The Touhou Character Alternate Interpretation Compendium

Faw's been really busy, is all.

Oh hi, uh. Who's next? Orin?

Apparently. Unless we wanna do a vote or something.

I haven't seen any opposition to doing Orin next...

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Rin Kaenbyou

Heartful Nekoromancer

Orin's Hell Eatery

Theme:
Corpse Voyage ~ Be of good cheer!, Lullaby of Demonic Hell

Traits:

• Kansai Regional Accent
  • The tsukkomi to Utsuho's boke?
• well-spoken <=> Kansai-ben, playful
• still in many ways an animal

Relationships/Shipping:

• Utsuho (an old friend)
• Satori (her master)
• Koishi (her master's sister)

Write-up:
One of the driving forces behind the plot of Subterranean Animism, Rin Kaenbyou, or Orin, as she prefers to be called, wanted to lure people to her to help her subdue her friend Utsuho, before she does something that she will regret. Apparently a more sensible person than her old companion, whether that's saying much or not.

Being associated with two more popular characters in Utsuho and perhaps Satori, Orin rarely gets much of a spotlight on her own. Nonetheless, there are many points of personality to be found on her.

Her official profile describes her as well-spoken, and she evidently has some common sense in her. On the other hand: She's very feisty, attacking the player character four whole times. Her in-game picture also looks rather sneaky. She has a Kansai-ben, which is usually associated with louder characters, but might also be a reference to her status as a straight man to Utsuho. Finally, she is still very much a cat, and the profile even says that the whole plot could have been resolved simply by her coming to Satori to make Utsuho stop the madness, but she simply didn't dare because she didn't want Satori to find out, "just as children are afraid of their parents finding out their secrets".

This might be a little half-assed, and I'm sorry for it. It's kinda the middle of the night here, and I practically didn't know anything about Orin prior to this research. ._.

edited 5th Jun '10 4:28:25 PM by Fawriel

All I wanna say is that ZUN's some kinda mastermind. He gave the most difficult boss in SA a very amusing and likable personality, and an amazing boss theme. I find myself unable to hate her despite dreading her boss fight every time.

And don't forget her zombie (cosplayer) faries.

The main characterization I see for Orin is as a full grown cat, in comparison to Chen's kittenness. She's smart and fairly cynical. Not really the Tsukkomi type, since her reaction to Okuu's screwups tends to be to sigh and maybe explain what she's doing wrong, rather than being agressive about it.

A) She has human ears in addition to her cats ears in her official portrait. Divide by Zero error, please restart reality.

B) Despite inviting the players down to stop Utsuho, she seems awfully insistent on killing you. Is she testing you? If so, why second-guess herself so much?

C) She's sort of... cheerfully grim. She deals with stuff like carting corpses around and necromancy with a smile on her face. Zombies and cannibalistic spirits and tortured sinners, oh my. Even if she's kidding about killing the players, as presumably most of the characters are, she's still got a human corpse in that cart. And she's probably cheerfully talking to it before throwing it in the furnace.

D) Good friend of Utsuho, oddly terrified of Satori. Is Satori really that terrifying or is this just the cowering pet instinct? Like a dog who doesn't realize it's bigger and stronger than its master. I can see merit in both interpretations.

^

B) Oddly, while she seems to want Utsuho stopped, she seems to want to keep the players away. She tells Reimu/Yukari "So, ya want to stop the geysers? Ya better not! She's dangerous. The most dangerous bird in the underworld!" Maybe it's a kind of Mountain-Of-Faith style thingamajig, where she wants the threat stopped, but doesn't think the protagonists are strong enough to not get killed.

C) "Man, carrying off corpses is fun!"

D) She's afraid of getting scolded. It's like your parents in real life; even if you grow up physically stronger then them, you're still afraid of their disapproval or getting scolded.

only tangentally related, since it's a question about Utsuho. Is there a trope for when a Mook gets strong enough to be a legitimate, individual threat, like Utsuho did? (like, in stage 6, you fight a bunch of normal hell-ravens, and they all go down in one hit, whereas post-yata Utsuho is the final boss)

She was probably already the biggest and strongest hell-raven before she ate Yatagarasu. At least a stage 4 boss.

