The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Back in her days as an oni, Kasen and Suika were locked in a battle to see who was stronger It's said that this battle caused major damages to the Great Hakurei Border. During the battle, Kasen ended up losing her arm, and it fell through one of the gaps. Yukari and Lady Hakurei stepped in, forcefully ended the battle, and gave them a stern talking. Then Yukari and Lady Hakurei repaired the barrier very quickly, giving Kasen no chance of getting her arm back.

Sometime later, Kasen was afflicted with a curse that took the shape of her missing arm. She was able to erase vengeful spirits, but that kind of power and the reckless way she was using it ostracized her.

One day, she saw a hermit in action, and was deeply moved. She began to reflect on her past troubles and misgivings, and thought if she was like that hermit, she can be a better youkai. And with that, Kasen started on her path to hermithood, giving advice to and gaining animal companions along the way. She never appeared before Reimu before because she wanted to meet her as a hermit with some semblance of experience as one.

One day, she hopes to restore her right arm. Perhaps it's a sign of closure on her misdeeds...

So, I'm thinking arm wrestling contest.

The Barrier isn't really that old. It was created in the 1880s, so only a bit more than a hundred years old. I would expect Kasen's story to be older. Frankly that makes it easier to lose her arm though.

My interpretation right now is that Kasen is a plain case of Becoming the Mask - her hermit disguise was originally for selfish reasons until she discovered that Good Feels Good and just kept it up. And that somehow she managed to get the afterlife to register her as a hermit without actually being one (due to an odd loophole where she already had all the powers needed to perform hermit duties), meaning that Komachi was assigned as her watcher but doesn't really have much she can report on.

And if we're sticking close to the mythology, Ibaraki-douji had their arm cut off by a human samurai.

edited 7th Jul '14 11:09:28 AM by Prime32

I suppose it's worth noting that Kasen is the only person who Miko seems to actually respect. If only for her strength.

Do you think Kasen is buttering up Reimu so that she could get through the barrier?

Of course not. I didn't think that was even worth considering. That's just what Suika thinks. Kasen is much less purposeful and decisive in her actions.

Kasen might admit that it's something she should be doing though.

edited 7th Jul '14 11:48:05 AM by Clarste

I wonder if Kasen was involved in the creation of the boundary, and that's why Suika presumes she could only get her arm back if she destroyed it? Like its loss got tied up in the ritual that created the border, and fiddling with it would affect the whole shebang.

Can't be Youki, he's only half-human, so Meira? Well, probably not, Kasen's likely too old for that. Wait, wasn't Meira after the power of the Hakurei, making her a potential member of that lineage so marked by its deep connection to Gensokyo's border? So what if one of Meira's (or Reimu's) ancestors... hmm...

It's another piece of evidence we can toss on the "Kasen is an oni" pile. Incidentally, I'm kicking myself for not noticing before, good eyes/brain.

Does this mean that Suika's discarding her fleshy wrapper in Hammerspace when she goes misty? Or that if Kasen's bandages are removed, she'll "leak" through her missing arm and evaporate?

edited 8th Jul '14 9:53:45 PM by Tacitus

Suika turning into mist is obviously part of her "gathering and dispersing" theme. I wouldn't say it has anything to do with being an oni. If anything, what's implied by the similarity is that Suika created Kasen's arm, but honestly I think that's already a stretch.

Also, I wonder if Kasen met up with the previous shrine maiden or met up with reimu when she was a child? She seems to be somehting of a mentor to her although Reimu is too lazy to bother with anything.

It'd be a interesting stretch, though. Suika being annoyed that Kasen's not using her prosthetic arm for smashing purposes, or the arm being the evidence of a debt repaid. Some fun stuff you could do with such a notion.

Kasen would like to be a mentor, but Reimu isn't really the mentoree type - she's capable of a burst of activity and commitment, but returns to normal quickly. But if Kasen is indeed interested in the Hakurei Border, it'd make sense for her to have interacted with Reimu's predecessor(s)... hmm.

Well, two things - at some point, Danbooru changed the "hakurei_miko" tag for Reimu's fanon antecedent to "sendai_hakurei_no_miko," second is that the only combination of that tag with Kasen's is narcolepsy's comic involving a time-traveling Sakuya. It's got Konngara in it, so I recommend it based on the novelty factor if nothing else.

At any rate, if Previous Hakurei Shrine Maiden got in a fight with pre-hermit Kasen, and somebody's arm got torn off and sealed with Hakurei rituals, that might explain some of the things we've been discussing.

In related news, the Kasen picdump is turning out to be a headache because of how samey the fanart is. Lots of fanservice-y poses due to her outfit, lots of pics with her tightening her wraps with her teeth, lots of her hanging out with a dragon or eagle. Gotta keep culling.

I said a lot of the art looked samey, yet still managed to get 75 entries for the picdump.






