Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Hakurei Shrine~ => Touhou Addict Recovery Center => Topic started by: Lisanius on January 11, 2015, 10:59:09 AM
-
As we all know the Touhou series has a vast selection of girls (and the occasional man) . And I'm sure over our times of playing Touhou, we've all gotten attached to one or two of these characters.
Maybe it's because of design. Or maybe it's because of their personality. Maybe we just like everything about that character. So I was wondering what are /YOUR/ favourite characters?
You're allowed to choose more than one favourite for this post, because I know how hard it is to pick just one Touhou girl :P
So I better start with mine.
My all time favourite Touhou character is Sanae Kochiya.
And she always has been since Mountain of Faith. I just think everything about her character is really interesting. And I'm really glad she's became a sort of main character as of recently. She's always had this interesting synnergy between Lady Suwako and Lady Kanako. Speaking of Suwako...
My second favourite is the Godess Suwako.
Suwako is another really interesting character from Mountain of Faith that I instantly loved from the first moment I saw her (I've never reached her in the game, but I saw her on a video). And her backstories really interesting (Same with Sanae).
I have two more left and they are:
Nitori:
Nitori, she's so unique. A youkai who likes humans? Love it!
And
Marisa:
She's Marisa. Really all I need to say.
EDIT: I have a list of a few more favourites I can name.
Shikieiki : She's a God of Law. And her theme is amazing. I just love her character and design as well as her personality.
Cirno : She has her own game and she's the strongest. One of the first bosses I ever fought (EoSD) and she's a pretty amazing character too.
So what are your favourites?
Can't wait to hear from all of you fabulous maidens soon! :3
-
Well.
My absolute favourite is Yukari. Yeah, maybe it isn't to original, but I love everything about her: her power, her design, her personality, her spellcards... She's so awesome!
Second is Koishi. Same as with Yukari, I love her so much! It all began (even so most fans think it's complete garbage) with Koishi Komeiji's Heart Throbbing adventure. It's non-canonical, but it made me love her in canon. And her playstyle in HM was very fun!
Next up is Yuyuko. Theme/spellcard/design (hah). I really like her backstory. It made her very deep character.
And last, but not least: Futo! I really liked her plate gimmick in HM. That made me intrest in her, after what I completely fell in love in her.
I also like a lot of other characters, but not as much as this fabulous four mentioned before. I can list them here:
Sanae, Suwako, Mokou, Seija, Yuuka, Shinki, Raiko, Marisa, Luna, Remilia, Reisen...
And the list goes on...
-
My top favorite is Mokou. I pretty much like everything about her... personality, design, abilities (pyromancy just amazes me for some reason), and even her backstory. She's got a good theme as well.
Number two would be Yuuka. I really like her sort of personality... very defensive of her own property. I like that. I don't see her as a kill-on-sight kind of sadistic person, but I do see her as a person who doesn't take lightly to people busting in her home and/or messing with her garden. I'd be pissed off too if people were messing with my flowers. Her second theme known as "Faint Dream ~ Inanimate Dream" is also one of my favorite themes in Touhou. It has a very intimidating feel to it, and it just makes you feel like you're fighting someone who really doesn't approve of your presence at all.
Number three would be Mima. Yeah, I know, not the most original, but she is just awesome. Being a former teacher of one of the main characters? Check. Two equally awesome themes? Check. Interesting design? Check. Overall? Awesome.
Coming up at number four would be Koishi. The main reason I like her a lot is for her very strange ability. I mean, the power to make people not notice you unless you actually want them to notice you? Just imagine all of the other things she can do with her very mind-bending powers. It's scary, honestly. Her theme is also one of my favorites. A very strange theme, basically telling you that you really shouldn't be fighting this person... but for what reason?
Some honorable mentions:
Yukari: Awesomely overpowered abilities + an awesome theme = The awesomeness that is Yukari.
Kokoro: Since she cannot show emotions normally... well... it makes me feel somewhat sorry for her. Her theme is also pretty emotional as well. One of the only themes that actually made me feel bad for a character. She does look cute, though.
Shinki: Lives in a hell-like world, and then destroys it because of one little person (reimu) broke in there to stop something from happening. Pretty disappointing, but that still doesn't make her less awesome. Her theme is also one of my favorites. Her design is awesome, too. Especially those wings.
-
If I had to choose an absolute number 1 at this precise moment it would probobly be Elly. My top 5~10 interchanges pretty frequently however.
Blame me reading between the lines HARD on Elly. I like trying to use things within official touhou sources and mythology to peice together things about the girls. And Elly is one of the most extreme examples of what this can accomplish.
Basically, using things in LLS, I can assume Elly is an Ankou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou) [Basically a Shinigami; both are reapers]; from Brittany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany) [Now part of France], and has some tie to the Catholic faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdition) [Specifically Perdition is a state of damnnation in Christian theology. Brittany was Catholic. Although Elly may not BE Catholic]. Is any of this outright stated? No. Is it reasonable? Yes.
Also fun fact, one of Brittany's major produced foods/drinks? An apple brandy. Talk about bad apple. [This isn't part of my theory; it's just funny]
Also since Elly is Breton I can even estimate her minimum age. [Assumeing LLS is set in it's release year; 1998; Elly must be at least 466 at the time of LLS; since Brittany ceased to exist after that]
Doing things like that is fun. I like digging. I like theories. As my sig suggests, my favorites are a combination of mystery; style and awesome. Elly is all three. And even with my digging there are still huge questions: like why on earth she works for Yuuka.
Other prominent Top 5 characters include Rumia and Seija. These three are often in conflict for #1. Other Top 10's include Sanae, Kogasa, Shinki, Alice, Raiko, Seiga and Yukari. Sanae often drops in and out of the Top 10; she's quite far below the other 9.
===
Actually I have some time so I'll explain the others in slightly briefer detail in no particular order:
Rumia: Whole 'Ribbon is a seal' thing. Also I can't help but pity her. She hates the light; so hides from it in her darkness. But she lacks the required secondary powers of seeing in her darkness [Which basically every youkai has!], so has to hunt while being blind, and navigate a forest.
Seija: Aside from being the first undeniably 'I'm still a bad guy even after Reimu beat me up' Touhou character [Seiga hasn't shown up again to show either way], she's a jerk; her character is interesting, and she's pretty awesome in terms of power and such. She's cunning and manipulative.
Yukari: Defines mystery
Seiga: It's a floating 'wicked hermit' who tricked her family into thinking she died, can pass through walls, steals things and helped train Miko, who deceived an entire nation. Yeah. Also Yoshika.
Alice: I find Alice... interesting. Why does she make dolls? Why does she want to create a doll with it's own soul? Why is it so bad if she loses using her Grimoire; she did so before and just threw a tantrum of sorts. Alice is often behind a facade... what is the real Alice?
Shinki: Well; she's Touhou Satan. Except Satan is nice.
Kogasa: Aside from being cute as a button, it's same same pity thing as with Rumia.
Raiko: STYLE INCARNATE
Sanae: Her adjustments to Gensokyo reflect how other ordinary people spirited away might act and adjust. Not that Sanae is 'normal'. Also when did she discover her power over miracles? Was it before she came to Gensokyo? If so, what happened in the real world at that time?
-
Basically, using things in LLS, I can assume Elly is an Ankou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou) [Basically a Shinigami; both are reapers]; from Brittany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany) [Now part of France], and has some tie to the Catholic faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdition) [Specifically Perdition is a state of damnnation in Christian theology. Brittany was Catholic. Although Elly may not BE Catholic]. Is any of this outright stated? No. Is it reasonable? Yes.
Also fun fact, one of Brittany's major produced foods/drinks? An apple brandy. Talk about bad apple. [This isn't part of my theory; it's just funny]
Also since Elly is Breton I can even estimate her minimum age. [Assumeing LLS is set in it's release year; 1998; Elly must be at least 466 at the time of LLS; since Brittany ceased to exist after that]
Doing things like that is fun. I like digging. I like theories. As my sig suggests, my favorites are a combination of mystery; style and awesome. Elly is all three. And even with my digging there are still huge questions: like why on earth she works for Yuuka.
Wow, you've really dug up some interesting facts here! I love seeing theories like this. I don't really have any theories of /that/ level of detail, but I do have a theory I have made for Sanae, which I put together through the dialogue of the games I've played involving her (Mountain of Faith, Undefined Fantastic Object, Ten Desires. I've been told she's the Extra Stage midboss).
Our first encounter with Sanae (being Stage 5 of MoF) We learn that she is also a Shrine Maiden, similar to Reimu, with a shrine in the mountains dedicated to her Godess Kanako. So we get a feeling that she has a strong relationship with Kanako, but with the selection screen of UFO, you have a choice between Kanako's homing snakes and Suwako's Frogs. This makes me believe she also has a faith in Suwako. Although there is a possibility that after the Extra Stage of MoF, and the defeat of Suwako and Kanako, that Youkai mountain became peaceful and Suwako became another God of the Shrine (if she wasn't one already).
I believe that Sanae was originally from the outside world (along with Kanako) and their shrine wasn't getting enough donations, and so they moved to Gensokyo and moved their shrine to Youkai mountain, hoping Youkai's would donate to them. I'm putting this part together through dialogue of Sanae's and Kanako.
So after the events of MoF we have Subterenean Animism, which is a very short part of my theory. I believe that Sanae's reason for being underground in the Extra Stage is Kanako's request. Maybe something to do with the remains of the Blazing Hell? I'm not sure, it's seems like the only explanation I've worked out about it. I'm doubting it's something to do with Koeshi's and Satori's mind powers. And it seems that it's the most plausible reason for her to be there.
