Touhou/Characters/Other Official Works

Ever since the Touhou series was rebooted for Windows-based computers, a number of characters have been introduced solely through side stories in the form of manga, prose fiction, and music CDs with liner notes.

This page is for Touhou characters who debuted in these non-game spinoffs. To see the characters who debuted in the PC-98 games, go to Touhou PC 98. For the Windows characters, go to Touhou Windows One and Touhou Windows Two.

Wherever possible, character images come from portraits not drawn by ZUN used in official games and print works. Images of characters without quality official portraits are labeled " (fanart) ".

Please remember to only use examples that are either canon or have undergone mass Memetic Mutation so that the page doesn't become overcrowded with tropes that only occur in one person/circle's works.

Concerning the romanization of names
First, there are two principal methods for transcribing Japanese names into Latin letters: the Hepburn System and the Kunrei-shiki System. In general, ZUN favored the Hepburn System before Phantasmagoria of Flower View, but changed to the Kunrei-shiki System afterward. This page uses the Hepburn format for the sake of argument, as it is the most widely recognized and makes the pronunciation obvious to English speakers.

Rinnosuke Morichika

 * Store Owner of Kourindou



The owner of the shop Kourindou, he uses his power to identify strange objects with True Names and figure out their function. Thus, his shop deals with objects from outside of Gensokyo that won't be easily identified, like his own oil-burning heater, a Gameboy (which he mistook for an Artifact of Doom) and various knick-knacks that Marisa gathers from time to time.


 * Childhood Friends: With Marisa. Rinnosuke used to work in her father's shop.
 * Clueless Chick Magnet: Sometimes treated as this in fanon, as an extension of his status as a Know-Nothing Know-It-All and The One Guy.
 * Collector of the Strange: In addition to selling goods from the outside world, he also likes to collect them and is reluctant to part with his merchandise.
 * Fan Disservice: Fanon only. Rinnosuke is sometimes portrayed as an excessively muscular pervert who wears nothing but fundoshi loincloths. This version of Rinnosuke is usually referred to as "MANnosuke". Just look up the two doujins "Another Dream" issues one and two... bring your own Brain Bleach.
 * Another variation gives him the spell card Manly Sign: Sexy Beam, which a disturbed Marisa refers to as "neither sexy nor a beam".
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Half-human, half-youkai.
 * I Should Write a Book About This: Is currently writing his memoirs, and fantasises about it becoming Gensokyo's first history textbook (to the point where the introductory passage is "The history of Gensokyo has been born.").
 * Know-Nothing Know-It-All: "By the way, Rinnosuke's supposed vast storage of knowledge comes almost entirely out of thin air. Indeed, he doesn't know nearly as much as he thinks he does."
 * When a rainstorm appears localised on his shop, Rinnosuke's first thought is that the Sword of Kusanagi (which he added to his collection recently) must be declaring him the rightful Emperor of Japan, claiming that there can't be many beings around who are powerful enough to manipulate the weather. Turns out the rain was created by a fairy.
 * He also seems convinced that once his memoirs are finished they'll become the official history textbook of Gensokyo, and make him rich and famous.
 * Leitmotif: "Curious old Shanghai tile" from his appearance in Touhou Unreal Mahjong (a fangame, but his theme was composed by ZUN).
 * Magitek: Despite his poor understanding of Outside World technology and not (apparently) being capable of magic, he was able to create Marisa's Mini-Hakkero by combining both.
 * Meaningful Name: Morichika means "near the forest" (the location of his shop) and Rinnosuke means "helps the long rain" (he has relationships with the Kirisame family, Kirisame meaning "drizzle"). Chapter 26 of Curiosities of Lotus Asia also has him discussing the possible meanings of Yukari Yakumo's name.
 * Memetic Badass: How some fanon descriptions account for how he could possibly last in a land filled with trigger happy girls with otherworldly powers seemly itching to fight.
 * Mr. Exposition: Or so he seems to fancy himself. He spends an awful lot of time explaining how things in Gensokyo work to Reimu and Marisa or else just narrating about it at length. ZUN, however, has mentioned that most of Rinnosuke's wisdom is his own speculation.
 * My Name Is Not Kourin: As a result of the name of his shop, Marisa calls him Kourin.
 * NameDar: His ability is to recognize the name of an object and its purpose. This doesn't come with the instruction manual. For example, his ability tells him that an iPod is capable of "storing and playing a lot of music", but it doesn't tell him how to store or play anything, and he doesn't know how to use a computer correctly anyway. And because it neglected to tell him that the people it controls and the worlds it can create or destroy are imaginary, he thought that a Game Boy was an Artifact of Doom.
 * Non-Action Guy: Despite his half-human, half-youkai nature, he doesn't seem to be any tougher than a regular human, and he admits that he's unable to do anything rough. Lampshaded by Marisa and Reimu, who wonder how he managed to live so long without knowing how to handle himself. This has resulted in fanon holding that he's a Retired Badass.
 * The One Guy: The only humanoid male character in the series, who's had actual page time.
 * Shop Keeper
 * Stoic Spectacles
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy

