Reimu Hakurei

Reimu Hakurei is the main protagonist of the Touhou Project series, having appeared in almost every game and book in the series whether as a protagonist, enemy, playable or minor character unless specified.
As the sole maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, she is commonly called upon by other characters, or herself, to investigate strange occurrences called incidents throughout Gensokyo.
During her journeys, she fights hundreds of characters using her spiritual powers, mainly youkai, some examples including magicians, evil spirits and gods; afterwards, most become her acquaintances.
She has never received an official voice actor.
==Appearance ==
Reimu is described as being 'fairly tall', having fair skin and dark hair of long-to-short length. She typically wears a red-and-white adapted and non-traditional shrine maiden outfit, white sarashi, white bowed socks and black Mary Jane shoes, while wearing different outfits at times.
Otherwise, her design varies throughout many of the games:
*(Touhou 1 to 5) Purple eyes, long purple hair, wears large red ribbon in hair. Clothes are red and white, and strongly resembles a traditional shrine maiden outfit.
*(Touhou 3, alternative outfit) Same as above, but clothes are mainly green instead of red.
*(Touhou 6 and 7) Dark red eyes, black hair, wears large red ribbon in hair, often carries a rod (gohei) with many paper seals attached in streamers. Wears a red and white dress remotely similar to a shrine maiden's outfit with detached sleeves leaving her shoulders uncovered, and a red neckerchief.
*(Touhou 7.5, 10, 10.5, and 12.3) Same as above, but her neckerchief is yellow.
*(Touhou 7.5 and 10.5, alternative outfit) Same as above, but the dress is black instead of red.
*(Touhou 8) Same as 7.5, 10, 10.5, and 12.3, but her hair is dark brown.
*(Touhou 9) Same as 8, but her neckerchief is navy blue. Over the course of these games, her hair apparently grew from shoulder-length to the middle of her back before it became short again in Touhou 11.
* (Touhou 9, alternative outfit) Same as above, but dress is mainly blue instead of red.
*(Touhou 11) Same as 9, but her neckerchief is dark blue with a yellow ribbon tied to it. Shoulder-length hair.
* (Touhou 12, 12.5) Same as 11, but the neckerchief is entirely yellow again, and Reimu's hair has grown past her shoulders.
* (Touhou 13) Same as 12, but her hair has become shorter (possibly the shortest it has ever been). Her gohei is also much longer judging from the title screen.
*(Touhou 13.5) Same as above, except neckerchief is blue again and her hair is brown and longer.
* (Touhou 14) Same as in 13, but her hair is now slightly longer and her neckerchief is once again yellow. She also no longer has a ribbon threaded through the hem of her dress (it has been replaced with a lacy pattern of a similar colour), or ribbons threaded through the bottom of her arm-socks.
== Occupation==
===Shrine Maiden===
Reimu's occupation is a shrine maiden, who are altar girls that live in and work at Shinto shrines. Shrine maidens are generally virgins and take various rites of purity and chastity, and undergo various forms of physical and mental training. They also practice sealing and purification rituals, which are highly form-based and symbolic, and are used to bless, purify, or exorcise vengeful spirits. Her daily life as a shrine maiden includes wearing red-and-white clothing, staring at the sky and enjoying tea and life on the veranda of the shrine.
Reimu lives in, works at, and maintains the Hakurei Shrine, located by the boundary of Gensokyo, the Great Hakurei Barrier, distanced in mountains away from the Human Village. In these mountainous areas, the whole of Gensokyo can reportedly be seen from a single view by the shrine. Due to its place in maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier, Hakurei Shrine exists in both the world of Gensokyo as well as the Outside World.
In particular, Reimu's duty is to protect Gensokyo, while there are other things included in her job. Although Reimu only extinguished certain sparks of conflict in her journeys because they seemed to befall her without warning, her actions have generally resulted in preventing the youkai residents of Gensokyo from visiting human settlements, and keeping human outsiders away from wandering into Gensokyo.
