This is a list of the characters that belong to the Touhou Project

Touhou Project

The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a Japanese dōjin game series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part...

, a series of games by ZUN from Team Shanghai Alice

Team Shanghai Alice

is a one-man Japanese dojin game developer specializing in shoot 'em ups. The team's only releases thus far have been the Touhou Project games and related merchandise.-Games:*The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil...

. Most Touhou characters reside in a fictional realm called Gensokyo, where human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

s and yōkai

Yōkai

are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...

coexist. Though the yōkai do often prey on the humans while the humans try to exorcise them, no racial animosity actually exists between the two. Many characters also have unique abilities. Since the PC-98 games (from Highly Responsive to Prayers to Mystic Square) are relatively obscure, the characters in and after Embodiment of Scarlet Devil are more widely recognized and popular.

Major characters

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Mainly able to fly in the sky. Can also call on heavenly powers in her spellcards.
• Residence: Hakurei Shrine
• Theme Songs
  • Mystic Oriental Love Consultation (PoDD, IaMP, SWR, Touhou 12.3)
  • Maiden's Capriccio (LLS, IaMP)
  • Dichromatic Butterfly ~ Ancients (Seihou: Shuushou Gyoku, Touhou 12.3)
  • Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle (IN)
  • Small Color of Spring ~ Colorful Path (PoFV)
• Also known as: Shrine Maiden of Paradise

Reimu is the main character of Touhou games 1-13. She is the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, a remote building far in the east where the boundaries of Gensokyo and the human world overlap. Reimu is very easygoing—some would say lazy—and hates training. As such, even though she is naturally talented, her offensive and magical abilities are only average. However, she has a strong sense of duty, and if it's for the sake of Gensokyo she can overcome almost any obstacle through sheer perseverance. Her main abilities are flying in the sky, good intuition, and getting along with everyone; even those who were once her enemies. In the games, she is characterized by her homing amulet

Amulet

An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...

s and yin-yang orbs. In addition to being in all of the Touhou games (save Touhou 9.5

Shoot the Bullet

is a shoot 'em up photography game, and is the ninth-and-a-half official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. It was first released in the 69th Comiket on December 30, 2005...

 and 12.8

Fairy Wars

is a shoot 'em up game, and is the 12.8th official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. The game was released on August 14, 2010 at Comiket 78. The game is the sequel to the Touhou Sangessei manga series as the illustrations were done by Makoto Hirasaka, the manga...

), she is featured in Seihou: Shuushou Gyoku as one of the Extra Bosses and in Graffiti Kingdom

Graffiti Kingdom

Graffiti Kingdom, known as Rakugaki Ōkoku 2: Maōjō no Tatakai in Japan, is a video game by Taito Corporation and Garakuta Studio, which was published in America by Hot-B for the PlayStation 2 console.-Gameplay:...

as "Flying Maiden", on which these games ZUN is involved. Due to the way she is often dressed, Reimu's exposed armpits are often used as targets for Internet jokes and memes.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: High-powered magic
• Residence: Forest of Magic
• Theme Songs:
  • Love-colored Magic (SoEW, Touhou 12.3)
  • Dim. Dream (PoDD)
  • Vessel of Stars ~ Casket of Stars (LLS, SWR)
  • The Witches' Ball ~ Magus (Seihou: Shuushou Gyoku, IaMP)
  • Love-colored Master Spark (IN)
  • Oriental Dark Flight (PoFV)
  • Magus Night (FW)
• Also known as: Ordinary Sorceress

Marisa is the secondary main character of Touhou games 3-13, although she makes her first appearance in the second game (Story of Eastern Wonderland) as an enemy. Marisa is a human magician who lives in a cluttered house in the Forest of Magic. She is friends with Reimu and visits her often, but otherwise is solitary and spends most of her time researching magic. She is also an avid collector stuffing her house with various items, and would go "borrowing" things from others without returning them. She is selfish, sometimes violent, and has a disagreeable manner. Underneath, though, she is honest and a hard worker. This makes it strange that she is friends with Reimu, whose powers are purely from talent while she had to work very hard to get her own to the same level. Her ability is high-level destructive magic. In the games, her attacks are characterized by stars and lasers. Consistent to her "borrowing", many of her spells are lifted from other characters, such as her signature "Master Spark" which was originally Yuka Kazami's, or her "Nondirectional Laser" attack, which was originally Patchouli's attack. She also appears in Seihou: Shuushou Gyoku as one of the Extra Bosses.

Highly Responsive to Prayers

• Theme Song: The Positive and Negative

The stage 5 boss. A gate keeper that has three forms: as a yin-yang orb, a female priestess, or a male priest.

• Theme Song: Angel's Legend

The stage 10 boss of the Makai

Makai

Makai is a Japanese house DJ. It is well known for his collaborations with Japanese vocalists, such as "Garden of Love" with Thelma Aoyama, which topped the iTunes Japan internal charts.-Studio albums:...

 route. A hovering set of evil eyes, connected by electricity.

• Species: Devil
  Devil
  The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
  
  
• Theme Song: Magic Mirror

The innocent devil, stage 15 boss of the Makai route.

• Species: Angel
  Angel
  Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
  
  
• Residence: Fallen Shrine
• Theme Song: Now, until the moment you die, Let's die all together

The Angel of Death, final boss of the Makai route.

• Species: Demon
  Demon
  call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
  
  
• Residence: Hakurei Shrine
• Theme Song:
  • Angel's Legend (Highly Responsive to Prayers)
  • Complete Darkness (Story of Eastern Wonderland)
  • Reincarnation (Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream)

First appearing as the stage 10 boss of the Jigoku route, Mima returns in later PC-98 games with much greater roles. She is a Ghost that haunts the area around the Hakurei Shrine. She is very confident in her abilities, and even boastful of them. Although she claims during Story of Eastern Wonderland to want revenge against the entire human race it's not known what Mima's motivations for that are. She is also attempting to revive herself. Although she is often called a ghost, during Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream, Mima denies being dead and tries to explain herself as being "just a soul."

• Theme Song: Magic Mirror

Stage 15 boss of the Jigoku route. Alternately named the "Hellish Moon", she is a bronze moon-like orb surrounded by a sickly purple aura and engraved with the image of a young girl.

• Theme Song: Swordsman of a Distant Star

The Astral Knight, final boss of the Jigoku route.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)

Story of Eastern Wonderland

• Species: Turtle
• Ability: Flight

Reimu's pet turtle that she caught during her training. As he had lived for a very long time, he gained many mystic powers, one of which is to fly. Reimu rides on him to fly, for Touhou 2 to 5, but after that she learned to fly by herself, and Genjii has not been seen since then. ZUN has confirmed during an interview that Genjii lives in the pond behind the shrine.

• Species: Human
• Theme Song: She's in a Temper!!

An engineer in Gensokyo that is the boss of stage 1 and the extra stage. She pilots the "Flower Tank" on stage one and "Evil Eye Sigma" on the extra stage. Unlike many other scrolling shooters where mechs are the primary enemy, Rika is the only character in the series to pilot vehicles in a boss fight.

• Species: Human
• Location: Forest of Magic
• Theme Song: Power of Darkness

A female samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 who seeks the power of the Hakurei family. Stage 2 boss.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (Stage 4 boss)
• Mima (Final boss)

Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream

• Species: Witch
• Ability: Inability to grow old
• Theme Song: Tabula rasa ~ The Empty Girl

Ellen is a witch who is eternally young. In fact, she has lived so long she never remembers anything. Has a cat named Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

. She is a cameo from the manga Hatarakimono by Izumi Takemoto

Izumi Takemoto

is a Japanese manga artist. He attended Nihon University and majored in business. His first experience with science fiction was through the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the majority of his works reflect this SF influence. He is also a cat lover, and while cats frequently appear in his works,...

, who ZUN is a fan of.

• Species: Human
• Theme Song: Maniacal Princess

A princess who claims to be a police officer. She does not act as befits her rank, and is known to be a collector in things where other people find no interest in.

• Species: Poltergeist
  Poltergeist
  A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
  
  
• Theme Song: Vanishing Dream ~ Lost Dream

A one-sided poltergeist created by a mentally unstable girl. As the inhabitants of her house have stopped taking any notice of her, she is looking for another place to haunt.

• Species: Human
• Theme Song: Visionary Game ~ Dream War

One of the few believers in science in Gensokyo. However, she is also a considerably powerful magic user. Though she does not like magic much, science alone won't get her anywhere, so she mixes both. She may be the same as Rika from Touhou 2. She is the only meganekko

Meganekko

is a Japanese word which translates to "glasses girl"....

 in the PC-98 series, but not the only in the whole Touhou series.

• Species: Human
• Ability: Artificial Magic
• Residence: Dream Ruins
• Theme Song: Sailor of Time

Yumemi's assistant who acts overly familiar towards her. It seems their relationship is not simply boss/subordinate. Although she looks too young to be an assistant professor, it's because she earned her Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 (in comparative physics) at the age of 15. Speaks rather strangely, especially for a young girl. Most of her mannerisms were later adopted by Marisa.

• Species: Human
• Ability: Artificial Magic
• Residence: Dream Ruins
• Theme Song: Strawberry Crisis!!

Professor of comparative physics at an unnamed university in a world beyond Gensokyo. In this world, a grand unification theory

Grand unification theory

The term Grand Unified Theory, often abbreviated as GUT, refers to any of several similar candidate models in particle physics in which at high-energy, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model which define the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, are merged into one single...

 has been developed; when Yumemi presented an expanded theory that included magic to her academic society, she was laughed at. She came to Gensokyo to do research and make her case infallible.

• Species: Robot
• Residence: Hakurei Shrine

A nuclear-powered maid Reimu requested in the ending of Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream. She is the only non-controllable and non-fightable Touhou character to have appeared in an official Touhou game.

Also playable:

• Reimu Hakurei
• Mima
• Marisa Kirisame

Lotus Land Story

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Location: Mountain Path
• Theme Song: Decoration Battle

A very minor yōkai who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the game, her name appears as two question marks, and "Orange" is only revealed in the character profiles of the game.

• Species: Vampire
  Vampire
  Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
  
  
• Residence: Lake of blood
• Theme Song: Scarlet Symphony ~ Scarlet Phoneme

Kurumi is a vampiress that lives on an island in the center of the lake of blood. She guards the lake and prevents others from passing by unhindered.

• Species: Unknown
• Residence: Mugenkan
• Theme Song: Spirit Battle ~ Perdition crisis

Elliy is the gate guard of Mugenkan. Though seemingly powerful, the mansion rarely has any visitors, and thus she is out of practice as far as danmaku is concerned.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Residence: Mugenkan
• Theme Song: Sleeping Terror, Faint Dream ~ Inanimate Dream, Lovely Mound of Cherry Blossoms ~ Flower of Japan~ (Seihou: Kioh Gyoku)

Yuka is a powerful yōkai who lives in a mansion, Mugenkan, on the boundary between the dream world and the real world. In Lotus Land Story, an unknown act of hers radiated magical power across the worlds, sending the evil spirits in Reimu's shrine into a frenzy and attracting Marisa's notice and curiosity. She is often seen carrying a parasol, which is capable of firing the "Kyokutai Laser". This laser is later adopted by Marisa as her signature "Master Spark". She later appears in Seihou: Kioh Gyoku as an unlockable character.

For her later appearance in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, see Yuka Kazami.

• Species: Demon
  Demon
  call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
  
  
• Theme Song: Illusion of a Maid ~ Icemilk Magic

A human-looking, blonde-haired girl in a maid uniform. Younger sister of Gengetu. Although she is dressed like a servant, she tells the player characters that the area in which they fight is her world; it doesn't seem she works for Yuka or anybody else.