Tokiko


An unfortunate book-reading Youkai who was beaten up by Reimu, who mistakenly assumed she had stolen some books.


 * One-Scene Wonder: She appeared in one scene in one chapter of one series which half the fans don't bother to read, with no name and a small appearance in the background of the cover image. She spent that time getting beaten up twice and complaining about it. She's not incredibly popular, but yes, even Tokiko has a following.
 * No Name Given: Canonically, Tokiko has no actual name. If we were to get technical, she'd be listed here as "unnamed book-reading youkai", but that doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely. "Tokiko" translates to "little crested ibis", and was given to her after fans noted her resemblance to the bird in question.
 * Winged Humanoid

Maribel Hearn
A human from outside the border, she is one of the members of an Occult Studies Club. She has the power to sense and possibly cross boundaries, and has entered Gensokyo in her dreams. Maribel and Renko apparently come from Twenty Minutes Into the Future, where some foods such as bamboo shoots and strawberries are only available as synthetics. Not only are many edible plants extinct, but it is a world where "children do not smile". Probably has some sort of connection to Yukari Yakumo, though when asked by fans ZUN has declined to elaborate.


 * Astral Projection or Teleporters and Transporters?: In the Trojan Green Asteroid CD liner notes, she begins seeing an abandoned space station at one of the Earth-Moon Lagrange points in her dreams, and also has the ability to take Renko there as well. She's attacked by a chimera and ends up with a wounded arm back on Earth. It's unclear whether she actually teleported there, or whether it's astral projection and Your Mind Makes It Real is in effect.
 * Captain Ersatz: That hat looks like Yukari's and they both wear a purple dress in the same fashion. Conveniently, Yukari is known for being a heavy sleeper during the day, a time when Maribel would most likely be awake. Renko believes that Maribel's ability to sense boundaries is somehow evolving into the ability to manipulate boundaries (the same ability as Yukari), while Yukari is often known for recognizing Outside World technology. In Symposium of Post-mysticism, Yuyuko (Yukari's best friend) is depicted visiting the Outside World invisibly and teasing a confused Maribel. Finally, Maribel mentions wanting to visit the moon and thought of "another way to get there" while looking at its reflection; Yukari mentions that long ago she once travelled to the moon using its reflection, just to look around. Make of that what you will.
 * Meaningful Name: Lafcadio Hearn, a famous horror writer who translated tales of youkai into English, eventually became a Japanese citizen and took the name Koizumi Yakumo. Following the Yukari theory, Hearn would correspond to Maribel and Yakumo would correspond to Yukari after her naturalization in Gensokyo.
 * In addition, it's been suggested that Mary's first name is a corruption of "mulberry", a fruit that turns dark purple when it's ripe. Yukari means "violet".
 * My Name Is Not Mary: Type D/F - Renko can't pronounce Maribel's full name and calls her "Mary".
 * Non-Specifically Foreign
 * Schrödinger's Butterfly: Whether or not she's Yukari, Maribel does have a dual existence in Gensokyo in her dreams.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Her first name is occasionally romanized as "Maryberry" or the like, and her last name is occasionally seen as "Han".
 * More specifically, the katakana for her name is "maeriberii haan". "Han" and "Hearn" are both reasonable transliterations for her last name, though "Hearn" is a bit closer and has the bonus of being an actual western name. "Maribel" is only sort of similar to how her first name is pronounced, but is an actual name. "Maryberry" is much closer, but not an actual name.
 * The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: Maribel's personality seems kind of meek. Yukari on the other hand...
 * Time Travel: A message Maribel left behind on one of her trips to Gensokyo was discovered by the natives... hundreds of years ago. The running theory is that she will eventually become Trapped in the Past.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Fanon has made many interpretations of the above "Maribel = Yukari" theory. It is also even harder to dismiss the fact that her appearance is practically Yukari but younger.

