Touhou

Ohhhh my.

At a glance: Bowsette Jr., is that a gun?, colorful lady playing with too many sparklers, and Aya's American cousin (original character, do not steal).

I was gonna say one of Gensokyo's own gangs - the Moriyas, Buddhists, Taoists, whichever - really ought to be doing their part to defend their territory. Then I realized the Incident Resolvers are basically their own little outfit, so this really could be one huge gang war.

Sweet, more cosmology!

So, is this Beast World located somewhere in Gensokyo as we know it, like another corner of the Underworld that connects to Hell? Is it a separate Otherworld with its own Hell that Hecatia runs, which happens to be connected to Gensokyo's Hell somehow? Or is it the Animal Realm mentioned in this article on Buddhist conceptions of reincarnation?

Wait, is that legal? Naming your gang of supernatural beings after another supernatural being that isn't actually in your gang? Does the Beast World have oni of its own?

Hell's been a hot mess since, what, Subterranean Animism? Underfunded, previously so overcrowded the whole operation had to relocate, slacking workers, decaying infrastructure...

Awaiting the inevitable showdown with Meiling.

Deep-fried fillets. That's usually the proper answer regardless of the meat, granted.

Current earworm: "Mother ~ Outro"

Just to add, when people refer to Yachie they sometimes just go "oh, you mean that dragon?" She is 120% a dragon, everyone thinks of her as a dragon.

Anyway, I'm honestly not sure if the Beast World is supposed to represent the Buddhist Animal Realm or not, but in terms of Touhou cosmology it's described as somewhere extremely far from Gensokyo and the Human World generally. You can't even reach it without going through Hell, which itself is "despair-inducingly vast." Eiki specifically says that what happens in the Beast World has absolutely no chance of affecting living humans in any way, outside of extraordinary circumstances.

I think it's safe to say that this is the furthest from home Reimu's ever been.

Edited by Clarste on Aug 12th 2019 at 11:40:21 AM

Further than the moon?

Heart of Stone

Is the game not yet fully translated?

Edited by PhysicalStamina on Aug 12th 2019 at 2:55:59 PM

Looking at Pixiv, quite a few artists seem to portray Saki as a centaur. Can't say I blame them. Had the same idea and I think ZUN missed an opportunity for one.

Maybe he can't draw horses

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would not even be remotely surprised

"Have a good day. Have a good week. Have a good month. Have a good year. Have a good life." ~Civia

Depends on how fast you can travel through Dream World.

Continue the bloodline, Fujimaru!

The moon's just a hop, skip, and a nap away.

FWIW the stage subtitle namedrops the Animal Realm (Tiryagyoni Metropolis ~ Beastly Dystopia)

Also

sounds pretty close

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Is Keiki based on a specific myth? What even is her species, just 'god' generically?

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I've heard she's based on an obscure god from the Kojiki who shares her surname. A god who creates things from clay.

Her species is just "god".

cool

fyi from hereon out i shall be referring to her as 'cake'

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Fair enough.

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Apparently I missed that the leader of the Gouyaku Alliance (the Eagle's gang) is actually named in the dialog with Saki. Her name is Toutetsu, which is the name of an evil creature from Chinese myth (taotie).

So, uh, have fun with that, kids.

The taotie is a sheep demon with a human face, which bascly eats everything it comes across and is a symbolic representation of gluttony or smth

donno what one is doing being the boss of a bird gang

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A flying horse is the boss of the wolf gang, there's some wiggle room.

It's somewhat funny that Yachie's profile basically tells the entire plot, but when it comes to Yachie herself it's only "she's friendly but actually looks foen on you."

Yachie shows up in a few of the endings. One of them has her arguing with Keiki and it's pretty interesting.

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So I guess if we were to continue the meme of "Reimu continues to make problems each game", Touhou 17's would be something like "Reimu propagates gang violence" or something?

Reimu suppresses a slave rebellion.

With the warring dystopias, it's like she defeated one set of masters and left them at the mercy of another, isn't it?

Gonna go with 'Reimu suppresses a slave rebellion' too.

The beasts called her in because the uppity human spirits were getting ideas above their station and summoning protector gods

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