Cirno

Cirno (チルノ) is an ice fairy and one of the most popular characters for Touhou Project. She is also affectionately nicknamed ⑨ by fans due to an infamous meme possibly started by ZUN himself.

Contents [hide]

1 Profile

2 Overview

3 Appearance

4 Ability

4.1 Manipulation of the Cold

5 Trivia

6 Popularity

7 Spell Card List

8 Derivative Works

8.1 Daioki Cirno

8.2 Advent Cirno

8.3 Nineball Cirno

8.4 Bakartet

9 Related Events

9.1 Yousei Genki!

9.2 Cirno Day

9.3 True Cirno Day

10 Names in Other Languages

11 Related Illustrations

12 Related Articles

12.1 Derivative Creation Related

13 External Links

13.1 English

13.2 Japanese

13.3 Chinese

13.4 Korean

14 Article in Other Languages

Profile

Titles	Ice Spirit on the Lake (EoSD)　Youkai of the Ice (PCB)　Small Fairy of the Ice (PoFV, SaBND 13th, VFiS 3rd)　Unnatural Chill (StB)　Fairy of the Ice (PMiSS, TH)　Ice Spirit of the Lake (DDC)　Unmelting Ice Spirit Under the Blazing Sun (HSiFS)　Innocence Is Righteous (HBM)
Species	Fairy
Gender	Female
Age	Hinted to be over 78
Abilities	Capable of manipulating cold (PCB), Capable of manipulating ice (DDC, HSiFS)
Residence	Misty Lake, a place near Scarlet Devil Mansion
First-Person Pronoun	Atai (あたい), Watashi (私, before PoFV)
Second-Person Pronoun	Omae (お前)
Threat Level	Low⁕
Human Friendship Level	Normal⁕
Encounter Frequency	High
Main Activity Location	Misty Lake
Main Encounter Location	Anywhere
Main Time of Encounter	Any time
Appearance (Official Games)	Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (stage 2 boss)　Perfect Cherry Blossom (stage 1 mid-boss)　Phantasmagoria of Flower View (playable character)　Shoot the Bullet (stage 2-1, 2-3, 2-5 boss)　Touhou Hisoutensoku (playable character)　Fairy Wars (main character)　Hopeless Masquerade (background character)　Double Dealing Character (stage 1 mid-boss)　Impossible Spell Card (1st Day Boss)　Hidden Star in Four Seasons (playable character)　100th Black Market (2nd market boss)
Appearance (Print Works)	Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red　Strange and Bright Nature Deity　Silent Sinner in Blue　Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth　Oriental Sacred Place (secondary character)　Perfect Cherry Blossom　Wild and Horned Hermit　Symposium of Post-mysticism
Theme Song	Tomboyish Girl in Love (EoSD, TH)　Adventure of the Lovestruck Tomboy (PoFV)

⁕However, the evaluation of the threat level and the human friendship level is based on the character Hieda no Akyuu who is in the works.

Overview

Cirno (チルノ, Chiruno) is a ice fairy from Touhou Project. Her first appearance was in the sixth work, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. She has appeared in many other works since then, and was the sole protagonist in Fairy Wars.

Appearance

In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Perfect Cherry Blossom's official art, Cirno has aqua-colored eyes and hair. She wears a blue ribbon, light pink blouse, blue jumper dress and seems to be wearing white socks. She also has icicle-shaped wings in general, which usually comes in 6. In Phantasmagoria of Flower View and Touhou Hisoutensoku's official art, her ribbon is changed to green instead of blue and her sprite in Phantamagoria of Flower View still keeps the blue ribbon. Finally in Fairy Wars, her bow is once again blue. Her blouse has been changed to white and she seems to have bigger eyebrows. Her alternative outfit in Phantasmagoria of Flower View is same as her normal outfit, except her bow is a darker shade of green, her blouse appears light purple, and her dress is purple as well.

Ability

Manipulation of the Cold

As the description says, Cirno has the power to control ice related spells as well as to manipulate cold. This comes in handy as Cirno can actually decrease the temperature even during summer. While her power is considered weak compared to most bosses out there, if one were to compared Cirno to other fairies, she is considered to be exceptionally strong.

Her ability to manipulate cold extends to a level where she can freeze the air moisture easily, and also freeze any solid objects (which is for that reason, she seems to enjoy freezing frogs). She can also use freezing objects to create sword or arrows to attack enemies. In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, it is said that the air around turned her area really cold even during summer due to the an accident (a leak), which put her ability to control her own powers into question. Regardless, she is supposed to be really strong.

