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If you are familiar with Touhou in the slightest, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “fanon is canon” before, referring to how creators of fanwork often depict incredibly wild and absurd versions of the series’ characters. In my opinion, this is one of the series’ greatest strengths, and I have only one problem with it: when fanon is inserted erroneously into canon discussions and consensus.
There are many characters in Touhou that are known to be “misunderstood” or frequently mischaracterized, as a large percentage of Touhou fans do not play the games or read the official content at all. But there is no other character as misunderstood as Koishi Komeiji. The most popular fan-lead wiki, Touhouwiki, is publishing outright lies directly rejected by the series creator ZUN at the time of me writing this. It is to the point where if you quote basic facts about Koishi, as written by ZUN, you will be accused of “headcanoning.” I can’t blame anybody for believing most of these odd ideas about Koishi because of how inescapable they are, especially to those who are new to the series or lack access to the games. So I decided to write a rather large, but easy-to-read essay debunking these claims in detail!
The following is a list of traits the Touhou fanbase at large insists is true of Koishi, but is actually outright rejected by canon, or heavily ambiguous enough that there is a near complete lack of supporting evidence:
Koishi has no consciousness or mind. She is completely unconscious.
Koishi has no feelings or emotions.
Koishi has no thoughts and is incapable of thinking.
Koishi has no personality
As written on Touhouwiki, Koishi “...is repressing...morals” and “...has no concept of morals at all and runs purely on natural instinct.”
The truth is that ZUN has directly confirmed Koishi to have feelings, thoughts, a mind, and consciousness. She is also heavily implied to have a personality--albeit a very complex one--possessing far more personality traits than most characters in the series. That last bullet point? There is literally no evidence to suggest it whatsoever. It is a headcanon that a child wrote on Touhouwiki, and it has been there for the last 15 years.
I want to make two disclaimers before I start this essay: one, I have no inherent issue with the interpretation of Koishi above that I am going to debunk. I actually enjoy seeing it depicted in fanwork, I just dislike the fact that people think it is canon because it prevents us from discussing her character as ZUN intended. Secondly, I have combed through all official games, publications, and even interviews to search for evidence that supports the interpretation I am challenging, and I have truly been unable to find it. If you think there is any evidence I have missed, please feel free to send it to me and I will greatly appreciate it.
There is only one canonical source that seems to remotely support the above, and the first thing to do is examine it more deeply. Another small disclaimer; some people on this website might be completely unfamiliar with Touhou as a whole, so I will be attempting to explain some things to make it accessible to everyone. It might be a bit tedious if you are very familiar with the series, so apologies in advance.
Symposium of Post-Mysticism (SoPM) is an official publication written from the perspective of Hieda no Akyuu, a historian in the Touhou universe. This text actually exists in-universe, as it is a chronicle of important information and facts about individuals for future reference. It also contains a symposium section, detailing a conversation Akyuu has recorded between several other characters.
Akyuu is very direct in her view about Koishi: she claims that Koishi’s mind is entirely empty, her personality is blank, and that every single action Koishi takes is actually preformed unconsciously without any awareness at all. (1) Akyuu has never actually met Koishi personally; this information is garnered through rumors and from the discussion the other characters had about her. In this discussion there is only one character, Marisa, has ever met Koishi before. One character provides their opinion that Koishi is likely similar to an animal who moves on chemical reactions, although one disagrees. (2)
Akyuu is largely considered a reputable source of information regarding canonicity, and most agree with this in most cases except for one: when she is directly contradicted by a more reputable source. In case you don’t know, this has happened multiple times as Akyuu has no special ability nor insight to know the truth behind the characters she is documenting. She is an in-universe character, subject to possible bias and limited knowledge. When Akyuu is contradicted by the out-of-universe, omniscient narrator, it is agreed by the fanbase that Akyuu is incorrect and her statements should not determine canon information. Some examples of this include:
The majority of Sakuya Izayoi’s article is completely speculative and full of contradictory rumors. Akyuu suggests that she may be a vampire hunter, zombie, or homunculus.
