Geisha

**Michiko** (美智子), also known as the **Geisha** or the **Red Butterfly**, is a Difficulty Level 1.5 Hunter available for purchase after the completion of the prologue. She is one of **28** playable Hunters added to Identity V.

—Michiko (Deduction Star 2020)

## Appearance

### Beauty Form

Michiko is a tall and slender young woman with fair skin and large black eyes. Her long, straight black hair is pulled into a high bun tied with a yellow ribbon and adorned with a red bodkin, and then split into two sharp, flowing ponytails which trail behind her back. She has a painted white face made up with two pale red drop brows, delicate pale red eyeshadow, and bright red lipstick.

She wears a dark brownish-red kimono with red embroidery and matching hems with a high collar cinched at the waist by a red-and-gold obi with gold-and-red embroidery of circles and secured with a ribbon of gold rope. She holds a white Japanese folding fan with a red border and a fading red-to-white tassel in her folded hands.

### Prajna Form

Michiko is a taller and thinner humanoid with pale green skin and smaller black eyes. Her long, straight hair is pulled into a high bun tied with a dull grey ribbon and adorned with a dark brown bodkin, and her twin ponytails are now black tinted with a sharp, sickly lime green at the edges, flowing manically around her. Her face is alarmingly cracked and painted white, with two pale red drop brows, delicate pale red eyeshadow, and a grinning mouth with red lipstick split to reveal two rows of white teeth. She also has drastically sharper, blacker fingernails.

She wears a tattered and torn dull green kimono with pale, dull pink hems with a high collar cinched at the waist by a dull crimson obi secured with a ribbon of bright red rope. A white *hannya* mask with two furrowed red drop brows, red pupils in black eyeholes, a contorted nose, and a black, gaping mouth open to reveal sharp fangs obscures her entire face, and she grasps a white Japanese folding fan with a dull red border and a fading red-to-white tassel in her right hand.

## Gameplay

The Geisha is a Hunter who specializes in chasing Survivors, placing butterflies anywhere in her nearby vicinity and then dashing towards them while ignoring obstacles as long as the butterfly itself is visible. These butterflies can also attach to Survivors, which can also be dashed to so long as the butterfly is visible and the Survivor is not looking in the direct direction of her face.

### External Traits & Abilities

Below is a list of Geisha's intrinsic traits and abilities. For more in-depth information, please check the individual pages.

 Dancing in Misery | 0

### Character Statistics

Below is a list of Geisha's statistics. To view other Hunters' gameplay data, please view **this article**.

## Concept / Design Notes

### Design Notes

Although geisha are all in the shape of Japanese kimonos, they must also incorporate character skills when designing, and they must present unique characteristics: weirdness, horror, and elegance. Eerie, scary or more extreme feelings can be done very purely, but we tend to design with a sense of contrast. The more elegant and charming Michiko is in normal form, the more she can highlight the horror after transformation. We control the feeling of horror within a certain scale, instead of going as far as possible. We found some information on Japanese Noh masks, and found that the contrast between geisha and Noh ghost masks met the requirements, but it took a lot of work to integrate the expression styles in the end.

## Etymology

* The name **Michiko** means "beautiful" (美) (**mi**), "wisdom, intellect" (智) (**chi**) and "child" (子) (**ko**).

## Change Log

April 30th, 2021
* Buff: Increased the speed of Soul Departure, and the range of Geisha's dash hit when using Soul Departure.
* Buff: Increased the speed of the swordtail butterflies while being placed at full presence.

September 24th 2021
* Buff: Reduced the cooldown for Dancing in Misery from 20 seconds to 17 seconds.
* Buff: Increased Geisha's normal attack speed.

January 4th, 2024
* Adjustment: Improved the target selection logic of the Geisha's Dash Hit.