Trivia

Cirno is known for her childishness and stupidity, so the term "Cirno" is often used instead of "baka" (バカ, fool) as a joke in the Japanese Touhou community. Apparently, even ZUN himself approved the notion; in the manual for Phantasmagoria of Flower View, she is labeled as "9. Moron" in an explanation of the game screen's layout.
She was again labeled as such in the manual for Touhou Hisoutensoku.
In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, she is famous for having one of the easiest to spot safespots on Easy Mode (So easy that the player does not even need to dodge), and has possibly been known as an idiot way before because of this.
However, Cirno can actually read, unlike some of her peers, such as Mystia Lorelei. Perhaps she isn't the top idiot in Gensokyo. She can also count (she shows knowledge of rounding and fractions in Fairy Wars).
Cirno's favorite hobby is freezing a frog instantly, then watching it revive as it thaws in the water. However she tends to fail one out of every 3 attempts, and the poor amphibian shatters to pieces.
Cirno may be over 60 years old, as she was one of the only characters in Phantasmagoria of Flower View to know instantly what was happening, declaring, "It's the festival that happens once every sixty years!".
She appears as the silhouette on the jewel case of Touhou Hisoutensoku and Fairy Wars. She is not the final boss in either of them.
She is the only character to appear as the silhouette for two games' cover cases in the Windows games
A palette in Touhou Hisoutensoku resembles Alice Margatroid during the PC-98 era. Another palette resembles Reimu's hairstyle.
Reimu once warned Cirno not to meddle around or else she would suffer from the frog goddess.
Due to the infamous manual screenshot, Cirno has been nicknamed "Nine-ball" or simply "⑨". Due to this she is sometimes associated with Nineball (or the Seraph variation) of Armored Core fame in various ways, such as a Cirno in its red/black colors for MUGEN. It is famed because it's a difficult boss in any game it appears in.
Cirno seems to be a rather popular character in Touhou by fans mainly due to fandom making references to her in non-related topics.
The date "09-09-09" (Wednesday September 9 2009 09:09:09, more specifically) has been named "Cirno Day" for obvious reasons. For some reason, numerous aspects of this day everything could be translated into or connected with nine. For example: September 9 is the 252nd day of the year and 2 + 5 + 2 = 9, you need 9 letters to type "Wednesday" or "September", and Japan's timezone is +9. Other names for this day include "The Strongest Day" and "⑨ Day".
Due to becoming a meme, Cirno is now one of the most popular characters of the Touhou Project. Many fans now portray her, jokingly or seriously, as a misunderstood child or even as an outright genius in disguise, or as a bumbling idiot who messes up what everyone else is doing.
Because she likes freezing, many fans consider Suwako Moriya to have a rivalry with Cirno, owing to Suwako's affinity with frogs.
In fan works, she is often seen with other lower-level, childish characters such as Daiyousei, Rumia, Mystia Lorelei, and Wriggle Nightbug. This group is often known as "Team ⑨" in fandom, and are usually led by Cirno herself. Without Daiyousei, that group is often called the "bakartet", a combination of "baka" and "quartet".
In the Touhou Sangessei series, Cirno is seen with this group (Excluding Daiyousei) during gatherings involving the Three Fairies of Light. (Whether they know each other or just coincidentally end up within the same gathering is unknown.)
In other fan works, she is shown with Letty Whiterock, who is considered as a close friend, guardian, or mentor series.
Cirno's catchphrase in doujin works, "I'm the strongest!", comes from her dialogue in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, in which she announces this in her scenario, while being everyone else's stage one boss. She also says it when winning against herself in Phantasmagoria of Flower View and in Touhou Hisoutensoku.
Cirno's intelligence is shown in Oriental Sacred Place Chapter 12 as she wonders why her water flavored shaved ice is not selling.
Some fans have made connections between her and Mai due to their similar fairy-like appearances and their manipulation of ice. She even as a palette in Touhou Hisoutensoku that resembles Mai.
Ever since CNN featured the shadow art video Bad Apple!! together with its stop motion counterpart, it has been renamed "Cirno News Network" by some of the Touhou community. This is because of one reporter's incorrect assessment of the stop-motion video as depicting how the CG shadow art video was made.
Other fan-made versions of Cirno are Achi Cirno (Fire Cirno), Ikazu Cirno (Lighning Cirno), Mizu Cirno (Water Cirno), Cirno-nee (an adult version of Cirno), and Advent Cirno (parody of Cloud Strife and Final Fantasy VII franchise).
Cirno in Finland is known as "Sirkku", due to the fact it's a common Finnish female name, and Finnish people having trouble pronouncing "Cirno", "Chiruno" or any other variation of her name.

Popularity

For a character that is not a main character in the whole franchise of Touhou, her character proved to be extremely popular in pixiv. As of October 2011 there are a total of 69,141 illustrations of her submitted. which beats both Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame in terms of total illustrations submitted under their name tag. However, considering there are artists who submit illustrations only with their first name attached; if we are to combine total submissions from both tags, Reimu and Marisa still own the upperhand in character rankings. Regardless, as a character on the whole, she is extremely famous to both Japanese and the international Touhou fans.

