The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

If it helps, Ichirin does occassionally get shipped with the captain like in this set of strips.

...yeah. I guess it's the problem in being the sensible one in a group where everyone is pretty sensible anyway. I'd imagine that she'd gain more interest if implanted in something like the Eientei group.

Just think... put-upon Only Sane Man who wails about her troubles to a non-talking cloud. Instant Woobie!

I've often thought of Ichirin as being a good friend to Murasa, to the point of being her first mate on the Palanquin. I do wonder if they really have any kind of past together, prior to the events of the game.

She does seem extremely devoted to freeing Byakuren, which is fitting considering her nun's outfit (speculation is that she is also a nyuudo, or a Youkai that resembles a monk/nun).

I can see her as the type to get very worked up about things and act before thinking, as is the case in UFO: she assumes the player character is after the "treasury" (which is true in certain cases), and attacks them before anyone has a chance to say anything (In one path, she actually says "no point in arguing!"). When you reach the end of her stage, it's like she's been whipped into a frenzy, until Unzan calms her down and explains what's going on. (of course, she still attacks, but now it's just because she needs the Soaring Vault pieces)

She also takes her position as a nun or nun-like Youkai very seriously, attacking the player for being a "scoundrel".

I think that would be an interesting path to take her personality: devout, hot-headed with a tendency to go off half-cocked (with Unzan acting as the soft-spoken voice of reason) and unforgiving of "scoundrels".

edited 11th Oct '10 6:24:38 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

I do guess she's a very serious person, and could easily be Byakuren's Battle Butler in a sense. She's got the attitude for it, anyway. Perhaps far more serious than necessary, as demonstrated, but this just leads to interesting situations.

I think of her as Minion A for Byakuren. She's clearly part of the cult, but she's neither in charge nor an amusingly put upon grunt. She's just... a follower.

And this one.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Ichirin/Aki sisters OT3

They shall plot to use Unzan to partially cloud the skies of Gensokyo, creating a permanent fall!

...except they overdo it, drop the temperature too much, and cause a premature winter.

I have a message from another time...

Tragically, this leads to Yuyuko and Remilia suing them for copyright infringement and taking them for everything they're worth and more.

Yuyuko gets the rights to the word "Fall" and Remilia gets controlling interest in the Akis sweet potato stand.

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In the "200 Yojana in a Flash" series of comic strips, Unzan is employed as the treasure ship's video screen, as seen here. Ichirin is a total nonentity in this story.

Got to love the comments for that.

Scares Yuri fanboy gets all defensive over his precious maidens and then some guys come and righteously own him. Reminds me of encounters with other Touhou fans...some here on this forum itself.

 ^*

edited 11th Oct '10 10:54:21 PM by Chagen46

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Honestly, stop bringing it up. If you don't mean to derail then please stop including all these snide remarks about the fights you've gotten into.

Can't you see the happy sunglasses man every time you post? He just wants you to take it easy.

Also, I think Ichirin is the only member of Byakuren's crew whose backstory doesn't explicity spell out how Byakuren helped and/or converted her.

Nazrin: Sent to watch Shou
Murasa: Was sinking ships when Byakuren raised the Holy Palanquin for her to captain.
Shou: Byakuren suggested her to be the avatar of Bishamonten.
Ichirin: ???

edited 11th Oct '10 11:22:52 PM by Bocaj

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Try looking in the Touhou section of fanfiction.net. To a certain extent, the POV characters in the second-person "choose your own adventure" stories on touhou-project.com could also qualify, but there's an element of self-deprecating irony in the way the readership of the image board votes on the protagonists' actions.

Hm... question:

In Sanae B's path through UFO, Byakuren says this when Sanae mentions the youkai that wanted to help her:

A: Why the heck didn't she mention Nazrin, but also importantly,

B: Is the "Nyuudo" Unzan or Ichirin?

I have a message from another time...

A: Probably because Byakuren didn't expect Nazrin to come help, since she was just there to keep an eye on Shou. Clearly there was some awesome character development that took place after Byakuren got sealed. Nazrin and Shou learned to be more than avatar and overseer. They learned to be... Tennis partners.

B: Could be either. Ichirin has the power to control nyuudo like Unzan but according to Touhou wiki, Ichirin is a wanyuudo, which is a subtype of nyuudo. The wanyuudo picture◊ on wikipedia actually looks very Unzanish. So she could have been referring to either or both. Nyuudo sounds like it could be a plural.

Edit: Stupid singular nondefinite articles.

edited 11th Oct '10 11:36:33 PM by Bocaj

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Yes Chagen, perpetuating a Cycle of Hate isn't going to get you anywhere and if anything those fights seem justified if that's your attitude as I can easily toss Yuri Hater right back at you if you wish to pull "fanboy". And besides, I keep up with that comic and while you get your detractors I can understand the frustrations some readers get, it's like the bad fanfiction on FF.net the guy above me mentioned, "Random guy comes into Gensokyo and curbstomps all the ladies because he's just that much stronger with no justification, yes even the stage six boss is helpless against him" plus the fight basically almost Ret Cons Youmu's Character Development, it's basically a poor generic shonen plot with Villian Sue who later is beat because the plot says so.

And back to the discussion, I don't know why but I always found Ichirin to be the most interesting of the UFO cast, mostly because her design was interesting but also because in my opinion Unzan augments her character, not overshadow it, both of them play off each other to make a no-nonsense kind of duo, she's there to get the job done as evidenced by her actions in UFO, so I think sane personality works better for her.

Plus her Murasa are a nice ship, when she's not shipped off with Nue or Byakuran.

Yes! Thank you, Mister Tree.

Bocaj, the fact that Ichirin doesn't have an elaborate backstory only means that we need to work harder to figure one out! ... Me, I'm still for the whole Indiana Jones thing. I'm too spurgedy right now to figure out the details, though.

... What's the justification for shipping Ichirin and Murasa, actually?

They have adjacent stages?

Normally that justification is used for characters who aren't already known to have a connection to one another...

Ichirin is based just outside the Holy Palanquin Ship, and Murasa's piloting it?

I mean, Nazrin was out searching elsewhere for the treasures, and Shou was based in another dimension, so...

I still like the idea of Ichirin being a bit of a hothead who jumps to conslusions, while Unzan is a deeper thinker who happens to be extremely soft spoken, acting as her voice of reason when she gets especially worked up, as she does in Stage 3.

Now what was that trope again?

I have a message from another time...

Oh man that trope is so totally subverted dude.

Perhaps Bash Brothers is more appropriate?

Actually I screwed that up. It would be inverted because the Red Oni in this case would be blue, and the Blue Oni, pink. Oh wells!

Bash Brothers sounds like a good trope! Indeed, Ichirin wouldn't be hard to beat if it wasn't for Unzan's huge hitboxes, but those would be easy to deal with if there wasn't stuff flying everywhere... Brute force and finesse.

Keybreak just mistook her for an angel in my avatar. That's a cute idea. She's so associated with the sky by now in my mind, it makes sense in a way...

... *imagining her riding Unzan like Goku rides his magic cloud*

No need to imagine. Just skip to 2:55. Also, a potential secret origin for Ichirin.

Blah, blah, swimsuit warning etc, etc.

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