## Trivia

* Michiko was the second female hunter to be released into the game.
* Prajna (the name of Michiko's demon form) stems from a term in Buddhism that means insight into the true nature of reality.
	+ Michiko's mask in her Prajna form is a hannya mask, a common mask that represents a jealous female demon in Japanese plays.
* According to Famitsu Magazine featuring 4th Anniversary Q&A interview with Identity V developers, Michiko's initial concept was based on SCP-173, a dangerous entity belonged to the fictional organization SCP foundation. This statue creature is hotile against its victims, as it can move at a very high speed and snap the neck of any humans in vicinity. However, it is weak against direct eye contact and remains immobile within line of sight. This is also the background of Michiko's abilities, as she can descend upon a Survivor's location at a dangerous pace, but cannot activate her special ability while marked survivors trigger "stare" action against her.
	+ The reasons for Michiko's fear of mirrors and people's gazes vary, with the most possible factor comes with her post trauma from racism and xenophobia against Asian people in the foreign land, which is very commonplace in the event of World War II and especially since Geishas were seen as an inferior job back then. Michiko and Miles' relationship therefore dealt with waves of disapproval and criticism, most notably from Miles' father. Hence, this leads to Michiko detesting her identity and desiring to make herself look as western as possible, while also in fear of others see through her true nature. That Michiko is of Japanese descent and a Geisha is also the ultimate indirect cause that leads to her gruesome fate later on.
* Her background story is based on Madame Butterfly, Which she represents Cho-Cho-San while her husband Miles represents B.F. Pinkerton.
* Michiko will hum songs occasionally in-game:
	+ One of the songs is a Japanese folk song called "Sakura Sakura".
	+ Another song also triggered during Beauty Form's idle animation is the beginning part of "Lament of the Highborne", a soundtrack from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade's OST.
		- Additionally, the mentioned song above is also hummed in three different tones: the first version is a normal tone, the second one is softer, and the third is deeper.
* Michiko's alias - Red Butterfly (红蝶) is based on the Japanese horror game Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (零～红蝶～). The Japanese name for the creature in the game is 紅い蝶 (*Akai Chō).* Crimson Butterfly is depicted in-game as a spiritual symbol that honors the souls of the victims in All God Village's sacrificial ritual. This is somewhat similar to Michiko's ability Swallowtail Butterflies, as they symbolize her soul's resentment and vengeance from being murdered by Donnelly Miles, her father-in-law, and later had her corpse accidentally become a sacrificial offering to the Sea Lord in Lakeside Village, therefore landing a calamity on the village's fate. Additionally, Michiko's demise bears a resemblance to Sae Kurosawa's, the main antagonist of the other game, who was also the victim for the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. The ritual wasn't a success however as the villagers didn't meet the requirements of both twins (Sae and Yae) being sacrificed together, thus allowing Sae to return as a vengeful spirit and kill all living beings in the village, marking the end of All God Village. Sae's soul therefore haunted the place and kept on waiting forever for her sister to come back and reunite with her.
	+ In the concept art for Michiko's abilities, her Dash Hit was Michiko transforming to Prajna Phase, and in split seconds she turns into a bunch of red butterflies rushing towards the targeted survivor. After the ability is canceled, Michiko will revert back to her Prajna Form
* Michiko is the character that has the most idle animations in-game with 5 idle animations in total: Beauty form's, Prajna form's; panic form's for two different forms mentioned above and a hidden animation of Prajna's form that can be triggered using Listen during Beaty form's panic idle animation.
* Unlike other hunters that have to climb through the window, Michiko can go through it. This same goes for the Sculptor.
* All of Michiko's exclusive accessories are worn on her head instead of her waist, excluding Red Spider Lily and Kitsune Mask.
* Currently, Michiko is only one of three hunters to have a pet, the other hunters being Gamekeeper and Smiley Face.
* Michiko is located on the map, Eversleeping Town where she can be seen dancing on the gazebo at the lake in her Shiromuku skin and her silhouette can also be seen on a screen door in one of the two-story buildings.
	+ In the silhouette, Michiko appears to be in her prajna form, holding her fan, and sitting down with a leg exposed.
* Michiko is the only hunter in-game that can change the balloon's colors to black-and-white with her two costumes, The Bride and Shiromuku. Each of these costumes features a fragment of Michiko's memories and innermost feelings.
* The game files for Michiko contain the word banshee in their codename. A banshee is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by walking, shrieking, or keening.
* When using the trait Peeper a Japanese stock "Pon!" sound effect will play.
* Although Michiko doesn't have her legs visibly shown in-game, her model actually has a base for legs.
* Michiko has the highest hunter usage rate in the entire game, as of 2022.
* According to the Official Identity V Museum, she is 196 cm tall (6'5).

## In Other Languages

 🇨🇳 | 繁體中文(Traditional Chinese) | 紅蝶 (美智子)
 🇺🇸 | English
 🇯🇵 | 日本語(Japanese) | 芸者 (美智子)

## References

1. ↑ "Michiko used to be an amazing dancer. When she danced in a red kimono, it looked like a red butterfly flapping its wings. But now, no one has the courage to watch her performance. So, she's dubbed "The Red Butterfly". The developers also mention designing the Geisha, as well as a fan who had designed a Geisha survivor after their initial idea. - https://weibo.com/6140485374/GdzuaFs1K
2. ↑ "Today let's first introduce a new female [Hunter]. Everyone wanted a pure and untainted female hunter with a beautiful appearance but a fearsome aura. I think, this would be "The Red Butterfly"." - https://weibo.com/6140485374/Gdzn1beRJ
3. ↑ Wedding Anniversary, according to Geisha's Character Day Announcement on Twitter
4. ↑ As the in-game voice, according to a website confirming the Voice Actress of **Geisha**, Perfumer, Coordinator and Entomologist - https://baike.baidu.hk/item/%E9%BB%83%E9%B6%AF/3513461
5. ↑ In the Nymph Awards Song - In Between the Scenes and as Rainmaker in the Mélodis Estate Investigation Trailer and Rainmaker's Tale.
6. ↑ As Rainmaker in the 3rd Anniversary Trailer and in the Mélodis Estate Investigation Story. According to the cast list on the Identity V IMDb page.
7. ↑ Official Japanese Reference Book
8. ↑  She appears in all three episodes of Identity V Stage Play as Michiko
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Although the officially listed Terror Radius is 32.07 meters, this value is incorrect. The actual in-game radius is approximately 25 meters for the Beauty form and 35 meters for the Prajna form. This reflects her Triple Phases Trait description, which mentions her radius varying between the two forms.
10. ↑ Design notes of characters are from the first volume of the Official Art Reference Book
11. ↑ Dash Hit selection logic will prioritize Butterflies close to the center of the screen.
12. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama\_Butterfly