• Species: Demon
  Demon
  call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
  
  
• Theme Song: Cute Devil ~ Innocence

A blonde girl in pink with red bows and white, insect-like wings. Older sister of Mugetu. Seems to be the stronger of the two.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character, Stage 4 boss A)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character, Stage 4 boss B)

Mystic Square

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Residence: A mountain cave that holds a doorway to Makai
• Theme Song: Magic Formation ~ Magic Square

The gatekeeper of Makai, but she was easily downed. Her name comes from the Sara from Izumi Takemoto

Izumi Takemoto

is a Japanese manga artist. He attended Nihon University and majored in business. His first experience with science fiction was through the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the majority of his works reflect this SF influence. He is also a cat lover, and while cats frequently appear in his works,...

's short manga Crystal Egg.

• Species: Demon
  Demon
  call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
  
  
• Residence: Makai
  Makai
  Makai is a Japanese house DJ. It is well known for his collaborations with Japanese vocalists, such as "Garden of Love" with Thelma Aoyama, which topped the iTunes Japan internal charts.-Studio albums:...
  
  
• Theme Song: Spiritual Heaven

A resident of Makai, she attacks the main characters as they are invading. Her name comes from the character in Izumi Takemoto

Izumi Takemoto

is a Japanese manga artist. He attended Nihon University and majored in business. His first experience with science fiction was through the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the majority of his works reflect this SF influence. He is also a cat lover, and while cats frequently appear in his works,...

's short manga Downtown Stories: Rooftop Serenade.

• Species: Unknown (Human or Magician)
• Ability: Magic
• Residence: Pandæmonium
  Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost)
  Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in the epic poem Paradise Lost by the 17th century English poet John Milton."Pandæmonium" stems from Greek "παν", meaning "all" or "every", and "δαιμόνιον", meaning "little spirit" or "little angel", or, as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon", and later,...
  
  
• Theme Song: Plastic Mind, the Grimoire of Alice

A girl whose powers come from the forbidden "Grimoire

Grimoire

A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...

 of Alice" and is quite powerless without it. She first appears in stage 3, trying to stop the protagonists but fails eventually, she then returns in the extra stage. She is a reference to the Alices of Shin Megami Tensei

Shin Megami Tensei

is a console role-playing video game from Atlus that was originally released on October 30, 1992 and later on several platforms, although no installment was released outside of Japan. It was originally released on the Super Famicom and was later ported to the PC Engine Super CD-Rom and Mega-CD...

, Asura Blade: Sword of Dynasty

Asura Blade: Sword Of Dynasty

is a one-on-one fighting arcade game developed and published by Fuuki. The game series served as Fuuki's first attempt in the fighting genre, and part of their brief stint at arcade game manufacturing...

, and Alice in Wonderland.

For her later appearances in the Windows games, see Alice Margatroid.

• Species: Magician
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
  
• Residence: Makai
  Makai
  Makai is a Japanese house DJ. It is well known for his collaborations with Japanese vocalists, such as "Garden of Love" with Thelma Aoyama, which topped the iTunes Japan internal charts.-Studio albums:...
  
  
• Theme Song: Crimson Maiden ~ Crimson Dead!!

A black witch who appears with Mai on the fourth stage, and is angered when Mai is defeated before she is. Specializes in fire magic.

• Species: Magician
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
  
• Residence: Makai
  Makai
  Makai is a Japanese house DJ. It is well known for his collaborations with Japanese vocalists, such as "Garden of Love" with Thelma Aoyama, which topped the iTunes Japan internal charts.-Studio albums:...
  
  
• Theme Song: Treacherous Maiden ~ Judas Kiss

A white witch who appears with Yuki on the fourth stage, and fights more seriously when Yuki is defeated before her. Specializes in ice magic.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Residence: Pandæmonium
  Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost)
  Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in the epic poem Paradise Lost by the 17th century English poet John Milton."Pandæmonium" stems from Greek "παν", meaning "all" or "every", and "δαιμόνιον", meaning "little spirit" or "little angel", or, as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon", and later,...
  
  
• Theme Song: Doll of Misery

A sword-throwing maid who serves Shinki, she is ranked in the top class in the Makai.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Residence: Pandæmonium
  Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost)
  Pandæmonium is the capital of Hell in the epic poem Paradise Lost by the 17th century English poet John Milton."Pandæmonium" stems from Greek "παν", meaning "all" or "every", and "δαιμόνιον", meaning "little spirit" or "little angel", or, as Christians interpreted it, "little daemon", and later,...
  
  
• Theme Song:
  • Legendary Illusion ~ Infinite Being (Mystic Square)
  • An Ordeal From God (Magus in Mystic Geometries)

The creator of Makai. Because she is the maker of everything in Makai, the residents of Makai see her as God. As the final boss, she personally rains the punishment on the four intruders of Makai.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
• Mima (playable character)
• Yuka (playable character)

The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

is a vertical scrolling shooter, and is the sixth official game of the Touhou Project series. It is the first to be released specifically for the Windows operating system, since all games before Embodiment of Scarlet Devil were made for the PC-98 series of computers...

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of darkness
• Residence: Unknown
• Theme Song: Apparitions Stalk the Night
• Title: Yōkai of the Dusk

Boss of Stage 1. A minor yōkai who has the physical appearance of a young girl with blond hair and red eyes. She doesn't have a significant impact on the story. She merely gets in the players' way as they travel to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Her ability is to create a sphere of night around her, but as it impedes her own vision significantly, it is not useful in combat. She usually spends her days fluttering around aimlessly. Fans speculate that her hair ribbon, an amulet which she can't touch, seals her true power.

• Species: Fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: N/A
• Residence: Misty Lake

Stage 2 mid-boss. An almost inconsequential character who received no character profile in the game; fans named her Daiyousei

Yosei

is a Japanese word that is generally synonymous with the English term . Today this word usually refers to spirits from Western legends, but occasionally it may also denote a creature from native Japanese folklore. For example, according to an old folk belief from Iwate Prefecture, it was once...

 (lit. "Big Fairy"). ZUN later attributed her as bright, playful, and full of expressions. Sometimes appears in dōjinshi with Cirno.

• Species: Ice fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of chills
• Residence: Misty Lake
• Theme Song:
  • Tomboyish Beloved Daughter
  • The Adventures of the Tomboyish Beloved Daughter (PoFV)
• Title: Ice Fairy of the Lake

Stage 2 boss, and a playable in Touhou 12.3, and Fairy Wars. An ice fairy that lives on the lake surrounding the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Although she is weak from the players' perspective, she is one of the strongest of her kind in Gensokyo. However, she is not very bright, and is a joke character second only to Meirin. Her hobby is freezing frogs and watching them revive as they thaw, but she tends to shatter them instead by accident. Unlike Letty Whiterock, she radiates cold air year-round, and can stay awake even in spring and summer.

She is often called "⑨" by fans, and the character "⑨" is regarded as a symbol of "Baka" (Stupid), since ZUN labeled her as such in the manual of Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of qi
  Qi
  In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...
  
  
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
• Theme Song: Shanghai Alice of Year 17 of Meiji
• Title: Chinese Girl

Stage 3 boss. A Chinese

Han Chinese

Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...

 girl serving as the door guard of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Canonically, she is known to be a very humanoid yōkai who practices martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

, but is generally friendly towards humans. However, as Japanese fans find it hard to remember her name and it was initially unclear whether the kanji should be read as Japanese or Chinese, she is often referred to just as "Chūgoku" (meaning China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

) and became a very popular joke character. In dōjinshi, she is usually portrayed as a rather pitiful character, abused by the other residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In terms of popularity, though, she defeated all characters from TH6-8 to win the second Touhou Saimoe popularity contest, and was added as a playable character in a patch for Immaterial and Missing Power, despite not having a story of her own. Recurring jokes with Hong Meirin in dōjinshi usually involve her being stabbed with Sakuya's knives, usually due to Meirin's clumsiness or inability to keep unwanted visitors, such as Marisa, out of the mansion. However, Sakuya does care for Meirin's well-being, as demonstrated in Eastern and Little Nature Deity / Strange and Bright Nature Deity. In Touhou 12.3, she is reintroduced as a playable character, this time with her own storyline.

• Species: Devil
  Devil
  The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
  
  
• Ability: N/A
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion

Stage 4 mid-boss. Similar to Daiyousei, she received no character profile in the game and was named Koakuma (lit. "Little Devil") by fans. However, she is quite popular considering her status, more so than some of the lesser liked stage bosses. ZUN later described her to be like Daiyousei — whimsical, enjoys pranks, and doesn't think before doing. He also added that while devils are powerful as vampires and magicians, Koakuma is a rather weak one, therefore, she is a Koakuma (Little Devil).

• Species: Witch
• Ability: Magic, especially elemental magic.
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
• Theme Song: Locked Girl ~ The Girl's Secret Room
• Title: The Girl of Knowledge and Shadow

Stage 4 boss, and a playable character in Immaterial and Missing Power, and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. A scholar who is a friend of Remilia Scarlet's. She resides in the library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and is the de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

librarian. In fact, she rarely leaves it and is somewhat of a hikikomori

Hikikomori

is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive people who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives...

. She has command over the seven elements (which the Japanese days of the week are named after, making her the "One-week Wizard") and is in theory an extremely powerful magician. However, her constitution is very poor and asthma

Asthma

Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...

 often prevents her from reciting her spells. She has a tenuous relationship with Marisa, who tends to carry off her books without asking.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of time
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
• Theme Song:
  • Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial
  • Flowering Night (PoFV)
• Title: Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Stage 5 boss, and a playable character in Touhou games 7-9, 10.5 and 12.3. Sakuya is the only human living in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, yet she is also the head maid. The official fanbook suggests she had been a vampire hunter before she began working in the mansion, but she was defeated by Remilia Scarlet who pitied her and gave Sakuya her current name. Though she looks about sixteen like the other girls, Sakuya has the ability to slow, stop and possibly reverse time. She seems to have been serving Remilia for a long time and may be far older than she looks. Socially, she interacts mainly with the others in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She uses her time abilities using a pocketwatch, named the Lunar/Luna Clock.

Her talents are cooking, knife throwing and time manipulation. The latter two abilities characterize her appearances in-game, and led to frequent parodies in reference to Dio Brando

Dio Brando

is a fictional character from the manga and anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. He is the primary antagonist of Parts 1 and 3, although he is also considered to be the main villain of the entire series, as his actions affect the JoJo universe long after his death...

 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

is a manga written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. Every main character's name in each part can be read as JoJo. The manga, published by Shueisha, first ran in the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1987 to 2002, before being transferred to the seinen magazine Ultra Jump in 2004. The current story...

, who also controls time and throws knives. This reference goes so far as Sakuya using some of his poses in a game. She is often associated with dogs by other characters because she is serving as a demon's "faithful guard dog" even though she is a full blood human. Due to the inconsistent artwork depicting her bust between games, dōjinshi often make fun of her by indicating that she pads her breasts

Falsies

In fashion, falsies is a term used in American English to denote padding for use in a brassiere to create the appearance of larger breasts. The term is also, more rarely, used for pads which create the appearance of larger buttocks. In both cases, there is a note of amusement conveyed by the term...

.

Her name "Sakuya" literally means "Flowering Night", the same as her background music

Background music

Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...

 theme in Touhou 9 and later appearances.

