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====Did Sakuya perform a Jack-the-Ripper-like act?====
====Did Sakuya perform a Jack-the-Ripper-like act?====
As is well known, Sakuya's spell cards names are all mostly things like Illusion Sign "Killer Doll" etc. that are dangerous and disturbing without limit. Moreover, in the preparing of tea and cake for [[Flandre Scarlet]] humans are normally eaten, and since Sakuya does most of the Sakuya does most of the cooking for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, one can perceive this as Remilia having employed a Sakuya who has become accustomed to murdering people. There do seem to be things that are surely related to a character modeled off of Jack the Ripper.  
As is well known, Sakuya's spell cards names are all mostly things like Illusion Sign "Killer Doll" etc. that are dangerous and disturbing without limit. Moreover, in the preparing of tea and cake for [[Flandre Scarlet]] humans are normally eaten, and since Sakuya does most of the cooking for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, one can perceive this as Remilia having employed a Sakuya who has become accustomed to murdering people. There do seem to be things that are surely related to a character modeled off of Jack the Ripper.  
*Her cut-in image in the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, has a knife holster (not the throwing kind, but likely the dagger kind) attached above her left knee. This is probably a depiction from which one could guess that Sakuya is left-handed. The woulds from Jack the Ripper's victims are from the left hand. On a related note, there have been absolutely no public statement about Sakuya's handedness so far.
*Her cut-in image in the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, has a knife holster (not the throwing kind, but likely the dagger kind) attached above her left knee. This is probably a depiction from which one could guess that Sakuya is left-handed. The wounds from Jack the Ripper's victims are from the left hand. On a related note, there have been absolutely no public statement about Sakuya's handedness so far.
*Although comparatively ridiculous, there does exist an explanation for why the unidentified Jack the Ripper might be female.
*Although comparatively ridiculous, there does exist an explanation for why the unidentified Jack the Ripper might be female.
*Although there are many references to ''JoJo's Bizzard Adventure'' in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, there was an episode where the vampire DIO who represented JoJo followed Jack the Ripper as a subordinate.
*Although there are many references to ''JoJo's Bizzard Adventure'' in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, there was an episode where the vampire DIO who represented JoJo followed Jack the Ripper as a subordinate.

Revision as of 08:46, 24 December 2011

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十六夜 (いざよい)  咲夜 (さくや)
(♫)
Sakuya Izayoi
Sakuya Izayoi
Sakuya Izayoi in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody
紅魔館のメイド
More Character Titles
Species

Human(?)

Abilities

Ability to the degree of manipulating time

Occupation

Maid, Manipulator of Time

Location

Scarlet Devil Mansion

Music Themes
Appearances
Official Games
Print Works
Miscellaneous Works

Sakuya Izayoi (十六夜 咲夜 Izayoi Sakuya) is known as the Chief Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and a perfectly elegant servant. She is a human possessing the ability to manipulate time. As the chief maid, she lives in the Scarlet Devil Mansion working for the head of the mansion Remilia Scarlet and is the only known human in the mansion. She is known to place knives in midair and resume time to allow these knives to fly towards her targets. Stopping time is also a handy way of doing large amounts of maid work in a short time. Because nearly everyone living or working at the mansion are maids, being the chief of them all means there are few people there with more authority within the mansion than Sakuya.

Concept

From the dictionary, elegance means "refined, graceful". Refined means "cultured in manners and taste, as well as appearance". Graceful means "sensible, sophisticated, neat, and without filth". She is seen as perfectly elegant, but possesses a little deviation that she is extra cautious about: inability to eat hot foods.

Her signature moves is the throwing of knives and conjuration of them. She also possesses good martial arts abilities. Her throwing range is 20 ken (about 36m or 39.8 yards) and has the accuracy such that she is able to strike an apple on the forehead of a fairy. A portion of her throwing-knife ability is within her cooking ability and therefore is very skilled at cooking as well. She also is able to conjure knives in battle as well.

Name

Her full name is Sakuya Izayoi (十六夜 咲夜). The characters for Izayoi (十六夜) literally means "Sixteenth night" (the night just after that of the full moon), and Sakuya (咲夜) literally means "Flowering night". According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense and ZUN's E-mails, Sakuya Izayoi is apparently not her real name, but is only a name given to her by Remilia Scarlet. Her real name is unknown.

The Japanese word for "last night" (昨夜) can also read as Sakuya, which would point towards the night of the full moon. The word for "night of the new moon" (朔夜) can also read as Sakuya, which is possibly related to the the ability to manipulate time. The word Izayoi comes from "Izayou", which means "to hesitate, not to proceed forward at all", which might have a deep connection to her ability as well.

Appearance

Sakuya was first seem in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. In this game, she was seen with bright red eyes, silver hair that has a long braids on both sides of her face with green bows at the ends and a white maid headband. She wears a pink/white and dark blue French maid's outfit with an apron, short sleeves and a green ribbon. She is also seen with carrying three knives and the phrase "Red Magic" appears to be embroidered on her left sleeve.

Later in Perfect Cherry Blossom, when choosing a player, Sakuya appears to have grey eyes, blue colored long sleeves and a red scarf. She also has red shoes and two knives, one blue and one red. However, her appearance in-game shows her having blue eyes. She's wearing such clothing because it was winter in may during the game.

Her appearances in Immaterial and Missing Power, Imperishable Night and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody are very similar. Sakuya is seen with grey eyes and once again wearing short sleeves. She appears to the have a thin black ribbon on the maids outfit. However in Imperishable Night she holds a knife and an old stopwatch, where as in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she has three knives and a plate with cups and a teapot on it.

