Characters / Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object

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 Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object.

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Nazrin

The Little Dowser General

Nazrin

"My mice do like the taste of human flesh. They say that cheese just can't compare to certain other red foods."

A mouse youkai who was sent to hunt for the ship fragments and the jeweled pagoda of Vaisravana/Bishamonten by Shou. She carries a pair of dowsing rods which appear to be a cross between bent coathangers and weather vanes, and can control field-mice to help her find lost objects. She doesn't seem to consider herself one of Byakuren's followers, living in a house of her own and only visiting the Myouren Temple when Shou calls for her.

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• Big Eater: Being a mouse, which are known for the amount of damage they can cause by how much they eat, this isn't surprising. She's often responsible for grains being stolen, and damage to crops is especially severe whenever she uses a lot of field mice to help her with dowsing.
• Dowsing Device: She carries around two giant dowsing rods with letters for four cardinal directions on the tips with her and also wears a dowsing pendulum crystal around her neck. She doesn't necessarily need them as she utilizes her army of mice to find the items she needs.
• Familiar: She is this to Shou. She's actually a high-ranking youkai who works under Bishamonten and was sent to monitor Shou when she was appointed as his avatar, but she ended up fulfilling the role so well that Nazrin became her servant.
• Killer Rabbit: Despite looking cute and being pretty tiny she's actually a very powerful youkai and a direct servant of Bishamonten.
• Leitmotif:
  • "A Tiny, Tiny, Clever Commander" is her boss theme.
  • Her theme in Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost is an arrangement of "At the End of Spring".
• Little Bit Beastly: She's a mouse youkai, so naturally she has a mouse's ears and tail. This ties into her role as Bishamonten's servant: Bishamonten is the guardian of the northern direction, and the mouse (or rat) represents the north in the Chinese zodiac.
• Monster Lord: Can control field mice.
• Recurring Boss: Shows up for all of stage 1, then doesn't come back until stage 5 as a midboss.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She's a powerful, red-eyed youkai.
• Resourceful Rodent: Implied. She's a mouse youkai and her boss theme's title calls her "Clever".
• Shrinking Violet: Apparently she'd be a lot mousier if not for Bishamonten being her boss.
• Smug Super: Prides herself on being a powerful Youkai and servant of Bishamonten. Because of that people have to act stern when talking to her else she can easily get an inflated ego.
• To Serve Man: Not Nazrin herself, but the mice she's associated with have a taste for human flesh.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She's a mouse. Guess. Yes, it's cheese.

Kogasa Tatara

The Cheery Forgotten Umbrella

Kogasa Tatara

"These days you have to punish someone a little to surprise them, don't you?"

Kogasa is an umbrella that eventually came to life because she was unsold, becoming a youkai after she was swept off by the wind. Enjoys surprising people and watching their reactions, however as she isn't very good at it she's trying to improve her technique.

