The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

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???

I think the Boobinite conspiracy is sabotaging my typing. Kind of like what the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo did so people couldn't say the Patriots.

Oh man, the Boobinite Conspiracy is run by the New England Patriots?

edited 25th Sep '10 9:55:23 PM by RukiMotomiya

More specifically, by the New England Patriots' cheerleaders.

The Patriots?!

Metal Gear?! Boobies?!

Anyway, this went in a weird direction but the votes indicated Komachi, yes?

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Komachi Onozuka

Theme:
Higan Retour ~ Riverside View, (Scarlet Weather Rhapsody version)

Traits:

• lazy
• laid-back

Relationships/Shipping:

• Shikieiki (master and servant, stuck-up and laid back)

Write-up:
Death is the ultimate relaxation. In the cycle of life, the middleman is someone who inhabits neither in the world of the living, nor the world of the dead, and lives in her own concept of time as well.

Komachi is a ferryman who ferries the souls of the dead across the Sanzu river, to the land of the dead, where they shall be judged. While she is one of the most productive of the ferryman shinigami, she is also the laziest. She will often slack off from her work, and even when so many dead souls were amassed that the workload became too much to handle, she refused to go at anything but her own pace. Thus happened Phantasmagoria of Flower View, the only incident caused by negligence.

Laid-back, talkative, humorous. With her carefree and good-natured personality, Komachi is a fun character who is practically a pre-built comedy duo with her superior Shikieiki, the straight-laced judge of the dead. The two are practically inseparable in fanworks, which delight in pairing up the two in comedy or romance alike. Indeed, it's probably the fault of the imposing Komachi that Shikieiki is generally considered a shorty, despite canon disagreeing, just to further underline the contrast between the two.

In a world where straight-laced servants are bossed around by capricious masters, there is one odd couple that turns the tables - and is welcomed warmly for it. But what else do Komachi (and her little friend) have to offer? What else is there to the big-breasted amazon drifting across the river while talking to a bunch of dead people?

Who knows.

Similar characters:

• Reimu (big ol' slackers, but apparently they both have their things that make them get up and fight)
• Yuugi (similarly good-natured, relaxed but forceful)

Komachi is a good guy. The one thing that defines her in my mind is the Gentle Giant trope. I love to see her as this huge, badass figure with a child-like face who is actually really relaxed and open-minded, and spends her time on the job either talking incessantly to the non-responsive souls of the dead, cracking morbid jokes, or just lying there, dangling her foot into the river, looking at the flowers by the riverside, giving names to individual trees, and just being plain old relaxed.

I'm undecided on her relationship with Shikieiki.

I'd like to see some non-comedic works involving her, too.

Well, I dunno how helpful this is, first time trying to actually contribute here, but...

I'd think one possible concept for how to play her seriously would be having her deal on a personal level with someone who died.

I get this sense that Komachi would be the kind of person to ease the fears of those who died that the afterlife and being dead isn't a bad thing. It seems like she'd be the sort of person who would invite a troublesome soul to have a drink with her, and then drag them into her own personal tempo until they were ready to move on without opposition.

In addition, the fact that she's so unbound by her profession and master makes it seem like of anyone involved with the afterlife, Komachi is the most suited to solving problems in Gensokyo, and the person who'd be there most often.

Okay, I've heard someone say that Komachi in SWR went straight into Gag Boobs territory, but looking at all the images & sprites, Komachi's chest doesn't seem all that big. Definitley not Gag-size.

edited 26th Sep '10 12:59:29 PM by XionGaTaosenai

Compared to the other characters, they are Gag-Sized.

I just went through over 50% of Komachi's danbooru tag and it's basically boobs all over the place.

But in SWR, she's just very busty. No gravitational fields of note, at least not of the physical sort.

PS: Komachi in this picture isn't anything special. But Shikieiki is super-adorable.

edited 26th Sep '10 1:39:55 PM by Fawriel

I thought her SWR story was pretty interesting, with her going around and predicting what kind of ghost each character would make based on their temperament.

@Fawriel: Hm, I liked Komachi in that picture more than Shiki....I guess she didn;t really like Shiki to me.

Komachi's canon characteristics are slacking, knowledge of the afterlife, and a kickass scythe. Her fanon characteristics are breasts, slacking, and a kickass scythe.

I kinda like the differences in characterization regarding her relationship with Shikieiki. It pretty much spans the entire range from abusive to friendly boss.

Komachi seems to be Brilliant, but Lazy. While her laziness shines through and becomes her defining character trait just because of one little incident, the fact that she's actually really good at her job, as well as quite knowledgeable and powerful tend to get ignored. This is in contrast to, say, Meiling who is portrayed as both lazy and incompetent. I feel like there's an important distinction there.

SWR provided some interesting characterization for her. While nearly everyone else was stumbling around blindly trying to figure out what was going on, she realized what was happening immediately and then spent some time wandering around analyzing people's temperaments. And then she threatened Tenshi to get her to stop, but I don't think that went anywhere.

Another interesting aspect of her is that she's tall. This is a really really weird trait to give to a character in this series. It sort of blows my mind actually. Ignoring the mind-blowing though, what this does is give give a Gentle Giant Genius Bruiser feel.

And while Shiki may look down on her laziness as a vice, overall one gets the impression that she's just not in a hurry to get anywhere and wants to enjoy the journey. While she does have goals, she's not putting them off so much as prioritizing them differently. Other than that one incident involving a 60 year cycle, I'm not sure she's actually behind on her quota or anything. I imagine her as one of those people who does everything differently from how the instructions say to do it but somehow manages to get it done perfectly, to the frustration of those who wrote the instructions.

Overall, a laid-back, easy to get along with person who seems to know what she's doing at all times. I can think of worse people to meet immediately after death.

edited 26th Sep '10 4:10:48 PM by Clarste

Clarste, my man, may I ask for a high-five.

I second that emotion.

I think the main reason Komachi isn't portrayed as incompetent is because her job is so simple. It's not terribly hard to find fanworks that treat her as lazy to the point of uselessness.

Also; why would being tall be weird?

So it seems the majority says Komachi is laid back and does her job. But I've actually seen a few instances where she hates her job and being told what to do by her "boss" partner. It seems like she goes at her own pace either because she's just too lazy and relaxed, or because she just doesn't WANT to.

I guess it might be simple. I guess it depends on how hard it is to navigate that river; Aya's ending in POFV suggests that it could be pretty demanding. (Aya claims to have found someone who has a formula for calculating the Sanzu River's width and Komachi objects, listing off all of the factors that go into determining how wide it is for each person.)

Are there dangers on the river? It is full of prehistoric monsters, after all. What are the currents like? Is it possible to get turned around?

Hard to say, with the length of the river varying for each person. Perhaps that's where the challenge lies: the river is different, and acts differently, for each soul that needs to get across.

Also; why would being tall be weird?

Tall girls aren't popular in Japan. And while I'd be the first to object if someone claimed that Touhou was all lolis, it is a fact that ZUN errs towards childishness when in doubt. Even the fully adult characters are rarely portrayed as tall.

^^^It was Ran who did the calculations. Komachi can probably change a lot of that, though, what with her being able to manipulate distance.

^Isn't it more that ZUN draws everyone at the same height, barring exceptional cases?

edited 26th Sep '10 4:43:07 PM by Hylarn