Reimu Hakurei
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| Reimu Hakurei in Hidden Star in Four Seasons | ||
| Shrine Maiden of Paradise | ||
| Urban Management Officer of Gensokyo | ||
| Basics | ||
| Name (translation) |
Reimu Hakurei | |
|---|---|---|
| Name (origin) |
||
| Species | Human | |
| Abilities | Ability to Float Aura Manipulation Powers as the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei | |
| Hair color | Black | |
| Occupation | Shrine Maiden of Hakurei | |
| Belongs to | Hakurei Shrine | |
| Location | Gensokyo | |
| Moe Points | Shrine Maiden,horsetail,large bowknot,black hair,non-sessou(2nd set),gangei(2nd set) | |
| relative characters | ||
| friend Marisa Kirisame friend Yakumo Yukari old friendAlice Margatroid opponent Kochiya Sanae | ||
Reimu Hakurei is the main protagonist of the Touhou Project series along with the deuteragonist, Marisa Kirisame. As the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, she manages the Hakurei Border of Gensokyo and exterminates troublesome youkai.That's why she's called UM officer. Reimu has played the role of a playable character in the majority of the games. She's very popular among Touhou fans.
Contents
General Information
Personality
Her personality is straightforward, optimistic, and a bit curious. She's quick to anger if offended, but just as quick to offer help to those in need. According to Komachi, Reimu has an innocent heart that can't truly hate anyone.[1] While rather lazy in her free time, she's highly devoted to her duties as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, resulting in a "shoot first and ask questions later" attitude to youkai extermination. This makes her known to exterminate youkai indiscriminately, regardless of how much of a threat they represent to her or others. One example is Tokiko, who was ambushed by Reimu while she was, in Reimu's own words, "reading and minding her own business". Apparently, however, she actually helps youkai in trouble when it really matters. For instance, in Silent Sinner in Blue, she kept Rei'sen (disguised as an earth youkai-rabbit) at her place to help healing her injuries, giving her the futon she uses to sleep and even going to Eientei to inform its residents that a wounded rabbit was at her shrine. It's been stated that Reimu treats everyone the same, whether they're humans, youkai or gods, giving them no particular respect or disrespect. This habit has caused her to inadvertently befriend many youkai she defeats. While she tries to keep youkai away from her shrine, this is because it makes it harder to do her job rather than because she dislikes them. At the end of the symposium in Symposium of Post-mysticism, when Reimu goes to break it up, Miko notes that though Reimu says she wants to eliminate all the youkai, she actually just wants to attain a peace in Gensokyo that doesn't require violence, like the others present wish.
Abilities
- Ability to float
While flight is extremely common among inhabitants of Gensokyo, Reimu's ability extends beyond that. She can use this power to teleport short distances, but rarely seems to be aware that she's doing so. The ultimate expression of this ability is Fantasy Nature, which allows Reimu to float away from reality and become intangible from enemies' attacks while active; this ability was considered too powerful for use as a spell card until Marisa Kirisame gave it a name and time limit.
- Aura manipulation
It's stated in the omake.txt (Japanese: おまけ.txt) of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil that Reimu can control the natural spirits of living things, an ability which isn't listed in any source afterwards. No clear instance of this ability has been displayed in canon.
- Powers as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden
As the Hakurei shrine maiden, Reimu can handle the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs, and is trained in youkai extermination techniques as well as standard duties like performing blessings. Reimu is also capable of invoking Gensokyo's native gods into her body, but she isn't well-trained enough to do so reliably.
- Barrier techniques
Reimu displays great aptitude with magical barriers (beyond that normally associated with shrine maidens), presumably related to her work in maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier. Among her techniques are barriers that explode, push enemies (or herself), or act as portals for her other attacks. Reimu is capable of dismantling barriers and seals too complex for Marisa Kirisame[2][3] and Patchouli Knowledge[4] to understand, with what Marisa calls her "cheat technique".[5]
Occupation
Reimu is the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, and one of the main "incident solvers" in Gensokyo. She and others characterize the time she spends at the shrine to be largely boring and uneventful. While she's sometimes serious about her duties, she can't seem to get many worshipers at her shrine. It appears that her youkai extermination is her only method of earning even a thin salary. Kanako Yasaka has stated that if she was to acquire a tremendous amount of faith, she could become a goddess, but at the moment she acts more like a youkai.
