Reimu: The Ability to Never Lose | Touhou Video Essay
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- Hakurei Reimu from The Touhou Project has a particularly interesting special ability - an ability that could be considered the strongest among them. In this video essay, I take a deep dive into the Touhou Canon to go over what this ability is and what it is truly capable of. My hope is that fans of the series new and old learn at least a bit from my findings.
Songs Used
PRISM - Hatsunetsumiko's
Alice Maestra ~ Flow My Tears, the Said - Demetori
Eternal Shrine Maiden [Piano] - Karasu
Maplelove - Poplica, Syrufit
0:00 Reimu's Secret Ability
1:40 Origins of Float
3:44 Marisa's Explanation
5:18 Floating in Action
8:01 Nature of Floating
9:33 Outro
►Twitter: / gensouchronicle
►Artist Twitter: / sublime29854745 - Фільми й анімація
![ПОЛНАЯ ИСТОРИЯ ЭКЗОРЦИЗМА [Топ Сикрет]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qBySr6Bt0B8/mqdefault.jpg)
When she tries too hard, she fails. This even describes how her 'get rich quick' schemes fail... but she somehow gets by on a diet of mostly tea and rice. And in some interpretations, her only problem is what she frets over the most; visitation and donations at the shrine. It's kinda crazy how omnipresent in her life this would be if this were all tied to this. It would be a force of Nature, indeed.
Yeah, her get rich quick bit is another good example of this.
A fantasy nature if you will
Yukari has stated that she together with Reimu and Yuyuko would be no match for Eiki Shiki. Who's main ability is establishing Good and Evil.
Reimu is by no means infallable and omnipotent.
In Wild and Horned Hermit she was incapable of escaping Hell, instead bringing her own physical body to her spirit. She also wasn't entirely serious against Kasen at the beginning of her fight, yet Kasen was still dominating Reimu in battle. Reimu also didn't exactly seem serious about destroying Kasens arm, yet was unable to do so.
As transcendent as Reimus abilities seem, there are limits, just like how Yukari's abilities seem to make her unbeatable, she does acknowledge Lunarians as superior to her. Yukari having waged war against Lunarians and lost.
@@whitefox3189But in the end, no matter what you do, no matter how many small battles you won, Reimu will still stand on the top and win the great scale of war
Ability: The power to bend the world towards her perception of reality
Drawback: Eternal poverty and annoying visitors
Drawback: Too lazy to care.
Drawback:you don't know you have it or why it is happening
Drawback: ...Unless you're trying
is that really a drawback?@@GensouChronicle
Reimu the type of character to walk off a cliff, float in the air for a few seconds, look down and only then start falling.
Reimu's ability literally be like: unbothered, moisturized, happy, in my lane, focused, flourishing.
I had someone make that image on twitter as I was editing this lol.
@@GensouChronicle pics or didn't happen 😎
@@TheOVJM I'd post a direct link if I could. Check my twitter lol
@@GensouChronicle KEKW, absolutely brilliant
Hakurei Reimu's ability is the most creative plot armor ive ever seen, change my mind.
It's fitting inside and out of the narrative. Very cool.
For me not even plot armor look like Defy logic example her Luck being positive happy nature not being full serious in fight increase her luck, her being serious is negative effect for her make her lose, Some time in Manga or Novel or Game she being beat by Marisa or Other, Anime Reimu able win there Marisa or friends support her that why she able win because she having fun and not think about win or lose.
Up there with bullshit like Naegi's Ultimate Luck and shit
Medaka: *hold my box*
fr tho, medaka's whole schtick is, whatever you can do, she can do better. Goku can fire kamehameha? Well she can fire a stronger one. But tbh tho when two characters with reality altering abilites clash it's just a paradox on who will win
@@littleswansplaygrownd6817 yep Medaka's ability is basicaly "i'll counter your bullsh*t attacks with MY bullsh*t attack"
Yeah it makes sense how Reimu's main motivation in most of the games is her begrudgingly dealing with a nuance that's interfering with her daily routine. She has almost no plan to figure out who is behind the incident besides flying out in a direction and fight people until she finds the culprit, AND IT WORKS. I can't remember which game it was but a character asked Reimu how she figured out they were involved in the incident and Reimu more or less says "I just keep fighting suspicious looking characters until I find the one behind it all, oh look I think I see another one now"
Reimu will always solve any incident because to her it's just a mild annoyance getting in her way of slacking off. Not with sure resolve and determination, but from the fact she's lazy and wants to put the bare minimum effort into getting the whole thing over with.
"It just works. "
The downside is a lot of people having their Eirin's clinic bills increased.
You can't solve incidents with just violence, but extreme unjust violence will do
I think that line may be in Imperishable night but I could be wrong LOL but I do know what line you're talking about and I agree with your points as well
I've always liked the headcanon that Fantasy Heaven is the ability Reimu uses to enforce the Spell Card Rules; basically, if an enemy decides they don't want to follow the rules, Reimu decides it doesn't matter, and that everything will work out in the end anyway... And in doing so, she becomes indestructible.
Reimu has one of the most interesting and coolest powers in fiction I've ever seen. I know liking a character just because they have a cool superpower is shallow, but I think I really works in Reimu's favor. It is reflective of her of desire for fantastical paradise in where people can disregard their smallest opposition toward another and just enjoy the simplicity of life. You are the first in this space to bring this to the forefront of Reimu's character. Very cool analysis.
I think it's a cool power specifically because of how it's utilized in both a story fashion, and in a meta sense. The funny thing is, I can still do an entire video about Reimu as a character and talk about so much more. An old thought in the community was that all the characters are shallow and have no personality. I want to eventually just, completely shatter that with a single video.
