The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Picdump was added to my previous post! Actually, I'm editing it in here now because it's a new page now. It would be inconvenient to return to see it.

I like the way you think, Bubba.

Not sure if it makes a lot of sense, though, I mean. They have plenty of danmaku-ing going on as it is. Evidently.

Luize definitely looks the part; with that hat and all.

It would be amazing if this was actually it. From my experiences with Gensokyo, it seems downright absurd to suggest that people might actually find a peaceful solution to such a problem, perhaps out of fear of being punished by, like, law enforcement?

Makai is a civilization and the Gensokyans are the savages.

I would not be surprised in the least.

But, wait, what evidence is there that no travel guides or anything exist? Maybe Luize was just on her way to... the... bus or something.

Picdump now!

• She came in a cloud of flowers.
• And she brought gifts.
• A friend to even a ghost (for some reason)!
• That's how she titles all of her vacation polaroids.
• Posing is her specialty.
• Also, making friends in all kinds of places.
• Sometimes she eats too much, but the fat just goes straight to her hips. And if you disagree, Sara will mess you up.
• Enjoying scenic views is like a national sport here.
• Much like trading card games.

More group pictures:

• Flowing skirts and strange lighting choices.
• Alice it's your birthday, happy birthday Alice–
• Dreamlike yet cool.

edited 22nd Nov '10 6:45:31 AM by Fawriel

Hey, there's a [Country] Doll bringing her a present too! How swee- wait.

Is Alice giving herself an extra present?

I have a message from another time...

Either that, or the doll has gained sentience out of pure love for Alice.

Sweet or depressing, it's up to you!

Here's a very good song for reintepreting the Mai/Yuki dynamic:

Perhaps Mai was putting on a brave front after her friend was blown aside by the Player?

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

'Fraid you're a little late with that, Scarabs.

"Visit BEAUTIFUL GENSOKYO! See the historic Hakurei Shrine and quaint Human Village! Climb Mt. Youkai for the annual tengu air show! Duel with a REAL SHRINE MAIDEN! Take the opportunity to visit the petting zoo and feed REAL YOUKAI! There's probably a beach or something too! Get lost in the MYSTERIOUS BAMBOO FOREST!"

edited 22nd Nov '10 7:46:03 AM by Bocaj

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Upon arrival you will be greeted with a free light show, courtesy of the Gensokyo Welcoming Committee!

You just know that somewhere out there there's some fan who wants to open a Touhou theme park and make that happen for real.

Man, Touhoumon is damaging the way I see characters. I can't see Mai as a shy but caring person, but as a relentless force of evil.

And that's how I ended up in the wardrobe. It Just Bugs Me!

I'm liking Kotohime more and more as I read more about her; she's certainly among my favorites by now.

Also I've loved Luize since I ran into her midboss appearance; I have to admire someone who comes back for another round like that. It also helps that she has a lovely hat, and that she is, as you say, super-pretty.

Without further ado: Kotohime's ending! (or a very rough, amateurish translation thereof)

Read only if you are worthy!

Yumemi: As I thought, I cannot defeat a true magician.
Y: How vexing! Why couldn't I have been born in this world?
Y: Since it's come down to this, I will show you the true power of science!
Y: With this 4-dimensional positron bomb, the earth shall be destroyed!
[Chiyuri whacks Yumemi over the head with a folding chair]
Chiyuri: Cut it out!
C: If you do something like this, we'll go down in history as criminals.
Y: That chair hurts...
Y: Really, couldn't you see I was joking?
Y: Well, it can't be helped. I'll abandon pursuit of your magic.
Y: But, I collected a lot of data, so I'll try organizing it and presenting it to the scientific society.
Y: "Magic exists! It is as I thought: closely related to religion, capable of solving our energy and environmental problems; it is the religion that will save humanity. And..." [ugh that long sentence is weird and I don't fully understand it]
C: I doubt it'll go like that.

Y: Anyway, it was a promise. I will grant your wish.
Kotohime: I don't want anything.
Y: Eh? What?
K: It looks like you really are from a different world.
Y: What are you talking about?
K: I am this world's police. I disguised myself as an ordinary person and came to investigate you.
Y: You're not very much like an ordinary person.
K: Well, there were some shady people around...
Y: Who are you talking about?!
K: But, humans from another world fall under a different jurisdiction.
Y: Well, that's fine.
K: Anyway, it looks like you'll quickly be gone from this world.
Y: What is with that attitude... I'm saying I'll grant your wish!
K: After all, you can't amount to much.
Y: Don't make light of the power of our science! I am entirely capable of blowing the earth apart!
K: Then go ahead and try. <3
Y: No way. That was just an example.
K: I was kidding... well, since it's been troublesome, you can grant my wish.
K: I want the shrine maiden I encountered on the way here.
Y: Hmm? Well, something like that is no problem, but are you really police?
K: I am.
Y: Then, the shrine maiden can certainly be delivered to you.
Y: And with that, may we meet again someday.