Akyuu insists that Fujiwara no Mokou is a descendant from a group of youkai exterminators and or ninjas. ZUN, the series creator, confirms that she is actually the unwanted daughter of an aristocrat.
Akyuu claims that Eirin and Kaguya are humans, but ZUN states that they are a different species, Lunarians from the moon.
To clarify: none of these errors are instances of “retcons,” which is where a series author changes their mind on facts previously reported in their work and rewrites the story. At the time SoPM was published, it was already well known Mokou was the daughter of an aristocrat, and that Eirin and Kaguya were Lunarians. In other words, we have a well documented pattern that ZUN intentionally writes Akyuu to come to wrong conclusions because it makes the most logical sense for her to do so. Akyuu has no way to assess how accurate these rumors are, and nor does she have a desire to: she isn’t writing to figure out the ultimate truth, her chronicle is a tool for her own safety and convenience. It was never meant to be 100% accurate, nor should it be treated a such.
That being said, Akyuu still provides mostly reputable and useful information. The only case where we should be skeptical of her claims is when the omniscient narrator contradicts her; this is the same narrator that writes the official character profiles, story descriptions, official literature, and is virtually found throughout all canon text. This narrator has absolutely no limit on their knowledge, nor any bias. As long as Akyuu’s claims are not contradicted by this narrator, we can assume that what she has written about Koishi is true. Unfortunately, her claims have been directly refuted multiple times.
Koishi has been directly confirmed to have a consciousness and mind itself on numerous occasions, as well as thoughts. We know this from the following:
ZUN transcribes Koishi’s thoughts into text, writing, “...She thought, how amazing it is to meet such an interesting person, and wanted to know more about her. For the first time, she regretted having closed her third eye. ‘I’ll start by inviting her underground to the Palace of the Earth Spirits.’ ‘I wonder what kind of fight she had with my sister, Okuu, and Orin.’ ‘I wonder what kind of youkai she’s fought with.’ ‘I want to hear her endless stories.’ When she thought this, Koishi felt the lid of her third eye begin to shift a little.” (3)
Koishi’s mind is described as producing a “tracing thought wave” that occurs when she wishes to know more about her opponent during battle. She is described as remembering this “out of the corner of her mind,” and is also capable of opening and closing off “her mind,” confirming again and again that she has one. (4)
Koishi is stated directly to have a consciousness. The skill card, Conditioned Teleport, reads, “...Koishi sneaks up to her opponent as her consciousness reaches them...The area that Koishi’s consciousness can cover becomes larger with time.” Another skill card, Growing Pain, clarifies that it is a “move where her consciousness, reflexively directed outward, approaches the opponent like a rose vine.” (4)
Koishi has said directly that she thinks and has thoughts. The very first line of dialogue in the game Antinomy of Common Flowers (AoCF) has her saying, “I thought so too!”and then proceeding to tell Marisa exactly what she was thinking. Koishi is shown in the manga Cheating Detective Satori to be thinking out loud to herself, and Koishi has never claimed that she does not think. Instead, Koishi says that she “gained the ability to move around free of thought.” According to Koishi herself, she has the ability not to think, rather than the inability to do so.(5)(6)
To summarize: the claims that Koishi has no mind, consciousness, or thoughts is explicitly denied by ZUN himself. This is something that should be commonly accepted by the fanbase, as it is extremely unambiguous—but it is not.
There are two other components of Akyuu’s claims, those being that Koishi lacks a personality itself, and that she has no general awareness. As you might expect, taking a deeper look into canonical text finds that these statements are also very questionable, as there is a substantial amount of information suggesting the exact opposite of these claims.
Even after proving irrefutably that Koishi has a consciousness, mind, and capacity for thought, fans attached to fanon portrayals of her will be reluctant to believe that she experiences these facets in any significant way. The Touhou fanbase has an exceptionally large bias towards interpreting Koishi as quite literally brain-dead. They attribute to her severe issues with memory, rivaling those of dementia patients, despite having no evidence in canon to suggest it. As you might expect, there’s plenty of evidence that points towards the fact that Koishi frequently inhabits states of consciousness, has a surprisingly normal memory, alongside thoughts and feelings just like any other character in the series.
