining the power would be pretty much antithetical to its very nature), and in a world where everything and anything is "unexplained phenomena" to the point that nothing really is this could be the strongest power of all, as it could be the most useless. It doesn't particularly matter, Yuugi's got enough "conventional" magical power to casually level villages, and enough physical power to casually level mountains, buildings are said to collapse from just the tremors caused by her footsteps.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Like Meiling, she's one of the few people in Gensokyo stated to prefer a physical fight to a magical one. Unlike Meiling however, she's still proficient with spell cards. Sunken Fossil World has her mixing magic projectiles with physical combat for maximum destructive effect.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl:
  • Though she can't quite reach Suika's "never sober" levels, keeping hold of her sake bowl while having a danmaku duel comes close.
  • Like Suika, she also owns an oni artifact, the Hoshiguma Dish, the drinking cup she always carries. It increases the quality of any liquor poured into it.
• Horned Humanoid: In traditional oni style, with a single horn.
• Leitmotif: "A Flower-Studded Sake Dish on Mount Ooe"
• Make Me Wanna Shout: According to the description, her Oni's Voice "Annihilating Roar" spell card is a scream loud enough to flatten trees.
• Miss Exposition: In Reimu and Marisa's scenarios in the Sunken Fossil World demo, Yuugi explains that the "black water" is actually oil seeping up from a forbidden section of Former Hell.
• Nice Girl: A boisterous but very good-natured fighter. Even Reimu and Marisa like her, in spite of the rest of the residents of the Underworld creeping them out.
• Oni: Another one of these along with Suika, and like Suika she's a heavy drinker with immense strength.
• Playing with Fire: According to the description, Her Light Oni "Adamant Helix" spell card creates heat just from her raising her hands, and is powerful enough to burn one or two human villages to cinders in an instant.
• The Queenpin: She's the manager in charge of the onsen town and makes damn sure anyone who thinks about causing a ruckus in Former Hell knows it. Her title in Foul Detective Satori is even the "Kingpin of the Former Hell Spa Town".
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Her appearance in Gouyaku Ibun reveals she runs an onsen town. As for the ass-kicking, that goes without saying.
• School Sport Uniform: Her shirt resembles this, which makes sense as it would be easy to do exercises in that.
• Sex Sells: An advertisement◊ for Subterranean Animism featured a drawing by alphes, the artist who drew the character portraits for the Touhou fighting games, showing Yuugi wearing a blue kimono pulled off her shoulders. Since it's from an official ad, the kimono is essentially a canon alternate costume for her. She wears it again in her background cameo in Hopeless Masquerade and in her boss fight in Sunken Fossil World.
• Shout-Out: She fights without spilling a drop of sake, much like Jonathan Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fought without spilling a drop of wine, and she has a star on her horn like Jonathan and his descendants have a star birthmark. ZUN himself has even outright said he wants to make her seem awesome like JoJo.
• Statuesque Stunner: General consensus believes she is one of the tallest characters in the series, on top of having one of the more fanservice-y designs. Foul Detective Satori seems to support this with Yuugi being given a very imposing stature and broad build, towering over the Jailbreak King.
• Superpower Lottery: Confusingly describes herself as having the power of "anomalies, strength, disorder, and spirits" (a Confucian term^note Abbreviated from "Confucius never spoke of the supernatural, heroism, treachery, or acts of god." meaning anything that cannot be anticipated or explained). This is generally interpreted as meaning that Yuugi is so strong that she can perform feats which defy logic, such as dispersing a hurricane by punching it.
• Super-Strength: Even stronger than Suika (though with less magical power). Her title in Double Spoiler is even "Ruinous Super Strength".
• Willfully Weak: She intentionally uses only a small amount of her power, more interested in having her first good fight with a human in centuries than actually winning. Tellingly, Patchouli notes afterwards that she didn't spill a single drop of sake, showing how much she wasn't focused on the fight.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Like all oni, she dislikes dishonesty or other forms of sneakiness. The value of her word is invoked by Marisa in Symposium of Post-Mysticism when she claims that "I heard it from Yuugi, so it must be true."
• World's Strongest Woman: Among youkai, Oni are infamous for their peerless strength; among Oni, the Big Four of the Mountain are considered particularly strong Oni; among the Big Four of the Mountain, Yuugi is otherwise known as Yuugi the Strong, so she has a decent claim at this title.

Satori Komeiji

The Girl Even The Evil Spirits Fear

Satori Komeiji

"...visitors? How unusual."

The mistress of the Palace of Earth Spirits, Satori is a youkai with the ability to read minds. Her power makes her embittered and feared by humans and youkai, but beloved by animals. She keeps many pets in her home, including Rin and Utsuho.