Some time later...
K: I tried to talk, but... [really not sure about this line]
Reimu: What do you want with me! I didn't do anything... [really not sure about the first part of this one either]
K: Well, since there aren't many criminals around here, there are a lot of empty cells, so I thought I'd put you in one for now.
R: Hey hey hey, hurry up and let me out!
K: Not until I get bored. <3
R: What did I do...

edited 22nd Nov '10 9:35:17 AM by DarkFae

Kotohime is officially an awesome character.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

My favourite artwork of Luize would be this by Geike but her attire is quite different. I just love both Sara's and Luize's dresses in this. Out of time to write any more again.

I'm interested in the implications about Shinki. She approves of the tourism industry, or at least hasn't taken any steps to stop it - which is itself meaningful. She calls it a "civilian" agency, and claims to have no say in the matter. The creator of Makai, a veritable goddess, is willingly restricting her influence and control.

If she does approve of the demons touring Gensokyo, it means that she's confident enough in her position as goddess to not fear competition in the form of neighboring deities. Contrast with the pseudo religious war in Mountain of Faith. Furthermore, Shinki isn't concerned her subjects or creations could try to escape, but will instead return willingly to her.

I wonder if any attempt was made to meet with Gensokyo's government to arrange the vacations, or if the Makaijin (good name for a band) just marched on out. Maybe Gensokyo lacks a government to contact. Or maybe the Makai Travel Agency thought they got official permission...

"'Invasion?' Madam, I assure you, I personally had a lengthy conference with the princess of Gensokyo herself, and she assured me that our plan had her full support. She called it an important step to build a rapport between our nations and foster economic and cultural... What. You don't have a princess?! Then who the hell did I talk to?!"

Another question would be exactly why they'd want to tour Gensokyo in the first place. Though I guess if you're around crystal forests and frozen seas long enough, stuff like grass and trees would be pretty exotic.

Do they view humans as primitive natives or as wildlife?

Shinki did it, and in doing so made Alice obsessed with discovering the secrets of life so she can live up to her mother figure.

No segue!

Sara: An enthusiastic fighter whose only complaint about her encounter with Reimu is that she lost (not so much for the other heroines, though). Maybe her weakness is due to fighting on the wrong side of the barrier? Like if she was fighting from the Makai side of the threshold, she'd be on her home turf so to speak. Or maybe she's an eager novice who had a very unfortunately-timed first day.

Does not look like a demon. No horns, no pointy ears, no unusually-colored eyes... well, her hair's pink. I guess that's a tell. I mean, when I see a girl walking towards me with bubblegum-colored hair I always go for my holy water and blessed revolver, am I right guys?

Louise: She practically welcomes Reimu, tells her to look around and see the sights. So Reimu blasts her. She challenges Marisa to a good-natured duel, and doesn't hold any bitterness after her defeat. When Mima comes to the conclusion that Lousie is looking for a fight, she goes along with it anyway.

Yuuka pisses her off enough to provoke a sudden attack, though. Cue title card of That's My Yuuka! and laugh track.

Not at all demonic. It's like the movie version of Eragon, where they took a bunch of normal-looking guys and claimed they were orcs and dwarves and elves. I wonder if she still wanted to go to Gensokyo after getting trounced by invaders...

Alice: Not much to say that hasn't been said during the Shinki discussion. Though it's worth mentioning that Makai is supposed to have a harmful miasma that only the strongest humans can endure. So unless Shinki gave her some special protection, Alice is flying around just fine as a child.

Also, I like her suspiciously specific denial towards Marisa, "Using so much magic doesn't make you any cooler, you know!!"

Also also, she refers to Reimu as "a human like you," not "a human like me or us." So either this Alice wasn't a human at all, or was never told she was. I bet afterword Shinki had to sit down with her and have a little talk. "You may have noticed that you're... different from some of the demons around here..." (of course, she looks no weirder than Louise).

Well, guess I had something further to add after all.

Yuki and Mai: Probably not part of an organized effort to stop the intruders, given the imperfect friendship and teamwork evident in Mai's "dragging me down" rant. More likely they're just a pair of friends(?) who decided to try their hand at playing defense.

