Touhou Character of the day: Ran Yakumo

Facts from Touhou wiki

• The characters for Yakumo literally mean "eight clouds", and Ran "indigo". All of the Yakumo family are named after colors.

• Ran Yakumo is apparently not her real name, according to Perfect Memento, and is only a name given to her by Yukari. Her real name is unknown.

• One of her Spell Cards, "Princess Tenko," made her one of the most popular joke characters in the Touhou community, second only to "Chuugoku" with the silliness of its sound. It might have something to do with a famous Japanese illusionist, considering how foxes are known for their tricks and illusions in folklore.

• Apparently this page (images on page defunct; archived here) is where the "Suppatenko" (literally, "Naked Heaven-Fox") trend started. [Note: Not recommended for pure Ran fans.] Since then, in many fan works, she's been pictured as a flasher.

• Even though Ran is only a boss in two games and has never been a playable character, she's a fairly popular character and is often seen in fan comics partly because of her master Yukari, who is another popular character.

• She's usually portrayed as a motherly figure, especially towards Chen.

• Ran is supposed to be a 9-tailed fox (called a "Kyuubi") which, according to ancient Japanese folklore, would be at least 800 years old. Foxes start life with 1 tail and gain an extra tail once every hundred years. So at 100 years old they would have 2, and at 800 would have 9. At this point, assuming Ran follows traditional folklore, she will eventually start losing tails until she has 4 and will be considered a "Tenko" (heaven) type of fox and will then be one step away from divinity.

• Ran is often depicted as Yukari's "voice of reason" in fan comics.

Ran is the only stage mid-boss in any Touhou game that is immune to bombs