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But at least she's not so generic that she lacks a name. That puts Kisume in a weird spot between Touhou's nameless midbosses and characters with actual dialogue, which is so small and cozy that I'd say it suits her.
Hey, nothing's been proven. The most we know for certain is that Kisume 1) can be aggressive/go berserk and 2) at one point threw bones at small children while laughing about it. But since she was saying "So is THIS the body you dropped down here?" it's possible that she wasn't the one who did the deed. Maybe she was having a nice nap in a disused well, some human serial killer used it to dispose of a corpse, and she was so traumatized by getting an impromptu shower of body parts that she flipped out and ended up traumatizing some kids.
And you know fandoms, being a serial killer and being a moeblob aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Rainy Echoes
Kisume:
A youkai found within the entrance to the Underworld. Rarely seen outside of her bucket. Very timid, yet is said to be monstrous.
A Bucket Load of Devilry:
At first glance, her abode is just a bucket. But is it just a bucket? Kisume has a well-kept secret, one she guards with such tenacity. You see, there is a pocket dimension in Kisume’s bucket. There, she houses necessities for everyday living as well some tools of her trade. Unlike Kogasa, Kisume’s surprise tactics reaches far deep into one’s consciousness. It calls out to one’s primal, irrational fear. Kisume’s sheepish disposition could just be a façade, and that’s what makes her dangerous.
But that’s not all! The real reason why Kisume has that pocket bucket is because she is acquaintances with the big lady on campus herself! How!? …Why!? Doesn’t that notion send shivers down your spine as if it’s a natural response to something fearful!? …Of course, that’s all the more reason she keeps her distance from those darn satori. They can so easily punch a hole in her bucket of secretive cunning, after all.
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Given some talk in the main thread about how any hermit of sufficient skill can build a personal Senkai, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a powerful youkai could do something similar... within a wooden open-topped container. Unfortunately I can't reinforce this with fan art speculating on the contents of Kisume's bucket like they have with Keine's hat
or the morph ball. Disappointing.
Hmm, or maybe Kisume's personal dimension isn't confined within a bucket, but she can access it from any bucket.
Yukari ought to have some contact among the youkai of the underground, and it might as well be Kisume. After all, oni are a bit too honest for spy work, while any agent close to the satori would be quickly compromised. And here's Kisume haunting the upper passages of the underground, reacting to anyone coming or going. And of course you can overhear much from the bottom of a well...
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Makes sense. Kisume is a youkai and she needs to scare humans but she also needs a place to stay. I never thought that Yukari might have some connections to the underground, she has some connections that inform her of some of the incidents like in SA? Kisume would make a great spy, she can virtually anywhere and nobody would notice.
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Welp, I think unless the conversation starts up again we should probably expect to move on to Seija soon. But first, the inevitable picdump. Most of the highest-rated stuff was cheesecake or group shots, but I was surprised by how many artists latched on to a darker interpretation of Kisume as the picdive went on.
In a bucket, in a cave
Cute as a button in a bucket
Agoraphobic?
Scheming face
Somewhat shy smile
Stupid frog
I imagine Hina underneath her
Loving that terra firma
Techie bucket
Her sinister lair
There's a Hobbit reference in there somewhere
I love the juxtaposition of the body with the bucket
Just like bungee jumping
Yudepil's bucket mecha
Another model
Spill
A light in the darkness
The bucket and the spider
Good, someone remembered she drops fire
Presumably she's about to burst into her "I Want" song
And then I saw the skull
Skulls and bones
Lots of skulls
Bucket of skulls!
Bucket of blood!
So much blood!
Koto Inari's take
Persona!
Trap
Even more obvious trap
Water wraith?
Ayy lmao
Destruction rains from above?
Clonk!
Another Aki Sandwich?
I'm getting dizzy just watching
I read ya
Perhaps too cute
Cirno was ahead of her time
And Sekibanki lends a head
Assuming direct control
Buddies
A challenger appears
Never mind, they're cool
Ta-da!
Reminded of the Echoes in Front of the Temple series
Your bucket buddy who descends with more beer
Pick your poison
My house
There must be an easier way
Time for an upgrade
Past time for an upgrade
Ready to roll
She doesn't get much exercise
Ayep
I wanna watch it slowly tip over
You can never unsee
I'd play the hell out of it
A barrel of fun
Formerly G.G.
I wonder if Kisume knows of the other characters in the underground?
edited 15th Feb '17 2:39:45 AM by GAP
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
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Know of them, probably. She's likely aware that the oni relocated deeper underground, that there's some reviled satori living somewhere down there too, and you should avoid one particular bridge.
But as for who she knows personally, my guess would be probably only Yamame, 'cause you know, everyone knows and loves Spider-Girl. Other than that, Kisume's a small-fry youkai with hints of agoraphobia, not the most sociable of creatures in other words.
