The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

So Seiran is a drafted bunny solder? I wonder when her conscription is up?

The moon rabbits have a machine that makes them totally imperceptible to youkai. The Lunarians were being quite careful not to provoke what they perceived as the actual threat of Gensokyo.

edited 26th Oct '16 6:58:50 AM by Clarste

Stupid Lunarians taking all the fun out of mocking them...

So what's Seiran's future? I hear from our character list (but can't corroborate on the Touhou wiki) that Ringo at least decides to stay on Earth, but does Seiran follow suit or feel bound by her duties? Which would make her abnormally loyal for a moon rabbit, I believe.

If she does go back to the moon, could she be a future viewpoint character for further Lunarian shenanigans? (something I don't think ZUN has done with Reisen II: The Second One) And if she sticks around in Gensokyo with Ringo, what's her role there going to be, another refugee in Eientei? She doesn't exactly have many marketable skills beyond her disappointing special power.

Guess we'll see in due time. Speaking of time, we should probably move on to the Netherworld instead of haunting this old topic, so if anyone has any last-minute thoughts pertaining to a hammer-wielding moon bunny, it's your last chance to share them.

I could see them just deciding to continue living in their base on the opposite bank of Lake Suwa.

Yeah, you gotta wonder why the Mooninites haven't set up a permanent listening post in Gensokyo already, what with the high-profile defectors (and Reisen) and the rocket-capable vampire brat and the main characters who just turned around an entire invasion attempt. That'd let Seiran and Ringo stick around as Friendly Enemies and make it easier to incorporate the moon into the setting. A bunch of AWOL moon bunnies could be fun too, though we'd probably end up asking why they didn't join the Eientei cast herd instead.

I guess you have a point.

Well, let's leave Seiran to her mochi pounding. Later on will be Sumireko, Clownpiece, and the last of her kind. But first, let's forget our worldly woes as we visit

The Netherworld

Themes: "Eastern Mystical Dream ~ Ancient Temple"^note This theme expresses the nostalgia that is deep within every Japanese and the frantic feeling that arises when someone is approaching. The sounds of far-off Shinto flutes and bells conjure up images of the netherworld. Or maybe it's just me?, "Ultimate Truth"^note The final stage is all about the final boss, so the mid-stage is only a token effort. Because of that, this song is rather short, but it's also refreshing and pleasant (in my opinion). The stage has visual imagery of flying over a sea of cherry blossoms; I hope this song will give you the same impression., "Youkai Domination"^note A high-paced theme (?) which is unusual in the Touhou series. It's obvious from the stage that the tempo and feel are the keys to this song. The tone turns around about 112 degrees in the middle of the song which is where Extra really starts (heh)., "Youkai Domination ~ Who Done It!"^note Another version of Youkai Domination. It's not that different from the original though... , "Night Sakura of Dead Spirits"^note The first stage theme. It’s been a while since we last went to the netherworld. Since this time, the theme concerns both the PCB world and the UFO world, the netherworld had to be there. It sounds melodious, but I made it rhythmical so that I won’t forget that it’s a first stage song.

Write-up:
It's not quite paradise, but it's a close second.
It's a land as pure as a preserved corpse.
It is the soul's waiting room between reincarnations.

After a departed soul travels the Road of Liminality and crosses the Sanzu River to receive the yama's judgment, the saints are sent to Heaven, while the sinners are sentenced to Hell. All the rest end up in the Netherworld, a serene and beautiful land similar to the mortal world, with the exception that just about everything in it is dead. Many of these spirits will eventually reincarnate into new bodies, while others pursue enlightenment and transcend the cycle of life and death entirely, but some souls are so entranced by the Netherworld that they never leave.

The Netherworld's most notable attraction is Hakugyokurou, a stately manor featuring extensive gardens that are famous for flower viewing. So famous, in fact, that some mortals have been known to take a trip to the realm of the dead to take in the scenery, a journey which is not as hard as it should be. There is a gateway leading to the Netherworld above the clouds in Gensokyo, but the seals on this Barrier Between Life and Death were weakened in a past Incident, and the resident Youkai of Boundaries evidently never got around to repairing it.

Inhabitants

• Any dead people not bad enough for Hell but not yet good enough for Heaven
• Yuyuko Saigyouji (princess)
• Youmu Konpaku (miscellaneous)
• The Saigyou Ayakashi (tree)
• Youki Konpaku?

See also the previous compendium.

The living can go to the Netherworld anytime they please without any awful side-effects. ...Yuyuko has no problems traveling between realms either.

...I wonder if someone like, say, Reimu, can still travel between realms should she die.

If Reimu managed to get plucked out of the cycle of reincarnation after dying, I don't see why not.

