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Fandom/Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

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This sub-article lists unofficial content associated to characters that originally appeared in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Rumia

  • EX Rumia:

It's broadly rumored among fans that the amulet-ribbon is some kind of "seal", and that taking it off will release her true power. In some doujinshi, when the amulet-ribbon is removed Rumia develops an EX form in which she looks more mature, has wings, and/or wields a giant dark sword (usually a Stormbringer).

  • Sonanoka~:

Her catchphrase in fan works is Sōnanokā (そーなのかー) which is a pretty childish way of saying "Is that so~." Rumia first says this in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil during Reimu's scenario. This is reflective of the childish and ditzy personality she's given in most fanart.

  • Team :

In fan works, she is often seen with other lower level, childish characters like Cirno, Mystia Lorelei and Wriggle Nightbug and Daiyousei. "Team " is a term used in the Western fandom. In the Japanese community, they (Cirno, Mystia, Rumia, Wriggle) are referred as the "Bakartet" (バカルテット bakarutetto, "baka" + "quartet").

  • Rumia Day:

The 7th day of the month is known as "Rumia's day" among the fanbase, and various artists are more likely to draw many fanarts involving her. That's because in Japan, this day is also called "nanoka".

  • Man-Eater:

Because of her in-game dialogues, and her being described as a man-eater in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, she is often portrayed as a glutton that is extremely fond of meat (most notably humans and Mystia Lorelei). Rumia, Yuyuko Saigyouji, and Yoshika Miyako, are sometimes seen together and are known as the "hungry trio" in the western fanbase. (Although the rule that Youkai should not hurt and kill human villagers are stated in recent works.)

Daiyousei

  • Her Name:

Although "Daiyousei" merely refers to her enemy class as a "Great Fairy", and she has no official name, fans use Daiyousei as if its her real name.

  • Senior:

In many fan-works, she's described as Cirno's senior (usually; they aren't related by blood). In these fictions she is depicted as timid, shy and very kind, especially to Cirno, although still weaker than Cirno.

  • Leader:

She's sometimes regarded as the elder or leader of all of the fairies living around the lake.

  • Large chest:

Many fan works interpret "big fairy" or "greater fairy" as meaning having noticeably larger breasts than other fairies or just having large breasts in general.

  • Big vs. Small:

Some fanarts like to joke about how the "big fairy" is small and the "little devil" (Koakuma) is big.

  • DAi-chan:

As an abbreviation of "Daiyousei", the affectionate name for her is Dai-chan (大ちゃん).

  • DIE-yousei:

When she takes on a darker personality and/or is thought of been unusually strong, she is sometimes called DIE-yousei (DIE妖精). This has been used recently to refer to her when she showed up in Fairy Wars.

Cirno

Cirno is a quite popular character in the Touhou Project among fans. Due to becoming a meme, Cirno is one of the most popular characters of Touhou. Many fans portray her, jokingly or seriously, as a misunderstood child or even as an outright genius in disguise, or as a bumbling idiot who messes up what everyone else is doing. This is mainly due to fandom making references to her in non-related topics.

How Cirno became a . The ninth is saying "Idiot".

Due to the infamous manual screenshot, Cirno has been nicknamed "Nine-ball" or simply "". Cirno is known for her childishness (stupidity), so the term "Cirno" is often used instead of "baka" (バカ, "fool") as a joke in the Japanese Touhou community. She is also sometimes associated with Nineball (or the Seraph variation) of Armored Core fame in various ways, such as a Cirno in its red/black colors for MUGEN. It is famed because it's a difficult boss in any game it appears in.

  • Cirno Day:

The date "09-09-09" (Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 09:09:09, more specifically) has been named "Cirno Day" for obvious reasons. For some reason, numerous aspects of this day everything could be translated into or connected with nine. For example: September 9 is the 252nd day of the year and 2 + 5 + 2 = 9, you need 9 letters to type "Wednesday" or "September", and Japan's timezone is +9. Other names for this day include "The Strongest Day" and " Day".

  • Team

In fan works, she is often seen with other lower-level, childish characters such as Daiyousei, Rumia, Mystia Lorelei, and Wriggle Nightbug. In the English community, this group is often known as "Team ", and are usually led by Cirno herself. Without Daiyousei, the group is often called the "bakartet", a combination of "baka" and "quartet". However, In the Touhou Sangetsusei series, Cirno was seen playing with what presumably was Daiyousei, and at another point she was seen with this group (Excluding Daiyousei) during gatherings involving the Three Fairies of Light. (In canon, whether they know each other or just coincidentally end up within the same gathering is unknown.)

