Reimu Hakurei

Reimu Hakurei (博麗　霊夢, Hakurei Reimu) is the main character of the whole Touhou Project series excluding Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Shoot the Bullet, Double Spoiler, Strange and Bright Nature Deity, Wild and Horned Hermit, Forbidden Scrollery and Impossible Spell Card (but she also appears in book and text version of Shoot the Bullet).

However, in games from the version 1.0-5.0 (they are generally called “Touhou old works” or “PC-98 version”), Hakurei Rimu was given the name “Hakurei Ri mu” where “Ri” was different from the “Rei” now. Consequently, the new “Rei” was used in Makyo, the 6.0 game. And henceforth, Reimu was mostly referred to since Windows version.

At Pixiv, “Reimu” is frequently used as the hashtag while it’s written clearly that “Hakurei Rimu” and “Rimu” was Touhou old works used in the previous versions. Nevertheless, “Rimu” was still put on use in Taiwan and other places where the original complex form of a simplified Chinese character serves as the universal language.

She serves as the miko of the Hakurei Shrine located at the boundary between Gensokyo] and outside world. Reimu Hakurei (from now on referred to as Reimu) makes the spell card rules since the inception of the game of windows version.

In this section, “Reimu Hakurei” and “Hakurei Rimu” (the name used by the old works]) will be respectively explained.

She is simple and straightforward with explicit expressions on her face when she is in high or low spirits. She has a strange atmosphere that attracts others regardless of whether they are human or yokai.

Since her job is yokai extermination, she takes a stern pose against yokai, but she herself does not have a particular interest in humans or yokai.[6] With an impartial personality that is neither gentle nor stern towards anyone. Although she either fought with Marisa Kirisame and she is reliable upon words from Yukari Yakumo in Tireden. She, with impartial nature, is without A companion. She is also described as “maybe a relentless girl”.

This is a personality that especially strong yokai like, but since at times she exterminates yokai without even any talk, she is feared by the weaker yokai. It is a carefree personality, but on the opposite side of her impartial nature, she does not see anyone as a companion, and even when she acts together with other humans or yokai, she is always alone.

In Kourindou, she either snatched the book which yokai (usually it’s called Tokiko) was enjoyed in and hit yokai for no reason or put on the broken skirt of Rinnosuke Morichika. People around her think of her as a selfish miko. On the other hand, she provides free amulets for ghosts’ extermination and takes care of the fainted yokai rabbit (Reisen). Generally, when people around tell her the occurrence of incidents, she will start her resolution plan with a proactive attitude.

According to the personality analysis of Reisen Udongein Inaba from Kaeizuka, it’s said that “sometimes you are insightful and other times you are short-sighted. ” (and “short-sighted people are bad-tempered while insightful people are good-tempered”).

At first, Reimu has different incredible powers that she can wield. But she never abuses her power or become complacent (since the finished character of her in Youyoumu. She does not believe at all that hard work pays off; she hates putting in a great amount of effort for something or practice. Even though she looks like confident, it does strike a clear contrast between the character of Marisa and that of her.

As so-called miko, she is characterized by a lack of dangerous sensations. She knows little about gods in the shrine. She is said to be unable to use yin-yang orbs fully. Her faith in the shrine is declining. Though she was a little bit worried about the fact that the number of yokai around the shrine increases, she didn’t take it seriously until insolvency of the shrine appeared in Fuujinroku.

In light of faith, when she talked with Rinnosuke, she ever said “forget it, because it is unchangeable that the faith in the shrine and the undertaking of yokai extermination are declining, I still don’t know whether our shrine will be better”. The lethal words about the loss of faith responded by her are that “ay, no saisen”, not “saisen is for the sake of faith” but “faith is for the sake of saisen”, etc. The relation between shrine and faith she reckons changed many of her thoughts.

Moreover, even if she calls Rinnosuke with the help of “Mr.”, she actually does not use other respectful words. It’s not fair to say that she never uses honorifics, for as she started to use polite words, she further said safeguarding the shrine in the sentence “A sobbing girl alone at the dark street”. Even worse, the moment she found the girl a yokai without eyes, nose and mouth, she drop-kicked her without hesitation (or any awareness of prank).

