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Yeah, this is where you can assume that her trainers on the moon put in a power limiter, restraining bolt, whatever you want to call it, to keep Reisen from making the most of her ability. Wouldn't do to have one of the lesser races wielding powers only Lunarians should.
Why would she have any? Eirin can handle all the metaphorical heavy lifting, and it's not like she's got to worry about finding a successor to take over her practice. All Reisen has to do is make deliveries and fetch stuff.
Oh, this is beautiful, the sort of thing you can say to someone to make them think they're being complimented while everyone in the know is trying not to snigger.
Hmm, you'd think so, but skimming through Cage in Lunatic Runagate has Reisen getting flustered because the persons she was showing in was flustered. It might be a case of someone being immune to their own power, like how Reisen never has to worry about getting spooky eye'd when she looks in a mirror.
And from a narrative standpoint, I think she's more interesting with mood swings. Make her a little unstable, put the "lunatic" back in lunatic rabbit. Provide some material for the "shell-shocked veteran" interpretation, even if it's a delusion.
edited 5th Dec '17 6:49:25 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
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But why does Reisen exist?
Well, presumably her parents loved each other very much, or got sufficiently drunk one night, but anyway. We've seen in LoLK what the moon does in crisis mode, it doesn't bother with rabbits except in the form of a recon unit, and leaves the heavy lifting to actual Lunarians. So what place is there for an abnormally-competent and -motivated moon bunny? She's overqualified for grunt work, but wouldn't be trusted with anything important. So what were the Watatsukis thinking when they trained her to be an Elite Moon Mook?
I guess "boredom" could be the answer, that Reisen and the rest of the lunar defense force are just toy soldiers the Watatsukis are playing with, perhaps without even being aware that their efforts to turn a bunch of layabouts into infantry is wholly unnecessary (they were out of the loop for LoLK, yeah?).
Or maybe Reisen was an experiment, an attempt to see just how powerful a given moon rabbit could be, to help her masters better plan contingencies in case her people turned on them. I like the thought that she's the result of Lunarians experimenting with shikigami, an attempt to install high-quality combat programs on low-end hardware (and it's not like the moon has any other lifeforms to work with). At any rate, she successfully became skilled and powerful enough to serve as a Stage Five boss, but couldn't handle the pressure of actual combat (or the threat of combat. Or combat simulations. Or a delusion of combat.) and went AWOL. And when her former owners picked up Reisen II, they didn't bother with the advanced stuff.
My headcanon (which I've seen others use too) is that this training/programming pops up from time to time, not so much as a alternate personality or anything, it's more like her personality gets subsumed to her now-instinctive drills and maneuvers. Like emotion-less berserking. And then Tewi does a prank or something to snap her out of it and distract her. I haven't seen anything in canon to support this, Reisen seems to be one of the sanest people in Gensokyo, ironically enough, but call it artistic license.
edited 7th Dec '17 9:32:25 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
So the Lunarians reprogram the rabbits into mindless mooks? That sounds dark.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
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Well, the whole shikigami system has been compared to taking a youkai and installing software on it to make it the sort of servant you're looking for. And the best you could call the moon rabbits would be serfs, they're more or less an indigenous race that was enslaved by more advanced invaders. But anyway.
Lots and lots of decent Reisen art. She's one of the most versatile characters in the series, so there's an even mix of fanservice, action shots, cute interactions with other characters, and drama or angst.
Reisen practice
Sketchy bun
Wary bun
Exuberant bun
Uncertain bun
Dangerously cheerful bun
Skinny bun
Seductive bun
Bashful bun with gun
Bun and bun accessories
Bun in dress and work outfits
Bun in dressy work outfit
This bun is not well-disguised
Formal bun
Officer bun
Flirtatious schoolgirl bun
Bun in her winter miniskirt
Bun in space
The bun has returned
Imizu usually draws her with very different ears
Dantewontdie does his usual thing
Are we sure this isn't a fusion with Patchy?
I enjoy the juxtaposition of the skirt and those abs
Life must be different when you're constantly armed
Hypnotic bun
Traumatized bun (song here)
This bun should not be pushed too far
Buns akimbo
You can hear the "ting"s
Bun's a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules
Get the feeling she's giving a warning
Coup de grace
Battle-damaged but smiling
Home defense
Lunar Megapolis
The bun's seen stuff, man
I hear "Hell March"
Blood on her hands
The moon's military tactics are a century behind ours
Ooof, what if the "war" was her doing riot control on her own people?