Renko Usami


Maribel's friend, who lives outside of Gensokyo, and the other member of the Occult Studies Club. Renko initiates most of their activities. She has the ability to determine her exact position and the current time by looking at the moon and the stars respectively. Some fanworks have her sense coordinates in imaginary numbers whenever she tries to sense her location in Gensokyo.

""Right now I'm almost like the protagonist of a shooting game!""
 * Agent Scully: A notable subversion. Renko is the scientific, logical, objective one of the pair and shoots down some of Maribel's odder notions, but she's also much more enthusiastic about their occult activities, driving their investigations and efforts to find another world.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Changeability of Strange Dream, Renko feared that one day Maribel would permanently become a part of Gensokyo and illusion. Nevertheless, she decided that Maribel would be happier there than in their world. This has also been interpreted as something of a third option, since Renko is unabashedly jealous of Maribel's dream adventures and fully hopes to come along with her.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Trojan Green Asteroid


 * Required Secondary Powers: Played with. Renko claims her ability can only tell the time in Japanese Standard, but Maribel points out that she should only need basic math to get other timezones.
 * Schedule Fanatic: Subverted - she can be late, but she'll always tell Maribel down to the second how late she was.
 * Unusual Ears: As an Incredibly Lame Pun on her family name, Usami, Japanese fanartists sometimes draw her wearing bunny ears (usamimi).

The Three Mischievous Fairies
Three fairies who love playing pranks on others and go treasure hunting, and often get punished for their practical jokes. Each fairy possesses a different power and are able to combine their talents. Though, while they are known for their teamwork, it is often haphazard, and they are often unsuccessful at pulling off their pranks. In Eastern and Little Nature Deity and Strange and Bright Nature Deity they lived in the Forest of Magic like Alice and Marisa, but as of Oriental Sacred Place they've moved their home behind the Hakurei Shrine.


 * Badass Boast: Parodied when the fairies introduce themselves to Cirno and brag about how their powers make them unbeatable... at hide-and-seek. Cirno is, of course, genuinely impressed.
 * Big Bad Wannabe: Their ambition is to terrorise humankind and prove that fairies, like the other youkai, are not to be taken lightly. The most they manage is to mildly annoy people with their pranks.
 * Canon Immigrant: With Fairy Wars, they're the first expanded material characters to be put into a game.
 * Fisher King: By putting their home in a dead tree, they actually brought the tree back to life. This is actually pretty important, as the tree is part of the Gensokyo Border. Just As Planned by Yukari.
 * New Year's Resolution: Every new year they plot to cause a major incident that will get Reimu's attention. Then they get drunk and forget all about it the next day.
 * Power Nullifier: abilities can cancel out all three of the fairies' powers.
 * Screwy Squirrel
 * Spell My Name with an "S": "Starsaphire" was presumably just a misspelling, "Sunnymilk" isn't much of a difference, but "Lunarchild" is trickier, especially since all three fairies tend to call each other by the first part of their names.
 * Theme Naming: All three are named after heavenly bodies.
 * Winged Humanoid: All three of them have wings that do not appear to be directly attached to their bodies.

Sunny Milk

 * Prank-loving Sunlight

Self-proclaimed leader of the Three Mischievous Fairies. Sunny can manipulate light via refraction. She is at her strongest during the day when the sun is out, but is weakened if the weather is cloudy.