In Phantasmagoria of Flower View, she has dark blue eyes, long sleeves, The Roman numerals for I (1) through XII (12) line the bottom of her apron.

Sakuya is between 10 and 20 years old, she is taller than Reimu and Alice but about the same height as Yukari or Meiling. Also, many things about her suggest she may be much older and possibly even hundreds of years old.

Alternative Outfits

Her alternative outfit in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody is mainly light blue with a white apron and her hair is light green. In Phantasmagoria of Flower View, her outfit is mainly dark red instead of dark blue.

Occupation

Sakuya both lives and works at the Scarlet Devil Mansion as the head maid, who oversees all the fairy maids, and she's the only "human" there. The other maids have many perks to their jobs and rarely choose to leave (even though they are not paid or given vacations); however, they are nearly useless and most of the work is done by Sakuya alone, which would be impossible if she didn't stop or slow time. She shops at the Human Village, but she is cold toward other humans and has no friends there. However, ever since Remilia Scarlet was beaten by the heroine of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Sakuya has begun opening herself up more.

Abilities

Ability to the degree of manipulating time

This power is as literally stated. The contents of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense say something like what shall be paraphrased as follows, that "she can speed up time, slow down time, and stop time as well. However, in reality, she cannot reverse time. Also, since since manipulation of space is the same as manipulation of time, she is also able to narrow or lengthen space. She made the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which was originally spacious, even more abundantly spacious, and furthermore just like this she cleans alone. Because of this, she says, 'if I could not stop time I would not be able to do this'. But in reality, she is stopping it". As for manipulation of space, ZUN also said that "Manipulation of Time" is synonymous to "Manipulation of Space" (as it is well-known space and time are related as a 4-dimensional Lorentzian space within a pseudo-Riemannian manifold).

In Silent Sinner in Blue, she stopped time to evade Watatsuki no Yorihime's attacks, but since the point came up that there was no opening for her body to pass through the danmaku, even though she stopped time, she was defeated. Of course, one would think that danmaku without openings is fundamentally unfair (although there have been no official statements saying it is against the rules).

In the games, using this ability, she scatters what one could say is an infinite quantity of knives. To disclose the secret of this trick, she stops time and assiduously collects the knives.

Story

Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil

During Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Sakuya attempts to prevent the heroine from reaching her mistress to whom she is very loyal to, but fails.

<Insert summary>

<Insert summary>

Perfect Cherry Blossom

Later, during Perfect Cherry Blossom, Sakuya is able to show more of her true character, even if her main reason for trying to solve the problem is that the delayed Spring will affect her too.

Immaterial and Missing Power
Imperishable Night
Phantasmagoria of Flower View
Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

During the events of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she is initially commanded by Remilia Scarlet to find possible suspects behind the strange weather. After Remilia grows tired of "questioning" suspects, she orders Sakuya to personally find and deal with the culprit. After doing so, Sakuya tells Reimu where to find the culprit, and latter helps to rebuild the Hakurei Shrine after it is destroyed for the second time.

Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red
Main article: Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red/Sakuya

The article reports of Sakuya sneaking into Marisa Kirisame's house and stealing various objects with the intent of building a rocketship to travel to the moon. Sakuya explains her odd behavior by claiming she is only carrying out Remilia's request.

In the interview, Aya Shameimaru asks to speak to Remilia to find out why she wanted those items, but in stalling Sakuya, she is late in delivering tea to Patchouli Knowledge, who arrives to see what the hold-up is. Patchouli explains that they were going to use the items for a magic spell which would send them to the moon, but it ultimately proved useless in the end. The interview ends with Sakuya inviting Aya to join them for tea-time.

Sakuya depicted in The Grimoire of Marisa.

Backstory

Little is known of Sakuya's past, other than "Sakuya Izayoi" is a name that Remilia has given her and that she is not from Gensokyo.

It is unknown how she had obtained the power to control time, although it is a power that a human can have that isn't acquired just from just training. She claims to be in her teens, but acts with the mannerisms of someone who has lived more than a hundred years.

Her power to control time distanced her from humans, and she eventually gave up trying to be friendly with them. From this, it is implied that her life before being employed by the Scarlet Devil Mansion was not a very happy one.

Relationships

Remilia Scarlet

Sakuya serves Remilia Scarlet as the Head Maid without question, a servitude in which no one knows why either trust each other so much. She follows Remilia's requests even when she knows it won't work, such as catching Lily White to restore Spring in Strange and Bright Nature Deity, as requested by her mistress. When Remilia playfully criticizes Sakuya for her failure to catch spring, she takes it in good stride and doesn't disagree. She will also do things for Remilia which she won't even ask, like accompanying her in Imperishable Night and Immaterial and Missing Power (or trying to, in the latter case), or putting on a sleight-of-hand magic show for Remilia without warning in Curiosities of Lotus Asia. On occasion, she's more a babysitter than a maid. She chastises Remilia in her Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Immaterial and Missing Power victory quotes for sneaking out food or playing around too much.

Hong Meiling

Hong Meiling, a fellow employee who she constantly pesters about her work productivity as shown in Immaterial and Missing Power and Touhou Hisoutensoku victory quotes. Meiling seems easily frightened when Sakuya shows even a slight bit of anger as shown in Strange and Bright Nature Deity. However, in Meiling's Touhou Hisoutensoku ending, when Meiling is found sleeping on the job, Sakuya takes Meiling inside because she is worried Meiling will get heatstroke.