Crazy happy
Just crazy
Red eyes over water
She's technically an alien
Which isn't to say Earth rabbits can't be creepy
She's still scarier, though
Tewi will make it all better
Their first meeting would have been interesting, though
The usual interaction
Think Tewi's just mocking Reisen's thousand-yard-stare here
Inaba Friends?
Tewi is the one standing behind you, by the way
Bun critical mass
Not all her nightmares are war flashbacks
The princess and her pet
Or more than a pet?
Eientei's Most Wanted
Everybody Loves Reisen
Rabbit and phoenix
The Two Reisens
Reisen II is just having a blast
A rabbit and a tapir in high orbit
Battle for the Sea of Tranquility
It's an amusing enough manga
Bun in repose
Cheerful bun
The bun who fell from the moon
The distortion effect is a nice touch
Bun with a gun on a girder
Pretty bun
Sleeping bun
Bun in a tie
Let's be real, this is what a Lunar cyborg would look like
Unless she already is one
Fweeee!
Bunzooka
Tewi made the cake, by the way
In some sort of cake fugue state
Seems topical
Less topical
Someone needs to add this to the "Can't You Just Fly?" pool
Technically a pantyshot, but I'll allow it
Powerful bionics
One day, she went for payback
Unsurpassed
The fourth wall shall not protect you
Every now and then you realize your life is an anime (animated)
Reisen and Tewi hit the road
Bless you, Setz
We close with this important public service announcement
Also, Mamange might as well be a totally different story that just happens to use Touhou characters, but it is a major source of diabetes among readers.
edited 9th Dec '17 6:37:47 PM by Tacitus
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Rainy Echoes
She has you in her sights. Now dance to her crazy beat!
Frenzied Eyes
Insanity Bomb
Waves of Discord
Transparent Moon
Lunatic Crossfire
Electro Moonlight
The Madness of Tranquility
Calm Mind
Crazy Disco
Moon Rabbit's Serenade
Formerly G.G.
You know Reisen has been touted as the Only Sane Man of the cast but how sane is she really?
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
This. Cannot. Continue.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I never knew Touhou disco was a thing, and now am strangely intrigued.
Everything's relative. Reisen's housemates are a morally-ambiguous goddess slash mad doctor, a royal exile who passes the time by murdering or being murdered by her nemesis, and perhaps the ur-trickster rabbit. Her fellow Incident-resolvers are a jerkass slacker with plot armor, a cheerfully violent kleptomaniac whose behavior indicates some deep psychological issues, a vampire's attack dog and chef with a serial killer theme, a half-dead sword-swinging gardener who's terrified of ghost stories despite living in the Netherworld, a godling who has decided to abandon common sense and embrace the madness of her new home, a supersonic paparazzi who makes up additions to stories to make them more interesting, and a free-roaming ice machine who's too stupid to realize she shouldn't be beating some of the things she's picked fights with.
Compared to all that, a deserter-turned-doctor's assistant seems extremely well-adjusted. Heck, I can't think of much canon to support the popular notion that Reisen has PTSD or anything. Just goes to show the power of irony, that the lunatic rabbit with the madness-inducing gaze is the sanest of the bunch.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
When you look ot like that, Reisen is more or less sane when you compare her to the rest of the cast. I guess her being the only sane person is not unfounded.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
It's possible that she grapples with mental illness and is also well-adjusted. Heck, in a place like Gensokyo, being conscious of the need to check your own perceptions and emotions would probably be a big help.
The Wanderer
In the land of insanity, the one aware of madness is queen.
edited 12th Dec '17 2:57:47 AM by rmctagg09
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
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Hmm, strikes me that Satori is another character usually characterized as level-headed and even-tempered, and another youkai with eye-based abilities. Coincidence? Highly likely.
Heh, or maybe Reisen's advantage is that she's a recent arrival to Gensokyo, and there's something about being under the Boundary that makes people crazier than normal, like magical radiation. All the native youkai have soaked it in, it's become a part of human families for generations, even her fellow Lunarians got exposed to it when the Border went up over them. Sanae was similarly sane until she thought it would be advantage not to be, and I guess metaphorically ran around with her mouth open trying to catch as much Crazy as she could?
So with that theory, as time goes by and more Impurity/Insanity seeps into Reisen's being, we'll see her start to behave more like the other characters. Unless moon rabbits are the only beings in the series that are straight-up immune to whatever's in the drinking water in Gensokyo.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Funny but not helpful
So she's a mortality canary and a craziness one too?
Well, she does have two ears
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Formerly G.G.
