The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

You guys know that one of the duties of the Palace of Earth Spirits is the capturing of Evil Spirits, right?

You are now imagining Mima being held prisoner in the former Hell of Blazing Fires.

^

(after the protagonists have rampaged through the Palace of the Earth Spirits/Hell of Blazing Fires)

'Ahh, free at last! It's time to conquer Gensokyo!'

edited 11th Nov '10 8:00:23 AM by Fluid

^ I'd read it.

I think I'm one of the few people who doesn't care whether or not Mima comes back.

Sayakata Tea Mansion's Eastern News Kingdom has Mima just sort of freeloading at the shrine.
So does her EWI video which shows what she's doing during the different Windows games.  ^*

I don't have much Mima but there was a real good one that I didn't keep that had Mima escape Shiki's judgment pre-PC-98. And then Komachi comes looking for her. Heart-warming abounds possibly. Anyone know that one?

I always thought it would be one of the moon-sisters to make that reference, but this might be even better! So would our heroines have to fight her monsters in Hisoutensoku?

At the risk of side-tracking, who would be which rangers?

Reimu Red, Marisa Black, Sakuya Blue. But would Youmu or Sanae be Green? And who would be the sixth ranger?

Sanae could be green and Youmu... white? Aya would probably be a sixth ranger or sixth column.

EDIT: It's only fitting, since she's also the "fourth estate." Oho! See what I did there?

edited 11th Nov '10 9:03:07 AM by Durazno

At the risk of more shrine destruction, yes.

As far as Marisa's relation to Mima goes, all I'm certain of is that she was Mima's apprentice. The rest is lost to history, which some might consider a good thing.

Mima, huh? Probably the most entertaining of the PC-98 characters. In some ways, the most entertaining of the Windows characters, because Windows Marisa stole her personality and astronomy theme.

Relationship with Marisa is... confusing. It was never explained in SoEW, and completely ignored after that.

Considering Orreries Sun and the star-bullets, I'm going to say "teacher".

Lunars cycles effects her power, so in PoDD ending she wished for eternal Full moon, and Yumemi grants it by putting the moon in geosynchronous orbit.

In Mystic Square good ending she briefly though about becoming a shinto god, before concluding that she is overthinking it and goes to bother Reimu.

edited 11th Nov '10 12:23:11 PM by Shinr

I think we have a new OTP:

Luna Child / Mima.

Mima, whose name translates into "charming demon", is described as an evil ghost. Yet, her evilness has all but faded away into a state that might be recognizably the demeanor of an evil ghost, but is practically harmless – and she denies being the ghost of a dead person, calling herself simply a soul.

EDICT says that the same thing with the kanji the other way around (mami) is also a legitimate word meaning "deceiving spirit," so that could be relevant.

Apart from that, I haven't done any research on Mima. She used to be cool, but then she got a gig in a shooting game, and now everyone knows about her.

edited 11th Nov '10 3:53:41 PM by SuperDimensionman

For those who know japanese (and because I'm afraid of posting it in Touhou fansites because of the no-endings rule) here's Mima's PoDD ending:

http://yfrog.com/mrpodd1j
http://yfrog.com/6wpodd2j
http://yfrog.com/gvpodd3j
http://yfrog.com/eupodd4j
http://yfrog.com/gqpodd5j
http://yfrog.com/76podd6j
http://yfrog.com/f3podd7j
http://yfrog.com/73podd8j
http://yfrog.com/g0podd9j
http://yfrog.com/n0podd10j
http://yfrog.com/15podd11j
http://yfrog.com/g1podd12j
http://yfrog.com/6tpodd13j
http://yfrog.com/0npodd14j
http://yfrog.com/20podd15j
http://yfrog.com/6wpodd16j
http://yfrog.com/napodd17j
http://yfrog.com/5xpodd18j
http://yfrog.com/2spodd19j
http://yfrog.com/htpodd20j
http://yfrog.com/jjpodd21j
http://yfrog.com/3mpodd22j
http://yfrog.com/elpodd23j
http://yfrog.com/2mpodd24j
http://yfrog.com/0cpodd25j
http://yfrog.com/3zpodd26j
http://yfrog.com/gopodd27j
http://yfrog.com/5dpodd28j
http://yfrog.com/9dpodd29j
http://yfrog.com/0qpodd30j
http://yfrog.com/0qpodd31j
http://yfrog.com/g9podd32j
http://yfrog.com/g9podd33j
http://yfrog.com/5dpodd34j
http://yfrog.com/4xpodd35j
http://yfrog.com/2qpodd36j

edited 11th Nov '10 1:29:04 PM by Shinr

EDICT says that the same thing with the kanji the other way around (mami) is also a legitimate word meaning "deceiving spirit, " so that could be relevant.