Power or lack of power is an extension of character and is intrinsically linked. Was it something they obtained through effort or through birth? How did that power shape their upbringing? How do they themselves and others perceive/treat them because of that power? How do they use that power? How do they use that power compared to other characters with similar powers? What do they use their powers for?
@@mightza3781 "Was it something they obtained through effort or through birth?"
As an aside, this question here is a big deal of why Reimu and Marisa work so well as foils to each other. They're nature and nurture, almost personified. Much of Reimu's power was talked about here, how it's something she was born with and that works best the less conscious thought she puts into it. Marisa has no powers to speak of. Learning magic is trivial in Gensokyo, even a school teacher can do it. Yet that was Marisa's path to power. She is a completely mundane human with no innate supernatural abilities to speak of. In a world where magic is as trivial as it is in Gensokyo, she is the goddamn Batman. Yet she still has achived much. And all of those achievements were reached through her blood, sweat and tears. Through countless hours of focused study, practice and experimentation. More than any other character, Marisa earned everything she has. She is the anti-Reimu.
I still could not comprehend that Imperishable Night was supposed to be the final touhou game, just the amount of fanworks and culture that came after that game is already mind boggling.
As for Reimu, her ability really is ridiculous, but also kinda sad(?) In a way, the fact if she ever puts any real effort in something, she will most likely fail. Meanwhile if she decides to just not care and "Go with the flow" things just goes her way? I can see why Marisa would be somewhat jealous of Reimu.
Looking forward to that second world build video! Can't wait!
There's certainly a basis for a lot of fanworks that talk about Marisa's jealousy towards Reimu. Poprication is a doujin group that mainly does Reimu-Marisa works (and is still active even to this day). They definitely have a good grasp of Reimu's ability to float. Their Like a Star trilogy is one of my absolute favorite fan works.
Imagine if Reimu tried to start a relationship with a guy and she's extremely infatuated. It would be sad.
@@LaGuaridadeChaz maybe her ability explains the lack of men in gensokyou then.....
@@Lordilucas12 she fucking murdered them all... wow
It's not like she's destined to fail if she tries, it's just that if she puts real effort in, she can't use her ultimate power. I suppose if she can learn to try without effort, she would be able to use that ability truly at will.
This is absolutely crazy, yet makes so much sense. Reimu isn't just floating in the air, she's floating on the surface of reality. The less she agitates her natural buoyancy over the dimension of Gensokyo, the calmer reality would be, like a gentle surface of water. Reimu being serious at something is akin to someone thrashing around on water surface, which ironically would only make them sink more instead. And when Reimu sinks into reality, that's where her nature to "float" is disturbed, and thus becoming one with the full force of reality once more.
the best explanation of her powers I've seen. I do like that her ability is basically the same as the sort of flow state you can get in when playing the game whereas the moment you start getting tight and start sweating the situation, you lose haha
On a side note, the drawings were cool.
edit: upon actually reading the comments, turns out that I'm not the first to point out the connection to the player exp which is funny. makes me wonder if that aspect of her ability was a happy coincidence or not since it seems like it was a last minute addition to her character.
Haha, yeah. I think it's completely plausible it was on purpose.
So basically Reimu falls into an awake sleepwalk whenever her natural ability activates.
It also works like an alternate version of Koishi's ability where she can unconsciously alter her surroundings without even realizing it. It would also explain why there's always a peaceful aftermath once Reimu takes care of everything if she actually can that is.
Yeah, that's my favorite part about it. The iconic 'and then they had a party with the bad guys and became friends' ending to every Touhou game is born from Reimu specifically.
Reimu wins by doing absolutely nothing.
Great video! I thought I knew how Reimu's ability works but I learned something new lol.
Luigi taught her well.
I've always seen Reimu as a savant, being naturally gifted in one field but lacking in some other. When she's in her groove nothing can stop her, but second she gets out her comfort zone she fails. I've always liked this because it does humanize her. Despite how _literally_ untouchable Reimu is, she is as prone to failing, if not more, when something gets under her skin.
Yeah, she's perfectly capable of failure as seen many times in canon. She a goofball at times, oblivious, but when it matters, she gets stuff done.
Well, she's also not any wiser or more intelligent than your average 16 years old girl. If we give everyone in Gensoukyo an IQ test she's the kind of person who will score exactly between 95~105.
If the ability makes her unable to lose how do you explain my 200+ fails in Subterranean animism using Reimu Ze?
You were trying too hard! Be like Reimu and don't think! Just hit the buttons!
Skill issue.
"AcKUaLlY tHE mOrE YoU tRy tHE MorE yOU sUcXeDSs 🤓🤓🤓"
You were putting in too much efforts bro
Just go with the flow
I forgot the details a bit, but I recall that Reimu's teleporting abilities, primarily demonstrated in the fighting games, are likewise a result of her innate ability... and that apparently, she does this unconsciously. She doesn't try to warp around, she just gets so into the flow of the battle that little things like "where in space she currently is" stops being a concern.
It's really crazy to think that the less effort she puts into things, the more likely they are to go her way (which is also why her get-rich-quick schemes don't work, since she's actually trying during those).
Yeah, I think someone else mentioned Aya pointed out she was teleporting without even realizing.
I also feel like, due to the fact that it's "the one single skill that can only be used with her innate innate ability", there's a secondary non-innate factor to her teleportation: her role as the Hakurei Maiden. Seeing as the role of the maiden is to functionally work as a border between the fantastical and realistic, I feel like there is some ability to define borders, define here and there as a line on a map. And like many borders, one can simply walk across it, in a way similar but opposite to Yukari's gaps allowing her to teleport. Her "floating" would be why she would be unaware of it, basically crossing borders without knowing.