• Species: Vampire
  Vampire
  Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of fate
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
• Theme Song: Septette for the Dead Princess/Queen
• Title: Eternally Young Scarlet Moon

Final boss, and a playable character in Touhou 7.5, 8, 10.5 and 12.3. Remilia is the vampiric mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion who claims to be descended from Vlad III Dracula although she is not. She is known as the Scarlet Devil as when she feeds, the blood of her victims stains her dress red. Apart from her unpleasant needs, she is hardly malicious enough to deserve such a title; merely childish, even though she is over five hundred years old. Although being a vampire is normally a lonely life, she has a good relationship with her many employees (including Sakuya and Meirin). Reimu is one of the few humans who tolerates her, and Remilia seems quite fond of her in turn. Marisa also gets along with her in exchange for access to her library. Her power is the control of fate (which has never been overtly demonstrated in the games). She prefers melee fighting to danmaku, but when she does resort to the latter, she is fond of red round bullets and knives.

• Species: Vampire
  Vampire
  Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
  
  
• Ability: Destruction of any and everything
• Residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion
• Theme Song: U.N. Owen Was Her?
• Title: The Devil's Little Sister

Extra stage boss. Remilia's little sister, sealed away in the basement of the mansion for 495 years because of her destructive power. Despite this, she likes her sister and doesn't usually try to escape. Most vampires hold back somewhat when fighting humans, as they plan to keep them alive and feed from them later, but Flandre was always fed prepared dishes and does not know her food comes from humans. Thus, when fighting them, she does not hesitate and incinerates them without a second thought. In dōjinshi, she is very fond of Marisa and is often portrayed as somewhat crazy for being locked up for so long.

Her theme music, "U.N. Owen Was Her?", is a popular Internet meme

Internet meme

The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...

 and has inspired hundreds of remixes, most notably a video which has Ronald McDonald

Ronald McDonald

Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and...

 sing the song using clips from Japanese McDonald's

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

 commercials. The song title was based on the book And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers which was changed by Dodd, Mead and Company in January 1940 because of the presence of a racial...

by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

. "U.N. Owen" was a mysterious figure known to scheme people in the novel.

• Species: Kirin
  Qilin
  The Qilin is a mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creature known throughout various East Asian cultures, and is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler. It is a good omen that brings rui . It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over...
  
  
• Ability: N/A
• Residence: N/A

An unused character removed from the game before release, her name was found in the code, next to the other playable characters. A circle cut for The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil shows an unknown character, and sprites for the same character was found in the code; fans generally consider this to be what Rin Satsuki looks like. Her attack types, as found in the code, are Flower Sign and Wind Sign, and she holds an erhu in the circle cut. It is unsure whether she was supposed to be a playable character, or a stage boss/midboss.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)

Perfect Cherry Blossom

Perfect Cherry Blossom

is a vertical-scrolling manic shooter made by Team Shanghai Alice, and is the seventh official game of the Touhou Project. The full game was first released on August 17, 2003, in the 64th Comiket in Japan.- Gameplay :...

• Species: Yuki-onna
  Yuki-onna
  is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, and animation. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba , but they are not the same.-Appearance:...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of the cold
• Theme Song: Crystallized Silver
• Title: What Winter Left Behind

Stage 1 boss. A yōkai who only appears during winter. In her own words, spring is for hibernation

Hibernation

Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve food, especially during winter when food supplies are limited, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate...

, summer is for sleeping, and autumn is for napping, thus winter is her only time for activity. She enjoys herself in the extended winter, and thus gets in the protagonists' way as they seek to end it; however, she seems to accept the fact that winter must end someday, and doesn't attack them seriously. In fanworks, she is considered fat, referred to as having a "wide hitbox".

• Species: Shikigami
  Shikigami
  Shikigami are a kind of spirit, found in Japanese Mythology summoned to serve a practitioner of onmyōdō, much like a western familiar. Shikigami cannot be seen by most people, but according to the Heian period onmyōji who were said to control them, shikigami often looked something like a...
  
   (Nekomata)
• Ability: Sorcery
• Residence: Mayohiga
• Theme Song: Diao ye zong(withered leaf)
• Title: Black Cat of Bad Omens

Stage 2 boss and extra stage midboss. She is a nekomata who was made Ran's shikigami, which makes her a shikigami of a shikigami. She is able to summon powerful oni, but her powers are somewhat limited because of her secondary status. As a cat, she is afraid of the water and cuddles in a kotatsu

Kotatsu

A is a low, wooden table frame covered by a futon, or heavy blanket, upon which a table top sits. Underneath is a heat source, often built into the table itself. Kotatsu are used almost exclusively in Japan, although similar devices are used elsewhere....

 during winter. She is often depicted as a childish catgirl

Catgirl

A catgirl is a female character with cat traits, such as cat ears, a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls are found in various fiction genres, and in particular Japanese anime and manga where they are more commonly referred to as Neko or Nekomimi , in...

.

• Species: Magician
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
  
• Ability: Magic, especially puppetry
• Residence: Forest of Magic
• Theme Song: Doll Judgement ~ The Girl who Plays with Peoples' Shapes
• Title: The Seven-Colored Puppeteer

Returning from Mystic Square, Alice is the first PC-98 character (besides the main characters) to make an appearance in the Windows games. She now lives in the Forest of Magic. She is superficially similar to Marisa; they live alone nearby one another, are both magicians, and both of them love to collect things. Alice, however, is quite different in personality. She is aloof, rarely caring much about others and often attacking them for her own amusement. However, Immaterial and Missing Power states that she is actually a coward at heart, which made her into the most abused character in dōjin; there she is a fragile and oversensitive girl who desperately seeks Marisa's affection, nearly the inverse of her in-game character.

Though she still carries the grimoire around, Alice now manipulates dolls to create her danmaku, and is perhaps the most skilled puppeteer

Puppeteer

A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...

 in Gensokyo. Of special note are her "Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls", which are the most prominently featured type of doll within the games and derivative fanworks, usually referred to as a single doll named Shanghai, rather than just one of the many other varieties of dolls used by Alice (such as Foggy London Dolls, Red-Haired Dutch Dolls, Hanged Hourai Dolls, etc.). In the official fanbook Perfect Memento of Strict Sense, it is stated that Alice was originally a human who became a magician through training. However, this seems to contradict her background from Mystic Square.

• Species: Fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: Reporting spring's approach.
• Title: Fairy Herald of Spring

A fairy that heralds the arrival of spring. However, since she expresses herself with danmaku rather than words, her announcement is usually seen as a hostile attack. She is the first midboss to receive an official character profile. In the "Muenzuka" stage of Phantasmasgoria of Flower View, a black version of Lily White shows up instead of the normal version. Fans have named her Lily Black, and gave her a darker character as opposed to the cheerful Lily White.

• Species: Poltergeist
  Poltergeist
  A poltergeist is a paranormal phenomenon which consists of events alluding to the manifestation of an imperceptible entity. Such manifestation typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, sentient noises and, on some occasions, physical attacks on those witnessing the...
  
  s
• Ability: Playing musical instruments without physical contact
• Residence: Poltergeist Mansion
• Theme Song: Ghostly Band ~ Phantom Ensemble (also played in PoFV)
• Title: Three Poltergeist Sisters

Bosses of stage 4. They are poltergeists in the shape of three sisters. They were originally daughters of a human noble, but an unfortunate event caused his four daughters to separate. The fourth daughter, Layla Prismriver, was unable to leave the mansion that held so many of her memories. Using her power, she conjured poltergeists with the appearance of her older sisters, then slowly became forgotten along with the mansion and the poltergeists. Even though the humans died with the passage of time, the poltergeists continue their noisy lives in that mansion to this day. The three Prismriver Sisters, now musical performers of some note, were employed by Yuyuko Saigyouji to provide entertainment for the upcoming flower-viewing. The protagonists encounter them at the gate to the netherworld.

• Ability: Playing notes of melancholy

The eldest of the Prismriver Sisters. She plays the violin and prefers solo performances. Honest to a fault, she is perhaps the most well-adjusted of the sisters. The player fights her first if the player is playing as Reimu.

• Ability: Playing notes of excitement

The middle child of the Prismriver Sisters. She plays the trumpet. Her magic is the strongest of the three sisters, but her technique is not very good. Despite this, she is cheerful and tends to obsess over things. The player fight her first if the player is playing as Sakuya.

• Ability: Playing notes of fantasia

The youngest of the poltergeist Prismriver Sisters. Although skilled with all instruments, she prefers keyboard and percussion. She is clever and manipulative, usually goading her older sisters into doing her fighting rather than engaging in battle herself. The player fights her first if the player is playing as Marisa.

• Species: Half-human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
   half-phantom
  Ghost
  In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
  
  
• Ability: Swordfighting
• Residence: Hakugyokurō
• Theme Song: Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird ~ Till When?
• Title: Ghostly Gardener

Stage 5 boss and stage 6 midboss, in addition, she is a playable character in Touhou 7.5-9, 10.5, 12.3 and 13 as well. Youmu is the gardener of the netherworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

 pagoda

Pagoda

A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...

, Hakugyokurō. She comes from a very rare breed, the half-phantoms; in this strange combination, the human half and phantom half exist in physically separate bodies, but are always close by one another. Youmu is very young for a half-phantom, under 60 years; her exact age is unknown. While straightforward, focused and loyal to her mistress, Yuyuko, Youmu is still rather immature, and tends to be a target for teasing by the other girls of Gensokyo (particularly her mistress Yuyuko). Paradoxically, she is afraid of ghosts (the imaginary sort). Her talents are swordfighting and speed. In the games, she is characterized by creating powerful danmaku with her sword slashes, and slowing time (this is not due to magic as one might expect, but because of time slowing

Time dilation

In the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...

 around her body as she goes past at unimaginable speeds).

• Species: Ghost
  Ghost
  In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
  
  
• Ability: Invoke death
• Residence: Hakugyokurō
• Theme Song: Bloom nobly, cherry blossoms of Sumizome ~ Border of Life, Ghost Lead
• Title: Ghostly Girl in the Netherworld Tower

Final stage boss, also a playable character in Touhou 7.5, 8, 10.5 and 12.3 and Stage 1 boss of Ten Desires. Yuyuko is the princess of the netherworld pagoda, Hakugyokurō. She is a ghost, but unlike most of her kind, looks entirely human. She was a human, cursed with the power to bring death to others; this ability caused her to eventually commit suicide using her life to seal away an ancient evil residing in a youkai cherry blossom tree. Living in the netherworld, she doesn't socialize much with the rest of Gensokyo. Her only friend from outside is Yukari. Her family name Saigyouji suggests relations with the famed poet Saigyo

Saigyo

was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period.-Biography:Born Satō Norikiyo in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the Age of Mappō , Buddhism was...

. Yuyuko, at first appearance, is a ditz; her mental processes seem to be dedicated mainly to teasing her gardener and servant, Youmu, and anticipating her next meal. However, her usual manner conceals a sharp mind and an almost prenatural depth of insight. For instance, she was the only one to perceive what sort of being Huziwara no Mokou was at first sight. Yuyuko has the power to invoke death in any mortal; however, she uses it rarely and with discretion. Her danmaku are characterized by butterfly-shaped bullets.

• Species: Shikigami
  Shikigami
  Shikigami are a kind of spirit, found in Japanese Mythology summoned to serve a practitioner of onmyōdō, much like a western familiar. Shikigami cannot be seen by most people, but according to the Heian period onmyōji who were said to control them, shikigami often looked something like a...
  
   (Kitsune
  Kitsune
  is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...
  
