Yugiri

"I found that getting confused doesn’t help much, I’ll just relax and take things as they come."

- Yugiri to Lily, about the modern times

Yugiri (ゆうぎり, Yūgiri) was a high-ranking courtesan from the Meiji era who helped ignite the spark that would later lead Saga to independence after disappearing for several years.

She is currently a member of Franchouchou, where she is titled as The Legendary Courtesan (伝説の花魁 Densetsu no Oiran).

Human
Yugiri has light-brown hair, and most of it is worn in a bow shape on her head and two long locks hanging over her shoulders. Her bangs are mostly centered, with a curved bit to the right. Yugiri also has light rusty eyes. Despite her age, Yugiri sports a very voluptuous figure that beats even those of Sakura and Tae and is only being beaten by Maimai.

Usually, Yugiri wears an outfit similar to a kimono, with a white and orange plaid pattern top, a purple collar, and a forest green skirt. She also sports dark purple leggings and dark gray boots.

Her casual clothes consist of a kimono, hakama, stockings, and boots, in the manner of a late 1800s student, but with the hakama cut above the knee like a makeshift skirt to show more of her legs.

Zombie
Like the other zombies, she has blue-gray skin and red eyes; she has a scar around her neck. Her everyday clothing looks disorganized and lifeless.

Idol
Her idol outfit changes throughout the series: In episodes 1-6, Yugiri wears a pink T-shirt with the word “five” written on it and a red skirt with white ruffles. Using makeup, she and the other zombies make their skin look like an average human. Yugiri also wears contact lenses to achieve the red eyes that she had as a living person.

After Saga Rock, her idol outfit changed to a red jacket with a plaid decoration, a red skirt with cotton inside it, and knee-high boots.

Before Death
She was so sought after by Tokyo's wealthy elite that they ended up raising her price through the roof to the point that no one could afford to be with her, making her a deadweight to her employers. A high-ranking government official eventually buys her freedom, but it appears that he took pity on both her and her own company. After the senior government official who bought her freedom passed away, she found herself living in a city where she knew no one and no one knew her. While said official intended for her to live a normal life, she did not know how to live a normal life once she came to Saga.

Despite taking it easy as she normally does, Yugiri felt a bit lonely after moving to Saga. While she went in exchange for her freedom, she moved to a town where no one knew her (except as a legendary courtesan), and she also didn't know the people there.

Since, Kiichi endears himself to her. He is the first person in Saga to socialize with her for non-oiran-related reasons.

During the events of Saga Jihen, Yugiri proves to have the courage to challenge Ito with her hidden sword in her Shamisen and finally defeat him in a 1-to-1 duel until finally assassinating him. And with the confidence that one day she could be revived, she decides to sacrifice herself for Kiichi so that he can create his new Saga. While it is shown that all of Franchouchou's other deaths were inopportune, accidental, and sudden, and they had no intention of dying at all; Yugiri breaks this trend because her death was a heroic sacrifice that she knew was going to happen; this shows her kind and selfless nature, as well as her mature and collected demeanor. Even when she was about to be executed, she kept her composure and smiled one last time and said goodbye before being beheaded.

Jofuku, who was alive in her time, finds a letter written by her before she was executed, telling him that she will probably be dead by the time he reads that letter, for taking responsibility for the bloodshed and rebellion in Saga. She asks him to inform Kiichi that she got out of the Saga safely and to lead the new Saga that Kiichi would create.

Afterlife
Yugiri remains very calm and traditional in various situations, most likely due to the period in which she lived and in which she worked. Despite this, she seems to calmly accept and adapt to the changes in modern Japanese society. Yugiri struggles to remain calm in the face of her resurrection, so as not to be overwhelmed by a world a century ahead of her. In reality, she has never been seen to have any questions or ask another of the girls about something, since it appears that she is capable of learning very quickly or is simply one of the people who have no doubts when doing something. Despite this characteristic, she still looks collaborative with the group, doing everything that is said without asking.

