Utsuho Reiuji (霊烏路 空, Reiuji Utsuho), also spelled Utsuho Reiuzi or Utuho Reiuji,¹⁾ is a Touhou Project character who is a hell raven²⁾ that consumed the spirit of a divine three-legged crow or “Yatagarasu” (八咫烏, lit. “eight-span crow”) for plot reasons in Subterranean Animism.

Anyways, she debuted as the final boss of Subterranean Animism where she was also canonically nicknamed “Okuu” (おくう / お空), though the latter form was confirmed in Double Spoiler. Since then, she now lives and works at the Underground Geyser Center beneath Former Hell.

In terms of personality, Utsuho is actually an honest and serious character, but she can also be carefree at times and other characters call her “bird-brained” for this. When it comes to her job, she's rather attentive, passionate, and serious. She also appears to be a leader at home that deeply cares about Satori and Orin. When it comes to fights, Utsuho will boast her powers and will act warlike upon first encounter.

She has long dark brown hair with a ponytail, brick red eyes, a red eye protruding from her chest, and black wings. Her outfit consists of a white shirt, black socks, black shoes, and sometimes a giant space cape. In addition, her left ankle is orbited by electrons (“leg of fission”), her right foot sports an elephant's foot-like boot (“leg of fusion”), and her right arm holds a pillar-like nuclear reactor (“third leg”).

Kanako sought the strongest hell raven and told Utsuho to consume the Yatagarasu, which granted her the ability to control and manage nuclear fusion, but the Marisa and Nitori ending of Subterranean Animism informs us that she needs fusion material in order to use nuclear fusion in practical applications. For now, she uses this to maintain the fires of Blazing Hell's remains while working the Underground Geyser Center.

• “Solar Faith's Mystic Wisdom” (霊知の太陽信仰　～ Nuclear Fusion, Reichi no Taiyō Shinkō)

“Lord Yatagarasu, the Black Sun. Thank you for giving me your power.”
– Utsuho Reiuji

In Subterranean Animism, Utsuho is the final boss of the game. The story is that she was visited by Kanako who tells her to consume the Yatagarasu for their Nuclear Furnace project with the Kappas, but Utsuho forgets this and gets a desire to scorch the surface world while her excess powers cause geysers.⁹⁾ Orin is worried about this, so she sends vengeful spirits up the geysers which begins the story here.

• Reimu and Yukari: Utsuho heard the gossip of Reimu wanting to stop the geyser, but Utsuho explains that her excess power causes it. Reimu decides to fight anyways, so Utsuho gives a valiant speech.
• Reimu and Suika: Utsuho wonders what Reimu did to get sent far into hell, while Suika explains the situation. Banter is thrown and once Suika advises Reimu to escape, Utsuho doesn't let her.
• Reimu and Aya: Utsuho welcomes Reimu and introduces herself. While Aya tries to piece together the story, Aya plants the idea of “surface invasion” into the conversation and Utsuho kinda plays along.
• Marisa and Alice: Utsuho and Marisa meet again, but when Marisa asks to stop the vengeful spirits, Utsuho is confused as she doesn't control them. Instead, she boasts about her power instead.
• Marisa and Patchouli: Utsuho assumes Marisa wants to stop the geyser, but everyone gets confused and she explains the Orin controls the spirits. Patchouli gives urgency, and Marisa decides to fight.
• Marisa and Nitori: Nitori seems giddy to discover Utsuho's new power. Marisa asks what that is and Nitori sorta scoffs at Marisa before asking to capture her alive. Again, she gives a valiant speech.

For the good endings, Utsuho is present in three of them. The Reimu-Suika and Reimu-Aya ending reveals that a mountain god granted her the powers. Reimu sets off as the geysers continue in the Reimu-Suika ending, but assumes they wanted hot springs in the Reimu-Aya ending. Meanwhile, the Marisa-Nitori ending has Nitori building a turbine, then tells us that Utsuho was only given a limited amount of atoms.

“That's right, there's been frequent geyser eruptions since last winter, I wonder why.”
– Marisa Kirisame

In Undefined Fantastic Object, it's mentioned on the “Marisa B” route that the geysers, powered by Utsuho's excess power, had been going off since last winter and they shot up a group of youkai who would begin the events of the game by planning to break the seal that the humans put on Byakuren for being kind to youkai in the outside world. Aside from indirectly influencing these events, she does not appear in the game.

