Touhou

Well, if you're comparing her to a balor, she's still pretty little.

EDIT: Hello, pagetop!

edited 22nd May '17 6:25:33 AM by Durazno

A bit old, but...

Warugaki presents: One-Punch (Sendai) Hakurei.

Oh hey, I linked that once.

Almost 300 pages already? How nostalgic.

Say, I've been meaning to ask... Which of the recurring Loads And Loads Of Characters in Touhou are recent arrivals to Gensokyo in-universe? Sanae Kochiya is the only one that comes to my mind, but AFAIK there's no actual indication of how recent of an arrival she is, other than "recent enough that she's well-versed in modern pop culture and scientific concepts".

I ask because I'm trying to figure out which characters are plausible candidates for being barely familiar (if at all) with the Predecessor Hakurei Miko, having only known Reimu as the Hakurei Miko and none of the other Gensokyoites wanting to discuss the old terror who hopefully left their lives for good, and thus not being as terrified of her as everyone else would be. Current list and my personal reasoning in absence of contradiction by canon:

• Sanae Kochiya: Arrived in Gensokyo several years after the Predecessor Miko left. Zero knowledge of what said Miko was like; she knows she existed because obviously Reimu is not the first Hakurei Miko, but Suwako and Kanako kept her in the dark and distracted her whenever the topic came up.
• Alice Margatroid: Moved from Makai to Gensokyo after the Predecessor Miko's departure, living in relative isolation within the Forest of Magic. Though she heard stories of her both from Makai residents and in the Human Village, she suspected them to be hearsay full of embellishments due to claims that this mere human could best gods easily.
• Marisa Kirisame: Vaguely remembers stories about an all-powerful Miko from her early childhood, but can't remember any particular details like the Miko's name or which shrine she's associated with. Her relative isolation after moving to the Forest of Magic doesn't help.

I'd be careful with Alice. Given the rift between the PC-98 and Windows canons, there's no indication currently that she's actually from Makai. Though she could as easily be a transplant from Earth, I suppose.

Off the top of my head there's:

• Mamizou who use to live in the outside world before Ten Desires happened.
• Sumirenko who is technically a new arrival in that while she isn't physically in Gensokyo she has started to visit it in her sleep a lot recently.
• There's also Clownpiece who use to live in hell until the events of LoLK occurred.

There's probably more that's all that come to mind for me at the moment.

I think Seiran and Ringo emigrate to the Earth after the events of LoLK?

Sanae arrived in 2007, because her arrival was the incident of Mountain of Faith. The tengu and whatnot were still shocked by the sudden appearance of the shrine on top of the mountain.

Miko is similarly a recent arrival (along with her minions, although maybe not Seiga). Byakuren too, since she was sealed in Makai, not Gensokyo.

Reisen arrived in the 1960's, when the Apollo program was at its peak.

edited 22nd May '17 9:52:59 AM by Clarste

The tsukumo sisters and Raiko are also pretty recently created during the events of DDC, aren't they? Though I dunno how tsukumogamis work. They might have memories from when they're inanimate, which could be any length of time.

Sumireko technically counts as a recent arrival, though she doesn't officialy live in Gensokyo.

When is the new FS chapter coming out?

This week, so we don't have much longer of a wait.

I like to think that the PC 98 stuff still happened. And that Reimu was the official MC for Mystic Square.

Because I like the narrative of Alice losing to Reimu, moving to Gensokyo proper looking for a rematch, greeting Reimu like an old foe in PCB, and then not being recognized at all.

Considering Reimu's "review" of Rumia and Cirno's spellcards in Strange Creators from a while ago, that is totally in character.

In other news, Danbooru has recently aliased Komano Aunn's name to "Aun_Komano". Apparently the extra 'n' is a translation artifact. I'll miss that extra 'n' if this is permanent on everything. ;_;

Meanwhile, Etarnity is still "Etarnety_Larva".

edited 22nd May '17 2:52:32 PM by GiantCaveMushroom

Ringo did, or at least has an interest in doing so, but Seiran wants to go back to the moon whenever the Lunarians get around to giving the order.

Didn't Seiran and Ringo both start selling dangos (in competition with each other) in the human village as seen in that one picture from Alternative Facts?