  • I'm the strongest!

Cirno's catchphrase in doujin works, "I'm the strongest!" (最強だし!), comes from her dialogue in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, in which she announces this in her scenario, while being everyone else's stage one boss. She also says it when winning against herself in Phantasmagoria of Flower View and Touhou Hisoutensoku, in which case she says "when it comes to me, I am the strongest! (あたいったら最強ね!). In English, the phrase may sometimes be purposely corrupted in spelling, e.g. "Eye am the strongest!" or "Eye am teh strangest!"

  • Letty

In other fan works, she is shown with Letty Whiterock, who is considered as a close friend, guardian, or mentor. This is partly due to the fact that she appears as a midboss in Letty's stage in Perfect Cherry Blossom, and partly because they share similar abilities – the manipulation of cold temperature and ice. Ironically, in her interview in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Letty says she doesn't want to be put on the same rank as Cirno.

  • Suwako

Because Cirno enjoys freezing frogs, she is often depicted as rivals with Suwako Moriya due to the latter's affinity with frogs.

  • Mai

Some fans have connected Cirno with PC-98 character Mai due to their similar fairy-like appearances and their manipulation of ice. One of Cirno's palettes in Touhou Hisoutensoku also resembles Mai.

  • Elemental Variants

Various fan versions of Cirno exist based on alternative elements, such as the fire-based Achi Cirno, the lightning-based Ikazu Cirno, and the water-based Mizu Cirno.

  • Adult Cirno

Technically all child-like characters tend to have a mature adult version of themselves, however apparently Cirno has one specifically called Cirno-nee.

  • Advent Cirno

A famous doujin manga parody series of Cloud Strife called Advent Cirno, whose name is a parody of the Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children media. Was popular enough it became referenced by other artists as well as having a 3d MMD model made for it.

  • The CNN Incident

Ever since it featured the shadow art video for Alstroemeria Records' Bad Apple!! together with its stop motion counterpart, the American newscasting channel Cable News Network has been nicknamed "Cirno News Network" by many Touhou fans due to one reporter's incorrect statements about the production method of the video.[1][2][3]

  • Finland

In Finland, Cirno is known as "Sirkku", a common Finnish female name, and also the Finnish name of the fairy tale character Snow White.

  • Homestuck

One of the songs from the Homestuck web-comic series, Heir Conditioning, borrows parts of Cirno's theme in its composition, and is otherwise composed in a very Touhou-esque style, with elaborate piano segments and a trumpet part reminiscent of the so-called "ZUNpet". Small traces of Utsuho Reiuji's theme may also be heard.

  • Western Hip-Hop

Western fans have associated her portrait in Phantasmagoria of Flower View with poses typical of Western hip-hop artists on album covers.

  • Terraria

She is occasionally compared to Cryogen (from The Terraria Calamity Mod) whose defensive ice shard barrier resembles her 'wings'.

Hong Meiling

Meiling is amongst one of the popular characters in the Touhou Project. She's shown typically as a Chinese character that has a tendency to be portrayed as a joke character that chronically naps way too much to the point of neglecting her job(unlike actual canon where she at least still does her job), often earning herself as knife in the head from Sakuya (if not out of breast envy) as well as additional poor treatment from the rest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

  • China

She is more widely known as "China" (中国 Chuugoku), the one whose real name is never remembered. In fanworks, she doesn't take that well which leads her being shunned or defensive of her name. Many Meiling fans don't take it that well either. It is known that in 2ch, there was a debate on how to read Meiling's name. One side said "Hong Meiling", and the other said "Kurenai Misuzu". The debate ended (sort of) when a user said "Why don't we just call her 'China', as her clothing seems to identify her the most." As a result, even after ZUN said "Hong Meiling" is the correct pronunciation in the Meiji University talkshow "Dawn of Touhou," people kept on calling Meiling "China". However, due to the emergence of other memes, this one has become less frequent – many traces of it still remain, though.

Meiling's nickname is further ingrained into the minds of fans by her clothing, and also by the name of her stage BGM, "Shanghai Scarlet Teahouse ~ Chinese Tea". Her stage theme tends to be more frequently remixed by fans than her boss theme, "Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17", to the point where "Chinese Tea" became her theme in Touhou Hisoutensoku.

