Favorite Touhou Characters

 

I've recently completed going over the final Touhou game and because the Touhou fandom seems fairly focused on favorite characters, I decided to go over my top 10 list of favorite characters in the series, plus a few other notes about the series.

Broadly there were three recurring metrics that placed one Touhou character over another for me:

1: Agency within the story, decisions that change things. This is often but not always correlated with their actual power.

2: Wisdom and/or Sensibility. Are they depicted as making reasonable and logical decisions? Do they develop as a character based on their experiences?

3: Their interactions with other characters, particularly if they're usually starting problems, or are they show heavy loyalty either to a superior or to their group.

 I hope you enjoy.

Top 10 Favorite Characters in Touhou:

10: Sanae Kochiya: In a world as surreal and combat-heavy as Touhou, Sanae was a breath of fresh air. She's a character from the real world, a trait shared by few other characters, and Sumireko wasn't exactly providing a relatable character for me. Sanae proved a wholesome alternative to Reimu, reflecting closer to the real-world values of wholesomeness.

9: Tewi Inaba: Yes, I'm a fan of the rabbits, I'll hold for your surprise. Tewi is suggested to be the same as the legendary folklore character the white rabbit of Inaba. Tewi was an example of both sides of the rabbit stereotype of fiction, befitting her inspiration being both a cutesy figure and also a trickster figure. Her relationship with Reisen was funny, and her manga chapter from Wild and Horned Hermit depicting the origin of Yokai rabbits is one of the most memorable parts of the series.

8: Mononobe no Futo: Futo is mostly known for her one gag, and I do like language-based gags like Futo's deliberately archaic speech pattern. I also like her for her cute relatable personality, one based on being apparently a "scaredy-cat" afraid of change. Similarly, I like her loyalty to her master Miko. Loyalty is one of the virtues I enjoy most in characters, which will probably be seen by the rest of the list. I also enjoyed her team-up with Ichirin that allowed the two of them to do better than even their quarreling masters could, a really good and subtle metaphor. 

7: Byakuren Hijiri: To be totally honest, in her debut game I wasn't that fond of Byakuren. I don't think that game shows her in the best light as it seemed hypocritical of an enlightened Buddhist representing compassion to be violent and against humans. However, as time goes on she gets much more development and her kindness and compassion get better demonstrated. I think she's a very sweet character and an interesting contrast to her rival, and I think she has an interesting place in a universe as focused on combat as Touhou.

6: Yukari Yakumo: Yukari started out as not just the most interesting character in Touhou, but the character that seemed clearly written to be. She gave me shades of Yuuko Ichihara, a character who is top ten worthy of my favorite characters of all time as a powerful, playful, chaotic but ultimately good-aligned magical woman of extreme but nebulous power. Her powerset and interactions were all very interesting and she was instrumental for Silent Sinner in Blue to happen. The only reason she's not in the top 5 isn't she hasn't done that much lately.

5: Toyosatomimi no Miko: Miko's a lot like Yukari for me. She's a very powerful and interesting character whose best content was around when she was introduced. I loved her team and her position in them. I thought she had a much more proactive goal than most of the characters in the series with interesting yet clear powers, a fun funny personality, yet enough humility to recognize when she was outclassed. However, while her best stuff was a while back, she's been a bit more active than Yukari since then and still gets involved or at least sends her forces to be. 

4: Sakuya Izayoi: Sakuya was originally my favorite character in the series and while I liked Reimu and Marisa fine, I can't say the series wouldn't have been noticeably improved if the two main characters were Sakuya and Sanae. Sakuya is one of the most impactful characters in the series, probably the third-most main character in the series, yet her impact is all positive. From her introduction, she instantly proved to be more of an elegant and serious character than other playable characters, at least trying to avoid excessive fights, and motivated strictly by loyalty to her lady and adopted family, a highly admirable quality. She has a really cool iconic type of power, and as a Tokyo Mew Mew fan, I can say I like the aesthetic. 

3: Okina Matara: Probably the most immense presence of any Touhou character, Okina steals the scene every time she shows up and shows an immense amount of agency and pro-activeness. Her goals are left ambiguous, yet clear enough that she doesn't feel like a deus ex machina and she's been absolutely fundamental to multiple games so far. I greatly enjoyed every one of her appearances, and I really enjoyed her procession of titles in her introductory game. It's possible that like Yukari and Miko, she'll slowly be used less and less and perhaps lower slightly in the ratings. Time will tell if the Hidden God maintains her seemingly absolute presence.