  )
• Ability: Control shikigami
  Shikigami
  Shikigami are a kind of spirit, found in Japanese Mythology summoned to serve a practitioner of onmyōdō, much like a western familiar. Shikigami cannot be seen by most people, but according to the Heian period onmyōji who were said to control them, shikigami often looked something like a...
  
  
• Residence: The boundaries of Gensokyo
• Theme Song: A Maiden's Illusionary Funeral ~ Necro-Fantasy
• Title: Shikigami of the Sukima Youkai

Extra stage boss and Phantasm stage midboss. A nine-tailed fox yōkai whom Yukari Yakumo made her shikigami. She is considerably powerful even without her master's support; among other things, she uses this power to maintain her own shikigami, Chen. Since Yukari sleeps twelve hours a day, she handles the work during these times. In dōjinshi, she is often depicted as a harassed servant, doing all the work for her lazy master.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of boundaries
• Residence: The boundaries of Gensokyo
• Theme Song:
  • Necrofantasia
  • Night Falls ~ Evening Star
• Title: Mastermind behind the Spiriting Away

Phantasm stage boss, and playable in Touhou 7.5, 8, 10.5 and 12.3. Yukari is an elder yōkai who dwells on the border of Gensokyo, and may predate the existence of the realm itself. A good friend of Yuyuko's and an acquaintance of Reimu's. She is the self-appointed stewardess of the seal between Gensokyo and the outside world, but doesn't do a particularly good job of it. Most of the time, she is asleep, leaving all the work to her shikigami

Shikigami

Shikigami are a kind of spirit, found in Japanese Mythology summoned to serve a practitioner of onmyōdō, much like a western familiar. Shikigami cannot be seen by most people, but according to the Heian period onmyōji who were said to control them, shikigami often looked something like a...

 Ran and Ran's shikigami Chen. When she isn't, she tends to amuse herself by pulling in unprepared humans from the outside world and stranding them in Gensokyo. A very irresponsible yōkai. Her calculation and mathematical skills far exceeds that of Ran, being Ran's master. Her ability is the manipulation of boundaries, and this is in terms of the physical and metaphorical. And such boundaries distinguish her spell cards. Often, though, she just summons her shikigami and various others to create her danmaku for her.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
• Sakuya Izayoi (playable character)
• Cirno (Stage 1 midboss)

Immaterial and Missing Power

Immaterial and Missing Power

, commonly abbreviated as IaMP in English speaking circles, is a versus fighting game collaboratively developed by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice released in 2004...

• Species: Oni
  Oni (mythology)
  thumb|Oni depicted in [[Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki]] by [[Toriyama Sekien]] are creatures from Japanese folklore, variously translated as demons, devils, ogres or trolls...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of density
• Residence: Unknown
• Theme Song: Onigashima in the Fairyland ~ Missing Power

A girl who insists that she is an oni, even though Gensokyo supposedly doesn't have any. Suika and Yugi Hoshiguma were once part of the four devas of the mountains, long ago before the oni retreated underground. As an oni, she loves drinks, feasts, and competition. Despite her small size, she is strong in strength, speed, and mystic powers; she is also several hundred years old. Using her ability to control density, she can gather people to form a banquet, or she can scatter herself to become mist. In Immaterial and Missing Power

Immaterial and Missing Power

, commonly abbreviated as IaMP in English speaking circles, is a versus fighting game collaboratively developed by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice released in 2004...

, she made the residents of Gensokyo have feasts one night after another, intending to draw the joyous oni from hiding.

In Japanese, the pronunciation of her name is the same as watermelon

Watermelon

Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...

, so this word becomes her common nickname.

Also playable:

• Reimu Hakurei
• Marisa Kirisame
• Sakuya Izayoi
• Youmu Konpaku
• Alice Margatroid

• Patchouli Knowledge
• Remilia Scarlet
• Yuyuko Saigyouji
• Yukari Yakumo
• Hong Meirin (version 1.10 onward)

Imperishable Night

Imperishable Night

is the eighth official game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the third Touhou game to be released specifically for the Windows operating system...

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
   firefly
  Firefly
  Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of insects
• Residence: Various thickets
• Theme Song: Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect

Stage 1 boss. Insects collect around her, and so she often can be seen in the middle of a swarm of insects. With her powers, she can manipulate the flickerings of fireflies

Firefly

Lampyridae is a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies...

 with timed synchronicity, or summon swarms of poisonous insects to kill an enemy. Like insects, she is afraid of pesticide

Pesticide

Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...

s and the cold. In game she is seen wearing a cape and pant-like bloomers, which led fans to believe she was a boy. Also seen in fanworks with Yuka and other insect/flower characters.

• Species: Night sparrow
• Ability: Induce night blindness in humans or drive them berserk by singing
• Residence: Road of Monsters
• Theme Song: Deaf to all but the Song

Stage 2 boss and playable character in Touhou 9. A night sparrow that dwells on a road near a human village. She conceals herself by blinding travelers who walk along the road at night, then lures them astray, upon which they disappear without a trace. She is carefree, innocent and loves to sing- considering her nightly activities nothing more than a game. An incident in Imperishable Night in which she was apparently eaten by Yuyuko made her a popular joke character. However, she returned in Phantasmagoria of Flower View.

• Species: Were
  Were
  Were and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures ....
  
  -hakutaku
  Bai Ze
  Baí Zé , or in Japanese, is a fantastic beast from Chinese legend. Its name literally means "white marsh".The Baí Zé was encountered by the Yellow Emperor or Huáng Dì while he was on patrol in the east...
  
  
• Ability: In human form, can consume, or hide, history. In hakutaku form, can create and change history.
• Residence: Human Village
• Theme Song: Plain Asia

Stage 3 boss. Although half-human and half-beast, she appears perfectly human except during the full moon, when she grows horns. She was not born with therianthropy

Therianthropy

Therianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into other animals. Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères....

, and only became a were-hakutaku due to an unknown incident. She loves humans, and considers it her duty to protect the human village, by consuming the village's history to hide it when malicious yōkai pass by; her special ability. However, she is trigger-happy and sometimes mistakes ordinary travelers for such malicious yōkai. Keine opened a terakoya

Terakoya

Terakoya were private educational institutions that taught writing and reading to the children of Japanese commoners during the Edo period.-History:...

 in the village and spends her time teaching children and compiling historical records. She seems to be good friends with Huziwara no Mokou. She has a very strong desire to protect humans, and is probably the safest person for anyone in Gensokyo to be around.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
   rabbit
  Rabbit
  Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
  
  
• Ability: Bring fortune to humans
• Residence: Eientei
• Theme Song: Lord Usa's White Flag (PoFV)

Stage 5 midboss and playable character in Touhou 9. Based upon the "White Hare of Inaba" story of the Kojiki

Kojiki

is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami...

, she evolved into a yōkai from a rabbit due to her longevity. She is the leader of the earthly bunnies of the Eientei, despite her deceitful personality. She is also a lucky charm—humans who get lost in the forest can always depend on her fortune to find their way, though the humans often don't realize they could have used her fortune for greater things. On the scale of luckiness, hers is equivalent to a 40-leaf clover (compared with only a four-leaf clover

Four-leaf clover

The four-leaf clover is an uncommon variation of the common, three-leaved clover. According to tradition, such leaves bring good luck to their finders, especially if found accidentally...

).

• Species: Moon rabbit
  Moon rabbit
  The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, in folklore is a rabbit that lives on the moon, based on pareidolia that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit. The story exists in many cultures, particularly in East Asian folklore, where it is seen pounding in a mortar and pestle...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of lunacy
• Residence: Eientei
• Theme Song: Lunatic Eyes ~ Invisible Full Moon

Stage 5 boss and playable character in Touhou 9, as well as 10.5 and 12.3. A moon rabbit, she came to Gensokyo about 30 years ago to escape a war between the Earth and the Moon. Since then, she has been an apprentice to Eirin, a pet to Kaguya, and a caretaker to Tewi. She has the power to drive people mad with her eyes — mainly in the form of hallucinations — as well as communicate telepathically with her kind. She also has control over waves of all kinds, such as light waves, brainwaves, electromagnetic waves, as well as sound waves, demonstrated during her story in Phantasmagoria of Flower View. "Udongein" and "Inaba" are both nicknames, the first given her by Eirin and the second Kaguya; the latter is what Kaguya calls all rabbits. Despite her power over insanity, Reisen is portrayed as one of the most level-headed and serious characters in the series.

Since her bullets look like suppositories, this makes her a minor joke character. Also according to a series of yonkoma

Yonkoma

thumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...

 comics approved by ZUN entitled Inaba of The Moon and Inaba of The Earth, despite the care she generally got, Reisen is often abused by her mistress Kaguya and teacher Eirin, mostly by knocking her out for a long time or subjecting her through 'punishment times'. She is also often the subject of many pranks made by Tewi.

• Species: Human (Lunarian)
• Ability: Creation of any medicine, natural genius
• Residence: Eientei
• Theme Song: Gensokyo Millenium ~ History of the Moon

Boss of Final Stage A and midboss of Final Stage B. A genius pharmacist who once lived on the moon. Kaguya persuaded her to produce the forbidden Hourai Elixir—the elixir of life

Elixir of life

The elixir of life, also known as the elixir of immortality and sometimes equated with the philosopher's stone, is a legendary potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life and or eternal youth. Many practitioners of alchemy pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create...

—and consumed it. They were found out, and Kaguya alone was punished and was sent to the Earth, a fact which Eirin always felt guilty about. Some time later, the moon court pardoned Kaguya's sins and summoned her back. Eirin and a handful of emissaries were sent to retrieve her, but Eirin found out that Kaguya didn't want to return to the moon. Acting out of her past guilt, Eirin betrayed and murdered all the other emissaries under the eyes of the earthlings who had fostered Kaguya. Eirin bribed the earthlings with the Hourai Elixir, in order to keep them silent, and went into hiding with Kaguya in Gensokyo. She is based on the Japanese goddess Omoikane

Omoikane (Shinto)

Omoikane is a Shinto god of wisdom and intelligence. His name means "serving one's thoughts."A heavenly deity, identified as a child of Taka-mi-musubi-no-kami, who is always called upon to "ponder" and give good counsel in the deliberations of the heavenly deities. Appears to have descended from...

.

• Species: Human (Lunarian)
• Ability: Manipulation of eternity and temporality
• Residence: Eientei
• Theme Song: Flight of the Bamboo Cutter ~ Lunatic Princess

Final boss of Imperishable Night, Kaguya is actually the Princess Kaguya from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter

, also known as , is a 10th century Japanese folktale. It is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative and an early example of proto-science fiction....

. A princess of the moon, after consuming the forbidden Hourai Elixir and becoming immortal, she was punished by being exiled to live on the Earth. Later, she was pardoned and ordered to return to the moon. However, she preferred her common life on Earth to that as a princess on the moon. Eirin helped her escape the emissaries, and the two went into hiding in Gensokyo. Recently, she has been selling Yagokoro medicine and hosting exhibitions showing various items from the moon. In dōjinshi and fanworks, she is often portrayed as a NEET

NEET

NEET is a government acronym for people currently "not in education, employment, or training". It was first used in the United Kingdom but its use has spread to other countries, including Japan, China, and South Korea...

 or unemployed slacker who lays around Eientei all day.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Eternal youth and immortality; Manipulation of fire
• Residence: Bamboo Forest of Lost
• Theme Song: Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke

Extra Stage boss. Mokou was the daughter of a nobleman (assumed to be Fujiwara no Fuhito

Fujiwara no Fuhito

Fujiwara no Fuhito was a powerful member of the imperial court of Japan during the Asuka and Nara periods...