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• Animate Inanimate Object: She's an umbrella tsukumogami; the umbrella she holds is a fairly typical depiction of a karakasa, though having a second humanoid body is rather odd.
• Become a Real Boy: Inverted. Kogasa has, due to her failures with babysitting, her failures with surprising people, and her failures in general, considered going back to being a regular umbrella again so she at least can be of some use... the depressing implication being that she basically thinks people would appreciate her more if she was dead.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Which is her real body, the humanoid girl or the umbrella? They both are.
• Butt-Monkey: One of the biggest in the series. Her attempt to get help from the Player Characters of Ten Desires earns her a beating, simply because she happens to be there. Her first major appearance (instead of a cameo) in a printed work, Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 27, has her being beaten up just for being there three times!
• Breakout Character: Despite being introduced as a throwaway Plot-Irrelevant Villain, Kogasa's a surprisingly popular character with fans, being a fixture within the Top 25 characters of the annual popularity poll, well ahead of most of the other Unidefined Fantastic Object characters. This popularity led to her making a surprise reappearence as a miniboss in Ten Desires, getting A Day in the Limelight in Wild and Horned Hermit, and a role as a boss character in Sunken Fossil World, unlike most minor boss characters who're largely relegated to cameos and compilation works after their initial appearance.
• Brick Joke:
  • You probably didn't think much of Kogasa when you first saw her, but later, she comes back as the game's Extra Stage midboss. And The Gloves Come Off. Surprise!
  • And she comes back again in Ten Desires as the game's Stage 3 midboss, making her one of the very few bosses to do so. Surprise!
• The Bus Came Back: After her last in-game appearance in Hopeless Masquerade, she comes back in Sunken Fossil World as a boss character.
• Character Tics: When surprising someone, she closes her right eye and sticks her tongue out.
• Cyclops:
  • Her umbrella form has one red eye and an Overly-Long Tongue, as is traditional for depictions of karakasa. Her humanoid body alludes to this by having heterochromia: her left eye is red and and her right eye is blue, but since her outfit and hair are also blue, it makes her one red eye stand out and give her the effect of being one-eyed. One of her in-game expressions also has her close one eye and stick her tongue out to resemble her umbrella form, invoking this further.
  • She apparently qualifies as the One-Eyed Youkai of Kotoyouka and apparently visits on that day because she's an Ultimate Blacksmith and people need new needles because they're retiring their old needles for the holiday.
• A Day in the Limelight: Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 27 features her prominently.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: What her problems ultimately boil down to. While her purpose as a karakasa is supposed to be scaring humans to get revenge for being forgotten, Kogasa is terrible at it on account of being both too adorable and nice. As a result, she has started aggressively syncretizing with any being even remotely connected to her, leading to her becoming skilled at babysitting via Mary Poppins and blacksmithing via Ippon Datara. Unfortunately, despite her genuine talent in both fields, her customers give her no respect - parents distrust her and Reimu, upon getting her needles done by Kogasa, attacks her instead of paying. As a result, Kogasa is stuck in an existential crisis and has contemplated giving up her sentience to become a normal umbrella again.
• Emotion Eater: Lives on human surprise. Apparently she doesn't have to eat that often, given how little success she has at surprising people.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Rainbow Sign: "Over The Rainbow".
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While she is a Karakasa; she also invokes a similar-looking youkai; the Ippon-Datara; for her blacksmithing prowess. It dosen't even stop with Japanese inspirations; as her skill with looking after and being popular with children is strongly implied to be from her hearing about babysitters flying through the air with umbrellas... invoking Mary Poppins.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
  • The only human she ever seems able to surprise is you, the player. She's the character whose picture is on the game CD, instead of one of the major characters. Even though ZUN had already said during the demo's release that Kogasa was irrelevant to the story. Thus, she surprises you when you open the case.
    Kogasa: Surprise~
  • Another surprise she has for the player is her Easy-Mode Mockery: her final spellcard is actually harder in easy mode than it is in the harder modes.^Why?Bullet speed. It's slower on Easy, meaning the bullets stay on the screen longer, leading to less room that you normally should compared to Normal.
  • Similar to what she did by appearing on the game's CD, she surprises the player through the game's Steam page by appearing in one of the images.
• Friend to All Children: Although it seems to be unintentional, children seem to like Kogasa a lot.
• Harmless Villain: "Attacks" humans, but the greatest danger she poses is making people feel like jerks by sulking after her efforts fail.
  Hieda no Akyuu: [in Kogasa's entry in Symposium of Post-Mysticism] "She'll become depressed when you ignore her. If there's a problem with that, it's that seeing her in her depressed state is bothersome, so it's better to pretend that you're afraid to please her."
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: She can surprise humans. You, the player, are human. And wouldn't it be surprising for the weak Butt-Monkey yokai to be an EX-stage midboss, with all the difficulty that entails?
• Hidden Depths:
  • You wouldn't expect Kogasa to be a gifted blacksmith, but she is. Surprise!
  • Her descriptions in the side material and some spell card comments would suggest that she has extreme self-esteem issues as a result of her failures.
• Hopping Machine: A non-mechanical example. Since the karakasa only has one leg, Kogasa is always portrayed with one extended leg and one tucked in. In Sunken Fossil World, all of her movements—idle, jumping, landing, and even flight animations—have her using only one leg. The only time both legs are in the same position is if she's knocked down, at which point she's not using either leg.
• Informed Attribute: Played for Laughs during her chapter of Wild and Horned Hermit, where every time she brings up the one-eyed Youkai, whomever she's speaking to responds "Since when are you one-eyed?"
• Karakasa: An abandoned umbrella that was unused for a hundred years before becoming a sentient youkai.
• Leitmotif: Her theme tune is "Beware of the Umbrella Left There Forever".
• Making a Splash: A lot of her danmaku involves the use of raindrops.
• Meaningful Name: "Kogasa" means "little umbrella", while "Tatara" is derived from Ippon Datara, a one-eyed one-legged monster. It's also a technique for iron-smelting, which likely ties into her blacksmithing ability. "Tatara" is also the name of a traditional Japanese iron and steel smelting furnace. Kogasa's Hidden Depths were right in front of us the whole time... surprise!
• Meaningful Appearance: According to ZUN, her heterochromia is a nod to Karakasa-Obake being traditionally depicted with one eye; her blue eye, blue hair and blue outfit make her red eye stand out, thus giving her the effect of being one-eyed.
• Nice Girl: One of the nicest Youkai seen in the series to date. It's implied that a large part of her failures in terms of pranking comes down to being too nice to do anything genuinely malicious.
• Painting the Medium:
  • The demo sets Kogasa up to be a character with a seemingly weak special power — the power to surprise people — and appears as an early stage boss. Then, in the full game, she appears as an Extra stage midboss. Her portrait in her second appearance even has "Surprise~" written above her in Japanese.
  • And then there's her reappearance in Ten Desires where she specifically refers to her problem of timing out Yoshika's attacks.
  • Also in Ten Desires, after you beat her, she drops the the first full power up item in the game as a pleasant surprise.
• Parasol of Pain: A youkai umbrella or karakasa, inferred to be the one which she spawned from. Her accessory umbrella comes complete with an eggplant motif and a giant tongue. True to the "pain" part, she's shown using it as both a physical weapon and shield.
• Peek-a-Bogeyman: All she does is try to surprise humans so she can eat their surprise, and never actually tries to harm them, making her one of if not the most harmless non-humans in the franchise.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain:
  • Not unusual for Touhou, but Kogasa is notable for being the only boss in Undefined Fantastic Object who isn't tied in some fashion to the central conflict, being just a random youkai the heroines encounter while flying.
  • Kogasa is also irrelevant to the plot in her further appearances in Ten Desires and Sunken Fossil World. Though in the case of the latt, however, her interactions with Murasa suggest she is at least familiar with the Myouren crew, and she even offers Murasa her help, only being chased off since the Blazing Hells are too dangerous for Murasa to want Kogasa there. She also refers to Byakuren as 'Lady Hijiri' indicating some level of respect for her, at least giving her a formal connection to the rest of the UFO cast.
• Poke the Poodle: She only "attacks" humans to surprise them. As her skills at frightening people aren't good, she trains by researching classic ghost stories.
• Power of the Storm: A lot of her spell cards are based around rainstorms and cyclones.
• Pre-Final Boss: She's the Extra Stage midboss for Undefined Fantastic Object.
• Recurring Boss: Surprise! She's the extra stage midboss! Imagine the looks on the faces of the fans that teased her for her power before. She's also the mid-boss of Stage 3 in Ten Desires.
• Shout-Out:
  • A couple of her spell cards are named after games in the Bubble Bobble series.
  • And of course, Over the Rainbow.
  • Her article (not profile) in Symposium of Post-Mysticism is about her thinking that babysitters fly on umbrellas.
• Spectacular Spinning: Twirls her umbrella to fire bullets.
• Stepford Smiler: Beneath her cheeriness lies a very depressed girl who doubts if her existence is even worth it with all the failures she's endured.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: As of Ten Desires she is now living in a cemetery near the Myouren Temple, where it is much easier to surprise people. Lampshaded in her profile: "She finally did it. Amazing."
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Via syncretism with a certain other one-eyed youkai, she's a fantastic blacksmith.