Or maybe I just have a headcanon based on an English translation.
Might be why her track record is...less than stellar.
It wasn't until Urban Legend in Limbo that she got a canon fighting game win that stuck.
In Sunken Fossil, she got trounced by the final boss.
And in the latest two manga series, she's accomplished pretty much nothing, despite how dedicated she is in those two.
It really says something that she became LESS useful in the Detective Satori manga when she decided to put her back into it, committing herself to tasks that ultimately only help the culprit. And the current arc has her waste her time at the Myouren Temple, with the implication that she's barking at the wrong tree and the culprit isn't in the temple. At this rate, the manga will end with her finding out that Flandre just perma-killed the evil spirit offscreen while Reimu was running around like a headless chicken...and then try to turn that into a cash-grab that falls flat on it's face.
@WillOfTheWinds Seems logically consistent with Reimu's ability to "float," so to speak. Reimu is so good at just being, well, Reimu, that when she is most in character, she is at her strongest. The times when she deviates from her easygoing attitude seem to be the times when Reimu is at her weakest. Her state of mind is her source of power, and if an opponent can goad Reimu into a different mood, that will probably give them the edge to defeat her. So basically, it's not that Reimu is impossible to win against. It's that Reimu needs to be psychologically manipulated, or you will lose.
One of the best ways I've seen this detail about Reimu used as a tool to interpret character is how it makes her relate to Marisa. Obviously, Reimu and Marisa are a duality and are foils to each other, who riff off each other in many ways. But arguably the single biggest dichotomy between them is because of this power of Reimu's: Reimu is pure, unthinking, untrying talent, whereas Marisa is skill all the way down. Marisa worked herself to the bone for every ounce of power that she has and she CONTINUES to work for that talent. This incredible work ethic is arguably the main reason why Marisa refuses to become a youkai magician! That would be cheating. That would be taking the easy way out, and not having to obtain all that power through her own hard work.
Reimu, on the other hand, has never trained a day in her life and actively gets WORSE if she tries. It's very easy to see how Marisa would be jealous of such literally effortless power, but as Reimu's best friend, Marisa is also one of the few who understands how Reimu's ability works. So Marisa knows that it's simply a difference between them, and we later even learn that Marisa takes great pride in being second to Reimu. Because being second to Reimu means you're the second-best of EVERYONE. Not a bad place to be!
Yeah, I mentioned this is another comment regarding this topic, but the circle poprication tackles this topic really well with their doujin series. They even go into Reimu's float ability.
This is so well said!!
Just in case this might be of interest to someone, the ongoing doujin The Magician Who Loved a Fake explores a bit of this dynamic, too, with a big focus on Marisa's jealousy, her dedication to being hard at work, and her complicated relationship to becoming a youkai magician
(and I take good note of poprication for future readings!)
thats why in imperishable night, she tries so hard to make reimu lose it.
Guess that's why it make sense that no force inside Gensokyo can beat the shrine maiden in principle, no matter how strong or crafty they are. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden are both representative and the conduit of the Hakurei Shrine power itself, which include both it border and it nature, so to go against it is to go against the providence of the land, as well as fantasy itself, of which all the resident now live within. Even if they win, they lose, and that's if they're even capable of winning in the first place, simply due to how Reimu can just float away from her problem and farm graze point.
Edit: Oh yeah, there is another Rinnosuke chapter in which it show how Reimu can just simply *read* Fate Itself, because it's just plainly there in front of her. That combine with her knowledge about space, barrier and border mean she really does just live in a different layer of the world.
Nicely put. And yeah, that chapter almost made it into the video as well.
Well, why in manga she cant win Kasen without Tenshi's help then?
@@user-cd5fm3hh9k Her ability stops functioning during that fight specifically.
WaHH also shows how to mess with it as Ibaraki Douji's Arm had such clear malicious intent and power that it caused Reimu to acknowledge the threat, causing her ability to not work properly. Instead she had to win by using the Onikimaru shard as a conduit.
Good point!
That got me realized WaHH is probably her very first fight against anything clearly malicious on-screen. And that also explains why Reimu is so powerless against Mizuchi in that detective manga too.
I accidentally read the thumbnail as "The Strongest Bully" and I think it is still correct.
This man just comes out of the blue half a year ago and just drops consistent and high quality Touhou content, I only want more.
To be fair, I've had time to think about a lot of these topics... I wanted to start back in 2019, but unfortunately I can't quite float away from all my roadblocks like Reimu.
Aya also has a probably-relevant comment on Reimu's last spell in Double Spoiler, stating that Reimu doesn't seem to realize she's teleporting.
Her teleporting abilities don't really get spoken of, they're mostly just shown, be it in her other IN spells or (pretty consistently) in the fighting games. Aya seems to speak of it like it's a part of musou tensei as described, though.
Thanks for pointing that out.
She can see borders and walk through them by instinct.
Love your editing style, dude.
Also I love how this ability can mirror the player and how they treat the games. The lord knows that once I get into the "zone", I start doing worse when someone snaps me out of it or I get too greedy and desperate to win.
Thanks! I'm actually hoping to improve my style a bit more with the next few videos. I use Adobe PP, but I've been ignoring templates this whole time lol. Everything is being done by hand. So I'm hoping those will make the videos look even better and save some time while doing it.
And yeah, it certainly can mirror the player. The better you get, the less your nerves will get to you, and you succeed!
"I can clear this spellcard, I don't need to bomb"
-Absolutely EVERY time I get hit
Once I tried very hard to beat a boss but failed and I stopped playing for some days then came back with a careless mood and beat the boss
Something I find interesting is that in Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, there is a shrine maiden that was also described as very distant, and was seen blending with the rain as it falls and disappearing. I wonder, is this a power all Hakurei shrine maidens have?
