Touhou

Wait, Mystia was from IN? I thought she was earlier... can I revise my list of people who I liked from IN? That list now consists almost entirely of Mystia, with Wriggle and Moukou mopping up any attention I have left over.

Anyways, we can bicker back and forth about how many characters were new to each game, but ultimately we're going to have to settle on this: EOSD, PCB, IN, MOF and SA (and now UFO) had almost if not entirely new characters for their bosses. POFV, STB, IAMP and SWR consist of mostly repeat appearances of popular characters. It is not surprising that POFV would launch fewer great characters than the others.

I guess I have to admit that part of it probably is that SWR and PCB have had more time to build up fannon about its characters, though.

edit: And now that I think of it, the only reason I can even remember who Moukou is, rather less say I like her, was this, lending credence to the idea that maybe 100% of why anybody likes any of these characters is the fan material related to them.

edited 26th Sep '09 9:17:55 AM by Brickman

Well, yeah, the fanon really does wonders, but there has to be something that inspires the fanon in the first place. The first time I saw the swinging spider Yamame, I instantly liked her. Her leitmotif was great, as well.

Kogasa, meanwhile, is popular specifically because of fanart of her being sadistically abused by Sanae or Yuka. Or, you know, just tossed in the "burnable trash" pile, broken, because nobody loves her, and she's all alone and abandoned.

... (Yes, I'd give her a great big hug, too)...

We must read different fanon. I see tons of stuff about Kaguya and Mokou's rivalry, Eirin teasing Kaguya and Reisen, Keine and Mokou's ""Romantic" Two-Girl Friendship", Tewi being Tewi, etc etc. Saying that people don't seem to care about IN's characters strikes me as beyond odd. Well, it doesn't really matter. Taste is taste.

edited 26th Sep '09 12:04:01 PM by Clarste

"Inaba of the Earth and Inaba of the Moon", anyone? Which contains depressingly little Mokou.

edited 26th Sep '09 12:37:41 PM by Lemurian

I already mentioned that both official manga series focus on IN characters and settings, implying that ZUN at least likes them.

edited 26th Sep '09 12:50:26 PM by Clarste

Ah, sorry. Must have slipped past my attention.

But perhaps the fandom is more careful when dealing with the IN-cast when there are official extra material?

That could be true. There's often a bit of fan backlash when canon material directly contradicts established fanon, especially in terms of character personalities.

Most people haven't read the side materials, and the only members of the IN cast that had much personality in the games are Mystia and Mokou. So, none of them approach the popularity of the SDM crew or the Yakumo family.

Hey wow, Mokou's theme is freakin' amazing. Like, I think it's probably one of my personal favorite things that ZUN has ever composed.

Well, whatever. By the way, Kaguya vs Mokou makes an awesome concept for a boss battle. I love how they just completely ignore you and attack each other.

...the heck is that?

Some doujin game (aren't they all?) called Mystic Chain. You control a team of Marisa + Alice or Patchouli and well, do what happens in the video. I haven't tried to play it because it looks like hell to control.

I also love how even as you beat the crap out of them each in turn they simply don't even acknowledge it, while their own attacks seem to be having no effect on each other.

Well, they are dodging and blocking each other. Actually, if you pay close attention to the third card (or whichever one is where Mokou slams into the ground) Kaguya is actually doing a little bit of damage with her shots.

LOL

YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT ALL UP!

Wut.

Double wut.

Let's not corrupt this thread with that Yukkuri stuff, please?

Oh, fine. I'm guessing you're overdosed on the critters?

They hijack even better than the girls themselves.

Anyway, Winn has made a new EWI video:

...

I can't watch those videos. The school swimsuits are seriously disturbing me.

By the way, I'm surprised it's not an Anime Trope yet.

School swimsuits bring to mind a RONERY schoolboy's fantasies over his cute classmate during swimming lessons.

Edit: rudimentary trope-page for School Swimsuit is under construction (currently un-indexed). It would be nice if another editor or two pool their Wiki Magic and help this page grow.

edited 28th Sep '09 6:44:16 AM by AceOfScarabs

Schhol Swimsuit should probably be a trope. I can remember two references to its status:

• Konata from Lucky Star wears her school swimsuit on a beach, becasue of "people with specialist interests".
• Excel from the Excel Saga manga once wears a school swimsuit at a beach, and gets a lot of attention.

Even Nitori is depicted in fanarts wearing that kind of school swimsuit under her blue-green dress, which sort of makes sense, since she is a Kappa and can swim quite well.