The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Probably. ZUN seems to like speculative physics.

Case in point: Patchouli's Phlogistic Rain card. Granted, that bit of speculative physics has been discredited, but eh.

Now back to Kisume:
She's an interesting creature, because she's kind of an atypical specimen of a tsubure otoshi. Usually, they're youkai that drop things (including, yes, demon fire) on travelers, which can include buckets. But Kisume is shy (and probably agoraphobic) and decides to hide in a bucket that she drops on people. I wonder why she was sealed underground, though.

edited 7th Jul '10 10:34:30 PM by Enlong

There's just something oddly appealing about a character who spends her life in a wooden bucket.

There's not much else to Kisume, and I haven't seen her in many fan works. She seems aged right to run around with Team 9, but I haven't seen much of that. There's also been some speculation on what's in her bucket similar to theories on Keine's hat, as well as theories on how she gets around, or how her bucket could be improved.

Random thought: it's not the same bucket. Kisume has access to a gateway dimension, "Bucket-space," allowing her to travel to any bucket she pleases nigh-instantaneously. Could she allow others to come with her? Do the buckets have to be wooden, or is any object sufficiently bucket-like a valid exit? Does she scale to fit the bucket, meaning a sufficiently-sized bucket would make her ginormous?

Ah'un'uh.

Would you believe it inspired something?

Okay, that was awesome. Not so much the mecha portion at the end, but the buckets "dumping" danmaku to pool on the bottom of the screen and the "splashing." Does she do stuff like that in any of the games?

edited 7th Jul '10 10:37:44 PM by Tacitus

Nope. Her midboss fight is just expanding danmaku arrows on all sides. She does sort of drop down at you during her first pattern, as if she's throwing the bucket at you.

She does have a spellcard on hard/lunatic, but nothing like what was in that video. I must applaud that dude's ingenuity. I would've never thought of having buckets pour danmaku out, or to have another giant bucket drop into the "water", "splash" violently, and pull out a trail of bullets.

Well, there's Double Spoiler too, but even that doesn't get so elaborate as that video. Kisume mostly does a lot of bodily (bucketly?) rushing the tengu. Surprisingly aggressive indeed.

Kisume, huh? ... I got nothin'.

Unlike other midboss types, being a midboss doesn't suggest a role for her. When you fight Daiyousei in Cirno's stage, you can assume they're friends or know each other or something. When you fight Koakuma in Patchy's stage, you can assume she's her assistant. When you fight Meiling as the midboss in Meiling's stage, you can assume they're old comrades from the wars getting together for one last heist.

Same thing with Cirno/Letty, Tewi/Reisen, Keine/Mokou, or Momiji/Aya. Midboss/Boss pairs that are portrayed with some kind of relationship in fanon. And I didn't even mention characters that have an official midboss/boss connection like the Akis.

Kisume is in the same sort of boat bucket that Lily White is in. Lily midbosses for the Prismrivers but I don't think an official or even fanon connection has been drawn.

Its common enough to portray Kisume as being friends with Yamame but then again, its common enough to portray all the SA bosses being friends so Kisume isn't unique in that. But even in canon its likely that Kisume knew of Yamame. She is the idol of the underground. Which I assume means she sings or something.

As far as I can recall, Kisume is mostly used as part of a crowd when we're dealing with the underground peeps or as generic cute youkai number 42.

I don't really have much of anything to share, doujin-wise, for Kisume.

• Kisume co-stars in Parsee's EWI video. Swimsuit level: minimal.
• She is at an incredibly rebellious age in Morino Hon's 4koma series. And only appears in a couple of strips. Meh.
• KimikoMuffin uses crazy Kisume. Crazy Kisume with access to B-space and references.

edited 8th Jul '10 12:37:11 PM by Bocaj

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Yamame Kurodani

Theme:
The Sealed-Away Youkai ~ Lost Place

Traits:

• hated by many, loved by others
• fun-loving and bright
• somewhat combative

Relationships/Shipping:

• Kisume (friends, Yamame's often shown being in charge of holding up the bucket by a rope - and dropping it on people)
• Parsee, Yuugi (often shown as friends)
• Wriggle (shipped because "spiders eat bugs")

Write-up:
Yamame, the spider youkai, faces all kinds of receptions. Her power is the manipulation of diseases, making her seem suspicious to most people and youkai, which explains why she was sealed underground, even though she would never use these powers for no good reason. On the other hand, the underground youkai like her quite a bit, and they get to see her sweet and likable personality in return. From the fanbase at large, the reception is mostly composed of indifference.