Patchouli Knowledge

She also serves Patchouli Knowledge since she rarely leaves her room. Sakuya has the highest authority as chief maid[1], yet Patchouli's rank is noticeably higher within the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Sakuya may also be serving her because Patchouli is Remilia's friend, though she does care for Patchouli personally. In Silent Sinner in Blue, she takes a private moment to watch and smile at Patchouli, who's blissfully unaware as she's researching a new magical breakthrough.

Koakuma

She is simply a fellow employee of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and presumably nothing more.

Flandre Scarlet

On top of serving Remilia, she presumably serves her younger sister, Flandre Scarlet who is usually not allowed out of Scarlet Devil Mansion due to her emotional instability. However, this is not stated, implied, or depicted in any official work. Someone prepares Flandre's food, which are humans prepared in the shape of pastries and other pleasant things, but it is never stated to be Sakuya.

Fairy Maids

As the head maid, Sakuya has precedence over all the other fairy maids of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She is familiar with every each one and notices any abnormality such as the Three Fairies of Light dressing up as three of the maids. Due to the poor work productivity of the fairies, Sakuya presumably does most of the work. An advertisement in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red states Sakuya interviews for recruiting, so she may have interviewed the majority (if not every) of fairy maids herself.

Other Minor or Unknown Relationships and Interactions

As a playable character in several games, Sakuya has met a large number of characters. Generally, she treats everyone with professional politeness fitting of a perfect and elegant maid, but youkai that get in her way while she is resolving incidents are coldly exterminated. Particular minor relationships of note are below.

Three Fairies of Light

Sakuya met them in an omake in Eastern and Little Nature Deity, where she stops their prank by throwing some knives at them. In Strange and Bright Nature Deity, at the mansion, she saw through their maid disguises but didn't say a word and let them stay. She eventually kicked them out (according to the fairies' conversation) or frightened them out by telling them if they don't work, they don't eat. Sakuya was smiling, so she may have been speaking as-a-matter-of-factly.[Ref. Needed] Later, when they're spying on Sakuya and others at the Hakurei Shrine, she sees them, revealing she can see through their abilities to hide themselves even though Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame cannot. She cheerfully invites them to join, but this only scares them into running away, which disappoints her.

Eirin Yagokoro and other residents of Eientei

From the events of Imperishable Night, Sakuya is one of the few people who know that Eirin and Kaguya Houraisan are from the moon, and presumably keeping it a secret. Eirin's profile states Eirin is surprised to see Sakuya, but only Eirin knows why. Sakuya has not shown any abnormal interactions or familiarity with Eirin that could hint at what this is (she was suspicious of Eirin during the rocket party in Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth, but so was everyone who knew Eirin was from the moon).

Alice Margatroid

Ever since Perfect Cherry Blossom, Alice attacks Sakuya whenever either visit each other's house, and for no good reason. Sakuya says she's attacking in Immaterial and Missing Power to release stress. In Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she says it's to punish Alice for intruding even after Alice has already left. In both cases, Alice thought it was a poor reason. In comparison in Cage in Lunatic Runagate Chapter 6, Marisa Kirisame and Youmu Konpaku don't even get into trouble when caught intruding in the mansion (in fact, they usually get tea, instead).

Cirno

Sakuya has trouble understanding why Cirno finds freezing frogs or flowers fun in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, but at least came to understand fairies' recklessness from watching Cirno fight in Touhou Hisoutensoku. Cirno does not want to be a fairy maid.

Additional Information

A Puzzling Character

Attention: This section is a stub and it needs expanding with more information related to the section's topic. If you can add to it in any way, please do so. You may improve one (or more) of the following points:
  • Information may be said twice in later trivia and needs to be deleted
  • Needs better layout and writing

Sakuya's history in Gensokyo as well as her background is is extremely full of mysteries. Her origins are mysterious and she may be from a world outside Gensokyo, some other world, or even the Moon's capital. At any time, the below contents should be improved upon.

Reason why Eirin was surprised at seeing Sakuya

In Imperishable Night's omake.txt, it is only Eirin that we never really know about. The below are conjectures.

  1. It was a time when I was doing something to the degree of playing with words (ZUN's saying)

    Since she bears Konoha-Sakuya-bime's (木花咲耶姫) first name. Princess Konoha-Sakuya is a god of Eirin's past origins. For a moment, her name showed up in Cage in Lunatic Runagate. Note: it was the god that showed up in front of Mokou and Iwakasa on Mt. Fuji. Since one usually calls her Princess Sakuya ("Sakuya-hime"), Iwakasa and the rest also called her that. Also called Lady Sengen ("Sengen-sama"). Originally a god of water for calming down fire. Having beauty and empherality, she lived in the crater of Mt. Fuji. In great antiquity, Mt. Fuji and Yatsugatake were compared in height, and since Yatsugatake was higher, and since she would not allow a beautiful mountain higher than hers, she smashed Yatsugatake and made it shorter. It is said that Youkai Mountain was the original form of Yatsugatake before it was smashed (this inference is not something that ZUN himself has denied... but he did say that Cage in Lunatic Runagate was a hint). However, it is a publicly known fact that Sakuya Izayoi was a name given by Remilia, so the precondition for this theory is already not satisfied.

    ●There is also a theory calling for a blood relationship with Princess Konoha-Sakuya. Fundamentally where it comes from is Cage in Lunatic Runagate, of Omoikane's nephew, of a relation between the wife of the child and the wife of the grandchild.