), one of Kaguya's suitors during her initial exile on Earth. When he was humiliated by Kaguya's impossible request, Mokou came to hate her. She wanted to take revenge, but Kaguya disappeared before she was able, so she consoled herself by stealing the Hourai Elixir that Eirin had bribed the other humans with, and drinking it to become immortal.

No longer able to fit into human society, she lived as a wanderer and eventually found her way to Gensokyo. There, she was amazed to find that Kaguya was also a fugitive. The two still detest each other, killing one another and reincarnating in a daily ritual. However, Mokou is ecstatic that her eternal enemy is a fugitive like her, and that one who can never die is not such an unspeakable abomination in Gensokyo (though she still leads a solitary life.) Indeed, she has found her paradise. Mokou is able to reincarnate indefinitely, even if her body is destroyed — though she still feels pain. She has control over the flames of the phoenix

Phoenix (mythology)

The phoenix or phenix is a mythical sacred firebird that can be found in the mythologies of the Arabian, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indian and Phoenicians....

.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character, stage 4 "Uncanny" boss)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character, stage 4 "Powerful" boss)
• Sakuya Izayoi (playable character)
• Youmu Konpaku (playable character)
• Yukari Yakumo (playable character)
• Alice Margatroid (playable character)
• Remilia Scarlet (playable character)
• Yuyuko Saigyouzi (playable character)

Phantasmagoria of Flower View

• Species: Crow tengu
  Tengu
  are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of wind
• Residence: Yōkai Mountain
• Also known as: Traditional Genso Reporter
• Theme:
  • Wind God Girl (There are two versions to this song. The version played in Phantasmagoria of Flower View is the short version. The full song is played in Shoot the Bullet)
  • Yokai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain (MoF, as well as Double Spoiler
    Double Spoiler
    is a shoot 'em up photography game, and is the 12.5th official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. It was first released in the 7th Reitaisai on March 14, 2010...
    
    )

Playable character in Touhou 9, main character of Touhou 9.5 (the only one to be the sole main character of a Touhou game other than Reimu), main character of the fanbook Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, stage 4 boss in Touhou 10, and playable character in Touhou 10.5, as well as 12.3. Aya is a reporter and photographer who runs Gensokyo's one-woman newspaper, the Bunbunmaru Shinbun. She has a serious character, at odds with her reporting; she loves rumors and her newspaper is filled with gossip about the girls of Gensokyo, sometimes on the verge of being a tabloid. To Reimu's irritation, however, she rejects the stories of a certain miko saving Gensokyo as unverifiable. Not one to show off, she rarely fights of her own volition, though she has contempt for those she thinks are weak. As a tengu, she has power over the wind and is the most skilled flier in all of Gensokyo. Her bullets are extremely fast compared to most.

• Species: Doll
  Doll
  A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of poison
• Residence: Nameless Hill
• Also known as: Little Sweet Poison
• Theme: Poison Body ~ Forsaken Doll

An abandoned doll who turned into a yōkai after years of exposure to the poisonous lily-of-the-valleys. She advocates for doll emancipation

Emancipation

Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 (despite the fact that she is the only one capable of free will) and dislikes humans because of their manipulation of dolls. For this, Sikieiki judged her to be "too narrow in outlook". Perhaps affected by this statement, she made friends with Eirin Yagokoro, though she still wishes for the liberation of dolls. Her name may originate from A Medicine for Melancholy

A Medicine for Melancholy

A Medicine for Melancholy is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. It was first published in the UK by Hart-Davis in 1959 as The Day It Rained Forever with a slightly different list of stories.-Contents:- References :...

by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

. In addition to her attacks, she also spews poisonous mists on the battlefield, slowing the player's movement when the player comes in contact with the mists.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of flowers
• Residence: Garden of the Sun
• Also known as: Flower-master of the Four Seasons
• Theme: Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land

Returning from Lotus Land Story, she is the second PC-98 character to appear in the Windows Touhou games, after Alice Margatroid. She loves seasonal flowers, so throughout the year she moves to the respective places where the flowers grow. She has lived long enough to witness several major flower-blooming outbreaks, an event that only occurs once every sixty years, leading Sikieiki to comment that she "had lived a little too long". Similar to the PC-98 Yuka, she is the slowest playable character in the game. In her conversation with Tewi Inaba, it is said that her umbrella is the only flower in Gensokyo that never wilts.

• Species: Shinigami
  Shinigami
  is the personification of death in Japan. It's unclear when the concept entered Japanese culture; it may have been imported from China , or possibly been imported from Europe during the Sengoku era—that period in European history featured a common motif of the Grim Reaper gathering souls...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of distance
• Residence: Sanzu River
  Sanzu River
  The Sanzu River , or River of Three Crossings, is a Japanese Buddhist tradition and religious belief similar to the River Styx...
  
  
• Also known as: Guide of the Sanzu River
• Theme: Higan Retour ~ Riverside View

A shinigami who provides passage across the Sanzu River, Komachi has a role akin to that of Charon

Charon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...

 of Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. Despite her rather important job, she doesn't always take it seriously and ends up being scolded by her boss, Sikieiki Yamaxanadu. Her name is thought to have originated from the famed beauty Ono no Komachi

Ono no Komachi

was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals....

. Her attacks come in the form of holed coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

s, in reference to the "price" one needs to pay to cross the Sanzu River. She re-appears as a playable character in Touhou 10.5 and 12.3.

• Species: Yama
  Yama
  Yama , also known as Yamarāja in India and Nepal, Shinje in Tibet, Yanluowang or simply Yan in China, Yeomla Daewang in South Korea and Enma Dai-Ō in Japan, is the lord of death, in Hinduism and then adopted into Buddhism and then further into Chinese mythology and Japanese mythology. First...
  
  
• Ability: Judge clearly as black and white
• Residence: Higan
  Higan
  is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated in Japan during both the Spring and Autumnal Equinox. It is observed by nearly every Buddhist sect in Japan. The tradition extends from mild weather that occurs during the time of equinoxes, though the origin of the holiday dates from Emperor Shomu in...
  
  
• Also known as: Highest Judge of Paradise
• Theme: Touhou Judgement in the Sixtieth Year ~ Fate of Sixty Years

Final boss of the game, Sikieiki is one of the judges of the underworld. It is her job to judge the deceased and decide whether they get sent to Heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

 or Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, or somewhere else. As a part of her job, she can be rather moralistic and would go on and on on her lectures on morals. "Siki Eiki" is her real name; the "Yamaxanadu" part of her name is actually her title, a combination of her status as "Yama" and "Xanadu

Xanadu

-Description of Xanadu by Toghon Temur :The lament of Toghon Temur Khan , concerning the loss of Daidu and Heibun Shanduu in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical chronicles...

", the place she is in charge of. "Yama" means that she is a judge of the underworld, and "Xanadu" means paradise.

Also playable:

• Reimu Hakurei
• Marisa Kirisame
• Sakuya Izayoi
• Youmu Konpaku
• Cirno
• Lyrica Prismriver

• Marlin Prismriver
• Lunasa Prismriver
• Mystia Lorelei
• Tei Inaba
• Reisen Udongein Inaba

Also present:

• Lily White

Shoot the Bullet

Shoot the Bullet

is a shoot 'em up photography game, and is the ninth-and-a-half official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. It was first released in the 69th Comiket on December 30, 2005...

Shoot the Bullet does not introduce any new characters.

Characters present:

• Aya Shameimaru (playable character)
• Rumia
• Wriggle Nightbug
• Cirno
• Letty Whiterock
• Alice Margatroid
• Keine Kamishirasawa
• Reisen Udongein Inaba
• Medicine Melancholy
• Tewi Inaba
• Hong Meirin
• Patchouli Knowledge
• Chen

• Youmu Konpaku
• Sakuya Izayoi
• Remilia Scarlet
• Ran Yakumo
• Yuyuko Saigyouji
• Eirin Yagokoro
• Kaguya Houraisan
• Komachi Onozuka
• Sikieiki Yamaxanadu
• Flandre Scarlet
• Yukari Yakumo
• Huziwara no Mokou
• Suika Ibuki

Mountain of Faith

Mountain of Faith

is the tenth game of the Touhou Project, according to the official numbering by its creator ZUN of Team Shanghai Alice. Like the majority of the Touhou Project games, Mountain of Faith is a doujin scrolling shooter, albeit with a major revamp from its predecessors...

• Species: God of red leaves
• Ability: Manipulation of red leaves
• Location: Foot of the Yōkai Mountain
• Also known as: Symbol of Loneliness and Death

Stage 1 midboss. She and her younger sister Minoriko control the season of autumn together. Of the opinion that red leaves are the best part of autumn, she feels tremendously proud when showing the beauty of her leaves to Minoriko. Disappears when winter comes.

• Species: God of abundance
• Ability: Manipulation of abundance
• Location: Foot of the Yōkai Mountain
• Also known as: Symbol of Wealth and Abundance
• Theme: Because Princess Inada Will Scold Me

Stage 1 boss and the younger sister of Shizuha. As a harvest goddess, she is invited as a special guest to the harvest festival in the Human Village every year. If she isn't invited then a good harvest cannot be guaranteed for that year. The fragrance of the harvest is her perfume, and with it she feels superior to her elder sister . Like her sister, she disappears when winter comes.

• Species: Curse god
• Ability: Storing curses
• Location: Yōkai Sea of Trees
• Also known as: Nagashi-hina of the Hidden God
• Theme: Dark Side of Fate

Stage 2 boss. Hina is the head of the Nagashihina army, where Nagashihina refers to the dolls being drifted down the river in a ritual to cast away one's sins and misfortunes. As such, Hina is surrounded by curses and those who encounter her will run into misfortune. Despite this, Hina has good intentions and does not wish to have misfortune befall humans again. She is often spinning and her attacks are characterized as spirals.

• Species: Kappa
• Ability: Manipulation of Water
• Location: Untrodden Valley
• Also known as: Super Youkai Warhead
• Theme: Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's "Kappa" ~ Candid Friend

Stage 3 boss. An engineer with an interest in humans, she believes that the kappa and the humans were ancient allies. The kappa of the Touhou universe are described as a race with advanced technology, demonstrated when the shy Nitori uses optical camouflage to conceal herself from the humans. As an engineer, she likes to take things apart and reassemble them again, so her clothes are packed with tools for this purpose.

• Species: White wolf tengu
  Tengu
  are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...
  
  
• Ability: Seeing great distances
• Location: Waterfall of Nine Heavens
• Also known as: Lowly Patrolling Tengu, Mountain's Telegnosis (Double Spoiler)

Stage 4 midboss. A loyal tengu who patrols the Yōkai Mountain and can see great distances. She attempts to scare intruders off with simple attacks before reporting them to her superiors. When not on duty, she plays dai shogi

Dai shogi

Dai shōgi is a board game native to Japan. It is similar to standard shogi in its rules and game play. Dai shogi is only one of several large board shogi variants. Its name means large shogi, from a time when there were three sizes of shogi games...

 with the kappa who live nearby. During the events of Mountain of Faith, she failed to scare Reimu and Marisa away, so she was assigned under Aya Syameimaru to continue surveillance on the intruders. Her report led to the peaceful resolution of the tension between the tengu and the Moriya Shrine.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Power to work miracles
• Location: Moriya Shrine
• Also known as: Deified Human of the Wind
• Theme: Faith is for the Transient People

Stage 5 boss and priestess (miko

Miko

is a Japanese term that anciently meant a "female shaman, spirit medium" who conveyed oracles from kami , and currently means a "shrine maiden; virgin consecrated to a deity" who serves at Shinto shrines.-Word:...

