| リグル・ナイトバグ
ɾiɡ̃ɯᵝɾ̠ɯᵝ na̠ito̞βa̠ɡ̃ɯᵝ (♫) Wriggle Nightbug | |
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 Wriggle Nightbug in Imperishable Night A Bug of Light Wriggling in the DarkMore Character Titles | |
| Species |
Firefly Youkai |
| Abilities |
Manipulation of insects |
Music Themes | |
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Appearances | |
| Official Games | |
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| Print Works | |
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| "They say a half-inch bug has only one-tenth an inch of soul." |
| "That's 80% smaller." |
| — Sakuya Izayoi and Remilia Scarlet (Imperishable Night Stage 1) |
Wriggle Nightbug (リグル・ナイトバグ, Riguru Naitobagu) is a firefly youkai with the ability to control other insects. She first appears in Imperishable Night as the stage 1 boss.
Wriggle is quick to anger, and seems to take it personally when someone offends insects. She is concerned about the decrease in the amount of insects lately, especially due to insecticide. Wriggle is annoyed at the low social status of bugs, and has at one point expressed interest in proving they can be useful to humans to break their status quo, something she and the bugs quickly got tired of. She forgot about it in a matter of days afterwards, stating that insects get rid of old information once it served its job.[1] ZUN notes that he thinks Wriggle is "a bit slow in the head", and that Cirno would be a more suitable person to play with for her than the player characters.[2]
Being an insect herself, she cannot stand the various kinds of countermeasures against them, including cold and insecticide.[3]
Wriggle possesses the ability to control insects of all kinds of varieties at will. Among these varieties are fireflies, moths, centipedes, and crickets; and also include deadly, venomous insects such as hornets. She always appears with a large number of bugs in her company, which makes humans find her particularly unpleasant. Hieda no Akyuu writes that she is essentially the leader of insects.[4]
Her spell cards utilize synchronized flickering of firefly swarms and large swarms of bugs - Marisa Kirisame notes that experiencing them essentially amounts to a swarm of insects completely obscuring your field of vision.[5][6]. Akyuu notes that her ability is frightening because, while insects by themselves don't have much power, in swarms they are difficult to deal with - particularly for insects such as hornets that can kill a human with one sting. An especially dangerous kind of bug Wriggle can control are harvest mites - bugs invisible to the naked eye that can cause a deadly fever with their bites, with no effective treatment - which she summons a swarm of when she's particularly upset and serious.[4][3]
However, while this ability makes her a fearsome opponent for most humans, since the insects she controls still have their typical weaknesses, such as cold, fire, fumigation and insecticide, one can greatly weaken her capabilities by exploiting one or more of these weaknesses. In addition, Wriggle herself is almost harmless, and confronting her while she is alone, such as during the winter, would lead to an easy victory.[4]
At one point, Wriggle was in charge of the "Insect Notification Service", in order to improve the social standing of insects. It worked by sending a large swarm of insects to a person to make announcements, given a time and date, and was particularly useful in functioning as a morning alarm, as a recipient notes that they "broke out in a cold sweat and woke up right away". However, during the span of time between Aya Shameimaru's article and her interview, she stopped, and forgot all about it.[1]
Wriggle is a firefly that has matured into a beast youkai after living a long life - this is easier for insects such as fireflies and butterflies because they are popular with humans, so they can avoid being exterminated by humans. Long ago, the prestige of bug youkai were equal to mighty youkai such as the oni and tengu, and many could defeat youkai with a single sting.[4] Wriggle herself does not know this. However, bug youkai have since fallen from grace, and Aya Shameimaru notes that Wriggle is not much more powerful than a regular insect.[1]
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○リグル・ナイトバグ
蟲の中には毒をもつ蟲もいる。 |
Wriggle Nightbug
Certain insects have poison. |
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○１面ボス 闇に蠢く光の蟲 リグル・ナイトバグ 種族：妖蟲 １面ボスである。 彼女の周りには多くの虫が集まる。蛍は大量に集まっても明滅のタイミングがピッタリ揃うが、これは実は彼女の様な命令中枢が中に居るからである。 たかが虫、と思っていると大量の虫に襲われ、ひとたまりも無い。特に彼女を怒らせ本気を出させてしまうと、大量の恙虫を召喚され、人間は高熱を出して死ぬ。
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Stage 1 Boss, A Bug of Light Wriggling in the Dark
Species: Youkai Insect Stage 1 Boss. Insects gather around her. Fireflies can perform their flashing with timed synchronization even in huge swarms, but that is actually because there is a commander like her within them. Those who carelessly regard her as a mere insect will be easy victims to the swarm of insects. When Wriggle is upset and serious, she summons a swarm of harvest mites which can cause deadly fever to humans.