    ●As for why it can be said that Sakuya is based off of Princess Konoha-Sakuya, in the legend of Princess Konoha-Sakuya, there are the "one-night pregnancy" and "delivery in the middle of the flames," that one can see this as Princess Sakuya speeding up (manipulating) time.

  2. Lunarian Sakuya Theory

    Among fans, this is something that has normally become a popular subject of heated discussion, and there are several opinions.

    • Resemblence between Kaguya's and Sakuya's abilities

      It can be seen that Kaguya's "Ability to the degree of manipulating eternity and the instant" and Sakuya's "Ability to the degree of manipulating time" have a resemblence.

      Compared to how Kaguya can manipulate time locally (manipulation of eternity = slow down, manipulation of the instant = speed up), as opposed to how Sakuya can manipulates time in a broader sense, the ability itself seems to be something that would come from a relative of Kaguya. And due to this, Sakuya would then seem to be a lunarian. Or a descendent. Of course, it can also conceive of it as an accidental coincidence.

      ●Her ability is, as it were, an ability to manipulate "complete stop = eternity" and "speedup to the utmost limit = instant," and Hieda no Akyuu also concluded that it is an "ability to manipulate time" (refer to the page for Kaguya).

    • A possible familial relation

      While this is mainly in fanon, one possible backing is that Eirin and Sakuya both have silver hair, although Youmu has it as well...

      ●On a related note, ZUN did make a hint, saying that "if I talk about the relation between these two, then the games would all be reduced to one, so I left it out." How this will be portrayed in future works (games, print works) is uncertain.

    • Red Eyes

      In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and possibly Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody's spell cards, there are parts when her eyes become red. In the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, it may possibly be the scarlet mist incident, but it was inferred that those were to manipulate the eyes of insanity. In Imperishable Night, at the scene where Remilia worried that Sakuya might become insane at the time Kaguya cast the light of the true full moon, even when Sakuya looked at the true full moon there did not seem to be any abnormality caused by the full moon. The true full moon grants magic power to youkai and dirties the mind/spirit of humans. In short, there are no species, other than lunarians, that are not influenced by the mysterious power of the moon. Although the leader rabbit Reisen Udongein Inaba possesses red eyes for the sake of her ability to the degree of manipulating insanity, regarding Reisen, if the Wakatsuki Sisters who have received combat training, were the instructors who taught this ability to manipulate insanity, then for the lunarians to manipulate the eyes of insanity itself would be a characteristic ability, then the question as to why Sakuya possesses red eyes would not cease. Despite that, Reimu passed through the series fine... in fact, weren't all the humans other than Youmu calmly composed?

    • Additional Notes

      Reimu also questions her humanity in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and people of Gensokyo speculate what she may be, from a Lunarian to a homunculus. However, Sakuya insists and refers to herself as human extremely often. Perfect Memento states her ability to control time is an ability that humans may possess. Sakuya does not seem to react abnormally (showing prior recognition and familiarity, for example) regarding either people from the Moon or the Moon itself in any official work, be it victory quotes, print works, endings, or boss dialogues, nor does any 'alien' in regards to Sakuya (Watatsuki no Yorihime doesn't show any recognition of her, for example). Even Eirin's profile may be referring to another aspect of Sakuya. In her ending in Imperishable Night, when the idea of getting a successor for Sakuya comes up, it'd be a normal human that would succeed Sakuya, and the idea is only trashed because training up a new human for the position would be too much effort. ZUN has referred to her as human, as do several of her profiles (that the question of Sakuya's humanity continued to come up in-story means this isn't necessarily definitive proof). She has a spell card called "Lunar Dial" and "Luna Clock", that may be connected with Kaguya's statement, that magic originated from lunarians, and possibly there can be the lunarian magic that stops time, but nothing particularly odd about it is noted in Grimoire of Marisa.

Vampire Hunter Theory

This was referred to in the contents of Hieda no Akyuu's Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. On a related note, Akyuu relates Sakuya to someone several hundred hears ago. It did seem like she did have a guess as to what Sakuya's ability was like. (Perhaps it would seem that Akyuu sees Sakuya as having an existence outside of human. This would, of course, have an indirect relation to the lunarian Sakuya theory.) However, it is known that Sakuya joined the Scarlet Devil Mansion before it moved to Gensokyo. Below is a plausible explanation for Sakuya originally being a vampire hunter.

  • Possession of silver knives

    Silver is a metal that has the exorcism and evil-crushing ability of destroying youkai and demons. On this point, Akyuu conceived that Sakuya was originally a vampire hunter, due to this strong physical evidence.

    ●Silver is one of the prime weaknesses of a vampire.

  • Why does she work for Remilia Scarlet

    It could also be possible that Remilia manipulated fate. However, another possibility is that maybe she is acting as a treacherous insider, so when she sees an opening...

Did Sakuya perform a Jack-the-Ripper-like act?

As is well known, Sakuya's spell cards names are all mostly things like Illusion Sign "Killer Doll" etc. that are dangerous and disturbing without limit. Moreover, in the preparing of tea and cake for Flandre Scarlet humans are normally eaten, and since Sakuya does most of the cooking for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, one can perceive this as Remilia having employed a Sakuya who has become accustomed to murdering people. There do seem to be things that are surely related to a character modeled off of Jack the Ripper.

  • Her cut-in image in the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, has a knife holster (not the throwing kind, but likely the dagger kind) attached above her left knee. This is probably a depiction from which one could guess that Sakuya is left-handed. The wounds from Jack the Ripper's victims are from the left hand. On a related note, there have been absolutely no public statement about Sakuya's handedness so far.
  • Although comparatively ridiculous, there does exist an explanation for why the unidentified Jack the Ripper might be female.
  • Although there are many references to JoJo's Bizzard Adventure in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, there was an episode where the vampire DIO who represented JoJo followed Jack the Ripper as a subordinate.