) of the Moriya Shrine. Though she is human, she is Suwako's descendant and has the power to create miracles due to her divine blood. In the past, people began to worship her as a living god

Arahitogami

is a Japanese word meaning a kami who is a human being.It first appears in Kojiki , but is assumed to have been used before this book....

 due to these miracles, despite the fact that she was the priestess of another god and most of the miracles were her god's. As the outside world changed, though, faith in both Sanae and her god Kanako declined and they chose to move their shrine to Gensokyo. Wanting to gather the faith of Gensokyo's residents, she threatened to close down the Hakurei Shrine, which resulted in a resounding defeat for her and her gods. It was then she understood that she is no longer a living god in this land of miracles, but only a normal human being.

• Species: God
• Ability: Power to create qian
• Location: Wind God's Lake
• Also known as: Avatar of Mountains and Lakes
• Theme: The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field

Stage 6 boss. Officially, a goddess of mountain who inhabits the Moriya Shrine. But in reality goddess of wind and rain. she is based on the Japanese god Yasakatome no Mikoto. As faith in gods in the outside world declined, she decided to move the Moriya Shrine to Gensokyo's Yōkai Mountain, rather than simply be forgotten and fade away. She quickly acquired faith from the yōkai on the mountain — though some would just call it friendship. To acquire the faith of the humans and yōkai living elsewhere in Gensokyo as well, she sent her priestess Sanae to the Hakurei Shrine. She wears a snake-patterned shimenawa

Shimenawa

Shimenawa are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with shide...

 as her trademark, symbolizing her victory over Suwako long ago, in addition to removable pillars

Onbashira

Onbashira is a festival held every six years in the Lake Suwa area of Nagano, Japan. The purpose of the festival is to symbolically renew the Suwa Taisha or Suwa Grand Shrine. "Onbashira" can be literally translated as "the honored pillars"....

 on her back. In the events before Touhou 11, she was the one that sent the Yatagarasu to Utsuho Reiuzi so Kanako and Suwako could start their Mountain Industrial Revolution project using nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...

 power with the kappa. The project was a complete success.

• Species: God
• Ability: Power to create kun
• Location: Moriya Shrine
• Also known as: Highest of Native Gods
• Theme: Native Faith

Extra Stage boss, a girl with a frog motif. She is the true goddess of the Moriya Shrine, and was once the leader of Mishaguji, but was later defeated by Kanako. However, the people of her kingdom still feared Mishaguji and were unable to accept Kanako as their new goddess. The two created a false god, "Moriya", from which they could both gather faith. And thus Kanako borrowed Suwako's powers, and silently ruled as the goddess of mountain. Already long forgotten in the outside world, Suwako was untroubled as her faith slowly declined, but accompanied Kanako to Gensokyo nonetheless - despite their history, and their frequent disagreements, the two are good friends.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
• Aya Syameimaru (Stage 4 boss)

Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

is the second versus fighting game in the Touhou Project, and is the spiritual successor to Immaterial and Missing Power by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice. In the Touhou Project overall, it is labelled as the 10.5th Touhou game, though the game was first planned to be numbered 9.8...

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
   oarfish
  Oarfish
  Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fishes comprising the small family Regalecidae. Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species in two genera...
  
  
• Ability: Able to read the atmosphere
• Location: Sea of Abstruse Clouds
• Theme Song: Crimson in the Black Sea ~ Legendary Fish

Sub-boss of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. An ambassador from the Dragon Palace who came to warn Gensokyo of an upcoming calamity. She is a lightning user, and most of her combat abilities center around lightning and her long scarf.

• Species: Celestial
  Tennin
  Tennin , which may include tenshi , ten no tsukai and the specifically female tennyo are spiritual beings found in Japanese Buddhism that are similar to western angels, nymphs or fairies...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of the land
• Location: Bhava-agra (Naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana
  Formless Realm
  The Formless Realm or Ārūpyadhātu or Arūpaloka is a realm in Buddhist cosmology. It would have no place in a purely physical cosmology, as none of the beings inhabiting it has either shape or location; and correspondingly, the realm has no location either...
  
  )
• Theme Song: Wonderful Heaven

Boss of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. A girl who, through no virtue of her own, ascended to Heaven with her family. Having lived a sheltered life in Heaven, she became selfish and arrogant. Bored with her life in Heaven and envious of yōkai creating incidents on earth, she decides to create an incident in Gensokyo by using her powers, along with stealing the Hisou-no-Tsurugi ("Scarlet Disposition Sword"), which has the ability to excrete the disposition of others in the form of a mist, manipulating the weather. Shows masochist tendencies. She is adept at the manipulation of rock and earth: she can throw rocks like a projectile, and raise the earth around or in front of herself.

Also playable:

• Reimu Hakurei
• Marisa Kirisame
• Alice Margatroid
• Aya Syameimaru
• Sakuya Izayoi
• Youmu Konpaku
• Patchouli Knowledge

• Yuyuko Saigyouji
• Remilia Scarlet
• Yukari Yakumo
• Komachi Onoduka
• Reisen U. Inaba
• Suika Ibuki

Subterranean Animism

Subterranean Animism

is the eleventh main game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series. Made by the dōjin game maker Team Shanghai Alice, the full version of the game was released in the 74th Comiket which commenced in August 2008.-Gameplay:...

• Species: Tsurube-otoshi
  Tsurube-otoshi
  Tsurube-otoshi is a creature from Japanese folklore. It lurks in the tops of trees and drops down on unsuspecting humans, and has various descriptions - sometimes it is some sort of oni or tengu, sometimes it is a disembodied head, and sometimes it is a fireball...
  
  
• Ability: Dropping ghostly fires
  Will-o'-the-wisp
  A will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus , also called a "will-o'-wisp", "jack-o'-lantern" , "hinkypunk", "corpse candle", "ghost-light", "spook-light", "fairy light", "friar's lantern", "hobby lantern", "ghost orb", or simply "wisp", is a ghostly light or lights sometimes seen at night or twilight over...
  
  
• Location: Fantasy Wind Cave

Stage 1 midboss. A bashful yōkai who likes confined spaces, and suddenly drops from high places to attack.

• Species: Tsuchigumo
  Tsuchigumo
  The , also called , were a people of ancient Japan, believed to have lived in the Japanese Alps until at least the Asuka period. The name means "ground spider", likely due to perceived physical traits that were later exaggerated or embellished....
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of illness
• Location: Fantasy Wind Cave
• Theme Song: The Sealed-Away Youkai ~ Lost Place

Stage 1 boss. A cave-dwelling spider yōkai who has a cheerful and combative personality despite her despised ability.

• Species: Hashihime
  Hashihime
  Hashihime is a character first appearing in Japanese Heian-period literature, represented as a woman who spends lonely nights waiting for her lover to visit, and later as a fierce “oni” or demon fuelled by jealousy. She came to be associated most often with a bridge in Uji.Contents-Biography:Very...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of jealousy
• Location: Deep Road to Hell
• Theme Song: Green-Eyed Jealousy

Stage 2 boss. A guardian of the link between the underground and the world above. Her jealous nature makes her try to hinder the people going to and fro the underworld and fan the flames of jealousy in others.

• Species: Oni
• Ability: Control of the supernatural
• Location: Former Streets of Hell (Ancient City)
• Theme Song: A Flower-Studded Sake Dish on Mt. Ooe

Stage 3 boss. One of the "Four Devas of the Mountain" along with Suika Ibuki, she is referred to as "Yugi the Powerful" within the four. Originally from the Yōkai Mountain, she and the other oni moved underground when humans began to shun the oni. Yugi continues her cheerful sake-drinking life in the Ancient City of Former Hell.

• Species: Satori
  Satori (folklore)
  is a type of mountain-dwelling yōkai in Japanese folklore that holds the power to read human thoughts. The creature is said to approach travellers on mountain paths in hominid form and speak their thoughts aloud...
  
  
• Ability: Ability to read others' minds
• Location: Palace of the Earth Spirits
• Theme Song: Satori Maiden ~ 3rd eye
• Also known as: The Girl Even Evil Spirits Fear

Stage 4 boss. Satori is the Mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits after the underground city was separate from Hell. Her ability to read "minds" makes various yōkai and spirits fearful of her, while leaving her well-loved by the animals that normally can't be understood. With these animals as pets, she manages the ruin of inferno where her home stands. During the events of the Subterranean Animism the Heroine (from above ground) invaded her home. After an encounter, she permitted the Heroine passage towards the Hell of Blazing Fires to ask her pets about their supposed problem.

• Species: Kasha
• Ability: Ability to carry off corpses
• Location: Remains of the Blazing Hell
• Theme Song: Corpse Voyage ~ Be of good cheer!
• Also known as: Hell's Traffic Accident

A two-tailed cat who shows up as a midboss in stage 4 and 5, and turns into humanoid form when she is being the stage 5 boss and Final Stage midboss. Rin is one of Satori's pets, whose job is to carry corpses to the former Hell of Blazing Fires to regulate its heat. Before the events of Subterranean Animism, Rin learned of her old friend Utsuho's newly acquired power, and of her plans to conquer the above ground. She got terrified at the thought of her friend's future, and the punishment her mistress would impart on her (even though Satori would actually never have, and it was just Rin's thinking on her side). She decided to drive the evil spirits to above ground to lure the yōkai in and get them to help her, but instead a human appears before her. Upon seeing that human is unexpectedly strong, though, she asks her to help Utsuho.

• Species: Hell raven with Yatagarasu
• Ability: Manipulation of nuclear fusion
  Nuclear fusion
  Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
  
  
• Location: Deepest sector of the Underground City
• Theme Song: Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion
• Also known as: The Searing Divine Flame

Final Stage boss. Utsuho is one of Satori's pets, a Hell raven who has lived in the underground world since before it was separated from Hell. Her job is to regulate the flames of the Hell of Blazing Fires. Before the events of Subterranean Animism, she was told by a voice (presumably Kanako Yasaka's) that she could swallow the god, yatagarasu

Three-legged bird

The three-legged crow is a creature found in various mythologies and arts of Asia, Asia Minor, and North Africa. It is believed by many cultures to inhabit and represent the sun....

, that was hidden in the flames to gain a power that would fulfill the wishes of both the worlds below and above the surface. This power was nuclear fusion. Utsuho went mad with the abilities she had gained, and decided that, using these powers, she would take over Gensokyo. Her friend, Rin Kaenbyou, became worried about Utsuho, and drove evil spirits to the surface to cause an incident among the strong yōkai above ground, in hope that they would come down to do something about it and, when they got there, defeat Utsuho and bring her back to her former self. What came, however, was not a strong yōkai, but a strong human.

She is sometimes called ⑥ (an inverted ⑨) because she seems to have a simple and boastful personality, and is called a birdbrain by Orin. Also, she is often considered an idiot by fans. ZUN also indirectly calls her an idiot in her theme song's description. This leads to comparisons (or pairings) with Cirno.

• Species: Satori
  Satori (folklore)
  is a type of mountain-dwelling yōkai in Japanese folklore that holds the power to read human thoughts. The creature is said to approach travellers on mountain paths in hominid form and speak their thoughts aloud...
  
