Kogasa Tatara

**Kogasa Tatara** (多々良　小傘 *Tatara Kogasa*) is a karakasa obake whose sole purpose is to surprise people. However, she hasn't been very successful so far. She encounters the heroine on their way to catch up with the flying object on a mission to scare her, but it doesn't work. She was once a normal umbrella in the outside world; forgotten by her owner, and no one else claimed her because the colour was unpopular at the time. As time went on, the wind swept her away to Gensokyo and she became a youkai. According to her profile in *Undefined Fantastic Object*, she is currently reading up on classic ghost stories in order to improve her scaring technique.

## General Information

Kogasa first appeared as the second stage boss and midboss of *Undefined Fantastic Object* with the boss theme "Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever", and was later a target on Stage 3 of *Double Spoiler*. After, she became the stage 3 midboss of *Ten Desires* and was one of the many background characters shown in *Hopeless Masquerade*. Additionally, she made cameo appearances in the manga *Oriental Sacred Place* and *Wild and Horned Hermit*, along with having her own article in *Symposium of Post-mysticism*.

### Personality

As stated in ZUN's *Undefined Fantastic Object* music comments, Kogasa is a cheery happy youkai, but gets easily depressed when things don't go her way (which is very often), typically when she fails to surprise someone despite her best efforts. She stated she wishes for vengeance on humans for being discarded in *Undefined Fantastic Object*. However, she's actually quite friendly to humans and her vengeance doesn't go beyond surprising and spooking humans. She gets genuinely pleased when she successfully surprises someone (or thinks she successfully surprised someone).

She despises not being taken seriously. She often attacks the protagonist in *Undefined Fantastic Object* in a fit of despair when she thinks they're making fun of her. She's displeased with children liking her eccentric design.

Kogasa suffers from self-esteem problems, as she is easily pushed into lamenting about wondering what her purpose is, or that she might be better off if she just went back to being an umbrella. Perhaps due to this, Kogasa is seeking a true purpose of existence for youkai, tsukumogami, and herself. She attempted this by starting a career in babysitting (which did not seem to go very well), surprising people (which also isn't going very well, though she's found some success in the Myouren Temple graveyard), and was even considering going back to being an umbrella just so she can be useful in that regard. She's stated that she's trying to imagine what humans want, and then plans on becoming that something they can use.[1] Deep down, it appears this pitiable illegally dumped object and troubled forgotten item just wants to be desired.

Her depression may also be another attempt at getting attention. She can get so depressed upon failing to surprise someone that it can become "a bother". In *Undefined Fantastic Object*, Reimu Hakurei wonders if Kogasa just wanted to be beaten up. That Kogasa ironically treats umbrellas like garbage by throwing them in certain spell cards leads Hatate Himekaidou to wonder if she wants to be treated like garbage, herself.

Unlike other youkai, Kogasa doesn't eat humans. Instead, she eats their spirit. In her own words, if she doesn't surprise someone, she'll go hungry. In the past, humans apparently feared youkai enough that she'd get a huge portion of their spirit on a successful surprise, as according to Kogasa in *Undefined Fantastic Object*, even a slight surprise would make a human have difficulty walking straight. This is apparently no longer the case in the present day.

### Ability

Surprising humans
This ability to surprise humans does not appear to be an actual ability beyond what anyone could do, but it's her prime occupation. Kogasa's observed attempts to surprise anyone hasn't really consisted of much more than her screaming "Boo!" or simply attacking someone if pressed. It is the same ability that Chen has without shikigami (ability to the extent of surprising people), so just like with Chen, it might not be an ability of any substance. Also, there doesn't seem to be any humans that have recently come to be surprised, and whatever she does, it is like it is still trial and error. So far, in the things she said in the game, it has come off as more cute than surprising.

Hatate Himekaidou notes that she hides in the darkness to attempt to surprise people, but her hiding places are obvious. Hieda no Akyuu describes her attempts as child's play, to the point where the greater "threat" from her is how bothersome it can be to deal with her after she gets depressed by her failure to surprise someone. It's sometimes better to just pretend to be surprised in order to please her. Considering this, maybe Kogasa is unable to discern between genuine and fake shock, despite how she feeds by surprising people. It is unknown if a person pretending to be surprised provides her with any sustenance, although it does make her happy.

However, Kogasa seems to have some interesting interactions with the fourth wall, such as: her stated failure to defeat Yoshika Miyako in *Ten Desires* due to a "time out"; her appearance on the *Undefined Fantastic Object* CD saying "Surprise~" (おどろけー *odoroke~*) despite being stated by ZUN to not be involved with the story; her appearance as the *Undefined Fantastic Object* extra-stage mid-boss despite not having any relation to the story, which comes complete with a "Surprise!" sound effect to hammer the point home (the only extra-stage mid-boss in the series with no real involvement in the story); and dropping the first full power-up in *Ten Desires* upon her defeat. It is unknown if this is an in-story canon ability or just an out-of-story running gag.

## Character Design

### Design

Kogasa has turquoise hair, one turquoise eye and one red eye. The design purpose of her eyes is likely to be retaining the appearance of Karakasa obake, which is an one-eyed youkai, by blending her right eye into her hair that has the same color, and to high-light the left-red eye as an one-eyed one. She wears a blue-green vest with white sleeves and a light blue skirt. She holds a purple umbrella with an eye and a tongue protruding from it.

Kogasa has been referred to as both: an Umbrella, and an Ghost Umbrella. The umbrella and the girl are actually the same being; she modified the appearance of the umbrella to make herself look more ferocious.

## Spell Cards

Judging by the names and graphics of her danmaku, Kogasa appears to use rain and light attacks in her spell cards (including a rainbow). From a statement by Hatate Himekaidou, the extremely large spinning danmaku orbs that Kogasa throws are actually umbrellas, which creates an awkward sight of an umbrella attacking by throwing other umbrellas. Her train spell cards are actually extremely dense umbrella barages thrown so fast and so close together that they appear to be a train. Her "Karakasa Surprising Flash" seems to be a blinding flash of light. Finally, her "Umbrella Cyclone" spell card and the fact that her rain attacks can be angled may indicate she may use stormy winds as well, but this is uncertain.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Kogasa Tatara is one of the many villains you will face throughout the game. She's a neutral character who doesn't pick either side but just love to scare others

## Additional Information

* She is the only character in *Undefined Fantastic Object* that has no role in the story.
* She is the only Touhou character so far to have two different eye colours, known as heterochromia.
* In *Undefined Fantastic Object*, she says "Urameshiya", which means to be jealous or bitter, while "ya" is similar to saying desu or da. It's often translated as "I'm envious," or simply "Boo," which has become her catchphrase in fandom.
	+ Ghosts, youkai, and possessed objects (such as Karakasa obake) are said to belong to a lower realm in the Six Realms of Buddhist belief. "Urameshiya" is often said by such creatures to express envy towards humans, whose place in the Human Realm affords them less suffering. Thus, "I envy your life!" would be a more appropriate translation, although it tends to be used in the same context as "Boo!"
* In Symposium of Post-mysticism, she thinks babysitters work similar to Mary Poppins, referencing the book and film.