Besides, she frequently uses such second-person appellation as “ya!”, “you!” and “you idiot”.

This is just a habit thought by her in order to memorize names of ling, Unzan, Eirin, Sanae, Yukari, Marisa etc. If not, it’s said she seems to fail to make it among all these names.

She barely listens to others’ words.

However, when Marisa in Wild and Horned Hermit told her about nature of globular lightning, her face turned pale with the thought of he body set fire to itself in her mind.

She is desirous of saisen and valuable things while ZUN illustrates that “Reimu, Marisa and so on are leading a happy life”.

• In terms of godly power, valuable things or daily necessities are occupied by her. For example, in Ibarakasen, as she borrowed the metallic power from Kanayamahiko no Kami, she produced a kind of precious metal (palladium alloy) overnight. In Bougetsushou, she produced and put on the clothes suddenly with the help of Marisa’s power. The reason why saisen is in shortage is that the shrine locates at the remote boundary so that few people visit it. Besides, there are often powerful yokai around Hakurei shrine. By the way, in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Reimu ever said “because I take money with me, I can’t go on walking and I can’t even go back home”. In the shop named Fragrant Rain Temple owned by Rinnosuke, whether she buys clothes or other things, or she asks to make tools for her, she either pays On a credit or with products snatched from yokais. Even if she usually says she does not have money, there is still A description of her outdoor purchase in human village. She deals with payment On a credit or snatches without any gentle formula, but such behaviors appear in the section as follows:
  • in Suimusou, when she talks with Sakuya, she said “by the way, saisen box is under here yo”, “aa, donation of one dollar is still nice”, “by the way, saisen box is under here yo”, “a good saisen box is under here yo”.
• in Eiyashou, on the verge of incidents’ occurrence, she gets the payment through resolving the incident from Yukari Yakumo (every generation of Hakurei’s miko expect nothing from saisen but make a living through resolving incidents).
  • in Hisouten, when she talks with Alice, she said， “what if I start a part-time job named worshipping human puppets?”
  • in Chireiden, she told Suika “ay, Hakurei shrine is truly an impoverished place” --in the role’s character introduction part of [[Seirensen>Undefined Fantastic Object

]], “Reimu’s fundamental pursuit is money”.

• • in Ibarakasen, Reimu has a plan of selling goods at Kappa’s dam and she excitingly thinks with plenty of stamina “now I finally can say goodbye to the poor shrine!”

Besides, Reimu doesn’t know about “concept of common goods’ value”. When she robs the book from yokai, she thought the book was valuable for the conception that “yokai is so cautious with the book” (she doesn’t care about the production or the age of the book).

For Reimu, “nothing but paper and metal are valuable”. So far, she still thinks highly of payment on credit or payment with book snatched.

On one side, Rinnosuke tells Reimu “as for your debt, such a book is valueless”. But Reimu ignores others’ words (the first half of chapter 1 from Kourindou).

The meal in Ibarakasen is described as rice crackers, fresh cod tempura, fried food, rice, grilled fish and tea (there is no priesthood rituals before meals but merely saying “I’m starting now”.

It seems a simple meal from the perspective of modern people; however, the destitute scene scene was particularly absent.

In addition, there are descriptions that precious metal and clothes have been collected by godly power as the narrative (from Wild and Horned Hermit and Bougetsushou). However, it’s unknown how the supplies are specifically provided.