To begin with, it’s important for us to determine what exactly it means when we say that Koishi is “conscious” or “unconscious.” Neither ZUN, nor any narrator, have ever directly stated how conscious or unconscious Koishi is, or given us much insight into her inner experience. However, we still have some evidence that we can use to determine this. There are two things that we know about Koishi’s unconsciousness: 1) She isn’t thinking during the unconscious state, and 2) She forgets what has transpired during it. We know this from Koishi’s own admission that she gained the ability to “move around free of thought” (6), and one of her official profiles describing her as waking up from an unconscious state without memory, as it reads, “She remembered nothing. When she came to, she was blended into the crowd.” (7)
If the claim that Koishi is entirely unconscious, with no memory nor even a shred of awareness, is true, then we should be able to examine her dialogue and other canon information to find this. We should see several instances of confusion, of Koishi being unable to identify people, places, or recall her previous actions. This state of unconsciousness should also be pervasive and constant. Anyways, here is a list of the various instances that show Koishi doing the exact opposite of this:
Koishi remembers several things that she was doing while unconscious. In the game AoCF, she says, “Ah...so then, when I was unconscious I went all over the place doing stuff like possessing people.” (9) This demonstrates an impossible level of awareness and memory recall from Koishi, but also confirms that this unconscious state has ended and she has returned to consciousness.
Koishi is perfectly aware of how she frequently travels to the Myouren Temple to watch the residents there as they train, even describing it. She recalls information about the members, remembering details about them from the past when they lived underground. She also asks Byakuren a question related to Buddhism, showing that Koishi attends the lectures at the temple and remembers her experiences there.(10)(11)(12)
Koishi remembers her sister expressing a desire to meet Miko and a premonition she had. Koishi remembers meeting Shinmyoumaru before and actually realizes that something has changed about her since their last meeting.(10)
Koishi clearly recalls both her reasoning and intentions for arriving at the Moriya shrine—despite it being directly confirmed by the narrator that she entered an unconscious state to traverse to said shrine. Koishi recalls exactly what her sister has said, as well as a previous conversation she had with Okuu, and various other things her sister has told her. (6)(13)(14)(15)(16)
As discussed before, Koishi thinks and has thoughts—things that she explicitly does not do during states of unconsciousness. We know this, because Koishi describes her “ability to act unconsciously” as “the ability to move around free of thought”. Any instance of Koishi thinking is an instance of her inhabiting a conscious state, and we have multiple instances of this in canon.(6)(3)
You may also be surprised to learn that out of the hundreds lines of dialogue Koishi has had with other characters, she has only one singular line indicating forgetfulness. In fact, when Koishi was first introduced to the series in 2008, there was absolutely no indication that she struggled with her memory. It was only five years later with the release of Hopeless Masquerade (HM) was it stated by Koishi that she always forgets things, right after doing them. (17) There are no other instances of Koishi demonstrating forgetfulness or lack of memory; as proven by the above evidence, Koishi’s ability to recall memory is virtually on par with every other character in the series. If it were true that Koishi had especially significant struggles with memory, we simply have no evidence to suggest it. We have the opposite.
Remember, the goal of this section is not to claim that Koishi’s memory is perfect or flawless, nor is it to claim that she is thinking literally all of the time. The point is that when you examine all available evidence, instead of picking and choosing selectively, it is clear that Koishi has consistent level of awareness in stark contrast to both Akyuu’s claims and the common portrayal of her, which claims that she has no awareness or consciousness at all. Koishi’s memory demonstrates a normal level of consistence, as there is not a single line of dialogue where she is in a state of confusion or disorientation as a result of lacking memory. Instead, Koishi is shown time and time again remembering her memory in exact details, as well as thinking her own thoughts—this strongly suggests her to occupy frequent states of consciousness.
