Lirin

Lirin (李厘 Ririn) is the young energetic Youkai Princess. She is the daughter of the Ox-King Gyumaoh and one of his mistresses, Lady Gyokumen Koushu. Her older half-brother, Kougaiji, loves her dearly despite the fact she is a constant reminder of his father's infidelity to his wife and Kou's mother, Ratsetsunyo. She is part of Kougaiji's group that challenges the Sanzo Party and demanded that they hand over the Maten Sutra

Appearance
Lirin appears as a young demon woman in her teens. She has wavy long hair that is tied back into a ponytail with a small bell attached to the tie. Depending on the media, her colour scheme changes. In Kazuya Minekura's official art, Lirin appears with light blonde hair and purple eyes, and these colours follow through in Saiyuki Reload, albeit her hair is a darker shade of brown. In Gensomaden, her hair is orange and her eyes bright green.

One of the only things that never changes about Lirin is her abnormally ample breast. Her wardrobe varies somewhat as well. In official art and Reload, her clothing is a pale yellow crop-top with red trimming on the collar and hem, and trousers of a similar shade to her top with the right pantleg ripped off, but the left reveals it has darker trim at the bottom, and brown combat boots. She completes the outfit with fingerless gloves the same colour and trim as her outfit. In Gensomaden, her top is a brighter yellow with purple trim, the trousers white, and her boots teal. The gloves follow her top's colour scheme, and her wrap is green. Befitting of a demon, she has long, pointed ear, slitted pupils, and her demonic birthmarks are two dark red claw marks over her right cheek, opposite of her brother Kougaiji.

Personality
Lirin is overall like a female version of Son Goku, at least as far as personality, though she's far more naive than even him. She is happy-go-lucky, always smiling; but despite her comparative youth and voluptuous figure she is still a powerful fighter. She deeply admires her older half-brother, Kougaiji, and feels a much stronger allegiance with him than with her mother, Lady Kyoshu. Although she likes fighting, she's also extremely friendly. Lirin is highly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but she isn't very smart and is easily distracted; a running gag is that Sanzo "defeats" her just by tossing her a meat bun. Kougaiji is also used to this tactic, diverting her from her assistance by promising to bring her back food from his trip. When Kougaiji's group fights Sanzo's group, she's usually seen on Sanzo's shoulders. Sanzo views her as another monkey, like Son Goku.

Powers/Abilities
Lirin doesn't carry any sort of weapon, but she possess some youkai fire magic like her brother (anime only), Kougaiji. She has an energetic body and an abundance of fighting spirit. She has the strength to hit a knock-out with her bare hands and is much stronger than her brother. She has the habit of naming her attack—mostly after herself—like chopping (Lirin Chop!), punches (Lirin Punch!) and kicking (Lirin Kick!). Her fire attack are no different: Little Lirin Fireballs! As with other members of Kougaiji's inner circle, she has a foil in the Sanzo-ikkou that she naturally trends towards fighting: in this case Son Goku; both of them are short, loud, boisterous, strong, and enjoying of a good scrap.

Background
Lirin is Gyumaoh and Gyokumen's daughter. She first appears with Kougaiji and his other close acquaintanceship, Yaone and Dokugakuji. She ran away to pick a fight with the Sanzo ikkou that was giving her older brother such a hard time.

Saiyuki
When she first appeared in front of the Sanzo ikkou she defeated the large crustacean-like shikigami easily. She then turned on the Sanzo ikkou and demanded that they hand over the Maten Scripture. Sanzo manages to subdue her easily, simply handing her a meat bun and telling her to eat. Then Kougaiji and Yaone and Dokugakuji showed up. After frighting with the other members of the Sanzo party, and the defeat of a larger crustacean-like shikigami, Lirin and her friends went home claiming they would be back for the scripture later.

After that, Lirin ran away from Houtou Castle many times, most of the time to search for the Sanzo ikkou herself or just to escape the boring strong hold. Yaone was put incharge of her, but Lirin never stayed in one spot very long.

When Kougaiji and Dokugakuji went to the desert in search of the Uten scripture, Yaone and Lirin were left behind again. While her brother was gone Lirin went into the room where Kougaiji's mother's shrine was. There, Yaone and Lirin talked about Kougaiji's mother and Lirin asked if Yaone thought that Kougaiji's mother could love her too, since she already was aware that her mother did not. Yaone assured her that Kougaiji's mother would love her, how could she not when Yaone and Kougaiji loved her so much.

But the happy moment did not last for long. The scientist working of the Gyumaoh protect, specifically Dr. Ni and Professor Hwang subdued Yaone and took Lirin to start their experiments. Lirin was physically necessary for reviving Gyumaoh. Yaone could do nothing to save her and when Kougaiji came back with Dokugakuji, being seriously thrashed by the Seiten Taisei while the were in the desert, Lirin's rescue was put on hold completely.

Saiyuki Reload
When Kougaiji finally reappeared in front of his comrades, he had been brainwashed and was in no position to rescue his sister yet again. After confronting the Sanzo Ikkou in Saiyuki Reload he was able to break free of the mind control and regain himself. After that they (Kougaiji, Yaone, and Dokugakuji) raced back to Houtou Castle to save the demon princess. She was experimented upon, however, Kougaiji managed to free her. The half-siblings, together with the ever faithful Dokugakuji and Yaone, set out on their own journey to wrestle the sutra from the Sanzo Ikkou.

Anime and Manga Difference
To be updated...

Other Appearance
Dokugakuji and Lirin both made their appearance in the first OVA. However, they didn’t speak a single word. The two were seen always beside Kougaiji attempting to find/rescue Yaone.

Relationships
Kougaiji - Lirin loves her older half-brother Kougaiji. She’s always insulting him calling him a softy to which Kougaiji only answer is to just sulk. She usually escaped from Yaone and hunt down the Sanzo party in order to get the Maten Sutra for her brother. She doesn’t want to rely on her brother anymore. She used to bug her brother to take her with him to fight the Sanzo party, but Kougaiji is used to this tactic, diverting her from her attention by promising to bring her back food from his trip.

Yaone - She is Lirin’s babysitter. Lirin used to escape from her in order to play with the Sanzo party. Lirin consider her and Dokugakuji to be part of her family.

Gyokumen Koushu - She is Lirin'smother. They are not close and Lirin doesn’t receive any love from her. Although Lirin wants her mother to love her, she doesn’t trust the woman. Lady Gyokumen herself only sees her daughter as a tool and as a possible means to revive Lirin's father, the Ox-king Gyumaoh.

Quotes
To be updated...

Gallery

 *  Main article: Lirin gallery

Trivia
To be updated...