  
• Ability: Manipulation of the subconscious
  Subconscious
  The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
  
  
• Location: Moriya Shrine
• Theme Song: Hartmann's Youkai Maiden

Extra Stage boss. Like her elder sister Satori, she was born with the power to read other people's minds. However, Koishi knew this power of hers would make people feel uneasy around her, so she deliberately closed off this power (which dulled Satori's power as well). She sealed away her own heart to others in doing so, and even her sister would not be able to read her heart. Satori took pity on her, and gave some pets to Koishi, hoping that the animals would open Koishi's heart to others. The plan worked, and Koishi started to care for her pets, and would one day set out to seek the god who gave Utsuho that power so that her own pets could use it too.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
  • Yukari Yakumo
  • Suika Ibuki
  • Aya Shameimaru
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
  • Alice Margatroid
  • Patchouli Knowledge
  • Nitori Kawasiro
• Sanae Kotiya (Extra stage midboss)
• Suwako Moriya (cameo)
• Kanako Yasaka (Backstory)

Undefined Fantastic Object

Undefined Fantastic Object

is the twelfth main game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series. Made by the dōjin game maker Team Shanghai Alice. The full version of the game was released in the 76th Comiket on August 15, 2009 following the retail release on September 11, 2009....

• Species: Mouse
  Mouse
  A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
  
   yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Power to find lost objects
• Location: The Road of Lingering Snow (Stage 1), Makai (Stage 5)
• Theme Song: A Tiny, Tiny, Clever Commander

Stage 1 boss and stage 5 mid-boss. Being a leader of mice and a natural dowser, Nazrin was commanded by Syou to search for the shards that fell from the sky and the Jeweled Pagoda of Bishamonten, but her dowsing rods brought her to the humans instead.

• Species: Kasa-obake
  Kasa-obake
  , or Karakasa Obake or Karakasa Kozo, are a type of Tsukumogami, a folk legend about a form of Japanese spirit that originate from objects reaching their 100th year of existence, thus becoming animate. Karakasa in particular are Spirits of Parasols that reach the century milestone...
  
  
• Ability: Power to surprise humans
• Location: Skies of Gensokyo (Undefined Fantastic Object), Myouren Temple Graveyard (Ten Desires)
• Theme Song: Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever

Stage 2 boss and extra stage mid-boss of Undefined Fantastic Object and stage 3 mid-boss of Ten Desires. Kogasa was once an umbrella who was forgotten for a long time and thus became an obake

Obake

and are a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting....

. Being bored and lonely, she tries to perfect the art of scaring humans.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Power to use nyūdō
• Location: Palanquin Ship
• Theme Song: The Traditional Old Man and the Stylish Girl

Ichirin is the stage 3 boss who is accompanied by Unzan, similar to Youmu Konpaku and her ghost-half in that Unzan can also participate in battle. Ichirin, by her own accord, is the guard of the large ship in the sky. She seems to be collecting UFO

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

-shaped shards to revive Byakuren Hiziri, her master, whom she refers to as "sister."

• Species: Nyūdō
• Ability: Power to shift size and form
• Location: Palanquin Ship

Ichirin's companion in stage 3. Unzan is a nyūdō made out of clouds. He is a stubborn, quiet old man who is gentle at heart.

• Species: Ship ghost
  Funayurei
  are spirits found in Japanese mythology. They are the ghosts of people who have died at sea. They approach people on boats and ask to borrow a Hishaku , a utensil for scooping up water. If they are given a ladle, they will pour sea water into the boat until it sinks.-References:* Translated...
  
  
• Ability: Power to cause shipwrecks
• Location: Inside the Palanquin Ship
• Theme Song: Captain Murasa

Murasa is the stage 4 boss, who is the spirit of a human who fell off a ship and drowned in the past. As the humans feared her, their fears turned her into a yōkai. She pledged herself to saving Byakuren, riding the ship she created.

• Species: Tiger
  Tiger
  The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
  
   yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Power to attract treasures
• Location: Makai (Above Houkai)
• Theme Song: The Tiger-patterned Bishamonten

Syou is the stage 5 boss, representing good fortune and an avatar of Bishamonten

Vaisravana

' or ' also known as Jambhala in Tibet and Bishamonten in Japan is the name of the chief of the Four Heavenly Kings and an important figure in Buddhist mythology.-Names:...

. She was chosen by Byakuren to have the mountain yōkai

Yōkai

are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...

 gather faith in exchange. When Byakuren disappeared after a few hundred years, the temple was in great disarray, and all of her friends who were sealed into the Earth returned. Syou, not wanting to run away or have any regrets, told Murasa and the others how to lift the seal.

• Species: Magician
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
  
• Ability: Magic
  Magician (fantasy)
  A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
  
  
• Location: Houkai
• Theme Song: Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind

Byakuren is the stage 6 boss. She had a younger brother, Myouren Hiziri, who taught her Buddhist magic, but died earlier than her. This made Byakuren fear death greatly, and obtained the power to regain her youth. However, it was considered Black Magic rather than an art of Buddhism. Ichirin was her servant, while Murasa pledged herself to saving Byakuren. Fans think Byakuren is a thief-type like Marisa because of near duplication of spell cards used in previous Touhou games and completely copying Shinki's penultimate attack.

• Species: Nue
  Nue
  A nue is a legendary creature found in Japanese folklore. It is described as having the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake as a tail. According to the legend, a nue can metamorphose into a black cloud and fly. Due to its appearance, it is sometimes...
  
  
• Ability: Power to hide her true form
• Location: The Night Sky of Gensokyo
• Theme Song: Heian Alien

Nue is the extra stage boss, also appearing as a sphere of light in stages 4 and 6. She is a very mysterious yōkai who flies through the night sky. Despite being non-human, she was defeated by humans many times in the past, but the accounts of her appearance vary. However, those were all made up, because her form is never seen to anybody but herself. She merely enjoys frightening humans and their imagining of strange things from afar.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
• Sanae Kotiya (playable character)

Touhou Hisōtensoku

Touhou Hisōtensoku

is a versus fighting game in the Touhou Project game series. The game, by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice, can be played as a standalone game or as an extension to the previous fighting game Scarlet Weather Rhapsody...

• Species: Namazu
• Location: Hong Meirin's Dream
• Theme Song: Unknown X ~ Unfound Adventure

Final Boss in Hong Meirin's scenario. It is the villainous avatar of Taisui Xingjun, a God of Calamity, who, in a dream Hong Meirin has, sends assassins (disguised as familiar characters) to attack her. Its objective as it claims is to drain her of her power so that it can move the Earth and return to this world once again. It also speaks quite strongly of its plans to cause various disasters to Gensokyo.

According to NKZ's comment in the Nae Raji (radio broadcasting by D.N.A. Softwares) on September 21, 2009, the inspiration of the Giant Catfish is the Golden Statue of Catfish at Yoshikawa City in Saitama Prefecture

Saitama Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Saitama.This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which a large amount of residents commute each day.- History...

, which is NKZ's hometown.

Playable characters:

• Sanae Kotiya
• Cirno
• Hong Meirin
• Utsuho Reiuzi
• Suwako Moriya
• Reimu Hakurei
• Marisa Kirisame
• Alice Margatroid
• Patchouli Knowledge
• The rest of the cast from Scarlet Weather Rhapsody is available if it was installed.

Double Spoiler

Double Spoiler

is a shoot 'em up photography game, and is the 12.5th official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. It was first released in the 7th Reitaisai on March 14, 2010...

• Species: Crow tengu
  Tengu
  are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...
  
  
• Ability: Thoughtography
  Nensha
  , better known to English speakers as thoughtography or projected thermography or nengraphy, is the ability to psychically "burn" images from one's mind onto surfaces, or even into the minds of others. It is common in fiction, and made noteworthy by the recent Ring/The Ring media franchise...
  
  
• Residence: Yōkai Mountain
• Also known as: Modern Day Spirit Photographer

Boss of Level Spoiler and a player character. Hatate is a modern tengu reporter who makes a newspaper called Kakashi Nenpo. Unlike Aya, she never goes outside for her newspaper research, but instead uses her ability called "spirit photography" to get information from other newspapers. After reading Aya's Bunbunmaru Shinbun newspaper, she decided to observe Aya's way of gathering material for her articles.

Characters present:

• Aya Shameimaru (playable character)
• Shizuha Aki
• Minoriko Aki
• Parsee Mizuhashi
• Hina Kagiyama
• Yamame Kurodani
• Kisume
• Kogasa Tatara
• Nitori Kawashiro
• Momizi Inubashiri
• Ichirin Kumoi
• Minamitsu Murasa
• Yugi Hoshiguma
• Suika Ibuki
• Syou Toramaru

• Nazrin
• Rin Kaenbyou
• Utsuho Reiuzi
• Satori Komeiji
• Koishi Komeiji
• Tenshi Hinanai
• Iku Nagae
• Kanako Yasaka
• Suwako Moriya
• Byakuren Hiziri
• Nue Houjuu
• Reimu Hakurei
• Marisa Kirisame
• Sanae Kotiya

Fairy Wars

Fairy Wars

is a shoot 'em up game, and is the 12.8th official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. The game was released on August 14, 2010 at Comiket 78. The game is the sequel to the Touhou Sangessei manga series as the illustrations were done by Makoto Hirasaka, the manga...

Fairy Wars does not introduce any new characters, but three characters from the manga Eastern and Little Nature Deity and Strange and Bright Nature Deity do appear.

• Species: Fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: Control refractions of light
• Residence: Forest of Magic
• Theme Song: Fairy Wars
• Also known as: The Light of the Shining Sun

A cheerful fairy who likes to play pranks, often called "Sunny" by her accomplices. She manipulates the power of the sun, namely the power to control reflection, with which can make things appear to be invisible. She considers herself the smartest of the three, though she fails often. She is from the manga Eastern and Little Nature Deity and Strange and Bright Nature Deity.

• Species: Fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: Silence nearby sounds
• Residence: Forest of Magic
• Theme Song: Fairy Wars
• Also known as: The Light of the Peaceful Moon

A fairy who likes to play pranks, often called "Luna" by her accomplices. Her power comes from the moon, and she can use it to silence the sounds around her. She seems to be the most cruel of the three. She is from the manga Eastern and Little Nature Deity and Strange and Bright Nature Deity.

• Species: Fairy
  Fairy
  A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
  
  
• Ability: Sense animate objects from far away
• Residence: Forest of Magic
• Theme Song: Fairy Wars
• Also known as: The Light of the Pouring Stars

A fairy who likes to play pranks, often called "Star" by her accomplices and "Saphi" by the fans. Unlike the other two, her power does not wax and wane with the time of day. In reality, she seems to be the smartest of the three, and often escapes punishment while the other two are caught. She is from the manga Eastern and Little Nature Deity and Strange and Bright Nature Deity.

Also present:

• Cirno (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (Extra stage boss)
• Lily White
• Daiyousei

Ten Desires

Ten Desires

is the thirteenth main game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series made by the dōjin game maker Team Shanghai Alice. Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, the initial release of the demo was delayed. Instead, the demo was released for free download on April 16, 2011 with the physical copy...

• Species: Yamabiko
• Ability: Power to reflect sound waves
• Location: Myouren Temple
• Theme Song: Yōkai Girl at the Gate

Stage 2 boss. Kyouko Kasodani is a youkai that embodies mountain echoes and is able to reflect sound waves. She appears to be a recent newcomer to Myouren Temple, though no reference is made to the characters already living there; with mountain echoes no longer being seen as strange, she decided to enter the Buddhist discipline. She seems to be responsible for cleaning duties and confronting trespassers.

• Species: Jiang Shi
• Ability: Ability to eat anything and everything
• Location: Myouren Temple Graveyard
• Theme Song: Rigid Paradise

Stage 3 and Stage 4 boss, alongside Seiga Kaku. Yoshika Miyako is a dimwitted but loyal jiang shi who guards the Myouren Temple Graveyard for Seiga Kaku. As she is just a zombie, she lacks the flexibility and dexterity of living humans and can hardly carry a conversation since most of her brain has rotted away.

