The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

"At least you weren't that jerk who brought a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. Had to make half a dozen trips for him!"

So...ferryman doujin game with Komachi where?

Been worse with the ancient kings. Guy shows up with a bunch of horses and weargear and handmaidens in tow, Komachi gets confused whether they count as payment or additional patrons, and then gets fed up. Great Scientist Komachi Onozuka has been born in Kyoto, Japan has researched Currency.

Also, Shiki. First note is that WAVE's most epic of the "Fate of Sixty Years" remixes has a couple of variants. One pushes the vocals into the background and brings on the flutes, the other does things much differently.

Second, final "best of the best" Shiki picdump. I was actually disappointed by some of it - in some cases "highest score" means that the piece came out so long ago we didn't know good art when we saw it. Some of them are really, really good, and others are rated just as highly despite being kinda meh.

Standard pose and ball of light
Wink
Pretty colors
Palette shift
Branches
Fruit hat. Well, why not.
Expressions
Deciding
Confused
Enduring
The yama is not amused
Outstretched hand
Caught in the flowers
Looks almost like a collage
Alternate monochrome costume
Up close and creepy
Flummoxed in formalwear
Spectre de la rose
The glasses help her judge even better
Spectacles and mouthy hat
I don't get it
Not her usual bench
Making your grandma's warnings come alive
According to popular opinion, badass
Judgment lasers
The wind-up...
Between worlds
Higan at night
Not a human being
Flower viewin'
Frilly justice
Try not to get distracted by the English, or lack of it
Blindfold and wings
Tattoos
Nice style shift
Walkin' through a river
About to judge the hell out of that flower
Dem skulls
Comparatively simple
She's in there somewhere
Two-winged throne
Raining swords?
Inexplicable dose of Christianity
Rods of Remorse
Holograms of Remorse
Can't tell if that's a good or bad smile
Trashed
Maybe she's run out of people to judge
The afterlife is pretty colorful
With Komachi and Mega Ultra Chicken
Attack of the Thirty Foot Yama
Where are the feathers coming from?
The belligerent sexual tension is just unbearable
This asks a question I'm eager to learn the answer to
"Unlikely" my bum, Akyuu could spend more time with her than anyone else in the cast
Gang's all here
Two stoic girls on a red background
The mismatched legwear is a nice touch
Can't remember if this one was in the Komachi picdump
Eyes forward, fill your mind with the law...
Out and about
On the waterfront
Not badass enough for the pool, apparently
Switcheroo
Raises questions about Shiki's childhood.
A little help
Something different about those two
Her Worst Nightmare
Tarnish notte the majesty of her pillar of hats
Panda
Getting hot in there
Through discipline she prevails
No love for the skunk, as usual
Work sucks
The terrible consequences
Petting the yama will not positively impact your case, and may be counted against it
Does not approve
No, see, she's come prepared
A tiny, tiny, chibi judiciary

...And despite my reservations, that was still an 80 pic picdump. I shoulda raised my standards a bit.

Also, Shiki's got this subordinate who gives her trouble.

The Soul Money boggles me a lot. Can it be used to 'buy' other things? Is there a bank for the stuff?

At least they should be accepted in the Road of Liminality market.

edited 16th Jan '14 8:20:30 AM by atrican

I get the feeling it's mostly for bragging rights.

"I got to carry over FAMOUSPERSONHERE, and you didn't. Look how much I got from that run."

Where do they get that Soul Money?

...Really? I just talked about this.

Still too lazy to check the Komachi conversation for the details.

edited 16th Jan '14 1:32:27 PM by Otherarrow

Anything else to say here, or do we want to move on to Raiko?

The nicest of all the hats.

The downside of Shiki is that she has a rather unambiguous presentation, so that at most we could discuss the degree to which her decisions distress her or the specifics of how she's able to judge, as opposed to stuff like whether she's a tsundere or kuudere or tsunkuu or whatever. Also, she's got a very well-defined role in the setting that by its nature means that we don't see a lot of her. She's not a bad character by any means, it just limits how many pages we can squeeze out of her.

At any rate, Thunder Drums' profile will go up either early tomorrow or at an ungodly hour this evening/next morning, depending on whatever.

