Characters / Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character

aka: Touhou Double Dealing Character

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 Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character.

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Wakasagihime

Fresh Water Mermaid

Wakasagihime

"You're underestimating me! You ought to reaffirm the terror that youkai hold!"

A mermaid living in Misty Lake. Normally quiet and composed, but goes temporarily berserk due to the events of Double Dealing Character.

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• Curtains Match the Windows: Albeit her eyes are darker than her hair.
• Ear Fins: Being a mermaid, she has fish fins for ears.
• Leitmotif: "Mermaid from the Uncharted Land"
• Loophole Abuse: An article in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia mentions that she and Shinmyoumaru teamed up to do Doubles river rafter and won, even though it's unclear if Wakisagihime should've been allowed to compete due to her body giving her a major advantage over the other competitors.
• Meaningful Name: Wakasagi is a type of fish.
• Ojou Ringlets: Actual status is unclear, but she has the hair.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Her boss title is "Fresh Water Mermaid"; not only does she have the typical mermaid's tail, she has fish fins for ears as well. Given that her ability is to grow stronger in water, she's presumably not as tied to water as most mermaids... Though, given that she's only a stage 1 boss when she's in the lake, leaving it probably isn't a good idea. In Japanese, her profile also states that she's a ningyo, which is often translated as "mermaid" and has similar traits to one. However, given the nature of Gensokyo, she may be both.
• Sirens Are Mermaids: Mentioned as singing in her profile.
• Warm-Up Boss: Her attacks are rather simple, they involve slow-moving bullets, and she's the stage 1 boss here.

Sekibanki

Strange Rokurokubi

Sekibanki

"I'll make you fear walking around, day or night!"

A rokurokubi that lives as a human in the village.

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• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Possible due to the fact that her head is not attached. In various fanworks she is the frequent victim of getting her head spun around.
• Ascended Meme: The heads are reminiscent of the (in)famous yukkuri meme.
• Badass Cape: A poncho, really. It evokes the red thread that covers the neck of the youkai it's based on (See Fantasy Kitchen Sink below) which also acts as a link between the head and its body when the head detaches. It also looks cool, and also bring to mind Vincent Valentine or Auron.
• The Cameo: Shows up as one of the background youkai in Chapter 23 of Wild and Horned Hermit alongside Kogasa.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Her eyes and hair are red.
• Detachment Combat: Not only does she fight by detaching her head, she also multiplies it.
• Doppelgänger Attack: A series of spell cards has her flying head create multiple copies of itself to shoot at the player from different angles.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In one of the early artworks, she was seen behind one of her spell cards. Fans immediately began comparing her to Orin because they mistook the hair decs as blue cat ears.
• Evil Laugh: When she detaches her head.
• Eye Beams: One of her detached heads' ways of attacking you.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: She's a rokurokubi, a youkai that looks like a human but has a Rubber Man neck. However, her powers are a mix of this and a nukekubi's, who can actually detach their heads. For bonus points, she's also associated with dullahans, with her theme being named for them, having a card named Flying Head "Dullahan Night", and outright accepting being called one by Reimu. Given Touhou metaphysics, her being a conflation of all three might just be because of people confusing them.
• Fiery Redhead: More proud than angry, but the spirit is there.
• Headless Horseman: Sekibanki may count, despite not apparently having a horse. While she's supposed to be a rokurokubi, she has a spell card called "Dullahan Night" and her theme is called "Dullahan Under The Willows". She also accepts being called a dullahan by Reimu.
• Leitmotif: "Dullahan Under the Willows" Easily the hardest rocking theme so far in the series.
• Losing Your Head: Various spell cards have her head detaching from her body and flying around to shoot at you. Or multiple heads.
• The Masquerade: By one person; it's highly unlikely her youkai identity is known by the human village.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Although the fact that she can pass as a human suggests that red is a normal eye colour in the Touhou-verse.

Kagerou Imaizumi

Bamboo Grove's Loup-Garou

Kagerou Imaizumi

"Hehehe. Go ahead and try it, if you think you can hit me! You'll regret the bad luck you had fighting me on this moon-blessed ground!"

A wolf-woman who's moved into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She dislikes growing hairy during the full moon.