Now, Undefined Fantastic Object is the first time we get to actually play as Sanae-
*I'M SO HAPPY THANK YOU*
- and I feel that Sanae's grabbing the UFO pieces because it could be something useful for the shrine, due to her absolute dedication for her shrine (as the same is with Reimu). And really, since I haven't gotten further than Stage 4 in this game (Oh the embarassament) I don't really know much of the dialogue that really shows her story off.
And Ten Desires doesn't hold much for her dialogue wise (And I've only recently got to Stage 5 on this one. I might actually finish this one :o ) But her reason for being in the game shows her being a selfish character. She seems to be taking the divine spirits for herself, although I do partially believe she is also taking them in a built up value to the shrine.
I'll probably edit this more when I've finished Ten Desires, Undefined Fantastic Object, Subterranean Animism and Mountain of Faith.
But that's my basic theory of her backstory I guess,
Hope you enjoy it :P
-
I reckon Yukari would top my list; I like the character design, the personality, the ambiguity of her motives and loyalties (how much of what she does is to benefit Youkai, Humans, or the balance of the two and whatnot), I find the way her abilities are portrayed quite interesting, and I adore both her dialogues and those resulting from interactions she has with other characters. She's like a lynchpin that gives a big swathe of characters the chance to make fun or interesting conversations, and those interactions help to flesh out those characters that might otherwise feel pretty flat or archetypical.
Yuyuko I like for similar reasons- design, personality, interactions, -though hers are limited to only a few characters, and I don't find her power particularly interesting, so she goes to second place.
After those two I can't really name a clear cut favourite. Heck, a good third of the cast of any given game (and most of the IaMP characters) tend to fall into the "thoroughly likable" category.
-
Alice would be my number one favorite character. I love her overall design (her dress and its color scheme) and I also like her ability to control puppets. Her commitment to her work is also commendable. I also like her interactions with Marisa, both canon and fanon.
Second would be Renko and Maribel. The thought of two best friends traveling and solving mysteries...I'm just a sucker for adventure. Plus the fanart featuring the two with breathtaking scenery is absolutely amazing. Renko also has a special place in my heart since she was the first Touhou character I met :3
Third is Cirno, the adorable ice fairy. She is the second character to be special for me, since it was thanks to her theme (Well, Perfect Math Class actually) that convinced me to try out EoSD. I still remember my jaw hanging open when she first unleashed Icicle Fall for me xD
Fourth is Yukari. Her ability to manipulate boundaries is one of the most interesting/intriguing powers I've ever come across in fiction. I truly wish ZUN could somehow expand upon it in canon. Her personality is also of pure wonder and enigma. Whereas your cliche OP character acts all haughty and arrogant, Yukari doesn't care much for power as such things became irrelevant. She truly represents a character who is above all else.
Last but not least would be Remilia. I'm not really into vampires but the Scarlet Devil is an exception. Her childish appearance masks the raw power and mystery surrounding her. Truly a charismatic character.
And yeah, those are my top 5 :3
-
Wooo time for this thread again! As it so happens I have a top 3 of more or less the same amount of favoritude, plus one honorable mention.
Aya: She and I share being journalists in common, but more importantly, she's a great example of Gensokyo itself; combining the modern and the mythical. She does what she wants, stays relatively independent, and has generously provided us with some great source material about the 2hus.
Kaguya: She and I share in common being exiles who came to love their new homes. She's also a great example of an old Japanese folktale given the ZUN treatment. I think her attitude about life and living is wise (see signature). There's a lot we could learn from her.
Seija: Man do I love this little anarchist. I can definitely appreciate the concept of fomenting revolution and wanting to overthrow the powerful. She gave Gensokyo the gift of chaos, and did initiate a revolution of sorts, as Gensokyans both human and youkai alike temporarily set aside the rules just to try and stop her. What a gal (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,17602.msg1155840.html#msg1155840).
As an honorable mention, I gotta say Cirno will always have a special place in my heart. She's a great comic foil, and her theme was a favorite of my daughter's for a while. So she's alright by me.
-
Yukari, Alice and Marisa are probably my favorites for the same reasons others have listed. But I love most of the characters anyway
-
Basically, using things in LLS, I can assume Elly is an Ankou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankou) [Basically a Shinigami; both are reapers]; from Brittany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany) [Now part of France]
OK back up a second.
I can see the very tenuous connections in pretty much everything you said about Elly except this bit here. I have no idea where you get this from. Not even her name is Breton or French. The "perdition" thing, "Bad Apple", being a shinigami - that I can get. But what's the connection here?
I'm not going to crap all over your theory here; it's fun to whip up personal theories about favorite characters, and you totally qualified your theory with the caveat that you're reading hard between the lines. I'm just genuinely curious because I cannot see where you get this from. What am I missing?
-
My top Touhou girl is, and always was, Sakuya. I always had a soft spot for wisecracking assassin types, but I also like that she has a silly side to her. It really makes her an eccentric human instead of just a faithful killing machine you'd imagine her to be. Also, we both can't eat high-temperature foods.
My second favourite Touhou girl would be Youmu. Just because she deserves a hug for all her work.
My third favourite Touhou girl would be Okuu. The only explanation I need to give is "look up where I'm from". (Also: wings, straightforward personality and just being cute.)
Then there are a few dozens of other characters that I like or respect for something.
-
For the longest time, my favorite was either Sanae for just how much one can do with her in fanon or Nue because prankster-types are always favorites of mine. Then Double Dealing Character happened.
My favorite Touhou girl is Raiko. She's kind of a new addition to the cast, but that doesn't stop me from thinking she's a very deserving one. Musical characters have always been ones I like as a musician myself, and Raiko takes this to an entirely new level with her danmaku always being in rhythm with her song. That, and taiko drums are such majestic, powerful instruments. It's nice to see them have a tsukumogami now. She's been treated pretty well in fanon, and she's definitely DDC's resident swagmaster (since every game seems to have one). She's been my wallpaper for quite some time now, as well as my avatar, and I doubt either of those will change anytime soon.
Other notable 2hus include Marisa, Kogasa, Meiling, Sakuya, Remilia, Flan, Mokou, and Cirno
-
OK back up a second.
I can see the very tenuous connections in pretty much everything you said about Elly except this bit here. I have no idea where you get this from. Not even her name is Breton or French. The "perdition" thing, "Bad Apple", being a shinigami - that I can get. But what's the connection here?
I'm not going to crap all over your theory here; it's fun to whip up personal theories about favorite characters, and you totally qualified your theory with the caveat that you're reading hard between the lines. I'm just genuinely curious because I cannot see where you get this from. What am I missing?
No problem. If anything I like people pressing my theories. Encourages me to dig deeper.
The Ankou:
' appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe and in some stories he is described as a shadow that looks like a man with an old hat and a scythe, often atop a cart for collecting the dead. He is said to wear a black robe with a large hat which conceals his face.'
Italics are the key points. He isn't key; Miko proves male historical figures can be female in Gensokyo. Elly wears a robe/dress [Although red, not black]; wields a scythe, and has a large hat which, when tipped, could effortlessly obscure most of her face in shadow.
But the Ankou is specifically a Breton myth. Every parish in Brittany is said to have it's own Ankou. Hence, if Elly is based upon this myth, it means her origin is Brittany. Basically the Breton connection comes from the origin of the myth of the Ankou. Also, it's strengthened by the fact that Brittany was Catholic and Perdition is Christian theology.
Perdition is defined by 'a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unrepentant person passes after death.' So Perdition Crisis seems like a pretty appropriate theme name for facing down a reaper, and since it specifically states a Christian theological term it narrows Elly down to being based on a Christian region's myth. Which is mainly Europe. And Perdition seems like a strange word for ZUN to use if it didn't mean something.
And while 'Elly' isn't a French name, I did some digging because of this prompt.
'Elenor', which Elly is derived from, is indeed a French name. In fact Elenor was a pretty common name in the French region at that time, particularly among the upper classes. And 'Elly' isn't exactly a Japanese name either. Elenor is also a German name, but I couldn't find any myths she could really be based on from German lore. At least, not one that fit as well as the Ankou.
Obviously the Brittany connection falls apart if Elly is not based on the Ankou.
Honestly Elly is a prime example of how much thought ZUN puts into character design and even music names, the fact that people can come up with theories like this with so little in-game said for certain in the dialogue. Even in the PC-98 era. Of course there's others; like Shinki.
I mean, the final bosses are always rather thought-provking, but Elly's a Stage 3 boss. Compare Elly to Yumeko in terms of hidden things between the lines, even in terms of being the Final Boss's sidekick.
-
So, is this a thinly-veiled "wich 2hu wud u fuk" thread?
...All right, all right, I'll take it seriously. Ya'll no fun at all :V
Nailing this down is pretty much impossible for me. Besides a tiny amount, I like pretty much all the 2hus. If you wanted me to make a Top 5, I'd STILL have tons of trouble because there's so many I could put there. But let me try. Note that this is NOT in order in the slightest, I hate doing that and I can never nail down an order anyway:
-Momiji: My waifu 2 laifu. Momiji is simply the cutest little wolf on the planet. I'd fallen in love the moment I saw her. Her lovely white hair, her red eyes...love~ But besides her cute and sexy looks, I like her personality as well; she feels like one of the more grounded and sane residents of Gensokyo.
-Byakuren: Byakuren is an interesting character in my eyes. She's got the fact that she's trying to help Youkai but at the same time preaches something that goes against their base nature. She has a strong sense of conviction, but an adorable and moe ditziness in how she fails to watch her subordinates and friends closely. Her theme is one of the most amazing in the entire series, and she interacts with a lot of other characters I love like Shou, Nue, and the like. Plus, her rivalry with Miko makes for good stories. She's also beautiful: that long, luscious, gradient hair, her womanly stature, and her lovely dress are all just amazing. Plus, you know: those bountiful Buddhist boobs. Sorry, I'm a simple man to please.