I wonder which of them came up with the idea to play at warriors? Was it exuberant Yuki, eager to defend her homeland and maybe make a name for herself? Or was it Mai's idea, an attempt to test her power?

Yuki looks confusingly like Marisa, but not like a demon. Mai gets points for having some frickin' indicators of her otherworldly nature besides weird hair.

I'm suddenly getting Fighter/Black Mage flashbacks. Wonder if there were any near-fatal training "accidents" that Yuki laughed off?

Yumeko: I almost want to say the dynamic between her and Shinki is like what you'd get pairing Youmu with Remilia: a fiercely-loyal and overprotective bodyguard serving a cool-headed, charismatic master. Except I'm not sure if Remilia ended up deferring to Sakuya at any point, which is exactly what Shinki does - she gives up trying for a peaceful solution to let Yumeko try her hand at some "quick cleaning."

Or at least that's how Reimu's scenario plays out. In the Marisa encounter Shinki's much more strict, and makes Yumeko apologize for insinuating that she wouldn't be strong enough to deal with the witch - though for some reason I read that as teasing rather than genuine anger. With Yuuka she's reluctant to send Yumeko in, since she knows she's outmatched, but concedes anyway because there's no stopping her.

So from all this I conclude that Yumeko is someone Shinki knows she can't always control, a strong-willed warrior who demands satisfaction if her mistress is insulted, and is quick to apologize if she thinks she's slighted her lady. A loyal, if sometimes overenthusiastic, servant. So basically Youmu sans childish clumsiness and ditziness.

Throwing swords, though. Perhaps it's a clear intimidation tactic. Maybe she figures that if she can manage to hurl longswords about, she might as well do it for the damage potential. Or maybe she somehow knew of another blade-hurling maid, and felt a need to one-up her...

Again, not demonic.

Sara:

• Not at all intimidating.
• Okay, you're marginally more threatening with the fang, but there's nothing to set you apart from a fairy.
• Purple energy balls? Getting better.
• I wouldn't call you scary, but you finally don't look human.

Louise:

• One of the few Fawriel didn't post (not that there's a great deal to choose from)
• No idea who or what the doll is.

Young Alice (fun note, Young Alice is usually paired with... Old Alice):

• So many frills.
• Butterflies and a tiny cross.
• So was Shinki grooming her as an heir, or what?
• Hesitant.
• In the woods.
• Simple but good.
• Magic circle.
• Rectangles.
• That's some advanced spellwork for her age.
• Imitation official portrait.
• I guess you could interpret it as an age-up ritual.
• Older Young Alice is not quite New Older Alice.
• I dunno, looks kinda cool, here it is.
• Not sure what's going on here, but I find it vaguely unsettling.
• Doll.
• My mama figure beat up your mama figure!
• The beginning (of Reimu's detached sleeves)
• I think she's trying to be a demonspawn.
• All kinds of awesome.

Yuki & Mai:

• Deliriously happy.
• Crimson.
• "Alright! You've done it now! Now I'm serous!"
• There we go! There's that demon face!
• Dude, those wings are HUGE.
• A slightly unhinged look.
• Totally trustworthy.
• This is my scheming face.
• I still think Cirno could beat her, though.
• "This time, I'll definitely defeat you!!"
• Is it real remorse, or just another ruse?
• Stop them, Shiki!
• Teamwork pose!
• Carefree.
• Childish.
• Why are perfectly rectangular chunks of Yuki's dress missing?
• Costume change.
• This is either payback or foreplay.
• Waving goodbye? Or just now noticing she's being followed?
• Judas Kiss.
• Kissing Judas.

Yumeko:

• Short sword and dagger.
• So much sharpness.
• At this point she knows she's losing, but she keeps fighting.
• Swords swords swords swords
• Sword sword swordity sword
• Italian?
• Bodyguard, maid, and part-time nanny.
• Sharpness and softness.
• ...Wait a minute.
• I don't know either.
• Heaven or Hell, let's rock!
• And off they go.
• But just imagine their Dual Techs.

Aaaaand finally (after checking to make sure I haven't been ninja'd by another update), I can say I'm all caught up.

...Now what?

edited 22nd Nov '10 11:56:39 PM by Tacitus

Current earworm: "A New Journey"

...Is Akyuu right when she says that Alice was originally a human?

I mean, whatever your species, I assume that you become the same as a magician youkai when you perform the Abandoning Eating magic, so who's to say that Alice wasn't a demon who performed said ritual?

It's not like Akyuu would know what Alice got up to during her childhood in Makai...

edited 23rd Nov '10 12:03:34 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

Alternatively, it could be someone who couldn't make it there physically "dolling in" to the party.