A pretty concise visual summation, though it'd be better if she were lecturing somebody
Finger to lips
Rosy maiden
Contrasts
Colors
Flowers, dragon, moon
Still need a "roof sitting" tag
I liked this one, it was soft, stylish, distinct. Then I scrolled down and saw the panties.
Wanna call this a fine art parody but can't think of the source
Sittin' in a tree
Onikobe Rin
Persona!
Violence Kumahina, ladies and gentlemen.
Another refreshingly distinct rendition
Under wraps
Notable by their absence
At this point I'm wondering whether ladies floating in or on top of water is a culture thing
Rose, thorns
Expositing
Happy enough for an amputee
Playful
Challenging
Surprised
Indignation
Lecturing
Lookin' down
Letting herself go
Hey, hermits gotta eat
Eye contact
Really in your face
A dangerous shift
Give her your face
This one looks like maintenance...
...while this one looks like you're about to get your ass kicked.
Smoking
Oozing
Flaming
Sparking
Blueing
Purpling
Might have flamed too much
Green dragon
A slightly different green dragon
Unamused dragon
Rainy dragon
Scruffy dragon
Epic dragon
Little dragon
Cuddly dragon
Bald eagle
Wickedly beaked eagle
Big eagle
Air force
Adorable air force
Desperately wants to add to her menagerie
So fast that it was before her hair color was decided on
In the shadow of the colossus
The Triforce of Booze
Wrecking crew
Looks like she already lost the arm in this one, interesting
If it's singing, it's surly drunken singing
Probably not a chance meeting
This may be a stupid question, but is Kasen supposed to be Chinese?
It's just that I've noticed fanart like this
Or has her trade outfits
I was just wondering if I'd missed something obvious
Just tie some boots to your skirt
Exteeeending aaaaarm
It's a thankless job, but somebody's gotta do it
Nostalgia
Simply a warm and fuzzy picture
She'd be fun in a fighting game
Hermit's new year
Taking it easy

edited 11th Jul '14 11:13:35 PM by Tacitus

Okay, I got halfway through that list, which I think is a new record. That's my limit though. Apparently you really like smiling, which is an expression I don't really think suits her. She's more suited for lecturing, or looking worried, or maybe being smug. Super-cheerful smiles? Eh, I don't buy it. Although clearly she does that in the manga sometimes, probably on the covers too.

It's just like, when I see a picture that's nothing but Kasen smiling I wonder where Kasen is. That's not Kasen. That's not the Kasen I see in my head, it's just some smiling anime girl posing for a shot.

I can picture her smiling pretty easily. Doesn't she do so after the seal is treated/set free/whatever?

I did say "although she clearly does in the manga sometimes". I guess I just need context for it. I don't like the idea of these characters posing for photographs. One or two smiles aren't unusual but when half the pictures are just smiling at the camera mindlessly it just stands out to me. Probably because I've done my own "trawling" and it never seemed to me that it was so common.

edited 12th Jul '14 8:35:09 AM by Clarste

Darn cosplayers.

Kasen once appeared in a Kasen cosplay contest but lost because no one though Kasen come to these things. That and people thought her hair was not that red.

I wouldn't say that I have a preference for smiling fan art, but that I can only dump the art I'm given, and in Kasen's case the majority of fanart has her smiling, reacting to the skimpy outfit she's in, or demure and submissive. Or has a more in-character expression attached to a sexualized body. Or just isn't drawn that well.

Although... I only went through the top fifty pages sorted by vote score, so if fans like Smiley Kasen, all the more in-characterful stuff could be at the bottom... right, going for another dive.

Hmm, not much to add.
Finger point of doom
Finger wag of doom
The living hell of Hakurei Reimu
I guess this one at least is accurate to the source material

And I also found
Sparking rat
Pretty trippy. Also needs to be mirrored.
Kasen the dryad
This was my reaction too until I remembered to switch to safebooru
Chubby animal companions
At least someone gets her

Spoken sigh.

I wonder if Kasen was as much of a meddler back before her hermitage. Did she lecture her kin on how a boozing brute should behave? And how did her personality play into her role as, should fanon be accurate, one of the Big Four?

I doubt she was much more of a meddler than say... Suika or Yuugi. Her meddling seems to be a relatively recent development, and is linked to the disappearance of her arm, so whatever caused her arm to go missing played a large part in changing her personality/paradigm.

Well it looks like the discussion's done to me. Any last statements or attempts to rekindle the conversation before I put up the yin and the yang's profile later tonight?

Kasen's hair is pink and she has hair bun things which totally aren't concealing horns.

So, she has small horns, or she purposely chopped them down to size?

Kasen may or may not be a hermit. Kasen may or may not being trying to destroy the barrier. K Asen tried to mentor Reimu but failed miserably. I got nuthin'

It'd be hilarious if they are merely hair decs, and Kasen's real horn sprouted from her forehead but she magicked the whole thing away without leaving so much as a scar.

Righto, guess we'll see how that wild and horned hermit's character continues to develop in her series. Next time we'll be discussing Shou, Miko, and it looks like Tenshi! But first, a yin-

Wait, that's not a yin-yang... argh, I got the two weird HRtP bosses mixed up! In my defense, it's been a long couple of days.

YuugenMagan

Stage: Makai
BGM: "Highly Responsive to Prayers"
Theme: "Angel's Legend"

Write-up:
Presumably a guardian for the demon world since it's encountered near its gateway, or possibly an entity native to the borders between dimensions. Even for a character from the first game, YuugenMagan is particularly enigmatic, due to its inhuman design. On the other hand, if you squint you can sort of see a female figure in that electric nexus...

Last time around we came up with some entertaining theories about her/it, so be sure to check out the link below.

Relationships:

• Shinki (creator?)
• Byakuren Hijiri (her "Lotus Butterfly" attack has a similar pattern and appearance)
• Mima (shares a leitmotif)

See also the first two compendiums.

edited 15th Jul '14 8:57:48 PM by Tacitus

'Magan' means 'evil eye'. It's not really a name.

What exactly is this thing? Maybe its better that I don't know lest we go insane from the reveal.