The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Actually, we did already discuss those two. But yeah, Satori's age is confusing as heck, which I blame on her official artwork, which I think is the worst in the series. She has this hair that looks like the hair of an old lady who either doesn't take care of her appearance that much or just wants to look wild and young, and her dress kinda has an old lady quality, and she's so pale and sickly-looking, not to mention that she's a crazy cat lady, but then she's also so small and stuff... I guess she's just a petit grown-up. Both Koishi's and Satori's character design are a little haphazardly done, really.

Anyway, Sanae coming up soon enough.

edited 29th Jul '10 1:13:47 AM by Fawriel

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Sanae Kochiya

Appearance/voice:

Theme:
The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Watched, Faith is for the Transient People (Hisoutensoku version)

Traits:

• innocent <=> or perhaps not so much
• surprisingly nerdy
• tries very hard

Relationships/Shipping:

• Kanako (her goddess)
• Suwako (her other goddess - and distant ancestor)
• Reimu (eternal rival/love interest)
• Kogasa (bullying victim or simple friend/love interest)

Write-up:
Sanae. The player two, the good girl, the immigrant to the land of fantasy.

Sanae was born in the outside world. Being a wind priestess and a descendant of the goddess Suwako herself, Sanae had magical powers even in this world, using them to perform miracles such as bringing rain. The people saw this and took the miracles to be performed by herself, rather than see her as a priestess of the gods who really are responsible for the magic, and the resulting faith turned her into a sort of goddess herself.

But even with her powers, the world in this future is not a place for wonders. Faith in her and her deities waned, and thus Kanako eventually put her plan into action to move her shrine to Gensokyo. Sanae was scared to go, but eventually the prospect of a world of miracles convinced her to come.

Once there, she threatened the Hakurei shrine, the only other shrine in the land, so that the Moriya shrine may become the ruler over Gensokyo. Naturally, she got her butt handed to her. She had to come to terms with the fact that in Gensokyo, she's not that special anymore.

Sanae is a rather multilayered character who undergoes perhaps the most character development out of any person in the series, in spite of her relative newness. In Mountain of Faith, she's innocent but boastful and invariably gets taken down a peg. In Undefined Fantastic Object, she's grown more accustomed to her new home, but has a lot to learn still. In Hisoutensoku, she's got a much better grip on her new reality and finds enjoyment in seeing Gensokyo as a fictional world come reality where anything can happen... like giant robots!

Given her apparent fascination with fiction, it's not hard to imagine why she decided to migrate to Gensokyo. In UFO, she's terribly excited about the titular UFOs everywhere and gleefully mistakes Nue for an alien, while in Hisoutensoku, she decides to interpret the giant figure in the distance as a Gundam giant mecha, because it might as well be true in Gensokyo.

Unfortunately, it took her a while to settle and get accustomed to things even after she dramatically underestimated the local protagonists. When Kanako sent her out to go youkai hunting in UFO, she didn't seem to have entirely grasped the balance of power in Gensokyo and thus started showing a little too much enthusiasm about youkai "extermination", which makes some fans interpret her as a major jerkass, sadist, and perhaps racist, quite in contrast to her otherwise very innocent and well-meaning depiction. She's also described as being worried about becoming like the other, "youkai-like" humans living near her.

Is she a latent psycho sadist, or just zealous to be a good heroine of a fantasy videogame? Will she retain her idealism or become as jaded and bored as Reimu? Who knows. All that is certain is that, as long as she gives nerds all over the world a "normal" human character to identify with, we haven't seen the last of her.

Similar characters:

• Reimu (except for how they're opposites in just about anything)

---

Welp! Sanae. Pretty interesting!

Admittedly, another character I never quite got into. The whole "good girl" vs. "racist sadist" dichotomy muddled my perception. But my idea of that is clearer now, so nothing really stands in the way of making her likable to me. In fact, as a Genre Savvy character in Gensokyo, she's a goldmine for all sorts of character interaction, so, woo!

Also, for anyone who doesn't know it yet: The doujin that spawned the "Sanae is a good girl" meme. Definitely is a good girl in this depiction, though this author's Kanako and Suwako are just what.

Finally: Music is for the transient people.