Possessions
In most of the Touhou games, Reimu uses the Yin-Yang Orbs in combat. In Subterranean Animism they also functioned as communicators with people above the surface. In addition, she usually carries a gohei, sometimes referred to as her purification rod, originally prepared by Rinnosuke Morichika.
She also possesses a great amount of ofuda, sacred paper charms with anti-youkai properties that she uses to fight, seal or exterminate youkai of any kind in her danmaku. Apparently, she can also use them to create barriers and even clones of herself.[6] Like the Yin-Yang Orbs, she uses them in most, if not all, games she has appeared in, either as a normal shot (usually with homing properties) or as bullets for her spell cards.
It seems that from the minigame Gold Rush, Reimu has a high amount of koban, something Seija Kijin wanted to stead.
Machinery
In PC-98 canon, she possesses a robot called Ruukoto, given to her by Yumemi Okazaki as a reward for defeating her. She hasn't been seen outside of Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream.
Backstory
Not much is known about Reimu's history prior to the events of the games. ZUN does mention in one of his Shanghai Alice Correspondence documents that there was a previous Hakurei Shrine Maiden, and it's generally assumed that there's a line of them.
In Chapter 25 of Wild and Horned Hermit, with night's darkness fast approaching, an annoyed Reimu remarks, "Believe not they will be around for you always: parents and daylight". The quote was thought to imply that Reimu knew her parents, but they're gone and she's rather bitter about it. However, her line was modified from a haiku about the transient, changing nature of things, the original subjects being parents and money (-{いつまでも / あると思うな / 親と金}-Incorrect template argument: Use ja for Japanese). This indicates it was not likely to be a reference to her own parents, after all.
Character Design
Origin
Reimu Hakurei as a Shrine Maiden in Highly Responsive to Prayers is based on the character Sayo-chan, who's the protagonist of KiKi KaiKai.[7] The Bakebake are also based on this game. In general, ZUN thought it was a good idea to include a shrine maiden in an STG compared to other typical futuristic STGs simply because it was unusual at the time of her creation.[citation needed]
Name
Reimu's full name is Reimu Hakurei (Japanese: 博麗 霊夢). The characters for Reimu's last name Hakurei (Japanese: 博麗) literally mean something along the lines of "esteemed companion". The first word Haku (Japanese: 博) means "wide" or "exposition" while Rei (Japanese: 麗) means "lovely", "graceful", or "beautiful". Her first name Reimu (Japanese: 霊夢, lit. "spirit/soul dream") is a relevant Japanese word that refers to a "divine revelation made through dreams".
In the PC-98 game era, her name was written with a slight difference. 博麗靈夢 was changed to 博麗霊夢 from Shuusou Gyoku onwards. "靈" is an uncommon form of "霊" with identical meanings. In the Japanese community, "博麗靈夢" is used to refer to Reimu in the PC-98 era specifically. Incidentally, Chinese (Taiwanese) fans who use the Traditional Chinese characters also adopt this style to refer to Reimu in general (old Japanese kanji form and traditional hanzi are basically identical).
Design
Reimu is of moderate height. In PC-98 canon, she is depicted as having purple hair and eyes, and she wears a large red ribbon at the back of her head, and red tubes on her sidelocks. From Story of Eastern Wonderland to Mystic Square she wears an outfit like a traditional shrine maiden uniform, with a red hakama over a white kimono.