I believe that's very much a possibility.
I always presumed the shrine maiden was Reimu tbh. Apart from the design change (which makes sense, Reimu's design wasn't standard at the time) there doesn't seem to be anything that really suggests it's not Reimu and in one of the stories, it really sounds like Reimu.
@@okuu5091 I believe it isn't because the design change is very different. I doubt ZUN would portray Reimu with such a different look even if it wasn't standard at the time. Besides, DiPP also took place a long time in the past, and Reimu hasn't been around for that long. Unless you also believe in the theory Reimu might be the Hakurei god or the theory that Reimu reincarnates ig
@@internetlurker1850 There's not much to suggest that it's set in the past, apart from the presence of opium, which admittedly can't be as easily explained by being Gensokyo as usual due to the implied familiarity, but then again, opium was never a popular thing in Japan. It's entirely possible Gensokyo just has its own supply of opium. I honestly don't think the shrine maiden looks very different from Reimu, it's not like she didn't wear a similar hat in the PCB ending. She's just too similar to Reimu, personality wise.
@@okuu5091But her clothing's (slightly, sure, but they're both shrine maidens so whatever) different, hair is different, hat is different, I just do not see that being Reimu. Also what do you mean by " it's not like she didn't wear a similar hat in the PCB ending", which PCB ending so I can look it up, because I don't remember seeing that.
And it's also at least pre-EoSD, since there seems to be no presence of spellcard rules.
ZUN game reimu powerful plot armor
The most powerfulerest.
I'm so happy that someone else is discussing this aspect of Reimu. I realized the nature of this ability when researching her, and since then I've been obsessed with the idea that she secretly has one of the most subtly overpowered abilities in the whole series.
It falls a bit into her personality as well. I could do an entire video just talking about her character and personality.
Whoa, this makes the contrast between her and Marisa even more pronounced. Marisa being someone who only stays relevant by trying as hard and working as much as she possibly can, and who loves fighting and sticking her nose into places it doesn't belong, almost a complete opposite to Reimu's desire to have a peaceful life. I'd love to see a video about Marisa next!! (if only so I can hear someone else talk about my favorite character and gush about how cool she is) Great video!
Marisa is a bit harder to do. She's a fun character for sure, but she doesn't have this ridiculous meta effect like Reimu does. I'd definitely make one on Marisa if I figured out an interesting script for her.
When you said "ability to float", my mind was instantly led to think of some kind of control over the body's density, as the physical property of floating can be taken as a relationship between the density of the body and the density of the environment in which it is immersed (either in water or air). But the idea of Reimu having the ability to just "go with the flow" and get better results makes a lot more sense to me, not always the amount of effort put into something will generate the same amount of result. Sometimes when I put a lot of effort into my work I end up frustrated with the results obtained, once frustrated regardless of the time or effort I dedicate, I always get unsatisfactory results, at these times, the ability to relax and simply enter your own world is really amazing.
Well, this is why I like to think of G Free as an unofficial theme of Reimu's. G meaning Gravity. Free from anything holding her back.
In Silent Sinner in Blue Reimu already knows she is going to lose to Yorihime before the fight even starts. She says that the bad guys always lose and since she believes herself to be the bad guy in the situation her defeat is guaranteed.
I will even add two quotes from Reimu in the same chapter "This is just like that time before with Kanako." and "You can't fight gods and youkai the same way"
She canonically lost to Kanako but she resolved the incident in the end. Not so much because Kanako abandoned her plans, but especially thanks to the rule of Spell Cards which, among other things, authorizes rematches (which makes a link with the continues in the gameplay)
I saw one of @GensoChronicle answer "Reimu IS defeatable. When she tries to make a serious effort, her ability doesn't function as it should. But regardless of that, her ability prevents a situation where losing would have any long term negative effects. Everything will always go Reimu's way in the long term."
I agree. If she gets emotional or doubts, her minds is not really "free" and maybe she can't use her ability. I love that side because it's give her a very human strengh-weakness. About gods, in Touhou they must be above reality and Reimu's ability may be less useful against them.
I admit that I came at first because the title appealed to me like, "wait, it's not true?" but now I understand the meaning ^^ Good video ;)
@@Kerosan_of_Gensokyo The rematches are a very important part of the spell card rules. Most of the youkai who start incidents don’t actually want their incident to succeed. They are just doing it to show off their power and promote the idea that any one of them absolutely can and will destroy everything in gensokyo if people like the Hakurei shrine maiden don’t keep them in check. But if Reimu loses then that causes a huge problem because nobody actually wants gensokyo destroyed but the youkai also can’t be seen to go back on their plans either so what happens then? Well just have a rematch and hope Reimu doesn’t screw up again. And if she does then use yet another continue. There is a breaking point though where if you have to use too many continues the charade starts to fall apart and its game over.
Personally I think the spell card rules were designed because the last Hakurei died failing to resolve an incident causing a massive problem so everyone agreed to these new rules to prevent that from happening a second time.
The fight in Silent Sinner in Blue is really fascinating due to Reimu actually having a plan to use bullets of impurity and Yorihime has to catch Reimu off guard via experience in channeling Gods
Kind of makes me wonder about how whether Reimu could get weaker or stronger if she actually trains.