Ah, Miko player two. One question springs to mind given her apparent schoolgirlish age. Where are her parents? Did they just get left behind?

Another common interpretation of Sanae is to have her be completely insane due to abandoning common sense.

Also, hey Fawriel's still alive. Jubilation!

edited 29th Jul '10 10:21:34 AM by Bocaj

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My favourite idea about her character design is that she used to wear traditional priestess robes, but then her Goddesses fell in love with a concert outfit she once wore to a Live performance, and mandated that it become her new official priestess outfit. Of course, I also like to imagine her as a skillful guitarist.

Funny how she's yet to meet Rinnosuke though, it'd be interesting to see how that one plays out.

The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!

I think it's quite obvious which interpretation I prefer.

I think for me, Sanae is a bit of a Satellite Character, because oftentimes when I imagine my own interpretation of her, she tends to be interacting with Reimu and bouncing off of her. Since Sanae is assumedly younger than Reimu and also a lot newer to the ways of Gensokyo, I started imagining Sanae as a lot more enthusiastic about everything than Reimu is. She also seems a bit more idealistic than Reimu might be, not in the sense that Reimu's a cynic, but more in the sense that Sanae might make a bigger deal about incidents in Gensokyo and flip out over everything that happens, whereas Reimu's more inclined to just shrug, roll her eyes, and get up to take care of things once again.

There's also the fact that Reimu's a lot more used to hanging out with a bunch of youkai whereas Sanae might not be. She might need Reimu around to hold her back from freaking out over the sheer number of youkai populating Gensokyo.

Maybe it's weird that I tend to imagine Sanae interacting with Reimu a lot more than her goddesses, but oh well.

WHO IS THIS LOSER

I've seen a couple of comics where Sanae is with her mother while very young, but I think she died sometime after that and Kanako and Suwako took over as her "aunts" so to speak. I do not recall any mention of her father. Miracle Birth?

Baby Pictures:

Hair is my toy.

On my lap.

Out for s stroll.

Stop crying stop crying!

Just the three of us.

^^^ Good point. He's bishie enough to belong to one of the manga I assume she reads.

• Touhou vs Sanae. Jerk Sanae.
• Abo's Touhou 4koma. Beleaguered new girl Sanae.
• Touhou Seireisen 4koma. Very much a jerk Sanae.
• Faith is for the Transient Family Budget. Beleaguered new girl Sanae.

Sadist or no, insane or no, I see Sanae as someone who has a great deal of trouble fitting in to Gensokyo and who has trouble adapting to the food chain. She's on top but most humans aren't.

edited 29th Jul '10 10:48:31 AM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

As for her outfit, perhaps she wore a normal miko outfit before moving to Gensokyo, but after arriving decided to mimic Reimu's "delicious miko armpits" look because she assumed that was standard miko dress in Gensokyo?

There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead. There was never a reason to assume that Fawriel is dead.

That. Except that I do think Reimu is a cynic.

Interesting thing: Littleshrimp and karaagetarou made a very similar comic about her.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot. Hi there, new people on the last page! I'm glad you enjoy the thread!

I never said she WASN'T a cynic, I just don't think she's a dick about it or anything. She's just jaded. She's seen a lot. Not much really "affects" her.

WHO IS THIS LOSER

Reimu is "Been There. Done That. Five Times."

Sanae is "This is So Cool Its Awesome" when confronted with the same thing.

Reimu grew up around all this. It isn't fantastical for her, its mundane. The same cannot be said for Sanae.

Y'know, Patchouli, Alice, and Yukari could've just said "Hey, remember that time I beat you up from several miles away? Good times."

I have a message from another time...

Scholastica summed up just about everything I meant to say in a few sentences.

WHO IS THIS LOSER

^^^^^ But... you went to go answer a suspicious knock. Clearly a death flag.

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Ah, Sanae. The personification of inconsistent characterization. Inexperienced but trying her best in MoF, kind of nuts in SA, either a ditzy Blood Knight or racist Jerkass in UFO, and perfectly reasonable in Soku. And fanworks are even worse.

Sanae B is more like feeling as though she is the victim of Fantastic Racism.

I have a message from another time...

Sometime before Soku, Sanae was still overzealous about youkai extermination if you believe what Marisa says to her.