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• A Day in the Limelight: Is the main character of the manga Foul Detective Satori.
• Advertised Extra: Despite being the title character of Foul Detective Satori, her actual role in the manga is surprisingly small, with Reimu and Marisa more or less being the more active main characters.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Although it's more like A Dog Named "Dawg", since Satori's name is spelled with Hiragana in Japanese instead of Kanji like her species name.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Satori got this not only from the humans and youkai up above due to her powers, but she's not very popular amongst the underground youkai either for the exact same reasons, making her a pariah even amongst pariahs.
• All There in the Manual: The Subterranean Animism sections of Strange Creators of Outer World gives insight to her thoughts on the other characters of her home game since she's one of the reviewers.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read:
  • Isolates herself in the Palace of the Earth Spirits to avoid reading peoples' minds. In Chapter 28 of Wild and Horned Hermit she even says the trope almost verbatim to describe how she feels about mind-reading. Although in that specific case, it is sort of inverted, because she wants to believe that the vengeful spirit is just lying, but knows that it is honest that one time.
  • Comes up again in Foul Detective Satori after she reads the mind of another vengeful spirit. A while after the event she still looks completely shell-shocked and outright tells Reimu that the mind of an vengeful spirit is not a pleasant thing to read.
  • Reading human minds is outright unpleasant for Satori, to the point that being around humans too long makes her physically ill.
• Badass Boast: "I can see it... My mind-reading third eye will show me your very heart! The beautiful danmaku in your heart will make you suffer!"
• The Beastmaster: Patchouli mentions in her SA scenario with Marisa that satori in general have an affinity with animals, and that those animals have a tendency to become powerful beast youkai, such as with Orin and Okuu in Satori's case.
• Benevolent Boss: Satori is a breath of fresh air in the middle of capricious and abusive superiors in Touhou. Despite her many shortcomings, her direct associates adore and respect her. Even when the evil spirits that hate her come to her to bargain a vacation, she listens and fulfills their request.
• Better with Non-Human Company: Animals love her, because she can understand them, but humans and youkai are less thrilled with having their minds read all the time. This isn't exactly helped by Satori's Mind over Manners issues.
  • Reding human minds outright makes her ill after a while.
• Big Sister Instinct: Deeply cares about her younger sister Koishi, who she constantly worries about due to her sealing her own mind.
• Blessed with Suck: Everyone hates her, except for animals who can't talk, because of her mind-reading third eye on her heart.
• Breakout Character: Not quite to the extent of her sister, but Satori's immense popularity still earned her an official spinoff manga in 2019, being the first of the digital-first manga to be written by ZUN.
• Broke the Rating Scale: In Strange Creators' cross review for Subterranean Animism, she fits both ends of the spectrum, with Reimu giving her a negative rating, while Satori awards herself with a stunning 11 out of ten, proclaiming her own power to be both incredible and "the best against any opponent".
• Brutal Honesty: Satori has little to no social filter, and will happily blurt out whatever people are thinking at a moment's notice. This combined with the disturbing nature of her powers makes her generally disliked.
• Character Tics: Leaving one eye closed while mindreading.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Because only animals don't mind having their minds read and their secrets revealed, her home is filled with various animals and is described as a zoo. In addition to cats, crows, and dogs, she is also seen with a Komodo dragon in Koishi's Hopeless Masquerade stage, and Wild and Horned Hermit has her show up with a parrot and a cheetah.
• Crazy-Prepared: It sure is a good thing she has dolls on hand, or she'd have a hard time emulating Alice's spell cards.
• Curtains Match the Window: Has pink hair and eyes.
• Cute Bookworm: Spends a lot of her time in her room, reading and (anonymously) writing books.
• Deadpan Snarker: Probably due to years of reading idiotic/perverted/evil thoughts, she can be rather sarcastic and has a tendency to be blunt.
• Deconstruction: Serves as one for Mind Readers alongside Koishi. For Satori, being hated by everyone for her powers drove her to becoming a total shut-in, literally isolating herself in the depths of (Former) Hell, with nobody for company but her sister and pets (who don't mind having their minds read).
• The Dreaded: There is a reason she's known as The Girl Even The Evil Spirits Fear. Most people who directly discuss Satori talk about how afraid they are of having their mind read and their secrets laid bare, despite the fact that personality-wise Satori is one of the more level-headed characters in the series.
• Ditto Fighter: She fights you using the attacks from your partner's previous appearance as a boss in former games. She has more spell card techniques in a single game than any character in the series: seventy-six in total, and the only other characters to come close are Okina with forty-six, Kaguya and the Three Faeries, with forty each. Of those only four are actually her own cards with two more added in Double Spoiler and three more (although co-owned with Okuu, her sister, and Ran) in Violet Detector.
• Extra Eyes: She has a third eye, which enables her to read people's minds.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Her third eye is positioned on her chest, right where her heart would be.
• Forgot About the Mind Reader: In most scenarios, our heroines are thinking about just beating Satori up to get by, which she finds rather off-putting, but is pretty much normal for them. She also catches Marisa thinking about what she's going to steal from Satori's palace and shoos her off immediately.
• Heroic RRoD: Foul Detective Satori reveals that prolonged exposure to minds causes her to suffer nausea.
• Hikikomori:
  • Since humans and other youkai hate her for being able to constantly read their minds, she has secluded herself in the Palace of the Earth Spirits, having no communication with anyone except her pets. As one fan-song aptly puts it, "A palace of self-containment." Even within the Palace, she rarely leaves her room, spending her time reading and writing books. Symposium of Post-Mysticism suggests that some of her books may have been published on the surface, under an anonymous label.
  • While she's knowledgeable enough about the Outside World (Not to mention some other realms like the Netherworld and Higan) to know what a phone is, Koishi's UUiL ending has her regard the smartphone Koishi stole from Sumireko with confusion as phones like that didn't exist the last time she was really active on the surface.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: While she's not exactly nice to most people, Satori adores her pets:
  Satori: Orin is very fond of me, and her fur is so beautiful and cute! Whenever I notice her sleeping next to me, she's so warm and comfortable that I can't help but want to pet her!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Satori is a cold, rude, and anti-social loner, but deeply loves her pets and sister with all her heart.