2: Eirin Yagokoro: My favorite part of Touhou was the lore connected to the Moon. Once again, I'll hold for you to recover from the shock that a Sailor Moon fan would be interested in a mystical moon kingdom. The Lunar Culture is the most interesting lore of Touhou because it's so different and Eirin is perhaps emblematic of that different feeling. Eirin is great in every regard. Her motive, loyalty to the exiled Lunarian Princess Kaguya is perfect; immediately sympathetic, evocative and gives her agency. Her powers are interesting for the series and powerful but clear in their limits. She's essentially a super-genius with access to god-tier medical abilities but lacks understanding of the non-Lunarian world. Even her aesthetic is on point, I enjoy the nurse aesthetic well. Despite being no older than my number one character, Eirin was, for probably the majority of the series, my favorite character. But as of now, there's one character I like even more who was introduced in the same game...

1: Reisen Inaba: Like I said, Sailor Moon fan, and this one is LITERALLY "tsukino usagi." More seriously my favorite part of Touhou was the Lunarian lore, and my favorite part of THAT was the Lunarian rabbits that Reisen represents. Reisen is a character that's interesting in a lot of ways. She's got a tragic backstory that informs her personality, agency, interesting interactions with several characters on this list, and fun powers. She's just in general a super versatile character. That alone put her high, but the thing that put her close to the top was her ending in Urban Legend in Limbo, which is my favorite part of the entire series. In a conversation between Reisen and Eirin, even Eirin, Reisen's master didn't know what to make of the events upon the Earth and suggested they should stay neutral but Reisen declares herself an Earth rabbit and chooses to help anyway, a moment that gave me flashes of my favorite series.

Some other Categories:

Honorable Mention:

Kasen Ibaraki: Would have been #11. Was really good, especially in her own manga. However, a lot of the top characters I picked between because I liked the interactions with other characters I really liked and Kasen doesn't interact that much with a lot of the other characters in the top ten. She had a really good one with Miko where Miko recognized Kasen's hidden power due to her wisdom and humbled herself immediately and she briefly interacted with Yukari at one point, but more would probably have put her on the list.

Most Underused Character:

Medicine Melancholy: Had a really interesting concept and associated powerset, reminding me of the Pisces Gold Saints from Saint Seiya. However, she only shows up with any notability in ONE game and has little prominence in any of the manga that I can recall. She easily had the potential to be on this list but there was just so little content about her.

Most Character Development:

Reimu Hakurei: Honestly, it's not really a surprise, most series have the central protagonist get the lion's share of character development. Reimu's character development is hard to see the full arc of, at least at the moment. It seems to be one however of coming to develop empathy and an ability to understand the feelings of others, something Reimu usually doesn't do due to her highly eccentric viewpoint, and broadly growing more pro-social. 

Least Character Development:

 

Cirno: Had an entire game to herself, still didn't develop because jokes.

Favorite Story:

Silent Sinner in Blue: Great manga, characters feel a lot more motivated than usual, focused on the Lunarian lore, my favorite part of Touhou. Also has cool concepts everywhere like Reimu invoking Amaterasu's power or Gensokyo's version of space travel. Has my favorite story for Yukari, and includes Eirin and the Rabbits prominently. 

Favorite Game Story:

Hopeless Masquerade: Due to being the only game to focus on it, probably the best depiction of Miko and Byakuren's conflict. All the characters in this game have strong motivation beyond just "something weird's going on, let's find out what it is." In this game to restore the spirits of the humans, the followers of each religion; Reimu's Shintoism, Byakuren's Buddhism, and Miko's Taoism are all striving to spread their faith to restore the people's spirit in their direction. Plus all the other characters have their own related motivates whether it's supporting their leader or just trying to get a profit from the conflict like the Kappa. There are a lot of small good things about the game's story, but broadly all the characters have proactive agency and compelling motivations.

Favorite Game Cast:

Imperishable Night: Introduces Tewi (technically), Eirin, and Reisen. All the other new characters are at least above average for the cast as well. Of the eight returning characters that are playable in four teams of two, it includes Sakuya on one team and Yukari in another