Mook Promotion. Though she was already the strongest hell raven.

I think Orin fighting you is mainly due to the fact that she has to be a boss to be in the game.

edited 5th Jun '10 5:20:16 PM by Hylarn

Fighting you once I could understand. If you can't stop her than you wouldn't be able to stop Utsuho and all that. But then she comes in again as a mid-boss in stage 6 to finish you off, apparently having just remembered that Utsuho leaves no corpses behind.

Or... maybe given her necromantic powers she's trying to save you? A zombie life is better than no life at all?

The Final Boss never acts as their own midboss, and it's not like Satori was going to suddenly show up. From a more Watsonian point of view, maybe she thinks fighting you is fun, and that you're strong enough that she doesn't have to worry about accidentally beating her hope of getting Okuu back to normal.

What gets me is that she dresses up her fairy assistants as zombies. There's no real reason to do it so I guess she just does it to fit the theme. It contrasts with Utsuho who takes her job running the reactor so seriously that it confuses people who are more used to her birdbrained portrayal. For Utsuho, work is srs business. For Orin, work is fun. She institutes a wacky dress-code for her helpers. Why? Who is going to see them? Most of the underground youkai avoid the Palace of Earth Spirits. She probably does it as a private joke between her and Utsuho and I'm not sure Utsuho gets it.

Even though she initiated the plot of Subterranean Animism because she was worried about her friend, her interactions with the player characters are very playful.

Its funny but fanworks tend to depict her as being much more serious than she acts in the games. Probably to make her a foil to Utsuho. Also, even though both are canonically mischievous, Orin is more likely to get up to mischief in fanworks and Chen is more likely to be cute. So cat versus kitten portrayals I guess.

Well, I already posted it for Koishi but Karaagetarou's At Chirei.

Mikagami Hiyori's Bringing Up Child of Crow.

Forgetful edit: Touhou M-1 video. Orin teams up with Koishi for great justice.

edited 5th Jun '10 6:17:46 PM by Bocaj

Satori has a lot of pets, including other Kasha and Hell Crows. She does have other people to show off to. Though the cosplaying fairies is probably the result of ZUN forgetting that fairies are immortal.

C) "Man, carrying off corpses is fun!"

Hard to fault someone for enjoying their job.

• Anime-like
• DS
• Chibi
• Text
• Wasn't Enlong having that problem?
• Zombie fairy
• Not morbid
• Skulls
• Casual
• Stylized
• How hot must it be for her to dress down?
• Creepy
• Wheels
• Cute
• Falling off

Orin has a surprisingly large amount of ero and low amount of guro.

Wasn't Enlong having that problem?

Nah, not the same problem.

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...I only made it to Fixed Star... Two patterns away from Hell And Heaven Meltdown... :(

I felt basically the same way as that pic, though: a freakin' miracle that I made it that far.

edited 5th Jun '10 7:01:17 PM by Enlong

^^^ That video makes me think of a metaphysical question about the Touhou-verse. Orin takes the corpses and Komachi guides the souls. That much makes sense. But Orin's also a necromancer capable of talking to soulless corpses (how does this work?), as well as having a supply of evil spirits to play around with. Even though her Hell is closed for business. Where does she get all her spirits?

Actually, if Orin takes your corpse, your soul does not pass Go and does not collect $200. I think if Orin takes and burns your corpse, you can't cross the Sanzu River and get judged.

Hasty edit: Which makes sense. Orin is basically undermining the judge and committing you straight to Hell, even if its an old, dilapidated Hell.

edited 5th Jun '10 7:19:10 PM by Bocaj

Er... wouldn't that make her Evil with a capital E? Like, metaphysically evil?

Maybe she releases the souls after she's done with them? It's not like she eats them or anything.

edited 5th Jun '10 7:28:32 PM by Hylarn

Still, interfering with the natural order of the world, etc etc.

^^ much.

Actually, it may not be that she's evil, but that she's... well, a lot like Utsuho, actually. Extremely enthusiastic about her job to the point that it starts to become a bit of a problem.

edited 5th Jun '10 8:14:56 PM by Enlong

Does she mention eating souls in her dialogue? There's nothing about it in her profile, and kasha traditionally just eat corpses.