Indeed... Shikieiki is one of those characters people don't often reinterpret. I guess being something akin to gravity makes it hard for people to think of you as doing anything other than job.

I do still wonder just how much she really bops around Gensokyo lecturing, because it sounds like it's basically all she does in her free time... yet we basically never see her anywhere else (And you'd think she'd have an interest in Kasen etc.

Maybe the characters have just gotten -really- good at keeping out of her way.

How often does a Yama have free time anyway? For all we know, the few times we see her off duty were the only off time she had for years.

But yeah, the only alternate interpretations of her I see are the stupid fandom ones that completely disregard her character. Those don't count as far as I am conscerned.

I don't think she has much free time to begin with, and Komachi's slacking means that she probably works a lot of overtime

Just a few more things to add, I suppose (From the Yama entry in PMISS. I'm kinda surprised just how much the Ministry has been detailed. Of course, if anyone alive would know how it was, it'd be Akyuu.). Eiki Shiki is far from alone in being an old Jizou; almost all of the Yama have that shared history.

Also, the Ministry is a relatively new organization made to deal with the way too many people. Basically, the Yamas realized there was just way too much work they were doing that could be done by other people like oni and shinigami, so they recruited.

The Judges and their shinigami subordinates focus on the judging, while the Kishin chiefs and Oni focus on the 'transport and processing' of judgements.

To answer that... here's the bit I was looking for, at the end of the Yama entry:

Which is to say that it really sounds to me like there are 2 shifts of 12 hours each. Could be 2 shifts of something like 16 with a lot of overlap or whatever, but that'd be really odd.

Of course, an 84 hour workweek (likely without vacations apart from possibly some sort of furlough) isn't exactly light.

(Also, should "Yama" be capitalized? I think yes since its a title rather than/in addition to species?)

Also, I think I opened a can of worms. See, Akyuu mentions that one of the 10 ruling Yamas is King Enma ("The Merciful Savior"). I recalled that Shiki was often called Enma (And it would fit the title), and wondered if they were the same, so I looked up Enma at the other wiki. This caused some interesting.

The first line probably answered my question ("Enma is the god of hell in the Buddhist religion. He is often called Yama.") Also, the pic of Enma seems to be wearing a rather familiar getup, doesn't he? The hat's not -quite- as fanciful as Eiki's, but the source of inspiration's there.

Then this bit caught my eye.

So... oh geez, where to start with this? Well, let's look at the 'god of help' bit first. This is pretty clear inspiration for Touhou's Shikieiki and/or King Yama Enma... but that and/or is rather important. Which is it?

Now, the part that really made me do a sort of double take is the 'used to be the king of paradise for the dead'. Since this is, you know, exactly what Shiki is. Which could mean that she was born of legend, similar to Shou. When outside world believes Enma was 'totally always just a general judge instead of a judge of paradise', what happens to the Enma who was just the judge of paradise? Simple... she becomes known as Yamaxanadu and takes that post (Or at least, the divine essence does this after possessing a Jizou. Something like that). Given that Gensokyo itself is relatively new, I can see this being the case.

(later in the entry it also talks about how he was originally just a sort of shepard/caretaker for the dead, eventually becoming a judge, which again, would do a lot to explain Shikieiki's personality, if she was shaped from these legends)

So I think she's probably not the "King Enma the Merciful", but rather one of the 'lower judges' with authority over her local area (Gensokyo).

edited 17th Jan '14 8:42:16 PM by Antimatter625

But gravity is ony a theory.

Still, Eiki just seems like one of thse characters who is incorruptible. Eiki is fair and unbiased although I would like to see what criteria Eiki uses to judge the dead, I know Po FV Eiki chews out Reimu for not exterminating Youkai, Yuuka for not scaring enough humans and Cirno for becoming too powerful.

I am pretty sure Akyuu does says that she is the Yama whose jurisdiction covers Gensoukyou. Her being a lower ranked Yama (at least, in comparison) seems obvious.

Also...I forgot to check the general Yama entry, shit. I am sorry. I didn't do all the proper research...