 * Cute Little Fangs
 * Genki Girl: the most cheerful and energetic of the three.
 * Girlish Pigtails
 * Heavy Sleeper
 * Invisibility: She uses her light-refracting powers to conceal herself and the other fairies.
 * Meaningful Name: Her powers rely on the presence of her namesake.
 * Won't Work On Me: Pulls this on Yukari of all people when the latter uses a light-based attack against her. Of course, given that Yukari has as many attacks as she can think of, this doesn't really help.
 * The Power of the Sun: She's got a number of spells in Fairy Wars that suggest using sunlight or solar fire, like Sunlight: "Sunshine Blast".

Luna Child

 * Silent Moonlight

Luna can manipulate sound, dampening it so she can sneak around. She is at her strongest when the moon is out, but is weakened if the weather is cloudy.


 * The Ditz: Perfect Memento in Strict Sense stated that she's the least smart of the three fairies.
 * Dojikko: Constantly falls on her face.
 * Meaningful Name: Her powers rely on the presence of her namesake.
 * Meganekko: Wears glasses when reading.
 * Princess Curls
 * When All You Have Is a Hammer: Akyuu writes, "When she is stealing stuff she erases sound, and that's it. She won't think of doing it any other way." Even if the sudden unnatural silence will easily give her away.

Star Sapphire

 * Pouring Starlight



The smartest member of the Three Mischievous Fairies. Star can sense any moving animate thing in a wide area, making her sort of a living radar. Unlike Sunny and Luna, she is unaffected by the time of day or the weather.


 * Karma Houdini: She's smart enough to sometimes evade the punishments Sunny and Luna suffer.
 * The Little Detecto
 * Parasol of Prettiness: Often depicted with one in fanart.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: Despite the fact that her power is supposed to always be on, Marisa manages to sneak up on the fairies multiple times.
 * Rapunzel Hair
 * The Slacker: Enjoys pulling pranks but puts no effort in it, leaving all the work to Sunny and Luna.
 * Star Power: The clue is her name.

Hieda no Akyuu

 * Memory of Gensoukyou



The ninth reincarnation of the Child of Miare, who is born with the memories of each of the previous incarnations. She is the author of the Gensokyo Chronicle, an anthology of Gensokyo's history (published in Real Life as Touhou's Universe Compendia, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense and Symposium of Post-Mysticism), which she updates each time she is reincarnated.

""If there are any opinions you'd like to present, please stop by the Hieda residence. If you come to help tidy the place up, then even youkai are most welcome.""
 * Author Appeal: Likes FM synthesis music - specifically the soundtracks of the PC-98 games, which apparently were produced in Gensokyo and distributed as vinyl records.
 * Ax Crazy: Thankfully not canon, but for reasons unknown, yukkuri fandom commonly portrays Akyuu as a sadistic murderer who tortures yukkuris for her own amusement.
 * Brutal Honesty
 * Cheerful Child
 * Deadpan Snarker: Evident in her writing style and especially her footnotes.
 * Fantastic Racism: Doesn't particularly like youkai, though she has no problem working with them professionally.


 * Footnote Fever
 * Historical Domain Character: sort of - implied to be a reincarnation of Hieda no Are, one of the authors of the Kojiki.
 * Photographic Memory
 * Reincarnation: However,
 * Unreliable Narrator: All her information comes from interviewing the other characters, who may be mistaken about events or outright lie to her. She also notes that some asked her to exaggerate their powers.
 * She continues this trend in Symposium of Post-Mysticism, even though there aren't any interviews involved (that we know of). For instance, she labels Yamame and Hina's threat levels as "High" and "Very High" respectively.
 * Akyuu's standards of research are parodied in Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, where she asks if it's true that youkai rabbits can only be killed by holy hand grenades.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Her body may be ten years old, but she has probably hundreds of years of knowledge and experience to draw upon.
 * World Half Empty: Her books, in which she classifies youkai according to "threat level" and "human friendship level", are the best sources of evidence that Gensokyo is a dangerous place for humans to live. However, this may all be part of the image that the youkai want her to depict them as.
 * A Worldwide Punomenon: Frequently makes puns in her books.

