Yay! She's certainly... INTERESTING as a Touhou character, to say the least.

The Wicked Hermit of Passing Through Walls Seiga Kaku

Appearance:

Theme: "Old Yuanxian"*

Seiga Kaku's theme. She's a wicked hermit. Kind of like a magician that does a large assortment of tricks. So, I aimed for a suspicious song where you never know what's going to fly out at you next. Being able to pass through walls would be useful for running away, but it's not too useful for fighting, is it? It would be a critical hit to a nurikabe, though.

Stage: Accelerating Luxury ~ A Hole in the Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum
The divine spirits, pulled into fine strings toward the cavern's depth...
The scenery was unlike anything of this world.
bgm: "Desire Drive*

The fourth stage theme. I made it a flowing song to completely switch away from the first half of the game. It feels nice to rush through a narrow space at high speed. This is okay in caves, but don't run in halls at school or in the work office. Caves are nice. (You shouldn't run in a limestone cavern, either.)

Spellcard Motif: Sorcery | Necromancy | Evil | Taoism
Notable spellcards: TD
Evil Sign "Yang Xiaogui*

養小鬼: A sorcery which involves taming dead spirits to use as tools

, " Evil Sign "Guhun Yegui*

孤魂野鬼: Abandoned wild ghost

, " Demonify "Zouhuo Rumo*

走火入魔: A state of frenzy often associated with the mismanagement of the "vital forces"

, " Possession "Corpse Tongji*

Tongji 童乩: A ritual where a person gets possessed by a divine spirit.

, " Spirit Link "Tongling Yoshika*

Tongling 通靈: Spirit linking

, " Path Sign "Dao Fetal Movement, " Path Sign "TAO Fetal Movement ~Dao~"

Write-up:
Once upon a time (in China), Seiga's father ran out on her to study the ways of the Tao, inspiring her to similarly master Taoism and become a hermit. Even after she was married, Seiga's obsession led her to live as a recluse, until one day she used a mystical technique to pull the Ninja Log trick and fake her death, deceiving her family and abandoning her old life.

Seiga liked showing off her powers under the pretense of spreading the ways of Taoism, but because such feats weren't uncommon in hermit-rich China, she moved to Japan in the late 6th century, landing smack in the middle of a religious conflict between the native Shinto and the newly-arrived Buddhism. Once there she befriended the crown prince Toyosatomimi no Miko and became her mentor in the ways of Taoism. It was Seiga who suggested promoting Buddhism as a way to unify and pacify the country, while certain elite figures secretly practiced Taoism to gain superhuman powers.

Things went according to plan until Miko had to take her nap and vengeful Buddhists sealed her mausoleum to prevent her resurrection. But a thousand years later Seiga arrived in Gensokyo along with Miko's tomb and helped pave the way for the prince's awakening. Since the events of Ten Desires, Seiga's been making a name for herself by bothering people she finds interesting, giving off overwhelming evil vibes to Akyuu and Byakuren, and celebrating Christmas by breaking into houses and "selling" toys to sleeping people.

Despite her mastery of Taoism, Seiga is very much a wicked hermit, and because her actions are self-centered and not condoned by the heavens, she has no hope of developing into a proper Celestial. She is deceptive and manipulative, raises jiang shi to act as her servants, and uses her power to pass through walls to commit home invasions. As such, some fan works portray her as the true Big Bad of Ten Desires, which might not be much of an exaggeration. On the other hand, it's not uncommon to see some Pet the Dog moments between Seiga and her favorite hopping vampire, so there might be more nuance to her than at first glance.

Relations

• Toyosatomimi no Miko (student, chief collaborator)
• Mononobe no Futo, Soga no Tojiko (allies)
• Yoshika Miyako (favored minion)

Alternate Character Interpretations:

Write-Ups
Zouhuo Rumo
by Clarste

The Wrench in the Works
by Antimatter 625

Minifics

edited 14th Jun '12 9:16:14 PM by Tacitus

Seiga Kaku. A mysterious woman with a rather impressive hairstyle. Seems to dislike fair fights, since she'll flee from conflict or otherwise raise a jiangshi to fight alongside her. Selfishness appears to be her main character trait; it is apparent she cares for little else other then herself. Maybe she idolized her father once, but that was a long time ago.

