The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Someone would have to trust Marisa with money before she could embezzle anything.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Marisa is about as trustworthy as.....you know what I do not trust her with someone's money.

edited 30th Oct '14 12:57:05 PM by GAP

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"

Actually, for humans, she seems to be pretty trustworthy. Akyuu points out in PMISS that you can hire her for odd jobs and she won't accept payment until the job's done.

She runs the "Kirisame Anything Store". Basically she's a freelancer who will do stuff for money. However, her house is in the middle of the woods so it's kind of hard to find her.

Or maybe I just made that up. I can't tell anymore.

edited 30th Oct '14 1:38:15 PM by Clarste

She runs a magic shop for exactly 1 hour every other weekend except when the moon is full. Or something like that. She's a busy person.

Well, the 3 fairies of light are her first (And quite possibly, only-so-far) customers.

I suspect Marisa's interactions with the human village are more like "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". Not payment exactly, but doing favors in exchange for others down the road. Like keeping Marisa up to date on juicy happenings so she can beat Reimu to the punch if something goes amiss.

So that she can show up Reimu, and pretty much any other reward is just extra cake.

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.

I think I remember her saying that the Three Fairies are her first customer to actually visit her store. She gets her other customers by stealing Reimu's visitors.

I'd guess information is an important currency, since the lands beyond the village are so dangerous that it's hard for its inhabitants to venture forth and know what's going on in wider Gensokyo. Though this does assume that people in the village are interested in places they cannot reach. And that they would be willing to take Ms. Kirisame's statements at face value (is this why Reimu gets no respect? sprinkled among Marisa's stories are statements about Reimu saving the day from a red mist?)

Come to think of it, the human village is basically a quest hub, isn't it? A bunch of hapless NPCs in a land of monsters requiring powerful, wandering protagonists to deal with the things they can't. I'm sure young Reimu had to kick her yin-yang orb at some youkai rats infesting someone's basement at some point.

edited 30th Oct '14 8:44:39 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

*ear yank* "Udonge, before you go off on these projects of yours you need to think of future generations. No carrots for you tonight."
"I don't understaaaaaaand." ;_;

edited 31st Oct '14 9:38:46 AM by Prime32

The weird thing is, I read that and had to stop and think for a moment - "okay, did that actually happen in Inaba Inaba? Because it sounds like it totally could have."

Seems like the human village conversation is winding down, so unless things perk up again, I plan on putting up Kanako's profile tomorrow evening.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

It's a reference to chapter 21 of FS, in which Eirin yanks Reisen's ears for going off on her own and selling rat-repelling devices.

edited 1st Nov '14 10:31:49 AM by Clarste

So no Pillaging Mode then? Disappointing.

Next we'll be discussing the Scarlet Devil, then Reimu's old steed and another blast from the past, Elly! But first...

Avatar of Mountains and Lakes Kanako Yasaka

Appearance:

Stage: Ah, the God of Wind on the Grounds of the Divine Lake ~ The Wind God's Lake
BGM:"Cemetery of Onbashira ~ Grave of Being"
Theme: "The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field"

Spellcard Motif: Divinity, Mountains, Lakes
Notable spellcards: MoF, DS, ISC, GoM
Divine Festival "Expanded Onbashira," Divine Husk "Divining Crop," Sacrifice Sign "Misayama Hunting Shrine Ritual," Mystery "Yamato Torus," Heaven's Dragon "Source of Rains," "Mountain of Faith," "Virtue of Wind God," God Sign "Omiwatari that God Walked," Snake Sign "Ground Serpent," Divine Pillar "Meteoric Onbashira," Onbashira "Rising Onbashira," "Sacred Authority of the Gods"

Write-up:
A two-thousand-year-old deity who's proven to be quite adaptable. When Japan was being unified from a collection of small kingdoms, she fought on the side of the Yamato, and when unable to secure her hold over her conquest, Kanako struck a deal with her defeated rival to rule it together. Then as science grew in prominence and belief in the supernatural waned, Kanako relocated the Moriya Shrine to gather faith from Gensokyo's youkai.

She has a reputation as a schemer or criminal mastermind, both in-universe and among the fandom - and not always a successful one. After all, Kanako's decision to give a birdbrain the power of the sun could have destroyed Gensokyo, and she indirectly and inadvertently introduced a rival power bloc with a fundamentally different take on human-youkai-divine relations. Her dealings with the Mountain's youkai are based on mutual exploitation, and Kanako's approach to humans could be considered a flashy, technology-focused business model. Still, she's held on for this long, so Lady Yasaka is unlikely to be going anywhere.

