The New New Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Oops, yes I am.

Alright, so here's the riddle - oni, kishin or yaksha, what exactly is Konngara's motive in sending monsters to attack the Hakurei Shrine?

If she's just another oni - albeit one of the Devas - it just doesn't seem right for her to send a bunch of flunkies to do her dirty work for her. Almost dishonest, really. Though maybe that's why Konngara is encountered in hell? The ghost of a fallen oni?

If she's a kishin it makes a little more sense for Konngara to outsource her whupins, but that doesn't necessarily answer the motivation question. Maybe ambiguous age notwithstanding, Reimu is really old enough to qualify on hell's hit list? Seems unlikely. Perhaps a tide of monsters is part of a scheduled test of a new shrine maiden's abilities, like how SinGyoku is suspected of being the shrine's security system or something putting Reimu through her paces? That would fit the sort of non-malicious fights we've seen from other oni.

The yaksha or "attendant of Fudou Myouou" angles are easier to justify, because divine figures do whatever they want to, I guess. Reimu's certainly the type of shrine maiden that might require the attentions of a Wisdom King to purge her of some worldly desires - though this would raise the question of why those monsters were sent in first. If yaksha can go bad it's certainly possible they'd knock over a shrine, but if Konngara is already in Hell, how would she be able to send forth an army of baddies? Was it all an elaborate jailbreak, and Reimu played right into Konngara's hands up into the point she punted a yin-yang into her face?

Hey, I answered my own question, how efficient. So from all this conjecture, I think Konngara is most likely a yaksha, and less likely a kishin. Though I prefer the latter explanation since it would still allow her to be an ex-Deva, because we need to fill those missing two positions.

edited 28th Jan '15 10:12:34 PM by Tacitus

Konngara:

A mysterious swordswoman who did battle against Reimu ages ago.

Here's a crazy reason why she has no dialogue.

Power of Silence:

It is said that her battle with Reimu was conducted at the Silent Temple. In this place, silence is absolute. By staying her voice, Konngara was able to unlock the fullest potential of her special sword skills. ...Not that it did her any good.

Either that, or, as the name suggests, the temple's pretty darn silent. Like, eerily silent. Like Luna's ability. Perhaps Konngara's the god of that temple, and in silence, she finds her faith. Which is why she doesn't like Yuugi holding rowdy parties there. She's all about peace in the center of the mind, darn it!

"Alright... looks like this 'Reimu Hakurei' has been alive for 500 years without approval."
"Um... are you Sure? I think it might just be a family tradi-"
"Do not question Konngara!"

Anyone know if those blue... things that appear beside Konngara in that fight mean anything (They look almost like some sort of script)? Or are they just neat decoration?

She really seems almost like a prototype Yuugi between the dish and the horn and connection to Oni folklore. I suspect it's a sort of convergence rather than an intentional connection; they likely just share a common inspiration.

The title (and song) imply Konngara is something completely unearthly. Being unable to speak a human language would certainly explain the lack of dialogue.

...I feel kind of silly for not noticing that.

Hmm, Konngara the Calm? Or Konngara the Serene? Or just Konngara the Silent? No wonder she got promoted(?) to management.

I wanna say they're characters, since they look pretty similar to the smaller blue moon runes on the screen. My question is what's that stuff around and behind Konngara - ribbons? Smoke? Cracks in space-time?

Great, she's a space youkai. No wonder we can't figure her out. Nyarlathotep with a sake dish, taking a form a Japanese monster hunter would be familiar with.

Oh god, what if she's from the moon?!

Konngara is a strange mysterious being who for some reason wants the Hakurei shrine and she may or may not be an oni? I also wonder about the Legend of Kage reference, I had never played the game but where does that fit in?

Reference? (research) Okay, so the last stage music in the Makai route is titled "Legend of KAGE," but is there a Konngara connection I'm missing?

Also, another puzzle to scratch our heads at - while compiling a picdump I found this fairly average piece, which made me take a second look at Konngara's sprite◊. Check it out - it's like there's a hole over her heart that all those mysterious lines are coming out of. Is she related to a satori now? Or does this lend more credence to the "it's not a horn but a spike in her skull" theory.

