For the character ask game!! Reimu Hakurei 7, 8 and 12!!
7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?
I’m gonna be real with you fam I don’t actively engage with most of the touhou fandom that much (or any fandom, rly) and when I do it’s usually purely in relation the dumb obscure characters I care about rather than any of the main and/or popular characters. LOL!
I don’t really know a ton about what they’re doing with Reimu out there. Uhhh??? I like when people draw the little differences in of her outfits and appearances between games and don’t just default to what we’d consider the “standard” look. Those little flourishes - something new with her hair, a different kerchief, some extra lacework or embroidery - are always charming details to me.
8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?
Despise is a really strong word, hahaha. I definitely wouldn’t go that far. I do think that whenever people make “super jaded and irritable stone cold ruthless youkai exterminator” her key personality traits, though, it’s kind of boring and flattening her character? It can be funny for an occasional gag, sure, but there’s also more to her than that.
I will be the first to confess I haven’t actually properly played/dug into the storylines for the games in ages and I’ve never read the various supplementary material in depth so my grasp of her strictly canonical personality is perhaps a bit hazy, but I dunno man.
Yes, she can be a strikingly blunt hardass sometimes and she’s prone to jump to conclusions, but she can also be pretty laid back and chill and FUNNY! She is actually kind of a weirdo and a goofball!! I feel like due to her job as shrine maiden, she is constantly having to play the role of straight man/tsukkomi to an ever increasing list of weirdo gods and youkai. Does it exasperate her sometimes? Absolutely, and understandably so. But I think she stays silly.
12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?
Uhhh idk man. Does “Genjii still lives at the shrine, he is just enjoying his retirement off-screen” count? I know that the Windows games are,like, ~officially~ regarded as sort of a reboot/separate canon from PC98 but I basically always fall back to the idea of them sharing a single timeline, be that in the form of PC98 Reimu being a predecessor or simply the plucky younger days of our current all-too-familiar shrine maiden. I just think it’s more fun that way.