One of the older characters in the series. She wasn't sealed away with Miko and Futo; who knows what kind of mischief she got into in the interim?

Although fans are wont to putting her in Miko's cast herd, she is in reality only barely associated with them. Miko views her as more of a liability then an asset, presumably because of her wickedness.

I'd hesitate to call them 'allies'. 'Collaborators' would probably be a better word.

edited 10th Jun '12 3:54:33 PM by asterism

Seiga is evil. She is rotten, full of herself, and isn't afraid to indirectly (or directly?) hurt/kill people to get what she wants.

What does she want? I don't know. Probably to have everyone around her squirm. Seiga seems to me like the type who wants to be seen as the mastermind, even if she isn't the one doing the masterminding.

Seiga probably isn't on good terms with the other Taoists. They bore her, and she gives them a bad rep. Why waste time with those old fogies when there is an entire (really small) world of interesting people to ominously hover over and tempt to the dark side?

Seiga is also apparently really annoying. Even Akyuu says so (I picture Seiga hovering over her as she wrote her article, asking her stupid questions and making stupid requests). This may or may not be something she plays up.

...Now I picture Seiga as a troll. Hmm....The same way Yoshika is a friendly jab at fandom incompetent Meiling or gluten Yuyuko, Seiga is a jab at fandom's ominous troll Yukari.*

I am not the only one who remembers thst WMG from way back at the Yoshika discussion, right?

That WOULD be the case... If we didn't have confirmation that Seiga represses her original personality when she's around. Poor Yoshika...

Not to mention her clear Lack of Empathy!

So, Seiga

Short version: I think of her as Orihara Izaya with a short attention span

Long version: What Seiga does she does to entertain herself. And what she finds most entertaining is people. If she's interested in someone she may teach and advise them like Miko (they'll be able to do more interesting things if they're stronger!) or she might screw them over (let's see how they cope!). If she's not fixating on any specific person, she may cause an incident of sorts, but she lacks the dedication to pull off anything likely to get the miko's attention

She rarely cares about anyone beyond finding them interesting (or boring), but you could probably make an enemy of her if you worked at it (don't do this)

Like I said, selfish. She's arguably the most villainous character in the series. Somewhere a Tenshi is crying.

I really don't think Yoshika ever had much of her original personality left. Which still makes Pet the Dog moments largely impossible

Seiga does seem like the type to attempt a incident of any scale for laughs. It depends on her mood.

...I also see her as the type to overestimate how "grand" her schemes are. Not to Poke the Poodle levels, but still.

I wonder what would happen if she started floating ominously over Tenshi?

EDIT:And yes, I can't see her having any dog petting moments with Yoshika. She is more or less enslaving Yoshika to her will. (Well, OK, I can see her literally petting Yoshika, but still)

edited 10th Jun '12 4:12:58 PM by Otherarrow

Wrote this before SOPM, modified slightly:

Zouhuo Rumo

Once upon a time, there was a girl in awe of the Tao. The explanation is simple: her father left her for the Tao, so the Tao must be awesome. Because otherwise, that would mean her father was kind of a jerk, right? Surely that’s not the case. So the Tao is awesome. There could be no other way.

Among the few things left of her father, the girl possessed a book explaining the Tao. And what do you know? It is awesome. The Tao is the Way. No more and no less. Just as there is a way to cook a meal, a way to build a house, or a way to rule a country, there is also a way to live your life. It’s that simple. Of course, figuring out what that way is is the hard part, but luckily for us the way is everywhere, waiting for us to figure it out. The way is the world: it is nature itself and it is mankind. The Cosmic Truth. To study the way is to study everything, to know the way is to know everything.

Perhaps that way of looking at it is a bit too abstract though. The way is not a metaphor, it is the world. Screw up the way of Qi in the body and you invite disease. Screw up the way of Feng Shui and you invite misfortune. Screw up the way of the tax return and you invite the IRS. This is not a matter of some ambiguous afterlife or moral rhetoric, this is a matter of cause and effect. There have always been only two options: to embrace the way and prosper, or to unknowingly resist it and muddle in mediocrity. The girl reading the book chose the latter.