The last claim of Akyuu’s that I would like to examine is the idea that Koishi lacks a personality. ZUN has actually stated that he designed Koishi to be a character of contradictions or inconsistencies, who lacks and defies character itself—this is also hinted at by her title “Imaginary Personality Holder” in HM (7). It is my view that this is actually somewhat vague and open to more interpretation than one might assume at first glance. If we take the standard definition of personality—that of having consistent major traits, interests, values, drives, behavior, and emotional patterns—then we need to examine if Koishi has any of these in consistent and enduring ways. It isn't enough if she demonstrates a trait, and then lacks it shortly after--these characteristics about her have to be strong and stable over time in order to constitute a personality.
Koishi lacks only one component of personality: motives and drives. The omniscient narrator describes her as a “type of youkai who wandered to and fro aimlessly...just like a pet cat, she leaves and returns and leaves again according to her own whims.” (3) She is described as “aimless” (18) and this is outwardly observable from her appearances throughout the games where she has no major goals or motivations in contrast to other characters. The narrator even states that she lives with no dreams or hopes, (7) and that others have noticed this. It is written that her older sister intervenes, as “Satori took pity on Koishi, ordering her pets to play with her and giving her some pets to keep as her own. She thought that taking care of these pets might give her a purpose…” (3).
But besides this facet, Koishi has fairly consistent personality preferences, reactions, and behavior throughout all of her appearances. It would be incorrect to say that she lacks a personality entirely. The following is a list of characteristics I have observed about her, alongside plenty of evidence to support them, but it is also worth noting that this is somewhat more subjective than the other points in this essay. I strongly suggest that the reader play the games themselves where Koishi is featured to come to your own conclusion about her apparent personality, instead of blindly accepting the fanon consensus that has reduced her into a bizarre yandere manic pixie dream girl psychopath, instead of the lonely, ditsy, sweet girl she actually is.
Koishi shows a very consistent curiosity and interest in the behavior of others. We’ve seen this from Reflex Radar and her official profile, but this also appears in her dialogue. A few examples include Koishi wondering if Marisa came from a bad upbringing, if Shinmyoumaru is bad at cleaning, if Miko is cold, and if Mamizou has ever burnt her tail before. It is also strongly implied that Koishi has a hobby of watching others—one of her dialogue lines has her admit that she watches the residents of the Myouren Temple train instead of participating with them, and her Oracle reading implies that she people-watches as a pastime. (12) (11) (10) (19)
Koishi is an unusually polite character, especially at the time of her introduction. She is described by the title of her extra stage as a “Lovely Visitor from Hell,” and much of her dialogue suggests this. Some examples include her saying, “Oh, I see, sorry to have bothered you.” “Thanks for spending time with me!” “You’re welcome to come to the Palace of the Earth Spirits any time you want. We’ll welcome you whenever you come.” “I can’t read minds like my sister. Please talk to me with words I can hear.” and “Could you please fight with me?” (6) (14) (15) (17). Half of her dialogue in SA begins with her excusing herself before speaking to the protagonist.
Koishi is very carefree, and is described by her sister as having no concern over where she goes, nor wondering if she is in danger or not. (20) When situations take a more serious turn, she is rather indifferent in HM (17), and she also shows no concern during the Urban Legend in Limbo (ULiL) incident. (21)
Koishi is mischievous and playful, as her entire scenario in ULiL consists of her attempting to half-heartedly scare others. (21) ZUN has clarified before that the “brutality in the jeers” the characters express are apart of a playful facade, so it is a fair assumption that Koishi’s dialogue is not meant to be taken as an actual threat. Some examples of her teasing other characters include what she says towards Marisa, being, “I don’t have anything against you, but I hope you’re ready to die a dog’s death,” and then reassuring her by saying that she’ll be able to live at the palace with them--after she dies, of course. (6) Koishi also says to Reimu that if she were as strong as her, she would “...start a love-stricken massacre! Or maybe pillage from a bunch of peaceful humans”. (15)
Koishi is stated to be lonely (3), and has a desire to avoid being hated. ZUN explains in further detail, saying that she is “Someone hated who closed their heart in a dark...Actually, she’s not dark at all! I was thinking something like someone who closed their heart out of fear of being hated, but that just makes her even more hated.” (20) This loneliness and desire to avoid being hated can easily be seen as a major, core component of her personality.