Ryuujin / The Dragon God

 * The Highest God of Illusion

The highest-order god of Gensokyo. Was last seen at the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier. It has the power to create and destroy anything.


 * Ambiguous Gender: Its gender is unknown but it seems to be often referred to as male. Given its nature it might not even have one.
 * Godzilla Threshold: Any time it appears is considered this.
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Physical God: Is the god of the Touhou universe.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Was willing to listen to the sages that created the great barrier and agreed.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: The eyes of the statue in the human village dedicated to Ryuu turn red when an incident is about to occur.
 * Time Abyss

Reisen


An apparently ordinary Moon Rabbit who's gotten herself deeply involved in the events of Silent Sinner in Blue. Reisen is just a literal pet name given her by the Watatsuki sisters, in honor of the other Reisen, their previous pet, but her original name is unknown. Commonly called "Reisen II" in Western fandom.


 * Badass in a Nice Suit: First seen on Earth wearing a dress similar to Tei's, probably as a disguise. On the moon, she wears a suit and tie similar to Reisen Udongein Inaba's.
 * Little Bit Beastly: Lunar rabbit.
 * New Meat: Recently recruited into the Lunar Defense Corps.
 * One Steve Limit: This Reisen's name is written in katakana (レイセン), while Reisen Udongein Inaba's is written in kanji (鈴仙).
 * Unwitting Pawn: She unknowingly draws the Watatsuki sisters into Yukari's Xanatos Gambit when Eirin convinces her to go back to the Moon and warn the Watatsukis that Yukari was about to invade them. Though if Eirin hadn't warned them, then they would have been caught even further off-guard..

Watatsuki no Yorihime

 * The Moon Princess Possessed by Divine Spirits



The younger of the Watatsuki sisters, lunarian princesses and leaders of the Lunar Defense Corps. Yorihime is the more serious of the two. She has the power to channel gods, shared by Reimu, but due to a better work ethic she can use it far more effectively.


 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Sharp enough to cut !
 * All of the Other Reindeer: It's vaguely implied that the other lunarians distrust her due to her power. Helping Yorihime solve this problem, by showing lunarians that other people like Reimu can also summon gods, seems to be one objective of Eirin's Xanatos Gambit.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Boring Invincible Hero Antagonist: The main criticism against her.
 * According to ZUN, this was intentional, and the reason why she's only in the manga and not in any of the games.
 * Evil Counterpart: Arguable case with Reimu, as they both have the power to channel the gods. The "evil" part is also debatable.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses
 * Hot Chick with a Sword
 * Lady of War
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: No matter what kind of attack the Gensokyo team throw at her, Yorihime is always able to summon a god from the Shinto pantheon with exactly the right kind of power to counteract it.
 * Not So Invincible After All: In Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth Chapter 26, she gets knocked out by.
 * OC Stand-In: Izunome, the goddess Yorihime summoned to defeat Reimu, is a character whose name is only mentioned once in the Kojiki, so nobody knows what kind of god she actually is. In this story, conveniently enough, she's the patron goddess of Miko.
 * Proud Scholar Race Girl
 * Sibling Yin-Yang
 * Surrounded by Idiots: The "soldiers" she is in charge of are clueless teenage-like bunnygirls who run from the first sign of danger if the Watatsuki sisters are not present.
 * Training from Hell: What she subjects Reisen and Reisen to during her visit to Eientei.
 * Tsundere: Loudly insisted to Toyohime that she couldn't go to Earth to visit Eirin because she had to stay behind to defend the Moon, but ended up going anyway out of admiration for her former teacher.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Despite her "winning", she got completely played by the parallel Xanatos Gambits performed by Yukari and Eirin in Silent Sinner in Blue.

Watatsuki no Toyohime

 * The Moon Princess Connecting Mountain and Sea



The older of the two princesses, Toyohime has a more carefree personality than her sister, though she can get serious too. She has "the power to connect sea and mountains", which allows her to move things between the true Moon, the false Moon and Earth.