-Reisen: Well, first of all, she's a cute gun-toting bunnygirl. But besides that, Reisen is, at least to me, one of the few Only Sane Women in the entire series, so I love portraying her as a person who is just plain DONE with Gensokyo's wacky bullshit (you can see this in Inebriated Fairy Erotica). I absolutely despise most canon depictions of Reisen, as Eirin/Tewi/The Whole Fucking World's chew toy and as a useless bunny. She's way better than that, and I will fight for Reisen's dignity till I collapse. She's one of worst treated characters by the fandom, which makes my love for her only stronger.
-Miko: When TD came out, I gave zero shits about it. I pretty much left the fandom. Well, now I'm back, and I love the ever-living fuck out of Miko. Why? Because she's SWAG AS FUCK. No other way to put it. Miko has such a self-confident, overblown-yet-awesome sense of "I am fucking amazing and I love it". From her cape, her bold personality, to the crazy shit she pulled in her backstory, Miko just plain don't give a damn about what you think. There's no character like her in Touhou. Even Remilia is still a bratty kid, and Yukari is too lazy to do anything. Miko has the power AND the confidence. Her theme in TD was...okay, but really anticlimatic, however the HM remix was simply amazing. In terms of design, she's pretty good, I kinda wish she had...something else to her. She's so confident but she's not even that womanly. Byakuren has her clearly beat when it comes to projecting maturity, if you know what I mean. Then again, no one can agree on her boob size--I like her a little big, but not Byakuren-level.
-Tenshi: Like Reisen, Tenshi is another character who is treated awfully by the fandom--or did all the masochist jokes stop? Regardless, I love viewing her as a lovably-bratty girl who just wants to have some fun, and she's gonna get her fun by any goddamn means possible. She strikes me as the kind of person who would go out and start shit, and as a writer I love those kinds of proactive characters. I like her cocky and self-confident, not whiny and masochistic like so many others do. Plus, she's beautiful: all that long AND blue hair (Seriously, her hair is SO GODDAMN PRETTY HOLY SHIT) is good enough, but that dress is just lovely to look at. ZUN's character design is near-flawless. She also has the slightly unfair disadvantage that I ship her with an OC.
Wow, that's five. Uh...there's so many characters that I'd love to put here, so you know what? Let's make this ten, because honestly Touhou has a stupid-huge cast anyway:
-Marisa: Main character represent! Marisa is so much cuter than that other MC, Reimu, with her blond hair and cute witch outfit. But besides that, I love Marisa's no-nonsense-let's-just-barrel-into-things-at-full-speed attitude. Marisa does what she wants, and she doesn't care if anyone else has complaints. Reimu is always bitching about her job and wondering when she can get home, but Marisa? Marisa doesn't even have to solve incidents, that's Reimu's job, but she be all like "Yeah, I'm gonna go solve this by myself, Reimu, 'cause I just can". I love how, in a world filled with stupid-powerful youkai and gods and demons and angels and all sorts of crazy stuff, Marisa is just a simple ordinary Magician who nonetheless can go toe-to-toe with nearly the entire cast. Marisa is just badass. It's as simple as that. Oh, and her themes are always godlike, 'cause she's awesome like that.
-Sanae: Green Reimu Shrine Maiden represent! I didn't actually care a ton for Sanae for a long while, but in the past few weeks I'm starting to really like her. Like most of the girls I already mentioned, Sanae is really assertive and confident. I just like those kinds of girls. She's a connection to the outside world, and she's got that adorable "YOUKAI HUNTING FUCK YEAH" attitude. Plus, she's really pretty...I like long-haired girls, in case you haven't guessed.
-Sakuya: Alright, I guess it's time to go mainstream. But truthfully, the reason for Sakuya's popularity is pretty easy to see. Now, while most people see "knife-throwing maid" and already have their thumbs up, I like Sakuya for her character archetype: the mysterious maid or butler to the Big Bad who is very powerful, making you wonder just why they chose to work under someone. It's always fun speculating on these characters, and they just are fun to use. Sakuya's no-nonsense personality also helps here. She's the kind of character who'd kick someone's ass and then whip out some tea to calmly sip over their opponent's lifeless body. You can't hate someone like that. Also Flowering Night is amazing, especially the SWR mix.
-Shou: Well, here's an uncommon choice. Poor Shou. No one gives the slightest two shits about her. Well, I do care about this tiger. She serves as a great foil to Byakuren, and has the same kind of adorable ditziness to her, except Shou can actually see when shit isn't working unlike Byakuren who is just stubborn. Of course, Byakuren usually fails to heed her advice. The only common portrayals of her are "Nazrin's Master" and "That Dumb Chick Who Loses Stuff All The Time", both of which I feel do a great disservice to her. Sure, Shou's ditzy, but she's still cool. She's a goddamn tiger. A sexy tiger at that...
-Aya: FINAL CHARACTER TIME. Even after 9 goddamn characters this was still really hard, but Aya surpassed everyone else because, surprise surprise: she's another "I do what I want", takes-no-nonsense characters. I just love them, I'm sorry! Like Reisen and Tenshi, I hate Aya's common depictions, as a panty-shooting pervert or as some intrusive shithead. That ain't my Aya. Aya's a journalist who loves to snoop out stories and shady stuff. She goes where she wants, and gets the scoop no matter what. Sure, she exaggerates her articles, but I'd attribute that to her fun-loving personality (though, to be honest, the few snippets we get don't even seem that much worse than Akyu's articles). Aya's never stopped: she's always on the move, which makes for great interactions with the rest of the cast. Plus, she even has TWO foils: Momiji for the serious foil, and Hatate for the ditzy foil. She's also got a more mature feel to her than the most of the cast--not as mature as, say, Byakuren, Eirin, Yukari, etc., but she still feels like a young adult where the rest of the cast are teenagers (Reimu, Marisa, Tenshi, Youmu, etc.) or kids (Cirno, Mystia, Wriggle, etc.)
/////////
Yes, I am well aware that you probably didn't intend for people to pick TEN characters, but blame ZUN for making such an amazing and vibrant cast. There are STILL characters who I feel had a shot at this list but had to sadly be cut, like Remilia, Ran, Seija, Suika...these are a pretty good representation of the characters I REALLY like. As may seem obvious, I like characters who are independent: they go out and DO stuff, instead of just sitting around.
-
In no particular order:
Hata no Kokoro: I'm a sucker for character development. Watching Hata no Kokoro grow over the course of her game was heartwarming for me.
Tenshi: I don't as much appreciate how she is now as much as what she has the potential to be. She's one of the few characters in the series that has a legitimate shot at becoming either a recurring villain or learning from her misdeeds to grow as a person. Either way, the fact that she's in a position to be either makes her interesting to me.
Utsuho: I like her character design and the juxtaposition between her air-headed personality and the excessive amount of power she's controlling. Plus, a part of me frankly appreciates that she straightforwardly attempted to turn the world into a literal Hell. It's refreshingly direct.
-
Her theme in TD was...okay, but really anticlimatic
For proper climactitude, time your spellbreaks to the music (3:45ish spell break (http://youtu.be/Itt0BNGd1nk?t=3m45s))
Then again who doesn't time their spellbreaks to the music I mean it is a rhythm game after all
-
-Momiji: My waifu 2 laifu. Momiji is simply the cutest little wolf on the planet. I'd fallen in love the moment I saw her. Her lovely white hair, her red eyes...love~ But besides her cute and sexy looks, I like her personality as well; she feels like one of the more grounded and sane residents of Gensokyo
I do find it strange that people say this about her. She has 0 dialogue. There is no evidence of how sane or even even-tempered she is; besides the fact one of her spellcards is called 'Rabies Bite' ; which is a point against sanity if you ask me.
I mean maybe I missed something, but from what I can see Momiji is pretty aggressive [She doesn't even talk to Reimu/Marisa; she just attacks them, she doesn't even tell them to go back before she attacks].
The wiki says she has a co-operative personality and excecutes her duty faithfully, but every time she shows up she's not exactly co-operative. And we know she plays Shoji.
And there's the potential she's a racist. Aya claims she looks down on the Crow Tengu; and while Hatate claims it's just a personal feud; Momiji does attack her too, which is hardly wining her points. And out of all the characters who attack Hatate in the game, Momiji has the least excuse of mistaken identity, she has great vision and lives in the same village as the pair of them.
Although to be fair if most of the crow Tengu refer to wolf Tengu as 'mutts' like Aya does well...
I mean Momiji is clearly faithful and intelligent [Which are canine traits; and Momiji is a wolf], but I'd argue the 'level-headed' point.
-
Yukari has always been my favorite. I generally tend to gravitate towards characters in the higher end of the power scale, specially if they are of the "powerful enough to resolve all plots themselves but only jump in if it's REALLY necessary" variety. The few times she used her ability for something other than gaps (making it both day and night at the same time in IaMP, "fusing" with the player character in her "border of humans and youkai" spellcard in PCB) are really cool, too. I especially enjoy creepier depictions of her power, like the ones with arms coming from her gaps and all the eyes.
Besides that, I really enjoy her relationship with Yuyuko. They both know each other so well that one can completly rely on the other to fully understand her plans without even having to personally meet to discuss it, using pretty much only the slighest hints. It's one of the things that saves SSiB for me, tbh.
There's a bunch of other characters that I could also mention; Seiga (hedonistic asshole necromancer? She's living the dream), Utsuho (still not over her being a genius at nuclear reactor maintenance and nothing else), Shinmyoumaru (there's something really endearing about her spirit and naivety. Like, "this random girl from a race known to be complete assholish liars says it was the youkai from Gensokyo that wronged my people? WELL I'LL GO FUCK THEM UP THEN"), Suwako (ex-god empress that manipulates giant evil albino snakes and has a surprisingly mean streak under her cheerful personality? Only that hat tars her character) Raiko (she's just plain cool)... I can find things to like about pretty much all characters, really.
