The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

I actually kinda like that term for her. It's hard for me to express the kind of feel I got from reading about her from her... But "impish" is a good way to start. Impish, good-humored, looking at the world from an estranged distance, still curious and fascinated, but barely considering herself a part of it, but rather a unique entity floating around in it for a reason that appears to have become obsolete...

Okay, that pretty quickly turned into more than a description of the impression I got from her writing. Point is, she'd make good-natured fun of a powerful youkai right in their face, not fearing punishment or death.

Hmm, that seems like a workable idea of it, yeah.

Hey, otaku are pretty much totally sheltered and are generally about as perverted as it gets! ... But let's not look at it that way.

You do have to consider that her lifespan gradually gets shorter, so her first few lives were still pretty okay. And then there's, apparently, the whole "life in hell" bit... I guess that means you could call her "otherworldly".

Yeah, at one point she actually ponders asking people if her services are still needed so that she can finally reincarnate properly.

She mentions this, too. In the little comic, and... hmm, did she say it elsewhere, too? I forget.

Man, it would be nice if she could just stop and it would restore her lifespan... 'Fraid the damage is already done, though.

It shall be perused soon!

Yo! Welcome to this here thing!

... I've gotta kinda disagree with you, though. I mean, Mayfly–December Romance is one thing, but from the perspective of an already short human life, that's just sad.

MokoKei is my favorite pairing, but I see it more like... Well, before they met, Mokou was barely even human anymore because a human being is not made for lasting eternally. Her concept of time is broken, her memories are broken, she has to take notes and cling to fading material things to remind her of who she is, or who she used to be; her life is defined entirely by constant killing and dying at the hands of her subject of hate, Kaguya. When Keine enters her life and they grow closer, it's the first time in literal ages that Mokou has some sort of anchor in her life, something that makes every day look different from the ones before. Her concept of time gradually slows down and becomes like that of a normal human, she starts going to bed in the evening and waking up in the morning, eating meals in time... Her relationship with Keine actually grants her a real human life in the turmoil of her unnatural eternal life.

... That was pretty off-topic, but, you know.

Any old character is still up for discussion, so it still works, right?

Actually, this makes me wonder if Mokou ever realizes she's meeting the later incarnations of people she knew ages before.

Welp, I guess this conversation is over for realsies now. Testosterone Time soon.

Rinnosuke Morichika

Appearance/voice: introduction to one of many manzai contests hosted by him, manzai sketch of his own with Tewi

Theme:
Curious Shanghai Gu Pai, (Magic Shop of Raspberry)

Traits:

• somewhat introverted
• lacking any business sense
• perverted and/or super-manly

Relationships/Shipping:

• Marisa (an old acquaintance from when he was employed by her parents - built her mini-hakkero, occasionally shipped)
• Akyu (fellow non-action human, occasionally shipped)
• Tokiko (see below)

Write-up:
In the land of extraordinary creatures lives an almost ordinary man collecting extraordinary things that are ordinary to ordinary people. That man is Rinnosuke, owner of the Kourindou antique shop.

Sometimes, objects from the outside world fall through the border into Gensokyo. Some of them are picked up by Yukari, others just appear. Whenever he can manage to, Rinnosuke will try to be the one to acquire these things.

While he has no fighting ability to speak of, the plucky clerk is in fact a half-youkai with the ability to know the name and purpose of an object he sees... Unfortunately for him, this does not mean he knows how to get the object to fulfill its purpose. Consequently, his gaming consoles are used as kicking balls by the local children, and his understanding of "Personal Computers" is that they are shikigami like Chen, since they react badly to water.

Of course, his shop rarely gets any real customers in spite of his plan of setting up shop right between the human village and Forest of Magic... and the customers who do arrive will be lucky to leave the place with anything new. Rinnosuke rather dislikes parting with his beloved collection of curiosities.

As the protagonist of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, his function is to serve as a normal person's viewpoint for the reader to observe Gensokyo's daily life. Of course, Rinnosuke happens to have one penis too many to be considered an ordinary entity in the context of Touhou. As the only humanoid male available, fandom writers and artists tend to depict him humorously as a pervert running around in a loincloth, a musclebound MANnosuke bursting with testosterone, or a combination thereof. Others are more than happy to pair him up with any of the girls, for lack of a male alternative that inhabits the same general area of the animal kingdom. He's also often seen hosting all sorts of events, from idol singing to comedy contests.

Ultimately, it might not be fair to call him ordinary. After all, the man who created Marisa's famous mini-hakkero must have more to him than the naked eye can see...

Similar characters:

• Unzan (except he has facial hair)

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Double feature!

