Reimu Hakurei

Reimu is the shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine. She and others characterize her time at the shrine as largely dull and uneventful, spending her days cleaning the shrine grounds, holsmeeting, and talking to shrine visitors. While she sometimes takes her duties seriously, the shrine isn't usually a very popular place for human worshippers. This is partly due to the number of youkai who visit the shrine, to the point that, according to Marisa Kirisame, everyone in Human Village says that "youkai completely control the shrine," something that frustrates Reimu. Furthermore, the long path from Human Village to the shrine is an animal trail with poor visibility. However, Reimu still manages to attract considerable numbers of visitors with festivals organized at the shrine, both traditional Shinto festivals like Setsubun and non-traditional gatherings like a "Stay Cool Festival." The festival stalls are often run by kappa and other youkai, and the revenue generated from them by visitors constitutes a valuable portion of the shrine's income. In addition to her duties at the shrine, Reimu is responsible within the Human Village for performing exorcisms, stopping supernatural disturbances, and generally quelling the unrest stemming from the villagers' fear of the unknown. While she may not always know the cause or solution behind a disturbance, Reimu still readily offers her services: she states that placing the incomprehensible within the context of the supernatural and then containing it to soothe anxieties is "one of the most respectable duties for a shrine maiden." Finally, Reimu specializes in youkai extermination as one of the foremost "incident resolvers" in Gensokyo. In most cases, "extermination" means non-lethal reprimand, though Reimu will not hesitate to use sealing or lethal measures against youkai who cannot abide by Gensokyo's rules. A prime example is the Diviner, who became a Jinyou (human youkai) after using a taboo method that caused panic directly within the Human Village, leading to his swift and permanent extermination. Reimu believes that Jinyou would destroy the balance of Gensokyo, so she carefully monitors Kosuzu and certain other humans at risk of becoming youkai. Yukari Yakumo describes Reimu's job not as that of a youkai exterminator, but rather as a "balancer between humans and youkai," preventing youkai from attacking humans and humans from becoming youkai.

• Yin-Yang Orbs: In most Touhou games, Reimu uses the Yin-Yang Orbs, go-shintai of the God Hakurei, in combat. Kasen Ibaraki states that the shrine's blessing is the extermination of youkai, which manifests through the Yin-Yang Orbs. In Underground Animism, they also functioned as communicators with people above the surface.

• Gohei: Reimu uses a gohei, sometimes referred to as her purification rod, originally prepared by Rinnosuke Morichika. She uses it for Shinto rituals and exorcisms, as well as in combat as a melee weapon.

• Ofuda: Reimu possesses a large number of Ofuda, sacred paper amulets with anti-youkai properties that she uses to fight, seal, or exterminate youkai of any kind in her Danmaku. She can also use them to create barriers and even copies of herself. Like the Yin-Yang Orbs, she uses them in most, if not all, of the games in which she has appeared, either as a normal shot (usually with household properties) or as bullets for her spell cards.

• Needles: Reimu also uses a large collection of large throwing needles hidden inside her sleeves in combat, which she chooses for their divine connection and because they are easy to throw.

•Machinery: In PC-98 canon, she owns a robot named Ruukoto, given to her by Yumemi Okazaki as a reward for defeating her. Ruukoto has not been seen outside of Dim Dream Fantasia.

Reimu is of moderate height. In the PC-98 canon, she is depicted with purple hair and eyes, and wears a large red ribbon at the back of her head and red tubes on her side. From the Eastern Wonderland Story to Mystic Square, she wears an outfit resembling a traditional shrine maiden uniform, with a red hakama over a white kimono. However, her most well-known design is from the Windows era. She has brownish-black hair that varies in length and style between games (tending to be long and loose in later works), and her eyes vary from brown to red and even blue depending on the game, but she still wears a red ribbon and matching tubes on her sides. She is still seen in her "shrine maiden uniform," but it now has little in common with the standard uniform beyond the red and white color scheme (which ZUN has acknowledged). This uniform consists of a red skirt (instead of the standard hakama), a sleeveless red top with a white collar, tied with a ribbon whose color varies between games, and a pair of separate white sleeves that expose Sarashi. Due to the color combination, she is occasionally called the "red-and-white shrine donut." Her shaman's clothing and purification rod were created by Rinnosuke Morichika, but it is unknown who designed them. In the Trial+ version of Perfect Cherry Blossom's portraits, as well as her larger portrait on the character selection screen, she appears wearing white gloves. These were removed in the final release of that game, but the gloves on the character selection screen remained. She has not been depicted wearing these gloves since.

