This Magnificent Baddie was Headlined on August 2023.
“
Now, show me! Just what an earthling risking her life is capable of! And behold! This pristine spiritual force that rejects life and death!
„
~ Junko challenging Reimu Hakurei to battle
Junko is the main antagonist of Touhou Project 15: Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom and the overarching main antagonist of Touhou Project 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo. She is an extremely powerful divine spirit with the ability to scientifically purify anything who aims to work with Hecatia Lapislazuli to invade the Lunar Capital, tear down their hegemony over the moon and kill Chang'e.
Perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of Junko is her tragedy. Since she is based off Chun Hu, a figure in Chinese mythology, she was forced into becoming the wife of a Xia Dynasty ruler named Hou Yi who killed her previous husband and her son. It is heavily implied the new relationship was abusive to the point Junko snapped and used her powers on herself, becoming nothing more than a vengeful spirit with a grudge against the Lunarians, especially amongst them Hou Yi and Chang'e who were directly responsible for her suffering. If that wasn't enough the sad undertones in both her Stage theme and Battle theme show just how tragic she is.
After previously failing to infiltrate the Lunar Capital in numerous attempts to assassinate Chang'e, she teamed up with Hecatia Lapislazuli, the goddess of hell, who sympathized with her due to also having a grudge against the Lunarians.
She's a highly competent one-man army as she previously attacked the Lunar Capital by herself numerous times, with the Lunarian Gods barely being able to fend her off each time.
Even though she hates the Lunarians in general, she harbors no genocidal intentions towards them and is more focused on assassinating Chang'e for revenge.
She's an extremely intelligent master manipulator as her master plan of trapping the Lunarians in the dream world to leave the Lunar capital unguarded so she can infiltrate it was efficient and cleverly constructed.
She's polite and affable despite her vengefulness, for all her burning rage she is able to keep her own calm and composure, speaking to others with sophisticated charm
She's honorable as she recognizes the heroes as pure if certain conditions are met in the game
She purposely designed her attack patterns and spell cards to be as ruthlessly efficient as possible, unlike every other character who implement beautiful patterns and colors in their spell cards.
She has an elegant and beautiful design that adds to her charm with a regal crown and kitsune imagery
Her theme song is a certified banger and her boss battle is extremely challenging as expected of a final boss.
As heinous as her actions against the Lunarians are, the audience does not spare any sympathy towards them as they themselves are worse than Junko, being extremely xenophobic having shot down human bases simply for being on the Moon and when Junko attacked them they were too racist towards others to call for help and tried to commit Gensokyo genocide just so they can invade, enslave and conquer it later to escape from Junko's army, leading to the events of Urban Legend in Limbo.
In the end, she redeems herself, admitting defeat with grace and calls off the invasion before moving to live in Gensokyo as a hermit
What makes her a Baddie?[]
Murdered Hou Yi after the death of her son.
Prior to the events of the story, she attacked the Lunar Capital in the past multiple times, with the Lunar Capital barely being able to fend her off.
Started a war and led an invasion on the Moon with an army of purified fairies against the Lunarians.
She had Hecatia Lapislazuli trap the Lunarians in the dream realm when they tried to escape there to leave the Lunar Capital defenseless so she could assassinate Chang'e.
She will go out of her way to torture or at least upset Chang'e, infact, the entire reason she set up the invasion in the first place was to kill the secured Chang'e and oppress the Lunarians.
Her actions have way more of an impact than other Touhou villains because it is heavily likely Junko is responsible for not only the events of Touhou 15 directly, but also indirectly responsible for the events of Touhou 14.5, the only character caused the events of more games than Junko is Kanako Yasaka.
Unlike other Touhou bosses who use spell cards with pretty and beautiful patterns in their attacks, Junko lacks any complicated patterns or shapes in her moveset because she designed it not to show off, but simply to kill.
Tried to kill the heroines when they confronted her.
Even after her redemption, she still voices her desires to one day get back at Chang'e and the Lunar Capital.
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Magnificent Baddies