The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Where does this manipulate personality idea come from? All I've seen from her is the rational personality.

To me, what is more interesting, is her backstory. I don't know if it goes into more detail, but there is a lot of claims that she is a traitor or a deserter. Which is interesting because the character rei literally means "loyal" or something like that.

It just be while she is calm on the surface, she has a darker side. I have nothing to support this, since I always pictured her as well meaning and smart if a bit dim-witted in other respects.

Its sad that there aren't many serious takes on Reisen focusing on her backstory although I personally find the comedic view of eintei hilarious.

Oh yeah, Kaguya as a hikkimori is also an annoying view since her canon personality is pretty badass.

She's a deserter from the Lunarian Army. Apparently she fought astronauts on the moon, but abandoned her post in a losing battle, leaving her allies to die.

Also, her name shouldn't mean much, since apparently she just took kanji that sounded kind of like her name rather than actually having a Japanese name with a Japanese meaning.

I'm just going to fall back on the "That's what he thinks" argument with regards to Reisen's personality-changing powers then—as I said, the only personalities I've ever seen her with in fanon are neither well-adjusted enough to suggest she chose them nor proud enough that I'd think for a second that she'd be hesitant to shift away from them. Also, none of those adjectives describe her usual fanon personality.

Well, the basic idea seems to be that she's normally rational and reasonable but goes berserk in battle because it's convenient too. The way she actually behaves seems to be quite ordinary. She certainly doesn't act like the shell-shocked veteran on the run that her backstory implies, so I'm inclined to believe that she can feel what she wants to feel.

She does occasionally, though now that I think of it I'll admit that in most stories she does not.

In other news, she once broke a man's mind... ON THE MOON!

Yeah, beyond that, she's actually Eirin's apprentice (as well as Kaguya's pet). Which means that presumably she's learning stuff about medicine and whatnot and has a bright future ahead of her as a sage and a doctor. I think she's the only Touhou character who's receiving an education, theoretically.

edited 26th Apr '10 6:50:02 PM by Clarste

In canon, at least. Most everyone is ancient enough to already have any skills they really want. In fanon, though, most of the kids have school with Keine. Still, I think you're right, unless Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeen counts. For that matter, you could argue that Ran counts, but it's iffy.

Wait, we're talking about Reisen now?

I'd be inclined to ignore that bit about her changing her personality. Everything in canon has her as calm and controlled, no sudden switching to be seen.

Well calm and controlled is certainly a good place to stick your baseline. Deviations from that would be potentially useful during combat (in which aggression and focus might be better... might. The SWR text suggests she does make herself over for combat) or in certain social situations, but they'd be deviations from that.

Isn't Reisen one of the younger characters?

oh yeah, funny irony, Reisen is also the name for the Japanese zero.

The image of a war between astronauts and girl space bunnies is somehow an extremely funny image. God bless you Zun.

Also, Neil Armstrong was apparently a badass leader on the human side of that war. Getting funnier yet? I haven't read the source material in question, mind you.

I'm not bashinh touhou, but its just a funny image.

Damn the fandom for not focusing more on this.

??? I wasn't taking it badly, I was adding to the humor value. I thought.

Don't forget, you need an "armstrong" to get to the moon.

Oh I was completely misunderstanding.

Oh god, I'm imagining a ship between Reisen/Armstrong, mortal enemies who are now lovers.

Although its hard to imagine, given SSIB, the Lunar army being that effective.

Reisen/Armstrong is now my OTP.

I'm sure there was plenty of...flag planting in the relationship. <_<

One small step for man one large leap for mankind indeed.

I need to find the transcript, but for the first lunar landing they actually mention the story of Kaguya-hime and one of the astronauts says, I think it was Armstrong, "I will be on the lookout for any beautiful bunny girls, over."

This works so perfectly.

edited 26th Apr '10 8:29:00 PM by anelaidlives

The Armstrong family line has been battling bunny girls for generations!

The conversation moved on so much that I'm going to free associate all over this post. So, not much different from normal.

Koishi's part in Tag Dream irritated me. It seems like the author nerfed her unconscious powers just so Satori and company could get worfed by the tournament organizers.