Reimu is described as unusually relaxed, lacking any sense of danger, and carefree. She is characterized as simple-minded, always showing her true feelings and acting on whatever idea pops into her head. However, ZUN has also stated that no one but her can know what's on her mind, and therefore, how she is portrayed varies depending on the perspective—human, fairy, or youkai. She can also be emotional and loud, and her presence is well-known wherever she is, but she can also blend into her surroundings quite easily when necessary. She is portrayed as a simple person who spends her days skipping around the shrine grounds, drinking green tea, and snozzing; to the point that Kasen Ibaraki felt she lacked the training to be the Hakurei Shrine Maiden and made her training more disciplined, something that only worked for a couple of days due to her easygoing personality. However, Kasen states that despite Reimu being "a little unreliable and somewhat careless," she still performs her duties, doing enough to be fit for the title of Hakurei Shrine Maiden. On the other hand, she has a keen intuition when it comes to incidents, usually rushing to resolve them and not letting anyone get in her way and waste her time. This leads some of those she encounters to think she has an "indescribable intimidating aura." This is supported by her innate abilities, powerful enough to defeat her opponents without her needing to train often, unlike Marisa Kirisame. Her straightforward and open personality makes her like both youkai and humans, but she considers only a few people to be her friends (like Marisa Kirisame) and maintains a stricter stance against youkai due to her human nature and her role as Hakurei Shrine Maiden. As she attracts the people she interacts with and deals more with humans than humans, her shrine receives more youkai visitors than human visitors. Reimu attempts to reverse this and gain more human followers and donations through various schemes, but they generally fail due to their simplicity and flaws, or because they were the product of an outburst of her emotions, as in "Wild Horned Hermit." On other occasions, they only end up attracting more youkai instead. Although she claims it is her job to exterminate youkai, she has worked with them on multiple occasions, such as during the incident in "Underground Animism." She can be seen drinking and hanging out with youkai who are invited to the many flower visits she organizes at Hakurei Shrine, and collaborating with kappa on business at her shrine festivals. She even offered three fairies drinks with her after reprimanding them for vandalizing her shrine, and later gave them various tasks to help clean it up. Toyosatomimi no Miko theorizes that she only says it's her job to exterminate youkai as a way of saying she wants to maintain the balance of Gensokyo, something Yukari Yakumo and others remind her of when she gets too carried away dealing with youkai. Her friendship with youkai didn't stop Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu, from saying that she exterminated youkai for no reason, and that she relaxes into basic shrine maiden activities like communicating with her own god.

• Ability to Float: While many inhabitants of Gensokyo are capable of flight, Reimu's ability extends beyond that; she excels at floating through life. Reimu generally displays extraordinary intuition and incredible luck, naturally ending up on the path of least resistance in most situations; however, when distracted or acting with impure motives, she quickly loses her advantage. On one occasion, observers saw Reimu dodge an attack "as if she were made of air," while Reimu herself saw the attack deflect to avoid her; on another, Reimu unknowingly crossed a river without getting wet, stepping on fish swimming beneath her feet. The ultimate expression of this ability is Innate Sleep, which allows Reimu to detach herself from reality and become impossible to attack; this was considered too powerful to use as a spell card until Marisa gave it a name and a time limit.

• Powers such as the "Hakurei Maiden of the Sanctuary":

As the shrine attendant of Hakurei, Reimu can wield the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs and is trained in youkai extermination techniques, as well as standard duties such as performing blessings. Reimu is also capable of channeling the Gods of Gensokyo, but she is not well-trained enough to do so reliably.

• Barrier Techniques: Reimu displays great aptitude with magical barriers. Her techniques include barriers that explode, push enemies (or herself), or allow her to teleport. Reimu is capable of dismantling barriers and seals too complex for Marisa Kirisame to understand, using what Marisa calls her "plotting technique."

• Aura Manipulation: It is stated in the omake.txt (おまけ.txt) of "Scarlet Devil Incarnation" that Reimu can control the natural spirits of living beings, an ability that does not appear in any subsequent source. No clear instance of this ability has ever been shown.

• Other abilities: During the events of Urban Legend in Limbo, and at least until the end of Antinomy of Common Flowers, Reimu acquired abilities based on the "Gap Woman" urban legend. This allowed her to open gaps similar to those used by Yukari Yakumo, which she used as portals for herself or to attack.

Although Reimu often appears as the main character, she doesn't participate in mundane activities to the same extent as Marisa Kirisame, limiting her familiarity with most of Gensokyo's population. However, she has interacted with almost every other character who has made a physical appearance, with a few exceptions such as the Giant Catfish, Renko Usami, and Maribel Hearn.