Ichirin Kumoi

The Great Wheel that Guards and Is Guarded

Ichirin Kumoi

"I'm Ichirin, and I'm taking my sister's place guarding the treasure. I won't let any thieves in alive!"

Self-appointed guardian of the UFO that appeared over Gensokyo, and the first of Byakuren's followers the player encounters. She possesses a "partner" entity named Unzan. Ichirin's headdress is a nod to Buddhist nun gear, Unzan being a nyuudo - a collective term for youkai that resemble monks.

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• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: She and her fellow Buddhist Byakuren are more physical fighters in Hopeless Masquerade, for no real reason other than this trope. However, her fighting style is less kung-fu and more long-ranged Boxing Battler, sending out Unzan for most of her attacks and special moves.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Used to be a human, but spending all of her time with Unzan and being youkai-like turned her into a unique type of youkai similar to a magician. Even Byakuren's not quite sure what type of youkai she's supposed to be, calling her a nyuudou-handler.
• Ascended Extra: Was a throwaway character who Word of God admitted was only created to act as a glorified hitbox for Unzan. Hopeless Masquerade would greatly expand her character, and she's since been the most prominent member of Myouren after Byakuren herself.
• Becoming the Mask: Irony, despite being partners with a species of youkai that pretend to be monks, she really is one and is one of Byakuren's followers that believes in Buddhism.
• Critical Status Buff: Her special skill in Hopeless Masquerade - her "rage meter" fills up as she takes damage, and increases her attack power when full.
• Curtains Match the Window: Hopeless Masquerade onwards depicts her with light blue hair and eyes.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In her debut, she had purple hair almost entirely hidden by her hood, and a fairly traditional Japanese nun garb with a sky pattern and a skirt ended at her knees, along with black shows and grey socks. Hopeless Masquerade and subsequent appearances would give her sky-blue hair only partially covered by her hood, a button-up blouse with an orb attached to it, a skirt which goes down to her ankles, a white and gold kesa, and white shoes with no visible socks.
• Energy Weapon: She is probably the biggest user to date of a specific variety of laser whose wonky hitbox enrages certain experienced players.
• Failed a Spot Check: While everyone else in Hopeless Masquerade is able to see through Mamizou's disguise while talking with her, it isn't until the tanuki uses "wicked arts" that Ichirin realizes that she's not actually fighting Byakuren.
• Flying on a Cloud: She flies atop Unzan, a youkai resembling a cloud, in Hopeless Masquerade when Mamizou's spellcard "Transformation: Futatsuiwa Family's Clan" turns her into a monkey in an obvious Shout-Out to Journey to the West.
• The Generic Girl:
  • ZUN even notes that she's "basically just the hitbox for Unzan", and compared to Byakuren and the rest of her followers she has little in the way of quirks.
  • She's treated this way in canon, if Hopeless Masquerade is anything to go by. Most people are more interested in Unzan rather than her.
• Leitmotif: "The Traditional Old Man and the Stylish Girl", which is a theme she shares with Unzan. Also has a remix in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Meaningful Name: Her name means "one wheel in clouds", and her character title is "The Great Wheel That Guards And Is Guarded". She also carries a wheel/ring that she uses in the noncards to summon bullet patterns that look like huge wheels with spokes made of lasers.
• Megaton Punch: Her Fist Sign "Wind-Killing Confession" . She calls Unzan to punch horizontally, slamming the hit enemy to the wall at the far side.
• Mighty Glacier: In Hopeless Masquerade she's one of the slower characters, but she also has amazing damage and range regardless of what religion you select.
• Morality Chain: To Unzan, more or less, being the one who got him to quit attacking humans.
• Palette Swap: One of those in Hopeless Masquerade gives her a colour-scheme that looks a lot like Index. Another makes her look like Utsuho.
• Plucky Girl: Never gives up and remains optimistic in most situations.
• Rings of Death: She doesn't get much use out of them in UFO with Unzan doing most of the fighting. In Hopeless Masquerade, however, she wields them a bit like brass knuckles that also summon Unzan.
• Strictly Formula: ZUN admits that Ichirin was created as an afterthought because he worried that Unzan alone would be too much of a departure from the usual Touhou template.
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: With her Occult Special she summons Hasshaku-sama who's sporting a huge Slasher Smile.

Unzan

Unzan

Cloud-like "partner" entity to Ichirin. He is able to shapeshift into giant fists or a giant face and almost never speaks, preferring that Ichirin speaks for him.