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• Character Tics: Prone to scratching her skin.
• Expressive Ears: Her ears seem to move downwards when she's unhappy, as they do that when she's left upset after the Player Character defeats her.
• Femme Fatalons: Has long red nails.
• Freakiness Shame: She seems rather insecure about how hairy she becomes during a full moon. While you can't see exactly how hairy she becomes, since most of her body is covered by her dress, you can still see that she has hair on her wrists.
• Gratuitous French: In her Boss Subtitles, "loup-garou" is French for "werewolf".
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: She doesn't actually like the effects the full moon has on her. She absolutely despises how hairy she gets.
• Leitmotif: "Lonesome Werewolf"
• Little Bit Beastly: Wolf ears.
• Meaningful Name: Her given name translates to "Shadow Wolf", and her family name is a reference to Yoshinori Imaizumi, a prominent zoologist who first researched the Honshu wolf.
• Not So Extinct: Specifically she's a were-Honshu wolf (also known as the Japanese wolf) which in real life is extinct.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Unlike most werewolves, she's calm and composed, even in wolf form. If her Boss Subtitles are any indication, she might actually be a Loup-Garou, which is sort of a werewolf crossed with a vampire. Alternately, given how myths work in Gensokyo, she might be both.
• Playing Card Motifs: Or a Japanese equivalent of the trope at least, what with her dress being based on the Hanafuda card "Full Moon with Red Sky."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has red eyes and happens to be a werewolf plus a dangerous boss.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Turns into a wolf (or at least, a giant wolf head) during portions of certain spell cards.
• Werewolf Theme Naming: See Meaningful Name.
• Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: The battle against her takes place during a full moon and has lots of howling soundbites thrown in, which have left some players very...unsettled.
  • Signature Roar

The Tsukumo Sisters

The Tsukumo Sisters

A tsukumogami duet, created by the Reversal Incident. They manage to survive after it ends by finding a different source of power.

Common Tropes between both:

• Animate Inanimate Object: Benben was a biwa, while Yatsuhashi was a koto before they were turned into tsukumogami by the Miracle Mallet.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: It initially seems the player will fight them both as the boss of Stage 4, but then the one previously fought as the stage's mid-boss leaves. They fight together when they return in the Extra Stage.
• Body Surf: This is apparently how they survived the incident; see Raiko's entry.
• Dual Boss: They fight you together as the Extra Stage midboss.
• Family of Choice: They're not really connected beyond gaining awareness at the same time, unlike the other sibling groups that are all blood siblings as far as can be gleaned, but they decided to be sisters anyway.
• Kill Steal: The reason they don't fight you together in stage 4 is not wanting to get in the way of the other.
• Leitmotif: "Illusionary Joururi" for both of them. It shows: the song is a unique mix of many classical and modern instruments. It's also by far one of the weirdest songs to grace Touhou. It contains ZUN's standard trumpet, an electronic drum set that operates not unlike Venetian Snares' own, a piano performing riffs from Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures, a koto that sounds like it's being strummed as hard as it could, and a guitar solo in what sounds like faux dropped tuning, all of this done on an even stranger 6/4ths beat. And ZUN mentions that he couldn't find a sample of a biwa, so rest your head on that.
• Species Surname: "Tsukumo" clearly comes from "tsukumogami" but it's spelled with the characters for "ninety-nine", indicating that unlike natural tsukumogami, the sisters came to life before reaching 100 years of age.
• Musical Assassin: They even have musical note danmaku!
• Recurring Boss: Return together in the Extra Stage as the mid-boss.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Benben is cool-headed and mature, while Yatsuhashi is Hot-Blooded and reckless.

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Tsukumogami of an Aging Biwa

Benben Tsukumo

"In this world of social upheaval where everything is turned on its head...Who is the strongest tool? We'll decide that here and now!"

A tsukumogami of an abandoned biwa.

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• Aloof Big Sister: Is more aloof and composed in personality compared to Yatsuhashi.
• Chained by Fashion: Is chained to her biwa.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is derived from Benzaiten, the Japanese name of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is often depicted with a biwa; additionally, ben ben is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the deep strumming sounds a biwa makes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Yatsuhashi's red, being the more calm and composed of the two.
• Signature Headgear: Has a single floral accessory on the right side of her head.