However, other sources and media may or may not read Chinese names in the on'yomi format; in Meiling's case, her name would've been read as Kou Birei/Mirin.

  • Being Lazy

She is commonly referred to as the "lazy guardian" of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, though whether this stems from her actual personality or from the nickname "China" is unknown. Many Japanese people complain about the reliability and quality of products manufactured in China. There are many fanfics that depict an enraged Sakuya behind a sleeping Meiling in front of the gates to the Mansion. The implication is that she has the "Chinese" quality of Reliable China (信頼の中国 Shinrai no Chuugoku), with much intended sarcasm.

  • Sakuya relationship

Her relationship with Sakuya seems to be a popular topic for fan work, including comics, music and games. One running gag involves her being stabbed by Sakuya's knives, often in the head. A reference to this was made in Wild and Horned Hermit, but only with Sakuya holding knifes with the look that she wants to stab her. This is however usually due to her inability to keep unwanted visitors, mostly Marisa Kirisame, out of the mansion. In canon, Meiling doesn't appear to be chastised for failing to keep Marisa out (canonically, she is known to be rather versatile at her job and the witch is the only known person whom she can't stop from intruding, though Marisa tends to come in via a friendly visit).

It is also common for fan works to depict Meiling caring for Sakuya when the latter was a child. This scenario is somewhat plausible due to Meiling being a youkai and Sakuya being human, making it likely that Meiling is several decades older than Sakuya. Additionally, they both have the distinction of being the only characters in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to have braided sideburns with ribbons. This fact supports that setting. Another common depiction is them as co-workers with feelings for each other, in romantic fan works.

  • Flandre relationship

In fanworks, Meiling seems to be some sort of big sister or playmate to Flandre (rather than Remilia). In comedy works, it can be to throw Meiling in the way of more danger. In serious ones, her laid back approach to her job and uncontrollably friendly nature as well as her seeming toughness make her a natural choice for reaching out to an otherwise isolated Flandre. Many fan works depict the two going out of their way to help each other on numerous occasions. She is also seen as a big sister figure for other younger characters such as Cirno.

  • Species

Her race remains unconfirmed, but she's commonly associated with dragons due to her many shared motifs with them, such as her use of rainbows, hat, and name, and possible inspiration by the Chinese Hong. This trope most prevalent in fan depictions of her theoretical EX mode in which she often adopts dragon characteristics. Though some use the term "Ex-Meiling" to refer to Meiling getting serious, often showing considerable amounts of power/durability and hiding it for various reasons.

  • As a Panda

Seki/Red Shine has started a trend of Meiling assuming the form for a fluffy panda, which is shown to be very friendly to most people. This form is not helpless as it has been seen jumping out of a pitfall of Tewi's to considerable heights. A few other artists have copied the trend.

  • Sakuya-san Flash meme

A popular Flash animation called "My Name is Hong Meiling" spawned the meme "Sakuya-san, Sakuya-san, cleaning stop! Room cleaning stop!" (after which she gets stabbed in the forehead with a knife).

  • MUGEN

In the MUGEN community, Meiling is known for her "Chuugoku Satsu" attack, an obvious parody of both her nickname "Chuugoku" (China), and the signature attack "Shun Goku Satsu" (Instant Hell Murder) of Akuma from Street Fighter.

  • Drug use

Due to her comedic scenario in Touhou Hisoutensoku and the nature of one of her battles (with a rather simplified background image), fans have made numerous jokes regarding drug experimentation on Meiling's part. Though its more of a very niche depiction.

  • War-Cry

In some fan works, Meiling is known to say "JAOOOO" (じゃおおおお), a war-cry attributed to her. This cry originated from the 2nd Touhou M-1 Grand Prix (Comiket 73).

  • As a Powerful Character

Despite her sometimes joke status in fanon, Meiling is often considered a difficult boss fight in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil on Lunatic if not Hard as well. Because of this she is sometimes depicted as super strong, in a manner of Goku from Dragonball due to her ability to use Ki.

  • Comparison to Martial Artists

Meiling is sometimes compared to famous martial artists in pop culture such as Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Goku from Dragonball, Bruce Lee, and others.

Koakuma

  • Role as a Familiar

In many fan-fictions, she's regarded as a familiar of Patchouli. This may not be too far from the truth given implications by ZUN, though not wholly confirmed. In those fictions, she works as a librarian and a personal servant of Patchouli. Some of those fictions also portray Koakuma as originating from Makai.

