The one with the Shoujo-est artstyle
In addition to the main Touhou Project video game series, and strangely overshadowed by the franchise's own fanfiction, are a number of canon Spin Offs including comics and other print materials. Touhou Chireikiden ~ Foul Detective SatoriTranslation is a Web Comic written by ZUN and initially drawn by Ginmokusei and later Akimaki Yuu, centering around Satori Komeiji working as a detective in order to solve mysteries using her mind reading powers. But things quickly become more complicated when the culprit of the first case she takes is someone much harder to pin down than it seems like.Chireikiden can be read (in Japanese) at the Touhou Garakuta
blog or on ComicWalker. It began in October 2019, but went on hiatus in February 2021 due to Ginmokusei having health issues. The manga resumed publishing at the end of October 2021, this time being drawn by Akimaki Yuu.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Amateur Sleuth: Several characters hold reservations for Satori and Rin playing detective and assistant detective respectively, given both are normally busy with their duties in Former Hell.Reimu: [Indignantly to Rin's testimony request] Since when has a bakeneko from hell like you been playing detective anyway!?
- Art Evolution: Upon changing artists from Genmokusei to Akimaki Yuu, the art style for the manga changes from a relatively realistic style to more cartoonish in nature.
- Bait-and-Switch: It was hinted that the Big Bad was a vengeful spirit with a grudge against Reimu, which seemed to be setting up the return of Mima from the PC-98 games. Instead, a new character was introduced, Mizuchi Miyadeguchi.
- Big Bad: Mizuchi Miyadeguchi, the Jailbreak King. A vengeful spirit formerly imprisoned in the Palace of the Earth Spirits who escaped, and has a vendetta against all the youkai of Gensokyo and Reimu Hakurei, for as of yet unknown reasons.
- The Bus Came Back: Subverted. The Big Bad being hinted as a vengeful spirit with a grudge against Reimu seemed like it would be Mima, who hasn't been seen since the PC-98 games, but instead, it turned out to be new character Mizuchi Miyadeguchi.
- The Butler Did It: The first mystery has Sakuya being accused of hurting Patchouli, and Chapter 2 has her get locked in with Flandre until things are sorted out.
- Cant Get Away With Nothing: The Moriya Shrine responded to the vengeful spirit outbreak by quarantining themselves and attempting to kill on sight anyone who visits the shrine. The moment Suwako leaves the shrine to investigate the possessions happening at the base of the mountain, she's possessed and goes back to the Moriya Shrine, and Mizuchi possesses everyone else there, resulting in a Total Party Kill.
- Clueless Mystery: The series doesn't really have any solvable cases, with Mizuchi's host often changing in completely offscreen events. Namely: Yukari is revealed to have been possessed at a completely unknown point, Kaguya had been possessed when she snuck out of the house before the arc even began, and Suwako going out offscreen to get possessed in order for Mizuchi to defeat the otherwise closed-off Moriya Shrine.
- Darker and Edgier: In contention for being among the darkest of the official manga, having a more mature and serialized plot revolving around a major, legitimately dangerous threat. Fights tend to be much more brutal and visceral and the circumstances appear to even drive characters to break spellcard rules, with Kanako Yasaka seemingly attempting to murder Marisa for intruding on her shrine.
- A Day in the Limelight: Centers around Satori and Orin.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- During their quarantine, the Moriya Shrine crew take the threat of the vengeful spirit outbreak so seriously as to threaten to actually kill anyone who gets close, which goes against the Spell Card rules.
- Mizuchi's actions and difficulty of containment eventually makes everyone take the rather drastic measure of completely sealing off the Former Hell after tricking her down there. Yuugi was far from amused by this as it turned a figurative cage into an actual cage and could lead to more problems down the line.
- A Hell of a Time: Exploited. Yuugi tells Mizuchi that the reason Former Hell is a fun place to be for most of its inhabitants is because it makes them less likely to want to leave. Mizuchi's actions on the surface causing Former Hell to get sealed off, however, jeopardizes all of that because it makes Hell more of an actual prison, making it more likely for vengeful spirits to try to escape.
- I Let You Win:
- In Chapter 21 Aya claims that she merely pretended to be beaten by a seemingly possessed Reimu so that she could analyze the situation more, but it's subverted almost immediately when Hina and Rin read an entry of Kakashi Spirit News that details how Aya just straight underestimated them and lost.
- Reimu suggests that Yukari got possessed by Mizuchi on purpose in order to knock Reimu out of her funk and point her in the right direction, but this is never confirmed.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The manga's synopsis seems to imply that the story is a Mystery of the Week manga. But the very first case breaks out into a bigger case when the true culprit of the case escapes the scene to continue their misdeeds, with the following chapters being trying to finally catch them.
- Plot Hole: In Chapter 17, Mizuchi while possessing Mokou arrives at the Human Village and acts shocked at the presence of Youkai in disguise, implying that she hadn't known beforehand. This is despite the fact that the previous chapter had said she had already been to the village, and this was how she possessed Kaguya. How she didn't notice then is never explained, especially given she is able to identify Youkai as such pretty much on sight.
- Previously on…: Due to the several month long hiatus, Chapter 12 begins with a recap of the series thus far.
- Red Herring: Throughout the Mountain of Faith arc, Aya Shameimaru is made to look like Mizuchi's host through her suspicious activities. Only, by the end of the arc, it turns out not only was she never possessed, she had no idea the incident was even happening.
- Retcon: Symposium of Post-Mysticism explicitly stated that, due to Youkai's state of being being tied to their mentality, undergoing Demonic Possession would cause them to undergo Death of Personality due to their mind being overridden. Foul Detective Satori ignores this completely and instead just portrays it as them falling into a Convenient Coma as a side-effect of the possession sapping magic from the victim, and is something easily recoverable from in a matter of days.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Reimu's immediate response to finding out the Jailbreak King is gunning for her in particular is to run back to the Hakurei Shrine, lock all her doors and windows, and sit down shivering in fear. It takes Yukari getting possessed to put her back into action.
- The Moriya Shrine also respond to the vengeful spirit by quarantining the shrine and attempting to murder anyone who intrudes. Not that it helps them.
- The Worf Effect:
- Yukari Yakumo, one of the most powerful characters in the series, is seemingly effortlessly possessed by Mizuchi and controlled, demonstrating that nobody in Gensokyo is safe.
- Yuyuko is also possessed previously, despite being a ghost herself and her ability being to control ghosts, removing another easy end to the situation.