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Tsukumogami of an Aging Koto

Yatsuhashi Tsukumo

"The well-behaved have gained power in this world of social upheaval. Even mere tools can rule the world! I'll make you the foundation we'll stand on!"

A tsukumogami of an abandoned koto.

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• Annoying Younger Sibling: While they're not blood related, Yatsuhashi is said to be the younger and more energetic sister compared to the more composed Benben.
• Meaningful Name: Named After Yatsuhashi Kengyo.
• Plucky Girl: She never gives up, even when things seem hopeless.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Benben's blue, being the more hot-headed and reckless out of the two.

Seija Kijin

Counterattacking Amanojaku

Seija Kijin

"In this inverted castle where everything is turned upside-down, I'll give you a taste of this long-awaited failure!"

An amanojaku with the ability to flip anything over. Her feelings are the opposite of other people's. Despite being the Stage 5 boss, she's the true instigator of the events in Double Dealing Character, having manipulated Shinmyoumaru into helping her create a world where the weak ruled over the strong; Shinmyoumaru was the only person who could wield the Miracle Mallet, which would be capable of fulfilling Seija's ambitions.

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• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: This is, in essence, more or less what her morality boils down to. And it's not just for show, so everyone can understand how despicable she is, either; she truly, sincerely thinks this way.
• Big Bad: The entire incident of Double Dealing Character was caused by her plan to overthrow the societal status quo of the strong ruling the weak and turn Gensokyo into a world where the weak were more important, instead.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her morality basically depends on being completely contrary to everyone else. If she causes trouble and everyone hates her for it, she's happy, because if she was a good girl and everyone liked her, she'd be unhappy.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Not by appearance, but ability. After you enter the 5th level, the entire area somehow flips upside-down. This is a clue that she is already nearby and controlling the area.
• Combat Pragmatist: While the fundamental message of the Spell Card rules is for everyone to play fair, Seija thinks everything is fair play: She will gladly break every rule in the book to win, and stuff like "good sportsmanship" doesn't really exist to her. Basically the entirety of Impossible Spell Card is her cheating through all of her opponent's attacks, completely ignoring the spell card rules.
  Seija: Whatever the means, whoever survives, wins.
• Commander Contrarian: Comes part and parcel with her ability. She likes what others dislike, and other people being happy depresses her. Of note is that, much like how arrogant people are called "tengu" in Japan, being called an "amanojaku" means that a person is argumentative to the extent that it appears that they deliberately always take an opposing position. Ergo, a contrarian is an amanojaku.
• Consummate Liar: Par for the course as an amanojaku, she is a chronic liar by nature.
• Curtains Match the Window: She downplays this via having red eyes and streaks of red in her hair.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Averted for once in the series, as Impossible Spell Card shows that she has been branded an outlaw after the events of Double Dealing Character. She soon had begun to lose all of her former friends and allies, but it didn't bother her much since amanojaku can never really make friends anyway.
• The Dragon: For Shinmyoumaru in The Grimoire of Usami, helping her hijack Reimu's danmaku festival.
• Easily Forgiven: The second notable aversion in the series. Unlike the previous antagonist who averted this (Tenshi), Seija had a seemingly noble goal, but in a twist she's only doing it to upset the stability of Gensokyo due to her nature as an amanojaku. This persists even after the incident is resolved, so she pretty much has no friends or allies (not that this bothers her, being who she is) at least up to The Grimoire of Usami, where she teams up with Shinmyoumaru again, and Strange Creators of Outer World even states that she gained an honest liking towards Shinmyoumaru as a result of the earlier incident.
• Evil Redhead: Downplayed on the "Redhead" part as she just has a few streaks of red in her hair (though most are only noticeable in Impossible Spell Card). However, she's also a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist who manipulated Sukuna into helping her try to overthrow Gensokyo's society.
• Evil Wears Black: Her dress has some black arrows and she's a manipulative Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Ex-Big Bad: From Impossible Spell Card onwards, she still isn't heroic, but she isn't up to anything Big Bad-worthy those times either.
• Foil: Was designed specifically as one for Shinmyoumaru. Shinmyoumaru is honest to a fault, easily manipulated, acts out of a misguided sense of liberation, and is a genuine Well-Intentioned Extremist. However, Seija is a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist plus a Consummate Liar and Manipulative Bitch who acts purely because of her destructive and contrary nature as an Amanojaku.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: She can flip a lot of things, including the gameplay screen.