Despite her dreams of becoming a Tao mystic, the girl, now a woman, was not suited for such a life. Like her father before her, and like the great Kasenko she idolized, the woman threw her life away to become one with nature, to become an immortal hermit. Yet the world rejected her. The heavens rejected her, calling her a wicked hermit. The people rejected her, calling her another cheap Taoist following the latest fad. To embrace the Way was not her way, and thus she anticlimactically sputtered out and ran out of steam shortly after her transcendence.

Of course, the woman who had come so far and given up so much for the way was not about to end there. She was much too stubborn for that. If they would not appreciate her in her homeland, she would simply have to go somewhere else. So she moved to Japan, where her powers were almost unheard of, where she could be special and awesome like her father surely must be, or like Kasenko. She would make them realize how awesome she was, by showing them the awesomeness of the Way.

She is proud of her creations. She gave a dead girl the gift of eternal life. She taught the leaders of the country the ways of nature and with their talent they even grew strong enough to reject her. She concocted a plan to preserve their power for eternity by temporarily spreading a false religion. This was the result of her way: the crystallization of everything she had lived for. The healthy future that can only come from leading a healthy past. She loved her undead servant, her noble disciples, and her adopted country. In the same way she loves all her works.

But… everything turned out slightly off. Her servant’s eternal body could not hide the rotting mind. Her disciples’ eager research led to their declining health and necessitated desperate measures. Her country’s faithful masses were forever blinded the lies of Buddhism, rejecting their own savior. Nothing she ever did worked out quite right. Not quite failures, but nor could they be called successes. But she doesn't notice, having already moved on to her next project. The woman has been forever muddling around, forever lost in the maze of life. For there could be no other way.

That raises a good point. Most of Seiga's plans have either turned out not as successful as she had originally planned, or outright failed (depending on how you look at it). And yet she keeps on scheming. At the very least, she is a persistent wicked hermit. Doesn't let past disappointments keep her down. Maybe she can use them for other things someday.

It's not quite correct, but many of her plans seem to fall victim to a kind of Gone Horribly Right situation, particularly with the whole Buddhism thing.

Buddhism was her suggestion, not her plan. She had no stake in it

Of Note

Seiga's ability is to pass through walls. However, she can't just phase through like a ghost and she can't cut through metaphorical walls. Her power is very clearly defined. She drills a hole in the wall with her pin, knocks it out, and it magically returns hours later. Soft walls, such as rubber, seem to be protected.*

EDIT: Water is apparently fair game, though. Shoutouts to WAHH and Clarste for translation.

Seiga's in-game portrait says "Seiga Nyan Nyan", the Nyan Nyan (娘々) part of her nickname is an approximation of "Niang Niang", which is an archaic word for refering to an emperess, a consort, or a goddess. *

Shoutouts to the Seiga page on Touhou wiki

Seiga actually said goodbye to everyone before faking her death. That is the creepiest way to fake your death. She used a bamboo rod to replace her dead body.

She "Spread the Ways of Taoism" has a pretense for showing off.

She managed to convince a young Prince/ss Miko to manipulate a religious war and have her best friends kill her best friend's clan.

It would seem that the reason her long life is a sin, and chances are she'll never be able to reach Nirvana because of the wickedness in her heart. Most hermits live 100 or so years, and then either die or ascend. She's lived for 1000 years, promoted war, and is implied to have murdered Yoshika. We don't even know if she's keeping up with her sutras.

She only sticks to people she thinks are interesting. If they ignore her she leaves. Though if they don't ignore her, she'll get to know them and become bored again.

Music

Why, this theme is wickedly good. Seriously though, I really like the Necrofantasia-y riff at the end.

Overview

A wicked hermit who's lived for 1, 000s of years. Though she came with Miko and co to Gensokyo, she does not appear to have any kind of camaraderie with them. Miko seems to deeply regret ever having contact with her. She's not a pleasant person, and if you let her get to you it is likely you will be soon consumed by sin. Though she doesn't seem particularly dangerous, it would appear she takes down hell's messengers with ease. Even if she is faced with a foe she cannot defeat, there's nothing keeping her from using her ability to run.

Despite her absolute disregard for human life, she absolutely loves humanity. She considers herself above them, and simply desires to the player of the largest Sims game of all time. She wants to live forever so she can watch humanity evolve and adapt into the stars, maybe even by her own hand. It's truly amazing how a girl who simply wanted to follow in the path of her father became such a large blip on Hell's radar. She may be Touhou's first truly evil character to not have plant cells. Those who have walled themselves off from humanity, should fear the one named Seiga Kaku.

edited 12th Jun '12 3:02:33 PM by Horselesshorseman

That's probably as close as it gets. "Whosa good lil' jiang-shi? You are! Yes you are! Good girl!"