However, her best known design is that of the Windows era. She has brown-black hair which varies in length and style between games (tending towards long and loose in later works), though she still wears a red ribbon and matching tubes on her sidelocks. She's still seen in her "shrine maiden uniform", but it now bears little in common with the standard uniform beyond the red-and-white colour scheme (which ZUN has acknowledged[8]). This uniform consists of a red skirt (rather than the standard hakama), a sleeveless red top with a white collar, tied with a yellow ribbon (a red ribbon in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Perfect Cherry Blossom, a blue one in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Subterranean Animism, Hopeless Masquerade, Urban Legend in Limbo and Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom), and a pair of white detached sleeves which expose her armpits and sarashi. Due to the color scheme, she's occasionally called the "red-white shrine maiden"[9]. Her shaman clothing and her purification rod came from Rinnosuke Morichika, but it's unknown who designs them. In chapter 7 of Strange and Bright Nature Deity, she used chopsticks with her left hand, and it was stated that she was left-handed (this statement was deleted in the collected edition), but she held a pen with her right hand in Subterranean Animism. It has been speculated by fans that, assuming this wasn't an art error, she may be ambidextrous or just used to writing with her right hand.
Reimu's Appearances
Unless specified, Reimu has played the role of a playable character in the majority of the games.
PC-98 Games
- Highly Responsive to Prayers
- Main article: Highly Responsive to Prayers#Story
A lone shrine sits Far East: the Hakurei Shrine. The powerful seal placed there has worn away, and many strange creatures are starting to come out. Now Reimu, seeking revenge (or possibly just to sate her curiosity), and armed with the shrine's treasure, the Yin-Yang Orbs, goes to the gate to face the non-human creatures inside. The gate will lead to either Makai or Hell depending on which route the player chooses.
- Story of Eastern Wonderland
- Main article: Story of Eastern Wonderland/Story
Reimu is training intensely in the harsh extremities of a mountain (or taking it easy), but when she returns to the shrine, she finds it infested by youkai, ghosts and other non-human creatures. With her faithful turtle Genjii and her trusty Yin-Yang Orbs, she sets out to find the one who caused the trouble. Her journey leads her to Rika, the culprit, as well as Mima, who has broken the seal placed on her in Highly Responsive to Prayers, and desires the power of the Yin-Yang Orbs for herself. Reimu is victorious in battle and learns the truth behind the Yin-Yang Orbs.
- Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream
- Main article: Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream/Translation/Reimu's Scenario
Things have been peaceful lately so Reimu has time to kill. When some old ruins appear near the shrine, promising a reward for whoever can manage to make it inside, she decides to enter a sort of tournament to decide who'll go in. This is the first time Reimu appeared as a boss. Assuming she's the player character, she defeats all six opponents and makes it inside to confront Chiyuri Kitashirakawa and Yumemi Okazaki, who have come from the real world in search of proof of magic. As a reward for defeating her, Yumemi gives Reimu the housekeeping robot Ruukoto.
- Lotus Land Story
- Main article: Lotus Land Story/Story
Reimu mulls over on how quiet things have been, but soon enough, youkai and spirits start flooding out into Gensokyo again, putting her shrine in danger. She confronts a few, then realizes this must have been the work of something bigger, and decides to go straight to the source of the issue. She makes her way through to the Fantasy World, where she finally meets Yuuka Kazami and defeats her.
- Mystic Square
- Main article: Mystic Square/Translation/Reimu's Scenario
A large outpour of demons are appearing throughout the land from Makai, and Reimu sets out to exterminate them. She reaches the creator of Makai itself, Shinki, and defeats her in battle. Afterwards, she learns that the youkai and demon overflow in Gensokyo is the fault of some kind of Makai travel agency. Shinki promises to do something about it, but the demons make their way back to the shrine anyway.
Spin-offs
- Immaterial and Missing Power
- Main article: Immaterial and Missing Power/Story#Reimu's Story
As Reimu makes preparations for an upcoming feast, both humans and youkai are drawn to the feast and are unable to stop partying. Reimu is suspicious of a strange mist that covers Gensokyo and goes to investigate. She roams around, beating up various characters she suspects to be the culprit. She cannot find them; but on the day of the feast, Suika Ibuki finally makes herself known, and Yukari Yakumo shows Reimu to her. Suika soons becomes attached to hanging out at the Hakurei Shrine.
- Shoot the Bullet
Reimu doesn't actually appear in Shoot the Bullet, but instead in a "Special story" that was added to the afterword. It shows that she and Marisa Kirisame are talking about a notebook Marisa found.
