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Minamitsu Murasa

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(むら) ()   (みな) (みつ)
mɯɽasa minamit͡sɯ̥ (♫)
Minamitsu Murasa
Minamitu Murasa

More Alternative Spellings
Minamitsu Murasa
Minamitsu Murasa in Sunken Fossil World
The Ghost Left From the Shipwreck Accident
More Character Titles
Nickname

Captain Murasa (ムラサ船長)

Species

Ship Phantom

Abilities

Causing water-related accidents

Age

Dead

Occupation

Captain

Location

Palanquin Ship/Myouren Temple, Misty Lake,[1] The Wind God's Lake,[1] Genbu Ravine,[1] Sanzu River[1]

Music Themes
Appearances
Official Games
Print Works

"I'm headed towards a completely submerged and sorrowful hell.
Those who can't make use of the water would just get in my way.
Even if it's Lady Hijiri."
Minamitsu Murasa (Sunken Fossil World Stage 2)

Minamitsu Murasa (村紗 水蜜 Murasa Minamitsu) is the phantom of a young girl who drowned who then became a ship-sinking youkai before becoming a follower of Byakuren Hijiri at the Myouren Temple. MInamitsu is the captain of the Palanquin Ship that transforms into the Myouren Temple as well. Minamitsu first appeared as the Stage 4 boss of Undefined Fantastic Object then first appeared as a playable character, and possible opponent, in Sunken Fossil World.

General Information

Personality

While Minamitsu is a rather fearsome phantom, she is still kind-hearted with a bright personality. Mainly due to her ties with the Myouren Temple, she could empathize with humans and her victims, and thus chooses them more carefully. She also chats with the victims she capsizes, and have acquired good conversational abilities as a result.

Abilities

Causing water-related accidents

Minamitsu possesses the ability to cause water-related accidents. Her ability appears to be odd compared to a regular ghost, which is because she drowned at sea a long time ago. Due to a certain attachment to the ocean she kept capsizing passing ships. She can also drown anyone near water, which goes as far as drowning someone who is bathing in hot spring water, or sitting peacefully near a river's edge. This is also why she is seen around places with a lot of water. However, Gensokyo does not have any seas, so this ability seldom plays a major role.

Using anchors and her ladle as weapons

Her unique weapons include the anchors she uses, as well as her ladle, which is bottomless, according to an interview with ZUN and her spell card comments in Double Spoiler,[2] which she uses to throw water. Murasa is particularly noted for her strength, due to her ease in throwing anchors[3], and for her skill in throwing water with a bottomless ladle.[4]

Occupation

She is the Palanquin Ship's captain, having accepted the job from Byakuren Hijiri during their first meeting, though she claims there's little for her to actually do in recent days. Currently she is a follower of the Myouren Temple. In Chapter 17 of Lotus Eaters, Murasa is shown doing the temple's laundry. Murasa was once called to put out a fire with her water-throwing abilities.[4]

Possessions

She carries her own ladle, which she uses to flood the ships of her victims with water. In her early ghost years she used to ask for a ladle. She also carries an anchor which she uses in battle. Murasa's anchor is specifically called the Foundering Anchor, and is said to be capable of stopping and dragging any ship, no matter how resistent are the waves. The anchor and its chains can be also used to hold strong opponents, such as Mizuchi Miyadeguchi, who was unable to move the anchor.[5]

Official Profiles

Toggle all
Official Profiles

Spell Cards

Spell cards

Backstory

After her death, Minamitsu became a spirit, bound to the ocean due to her lingering attachment to the world. Because of her spite, she eventually became renowned for capsizing ships. Many feared her, and tried to think of ways to somehow restrict her actions, but it wasn't until the monk Byakuren Hijiri was asked to do something about it that the situation changed. Minamitsu, knowing how famous the monk was at the time, believed she would be able to extend her influence even farther by sinking her, as well, and perhaps even escape her connection to the ocean and attack humans on land.

However, when Byakuren appeared before her on the seas completely defenseless, Minamitsu sunk her ship easily, prompting the spirit to wonder why. Byakuren then reappeared on the surface atop a shining ship, which she had constructed using the ship Minamitsu had died on as a design. Moved by the monk's insight and her own sense of nostalgia, she accepted Byakuren's offer to captain the shining ship.

After Byakuren was sealed away, Minamitsu was "buried" into the ground along with her ship. Having been long forgotten, Minamitsu and the rest of the youkai were pushed above ground in Gensokyo by a geyser - likely due to the events in Subterranean Animism – along with the palanquin ship and the fragments of the Flying Storehouse.

Character Design

Murasa, as illustrated in Symposium of Post-mysticism

Origin

Minamitsu is a ship phantom (船幽霊 funa yuurei), the ghost of a girl who drowned at sea. These types of ghosts are famous in Japanese folklore for capsizing and sinking ships, which inspired her character background and spell cards. Her ladle corresponds with the folklore; the ghost would approach a victim and demand a ladle, who could avoid death by giving them a ladle with a hole in the bottom.

