@commandercool
If you wanted to know the youkai species Mamizou was "using", here are those who I recognized:
Karakasa (the umbrella),
Chouchinobake (the paper lanterns),
Tsurube-otoshi (the hanged-one),
Nurikabe (the wall-shaped one),
Wanyuudou (the burning head stuck in a wheel),
Onryou (or Yuurei) (the ghost-shaped one, looking like a woman or banshee),
Oiwa (not a specie but a single famous youkai that was actually a chouchinobake),
Keukegen (the little fluffy one),
Mekurabe (the skull),
Hitotsume-kozou [or a Yamawarawa] (the one-eyed one),
Gaki (the one with the inflated belly),
Uwan (the 2nd on the bottom row),
Hihi (the gorilla-shaped one),
Biwa bokuboku (the one with the lute), and Onis (the ones with maces)
(they also added a small walking version of the Saigyou Ayakashi)
Also, I don't know if anyone noticed, but the "neon bunnies" were inspired from there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0gC-tX9nk0Y#t=191sand for the fun story, if you look a little before in the level,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gC-tX9nk0Y&feature=player_detailpage#t=37s ,
you'll recognize a lot of things, like the eientei, the bamboo forest, the level happening on the moon (since you can see the earth), the boss, her bunny-ears, the bullets the main character is shooting, the little bunny-minions in the level ( you'll probably remember this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJbUjz0e34s&feature=player_detailpage#t=795s ), or even the music that has inspired the beginning of stage 5 OST in Imperishable Night
.
Question, if I don't have Mamizou (since I haven't really touched story mode yet) will that affect if the opponent can use her?
Yes it will, if you don't have Mamizou or Kokoro (I managed to unlock Kokoro too in every game mod, even if she still doesn't have any skills or spells), if your friend unlocked them, he won't be able to use them against you.
To use one of the two secret characters,
both players need to have them unlocked. And this is really frustrating, because I know a lot of people who haven't unlocked them ( ?︿? ) (but fortunately, I sent my savegame to most of them in order to select the characters)