Recap / The Misadventures of Yukari Yakumo

Tropes which appear in The Misadventures of Yukari Yakumo, the seventh story in the Touhou Doujin: Dawitsu's Folly fanfic series.

Note that YMMV tropes should go on the YMMV page for the series.

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• Actual Pacifist: Discussed by the narrator, glorifying Yutaka's being a Pacifist. She also separates what makes a coward and what makes a true pacifist.
• An Aesop: The Aesop is delivered by Yuyuko (through a food-based analogy, of course), and it is this; do not want for more when you are perfectly happy or content where you are.
• Affectionate Parody: Of A Series of Unfortunate Events' narrative style, complete with self-pitying author which bemoans the loss of someone dear (in this case, her pet lizard she was hoping to raise to youkaihood)
• Always a Bigger Fish: The narrator considers Yukari's intelligence to be at genius-level, but Yuyuko is a step above that in the narrator's eyes.
• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: The reason Hebiko writes the book is to prove anyone, including herself, can be better than Tokage at writing.
• Apathetic Citizens: The narrator herself claims to be one, saying if she was a good person she'd have comforted Dawitsu during his alcohol-fuelled Heroic BSoD, but instead, she sits in the background, writing the story. She also sits back and doesn't try to stop a released and insane Flandre, instead preferring to sit and gawk at the destruction.
• Arson, Murder, and Making Paper Hats for the Local Rabbit Youkai: This phrase is used by the narrator as part of her Suspiciously Specific Denial. The trope itself is used a lot as well, or example, on the potential horrific consequences of touching unknown buttons, which include 'potentially dangerous things such as activating death traps, starting up unintentionally dangerous machinery, and making terrible cups of coffee.'
• Author Filibuster: Parodied again with the narrator stopping dead to offer commentary on society, people in general, or how fate is such a bitch for taking Bertrand away from her.
• Based on a True Story: In-universe, of course.
• Batman Gambit: Fictional!Yuyuko starts the events that would ultimately lead to Yukari's downfall and teach her a lesson about greed by working under the assumption that Yukari would try to trick her into leaving her house and use Yuyuko's own plans to decide on the rendezvous of the fight with Dawitsu, giving her an opportunity to beat Dawitsu up.
• Beige Prose: If the book wasn't filled with the excessively long 'definitions' of words that gave the scenes/emotions of characters in more detail, this is what would remain. Fortunately, that's exactly what Hebiko intended.
• Beautiful Dreamer: Hebiko implies in the author's notes that she thinks Dawitsu watches Yutaka sleep.
• Big Red Button: One of the narrator's filibusters is on the topic of buttons that you don't know th function of, and why pressing them could be foolish and dangerous to do.
• Brain Bleach: Dawitsu mentions (in relation to Tokage's book) wanting to go to the nearest Satori to have his mind wiped.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The narrator mentions how Ran's request to be Dawitsu's shikigami felt to him by saying it was like replacing something he loved dearly, like 'your favourite golden ring, your beloved pet Iguana, or your spleen'.
• Break the Cutie: The narrator describes herself before her Pet Iguana's death as doting and overly affectionate. What the hell happened...
• Broken Tears: Yutaka has these in chapter thirteen... and the narrator goes on to talk about how it's okay to cry every now and then, surprisingly heartwarming, given the character of the narrator.
• Call-Back: An obscure one to the Grimoire of Dawitsu... Yutaka's Raggedy Andy doll makes an appearance.
• Captain Obvious: The reader-patronizing narrator. Also, Hatate in Chapter one's reviews, complete with Aya lampshading it.
• The Chessmaster: Both Yukari and Yuyuko are shown to be this, as the book shows what they did to influence the events of Dawitsu's Folly.
• Chess Motifs: Yukari is referred to as being in a 'Conversational Zugzwang' against Yuyuko in chapter six.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Fictional!Yuyuko pretends to be this, spacing out and talking about bees for no reason at one point. She also does this when actually trying to stealthily give Yukari a message.
• Complexity Addiction: While the above's plans are good, they are refreshingly simple.
• Creepy Shadowed Under Eyes: Fictional!Dawitsu gains them during his based-on-a-true-story Heroic BSOD.
• Deadpan Snarker: The narrator.