-
My personal favorite is Utsuho Reiuji.
I liked her ever since the game Subterranean Animism came out, she was a very interesting character and found it astonishing that her spellcards are based of nuclear fusion. :V
Her theme was beast and couldn't stop listening to it ever since.
I don't really have any other favorites other than Momiji.
-
My favourite is Alice Margatroid because of a certain dream I had.
Unfortunatley I've forgotten my reasons for the rest of my favourites due to the internet being filtered and me losing access to the majority of touhou stuff I usually use - therefor I forgot exactly why I loved and hated the characters I felt the most strongly about. nonetheless, 2nd favourite is Yukari, 3rd favourite is Mima.
-
Shinmyoumaru.
Most certainly my favourite character design in the whole Touhou Project series. She has one stunning theme song, too. I still secretly consider purchasing a large bowl just to wear on my head.
-
1. Yuyuko Saigyouji
First time encountering her in PCB makes me dazzled by the beautiful butterfly danmaku, also the beautiful theme. She's pretty and ditzy, but secretly deceptive.
2. Alice Margatroid
Cute tsundere that is actually very nice.
3. Fujiwara no Mokou
An immortal with a tragic past. Is hot-blooded but not sociable. Her theme is very good.
-
i love a lot of characters but patchouli is my favourite! idk why. shes just so cool and was also one of the first characters i knew. i think the moon thingy in her hair made me like her for some reason?
i also like flandre. i wish she would appear in more games though.
also marisa, shes awesome and i love her personality.
other characters i love are rumia, yukari, mima, koishi and elly.
honestly i like the whole cast basically
-
I have three on mind that stand out to me more than the rest, so in no particular order:
Mokou: With a calm personality and pyromancy, Mokou strikes me as that cool, strong but isolated person. Due to her immortality, she has great knowledge of the world and can have a philosophical approach to events or people that she sees and interacts with. Her backstory is rather tragic, but to me it also shows how humane she was in the past. I forgot where, but I read somewhere that she has mostly forgiven Kaguya for what she has done 1300 years later, but still bears the burden of her sins while she was still mortal. Her spell cards are based off her regret for killing Iwakasa, e.g "Curse of Tsuki-no-Iwakasa", "Honest Man's Death". Overall, she's a knowledgeable and powerful individual who mostly remains calm, and that's what I like about her.
Reimu: Like Mokou, powerful, mostly cool-headed, and carries some sort of burden, Reimu is another of my favourites. Possessing natural power and talent, it is her job to exterminate youkai, whether she likes it or not. To me, Reimu is one of those characters who honestly can't be bothered doing anything unless she really has to, but shows great expertise in doing her job. The way she fights with exorcism weapons is something you don't see pretty often, and is something that relies on high dexterity and skill to be able to throw such things instead of relying on sheer power (Marisa). Basically, she's a very skillful individual who remains calm and has to exterminate youkai and treat them along with humans equally as part of job. Calm people usually end up being my favourites, but the next on the list is the opposite of that.
Marisa: The other protagonist of the series, Marisa is a big contrast to the other two. Rather than being calm, she's all fired up and ready to explode some stuff with brute force. Her personality is what I like about her the most, the attitude of not giving a crap about anything and holding the mindset that the best way to progress is to attack everything in the way. She's not as powerful as Reimu, and she's an "ordinary magician", being fully human with no special abilities whatsoever. The thing about Marisa that really stood out from every other hot-headed character is her determination. In Gensokyo, where pretty much everything has special powers and the ability to overkill you ten times over, a normal human started learning magic and is now a pretty powerful person in the land. Marisa's relationship with Reimu is also pretty interesting, in that they are both humans and that they have almost the exact opposite personality of each other's.
These three stand out as my favourites right now, but there are a lot more characters that I like such as Alice, Yukari, Yuuka, Yuugi, SDM Cast and more that I probably shouldn't make a list of since there are enough walls of text already.
-
I have alot, so I'll list some of my top 3.
1. Momiji Inubashiri. She seems pretty interesting and loved that awesome sword of hers.
She wasn't too hard to beat, only in Double Spoiler some of her spellcards were difficult. I also love her fan-made theme Awaking Wolf's Instinct. She is too awesome to ignore. :getdown:
2. Nitori Kawashiro. I've always loved how she was shy in the events of Touhou 10. I found that cute. :3
I also loved her theme Candid Friend, at that one part where it sounded powerful, like she was using all of her power.
3. Medicine Melancholy. Her past seemed sad. Even her theme says it all. It sounds like she was abandoned, though, she is hard to beat in Touhou 9 due to her poison clouds. I've always liked her and her theme, even if it's creepy or scary. :V
-
All of them It's pretty difficult to pick favourites, so I'll list three.
Yukari: She is possibly my most favourite out of the gals, cause I love everything about her. She's so mysterious and she's almost like the lazy president of Gensokyo. Plus I like the colour purple.
Kasen: I find her to have a really likeable personality, even though she's always lecturing Reimu. I also like how it's hard to discern her true motives for posing as a hermit. Also, she's finally playable!!
Luna Child: She's just so adorable. I can sort of relate to her because she can stay up all night and always drinks coffee. I like how she's much more intelligent than most fairies, in terms of book smarts, while also being so clumsy (which adds to her cuteness).
-
Okay...so my favorite character of all time would have to be:
Sakuya Izayoi - I love everything about her! Her look, personality, time manipulation! EVEN HER THEME WHICH IS MY FAVORITE OF THE SERIES (Flowering Night). In general anything that has to do with scarlet devil lore is awesome.
Number two is:
Flandre Scarlet - EVERYTHING GOES BOOM BOOM...no really. Apparently she can destroy everything she touches which is sweet. What I remember reading is that everything has an eye, and she can use this eye to shatter whatever it is the eye belongs to into millions of pieces (or just destroying it too). Something like that is really cool.
And third:
Remilia Scarlet - Flandre's sister...a vampire...awesome as all hell. I just love her personality of being so nonchalant (as seen in Imperishable Night) which is quite amusing. She's also really deadly :o.
Those are my favorite girls
-
Keine Kamishirasawa. The girl that started it all. She was the reason I got into Touhou in the first place, catching my attention in one vid. Despite learning more stories about the other characters, with some even more interesting, while Keine herself being plain compared to the rest, she still remains my number one mainly because of that moment.
-
Momiji. Any opinion to the contrary is just confused and uninformed. =) Her not being in any of the fighting games is a crime against humanity. ZUN needs to understand this. =)
In second place I'd put Byakuren. She's the spiritual stand-in for Shinki in the Windows era and is the one I find easiest to relate to (sides with both humans and youkai, has human-like failings, strives to better herself spiritually.....)
In third place, Nitori. Because go kappa engineer! I'd love to know even more about the way Touhou handles its kappa society. I sort of picture them like the Dragonlance 'gnome' race.....
-
Youmu, Nitori, Marisa, and Yuyuko.
-
This is like choosing which of your child is your favorite (although I would hope people don't have 100+ children). Anyways, I guess I will list some.
Byakuren: For one, I really like everything that leads up to the fights, from the amazing stage theme to the absolutely beautiful boss theme. Also, I really find her character interesting, preaching towards peace between humans and youkai, having a strong ideal, even if she may be not be watching those close to her close enough.
Flandre: One of the first characters I learned from Touhou, I like the bipolar cute but a bit psycho aspect of her character. Also, her power is pretty awesome.
Maribel: I find the Sealing Club stories to be one of my favorites and Maribel just clicks I guess.
Yukari: I for one welcome our scheming overlords.
-
It really change. But I think I can pick up two characters I tend to like most of the time.
Reimu Hakurei: Well, she is the beggining of all. I mean, she's the protagonist of this whole thing. I love how she takes thing, she seems annoyed at first, then she will go:"OKAY LET'S DO THIS !!!". She's offtenly complaining. She have a heart. I mean even though she have to exterminate youkai, she is friend with them, she really have a big heart and don't really hate anyone, that's what I like the most about her, even though sometime she sounds upset and all. I also like the religious thing about her.
Medicine Melancholy: She have a GREAT theme. Really. That's a theme I will always remember. What else do I like about her ? She's dressed black/red. I like that combination of colours. She also have some kind of dark aura because she was abanadoned. She seems to be smart as she play comedy to achieve her goal. Also I really like characters that attacks with poison, I find the concept original. And I love her gameplay in PoFV.
-
I'd say...
Hata No Kokoro: Didn't expect myself to like her but her whole reacting while keeping a straight face is pretty cute.
Hina Kagiyama: Spinning a lot has got to be the best way to enter. A pretty nice girl who wants to take away your misfortune.
Tenshi Hinanawi: Just your regular old bored Celestial who wants to fight.
I also like their designs too.
-
The top few are relatively simple, but after that it gets quite difficult...
Parsee is probably my favorite character. While she doesn't have much of a backstory or a presence in the fandom the colors on her clothing make for a good contrast with her eye color. I used to not care about her much at all, but she's quickly become my favorite after browsing a lot of fanvideos and fiction of her on a whim. I sort of feel sorry for her even if she is a victim of her own power.
Mokou is also high up on the scale. Something about the flippant way she treats her own immortality is amusing and she has one of the more down-to-earth personalities in Gensokyo, as well as one of the more distinctive designs in the series.
From the PC-98 era, I'd probably rank Sariel as my third. I liked the idea of interjecting Western religion and mythos into Gensokyo - even if Highly Responsive to Prayers wasn't set in Gensokyo proper - and his/her design sealed the deal for me. I really hope that Sariel will show up in some future games as the notion of a fallen angel hasn't really appeared in another character yet and only Remilia so much as approaches her thematically,
I don't know what to put after that, though Patchouli, Sekibanki, and Cirno are probably in my top 10 somewhere too.