  • Fandom Personality

In many fictions, she's described to be very obedient, steady and good-natured, on the contrary to ZUN's official profile. This personality is acknowledged before ZUN replied to the question, and it's one of exceptional example of a fan-made profile which is accepted by a large majority (but not all fans). After ZUN's reply, some people described more impish and mischievous Koakuma in their fan-fictions. Today, various Koakumas exist in fan-fictions: Obedient and steady, impish and mischievous, or a combination of both.

  • Fan Designs

Koakuma is sometimes drawn by fans having a pair of black, bat-like wings on her back to match the ones on the sides of her head.

  • Koakuma as a species

Fans commonly portray Patchouli as having multiple "Koakumas" assisting her, just as the Scarlet Devil Mansion has numerous Fairy Maids. A common one is the differences between her Strange and Bright Nature Deity and her Embodiment of Scarlet Devil where she's shown to be two completely different people, one with short hair and other with long. Super Marisa World makes a good example of this. Koakuma is literally "Little Devil" as its a name for a enemy class so it would make sense.

  • Succubus

Some fanart either imply she's a sort of succubus or just give her a sexy figure due to the "devil" part and headwings.


Despite only making an appearance in one game, she's still seen in most fan arts along with the rest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Residents.

Patchouli Knowledge

  • Mukyu

After being defeated in Marisa's scenario in Immaterial and Missing Power, she utters "mukyu~". Since, this has been depicted as something of a catchphrase. It is variously interpreted as groan of displeasure, a simpering whine, or an exclamation of surprise.

    • Based on a numerical pun (6→mu, 9→kyuu), she is often associated with the date June 9th.
  • Nicknames

Along with "One-week Girl", she's also referred to as the "One-week Magician" or the "Magician of the Week" due to her elemental magics coinciding with the days of the week on a Japanese calendar. Multiple nicknames are used for Patchouli, not limited to her canon nickname "Pache" (パチェ). Non-canon nicknames used include "Pachu" (パチュ), a less common name shortened from "Pachurii" (パチュリー). In English translations, "Patchy" is often used as an unofficial Anglicization of "Pache".

  • Possible Inspirations

Patchouli has been rumored to be the inspiration for the character Yue Ayase from the manga Mahou Sensei Negima!. Like Patchouli, Yue is a short, quiet girl with long purple hair, an unexcitable personality, an affinity for books and magic. She's also known to dress in a witch outfit similar to Marisa's.

  • Shut-In

In other fan comics, Patchouli is considered a hikikomori due to her apparent habit of spending all her time in one room (the library) and rarely ever stepping outside. She would only have to keep this up for 6 months to meet the time span given in the definition, and she's been living like that for the past 100 years.

  • Body-Type

In fanart, she is given a notoriously "variable figure", from thin as a twig to voluptuously curvy to rather chubby, possibly because her loose-fitting robes could be hiding almost any body type. Her poor health and sedentary lifestyle are also likely influences.

  • Fan-made Products

The book held by the Patchouli figurine Kourindou ver. by Griffon Enterprises features a heptagram with corresponding days of the week and their elements, as well as the introductory text of this article.[4][5]

Sakuya Izayoi

Sakuya is one of the most popular characters in the Touhou Project. She sometimes appears to be an icon for the Touhou Project and has appeared in many fangames, mostly as a playable character or a boss, and in other fan-made anime and artwork. She is also a target for various memes and jokes.

  • Fandom Personality

Sakuya's personality and characteristics are a bit different in the fanbase, such as sometimes been seen with nosebleeds in the presence of Remilia Scarlet or Flandre Scarlet.

  • Inu-Sakuya

In some fan-produced works, Sakuya is depicted with puppy ears and a tail. This is commonly called "Dog Sakuya" (犬咲夜 inusakuya) or いぬさくや, which is probably a reflection of various characters referring to her as Remilia's dog. Various characters have treated Sakuya as a dog.

  • PADS

There's a recurring joke with fans that Sakuya pads her chest to make her breasts look bigger than they are and goes to great lengths on hiding this secret, even from Remilia herself. The origin of this was due to Sakuya's portraits in Immaterial and Missing Power, which showed her with larger breasts than those seen on ZUN-made portraits. Thus, PAD-chou (PAD長) has become a popular phrase that is frequently seen with Meido-chou (メイド長), but fans tend to be careful when they use it as there is another common joke where Sakuya stabs anyone who says this phrase (or even simply saying "PAD"), which is coincidentally similar to the infamous Candlejack meme. There are many people hating that phrase. Some art also has Sakuya as curvy and without the severe complex.