Trivia

Sakuya's sigil in The Grimoire of Marisa.
  • Theoretically, Sakuya is the fifth maid to appear in the Touhou Project. The other maid characters are Ruukoto, Mugetsu, Yumeko, and Alice Margatroid. However, because Alice was only seen as a servent to Mima in Mystic Square, Sakuya is the fouth maid in the Touhou Project.
  • Sakuya claims she's in her late-teens, but Hieda no Akyu says Sakuya's refined manner and the level of her ability seems like that of a human that's been living for hundreds of years. According to a quote from Remilia and Sakuya's ending in Imperishable Night (Good Ending #3), Sakuya has been working at the Scarlet Devil Mansion so long, Remilia doesn't feel it fitting to call her human. With a comment like that, it seems safe enough to assume she has been at the Scarlet Devil Mansion for an extremely long time.
  • Hieda no Akyu believes Sakuya has managed to live so long while still looking like a teenager by manipulating time. It's true that Sakuya can increase the speed at which something ages, such as making bamboo flowers bloom instantly in Marisa's A ending of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, even though this would normally take sixty years. It seems safe enough to assume she can decelerate aging for a specific object, too.
  • Despite helping rebuild the Hakurei Shrine later in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Sakuya casually ignores Reimu's donation requests for shrine upkeep in Immaterial and Missing Power, saying she doesn't believe in gods anyway.
  • Sakuya's involvement in the human cuisine of the Scarlet Devil Mansion is unknown. The Scarlet Devil Mansion has humans to eat, but Sakuya has never been shown preparing humans to eat. She has been shown to seek out rare (non-human) ingredients as well as prepare noodles and tea (accompanying context/dialogue usually implies it's not human), but the closest she has ever been depicted cooking humans was asking Remilia if she thought her latest (not humans) tea tasted like blood in Strange and Bright Nature Deity. Shikieiki Yamaxanadu lectures that Sakuya's sin is coldness towards humans, with nothing about cooking them. Flandre Scarlet confesses to Marisa in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil that she has no idea who prepares her human food, but doesn't think it's Remilia. Music comments by ZUN state that Remilia's tea is blood, but the tea Sakuya serves in most official works is usually implied to be normal tea with Sakuya's latest experimental ingredient. Sakuya's ending in Immaterial and Missing Power mentions that tea time is usually "red tea", which is perhaps separate from the experimental teas Sakuya personally prepares. Could the usual non-experimental "red" tea be blood, and does Sakuya realize this?
  • Sakuya is constantly seeking out new varieties of tea flavors for Remilia to try, as shown in several official works. For example, she mentions in Phantasmagoria of Flower View that with so many flowers around, she can make as much tea and as many pastries as she wants. (Flowers have often been used to provide flavoring for tea, especially in the past, and are still the basis of jasmine tea.)
  • In the games, it is shown Sakuya has the ability to make knives appear mysteriously when time is stopped, but in her Grimoire of Marisa artwork, she is shown placing the knives physically.
  • Her alternate outfit in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody is a homage to Ruukoto, the series' first maid. In Touhou Hisoutensoku more alternate outfits were added, including a Shinku palette and a Dio Brando palette.

Fandom

  • As the head maid, 「メイド長」 or "maid-chou" or "maid-boss" is the common title used to address her among fans. Another common nickname is 「さっきゅん」 or "Sakkyun."
  • 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.
  • In fanworks, Sakuya is sometimes seen with nosebleeds in the presence of Remilia or Flandre.
  • In some fan-produced works, Sakuya is depicted with puppy ears and a tail (commonly called 「犬咲夜」 or 「いぬさくや」 or inu-Sakuya), which is probably a reflection of various characters referring to her as Remilia's dog.
  • Another recurring joke with fans is the idea that Sakuya pads her chest to make it seem bigger than it is and goes to great lengths to hide this secret, even from Remilia herself. The origin of this joke was due Sakuya's portraits in Immaterial and Missing Power, which for some reason showed her with larger breasts than were seen in all of her other ZUN-made portraits (with the possible exception of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil). Thus, 「PAD長」 ("Pad-chou") has become a popular phrase that is frequently seen with 「メイド長」... but be careful when you try to use it. There are many people hating that nickname. Thus, another common joke is to depict Sakuya as knifing everybody who says that, making her a "Touhou-version" of the infamous Candlejack meme.
  • Fanworks also frequently depict Sakuya stabbing Hong Meiling, usually in the head, for failing to stop intruders and/or falling asleep on the job.
  • Some fanworks compare her to Youmu Konpaku due to several similarities, as 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. Both are also somewhat ambidextrous, with most works(such as Hisoutensoku)possibly showing Youmu Konpaku to left-handed, while Sakuya may be right-handed. Both characters also share an interesting dialogue towards Hong Meiling when they defeat her in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody or Touhou Hisoutensoku.
    • Also, Sakuya's alternate Dio 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.
  • Since the announcement of Undefined Fantastic Object and of Sanae Kochiya as the only new playable character (along with Reimu and Marisa), jokes and fan art of Sakuya being venomously jealous of Sanae's newfound popularity and prominence commenced. 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 and Reisen to be all jealous of Sanae.