• Horned Humanoid: As an amanojaku, she has two small white horns. The game manual makes a point that she's different from the other horned humanoid, the oni, even though in Japanese folklore amanojaku are commonly depicted as a type of oni.
• Interface Screw: Depending on her spell cards, she will FLIP or TURN the screen and controls.
• Leitmotif: "Reverse Ideology". It sounds a lot like a circus theme.
  • It's also nearly identical to itself when played backwards.
  • Gratuitous English: The English subtitle of the stage is "Reverse Ideology". Yeah, she literally inverted the stage theme itself.
• Light Is Not Good: She has streaks of white in her hair, her outfit incorporates that shade, and she's an amanojaku who wants to upset Gensokyo's balance.
• Manipulative Bitch: Caused the incident by lying to Shinmyoumaru, saying that the youkai were responsible for the downfall of the kobito.
• Meaningful Name: "Kijin" is written as "oni human". She's the opposite of both; humans by species, since she's a youkai, and oni by character, being dishonest and weak. That said, an amanojaku looks very much like an oni and the kanji for "oni" is used in the Japanese spelling for "amanojaku", too. "Seija" means something like "right and wrong", which also fits with her theme of inversion.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: She has shades of both Type I and II. In her debut, Seija tries to have the weak overthrow society and she suggests it's to help them as they're oppressed. However, she's actually just interested in turning over Gensokyo as part of her nature as an amanojaku.
• Personality Powers: A reversed personality, and the power to reverse.
• Promoted to Playable: Went from Stage 5 Boss in DDC to playable character in the Gaiden Game Impossible Spell Card and the mini-game Gold Rush.
• Power Copying: Her items in Impossible Spell Card allow her to mimic a number of existing gimmicks:
  • Her Magical Camera acts like Aya's.
  • The umbrella gives her Yukari's Wrap Around ability from the fighting games. It even uses the same sound effect!
  • The lantern is like a nerfed trance mode.
  • For a Smart Bomb she uses an actual bomb... or fireworks. Close enough.
  • The ying-yang orbs let her teleport into the enemy's face, like Reimu does in the fighters.
• Power Incontinence: As with Parsee and jealousy, Seija thrives off of being inverted. She's perfectly happy with being the opposite of others. Unless, of course, the others are happy themselves.
• Pre-Final Boss: Serves as the Stage 6 midboss for Double Dealing Character.
• Recurring Boss: Shows up as a midboss and boss of Stage 5, and then as the midboss of Stage 6.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her hair is black with streaks of red (and white), her outfit incorporates both colors, and she's red-eyed.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She's a dangerous foe (albeit of the Weak, but Skilled variety) and she's red-eyed.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Shaft head tilt?
  • One of her spell cards refers to the Japanese title of Through the Looking-Glass.
  • Her Japanese Boss Subtitle gyakushuu no amanojaku can be rendered as The Amanojaku's Counterattack.
  • Her final spell card on Hard and Lunatic is called "Change Air Brave", a play on the title of Change Air Blade, a versus shmup where one player takes the role of the player character and the other takes the role of the boss, with the two players occasionally flipping sides, though without the Interface Screw that this spell card provides.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Has white, black, grey and red intersecting arrow patterns on her dress, which may signify her flipping power and contrarian nature.
• Treacherous Advisor: Played one to Shinmyoumaru, convincing her to use the Miracle Mallet to help the weaker youkai of Gensokyo when instead she just wants to cause chaos.
• Villain Protagonist: In Impossible Spell Card and Gold Rush. While she isn't doing anything villainous in the former game, she's still on the run for the trouble she caused in Double Dealing Character. In the latter game, however, she's out to rob the Hakurei shrine.
• Visionary Villain: Subverted; though her ambition to turn Gensokyo into a world where the weak have more value seems visionary, it's really just part of her overall desire to turn Gensokyo upside-down in keeping with her contrary nature.
• Visual Pun: Her special power and key personality trait is inverting things. She wears flip-flops. Cue groans.
• Wants to Be Hated: She wants to be Hated by All and prefers it that way.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • Complains about being weak, and, well, it kind of shows; she never manages to cover much of the screen in bullets. But she's still quite worthy of being a stage 5 boss, as her interface screws and reverse patterns are quite enough to make the few bullets she can produce deadly. The Player Character (Reimu, Marisa, or Sakuya) calls her out on the "Weak" part after defeating her.
  • This is reflected in Impossible Spell Card. Being the player character, she gets the short end of the stick, but uses the gimmicks she stole from other characters to her advantage.
• White Hair, Black Heart: A downplayed case. She has white streaks in her hair and she's a Manipulative Bitch who tries to turn over Gensokyo's balance.