• Death Seeker: The narrator... her attitude to immortality is somewhat jaded; 'I was only able to hear what was said from the outside of the room, as entering would have blown my cover, a turn of phrase meaning, 'reveal my presence to the horrifically powerful and not quite as well-wishing as one would expect vampire within the room, making me liable to my blood being drained to the point where I would develop vampirism and live a long, miserable, iguana-free life in the dark, crying myself to sleep'.'
• Defeat Means Friendship: Discussed by Fictional!Reimu and Fictional!Marisa a la the first book.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Used to death, intentionally too. An example: 'A young youkai man of moderate looks by the name of Dawitsu was lying in his moderately sized bed, snoring in an obnoxious manner. 'Obnoxious' here means, 'So loud that his house-mate and best friend, Yutaka Hadekawa, could not sleep despite doing so in a room a good fifteen metres away from the nearest wall of his room'. The snoring was so loud that his house-mate and best friend, Yutaka Hadekawa, could not sleep. Rising from her bed groggily- 'groggily' here meaning 'Like a hibernating bear', she walked out of her room and into her friend's room, and tapped the inconsiderate Youkai on the nose before saying, "Boss... is it okay if you stop snoring?"'
• Depression: The Narrator is more than a little depressed, referring to herself as both a misanthrope and a 'very, very sad person'. She also apparently cries every time she wakes up.
• Dissimile: Some of the 'definitions' of words are as such, like 'short while' meaning 'three hours'.
• Dissonant Serenity: Yuyuko when telling the (revealed to be true) story of a cake-loving human, she acts as if the fact she died at the end due to her cake being poisoned was an afterthought, and remains calm. Of course, she's just Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Defied by Fictional!Ran... she would tell Chen not to press the Big Red Button, but knows she's already too late. Fortunately, it's just a call button for a lift.
• Dramatic Irony: Discussed ad nauseum in a massive Author Filibuster- here it is; 'Another type of Irony that exists, as well as 'Expectational Irony', is 'Dramatic Irony'. This is a situation within a story in which the reader, and, in this case, the narrator, knows something within a story that the characters themselves do not. For example, when a man sits down to dine, and says, "I positively cannot wait for my Beef Stroganoff! I hope the sauce is creamy and mushroomy, just how I like it!" but everyone in the restaurant, including the waiter, the chef, and the innocent bystander that looked nothing like myself knew that the mushrooms used in this particular Stroganoff were in fact Death Caps, then that would be dramatic irony.' Almost certainly a Shout-Out to a similar filibuster on Dramatic Irony in A Series of Unfortunate Events.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The narrator goes back to Mayohiga to do this in chapter six, but fortunately for her liver (and unfortunately for herself) she finds more interesting events to narrate. Also Discussed in the reviews of chapter ten.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Hilariously discussed by the narrator; 'Having a personal eureka- 'eureka' being a Greek expression for 'I do believe I've found an invisible doorbell floating above my shrine'- moment, she shouted to Marisa, "Hey, stop laughing, I've found a doorbell..."'
• Every Man Has His Price: The narrator apparently bribed someone to reveal the location of Dawitsu and Yutaka at one point, to quote; 'And, due to narrative coincidence, the location of the two newcomers were very much easy to pinpoint, 'pinpoint' meaning 'obtain through large amounts of bribery'.'
• Expy: Hebiko's looks in artwork are based off of L's, not to mention she's snarky and friend-seeking/lonely, just like L. This is lampshaded by Yutaka in the chapter two reviews.
• Fantastic Racism: Hardly racist, but Hebiko remarks about Tokage's pursuing of Jean, saying that she must be pretty desperate if she's going for a human. Jean gets mildly insulted by this.
• Felony Misdemeanor: The narrator's constant grieving of her pet Iguana, Bertrand. And tour guides. For some reason. Also, Reimu inverts this by recalling her fight with Dawitsu with fondness, saying about how she set his hair on fire, threw yin-yang orbs at him, and fired fantasy orbs at him as if it was a pleasant stroll in the park with him. Dawitsu seems to feel the exact same way...
• First-Person Smartass: The narrator.
• Forgiveness: Reimu expresses regret in the reviews for acting like a Jerkass to Aya in Recompense, and Aya forgives her. Also, Yutaka forgives Yukari for her abuse of her when Yutaka was briefly under her control.
