Line #53 Manga/TouhouBougetsushou


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-cilr_cover_4590.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:200:Cover of ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'']]In addition to the main ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' video game series, there are a number of canon {{Spin Off}}s including comics and other print materials. ''Bougetsushou'' (literally "Ephemeral Moon Vignette") is the second {{manga}} entry in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' franchise, a sequel to the 8th game ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'' (''Eiyashou'' meaning "Eternal Night Vignette") that delves more into the motives and BackStory of that game's {{Lunarian\|s}} antagonists. ''Bougetsushou'' is notable for being the only piece of ''Touhou'' fiction to focus on a single overarching story without any [[MysteryOfTheWeek episodic elements]].
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4	Long ago, [[{{Chessmaster}} Yukari Yakumo]] led an army of {{Youkai}} to invade the moon and steal its incredible magic and technology. However, that same incredible magic and technology led to them being [[CurbStompBattle repelled almost effortlessly]]. Opinions vary on whether Yukari underestimated the Lunarians' strength, or was merely trying to teach the Youkai some kind of lesson.
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6	Now it seems that Yukari is gathering allies to try it again. But she's not the only one - Remilia Scarlet has declared her plan to [[StartMyOwn build a spaceship and beat Yukari to the punch]]. Rumors are stirring on the moon that Eirin Yagokoro is planning a rebellion, causing her former pupils to come under suspicion. And for the second time, a panicked MoonRabbit has fled to Earth.
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8	''Touhou Bougetsushou'' consists of three works, which ran alongside each other in different manga magazines:
9	* '''''Silent Sinner in Blue''''', a manga which contains the bulk of the plot. The first volume of the {{Tankobon}} edition also comes with a music CD containing {{Leitmotif}}s for some of the characters and scenes.
10	* '''''Cage in Lunatic Runagate''''', a series of illustrated short stories. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character, [[POVSequel providing new context and perspectives for earlier events]], as well as showing what other people were doing off-scene and [[FullyAbsorbedFinale providing the true ending to the story]].
11	* '''''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth''''', a collection of [[{{Yonkoma}} 4koma]] about daily life at Eientei which rarely interacts with the main story. ''Inaba'' is notable for being the only official ''Touhou'' work where ZUN merely provided an outline rather than writing it himself, and as a result is generally taken in BroadStrokes by fans.
12	The exact order that all these fit together can be found on the [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Bougetsushou Touhou wiki]].
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14	----
15	!!''Touhou Bougetsushou'' provides examples of:
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17	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: While the Watatsuki sisters hold an important position in Lunarian society, it's one which brings them in close contact with Earth, and their mentor is currently an infamous criminal. All this adds up to make other Lunarians quick to fear or distrust them.
18	* AllThereInTheManual: ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' and ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'' were released concurrently, effectively being a single story that alternated between manga chapters and prose. The manga component, however, is far better known, which often results in this trope for unprepared readers.
19	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: The space route between Gensokyo and the Moon apparently contains normal air and even wind, much to Marisa's confusion.
20	* BatmanGambit: Yukari's entire plan revolved around [[spoiler:Yuyuko figuring out the plan and acting on her own.]]
21	* BeastInTheMaze: In ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'', one chapter has Reisen and Tewi getting lost in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which is where the mentally unstable, highly dangerous Flandre happens to be locked up.
22	* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler:Yukari's ultimate goal was to present Eirin with something that she could not understand, and thus frighten her. Eirin decided to live as a human, after all, and fearing the unknown (that is, youkai) is the duty of all humans in Gensokyo...]]
23	* BrickJoke: Chapter 2 of ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth'' has two. In an early strip, Tewi says she tried to predict the weather by kicking her sandal, but ended up [[ATwinkleInTheSky launching it far away]]; after the rain lets up and the girls leave, Rinnosuke finds the sandal outside. In another strip, Tewi reads an article from an Outside World science magazine about the Sunflower space probe (with an ImagineSpot of a giant sunflower flying through space); on the way back to Eientei, they pass a field of sunflowers and Tewi praises them.
24	* ButtMonkey: Udonge in ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth''.