- Scarlet Weather Rhapsody
- Main article: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody/Story#Reimu's Story
The Hakurei Shrine is suddenly destroyed by an earthquake, but upon consulting with Marisa, Reimu finds out that no one else felt it, so there must be something odd going on. She goes around to various suspicious characters, including Komachi Onodzuka, who Reimu initially suspects. However, it's not her, so Reimu ends up making her way towards Heaven, where the celestials Iku Nagae and Tenshi Hinanawi reside. Tenshi reveals she started the incident simply because she was bored watching everyone else getting involved in incidents and wanted to start her own. She also claims she destroyed Reimu's shrine so Reimu would be motivated to resolve the incident; Reimu promptly resolves the incident by defeating Tenshi. Afterwards, Tenshi has a legion of celestials help rebuild her shrine.
- Touhou Hisoutensoku
- Main article: Touhou Hisoutensoku/Translation/Meiling's Scenario#Stage 2
Reimu, not the main character, is only playable via selectable character to play with. In Sanae's scenario, Reimu fights Sanae in the Underground Geyser Center, but is defeated. Later on, she reads about Hisoutensoku later on in a newspaper in the ending. Also in Meiling's scenario, she doesn't actually appear here, to which is in fact a pseudo-Reimu who was sent by the Giant Catfish to assassinate Hong Meiling in her dreams, but was defeated.
- Double Spoiler
In Double Spoiler, Reimu appeared as a stage Ex target, where she uses a few spell cards and had Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou take photos of her and her danmaku.
- Fairy Wars
Reimu appeared in Fairy Wars as a cameo on the Route B1 ending. As Cirno and the Three Mischievous Fairies were terrorising Reimu when she's unaware of who's attacking her, she gets angry and shoots bullets omnidirectionally.
- Hopeless Masquerade
Reimu represents Shintoism in the religious war between Shintoism, Buddhism, and Taoism. She finds that "hope" is being sapped from the village people by Hata no Kokoro and battles her to stop her.
- Impossible Spell Card
- Main article: Impossible Spell Card#Story
After apparently reading the newspaper by the tengu about a mischief-making amanojaku, Reimu becomes one of the many strong youkai and humans to try and stop Seija Kijin, appearing on day 8. She uses spell cards that are considered impossible to dodge.
- Gold Rush
Reimu appears as the boss in the one-stage minigame Gold Rush. Extending from Impossible Spell Card, Seija Kijin somehow acquired the ultimate 10th "rule-breaking" item the Miracle Mallet (Real), which is capable of destroying danmaku, and decides to make use of it by robbing the Hakurei Shrine before its power runs out. Reimu uses three spell cards and non-spell cards on Seija before she's defeated.
- Urban Legend in Limbo
Reimu appears as a playable character in Urban Legend in Limbo. Reimu finds Marisa Kirisame at Kourindou and wanted her to taste some mushrooms for poison, but Marisa attacked her with occult power. Reimu was confused, seeing a bizarre ball of sort. She then met Kasen Ibaraki who seemed to know about the ball. She finds out that Reimu has an Occult Ball, to which she tries to take off her. After she was defeated, she warns that the ball is dangerous. Eventually that night, Reimu encounters a mysterious figure.
Literature
- Curiosities of Lotus Asia
- Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red
- Main article: Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red/Reimu
Shortly after the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom, Aya Shameimaru attends a flower viewing at the Hakurei Shrine, where she meets Reimu, who's in a foul mood since no one wants to help her clean up after event. Aya plies her with sake and questions her about the incident, commenting in the article that "Reimu just seems to be a laid-back drunkard". In the follow-up interview, Reimu claims Aya's paper is full of lies and insists her account of the incident is true, though Aya still doesn't recognize Reimu's deeds.