In spite of her plucky nature that lets her retain her sunny demeanor in spite of being hated and locked underground, Yamame is in the unfortunate position of being just a nice girl with no explicit ties or other importance, and no absurd quirk to even use as a cheap gag. Nonetheless, her popularity noted in her official game profile is often expanded into downright superstar status, so she is at least, quite literally, a popular underground artist. Perhaps she plays string instruments?

And maybe, maybe, her song about the sealed youkai is actually written by her...

Similar characters:

• Satori and Koishi (all of them hated for their powers, yet deal with it quite differently - admittedly Satori and Koishi are more extreme cases)
• Hina (similarly avoided but cheerful)
• Medicine (similar powers, entirely different personalities)

I'm rather annoyed at Yamame's lack of popularity, because she seems very sympathetic to me. Something Sparky said about her possible relation to Wriggle even made me think that she's the Touhou character most like me, though I don't quite recall what it was. It had to do with playful teasing.

Some things that I want to point out and discuss about her but which seemed too speculative to post in the actual write-up beyond a hint...

It's interesting how her song title actually implies that it's more of a theme of the underground youkai as a whole. What makes it more interesting is that she's considered so popular she might be considered an idol. Perhaps she's some sort of representative?

In fact, this gets even more interesting if you look at her personality and "backstory": She has an unpleasant power that made people hate her, but is actually a very pleasant person. This not only makes her similar to Satori, but seems like something you could say about just about all the underground youkai we've seen...

Also, I'm totally down with the idea of her being a musician. She could play the strings and sing, Kisume plays the wooden drums, Parsee stepdances, Yuugi does throat singing, Satori is the DJ, Orin uses skulls as castanets, Utsuho plays the flute and Koishi uses subliminal messages to make sure everyone enjoys it... And then they do a Stomp routine that makes the earth shake.

edited 8th Jul '10 2:36:38 PM by Fawriel

I don't really think about Yamame all that much although I guess you could do kind of a Hina-style subversion of Bad Powers, Bad People with her. That's pretty cool. Also she and Kisume make a neat team I think.

Something Sparky said about her possible relation to Wriggle even made me think that she's the Touhou character most like me, though I don't quite recall what it was. It had to do with playful teasing.

I think it had to do with Yamame teasing Wriggle because seeing her flustered is adorable, and she likes to playfully mess with her head, which is something you tend to do from time to time with me.

Now Fawrie and I have talked a bit about Yamame, and I think the thing about her that sticks out in my mind is the subversion of Bad Powers, Bad People - she controls infectious diseases and yet she's a perfectly nice person who wouldn't use her power on someone who wasn't trying to cause trouble. Makes her very likable. I appreciate that in my characters.

Plus, we have another character with a similar power that revels in her destructive death-dealing and loves the thought of subjecting everyone she meets to her power. Yes, I think Medicine can be thought of as Yamame's "dark side", or at least Yamame sees Medicine as a cautionary warning about what could happen if she started being more cruel with her powers. I think that because of that, if Yamame hated anyone in the world, Medicine would probably be that one person she legitimately hated, because of how similar and yet so different she is from her. And hey, at least it gives me an interesting character relationship with Medicine to work with that doesn't make the other person Alice.

Other than that I don't have much on her and even less on Kisume. Although I do go with the idea that Yamame and Kisume are friends and I tend to imagine that Yamame and Kisume both moved to whatever forest it is Wriggle inhabits and thus gets in on some of the action with Team 9, serving as a sort of Sixth Ranger to their Five "Man" Band, mostly just to mess with Wriggle, although other interesting plots could arise with it.

edited 8th Jul '10 2:36:21 PM by StarkMaximum

I like to think of Yamame as an Idol Singer. She's probably a genuinely nice spider-girl who doesn't use her powers unless you hit her Berserk Button.

A bunch of memes surrounding her:

1. In some .JPN fancircles, she's taken the Japanese Spiderman as her boyfriend.
2. She swings about just like good ol' Spidey.
3. Where does her web come from? Some sources say "under her skirt".