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Tokiko

Appearance/voice:

Theme:
N/A

Traits:

• likes books
• dislikes being beaten up by shrine maidens
• pretty brave, you've gotta admit

Relationships/Shipping:

• Rinnosuke (seen at his shop and known to argue with him a lot - shipped, of course)

Write-up:
Tokiko is the fanmade name for a lady youkai who can sometimes be found at Kourindo. Unfortunately, Reimu found her in the vicinity reading books, and thought she had stolen them...

Poor Tokiko.

Similar characters:

• Koakuma (well, yeah)

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Man, sorry you had to wait so long for so little. Life's been extraordinarily(ugh) busy as of late.

So yeah, Rinnosuke. I don't know if it's all the ridiculous depictions, but I'm having a hard time taking him seriously. I need to find a really convincing work that depicts him in a less silly light and give him a chance... Maybe Curiosities of Lotus Asia itself will do.

... Now what to do about an avatar...

Edit: I'm a genius.

edited 26th Oct '10 9:49:53 AM by Fawriel

He almost has to be. How else could a shopkeeper with no special powers survive in a world like Gensokyo? His shop would be destroyed and/or robbed every five seconds. He either has more power than he's letting on, has a special trick up his sleeve, or is playing some clever politics to get the monsters other residents to leave him alone.

Perhaps!

In other news, I updated the post! Now it's at least 200% as good!

I approve. I suspect that I'd really like Tokiko if she got any kind of fleshing out or a name or something. Also, I don't think she bought the books at Kourindo since in the Curiosities of Something chapter, Rinnosuke was looking for those books to complete a collection. And then Reimu sold them to him. Poor Tokiko.

Also, Rinnosuke being a half-youkai may protect him somewhat. The big thing with youkai is that they need to prey on humans. But he also probably knows some tricks. Its pretty common to depict him with the Kusanagi. Less common but still awesome was a doujin I saw with him using the mini-hakkero modified into a wave motion pistol.

And I am wondering endlessly if either Rinnosuke or Keine are connected to Remilia in some way in the past since Remilia's Perfect Memento article says that her power can turn someone into a half-youkai.

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Any reason why she should do that? I doubt it would be for entertainment reasons. "Boom! Hakutaku'd!"

I just got a mental image of using Tokiko as a repeated background cameo in the SDM library. When asked how she got past Meiling, she explains that her "power" is to attract misfortune, and since Meiling attracts misfortune herself, the magnetic push made it easy to avoid her.

... Man, did she not buy those books? I have no idea, I can only go by what my sources tell me. I never read the actual story...

PS: On the subject of attracting misfortune...

edited 25th Oct '10 3:57:44 PM by Fawriel

Translated here if you're interested.

Tokiko SMASH.◊

Kind of dick of Reimu. And of Rinnosuke for dealing in stolen property. Its interesting that it mentions in that chapter that Rinnosuke made Reimu's purification wand (gohei?). Between that and Marisa's hakkero, he's pretty much the guy behind the scenes that keeps them awesome.

edited 25th Oct '10 4:22:30 PM by Bocaj

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It sounds as if a youkai reading a book is some kind of fantastic sight, or at least one worthy of a vicious miko beating. "Like dem yooks can even read, I tell ya!"

I guess it depends on whether Reimu has "visited" the Scarlet Devil Mansion by that point.

Also, I think Mystia is the only youkai character who doesn't know how to read. Again, don't know if Reimu would know at that point.

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Didn't Mystia just say that the small print is hard for her to see...?

Also, that door-kicking picture just cements Tokiko as a badass once and for all. Yup.

edited 25th Oct '10 5:01:58 PM by Fawriel

I think its common to have Mystia illiterate but you're right about what was actually said.

Tokiko's real badassery is that she's up and about and ready for a fight within a short time of losing to Reimu. If you don't count bosses acting as their own midboss, that's pretty unique.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Poor Tokiko also ends up as Rinnosuke's (as MANnosuke) combo chew-toy in Touhou Soccer, where she will forever be remembered for being used as a bumper.

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

Hey, hey. Rinnosuke has a theme, sorta. It's Curious Shanghai Gu Pai from Touhou Unreal Mahjong, a fangame that ZUN contributed music to, including this one. In fact, here's a piano version and a RED ZONE remix. Sadly, ZUN didn't include it with the just released Curiosities of Lotus Asia collection.

Bearing mention are some who like to use Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures or Magical Shop of Raspberry for him.

Yeah, Marisa and Reimu pretty much hung a lampshade on how Rinnosuke has been able to survive for so long. Anyway, I believe canon has it that he's valuable because of his ability and since doesn't mean any harm to anyone, no one has issue with him.