@@bingbong5076Id say it probably depends on how you train and more importantly how you use the training. If you use the training to synergize with fantasy nature then it could be very powerful. But if you are using your training instead of fantasy nature then it could end up hurting you. For example with crossing the river with the fish, Reimu is walking. Walking is a skill that you have to learn and eventually master to the point of doing it unconsciously. Some people even begin walking in their sleep because it becomes that natural for them. Because of that she is able to use it with fantasy nature to now have walking over a river. But if she was still learning how to walk and needed to pay attention to it then she would never be able to summon the fish like that. Likewise any other skill that you master to the point of performing it thoughtlessly can be used in parallel with fantasy nature and would make it more powerful.
Reimu also has the ability to be the silliest shrine maiden ever
I feel "Faith" is the word - walking with your right foot knowing that the left would follow without fail without even thinking - that is her faith in how things will always become right in gensokyo in the end.
_I may as well walk slowly, down this path where colors blend..._
_as, however fast or slow I go, I'm bound to reach the end._ ☯
I appreciated this essay so much! With wonderful examples, you really explained things in a way that brings out the bigger picture of what makes Reimu an interesting protagonist, and how she shapes the tone of the series. Abilities that integrate with personality will always be the best, and I'm satisfied at how well Reimu represents that. It also makes me feel really good to think about her contrast with Marisa (who, especially early on in my fandom, really embodied the value of "effort" to me). Thank you for the lovely perspective!
Thanks so much. I really appreciate her specifically as the main character for that reason.
i was just thinking about your song when i was watching this video!
How did you guys like this video? This was a fun topic to research! I hope you all also like the custom art that I managed to get made specifically for this video. I'll have a community post out later today to talk a bit more about it and the artist who did them.
Touhou is such an amazing series that, if you don't truly go deep inside you will never see the beauty of the series, touhou is probably my favorite series of all time (together with len'en), bcs like, an single man was capable of creating such an huge and beautiful universe all by his own (also reimu best protagonist)
Yup. I'm a lifelong fan at this point, and nothing is stopping that.
This video really changed my whole perspective on Reimu. I'll keep this in mind for my Touhou fanworks, because not only is this canon, but it's good canon. Thank you so much.
Glad to be of help. If you want some more inspiration on Reimu, I recommend checking out some of the fanworks written by poprication.
@@GensouChronicle Thank you for responding! And thanks for the recommendation too.
While Reimu is often compared to Yorihime, as Yorihime's channeling techniques make her what Reimu could be, if her shrine maiden abilities were fully realized, Toyohime is the counterpart to Reimu's inborn abilities: The ability to go anywhere as she pleases, and "good fortune".
Definitely feel like reimu will eventually become stupidly strong in the universe, since she already has some of the abilities of the strongest characters in touhou. Just not as refined.
This ability seems to be in-line with her TH13 parallel ending where seija posits that Reimu’s ability’s are based in Taoism and not actually Shinto. Through that lens, it makes sense that Reimu seems to have sage-like levels of mastery in things like combat where she simply “goes with the flow”, which is to say, “goes with the Tao”
Yeah, a lot of people I have talked to have made the connection that a lot of what I present here is pretty much one-to-one Taoism.
So, what I am interpreting, is that ZUN made Reimu’s plot armor an in-universe mechanic that can be perceived and analyzed just because he felt like it
I suppose you could look at it that way.
Very interesting video, at 7:28 the way reimu is described as seeing the a different world than the rest of us kinda reminds me of marble phantasms or reality marbles as described in the fate series where someone with such a different perspective can briefly impose their vision of the world into realty. Perhaps a better translation for float would be free of inhibitions?
It certainly feels almost like a reverse Reality Marble, yeah. Rather than creating a pocket dimension, Reimu simply exits everything.
I think 'float' is a fine translation, personally. I like how it parallels to 'flying'. But being free of inhibitions is certainly something the ability does.
@@GensouChronicle I love it too because flying implies intent and, to an extent, effort; floating is effortless and carries a stronger connotation of being free and unbound :)
I remember someone long ago (don't remember when, where, or by who) saying something about reimu's power like this (I can only write what I remember) :
"In my opinion, reimu is someone that seem to have ascended. Her ascencion puts her up there with gods, celestials and buddhas of our own mythology or even higher than them. It's as if the universe, multiverse, and even mathemathical dimensions will bow down and voluntarily bends to her will or give her an end or result that would make her happy. As if they suddenly becoming sentient just so they can bring happiness to her in their own way."
Something worth mentioning also, Reimu's spell (as a player) in Touhou 9 PoFV is "Go With The Flow", the exact same definition as you've described.
Is that so? I'm having trouble locating it, since it doesn't seem to be listed under spell cards in the wiki.
I don't think it's the spell's name, just phrase that goes with the little banner than on spell activation
Interesting take on Reimu’s ability. I’ve always interpreted it as “the ability to not be bound by logic” or just “the ability to negate/defy.”
It neatly ties together all her “supernatural” abilities we’ve seen in the canon: float/defy gravity, easily negate any seal, teleport (negate the continuity of space), and of course her fantasy nature (negate the opponent’s chance of winning).
Though it’s interesting that all of these abilities seems to only work when she’s doing them subconsciously. Maybe the moment she starts to think about the logic of these thing, her ability no longer works.
Yeah, that's sort of what it implies. The moment she becomes conscious of it, it stops. Sort of like how someone might start to manually breathe.
I always thought of Reimu as an aspect of a concept in Touhou, as whenever the ability's activated she essentially becomes to others what Gensoukyou is to us outsider humans.
Discovered this channel and I’m intrigued with more of these kinds of analysis on aspects of the touhou characters.
In regards to Reimu, it’s interesting describing her laid-back nature as being her greatest weapon.
Unless it’s a bigger crisis, it’s funny how if she tries to put effort to win, she’s loses.