25	* CallBack: In ''[[Manga/TouhouSangetsusei Eastern and Little Nature Deity]]'', the Three Fairies of Light discovered that the flag from the Apollo moon landings had somehow appeared in Gensokyo. ''Bougetsushou'' reveals that the flag's sudden absence has contributed to unrest in the Lunar Capital.
26	* CargoCult: Patchouli's god-powered moon rocket is a crazy tilting contraption made out of wood, but it has three stages just like the Saturn V, and it's launched from a red carpet because launching from a red line on the ground (the equator) takes less energy. This being Gensokyo, it works perfectly.
27	* ChekhovsSkill: Yukari training Reimu in channeling gods first causes Watatsuki no Yorihime to come under suspicion on the moon, then "coincidentally" provides Remilia with a way to power her rocket, then assists Reimu in her battle with Yorihime. It [[ChekhovsBoomerang returns again]] in a chapter of ''[[Manga/TouhouIbarakasenWildAndHornedHermit Wild and Horned Hermit]]'', where Sanae has Reimu channel the god of metals to assist in the Moriya Shrine's cold fusion experiment.
28	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Kaguya is depicted as this for the first time in ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth''. This completely revolutionized her portrayal in fandom, since before this, most doujinshi characterized her as an AxCrazy AlphaBitch, extrapolating from Mokou's opinion of her.
29	* ContinuityNod: Chapter 26 of ''[[Literature/TouhouKourindouCuriositiesOfLotusAsia Curiosities of Lotus Asia]]'' has Reimu mention that Yukari has suddenly started helping her train, and her suspicion that she's up to something.
30	* CuttingOffTheBranches: In ''[[VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight Imperishable Night]]'', Scarlet Team's GoldenEnding has them start making plans to go to the Moon. ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' follows up on said plans, implying Scarlet Team as the ones who canonically solved the incident.[[note]] In ''Perfect Memento in Strict Sense'', Reimu claimed to have solved the incident, but also dodged questions about the culprits, implying she was lying and didn't know anything. In addition to this, the Scarlet Devil Mansion residents were very secretive about their space program until launch day, explaining why Akyuu didn't know about their involvement in the incident when she wrote her chronicle.[[/note]]
31	* ADayInTheLimelight: Each chapter of ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'' other than the epilogue
32	** Chapter 1: Eirin Yagokoro
33	** Chapter 2: Kaguya Houraisan
34	** Chapter 3: The Watatsuki sisters
35	** Chapter 4: Fujiwara no Mokou
36	** Chapter 5: Yukari Yakumo
37	** Chapter 6: Rei'sen
38	** Chapter 7: Youmu Konpaku
39	* DenserAndWackier: ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' is much less serious than the other works in this series.
40	* DistractedByTheSexy: A lesser version occurs in one ''Inaba'' strip where Kaguya wants to play guitar and Eirin gives her a pick, saying that playing bare-handed will hurt her fingers. Kaguya remarks that Eirin has really pretty hands, and in the last panel everyone is clustered around a blushing Eirin, cooing over her hands.
41	* DreadfulMusician: In ''Inaba'', Kaguya's musical skills are described by Reisen as "sonic weaponry", and even Kaguya admits that "I did take down a bunch of people once". Even worse, she somehow managed to do this while playing [[AirGuitar air biwa]].
42	* EvilKnockoff: ''Gensokyo itself'' is implied to have been designed using knowledge that Yukari gained during previous invasions of the Lunar Capital.
43	* ExternalRetcon: The "Dragon Palace" visited by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D Urashima Tarou]] was actually the Lunar Capital; Toyohime just convinced him that he was under the sea to stop people from trying to follow him. The YearOutsideHourInside effect [[DoingInTheWizard was actually the result of him being cryogenically frozen without his knowledge]], while the "aging box" was a device invented by Eirin.
44	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
45	** Sakuya's article in ''Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red'' reveals that around the time of the Imperishable Night incident Remilia tried to travel to the moon by rocket, but failed.
46	** In ''[[Music/TouhouZUNsMusicCollection Magical Astronomy]]'' Maribel and Renko expressed a desire to see the mythical Lunar Capital, and Maribel came up with an idea for how to travel there by looking at the moon's reflection in the water. In ''Bougetsushou'' Yukari is able to reach the moon by turning its reflection on water into a portal, and implies that when she was much younger she once travelled there just to see it.