• ability of float
  • “she is capable of flying. In other words, she is saved from gravitation. Whether it’s gravitation by earth, any enormous pressure on her, or threat of any power, they’re all a piece of cake for her. She is an amazing miko who can fly or float freely in the sky of Gensokyo. No matter how powerful her enemy is, they’re weak in front of her.” (an excerpt from manual of Imperishable Night)
  • “Fantasy Nature”、based on ZUN’s words, “in any respects, Reimu is invincible with the flying-in-the-sky setting. If no time limit put on flying, nobody can compete with her”. Marisa said, “the complete Reimu is inaccessible. She is the Invisible human in an opaque form”. “in terms of “Reimu’s ultimate skill”, “I use Spell Card as playing with barrage. If not, I won’t win”, an excerpt from (comment of Imperishable Night and The Grimoire of Marisa).
• ability as the Hakurei Shrine maiden
  • she is capable of killing yokai with yin-yang orbs, gohei, purification rod, ofuda and so on. They are Reimu’s main weapon.
• lucky and intuitive
  • she is so lucky that she won’t lose in battle with serious attitude. She can smell the risk and avoid it when it is one inch from her.
  • especially she has an excellent intuition on a solution of incidents. Without any clue, she can finally find out the truth with her intuition.
• godly power
  • at the final stage of Kourindou＝preface of “Bougetsushou>Cage in Lunatic Runagate”, she has ability cultivated. If she performs blessings, she can borrow power from the god.
  • the ability is similar to that of Watatsuki no Yorihime where she can turn to god for help. Is this the aim of The trainer of Reimu…?
• physical ability
• • compared with her supernatural power, physical action is ordinary. But she is quite energetic. She’s shoveling snow gently or running with Marisa at speed. Such works written in the books for her is not difficult.
  • her action can be seen in bullet screen.

She has plenty of excellent abilities, so that she is very powerful.

ZUN was at Meiji University attending a talk show. “Which is the most powerful in Gensokyo?” people asked. “eh, who? (he smiled) It obviously is …Reimu, isn’t it? I think so”, ZUN replied (an excerpt from [[「Exclusive Interview」form the clarification of Touhou, talk show at Meiji University

>http://animeiji.jp.land.to/easterndawn/report4.html]]).

• Q: based on the declaration of God, Reimu is not yokai but human, but why is that? She seems like a yokai.
  • A: it’s deoxyribonucleic acid… ([[“This is the end” of “the clarification of Touhou

” >http://animeiji.jp.land.to/easterndawn/report5.html]]※link extracted)

• • • deoxyribonucleic acid is what ZUN said Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

After all, this is perhaps “human because of DNA”.

Apart from Touhou Project, Reimu Hakurei also plays an active role in other games. In addition, she cooperates with various characters in those works.

Apart from TouHou Project, she also was invited to the battle together with Marisa in the 1st game named Syusougyoku of SeiHo Project by Amusement Makers (now “The Way to be slain?” team).

At that time, her name is about to be set as “Reimu Hakurei” and she did not ride on Genjii. Her clothes were similar to that appeared in Makyo.

Besides, she also appears as a guest (her name became “Sayotyann” on the manual) in “Hakurei Miko” (producer: ZUN) in Doodle Kingdom, made by Taito Corporation, the PS2 game system.

ZUN thinks about another work with the same title where Reimu, the guest role, played on the battlefield (spell card also appeared in “Rakugaki Oukoku 2: Maoujo no Tatakai”, the game 2.0). By the way, the name of “Fantasy Seal bomb”, the representative skill of Reimu now, has ever been used in this game. In fact, it’s the debut of the name.

After that, a decision has been made that she will cooperate within Saigyouji Yoyuko in LORD of VERMILION Re:2 produced by SQEX.

Rarity is SR card. It is a particular skill that can recover HP of the user and enhance its defense in a specific time on the range of “Hakurei Dai-kekkai”.

So, there are Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami from SNK, Yuu Narukami, Elizabeth, and Aigis(EXO) from ATLUS, Kann U from SEGA, Ragna=the=Bloodedge, Jin=Kisaragi, and Noel=Vermillion from Arc System Works CO.,LTD., Maou by EnterBrain, Estelle Bright from NiHon Falcom Corporation, Magic: The Gathering of Wizards produced by the Coast LLC., Arisu Kuonnji and Aoko Aozaki from TYPE-MOON, BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER from Anime BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER. The role above-mentioned begin to play their roles together in such games as Final Fantasy Adventure, Ku, Wu, E, A, ・, ENiTu, Ku, Su, To, Ha.