Koishi actually has no visible issues with identity or sense of self. Koishi introduces and describes herself like all other characters in the series, including stating her preference for liking people with power and authority (14), and how she is actually bad at cleaning (11). There has never been an instance where Koishi has been unable to describe or identify information about herself. It's probable she struggles with dissociation giving her Oracle, which predicts her to "lose sight of" herself, but there is still absolutely nothing to imply that she lacks a sense of self or ego entirely. (19)
When Koishi finally begins to receive positive attention from the public, she is embarrassed and self-conscious as a result of this new situation. She says, “What’s this? Something doesn’t feel right. Everyone’s looking at me?...Even moving is embarrassing when everyone’s watching. I wonder if I’ll be able to move my own body around freely, too?” At the same time, she is overtly happy and excited at the possibility of becoming popular. (17) This instance very clearly has her express multiple emotions and desires, ranging from intense self-consciousness to joy.
If interests and hobbies are implicative of a personality, then Koishi has evidence suggesting this as well. She has a surprising amount of knowledge of her own ability and psychological concepts, as she explains that she can“...act against the unconscious that [her sister] can’t read. The danmaku that lurk in your unconscious are the danmaku that my sister has never seen!” (15) Koishi knows about the concept of multiple personalities, explains what a Rorschach is when asked, and even describes her mystifying spell card as the memories of all life. (13) (22) (23) We also learn from both her official profile and Oracle that she takes care of animals and is best suited towards working with them, as well as having an interest in philosophy, which was also implied in some of her previous dialogue lines. (19) (11)
Unlike nearly all other characters, Koishi is not a static character. After her sister gave her some pets to regain a sense of purpose and open her mind to others again, this is implied to be successful, as the narrator states that she started to change ever so slightly from this point onward. Once Koishi meets the protagonist in SA, this is also directly stated to change her mental state. ZUN has reiterated this, saying that “It seems that the concerns of her older sister and the powerful humans she met on the surface world have begun to change Koishi somewhat.” (3) (8)
There is also another part of personality that some will be startled to learn that Koishi possesses: emotional states. Koishi claims herself that she has no emotions, and occasionally demonstrates limited awareness of them, such as the sensation of feeling tired. (6) (17) At the same time, ZUN directly confirms that she has them. He writes in the description of her spellcard Instinct ‘Release of the Id’ that Koishi “...opens up her mind as much as possible. She scatters her attack over her entire surroundings as her emotions take her…” (4) ZUN also confirms that Koishi is lonely as a result of nobody noticing her, as “...In a way, it was convenient, but she was also lonely. However, she had no mind capable of feeling this loneliness.” (3)
How do we reconcile these two things? It is actually very simple. ZUN has already stated that when Koishi closed her third eye, it had the side effect of sealing away her own heart and mind. “Closing off the ability because it’s hated is just running away, and is no different from closing off one’s own mind. It’s effectively pushing away others’ feelings and shutting down.” (3) He writes additionally, “Also, being unable to read the hearts of others meant closing off her own heart.” (8) There is a reason why ZUN does not write “Koishi was not lonely as she had no mind to feel loneliness,” but instead, he clarifies multiple times that she does have a mind, just not one that is capable of feeling her own emotions. Koishi is severely dissociated from her own emotions, which is why she can only experience her emotions as she opens up her mind as much as possible.
