Hey all, Neosonic97 here, with yet ANOTHER Death Battle Analysis post. This time, I'll be covering the main character of the popular indie shoot 'em up series Touhou Project. That is to say, the red/white Shrine Maiden of the Hakurei Shrine located in Gensokyo, Reimu.
JUST SO YOU KNOW...
Touhou Project is a bit strange because there are actually two seperate canons to it. There's the PC-98 canon, which covers the games between Touhou 1: Highly Responsive to Prayers and Touhou 5: Mystic Square. These were released on the Japanese PC-98, hence the name. We WON'T be using PC-98 stuff for Reimu at all, except for comparisons to Marisa. The second era is the Windows Era, which started at Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and has lasted to today. This is what we'll be focusing on.
BACKSTORY & PERSONALITY
A long time ago, Youkai, Gods and other such mythical beings existed alongside humans in the real world, feeding off of their fears and belief, and resided in a haunted, desolate region of Japan called Gensokyo. However, as modern times rolled around, they found their lives diminishing. In order to prevent these mythical beings from dying out, a group of human priests created a barrier to protect the Youkai, with the only catch being that they would be seperated from the world they once resided in. With the assistance of the incredibly old and powerful Yukari Yakumo, The Great Hakurei Barrier had been formed. However, there needed to be someone to maintain the barrier constantly, as, if it were to ever be removed, the Youkai would once again become subject to the effects of lack of belief and eventually die. This was passed down to a religious group of humans known as the Hakurei, and it has continued like that for a long time. The Hakurei Shrine is (supposed to be) the only gateway between Gensokyo and the outside world and the shrine maidens are typically the guardians of it, keeping the shrine safe and maintaining the barrier. The latest and current Hakurei Shrine Maiden is Reimu Hakurei.
Reimu is straightforward, optimistic and somewhat curious, and will offer help to those in need, but is quick to anger if offended. While she's lazy during free time, she's strongly devoted to her duties as the Hakurei shrine maiden, and thus has adopted a 'shoot first, ask questions later' mentality when it comes to exterminating youkai, resulting in her indiscriminately exterminating Youkai, regardless of how dangerous they are. When it really matters, though, she will help Youkai who are in trouble. Reimu treats everyone the same, whether they be gods, youkai or humans, giving them no respect or disrespect. This causes her to befriend youkai she defeats quite often, and she tries to keep them away from the Shrine (Though this is due to the fact that it makes it harder for her to do her job rather than any particular dislike).
ABILITIES & EQUIPMENT
Reimu typically carries some trademark pieces of equipment on her. Most of the time, she carries a large number of ofuda (that is to say, charms) that have anti-youkai properties. However, she can also use them to create clones of herself, or barriers using them, too. Other than this, she also wields a purifying rod (oft called a gohei), which she can use for melee attacks, like she does in Hisou Tensoku. But her most often used weapons are the Yin-Yang Orbs, which can either fire projectiles or be used as projectiles themselves. It also serves as a communicator, as it was modified by Yukari in Subterranian Animism (and still has these functions, much to Reimu's annoyance when Yukari used it to spy on her in Oriental Sacred Place). She also uses 'persuasion needles' as an alternate projectile for more focused damage.
She also has a few natural powers of her own, notably relating to barriers, being able to both create barriers (as already stated earlier) or break through barriers too complex for even skilled magicians like Marisa Kirisame and Patchouli Knowledge to understand. She also has the ability to float. This may not sound impressive in a series where EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN CHARACTER can fly, but Reimu's ability goes beyond mere flight. She can float away from reality, which typically expresses itself in two forms: The first is a short-range teleportation that Reimu seems to perform unconsciously in combat- she even seems unaware that she's doing it. The second is the ultimate expression of the ability: Fantasy Nature. With this, Reimu basically floats far away enough from reality that she becomes completely invulnerable to... just about anything. She is one of the main reasons that the Spell Card Rules exist: without them, she would be able to effortlessly defeat even Gensokyo's most dangerous beings like Yukari Yakumo, Fujiwara no Mokou, Utsuho Reiuji and Marisa Kirisame. Under spell card rules, Fantasy Nature has a time limit, but it is still incredibly powerful.