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| 夜空に規則的に飛び交う弾幕が、 虫の大群の様に見えると思ったので虫の妖怪を出しました。 虫が生理的にどうしても無理、という方も多いと思うので、 せめて可愛らしく活動的に……と思って描いたのですが、 スカートではなかったので、当初はよく男の子と間違われてましたね。 女の子もズボン履きますから。 |
I found danmaku patterns crossing the night sky similar to swarms of insects, so I decided to bring out a insectoid youkai. I know that many find insects too gross to be tolerated, so I did my best to draw her as easy-going and cute as I could, but... She didn't wear a skirt, and people mistook her as a boy back then. Girls wear pants too, you know. |
| Name | Translated | Comments | Games | Stage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total: 11 | ||||||
| 蛍符「地上の流星」 | Firefly Sign "Meteors on Earth" | IN GoM |
St. 1: H — | |||
| 蛍符「地上の彗星」 | Firefly Sign "Comets on Earth" | IN | St. 1: L | |||
| 灯符「ファイアフライフェノメノン」 | Lamp Sign "Firefly Phenomenon" | IN | St. 1: E/N/H/L | |||
| 蠢符「リトルバグ」 | Wriggle Sign "Little Bug" | IN | St. 1: E | |||
| 蠢符「リトルバグストーム」 | Wriggle Sign "Little Bug Storm" | IN GoM |
St. 1: N — | |||
| 蠢符「ナイトバグストーム」 | Wriggle Sign "Night Bug Storm" | IN | St. 1: H | |||
| 蠢符「ナイトバグトルネード」 | Wriggle Sign "Nightbug Tornado" | IN | St. 1: L | |||
| 隠蟲「永夜蟄居」 | Hidden Bug "Endless Night Seclusion" | IN GoM |
St. 1: N/H/L — | |||
| 「季節外れのバタフライストーム」 | "Unseasonal Butterfly Storm" | IN | LW | |||
| 蛍符「地上の恒星」 | Firefly Sign "Fixed Stars on Earth" | StB | St. 1 | |||
| 蝶符「バタフライストーム」 | Butterfly Sign "Butterfly Storm" | StB | St. 1 | |||
Her full name is Wriggle Nightbug (リグル・ナイトバグ). "Wriggle" comes from the English word, which is commonly used to refer to bugs moving along the ground. "Nightbug" is a portmanteau of "night" and "bug"; the meaning is clear, as she is a firefly.
Wriggle has blue eyes, teal hair, and bug-like antennae. She wears a white shirt with stylized short sleeves, a black cape with red lining, which is shaped to resemble insect wings (however, Hieda no Akyuu describes her as having actual wings), and baggy blue knee-length shorts.
According to Akyuu, she looks like an average human aside from the insect appendages, and her childlike appearance is a testament to the fact that insect youkai are no longer equal to oni and tengu in terms of inspiring fear.
During the events of Imperishable Night, Wriggle attacks the player characters, thinking they'd be easy targets. However, the pair fights Wriggle off without breaking a sweat.
In Shoot the Bullet, Aya Shameimaru encountered Wriggle on stage 1 and took photos of her danmaku.
Wriggle made a background cameo appearance in Hopeless Masquerade on the Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum and Youkai Tanuki Forest stage. She is seen floating and cheering.
In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Wriggle used her manipulation of insects in order to start an "Insects' News Service," which would send large numbers of bugs to make announcements and deliver messages for clients if they supplied plans and a specific time in advance. Wriggle organized the service with the intent of improving the social status of bugs, but soon got tired of it and stopped providing it.
When interviewed later, Wriggle does not remember the service, because insects discard information that is no longer in use.
Hieda no Akyuu writes an in-universe encyclopedic article on Wriggle as part of the Gensokyo Chronicle.
In chapter 4 of Oriental Sacred Place, Wriggle, along with other "small fry" characters like Mystia Lorelei, Rumia and the Three Fairies of Light, take part in scaring Youmu Kompaku as part of a "test of courage".
In chapter 12, Wriggle can be seen setting up her "insect relief" stand along with the stands of other characters, as part of an impromptu festival at the Hakurei Shrine to attract visitors for New Years.
Illustration of Wriggle in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red
Another illustration of Wriggle from Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red
Wriggle from Who's Who of Humans & Youkai - Dusk Edition
Wriggle's sigil in The Grimoire of Marisa
 | This page is part of Project Characters, a Touhou Wiki project that aims to write proper descriptions for all official characters of Touhou Project. Please keep the character page guidelines in mind when contributing. |
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