• Marisa Kirisame: Marisa is a close friend of Reimu. They are most often seen together in the printed works, game prologues, and extra stages, where they hang out together at the shrine, chatting about the latest rumors and news in Gensokyo. Reimu and Marisa often argue and debate with each other, for reasons ranging from resolving incidents to hot pot ingredients. Regardless, they usually resolve their differences and remain as close as ever. They have also worked together on numerous occasions, such as when they chased an enenra or worked to exterminate a vengeful spirit. However, they generally resolve incidents at their own pace and often act as rivals to see who can resolve incidents first.

• Yukari Yakumo: Yukari occasionally seeks Reimu's help to resolve incidents, such as in Imperishable Night and Subterranean Animism, as well as to guide Reimu in using her spiritual powers to summon the gods in Silent Sinner in Blue. In this sense, she can be considered a sort of employer, as evidenced by Reimu's compensation during the Imperishable Night incident. Yukari is also secretly a benefactor, donating to the shrine behind Reimu's back, something of which Reimu is unaware.

• Suika Ibuki: Suika Ibuki, who often carries her shrine after the events of Immaterial and Missing Power, was also one of her allies during the Underground Animism. Reimu initially viewed Suika's presence as a nuisance, but never bothered to get rid of her.

• Aya Shameimaru: Aya Shameimaru frequently writes articles about the Hakurei Shrine and Reimu's activities, often portraying them in an unflattering light. However, they have helped each other in the past: Aya was another ally during the events surrounding underground animism, and Reimu gave Aya information to try to expose Miyoi Okunoda as a youkai.

• Rinnosuke Morichika: Reimu is familiar with Rinnosuke Morichika, a merchant who owns Kourindou, whom she sometimes visits to hang out or buy things (and sometimes shoplift). Apparently, she has a large unpaid bill for the items and services she's requested, but she denies it since Rinnosuke "never accepts money" (which he denies is true). Rinnosuke was also the one who originally prepared her purification rod for her use, and he handles all her clothing-related problems.

• Sanae Kochiya: Sanae and Reimu first met when Sanae tried to help Hakurei Shrine by attempting to persuade them to replace the gods with Kanako Yasaka. After the Mountain of Faith event, Sanae offered to assist Reimu as a shrine maiden, helping her gather faith for the shrine. Sanae Kochiya is on friendly terms with Reimu and frequently appears in Wild and Horned Hermit alongside Reimu and Marisa, sometimes coming to maintain the Moriya branch shrine at Hakurei Shrine. The two don't hesitate to antagonize each other at times as competitors in gathering faith and visitors, though these disputes are usually resolved the next time they meet.

• Kasen Ibaraki: Kasen Ibaraki is a regular at the shrine and acts as Reimu's mentor (and sometimes tutor), whom she fears is overly concerned with worldly desires. In reality, Kasen initially became Reimu's mentor as part of her own plan, but she continues to see herself as a mentor even after her goals were achieved. Kasen is openly critical of Reimu, believing her to be too greedy and lazy in her duties. Despite this and Reimu's annoyance at Kasen's nagging and preaching, Reimu sees Kasen as a genuine friend—when fighting Kasen's arm, Reimu couldn't fight Kasen wholeheartedly until she realized that the arm fighting her was actually a separate entity from Kasen. Today, Reimu knows that Kasen is secretly an oni, but partly because of this friendship and partly because she owes Kasen all the money that one of Kasen's schemes got her, Reimu can't tell anyone else.

• Three Light Fairies: Reimu is often the target of the Three Light Fairies' pranks, and she tends to exterminate them on sight whenever she catches them (unless Marisa is escorting them). Starting in Oriental Sacred Place, the three fairies moved into a tree near Hakurei Shrine and became Reimu's neighbors, further increasing the amount of pranks. Reimu aims to evict the fairies, but she can't find their treehouse, which is actually located on the border of Hakurei. Eventually, in an attempt to befriend Reimu so she will no longer threaten them, the three fairies challenge her to a battle, reasoning that Reimu tends to befriend many youkai after fighting them. After Reimu defeats the fairies, she remarks that their line of reasoning is absolutely ridiculous. Despite this, Marisa discovers that Reimu did befriend the fairies after all, and by the end of Oriental Sacred Place, the fairies now happily spend time openly at the shrine while helping Reimu with various tasks.

• Kosuzu Motoori: Kosuzu Motoori, the daughter of the bookseller in the Human Village, is convinced that dealing with Youma books won't harm her, because she's certain that Reimu will come to her rescue if anything happens. Throughout Forbidden Scrollery, Reimu frequently finds herself having to resolve minor incidents caused by Kosuzu's actions, while also struggling to keep Kosuzu in her place as a human villager in Gensokyo society.