47	** In the last chapter of ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'', Kaguya claims that in the future, as humans live longer and longer, they will [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas start living and acting more like the Lunarians do]]. [[SimpleMindedWisdom A drunken Marisa retorts]] that humans [[WhoWantsToLiveForever wouldn't want to keep going even after their brains have rotted away]] - if life gets too long, they'll just invent something to shorten it. ''Music/ZUNsMusicCollection'' (in particular ''Dateless Bar "Old Adam"'') shows that they're ''[[WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture both]]'' quite [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture right]].
48	* ForgottenPhlebotinum: Reimu seldom if ever uses her new god-channeling skills after the events of the story, and never uses them in combat again. {{Justified}} in that Reimu doesn't need their help against most enemies, nor does she like going all-out for no reason. She ''does'' use them once more in ''Wild and Horned Hermit'' at Sanae's request.
49	* FunnyFanVoice: Kaguya speaks into a fan while saying ''[[HumanAliens "We are aaaaalieeeeens"]]'' in ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' chapter 2.
50	* GambitPileup: Behind the scenes, most of the plot is driven by the clashing schemes of Eirin and Yukari.
51	* InvincibleHero [[HeroAntagonist Antagonist]]: Yorihime is able to completely overwhelm Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya and Remilia in battle, while Toyohime is able to get the better of Yukari. ZUN has even said that the Watatsukis are so powerful that they would only work in a manga, not a game. {{Subverted}} in that [[spoiler:Yukari's real plan was just to ''distract'' them, [[MeaninglessVillainVictory making their victories meaningless]]]].
52	** NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: How the Watatsukis are depicted in ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth''.
53	* KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler:Yukari manipulates Remilia into invading the moon with a highly visible rocket, and at the same time prepares to travel there herself through less obvious methods. Eirin is convinced that Remilia's invasion is intended as a cover for Yukari's, and warns the Watatsukis of such... when in fact they're ''both'' a cover for ''Yuyuko'' to sneak in, who had previously shown no indication of even being involved.]]
54	* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Yes, the [[InvincibleVillain Watatsuki sisters]] stomp on everyone they encounter. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, they now owe a significant amount of favors to Eirin for the advance warning, they've been put in a shaky political position, and their awesome victories ''did absolutely squat'' to stop Yukari's ''actual'' plans.]]
55	* MoonLandingHoax: In ''Silent Sinner in Blue'', Sakuya goes to Kourindo to get materials on the space program. Rinnosuke turns out to have plenty, which he says is thanks to all the conspiracy theorists who think the moon landing was faked, causing the idea to become forgotten.
56	* TheNamesake: The "Silent Sinner in Blue" most likely refers to [[spoiler:Yuyuko, being the one who successfully sneaks into the Lunar Capital. Yuyuko generally wears blue clothing, while her "pure" nature as a ghost makes her inconspicuous among the immortal Lunarians, making her "silent", and her mission being to mess with the Lunarians by stealing from them makes her the "sinner".]]
57	* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: The Lunar Invasion is a repeat of a plan Yukari carried out hundreds of years ago, with a twist. Eirin also considers putting the Earth in a jar again to prevent anyone from getting to the Moon, but decides against it.
58	* NewYearsResolution: One series of ''Inaba'' strips has the residents of Eientei making these. Reisen resolves to be more assertive, but instantly fails when Eirin resolves to relax more and she can't explain why she's freaking out (see OOCIsSeriousBusiness). Kaguya resolves to exercise, but gives it up after performing a single stretch. Tewi resolves to be nicer to Reisen, but then instantly admits it ain't gonna happen.
59	* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: After defeating Reimu the Watatsuki sisters temporarily hold her captive so that she can clear their names... but they're extremely cordial about it and serve her the finest food available.
60	* NotWhatItLooksLike: In Chapter 2 of ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth'', Reisen and Tewi get stuck at Kourindo by a sudden thunderstorm. They decide to hang up a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_bōzu teru teru bōzu]], with Tewi volunteering to play the part. When Rinnosuke returns with tea, he sees the girls setting up what looks like a noose.