However, when she takes it easy and floats in her fantasy world, Reimu’s power is unparalleled. She just wants to live a peaceful life floating along with no worries.
Yup. She's definitely one of the more interesting characters to analyze like this.
I have my own theory about Remu’s ability when she’s fighting that comes from that CoLA chapter you were talking about. You said that in that chapter Marisa’s attacks avoid Reimu, but Marisa insists that they are going straight. It’s Reimu herself who seems to think they are avoiding her.
This ties into what others have said about Aya’s comment in Double Spoiler where Reimu doesn’t seem to realise she’s teleporting. From Reimu’s perspective she’s travelling straight and the danmaku avoids her on their own, while everyone else sees Reimu avoiding the Danmaku in impossible ways (like by ‘teleporting’). When she’s ‘in the zone’ as you say, this is what fighting is like for her; from her perspective she doesn’t even need to try to win because the danmaku misses her on its own.
What’s interesting about this is that I think it reveals the true nature of Reimu’s so-called ability to ‘teleport’. Rinnosuke says in that chapter that ‘sometimes it looked like Reimu was teleporting’; he doesn’t say definitively that she is teleporting, but that she ‘looks like’ she’s teleporting. This ambiguous manner of speaking for me is the clue.
Like the fish in that chapter you mentioned, the world itself is moving to keep the ‘floating’ Reimu from losing. That is to say, in Reimu’s world SPACE ITSELF is bending and warping so that though Reimu thinks she’s travelling straight, in reality going straight is the same as curving around some incoming danmaku, or going straight is the same as passing through folded space and so practically teleporting as if she passed through a wormhole. She’s like a centre of gravity, like the sun (like her representative weather in SWR), and space itself warps around her. This line of thinking, as you hinted at in your video, extends into her personality and role at large in Touhou as well.
This probably explains why in Seihou, even when Reimu is probably at her strongest her wielding two gouheis instead of just one, ViVit manages to beat her on a battle especially right after fighting Marisa. Even that match is still a nightmare to do as the player, Reimu tried too hard especially in this scenario.
That's funny how it even works outside of Touhou.
I love how method you are, going the whole extra mile and properly translating from the Japanese and always qualifying what's fact and what's speculative. Top-notch content bro, it feels like I'm watching a mythical history video or something!
Thank you very much! I want to avoid putting any of my opinions or interpretations forth as hard facts. I want my video content to be regarded as a genuinely trustworthy source for learning the lore.
some see this floating as making one with the game, or subtly preaching for a healthier mindset even when playing a hard game, etc.
can't help but see that as a troll from zun though. figuring out a pattern and the counterplay around it is like a mental workout, and then you tell me reimu's strength is to be all "take it ez lemao" lore-wise. i thank god that marisa exists to truly embody the tryhard spirit.
anyway thank you for the vid. see you next time.
Glad you liked it.
Reimu's abilities have always creeped me out a little, I've always wondered why Reimu has them.
Nice vid, never thought much about other meanings of 浮く in this context, but it looks like I was missing out. Very observant of you, thanks for bringng that up. It was a really nice watch
Glad you liked it! Yeah, I've found that taking special care into observing the Japanese used by ZUN can reveal a lot.
What a great video, your editing is so good, audio mixing to visual, I was absorbing so much interesting informations and I love the pace at which you talk.
Glad to hear the extra hours spent editing pauses to perfect length and audio to the perfect equilibrium is appreciated.
hmm i wonder if her power could be directly or indirectly the reason y we don't see Mima anymore. From what i remember, Mima is the only serious villian from the series because she wanted revenge against the human race, this is a thing that wouldn't change about her and it would be in direct conflict with Reimu's ability, since she'd be the only character that wouldn't make peace later on (she literally had to be sealed away, which is unlike all of the other good endings in the series). So i think u could say that Reimu's ability literally 'willed' Mima out of existance, since her very being would be against Reimu's ideal world.
Please do more videos like this! These kinds of information are really intriguing
I plan to.
I love all your videos, the way you edit and narrate and the interesting stuff you talk about... keep the great content coming! And thanks a lot for it 😄
Much appreciated! More content is certainly on the way.
Really interesting interpretation of Reimu's ability. Congrats on doing such engaging and well put videos like that!
Thank you very much!
Good video! Love to see little analysis vids like this, esp when they dip into both the watsonian and doylist explanations of character stuff. 😺
I would like to do character analysis videos on some of the more fleshed out characters eventually, but that'll have to wait with how many ideas I keep getting. lol
An illusion or perceptual manipulation that makes Reimu see something “ideal” as something that’s actually bad, like her friends dying, could circumvent this ability.
Thank you for putting the names of the songs you used in the description, the ending song is beautiful. Also great video man! :)
No problem! Glad you liked that one. It's been one of my favorites for years and just felt like it fit here perfectly.
Really interesting video! I knew about her innate ability to “go with the flow” (which is basically the goal of Daoism, which might explain why she has Yin-Yang Orbs), but I didn’t realize she might unconsciously be warping every incident to have a peaceful resolution! Really adds a whole new perspective.
Yeah, this was a fun video to put together for sure.
The funniest part I find about this ability is that it's a really bad ability for a normal vs battle because normally the characters in these battles are assumed to be bloodlusted meaning that they are trying to do anything in their power to win the fight and since reimu can only use this ability when she's not taking things seriously it basically means in a normal vs battle this ability would never activate. And even if this ability did activate the ability itself is so vague that it would be extremely difficult to argue being a win condition for reimu in an actual versus Battle debate.
This is why I don't even bother with power level garbage.