-
Parsee is probably my favorite character. While she doesn't have much of a backstory or a presence in the fandom the colors on her clothing make for a good contrast with her eye color. I used to not care about her much at all, but she's quickly become my favorite after browsing a lot of fanvideos and fiction of her on a whim. I sort of feel sorry for her even if she is a victim of her own power.
I know rigtht ? I had this character as favorite for... 3 years I think.
But I got bored because I didn't take seriously other characters and...well I know the empathy thing it's really a sad character, I mean you don't see her oftenly happy and all...
And now I like many characters. I have some favorite over other, yes but now I just tell myself:"oh, fuck with this ranking thing. I like many characters, and that's all. Why going with the favorite thing ?"
So now I like to say "characters that I will like everytime" than saying "oh, she's my favorite!"
I forgot to include Kogasa yesterday, by the way. For reasons like....SURPRISE !
-
My favorite Touhou girl is Nitori Kawashiro. It was cute that she was shy in MoF, especially when she saw Reimu and Marisa. :3
-
Well... look at my avatar. ^^
Since I'm a 100% introvert, taciturn shut-in who loves silence, Patchouli is the character I identify myself with most. I do like books some as well, but I just won't read anything you throw at me. My main interests are fantasy and mythology, and that's about it. Patchouli is also sometimes seen playing video games in fanart, which is something I love with passion. She is also a magician, and I've always loved anything to do with magic. ～☆
-
Well... look at my avatar. ^^
Since I'm a 100% introvert, taciturn shut-in who loves silence, Patchouli is the character I identify myself with most. I do like books some as well, but I just won't read anything you throw at me. My main interests are fantasy and mythology, and that's about it. Patchouli is also sometimes seen playing video games in fanart, which is something I love with passion. She is also a magician, and I've always loved anything to do with magic. ～☆
I do admit that I'm a fan of Patchy as well.
-
Keine's my favorite. I've said before that if Touhou was just a story and not a weird multimedia monstrosity Keine would be a strong contender for most logical main character. She fits into Gensokyo so well. She has a foot firmly in both sides of its culture (human and youkai), she's strongly motivated as the protector of the village, and given the nature of Gensokyo and the youkai it seems like someone with domain over history and remembrance could be on top of the world if she wanted or needed to be. And I love her design, her stage, and her relationship with Mokou, who is also a character I like a lot. We know enough about her for her to be intriguing and interesting, but there are enough unknowns about her that she's mysterious and well-suited for doujins because, like most Touhou characters, there are a lot of nice holes in her story to fill in. The only thing I don't love about her is her music, which might be my least favorite in Imperishable Night. It's not bad by any means, just not really my cup of tea.
There are a ton of Touhou characters I like, but many of my more favorite ones fit into the "reclusive intellectual" mold at least a little. Nitori, Patchouli, Akyuu, to a slightly lesser extent Alice and maybe Hatate. I guess I like that in Gensokyo, a place basically founded on conflict and fueled by violence (at least, the parts of it we're most likely to see are) they're a little out of place because they're quiet and maybe more inclined to go against the grain and problem solve the traditional way. Maybe, since Alice and Nitori are known to go on massive bullet rampages sometimes. At least sometimes they dupe Marisa into beating everyone up for them.
-
Hm, I wonder who mine is? :3
In all seriousness, Kagerou is my favorite. Yeah she's one of the newer ones, but out of all the characters I would list her as my number one. For what's given about her, I can really relate to her completely. She's always wandering the bamboo forest, presumably because of her curse as a werewolf, and thus has to live a fairly lonely life. Even with this, she has one or two fairly good friends through the Grassroots Youkai Network, which is known for sure to include Kagerou and Wakasagihime, with the possibility that Sekibanki is a part of this group as well. Kagerou also, to me, seems that normally she would be a fairly docile person, and is even embarrassed about her condition, which is another thing I can relate to. While there isn't much info about how Kagerou acts normally, since she only has currently appeared and had lines during DDC, being corrupted by the Miracle Mallet, I get the feeling that she normally would be a fairly kind person, and protective of those that she is close to. ( Of course, this is just my speculation on this, I sure wish there was a little bit more info about her non-transformation form. )
Also, I really like that dress of hers, and the gem she wears. :V
-
Yuuka is my favorite character. She's neato. Her ability is plants and Plant is my second favorite Pok?mon type and Kurama was my favorite character from YuYu Hakusho. And even though manipulating plants is cool and all, it's not really all that strong and Yuuka is old. And you don't get old in a place like Gensokyo by being weak. So she has this "tremendous power;" and with her flowers, her fights are supposedly pretty to watch. When she does fight. She just does her own thing and unless it bothers her personally she doesn't get involved. Like in Flower View where everyone kept blaming her and she went with it cause it was funny. (Poor, poor Cirno) Also, she seems pretty happy and smiling all the time. (The strong ones are always smiling.)
Tenshi is my second favorite character. I really like her theme and design. And she has a weather manipulating light saber. She's pretty fun to write for. And like Yuuka, she does what she wants, with one of the main differences being is that her very existence seems to piss off Yukari and Komachi. And she's a lot more free spirited and energetic than Yuuka. I mean she caused and incident on purpose.
Seiga is in third. She's a jerk, she knows she's a jerk and we know she's a jerk. But besides that, her hair! I love her hair. She has the best hair of the series. And her wall phase ability is fun to play with.
Honorable Mentions
Marisa, like the poster child of free-spritidness. And actually a very hard worker.
Shou, owner of the second best hair of the series.
Yorihime, in my head she's a genderswapped Yu on the moon.
Yuugi, a giant fun loving person.
-
Sanae : She came from our world and she adapted pretty well.
Futo The dorkiest 2hu. The way she dresses and the way she talks.
Miko Best theme in the series IMO.
-
As you can guess from my username, Kagerou is my favorite character. When DDC demo first came out, I was particularly hooked to this character; both her spellcards and (simple but beautiful) character design. I even write her backstory of my own.
Well, in the game, she wasn't given much dialogue and personality due to being driven crazy by the miracle mallet but I usually depicts her as a some kind of tragic character ; A werewolf living in the bamboo forest who wanted to be with humans but get rejected because of her transformation power. I also portrays her personality as polite and easy to talk to but very scary when she gets really serious or angry. I also don't portray her as weak (Scary! Humans are scary!!) though I stick to the canon that she feels insecured of being hairy on the full moon. I had no idea what the grassroot youkai network is but I imagined it as a network that gathered good youkais together and helped humans, with Kagerou and Wakasagihime being the leader.
Well, that's all I can think of her. I hope to see her in the following Touhou games.
-
It's hard to choose an exact favorite, but my top few characters stay relatively the same.
Reisen: Reisen would probably be my absolute favorite character out of all them. I love her theme and the boss fight was very interesting with her illusions (although it was easier as a result). I really like her design (especially IN's) and I think her relationships with the Eintei residents are really interesting. It's unfortunate how she typically gets treated by the fandom sometimes, when there's so much more to the character than the common portrayal of her being Eintei's chew-toy. To me, Reisen seems to fit the new girl archetype ( you know, the girl who comes from a different school and still wears the old uniform?) Her clothes in IN can be seen as this since all moon rabbits wear clothes like this. Reisen's attribute of having one of the more stable personalities also furthers this association, since most people in Gensokyo aren't as normal. Reisen also doesn't seem to make an effort as much to adapt to Gensokyo, still boasting about Lunarian technology occasionally and looking down on non-moon residents sometimes. Sanae is almost a foil to this, where she is introduced as a new character who quickly adapts to Gensokyo's bizarre attributes such as spell cards, incident solving, and "lacking common sense". Sanae also tries to use her outside knowledge to help Gensokyo, despite how much in confuses others. However, I think one of the most interesting things about Reisen is how you can see how she does eventually begin to settle in to Gensokyo's life. Her outfit change in POFV could be seen as leaving a bit of the Lunar Capitol's life behind her and adapting to Gensokyo more, but IDK - I might be looking into that too much since in IOFTM&IOFTE she still wears her standard moon rabbit clothes. It makes sense that she would try to cling to her Moon Rabbit life to weigh her down to at least somewhere, since she's had to move so many times in her life.
Eirin: I really like Eirin's design and themes. Fighting her was always fun, especially with her use of familiars. I also like how she's the knowledgeable mentor, who still is a very caring person. I think that Eirin has one of the most interesting, detailed backstories that still leaves her shrouded in mystery.
Meira: Meira is my favorite PC-98 character and it's because of how mysterious and interesting she is. I mean, why did she need the Ying-yang orb? What would she even do with it? Her sword-slash danmaku effect was one of the coolest things ever, and she looks has a pretty epic design. Despite how repetitive her theme is, I still really like it.
Other characters I really like are:
Letty - I love her whole mastermind dialogue and winter themed design. I feel bad that she has to leave after every winter, so PCB must have been like a dream come true for her and then we ruined it :(
Lunasa - The funnest character to play in POFV for me. Phantom Ensemble is one ZUN's best songs and is very pleasant to listen to. I like her design a lot and it's really cool how her and Merlin affected the portraits in POFV.
Merlin - In POFV she was the most unconventional of all. I pretty much like her for the same reasons above. I may like Lunasa a little more, but Merlin is very unique with her difficult danmaku patterns.
Yuuka- She's had some very good themes (Inanimate Dream, Flowering Land) and I really like her windows outfit (although I liked her PC-98 hair better - it was beautiful!) Her teasing everyone in POFV was also pretty funny.
Sakuya- Mysterious and elegant both describe Sakuya very well. She has a very nice design and her time stopping was very unique. But most of all, why was Eirin so surprised to see her?!! Will this mystery ever be explained?