61	* OneSteveLimit: ''Bougetsushou'' introduces a second MoonRabbit called Reisen, whom the Watatsukis [[WeNamedTheMonkeyJack named after the first]]. However, the first Reisen [[MeaningfulRename changed the spelling of her name]] (from phonetic characters to kanji) when she moved to Earth, so to prevent confusion the Earth spelling is usually transliterated as "Reisen" and the lunar spelling as [[PunctuationShaker "Rei'sen"]].
62	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: One ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth'' series starts with Tewi being nice to Reisen and calling her "Big Sister"; Reisen instantly suspects a trick and says she's not gonna fall for it...which makes Tewi burst into tears. She goes to find Eirin, who's turned into a lazy slob while Kaguya is taking charge and ordering the rabbits around. [[CatapultNightmare Then she]] [[AllJustADream wakes up]].
63	* PocketDimension: The Far Side of the moon is a particularly well-guarded one. Remilia's rocket is only capable of reaching it because it's launched from Gensokyo, which is ''also'' a PocketDimension of [[FantasticNatureReserve the same type]]. Even then, it only becomes connected to Earth when the moon is full, and reaching the Lunar Capital itself requires intruders to [[SecretPath follow a specific route]] or find nothing there.
64	* POVSequel: Each story in ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'' is a POVSequel to earlier chapters of ''Silent Sinner in Blue''.
65	* PunchClockVillain: The Watatsukis are supposed to prevent any and all Earthlings from entering the Moon, [[PretendPrejudice yet they readily associate with Earthlings in their free time]] - Toyohime tried to bring Earth rabbits home with her in ''Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth'', and they once helped hide a human on the Moon for years after determining he wasn't a threat. They are also supposed to track down the criminal Eirin Yagokoro, but secretly view the Capital's treatment of Eirin as unjust and do their best to avoid causing her trouble (in ''Inaba'' they even pay her a friendly visit).
66	* RascallyRabbit: Tewi is depicted as this for the first time in Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth. This completely revolutionized her portrayal in fandom, since before this, most doujinshi characterized her as a cute and innocent rabbit girl.
67	* RedShirt: The [[{{Mooks}} fairy maids]] that Remilia takes with her on her lunar expedition fit the classic ''Franchise/StarTrek'' redshirt archetype in that they accompany the main characters onto an alien world and are completely useless when dealing with the native inhabitants. Not surprising, as it was already well established that Remilia's fairy maids are useless at ''everything''.
68	* SchrodingersCanon: The [=4Koma=] manga ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' was written by Toshihira Arata as opposed to series creator ZUN (Who was only loosely involved), and happens to be a gag series, so as a result it occupies an ambiguous place in canon compared to other side works. Most fans take the story in BroadStrokes, though it's been referenced somewhat in later works written by ZUN.
69	* ScrewYouElves: The entire story, and possibly some of its BackStory, is an elaborate attempt by Yukari Yakumo to invoke this trope on the Lunarians.
70	* ShaggyDogStory: In ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' [[spoiler:the protagonists never reach the Lunar Capital, and while Yukari's plan succeeds it turns out to be a petty one intended only to annoy the Lunarians]]. ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'' changes things a bit by revealing that [[spoiler:Yukari's true goal was to deliver a BreakTheHaughty to Eirin.]]
71	* SimilarSquad: Yorihime and Toyohime fill more or less the same roles for the Moon that Reimu and Yukari do for Gensokyo, down to having similar powers and a few shared personality traits.
72	* SkyFace: Happens near the beginning of ''Silent Sinner in Blue'', where Reimu and Marisa recall the people they've met in their adventures. There's [[http://www.batoto.net/read/_/51277/touhou-bougetsushou-silent-sinner-in-blue_by_gaku-gaku-animal-land/6 quite a lot of faces being shown.]]
73	* SpaceElves: The Lunarians fill this role.
