Sakuya Izayoi
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(♫) Sakuya Izayoi | |
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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 | |
Music Themes | |
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Appearances | |
Official Games | |
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Print Works | |
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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.
- Main article: Reimu Arc
<Insert summary>
- Main article: Marisa Arc
<Insert summary>
- Perfect Cherry Blossom
- Main article: Perfect Cherry Blossom Sakuya's Scenario
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
- Main article: Immaterial and Missing Power Sakuya's Scenario
- Imperishable Night
- Main article: Imperishable Night Scarlet Team's Scenario
- Phantasmagoria of Flower View
- Main article: Phantasmagoria of Flower View Sakuya's Scenario
- Scarlet Weather Rhapsody
- Main article: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody Sakuya's Scenario
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.
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
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, 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.
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.
She is simply a fellow employee of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and presumably nothing more.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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
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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.
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.
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
- 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
<toggledisplay showtext="Show spellcards" hidetext="Hide spellcards">
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 |
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Official Profiles
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - おまけ.txt
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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。 |
Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Sakuya Izayoi |
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Perfect Cherry Blossom - キャラ設定.txt
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○紅魔館のメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや) |
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. |
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Immaterial and Missing Power - 上海アリス通信.txt
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○紅魔館のメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよいさくや) |
Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Izayoi Sakuya
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. |
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Imperishable Night - Manual
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○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。 |
Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Izayoi Sakuya A maid who serves a devil. Her weapon is throwing knives. Since silver is hard to come by, she's looking for other materials to use, too. Notes: |
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Imperishable Night - キャラ設定.txt
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○紅魔館のメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや) |
Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion Sakuya Izayoi Species: Human 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. |
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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。 |
Perfect and Elegant Maid Izayoi Sakuya
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Phantasmagoria of Flower View - キャラ設定.txt
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○完全で瀟洒なメイド 十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや) |
Perfect and Elegant Maid Izayoi Sakuya
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Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - chara.html
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○完全で瀟洒な従者
十六夜 咲夜(いざよい さくや)
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
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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- 2002/08/11 Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Stage 5 dialogue; Stage 6 dialogue; おまけ.txt
- 2003/08/17 Perfect Cherry Blossom - Sakuya's Scenario; キャラ設定.txt; Manual
- 2004/04/03-2004/05/01 Curiosities of Lotus Asia - Chapters 4, 5
- 2004/08/15 Imperishable Night - Scarlet Team's Scenario; Scarlet Team Extra Stage; キャラ設定.txt; Manual
- 2005/08/11 Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red - Article and Interview: Sakuya
- 2005/08/14 Phantasmagoria of Flower View - キャラ設定.txt
- 2005/10/01 Seasonal Dream Vision/A Beautiful Flower Blooming Violet Every Sixty Years
- 2006/02/10 Curiosities of Lotus Asia - Chapter 18
- 2006/05/26 Strange and Bright Nature Deity - Chapter 1
- 2006/12/27 Perfect Memento in Strict Sense - Sakuya Izayoi
- 2007/03/25 ~ 2007/04/26 Strange and Bright Nature Deity - Chapters 7-8
- 2007/06/08 ~ 2009/04/09 Silent Sinner in Blue
- 2007/12/26 ~ 2008/01/26 Strange and Bright Nature Deity - Chapters 15-16
- 2008/05/25 Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - chara.html
- 2009/07/28 The Grimoire of Marisa - Sakuya Izayoi's Spell Cards
- 2009/08/26 Oriental Sacred Place - Chapter 4
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