Although she is not immune to freaking out with others, she can generally remain calm and composed in most of her outlandish situations, it is even more impressive because she is the oldest of the group. During the second season of the series, it is briefly implied that when Yugiri is nervous or afraid, she uses the comb that Kiichi Momozaki gave her in life. This is demonstrated in the second episode when she wakes up, in the seventh episode in Saga Rock and her flashback episodes.

Her selfless nature is shown also in her afterlife, and she shares a role similar to Sakura. Despite her more reserved and collected personality, she is very kind, warm, and hospitable, and often acts motherly to the other girls, especially Lily, showing concern and acting most maturely. This makes sense given that she is the oldest at the time of death, in addition to Tae and Junko (who is the same age, only two months older). It is mentioned in her design sheets that, on her own, her personality is quite strong when the case is required, and she can take center stage when necessary. She is the most mentally mature of the girls, taking the time to analyze situations, and is also intelligent. Indeed, she discovered that Kotaro had a relationship with Sakura in the past in episode 10 of the series, realizing the deal that he had Sakura, besides being the first to wake up.

Every time she sees someone depressed, she physically hits people to get them out of their mood. The problem is that typically they have already recovered when Yugiri slaps them and tells them exactly what they were trying to say. The only time she slaps someone in the middle of her depression is in Episode 12 when Sakura is adamant about giving up.

She seems to be the only one that Kotaro won't scold or be a jerk to, something that even Sakura isn't immune to. Probably because Jofuku would have his head on the wall if he found out that Yugiri was injured in some way.

Skillset

 * Athleticism—As shown in the fifth episode, Yugiri displays a fantastic display of acrobatic skills during the Tarzan Swing round of the Gatalympics. This is because her profession was to entertain through performances.
 * Courtesan (Oiran)—As her title suggests, Yugiri was a courtesan in the Meiji Era while alive, specifically an Oiran, a type of Yūjo (prostitute) who are more so entertainer than physical pleasures. It is possible that since Yugiri is an Oiran, Kotaro Tatsumi resurrected her in the first place as she had experience and skills as an entertainer before. However, it seems mostly to be the influence of the bartender.
 * Musical Talent—As a former entertainer and currently a member of Franchouchou, Yugiri's skills in being musically talented are shown throughout the series.
 * Shamisen-playing—As evident in Episode 2, she has incredible skill on the instrument called a shamisen, able to play fast and move her fingers around the instrument's neck with high speed and skill.
 * Swordsmanship—As hinted in the third episode, Yugiri seems to have some knowledge of “testing swords out on one another.” In “Episode 21” she is shown to have exemplary swordsmanship skills as she was able to dodge Shojiro Ito's attack while also having landed one successful blow, which was enough to kill him.
 * Dancing—Like her musical talent, Yugiri is shown to be adept at dancing as a former entertainer.
 * Cooking and Culinary Arts—As shown in “Episode 16”, Yugiri can prepare any meal with the ingredients given to her, and she decorates Ai Mizuno's lunch using the nori to spell out “Do your best/You'll succeed.”
 * Hula Hooping—Yugiri and the rest of the girls can perform while twirling hoops made of electricity during their performance in “Episode 16”.

Natural Abilities

 * Non-senescence—Due to being a zombie, Yugiri retains her age and physical appearance at the time of her death forever and is immune against death. As she, along with the other girls, can endure circumstances that human bodies normally cannot handle. Like the lightning bolt in the seventh episode; and instead of suffering a third-degree burn, the girls end up becoming luminous and self-possessed—tuned voices.
 * Detachable Limbs—As a zombie, Yugiri can detach and reattach parts of her body from their sockets with little to no effort, either intentionally or accidentally. However, she is one of the zombies to which no part of its body has fallen for now.
 * Phosphorescent Vision—Yugiri's undead blood-red eyes are shown to be able to glow in the dark.
 * Element Absorption—Their zombie bodies can accelerate the process of absorbing chemicals like those seen in Episode 4, where they instantly absorb the medicinal patches, causing their muscles to relax and not be as stiff. In addition to the fact that in their following concerts and practices, they continue to use the patches. In Episode 7, their bodies demonstrate a battery-like characteristic by receiving an electrical discharge from lightning, glowing a pale blue, and releasing laser beams with their fingers.