Relations

• Suwako Moriya (partner, "partner?")
• Sanae Kochiya (priestess, partner's descendent, fellow goddess)
• Utsuho Reiuji (science experiment)
• Youkai Mountain youkai (worshipers)

Interpretations:
"Gensokyo's Own Researcher"
by Antimatter 625

"Humanity Ascendant"
by Tacitus

See also the first two Compendiums.

edited 10th Nov '14 9:35:14 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Kanako Yasaka:

The main goddess of the Moriya Shrine. Very sure of herself and very ambitious.

Kanako is what you would call an entrepreneur, always thinking of innovative ideas that would advance the welfare of her society. This way, the Moriya Shrine will be rolling in the faith moolah.

She maps out a lot of ideas. Sometimes its short-term plans, sometimes long-term plans. Even plans that are out of her control! ...She probably should work on thinking of the logical consequences of her plans. Gensokyo was close to suffering a nuclear holocaust and she started a long chain of events that introduced more religious rivals into Gensokyo, after all.

Even though she's a Sky Goddess, she's rocking them snakes, as sign of her complete victory over Suwako. ...It's only a front, since without Suwako's cooperation, her business ventures probably wouldn't have had a smooth take-off.

Kanako has the amazing ability to kick back, relax, and blow you to smithereens while doing so.

Kanako can be ambitious, but she is wise. She has enough business sense to know that not every chance at faith gaining is necessary. Why else did she not partake in the "religious" festival held in HM? And she had no interest in the Rebellion of the Weak, because it wasn't interesting enough to get hyped up about^note In the words of good 'ol Zeri: "Nothing to get wild about".

She strongly wishes for technological change to come to Gensokyo. And she wants to be the one recognized for bringing that change. You can definitely place your faith in her. Vote for change. Vote Kanako Yasaka.

Makes me wonder why she hasn't dropped it since coming into Gensokyo. Force of habit? Is Suwako the type of partner who prefers to stay out of the public eye (the easier to get into trouble)? Or would having a shrine run by a pair of equal goddesses be an unacceptable sign of weakness in Gensokyo?

Good question. It seems like a natural opportunity to advertise. Maybe she was worried about alienating some potential customers by choosing a side? She was comfortable using Reimu as a proxy? Or was she far-sighted enough to realize, like Kokoro did, that the real problem was the combative religious figures themselves (having had experience with causing problems like that)?

I'd say the meta reason was that the Moriya Shrine had played a large role in the preceding games and ZUN wanted to give them a break, but there Kanako is in ISC, so...

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

Gensokyo's Own Researcher

Kanako has way bigger issues on her plate than some sort of 'incident'. I mean, Reimu solves those like every year and just look at her shrine. Clearly, that is not a path to success. No, bargaining with the tengu who supply your faith is the new way.

Even if your shrine maiden thinks it's seriously totally BORING and KILLING HER VIBE and can't she just go out and wreck some face like everyone else does?

Of course not, because everyone else is silly and wastes time with brawls rather than actually doing anything. And why try to keep up with the latest fad when you could invent new ones, hm? Like free, safe tours above the scenic Youkai Mountain?

Ok, so I think in my head the tengu have rubbed off on Kanako a bit. I imagine her being... not haughty, exactly, but perhaps a bit snooty.

I imagine she mostly deals with the Tengu and Suwako mostly deals with the Kappa. Why? Because Kanako is air, and Suwako is... uh... earth. Shush. More important, I think their personalities mesh with those species. Suwako is very... whimsical and kind of aimless, while Kanako is more practical and directed.

The Kappa are a huge headache for Kanako and awesome hangout buddies for Suwako, while the Tengu are able to follow some damned instructions if you give them reason to, or sticks-in-the mud if you just want to have some fun.

Remilia'll be next in the discussion, but I bring her up here as a contrast to Kanako. Remilia's seems the sort to have and set reasonable goals, while making plans that guarantee at least one of those goals will be met.

Kanako has plans, but rather than 'force a win', she can gracefully accept a loss, recognizing that you can lose most or even all of the battles while still winning the war. Winning conflicts is better than losing them, of course, but infrastructure and the environment absolutely can't be ignored.

Because she's ignored them before. She beat Suwako... she won the battle. And she nearly faded away anyway... and Suwako may well have continued on without her (though perhaps not). Either way, Kanako may have won the battle of Suwa, but she lost the invasion. And she took that lesson to heart.

And she has continued to learn and grow from her experiences. Technology ousted her before? Fine, this time she'll make it one of her blessings. Hell Crows make awesome vessels for gods? Turns out the hell youkai are too much a hassle to make that viable. How about Cold Fusion instead?

There's a big difference between putting your hands in all the pies and in baking your own. Kanako prefers the latter. And if someone offers her some pie or asks her to carry it around, she considers whether it's worth it. Sometimes no because it's not very good pie, sometimes yes because its delicious or carrying it around would aid her image.