It’s been decided that she will play a role together with Yoyuko Saigyouji again in LORD of VERMILION Ⅲ, the sequel. Her special skill is the same as that in The previous sequel.

Re: She will be again parted with 2 characters who cooperated with her in LORD of VERMILIONⅡ.

Besides, after Nendoroid Generation, Reimu will work with セイバー produced by TYPE-MOON and Toosakarinn in a game.

Anew, she will collaborate with Jin Kazama and Riri (Tekken) from Bandai Namco , Eren Jaeger, Levi from Koudansha, Mikoto Misaka and Indexfrom Dengeki Bunko, Ky Kiske, Sol Badguy, Millia Rage, Tsubaki=Yayoi and Rachel·Alucard from Arc System Works Co.,Ltd., Urith and Tamaerihimeby selector_infected_WIXOSS, same as Saber, Gilgamesh, Archer (Fate/stay night) from TYPE-MOON as well as each, work, from Square Enix for the first time.

Nendoroid Reimu appeared in Nendoroid Generation released on 2nd of Feb. 2012.

Again, on the 30th of Apr. 2015, when music by Tuho arrangement were included in “beatmania series”, the music game released by KONAMI HOLDINGS CORPORATION, Reimu was added into a new character with Marisa in the album named pop'n music lapistoria.

It’s possible that “Russian Caravan Rhapsody” (the title music) would be set as the music at the moment of game clearance for the sake of character.

(There is the icon of Reimu on the banner despite the presence of Hong Meiling on the cover of “Russian Caravan Rhapsody”.)

The moment the image battle of “Reimu Hakurei VS Funassyi” in pope area became a hot topic, Mr ZUN retweeted the topic with words, quote, “I don’t want to be the winner” and also quote “Reimu＜Funassyi” in game 1.0 and so on.

In the 2nd chapter released on 14th of May, ZUN arranged “Ayakashikakushi”.

(on the cover of the album are the icon of Yukari Yakumo and that of Reimu of course)

In terms of Dance! Devil, Fantasy Sea is released again on the center of the page. It seems that its level is high as a lunatic one.

Marisa Kirisame , Alice Margatroid and Remilia Scarlet play their roles in animated FEVER WIN.

Also, according to setting for characters in Pop’n, birthday and holiday have been designed. But the columns where birthdays of Marisa and Reimu should have been written is filled with “-”. That is to say, their birthdays have been hidden. It seems no celebration of birthday is set.

But in pop'n music éclale, even if prerequisite not met, their hidden character at first can be revealed and utilized without conditions .

lines In the battlefield in pop’n

Although two entry songs were included in Taiko Drum Master made by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. at Nikonikotyokai, two entry songs were also included by version up and game center.

From Feb. to Mar.，Nikonikotyokai 3 and Hakurei Jinnjiareitaisai 11 were held. Touhou characters were on display and were on stage together in reality. (then, new melody’s arrangement was included as well).

Besides, at last it’s Taiko Drum Master on 3DS! Mystery adventure story mode, kind and helpful Marisa Kirisame and Sakuya Izayoi will be in the story (Debut of ToHo characters on Nintendo 3DS).

Moreover, it’s said that it’s actually the first time for Kirby Mass Attack and King Dedede made by Nintendo, Cocotama made by Bandai,※1Korosensei and Saiki Kusuo made by Shōnen Jump(correctly named Weekly Jump), ※2 Matyu made by Studio Ghibli Inc., Naruhodou Ryuuiti and Otomo Airou made by CAPCOM, Jibanyann made by Level-5, Tamazu made by GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. to be together.

The amount of cooperation is no less than that of so-called still fighter and famous Mr.・Video game.

※1only Taiko Drum Master comes to the stage

※2according to Suzuki Tosio, it’s the 15th anniversary of the character

Reimu Hakurei

Reimu Hakurei