And then there's this piece, which did something similar. Is that a shadow on Konngara's neck, a scarf, or an oni-riffic shackle?

Dammit, ZUN's trying to tell us stuff and we're missing it due to the limitations of the medium.

Anyway, that picdump.

And there she is
Pixel art
Simple smiles
Unraveling?
Beads
Ouch
Many spikes
What are they?!
Kinda traditional artstyle
Traditional facepaint
Her coaster not even drop
Wonder where she's supposed to be
Swordswoman from an angry moon
Venerable ancient battlers
Three drinkers, two smiles
Maybe this is why they broke up
Because\\ why not
Maybe-ghost versus half-ghost
I don't think she has the grail either, sadly
Vote Konngara 2008
It drop
Nontraditional, but I like it
Eyes in the dark, tears in her eyes
From a distant star

edited 31st Jan '15 8:29:17 PM by Tacitus

Here is a hardcore gaming article.

Hmm. The only real connections I see are the costume design in some of the game art (which would also count as a Meira connection), and... it's a bit of a stretch, but the Commodore 64 version of the game apparently was silent, and Konngara's in the Silent Temple, so... yeah. I dunno.

I've tried to learn more about this Kongara-doji fellow, and haven't really succeeded beyond finding a few pictures of him. Not much in the way of horns or foggy feet, but then Konngara wouldn't be the first Touhou character to not resemble her(?) mythological inspiration.

Then I tried to be clever and look for more information in the same place ZUN might have gotten his notions about Sariel, and checked the Shin Megami Tensei wiki. There's entries for kishin (a monster category), yaksa and Kongara-Doji's boss, but nothing I've found screams "so that's where he got it!"

It's just... vexing to have this unanswerable riddle on our hands.

Well, this discussion has been pretty quiet as of late, so any objections if we have our final Konngara thoughts and move on to Orin in a day or so?

Why did konngara attack the Hakurei Shrine other than 'because lol PC 98 bosses'?

How does H Rt P story play out again? So the one who destroyed the Shrine is Konngara? What'sthe deal with Sariel then?

@Konngara chest-hole Baseless theory time: Konngara is a hybrid between an oni and a satori, born before they moved into the underground. Because she's a hybrid, she's been an outcast that's kinda late to the news. So when she heard that the oni and satori are moving to Hell, she thought that they meant current Hell, when they actually meant the Former Hell.

HRtP had an excuse plot. I think it's a Schrodinger's Antagonist thing. The Antagonist is the one who Reimu goes up against.

Anyway Konngara. Oni? Kishin? Ghost? Oni kishin ghost? She looks very cool at least.

...I got nothing. Astral Knight.

edited 2nd Feb '15 7:50:08 AM by Otherarrow

Right, so, she's an oni, let's make her one of the Devas because she's the fourth oni-ish character we know of. Group splits up due to tiring of humanity - Yuugi the Strong leads her people underground, Suika the Dense disagrees and works to convince her people to return to the surface, Kasen renounces her oni-hood and becomes the Hornless, and Konngara the Silent is suddenly looking for a job.

She gets one working for Hell's bureaucracy, uses her oni strength to beat the evil out of sinners. Does well, gets promoted to kishin. And maybe this is where the problem starts, Konngara starts mixing moralizing with hitting things, gets some dangerous hubris. Maybe she's further promoted to yaksha in an attempt to have Acala set her straight. Doesn't work. Konngara has to be put down. Let's imagine an epic fight that temporarily brought the devas back together.

But what do you do with an oni's spirit? Particularly one with a bit of second-hand divinity? So we end up with the fog-footed, the-hell-is-that-hole Konngara we're familiar with, haunting a shrine in a dismal corner of Hell. It might not have been the Former Hell at this point. Maybe Konngara's presence is what made it "overpopulated" so that the bureaucracy relocated elsewhere.