 * Big Eater: When it comes to peaches, at least. In Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth she eats a whole bowl so fast that Reisen couldn't even see it!
 * Everything's Better with Princesses
 * Evil Counterpart: Arguable case with Yukari, as Toyohime can also manipulate boundaries, although her ability may be restricted in scope to the lunar capital. The "evil" part is also debatable.
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Fantastic Racism: As she explains to Yukari, lunarians believe that only the Moon is pure, and everything on Earth is tainted by sin.
 * I'm Taking Her Home with Me: Repeatedly tried to take an Earth rabbit back to the Moon with her when she visited Eientei.
 * Paper Fan of Doom: One that can "instantly purify" things at the atomic level!
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Peaches, which leads to her sometimes being paired with Tenshi.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Also got completely played by the parallel Xanatos Gambits performed by Yukari and Eirin in Silent Sinner in Blue.

Kasen Ibara / Ibaraki

 * The One-Armed, Horned Hermit



A somewhat mysterious hermit with an association with the Hakurei Shrine and some past connections to the Hell of Blazing Fires. She can extinguish evil spirits by crushing them with her right hand. Widely considered by fans to be an oni.


 * Ambiguously Human: Refers to herself as human, but she's based on the oni general Ibaraki-douji, her hairstyle covers where an oni would have horns, and she has some sort of past with Suika.
 * Artificial Limbs: When Reimu squeezes the bandages on her right arm, it's shown that there is nothing but black smoke underneath them.
 * Bandage Babe: Her right arm isn't merely covered with bandages, her right arm is, for all intents and purposes, bandages.
 * Buxom Is Better: A lot of fanartists have been drawing her this way.
 * The Beast Master: Her stated power is the manipulation of animals. This includes speaking to birds and keeping things like baby dragons and giant rocs as pets.
 * Chained by Fashion: Has a manacle on her left wrist with a small chain attached, leading to speculation that she's a secret oni.
 * Deader Than Dead: Her right arm doesn't just kill spirits, it removes them from the cycle of reincarnation entirely. Komachi is not happy about this.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Notably averted. She is the only character who's friends with Reimu who has not fought her.
 * Detachment Combat: The outer layer of her dress is apparently lined with some kind of portal through which her artificial arm can pass, reappearing somewhere nearby.
 * Flower Motifs: Strongly associated with roses, as evidenced by her clothing and the translation of her name.
 * Hermit Guru: She's classified as a hermit, which means that she's supernaturally strong, long-lived and youthful, but is also often secluded and must do things like recite proper sutras each day and perform acts of piety, or instantly lose her abilities and her immortality.
 * In practice, this involves Komachi the Shinigami repeatedly popping in to tell her what she has to do to not die.
 * My Species Doth Protest Too Much: If Kasen is an oni, then she's the Blue and Orange Morality equivalent of a Complete Monster. She dislikes the status quo of "youkai attack humans and cause fear, humans exterminate youkai" (even if it's mostly non-lethal nowadays) and believes that youkai should be able to deny their original purpose and choose their own. This may sound good, but Shikieiki's concerns about the characters' sins in Phantasmagoria of Flower View seemed to be mostly about the minor ways in which they had drifted from their purposes...
 * Pay Evil Unto Evil: Prefers to destroy vengeful spirits rather than wait for them to repent. Possibly a case of Eviler Than Thou as well.
 * Rose-Haired Girl: To go with the general rose motif. A possible case of Sure Why Not. Fanartists started drawing her with pink hair after the first chapter was released, and she wasn't confirmed to have pink hair until the second chapter was published with color pages.
 * Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: Hermits are the favorite food of youkai. Eating one can cause a youkai to ascend to a completely new level of power. And if an ordinary animal were to eat her, they'd become a youkai on the spot. Of course, that's not exactly easy to do, since she's extremely powerful due to being a Hermit.
 * The Unfought: One of the few beings who hang around the Hakurei Shrine and consider themselves friends to Reimu without getting in a fight with her first.