Name

Her full name is Minamitsu Murasa (村紗 水蜜 Murasa Minamitsu) Her given name "Minamitsu" (水蜜) is a word that usually refers to the type of peach suimitsu tou (水蜜桃) or the peach itself (literally, it means "water honey"). Her surname "Murasa" (村紗) is taken from the type of ship phantom called murasa (ムラサ) known in the Oki District, Shimane. Similar to Satori Komeiji and Nue Houjuu whose names are also taken from their species' name, it's assumed that when she's referred by the name written in kanji, it's referring her by her own name, while using the name in katakana, she is referred by her species.[6] She is also known as "Captain Murasa".

Design

Minamitsu has short black hair and a teal eye color. Her clothes are designed after a regular sailor's outfit, with a white shirt and skirt with blue lines. Around her neck she has a neckerchief. In some of her spell cards, she is seen with a green aura. ZUN stated in an interview that the design for Minamitsu was the hardest to finish; he had far more sketches of Minamitsu with different hairstyles and colors in comparison to the other characters from Undefined Fantastic Object. He also couldn't decide whether a long or short skirt was better for Minamitsu.[7] Fans got confused whether she wore a skirt or short pants due to ZUN's drawing of her portrait in Undefined Fantastic Object, however, this varies from her appearances across different works.

In Sunken Fossil World she wears short pants with a belt, and is also seen with a black coat with gold trims and white gloves. Her red tie also has an anchor on it.

Appearances

Undefined Fantastic Object
Minamitsu's sprite in UFO

In Undefined Fantastic Object, Minamitsu meets the heroine as she is making preparations for the ship to go to Hokkai via Makai, where Byakuren Hijiri is being sealed. Along with Nazrin, Ichirin Kumoi, Unzan and Shou Toramaru, she is one of the youkai trying to unseal her. Unlike Ichirin, she learns that the heroine doesn't have any particular motive to help the group, and attacks in order to take the fragments of the treasure back. Though she loses out in the end, she had already placed the ship in auto-pilot, so it was too late for the heroine to escape.

Double Spoiler
Murasa in HM

In Double Spoiler, Murasa appeared as a stage 5 target, where she uses a few spell cards and had Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou take photos of her and her danmaku.

Hopeless Masquerade

Murasa made a background cameo appearance in Hopeless Masquerade on the Palanquin Ship stage. She is seen standing on the ship with an anchor.

Sunken Fossil World
Minamitsu's sprite in SFW

Minamitsu goes underground to investigate the black water that appeared near the Myouren Temple, and to do so she floods the underground, which annoys Kanako Yasaka and Utsuho Reiuji, but the goddess lets her continue after hearing her explanation and Utsuho warns Minamitsu about a "monster that can even gobble up the Blazing Hell's flames in one bite" that she will encounter if she continues. After going all the way underground, she enters the Hell of Blood Pools, where she encounters Yuuma Toutetsu. After explaining that she already knew the petroleum was blood, Yuuma attacks the captain, but is defeated.

Symposium of Post-mysticism
The Grimoire of Usami

On the kappa's request, she used one of her spell cards to prevent a forest fire during the Hakurei Fireworks Festival. As she was still officially listed as a contestant, she was judged like other participants.

She came back during the second half of the festival after Shinmyoumaru Sukuna and Seija Kijin took over to display some of her more dangerous danmaku.

Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine

Reimu Hakurei writes a fortune slip about Minamitsu as a way of cleaning up in the aftermath of an incident.

Relationships

Byakuren Hijiri

Minamitsu has a very strong relationship with Byakuren, as she is pretty much the Minamitsu's savior. After reappearing in Gensokyo, she swore to return the favor and rescue Byakuren.

Shou Toramaru, Ichirin Kumoi & Nazrin

She is a colleague of both Shou and Ichirin, though it's unknown exactly how or when they met. Murasa is shown to be close friends with Ichirin, and they can be seen together frequently.

Gallery

Artworks

Illustrations

Screenshots

Additional Information

  • Her stage theme has a distinctive Windows XP balloon hint "pop" around 2:10, which probably got in the recording, as stated in ZUN's Twitter.
  • Like Aya Shameimaru in Mountain of Faith, Minamitsu Murasa doesn't seem to have a gimmick/variation based on the playable character (which is something usual in stage 4 bosses). Though, both have a timeout spell card on Normal, Hard and Lunatic.
  • According to Koishi, the sea that Minamitsu drowned in was the Hell of Blood Pools,[8] potentially explaining her prior knowledge of the Sea of Petroleum's true form in Sunken Fossil World.

Fandom

Official Sources

Official sources

References