• Foregone Conclusion: The narrator mentions Yukari's loss of both Yutaka and Ran so much throughout the story that even if hadn't read Dawitsu's folly, you knew what was going to happen.
• Foreshadowing: Naturally it's discussed.
• Friend to Bugs: Fictional!Yutaka is depicted as occupying her time with an ant on her hand in the first chapter, and brushes the insect off gently once she's done so as not to hurt it.
• Genre Savvy: The narrator, as well as Fictional!Dawitsu and Fictional!Reimu, in keeping that very character in the book is generally like their 'real-life' counterpart.
• Good Is Boring: Momiji seems to miss the pain she goes through in typing Tokage's fic up, and has nothing to say in chapter eight's typist's notes bar 'Nothing to report. Good books sure are boring.'
• Guilty Pleasure: Yukari considers Dawikari fanfiction this, according to her chapter five review.
• Have a Gay Old Time: With the word 'queer', this trope is lampshaded via the Lemony Narrator's definition of the word.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: The amount of times the narrator calls herself a misanthrope is somewhat unbelievable, as well as this depressing sentence, 'lying on his table like an undignified, worthless loner- a phrase which here means 'myself''
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Narrator mentions that Yukari was responsible for bringing Dawitsu to Gensokyo, and would regret ever doing so once she did.
• Infallible Narrator: Justified in that she's a Satori narrator.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Hebiko.
• Insistent Terminology: The narrator insists on calling Poltergeists 'people that don't quite resemble people'.
• Insult Backfire: Meta example; the readers. One reviewer didn't realize the constant definition of 'hard words' was intending to be patronizing, and thanked the author for making it part of Hebiko's style.
• Instant Expert: Contrasting Tokage, to whom writing is her Goal in Life, Hebiko herself admits she's never really been interested in writing, and only began writing to show Tokage how bad she is, yet is distinctly more talented than Tokage.
• Irony: As well as Dramatic Irony, this too is discussed.
• It Will Never Catch On: Momiji mentions that Nitori is inventing a strange contraption called a 'car', and claims it'll never catch on.
• Jerkass Has a Point: The narrator admits at times Yukari is mean-spirited, but actually has a point.
• Lemony Narrator: The story pretty much revolves around the eccentric author's tangents.
• Literal-Minded: The narrator at times, to comic effect: '"Ah, well that's because it's invisible." Aya said, her expression deadpan, a word that means 'as straight as a dead pan's facial expression'.'
• Loners Are Freaks: Averted with Hebiko. She claims she doesn't view many people as friends, yet is clearly the more likable of her and Tokage.
• Long List: The narrator's list of things destroyed by Flandre; 'one gravestone, fifteen trees, a monument once commemorating a hero of old, thirteen frogs, a boulder, and a bag of plums that I had dropped on my way to visit an old friend of mine back in the days when I had them.'
• Madness Mantra: The narrator reads Dawitsu's thoughts when he's unconscious just after he's lost the battle that would temporarily lose him Yutaka, and his thoughts end with 'Where's Yutaka? Where's Yutaka? Where's Yutaka?' before the narrator decides to stop reading his mind due to the tedium.
• Medium Awareness: Momiji becomes aware (much to her chagrin) that the review section is becoming more of a 'chat hub' for people to discuss various issues.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Discussed by the narrator who, being a satori, presumably can speak from experience.
• Mind Rape: How the narrator gets into the Scarlet Devil Mansion. To quote; 'A day passed by without further event, by which point I had turned my attention to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, having sneaked in, 'sneaked' meaning 'brutally tortured the mind of the bodyguard of the mansion until she fell asleep, and hugging the walls as closely as one could without falling into them like a ghost, relying on my third eye to make sure I wasn't being followed, thus gaining access to the mansion and everything with'.'
• Mundane Made Awesome: Even though Yuyuko mostly obfuscates stupidity, it seems from this perspective that she genuinely did what her living room in 'the destroyed look'. Also, Dawitsu mentions a few mundane things that he finds a shame to have not made it into the book- 'the time I played Cribbage and Twister simultaneously with Ran and Yutaka and won' being one of them.