Thing is, Reimu always naturally tries to go with the flow and activate Fantasy Nature, even in a real fight without spellcard rules she’d still be calm and laid-back. And, if she knows how to activate it… oh her opponent is in for a one-sided massacre
@@victorvirgili4447 She will always has Fantasy nature on if there is no spellcard rules then because of this 4:15 , that's acrually pretty op 2:59
This was a truly great and informative video, you really made clear how Reimu is and how her power work, like i read a lot about her but you're the only one who managed to tell everything about her on a clear and concise manner i even learned i couple of new things about her, i also love what you said about Gonsekyo bieng peacefully and always being on a good state thanks to Reimu's ability never tought about it but it does makes a lot of sense and actually answers why Yukari is so obssesed with her (also what's that thing about IN being the last game?)
once again great video pal
ZUN's original goal when he rebooted the series on Windows was specifically to make Imperishable Night. It was always within his plans to make a trilogy, and that would be the conclusion. However the series just got so popular he changed his mind and continued it.
My face when Reimu and Kenshiro have a power by the same name with simular effects.
Great video. I can't believe I've been a fan of Touhou for more than 10 years and I've missed this much about Reimu's powers. I wish we could get some more in depth details to her past and the Hakurei Maidens as a whole, but I dunno if getting too much into the past is something the main series would do now, even though ZUN did drop some more lore relevant characters like Okina being a sage and Misumaru being the creator of the Yin Yang Orbs... we'll just have to wait and see
He seems to be more willing to answer certain questions about the lore with his newest works these days, so here's hoping.
Reimu's float seems to be conceptual in nature, conceptual powers are always super op
ZUN likes giving characters abilities that can simultaneously be taken literally and every other way that they can be playfully interpreted, and have that ability do all of them simultaneously.
This was better than I expected initially, and I'm really happy for it. I love your editing style, too, thank you for doing videos like this
Glad you liked the video. And yeah, there's so much more that can be speculated with what we're given in canon. Which, is part of ZUN's intention to allow for fans to create their own derivative works.
Amazing video, love these deep lore dives 👍
Glad you like them!
Y'know, this is God-send of a video for me. Firstly, Reimu's my favorite character and getting more insight into her is a good thing. Secondly, I'm planning on writing a doujin work that delves heavily into Reimu herself (specifically through the lens of the work's main character) and getting more insight into how her ability works and how it would affect the way she views things or acts is invaluable. As an aside, I feel that ZUN is referencing Hokuto no Ken with this ability, at least to an extent, given that Kenshiro also has an ability that allows him to become intangible and flow through a fight. Also, that ability is named Musou Tensei, though I believe it utilizes different kanji and it translates different.
And with my little diatribe done, you've earned yourself a subscriber, my man. Keep up the great content!
So, first off, glad to hear you enjoyed it. Second off, it is 100% intended as a Hokuto no Ken reference and your description of their similarities and differences are spot on. Honestly, I probably should have added that bit of knowledge to the video, but it slipped my mind.
"She shines the most when relaxed and unbothered" hits like a fuck1ng truck, for some reason this feels so relatable. I loved this analyzis!
Glad you liked it.
Love this analysis, I never knew about this power of Reimu's. Musou Tensei is an interesting topic and I never knew about it until you made a video about it! Probably gonna dive more into it on my own, I always love learning about Touhou lore both in-game and in real life.
Glad to hear that you're planning to do your own dive into a new part of the lore. That's part of why I made this channel. To encourage people to look at the series in ways they might not have initially.
to an outsider, 2hu feels like a cryptid
sometimes i stumble upon it and leave even more confused than before
this is not one of those times
That's good. There are long time fans that watch even my simpler videos and come out confused.
Kenshiro 🤝 Reimu
Ultimate Technique being called “Musou Tensei”
I love this channel so much.
To affect the outcome of events through such intangible things without being conscious of it makes me think it's like the opposite of Sagume's power because she has to be extra conscious and aware while thinking backwards in order to directly change the course of future events in a favorable direction. at least, as far as I can tell.
This ability to foat sounds a lot like an in-universe explanation of her "protagonist powers". Think about it: Being able to dodge any and all attacks thrown at you and outclassing the most powerful Youkai and Gods despite impossible odds is basically a core gameplay mechanic of the Danmaku that Touhou is played as.
Of course from an in-universe perspective, this ability of hers would seem supernatural. and that's also why it's not a spell card. this is basically Reimu when ever she is solving Incidents.
It can definitely be interpreted that way. I was thinking about its parallels while making the video, and other watchers have also commented a similar vibe.
A very amazing video essay. I love it!
Glad you enjoyed it!
after looking into the comments a little, i realized that this ability is mirroring us touhou players, because the more we tryhard and get focused on winning, the more we're most likely to lose
asides that, this is a beautiful interpretation of the hakurei shrine maiden, nice work!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
I just found this channel goin through my usual dive into touhou lore and peoples interpretations of the series and i gotta say I love this channel so much. Wish there was a discord for it or somethin
Thanks!
As for the discord bit, it was something I considered a while ago. But after seeing the other touhou UA-camr servers, I decided it would be way more trouble than it's worth.
@GensouChronicle That's fair and understandable! Either way thanks for making rad content. And for prompting me to get even more into mythology and lore than I already was
This ability is what makes me love Reimu so much, it just sounds peaceful, ya know?
Anyways, great video as always. Been loving every single one!
Her ability can also explain why all the youkai love her too, I guess. haha
With such narrative, fits in wit the whole vibe of the story everytime as well, where a slice of life laid back resolution is always the case after a dark incident.
Yeah!
The ability to never loose
Right from the script.
When not caring makes you win.
