In our coverage of Touhou we've looked at a Yokai that's like a human and a human that's like a Yokai, how about we look at something different? Today we will talk about Cirno, the strongest (fairy) of all!
Cirno is a fairy, an ice one specifically. She 'lives' near the lake outside of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, an important location in the Touhou world. She is fought in the 6th Touhou game as the boss of the second stage, during which she is quite easy to best. She was a big hit with the fans though who latched onto her apparent stupidity and cute appearance right away. She was so popular and featured so heavily in doujins that ZUN made her the protagonist of her own side game and included her in the fighting game spin offs. In these games, as she is playable, she is seen to be able to best characters of 'higher' species, something we'll get onto later.
Common trends with Cirno in fan fiction are her idiocy, her group of friends and her arrogance but she's also seen to be a determined and soulful person. She is either portrayed as innocently stupid or frustrated with how she is viewed by people as a fairy. If she isn't the frustrated one then that quality tends to be passed onto one of her friends, mainly Wriggle Nightbug or Rumia. On the subject of her friends, they are also something of a common sight with Cirno and have basically become canon simply because of how many fans portray them as a group despite them never having met in the games.
Wriggle, Rumia, Cirno, Mystia and Daiyousei are referred to by the name Team Nine, for an obscure Japanese pun based reason and are all youthful characters, or if you'd prefer, loli's. (I probably shouldn't put that apostrophe there but it looks weirder without it.)
The reason Cirno interests me is exactly the opposite from the reason I like Alice and Mokou. I don't want to know more about her and other than her icy wings, I don't find her design that interesting. I am driven not by mystery or possibility but by the absolute fact that Cirno is a silly little girl who has fun, freezes frogs and gives zero fucks. It's her fan forced character, that endearing dumbass, the stupid force of nature that I, like so many others latch on to because in a media filled with outwardly chirpy but apparently dark characters, having a center of unerring fun is pretty useful. Keeps the hopes up