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

Descendant of the Inchlings

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna

"I understand that you're weak, and I can see a future where you ally with me. Now, my treasured mallet! Impart the power of dreams to all the speechless tools!"

Princess of the inchlings, and a descendant of Issun-boshi. She was manipulated by Seija into causing the events of Double Dealing Character, by using her Miracle Mallet (which, as a inchling, only she can use) to create a world where the weak could overthrow the strong.

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• Ambiguous Clone Ending: During her ending in Antinomy of Common Flowers, Tenshi asks Shinmyoumaru if she is the one from Dream World. She says that she's not even sure herself anymore as the both of them have the same consciousness and the only difference is that one is in the real world and the other is in the Dream World.
• Ancestral Weapon: The Uchide-no-Kozuchi, generally translated as the Lucky/Miracle Mallet.
• Artifact of Doom: It can fulfill any wish as long as it's made by a inchling, but usually with dire consequences. Although, it is more accurately a bit of a Jackass Genie.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Her Mallet can turn semi-random objects into tsukumogami. Normally they'll revert once the power is returned to the mallet, though Raiko and the Tsukumo sisters escape this by finding alternate sources of power in the meantime. Its effect on Reimu's purification rod, Marisa's Mini-Hakkero and Sakuya's knives is essentially to turn them into Evil Weapons.
• Assist Character: Her fighting style in Urban Legend in Limbo revolves around calling forth an army of green inchlings that will attack the opponent so long as their back is turned toward them.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She forms a rather gracious friendship with Reimu following the events of Double Dealing Character while waiting for the Mallet to regain power, as Reimu gave her shelter and provisions after her incident failed and she was abandoned by Seija. She even makes Reimu a kimono in gratitude, though she humorously forgot to make it Reimu's size.
• Big Bad: Takes up the role for real in Grimoire of Usami, seeing the festival as a mockery of serious danmaku and hijacking it to show humans its true beauty.
• Cool Boat: In the original legend, Issun-boshi used a soup bowl as a boat. Shinmyoumaru references this by riding in giant bowls during the battle with her.
• Cool Sword: It may be a needle in origin, but the Shining Needle Sword is a weapon known to have been used to battle oni.
• Determinator: She'll never give up finding a way to increase her tiny inchling size. She'll not even hesitate using such dangerous artifacts as the Miracle Mallet or the Seven Occult Balls to accomplish it.
• Doppleganger Spin: Her final spell card does this, ultimately creating seven copies of herself. See Shout-Out.
• Dual Wielding: In Urban Legend in Limbo she wields both the Miracle Mallet and the Shining Needle Sword.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with Seija in The Grimoire of Usami just to prove her point of how dangerous danmaku can be.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: She seems able to sense Kasen's all-but-stated nature as an oni, but she herself isn't acutely aware of it — only that being around Kasen makes her want to jab her in the eyes with her sword.
• Expanding Thrown Weapon: Shinmyoumaru Sukuna's Mallet spell cards: Using her magic mallet to make a reverse Shrink Ray, a.k.a a growth ray effect, she makes her danmaku bullets grow progressively bigger as they travel.
• Failed a Spot Check: Doesn't notice Koishi while being attacked by her. Then again, few people ever do.
• Famous Ancestor: Issun-boshi.
• Final Boss: She's the last hurdle in Double Dealing Character. One of the few instances where she's this, but not the game's Big Bad.
• Gender-Blender Name: In Japan, names ending with the suffix "-maru" are usually boys' names.
• Genki Girl: She's naturally fairly energetic.
• Giant Foot of Stomping: Her Last Word in Urban Legend in Limbo has a giant green foot stomp on her opponent.
• Hate Plague: The energies released by the Mallet in Double Dealing Character turn normally peaceful youkai aggressive. Even the player characters become unusually bloodthirsty while using their corrupted weapons.
• Height Angst:
  • She is quite conscious about her original tiny height, so she uses the power of the Mallet to grow bigger. After the Mallet's power runs out, she goes to her original inchling size. Forbidden Scrollery shows that she'll wait patiently for the Mallet to recharge and then wish to get bigger again.
  • Also, she only participates in the events of Urban Legend in Limbo because she believes that if she collects all the balls she can use them to become taller.
  • Per The Grimoire of Usami, she sees danmaku as a way to show how 'big' she really is, show her true overwhelming power.
• Hime Cut: A very short one.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She trusted an amanojaku (i.e. Seija) that she knew to be an amanojaku. Amanojaku are pathological liars.
• Improbable Weapon User: The sewing needle she's holding is intended to be a sword, again referencing the Issun-boshi legend. She has a spell card named after it.
• Interface Screw: Not as bad as Seija's, but her survival spell card significantly magnifies the player character's hitbox size, which can only mean trouble in a danmaku game.
• Jackass Genie: The Miracle Mallet was created by the oni. Even the nicest oni are kinda twisted (see: Suika); thus the Miracle Mallet grants wishes in ways that will only ever result in the ruination of its wisher and/or benefit the Oni. The Hate Plague that occurred is known to have been a result of its nature, along with the birth of multiple tsukumogami. To be specific, however, the Mallet only brings consequences proportionate to the wish made, and the consequence doesn't have to be directly related thereof; hence why Shinmyoumaru using it to grow and shrink back in size bears no ill effects of its own.
• Leitmotif:
  • "Inchling of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess", which gets a remix in Urban Legend in Limbo.
  • Since her stage theme leads into her boss theme and the ending theme is also based on her main theme, this has a combined total of over five minutes, and the main theme loops in around four minutes. Even by itself, this is one of the longest songs in the series, along with the likes of "Cosmic Mind" and "Fate of Sixty Years", the leitmotifs of Byakuren and Eiki, respectively.
• Little Green Men: Her occult theme in Urban Legend in Limbo. She sends out green inchlings to fight for her in her Occult Special, and she flies around in a bowl that resembles a Flying Saucer.
• Little Miss Badass: Is pretty short even with the power of the Miracle Mallet, and also happens to be strong enough to be a Final Boss.
• Lilliputians:
  • In the original Japanese her race is kobito, which is read as "little person". The word is sometimes translated in other contexts as "dwarf", which can lead to some confusion (think Tom Thumb instead of bearded people) - for now the currently accepted translation seems to be "inchling". Shinmyoumaru herself is normally only a few inches high, but she used the Miracle Mallet to make herself around the size of a young human girl.
  • Most notable in her sprites for Urban Legend in Limbo, where she is seen as much smaller than the rest of the cast◊.
  • Her title when she's introduced in Forbidden Scrollery uses the word Lilliputian outright.
• Magical Barefooter: She's constantly barefoot to represent her incredible magical powers through the Miracle Mallet, even if she only uses it for Mundane Utility.
• Meaningful Name: Her surname references Sukuna-Hikona. Her given name roughly means "mysterious boy with a needle" (she wields a needle as a sword, and even though she's a girl she is based on the legend of the "one-inch boy").
• Motive Decay: In her debut game she has the ambitious desire to create a world where the weak overcame the strong. After losing the Miracle Mallet her ambitions became smaller (no pun intended) and more self-centered, to where in Urban Legend in Limbo she wants the Occult Orbs simply as a way to become taller again.
• Mundane Utility: The Miracle Mallet is easily the most powerful MacGuffin to date in the series as, being a wish-granting tool, it can theoretically do anything, and is only stopped by excessive use draining its magic reserves. Shinmyoumaru's personal use of it is generally only in the interest of altering size, in keeping with her ancestor's aesthetic.
• Odd Friendship:
  • She and Reimu actually get along very well.
  • She and Tenshi actually like one another in Antinomy of Common Flowers and the latter actually treats her with some modicum of respect, compared to how she looks down on everyone else.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: As per her inspiration and ancestor. She's strong enough to be the Final Boss of her game... and she might just be the shortest character in the entire series, even in her "large" form (which is about the size of a human child).