• Licked by the Dog: She's beloved by her pets, and Orin in particular is shown to hold her in high regard.
• Leitmotif: "Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye"
• Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Has a really bad habit of constantly talking about how she can read minds, and has no sense of Mind over Manners. Perhaps if she stopped telling everyone how she could read their every thought - and that one, and especially that one - there would have been less antagonism. This is apparently a trait of the entire satori race.
• Major Injury Underreaction: While she's relatively weak for a youkai, she is still a youkai (who are much more durable than humans), and so she treats getting stabbed through the chest by Flandre in Foul Detective Satori as deeply unpleasant but not life-threatening.
• Pet the Dog: Wild and Horned Hermit has Orin reveal that prior to a mass build-up of evil spirits because of Outside World events forcing her to tighten security, Satori used to allow leisure activities for the vengeful spirits in Former Hell.
• Power Incontinence: Her mind reading is always on. In Chapter 7 of Foul Detective Satori she mentions that it's hard for her to be on the surface for long because of all the thoughts she picks up, and later states that reading minds for too long becomes physically exhausting for her.
• Psychic Powers: Mindreading. She also uses hypnosis to draw out people's traumas to the surface so she can better formulate her battle strategies. In gameplay this takes the form of her being a sort of Mirror Boss with Call Backs to previous games.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Subverted. Unlike most other faction leaders, despite being the head of the Palace of Earth Spirits both ZUN and Koishi describe her as not very good at fighting, and Okuu following her devouring of the Yatagarasu is far stronger by virtue of being a living sun.
• Reclusive Artist: An In-Universe example, being a reclusive shut-in who also publishes books in the surface world under a pseudonym.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the sane blue to Koishi's broken red, despite the colors of their third eyes.
• Shrinking Violet: The appropriately named spell card Heart Flower "Camera-Shy Rose" from Double Spoiler makes her out to be one, with Aya commenting that she uses her mind reading to avoid having her picture taken.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Boy, howdy, where do we begin?
  • Satori became a social recluse in order to escape the contempt her Mind over Manners brought her, while Koishi's way of escaping the contempt has led her to wander aimlessly across the world.
  • As for their powers, while Satori uses hypnotism in order to bring people's subconscious traumas up to the surface so she can read them in their conscious minds and formulate her battle strategies accordingly, Koishi's powers allow her to manipulate people's unconscious minds to such an extent that it affects their conscious perception of her all while she, herself, does everything in battle by instinct/unconsciously.
  • Personality-wise, while Satori is rather lacking in manners and not excessively emotional (it's not uncommon for her to be portrayed as quiet and/or a Deadpan Snarker in fanworks), one cannot deny the fact that she can be caring, as evidenced by the fact that she takes good care of numerous animals and deeply wishes for her sister to open her heart to others again, showing that she actually has some significant emotional depths. Koishi, on the other hand, has no emotions whatsoever, yet she always has a serene smile plastered on her face and is commonly portrayed as a Cheerful Child.
  • In addition to the above there's also the fact that, in a sort of reversed Meaningful Name way, the shut-in Satori is deep down a loving child while Byakuren has said about Koishi that her state of mind is akin to Enlightment. "Satori" is a term in Zen Buddhism referring to a minor form of true Enlightment while "Koishi" can either mean "will/thought of love" or "little rock" (commonly not known for their willingness to move around once they've settled down).
  • Satori's also fairly helpless without her powers whereas Koishi is explicitly considered the stronger sibling, as signified by the latter being an EX boss and being playable in fighting games such as Hopeless Masquerade and Urban Legend in Limbo.
  • Finally there's the fact that if you take a picture of either sister and inverse the colors, their clothes and hair will take on almost identical colors as the other sister's natural ones...which is further emphasized in Hopeless Masquerade as one of Koishi's alternate color schemes.
• Smug Super: Despite all the grief her mind reading brings her, during the SA section of Strange Creators of Outer World she proudly boasts about her abilities as the ultimate power beyond compare and rates herself an eleven because of them. Then again, considering what she can do with her powers, she's got reason to be proud.
• Something about a Rose: While the rose motifs aren't as prominent as they are with Koishi, Satori has a dress patterned with pink roses and in Double Spoiler has the Heart Flower "Camera-Shy Rose" Spell Card.
• Species Surname: More given name in her case, but Satori is... a satori, though, in this case, her name could mean "enlightenment" or "understanding", rather than just be indicative of her species.
• Stealth Insult: While she does love Okuu, she has some rather... interesting things to say about her:
  Satori: It's often said that stupid children are cuter, but Okuu is always helping me out or preening me. Such a cute pet.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Has heart shaped buttons on her shirt, a heart on her hairband, and heart shaped cufflinks on her sleeves. The latter happens to be quite fitting for a mind reader who can leave hearts bare, as she's literally wearing hearts on her sleeves.
• Tareme Eyes: Her eyes are exceptionally droopy compared to the rest of the Touhou characters. Some fans picture her with Tsurime Eyes in fanarts, though.
• Telepathy: Her primary shtick in mindreading, assisted by some hypnotism. It also allows her to communicate with vengeful spirits as seen in Wild and Horned Hermit.
• Third Eye: Unusually, it's detached from her body and connected by veins. Notably, it sits right in front of her heart.
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Satori might be the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, but despite her seemingly lofty position she's not all that powerful. She's described as a pushover in a direct fight both In-Universe and by Word of God, and relies on her mind reading and power copying to pull an endless amount of tricks from her hat to subdue her opponents. But while Satori herself isn't very strong, her pets are another story. Orin has the power to communicate with and control spirits (especially useful given the Underworld is filled with vengeful spirits), Okuu is a contender for one of the most powerful characters in the entire franchise, and due to her abilities as a satori, all of her pets have the potential to become powerful beast youkai in their own right.
• Weak, but Skilled: Orin, Okuu, and Koishi all claim that Satori is a pushover in a direct fight, and yet she's still tricky because she can copy spellcards from her mindreading. To this date, she has the most varied spellcard collection in one game yet of all characters in the entire series.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Has this reaction in her first speaking appearance in Wild and Horned Hermit when a vengeful spirit asks if they can have a flower viewing ceremony in Former Hell, without changing her neutral expression.