Just verified that the Scarlet Devil Mansion and its inhabitants are likely candidates for being "recent arrivals" to Gensokyo as well, as apparently Remilia moved it there from the Outside World at least as early as 1998 and almost immediately went on a human-eating rampage, which only ended after she was defeated by an unknown number of "powerful youkai" (who those are is something I bet everyone wants to know); the aftermath ultimately led to many youkai entering talks with Reimu that ended with the creation of the modern Spell Card system... which saw its first canonical use in 2003 (a mere five years later), when Remilia instigated the Scarlet Mist Incident (EoSD).

With this in mind, one could reasonably argue that only Patchouli among the SDM crew has any chance of learning more than vague details about the Predecessor Hakurei Miko, given how much of a knowledge-seeker she is.

Source: Touhou Wiki.

edited 22nd May '17 6:25:52 PM by MarqFJA

Actually Sanae, Kanako, and Suwako all arrived together. I doubt Kanako and Suwako knows much about the previous miko.

List of people who came and stayed in Gensokyo during and after their games:

• Mo F : Sanae, Kanako, Suwako
• UFO : Everyone except Kogasa
• TD : Everyone except Kyouko
• U Li L : Sumireko (not physically though)
• Lo LK : Seiran, Ringo, Clownpiece

As for how recent, Touhou games take place in the same year they're released, so Sanae arrived in 2007, while Clownpiece arrived in 2015, and so on.

The Eientei cast all lived hidden in the Bamboo Forest until the events of Imperishable Night, so if you only want people who don't know the previous miko you can use them, too. Same with all the underground youkai (SA cast). Nemuno from the newest game is so isolated she doesn't even know about any shrine maidens.

edited 22nd May '17 7:35:08 PM by TrueShadow1

Just because Kaguya and co. lived hidden in Eientei doesn't necessarily mean that they were ignorant of the big events and political powers in the rest of Gensokyo. For one, Tewi already lived in Eientei before the Lunarians arrived and established their magically hidden home, and IIRC she didn't stop pranking random people who strayed close to Eientei just because she started associating with said Lunarians; for two, being ignorant of what's going on in the rest of Gensokyo would clash severely with Eirin being the "Brain of the Moon" (that is, for someone with her smarts to actively refrain from keeping tabs on any big events occurring in the rest of Gensokyo is WSOD-breaking).

... On a different note, how old is Chen supposed to be? Youkai are far longer-lived than mere humans, and I assume that the stages of their life cycles are similarly very staggered in comparison to the human equivalents, so for all we know Chen is both genuinely a child youkai and several decades/centuries old.

Didn't Kaguya spend a fair amount of time using her power of eternity to keep Eientei unchanging and unnoticed, to escape potential lunar scouts looking for her? That might be a reason for them to not have had knowledge of Gensokyo proper, if such a power could push away outside influences, including information, to keep the place eternally the same for a while.

I might be wrong about this but weren't the Eientei crew also unaware of the barrier surrounding Gensokyo until after the events of Imperishable Night?

Chen has to be at least hundred if she has two tails.

I don't think her behavior is necessarily child-like. To me she seems more like a young youkai who still have some of her animal qualities. She wanders around, picks up fights, and has to be bribed with food to obey orders. Sounds like a cat to me.

edited 22nd May '17 11:20:38 PM by ninryu

Of course, since she's a shikigami inhabiting a nekomata as Ran's familiar, some further questions about age and personality arise.

I'll bet the shikigami is older than the cat.

Where did you get that impression? Chen is the shikigami, she isn't possessed.

I thought that was how shikigami worked. That they're spirits that you summon to do your bidding, into a physical vessel such as an animal, or a paper doll.

PMISS's entry on Chen makes specific mention of her being in a possessed state when she's acting as Ran's Shikigami, and notes Chen-as-Shikigami and Chen-as-Bakaneko as separate states (break the former's connection to Ran by dousing her in water to get the latter). Though I suppose it would be a bit disingenuous to call the Shikigami state a separate spirit, as the same entry also says it's more like a program placed upon the vessel than any type of youkai itself. On the other hand, you then have stuff like most of Ran's spells, which make mention of specific, named shikigami spirits. It's complicated.

edited 22nd May '17 11:51:48 PM by Enlong

Shikigami are created by forming a contract with a creature, usually an animal or a youkai, in which the master transfers part of their power to the shikigami in exchange for their servitude.

Chen is possessed by Ran's power as a shikigami and is just a normal bakeneko when Ran doesn't put her power into her.