At this point I would like to ask the reader: does Cirno have a personality? This is a rhetorical question because almost every Touhou fan would say yes, but Koishi demonstrates just as much, if not more, enduring personality traits and behaviors as Cirno does. Many characters in the Touhou series lack obvious goals, complex traits, and even backstories—it would be hypocritical to say that Koishi, with her undeniable and enduring behavioral patterns, has no personality whereas other much more simpler characters do. If Koishi truly lacked a personality, her behavior would be immensely more inconsistent. Instead, she simply holds a deficit in her personality due to lacking dreams, aspirations, and strong motives. She’s a dissociative character with a sense of emptiness, having locked away her heart and mind from others—yet beneath her surface, she still holds just as much of a personality as any other character. This is what ZUN likely means when describing her a character of contradiction—she appears to be empty on the surface, yet simultaneously there is so much of her that lies locked away from view.
If you're paying attention while reading this, you might recall that just a few minutes ago we discussed the spell card Instinct 'Release of the Id'. There, we learned that this card consists of Koishi opening up her own mind and experiencing the onslaught of her emotions. Across all canonical text, there's only a few other supplementary details we have been provided with. Firstly, Koishi is described as making a funny face during it. (22) Secondly, the spellcard Suppression "Super-Ego" will always come right after Id. The spell card Super-Ego is described as Koishi closing off her own mind as much as possible--and making a very serious face this time.
Touhouwiki, at the time of me writing this, publishes a blatantly false and incorrect citation underneath this spellcard. It claims that Koishi is "...Repressing these morals" and that she has "...no concept of morals at all and runs purely on natural instinct."
This is the sort of speculation you'd arrive at only if you've never read Koishi's dialogue, especially the dialogue where she scolds and chastises Marisa for being a thief, telling her that it's something she shouldn't do. (24) Nor the dialogue from the manga where Koishi shows a clear awareness of what's right and wrong, talking about how everyone above ground doesn't care whether a battle is justified or not as long as it's flashy and looks cool. (5) If you were new to the series, you might also think something like this: Well, because it's Suppression 'Super-Ego' doesn't that mean Koishi is suppressing her own super ego? Unfortunately, ZUN himself has said the exact opposite.
ZUN spoke in an interview clarifying how the naming system for spellcards works: "The part before the quotation marks says, 'this attack fits into this particular genre,' and the part inside says 'this is the attack's name'. That's the format I used to come up with names when I was starting out. The left-hand part is the category of attack, so there's quite a lot of Spell Cards that share a single term. Like, 'this is what kind of attack this is.' This one's fire element, this one's water element, just thinking about it on that sort of level. The part in quotations is really just a name, nothing more." (25)
So if "Super-Ego" is just the name and "Suppression" is the genre, why does Touhouwiki say this? And why has it remained on there for countless years without about fixing it? This example is just one of many outright errors and misconceptions about Koishi on her page, others including a false claim about her lacking self-awareness and hurting others, as well as the typical "not having" a mind or thoughts. This is why I really cannot blame anyone for being ignorant of Koishi, as the most easily accessible source for information has little to no fact-checking on her page.
According to fanon conception of Koishi, she lacks any semblance of consciousness or awareness. She is incapable of thought, emotion, memory, or basic self-awareness, essentially possessing acute dementia in regards to her memory. Nether does she have any control over her own actions, as apparently, she is under a state of permanent, unending unconsciousness. She has been reduced to an annoying comedic relief character with no depth or meaning to her.
Yet when you actually examine canon information about her, ZUN confirms that Koishi possesses a consciousness, emotions, and thoughts. Her endearing personality traits shine through her dialogue, being one of the few characters in the franchise to have such a complex, realistic and well-developed personality. Unlike her sister, Koishi was not strong enough to endure the hatred that comes with the ability to read minds, and by closing her third eye, she unintentionally sealed away her own heart. This has lead to Koishi occupying a position where she may no longer be hated, but others cannot love or notice her either. While this is convenient to her, she is also lonely. Her sealed-away mind and heart may not be capable of allowing her total access to her feelings, but as she has begun to meet others and experience the world again, she has begun to change ever so slightly.
She is not a character who is permanently broken or lacking in some way. She is a broken person, of whom due to the concerns of her older sister and positive interactions with others, has started to open her heart again.