74	* SpaceIsAnOcean: At least, enough like one that a god of sea voyages is capable of powering a spaceship. For bonus points the seas of the Earth and Moon are spiritually connected, meaning that in certain circumstances it's possible to travel to the Moon by sea. Thematically, the Moon is often referred to as the "Sea" in contrast to the Earth being a "Mountain". Also, since Gensokyo is landlocked, the Moon is the first place where Reimu or Marisa have ever seen the ocean.
75	* StartOfDarkness: {{Subverted}} by Mokou's chapter in ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate''. Mokou describes how her quest for vengeance against Kaguya led her to steal and murder her way to immortality, then come to hate the world that had shunned her and destroy everything in her path... [[BoredWithInsanity then get bored of all that and stop caring]]. When she eventually met Kaguya again, she no longer hated her and just used the old feud as an excuse so that both of them could have a friend (or at least a {{frenemy}}) who would never [[WhoWantsToLiveForever grow old and die in front of them]].
76	* StartMyOwn: Why Remilia starts building her moon rocket.
77	* SympatheticPOV: In the ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' portions of ''Bougetsushou'' the Watatsuki sisters appear mainly as antagonists and representatives of Lunarian civilisation, causing them to come across as AffablyEvil. The rest of the story, however, shows that the Watatsukis are [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch unusually friendly towards Earthlings by Lunarian standards]], just as the regular Touhou protagonists are unusually friendly towards youkai by human standards.
78	* TalkingThroughTechnique: [[spoiler:Yukari explains her real plan to Yuyuko, and the two agree for Yuyuko to carry out the most important part without letting anyone know that she is involved. How do they do this? Yukari sends Ran, who is not even aware of the real plan, to invite all the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo to take part in the invasion, and Yuyuko answers "No".]]
79	* TooManyBelts: TOKIAME, the illustrator for ''Cage in Lunatic Runagate'', adds multiple belts to almost every character. [[https://safebooru.donmai.us/posts/201197 Reisen]] in particular stands out. The Watatsuki sisters seem to escape this only by having unusually prominent belts to begin with.
80	* TripToTheMoonPlot: Rumors begin spreading that Yukari's gearing for a second invasion of the Moon, and Remilia decides she's gonna get there first and claim the Moon for herself.
81	* {{Troll}}:
82	** Naturally, [[RascallyRabbit Tewi]] trolls Reisen all the time, especially in ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth''.
83	** [[spoiler:Yuyuko steals a 1000-year-old bottle of sake from the Moon in order to piss off the princesses, which is what Yukari wanted her to do, but she also trolls Yukari by not stealing anything ''more'' valuable than a bottle of sake. After this, Yukari goes on to troll Eirin by serving her that very same bottle of Lunarian sake, leaving Eirin baffled and frightened about how Yukari could have gotten it.]]
84	* UnreliableIllustrator: In ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' the crowd at Remilia's party contains Lily White and Lily Black in the same panel (who are supposed to be the same person), a freakishly tall Chen, and a number of other oddities. [[WordOfGod Apparently]] this is also the reason why Yorihime's DisintegratorRay looks like a [[PaperFanOfDoom paper fan]].
85	-->'''ZUN:''' I didn't explain the weapons to Aki Eda, so the depiction was super sloppy (lol).
86	* TheUnreveal: In the last chapter of ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'', we never find out what happened during the second Lunar Exposition because Reisen was drunk the whole time.
87	--> '''Kaguya:''' [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome So you don't remember]] [[NoodleIncident me at my best?]] [[TakeOurWordForIt I stunned everyone.]]
88	* [[UnusualChapterNumbers Unusual Volume Titles]]: ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' is published in three volumes, which would normally be referred to as Upper, Middle and Lower. Instead they are titled as the Upper, Middle and ''Bottom'' Volumes to tie in with the story's use of the three Sumiyoshi gods.
89	* VillainProtagonist: Most of the returning Touhou cast, since they're deliberately ''causing'' an incident for the moon instead of resolving one. Reimu even admits that she has trouble going all-out against Yorihime since normally she'd be standing in Yorihime's position.
90	* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: The NoNameGiven moon rabbit is eventually adopted as the Watatsuki sisters' "pet" and given the name Rei'sen, after their first pet who fled to Earth (now known as Reisen Udongein Inaba).

Context Manga / TouhouBougetsushou