===Creator of the Spell Card System===
The Spell Card system is a system set by a boundary of rules made in order to uphold the laws and values of Gensokyo's humans and youkai. Simply put, it refrains youkai from killing humans, without causing needless bloodshed and is a fair way of winning a duel.
It is assumed that Reimu is the creator of this system, on many occasions having been mentioned as such in canonical works. During the events of Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil, Reimu had been at least one of the creator of this system.
=== Incident Resolver ===
Reimu is one of the main incident resolvers in Gensokyo. In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, an incident is defined as "a phenomenon that affects all of Gensokyo and is of unknown cause". These set the central obstacles that a character has to face in the games, typically enemy characters usually in the form of stage bosses, midbosses, final bosses, extra bosses.
==Abilities==
Reimu has mostly natural abilities that come from birth and most of these are spiritual abilities, but there are other unrelated skills she has. Her trademark ability is Fantasy Nature.
===Ability to Float===
While many inhabitants of Gensokyo are capable of flying, Reimu's ability extends beyond that; she is someone who excels at floating through life, displaying a level of oneness with her surroundings that has been compared to a hermit. While she "goes with the flow" Reimu displays superhuman instincts and incredible luck, naturally ending up on the path of least resistance through most situations; conversely, when distracted or acting with impure motives she quickly loses her edge.
===Spiritual Abilities===
In earlier games, Reimu's spiritual abilities were highly limited. As time went by, however, she developed her abilities, becoming able to use the Yin-Yang Orb, special amulets, and her own spiritual power in order to fight more effectively. Sometime between Mystic Square and Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, this culminated in her developing the ability to fly under her own power.
*In Touhou Reiiden: Highly Responsive to Prayers, she was in fact unable to harm enemies directly at all.
*Her spiritual power was limited in the PC-98 era games.
*Before being able to fly, she relied on Genjii, her turtle familiar, to fly, and in fact did not fly at all in Touhou Reiiden: Highly Responsive to Prayers.
====Ability To See and Control Auras====
It has been stated in Reimu's Omake text official profile of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, she could see and control auras, which was to control the natural spirits of living things. However, there has not been any other official statements regarding this ability itself except a few examples, such as in chapter 16 of Forbidden Scrollery, where it explained that she was able to tell if a youkai has been active in an area from the lingers of their aura. She has also used her ofuda to detect if a youkai had any evil. It may mean that she needs a specific item to be able to be capable of this ability, but it's unknown as it is rarely shown.
===Physical Abilities ===
While her physical abilities are below average compared to her spiritual abilities, Reimu is remarkably athletic for her sedentary lifestyle.
==Plot==
===Undefined Fantastic Object===
In Undefined Fantastic Object, she seems very intent on getting the treasure ship's riches, probably due to the events following the Hakurei Shrine's repair and re-opening in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. Where there's a treasure ship, there has to be the seven gods of luck. She figures that where any gods are involved, it's a job for her, but most of the seven gods of luck aren't Japanese gods. Her true goal is the treasure.
===Ten Desires===
In Ten Desires, a lot of divine spirits start to congregate and due the fact that is an "Incident", Reimu has to go and figure out what drove them to spread.
===Hopeless Masquerade===
In Hopeless Masquerade, the normally calm humans and the always-energetic youkai are both in a state of excitement. Their blood is boiling for one reason. From here on, the shrine maiden and her rivals will be battling it out. The goal is to emerge victorious in the battle, and acquire unwavering popularity.
===Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom===
In Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, the lunar emissaries have at last arrived for real. Their goals are unknown, but as Reimu is fighting entirely away from home, it's obvious that this will be the first truly difficult battle for her in a long while. This time, she's forced to fight a battle with no room for error.
=== Antimony of Common Flowers===
In Antimony of Common Flowers, Reimu heads out with Kasen Ibaraki to investigate the Perfect Possession incident, but quickly realizes that the incident can't be dealt with via usual means.
===Hidden Star in Four Seasons===
In Hidden Star in Four Seasons, there were cherry blossoms blooming at the Hakurei Shrine, but it didn't bother Reimu as there was plenty of strange weather before, so she doesn't think of the incident as an issue. That conceit leads her to severely misjudge the true nature of the incident.