Spell Cards

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Name Translated Comments Games Stage
Total: 40
奇術「ミスディレクション」 Conjuring "Misdirection" EoSD St. 5: E/N
奇術「幻惑ミスディレクション」 Conjuring "Mesmerizing Misdirection" EoSD St. 5: H/L
幻在「クロックコープス」 Illusion Existence "Clock Corpse" EoSD St. 5: E/N
幻象「ルナクロック」 Illusion Image "Luna Clock" EoSD
GoM
St. 5: E/N
メイド秘技「操りドール」 Maid Secret Skill "Manipulating Doll" EoSD St. 5: E/N
幻幽「ジャック・ザ・ルドビレ」 Illusion Phantom "Jack the Ludo Bile" EoSD St. 5: H/L
幻世「ザ・ワールド」 Illusion World "The World" EoSD St. 5: H/L
メイド秘技「殺人ドール」 Maid Secret Skill "Killing Doll" EoSD
GoM
St. 5: H/L
奇術「エターナルミーク」 Conjuring "Eternal Meek" EoSD
SWR
St. 6: N/H/L
インディスクリミネイト "Indiscriminate" PCB Use
殺人ドール "Killing Doll" PCB Use
パーフェクトスクウェア "Perfect Square" PCB Use
プライベートスクウェア
時符「プライベートスクウェア」
"Private Square"
Time Sign "Private Square"
PCB
IaMP
SWR
Use
Use
Use
幻符「殺人ドール」 Illusion Sign "Killing Doll" IaMP
IN
SWR
Use
Use
Use
幻葬「夜霧の幻影殺人鬼」 Buriallusion "Phantomic Killer in Night Mist" IaMP
IN
SWR
Use
Use
Use
「咲夜の世界」 "Sakuya's World" IaMP
SWR
Use
Use
傷符「インスクライブレッドソウル」 Wound Sign "Inscribe Red Soul" IaMP
SWR
Use
Use
傷魂「ソウルスカルプチュア」 Scarred Soul "Soul Sculpture" IaMP
SWR
Use
Use
符の壱「連続殺人ドール」 Sign I "Serial Killing Doll" IaMP Story
符の弐「チェックメイド」 Sign II "Checkmaid" IaMP Story
手品「クロースアップ殺人鬼」 Jugglery "Close-Up Serial Killer" IaMP Story
「デフレーションワールド」 "Deflation World" IN
GoM
LW
時符「プライベートヴィジョン」 Time Sign "Private Vision" PoFV Use
時符「ミステリアスジャック」 Time Sign "Mysterious Jack" PoFV Use
時符「トンネルエフェクト」 Time Sign "Tunnel Effect" StB
GoM
St. 7
空虚「インフレーションスクウェア」 Void "Inflation Square" StB
GoM
St. 7
銀符「パーフェクトメイド」 Silver Sign "Perfect Maid" StB St. 7
銀符「シルバーバウンド」 Silver Sign "Silver Bound" SWR
SWR
Use
Story
速符「ルミネスリコシェ」 Speed Sign "Luminous Ricochet" SWR
SSiB
Use
Ch.14
時符「咲夜特製ストップウォッチ」 Time Sign "Sakuya's Special Stopwatch" SWR
SWR
Use
Story
幻術「マイナイフリカージョン」 Illusion "My Knife's Recursions" SWR Story
時符「シルバーアキュート360」 Time Sign "Silver Acute 360" SWR Story
時符「イマジナリバーチカルタイム」 Time Sign "Imaginary Vertical Time" Soku Use
時計「ルナダイアル」 Watch "Lunar Dial" Soku Use
光速「C. リコシェ」 Light Speed "C. Ricochet" Soku Use
妖器「銀色のアナザーディメンジョン」 Bewitched Weapon "Silver Another Dimension" DDC Use
時符「デュアルバニッシュ」 Time Sign "Dual Vanish" DDC Use
時符「タイムストッパー咲夜」 Time Sign "Time Stopper Sakuya" ISC St. 7
時符「チェンジリングマジック」 Time Sign "Changeling Magic" ISC St. 7
時符「アイウィンクナイフヘル」 Time Sign "Eye-wink Knife Hell" 100BM 4th Market

</toggledisplay>

Official Profiles

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - おまけ.txt

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○紅魔館のメイド

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよい・さくや)

  能力:時間を操る程度の能力

  5面ボスです。メイドで、10〜20年程人間をやっています。

  彼女はその能力により人間から煙たがられてしまいます。すでに普通の人間と仲良くやっていくのをあきらめています。
  これといった名誉欲や支配欲などはなく、飯さえ食えればそれでいいと思い、紅魔館でメイドをやっています。

  紅魔館では清掃係兼メイド長を担当していて、常に時間を止める能力を活かして仕事をしています。
  (時間止めて掃除をすると埃が舞わないとか)

  この家の主人がアレなので、実質、メイドというか子守り役というか、この家を仕切っています。

  カードアタック 全9種

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Sakuya Izayoi

Ability: Ability to the degree of manipulating time

5th stage boss. Plays the role of a human maid about 10~20 years old.

That power of hers distances her from the human race. She has given up trying to be friendly to ordinary people.
She does not care about honor or power; she thinks so long as it earns her dinner, being the Scarlet Devil Mansion's maid is fine.

She is the chief of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's maids and cleaning staff, and always takes advantage of her ability to stop time when working.
(If she cleans when time is stopped, it won't raise dust.)

Due to the nature of the mistress of the house, it is arguable whether she serves the role of maid or babysitter, but in any case, she is in charge of most of the affairs of the household.

Total of nine card attacks.