- Silent Sinner in Blue
- Eastern and Little Nature Deity, Strange and Bright Nature Deity, and Oriental Sacred Place
- Symposium of Post-mysticism
- Main article: Symposium of Post-mysticism/Bunbunmaru Newspaper 12
In Symposium of Post-mysticism, Reimu appeared on part 6 of the symposium. It was stated that Reimu was hiding and hearing over the whole symposium, that was attended by Hieda no Akyuu, Marisa Kirisame, Kanako Yasaka, Byakuren Hijiri and Toyosatomimi no Miko. When she was revealed by Akyuu, Marisa noticed that she had an angry look on her face (although she seems to not be angry with Akyuu). That's because she's not happy with the discussion the group was having, believing that it's all nonsense. She slammed a pile of newspapers in front of them to prove how bad the youkai are and tells them to stop the symposium immediately. She was requested by the humans of the Human Village to stop this as they were aware – and felt uncomfortable – of "non-humans" discussing on changing the way of Gensokyo's life. The group were unhappy with her personality and her way of "fight-first, ask-later" attitude towards youkai, and can't even spend another minute finishing their sake.
There was also an article included, written by Aya Shameimaru, that involved Reimu's broken-down Hakurei Shrine during the events of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. It stated that it collapsed due to a localised earthquake and that the roof caved into the shrine. Aya found it suspicious that a celestial, that been Tenshi Hinanawi, came to help and re-build it.
- Wild and Horned Hermit
- Forbidden Scrollery
Seihou Project
- Shuusou Gyoku
- Main article: Shuusou Gyoku/Story/Extra Scenario
Reimu has made a guest appearance as the second Extra stage boss of Seihou Project's first work Shuusou Gyoku, a danmaku game series by the junior doujin circle "Shunsatsu sare do?", where ZUN also contributed music and art to the game. It seems like ZUN put her in the game along with Marisa Kirisame. Her title was "Eternal Shrine Maiden" and her theme was "Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients". To add to this, Yuuka Kazami made a guest appearances in the following work, Kioh Gyoku.
She seems to have no view towards the Seihou World; she doesn't know that there's no vegetation and has no thoughts about scientific machinery. After VIVIT defeated Marisa at the Hakurei Shrine in Gensokyo, Marisa was then thudded by Reimu for fighting at the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu attacked her with two purification rods before she could explain what she was doing. After Reimu lost, VIVIT told her that she was looking for the Holy Grail, causing Reimu to become confused and start asking questions.
Relationships
Although Reimu often shows up as the main character, she doesn't participate in mundane activities to the extent Marisa Kirisame does, limiting her familiarity with most of Gensokyo's population. Nevertheless, she has interacted with almost every other character that has ever made a physical appearance, with a few exceptions such as the Giant Catfish, Renko Usami, and Maribel Hearn.
Marisa Kirisame
Reimu's best friend is likely Marisa Kirisame, who spends a lot of her time at the shrine. They're there together the majority of the time in various print works, prologues, and extra stage prologues, hanging out together and discussing or attending the latest events in Gensokyo. Reimu has known Marisa since Story of Eastern Wonderland, where Mima had Marisa fight Reimu. Their friendship may have started soon after that, as in all of the bad endings, Marisa decides she needs to train more, and drags Reimu along to train with her, much to Reimu's chagrin.
Yukari Yakumo
Despite her antagonistic personality, Yukari Yakumo mentors Reimu by pushing her to increase her spiritual powers, such as learning how to invoke the gods in Silent Sinner in Blue. She also occasionally seeks Reimu's assistance in resolving incidents in Imperishable Night and Subterranean Animism.
Rinnosuke Morichika
Reimu is familiar with Rinnosuke Morichika, a shopkeeper who owns Kourindou, who she sometimes visits to hang out or for wares (and sometimes shoplifts). She apparently has a large unpaid tab for requested items and services, but denies it since Rinnosuke "never accepts money" (which he denies being the case). Rinnosuke was also the one that originally prepared her purification rod for her use.
Sanae Kochiya
Despite being the priestess of a rival shrine, Sanae Kochiya is on friendly terms with Reimu and appears frequently in Wild and Horned Hermit alongside Reimu and Marisa. She came on a bit strongly when she and Reimu first met, but she really thought she was helping the Hakurei Shrine out by attempting to get it to switch gods to Kanako Yasaka. After Mountain of Faith, Sanae offered to help Reimu as a fellow shrine maiden to gather faith for the shrine, and appears to have been friends with Reimu since then.
Genjii
In the PC-98 canon, Reimu used a turtle as a means for flight until the end of Mystic Square; that turtle was Genjii. Reimu calls him "gramps".