Rin Kaenbyou

Corpse Tour Guide / Hell's Traffic Accident

Rin "Orin" Kaenbyou

"If I kill you, human, my hellfire cart will get heavy~♪ Man, carrying off corpses is fun!"

A kasha who can control evil spirits and carry them to the Hell of Blazing Fires, and one of Satori's many pets. She dislikes long names, so she has everyone call her Orin instead of by her full name. She thinks highly of her mistress Satori, and is good friends with Utsuho, but becomes terrified once Utsuho starts going mad from her newfound power. Afraid that Satori may find out and punish Utsuho, Rin instead drives evil spirits above-ground, attempting to lure the powerful youkai living there down to help her out.

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• A Day in the Limelight: Alongside Satori, she is the lead character of Foul Detective Satori, acting as the on-site investigator.
• Animorphism: She is capable of shapeshifting into either a cat or a humanoid form.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Her job is to steal corpses and send them to Hell via her cart. However, she's regarded by Akyuu as an extremely friendly and outgoing youkai, and is even interested in listening to what the corpses have to say.
• Bakeneko and Nekomata: Specifically, she's a kasha, a kind of youkai cat which is often associated with Hell and the afterlife created from cats eating specifically corpses and phantoms, as opposed to how normal nekomata become that way from eating human flesh. In Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost it's revealed that she has become friends with Chen, playing with her and teaching her catlike behaviour, leading to Chen picking up kasha traits like digging up corpses to give to Ran.
• Big Good: Orin is the true heroine of Subterranean Animism, manipulating events to both save Gensokyo from Utsuho and restore Utsuho's sanity.
• Black Comedy: The corpses she obtains are often confused about their deaths and optimistically chat with her about their plans for the future.
• Catgirl: She's a kasha, a kind of cat youkai which is typically depicted in stories as whisking away the deceased to the afterlife during a heavy gale. This being Touhou, she's depicted as a girl with cat ears; while she's tailless in most official appearances, she does have two tails in her background cameo in Hopeless Masquerade.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As noted by Word of God, the entire conflict of Subterranean Animism could have been averted entirely if Orin just went to Satori directly to tell her about Utsuho's power mania. Orin only didn't do it because she had the (incorrect) fear of the consequences, hence trying to lure humans from the surface who could subdue Utsuho instead.
• Depending on the Artist: Orin's tails are inconsistent as to if they're retained in her human form, with her original ZUN art, Symposium of Post-Mystiscism, Wild and Horned Hermit, and Who's Who in Gensokyo all portraying her without them, while Hopeless Masquerade and Foul Detective Satori have them present.
• Fiery Redhead: Red-haired and incredibly energetic.
• Flunky Boss: She is accompanied by zombie fairies during several of her attacks.
• Girlish Pigtails: She has braided pigtails, fitting with her cheery personality.
• Grim Reaper: The blue Hitodama Lights floating beside her are a traditional Grim Reaper portrayal for Japanese culture.
• Hero Antagonist: Her motives turn out to be an entirely noble goal of trying to save her power-mad best friend.
• Hitodama Light: Rin Kaenbyou is a Grim Reaper with skull lights floating beside her. The Wild and Horned Hermit manga reveals they are "evil spirits", which are what souls carried off by kasha turn into.
• In-Series Nickname: Orin, which is what she'd prefer to be called.
• Leitmotif: "Corpse Voyage ~ Be of good cheer!"
• Lost in Translation: Wheelbarrow's are referred to as "cat-carts" in Japanese, hence the joke of Orin using one to carry corpses.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: Two tails, since she's a kasha.
• Nice Girl: One of the nicest characters in the series, even with her unsettling profession.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Really likes corpses. Foul Detective Satori shows Satori even rewards her with skulls.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Some of Rin's spell cards feature implacable zombie fairies that follow the player around while shooting bullets. This can further complicate things if you're using a character/partner setup with homing projectiles. The Grimoire of Marisa claims they're actually just normal fairies done up as zombies, though. Double Spoiler further suggests that the fairies are only pretending to be zombies.
• Number of the Beast: Photographing Rin in cat form in Double Spoiler gets you "Cat Bonus: + 666".
• Number Two: Satori's second-in-command.
• One-Steve Limit: Somewhat broken, as she shares her given name with Rin Satsuki, the Dummied Out character from the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil; however, that Rin was spelled 麟, while this one is spelled 燐.
• Perky Goth: Dresses in a dark dress with many elements of typical Elegant Gothic Lolita culture, but is an excitable and good natured girl.
• Promoted to Playable: She ends up becoming a playable character in Unfinished Dream Of All Living Ghost.
• Recurring Boss: Stage 4 midboss (twice), stage 5 midboss and boss, stage 6 midboss. How's that for persistence? Tsukasa is distantly in second place when it comes to this.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her eyes are dark red and she's a dangerous boss.
• Soul Eating: As one of the native animals of hell, souls are an important part of her diet. It is also said that people whose corpses she carts away will not be able to pass into heaven.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: For a level in Hell, the music is strangely calming. And for a morbid character, Orin certainly has a very fun song.
• Stealth Pun: She has a wheelbarrow, or "cat cart" in Japanese.
• Summon Bigger Fish: She drives evil spirits out through the geyser, in the hopes of attracting strong youkai that could handle Utsuho. She got Reimu or Marisa.
• Unusual Ears: As seen in her official portrait, Orin has both human ears and cat ears.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Rin's stated ability - the power to carry off corpses. And from the looks of things she just uses a wheelbarrow anyway. However, this power also lets her manipulate/understand ghosts, and even animate corpses like Yoshika.

Utsuho Reiuji

The Scorching, Troublesome, Divine Flame

Utsuho "Okuu" Reiuji

"The sunlight that rains down on the Earth is a nuclear furnace that will create new atoms. My ultimate nuclear fusion will burn up every body, heart, ghost, and fairy!"

