The Flower Master of the Four Seasons Takes the Crown
Yuuka Kazami pulled in roughly 13 percent of the vote, a leap from her fifth-place finish in last year's edition. In Touhou Project, the bullet-hell game series that grew into a sprawling fan-creation universe, Yuuka is a yokai nicknamed the "Flower Master of the Four Seasons." Her power is officially framed, with typical Touhou understatement, as the ability to manipulate flowers, and she spends her days drifting around Gensokyo in search of whatever flowers are in season.
That gap between presentation and reputation is exactly what voters cited in the poll results from Anime! Anime!, a Japanese anime news site that runs themed character surveys year-round. One reader noted that despite her cute look, Yuuka is feared as one of the most dangerous yokai in Gensokyo, ruthless with humans yet gentler with plants than anyone. Another loved that a character this strong carries a power described so modestly. A third pointed to fan-made games in which Yuuka runs a farm, the kind of vote only possible in a franchise where derivative works shape characters as much as the source games do.
The voter base skewed young and female this year: about 65 percent of respondents were women, and roughly 40 percent were 19 or younger.
Rose Whips and Flower Breathing
Kurama climbed from third to second with about 7 percent of the vote. The Yu Yu Hakusho fighter, a legendary demon fox now living as the human Shuichi Minamino, builds his whole arsenal out of plants. Voters singled out the Rose Whip, and one confessed that its written form still delights them: five kanji meaning "rose-thorn whip blade" that read aloud as, simply, "Rose Whip." Another quoted his line from a game, "beautiful roses have thorns," and added that roses suit his face as much as his fighting style.
Kanao Tsuyuri slipped from second to third at about 5 percent, but held her spot on the podium. The swordswoman, who entered the Demon Slayer Corps in the same class as Tanjiro Kamado, is the chosen successor of Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho and fights with Flower Breathing. One voter praised the elegance of her flower-named sword forms, then pointed to the moment they can't forget: the piercing glare she levels at Doma in the Infinity Castle arc, seen in the first Infinity Castle film. That same voter is already counting on a bigger showcase in the next installment.
Flower Shops, Greenhouses, and a Golden Flower From DELTARUNE
Just off the podium in fourth is Gintama's Hedoro, the terrifying-looking alien who values rules and good manners and runs a flower shop. The voter who backed him said they would love to stop by his store, while being careful never to make him angry.
The Quintessential Quintuplets' Yotsuba Nakano drew votes for living up to her name, which means four-leaf clover: her character songs are clover-themed, and her houseplant hobby, pushed to the extremes she applies to everything, leaves her room looking like a greenhouse. From the game 18TRIP, Nagi Hachinoya runs Flower Laundry, a combined laundromat and flower shop, and hands out flowers around town; the fan behind the vote loved his belief that flowers can say the things he can't put into words.
Votes even arrived from outside anime entirely. Flowery, a golden flower character in DELTARUNE whose name sits one letter away from UNDERTALE's Flowey, earned praise for his abundant, catchy voiced lines.
The full top 10 from the Anime! Anime! survey:
- 1. Yuuka Kazami (Touhou Project)
- 2. Kurama (Yu Yu Hakusho)
- 3. Kanao Tsuyuri (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)
- 4. Hedoro (Gintama)
- 5 (tie). Treyni (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)
- 5 (tie). Tsubomi Hanasaki / Cure Blossom (HeartCatch PreCure!)
- 5 (tie). Hanami (Jujutsu Kaisen)
- 5 (tie). Lunlun Flower (Hana no Ko Lunlun)
- 9 (tie). Ammon Lead (Devil Butler with Black Cat), Kazari Uiharu (A Certain Scientific Railgun), Kikyo (Inuyasha), Spica Virgo (The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch), Flowery (DELTARUNE), Ran Mori (Detective Conan)
The original article's second page extends the ranking to a top 20.
Looking Ahead
International fans can see Kanao's Doma confrontation for themselves: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, the first film in the trilogy, has been streaming on Crunchyroll and available on digital storefronts since July 28, 2026, per the official English site. As for the poll's winner, the character video Anime! Anime! embedded comes from the official rhythm game Touhou Danmaku Kagura, whose Steam and Nintendo Switch version, Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, is out now.
Anime! Anime! publishes these seasonal character polls regularly; a water-character edition ran on August 1 asking whether Demon Slayer's Giyu Tomioka could hold the top spot for a fourth straight year, and voting is already open for upcoming themes.