"Excuse me Miss Alice, were you originally a human?"

"Sure. Why not"

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Ellipsis Bird

Appearance: A bird with a large eye and an ellipsis trailing it. Image◊.

Theme: PoDD Ending Themes, other ending themes.

Traits:

• Background character
• Everpresent
• Mysterious

Write-up: Though never appearing during gameplay, the Ellipsis Bird appears in most of the PC 98 endings. Apparently, she is keeping an eye on the going-ons inside Gensokyo, while wise enough to never appear in a location where she might be shot down by the player. Her motivations are unknown, but there is a decent chance that she has some connection to the other historians of Gensokyo.

She usually appears between the portion of the ending which takes place immediately after defeating the final boss, and the portion which takes place "some time later", so she may have an ability related to time - perhaps even the ability to travel forwards through time.

Alternately, some might say that she's just an ordinary bird of no importance, but that is clearly ridiculous.

Similar characters:

• Aya
• Akyuu
• Rumia
• That crow of Yukari's that got killed in Silent Sinner in Blue
• Kaepora Gaebora

edited 23rd Nov '10 12:33:10 AM by DarkFae

Possible relatives?

It basically works by replacing basic body functions with magic. Supernaturals are already pretty magic, so I wouldn't expect it to work well. If it worked on her it'd mean that she's human or that Makaijin are functionally human.

And I feel bad for saying it, but I would certainly prefer it if Yumeko was the knife/sword maid of the Windows series. Aesthetically I've never been fond of Sakuya, personality is a different matter.

I love the way you describe it.

I know discussion is still open, but was that the last of the PC-98 characters? As a whole I quite like the bunch. Lack of character development but a lot of their designs are very nice, and that nostalgic aura helps. Only Kana makes it into my top ten though, about the mid-way point. ZUN's character designs seem to have changed slightly since, or maybe its just all the beast youkai of the Windows era that's making me think that.

edited 23rd Nov '10 2:08:23 AM by Higanbana

I think the lack of character development is one of their strongest assets; with the characters from Highly Responsive to Prayers in particular, you can make up whatever the hell you want and no-one can use canon to contradict you.

As for the character designs changing, I think hardware restrictions probably had something to do with it; if I'm not mistaken, the PC-98 always had a very small color palette, among other limitations.

edited 23rd Nov '10 2:16:43 AM by SuperDimensionman

That's certainly true, and of course partly why Touhou characters in general are popular. There are some characters in PC-98 that I would like a bit more of a base to go from though.

I didn't think about that and it probably does have a bit to do with it too.

That bird is the spy for Furiru Fanshidoresu, the Youkai of Frills. and is making sure that the big players of Gensokyo are sufficiently ruffled. BUT, the bird is also a mole for the Youkai of Hats.

edited 23rd Nov '10 8:10:27 AM by Bocaj

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I've heard that the Youkai of Frills also hosts all of Gensokyo's best parties.

*hides blueprints* ._.'

See: my title and signature

Yeah, that's pretty cool if you think about it!

"Ooh, how fancy. What do you call this?"
"That would be a... tree."
"What does it do?"

Judging by Luize, I'd say they view them... much like stereotypical tourists view foreigners.

"Oh gosh look, Robert, they're wearing different clothes from us! Isn't that just soooo nice?"

Creating-fanon-by-loosely-interpreting-bits-of-fanart-highfive!

Heh, yeah, I'll go with that. After all, who ever heard about an enthusiastic gate guard? You'd either have to be guarding something that (you think) actually belongs to you (Kurumi) , be crazy devoted to the person you're guarding (Elly) , or... or it's your first day.

It'd be easier to count youkai who do.

I can't believe I didn't make that connection myself.

I don't like to think of Yuki as fighterstupid, though. Just somehow really, really oblivious.

Your thoughts on Yumeko are interesting. It's a pity I really don't like her design. Her character is pretty cool.

I can't believe I forgot to address this crucial character. My sincere apologies.

Yeah, those were the last ones. And yeah, ZUN's designs have changed quite a bit, but apart from a greater use of colors to increase recognizability, it's hard to say exactly where the differences lie.

That doesn't really explain why designs would change within the context of PC-98 itself. Like, Marisa started as a little red-haired girl, then turned into a blonde lady for Dim.Dream, then into a toddler for LLS.

That's true. On the other hand, there obviously has to be a balance. If you wanted a complete carte blanche, you'd take a piece of paper, after all. The characters wouldn't be interesting at all if we didn't have a greater context now to try and place them into.