Three Fairies of Light
Reimu is often the target of pranks by the Three Fairies of Light, and Reimu tends to exterminate them on sight whenever she catches them (unless Marisa's escorting them). As of Oriental Sacred Place, the three fairies moved into a tree near the Hakurei Shrine and become Reimu's neighbors, increasing the amount of pranks even more. Reimu aims to evict the fairies, but cannot find their treehouse, which is actually located on the Hakurei Border. Eventually, in an attempt to befriend Reimu so she'll no longer threaten them, the three fairies challenge her to a battle, reasoning that Reimu tends to befriend many youkai after fighting them. After an intense battle, Reimu finally defeats the fairies (instantly), and points out that their line of reasoning is utterly ridiculous. Despite this, Marisa finds that Reimu befriended the fairies after all, and as of the end of Oriental Sacred Place, the fairies now happily openly spend time at the shrine while helping Reimu out with various chores.
Byakuren Hijiri
Reimu views Byakuren Hijiri and the Myouren Temple as a rival of sorts to herself and the Hakurei Shrine. In Ten Desires, Toyosatomimi no Miko points out that Reimu is friendly towards Byakuren. Although Reimu says they're religious rivals, she doesn't seem to deny it. In one of her Undefined Fantastic Object endings, Reimu is depressed at how quickly Byakuren's temple is picking up followers compared to her own shrine. By the time of Strange and Bright Nature Deity, Reimu is angry at the temple for stealing away her shrine's followers (ignoring that her shrine never had (m)any followers in the first place), but Byakuren seems unaware of this.
Kasen Ibaraki
Kasen Ibaraki is a regular at the shrine and acts as a mentor (and sometimes guardian) of Reimu, whom she fears is too concerned with worldly desires.
Minor Relationships
- The Hakurei God
Reimu knows next to nothing about the god dwelling in her shrine, making her unable to provide it with faith despite her efforts. Byakuren stated in one of the endings for Undefined Fantastic Object that the god is mad due to this.
- Ruukoto
In the PC-98 canon, she obtains a robotic maid named Ruukoto as a servant at the end of Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream though no reference has been made to it since.
- Mima
In the PC-98 canon, Mima is an Akuryou who haunts the surroundings of the Hakurei Shrine, after many confrontations and being resealed by Reimu, she decides to spend her days making fun of the shrine maiden.
- Suika Ibuki
Suika Ibuki, who often freeloads her shrine after the events of Immaterial and Missing Power is also is her ally during Subterranean Animism. Reimu saw Suika's presence as a nuisance at first, but never really bothered with driving her away.
- Aya Shameimaru
Aya Shameimaru, the tengu reporter was also her ally during the events of Subterranean Animism.
- Unnamed kitsune & Unnamed kuda-gitsune
In Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 8, The Unnamed kitsune offered to help Reimu gain worshipers after being caught disguised as Marisa during a party at Hakurei Shrine. She was, however, deceiving Reimu by letting her use the powers of her kuda-gitsune. Using her ability, they gathered worshipers. Kasen Ibaraki discovered that these fox youkai had been consuming Reimu's willpower and wealth as payment for their help. However, they managed to walk away from the Hakurei Shrine with all her wealth.
Gallery
Skills
Spell Cards
Additional Information
- Reimu is the most frequent character to appear in the Touhou Project games, with Marisa Kirisame coming second. This is because Reimu literally appeared in every single Touhou game, two times more than Marisa as she didn't appear in Highly Responsive to Prayers and the recent minigame Gold Rush. Various exceptions would show to change these statistics such as Shoot the Bullet, which both characters didn't appear (but Marisa was used on the .exe's icon), but the two appeared in an afterword story, and Fairy Wars had only Marisa, but Reimu was still shown in a cameo.
- Reimu appears on the cover for all the five PC-98 games.
- Reimu seems to be scared before and after the boss battle with the Five Magic Stones, making this the only ever time that Reimu was scared and/or afraid of a boss before and after the battle.
- Most of her theme from Lotus Land Story sounds similar to Elis and Kikuri's theme from Highly Responsive to Prayers, "Magic Mirror".
