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Rika

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Revision as of 15:05, 17 July 2014 by Tony64 (talk | contribs) (→‎Fandom)
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里香 (りか)
ɾikä
Rika
RikaEX Rika
Engineer
More Character Titles
Species

Human

Occupation

Engineer

Location

Just outside the Hakurei Shrine, ???

Music Themes
Appearances
Official Games

Rika (里香) is a tank engineer that appears on Stage 1 and the Extra Stage of Story of Eastern Wonderland, where she creates a large number of monsters and starts hanging around the Hakurei Shrine while Reimu Hakurei is away. The reason for and method of creating all of these monsters and bakebake isn't clear at all.

General Information

Rika is known to have create machines that she herself created, including a few cannons, the Shrine Tank, the Flower-Tank and the flying tank Evil Eye Σ. Since Rika is an engineer, she ought to have excelled in mathematics, science and even engineering in order to create her tanks. However, on how she's able to do all this herself using Gensokyo's technology is unknown. In her speech patterns, she's shown to use the auxiliary "It's assuredly that—" (~なのです ~nanodesu).

Character Basis

Name

Her name is Rika (里香). The kanji in her name can mean "village incense". With different kanji, "Rika" can also refer to "science" in Japanese. There's a possiblity that her name may've also been based on Rika Kayama, who is a psychiatrist.

Design

In Story of Eastern Wonderland's official art, Rika has brown eyes, long brown hair in two braids, wears a white shirt with a purple bow beneath its collar and she holds a piece of chalk in her left hand. Her vague sprite shows that she has black hair, wears a grey shirt, a red cape, and what appears to be black trousers of some sort. In the Extra Stage, she has purple (brown?) eyes, long purple (brown?) hair in two braids, white horns and wears a strange red hat. She also wears a purple shirt with a red ribbon in front.

Rika's Appearance

Vague sprite of Rika on Stage 1
Story of Eastern Wonderland

During Stage 1 of Story of Eastern Wonderland, Reimu Hakurei and Genji encounters Rika as a "suspicious character", who stated that everything on the stage was created by her, which includes the bakebake, a few cannons and the Shrine Tank. She then attacks Reimu with the Flower-Tank that she's created with no apparent reason, but is defeated quickly. Sobbing, she wanted Reimu to follow her into a trap, which Reimu refuses and heads on to another direction.

Later during the Extra Stage, Reimu once again encounters Rika, who reveals her name and that this is the "trap" she wanted Reimu to come to: to fight her flying tank Evil Eye Σ. They talk about that Reimu followed Rika during Stage 1, then Reimu's battle with the Evil Eye Σ would've been Stage 2, which is breaking the fourth wall. After a long harsh battle, Rika is defeated and the Evil Eye Σ lets out a huge explosion for the player to dodge. This made Reimu wonder if she's truly the strongest, but Genji insisted it's thanks to the Yin-Yang Orbs.

Additional Information

  • Rika was the first boss ever in a Touhou Project shooting game with the Flower-Tank, as well as the first Extra Stage boss with the Evil Eye Σ. With this, she is also the first character ever to be a stage boss and an Extra boss in the same game, with only Alice Margatroid being the second to do this.
  • Rika said in Story of Eastern Wonderland that she created the Bakebake on the first stage of Story of Eastern Wonderland, but it's unknown if the bakebake in other games (as well as the entire of Story of Eastern Wonderland) were also created by her.
  • Rika is the only character in the series to pilot a vehicle during a boss fight - tanks that she herself constructed. This also shows that she's the only character in the whole series to not fight in flesh without any abilities or magic whatsoever. This could therefore make her the weakest character in the gaming series, yet tough.

Fandom

  • Although her sprite appears vaguely in Stage 1, fans who draw her commonly depict her wearing brown pants.
  • Rika looks similar and has a similar name to Rikako Asakura. These two are compared and speculated be the same character, being related or just being friends.
  • It's also common to depict Rika being friends with Nitori Kawashiro, both being engineers and that they both construct tanks.
  • Some fans associate Rika with Rika Furude, as they share the pronunciation of their name as well as their mannerisms of speech.
  • It is considered by many for Rika and the Evil Eye Σ to be the most difficult Extra boss in the Touhou Project.

Official Profiles

Official Sources

Official sources