Marisa Kirisame

"I messed up. I mean, shoot and I'll move. In a flash."

- Marisa Kirisame

Marisa Kirisame is a human magician, and is one of the most important sub-characters of the series (according to series producer ZUN). Her personality is sometimes described as disagreeable, but in some other titles, straightforward. Either way, she is a very self-confident person that likes to stick her nose into every trouble out of curiosity.

During the events of Story of Eastern Wonderland, she made her first appearance as a minion of Mima, to prevent Reimu from reaching her boss, but was defeated. Since then, she has appeared in all but one title of the Touhou series (and some non-Touhou titles too), usually sided with Reimu, but sometimes against her.

She is also known as a hard worker, who's trying to catch up to Reimu with her secret training and magic development. That makes a good contrast to other humans appearing in the series, most of them have some kind of natural born talent (Reimu) or ability (Sakuya) So she is sometimes referred as the "most human-ish human" in the series.

Marisa is the author of The Grimoire of Marisa, a collection of notes about spellcards used by her and other danmaku users she has encountered.

Appearance

 * (Touhou 2) Same as Touhou 3-5, except her eyes and hair were red. Her hair was also short and straight.
 * (Touhou 3, alternative outfit) Same as above, but her clothes are mainly white instead of purple.
 * (Touhou 3 to 5) Same as Touhou 6-9, except her clothes were purple instead of black, there was a lot less light pink in her outfit, and she didn't have that one-sided braid. When appearing as a boss, rides what appears to be a magical vine instead of a broom.
 * (Touhou 6 to 10.5) Same as above, except without the shawl, and the outfit is mainly black instead of navy blue.
 * (Touhou 7.5 and 10.5, alternative outfit) Same as above, but her clothes are mainly white instead of black.
 * (Touhou 9, alternative outfit) Same as above, but her clothes are mainly purple instead of black.
 * (Touhou 11) Golden eyes, blond hair, a braid on only one side of her face, carries a bamboo and straw broom. Wears a navy blue witch's hat with a large pink ribbon, and a navy blue and light pink outfit with a white petticoat, and with a light blue shawl over her shoulders.
 * (Touhou 12) Skirt is once again black, with a tan apron over it with an "M" embroidered on it. Wears a black vest over a pink shirt, hair ribbon is now white. Her hat resembles that of a cowboy more than a witch(or the point is floppy and isn't seen at the angle of her in game art). Carries a wand made of wood.
 * (Touhou 12.5, 12.8) Golden eyes and blonde hair with a braid down her left shoulder, tied with a green ribbon. Wears a black witches' hat with a star on it, a white apron, a black skirt and a green bow. Holds a bag or purse of some sort in her left hand.
 * (Touhou 13) Marisa has her usual attire. However, her hat's bow is purple, a purple ribbon is attached to the left side of he hair, her shoes are maroon colored with small purple ribbons on them, and a red ribbon is tied to her neck.
 * (Touhou 13.5) Same as 10.5, except her outfit is dark blue, her shirt has a v-cut at the bottom, her hat is larger, and her hair is more golden than yellow.

Relationships

 * Reimu Hakurei (Friend)
 * Rinnosuke Morichika (Friend)
 * Alice Margatroid (Neighbor/Friend)
 * Mima (Former Master/Mentor)
 * Nitori Kawashiro (Ally)
 * Patchouli Knowledge (Ally)
 * Cirno (Adversary)
 * Flandre Scarlet (Known)

Trivia

 * Marisa is one of the most frequent characters to appear in the Touhou Project series, only second to Reimu after the release of Fairy Wars.
 * Marisa has six theme songs (excluding remixes), making her the character with the most theme songs.
 * Including spin-off games and Shuusou Gyoku, Marisa has appeared as an EX boss two times more than any other EX boss.
 * Marisa has appeared on the covers of Story of Eastern Wonderland, Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream, and Lotus Land Story.
 * Unlike most of the Touhou characters, Marisa is known to speak in a distinct speech tone. The most typical and known example of this is the use of the sentence ending particle "ze" (ぜ). "Ze" used at the end of the verb stems, delivers "mannish" and "impoliteness" sound to the listener/reader, and because most girls don't speak in this manner normally, it has become a notable characteristic of her.
 * Do note that while she does speak in a rather "manly" tone, she doesn't speak in a "rough" and "masculine" language, but in an "impolite/casual" and "boyish" one.
 * According to Rinnosuke, Marisa was inspired to use star-themed magic after a meteor shower viewing party around 2001 to 2002. Marisa's strategy guide in Story of Eastern Wonderland's omake says her third attack uses star magic, although that is just one attack. However, by the time Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream takes place, many of her attacks use stars. Her apparent mentor Mima also had an astronomy theme in her attacks. Due to the PC-98/Windows canon split, there may be inconsistencies like this between them, although attempts could be made to fit them together (like saying that she trained under Mima after seeing the shooting stars).
 * It is unknown how Marisa got her home in the Forest of Magic, but she tells Tenshi Hinanawi that her "house wasn't built for earthquakes", and says in her Scarlet Weather Rhapsody ending that if her house is destroyed, she can always build a new one. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about her house, and she was probably around when it was originally built. At the time of Curiosities of Lotus Asia Chapter 7, it was still new enough that Marisa referred to it as "my new house", at least in comparison to living with her parents.
 * Marisa may be somewhat of a math genius; in Mountain of Faith she utters the line "I could recite all the digits in pi before I got there." However, considering that pi has a literally infinite number of digits which never end or repeat in any pattern (really, it's endless), it's likely just an expression to say "at this rate I'll never get there."
 * Marisa holds the distinction of being one of the very few characters in any Touhou game who is known to have a living family. They've never been mentioned by name, or even within any of the game dialogues, but it is implied in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense she is the only daughter. Also according to 19th chapter of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, her father, at least, is alive and is living at the Human Village.
 * In Imperishable Night, Marisa survives looking at the full moon, which should drive normal humans insane. When Alice asks if she is all right, she says that it's all right since she is insane to begin with. She might well be joking, since Reimu and Sakuya maintain their sanity looking at the full moon too. It could be that humans who are strong-willed enough can overcome that influence.
 * In both Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animism, Marisa lacks her signature bomb move, Master Spark. She regains her Master Spark as a bomb in the following game Undefined Fantastic Object.
 * Marisa often refers to herself as "just an ordinary witch". This is often her character title in the games (i.e. Imperishable Night). Deneb the witch of the Ogre Battle games refers to herself in a similar, yet opposite manner: "I am a witch, but not just an ordinary witch!" She appears to make a reference to this in Perfect Cherry Blossom's third stage, when questioning whether or not Alice is an ordinary human.
 * In Touhou Hisoutensoku one of her alternative color palettes gives Marisa a blue outfit and red hair similar to her appearance in Story of Eastern Wonderland. Another alternate color resembles Ellen from Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream. There is also another palette that gives her a purple outfit and purple hair, somewhat resembling Patchouli.
 * Excluding the fighting spin-offs, Double Spoiler, and Fairy Wars, Marisa's face has appeared on the icons for all of the Windows games so far. This includes Shoot the Bullet, in which she doesn't technically appear.
 * Marisa was first seen using a wand in Story of Eastern Wonderland, Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream, and Lotus Land Story. She is not seen with a wand again until Undefined Fantastic Object, which is so far the only Windows game where she is seen with one.
 * Marisa seems knowledgeable about species not native to Japan such as the beaver in Chapter 4 of Wild and Horned Hermit and the rafflesia in Chapter 14 of Oriental Sacred Place.