Touhou

The limiting factor is mostly raw availability. Someone who'd prefer to remain anonymous recently contacted me about scanning them though. It's a very warm and fuzzy feeling. Anyway, we should be caught up relatively soon.

Well that was an interesting chapter. It's nothing to really do with the chapter itself but Sanae's hairstyle reminded me of her artwork from Mountain of Faith.

Sanae looked really odd in this artstyle by the way.

I'm not gonna lie, my first thought when she appeared was "Where are her hair anttena?" then I remembered that they only appear in WaHH.

edited 24th Mar '15 10:48:39 PM by MachThreeSlug

Sanae did look weird here.

New FS!

I really loved the colored Sanae in the opening pages Very beautiful; VERY big hair. The one later on in the comic... hmmm, I can see where you are comin' from with the "she looks weird". Here, she's generic cute and calm, and I also felt a bit of "That's not right for Sanae", but I can't super pinpoint why. In WAAGGGHHH!!, she always looks and acts a bit exaggerated and cartoony in comparison, I think.

Wow, those magazines! O_O Touhou just went into Real Life Reference Overload there! And what a Reference Mix it is: Slenderman, Ebola, and Time Magazine O_O

Hmm, did Mamizou genuinely learn here for the first time about Kosuzu's Power?

Kosuzu confirmed for Ophidiophobia. And Mami as a smoker thoughtful of others. Nice.

Haha ^^, when they first mentioned "a string of eat-and-runs" right after also mentioning the snakes that can eat people, I somehow immediately mixed those two up in my head and was horrified ^^ Thankfully, it was not that ^^

Oh, it's over already O_O That was quick.

edited 24th Mar '15 11:26:31 PM by FellDeedsAwake

Thoughtful smoker Mami was cool. I want to be Mamizou. Except without the smoking.

I think it's the eyes. They look so...unnatural. (Oh, and did Sanae did a Bras d Honneur pose right there? Sneaky sneaky)

I think it's Sanae's giant hair emphasizing how large her head is

Ooh, translated chapter! I'm probably gonna wait for the final draft, though.

...Out of curiosity, Clarste, how long does it usually take to translate a chapter? Like, from acquiring the raw to the final draft?

Hm... I don't really keep track of when I start, but about 5-8 hours I guess? Depends on the chapter. I'm not the most efficient.

Oh wait, final draft? Months upon months. It's not really up to me since I'm relying on other people to help me out in their spare time. At this rate, I would guess maybe some time next year?

edited 25th Mar '15 2:02:42 AM by Clarste

And with that in mind, Forbidden Scrollery 23. Guest starring Sanae, again. In which Reimu accidentally shows her WAHH-self to Kosuzu.

Harukawa is getting better at drawing Sanae

"Any beast that devours a human or youkai becomes a youkai itself". Certainly easier than living a hundred years

"When you become a youkai you end up in Gensoukyou". ...There has to be a limited range for that

Mamizou is awesome and beautiful and Sanae is a good girl

Oh my goodness Kosuzu is like super adorable in this chapter. Moreso than any other chapters. Also Banki cameo!

I still have no idea what to do with Mamizou's "voice".

It's at the other side of the world, where Kasen's story is still being unfold.

So new Forbidden Scrolls.

So is Ebola-chan canon in Touhou? Sort of funny how they cannot believe how a snake can devour a man whole. Then again, I am thinking about stuff like Orochi, so in the sense of regular snakes, it would sense.

Quite a few interesting villagers here, like the one in the beginning of chapter 23. And oh hai, Sekibanki! This made me realise that where it is interesting to see new concepts in these two mangas, I do sort of want official works what really show daily lives of other characters.

I know the snake was using a disguise, but holy crap, a male youkai what is human-like!

Mami is awesome.

I also like the different interpretations and explanations of the events and what happened. It feels very Touhou-like.

And that's a small snake. Well, relative to what we were led to believe.

Its how I got here.

Isn't that more or less what happened in Sado? They became human so much they forgot they were youkai, and then... they... just kinda weren't?