=== Wily Beast and Weakest Creature===
In Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, beast spirits had begun to invade from Hell en masse. A beast spirit that was cooperative with humans told Reimu that it'd lend its power to her, so she decided to go to Hell. She wasn't completely convinced by what the spirit had told her, but she would be more powerful than if she went to Hell by herself, and she could always just defeat the beast spirit itself if things came to that, so she decided that it didn't pose any disadvantage to her.
==Personality==
Reimu is an open and extremely carefree individual who is disconnected with social norms due to having little visitors at her shrine; she simply lives her life on ideas off the top of her head, never taking things seriously and being unattached to the world of living. Highly curious, she is often interested in things, although can be quickly disinterested once she learns about them, leading to her being straightforward. She exhibits entirely separate values and views from others, tending to draw abnormal conclusions to things, oftentimes ignoring what others feel and unintentionally hurting them. By nature, Reimu can use various mysterious powers, but she doesn't use most of them or boast about them, although she is still extremely confident.
She takes her job as the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine very seriously, although she dislikes or hates training as she believes that effort will not be rewarded. Generally, her way of exterminating youkai is fighting first and then asking questions later. Even if a youkai were to be harmless and not trying to hurt anyone, she would still attack them using brute force to teach them a lesson, albeit without killing them. She is not afraid to murder when it is necessary, only depending on if the victim committed a sin great enough to deserve said punishment. It is noted that in contrast to other previous generations of shrine maidens, she lacks a sense of danger and goes through meager training, yet is exceptionally powerful.
She displays a neutral personality; she treats anyone and everyone in an uninterested manner with no particular respect or disrespect, whether or not they are an average human or a god and regardless of social status. This tends to attract visitors to her shrine, whether youkai or human, as well as those who are strong both in power and personality towards her.
As her abilities have changed, so has her personality. In the first few games, she is considered as very optimistic and easily excited, not worrying about any incidents even if they were strange or an emergency, but still enjoyed them. She was confident, believing she could solve every incident she came across with her power, rarely being suspicious about incidents. Described as having a ‘slightly emotional’ and ‘simple’ character, she was often the target of jokes and being dragged into adventures that she didn’t wish to participate in by Marisa, while Reimu pretended to ignore her, thinking she was a hopeless case.
As noted by Komachi Onozuka and Toyosatomimi no Miko, she is a person who is very easy to read. 
In the case of Komachi, she knew that Reimu is too simple-minded to have any ill intent and that she would quickly return to normal, while Miko easily deduced that even though she stated that she wanted to exterminate all youkai, she truly wanted to achieve a peace without violence in Gensokyo. Reimu also portrays her emotions exactly as they are: when she's happy, she's happy, when she's angry, she's angry.
==Relationships==
Reimu, being the main heroine in the Touhou Project series, makes many different relationships during her appearances in the games and books. Her shrine is often visited by most of the characters in the series.
*Marisa Kirisame (Friend and fellow incident resolver)
*Rinnosuke Morichika (Friend)
*Yukari Yakumo (Ally)
*Suika Ibuki (Houseguest/Moocher)
*Genjii (Pet turtle)
*Ruukoto (Former maid)
*Mima (Taunter)
*Aya Shameimaru (Fellow incident resolver)
*Byakuren Hijiri (Religious rival)
*Flandre Scarlet (Known)
*Sanae Kochiya (Fellow incident resolver)
*Reisen Udongein Inaba (Fellow incident resolver)
==Trivia==
*Reimu seems to be scared before and after the boss battle with the Five Magic Stones, making this the only ever time that Reimu was scared and/or afraid of a boss before and after the battle.
*Reimu is known for exterminating youkai indiscriminately, regardless of how much of a threat they represent to her or others. The most notable example of this was Tokiko, who was ambushed by Reimu while she was, in Reimu's own words, "reading and minding her own business".