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• Beware the Quiet Ones: Quiet and shy by nature, but you wouldn't know that by looking at him and he's definitely no slouch in a fight. He also killed many people before being tamed by Ichirin.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After Ichirin warded him off, he decided to protect her for the rest of his life.
• The Dividual: Unzan and Ichirin are inseparable.
• Eye Beams: For the duo's final spell card he starts firing energy beams from his eyes. That's one scolding you don't want to receive.
• Heel–Face Turn: Killed people before getting tamed by Ichirin.
• Familiar: Unzan basically is Ichirin's familiar due to being honor-bound to her.
• Giant Hands of Doom: Using giant fists as danmaku, as well as Rocket Punch. Taking off on the old "brofist" meme and its odd connection to western Touhou fans, Unzan's attacks renewed the joke with full force.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: When Ichirin uses her last word in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Made of Air: He's an intangible cloud that can punch people, so he's invulnerable to physical harm.
• Motion-Capture Mecha: He fights a bit like one in Hopeless Masquerade. Most of the duo's attacks involve Ichirin throwing a punch, and Unzan's fists mimicking the same motion, to greater effect. Ichirin can still punch even if Unzan is unavailable, but for much less damage.
• The One Guy: Currently the only remotely male character overall to have appeared in the Windows games (unless you count Rinnosuke's background cameo in Hopeless Masquerade).
• The Quiet One: Doesn't talk much.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's a giant pink cloud, and also the manliest character in the series.
• Shapeshifting: Being a cloud, he can easily shapeshift to look like whatever he wants. In Urban Legend in Limbo, he makes himself look like Byakuren's scroll in one of Ichirin's portraits, while in Wild and Horned Hermit, he pretends to be a gigantic Buddha statue for Parinirvana Day.
• Shrinking Violet: The reason why he's The Quiet One is due to his crippling shyness, so he lets Ichirin act as a kind of spokesman for him.
• Stealth Pun: "Nyuudo", his species, can be also read as the Japanese for "thundercloud".
• Super-Senses: Is able to perceive Koishi far more easily than most other characters in the cast.

Minamitsu Murasa

The Ghost Left From The Shipwreck

Captain Minamitsu Murasa

"Hehe, unfortunately we can't bring powerless passengers with us. Now, leave the treasure here and return back to earth!"

A funayuurei, the ghost-turned-youkai of a drowned girl that spent a few years capsizing ships, until she was unbound from her place of death by Byakuren who offered her a new ship to captain. She and the Palanquin Ship ended up bound in the underworld with Byakuren's followers until Utsuho's geyser blew it off into the sky, kick-starting the game's plot.

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• A Day in the Limelight: Not only is she Promoted to Playable in Sunken Fossil World, but she is the second most important protagonist next to Flandre (Who outright stops the incident), being the one who floods the Hell of Blazing Fires, thus making Yuuma and the Blood Pools accessible. This makes her even more important to the plot than Reimu and Marisa.
• Affably Evil: Despite utilizing her power to cause people to drown and sinking ships, she is noted to have a bright personality, and is said to hold conversations with the captain of sinking vessels even as they're going down.
• Anchors Away: She throws giant anchor danmaku! In Sunken Fossil World it serves as her main weapon.
• The Captain: She's the captain of the Palanquin Ship.
• Coat Cape: In Sunken Fossil World she has gained a naval coat that she wears over her shoulders.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Despite being a spirit who used to drown people before being tamed by Byakuren, she's pretty adorable in appearance.
• Depending on the Artist: Her official art makes it ambiguous whether she's wearing shorts or a skirt, and both appear in official works, with her being depicted with a skirt in Hopeless Masquerade, while Sunken Fossil World settles for shorts.
• Everyone Has Standards: She's an undead Serial Killer who's drowned countless people, but even she finds a massive lake of blood to be nauseating enough to faint.
• I Owe You My Life: Her motivation to rescue Byakuren is that she rescued her from being bound to the sunken ship that claimed her life.
• Inconsistent Spelling: "Minamitu" is the romanization used in-game, but the character sheet text file provided with the game uses "Minamitsu".
• Instant Knots: In Sunken Fossil World she can use her anchor to pull herself along in midair.
• Last-Name Basis: Her given name is "Minamitsu", but people know her more by her last name, "Murasa". Justified in her case; she has an overarching naval theme to her character, and in most navies, sailors are addressed by their last name rather than their first.
• Leitmotif: Her boss theme is "Captain Murasa".
• Making a Splash: A lot of her Spell Cards have the side effect of throwing a lot of water around.
• Sailor Fuku: She wears an actual sailor suit that the iconic sailor fuku is based on. However, whether she's wearing shorts or a skirt tends to depend on who's drawing her.
• Serial Killer:
  • Some of it is likely thanks to village gossip and/or Akyuu's fearmongering, but Symposium of Post-Mysticism paints her as liable to kill anyone that gets near water while they're alone, though as a result of Byakuren's influence she does try to be more discriminating in who she attempts to drown.
  • Akyuu's explanation for it is that as a ghost she's obligated to have some sort of obsession to prevent her from moving on to the afterlife. So she would literally die if she stopped trying to drown people. Incidentally, she had previously been attached to the living world by the location of her shipwreck, until Byakuren unbound her.
• Signature Headgear: Wears a cap with an anchor on it since she's associated with the sea.
• Species Surname: Her last name, Murasa, is taken from a specific type of ship phantom known in Oki District, Shimane, also known as "murasa" (ムラサ).
• Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Of a sort. Funayuurei are a sub-type of onryou, the basis of the trope. Although she wears white and has black hair, she's relatively "cute" and not suffering from the Body Horror that usually applies to characters under this trope, she is still compelled to seek vengeance due to her untimely death and has drowned numerous people.
• Token Evil Teammate: For the Buddhists apart from Nue, since she's a ghost serial killer.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Easily the tomboy of the crew especially compared to Byakuren, even though Shou tends to get mistaken for being an actual boy.
• Tough Love: Towards Kogasa in Sunken Fossil World. Kogasa wants to help Murasa, but Murasa believes that Former Hell and the Blazing Fires are far too dangerous for Kogasa, so she attacks her to drive her away and ultimately keep Kogasa safe. She does admit however that if Kogasa had managed to beat her she'd let her come along.