  • Being angry at Meiling

Additionally, a common fanon scenario is Marisa Kirisame baring in sparks a blazing with Hong Meiling being asleep (or failing to stop her) and Sakuya trying to stop her (to no avail), ending with Sakuya stabbing Meiling in the head. This plays out still today despite canon debunking the whole scenario entirely.

  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Sakuya may be a homage to Dio Brando, the main villain of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a vampire who is known for stopping time and being skilled at throwing knives. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has been referenced several times in the official games. Related to the theory that Sakuya may have committed devilish homicide before, one of Dio's former subordinates was Jack the Ripper.

One artist, Yumiya, shows a dysfunctional relationship between them, with Sakuya being his daughter. Another fanwork depicts a story of Sakuya becoming a Vampire hunter to find her Father, DIO, and ends up meeting Remilia.

Sakuya, Youmu and Remilia via their Koumajou Densetsu II fan game portrayals also share voice actresses with three other JoJo characters (being Jolyne Cujoh, Reimi Sugimoto and Yasuho Hirose respectively) in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle.

She also sometimes depicted as even having her own Stand, possibly also because of her spell card "Illusion World - The World", which seems like a similar naming scheme to Jotaro Kujo's "Star Platinum - The World", implying her stand would just be called "Illusion World".

  • Relation shipping

Some fanworks compare her to Youmu Konpaku due to several similarities, as not only for their white hair, they both have red eyes shifting to blue in later artworks, both having bladed weapons, and being Stage 5 bosses, as well as undying loyalty to their masters and play homage to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, as well as sharing an interesting dialogue towards Hong Meiling when they defeat her in Touhou Hisoutensoku. Also, Sakuya's alternate palette may be considered to be gold instead of yellow, which coincidentally corresponds well with Youmu's silver palette; thus the two can also be seen in a "gold&silver" manner.

  • Playable character

Since the announcement of Undefined Fantastic Object and of Sanae Kochiya as the only new playable character (along with Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame), jokes and fanart of Sakuya shows her being venomously jealous of Sanae's newfound popularity and prominence commenced due to not being a playable character. She's also compared to Mima dues to this fact. With Ten Desires and Youmu Konpaku being the heroine there, jokes range from Sakuya in despair to some depictions of her proud of Youmu (Thanks to the Onee-sama trait Sakuya has with Youmu in fandom). Beforehand, a small amount of fanworks have portrayed Sakuya, Youmu, Reisen Udongein Inaba and Mima to be all jealous of Sanae.

With Sakuya's return as the sole playable character with Reimu and Marisa in Double Dealing Character, it's become increasingly common to paint her as another girlfriend of ZUN, like it was done with Aya and Sanae before. She may also be drawn knifing both Sanae and Youmu in the head. This ignores the fact that the characters are pretty indifferent to incidents that do not affect their Masters and/or homes.

  • Konohana-Sakuyahime Theories

ZUN has said that the contents of Touhou Bougetsushou contained a hint as for the reason why Eirin Yagokoro was surprised at seeing Sakuya. In Cage in Lunatic Runagate, there appeared another character with the same first name, Konohana-Sakuyahime. If Eirin is indeed Yagokoro Omoikane no Kami, she would know Konohana-Sakuyahime since the latter is the wife of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, Omoikane's nephew. Thus, the fact that Sakuya shares the same name as her nephew's wife might be a reason why Eirin was surprised, although nothing is ever explained. Since the two share the same first name though, there's a possibility that Sakuya is based off of Konohana-Sakuyahime or at least in some other way related. In the Kojiki, Konohana-Sakuyahime was written as "木花之佐久夜", where the "夜" corresponds to the "ya", therefore making every part of the name "Sakuya" with a basis in Konohana-Sakuyahime. Furthermore, there were tales related to Konohana-Sakuyahime where she can be seen to be controlling time like Sakuya, like the tale of the one-night pregnancy and the delivery in the middle of fire.

However nothing is proven, and ZUN has said that Eirin only knows why she was surprised.

  • Fate Theory

There's a theory that the reason why Sakuya works for Remilia Scarlet is because Remilia manipulated fate on Sakuya. Even Hieda no Akyuu believes this theory. However, another possibility is that maybe she is acting as a treacherous insider, for when she sees an opening.

