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Gap

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Yukari Yakumo sitting on a Gap, as seen in Perfect Cherry Blossom.

A Gap (スキマ sukima) is a boundary controlled by Yukari Yakumo that relates to her ability to manipulate boundaries.

General Information

The back of a gap as shown in Strange and Bright Nature Deity.

The appearance of these gaps comes in many variations. They can look like gashes in space filled with a colour of purple, red and/or black, and sometimes white, or they can show directly what's on the other side. The cleft may feature red ribbons similar to the ones on Yukari's hair tied at both ends of the cleft. There may be many eyes (and sometimes arms) that can peek out of the gaps. In Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody the gap in her portraits is in the shape of Yukari's outline and shows that it leads to an unknown location featuring a starry twilight sky, what appear to be celestials bodies, and clouds which both cover and are covered by the same celestial bodies. When seen from "behind", a gap looks like it's made of some kind of white material[1], but since it seems that there different kinds of gaps, it might not be universally true. She is able to use the gaps as portals between two places such as Gensokyo and the outside world.[1][2]

The description of Yukari's Magic Eye "Laplace's Demon" spell card implies that Yukari can see using the eyes in her gaps, as well. Many of Yukari's portraits depict her holding, sitting on, or emerging from such gaps. Silent Sinner in Blue shows that when passing through a gap, it's as though you put your hand through non-transparent liquid. However, this gap was just above water, so it's not certain.

Although Yukari's gaps can ultimately connect any kind of place, in Silent Sinner in Blue she could create a gap to the "fantastic" version of the Moon only during the full moon, which is the only period of time during which the passage is open. For some unknown reason she is unable to use her powers to bring a living being on the far side of the Moon, which is where the Lunar Capital is located. She is, however, capable of freely travelling between Gensokyo and the Outside World. Yukari can create gaps through which only she can pass, but various sources show her opening gaps for others to use.[3] It's also possible for someone to enter a gap and end up in a completely different place without even realizing it, such as Flandre Scarlet unknowingly ending up in the Palace of Earth Spirits while she was about to enter a room of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.[4]

While the main use of gaps is essentially travelling to different places, Yukari also uses them in battle either by virtue of being able to use almost any object (such as tombstones, road signs, and even running trains) as a weapon,[5] by retreating inside them to avoid being hit or land unexpected attacks,[6] sucking in an opponent's attacks to throw them back.[7], merging different gaps to create dangerous spatial distorsions,[8] or shooting lasers and danmaku from the gaps.

Gap's Appearances

Perfect Cherry Blossom

The gaps were first seen used by Yukari Yakumo as she was sitting on one of them. However apart from this, nothing else was shown.

Immaterial and Missing Power & Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

Yukari would occasionally use gaps during her fights or appearing with her opponent in a pre-fight scenario. When put to the ground after a good hit, she'll use a gap to get back on her feet, which would indicate laziness. She occasionally use gaps in her spell cards.

Subterranean Animism

A gap was used for Reimu Hakurei's aid in Subterranean Animism, from which she is able to teleport from the one side of the screen to the other, which makes it the only occurrence that a gap was used in gameplay by another character besides Yukari.

Antinomy of Common Flowers

Yukari is continuously seen leaning or sitting on a gap that she also uses to lazily move around in the air, and much like Immaterial and Missing Power & Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she uses gaps for entrances into battles, winning poses, and during the battle with certain attacks.

Gallery

Additional Information

Fandom

The Gaps in fandom are just like how Yukari treats it canonically, with using it as a portal and for sitting on, etc., except the usage of this is more advantageous. Yukari may use gaps to shoot danmaku at her opponent or use them as an "escape route" from a particular fight. She'll also use them to spy on other residents for no particular reason, and mocking around with various characters. She may also summon various objects from the Outside World such as a train or a prohibition sign that'll poke out of the gaps. The train is a popular meme, where Yukari is sometimes seen riding on top of a train from the outside world in fan-made videos, likely due to her most powerful spell card in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Touhou Hisoutensoku, in which she summons a train to run over her opponent.

Alternative world
Yukari Space with Marisa Kirisame as shown in Super Marisa World.

Although it isn't explicitly stated in canon, the Gaps are highly treated as an alternative dimension or another world of some kind with an infinite amount of space, similar to how Senkai is treated canonically. Common nicknames referring to this are "Yukari's Gap" (紫スキマ Yukari Sukima), "the Boundary" (境界 Kyoukai) and "Yukari Space" by westerners. Super Marisa World is a good example, as the world may also show to have normal Earth-like material and have the eyes looking directly at the player. On some cases along with Touhou Mother, various creatures are also shown.

On some games, gaps may be left across Gensokyo in order for the player to enter this world. It may be treated as a "route" for the player to cross and get to another part of Gensokyo. It may also show Yukari sucking a human from the outside world or other characters into this gloomy space.

Miscellaneous
  • Gaps are useful for when certain fanworks would want to create a cross-over between the Touhou Project and another different work, in which Yukari has the capability to go to different fictional and non-fictional universes.
  • Yukari's use to create gaps is interpreted being like the portal gun from the game Portal, of which many illustrations may show bizarre techniques used within portals. This lead to many different jokes about "mis-using" the ability in clever ways and/or mischievous pranks for her own selfish means.
  • Fans tend to draw Yukari and her gaps with Bruno Buccellati from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, who is able to open gaps (zippers) in the same fashion as Yukari.
  • In some questionable NSFW works, she may use gaps to spy on others when they want a bit of "privacy".

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Strange and Bright Nature Deity - Chapter 25
  2. Several depictions of Yukari show her travelling using gaps
  3. Perfect Memento in Strict Sense: Yukari Yakumo
  4. Foul Detective Satori - Chapter 23
  5. Yukari's "Abandoned Line "Aimless Journey to the Abandoned Station" and "Unmanned Abandoned Railroad Car Bomb" Spellcards
  6. Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - "Fantasy Maniacal Rift" Skill Card
  7. Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - "Rest on Stone, Rinse in Rivers Rinse with Stone, Rest in Rivers" Skill Card
  8. Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - "Universe of Matter and Antimatter" Skill Card