Spell Card List

Spell Card	English	Appearance
氷符「アイシクルフォール」	Ice Sign "Icicle Fall"	Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Touhou Hisoutensoku
雹符「ヘイルストーム」	Hail Sign "Hailstorm"	Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
凍符「パーフェクトフリーズ」	Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"	Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Perfect Cherry Blossom, Phantasmagoria of Flower View
雪符「ダイアモンドブリザード」	Snow Sign "Diamond Blizzard"	Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Shoot the Bullet
霜符「フロストコラムス」	Frost Sign "Frost Columns"	Perfect Cherry Blossom, Touhou Hisoutensoku
凍符「コールドディヴィニティー」	Freeze Sign "Cold Divinity"	Phantasmagoria of Flower View
凍符「マイナスＫ」	Freeze Sign "Minus K"	Shoot the Bullet, Touhou Hisoutensoku
氷符「アイシクルマシンガン」	Ice Sign "Icicle Machine Gun"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
氷符「フェアリースピン」	Ice Sign "Fairy Spin"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
氷塊「コールドスプリンクラー」	Ice Cubes "Cold Sprinkler"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
冷体「スーパーアイスキック」	Cold Body "Super Ice Kick"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
氷符「ソードフリーザー」	Ice Sign "Sword Freezer"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
凍符「フリーズアトモスフェア」	Frozen Sign "Freeze Atmosphere"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
冷符「瞬間冷凍ビーム」	Cold Sign "Insta-Freeze Beam"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
吹氷「アイストルネード」	Blowing Ice "Ice Tornado"	Touhou Hisoutensoku
氷塊「グレートクラッシャー」	Ice Cube "Great Crusher"	Touhou Hisoutensoku

Derivative Works

As mentioned above, she is usually portrayed as a moron in many derivative works, especially in doujins. Even so, she is still the character who is loved by many fans even if she is being made fun of frequently.

Daioki Cirno

Daioki Cirno (大沖チルノ（あたいチルノ）) is a version of Cirno the appears in Daioki's doujinshi work, which is sold at Comiket under his circle "Daiokishin". This version of Cirno is highly loose looking, and is done in a tsukkomi-boke style 4 koma. This work is highly famous, where there is even a figurine made for this version of Cirno.

In this work, "\Eye/" (＼あたい／) and "\Awesome/" (＼すげえ／) are her catchphrases, which is also famous amongst the fans of Touhou.

Advent Cirno

Advent Cirno (アドベントチルノ) is one of the famous parody doujin. As the name implies, this work is based on Final Fantasy VII Advent Children created by Ushiki under his circle "One Night Stand".

In this parody, Cirno parodies the character Cloud Strife, who in this version is a hotblooded, "ally of justice" character. While the other characters including Reisen, Hong Meiling, Marisa, Letty and many others.

Nineball Cirno

Nineball Cirno (ナインボール=チルノ), in this version, Cirno is depicted as a mixture of Nine-Ball, the so-called strongest robot in the Armored Core series, and herself. It is also considered as a color variant of Cirno.

Considering how Cirno boasted herself as the strongest in the series, the link between both Nine-Ball and Cirno is probably fitting.

Bakartet

Main Article: Bakartet

Bakartet (バカルテット) is a group name given to Cirno and his other friends, Wriggle, Mystia, and Rumia. While they are the base members of the group, Daiyousei do join the group sometimes, and also Letty, who accompany them as a guardian of the group.

This group is formed during Imperishable Night, where Wriggle started with the line "If Cirno will join us to play it will be just right", and the group is then formed from there. Please click on the main article to know more about the details.

Related Events

Yousei Genki!

Yousei Genki! (ようせいげんき！) is a Touhou related event focused specifically on Cirno and other related fairies (link).

Cirno Day

Every year, during September 9 there will be an influx of illustrations about Cirno getting posted on the day itself due to the annual Cirno Day. It is regarded as a day where one expresses their love for the character.

True Cirno Day

Probably only happened once in lifetime, on September 9, 2009, there was an influx of illustrations about Cirno got submitted to pixiv due to Cirno Day, but at the same time, due to the anniversary event for Galaxy Express 999, there was another influx of illustrations got submitted on the same day, causing a strain on the servers.

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Chinese	琪露诺	Cirno
English (alt)	Chiruno
English (alt)	Chillno
English	Cirno	Cirno
Japanese (hiragana)	れいうじうつほ	Cirno
Japanese	チルノ	Cirno
Korean	치르노	Cirno
Russian	Чирно	Cirno
Ukrainian	Чірно	Cirno