I don't know... it came across to me as more a test of "Just how good of friends are we...? Can I do... -this-? Nope? Ok, sure, that's fine, no problem." (drat, not yet then)

Also, It's probably come up before, but the village being small enough that everybody pretty much knows each other seems to be brought up here.

Good to see FS's take on Sanae. And for that matter, how Reimu interacts with her. It's kind of amusing, because the way it's framed here, Reimu's "She's just a money-grubbing shrine maiden like me grrrr." isn't entirely wrong. It's just that Reimu's focused on the material wealth, while Sanae's being 'greedy' for faith for her goddesses. She doesn't seem the least bit upset about not getting the offerings, so it was the leaving of the offerings there she was after, while Reimu's immediate assumption about the miraculous local change is that Sanae's been eating better. And Sanae has faith that her actions stopped what happened.

I think it's the difference between Reimu and Sanae, and why I think Reimu's a terrible shrine maiden while Sanae's a good one, even though their methods aren't that different. Reimu... well, lacks faith. She's a cynic and a critic. Sanae has belief and faith, but Reimu's just too jaded. It's... interesting.

Reimu's last statement in the chapter sums it up nicely. Her thinking seems to pretty clearly be "Sanae has medicine, so see her if you need it, and I beat up youkai so see me if there's a youkai." It's just the cold, hard facts. She can't do anything about poison so don't come to her if you get bitten. While I suspect Sanae would encourage someone suffering from something she wasn't sure she could treat to come to her for help.

Of course, it might even be as simple as "Reimu is poor enough that finding her next meal is about as far ahead as she can afford to think." Sanae's reaction of "We're not beggars" suggests that might be contributing to Sanae's relative success.

Kind of ironic how the 'flying shrine maiden' is the grounded, down to earth, materialistic one though, huh?

And Sanae's preaching about how "sacred" doesn't necessarily mean "friendly to humans" seems rather forthcoming, though I suppose it put the fear of gods into people... though it was also a nice little "covering our butts in case snakes attack people anyway."

So yeah, I loved seeing the Reimu/Sanae relationship/contrast fleshed out out a bit more.

Kasen mentioned something like this too; 'once you've tasted human blood, you're going to become a youkai (unless you fast on spring water and such)'. With the 'shootings' chapter.

Also, I feel like this is the first time someone's like... admitted outright to killing someone? "yup, ate a dude."

Also, interesting that Mamizou's gone native so smoothly. It speaks a lot to her fluidity. As expected of a Tanuki pro! She follows the rules, and even enforces them when she sees the opportunity, like any good citizen... or perhaps this is more like "helping raise the young", in a sense.

And now I wonder whether the 'do you mind if I smoke' really -was- a sort of hidden character test... just more of one than I thought. With the thinking of "If she'll let me smoke in here where I'm not allowed, then we're close enough that there's no trouble with her knowing I'm a youkai either." Since... well, fully possible the smoke works just as well on Mamizou's own illusion (or would be a convenient cover or something for the change. Or drama appropriate. mamizou's got style, and poofing in a cloud of tobacco smoke's pretty stylish.). Also that' pipes long so maybe she uses such a long pipe to make sure nothing gets on her.

Also this is all just me musing. please keep making it clear if a spoiler is for whatever has everyone talking about but hasn't been translated yet or whatever so I can actually avoid the spoil.

edited 25th Mar '15 8:01:46 AM by Antimatter625

I find Reimu more of a youkai exterminator than a traditional shrine maiden, so her focus on that is probably reasonable. And Sanae is... rather snake-like.

It's to be expected. She serves a snake goddess.

Mamizou continues to be awesome. Teaching a Youkai by smoking into his face is so cool.

Sanae's expressions look oddly insincere in this chapter... or maybe just ditzy. Interesting crowd she's got there too. A non-tengu journalist? Some random guy in a baseball cap? Murasa and fox-student? And I'm not sure what that is in the top-right.

Also all this talk of hungry snakes reminds me of Marisa's tsuchinoko... it's dead, right?

On the Engrish line, my suggestion is Since it's in... "English"?.

Kosuzu's "I am afraid of snakes" looks weird - it's not really clear that "I" is a word rather than just a vertical line. Maybe replace it with "..." and merge "I'm" into the second bubble?

Oni and keyhole sweaters