• Mystery Meat: The narrator refers to the content of sausage rolls to be made of various different animals, including pig, horse, and goat.
• Nice Gal: Hebiko uses the proceeds from this book to donate to the school in the human village.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: The narrator's philosophy on life is that it is like being 'a tiny ant in a field filled with tiny ants and one starving, emaciated- a word which here means 'starving'- anteater.'
• Nightmare Fuel: Everyone treats Yutaka's Raggedy Andy doll as this in chapter twelve's reviews despite Yutaka loving the doll to bits.
• Non-Indicative Name: The narrator deconstructs and discusses this, making both a Shout-Out to the Incredibly Deadly Viper and have a Take That! against Duwee Davis II.
• Nosebleed: Dawitsu gets one in the chapter 12 reviews thinking about Yutaka asleep, hugging a Raggedy Andy doll.
• Note from Ed.: There are typist's notes in this book too, though notably less snark as there's less to snark about.
• Not Me This Time: Discussed by the narrator relating to Marisa not being the thief of Laevateinn.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Fictional!Yuyuko does a lot of it in this book.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Whatever Dawitsu did to steal laevattein is missed due to the narrator being unable to follow Dawitsu/infiltrate as well as he can.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Tokage and Hebiko, just like in Forbidden Love, dress up in obvious disguises to review each others (and their own) work.
• Perspective Flip: The events are more or less those of Dawitsu's Folly, but more of Yukari's side of the story is shown.
• Placebo Effect: Discussed at great length by the narrator regarding the healing effects of the Hakurei Shrine's water to the point of tragedy, when you realize the narrator takes 'caffeine pills' that are actually made of 'a fine-tasting powder of liquorish and horse tranquilliser' just to keep herself going.
• Postmodernism: This piece is very post-modern, knowing it's a story and willing to use the interface to stop the narrative completely to explain the literary terms that will be features in the book...
• Power Born of Madness: The Narrator considers the only way for anyone to understand a ghost's mind is to either go insane or die themselves.
• Product Placement: Youmu wants product placement for her band to be put in the story, but alas, to no avail.
• Psychopomp: Dawitsu wonders what his afterlife will be in the reviews of chapter six, out of the many that have been established in Gensokyo.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Or 'real life' wrote the plot... the book is, in its entirety, based on the events of Dawitsu's Folly, albeit from a different perspective.
• Recycled Script: Invoked, as Hebiko is writing a biographical piece for Dawitsu via snarky narration, while showing a little more of Yukari's side of the story.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Naturally lampshaded by the narrator, Yukari asks Remilia a rhetorical question,but despite this, she answers anyway.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Hebiko accidentally does this in chapter three's author's notes, lampshading it and seemingly quite amused by it.
• Running Gag: Aya's wall-breaking habits make a return. Also, whenever someone climbs the Netherworld's stairs, they always climb up 'flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights and flights of stairs'
• Said Bookism: The narrative stops for a moment to discuss this; 'This is the first time that my dialogue shall ever be published in this book. As I am the one speaking, it will be incomprehensibly difficult for me to describe the intonations in a subjective, normal manner. And so, instead, for every line of dialogue said, I will simply add the words 'I said', so you can understand it is I talking, but no more.'
• The Scapegoat: The Narrator blames fate for having taken her beloved pet Iguana from her, and says that the closest thing to scapegoat for this is Remilia Scarlet, manipulator of Fate.
• Self-Deprecation: Yukari criticizes Duwee Davis II for making her out of character in the first chapter's reviews, claiming Hebiko did a better job of depicting her (yet still says he's the best writer ever, before lampshading that she's been forced to say as such because she's in a fanfiction written by him). This is taken further in chapter 3, where the narrator deconstructs the series' Non-Indicative Name, saying 'However, some misnomers are pointless, such as 'Touhou Doujin: The Grimoire of Dawitsu', as a Doujin is an unofficially recognised story with a visual medium, and the actual Grimoire of Dawitsu has next to no visual medium beyond the occasional diagram of certain techniques, thus it is not a Doujin, nor for that matter, is it written by someone who is 'Eastern' in origin, as Mateyuu Dawitsu is a westerner.'
