The New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium!

Here's some average humans for you to feast your peepers on.◊

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Forever liveblogging the Avengers

It's funnier to imagine that they're all grizzled, heavily-muscled warriors.

There's also a few in WAHH 7. Two of them actually have lines!

edited 11th Aug '11 4:49:20 PM by Clarste

Or they've all got EX-boss tanks round the back.

Heart of Stone

Oh wow common humans!

According to P Mi SS, youkai hunters do live in the Human Village, but she doesn't say that all of them are youkai hunters. (I'd think that would be like saying all guys in a town are cops).

Don't PM me. We don't like being PMed.

Well, anyway, considering that illiteracy was rampant in the days of the first Hieda, I don't know how useful the Chronicle was back then.

And it hasn't even neared completion before Akyuu began to fear that its lost its original purpose.

Is it possible for a fictional document to be a woobie? Because I am shedding at least one tear for the poor Chronicle.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Nonsense. It can find purpose as a Youkai Field Guide. Which is pretty much what it is already. People will flock in their tens to buy a copy to identify the nekomata sitting on their front porch.

Heart of Stone

I wonder what will come of the crisis (if that is the right word. Minicrisis?) Akyuu appears to have fallen into over if the Chronicle is still needed and if she still needs to reincarnate? I guess it would be a nice plot thingy to see how that works out, although I doubt we will ever see that. Although Akyuu seemed more optimistic than I would expect.

edited 11th Aug '11 5:20:34 PM by Otherarrow

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The times certainly are changing. That, too, must be chronicled.

Snapshots and Stories

---

I remember.

Oh, I'm sorry! Allow me to introduce myself: I am Hieda no Akyuu. What is your name? Tell me, so that I may record it.

I remember.

My duty is to write down everything I learn about this world. The written record is then produced as the Gensoukyo Chronicles, a guide and summary of my homeland and birthplace. All nine of them.

I remember.

I'm the ninth Child of Miare. My soul has traveled from one body to another. In between that time, I work with the Yama in the hells. When I am born again, not long after, my mind is flooded with the memories of my past lives. I know everything every Child of Maire has ever known. Except for... How they felt. How I felt.

I remember.

I am my own person, yet I'm also the same person as three other men and five other women. I remember everything, but I don't know what to think of it.

I remember.

The last three times I have been born, I have been guarded by a platoon of warriors, sent by the Chief of the Village. As a result, I have been forced to acquire my new information from second-hand sources , many of which have proven... Less than reliable, in some cases. I've been told that my writings have proven to be a bit wry in recent times, but I fail to see it. I merely write what I know and what I feel. Even so, there are days when I wish I could travel all I want, without the constant supervision. I have realized that in this life,

I remember.

But I never experience.

All I have are my snapshots and stories.

---

Akyuu's kinda tragic, if you think about it.

edited 13th Aug '11 12:51:32 PM by Pulse

I sure said that!

I enjoyed that. I really liked how you tried to work with the "Same person as previous incarnations while still the individual" and how she feels about being confined to the village and having to get sources second hand. Short, but sweet, I think.

I an envious.

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Imagine the sound of two hands clapping.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Imagine two hands on the edge of a cliff.

Akyuu is cool. She has a good design and theme in my opinion. Her role as a chronicler in Gensokyo is perhaps one of its most important roles. P Mi SS is filled with a lot of great information on the characters and really fleshes out the Touhou series.

However there is a tragic cost to her role as a chronicler. The child of Are's lifespans have been shorter and shorter with each reincarnation and Akyuu is required to chronicle Gensokyo for her life.

That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.

GIVE ME YOUR HAND!!

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Awww, I think I might blush. Thank you, thank you!

I sure said that!

A small little Akyuu story that has just uploaded is in the middle of being translated.

"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow

I bet Akyuu's ancestors knew the dragon god.

Why is Akyuu portrayed as a Yukkuri torturer?

edited 11th Aug '11 10:30:30 PM by raigakuren

That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.

So once upon a time there was a historian, and he spent his life making a big, comprehensive study of youkai. But when he saw his death coming, instead of entrusting his disciples or even anonymous future historians to continue his work, he said "No. This job's too important. I'll do it myself." So he pulled strings and made bargains and did rituals and set up a reincarnation scheme so that every hundred years someone would be born for no other purpose than to update his project, spending his or her brief life furiously interviewing and researching and writing before kicking the bucket.

Kind of a dick move. I guess you can try to justify it with the original Hieda's low opinion of his fellow man given the rampant illiteracy and all. But since each incarnation lives progressively shorter, it's ultimately a futile effort. And all to ensure that the right person is writing the next edition of a certain document.

But none of the Children of Miare have rebelled against their fate or torn up the Chronicles or anything. That's inspiring commitment to a past self's plan. Though I guess if you're stuck with the lousy lifespan and expected to spend it writing, you might as well get to it, if only to have something to show for your brief time on Earth.