It confirms that the shinigami's soul bucks are indeed a source of income for the Ministry.

edited 17th Jan '14 8:45:50 PM by Otherarrow

I kinda forgot there was one until I saw that the '2 shifts' line wasn't in Eiki's profile.

Also, my confusion regard her state generally comes down to people calling her Enma and there actually being a 10 king named Enma.

edited 17th Jan '14 8:44:03 PM by Antimatter625

Enma and Yama are generally seen as interchangeable in media due to "Enma" being the Japanese name for Yama. When ZUN decided that Enma the mythological figure was going to be a part of Touhou lore, he stopped using "Enma" as a synonym for Yama the position. Simple as that.

That hammers that out, then.

I'm still interested on thoughts RE; the whole "she's a being of belief/legend like most Gensokyo-ans, rather than a cosmic force" possibility. Which is to say now hat I've put it up on the shooting range, I'm going to disappointed and/or amazed if I don't see some bulletholes appear in it.

edited 17th Jan '14 8:53:25 PM by Antimatter625

She is explictly stated to be born from a jizou statue that gathered enough faith (and, as you yourself pointed out, this is actually the origin for the majority of the Yama). I am pretty sure that Enma wasn't a jizou statue.

I think this goes into the same problem someone brought up with the theory that Ran is Tamamo-no-Mae: Not everyone has to be someone famous.

edited 17th Jan '14 9:02:53 PM by Otherarrow

Ah, truth enough. Though it wouldn't have her as the someone famous, so much as as the... lost, past echo of someone who was famous.

Maybe all of the Yamas are the same, echoes of different points in the journey of King Enma until he reached his rightful place. Shiki is the memory of the Enma who was God of Heaven and Paradise so perhaps the Yama who rules over the underworld if the echoe of Enma when he was the god of death. These little bits of the past float around until they find just the right statue to become a Yama and a new judge is born. I love random speculation.

Now I'm kinda nervous about putting up the next profile, after that last bit of interesting speculation. I guess we can run two simultaneous conversations if we want to?

After Raiko, we'll be discussing Reisen II, Nazrin, and - I didn't fudge the dice, I swear! - Benben and Yatsuhashi. Assuming it's okay to cover them as a duo. I've similarly got the Prismrivers, the -getsus, Ichirin and Unzan, and the Three Fairies of Light sharing spots on the roster... but not the Watatsukis, for some reason. Should probably fix that.

Anyway, drumroll please:

Raiko Horikawa

Appearance:

Stage: Beats Echoing in What Exists in This World ~ Drum Up Resistance
BGM: "Thunderclouds of Magical Power"*

Theme: "Primordial Beat ~ Pristine Beat"*

Spellcard Motif: Drums, Drums, Drums!
Spellcards: (DDC)
First Drum "Raging Temple Taiko," Second Drum "Vengeful Spirit Aya-no-Tsuzumi," Third Drum "Three Strikes at Midnight," Death Drum "Land Percuss," Fifth Drum "Den-Den Daiko," Sixth Drum "Alternate Sticking," Seventh Drum "High Speed Taiko Rocket," Eighth Drum "Thunder God's Anger," "Blue Lady Show," "Pristine Beat"

Write-up:
A taiko drum tsukumogami with a laid-back attitude and some exciting new ideas. Whereas other tsukumogami or small-fry youkai got all riled up during the most recent Incident, Raiko figured out that her newfound aggression was both oni-derived and only temporary. Taking a gamble, she managed to switch out her old energy source for one from beyond the Border, discarding her taiko drum for a snazzy new drum set. Raiko's since gone on to teach other tsukumogami this one weird trick, so that they wouldn't shrivel up once the Miracle Mallet's power faded. And also picked a fight with the protagonist for no real reason, but that's so commonplace that it's barely worth mentioning.

So far the fandom doesn't seem to have picked up on the "feeling joy when struck by people" line from her backstory. You're slipping, fandom.

Relationships:

• The Tsukumo Sisters (students)
• Other Tsukumogami (other students, potential Tool Army)

See also the previous Compendium.

Kanako is very likely to take interest in her.

I expect at least a few doujins having them become business partners.