Heaven frowns with disapproval, Hell remembers the last time she visited and wants nothing more to do with her. Yeah, the Netherworld is probably the only place she could end up after death.

Wasn't there something about phantoms from the Netherworld wandering into Gensokyo through the hole in the border between life and death? And being used as macabre air conditioning units? If some nameless balls of ectoplasm can cross back into Gensokyo, someone like Reimu shouldn't have any trouble.

Uh... huh. Just had a thought that this should mean any previous generations of Gensokyan heroines might pop over from time to time to check on things. Except as far as I know, they haven't been. And I guess that could make sense if the border 'tween not-dead and not-alive was only weakened recently, but if Reimu's plot powers are hereditary, than her predecessor could probably manage the trip. So I wonder why the previous Hakurei Shrine Maiden hasn't done that? Respect for the natural order of things, too busy partying at Hakugyokurou, went ahead and reincarnated, something else?

edited 1st Nov '16 8:05:09 PM by Tacitus

My money's on them reincarnating. (Unless the Hakurei Shrine Maiden being like Reimu personality-wise has always been a thing.)

I always thought of Reimu as the world's biggest Mood-Swinger. All her different portrayals border on multiple personality disorder, so I don't really think you can say she has a personality... Hell, in FS she's even seen "shifting" from her FS personality to her WAHH one. Could be that she just acts nicer around Kosuzu. Could be that and a little bit more.

Either way, that's kind of irrelevant to the topic at hand.

If you could go to the netherworld by flying over the gate, how exactly are they guarding the gate?

I don't think there's a Cerberus analogue or anything. From the looks of it, there aren't even any talismans or the like to seal the door, just a lock that can be bypassed by, y'know, flying. Presumably if Yukari wanted to she could put some kind of force field up, but effort.

Of course, just because the entrance is unguarded doesn't mean that Netherworld is exactly inviting - Akyuu rates it as "high" on her threat scale. Why, though? It's full of phantoms and ghosts, natch, but if it's the afterlife for the not-evil-but-not-saintlike folks, is it really acceptable for these spirits to attack any mortals who might pop in for a visit?

And wait, there's fairies in the Netherworld, and they have some ghost-like SFX, but I thought fairies were regenerative immortals tied to nature. Why would they be in the world of the dead? Are they intruders too? Does Youmu have to periodically go out and cull them?

Fairies embody aspects of the nature of a place, right? They're regenerative immortals, yes, but they didn't become immortals from a mortal baseline - they're just an entirely different kind of being, and they can embody aspects of the netherworld's nature just as easily as Gensokyo's.

I mean, we've got fairies in hell and that's a place of the dead so...

Life and death are intimately connected. There's no practical different between the two, metaphysically. That's why Clownpiece was able to threaten the Lunarians: faires bring life, which is also death.

That said, the Netherworld was supposed to be a Pure Land, lacking both life and death?

Maybe it's different when there's souls floating around.

Well, it was a plot point in SSiB that the ghost pair didn't trigger their kegare-alarms.

What, Youmu didn't half-trigger them?

Also, if the Netherworld is a Pure Land, why didn't the Lunarians decide to relocate there a la those Celestials who went to Heaven without dying or anything? Is a lifeless world on the moon better than an undying land in the Netherworld?

edited 5th Nov '16 8:30:16 PM by Tacitus

I don't know if is a real Pure Land considering that it has death and death gods. I could be wrong though.

So if I understand the Touhou cosmology, life is a property, and death is a process. They're one and the same because to have life means that you will experience death - and the process of dying is what creates impurity. Ghosts are pure because they've already made it through, shedding both their life and their death - until they're reborn again, they're done with all that.

Hmm, so impurity can be thought of the byproduct of the soul smelting process, and since only the refined products go on to the Netherworld, it remains a Pure Land while Earth is filled with metaphysical pollutants.

Apologies for things being quiet lately, there have been distractions. Horrible, horrible distractions. But we can expect to move on to Sumireko soon, so if there's any unvoiced thoughts on the next world, now's the time to share them.

Mine is to wonder why the powers that be designed the place as a less death-y version of the mortal world, so relaxing that some spirits are content to stay there forever. If the ultimate objective is to get souls into Heaven, why not add more features to the Netherworld that encourage mediation and self-improvement? Maybe some motivational posters or something, or a guest speaker. Is it all a scam to ensure there's lots of room in Heaven for the souls already up there?

Also, a few netherworldly pictures. Which are hard to search for since there's no "netherworld" tag, but I digress.

The front door
A recent addition
Purple haze
A properly otherworldly interpretation
Guardian of the dead
Top of the stairs
Hakugyokurou in spring
A quiet place for a snack
Zen
A certain tree and its fruit
A good place to take it easy
A comic about a club trip

How does the bureaucracy work in the netherworld?