“The foreign substance is to be immediately eradicated!”
– Utsuho Reiuji

In Touhou Hisoutensoku, she appears on the fourth stage of Cirno and Sanae's story mode, maintaining the Underground Geyser Center's Nuclear Furnace and guarding it from foreign substances.

• Cirno, Stage 4: Cirno wanders into the Underground Geyser Center, but Utsuho notices and deems her a foreign substance to be eradicated due to the temperature change that she's causing to the reactor's core. They fight. Eventually, Cirno flees as soon as she defeats her, and Utsuho believes that she got vaporized so she returns to work.
• Sanae, Stage 4: Sanae enters the Nuclear Furnace and Utsuho appears after being notified that a foreign substance had contaminated the reactor's core. After fighting, Utsuho is confused on what exactly she was doing, so Sanae pretends they were investigating this reactor and explains that she's looking for a 100m tall humanoid creature. It doesn't seem like Utsuho remembers though.

In addition, she has three other versus dialogue coded into the game:

• “Nobody's a match for the ultimate energy!”
• “It's not enough rampage! The nuclear reactions in me are saying to rampage some more!”
• “Compared to the Sun, you are a puny being, but I won't show any sympathy.”

“How am I supposed to take good pictures of the sun?”
– Aya Shameimaru

In Double Spoiler, Utsuho appears on Stage 8-2, 8-4, 8-6, and 8-8, with four unique individual spell cards, and she shares the same stage difficulty with Orin.

Aya complains about how she can't get any good pictures due to the sun and her backlight, then complains about the heat next. She then jokes that she gave up taking pictures of her, deciding to print out a blank image and claim that it's her. For her last spell card, Aya mentions that the “Big Dipper” constellation is known as the “Celestial Dragon” (天龍, Tenryū) in youkai astronomy.

Hatate realizes that the artificial sun powers the hot spring on the surface, but doesn't how know the whole process behind it works, then notes that this sun never seems to stop. She finally comments on the heat, though she's still thinking about how it affects the hot spring on the surface. Lastly, Hatate mentions how it's believed that comets will fall out if you flip the big dipper.

In Hopeless Masquerade, Utsuho makes a minor cameo as a background character when the protagonist(s) fight on the “Palace of Earth Spirits” stage.

“A crow and a fox? Some people would be happy with these photos…”
– Sumireko Usami

In Violet Detector, Utsuho is in Nightmare Thursday-1, Nightmare Thursday-4, and Nightmare Thursday-6 where she shares spell cards with Satori, Ran, and Koishi in that order. However, Sumireko does not pay Utsuho much attention in her remarks. She's mainly focused on Satori in the first, gets distracted by how fluffy the two are in the second, and the final spell card is more of a stage recap than anything.

In Oriental Sacred Place, Utsuho makes a cameo in Chapter 5 when Marisa says youkai were running yakitori stalls at the Myouren Temple's Ennichi, then she makes another cameo in Chapter 10 when Yukari brings up the yin-yang orbs she used to communicate with Reimu back in Subterranean Animism.

Utsuho makes her first in-person cameo in Chapter 12, attending the New Year's Eve festival with Orin and looking at a rabbit doll. Do note that she doesn't have her control rod, nor her special boot in this shot. Her final cameo is in Chapter 18 when the Fairies of Light notices that Reimu doesn't really exterminate youkai.

In Visionary Fairies in Shrine, Utsuho attends the Tanabata festival in Chapter 7 with Orin check out Seiran's stall and try out her dango. She later appears in Chapter 9.5 with Orin at the Deep Winter Fire festival, trying to catch fish at Nitori's stall, presumably Goldfish from the stall's poster.

“Nuclear fusion sure is amazin'.”
– Marisa Kirisame

In The Grimoire of Marisa, Marisa reviews five of Utsuho's spell cards, which are: Atomic Fire “Nuclear Fusion”, “Heaven-Hell Meltdown”, Explosion Sign “Mega Flare”, Blazing Star “Fixed Star”, and “Subterranean Sun”. Overall, she gives all of her spell cards a high reference level.

