An Introduction to the Cast of Remilia & Rumia's Trick or Bullet

For those of you new to Touhou Project, or even just fans who aren’t quite aware of every last character (there ARE a lot of them!), you may not recognize every face in the new event - or any of them at all! This handy dandy primer will give you a quick rundown of the cast of Remilia & Rumia's Trick or Bullet (at least, the ones introduced in the first two days), who they are, what they can do, what games and print works they showed in, and where you can find out more about them!

This time around, we'll be looking at Rumia, Koakuma, Momiji Inubashiri, and Komachi Onozuka.

Remilia Scarlet and Sakuya Izayoi were covered in the Phantom-Human Maid for a Day Cast Introduction, which you can check out here. 

Debuted in: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (NPC Boss)

Notable Appearances: Shoot the Bullet (NPC Boss), Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red (Interview), Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (Article)

Not every youkai is an important figure, a big shot, or even powerful. There are after-all dozens and dozens of youkai in Gensokyo, and they can’t all be sages or legends - such is the case for Rumia, whom is one of the characters in Touhou Project who exist more to expand the setting than anything else. 

That is not to say Rumia has nothing going on - she may be a bit simple in thought, but she’s still dangerous to humans. At least, on paper - most works tend to paper over or simply ignore the whole ‘eating humans’ thing, or treat it as a joke. Instead, Rumia is typically defined by her other characteristics - it is quite common, for example, for her to be paired with Cirno, Daiyousei, Mystia, and Wriggle in what is known as “Team 9” (named such as in a instruction manual for Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Cirno was labeled with a 9 with “idiot” next to it). She is also often portrayed as a student at Keine’s school.

Other than that, Rumia’s major gimmick is that she has the ability to control darkness. This is often manifested as her summoning a pitch black orb of darkness around her, though she cannot actually see through it, resulting in plenty of jokes where she can’t see where she’s going and crashes into something. 

If you want to know more about Rumia, your only real option is her interview in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red or her article in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. She’s a rather minor character in the series, but she shows up in plenty of fangames - I particularly enjoy using her in Labyrinth of Touhou - Gensokyo and the Heaven-Piercing Tree (available on steam in english!). 

Debuted in: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (NPC Midboss)

Much like Rumia, Kokauma isn’t exactly a big name. However, it goes further than that for Koakuma - in the game she debuted in, she didn’t even have a name or a portrait! Whilst ZUN, the creator of Touhou, did plan on giving her attacks and a face, it was dropped for some reason or another. For all intents and purposes, she was simply a generic midboss who may have been forgotten about - had Touhou not exploded in popularity. In those early days of the series though, there were only a handful of characters for creators to work with - and so, that nameless, faceless midboss was dubbed ‘Koakuma,’ or literally “Little Devil.” 

Since she has no canon characteristics (and thus also has no ability), we’ll have to explain what’s commonly agreed upon. She’s almost always portrayed as Patchouli’s assistant, and often the right hand woman of the magus. She typically adopts a role of comic relief as well. Beyond that though, the exact characteristics of Koakuma vary wildly from fanwork to fanwork, as the only real constant is her being Patchouli’s assistant or familiar. 

She’s seen a small handful of appearance-only cameos in the series, as an acknowledgement to her popularity, but you’ll have to turn to fanworks for more Koakuma content of substance. I quite like using her in Fantasy Maiden Wars (also known as Gensou Shoujo Taisen).  

Debuted in: Mountain of Faith (NPC Midboss)

Notable Appearances: Double Spoiler (NPC Boss), Impossible Spell Card (NPC Boss), Symposium of Post-Mysticism (Article), Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia (Interview)

Momiji Inubashiri, the Petty Patrol Tengu, is another character who primarily exists for the sake of worldbuilding. She’s a white wolf tengu, who serve as the rank and file guards and soldiers for the tengu of Youkai Mountain. She’s a bit of a step up from Koakuma or Daiyousei, however, in that she actually has a name, a personality, and has made multiple appearances in the series. 

That being said, there’s not a lot to work with as far as canon is involved. She has the ability to see really far into the distance, she loves shogi, she dislikes Aya, she thinks much of the grunt tengu work is entirely pointless (afterall, the daitengu, their leaders, could easily kick the ass of any patrolling tengu to say nothing of invaders), and that’s about it. 

However in spite of this, she is one of the most common characters to see in fan works, and enjoys widespread popularity. I know I in particular got a lot of use out of her in Labyrinth of Touhou - Gensokyo and the Heaven-Piercing Tree, Touhou Genso Wanderer (both available on steam in english!), and Fantasy Maiden Wars (also known as Gensou Shoujo Taisen). 

Incidentally, that is one of the points in which canon and fan works tend to differ - whilst Momiji dislikes Aya (to the point where in one of the official fighting games, the developers tried to get Momiji as an assist for Aya and were shot down due to this bad blood), it is very common for the two to be placed together (such as the fangame Double Focus, also available in english on steam). 

Debuted in: Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Boss, Playable Character)

Notable Appearances: Shoot the Bullet (NPC Boss), Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (Boss, Playable Character), Wild and Horned Hermit (Secondary Character), Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (Article), Alternate Facts in Eastern Utopia (Article). 

Komachi Onozuka, Guide of the Riverside Mist, is what’s known as a shinigami - better known in the west as a (grim) reaper. They adopted that iconography on purpose, you know - it brings comfort to the dead, to know they’re in safe hands. Her job is to ferry the dead down the river Higan and to the yama to be judged, a task that she handles at - her own, lazy pace. She doesn’t really believe in overwork, or perhaps even work at all, and is infamous for being a carefree slacker.

That carefree attitude carries over to everyone she meets - as a result, she’s perhaps one of the nicest individuals in Gensokyo. She always has time to chat with anyone she comes across - even the souls she brings over to the other side of the river. Sure, the topics of her chat have a tendency to revolve around morbid topics like death, being a reaper and all, but she’s got other stuff to talk about if that freaks you out. Additionally, whilst she might complain and moan about being dragged into things, she’ll always lend a helping hand when it's needed. Especially if it gets her out of work for a bit. 

Still though, she might be lazy and nice, but she’s certainly not one to be underestimated. In a fight, she can utilize her ability to manipulate distance to keep foes far away, quickly drag them in for a swipe with her massive scythe, then stretch out the distance further. If you want an example of what this looks like, she's playable in both Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Hisoutensoku and her distance manipulation is on full display there. Additionally in spite of how lazy she is, she’s still perhaps one of the most competent shinigami there is, and few can ferry souls to the other side as well as she can. You’d better not threaten any spirits or souls, or you’ll learn first hand just how competent she is on the boat ride over to the other side when she’s done with you.

If you want to see more of Komachi, the previously mentioned Scarlet Weather Rhapsody as well as the Wild and Horned Hermit manga are great sources. Additionally, while it isn’t canon, The Shinigami's Rowing Her Boat as Usual is a fanwork written by the same artist for Wild and Horned Hermit, and is a highly recommended read if you want more Komachi content.