Touhou

So the sexuality border thing only affects youkai?

The basic idea is that the Dragon Palace itself is a lie told by the Lunarians to hide their true location. Because when people like Urashima Taro get lost at sea and find themselves in the Lunar Capital (because the moon is the sea metaphorically), they get told they're in the Dragon Palace. This causes people who hear their stories to look in vain for an underwater civilization instead of invading the moon. Although given that people can wind up on the moon by exploring the ocean anyway, it's unclear to me how effective this is. This was all part of a long anecdote from CiLR.

Also, Toyohime and Yorihime are based on people who were dragons, so that's a thing.

Given that Iku swims in the clouds or something, it's possible that there's an actual Dragon Palace in the sky, not the sea.

Ok, but that doesn't quite answer the whole thing about Iku, which was what I was mostly wondering about.

Well, if you're wondering how a youkai could get involved with people who explicitly hate youkai, there's no answer given in the text but we can assume that the term "youkai" is the source of some general linguistic confusion. While everyone seems to use it as this very precise thing ("youkai are impure", "youkai live off of human fear" etc), it still seems to be misapplied fairly regularly.

Not only do a lot of so-called youkai seem to be generally positive beings that don't attack humans, ie: hakutakus merely want to give advice, yamabikos simply cause echoes, etc, the characters themselves often seem to be confused about whether or not someone is a youkai. For example, Marisa calls Reisen a youkai rabbit in FS, but the fact that Reisen isn't a youkai is a plot point in LoLK. And Reisen doesn't even deny it either, she just asks Marisa not to say that out loud.

Which is all to say that even if Iku was ever specifically labeled a youkai (which I'm not entirely sure she was), that doesn't necessarily mean that she's a youkai for the purposes of being associated with the moon. It just means that different people mean slightly different things by the term "youkai". There's actually an interesting line I came across when translating FMW3, where Reisen says something to the effect of "oh yeah, now that I'm on Earth I'd be considered a youkai". While obviously the dialog of a fangame isn't canon, and humorously enough the events of LoLK made a lot of the game's IN plot retroactively incorrect, I still think it's a good way to look at the issue. What the Lunarians call youkai isn't necessarily the exact same thing that Yukari thinks of as youkai, or Akyu, or anyone else.

edited 21st Jun '16 3:02:36 AM by Clarste

Her profile calls her one, as I recall, but okay, that makes sense.

Basically Reisen is a trans-youkai.

Not to discredit the profiles, but ZUN plays with them in somewhat odd ways for what you'd assume to be dispassionate omniscient narration. For example, the whole "abilities are self-declared" bombshell from SoPM, which is the only possible way to explains abilities like Kanako's "creation of Qian." Throw in things like Miko being a "Saint" while Futo, who underwent the exact same process, is a "Human(?)", not to mention Seiga's "Wicked Hermit" which is less of a species and more of a moral judgment, and I think it's clear that even the most basic facts of the profiles are meant to be open to interpretation.

edited 21st Jun '16 3:27:43 AM by Clarste

So, I'm getting a bit confused. Does this mean a youkai is whatever someone considers to be a youkai?

I guess it would make sense considering belief in something (like gods or urban legends) makes it real in Touhou, if I'm not mistaken.

NEXT TIME ON SILVERQUEST: THE PASSWORD IS... 7 LAPTOP BESTBUY APPLE ROPE COFFEE KOREAN GOLF... YOU, UH, MIGHT WANT TO START WRITING THIS DOWN.

Sakuya and Remilia
crush on dark
Nitori
Luna

Shikis

Flandre, Eirin vs. Junko, Rainy day Kokoro

ZUN is showing up at anime expo again.

That's cute.

Is there a particular publishing term for when something was sold out so they had to print more copies to meet demand? Something short and snappy that can fit on a placard, preferably.

edited 25th Jun '16 7:19:44 AM by Clarste

On-demand printing?

In comics its usually called a second run

FS 41 draft. Featuring the daring exploits of one Agatha Chris Q.

Case Closed

One truth is totally radical!

edited 25th Jun '16 10:41:51 AM by Bocaj

FS 41, where the "templates like that are forbidden" joke really needs an update to include 'Tanuki' in it and Akyuu still looks amazingly classy with fur-trimmed capelet on.

Villager "He says he saw a corpse outside the gate."

Marisa "Oh really? That's rough, kid. But that's just how it is out there, you know?"

Ah, Gensokyo. Where no one really gives a crap when someone dies.

Though Marisa does begin to care when they say it's a human that did it. Actually kinda neat to see the whole "Youkai are held to different moral standards than humans" thing in action

edited 25th Jun '16 11:07:36 AM by TiamatRoar

The worst thing is that it is true. Really, FS is starting to feel like 45% Mamizou's fault, 45% not Mamizou's fault, but she still finds a way to put her spoon in it and 10% not involving her at all. And even when everything is solved (if they get solved), she never suffers from it. It is sort of getting boring, especially since hardly any other characters what aren't main characters appear in these stories. Maybe I am overplaying things, but she is starting to feel like a huge Karma Houdini.

edited 25th Jun '16 11:14:00 AM by TPPR10

She didn't even do anything really wrong this time. Certainly nothing she's escaping punishment for