Thank the youtube algorithm for showing me your content, idk how i woulda found it otherwise. But i enjoy your work a ton, its the side of the touhou fandom that i want to be a part of
UA-cam has gotten pretty good at recommending content to people outside of subscribers over the years. There's a few things I have a problem with it, but it's come a long way.
As always, great video
I appreciate that. Thanks!
Great video! Really explains some of the weirder parts regarding the canon. Also, doesn't everyone see floating as flying, but without the control part, like a ballon floating through the air? I always saw it that way.
I've seen a lot of people who took float quite literally.
Fantastic vid! I've heard that IN was supposed to be the final game in the series, but never saw where that came from, was it in an interview or an omake somewhere that ZUN said that was his intention? Fantastic content as always ❤
So, it was mentioned in several places I can't remember that this was his initial intention. I can only recall Volume 2 of Strange Creators' interview of him specifically talking about it (p36). The original idea wasn't to make '3 games' but to make Imperishable Night, and he naturally concluded it would need two games worth of set up for it to make sense. So Imperishable Night predates Embodiment of Scarlet Devil as a concept.
@@GensouChronicle thanks for the response ❤️
so her true power is to turn anything slice of life, what a baddass power
lol true.
@@GensouChronicle its what made me love touhou, the games are fun but the comfy universe lends itself to easily to CGDCT and it shows by how often doujins focus on just reimu doing reimu things
That's probably why she has the smallest hitbox in the danmaku games.
Makes sense.
smallest hitbox and has the most frames/margin-for-error for 'panic bombs' when you're about to get hit... all makes sense and fits well with her ability to drift away from danger and turn the tables.
I think the ability to "float" is better construed in English as the ability to "transcend reality". Although transcending something can imply no longer being part of it, I think it still fits better even if she is still partially grounded in reality when this ability is active.
Uh... subbed? This was a fantastic and interesting video, with way more effort put into it than I expected from an English speaking content creator.
I started playing Touhou back in about 2007 as I was getting into shmups. Loved the series, and I felt like it was really striking a chord in Japan. It's silly, but I felt like I stumbled into a cult phenomenon before it really popped at all in the west.
Just recently, I started playing STGs again and got recommended this video. I had no idea the English fanbase had grown so much. I'm going to stick around. Keep up the great work!
Sounds like you got into it around the time I did. Yeah, I've always loved the series but felt that there wasn't much that the English community brought to the table. My hope is to change that by bringing more people into it and by extension, bringing more creative interest into it.
@@GensouChronicle That's absolutely awesome. I think what you're putting out will do just that. I particularly like your use of explaining the Japanese translations. I'm pretty rusty, but I actually started learning Japanese around the same time as when I started playing. The English patches were not as readily available, and so a fair amount of the games, I played untranslated. Being able to tie in ZUN's original writings and their interpretations for the characters really made this one a lot of fun. I think that will really help draw interest!
I guess that would explain why Reimu's phrase in PoFV is translated "Go with the flow", I also noticed why Reimu lost in Hisoutensoku, was because she was just relaxing on the hotspring(i think thats how I remember her dialogue), when suddenly she fell down, which made her aware.
Very interesting video. This power kind of reminds me of the concept of Wuwei in Taoism.
It does!
Miko should get on that
From a purely physical, combative perspective, this ability is quite similar to how Ultra Instinct can be interpreted. It's the battle trance of battle trances: the ultimate way to win is to already be somewhere else. Put another way - if you just simply believe you've already won, there's no way you can lose.
In another similarity, Ultra Instinct was so difficult for Goku to perfect because Goku, unlike Reimu and closer to Marisa, is a pretty diehard "110% effort" kinda guy. It was hard for him to truly "let go" of himself, and thusly he never could really "train" his way into it. The secret was that he simply had to let his instincts take the wheel - something that Reimu does more often than not.
A lot of people have brought up this connection to Ultra Instinct since this video came out. I appreciate your explanation of it though. I believe that both of these abilities are based within Taoist beliefs, which focus on 'going with the flow' rather than trying too hard. I'm not super familiar with dragon ball inspirations and influences outside of Goku's major connections to Sun Wukong, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has major taoist principles within its sphere of influences.
Great presentation!
Glad you liked it!
The way I interpret it is that Reimu "Floats" by moving herself out of reality or moving her concept but still maintains her visual form so giving off the idea of Floating kind of like how clouds work it's there but you can't reach it but it can drop rain on you and the only way to reach it is to do roughly the same thing as Reimu did. That's why if Reimu flies at certain altitude she wouldn't have any contrails
So if Reimu feels lazy enough she can beat Goku. Got it.
No it's more of, if Reimu is lazy enough she will just avoid fighting Goku, or even she loses it won't have any long-term effects (which should be general for any fight against Goku). But it just makes me wonder to what length would Reimu's ability go, is it an absolute rule that can't be countered in any ways possible (which would just be a case for No Limits Fallacy), or it has a limit to it, so that it cannot work against someone way too stronger than her.
I really like how her ability mimics how I play the games. For some reason ZUN seems to have a much deeper understanding of the genre than I do. I should make 8 SHMUPs and see if I understand the genre that well after that.
Yeah, I would hope after making the same genre game for 25 years he'd know a thing or two lol.
Great video!
Thanks!
nice analysis
Thanks!
Very informative, will you make these kind of videos in future. I'd love to see an analysis upon Hecatia ability as it's only written as "Having three bodies".
So, that falls in line with her being directly pulled from Hecate the Goddess of a bunch of fun stuff who had three bodies. I talk about that a bit in my Obscure Facts video.
She sure as hell "floated" away from Yuugi feet in latest whale manga.
And i would assume that Reimu invincibility, like many other abilities is greatly blown out of proportion, especially after what we saw in Kasens bone-zone.