Hoshiguma Yuugi

Overview

Hoshiguma Yuugi is a character from the Touhou Project series developed by Team Shanghai Alice, making her debut as the Stage 3 boss in Subterranean Animism. Known by titles such as The Rumored Unnatural Phenomenon, she is a formidable oni who was once recognized as one of the legendary Four Devas of the Mountain. Residing in the Ancient City within Former Hell, she serves as a central, respected figure among the subterranean residents, enjoying a life filled with daily festivities, drinking, and brawls.

Appearance

Yuugi is an oni featuring long blonde hair, red eyes, and a single red horn on her forehead bearing a yellow star mark. Her hair is sometimes tied into a ponytail or left down with bangs crossed beneath her horn, and she has a distinctly muscular build. Her attire includes a white short-sleeved top based on a gym uniform paired with a semi-transparent skirt with red vertical stripes and geta, or alternatively, a red kimono worn with her shoulders and chest exposed. She wears shackles on her wrists and ankles and carries a large red sake vessel adorned with a star emblem.

Personality

Yuugi possesses a bold, hearty, and straightforward temperament. She strongly admires individuals who demonstrate physical strength, courage, and honesty, while harboring intense disdain for those who are cowardly, weak-willed, or deceitful. Deeply fond of drinking and festivities, she lives life to the fullest in the underworld. In battle, she revels in testing her opponents, exhibiting tremendous confidence by imposing rules on herself, such as fighting strong challengers without spilling a single drop of sake from her cup.

Abilities

She possesses the ability to control supernatural phenomena (described as possessing unnatural strength and wild gods), encompassing unexplainable forces, extraordinary might, and mysterious occurrences. Yuugi boasts immense physical strength, capable of causing nearby buildings to collapse merely by stomping her foot. She can also generate danmaku attacks using only her roar. Additionally, she owns the Hoshiguma Cup, a renowned oni artifact holding roughly one sho of liquid, which automatically upgrades the tier of any sake poured into it to premium daiginjo quality.

Background

Yuugi was originally one of the legendary Four Devas of the Mountain alongside Ibuki Suika on the Youkai Mountain. Disgusted by human dishonesty and deception, the oni abandoned the surface world and settled in the abandoned lands of Former Hell. There, they established an independent society after making an agreement with surface youkai to seal the subterranean vengeful spirits in exchange for absolute privacy from the surface. In this underground haven, she spends her days indulging in alcohol and celebrations, eventually encountering surface intruders who venture into the underworld during the events of Subterranean Animism.

Relationships

Ibuki Suika is Yuugi's long-time friend and fellow member of the former Four Devas of the Mountain. The two share a close bond as drinking companions, with Suika noting that while her own abilities lean toward sorcery, Yuugi possesses far superior physical strength. Yuugi also has connections with other subterranean figures, including Mizuhashi Parsee, who guards the path leading into Former Hell, and Miyadeguchi Mizuchi, whom Yuugi interacts with regarding underworld affairs.

Trivia

Yuugi's character and name originate from Hoshiguma-douji, one of the legendary four attendants of Shuten-douji in Japanese folklore. Her theme song title also references Mt. Ooe, the legendary dwelling of Shuten-douji. Her signature item, the Hoshiguma Cup, upgrades alcohol quality, making it a perfect match for Ibuki Suika's Ibuki Gourd, which yields an infinite supply of sake. Furthermore, her powerful spell card Four Devas Secret: Three Steps Must-Kill is renowned for flooding the screen with dense projectiles, causing intense processing load on players' computers.