A hell raven who manages the former Hell of Blazing Fires, and another one of Satori's pets. Prior to the events of Subterranean Animism, Utsuho was visited by Kanako and told to swallow the corpse of the sun god Yatagarasu, thus gaining the power of nuclear fusion. Kanako presumably wanted the power to bring electricity to Gensokyo, but Utsuho instead goes mad from the immense power she gained, planning to torch Gensokyo and turn it into hell on Earth. She's based on a legend of a three-legged crow who prevented a monster from eating the sun. This being Gensokyo, she was the one who ate the sun god.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: According to Kanako, she chose Utsuho because she was of low-intelligence and would have no concept that managing nuclear power would be too hard to control. In a more Functional Magic sense, her dullness makes her an "empty vessel" that wouldn't reject Yatagarasu.
• Almighty Janitor: Her job post-Heel–Face Turn is to regulate the flames of Former Hell, which are used above ground for the hot springs. Her ability/power is nuclear fusion, and can destroy anything in a few moments. At least her personality now is kept in check...
• Arm Cannon: According to Hisoutensoku, the control rod on her arm can function as an arm-mounted cannon.
• Atomic Superpower: Utsuho can control nuclear fusion and even has a control rod on her right arm.
• Badass Cape: She wears a cape that partially covers her wings, and contains what appears to be a star field. A moving starfield.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: In Sunken Fossil World, Toutetsu refers to her as a loyal watchdog, to which Utsuho replies:
  Utsuho: I'm not a dog, I'm a crow.
• Boss Warning Siren: Not when she appears, but she does get blaring "CAUTION!" signs and alarm noises before her spellcards.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being an expert in nuclear physics, she lacks anything in the way of common sense.
• Canon Welding: One of the first signs of interconnectivity between the Touhou games. She caused the geyser to overflow and burst out of control in the above world, which caused it to be filled with vengeful spirits. The geyser knocked down the Palanquin Ship, or Byakuren's ship, which landed on top of Miko's shrine.
• Character Tics: Her official artwork in Hisoutensoku and in Subterranean Animism has her raising her hand into the air with her index finger raised as her preferred way to summon her suns or activate spellcards.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While she's definitely no exception to the Cast of Snowflakes and only goes rogue due to being a birdbrain, Utsuho is the first baddie in the series with a blatant intent to destroy Gensokyo. This begins what would become a trend of more decidedly dangerous and/or directly antagonistic characters in later games.
• Clever Crows: Inverted, Okuu may be a hell raven, but she's considered one of the most empty-headed characters in the series and acts as Dumb Muscle.
• Creepy Crows: She's a hell raven and an antagonist in her debut game, though the Yatagarasu is traditionally supposed to be a crow. Technically, this is a translation error because Japanese uses the same word for both birds. "Hell corvid" doesn't quite roll off the tongue though.
• The Ditz: Basically, the opposite of Cirno. However, she's really more gullible than outright stupid. Her claim to be the strongest hell raven is part of it too. Apparently this is even part of why Kanako chose her to receive the Yatagarasu's power, since drawing out its full potential requires "an empty mind".
• The Dreaded: Decidedly and deservedly so in every story-based fight following her first appearance. She's hardly malicious, but her overwillingness to just eradicate anything that seems out of place whether it poses a threat or not makes her incredibly dangerous. Anytime Okuu comes back around spoiling for a fight for whatever reason, usually because someone made the mistake of stepping onto her territory unannounced, the fight plays out less as an actual match and more of her opponent just trying to survive until they can either talk her down or stun her long enough to make a run for it, never showing sign of tiring or relenting. A confrontation with Utsuho earns her an Oh, Crap! reaction from anyone familiar with her, and if that doesn't happen initially, it'll come when they realize what they've gotten into.
• Dumb Muscle: A female one. Her power to control nuclear fusion is among one of the most devastatingly powerful abilities in the series in terms of raw destructive power, but fortunately for everyone else she's nowhere near smart enough to use it to its full potential.
• Empty Quiver: Kanako needs to think much more on who to give nuclear powers, especially when they go rogue.
• Extra Eyes: The red eye of the Yatagarasu on her chest, which looks suspiciously like Sauron's.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her right foot is encased in what concrete (likely as a reference to the Elephant's Foot), her left foot has electrons orbiting around it, and her right forearm is a control rod.
• Final Boss: The last boss you face in the main story of Subterranean Animism, and hoooo boy does it show. Let's count the archetypal final boss elements:
  • One of the most over-the-top designs in the whole series (Badass Cape, Arm Cannon, Extra Eyes)
  • Very intense battle music, which according to ZUN himself was meant to sound like a typical final boss theme
  • One of the flashiest fights even by Touhou standards (she literally fires suns)
  • Obligatory dramatic location (the battle is fought in a nuclear reactor, over a massive pool of molten radioactive matter)
  • One of the few actively malicious characters in the series, with the power and the desire to bring about The End of the World as We Know It.
  • Her spell cards come with sirens and warning labels, which is completely unprecedented for a Touhou character, and hasn't appeared before or since for anyone else.
• Foreshadowing: Yatagarasu was mentioned in Cage in Lunatic Runagate, chapter three, released in 2007:
  Watatsuki no Toyohime: If that crow was an embodiment of the sun, it would have three feet and red eyes!
• For the Evulz: Thinks exploding the Earth will be cool, at least until she gets some sense knocked into her.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Originally just another hell raven until she ate the Yatagarasu and become the embodiment of nuclear fusion.
• Genius Ditz: Hisoutensoku manages to showcase her rather extensive knowledge of nuclear physics while at the same time making her out to be a total birdbrain. This could be a case of Required Secondary Powers. It's rather hard to control forces that you don't understand, after all.
• Glass Cannon: Her "Control Rod" system card in Hisoutensoku enhances damage output while weakening defense. It's small at first, but if both players use four and Drizzle is active you can one-shot anything.
• Glacier Waif: In Hisoutensoku. Slowest character in the game by far, and she can't attack from her dash unless you attack immediately from it. But when she hits, she hits hard.