Koishi actually mentions in SA that her sister is not very good at fighting. I imagine Koishi as having been stronger than her sister even before sealing her Third Eye.

Promising little sister: stronger in danmaku, better at reading the hearts of others, so responsible. "Satori, try to be more like your little sister." And then she seals her Third Eye, cuts herself off from the others. Would they have seen it coming or was it an unconscious decision?

And the doujin I mentioned earlier, At Chirei focuses mainly on Satori and Orin but Koishi is a major force for the plot and it deals with the Third Eye sealing seriously.

Its sad that there's not more to say about Koishi because she seems like she'd be a real promising character. Its not supported by canon or common sense, but I always imagined that she'd act sort of like Osaka when talking to someone.

But its happy that Reisen is probably next. Reisen is an awesome little bunny good for many things. I don't care that the Inaba comic is only vaguely canonical. Reisen was comedy gold in that comic.

Edit: At one point, I looked in vein for a picture of Neil Armstrong either punching some moon bunnies or fighting the Moonwesleys.

edited 26th Apr '10 9:23:50 PM by Bocaj

Someone needs to make that fanart.

And then he meets up with Sakuya, who convinces him to help finish Remilia's moon rocket project.

Danbooru doesn't even have a neil_armstrong tag. Very odd.

After Shoot the Bullet, I call bullshit on Satori being weaker.

Seriously look at those spellcards it's ridiculous.

She's probably been taking lessons from Utsuho or Orin or something to get better.

Not that Koishi isn't strong, but I can't imagine any difference between Satori and Koishi in danmaku as being too much.

Also, I need to read At Chirei still. I keep seeing it on Danbooru but I never see it at the beginning and then I forgot to check the Pool and ffff.

EDIT: Also, I always figure Koishi just got interrupted by Byakuren's arrival. I mean, she even asks if she was late, and before that she couldn't probably do much without Yuyuko going instant death. I dunno, I don't see much that Koishi could have done there drastically different without everything becoming a power clusterfuck, where Kanako/Yuyuko probably had Satori/Koishi beat.

edited 26th Apr '10 9:59:52 PM by Ruki Motomiya

All this Reisen stuff I'm hearing is fascinating - I'd written her off as a bubble-headed bunny, if a snappy dresser. But the "manipulation of waves" thing...

Anyway, jumping in on the tail-end of the Koishi conversation. Koishi's one of those characters you can't really grimdark up much more than canon has. I mean, she basically did the satori equivalent of shoving a crayon up her nose to make the mental voices from others go away. In the process she committed emotional suicide - her name's supposed to mean "love/beloved" but Suwako appropriately uses the alternate interpretation of "little rock." Huh, I'm suddenly reminded of the Stone Mask.

Reading the scripts doesn't give much indication of this, however, and she comes across as fairly normal... or at least as normal as Reimu, Marisa, and the other gals of Gensokyo. Though I wonder what she means by seeking "the gloomy power of love" for her pets.

I guess whatever psychological trauma resulting from closing her third eye would determine what her personality is like - if she effectively lobotomized away her ability to read the conscious mind, that may affect her ability to form complex thoughts of her own, leaving her a creature of impulse and whimsical urges but no long-term planning. Alternatively, things got flip-flopped and crosswired, making Koishi a hollow creature who can "think" about enjoying an activity without really "feeling" contentment. Which would mesh with some of the more melancholy takes on her, even if I can't explain how it'd work.

Still, her appearance in that Touhou short was cute. And her write-up by ZUN suggests that closing her third eye isn't permanent, so she might start opening up to others more.

hijack'd .___.

Lack of Koishi fills me with a thousand sadnesses. If I ever make Touhou comics, I'll focus on all the underused characters, I swear. I rarely like the popular ones anyway. I... I have nothing to say about Reisen!

Anyone desperately wanna do the write-up? I can provide raw formating.

I'd be fine doing the write-up if you've got the raw formatting, because I CANNOT format.

EDIT: wheeeee I got the job, it should be up before too long tomorrow.

edited 27th Apr '10 4:22:47 AM by Ruki Motomiya