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Despite her size, she's still strong enough to be a Final Boss, and she even wields a sword (which is actually a needle due to her normally small size, but still). Unfortunately for her, she's only this powerful when wielding the Miracle Mallet. In one of Reimu's endings, Shinmyoumaru is stuck in her tiny, powerless inchling form because the Mallet was out of juice after the events of the game. Reimu even has to put Shinmyoumaru in a bug cage to prevent her from being eaten by birds. Forbidden Scrollery shows that she's still living in the cage, having converted it into a house for herself. None of this, however, stops her from getting back in the game by the time Urban Legend in Limbo rolls around, where she shows she can hold her own even without the Mallet's power intact.
• Princesses Prefer Pink: She's technically a princess, and she wears a pink kimono.
• Promoted to Playable: She's a playable character in Urban Legend in Limbo.
• Purple Is Powerful: She's strong enough to be a Final Boss and her hair is lavender (i.e. a shade of purple).
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She's a competent fighter and the artwork of her in Urban Legend in Limbo depicts her as red-eyed.
• Shout-Out:
  • Her second-to-last spell card on Normal is called "Shingeki no Kobito" (進撃の小人), ^note or, if you insist: Shingeki no Kojin which will sound familiar to anyone keeping up with a certain anime about titanic humanoids. The attack itself, which consists of moving through concentric circular walls of bullets, should also look familiar. It's also a Punny Name: Kobito ("little person") and Kyojin ("large person") are opposites. Unsurprisingly, the English-speaking fanbase has dubbed the card "Attack on Midget".
  • Her final spell card in Easy and Normal difficulties is named after "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" and his Seven League Boots. On harder difficulties, the card changes its name to "The Seven Issun-Boshi", which probably refers to a certain fairytale with seven short people.
• Shrink Ray: The Miracle Mallet lets her make things grow, like her danmaku bullets or the player character - which is really bad in a game about dodging bullets. She also used it on herself, since she's normally only a few inches high.
• Signature Headgear: She wears a bowl, referencing the legend she's based on.
• Sizeshifter: Her default size is about the size of a large mouse or so, but she uses the power of the mallet to grow to a much larger "just kind of short" form. She temporarily loses this power after the events of Double Dealing Character, although it's unclear how long it will take the mallet to recharge.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Weaves a kimono for Reimu as thanks for taking her of her during Forbidden Scrollery.....too bad it's a tiny one. Reimu still wears it as an hair accessory anyway.
• Thrill Seeker: Inverted; in The Grimoire of Usami she wants other people to experience the danger of danmaku so they know the power of the small.
• Unwitting Pawn: Because she's the only one able to use the Miracle Mallet, Seija manipulated her into taking revenge against Gensokyo's youkai for a slight that never happened.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Wanted to save the weak from their oppression by the strong, though Seija manipulated her into attempting to do so.
  • In Grimoire of Usami, it looks like she's bringing deadly danmaku into Reimu's danmaku fireworks festival just For the Evulz, but she really does genuinely believe the original safe fireworks festival made a mockery of danmaku (which is meant to be dodged, not used for display), to the point where she's able to make Reimu see her point of view by the end.
• Wild Card Excuse: One 4koma included with Forbidden Scrollery has her passing off any strange occurrences around the shrine with "It's an effect of the Mallet". Fair enough when random objects are coming to life. Less believable when Reimu's food has tiny bite marks in it and Shinmyoumaru's mouth is suddenly stuffed.
• Your Size May Vary: How small she is ain't particularly clear but canon suggests that her real height is about 3.14 inches (about 8 centimeters) and there was one scenario where Reimu had to keep birds from eating her, so she has to be really, really little. She kinda invokes this as her mallet made her about the size of an elementary schooler (about 4.42 feet).