A NOTE ON SPELL CARD RULES:
The spell card system is a method of settling disputes in Gensokyo first introduced in Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Reimu herself was the one who developed the system, and it was created for a number of reasons. A: To give even the weakest Youkai and Humans a chance at victory in a fight, B: For Youkai to even concievably be able to defeat a Hakurei Shrine Maiden in a fair fight, and C: to prevent bloodshed. Battles under spell card rules are non-lethal, but they do not necessarily encompass magic alone: for example, Sanae can call upon the powers of her shrine's gods, or Marisa and Nitori can use equipment like their Mini-Hakkero and Optical Camouflage respectively. Anything that can constitute as an attack can count as a spell card: even mundane things like throwing Umbrellas or Potatoes. Certain equipment can be required for certain spell cards, like Marisa needing her Mini-Hakkero to perform the Love Sign- "Master Spark", for example.
Speaking of Spell Cards, while Reimu has used a wide variety of Spell Cards over the course of the series, there are a few spell cards that Reimu has a particular favour for, as they seem to return a lot. The main two being her Spirit Sign- "Fantasy Seal" and Dream Sign- "Evil-Sealing Circle", variations of which, if not the spells themselves, have appeared in every game since Touhou 6 where they debuted, either as one of Reimu's bombs or as a boss Spell Card. Fantasy Seal creates a number of coloured orbs which home in on their targets. For the most part, Fantasy Seal is very difficult to dodge, if not totally impossible. Evil-Sealing Circle, on the other hand, sends out waves of amulets in all directions, but typically bunched enough to restrict an enemy's movement. As mentioned before, Fantasy Nature temporarily makes Reimu completely invulnerable to all attacks, by floating away from reality, temporarily entering a state akin to non-existence.
Reimu also has a few skill cards from the fighting games, most are just variants of her ofuda, barrier skills or persuasion needles, but she does have a few unique skills from said games, like the Ascension Kick, a swift rising kick which defends against attacks from above.
FEATS AND WEAKNESSES
Reimu is very powerful amongst Touhou standards. She's seen as superior to Marisa Kirisame, whose Mini-Hakkero is capable of reducing a mountain to ashes, according to Rinnosuke (Who made the damn thing). She has defeated most of Touhou Project's strongest characters, like Yukari Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Utsuho Reiuji, Flandre Scarlet, Yuuka Kazami and aforementioned Marisa Kirisame, just to name a few. She's capable of matching Oni who are famed for their physical strength, such as Yuugi Hoshiguma and Suika Ibuki in physical combat, and is tough enough to take attacks from the aforementioned heavy-hitters as well, including Marisa's mountain-razing Master Spark. She's capable of moving fast enough to dodge attacks moving appreciable fractions of the speed of light, too, if not as fast as, or even faster than light itself. Certain attacks in Touhou Project, like Marisa's "Shoot the Moon" spell card, are described as light, so it is possible she's faster than light and at the very least close to it.
However... she does have a few weaknesses. Under Spell Card Rules, she's not really fighting to kill, but she can opt to defy the spell card rules at any given time if the situation calls for it. Especially in her case since they're self-imposed restrictions. Reimu also hasn't really got the most advanced equipment in the world either, given how the Hakurei Shrine doesn't receive many donations. Still, she doesn't need 'em, and has no trouble reminding people why she's known as one of the most dangerous beings in Gensokyo and one person you DO NOT want to mess with. And gods help you if you blow up the Hakurei Shrine like Tenshi did.
OVERVIEW
+Hax for days, mostly via Fantasy Nature's total invulnerability. Not even Yukari can hit her in that state! Outside of spell card rules, there's no clearly defined limit.
+Extremely fast. Not the fastest in Gensokyo (That'd be Marisa's or Aya's turf), but still super-fast.
+Very powerful energy attacks. At least as much so as Marisa, who can raze mountains with her Master Spark.
+Surprisingly physically adept for a Shrine Maiden. Capable of taking on Suika, who shattered a sizeable portion of Heaven, and both tanking her attacks and harming her, and Yuugi, who is stated to be superior to Suika and have the highest physical strength of all Youkai.
+...?As an in-joke amongst Touhou fans, reportedly has very attractive armpits, thus giving her the nickname 'armpit miko'. Mostly due to her outfit.
-Spellcard rules inhibit killing potential.
=But she can just disobey them if she needs someone dead urgently.
-Another fandom joke: 'destitute miko'. As Reimu's shrine doesn't get many donations, she's seen as very poor.
=Not that this stops her from being the best incident resolver in Gensokyo.
...And that's it for this report on Hakurei Reimu. Read and give feedback please, and I'll see you all next time.