- It's originally stated that she lives alone at the shrine, but other rarely seen characters (Mima and SinGyoku) are known to stay there or near there as well. Even then, she claims that most youkai visitors are nuisances, and she'd prefer to be left alone. Marisa Kirisame seems to be one of the few who she wouldn't drive away.
- Watatsuki no Yorihime from Silent Sinner in Blue – along with VIVIT from the Seihou Project – are thought to be the only ever known characters to defeat Reimu, who hasn't yet been defeated by the shrine maiden. However, Yorihime's victory was from a manga, and VIVIT's victory was from a separate series.
- In Imperishable Night, Reimu is the only one whose partner doesn't mention the danger of the full moon.
- Reimu's ultimate technique Fantasy Nature (Japanese: 夢想天生 musou tensei, "innate fantasy gained at birth") is homophonous with the ultimate technique of the Hokuto Shinken school in Fist of the North Star, Musou Tensei (Japanese: 無想転生 musou tensei, "nil-thought rebirth"), and has much the same effect.
- In Touhou Hisoutensoku, if you activate Fantasy Nature successfully in a 3rd round, a remix of "Eastern Mystical Love Consultation" will play which resembles Ai wo Torimodose, the opening theme of the Fist of the North Star anime (an instrumental version of which usually plays whenever Kenshiro is about to win a fight).
- In Touhou Hisoutensoku, one of her alternative palettes looks similar to VIVIT. Also, one of her palettes seems to be another maid homage, Ruukoto, or possibly Sanae Kochiya's colours. The palette also seems to resemble Mima from Highly Responsive to Prayers. Her white/light gray palette seems to resemble Toki from Hokuto no Ken and possibly somewhat similar to her white outfit from the fangame Concealed the Conclusion.
- When playing Yukari's story mode in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Reimu breaks down in tears in the ending after Yukari defeats Tenshi and reduces the Hakurei Shrine to rubble for the second time, with Sakuya and Youmu looking on helplessly (although Suika offers to help rebuild it). This marks the first and only time where she's seen crying in a storyline scenario.
- The shrine maiden at the end of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise is probably Reimu. She has Reimu's title, "Shrine Maiden of Paradise" (and her personality), and according to Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red's Music Column, the shrine maiden in the song that accompanies the ending section is Reimu (so basically, this shrine maiden has Reimu's song and title). However, only the shrine maiden at the end is referred to as the shrine maiden of paradise. Thus it's possible that the shrine maiden seen in the first half of the story is a different person altogether.
- A "13th Shrine Maiden" signs off the Gensokyo Record in Perfect Cherry Blossom's prologue. ZUN has stated in an e-mail that the Gensokyo Record is unreliable (for one thing, the writing style of each section shows it was written by a different person each time), thus "there's a high possibility that Reimu isn't the 13th Hakurei shrine maiden." (technically, this also means there's no proof that the person who wrote that section of the record is a shrine maiden at all).
- It's shown in Oriental Sacred Place that the shrine sometimes gets various donations (including wine) from unknown sources (implied to be from the outside world, as the Hakurei Shrine lies on the border) and Yukari is shown in Oriental Sacred Place to sneak yen donations into the offering box when Reimu isn't looking.
- Although Reimu has successfully resolved the incidents in each major Touhou game, it's possible that her win rate throughout the actual events of the games wasn't 100%. Perfect Memento in Strict Sense states that Reimu likes to request rematches until she finally wins. In essence, Reimu apparently has had to use a few continues every once in a while, but she still manages to get a good ending.
- VIVIT made reference to Reimu in both Kioh Gyoku and Samidare, believing she met her – when talking to Yuuka Kazami – in the former, and referring to her as "red-white" in the latter.
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- ↑ Wild and Horned Hermit chapter 5
- ↑ Perfect Cherry Blossom: Marisa's scenario
- ↑ Perfect Cherry Blossom: Reimu's scenario
- ↑ Oriental Sacred Place: Chapter 15
- ↑ Forbidden Scrollery: Chapter 7
- ↑ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - Skill Card: Instant Dimensional Rift
- ↑ kikikaikai.gif
- ↑ ZUN's reply to messages on the former Gensou Bulletin Board 3
- ↑ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Extra stage