• God-Eating: Gained both her power and madness from eating the corpse of the sun god Yatagarasu.
• Hitbox Dissonance: This makes her a little bit easier than other final bosses because, despite the size of her projectiles, their hitboxes allow you to easily weave between them... even when it looks like you shouldn't. Case in point: this portion of her attack.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Her Pimped-Out Cape that has a moving starry sty definitely falls under this.
• In-Series Nickname: She's referred to as "Okuu" more often than not.
• The Juggernaut: Storywise every time someone fights Okuu post-Subterranean Animism, it's for the most part less a true "battle," and more an attempt to survive long enough to either talk her down or get as far away from her as possible, because once she initiates combat she turns utterly relentless and neither tires nor stays down for long.
• Lack of Empathy: Her response in Hisoutensoku when she thinks she's vaporized Cirno? She brushes it aside and just resumes her work.
• Leitmotif: "Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion". If you listen closely, some parts of Kanako's "Suwa Foughten Field" are integrated into hers as well. Fitting, considering she got her powers from Kanako.
• Meaningful Name: Utsuho means "empty", and she serves as an empty vessel for Kanako to dump the power of Yatagarasu into.
• Mook Promotion: Before meeting Kanako, she was just a hell raven. Granted, she may very well have been the strongest one, as she claims, but that still only puts her in the same league as Cirno, since most ordinary hell ravens go down with one bullet. After meeting Kanako and eating the Yatagarasu, however, she becomes Subterranean Animism's Final Boss.
• Multi-Directional Barrage: Some of Utsuho's win-quotes from Hisoutensoku imply that this is her default fighting style: simply blasting everything around herself indiscriminately. Her line against Remilia in particular implies that she doesn't even bother keeping track of where her opponent is!
• Mundane Utility:
  • Controls nuclear fusion, possesses the power of the stars themselves, and of a threat level comparable with Flandre or even Yukari. With the help of the kappa, she provides free electricity to the denizens of Gensokyo, although to most of them electricity is just as miraculous as magic would be in the outside world. As a matter of fact, Kanako tries to exploit this to gather more believers to the Moriya shrine. However, nobody is even complaining, because she also provides the fires to the hot springs.
  • On an even more mundane note, there's her Light Energy "High Tension Blade" spellcard from Hisoutensoku. The attack consists of channeling a huge amount of nuclear energy into her control rod and forming a massive sword to strike her opponent. The description of the spell notes that she also uses it as a flashlight.
  "...Seriously now?"
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Nuclear-powered corpse eating hell raven monster girl.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Her role as the manager of Nuclear Furnace has her assuming that anyone who enters it is a foreign substance and has a rather strict "shoot first, don't bother asking questions" mentality when it comes down to dealing with them unless she's beaten down a notch.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: She breaks it, and then some. ZUN has stated the inspiration for her came in his idea that someone embodying nuclear weapons would be the most hated in a society of the hated.
• Omnicidal Maniac: She wants to torch Gensokyo and turn it into the new Hell. This being Touhou, she gets better after a sound beating.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Her powers make her effectively a living, breathing, walking, or flying, as the case may be, star. Her spell cards, instead of arriving with the usual noise, are announced with a nuclear hazard symbol and a sounding klaxon with scrolling CAUTION stripes. And even if that doesn't make you panic, the sight of miniature suns that cover half the screen most definitely will. It says a lot that she’s one of the few people who can face the franchise's other resident Person of Mass Destruction, Flandre Scarlet, to a relative standstill.
• The Power of the Sun: Eating the sun god Yatagarasu gave her nuclear fusion sun powers.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: More or less universal in fanart, though her in-game portraits are somewhat ambiguous.
• Shout-Out:
  • Many of her moves in Hisoutensoku are similar to Souther's, even including a spell card, while some of her other moves bear a similarity to Mega Man X's attacks as well, most notably the Nova Strike. She also has two spell cards called "Giga Flare" and "Mega Flare", while that eye on her chest may be Sauron's.
  • With all of the nuclear-powered references, the wiki notes that she has some connection to Chernobyl, specifically The Black Bird of Chernobyl.
• Soul Eating: Like Orin, she's an animal native to hell and therefore finds eating souls to be perfectly natural. It is implied that eating the god Yatagarasu was a similar process.
• Touched by Vorlons: Acquired divine powers from her interactions with gods. The exact mechanics of this are unclear though: she was originally described as having "eaten" the crow god Yatagarasu, but Akyuu's depiction of it based on Kanako's description makes it look like she was simply hypnotized into believing she was Yatagarasu. Her Symposium of Post-mysticism profile describes her as a kind of living shrine, housing the god in her body.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Boiled eggs^note Unless they were fertilized raven eggs, this isn't cannibalism., and the corpses of dead sinners. Extra-crispy. She had a strong desire to roast and eat Reimu, apparently not caring that she's alive.
  Utsuho: See, your body's getting burned up pretty nicely now. I want to eat you up right now, but it's not good to rush. You have to let it fry just the right amount for it to taste the best.
• Unmoving Plaid: The inside of her cape has a galaxy pattern that scrolls independently of the cape's movements.
• Unskilled, but Strong: After the long string of Trial-and-Error Gameplay and Puzzle Bosses that is the rest of Subterranean Animism, Utsuho's patterns are remarkably straightforward. This should in no way imply that they're easy, since her bullets are huge.
• Winged Humanoid: Has wings in her humanoid form.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Her megalomania was explicitly caused by going From Nobody to Nightmare almost instantly, and after having some sense pounded into her, she is more than willing to abandon her fire-filled ambitions.
• Worthy Opponent: To Flandre Scarlet, of all people. After their battle in Sunken Fossil World, Utsuho is still raring to go despite having just had a serious match, which Flandre states she'd love to keep going if she didn't need to leave. Okina even notes before the match that, though this wouldn't help train Flandre's weakness resistance to flowing water, she'd picked Utsuho simply because her raw power made her a good lead-in for the fight to come with Yuuma.