</toggledisplay>

Perfect Cherry Blossom - Manual

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Sakuya Izayoi PCB  ○紅魔館のメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよいさくや)

  とあるお屋敷の瀟洒なメイド。時を操る程度の能力を持つ。
  頭も切れ、腕もたち、弱点は無い様だが猫舌。
  投げナイフの技術は料理の腕に比例する為、咲夜は料理が大変上手。
  最近は貴重な食材を使用した創作中華にはまっている。
  なおナイフは、節約と環境保護のために投げた後に回収する。
  もし、戦闘中にナイフが尽きた場合は、時間を止めて回収にあたる。

  武器は投げナイフ。タネ無し手品を得意とする。

   なんと言っても、ボム数が4である。クリアだけなら楽勝。
   「ジャック・ザ・リッパー」は、前方ある程度の角度範囲内の敵をロックして狙い撃ちをする。
   威力は低めだが、非常に使い勝手の良い武器。
   一方、時符は全ての武器が不思議な挙動をする。
   「ミスディレクション」は、移動方向にショットが傾く。この状態で「パワーディレクション」に移行すると、ショット方向がロックされる。
   ボムは、「パーフェクトスクウェア」「プライベートスクウェア」共に、威力が皆無で無敵時間はゲーム中最長である。また、このボムだけ使用中に移動速度が上がる。
   最大の特徴は、ボム中は敵弾を停止させ、「その敵弾にかすることが出来る」+「ボム終了後にボーナスアイテムになるため、ボーナスアイテムの得点が通常の得点になる」事である。
   かすり数によっては、大きく稼げる武器になっている。

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Sakuya Izayoi

The elegant maid of a certain mansion. She possess the ability to the degree of manipulating time.
Sharp and able, she has no real weak points but can't eat hot (temperature) foods.
Since she wants her knife-throwing skills to be comparable to her cooking skills, Sakuya is incredibly good at cooking.
Her current hobby is creating Chinese delicacies using exquisite ingredients.
In order to save money and the planet, she reuses knives she's already thrown.
If she were to run out of knives during a battle, she'd just stop time and pick them up again.

Throwing knives are her weapon. Deceitless sleight-of-hand is her pride.

In any case, she starts out with 4 bombs. It makes it easier to clear the game.
"Jack the Ripper" locks onto enemies at certain angles in front of you.
It has low power, but it's a very easy to use weapon.
On the other hand, all of the "Time Sign" weapons have very unusual movement.
"Misdirection" angles its shots in the direction you're moving. If you switch to "Power Direction" when it's angled, the shot direction will lock in its current position.
The bombs, "Perfect Square" and "Private Square" are both very weak, but they have the longest invincibility time in the game. Also, these are the only bombs that make you move faster when you use them.
The biggest distinguishing point is: enemy bullets stop during bombs, so the fact that you can graze them like this + the fact that they become bonus items when the bomb is finished (and normal point items then get the bonus item value) mean that the more you graze, the higher you will score with her weapons.

</toggledisplay>

Perfect Cherry Blossom - キャラ設定.txt

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○紅魔館のメイド

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや)

  主に時間を操る程度の能力を持つ。

  幻想郷にある湖のほとりに、その紅いお屋敷はある。そこで働くメイドである。給金は無い。

  この館で掃除したり、指示したり、料理したり、お嬢様の世話したりで、普通に忙しい。

  館は無駄に広く、それでいて単調な色調のため、全体像はなかなか掴めない。迷い込んだ招かざるお客様が何処かに落ちていても、分からない。先に誰かに発見されて消されていても、分からない。

  紅い建物は、緑の多い幻想郷に在っても何故か違和感を感じられない。
  あたかもそこに在るのが当たり前かの様に、建っていた。

  咲夜も、ここに暮らしていると時間が停止しているかのように感じるのだった。もちろん、咲夜が時を止めているわけではない。

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Izayoi Sakuya

Mainly she possesses the ability to the degree of manipulating time.

She is a maid who works at the Scarlet Devil Mansion on the banks of a lake in Gensokyo for no salary.

She's kept quite busy in this mansion cleaning, commanding the other maids, cooking, and taking care of her mistress.

The mansion is unnecessarily large and has monotonous colors, so it's hard to tell things apart inside. Nobody would notice if an uninvited guest wandered inside and fell into a hole somewhere, undiscovered. Nobody would know if they were discovered and gotten rid of, either.

Somehow, this scarlet building doesn't seem out of place surrounded by the green of Gensokyo. It simply stands there as if it were always meant to be there.

Living here, even Sakuya feels as if time has stopped. Of course, that's not because Sakuya has stopped time.

</toggledisplay>

Immaterial and Missing Power - 上海アリス通信.txt

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○紅魔館のメイド

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよいさくや)

  種族:人間
  住処:紅魔館
  能力:時を操る程度の能力

   紅魔館の住み込みで働くメイドさん。炊事、掃除、洗濯、子守にナイフ投げと、メイドがやりそうな事は全て完璧にこなす。メイド長。

   性格は、瀟洒で完璧そうに見えるが、たまに抜けている所も見せる。
  仕事が完璧で速いのは、時間を止めて仕事をしているいるからだと思うが……。

   体術も得意とする。むしろ弾幕のような怪しげな術よりも得意な位。
  弾幕にも投げナイフを使うのはその為である。それにタネの無い手品が好きで、戦闘にも積極的に取り入れる。そういう所が抜けている所の様な気がしてならないが。

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion
Izayoi Sakuya


Species: Human
Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion
Ability: Ability to the degree of manipulating time

A maid who works and lives in the Scarlet Devil Mansion . She does a maid's duty perfectly: cooking, cleaning, washing, babysitting, knife throwing, etc. Her position is chief maid.