Shou Toramaru

The Disciple Of Bishamonten

Shou Toramaru

"Then you'll have to bear witness to the light of dharma which is even brighter here in Makai. And bow down before this pagoda of Bishamonten!"

An "honest and straightforward" tiger youkai representing good fortune, who was turned into an avatar of the Buddhist god Vaisravana/Bishamonten through the intercession of Byakuren. She sought the fragments of the Flying Storehouse and the pagoda of Bishamonten to finally release Byakuren.

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• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: 80% of her strength comes from her pagoda.
• Animal Motifs: Tiger-patterned clothes and hair.
• Beneath the Mask: According to The Grimoire of Usami her "Complete Clarification" Spell Card represents her unleashing the beast youkai she still is underneath her station as avatar of Bishomonten.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: How she came into being; tigers aren't native to Japan, but she was born from information about tigers that scholars brought over from the continent. When people began to imagine what tigers might be like, their collective imaginations brought Shou into existence.
• Creepy Crosses: More like a giant spinning laser cross of death. It's actually a vajra/dorje, a Hindu/Buddhist scepter that represents the thunderbolt.
• Cute Little Fangs: Wild and Horned Hermit reveals that she has them when doing an open-mouthed smile.
• The Dragon: For Byakuren.
• Energy Weapon: This is her gimmick - every attack she uses involves lasers in some way. And they curve in midair. Plus there's just so many of them. And she's got spells, like Buddhist Art "Most Valuable Vajra" that put the Non-Directonal Laser to shame, as shown here. As it turns out, her real weapon is not her spear, but the Jewelled Pagoda she holds, also known as the Laser Pagoda. Akyuu considers it so deadly and accurate that even entering its range (after pissing Shou off) will guarantee that you're reduced to ash.
• Failure Knight: She was so loyal to her duties as Bishamonten's avatar that she wasn't present when Byakuren was dragged away and imprisoned. The regret stemming from this eventually motivates her to begin the quest for the Tobikura and put all her power into setting Byakuren free.
• Flower Motifs: Wears what appears to be a lotus flower on top of her head. Lotus flowers are important in Buddhism, signifiying fortune and enlightenment, and she is an incarnation of a Buddhist deity.
• Gender-Blender Name: "Shou" is generally a male name and the suffix "-maru" is classically given to boys until they receive a real name.
• God in Human Form: She became an avatar for Bishamonten in youkai form.
• God Job: An unusual example, in that her job is being an avatar of a god.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Averted, surprisingly enough. Shou is perhaps the only god within Gensokyo who doesn't need to worry about lack of faith as Bishamonten is an important figure in Buddhism, one of the largest religions in the world.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: While she's more gentle and reserved than most characters who fit this trope, she's still very fond of alcohol and will often become staggeringly drunk. Ironic, given she's a Buddhist.
• "Instant Death" Radius: Akyuu has stated that, due to the Laser Pagoda, if you so much as enter close proximity with an angered Shou, there is no guarantee that you won't be instantly vaporized.
• Irony: Similar to Ran and Chen, Shou, a tiger (big cat) youkai, has Nazrin, a mouse youkai, as her servant.
• Leitmotif: Her theme music is called "The Tiger-Patterned Bishamonten".
• Magical Floating Shawl: As a disciple of the god Bishamonten, Shou has a giant cloth circle (presumably some sort of hagoromo) attached to her back.
• Mode Lock: No longer possesses the ability to change into her beast form.
• Ornamental Weapon: She never uses her spear as a weapon; she only carries it around to look more like Bishamonten, who's often depicted with a spear. Her real weapon is the Jewelled Pagoda.
• Our Gods Are Different: Akyuu claims she's closer to Kanako than to a youkai.
• Out of Focus: The most prominent example among the Stage 5 bosses. It would take Shou 13 years to receive a speaking role in an official piece of media, with Ichirin effectively taking over her position in-story as Byakuren's Number Two.
• Pre-Final Boss: Is the penultimate boss of Undefined Fantastic Object, being fought the stage before Byakuren.
• Species Surname: 'Tora' means tiger.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Has the gold eyes you'd expect from a divine spirit.
• Upgrade Artifact: The laser pagoda is more powerful than Shou herself and is the true source of the infamous lasers. Apparently it accounts for about 80% of Shou's strength.
• War God: Bishamonten's sphere falls under war, though she's not actually that good at fighting, and focuses more on Bishamonten's treasure aspect.

Byakuren Hijiri

The Great Sealed Magician

Byakuren Hijiri (or Saint Byakuren?)

"Oh, the world of dharma is filled with light. Are you the one who liberated this world?"

A Buddhist nun turned youkai magician. She pretended to specialize in youkai extermination, but helped the youkai by relocating them far from human settlements, like Minamitsu, instead of killing them. When her eternal youth raised suspicion, she was sealed in Makai. Nazrin, Ichirin, Minamitsu and Shou were successful in freeing her, with some unintended help from the player character, and now she maintains her new temple in Gensokyo.