Her affection for Yoshika is probably less about the zombie's inherent qualities than it is about her status as Seiga's creation, i.e. because it's her zombie it's an awesome zombie. Though there is a creepy necromancer "look how cute and rotten she is" vibe too. But I guess if you're gonna create profane mockeries of the living you might as well enjoy your work.

...So then. The fact that Seiga could use her chisel against the water walls means that Akyuu was horribly misinformed about it's limitations. Which raises the question of what it's limits actually are. If it works against physical objects in general, Seiga has a rather worrying weapon. If it's walls in general, Yukari should be quite interested in her

Well, functionally, a sufficiently fast-moving wall of water may as well be rock, as easy as it'll be to get through...

But it's a good point.

So if Yorihime is Reimu's evil counterpart, and Yoshika is commentary on one of Meiling's fanonical interpretations, does Seiga fit as a counterpart to Marisa? Sought immortality, worked and gathered power for its own sake, abuses that power to snatch things? Karmironied Marisa by stealing a stolen item?

Marisa's not much of a manipulator though (but if she was, the fact that we're not aware of it would make her a very good one), and the witch has all of the subtlety of a flamethrower. Maybe it's not the best comparison.

Hmm. So why'd she suggest it then? Just for the chaos, the chance to see a scheme of hers succeed, or what?

Or possibly she genuinely wants to see Miko succeed. Miko is an interesting girl, and Miko's effects on the country are also interesting

Or Miko could have asked several people for advice and decided that Seiga's was the best

'Your highness, are you sure we should trust her? She's, well, cackling. And I think her maid is actually a jiangshi.'

"Come now, what's wrong with a little giggle fit every now and then?... Yoshika, cease the hungry eying of the staff-'s trays. We eat soon enough. Mwahahaahaaaaa!"

Upon reflection, canon-Seiga is an awful lot like what fanon-Yukari has become. Right down to the "hole in the wall" ability. I wonder if that was intentional.

....I think I mentioned the idea that Seiga is based on fanon Yukari.

Of course, now I want to see what would happen if Seiga and Yukari actually met. They'd probably hate each other. For some reason, I doubt Seiga would ominously loom over a youkai. She came off, to me at least, as at least somewhat anti-youkai.

Of course, if they interest her, she might change her mind. Strange woman.

I do think Seiga suggested the Buddhist thing just to see if Miko could pull it off. After all, having one of her "pupils" become a God-Saint-King is more or less the best bragging rights.

edited 12th Jun '12 7:47:40 AM by Otherarrow

Well Seiga....I really admire her. Not because she is a thousand year old hermit or because she is crafty and enigmatic person, it's because she is free.

She is one of the few girls we know that she had a normal living life and family, but that life wasn't for her once she found her father books and the world of hermits, leaving her life behind she entered that magic world.

But that act was the thing that condemned her, faking her death to her family was something the heavens would never forget so they decided that she would never be allowed to become a celestian as a punishment. The joke was on them Seiga never aimed to become a celestian in the first place, or she simply didn't care.

Once her mortal bounds were severed she lived her life as she pleased, hunting treasures or doing whatever she wanted everyday. But her freedom didn't come without a price Hell assassins came to kill her because her own existence angered the heavens, but she learned to fight and win against them.

She found a pupil in Miko who she taught taoism, she is probably intrigued about her future, will she become a ruthless ruler to humanity or will she decide to become a celestian and live in peace in the heavens? Only time will tell. I believe Yoshika and her have a backstory together, we can assume the worst that Seiga killed her or maybe it's just a random corpse she picked up, but one thing is certain Yoshika gives Seiga the feeling of danger, except of course to Reimu and Marisa but those two are special in their own ways.

Now Seiga is in Gensokyo spending her days exploring this new world, stealing their treasures, bothering people, escaping death traps , impressing other hermits and angering Youkai monks but she likes this dangerous carefree life not tied to anyone or anything and sadly I can't help but to cheer for her.

...The desire for character diversification might explain why people are so eager to demonize Seiga. Possibly Aya as well, with Hatate existing now