• Self-Insert: Unlike Tokage, who denies Hachuurui is a Self Insert, Hebiko openly admits the Deadpan Snarker Lemony Narrator is slightly based on herself.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Naturally lampshaded by the instant defining of such sesquipedalian words the moment they're used via the Lemony Narrator.
• Shipper on Deck: Yutaka to Hebiko and Dawitsu, seen in the reviews.
• Shout-Out: The whole book to A Series of Unfortunate Events... even the narrator's deceased Iguana's name is based off of the name of the Baudelaire's deceased father (Bertrand). Also, Remilia makes one to Castlevania. Also, it's mentioned that Yukari bought a large amount of the Forbidden Love of Yukari Yakumo copies just to place them in Dimension D in one of the typist's notes.
• Show, Don't Tell: Discussed by the narrator, on her own apprehension to write an action scene, but says that if she doesn't, then the readers are going to have a hard time taking her word for it.
• Smart People Play Chess: One of Hebiko's known pastimes is playing chess with Yutaka and Dawitsu, according to the author's notes.
• Snicket Warning Label: A la the real Lemony Snicket: 'If you are looking to this story for a cheap thrill, a gaze into a moron's soul, or a cheap laugh at the expense of the author, I do believe you have picked this book up, bought it, and taken it home entirely by mistake, and that you should return this book to the vendor from which purchased it from or burn it until not a remainder of ink lingers.'
• Spoiler: Although Chen's remark of 'Oh, really? So if Yukari-sama loses, then we can stay with that strange man? He seemed nice, can we stay there?' could have acted as subtle Foreshadowing, the narrator rips that opportunity apart by spoiling what it's foreshadowing, not to mention discussing foreshadowing in general.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: The narrator adamantly denies being an arsonist, a la A Series of Unfortunate Events.
• Sweat Drop: Lampshaded and discussed.
• Take That!: Many to Tokage are spread throughout her book. Also, a brief one against reporters is mentioned at the start of chapter two. And one against... tour guides in chapter three.
• 13 Is Unlucky: The narrator defies this, saying the number one (and implications of loneliness) is far more upsetting than thirteen, and that even more upsetting is two, because the other person with you will be less inhibited and more likely to hurt you. Naturally, this shows up on the thirteenth chapter.
• Toilet Humour: The narrator makes a suppository joke regarding Reisen's bullets, of course lampshading the immaturity in the process by treating the readers like children.
• Travelling Salesman Montage: Seems to be what happened to Ran after she was fired by Yukari for Yutaka, as she had apparently been searching for a new mistress for most of that day before finally meeting with Dawitsu.
• Tsundere: Hebiko herself, often she expresses a desire to be friends with Tokage again before stopping herself.
• Viewers Are Morons: Parodied a la A Series of Unfortunate Events, with the narrator stopping the narrative dead to define a 'difficult' word, often incorrectly or with crippling specificity to the current situation.
• Unreliable Narrator: Subverted... while very much opinionated, the narrator is a Satori, so any thoughts of characters will be correct.
• Unsexy Sadist: Good lord, is Yukari this in chapter thirteen. Seeing this was Based On A Real Story (or an in-universe real story) it causes Yukari to think over her actions against Yutaka and actually apologize...
• Verbal Tic: Even after she isn't Yukari's shikigami, Ran finds it difficult not to add '-sama' to Yukari's name.
• Well, This Is Not That Trope: The first paragraph of the foreword is: 'Greetings. Thank you for purchasing this book. Just as a warning, this book will not contain: Purple Prose, Gratuitous Sex Scenes, Bishounen Male Leads, pretentious female leads, dialogue that no-one in the real world will ever use, or Gothic Lolitas.'
• What You Are in the Dark: The narrator takes the cynical approach that everyone secretly is a sadistic, selfish, hurtful person in the dark.
• Worthy Opponent: Yukari views Yuyuko the intellectual equivalent of this.
• Wrench Whack: Dawitsu apparently does this to Tokage in the Chapter five reviews.
• Xanatos Gambit: Fictional!Yukari's plan was intended to be this, but failed miserably. Fictional!Yuyuko's plan, that is, to teach Yukari a lesson about wanting when one already has a decent life, and have her house decorated to look like it's destroyed, both succeed perfectly.
• You're Cute When You're Angry: Dawitsu says this about Youmu in the reviews. Naturally, this implies something about him...

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