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• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: Her style of fighting in Hopeless Masquerade, with no other explanation. At least it makes sense since her magic is all about improving her physical abilities.
• And I Must Scream: A less-horrifying example. She was sealed in Hokkai for a thousand years, but was very much conscious and awake the whole time. She simply had nothing to do aside from reciting sutra and crafting magical scrolls.
• Ascended Extra: A variation - she is the monk Myouren's unnamed older sister, a minor character in the Shigisan Engi, here reworked into a major character.
• Arch-Enemy: There's no love lost between her and Miko, though they can be civil towards one another.
• Badass Biker: Can summon and ride a motorcycle in Urban Legend in Limbo. Her Last Word variation even comes with a brief costume change. This is in reference to the Japanese Urban Legend of "Turbo Granny".
• Badass Boast: In Hopeless Masquerade, she absolutely loves doing this.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: She's one of the most physical characters in Hopeless Masquerade, not unlike Meiling in Hisoutensoku.
• Becoming the Mask: She originally protected youkai to maintain the source of her powers, but as she gradually learned of their stories she sincerely committed to help them.
• Being Good Sucks: Her reward for aiding both youkai and humans? Sealed for a millennium in Makai.
• Black Magic: It's probably not the magic by itself since it doesn't differ much from other magic, but the fact it completely violates what her beliefs actually stand for, making her a Hypocrite. Also, faith is a very powerful source in Gensokyo so whatever would spite it is naturally evil by default.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her mission of converting youkai to Buddhism and trying to get along with everyone is something that other people find rather confusing. Most youkai don't understand why they shouldn't eat humans, humans like Akyuu are waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Miko just thinks she's "playing house". It's also a fairly weird endeavor in general - Youkai by definition oppose humans and they are born from fear, which means if they stop opposing humans and/or humans stop fearing them, they would most likely disappear entirely.
  • If Kogasa's statement in Flandre's scenario in Sunken Fossil World is correct, Byakuren, the Buddhist monk, makes use of assassins...
• But You Were There, and You, and You: Whenever Kosuzu tells a fairy tale in Forbidden Scrollery, the monk characters will be portrayed by Byakuren... who is fully aware that she's playing a role and will occasionally break character to comment on it.
• Butt-Monkey: In Symposium of Post-Mysticism, she's shown to be the weakest debater, and everyone takes a chance to make a crack at her ranging from things such as her followers being bad at actually following Buddhism's tenets, her unwillingness to drink, and her naivety at how Gensokyo is supposed to work.
• Call-Back: Among her spell cards is a faithful reproduction of one of Shinki's most distinctive attacks, which is suggested in Grimoire of Usami to be symbolic of her straying from Buddhism to pursue black magic. Notably the last substantial PC-98 reference made in the series to date.
• Captain Oblivious: She appears (deliberately or not) ignorant to the fact that many of her followers do not actually follow her vows (no drinking, no eating meat, no attacking humans, etc.)
• Charged Attack: How her physical enhancement magic is depicted in Hopeless Masquerade. Her special attacks are extremely powerful, but entering the command only builds up a charge; it must be entered a second time before the attack is released. Some attacks also grant minor bonuses while held.
• Crisis of Faith: Struggles with her belief in Buddhism in her backstory. Although it's questionable how many of her current beliefs would be accepted in mainstream Buddhism.
• Cult of Personality: A rare benevolent example. It's unclear whether her followers are truly devoted to Buddhism, or if they just go through the motions because they love being around her.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of her little brother Myouren caused her to abandon the teachings of her faith and pursue immortality at the cost of her humanity. Although her character arc where she overcomes it and regains her idealism all happens within her backstory.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Her powers and spells have roots in dark magic, yet her motivation is the salvation of humans and youkai alike. She also fights the player character primarily out of self-defense after being told they intend to seal her away again.
• Detect Evil: Can apparently sense that Seiga is ridiculously evil. She also manages to sense that the god of the Hakurei Shrine has become angry from lack of faith.
• Death from Above: Her spell Heaven Card "Five Elements Mountain of Shakyamuni" has her charge up and let a huge hand strike the enemy from above!
• Disappointed in You: Played for laughs: Byakuren loses a lot of trust in her followers for just standing around in fear when she appears to have collapsed in Foul Detective Satori. She also acts disappointed in Reimu and Aya, but concludes their actions are normal.
• Dueling Messiahs: With Toyosatomimi no Miko; Byakuren is the more idealistic one, truly believing that humans and youkai can live in peace.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Sported a Badass Cape in her debut which never showed up again.
• Empathic Weapon: Her scroll is made from Makai materials and possesses its own will. Mostly it just doesn't let anyone but Byakuren use it.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Unites with both Toyosatomimi no Miko and Reimu in Hopeless Masquerade in hopes of defeating Kokoro in Kokoro's story.
  • She does it again with Miko in Antinomy of Common Flowers in order to take on the Yorigami sisters.
• Final Boss: Of Undefined Fantastic Object and Miko and Futo's story in Urban Legend in Limbo.
• Flash Step: Accelerates to frightening speeds in her spell card Superhuman "Byakuren Hijiri". Hopeless Masquerade makes it a standard part of her arsenal.
• Flower Motifs: Lotuses that shoot lasers. Her name means "white lotus", to boot.