Mima - She had a really strong shottype and Reincarnation was a really good theme for her. I really like her personality and her whole ghost tail thing was pretty cool.
-
It's hard to choose an exact favorite, but my top few characters stay relatively the same.
Reisen: Reisen would probably be my absolute favorite character out of all them. I love her theme and the boss fight was very interesting with her illusions (although it was easier as a result). I really like her design (especially IN's) and I think her relationships with the Eintei residents are really interesting. It's unfortunate how she typically gets treated by the fandom sometimes, when there's so much more to the character than the common portrayal of her being Eintei's chew-toy. To me, Reisen seems to fit the new girl archetype ( you know, the girl who comes from a different school and still wears the old uniform?) Her clothes in IN can be seen as this since all moon rabbits wear clothes like this. Reisen's attribute of having one of the more stable personalities also furthers this association, since most people in Gensokyo aren't as normal. Reisen also doesn't seem to make an effort as much to adapt to Gensokyo, still boasting about Lunarian technology occasionally and looking down on non-moon residents sometimes. Sanae is almost a foil to this, where she is introduced as a new character who quickly adapts to Gensokyo's bizarre attributes such as spell cards, incident solving, and "lacking common sense". Sanae also tries to use her outside knowledge to help Gensokyo, despite how much in confuses others. However, I think one of the most interesting things about Reisen is how you can see how she does eventually begin to settle in to Gensokyo's life. Her outfit change in POFV could be seen as leaving a bit of the Lunar Capitol's life behind her and adapting to Gensokyo more, but IDK - I might be looking into that too much since in IOFTM&IOFTE she still wears her standard moon rabbit clothes. It makes sense that she would try to cling to her Moon Rabbit life to weigh her down to at least somewhere, since she's had to move so many times in her life.
I know what you mean. Reisen is a kind of person that adapt to Gensokyo while staying true to herself. I mean, Sanae adapts quickly and change. But Reisen seems to stay true to herself while adapting, it's not just living in Gensokyo and doing like everyone if you know what I mean. She keeps traces of her past in Gensokyo.
It's pretty ironic that she have abilities that can make people insane when she seems to be the most stable person in Gensokyo. I would add that what I like about her is that she keeps a tragic thing in her, what happened to her friends and how she truely feel guilty. I think she's...how should I put it...kind of human ? I don't know how to explain, but I can empathize with her since she's not that hard to understand. What I like about her is also the fact that she's the gunfire of the serie even if we don't clearly see her making use of them, she did use some fireweapons on the moon.
Too bad she didn't get to be playable on the classical danmaku... but well.
As for Letty and Mima, I can only agree with you. : D
-
I like pretty much everyone, but if it comes down to personal favorites :
Tenshi: Relaxed and energetic! I like her theme and design too. It's some noble girl whose circumstances don't fit her personnality : why do celestial-like celestial stuff if it's boring ? She knows what she wants and is she out for the fun, regardless of what the others celestials may think . Her extreme and exaggerated way to think of what is a game kinda strengthen that impression too : that playfullness (or at least what it seems to me), put together with how irresponsible she is, can't help but make me picture her as a rather childish and "relaxed" character instead of a delinquent. A really, really big grown up womanchild who can't help but get "auntie" Iku worried. It really help too that her overconfident, borderline arrogant personnality (WELL FOUNDED CONFIDENCE) , put together with her very, very, resilient body allow her not to be a "miserable", pitiable character who can be the butt monkey in more ways than one (still don't like the whole masochism thingy, though...). Maybe she just wanted to get people to play with her in SWR, and is just too lonely in that monotonous, boring celestial society up there?
Suwako: Free spirited, relaxed, acts with no care in the world, she seems to act childish at times and give the impression that she is just another air headed cute girl... SEEMS. It's a goddess who lived long enough to actually be naive; she had her glorious days, but they are now over; she had some sort of rival (excluding "the rest" of the gods who tried to invade her land), but they are now living together; she is a native god but she clearly doesn't live where she originated from; and she'll disappear if she have no faith in her but doesn't care about the faith business... Suwako... what the hell is going on in your mind ?! I think she is a rather interesting character. Also, her fighting style in Soku is one of the cutest thing ever, maybe in par with Koishi. I like her theme and stage theme too.
Sanae: A good girl who tries really hard (not as much as Marisa, though). Her spellcards patterns looks gorgeous to me. What would bring an outside worlder, with all of the outside world technology (and maybe internet!), to go in the fantasy and get forgotten by everyone IRL? An awkward character who tries to struggle for an image in Gensokyo with a gensokyan-like common senselessness. Was coming to Gensokyo worth it? I like her design and spellcards. Also... her theme sound kind of glorious, and her stage theme is a bit "poetic".
There are also other characters like Mokou, Yukari, Shinmyoumaru, Seija, Kokoro, Miko, Byakuren, Youmu, and more...
Maribel and Renko: We can choose lots of characters in this thread, right? So two characters instead of one should be OK, right? Personnaly, if it comes down to one character and one character only, it's pretty hard to choose. But if it's about a group, team, whatever, then they'll be my all time favorite. A rather meek, awkward (seem like that to me) character put together with a more energic, leader-ish one. Touhou characters who are outside the series's main universe, college girls who want to uncover the truth behind gensokyo. They are clearly not fighting orientated characters : it's just about two girls fantasising, discussing things that would be deemed immature considering what they are... except they have abilities on their own and CAN discover Gensokyo. An attempt to discover Touhou through the eyes of Touhou characters, except this time I know more than them, I find their weird discussions and approach rather... endearing. It's the Slice of Lifeest thing that Touhou have to offer. It seems more about two girls having fun together. Merry's weird relationship with Yukari is rather interesting too, while her ever evolving abilities kinda push Renko away... I wonder what will happen in the future ? I'd like to see an official manga about them sometime... if ZUN'll plan to (MAKE IT HAPPEN!).
There's a lot of reasons why I love these characters, but typing all of them would be too bothersome, so I'll just say that I love them because I just do. As for the rest, I'd say I "like" them. There's no character I especially dislike.
-
Kaguya: One thing I've noticed is that many people tend to dislike this character due to ignorance and/or misconceptions. However, those misconceptions are wrong. As many of us know, Kaguya is based off of "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter/Kaguya/Princess Moonlight", and to completely understand Kaguya you have to have read that story. Kaguya had committed the crime of drinking the Hourai Elixir that which Eirin made for her, and ended up taking the full punishment for it. As she was a Lunarian, as 'punishment', she was sent to Earth. Considering that the Lunarians always looked down on Earth as a prison and as a sort of 'sight for sore-eyes', it's understandable. However, Kaguya had always been looking at the Earth as something mysterious and she always wanted to learn about. When she came to be on Earth, she enjoyed it. She greatly appreciated her parents, the land, the food, everything about the Earth. She was happy living there. However, she later had to deal with earthly men being infatuated with her magnificent beauty. Certainly any woman would not want to marry a man who only wanted her for her beauty and not for who she was. Five men were especially infatuated, so she sent them on impossible requests to make them realize their foolishness. Even the emperor wanted to marry her for her beauty.
There were also the lunar emissaries would come to try to take Kaguya back to the moon. Kaguya refused to return. She appreciated the Earth for what it was. She was humbled by her experience on Earth and she not want to lose that and return to a moon where she is a labeled a 'criminal'. One of the emissaries that came to bring Kaguya back was Eirin. Her feelings for redemption were so great she was willing to do anything, so Eirin killed off the other emissaries. To keep the humans quiet, Eirin bribed the witnesses with the hourai elixir. The emperor ordered that the hourai elixir be thrown into the volcano, but it was discovered that people were murdered. (More info in Mokou's backstory in CiLR) Eirin and Kaguya fled to Gensokyo, and Eirin created Eientei where both her and Kaguya could live hidden away from the world. This layed in hiding there for a very long time. No more emissaries were being sent to fetch Kaguya & Eirin.
Eventually Reisen found Eientei. They took her in and sheltered her. Eventually a message was sent to Reisen from the moon (because moon rabbits are like living communicators) about the war between the Earth and Moon. There was another message on how 'they would come to take her back'. Kaguya and Eirin did not want Reisen to go back to the moon, and neither did Reisen want to go back. Since Kaguya and Eirin did not want to kill anymore emissaries, they decided that the earth and moon passage would be sealed. No Earthlings can reach the Moon, and no Lunarians can reach the Earth.
Fast forward to the events of IN. A human-youkai duo has to be sent to deal with these lunarians (and it was never seen before or after IN) because lunarians are very powerful. After being defeated by the duo, Kaguya realized that her sealing herself from the world was pointless. For one, the Gensokyo barrier protects them anyway. Second, seeing the human-youkai duo changed something in her heart for the better. She still remains in 'hiding', but she no longer feels a need to completely seal herself off from the outside no longer. During her hiding, she had almost forgotten about her appreciation for her life, but the human-youkai duo working together in peace changed that.
Lastly, I love Kaguya's theme, 竹取飛行 ～ Lunatic Princess. It is my favorite theme.
EDIT - Now to continue.
Meiling: She is one special character. One of the first Touhou games I've ever played was Hisoutensoku, and this girl was my main character. I love her character design and fighting style. Being a gatekeeper with no weaknesses, the only way to get past her is by overpowering her. Which means the only people that have ever gone past her were stronger than her. Her ability to control Qi is one that has been cool to me ever since I've watched Dragon Ball Z. Also I really like her theme, Shanghai Meiji 17. Probably the thing I like about her most is the fact she's a very human-like youkai. She's often confused for being a human because of this. Considering she works as a gatekeeper for the 'Devil's' mansion, she's basically a breath of fresh air. Also a nice youkai at that. I find her admirable.