Her personality during the actual game seems centered on nerdy though. Although her win quote to Reisen is sort of odd

Edit: ^ Its kind of funny. She feels like her dignity as a human has been offended but spends the last level insisting that she's a god. Similarly, in Soku she tells Suwako that even if she's a human, she'll make Suwako listen to her. To which Suwako responds that Sanae isn't a human, she's a living god. Sanae then claims that means she stands equal to Suwako.

I think Sanae has identity confusion.

edited 29th Jul '10 1:38:57 PM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Art:

• With her gods
• Earphones
• Serafuku
• Painting
• SanaRei
• mIrAcLeS
• Elbow
• Flowers
• Sea Opening "Moses's Miracle"
• More than one meaning for 'S'
• Schoolwork
• Really says more about Reimu
• ReiSana
• Is that a Star Destroyer?
• Stars
• Short hair
• Nekomimi
• Does that count as cheating?
• I'm not certain what to make of this
• Before and after
• Why doesn't she use stars in UFO?
• Apparently this actually exists
• Impressive how many things that sound effect can be used for

This was actually kind of hard to do. Sanae has a truly impressive amount of porn.

There's no real contradiction between her two statuses, she's just both human and goddess, and identifies as both. She's been describing herself from MoF on as a Arahitogami, the shinto concept that has been used to cement Hirohito's divine right to rule. She's really just one more creature from the Japanese folklore that has been added to the games, not something original like Youmu.

At the start, she seems very subservient to the will of her main goddesses. It's also pretty obvious Kawako and Suwako are trying to emancipate her a bit, and it bears fruit during UFO. Which leads to Suwako getting scolded in the next game, because she acted on her own, without involving Sanae and Kanako. The three are much more equal than they were when they crossed the border.

At the same time, all these pep-talks and finding herself in a land where human are the minority seems to have given her a lot of pride and touchiness in what she is.

There was never a suspicious knock. Everything is alright. Why don't you come over for the night. We will have a feast. There was never a suspicious knock. Everything is alright. Why don't you come over for the night. We will have a feast. There was never a suspicious knock. Everything is alright. Why don't you come over for the night. We will have a feast. There was never a suspicious knock. Everything is alright. Why don't you come over for the night. We will have a feast. There was never a suspicious knock. Everything is alright. Why don't you come over for the night. We will have a feast.

I wonder if there are any pictures of her fucking magnets.

^^ Sure, that sounds fun. Should I bring anything?

^^^^ I wonder where she hides it? Under the bed probably isn't an option.

I have to say that Sanae isn't one of my favorite characters, though I don't dislike her. And I really, really dislike sadist Sanae because it seems her "youkai hunting" invariably centers around weaker youkai, the better to woobie them, rather than any of the actually dangerous man-eaters. Kogasa is commonly her victim but since Kogasa is more interested in scaring than eating, she's even lower down the threat pole than Rumia is.

Her racism against youkai doesn't even make any sense, fanon or otherwise. The majority of the visitors to her shrine - the reason why her gods can keep on living - are the tengu, kappa, and other youkai of the mountain.

In the doujin, Wind Roar on the Scarlet Moon, she chastises Reimu for letting so many youkai hang at her shrine but when told that the majority of the Moriya Shrine visitors are youkai she rationalizes that those are the "good ones." And when told to interact with more youkai she invades the Scarlet Devil Mansion to try to beat up Remilia.

So, yeah. Sadist or over-exuberant youkai hunter Sanae doesn't work for me. I prefer the beleaguered new girl who likes Gensokyo but is trying to get used to it.

edited 29th Jul '10 2:45:44 PM by Bocaj

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Sadly, 'beleaguered new girl' was not an option in UFO. Honestly I think part of the reason sadist Sanae is popular is because the other option is so much worse.

Whats the other option?

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Okay, what happened in UFO is that each character not only had two shot types, but also two interpretations of their personality. Marisa was mostly the same regardless of shot chosen, and Reimu ended up the same once her A version realized that the incident was more than a chance to loot. Sanae, however, was pretty different. Her A version started out uncertain about youkai extermination but quickly grew to like it, which fandom turned into a sadistic streak. Her B version spends most of the game angry that the filthy youkai don't respect her (oddly, this is her following Suwako's teachings).