Ayup. We can put her on the Fridge Depression shelf next to Koishi.

Teenage Akyuu is going to be like a student with a huge paper due in fourteen hours but she doesn't have enough reputable sources and her write-up for Remilia could probably use another revision and does she really need to cover Cirno and goddammit she forgot the Aki sisters and the clock is ticking. All that along with hormones. A purple-haired pressure cooker.

Anyway, artdump! (NSFW, naturally) A "good" thing about Akyuu is that there's only 58 pages of art for her.

• Long hair
• Double your symbolism
• Symbolism here, too
• Just the butterflies this time
• Ink smudge
• Kind of sad
• Bloom
• Just all-around excellent artwork
• Her room is a mess
• Carried away by her work
• Looks tired
• Quite a penetrating stare
• Beset by butterflies and bubbles and blossoms
• Frog and rabbit
• Nice hair
• In profile
• Not sure why but I like the face
• Ditto
• Awesome outfit
• Roses
• Giant phonograph
• Monochrome
• I don't get the Kamen Rider reference
• Awesome background
• Somewhat realistic
• Well... that's different
• Seen her hair color range from pink to full purple (and brown, and blue for some reason)
• An uncomfortable interview
• Action calligraphy!
• Dramatic skyline!
• I have no idea!
• Marisa's probably the type of person to "kidnap" her "for your own good"
• Enthusiasm
• Ahoge
• In case you ever wanted to see her in a bridal dress
• And now for the Amazing Technicolor Akyuu
• Working outdoors
• Umbrella
• Keine, Mokou, and the students (youkai)
• Keine, Mokou, and the students (humans)
• Keine, Mokou, and the students (comic)
• Keine, Mokou, and Akyuu
• Keine, Mokou, Akyuu and tears
• Like an assembly line
• Not sure what's happening here, but Keine isn't wearing pants for it
• Just Mokou and Akyuu
• Is she giving or receiving the flower?
• Apparently there's an "Adultification of Loli Characters" pool
• Another age-up
• A less modest age-up
• In case you wanted to see Akyuu showing some leg in a Chinese dress
• Not at her best
• Rejected
• Does she have to pay each time or did her first incarnation make a deposit?

Akyuu's often shown with Keine and/or Mokou, naturally, or sometimes Shiki. But what surprised me was how many pics showed a two-tailed cat hanging around. Maybe Chen's one of those furballs that comes out of nowhere to plop in your lap while you're trying to write, but darn if they're not warm and purring so hard that you can't bring yourself to push them out. Or maybe Yukari or Ran sends her over as company.

edited 11th Aug '11 11:26:36 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

On topic: Akyuu was a judge for the 5th M1 Grand Prix.

Not really that Akyuu related: Maybe Aya's parents named her after Hieda no Aya and thus Aya became Aya's idol so she wanted to become a chronicler just like Aya. So Aya then opened up the Bunbunmaru Newspaper! :D

edited 11th Aug '11 11:32:30 PM by raigakuren

That awkward moment where Kyoro is one of Satan's Generals.

Actually Hieda no Aya is more likely named after Aya.

Aya's 1000 years old, remember?

I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.

Their names use completely different kanji. It's just a coincidence

Hieda no Aya was named after the number eight to fit with the naming scheme.

Given that Akyuu works for the Yama, she probably gets a free ride when she crosses the Sanzu. Or she has a tab.

edited 12th Aug '11 1:25:48 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone

To be the critical guy again, I think you overdid it with the repeating line. Thrice is quite enough, particularly for something so short. It also would've been good to change it up to fit the context more each time you use it.

Huh. I guess that would explain it, but it seems unlikely given how unhappy Akyuu seems to be with her fate.

Also, thank you for the picdump. Some really nice ones again. But also, some not that great ones? Maybe I'm just hypercritical this morning, but I feel like you weren't as picky as usual this time.

Yeah, that was something. I'm not sure I fully understood her characterization there. Well, I did understand that she was kind of crushingly honest with an innocent smile, which is great. But there was that line about how apparently she decided to go with that brutally honest personality today, as if she has a collection of personalities she uses for different occasions?

Although that's interesting... It's time to unleash my secret weapon! Take this!

... First off, read Karaagetarou's comic if you haven't already. You're freaking missing out. Argh.

Now, check out what the notes say in the translation of the last speech bubble on this page.

If you have some sort of allergic reaction to awesomeness and thus cannot peruse this oeuvre, I'll copy it here, too:

Oh. Man.

Oh, that's awkward.

Akyuu: Yo Mokou, it turns out I'm a reincarnation of your father.

Mokou: (O_O)

And that's like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!

Alternate ending. Mokou: DADDY!!! (hug)

Resist the urge for an easy reference, folks.

edited 12th Aug '11 2:14:02 AM by asterism

Heart of Stone