Yuugi (and maybe Suika) are in the former Hellish capital, so where else can Konngara lash out but the surface? She might think she's doing a certain lazy, worldly shrine maiden a favor by attacking - excuse me, purging her of her impurities.

...Still struggling to fit Sariel into this scenario. Are they working together, attacking from two fronts? Or is Konngara really a good guy trying to counter an invasion from Makai with her own hellish forces?

Feel Konngara's pressure!

Battle in the Distance
Swordsman of Jazz
Rock Swordsman
Star Sword Swing
Distant Opposition
The Super Star

I suppose Konngara and Sariel being final bosses meant one thing: A turf war between two worlds, fighting for important resources. They were the leaders of their respective gangs. Reimu would be an unintentional boon by crushing either gang...assuming she then doesn't catch wind of the other gang and quickly becomes the bane of their existence...

Wow... I never noticed that. It's like she's... leaking. I have a strong suspicion she's simply a denizen of hell who's... well, there as punishment. Her heartlessness in life being reflected more literally in hell, and her thoughtless actions coming back to tab her in the head. So... she might simply be a great example of why Reimu should stay out of hell: "There are bad people there."

So I think she's representative of hell, but not a representative of hell.

Also possible that Sariel's normal job is as a sort of warden for hell. So Sariel heads off to Makai to investigate one thing or another (Say, why the Hakurei shrine got attacked), Konngara sees the perfect chance for a riot/jailbreak, and the rest is history (well, speculation, really, but yeah.)

that kind of makes some sense Konngara could be a prisoner and HRTP could her attempt to break out of prison.

Though it does raise the question of why, if Konngara was incapable of breaking out herself, she thought she'd be able to beat someone capable of breaking in. Maybe it was a Hakurei power things, who knows.

And that about summarizes Konngara: who knows. She looks like some things and could be a reference to others, but she's unlike anything we've seen since.

So, moving along. Our next three discussion topics will be the Lunar Capital, the Aki Sisters, and... number #18 on my list of remaining characters, which divided by 2 is ⑨, which means Cirno!

But first, hide yo' corpses, hide yo' cadavers, and hide yo' stiffs, 'cause this cat be snatchin' every body tonight.

Rin Kaenbyou

Stage: Hellfires of Times Past ~ Remains of Deserted Hell
BGM: "Lullaby of a Deserted Hell"
Theme: "Corpse Voyage ~ Be of Good Cheer!"

Spellcard Motif: Cats, corpses and cannibalism
Notable spellcards: SA, GoM, DS
Cat Sign "Cat's Walk," Cursed Sprite "Zombie Fairy," Corpse Spirit "Vengeful Cannibal Spirit," Atonement "The Needles of Yore and the Vengeful Spirits in Pain," "Small Demon's Revival," Death Sign "Ghost Town," "Corpse Shopping District," Drunkard's Walk "Cat Random Walk"

Write-up:
Perhaps Touhou's best contender for "Perky Goth," Rin Kaenbyou (but please, call her Orin) has a macabre purpose but a sunny personality. She's a kasha, a youkai dedicated to hauling the corpses of sinners to fuel the fires of Hell, a job that she loves. She's also cheerful, willing to chat with her vitally-challenged cargo, and no threat to non-corpses.

Okay, there was that time she attacked the protagonist of Subterranean Animism, but that was as much a test to see if they could handle a rampaging nuclear raven as it was Orin wanting another corpse for her wheelbarrow. Orin was the one who sent some evil spirits to the surface in the first place, in hopes of luring some powerful youkai down to handle the Okuu problem without involving Satori. Her other claims to fame include being the most persistent boss in Touhou since she's the midboss of three stages before facing the protagonist in an open battle, having a bunch of faerie flunkies willing to cosplay as zombies, and of course her dancing skills.◊

Relations

• Satori Komeiji (master)
• Koishi Komeiji (other master? at the very least, master's sister)
• Utsuho Reiuji (good buddy)

See also the first two compendiums.

edited 3rd Feb '15 5:42:27 PM by Tacitus

Orin:

I once claimed she was the strongest in all the lands based on the incredibly logical and not insane logic that she has the power to carry away corpses and thus has infinite strength.