  • Vampire Hunter Theory

Due to said theories on the Mystery and Theory section, some fan artists do showcase Sakuya to be both indeed a Lunarian and/or a vampire hunter.

  • Nicknames

As the head maid, "maid-boss" (メイド長 maid-chou) is the common title used to address her among fans. Another common nickname is Sakkyun (さっきゅん). Some western fans may give her the title "time-stopping, knife-throwing ninja maid" or "knife-throwing ninja" due to her abilities.

Remilia Scarlet

  • Charisma Break

The best known meme associated with Remilia is "Charisma Break", or her noble composure breaking revealing her childish side. It's not clear what exactly inspired it but a leading factor is her crouching block pose in the fighting games. Various artists take different routes with this meme, with some having others enjoy seeing it happen while others have it happen at the drop of a hat.

There are some artists who subvert this by having Remilia's composure remain intact no matter what happens. This has some basis in canon as Remilia is fond of acting like a vampire while having some childish tendencies (such as her crouching block).

  • Manipulation of Fate

Some fan works have postulated that Remilia uses her power to manipulate fate unconsciously. Otherwise, it would be far too great a power. For instance, if she was able to control a person's fate actively, she could have made it Reimu Hakurei's fate to lose to her. (Although the spell card Rules prevent this) However, ZUN has hinted otherwise in Sakuya's Perfect Memento in Strict Sense article, where Hieda no Akyuu has speculated that Remilia may have manipulated Sakuya's fate in such a way that she could have a more friendly relationship with other human beings. Should that prove to be true, it would mean that Remilia can indeed intentionally, or at least consciously, manipulate fate.

Some fans think her ability enables the desired effect, but not how it happens or how long it takes for it to happen. This would make it an ability poorly suited for fast wins but make it very useful for long term schemes, something vampires are said to be fond of.

  • Against a vampire's weakness

While its common to have a parasol with Remilia (and Flandre) in fanworks, many works have Remilia to not be weak against her weaknesses, such as garlic, sunlight and water, even though these are hazardous to Remilia. she can be seen swimming in water, not bothered about garlic, or even walking in broad daylight. These kind of fanworks make people come to conclusions that she is actually a vampire "daywalker", or has recently become one. This would be due to not enough research was put to what weaknesses Remilia has, but some fans conclude that going outside in sunlight parasol-less is canon because of her custom parasol system card in Touhou Hisoutensoku allowing to fight outdoors, but without a parasol. This would explain why she can walk outside.

  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Remilia seems to have been given her own associated character from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, much like a number of others. Frequently being crossed over with Diavolo whose stand, King Crimson, erases time for everyone but himself and allows him to see the future, effectively allowing him to alter his immediate fate to suit himself. She also compared to DIO as she is a vampire, throws knifes, even quotes DIO, and controls Sakuya who can stop time.

  • Role as a Villian

She is a popular antagonist in some fanworks due to her fondness of being the big bad vampire and her short temper, often with some exaggeration mixed in.

  • Tsundere
  • She is sometimes shown as a tsundere in some fanart due to her noblewoman tendencies.
  • Nicknames

As the older sister, she is commonly called ojou-sama (お嬢様) by fans, and is what is primarily used to refer to her. Whenever Flandre Scarlet refers to her sister, though, she is called onee-sama (お姉様). Another common nickname is Remirya (れみりゃ) though it's mainly used for cutesy renditions of her. There is a common joke that Sakuya Izayoi calls her ozeu-sama (おぜうさま) instead, which has made it a very common nickname for her. Some western fans will shorten Remilia's name to "Remi" or "Remmy".

  • Uuuu!~☆

A common meme regarding Remilia is "Remilia! Uu-☆" (れみりあ!うー☆ Remiria! Ū ☆), which people think is cute.

  • Naming Scheme

Some fans (and at least one fancomic) have made fun of her bizarre naming sense (seen in her fighting game spell cards).

  • Characteristics

While Remilia doesn't actually own the mythical Gungnir, she is often depicted wielding an actual spear, as to match Flandre's Lævateinn. Depending on the artist, its appearance varies from a simple arrow-shaped rod of red energy like in the spell card to a fine and very elegant spear.