Thanks to your reminders, I could fill in a bit more in Yamame's "relationship" and "similar characters" sections, so at least those are pretty big now.

PS: Her official art actually makes her look kinda chubby. OH MY GOD CONTROVERSIAL

PPS: I didn't really mean to imply a love relationship between her and Kisume in my custom title but I thought "hanging out" was too lame and I wanted something uplifting (ohoho stealth pun).

edited 8th Jul '10 2:40:15 PM by Fawriel

Where does her web come from? Some sources say "under her skirt".

I like to think of her shooting webs from her wrists Spider-Man style. XD

Everyone has the hots for each other in Gensoyko.

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I'm sorry.

PS: Her official art actually makes her look kinda chubby. OH MY GOD CONTROVERSIAL

yesss yay for chubs. At least she's not like Patchouli, AKA Schrodinger's Pudge. That was a really dumb joke.

I like to think of her shooting webs from her wrists Spider-Man style. XD

I do too, honestly, it's way cool.

Sparky please don't use "Schroedinger's" in relation to a lady because it makes me think bad, bad things

I'm gonna read through Yamame's dialogue because I don't want to sleep yet.

And DAMN.

"Did you come to play underground?
They're having a big feast down there now.
They won't turn away anyone, so go have fun."

"You sure talk to yourself a lot, human.
Is it stress?"

"Hm, is that popular up there now?
When you're excited, do you talk to yourself -
Or are you just ignoring people?"

"You're pretty interesting.
I like you, let's play!"

She's practically A SAINT.

Okay, there's some other parts that are more like "you are suspicious, I'm gonna beatchoo up bro" and "if you have no business here, please go" and "might as well have some fun with you", but yeah.

... This only strengthens my idea of her being an idol-during-the-day, crime-fighter-at-night superhero. "I harbor no ill will towards you, but for the safety of my beloved people, I will chase you off!"

So if she lives underground how does she know when it's nighttime so she can be a superhero?

Obviously, it's nighttime when Utsuho's asleep or away. <<

I think that because of that, if Yamame hated anyone in the world, Medicine would probably be that one person she legitimately hated, because of how similar and yet so different she is from her.

If Yamame knew of Medicine and if she did hate her it would be because despite Yamame being responsible with her powers and Medicine being genocidal, Yamame is the one who was sealed away.

Yamame is interesting because she serves a gatekeeper role in the game for the underground without actually being the gatekeeper. That's more Parsee's job but the player encounters Kisume and Yamame first. I wonder what they were doing beyond the bridge especially when, as Yamame said, there was a party brewing.

Maybe Kisume lives beyond the bridge and Yamame was visiting her?

I'll have to check if I have any doujins featuring Yamame as a major character or in an interesting way. I doubt I'll find many more than I did for Kisume. You guys are right; Yamame is sadly underused. She needs some embarassing meme centered on her that'll turn her into a huge butt-monkey which will make people pay attention to her out of pity and then increase her popularity when people get irritated by the meme and start emphasizing her other qualities.

• But Yuuka... she doesn't do that often.
• Flower Fever Panic! Yamame uses her disease ability on Yuuka. Hay fever. Bad things occur.
• Ennui_Akadako's 384403. Doujin featuring the SA cast. Really scraping the bottom of the bucket here because Yamame only appears on maybe three pages. Page 31 has her explain her powers to a presumably jealous Parsee though.

edited 8th Jul '10 5:01:59 PM by Bocaj

I just realised something. Every stage 1 & 2 boss up to Yamame consists of the player character attacking random people because they look suspicious (If even that). Then we get to Yamame, who reverses the roles and accuses the player character of being suspicious.

Maybe Yamame is the resident incedent solver of the underground?

I feel like I should say something, but I honestly have no impressions of her beyond ''That one SA boss that I don't have any problems with'. Even most of her fan appearances are just to have all of the SA cast show up.

^^ I like this theory. Someone make it transpire.

^ Parsee, Yuugi and the Chireiden crew sort of steal all the attention.

Incident solvers need to be human though. It's in the rules.

There aren't any humans in the underground though.

Which is why Orin had to call for outside help.