*Most of her theme from Lotus Land Story sounds similar to Elis and Kikuri's theme from Highly Responsive to Prayers, "Magic Mirror".
*It is originally stated that she lives alone at the shrine, but other rarely seen characters (Mima and SinGyoku) are known to stay there or near there as well. Even then, she claims that most youkai visitors are nuisances, and she'd prefer to be left alone. Marisa Kirisame seems to be one of the few who she wouldn't drive away.
*In Imperishable Night, Reimu is the only one whose partner doesn't mention the danger of the full moon.
*Reimu's ultimate technique Fantasy Nature (夢想天生 musou tensei, "innate fantasy gained at birth") is homophonous with the ultimate technique of the Hokuto Shinken school in Fist of the North Star, Musou Tensei (無想転生 musou tensei, "nil-thought rebirth"), and has much the same effect.
* In Touhou Hisoutensoku, if you activate Fantasy Nature successfully in a 3rd round, a remix of "Eastern Mystical Love Consultation" will play which resembles Ai wo Torimodose, the opening theme of the Fist of the North Star anime (an instrumental version of which usually plays whenever Kenshiro is about to win a fight).
* In Touhou Hisoutensoku, one of her alternative palettes looks similar to VIVIT, the heroine of the Seihou Project. Also, one of her palettes seems to be another maid homage, Ruukoto, or possibly Sanae Kochiya's colours. The palette also seems to resemble Mima from Highly Responsive to Prayers. Her white/light gray palette seems to resemble Toki from Hokuto no Ken.
*When playing Yukari's story mode in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Reimu breaks down in tears in the ending after Yukari defeats Tenshi and reduces the Hakurei Shrine to rubble for the second time, with Sakuya and Youmu looking on helplessly (although Suika offers to help rebuild it). This marks the first and only time where she is seen crying in a storyline scenario.
*The shrine maiden at the end of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise is probably Reimu. She has Reimu's title, "Shrine Maiden of Paradise" (and her personality), and according to Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red's Music Column, the shrine maiden in the song that accompanies the ending section is Reimu (so basically, this shrine maiden has Reimu's song and title). However, only the shrine maiden at the end is referred to as the shrine maiden of paradise. Thus it is possible that the shrine maiden seen in the first half of the story is a different person altogether.
*A "13th Shrine Maiden" signs off the Gensokyo Record in Perfect Cherry Blossom's prologue. ZUN has stated in an e-mail that the Gensokyo Record is unreliable (for one thing, the writing style of each section shows it was written by a different person each time), thus "there is a high possibility that Reimu is not the 13th Hakurei shrine maiden." (technically, this also means there is no proof that the person who wrote that section of the record is a shrine maiden at all).
*It is shown in Oriental Sacred Place that the shrine sometimes gets various donations (including wine) from unknown sources (implied to be from the outside world, as the Hakurei Shrine lies on the border) and Yukari is shown in Oriental Sacred Place to sneak yen donations into the offering box when Reimu isn't looking.
* Although Reimu has successfully resolved the incidents in each major Touhou game, it's possible that her win rate throughout the actual events of the games was not 100%. Perfect Memento in Strict Sense states that Reimu likes to request rematches until she finally wins. In essence, Reimu apparently has had to use a few continues every once in a while, but she still manages to get a good ending.
*Ironically, although she is a Shintoist shrine maiden, she has been compared to a Taoist hermit, her practices resembling wu wei and she has also used various weapons relating to yin and yang.
*Interestingly, in each story in most of the games and books, events are never from Reimu's perspective, but instead being from others.
*Reimu balances out Yukari's "girly-girl", while she balances out Marisa's "tomboy" theme.
*Reimu's ability of never getting fat after eating sweets is jokingly theorized by fans as the reason for her small in-game hitboxes.
*Reimu has been featured in Seihou Project, Magic Pengel, Graffiti Kingdom, Lord Of Vermilion and Nendoroid Generation.
==External links==
===Wiki===
*
*Touhou Wikipedia
*
=== Fandom ===
*Reimu Hakurei Fanart
**DeviantArt
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