For the first three, she makes note of the temperature of the fireballs in her spell cards, but it's evident that Marisa doesn't know much about nuclear fusion. The fourth spell card just fits her motif, and the fifth spell card has her commenting on how she actually turns into an underground sun who also has the gravity to draw her in.

“What can be confirmed with certainty is that the inside of her head is empty.”
– Hieda no Akyuu

In Symposium of Post-Mysticism, Akyuu describes Utsuho as the hell raven who resides deep inside the geyser center of former hell's blazing remains and she describes her as unique among hell ravens since a divine spirit inhabits her body, which is difficult unless she lacked a brain or personality prior.

Her page speculates that the Yatagarasu altered her looks too, noting her heavy-looking “leg of fusion”, arm cannon-like “third leg”, and a bright red chest eye. From there, the page mentions the Yatagarasu being sunspot-like figure who grow more powerful every 11 or so years.

The Yatagarasu has the same power as the sun, a divine flame, and controlling it requires more effort than releasing it. A couple pages earlier, it's revealed that Kanako had hypnotized Utsuho to consume the Yatagarasu which has granted her the Yatagarasu's powers, though she did this while avoiding Satori.

Back to Utsuho's page, we're left with a thought on how the Yatagarasu would feel about being sent to live among the hated in former hell. For countermeasures regarding Utsuho, none are known as she rarely surfaces from the underground, then Akyuu ends the page joking that she's responsible for the hot springs in Gensokyo.

In Wild and Horned Hermit, Utsuho makes a cameo in Chapter 2 as Sanae tries pushing for an alternative energy source, stating that the Nuclear Reactor is inefficient due to its placement and the resources it uses. She has another cameo in Chapter 27 as Reimu recalls everyone she used her needles on.

“It's often said that stupid children are cuter, but Okuu is always helping me out or preening me. Such a cute pet.”
– Satori Komeiji

In Volume 5, Utsuho is in a cross-review where Reimu, Marisa, and Satori give their opinions on characters in Subterranean Animism. Reimu gives her a 1 for being dangerous, Marisa gives her a 6 as she's bird-brained in the end despite her powers, and Satori gives her a 10 since she's cute.

Later, the “Gensokyo Human-Youkai Directory”¹¹⁾ page on Utsuho tells us that she was just a hell raven that hung around Satori, until Kanako deemed her dumb enough to gain the Yatagarasu's powers, and now she has the power to control nuclear fusion.

While it's true that she tried to scorch the Earth once, she now helps the Kappas at Kanako's Underground Geyser Center. Overall, the author's comments in this volume tells us that ZUN wanted a darker character that popped out. An underground sun would be surprising which is where the Yatagarasu came into his mind, then there's the “nuclear” motif to make her fit among the hated and allow for a Mountain of Faith tie-in.

• Reiuji Utsuho on Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]
• Reiuji Utsuho on Niconico Encyclopedia [JA]
• Reiuzi Utsuho on Touhou Wiki [JA]
• Reiuzi Utsuho on Touhou Motoneta Wiki [JA]
• Reiuji Utsuho on THBWiki [ZH]
• Reiuji Utsuho on Moegirl Encyclopedia [ZH]
• Reiuji Utsuho on Namu Wiki [KO]
• Utsuho Reiuji on Touhou Wiki [EN]

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 _ﾉ`ｰ'､_
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 ) (⌒) (
　　　　　　　l＼　　　　　　 ｀ヽ-､/´　/!
　　　　　　　〉:::lヽ、　 ｧ‐-､,o,_ ,.ィ　 /l::〉
　　　　　　　>:::|　ﾉヽ,r〉;'´::::::::｀ヽ}イ　|::>
　　　　　　　く:::':、　〈 Y!ﾉメ人ｽ)〉n　 l::ﾌ
　　　　　　　 i｀ヽ;〉　 ﾉﾙﾘ^ ｰ.ﾟﾉ「 ｱ /ｲ
　　　　　　　 '､ﾟ ｡｀'ｰｲ:〈,_i（( !)}]_,ﾉ,ノ｡/
　　　　　　　　 ＼｡ﾟ 〈／ﾝ'^~フヽ、ﾟ／
　　　　　　　　　　` く／'ﾄ,ﾗ^i_ﾗ'´ ´