Mima

If it isn't the great evil spirit herself! She is a great character in my eyes even though she practically only shows up in 4 touhou games (with 3 talking roles no less!). She left a real mark in the sense that she is probably one of the most interesting Touhou characters. Sure we know nada about her backstory and she is from early Touhou so things will be naturally a bit more sillier, but she still retains a certain charisma after so long! Her first appearance is great! It's also possibly the most mysterious and intriguing as it's slightly more unsettling than her usual getups.

It looks something akin to a japanese school girl holding a knife with how she is in a sailor costume. It makes me ask if the event that led to her hating humanity so much related to something that happened early in her youth that made her lose faith in humanity. That would bring into question how old she was when she died, if ghosts age (probably not cause Yuyuko is there) and why don't the Hakurei's just destroy her. I mean really think about it. Of all the foes Reimu has faced, Mima was the only one to ever be sealed away. It feels very intentional and can get anyone writing about Mima a lot of narrative leverage. (It also fuels powerscaling debates but that's a topic for another day) All these things leave the player with the impression of a very mysterious character which is accentuated with Touhou 2.

I mean even their moon symbolism adds to this. Sure it can be taken as a generic magical symbol but it's also a very integral place in touhou lore and the occult in general. It is also something that Marisa's star symbolism can be said to be inspired by. Of course the lunarians probably never was on zun's mind but that makes me question how did Mima learn her magic? It once again asks a very interesting question about her overall character which is expertly done.

Of everything I love how she slowly becomes less evil overall as the pc-98 games go on. Going from wanting revenge on all of humanity to settling down to just annoy the heck out of Reimu. It is a really interesting dynamic as clearly Reimu holds some degree of annoyance and fear whenever she faces her. They do have an unstated history and it makes the change from pretty evil to majour nuisance interesting. I do think she might still have been plotting something by the end since she is Mima, but it would be nice to know if she just ended up retiring or something and giving the mantle of official 'Hakurei annoyer' to Marisa.

Finally... I know she might never come back. Yet I'm seriously glad about everything we did get. She was a really lively and fun character for when she was there in ze project. If she ever does come back... I'm glad she was able to.