Flandre Scarlet

Flandre has not made many appearances in the series, but maybe because of her personality and the way she looks and acts, she's become a very popular character. One reason would be because of her theme music ("U.N.Owen was her?"). It is particularly famous, and is often used in MAD videos, and for a time introduced many as "newcomers hoihoi" on Nico Nico to Touhou. Furthermore, the arrangement "最終鬼畜妹フランドール・S" ("Final Savage Sister, Flandre S.") [6] in the album Touhou Strike by COOL&CREATE seems to have been mistaken by many to have been the original music.

  • Big sister China

In fanworks, Hong Meiling seems to be some sort of big sister or playmate to Flandre (rather than Remilia Scarlet). In comedy works, it can be to throw Meiling in the way of more danger. In serious ones, her laid back approach to her job and uncontrollably friendly nature make her a natural choice for reaching out to an otherwise isolated Flandre. Many fan works depict the two going out of their way to help each other on numerous occasions.

  • Ex boss inspiration

There's speculation that most of the Extra Stage bosses in the windows era up to Undefined Fantastic Object was based, in some way, on Flandre. There are also depictions in fanart with Flandre and some of the other Extra Stage bosses with her. Here are the following reasons: Koishi Komeiji is one of the most popular ones. This stems from the fact that they both possess greater powers than those of their sisters Satori Komeiji and Remilia Scarlet. Also, Flandre and Koishi are the younger sister to their sister, who both own a mansion. Depictions with Nue Houjuu is also common. This stems from the fact that Nue's theme ("Heian Alien") sounds similar to Flandre's theme to some. Depictions with Fujiwara no Mokou has dropped with popularity due to the two above, but are still common. The name Mokou means "Scarlet (younger) Sister" and according to ZUN, it can also mean "Paint me red", but it has no connection to Flandre. Another reason for the pairing is that Mokou is immortal and has little to fear from Flandre's destructive strength.

  • Koishi Komeiji

A popular pairing is Koishi, as they both are younger sisters, both live in a Mansion, but Koishi is free spirited, while Flandre remains in her room. Some fans think Koishi's ability would make it easier for her and Flandre to communicate. This is possibly because Koishi could also just visit undetected, and is stated to talk to children who see her as an imaginary friend. Flandre, Koishi, and Nue are often paired together.

  • Nue Houjuu

Nue is often paired with Flandre due to their unnatural wing designs. She also can become a glowing orb, similar to one of Flandres spell cards. Flandre, Koishi, and Nue are often paired together, possibly because they all look like young girls.

  • Ronald McDonald

Flandre has been commonly shown with Ronald McDonald in a cross-over due to her theme being remixed[7], which the so-called McRoll and has been the first contact with Touhou for thousands of western Internet users. People referring to "U.N.Owen was her?" as the McRoll/Ran Ran Du song is a sore point among many long time Touhou fans in the early days. In addition to this, videos with her vs Ronald are common, more towards the western fanbase, based on the customisable-fighting game M.U.G.E.N. Ronald McDonald MADs is often cited as one of the foundational meme pillars of the Nico Douga community, which would explain how Flandre's popularity was also boosted, if not also becoming tied to Ronald.

  • Lack of appearance

Even when compared with a lot of characters in the fanbase, Flandre's appearances in fanworks are limited, likely due to be her limits on movement as her only appearances is within or around the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The number of appearances in-game and within print works is average compared with many other characters. Although when grouped with other characters from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Excluding mid-bosses), her appearances do appear to be limited. Another factor would be her high, hardly restrained power as having her playable in any accurate sense would make her overpowered. Though in fangames, most go about giving her a glass cannon build (giving her low defenses) or other flaws to offset her massive attack/power ratings. Also, she may be shown as a one-off boss, simply having a cameo or have a small reference.

Strangely, some fans have come up with the idea that Flandre has become a "PC-98 character" who has disappeared from the Touhou Project (like Mima and Shinki), due to Flandre not making many appearances and because Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was released not far from Mystic Square.

It wasn't until Touhou 17.5 that Flandre would appear again as a playable character.

  • Flandres wings

It has been speculated that her wings are artificial and that she fashioned them herself and then attached them to her body. One source of this is probably due to Reimu Hakurei saying she was unable to fly with those wings and their unusual unnatural appearance. According to fanon, she may have lost her original wings or been born without them. Some artists go about giving her bat form those wings despite her bat form having normal wings in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Some fans speculate that her wings are made of steel and prisms, creating different colors using the dim lights of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In some fanworks, the crystals on her wings are sometimes shown to be storage for Magical Power.