Eirin: While she didn't have an as humbling story as Kaguya, she still has a really great backstory as well. Eirin was responsible for Kaguya having to 'suffer' the punishment of being sent to Earth for drinking the hourai elixir that SHE made. She eventually realized her mistake and went down to Earth and became Kaguya's underling as a way of asking for her forgiveness. She stained her hands with the blood of lunar emissaries who tried to come down to bring Kaguya back to the moon for the purpose of protecting. Eirin as the sage of the moon knows a lot more of its state, so she knows that Kaguya would not live the same life as she did before she committed crime. Eirin was very condescending to human beings and all creatures really. She viewed them as mere specimens. Nowadays she's still a bit condescending, but it has been phasing away day by day.
Ever since the events of IN, Eirin has been happier. Reisen even pointed this out. She opened up a clinic to help out the humans in the village as a way of paying back to society and being an ally to humanity as she is living on Earth as a human now. She is extremely intelligent, not only good in medicine, but also amazing in other scientific fields as well. Before she left the moon, she was the one in position of the Watatsuki's. She was the one in charge of protection of the moon. Even after leaving the position and becoming a criminal, she still cares for a loves the moon, which is why the events of IN even happened. It is also why the events of SSiB happened. She is happy being with Kaguya and the other residents of Eientei on Earth. She too, is having a humbling experience. The Lunarians may see this as 'oh how the mighty have fallen'. But the mighty having fallen is a good learning experience for Eirin.
The most mysterious thing about Eirin is the fact that she is older than Lord Tsukuyomi and is thought to be Omoikane. It was also mentioned that Eirin had sealed her power. So if Lunarians are more powerful than youkai, and Eirin is the sage of the moon, and it was required that a human-youkai duo defeat the lunarians... how powerful is she really? Probably the most admirable thing is the fact that Eirin will always try to protect the thing she holds most dear to, even if it means her commiting to some horrible and ruthless actions. Eirin did become a villain after all.
Lastly, her theme, 千年幻想郷 ～ History of the Moon is my second most favorite theme in all of Touhou.
-
Kaguya: ...
Lastly, I love Kaguya's theme, 竹取飛行 ～ Lunatic Princess. It is my favorite theme.
Eirin: ...
Lastly, her theme, 千年幻想郷 ～ History of the Moon is my second most favorite theme in all of Touhou.
My twin. :V
I'd like to add that Kaguya was executed repeatedly before the Lunarians exiled her, and that the piano solo in Eirin's theme is epic.
My reading of Bougetsushou, especially Cage in Lunatic Runagate, is the reason why the princess is my favourite. But I think that much is obvious from most of my posts. Another reason is that I think there is more to her, and that ZUN isn't "done" with her yet (as with other characters).
There are the questions of:
- her real reason to ask for and to drink the Hourai Elixir,
- her possible (Bamboo Cutter-era) meeting with Mokou and their later reunion,
- her reason for humouring Mokou,
- her being genuinely unclean and what comes of it,
- what her contribution to the Earth will be when her bonsai blooms, if it does.
There is also the mystery of why ZUN redacted that passage about her in CiLR's first chapter.
I say that there is more to Kaguya, because I noticed that she tends to mask what she really thinks and feels. She did this in CiLR, and Eirin seems to go by assumptions as to where she stands.
Oops, ran out of time. This post is roughy drafty and incomplete - will revise and add more later.
Anyway, I love what ZUN did with her character and how he made her his own.
-
Yuyuko is definitely my top favourite, her theme is my favourite one too.
While I love airhead characters, I also can see part of myself in her true pleasure to eat.
Besides the funny features, I love Yuyuko's backstory and how her huge sense of responsibility towards her power made Eiki entrust her as being ruler of one of the afterlife realms with conviction. The fact that behind her cheerful and innocent-looking appearance stands a very clever and responsible person is really formidable.
I love how she appears to enjoy every little moment even when she has unlimited time. Her happiness is really outstanding, and I think it is one the main reasons (besides those mentioned above) why I really love her.
Second one is Mokou. Still not sure why I like her so much, but I do. Her appearance is just smooth and her theme's too good.
-
My favorite character is Youmu. She is straight forward and has several funny moments. I don't really like her theme song as much as other characters though.
So if Lunarians are more powerful than youkai, and Eirin is the sage of the moon, and it was required that a human-youkai duo defeat the lunarians... how powerful is she really? Probably the most admirable thing is the fact that Eirin will always try to protect the thing she holds most dear to, even if it means her commiting to some horrible and ruthless actions. Eirin did become a villain after all.
I would like to add that Kaguya/Eirin was most likely the victor in Imperishable Night. It was most likely not solved by the heroines.
-
Reimu is probably my favorite. Both her fighting style and personality is to my tastes. I would also say that she has some of my favorite theme songs, even if that doesn't say much.
After that, if anyone, would be Yuuka and Suika, but that's more because I love their designs than anything else.
-
My favorite character is Youmu. She is straight forward and has several funny moments. I don't really like her theme song as much as other characters though.
I would like to add that Kaguya/Eirin was most likely the victor in Imperishable Night. It was most likely not solved by the heroines.
Technically the Imperishable Night was caused by the heroines. Be it Yukari in the Border/Netherworld [Yuyuko probobly asked Yukari for help like in PCB] scenario; or Sakuya in the Magic [Marisa asked Patchy who asked Sakuya. Asking Yukari makes no sense since Reimu fights her]/Scarlet scenario.
Albeit to cover up the perceived effects of what Eirin did when she made it impossible for the Lunarians to come. [But didn't intend to happen]. I can't recall exactly what it was but something bad would happen if the day came and Eirin's magic was still in effect. So Sakuya/Yukari created the Imperishable Night to make sure day would nto come until Eirin's spell was broken. Except [I'm pretty sure] Eirin never planned it to reach morning with her spell in effect anyway; in fact the Imperishable Night was causing more problems for Eientei [Which is why Kaguya tries to desperately to break it in her final spells when she realizes you're the cause.
But even then, Eirin is one of the few characters to be outright stated as a murderer. It's stated in her backstory that she killed Lunarian emissaries. I think the only other characters confirmed to have actually killed are Yuyuko [Herself] and Mokou [When she stole the Hourai Elixir; and she feels regret for that killing]. Not even Flandre or Yuuka are confirmed to have killed someone. [I'm not counting Kaguya killing Mokou. That doesn't count]
-
Technically the Imperishable Night was caused by the heroines. Be it Yukari in the Border/Netherworld [Yuyuko probobly asked Yukari for help like in PCB] scenario; or Sakuya in the Magic [Marisa asked Patchy who asked Sakuya. Asking Yukari makes no sense since Reimu fights her]/Scarlet scenario.
I meant the game. In that game, Kaguya/Eirin is most likely the victor. Kaguya broke the spell once she realized that the protagonist was the culprit.
I think the false moon causes problems to youkai or something like that, because that is the source of their powers. But Eirin replaced the false moon with the real one upon the night ending, so it was all good.
And yes, Eirin is one of the few characters to have a history of killing people. Not that I don't think other characters haven't killed. This is youkai we are talking about and back then, long before spell card rules, it is a dangerous world, where it is fight or die.
-
Ran, because she is a fox.
-
Ran and Momiji fans in a nutshell?
-
Mokou, because she looks badass in those pants
-
I have a bunch too, I guess. In no particular order, and not all-inclusive:
Reimu & Marisa. It's not that I'm THAT interested in either of them, but they are the main heroines, after all, and they work well together. Marisa is my favourite of them on her own, but together they become a perfect fool-straight man pair that is very fun to write dialogue for. Of course, Marisa is just playing the fool half the time (and being kinda naive half the time), but it still works. Also, both on their own, and definitely together, they are pretty much unbeatable.
Aya. There's something about her. Serious, yet playful, cheerful, yet arrogant. Her articles are pretty much sensation gossip, but she takes them very seriously, and gets offended if people complain. I love her and hate her, because I've never been able to pass her in MoF. Let me through, dammit.
Yukari. The crazy cat/fox lady we all love to hate. Seriously though, she's an amazing character, and as many others have remarked, still one of the most interesting characters in the whole cast. Can her powers even be explained? Clearly they have few limits, and if anyone has the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything, it would be her.
Parsee. Poor little Parsee. Doomed to eternal unhappiness and general grumpiness. A face only a mother (and I) could love, horrible fashion sense and her hair's a mess, all things that make her adorable. I tend to like the most "difficult" girls...
She also has one of the best theme songs ever made in any game. Upbeat and powerful, like a boss theme should be, yet you can feel the entire sorrow of her existence in the melody. A very powerful tune. ZUN really ascended there, and her song is probably half the reason why I love her.
She could be happy if she wasn't bound to the nature of her youkaihood, which she has in common with...
Satori. I love the whole cast of SA(which is why my new comic is about them (well, maybe not the spider and bucket girl)), but Satori is such a wonderfully tragic character. An outcast because she just can't help being a mean mind reader all the time. It's like tourettes, but with the truth instead of random nonsense. It's her nature, and her base of existence, so she really can't help it. No wonder she's grumpy. Also, her stage theme is amazing. Same thing as with Green-Eyed Jealousy, it's tragic but beautiful.
Utsuho. Sure, let's get her in here too. I didn't actually care much for her before I started my new comic, but she was a lot of fun to portray as a renegade god with hubris, who has just awakened to powers greater than she should be allowed to handle.
Up-and-comers:
Reisen: I admit I treated her like the common comedy foil in RGB, but I actually really like her, and would like to include her more some other time. Her design is super cute, too.
Meiling: Same thing for her. I should do a more serious story with her some time. She's pretty cool. I'm reading Zazenbeat's "Elemental 8: Maniax" now, and I like how she's portrayed there. Still a bit silly, but a really nice and easy-going gal.