• Fluffy Tamer: Many of the youkai she houses in her temple are still dangerous and aggressive towards humans (and most likely have had large body counts in the past, like Murasa), and yet she still treats them as a kindly old grandmother would, an attitude which Akyuu finds repulsive.
• Good Is Not Soft: An off-hand remark from Kogasa in Sunken Fossil World has her wonder if Flandre is "Another of Lady Hijiri's assassins"; indicating that Byakuren makes use of assassins. Kogasa does state that Flandre is a significant change in Hijiri's tastes, however.
• The Heretic: As a result of Becoming the Mask when it came to helping youkai and being on the receiving end of Being Good Sucks, her Buddhism is decidedly non-standard, though it appears that she still has the favor of Bishamonten regardless.
• Hero Antagonist: Even among Touhou's general lack of evil characters, she bears special mention. Her goal is to bring peace and harmony to humans and youkai. Of course, Akyuu thinks she's deluded for this, as many people believe youkai are eldritch things that rely on eating humans. It's also a metaphysical fact that ceasing to antagonize humans would cause youkai to lose their purpose in life and vanish in a Puff of Logic. Arguably she's just teaching them to accept their own deaths, which is after all very Buddhist.
• Immortality Seeker: Formerly helped out youkai because it would help her become immortal before starting to empathize with them for real. Although given that she changed her tune after successfully becoming immortal...
• Inconsistent Spelling: Her family name was romanized as "Hiziri" in her debut, but Urban Legend in Limbo uses "Hijiri" instead.
• Jiggle Physics: Her Hopeless Masquerade sprite is well-endowed and jiggles in the wind.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: She's not only good with spells, but is also an incredible physical combatant due to enhancing her strength with magic.
• Lady of Black Magic: Played With. She's quite collected and graceful, and wears a feminine black dress, but instead of casting destructive spells from afar she uses her Black Magic to enhance her physical attacks in combat. She can cast traditional spells though.
• Laser Blade: In Hopeless Masquerade she can generate energy blades from her vajra.
• Leitmotif: "Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind" is her theme tune. Later remixed in Hopeless Masquerade.
• Magic Enhancement: Her specialty as a magician is using magic to enhance her physical strength. One of her spellcards is even called Superhuman "Byakuren Hijiri".
• Meaningful Name: "Hijiri" literally means "saint". Given that Buddhist monks of her era were expected to abandon their family names, it's very likely that it's actually a title that she's earned rather than her real name.
• Misaimed Fandom: An In-Universe example. Yamame and Orin like her temple because of the (delicious) stressed humans and corpses respectively. Another youkai enjoys listening to Buddhist sutras because he's a fan of horror stories.
• Mystical Lotus: Her strongest spell cards have her summon a massive energy lotus blossom that sprouts smaller ones to fire bullets out of, with the spell card background also resembling a lotus flower. Her given name can also be translated as "White Lotus".
• Named by the Adaptation: Her folkloric counterpart was nameless.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Yes, really. During her Last Word in Urban Legend in Limbo, she has a costume switch where she dons a biker suit but with the zipper slightly undone exposing her cleavage and some midriff.
• Nice Girl: While she's not exactly perfect, Byakuren is genuinely a kind-hearted woman and Team Mom.
• Poe's Law: Yes, there are even youkai that actually follow her devoutly simply because they do not prefer aggression.
• Power Gives You Wings: Or in this case, a lotus petal.
• Purple Is Powerful: Part of her hair is (naturally) purple and she's enough of a powerhouse to be the Final Boss of her debut game.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Whether she's good or evil actually gets debated in the game dialogue. Although this being Gensokyo, of course the answer leans towards the former.
• Statuesque Stunner: Is often depicted as one of the taller characters in the series.
• Status Buffs: Her profile says Byakuren specialises in magic that enhances her physical abilities. Without them though, she's a Squishy Wizard, so Akyuu recommends catching her off guard. If you want to fight her for some reason.
• Shock and Awe: One of her spells in Hopeless Masquerade uses lightning to attack.
• Shout-Out: Her Last Word in Hopeless Masquerade is a Wave-Motion Gun-induced one to Space Battleship Yamato.
• Signature Headgear: In Hopeless Masquerade and Urban Legend in Limbo she wears an ajirogasa, a monk's traveling hat. In all her other official appearances, however, she's one of the few Touhou characters who are completely bareheaded (that is, no hats, hair decs or animal ears).
• Spell Book: Her "Sorcerer's Picture Scroll" is a magic construct she created using materials from Makai, containing the sutras she must recite to cast spells. It's at least somewhat intelligent, being able to recite spells by itself and prevent others from using it.
• Stupid Good: Miko accuses her of being dumb for trying to reform youkai and Akyuu is of the same opinion.
• Team Mom: Described as a kindly but strict mother figure to her followers.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Since she's a Buddhist nun she refrains from killing. She won't even eat meat due to the animals having been killed.
• Transhuman Treachery: The crime that got her sealed into Makai in the first place was becoming a youkai and trying to create peace between them and humans.
• Vain Sorceress: The first thing she did with her magic was de-age herself from an old woman to her current twenty-something appearance. Akyuu specifically notes that magician-immortality doesn't come with any de-aging, so that's all just Byakuren's vanity. (It's possible she has grown out of this however.)
• What the Hell, Hero?: She will voice her objections to the player character's behavior before the battle commences. What exactly her objections are will vary depending on the chosen character and scenario.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: The closest the series has yet come to a true example. After all, she is tall, has long dark hair (though it's a purple-to-brown gradient), graceful and pretty on the outside, calm, collected and warm on the inside, and boy does she put up a fight.