Huh, wonder if she's stuck on the upper fringe of the Underground? Like she's not tough enough to get past Parsee, so she's relegated to the border country between the surface and the Underground where there's slim pickings other than groups of human children with the poor judgment to play near a disused well.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Funny but not helpful
That's probably natural selection at work
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
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I'm starting to think that Kisume's probably not one of those reviled youkai of the underground, because how does dumping will-o-wisps compare to stuff like spreading disease and reading minds? And she's such a small fry that she can't be said to be that dangerous. So either she cheesed off the wrong youkai with a bucket dropped on the head one night and got exiled that way, or caves (and disused wells) are simply Kisume's natural habitat.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
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Well, let's give Kisume the privacy she needs, at least until she decides to throw us a frickin' bone. I have used my sweeping executive powers to strike the other Hijiri from the character list, so after this we'll be covering Mima, looks like the Underground as a whole, and someone older than the rest of the cast combined. But first,
Appearance:
Stage: An Entirely-Inverted World ~ Reverse Ideology
Floating Inverted Castle - Interior
BGM: "The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in the Air"
Theme: "Reverse Ideology"note
Spellcard Motif: Trickery, Reversal
Sample Spellcards: (DDC)
Deceit Sign "Reverse Needle Attack," Reverse Sign "Evil in the Mirror," Reverse Sign "Overturning All Under Heaven," Reverse Bow "Decree of the Dream Bow of Heaven & Earth," Turnabout "Reverse Hierarchy"
Write-up:
An incarnation of opposition who hates what you love and loves being hated, with the power to flip things upside-down and a hankering to overturn social conventions. Seija isn't the strongest of youkai, but she's a tricksy amanojaku, skilled at manipulating others, defying convention and breaking the rules.
Her duping a kobito into starting a revolution made Seija so despised that even her fellow youkai resorted to blatantly unfair spellcards in their attempts to capture her, and she's the first modern character not to be befriended by the protagonists after the Incident she instigated was resolved. But she presumably likes it that way.
Relationships:
- Shinmyoumaru Sukuna (sucker)
- Benben and Yatsuhashi Tsukumo (paternity suit in the making)
See also the previous compendium.
Funny but not helpful
Seijin scorns your notions of paternity probably
So here's a song about her reverse ideology that I enjoy
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Formerly G.G.
Seija like most Amanojaku is also hated by Oni for her dishonest and lying ways as she prefers to use tricks as opposed to fighting head on. Seija is essentially the whole "Opposite Day" game taken to the extreme or she is basically the ultimate contrarian.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
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We might even call her the Imp of the Perverse.
There's another angle, though. Maybe say that the oni were so committed to honesty that they tried to excise their capacity to deceive, the part of them that might try to upset the natural order instead of bowing to the strong and commanding the weak. Say that the oni did something in the past to get rid of those impulses, and that they didn't disappear entirely, but instead manifested as an entirely new type of youkai that could do nothing but lie and subvert society.
That wouldn't quite explain Kasen, though. And then Sagume throws another wrinkle into this since she can be classified as an epic-level amanojaku as well as a Lunarian goddess. So maybe amanojaku isn't so much a species as it is a title, a role certain beings can play? Was Seija enough of a pain in the ass to become an amanojaku in the same way Parsee became a bridge princess?
Oh, and Wkipedia mentions the theory that amanojaku entered Buddhism via syncretism with the yaksha, which might add a connection to our good friend Konngara.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
The Shrouded Knight
One thing that fascinates me about Seija is just how pretty her face is in her original art. On the surface, it's not too different from how ZUN draws everyone else's faces, but it just seems so striking on her. It makes me imagine her actually having a youthful, honest-looking face ... all the better to deceive others with.
The Living Guildpact rules that coffee is an acceptable substitution for rest as specified in subsection … whatever.
Formerly G.G.
That make some sense as she seems like a kid who is innocent yet she is quite mischievous.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
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Guess she's basically stuck as a pain-in-the-ass, rebel-against-anything teenager, someone who will rant about systemic oppression and whatnot but is really just being contrary.
On the other hand, well, there's her title - "Counterattacking Amanojaku." We see this the best in ISC when she's using all sorts of cheats to beat all the youkai and heroines trying to get her, and presumably DDC was preceded by Seija feeling put down by stronger youkai. But I can't help but wonder what would happen if Seija got put somewhere by herself for a while, with no one to rebel against. Or whether she'd settle down if she was treated with superhuman kindness and patience (like at some fan depictions of the Myouren Temple). She'd still be contrary by nature, of course, but perhaps less actively rebellious. That might make her miserable, though. Hmm.
Anyway, picdump. No surprise Shinmyoumaru is in a lot of Seija pictures.
Profile pic sauce
Hi there
Such an honest face
Bleh
So she's actually content here?
Cartoony art designs just work for her
Still love the arrow tattoos/eyeliner/whatever
hOi
Big horns
More arrows
Alternate costumes from Sheya
And a straightforward piece
The inevitable art from Koto Inari
Takes a moment for the brain to figure out what it's looking at
The mountains
The lake
There we go
I assume she'll explode in a puff of paradox soon
Dare I say she looks cute?