• Species: Hermit
• Ability: Power to pass through walls
• Location: Myouren Temple Graveyard
• Theme Song: Old Yuanshen

Stage 4 boss, alongside Yoshika Miyako. Seiga Kaku is a hermit who once, she was in awe of the Tao. Usually guards the Myouren Temple Mausoleum from invaders, she can use her powers to pass through walls. She is very strict to her employer Yoshika.

• Species: Ghost
  Ghost
  In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
  
  
• Ability: Ability to summon thunder and lightning
• Location: Myouren Temple Mausoleum
• Theme Song: None

Stage 5 midboss. One of Toyosatomimi no Miko's servants. Soga no Tojiko is a ghost who came from the powerful Soga Family. She served Miko alongside Futo, but she denied resurrection as a human due to her previous connections with Futo; instead, became a spirit who guards the Myouren Temple Mausoleum. She has a powerful ability to control thunder and lightning.

• Species: Human Taoist
• Ability: Ability to use feng shui
• Location: Myouren Temple Mausoleum
• Theme Song: Legend of the Great Gods

Stage 5 boss. One of Toyosatomimi no Miko's servants. Mononobe no Futo is a human who came from the Mononobe Clan, serving Toyosatomimi throughout the years alongside Soga no Tojiko. She has the power to control feng shui and summon a boat during one of her spellcards.

• Species: Saint
  Saint
  A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
  
  
• Ability: Ability to listen to ten people speaking at the same time
• Location: Myouren Temple Mausoleum
• Theme Song: Shoutoku Legend ~ True Administrator

Stage 6 boss. A Saint living inside the Myouren Temple Mausoleum. She is once born in a stable and was recognized as a genius at an early age before she became a saint. Very knowledgeable, she has the ability to listen to ten people speaking at the same time.

• Species: Tanuki
  Tanuki
  is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...
  
  
• Ability: Power to make things change shape
• Location: Myouren Temple
• Theme Song: Futatsuiwa From Sado

Extra stage boss. A Tanuki Youkai who is making her home in the Myouren Temple. Usually she likes to pull tricks to people and has an ability to change appearances, making her similar to Nue.

Also present:

• Reimu Hakurei (playable character)
• Marisa Kirisame (playable character)
• Sanae Kotiya (playable character)
• Youmu Konpaku (playable character)
• Yuyuko Saigyoji (stage 1 boss)
• Kogasa Tatara (stage 3 midboss)
• Nue Houjuu (extra stage midboss)

Other characters

• Species: Half-human half-yōkai
• Ability: Determining the name and the purpose of unknown items
• Residence: Kourindou

Rinnosuke is a half-human who runs an antique and collectibles shop known as Kourindou in the Forest of Magic. He is the main character of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, and the only active humanoid male character in the Touhou series. He is also one of the few characters who seem to have no fighting ability. Marisa calls him Kourin, and that is the name he is usually known as. Despite his ability, he does not know how to use the unknown gadgets. Hence, he makes many false theories of his own about the foreign objects from the outside world. For example, he called a Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

 a device that allows the user to control humans and possibly destroy the whole world. Later, Yukari corrects him that it is a device that allows the user to control imaginary humans and possibly destroy the whole imaginary world in any place. With few customers, other than some persistent loiterers like Reimu and Marisa, Rinnosuke spends most of his time pursuing his hobby of researching the world beyond Gensokyo. Much of his stock comes from the outside world, and he seems to have a close business relationship with Yukari, who procures the items for him.

• Species: Yōkai
  Yōkai
  are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
  
  
• Ability: Unknown
• Residence: Unknown

Tokiko is a minor yōkai whom Reimu beat up and stole a set of books from. She tracked them to Kourindou, where Reimu had traded them to Rinnosuke, and became a standard fixture there as she argues daily with Rinnosuke, trying to recover her property. Despite appearing frequently in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, she has never been given an official name; Thus the fans gave her the name "Tokiko", which means Crested Ibis

Crested Ibis

The Crested Ibis , also known as the Japanese Crested Ibis or Toki , is a large , white-plumaged ibis of pine forests. Its head is partially bare, showing red skin, and it has a dense crest of white plumes on the nape. This species is the only member of the genus Nipponia.Their habitat is usually...

, because Tokiko has red wings similar to those of the bird.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Telling the time by seeing the stars, determining her location by watching the moon
• Residence: Kyoto
  Kyoto
  is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
  
  , originally from Tokyo
  Tokyo
  , ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
  
  

Renko Usami is a physics student from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. She and Merry form the two-person occult circle, the Secret Seals Club, which investigates Gensokyo. She plays the role of skeptic, as Merry is the only one who's actually been inside Gensokyo, but sincerely believes Merry in the end. Although a normal human, with a glance of the sky, she is instantly able to determine her location and the current time to within a second; she has been described as "a human GPS." She is from the short stories that come with ZUN's music collections.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: See Gensokyo's boundaries
• Residence: Kyoto
  Kyoto
  is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
  
  , originally from outside Japan

Maribel Hearn, nicknamed Merry, is a psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 student and friend of Renko's. She and Renko form the two-person occult circle, the Secret Seals Club, which investigates Gensokyo. Descended from a long line of magicians, she is one of the few humans who can perceive and cross Gensokyo's boundaries. Unused to this ability, she tends to wander through by accident, thinks she is merely dreaming and gets herself into dangerous situations. She is from the short stories that come with ZUN's music collections. There has been no official romanization of her name, so her English name here is an approximation. She also appears strikingly similar to Yukari Yakumo, right down to the clothes they wear, leading people to believe they are connected somehow.

• Species: Human
  Human
  Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
  
  
• Ability: Never forgets anything she sees
• Residence: Human Village

She is currently the who was born in the Hieda family once in every few hundred years with ability to "not forget anything she sees" and records Gensokyo's history. She seems to like black tea

Black tea

Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties.All four varieties are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the...

. Despite her young age, her memory goes back 1200 years. This is because every "Child of Miare" of the Hieda family is a reincarnation of previous "Child of Miare", who inherits the memories of the previous incarnates. She is the ninth reincarnation in the line, as reflected by her name — a pun of the Japanese word for "nine". Each time she reincarnates, her life span gets shorter and shorter. The "Miare" referred to is the real-life Hieda no Are

Hieda no Are

is primarily known for being instrumental to the compilation of the Japanese text Kojiki in 712. While birth and date are unknown, Are was active during the late 7th and early 8th century.-Background:Very little is known about Are's background...

, who compiled the Kojiki

Kojiki

is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami...

. Also, she is the first "Child of Miare" to be born after the sealing of Gensokyo. She is on the cover of Akyu's Untouched Score, the original soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

s for the PC-98 Touhou games, and is also the narrator of the book Perfect Memento of Strict Sense. It is possible that she may be a fellow scholar of Keine Kamishirasawa.

• Species: Doll
  Doll
  A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...
  
  
• Residence: Forest of Magic

One of Alice's dolls and has appeared more than Hourai. Despite having appeared in three of Alice's spell cards in Perfect Cherry Blossom

Perfect Cherry Blossom

is a vertical-scrolling manic shooter made by Team Shanghai Alice, and is the seventh official game of the Touhou Project. The full game was first released on August 17, 2003, in the 64th Comiket in Japan.- Gameplay :...

and one in Immaterial and Missing Power

Immaterial and Missing Power

, commonly abbreviated as IaMP in English speaking circles, is a versus fighting game collaboratively developed by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice released in 2004...

, she is weaker than Hourai. It is purely coincidental that Shanghai and Alice are the creations of Team Shanghai Alice

Team Shanghai Alice

is a one-man Japanese dojin game developer specializing in shoot 'em ups. The team's only releases thus far have been the Touhou Project games and related merchandise.-Games:*The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil...

 as all the names of her dolls are named after locations.

Hourai>

• Species: Doll
  Doll
  A doll is a model of a human being, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world, and traditional dolls made of materials like clay and wood are found in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe. The earliest documented dolls...
  
  
• Residence: Forest of Magic

Another one of Alice's dolls, like Shanghai. She has appeared less than Shanghai, but is stronger than her. Since both dolls' appearances are identical, fans tend to change Hourai's appearance by giving her a bonnet instead of a ribbon. She has no known connection to Kaguya Houraisan or Fujiwara no Mokou.

• Species: Moon rabbit
  Moon rabbit
  The Moon rabbit, also called the Jade Rabbit, in folklore is a rabbit that lives on the moon, based on pareidolia that identifies the markings of the moon as a rabbit. The story exists in many cultures, particularly in East Asian folklore, where it is seen pounding in a mortar and pestle...
  
  
• Residence: Capital of the Moon

A moon rabbit (not related to Reisen Udongein Inaba) tasked to make the elixir of life for Chang'e

Chang'e (mythology)

Chang'e, Ch'ang-O, Chang-Ngo or Sheung Ngo , originally known as Heng'e or Heng-O , is the Chinese goddess of the Moon. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the Moon, Chang'e only lives on the Moon...

, she got tired of her work and fled to Gensokyo with a lunar veil that allows her to take flight. She met Eirin Yagokoro, who gave her a letter to deliver to the two princesses on the moon. She is now a pet of the two princesses, who named her "Reisen" after their previous pet that fled to earth some time ago. She is from the manga Silent Sinner in Blue.

• Species: Lunarian
• Ability: Linking the Mountain and the Sea
• Residence: Capital of the Moon

One of the princesses of the moon, she and her younger sister Yorihime are the leaders of the lunar emissaries—the same ones who were in charge of bringing Kaguya back to the moon. As such, their stance should be that of enmity toward Eirin, who betrayed the emissaries; however, as Eirin was once their respected tutor, they harbor no ill feelings toward the exiled Lunarians in Eientei. She is from the manga Silent Sinner in Blue. She is supposed to be the Japanese goddesss Toyotama-hime

Toyotama-hime

, better known as , is a goddess in Japanese mythology, and is featured in the Kojiki as well as Nihon Shoki. She is the beautiful daughter of Ryūjin, the god of the sea. She married the hunter Hoori and gave birth to a son, who in turn produced Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan...

, otherwise known as Otohime, the princess in the Urashima Taro

Urashima Taro

is a Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin, the Dragon God, under the sea...

 legend.

• Species: Lunarian
• Ability: Possession by the Gods
• Residence: Capital of the Moon

The more serious counterpart to her elder sister Toyohime, and is also a princess of the moon. She seemed to absorb everything that Eirin said. Like Reimu, Yorihime can summon Japanese Gods to use their powers. She is from the manga Silent Sinner in Blue. She is based on the Japanese goddesss Tamayori-hime.

• Species: Sennin
  Sennin
  The Japanese term sennin is a loanword from Chinese xiānrén 仙人 "immortal person", known also as xian "immortal; transcendent; genie; mage; djinn; sage; hermit" in Daoism....
  
  
• Ability: Unknown
• Residence: Seen at the Hakurei Shrine and the Human Village
• Also known as: The one-armed, horned hermit

A mysterious girl who describes herself as "a simple pilgrim" and shows up at the Hakurei Shrine looking for the so-called "arm of the kappa". She is introduced in her name panel as "the one-armed, horned hermit," so it is safe to assume she is a hermit. During the second chapter, she is shown as able to destroy evil spirits with her bandaged arm. However, because she supposedly has horns and her left wrist has a shackle, it might also be safe to assume that she is an Oni (ZUN once stated that for him, horns and shackles are the mark of Oni).

External links

• Characters category on Touhou Wiki for more detailed information.