Koishi Komeiji

The Closed Eyes Of Love

Koishi Komeiji

"Read your mind? I've already closed my satori eye. Reading people's minds only make you depressed and there's nothing good about it."

The Extra stage boss and Satori's younger sister. She too was born was the power to read minds, but hated how it made everyone fear her, so she willingly sealed away her "third eye" that gave her the power. While this gave her a new ability to read and manipulate people's unconsciousness, it also resulted in her own heart being sealed away, and she becomes more distant and detached towards everyone as time passes.

Koishi picks a fight with the heroines in Subterranean Animism when both reach the Moriya Shrine for "a divine blessing" ^note in reality, the heroines are investigating Utsuho's source of power, while Koishi wants to get that power for her own pets, citing the absence of the Moriya gods and a desire to best the person who fought Satori. In Hopeless Masquerade, she unknowingly picks up the Mask of Hope, seemingly gaining emotions and popularity in the process, but this kickstarts the events of the game when Hata no Kokoro, the rightful owner of the mask, goes insane after realizing said Mask of Hope is missing.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Sorta. She has a silvery-green hair, with the green being more prominent in Hopeless Masquerade and Urban Legend in Limbo.
• All Psychology Is Freudian:
  • Almost all of Koishi's spell cards are themed around Freudian psychology, including the id and the superego.
  • Koishi's "The Embers of Love" spell card is infamous in the fandom due to the heart-shaped bullets and their trails appearing phallic in nature. invoked
• Arch-Enemy: To Kokoro for refusing to give back her original Mask of Hope in Hopeless Masquerade, though it's more on Kokoro's end than hers. She herself only sees Kokoro as the "next opponent".
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The funnier variant of this trope when describing her gameplay in Hopeless Masquerade. From the wiki:
  High damage potential.
  Good normals.
  Decent bullets across all religions.
  Has an invincible forward dash that can go through people and a great back-dash.
  Can sneeze.
• Badass Adorable: In keeping with ZUN's habit of making younger Gensokyan sisters "broken", Koishi's story mode in Hopeless Masquerade is basically about her steamrolling everyone that gets in her way without breaking a sweat; being "unable to feel anything" apparently extends to physical exhaustion as well. Of course, she does this all while acting like a Cheerful Child.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Incredibly silly but also incredibly dangerous in combat, despite more or less fighting on instinct alone due to being an Empty Shell, as shown by her being an EX boss in her debut appearance.
  Kasen: (after losing to Koishi in her Urban Legend in Limbo scenario) Even though you play the fool, you're pointlessly strong...
• Big Sister Worship: Based on her references to her, it's implied Koishi adored her older sister prior to her mind being sealed.
• Blessed with Suck: Same reason with her sister Satori. Except that she got tired of being hated and closed her eye/heart, which removed her power, but also made her stop thinking.
• Breakout Character: Despite being only a side-character in the game in question, her playable appearance in Hopeless Masquerade proved so popular that she won the 2015 Popularity Poll, becoming the first character to get first place who wasn't a playable mainline heroine.
• Break the Cutie: In her backstory because of the hatred she suffered alongside her sister.
• Broken Angel: A youkai that's completely defined by its mind-reading abilities... and has lost them. The "broken" aspect gets played up fairly often in fanart.
• Cannot Dream: One of the effects of closing her third eye, according to Doremy.
• The Cameo: Shows up in Chapter 10 of Forbidden Scrollery as one of the youkai helping out with Kokoro's noh play.
• Cavalier Competitor: In Hopeless Masquerade she appears to enjoy challenging people and being challenged, though in reality she's emotionless.
• Cheerful Child: Or so she appears to be. In reality she feels no emotions whatsoever. In essence she has shut down her Ego, so as a result her mind is a weird mix of untamed desires (Id) and compulsions to follow norms (Super-Ego), without the conscious part to balance them. This makes her child-like and unpredictable.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Played with. Koishi is very weird, but it's not because she has an especially strange way of thinking, but because she's not properly thinking to begin with.
• Combat Tentacles: The fighting games have her use her third eye tendril as a bludgeon for some attacks.
• Confusion Fu:
  • Much like Remilia and Suwako before her, she has a non-standard dash (she prances, and jumps forwards after a while, making indefinite forward-dashing impossible). And her B and Y moves don't do anything immediately, only for her to start attacking later if some conditions are met. That's right, not even the player knows what she'll do next.
  • Players CAN know beforehand how Koishi will perform her attacks, albeit only some of her full arsenal. Most of it require that Koishi is at an immediate location from her enemy. For example, her up and down B attacks require that Koishi is above and below the opponent, respectively; then she attacks automatically. Conditioned Teleport requires that the opponent is on her "consciousness" range (which is a circle around her that expands in battle) and then she teleports to the target and attacks her automatically. Fidgety Snatcher requires that the opponent is above her or immediately close by, then she automatically attacks.
• Creepy Child: Averted for Koishi herself, who is a very cheerful and airheaded little girl despite her circumstances, but Urban Legend in Limbo has her harness the urban legend of Mary-san to try and scare people to little avail, up to even stabbing her opponent with a knife as her Last Word in reference to it.
• Curtains Match the Window: From Hopeless Masquerade onward, she has green hair and green eyes.
• Deconstruction: Like Satori, she serves as one for Mind Readers. In her case, she outright removed her ability to read minds so as not to be hated anymore, an act that left her without any personality, desires, or mind at all, and which many people question if it was really worth it.
• Did Not Think This Through: During the events of Urban Legend in Limbo, she used Miss Mary to try and scare people... despite no one in Gensokyo knowing what a telephone is. Sumireko on the other hand...
• Dissonant Serenity: Even in the middle of a battle, she won't be excited or scared. Or thinking of anything at all.
• Empty Eyes: How most artists depict her starting from Hopeless Masquerade, so to represent her mental state.
• Empty Shell: Even though she can talk to the main characters and have spellcard duels with them, all her actions are performed unconsciously. She's not liked nor hated by anyone, and has no desires and personality, since her heart is empty. On the other hand, as a Buddhist, Byakuren speculates that Koishi's mental state brings her closer to enlightenment, and points out she's not as empty as people might think.
• Enemy Rising Behind: In Urban Legend in Limbo some of her attacks involve vanishing and then reappearing behind her opponent, as a reference to the ending of the Mary-san Urban Legend.
• Esoteric Motifs: Fittingly for someone whose closed their heart, Koishi's sigil in the Grimore of Marisa is a wreath surrounding a keyhole.
• Evil Phone: Her occult theme in Urban Legend in Limbo, drawn from the Urban Legend of Mary-san^note Basically, an abandoned doll makes repeated phone calls on how close she's getting, ending with "I'm right behind you". This works even when none of the characters know what a phone is, though they're not afraid of it (the players, though...).
• Extra Eyes: Like her sister Satori, she has a third eye, although it is always closed; Koishi willingly closed it since she was tired of being ostracized for her third eye's mind-reading abilities.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Like her sister, her closed third eye is positioned on her chest, where her heart would be. For a bit of poetic Fridge Brilliance, take into consideration that she has closed her heart.
