Reimu Hakurei

Gender

Female

Species

Human

Abilities

Ability to Float, Aura Manipulation, Powers as the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei, and Barrier Techniques.

Occupation

Reimu is the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, and one of the main "incident resolvers" in Gensokyo. She and others characterize the time she spends at the shrine as largely boring and uneventful. While she is sometimes serious about her duties, she can't seem to get many worshippers at her shrine. It appears that youkai extermination is her only method of earning even a thin salary. Yukari Yakumo describes Reimu's job as not being that of a youkai exterminator, but rather a "balancer between humans and youkai", who prevents youkai from attacking humans and humans from becoming youkai.

Location

Hakurei Shrine

Lives in

Hakurei Shrine

Character Information

Reimu Hakurei is the main protagonist of the Touhou Project series along with the deuteragonist, Marisa Kirisame. As the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, she manages the Hakurei Border of Gensokyo and exterminates troublesome youkai.

Personality

Reimu Hakurei's personality is typified by her desires, such as the desire to be wanted, to have good food, and to find happiness. Her biggest internal conflict comes from balancing her duties as the Hakurei shrine maiden and her own desires, though she does not seem to prefer acknowledging many of her internal conflicts. Her duty as the shrine maiden gives Reimu a sense of purpose and identity, however, it conflicts with her desires in that it distances her from others and has her dealing with incidents and other related problems on a frequent basis. Despite her duty making it seem as though she antagonizes youkai, in truth, she wishes for peace between humans and youkai. Reimu is generally a joyful and airheaded person. She’s also incredibly prideful and quite arrogant due to it. She’s often seen in a good mood until her routines are broken by some outside influence, be it a youkai or the like. She is quick to anger, but she’s also quick to forget.

Possessions

Reimu uses the Yin-Yang Orbs in combat. They also functioned as communicators with people above the surface. In addition, she usually carries a gohei, sometimes referred to as her purification rod, originally prepared by Rinnosuke Morichika. She also possesses a great amount of ofuda, sacred paper charms with anti-youkai properties that she uses to fight, seal or exterminate youkai of any kind in her danmaku. Apparently, she can also use them to create barriers and even clones of herself. Like the Yin-Yang Orbs, she uses them in most, almost all incidents she work in, either as a normal shot (usually with homing properties) or as bullets for her spell cards. Aside from this, the other projectile she uses is a large collection of throwing needles hidden within her sleeves.

Appearance

She has medium-sized breasts, slightly sexy curvy hips, brown-black hair, her eyes are brown, but she still wears a red ribbon and matching tubes on her sidelocks. a sleeveless red top with a white collar, tied with a red ribbon, and a pair of white detached sleeves which exposes her sarashi. Due to the color scheme, she's occasionally called the "red-white shrine maiden". Her shaman clothing and her purification rod came from Rinnosuke Morichika, but it's unknown who designs them.

Relationship

Marisa Kirisame: Reimu’s closest friend is Marisa Kirisame, and the two of them spend most of their time together. They are seen together most often where they hang out at the shrine together, chatting about the latest rumors and news in Gensokyo. Reimu and Marisa often quarrel and spar with each other, for reasons ranging from resolving incidents to hotpot ingredients. Regardless, they usually resolve their differences and continue being as close as ever. They’ve also worked together on numerous occasions, such as when they chased down an enenra, or worked to exterminate a vengeful spirit. Though generally, they solve incidents at their own pace. Yukari Yakumo: Despite her antagonistic personality, Yukari Yakumo mentors Reimu by pushing her to increase her spiritual powers, such as learning how to invoke the gods. In that case, Reimu followed her instructions and orders to train hard despite Yukari not informing Reimu why she needed to do so, displaying how much Reimu either trusts Yukari or has decided it's pointless to argue with her (or both). Yukari occasionally seeks Reimu's assistance in resolving incidents in Imperishable Night incident and Subterranean Animism incident. In this regard, she is an employer of sorts, as she remarks about compensating Reimu accordingly during the Imperishable Night incident. Yukari is also secretly a benefactor as well, donating to the shrine behind Reimu's back. Reimu is unaware of that, however. Suika Ibuki: Suika Ibuki, who often freeloads her shrine after the events of Immaterial and Missing Power incident, was also one of her allies during Subterranean Animism. Reimu saw Suika's presence as a nuisance at first, but never really bothered with driving her away. Aya Shameimaru: Aya Shameimaru, who frequently writes articles about Hakurei Shrine, was another ally during the events of Subterranean Animism incident. Reimu finds her to be an annoyance, but they don't mind helping each other occasionally, such as when Reimu gave Aya information to try and expose Miyoi Okunoda as a youkai. Rinnosuke Morichika: Reimu is familiar with Rinnosuke Morichika, a shopkeeper who owns Kourindou, who she sometimes visits to hang out or for wares (and sometimes shoplifts). She apparently has a large unpaid tab for requested items and services, but denies it since Rinnosuke "never accepts money" (which he denies being the case). Rinnosuke was also the one that originally prepared her purification rod for her use. Sanae Kochiya: Sanae Kochiya: Despite being the priestess of a rival shrine, Sanae Kochiya is on friendly terms with Reimu and appears frequently in Wild and Horned Hermit incident alongside Reimu and Marisa. She came on a bit strongly when she and Reimu first met, but she really thought she was helping the Hakurei Shrine out by attempting to get it to switch gods to Kanako Yasaka. After Mountain of Faith incident, Sanae offered to help Reimu as a fellow shrine maiden to gather faith for the shrine, and she appears to have been friends with Reimu since then. Nonetheless, the two have no qualms about antagonizing the other at times, though these quarrels are usually resolved by the next time they meet. Kasen Ibaraki: Kasen Ibaraki is a regular at the shrine and acts as a mentor (and sometimes guardian) of Reimu, whom she fears is too concerned with worldly desires. Kasen actually initially became Reimu's mentor as part of her own plan, but she continues to view herself as a mentor after her goals were achieved. Reimu mostly thinks of Kasen as a nagging, preachy busybody. However, Reimu often concedes, either because Kasen is usually right or she doesn't want to deal with her. Kasen is openly critical of Reimu, believing her to be too greedy and slack in her duties. In spite of this, Reimu views Kasen as a genuine friend. When fighting Kasen's arm, Reimu was unable to bring herself to fight Kasen whole-heartedly until she realized that the arm battling her was actually a separate entity from Kasen. By the present day, Reimu knows that Kasen is secretly an oni, but partially due to this friendship and partially due to owing Kasen for all the money that one of Kasen's schemes got her, Reimu can't tell anyone else about it.