Unique Abilities

 * Deadly Hand—One of the recurring gags with Yugiri is that she has to suddenly slap a person in the middle of a talk; however, her slaps are especially powerful and capable of throwing a person through the air.

Etymology

 * The name Yugiri means “evening mist” (夕霧).
 * Yugiri is also the name of a character in “The Tale of Genji”.



Trivia

 * Since her design feels like a combination of things that come out of the word “Oiran,” it was necessary to consider the times. They wanted to affirm that Yugiri, alone, could be placed in the protagonist's position, an idol with a strong personality.
 * As revealed by Kotaro Tatsumi in the first episode, specifically the line, “The Legendary Courtesan known only as Yugiri,” that “Yugiri” is simply an alias she goes by and is not her actual name.
 * Yugiri does not seem to know her real name, the courtesans used names based on Genji Monogatari/Genji's quantum to prevent their real names from being discovered.
 * Yugiri died one month after her nineteenth birthday.
 * Chronologically, Yugiri is the oldest in Franchouchou.
 * Yugiri is second to sports the curviest figure in the group. Beating even Sakura Minamoto and Tae Yamada by three sizes, she was only beaten by Maimai Yuzuriha.
 * The railway bridge in the Saga Jihen MV was built next to a statue of Jofuku in honor of his arrival in Morodomi town, and a cycling route also called Jofuku passes through there.
 * Yugiri uses a dialect used in the pleasure district of Kyoto (Shimabara), and Tokyo (Yoshiwara), expressions such as “arinsu” are part of the latter's Kuruwa-kotoba.
 * “Arinsu” is a corruption of “arimasu,” which is a formal way of saying “~ da” in Japanese (both in pre-modern and modern times), so it is not a difficult dialect to emulate.
 * In “Episode 14”, the bar she works at, Chinatsu, is recalled as “Arinsu.” Instead of being a bar, it is referred to as a restaurant. It is currently unknown if this is an error or an intentional change.
 * It is confirmed in this same episode that Yugiri's place of origin is Kyoto, Japan, in the red-light district of Yoshiwara.
 * In Yugiri's time, she visited the wolves of Mibu and the Sonno Joi as part of her work.
 * However, in the historical background, both groups had opposite ideals and were in an internal war for control of Japan.
 * As of “Episode 13”, Yugiri works part-time as a bartender at a bar named Chinatsu.
 * Interestingly enough, this may be a nod to how she has connections with the bartender.
 * Yugiri stands out in her agility to play the Shamisen, as well as in being a “company” lady, the latter due to the time she was working, she would be a “prostitute”, but no further history is maintained.
 * On April 23, 2021, the series' Twitter account announced that Yugiri would be a VTuber, having her streams at the Chinatsu bar. The stream can be found here on the Official Cygames YouTube Channel.
 * Yugiri has two episodes centered around her so far: “Episode 20” and “Episode 21”.
 * Additionally, it is revealed in “Episode 20” that the small red comb with the floral pattern that she uses throughout the series is gifted to her by Kiichi Momozaki.
 * The group picture of her, Kiichi, and Ito can be seen on one of the shelves in Jofuku bar, as shown in “Episode 21”.
 * Yugiri has connections to Saga statesmen, including Soejima Taneomi, Okuma Shigenobu, and Oki Takato.
 * In 9:50 of Episode 21, Yugiri can be seen sending mails to Soejima Taneomi, Okuma Shigenobu, and Oki Takato.
 * Yugiri's blood type appears as “unknown” since blood tests were not a thing until the mid-1900s.
 * Yugiri's heart-shaped knot has a red stain on the right side that is only seen in her zombie form. When her death is finally revealed, it is clear why: the stain is part of Yugiri's blood at the time of her execution. At the time of her execution, her hair is loose and there is a lock sticking out in front of Yugiri's face that may have been soaked in her blood.