Orin:

Boogie cat.

Orin:

Incredibly pursuasive or underground fairies are really easy to talk into things or both!

Orin:

Compared to Utsuho's weird schoolgirl outfit, Orin is positively styling. She even has an inexplicable leg ribbon. Must be a pain to keep that in place. But rewarding for those with leg ribbons are the fanciest of the land and all those that behold them know that they pale compared to these blazing stars of looking good.

She's a Michael Jackson wannabe.

Aaaand now I'm wondering whether Orin has an obsession with tapping Mokou as a limitless fuel source for Hell's reactors.

The weird thing I read while putting together the profile is that's her power, but not her power power. Like in terms of magical ability we've seen her command spirits to go aboveground, but her corpse-carting is all-natural, a combination of honed skills and people not expecting and therefore not seeing a catgirl going down a road with granny in her wheelbarrow. So what, did she grind on easy cargoes down in Hell before testing herself in the overworld? And, if she's a kasha literally born to snatch bodies for the fire, why doesn't she have some natural corpse-carting ability? That'd be like oni being born without horns, muscles and a dozen livers.

Her profile says her ability is 'the ability to carry away corpses' but also says

I don't know if this means that her ability to carry off corpses isn't particularly youkai-like or whether her tactics aren't.

Especially given the described 'tricks.' Which seem to just be 'oh look a corpse, oh look no one is looking -sticks in cart and hides under mat- I'M GENIUS'

More interesting though

-Akyuu talking to Utsuho- "Hey, does that cart have a name?"
-shrug- "It's Orin's wheelbarrow."
"Or... in's.... wheel...barrow... Okay, thanks."

(Also the implication that Orin is the most successful of all Kasha or Akyuu considers her as much anyway)

edited 4th Feb '15 9:25:32 PM by Bocaj

Sounds like she is just really good at camping and stealing the corpses when you aren't paying attention.

Rin Kaenbyou:

A kasha youkai, and Satori's pet cat. Very cheerful and strong-willed.

Carting away dead bodies—- really, really dead bodies—- is her job, her muse. Would she be shocked at Yoshika's existence? She looks like a corpse and acts like one. But she talks, hops, lines you up with poisonous kunais...

Her ability to steal corpses is less magic and more of an acquired skill. She is a Rogue, then. She's also an unofficial transporter, which entails taking jobs from her clientele. I hear it pays handsomely.

Once a corpse is put into her wheelbarrow, it can never get out until she wills it. Hm, she must've placed a lot of adhesive corpse traps in it.

The will-o-wisps that follow her around are corpse sensors. They burn more intensely as she nears one.

edited 9th Feb '15 9:18:46 PM by Diamite

Woah, I just went through Symposium of Post-Mysticism on Rin's profile. Parts of it seemed pretty messed up:

I didn't know cats eat humans??

Even dogs have both a Loyalty bar and a Hunger bar, and when one gets higher than the other and there's no alternative food sources... It's also worth noting that cats' loyalty isn't all that high to begin with.

But these are usually instances involving locked doors, unexpected deaths, and days before someone finds the scene. I'm skeptical that your average housecat would rather bring down and eat a human instead of stalking a mouse or rodent, or digging up a corpse to feed on. So this is probably a case of Akyuu being good ol' unreliable Akyuu.

Though on the other hand, if you brought a cat to the Underground, a place with a shortage of birds or mice - or a shortage of birds or mice that aren't also pets of a satori lady - what else is it gonna eat? Blind cave salamanders don't look all that appetizing.

Turns out that two years before Ten Desires, Orin was called up to chat with a certain mysterious walking corpse in the Myouren Temple cemetery. Orin didn't seem too surprised, though, so it looks like all her work with bodies and spirits have left her unimpressed with the hopping dead.

Or maybe Yoshika just doesn't trigger her instincts. Walking, living humans are uninteresting, and walking dead humans are uninteresting, but unmoving, dead humans are corpses, and she's gotta catch 'em all!

Might even be an addiction of sorts.