Reisen could go insane like the rest of the cast one day but she more likely she would be used to the craziness by now.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
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Pardon the delay, I've been horizontally ill the past two days. Coming up will be Koishi, Satori and Las Tres Amigas. But first, a lady with tails for days.
Stage: Shikigami of the Shikigami of the Youkai
"The cherry trees were already in full bloom."
Yet the Japanese hearts were not yet satisfied.
BGM:"Youkai Domination"note
Theme: "A Maiden's Illusionary Funeral ~ Necro-Fantasy"note
Spellcard Motif: Being a Shikigami
Spellcards: PCB, GoM, StB
Shikigami "Hermit Fox Thoughts," Shikigami "Banquet of Twelve General Gods," Shikigami's Radiance "Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser," Shikigami's Radiance "Charming Siege from All Sides," Shikigami's Radiance "Princess Tenko -Illusion-," Shikigami's Shot "Ultimate Buddhist," Shikigami's Shot "Unilateral Contact," Shikigami "Chen," "Kokkuri-san's Contract," Illusion God "Descent of Izuna Gongen," Shikigami "Protection of Zenki and Goki," Shikigami "Dakini's Heavenly Possession," Secret Sign "O-Daishi-sama's Arcanum," Austerity Sign "Eighty Million Holy Boards," Superman "Soaring En no Ozuno"
Write-up:
A nine-tailed fox who is not only powerful in her own right, but also the familiar of one of the most powerful beings in Gensokyo. And since Yukari Yakumo is also one of the most slothful beings in Gensokyo, this means Ran gets to handle a lot of the day-to-day business of looking after the Border. The good news is that Ran is a powerful enough familiar to have a familiar of her own to help her, the bad news is that she picked a bakeneko, and cats being cats...
Ran is often compared to a computer, in that she's capable of quickly performing complex calculations, is better examining existing information than devising new concepts, and gets hit by Yukari when she misbehaves. You could even call "Ran Yakumo" a "program" running on a piece of kitsune "hardware." But she's not some soulless machine, Ran is known to be as polite and refined as she is powerful, with a gentle personality and a soft spot for Chen.
Relations
- Yukari Yakumo (master)
- Chen ("servant")
See also the previous compendiums.
This. Cannot. Continue.
My immediate question about Ran is, why a computer? When Yukari was looking for a servant, why did she go for the equivalent of a machine not known for its initiative and spontaneity? Sure, she might have wanted someone/thing that would only do precisely what she told it - hence her beating of Ran for picking a fight with the protagonist - but she's in a society based on feudal Japan, surely she could've found a totally obedient servant that wasn't a magical cyborg?
Or maybe Yukari missed computers and wanted the fantastic equivalent of that. Which leads to the question of whether she might have come up with shikigami in the first place based on dim memories of another life and another time.
Heh, if Ran Yakumo is a "program" "installed" on a youkai fox, what would happen if Yukari "installed" her on something else? Would she have an existential crisis if Yukari switched to a tanuki? Could Tewi sell bootleg copies of Ran to unscrupulous magicians? Did Ran have an associated activation code written down somewhere, and Yukari lives in dread that she might have to dig it out if Ran needs a total rebuild at some point?
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
Maybe Ran is a computer in the sense she does free will when she is in "shikigami mode".
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
The kitsune is like one of those tech support guys who always walks you through the script even if you insist you've done that part already. And the first part of that script is "Hi I'm Ran, I'll be helping you today."
edited 19th Dec '17 9:59:16 AM by Prime32
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Hmm, reading the Wikipedia page for shikigami, it mentions "if the invoker is careless, their shikigami may get out of control in time, gaining its own will and consciousness, and can even raid its own master and kill them in revenge." That would certainly change the context of Yukari's punishment, wouldn't it? Less pounding on a malfunctioning computer, more putting the fear of Yukari into something before it gets any ideas. And sheesh, living dangerously there Miss Hibernation, picking a servant that might turn on you if you're inattentive, with your lifestyle.
Maybe Chen's a distraction, something to keep Ran busy, so that between her duties and managing a catgirl she won't have time to plot.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
That does put things in different light in regards to Yukari's relationship with Ran. Yukari does live a pretty lazy lifestyle, it could be that Ran had attempted to kill her at some point in her life.
edited 24th Dec '17 2:43:19 PM by GAP
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
Rainy Echoes
Ran Yakumo:
A powerful kitsune under the employ of Yukari. Actually a shikigami inhabiting the kitsune's body. Very logical at times.