She may not have a lot of foresight, but she doesn't act thoughtlessly. She knew exactly why she was giving Utsuho that power, and exactly what she planned to do with it. She knew perfectly well she needed to go behind Satori's back to do so, and knew equally well that no one would care. What she didn't know is what would happen when you put a sun god in a hell raven, because it hadn't been done before. The point is that it wasn't done recklessly... it was done experimentally.

Imagine if she'd given it to a surface youkai like Mystia. If she'd wanted to burn the surface, hey guess what it's right there. At least with Utsuho, if she went nuts, the first people to die (And quite possibly only, depending on response time) would be Satori and the other undergrounders, who no one likes anyway. Heck, the very first people exposed to the burning sun would be those who lived in the aptly named Blazing Hell; If anyone could take the heat involved, it would be them.

Now, I'm not saying I condone Nuclear bomb testing in slums and suburbs, but it's probably better than doing it in a city, you know? Especially if the inhabitants of those slums are wanted criminals to the last and/or are immune to radioactive fallout and heat.

Kanako is a scientist. She builds on prior knowledge while pushing boundaries. I really think collecting faith from youkai is an example of that sort of experiment gone very right. We just don't hear a lot about it because, well... things are boring when everything goes well. And I think that's why we've been hearing less and less about Kanako.

Because things are going right. And maybe some people will call her a stick in the mud, but you know what, she's going to have food on her plate when the next drought or abnormally long winter comes. And if you ask very nicely, she'll sell you some. Can't pay? That's fine, she'll loan it to you or simply ask a favor in return somewhere down the line.

edited 4th Nov '14 7:39:37 AM by Antimatter625

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.

Hmm, talking about foresight. It sounds like Kanako can pick out goals (survival, faith), and knows what's important (infrastructure, consolidation), but she doesn't necessarily plan too far ahead. Because really, what's the point? Most of what she does is to some extent a gamble, so why make further plans that henge on these experiments working out a particular way? But she isn't stupid, and she picks her gambles so that she would never significantly damage her position if they failed.

So Kanako is constantly looking for opportunities, running the numbers, and making low-risk investments that, while not spectacular successes, aren't spectacular failures either. Because really, that hell raven thing worked out for everyone, right? It's not quite Xanatos Speed Chess because she's a bit more proactive, but it still speaks of a sharp, quick mind. I like it.

I was wondering about the tengu comparison, but the more I think about it the more it fits. They had a tradition, the situation changed, and they managed to put their skills to use doing something new, redefining themselves so they could survive as something more than a relic of the past. And they're constantly on the lookout for something to get into, although they never threaten their position by doing so.

Good writeup!

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

I wonder what happened to the cold fusion experiment. It worked in Wa HH, but after that it was never touched upon again.

Well, it didn't fail disastrously, so everyone off Youkai Mountain couldn't really give a care. And Kasen doesn't really get out much so she's probably not up to date on most Tengu developments.

Yeah, I kept wanting to link it but... well, as you mentioned, it's not. It's like... What Xanatos Speed Chess would be if normal human beings were playing it. So speed chess I guess? Bughouse Chess since she's got allies or something?

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.

Gensokyo doesn't really use electricity, so they really don't care about fusion one way or another. To anyone but the kappa, it's just a fancy way to heat baths, and if they can't do it at home then there's no point in switching from good old fashioned firewood.

Good point about electricity. I forgot about that. I wonder how Kanake felt that Sanae was such a science geek though, when they were still in the outside world.

Well, only you would know the answer to that one, as the existence of this Kanake was until now unknown to rest of us.

edited 5th Nov '14 8:00:34 AM by joergenjetsam

Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable

Derp...You know I meant Kanako

Kanako is an entrepreneur who is also scientist as well as a possible terrorist. Kanako is a goddess but despite this calls magic and stuff illogical.

"Thanos is a happy guy! Just look at the smile in his face!"

I don't even want to begin to speculate how many times I've tried to spell her name as Kananko.

"Terrorist?" Well don't leave me hanging, tell me the whole story.

Current earworm: "Awe of the Unknown"

IIRC there are indications here and there that electricity is beginning to make its rounds. I seem to recall electric lights or a gramophone or something being around and implying its use. (In Akyuu's house, was it?) Whatever the case, it's certainly nowhere near as ubiquitous as it is in the modern day in the Human Village.

It really does suggest strongly that Kanako's pushing the technology angle to the Tengu/Kappa and not so much to the humans. To them, she's still more or less just a sky goddess or whatever.

I wonder if Sanae became a science geek to... well, please Kanako, basically. "Oh, she's becoming a technology/science goddess? well, it just wouldn't do to not know about it, then."

I write some fanfiction. Satori's Tale is done... but I'm not.