Also how you would spell the German equivalent for "mommy"(!).

The Spanish version, on the other hand...

I'm of the impression that Mima and Present!Marisa are practically the same characters, and that's why Mima's not coming back.

I'm of the impression that Mima and Present!Marisa are practically the same characters, and that's why Mima's not coming back.

Forgive the vulgarity, but Marisa isn't as much of a smug asshole as Mima.

Mima-centric stories to look into, guys:

• That Door I Wish not to be Opened, which has Mima staying in the Makai for a long time.
• Sayakata Tea Mansion's Capital of the Great Beyond, the one where Komachi comes for Mima.
• Sayakata Tea Mansion's And then they all came, the one where Mima wakes up after a long nap and meets Suika.

Sayakata Tea Mansion seems to be all about the Mimas.

• New Hokkai's That Door I Wish Not to be Opened.
• Sayakata Tea Mansion's And Then They All Came.
• Sayakata Tea Mansion's Capital of the Great Beyond.

And she acts more like a Woman Of Wealth And Taste, or at least tries to.

edited 12th Nov '10 3:00:01 AM by Shinr

I'm a fan of the "Mima is Marisa's mom" theory, which I base on a half-remembered ambiguous line from one of the CD stories in which the narrator mentions how a witch who lives in a cottage looks awfully similar to one who lived there a generation ago. I'm not sure why I support this, beyond the novelty of a familial bond not between sisters or "pets" or shikigami. And because it produces some very good art.

Explaining her absence if she were brought back would be simple - she got stuck in Makai. You could play the events of Mystic Square as a successful but costly and traumatizing operation. Four girls invaded Hell to end a demonic incursion, but only three came out, and afterward they never spoke of what happened down there. I remember Usually Dead went with something similar, and had Mima stuck behind a seal used to contain Shinki.

I also recall a comment somewhere that mentioned Marisa's ending for UFO, where she expressed a desire to poke around Makai freely. Almost as if she were looking for someone. And with Byakuren out and about, there's no telling who could emerge next...

As for Mima being a "spirit," there's always the theory that she's astrally projecting, and that her real body is lying in state somewhere. I'm not sure what the advantages of doing that would be, since your fleshy parts would be vulnerable and your soul would be getting beat on directly. Maybe she is good and dead but in denial. Or maybe she's hyping her powers to that of a minor deity instead of a mere ghost. Or maybe she's something completely different and was never alive in the first place.

And now for a mostly recycled Mima picspam:

• Stormy sky.
• Chilling with Shinki.
• Wraith-like.
• Underlit.
• Even chibified she oozes with confidence.
• Dusky.
• Red wings.
• Undead cat fight.
• A more peaceful meeting of ghostly gals.
• Looking more fiendish than ghostly.
• Twilight Spark.
• A very Marisa-like grin.

Also, music. ZUN's remix of "Reincarnation" has a very powerful intro, while this remix has good composition even if the sound quality could be better. But what I really want to hear is someone combining "Reincarnation" with "Love-Colored Magic."

EDIT: Well whadya know.

"Ahh, free at last! It's time to conquer Gensokyo!"

Not quite Mima, but still relevant.

edited 11th Nov '10 11:25:01 PM by Tacitus

In general I don't really dig the ideas that go around sometimes about Mima as deity of the Hakurei shrine or something similar. However, Curiosities of Lotus Asia has mentioned that the shrine was previously taken over by an evil spirit at some point, and I find I do rather like the idea that Mima once managed to gain the shrine for like two hours before being chased off.

In general I don't really dig the ideas that go around sometimes about Mima as deity of the Hakurei shrine or something similar. However, Curiosities of Lotus Asia has mentioned that the shrine was previously taken over by an evil spirit at some point, and I find I do rather like the idea that Mima once managed to gain the shrine for like two hours before being chased off.

In her good ending to Mystic Square, Mima speculates that she could become a god like Shinki, which runs counter to the idea of her already being one. Maybe that's a different kind of god, though? I don't know how all that's supposed to work in Shinto.

However, Curiosities of Lotus Asia has mentioned that the shrine was previously taken over by an evil spirit at some point

More evidence! Woo!

Since Mima's first appearance is as a boss in Jigoku in Highly Responsive to Prayers, what does that imply about her presence in the later games? Is her thirst for vengeance so great that even Hell itself can't contain her?

It implies that the first few games barely had anything resembling continuity or a plot.