Raiko Horikawa

Phantasmal Percussionist

Raiko Horikawa

"Hear me, all you used ones from the outside world! Let your once-in-a-lifetime beat resound!"

A tsukumogami created from a Japanese taiko drum. When the Reversal Incident occurred, she realized the true nature of the power affecting her and found a new source of power instead in the Outside World. Before the Extra Stage took place, she taught the Tsukumo Sisters how to sustain themselves without the Miracle Mallet's power.

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• Animate Inanimate Object: In a plot wherein a huge point is that the magical fallout of the Miracle Mallet created tons of tsukumogami, the Extra Boss is, in following, the strongest tsukumogami. Here's the thing though: Raiko's the only tsukumogami involved here that Shinmyoumaru didn't create. She was a natural one born of age and continued use; the Miracle Mallet simply gave her humanoid form, and boosted her natural power to an immense degree.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Wears a white unbuttoned skirt suit, and she's a powerful Extra Boss.
• Bilingual Bonus: Since Japanese drums are not differentiated with English drums,^note In places like Nico Nico Douga, they are sometimes called "doramu", the katakana of the English word "drum". they are collectively called "taiko".
• Body Surf: She essentially left her old drum and entered a new one with the power of the Outside World's magic.
• The Cameo: Appears alongside the Prismriver sisters in Antinomy of Common Flowers' concert stage.
• Dumb and Drummer: Inverted, since she's explicitly the smartest of the instrument youkai and the only one to figure out how they could continue to exist without the power of the Mallet. Of course, she's not really a drummer despite carrying drumsticks.
• Four Is Death: Most of her spell cards begin with their number followed by the word "Drum" (First Drum, Second Drum, etc). Her fourth spell card begins with "Death Drum".
• Instrument of Murder: She uses a plethora of taiko drums during her boss fight; some that fire large bullets of energy, some that explode into smaller clusters of danmaku, and some that are rocket-propelled.
• Interface Screw: Her fourth spell card shakes the screen while it's filled with bullets.
• Leitmotif: "Primordial Beat ~ Pristine Beat". No points for guessing which instrument is heavily used in it. After all the wacky experimental songs that have happened in this game, hers is actually a return to the basic ZUN instruments: trumpets, piano, and drums.
• Loophole Abuse: According to Strange Creators of Outer World, the reason she was able to pass through the Great Hakurei Barrier into the Outside World was because as a tsukumogami, she technically counts as an inanimate object, which can pass through more easily than the conscious beings the barrier would normally stop.
• Manipulative Bitch: Has the Prismriver sisters create two newsworthy events for Aya to cover to bring attention to them as a band.
• Meaningful Name: Raiko literally means "thunder drum". Horikawa seems to come from "Drum the Waves of Horikawa".
• The Mentor: Helped out the Tsukumo sisters.
• Mickey Mousing: In a rather clever sense of Developer's Foresight, Raiko's last two attacks are internally synced to her Leitmotif (therefore tying in with her ability). It's especially prevalent in videos like this one and this one. However, the trope is sort of ruined in replays due to the game de-syncing the music.
• Musical Assassin: Also has musical note danmaku, and her last two spell cards synchronize to the background music.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Not a villain, but the most pronounced example among the Extra Bosses. Outside of being animated by the Miracle Mallet, Raiko has no direct connection to the main conflict of Double Dealing Character.
• The Power of Rock: She claims in her dialogue that her new power comes from the drummers of the outside world. It's implied that her power actually comes from Rhythm Games.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She's a powerful, red-eyed EX-boss.
• Shock and Awe: Some of her spell cards shoot electricity, and one of her electricity-shooting spell cards is named after the den-den daiko, a Japanese pellet drum. While den-den is Japanese onomatopoeia for drumming, den by itself can also mean "electricity". (In Japanese Mythology, Raijin the god of thunder also wears a taiko drum for this reason.)
• Shout-Out: Her dialogue in Marisa A references Taiko no Tatsujin.
• Sixth Ranger: Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia reveals that she's joined the Prismriver Sisters as their percussionist.
• Strong and Skilled: Goes without saying for an EX-boss. Tsukumogami are generally considered Weak, but Skilled in Gensokyo. Raiko, however, is a tsukumogami with the power of Raijin.
• Superboss: The Extra Boss of Double Dealing Character.
• Thunder Drum: She is a drum tsukumogami who can shoot electricity with two of her spellcards.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: She is capable of making anything follow a rhythm, which sounds silly... ...until she throws lightning at you.

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