Another thing often done by artists is depicting Flandre's wings in either the most spectacular way possible or replacing the crystals with other multi colored objects. Examples could be, lasers, iPods, apples, or having massive multi-colored angel wings. One of the largest image hosting sites, Danbooru, has a caterogy dedicated to this called "Fancy winged Flandre".

  • Flandres Lævateinn

Her sword varies in appearances, as well as the clock hand shaped object she holds. Normally its just depicted as her clock hand shaped wand turning into a flaming sword, or she just has a flaming sword.

Another depiction is Lævateinn being her tail, with the clock hand being tipped almost like a succubus tail.

  • Marx

Her wings have caused some artists to her be along side Marx (from Kirby Super Star), who has similar wings in his boss form.

  • Laugh

A common meme regarding Flandre is "flan-chan ufufu" (フランちゃんうふふ) since many people attribute the slightly sinister laugh "ufufu" to Flandre, as well as the fact that her name is commonly affectionately abbreviated "Flan-chan" (フランちゃん). Also, some fans will simply shorten Flandre's name to "Flan" (フラン).

  • Artist or Skillful

For unknown reasons in fanworks, Flandre is shown to be a very good professional artist. This would be due to being locked away an have got nothing better to do. There was one occurrence where Flandre drew a map of the world (through bed-wetting) while Cirno drew a rubbish-version of Reimu Hakurei. There have been other variations were Flandre is surprising knowledgeable or skillful at something for the same reason.

  • Fandom Personality

In many fanworks, Flandre is shown with one or two different personalities, or possibly a bipolar one. One is a personality based on her appearance, been very childish, and the other is a super sadistic and violent mass-murder-like personality, based on her possibly accumulated hate of the years trapped in the mansion. However, this is mostly because Flandre destroys things (humans or youkai) without knowing the meaning of it and because she never learned how to attack things properly. In more recent fanworks, some have tried giving Flandre a more complex personality that may mix some of those two types along with other aspects or complexes. This may be due to them being more aware of her Bohemian of Archive Red article where she's shown to be neither of the above two.

  • Nicknames
  • Maybe because of the uniqueness of the phrase "Imouto-sama", many fans use this to refer to her. But in canon, it has been only used once by Patchouli in Marisa's Extra story in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Flandre has become a favourite for people to cross over with the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure character Kira Yoshikage, or to be more exact with his stand, Killer Queen. It's power being to turn anything it touches into a bomb or create invulnerable heat seaker bombs. The destruction level and similarity of this stand has drawn people to put the two together.

Rin Satsuki

Keep in mind Rin Satsuki is a scrapped character with the only info being her name. Despite not being a real character, Rin Satsuki has the unique phenomenon of having her image being crafted organically by the fan base overtime, to the point where the fanbase has a solid idea of what she should look like.

  • Common Fan Depiction

Fans have different interpretations of her appearance. The most commonly accepted one is the circle cut of the Team Shanghai allice Poster girl. Although the poster was black and white, the most common colors is her with blonde hair, a pink blouse with a red underdress ribbon, as well as having socks that're a light pink in color. This is an example.

  • Fandom Personality

Most fans had Rin fit with a negative personality and always being a nobody and/or an unknown person when she's around other characters. The reason for this is she had no appearance in any games, only leaving a trace of her name along with the spell cards she would be using in the source code of The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, making her think she doesn't even seem to appear for any reasons.

She's also depicted as having jealous feelings towards Reimu and Marisa, thinking the above reasons are why ZUN choose her to be the one left out instead of one of them.

In other works, she is seen alongside Reimu and Marisa as their friend.

Some fans depict Rin as an mentally unstable person, frequently depressed and crying.

References

  1. CNN. "CNN on Bad Apple!!". CNN.
  2. Alstroemeria Records (2009-10-27). "東方】Bad Apple!! PV【影絵】". あにら.
  3. >"コマ撮り実験アニメ「6566/6566」【Bad Apple!! PV【影絵】アレンジ】". shige-ruuu. 2010-10-28.
  4. Picture of Patchouli's book
  5. Patchouli Knowledge 6 January 2012: "Patchouli Knowledge is a very smart, asthmatic magician from the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Although she has only been a boss in one game, and playable character in three others, she is still a very popular character, showing up in many endings and is referenced quite often..."
  6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T2ODUQ9vaM
  7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16KpquGsIc