Oppositional but frilly
Storm of revolution
It might have been quicker to say that anything yamamomo (plank) has done with Seija is definitely worth checking out
Good end for some, bad end for most
Such wild hair
I spent a moment searching for Flowey
Really curious who's depicted in the windows
A fatal accident waiting to happen
Partners in crime
Get your own little sucker
Snikt and Bub
Seija commits a war crime
Two kids against a cartoony world
Things are gettin' steamy
A match made under duress
Vengeance
Please keep those two away from each other
What is this, a ninety-six?
Amanojaku (plural)
Maybe they cancel each other out
Hope she washed it out first
More bowl problems
Seija's first and only day on the cheer squad
This pleases Sukuna
How to explode an amanojaku's brain
A helpful guide
Kaguya, eat your heart out
Inspiring
High-Octane Nightmare Fuel
edited 22nd Feb '17 6:23:27 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
Seija is a contrarian and consummate liar who just doing the opposite of what people do just for the sake of it. I wonder what would if she discovered the internet?
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
The Wanderer
She'd be the kind of person who'd say fucked up things and when they're confronted say, "It was just a joke man."
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
Rainy Echoes
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Oooh, dBu and SoundHolic are always welcome, but I love pieces that work in traditional instruments.
Or double down on them, say something worse, and run the conversation into the ground until she got banned.
And I dunno, due to her nature Seija would make an easy drop-in villain, someone you can have causing trouble without necessarily building a deeper story around her antics - it's not like there's too many other people in Gensokyo who are gullible enough to help her cause real trouble. Well, maybe Kosuzu? But I think she also has potential as an unlikely and unpleasant ally, someone who could alert the heroines to a more major villain's schemes just for the sake of foiling them.
Heh, she'd be a hell of a partner in some SA-style co-op game, wouldn't she?
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
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Welp, unless anyone has more to say about Seija, it might be time to move on to Mima soon.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
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Alrighty, let's give Seija a warm round of applause and send her recoiling in disgust. Coming up will be the Underground, Eirin, and Junko. But first, let's wait expectantly for the return of
Stages:
Hell
BGM: "Eastern Strange Discourse"note
Theme: "Angel's Legend"note
Sealed Demon ~ Eastern Recorded Sealing of a Demon, and...
BGM: "Eastern Record of the Sealing of a Demon ~ A Phantom's Boisterous Dance"note
Theme: "Complete Darkness"note
Other Theme: "Reincarnation" note (ZUN's remix)
Write-up:
An evil spirit who's been that way for so long that most of the evil has worn out, which didn't stop her from making a nuisance of herself. Mima was encountered in Hell during Reimu Hakurei's first adventure, and went on to become a recurring bother for the shrine maiden. She was defeated and sealed away, broke out, attacked the Hakurei Shrine in an attempt to steal Reimu's power, got sealed again but broke out again, got in a fight over some weird ruins, and for an encore went on to invade a demon realm while claiming to be the deity of the human world. Her whereabouts nowadays are unknown, which Reimu probably considers a relief.
Mima was a character with a close connection to two of Touhou's mainstays - she had a lot of familiarity the Hakurei Shrine, and unlike Reimu knew what the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs' special power was. Meanwhile Marisa seems to have been Mima's underling at some point, and the evil spirit obviously had an impact on the young witch's personality. This makes Mima's sudden departure from the series at the start of the modern continuity surprising, but some fans remain confident that she will return soon, when the next game comes out...
Relationships:
- Reimu Hakurei (former frenemy)
- Marisa Kirisame (former minion)
- Alice Margatroid (former maid)
See also the previous two compendiums.
edited 28th Feb '17 12:42:37 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Rainy Echoes
Mima:
A powerful ghost that confronted and assisted Reimu in her early incident solving days. She is Marisa’s mentor and original creator of the Master Spark. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
The absence of Mima is one of the most mysterious happenings in this universe. She easily qualifies as one of the Seven Wonders. I wonder if she left a note just saying “I’m going on a journey, so don’t keep a lookout for me.” …Morbidly, that would imply she just decided to cross the Sanzu. I don’t see her taking such an action, though. It would be like she’s admitting that she will never get the upper hand against Reimu, in combat anyway. Trolling Reimu’s a lot of fun after all.
As the creator of the Master Spark, Mima can harness its full potential with ease. …She must be devising new ways of unleashing its great power. It would especially be bad if she becomes able to do a Warp Master Spark.
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I was gonna correct you on the "creator of the Master Spark" angle since Yuuka's the first enemy to use it, buuut that doesn't necessarily mean that she was the inventor of the attack, particularly since I remember one (or both?) of the -getsu siblings using it as well. So it's possible that however old Yuuka is, Mima might be older, or at least came up with the big magical laser first.
I think if Mima crossed the Sanzu, Eiki would be like "not you again." Unless Mima ended up in Hell in time for HRtP for reasons unrelated to the amount of sins she committed in her mortal life.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
I'm pretty sure she's meant to be a generic underworld youkai, in the same sense that Rumia is a generic youkai, the Aki sisters are generic gods, and Wakasagihime is a generic weakling who's been affected by the incident. Stage 1 is presumably supposed to set the stage for the rest of the game, so the characters who appear there can't be too different from the mold they represent.