Myouren

Myouren

Byakuren's little brother, a monk who taught Byakuren Buddhist magic. His death made her fear her own, and drove her to seek eternal youth.

Word of God is that Myouren was originally intended to be the final boss, but, as amusing as it would have been to have an "old man" be the final boss of a Touhou game, ZUN decided to play it safe and made Byakuren instead.

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• Death by Origin Story: Myouren's death is the catalyst that eventually put Byakuren where she is at the start of UFO.
• Posthumous Character: While long dead even before Byakuren and her followers were sealed away, it was his death that led Byakuren to try to figure out a way to gain immortality for the purely selfish reason of preventing her own death, which would eventually lead her to try making humans and youkai coexist after learning to sympathize with the latter.
• Public Domain Character: Based on a famous Buddhist monk believed to be born in what is now ZUN's home prefecture of Nagano.
• Shout-Out: Myouren is a reference to a famous Buddhist monk who was the star of 12th-century tales such as the Shigisan-engi.

Nue Houjuu

The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl

Nue Houjuu

"You human who's forgotten the fear of night! Die from the terror of this unidentified flying object!!"

Nue is a youkai who has the ability to hide her true form, and thus all accounts of her appearance vary wildly. When she got tired of frightening humans, she hid away underground, although her dialogue indicates a human sealed her after discovering her true form. After getting caught up in the rising of Byakuren's ship she decided to tag along and attempt to cause trouble for them.

Currently living in Byakuren's temple.

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• A Dog Named "Dog": Her name is "Nue", and as you would expect, she's a nue. However, Symposium of Post-Mysticism states that what most people consider a nue (a chimera that's a cross between a monkey, a tiger, a Tanuki and a snake), is not an actual nue but a completely different being; a real nue's true form has never been identified.^note Actually true in real life; the former chimera was originally only described as a creature with a cry like a nue. There’s a few educated guesses as to what the actual nue this creature sounded like is, but no-one actually knows for sure.
  • Her Undefined Fantastic Object profile implies she's the nue from the legends.
• Arc Welding: Her "Danmaku X from a Wandering Star" spell card is revealed in The Grimoire of Usami to be the result of her channeling the power of the back door first introduced in Hidden Star in Four Seasons, albeit possibly unknowingly.
• Ball of Light Transformation: She's first seen as a ball of light in Stages 4 and 6 of Undefined Fantastic Object, with her true form revealed in the Extra Stage.
• Berserk Button: As she's trying to get along with Byakuren's folks, she doesn't like to be called an "outcast" most of the time.
• Devil's Pitchfork: Her main weapon is a trident, and she's Myouren's Token Evil Teammate.
• Doppelgänger Attack: "Purple Mirror" in Double Spoiler.
• Fangs Are Evil: Her Forbidden Scrollery design includes impish enlarged canines to go with her Pointy Ears.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Not her clothing, but her wings, which are completely different from one another.
• Fate Worse than Death: "Now, human! Boil me! Bake me alive! Do anything you wish! Oh, but please, just don't seal me underground again." She's shocked when the main characters let her go.
• Flying Saucer: Some of her attacks involve the very UFOs you've been blowing up for powerups the whole game.
• Freakiness Shame: Inverted; having those alien, misshapen wings? She's perfectly fine with that. But having her Shapeshifter Default Form look like a cute human girl? Now that is (apparently) freaky by youkai standards! Enough so for her to have spent her entire life hiding it from everyone else. Complete with this trope comes Sanae declaring Nue the coolest thing ever and trying to befriend her, and complete with the inversion of the trope comes Nue feeling that Sanae's lack of fear of her validates her Freakiness Shame.
• Humanoid Abomination: Nue can be basically described as the unknown incarnate in a humanoid shape, even moreso than other youkai are, as they represent singular aspects of the unknown while she is the unknown.
• It Amused Me:
  • The entire reason for her presence, deciding to have some fun by disrupting Minamitsu's group's search and involving the player characters. She later regrets this, though.
  • She and Mamizou also spread the Bull's Head rumor in Forbidden Scrollery for similar reasons.
• Leitmotif: Her theme is "Heian Alien".
• Karma Houdini: Thanks to her power, Reimu never does figure out her part in the Bull's Head rumor, and so she goes unpunished.
• Master of Illusion: She disguised the Palanquin Ship as a UFO, and appears as a floating orb of light as a midboss in stages 4 and 6. She confirms that what we see is her true form, and attacks the heroine in order to keep it a secret.
• Meaningful Name: Nue is the name of her species. Houjuu translates to "sealed beast", because, like most of the other characters, was sealed away before the events of Subterranean Animism.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Her eyes are all dark red in her official artwork. What makes it creepier is that you can still see the outline of where her pupils should be.
• Pre-Final Boss: The midboss of Ten Desires' Extra Stage.
• Pointy Ears: She has pointed ears that are more visible in her Forbidden Scrollery appearances.
• Reality Warper: According to Yukari her "Nightmare of Heiankyou" Spell Card manipulates the boundary of particle and continuum.
• Recurring Boss:
  • She's the midboss in stage 4 and 6, though she doesn't appear in her true form until the extra stage.
  • She's also the Extra Stage Midboss of Ten Desires.
• Shout-Out: One of her spell cards in Double Spoiler makes danmaku in the shapes of green triangles, red circles, pink squares, and blue X-s.
• Superboss: The EX boss of Undefined Fantastic Object, as well as EX midboss in Ten Desires.
• Token Evil Teammate: While most other members of Myouren Temple at least claim to be working towards enlightenment, Nue is an unambiguous Card-Carrying Villain who seems to stick around only out of respect for Byakuren... and because religious faith is closely related to fear of the unknown.
• Troll: She enjoys messing around with Byakuren and the other girls, tagging along and interfering every so often because she thought it would be funny if they failed in their goal. In fact, she attached "Seed[s] of Non-Identification" to the ship and the Flying Storehouse fragments, making them appear as UFOs to the untrained eye. When she found out that their mission would help her as well, she felt guilty about it.
• Urban Legends:
  • What most of her Double Spoiler spell cards are based on.
  • She ends up using the Bull's Head urban legend in Forbidden Scrollery in order to collect fear and for trolling out of jealousy for missing out on Urban Legend in Limbo.
• Villainous Friendship: Good friends with fellow trickster Mamizou, having been the one who invited her to come to Gensokyo in the first place.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: So much so that no one has ever seen what she really looks like, since she takes great pains to hide her true form.
• Winged Humanoid: And with very odd wings indeed; not only are they different colours on either side, but they look nothing like most wings would. Her red ones at least look vaguely like wings, but her blue ones look more like arrow-shaped tentacles than anything else.
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Her power is exactly this. She can also imbue other things with the same characteristic by attaching a "Seed of Non-Identification" to them.

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