Her personality seems perfect and elegant, but sometimes she shows a more spaced-out side. The reason she works so quickly is probably because she stops time to do it, though ...

She also specializes in physical attacks. Probably even more so than at suspicious tricks like danmaku. This is why she uses throwing knives in her danmaku. In addition, she likes magic that doesn't have tricks to it, so she proactively adopts it into battle. I can't help feeling this point is the odd acts.

</toggledisplay>

Imperishable Night - Manual

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Sakuya Izayoi IN  ○紅魔館のメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよいさくや)

  悪魔に仕えるメイドさん。
  紅魔館に住む人間。時を操る程度の能力を持つ。
  紅魔館ではメイド長を勤めていて、ご主人様がアレなので実質、紅魔館の顔である。
  心からご主人様に忠誠を誓うが、従事という言葉から感じるじめじめした暗い嫌な感じは全くせず、サバサバとしていて見てて気持ちがいい。
  時折、惚けた事もするのだが、わざとか真剣なのか判りづらい。
  本人は言うまでも無く、真剣である。

  武器は投げナイフ。銀が手に入り難くなってきたので別の材料を検討中。

    備考
    今回はレミリアと組む。
    低速移動は単独使用時のみの性能である。
    全く癖の無いオーソドックスなショットで使い
    やすい。
    アイテムは俺のもんだ。という人にお奨め。

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Izayoi Sakuya

A maid who serves a devil.
She lives in Scarlet Devil Mansion. She can manipulate time.
She is the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but due to her master's nature she's practically head of the household.
She is utterly devoted to her master, and she feels no shame in being a "servant";
on the contrary, she's so easy-going it feels nice to watch her.
Sometimes she's a little spacy, but it's hard to tell if she's serious or faking it.
In either case, she's a fairly serious person.

Her weapon is throwing knives. Since silver is hard to come by, she's looking for other materials to use, too.

Notes:
She's teamed up with Remilia this time.
She can only use focused movement when alone.
She has a very orthodox, straightforward shot, so she's easy to use.
Recommended for people who must get every item.

</toggledisplay>

Imperishable Night - キャラ設定.txt

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Sakuya Izayoi IN  ○紅魔館のメイド

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや)
  Sakuya Izayoi

  種族:人間
  能力:時間を操る程度の能力

  幻想郷にある湖のほとりに、その紅いお屋敷はある。そこで働くメイドである。

  メイドをしていると、こんな辺鄙な山奥でも衣食住に困らず快適である。彼女は人間だが、悪魔達と一緒にいる為人間からも妖怪からも余り良い目で見られない。でも一部の人間達はそんなことを一切気にしないで接してくれるし、何より食う寝る処に住む処に困らない。これほど快適な暮らしは他に考えられなかった。

Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Sakuya Izayoi

Species: Human
Abilities: Ability to the degree of manipulating time

There's a scarlet mansion on the banks of a certain lake in Gensokyo. She works there as a maid.

When you're a maid, you don't have to worry about clothing, food or housing, even when you live this deep in the mountains. She's human, but both humans and youkai don't look too well on her since she lives with devils. Still, some humans will overlook this, and she never has to worry about her living conditions. She can't imagine a life better than this.

</toggledisplay>

Phantasmagoria of Flower View - Manual

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○完全で瀟洒なメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよいさくや)

  悪魔に仕えるメイドさん。
  紅魔館に住む人間。時を操る程度の能力を持つ。
  あか抜けた性格だが、余裕なのか惚けているのかちょっとずれた面も見せる。
  花の異変に関しては、さほど危険を感じていない。

Perfect and Elegant Maid
Izayoi Sakuya


A maid who serves a devil.
She's a human who lives in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She possess the ability to the degree of manipulating time.
Though her character is refined, sometimes she acts like she's being careless or just spacing out.
She doesn't think the flower incident is anything terribly dangerous.

</toggledisplay>

Phantasmagoria of Flower View - キャラ設定.txt

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○完全で瀟洒なメイド

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや)
  Izayoi Sakuya

  種族:人間
  能力:時間を操る程度の能力


   幻想郷にある湖のほとりに、その紅いお屋敷はある。そこで働くメイドである。

   今回は、一応異変と言うことで様子を見に出てきた物の、特に危険は無いと感じていた。それは紅魔館の者の様子も、特に慌てた物では無かったからでもある。

Perfect and Elegant Maid
Izayoi Sakuya


Species: Human
Ability: Ability to the degree of manipulating time


There's a scarlet mansion on the edge of a lake in Gensokyo. She's a maid working there.

She heard something was going on, so she just thought she'd go out and have a look; she didn't particularly think something dangerous was happening. This is also why nobody in the Scarlet Devil Mansion was particularly upset about the flower incident.

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Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - chara.html

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Sakuya Izayoi  ○完全で瀟洒な従者

  十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや)


  種族:人間

  職業:メイド

  住家:紅魔館

  能力:時を操る程度の能力

  性格:瀟洒で知的、垢抜けている。

      でも案外うっかりした行動をとる事もある。

The Perfect and Elegant Servant

Sakuya Izayoi


Race: Human

Occupation: Maid

Place of residence: Scarlet Devil Mansion

Ability: Ability to the degree of manipulating time

Personality: Elegant, knowledgeable, and refined.

However, can be surprisingly careless from time to time.

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Official Sources

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References