The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Agreed. It's all fun and games until someone gets CAVED.

going off the rails in the keine trraaain

Has anyone created a character chart for Touhou?

Character Chart?

Do you mean Alignment Chart or something?

(oh, and glad someone else thinks that one relationship has memetic potential, at least)

edited 12th Sep '10 2:14:20 PM by Enlong

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Momiji Inubashiri

manzai with Aya

Theme:
Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall

Traits:

• loyal, dutiful
• like a puppy <=> like a fierce guard dog

Relationships/Shipping:

• Aya (almost always depicted as her superior, often giving Momiji the job of a cameraman - usually in some way romantically involved)
• Nitori (fierce opponents in Shogi)
• Sakuya (fellow "dog")

Write-up:
Who watches the watchdog? No one does. There's no need to.

Momiji is the Stage 4 midboss in Mountain of Faith, the elite guard patrolling the mountain who uses somewhat weaker bullet patterns to scare off intruders to the mountain the Tengu live on, then reports back in lightning speed to her superiors to call for backup if they persist. Backup quickly arrives, lead by the eminent Aya. And that's where all her troubles began.

While she's a character with no dialogue, her profile offers some information about such things as her formidable age, her habit of playing dai shogi with the local kappa, her job... and her personality: a "very cooperative" one.

The fandom fell in love with the character. A sweet and loyal doggie, coupled with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl whirlwind of a personality that is Aya. A comedic and romantic match made in heaven! Fan artists quickly settled on a nigh-official design for her, and fan writers almost unanimously made her into a lovable underdog who suffers under the energetic lady of disaster who is Aya, whom she works for as a cameraman or writer or bodyguard.

Then Double Spoiler happened. It seems like ZUN doesn't want people to have their gentle cutey of a Touhou character - Aya's and Hatate's comments on her spellcards suggest a tsundere relationship at best, and a hateful relationship at worst.

In the end, whatever the reason may be behind this affront against the settled interpretation of the white-haired wolfie, whether Aya is just being the unreliable narrator that she is or if things aren't what they seem, it's unlikely that the fandom at large will change its opinion: The dog-girl is crow-woman's best friend.

Similar characters:

• Youmu, Sakuya (100% freaking loyalty)
• Reisen (alas, poor white-haired cuddlepuff)

The way I wrote in the past tense might have given the impression that I'm against Momiji's moe portrayal. That is not the case. Well, to be exact, I'm not against the concept in itself, as long as it's handled well. As always.

That manzai video I linked to is a good example of it. In the start, she's acting rather too dumb, but the way she immediately forgives Aya is endearing. Soon thereafter, the balance shifts and Momiji becomes the straight man to Aya's silliness without changing personality, which is interesting. Along the end again, Momiji is back to being the boke and is pretty much exploited by Aya, which is... odd.

'Tis a fine line, really.

As usual, I like to combine everything in my headcanon. My Momiji is intelligent (shogi!), disciplined and strong. In that sense, she's stronger and more mature than Youmu  ^*

On the other hand, she's peace-loving and gentle, and once she puts her trust in someone, can't bring herself to question them.

I have my own little pet theory on how she and Aya met, but I think I already said enough for now. Time to find a good avatar among the billions of Momiji pictures on my harddrive.

edited 12th Sep '10 3:07:06 PM by Fawriel

That manzai video I linked to is a good example of it. In the start, she's acting rather too dumb, but the way she immediately forgives Aya is endearing. Soon thereafter, the balance shifts and Momiji becomes the straight man to Aya's silliness without changing personality, which is interesting. Along the end again, Momiji is back to being the boke and is pretty much exploited by Aya, which is... odd.

I just took that as an aspect of their relationship. Sometimes Momiji is naive and silly and Aya makes fun of her for it. Then sometimes Aya makes some ridiculous claim that can't be true at all and Momiji calls her out on it. Neither one of them is "the smart one" in the relationship, they both have their "derp" moments.

I tend to go with a Badass Adorable interpretation for Momiji. She's battle-trained and ready for action, but sweet-hearted and easily-flustered. She'd rather not have to fight at all, but if push comes to shove, she will, and she'll do it well. Basically a shonen hero determined to protect those she cares about.

Everything I just said about her is exactly right and if you disagree you are wrong

Tenshi is more Paris Hilton to me.

I realize half of the characters have ADD.

Sorry to already go into an aside, but how much do we know about the tengu hierarchy? Besides what PMiSS tells us, there's not much to go on. What role does Momiji play in tengu society? Primarily a guard? Does she actively lead the other white wolf tengu?

edited 12th Sep '10 3:58:38 PM by yarrunmace

From her profile:

Her forces are usually lying in wait behind the waterfall.

Evidently she's got some people under her command.

SHE IS KING OF TENGU

Is the Maple Leaf on her shield of any particular importance?

Momiji is just a guard dog. DS suggests that she's one of the better ones, though.

Is the Maple Leaf on her shield of any particular importance?

she is canadian

I thought of that but then it didn't make sense because shes competent

I kid, I kid

Now that I think about it, the fact that she wears that emblem on her shield and her name literally means "maple", suggests that she might have been born from a family of proud warriors. The shield is an heirloom she has held since she was old enough to use it.

Is it not just a Tengu symbol? Aya has a maple-leaf fan.

Anyone have a good Momiji avatar they can lone me?

Thats an awesome idea, Faw, but I've noticed that, at least to me, she maybe more traditional since she fights with Aya, who I imagine to be a loose-cannon sort.

YOU'RE A LOOSE CANNON AYA

TURN IN YOUR BADGE

OR YOUR HAT THING

THAT WORKS TOO

I am laughing at the idea of Tengu topgun. It fits so well.

@anelaid: I made some avatars, many of which I'll probably never use myself. Not sure if any'll strike your interest, though.

... I'm not sharing this one. Not yet at least.

edited 12th Sep '10 4:18:45 PM by Fawriel

Momiji is canonically very devoted to the Daitengu. It annoys Aya.

The first and second are cool actually.

Interesting note is how Momiji doesn't have the pointy ears of Aya and Hatate, and that Hatate fangirls about Momiji so it seems like a lot of people look up to her.

Shared theeem.

I was going to say something about how you can't know that she doesn't have those same ears, but then I realized that she, uh, has dog ears. So yeah.

She can be like Orin and have both.

Whats weird is that if she has only one ears, what does the side of her head look like without her hair?