Although, being a human/youkai product in the olden days and allegedly not having any special abilities... I can only assume he had it rough back then. And as a result he just became crafty and learned to use his ability in a way that wouldn't get him killed.

Retired Badass Rinnosuke is pretty intriguing, however. Badass Rinnosuke may not always be plausible, but splitting the difference between canon Rinnosuke and the one everyone wants, like in Touhou Kouriden, works just fine.

As mentioned earlier, he's also somewhat proficient in magic and tech. For a guy who has trouble with a hookah, the mini-hakkero was a major feat. Even so he must be a former number four in Gensoukyou behind the Lunarians, Kappa, and Yukari when it comes to tech, at least.

God knows why he can't or won't fight, but despite his out there theories, he at least has a handle on theory and the inner workings of both technology and magic. You never know, maybe he could fight through artificial means, like the mini-hakkero, if he really wanted. He could be naturally weak, but just wants to take it easy, I guess, or doesn't see the practicality of fighting in any form.

Anyway, Hidefu Kitayan, Junda, Enokuma, and Kakusei Shitaruchi. A great deal of Rinnosuke here.

edited 26th Oct '10 9:57:12 AM by UTW

So what about that Rinnosuke?

His first name literally translates into "helps the long rain", which clearly links him even more to Marisa "Drizzle" Kirisame. He used to work for her parents, apparently. Any details known?

Edit: Oh hi there, ninja. Hmm, I should update that post to include the music and fix my mistake about the books...

edited 26th Oct '10 9:38:48 AM by Fawriel

CoLA 20. Not much, but he left to start Kourindou more than eleven years ago and hasn't seen Marisa's father for nearly as long. One reason he left was because he wanted to better utilize his ability.

Anyway, along with Akyuu, Marisa, and Tokiko, I've seen Keine, Reimu, Yukari, Sakuya, Aya, Youmu, Sanae, Hatate, Nazrin, and somehow, Satori, as Rinnosuke's most common pairings. Most of his are merely those he's met in Curiosities or elsewhere in canon and the others make a little sense.

edited 26th Oct '10 11:16:10 AM by UTW

Dudes! Guys! Dudeguys! I just had the most amazing revelation!

You know how Rinnosuke is an ordinary non-action guy, somewhat introverted, living on the border between human civilization and the land where the monsters live, running a business that makes little money even though he's sitting on treasures that could make him a fortune if he wasn't so attached to them?

You know who else is like that?

ZUN!

!!

!!!!!!!

edited 26th Oct '10 11:14:20 AM by Fawriel

You're saying Rinnosuke is his Author Avatar?

But he doesn't have a totally awesome hat. I can't believe ZUN would use an avatar that didn't have his totally awesome hat.

Although, it is slightly better than the theory that Aya is his avatar.

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I was half-joking, but yeah, I do feel that there was quite some "write what you know" going on there with Rinno.

I was going to point out Nazrin, but I guess the reasoning is that she'll collect stuff for him... ... but Aya and Hatate?

Either way, hmm. Not much known about Rinnosuke's relation to the Kirisame family, and by extension, what kind of a family it really is.

SPECULATE!

Marisa's father was a bounty hunter and cardshark well known for hunting down dangerous Youkai. At one point he won a thumb war against a sleeping Yuugi. He gave up all his cardshakery and bountery hunting when he met Marisa's mother. Like Marisa, she was an accomplished witch. Unlike Marisa, she was actually Alice from sixty years in the future. Rinnosuke helped Marisa's father with his new family-man job: running a human-youkai dating service. Rinnosuke's parents actually met due to this service so Rinnosuke wanted to do something in gratitude. Marisa became estranged from her family when her father tried to sign her up for speech therapy classes to get rid of the da ze and when Alice went back in time to become a little Makai girl. Rinnosuke similarly went and started his own business when Marisa's father tried to introduce him to this new nice cloud guy he met, really, give him a chance I think you'll like him a lot.

edited 26th Oct '10 12:23:22 PM by Bocaj

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Good enough!

I think the Nazrin thing partly stems from a line she has in one version of her stage 5 midboss appearance, where she says that she ended up finding the jeweled pagoda of Bishamonten in a secondhand store and had a hard time buying it. And Aya hasn't been in CoLA personally, but she did break one of Rinnosuke's windows with the Bunbunmaru. (Although hers wasn't the only tengu newspaper involved.) It's funny how connections are built out of little details.

As for the Kirisame family, I've always gotten the vague impression that they're on the well-off side, and I'm not completely sure why. Is that supported by the chapter where Rinnosuke talks about them, I wonder? Well, I guess there's them being on good terms with the Hiedas.