Cirno: Always funny. Mostly because I really enjoy writing her home-made brooklyn-like lingo. Everything is funny with a tiny, childish Bob Hoskins with hubris.
Yoshika: A cutely stupid and stupidly cute moe zombie, why not?
-
I like Sanae Kochiya the most out of all the other Touhou Cast. She has this dutiful personality that kind of fits why I like her, compared to Reimu, who is kind of 'meh' to me. Also, Superman Much owo!
Byakuren Hijiri would be next on my list, since she has an Altruistic personality towards the peace between Youkai and Humans, which shines throughout most of the cast.
And lastly, Koishi Komeiji, since she has a happy-to-go-lucky personality that needs shining throughout most people in real life.
-
Yukari: As many said before, a really intriguing character. Her ominousness, abilities, personality, the way she appears before others, and her mastermind behaviour make me love everything about her.
Seija: Our dear rebel, i like her attitude. One of the few whose direct actions could have actually caused really big problems to Gensokyo (The only one who comes slightly closer in terms of threat is Utsuho with her "i'll melt down everything" thing), to the point that she's the only character for which the spell card rules were specifically ignored. She is also stubborn enough to pursue her goal even after her first defeat, even if almost everyone in Gensokyo was going after her. I like her design and ability a lot, too.
Rumia: While her backstory isn't really developed, what we know about her makes her my "ideal youkai". Feral, human eater, related to night and darkness (and the moon, going by her SCs), probably one of the few known youkai who still think that it's their job to attack humans (even if she's lazy about it), and her ability could really be ominous and frightening if she was a bit smarter in her tactics and in using it. The ofuda also spawns wild ideas about her, so you can play with it quite a bit.
Special Mention:
Remilia: the first Touhou character i've ever heard about, she introduced me into this wonderful fandom.
However, i like most other character as well. The only ones who didn't strike me really much are Miko, Futo and Tojiko, but i'll probably end up liking them too someday.
-
Parsee. Poor little Parsee. Doomed to eternal unhappiness and general grumpiness. A face only a mother (and I) could love, horrible fashion sense and her hair's a mess, all things that make her adorable. I tend to like the most "difficult" girls...
She also has one of the best theme songs ever made in any game. Upbeat and powerful, like a boss theme should be, yet you can feel the entire sorrow of her existence in the melody. A very powerful tune. ZUN really ascended there, and her song is probably half the reason why I love her.
She could be happy if she wasn't bound to the nature of her youkaihood, which she has in common with...
I'm okay with the messy hair thing, but horrible fashion sense ? I find that she have one of the best outfit of the serie. It's eccentric, yeah, but have something cool about it. Maybe that's just me, but I don't think she have a poor fashion sense. (and I like the fashion thing btw)
-
Shizuha, because I love the autumn and its beautiful colours, and now I have an appropriate goddess I can thank for them :)
Nitori, because her shy personality is really endearing. Also, MoF was my first Touhou game, and although I knew beforehand the series was renowned for being difficult, the start of her boss fight was an awesome "now it's going to get serious" moment, together with really great music.
Reimu and Sanae, because they're shrine maidens, and I'm fascinated by Japanese culture and belief. I think one of the most interesting things about any religion is the way, even if you don't take it seriously, it presents you with its own set of categories and symbols for understanding and relating to the world -- so I love the idea of a quarrel between two gods being settled by their rival shrine maidens duking it out by firing religious symbols at each other ;)
Sakuya, because... well, it's already been posted:
I like Sakuya for her character archetype: the mysterious maid or butler to the Big Bad who is very powerful, making you wonder just why they chose to work under someone. It's always fun speculating on these characters, and they just are fun to use. Sakuya's no-nonsense personality also helps here. She's the kind of character who'd kick someone's ass and then whip out some tea to calmly sip over their opponent's lifeless body. You can't hate someone like that. Also Flowering Night is amazing, especially the SWR mix.
-
I like a lot of characters so I'll try and keep it down pretty low.
Utsuho: The Moron. She's just this kind of cute dumb that I can't help but find absolutely adorable. Her absolute lack of common sense is amazing. Also her cape is fucking fantastic.
Seija: The Rebel. The fact she's caused so much mayhem in such a short amount of time is quiet impressive. Also, I love her design. Those arrows look amazing and her color pallet is really nice.
Nue: The Trickster. I think I have a thing for mischievous characters, because Nue is a youkai after my own heart. Also the fact that a nue is really awesome helps. :V
Louise: The Unfortunate Traveler. Anyone remember her from MS? No? Well I do, and I love her for whatever reason. She's just some random demon that we beat up for just being there, but she's not really evil or anything (if anything she's quiet polite to the heroine). She just wants to go on a vacation dammit! Her title is also great, "Makai Person." So generic, I love it.
Kyouko: The Janitor. She's cute, has an interesting ability, and has a great theme. Did I mention she is cute? Because she is ridiculously cute. Also her being in a rock bank with Mystia to sing in the middle of the night is amazing.
Special Mention:
Tokiko: The Punching Bag. Poor, poor Tokiko. She didn't even get a name in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, just beaten up for being there. But I love her design and she looks so cute (I like cute things sue me). Though, I doubt she'll ever appear in a proper game, but her cameo in Forbidden Scrollery was nice.
-
Hmmm this is really a tough question to ask really. Hmmmmmmm. I know!
i really like Aya because she is really well funny specially how most of the fandom portray her.
other character i like includes Kagasa because darn she is so cute and everything not to mention very trickster like!
as well as Satori primarily because i feel extremely sorry for the poor gal ya know always being hated becasue of something not necessarily her fault and all not to mention her and all her wonderful pets (one of which is a bird so i 100% approve)
-
My twin. :V
I'd like to add that Kaguya was executed repeatedly before the Lunarians exiled her, and that the piano solo in Eirin's theme is epic.
My reading of Bougetsushou, especially Cage in Lunatic Runagate, is the reason why the princess is my favourite. But I think that much is obvious from most of my posts. Another reason is that I think there is more to her, and that ZUN isn't "done" with her yet (as with other characters).
There are the questions of:
- her real reason to ask for and to drink the Hourai Elixir,
- her possible (Bamboo Cutter-era) meeting with Mokou and their later reunion,
- her reason for humouring Mokou,
- her being genuinely unclean and what comes of it,
- what her contribution to the Earth will be when her bonsai blooms, if it does.
There is also the mystery of why ZUN redacted that passage about her in CiLR's first chapter.
I say that there is more to Kaguya, because I noticed that she tends to mask what she really thinks and feels. She did this in CiLR, and Eirin seems to go by assumptions as to where she stands.
Oops, ran out of time. This post is roughy drafty and incomplete - will revise and add more later.
Anyway, I love what ZUN did with her character and how he made her his own.
Very late, but glad to find a twin! :D
I always thought that the reason why she drank the hourai elixir was because... she felt like it. Maybe there is a more complicated reason behind it. Which reminds that there was a person imprisoned on the moon named Chang'e, and that the creating of the hourai elixir on the moon (which is made by the lunar rabbits) was actually a ritual on the moon for some sort of atonement for Chang'e drinking the hourai elixir. Seeing as how Kaguya also drank the elixir, she would likely be in the same situation as Chang'e if she was to return the moon... I believe this is Eirin's main reason for saving her.
-
Typically you'll find me talking more about 98 characters and people like Yuugi and Sukuna.
But some of my favorites has to be(Can't really have a definite one.)
Kurumi:Appears to be very strong but somewhat nice, I do like her for the design of what i've seen of her personality.
Kotohime:Personality purely, plus who else can arrest Reimu?
Sekibanki:Personality once more, not many people I can think of prefers to stay away from incidents and other Youkai, especially if she's also a Youkai.
Chiyuri:Personality as well as design and the fact that she caused a incident by complete accident.
Mima:I liked the character development she had in the games she appeared, towards the end she was no longer a vengeful ghost and had interest in being the god of humanity instead of the one to destroy it,.
-
It's not easy to pick favorites in a series where the cast is so brilliantly varied and unique, but I'll do it anyway!
1. Cirno
No, not the fandom nineball-Cirno, the Cirno who went from being a stage 2 boss to becoming the protagonist of her own game and canonically beating MARISA of all people (Sure she says she was going easy on Cirno, but she does freaking admit even if she wasn't she'd have a hard time beating her.) I love development in characters a lot, and I just find it amazing that someone so dumb is actually pretty much on her way to becoming 'The Strongest'. With how she managed to hold her ground to face off with other characters in Touhou 9, to how she successfully managed to fight UTSUHO without melting, to how she defeated Marisa. Top it off with a catchy theme and a lovable personality and you have a pretty charming fairy.
2. Mima/Yumemi
I honestly can't pick between these two, they're both iconic characters from the PC-98 era with brilliant points to them. First of all, everyone knows Mima (she'llbeinthenextnameplsplspls) The fact she's probably had the longest history with both protagonists makes her all the more interesting to me, being Marisa's mentor/possible mother and having a prominent role in the PC-98 games, but there's also a huge amount of mystery surrounding her which just makes me like her more. Top it off with the fact she has some outstanding themes and you have a pretty great character. Now, onto Yumemi. I always like characters that show great strength despite all the odds, and who better an example for that than Yumemi? Before there were gods, vampires and revolutionaries, there was an 18 year old human prodigy. Add the fact she has one of the most badass and iconic themes in the series as well as an AMAZING cape and you have one of my favorite Touhou characters to this day.
3. Mokou
What's not to love about Mokou? SHE'S THE ONLY TOUHOU WITH PANTS! Okay on a serious note, I really love her character, her design reflects her power and her tomboy-personality really damn well, as well as her having a pretty detailed backstory that makes me sympathize and honestly respect her. Not to forget, her theme as well is on a godly level of it's own. Stillcan'tgetpastHonestMan'sDeaththoughdammit.