Cirno



Cirno is an ice fairy. While she is described as a weak boss in the Touhou series, if we consider the power of average fairies - who appear often as regular enemies - we can certainly say she is exceptionally strong for her kind. Her personality is childish, as you might expect from her appearance, and she is sometimes considered stupid.

During the events of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, she attacked the player, who was just passing by, out of instinctive aggression. She was helplessly shot down.

In Perfect Cherry Blossom, she returned to take revenge for her previous fight, but was only a mid-boss and was easily defeated like one...

In Phantasmagoria of Flower View Cirno aimlessly wanders about, apparently unconcerned by the flower incident for any reason other than the flowers being something else for her to freeze and play with. Through her dialog her true childish nature is revealed, leaving no doubt that she really isn't smart at all. She really wasn't meaning to do anything but play games.

[edit] Fun Facts
How Cirno Became a ⑨*Cirno is known for her childishness (read: stupidity), so the term "Cirno" is often used instead of "baka"(バカ, fool) as a joke in the Japanese Touhou community. Apparently, even ZUN himself isn't an exception; in the manual for Phantasmagoria of Flower View, she is labeled as "9. Moron" in an explanation of the game screen's layout...
 * ...and she was again labeled as such in the manual for Touhou Hisoutensoku.
 * Due to the infamous manual screenshot, Cirno has been nicknamed "Nine-ball" or simply "⑨".
 * The date "09-09-09" (Wednesday September 9 2009 09:09:09, more specifically) has been named "Cirno Day" for obvious reasons. For some reason, numerous aspects of this day everything could be translated into or connected with nine. For example: September 9 is the 252nd day of the year and 2 + 5 + 2 = 9, you need 9 letters to type "Wednesday" or "September", and Japan's timezone is +9. Other names for this day include "The Strongest Day" and "⑨ Day".
 * However, Cirno can read, unlike some of her peers, such as Mystia Lorelei. Perhaps she isn't the top idiot in Gensokyo.
 * Cirno's favorite hobby is freezing a frog instantly, then watching it revive as it thaws in the water. She tends to fail one out of every 3 attempts, however, and the poor amphibian shatters to pieces. Because of this, many fans consider Suwako Moriya to have a rivalry with Cirno, owing to Suwako's affinity with frogs.
 * In fan works, she is often seen with other lower-level, childish characters such as Daiyousei, Rumia, Mystia, and Wriggle. This group is often known as "Team ⑨" in fandom, and are usually led by Cirno herself. Without Daiyousei, that group is often called the "bakartet", a combination of "baka" and "quartet".
 * In other fan works, she is shown with Letty Whiterock, who is considered as a close friend, guardian, or mentor, as seen in the Advent Cirno series. This is partly due to the fact that she appears as a midboss in Letty's stage in Perfect Cherry Blossom, and partly because they share the same ability, the manipulation of cold temperature and ice.
 * Cirno may be over 60 years old, as she was one of the only characters in Phantasmagoria of Flower View to know instantly what was happening, declaring, "It's the festival that happens once every sixty years!" Although she was too naive to know it wasn't a festival, she appears to have been the very first character to recognize this as the year of the 60-year cycle. Even the ancient flower youkai Yuka took until stage 6 of her own scenario to realize what year it was, while Cirno knew it from stage 1 of Reisen's scenario.
 * Cirno's catchphrase in doujin works, "I'm the strongest!," comes from her dialogue in PoFV, in which she announces this in her scenario, while being everyone else's stage one boss. She also says it when winning against herself in Phantasmagoria of Flower View and in Hisoutensoku.
 * She appears as the silhouette on the jewel case of Touhou Hisoutensoku.
 * Going from right to left, Cirno is the 9th character on the complete Hisoutensoku roster.
 * Out of all playable characters from Hisoutensoku, Cirno is noticeably the smallest, having to fly in order to meet the eye level of the other girls. Because of her height, she's also the only who stands while in the crouch position.
 * She's also the only character in the fighting game who floats down slowly to the ground after jumping.
 * While she is not the first Stage 2 boss from the shooting games to appear in any of the fighting spin offs; she is the first, and as of this moment, ONLY playble character in the game who was a Stage 2 boss in the shooting games. The first Stage 2 boss to appear in any of the fighting games was Ran Yakumo's shikigami, Chen.
 * Some fans have made connections between her and Mai due to their similar fairy-like appearances and their manipulation of ice.
 * Due to becoming a meme, Cirno is now one of the most popular characters of the Touhou Project. Many fans now portray her, jokingly or seriously, as a misunderstood child or even as an outright genius in disguise, or as a bumbling idiot who messes up what everyone else is doing.
 * Ever since CNN featured the shadow art video Bad Apple!! together with its stop motion counterpart, it has been renamed "Cirno News Network" by some of the Touhou community. This is because of one reporter's incorrect assessment of the stop-motion video as depicting how the CG shadow art video was made.

[edit] Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red

 * Main article: Article and Interview: Cirno

Cirno's hobby of freezing amphibians goes too far when she encounters a giant toad out for revenge (also see Perfect Memento: Giant Toad's Pond.) She is swallowed whole, but manages to escape when she freezes the giant toad's insides. In a statement to the newspaper, she claims that she doesn't freeze frogs for fun, but for "ice training"; Aya doesn't buy it.

The interview consists mostly of Cirno complaining about the contemptuous tone of the article.

[edit] Perfect Memento in Strict Sense

 * Main article: Perfect Memento: Cirno


 * It is unknown where Cirno lives, but it is assumed that it is around the Misty Lake, since she is often sighted there.
 * There are several accounts of people finding frozen frogs and fish by the lake.
 * If one is attacked by Cirno, the best defense is to talk calmly to her, and ask her a riddle.
 * No matter how easy the riddle, there will be enough time to flee while she tries to figure out the answer.