Houran

Houran (朋蘭) is a Hanyou who appears in the movie Saiyuki Requiem. She is the daughter of King Houmaoh, but became the servant of Go Dougan.

Personality
While outwardly vivacious, Houran is inwardly reeling from a recent and terrible tragedy. She has fallen from the position of princess to that of a slave in just one night. Go Dougan slaughtered her entire clan, and while before she never knew any shame in her appearance or in her Hanyou birth, she now dyes her hair and tries to hide what she really is. Houran is finally pushed to the breaking point when Dougan orders her to kill Sha Gojyo, one of the members of the of the Sanzo Party, and the only other Hanyou she has ever met. She collapses into sobs before Gojyo, crying out, ''“I can’t just do it anymore! I can’t go on living at the expense of others! I’d rather die than kill someone!”''

Dougan, who had been a human, wished to become a yokai by slaughtering a thousand other yokai — the same transformation that Cho Hakkai underwent. He reached this butcher's tally just before killing Houran, and therefore decided she would be of better service as his puppet instead. Therefor Houran carries the guilt that her life, terrible as it is, was bought by the blood of all her people.

Houran is clever. She first beguiles the Sanzo Party into the trap Dougan has set for them and then, after her resolve is broken, she saves Gojyo from certain death. When he is wounded she takes him beyond the buildings Dougan inhabits and brings him fresh bandages in secret and binds his wounds until he is well enough to walk and fight again.

She is also brave. When a distortion of space appears around Dougan’s heart, and Gojyo and the rest of the Sanzo Party are in danger of being sucked into the abyss, it is she who saves them. Putting to use the powers her father left her, she uses the last of her strength to seal the rift. It is not enough. Without a moment’s hesitation she throws herself into the rift, providing the last ounce of power to seal it and save everyone — at the cost of her own life.

Appearance
Born of a yokai father and human mother, Houran has the usual coloring of a Child of Taboo: that of crimson eyes and hair. Her hair, compared to Gojyo's in the movie, is a slightly lighter shade of red. Before Dougan wiped out Houmaoh’s clan, Houran had no need to hide or be ashamed of her Hanyou coloring. However, when she is introduced at the beginning of the movie, she has dyed her hair green to hide the shame of her birth, as it has been impressed upon her by her new master, Go Dougan.

However, this dye is not permanent, and washes out easily enough, shocking Sha Gojyo when he sees it, who then challenges her about hiding who and what she really is.

Houran holds much of her hair up in a bun with an ornate hairpiece. The rest of her hair spills well past her waist.

Background
Houran is the daughter of Houmaoh, a yokai who ruled over his clan justly and kept the peace by casting illusions upon his enemies, and of a human woman whom Houmaoh loved dearly. Thus, in effect, she was raised as a princess, and was treated with such love by her family and such respect by her subjects that she might never have known the outside world's taboo of her birth and of her red hair and eyes.

However, one month before the beginning Saiyuki Requiem, Go Dougan comes to her father’s court, wins her father’s trust and, when he is given lodging for the night, slaughters not only Houran’s father, but her entire clan. Dougan buried a talisman within Houran’s still breathing chest, making her a shikigami. While she is still alive, Houran believes that her soul is now dead. She becomes the slave of her clan’s murderer.

Relationships
King Houmaoh: Houran’s relationship with her father, the ruler Houmaoh who kept their people safe through illusion magic, was one of love. Houran was raised completely unaware of the outside world's taboo against her parentage, with her father honoring and loving her mother, and Houran being raised among prosperous, peaceful people.

Go Dougan: By the same token, Houran's relationship to Go Dougan is one of loathing and shame, both at him, and at herself and what he has told her she is – a taboo, a shikagami, one unfit to live, yet by some twist in nature, still alive. Alive at the expense of the thousand other of her people who died before Dougan’s blade reached her.Sha Gojyo: Houran had resolved on executing Dougan’s plans, and Sha Gojyo, without feeling. She had lost her will to live. She had nothing left to live for. Yet Gojyo, the first Hanyou she has ever seen aside from herself, reminds Houran that she is indeed alive. He is the first person since the slaughter of her clan to show her compassion. The one time they make to kiss they are interrupted by Dougan, disguised as Hakkai. Gojyo is not able to save Houran from her death. Yet at the end, her last words are to him… “I wanted to tell you… Thank you Sha Gojyo.”

Houran's "Return"
In Saiyuki Reload Gunlock there appears, in Episode 08: The Red Haired Woman, a character that is a sort of continuation to Saiyuki Requiem's Houran. Her name is Kougyoku (which in English translates to 'Ruby'). She, like Houran, is a Hanyou. She, like Houran, is an unwilling minion for the forces of evil represented by an oppressive male villain. She, like Houran, encounters Gojyo and, like Houran, dies to save him. Even their hairstyles are similar.

Kougyoku and Gojyo do kiss and then even spend the night together. Rather than saving the Sanzo Party through the use of her own powers and sacrificing herself in the process as Houran did, Kougyoku dies by the more conventional trope of jumping between Gojyo and blow that would have kill him, killing her instead. While Kougyoku's character is different from that of Houran in that she desired to stay with her villain rather than escape him, her story is a return to and further exploration of the the type of character introduced in Saiyuki Requiem — the Hanyou woman with whom Sha Gojyo feels empathy at their shared origins of birth and the cruelty of the world's treatment towards it.

Trivia

 * While written ‘Houran’ in the credits, in both the Japanese version and in the English dub her name is pronounced ‘Houlan.’


 * Kelli Cousins, who voices Houran in the English dub, was given the role after voicing Hakuryuu for all fifty of the Gensoumaden Saiyuki episodes.