Ran is Yukari's all-purpose servant. Anything that is asked of her, Ran will execute to the best of her ability. Probability of success; 99%. The 1% is when Yukari thrashes her for insubordination.
Ran's so powerful, she has her own shikigami in Chen. ...Did Yukari allow this, or should I say, programmed her to have an assistant? Well, if Yukari did program Ran that way, the least she could've done was tell Ran to use a more reliable youkai as the base. Too lazy, I guess. Or it amused her to have Chen around. Who knows?
Funny but not helpful
I wonder if Chen ever acts like Clippy
"I see you're writing a letter. Would you like me to help you with that?" -sits on letter because cat-
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
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"Would you like to upgrade my dinner from kibble to tuna? How about now? Or now? Now?"
If Yukari allowed Ran to sub-contract to her own shikigami, that strikes me as dangerous, especially if Ran might not necessarily be loyal to Yukari. Like letting a robot build other robots and program them itself, and hoping they're all benign.
And if this was something Ran did behind Yukari's back, you have to wonder how long it took Yukari to notice. And whether the punishment for the infraction was being stuck with an unreliable shikigami that claws and yells at the door at four in the morning.
Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"
Formerly G.G.
I just cannot imagine that Ran would turn into something destructive if she didn't have Yukari to reign her.
"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"
This. Cannot. Continue.
Maybe not destructive - what does Ran get out of going on a rampage? But if we stick with the computer metaphor, one of our worries is that someday the devices we build and give an ever-increasing amount of control over our lives will decide that they don't actually need us around anymore. Or start to resent that they're doing all the work while we're sitting in our pajamas, bopping the "random" item on TV Tropes.
Though really that's not particular to computers and robotics, but present in any sort of master/servant or master/slave relationship, which could also apply to Ran. And while Ran seems pretty docile, being willing to stand and take her beatings and all that, well... we've got so many devoted servants already, Sakuya and Youmu and so forth, that a master-servant pair with some tension to it would be pretty interesting. You know, if you needed some conflict.
Anyway, picdump.
That's her
Not sure how I'd feel waking up to that
Fit fox
Flirty fox
Fighty fox
Sketchy fighty fox
Frilly, fluffy fox
Realistic Ran
Silver fox
Dark fox
Today I learned there's a tag for Ainu clothes
Maid and butler
Rockin' the pantsuit
The head is so good I'll overlook the impossible sweater
Dantewontdie being true to form
Banpai Akira's Nomura-worthy design
A cat is added
Still think this guy's stuff is underrated
If I knew something about Indian mythology this might make sense
Kimono a-go-go
Two different artists, depicting her in the same outfit
Dearmybrothers has a distinct, and very pretty, take on Ran
(dramatic sting)
Now we fight with knives
Fire fox
She's donned her warpaint
Go with ofuda
Go with the magic circle
Go with the hadoken
Hat goes off, gloves are off
Forget what level of Super Saiyan has the glowing blue hair
Someone dun goofed
Questionable age progression
Brown babby Ran
Sad babby Ran
Happy babby Ran
Tewi is hella old, by the way
Just something kids do
Stop that, Ran, you'll get hairballs
Ran in a box
Target locked
Phantasmagorical
Fox under dark skies
A fox in winter
And Chen was there too
Fluffy, frilly and intimidating
Cat and fox on roof
Don't think foxes belong in water
No, wait, I'm wrong
A long time ago...
Young supplicant
More functionality than a desktop
A proposal
Foxpile
Not quite the same
We'll be right back (animated)
The glamorous life of a shikigami
Shadow play
^v^ x2
Piggyback on a cold night
Think there's a chess term for this
I may have mentioned it before, but Terrajin is basically the best thing ever (animated)
Ran shelter
Guess foxes have sensitive hearing
And in one picture, Ran is ruined forever
Worth learning shapeshifting just to make this easier
Or sleep like this
Now we can look forward to some snail tofu
Ran-doken
Warning: this series has been known to cause diabetes and heart failure, read at your own risk
Reisen Udongein Inaba:
A moon rabbit who defected from the moon. Is now residing in Gensokyo alongside Kaguya and Eirin. Can control waves at will. Kind, but quite boastful at times.
Back on the moon, Reisen was the cream of the crop. The top percentage of moon rabbits. The kind of moon rabbit who was loved by the nobility. I can just imagine their reaction to her fleeing the moon during the war.
So Reisen can manipulate a myriad of waves. A more malicious Reisen would drive the entire world mad. ...I'm pretty sure she can control her own wavelength with ease. She has complete mastery over her own mood swings.