• Foil:
  • To her sister Satori as mentioned in Sibling Yin-Yang above.
  • To Kokoro, as both youkai struggle with emotion, but while Kokoro has many emotions despite lacking an expressive face for the most part (Hence the need for masks), Koishi is very expressive but ultimately emotionless.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Her ending in Hopeless Masquerade reveals that the Mask of Hope she found before the start of the game is losing its powers, so despite the flashes of real emotion she showed throughout the game she'll still revert back to being an Empty Shell.
• Forgetful Jones: Due to her sealing her mind from herself. By Hopeless Masquerade, the only thing she could remember clearly is the Mask of Hope, a fact that surprised her since she normally forgets everything.
• Friend to All Children: As mentioned below, some children reference her as an "imaginary friend" because she's willing to play with them.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Her promotional art for Hopeless Masquerade gives her eyes a rather eerie green glow.
• Hope Is Scary:
  • While she was previously okay with having her mind sealed off from others, after meeting the Player Character Koishi starts to feel regretful.
  • In Hopeless Masquerade, keeping the Mask of Hope for herself has caused her to actually remember that she has it, which is a surprise for her since she normally doesn't remember anything for long. However, her ending reveals that the Mask's power is fading, which means that she'll likely return to her usual state of being an Empty Shell.
• Imaginary Friend: As stated in Symposium of Post-Mysticism, some people reference her as an "imaginary companion". This is because her power doesn't work on some kids, and it seems she sometimes plays with them. Most of them will forget about her once they grow up, however.
• Insanity Immunity: Reisen's victory quote against her reveals that her current state renders her immune to the madness-inducing effects of the kunekune.
• Invisibility: While it's more likely her Perception Filter at work, one of her fighting game intros has her appear seemingly out of nowhere.
• Lack of Empathy: Since she's an Empty Shell, she doesn't really get the feelings of others and will do just about anything by impulse without consideration for other people (Case in point, refusing to give Kokoro's Mask of Hope back despite Kokoro's warning during Hopeless Masquerade), though she isn't really malicious about it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: As soon as you look away from her you will immediately forget ever meeting her. You can only become aware of her existence by getting to know Satori.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Last Remote" and "Hartmann's Youkai Girl".
  • "Hartmann's Youkai Girl" receives a remix in Hopeless Masquerade.
  • And another in Urban Legend in Limbo.
• Master of Illusion: The primary use of her ability to affect unconsciousness. She can dredge up a foe's subconscious fears to traumatize them, or she can become invisible and undetectable by erasing their perception of herself.
• Meaningful Name: Koishi's name could be read as "little stone", and her existence is described as being akin to one in Symposium of Post-Mysticism. Unnoticeable even if you could see her, like a stone on the side of the road.
• Mind Manipulation: Her ability is to manipulate the unconscious, which falls under mind manipulation by default.
• Mind Rape: She can bring someone's subconscious fears and insecurities to the surface.
• No, I Am Behind You: Koishi has a habit of doing this in the fighting games, either with her invisible prancing or her counterattack special. Urban Legend in Limbo has her work this into her Last Word, following the Mary-san theme.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know something's up when an Empty Shell gets excited about becoming popular. It's a side-effect of carrying the Mask of Hope around.
• The Ophelia: Her overall character. Koishi is very unsettling and weird, but at the same time very friendly and more or less harmless.
• Oxymoronic Being: She is a mind-reading youkai that cannot read minds. Not even her own.
• Palette Swap: One of them is notable in that it makes her look like her sister.
• Perception Filter: On herself - she can move around without being noticed by anyone. You cannot feel her presence even when you see her directly, and once she leaves from your field of vision, you forget her immediately. Even Satori isn't completely immune from it.
• Power Nullifier: She closed her third eye to abandon her mind-reading ability. Her closed third eye also nullifies Satori's power. Her Story Mode in Hopeless Masquerade reveals that this nullification extends to all kinds of mind reading (Miko is unable to read her desires, since she essentially has none), and even illusions have no effects on her.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Puts her hands to her temples when using Reflex Radar in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Psychic Powers: Manipulation of the unconscious. Originally she was a mind reader like Satori before closing her third eye.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the broken red to Satori's sane blue, despite the colors of their third eyes.
• Right Behind Me: Her pre-battle dialogue often has her appear from right behind her opponent.
• Shout-Out: It had been speculated for a while that Koishi's name and hat design were references to Doraemon and the invention "rock hat" which made the wearer un-noticeable. Come Unconnected Marketeers and Koishi's card specifically depicts her hat and protects you from crashing into enemies... because they don't notice you.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: See Satori's section for a more in-depth elaboration.
• Signature Headgear: She wears a wide-brimmed black hat with a yellow ribbon tied around it. It even shows up in Hopeless Masquerade as "Innocent Hat", an equipable item that shifts the user's religious affinity towards neutral.
• Something about a Rose:
  • Has a bit of a rose theme going on, with a dress with green rose patterns, rose bullets and a couple spell cards named for them. In Marisa's Grimoire, the roses explode.
  • In Hopeless Masquerade the rose themed attacks form a third part of her arsenal, with some roses exploding as stated above, and her Last Word, "Brambly Rose Garden" taking it up to eleven.
  • The green rose patterns are also fitting because in flower language green roses represent cheerfulness, and Koishi tends to be outwardly cheerful in general. It also can represent new beginnings, as shown by Koishi choosing to close her third eye in an attempt to get people not to hate her.
• Spam Attack: Her Dream Card "Ancestors are Watching You" has her invite six weird elongated spirits to linger on the stage. As you activate the spell, two spirits simultaneously attack the enemy diagonally. You can spam the spell activation up to three times in one spellcast.
• Stepford Smiler: Despite her cheerful demeanor, she is incapable of feeling any emotions.
• Stronger Sibling: She also explicitly states that her sister isn't really that good at fighting.
• Super-Cute Superpowers: She uses a lot of hearts and roses as bullets in her attacks. However, because of her heavy psychological theme and her own state of mind, they're not as cute as they seem.
• Third Eye: Same as Satori, except it's closed. It's often assumed that Koishi's eye sealing happened fairly recently prior to Subterranean Animism, but her SoPM entry would suggest the event occurred at least 18-20 years prior if there were children who managed to live long enough to forget about her.
• Trap Master: Her playstyle in Hopeless Masquerade; holding down the button on one of her attacks causes it to be held in reserve, striking the opponent when a certain condition is met.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Sinks into this position when using her "Suppression "Super-Ego"" spellcard.
• Verbal Tic: Ending her sentences like this~
• Visual Pun: The phone Koishi uses in her Occult Last Word in Urban Legend in Limbo is attached to her third eye. In other words, it's an "eye-phone."
• Walking the Earth: She wanders all over Gensokyo, in contrast to her sister Satori being a Hikkikomori.

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