Touhou

Touhou's western presence - what little it had - is probably not as big as it once was, and that's okay.

Also, regarding the character profiles from Strange Creators, these are actually like the lowest of low priorities for the translators because they don't contain any new information, they're just summarizing information from other places. This makes them, like, super boring to translate. It's not just me, other translators I've talked to have said the same thing. The issue being that anyone devoted enough to spend their free time translating Touhou is also a superfan who has no interest in summaries aimed at more casual fans.

Incidentally it's also been leaked through store webpages that ZUN putting together a full book of these Strange Creators profiles though.

Edited by Clarste on Feb 9th 2020 at 6:40:28 AM

Touhou popularity only appears to be dipped because the doujin arena has diversified quite a bit. Kancolle, Kemono Friends, Fate, among others, all have created a wider base that makes Touhou appear to have shrunk.

Which is funny because many of the most popular pools on Danbooru remain Touhou works. Examples include Echoes In Front Of The Temple, Hang In There Kogasa San, Mamange, and various 4koma works.

Ergo, the Touhou Boom has abated, but the fandom is still going strong.

It's almost a bit scary how fast Kancolle caught up with Touhou on certain image boards, though. Especially considering that Touhou had a head start on over a decade... I mean, Danbooru pretty much underrepresents the presence of Kancolle fanart; on some image boards — that have about as much Touhou fanart as Danbooru does — Kancolle has outright overtaken Touhou's lead in sheer numbers... Then again, Touhou isn't just about fanart; it's as multimedia as something could ever possibly be, and I don't see Kancolle catching up to Touhou's music, fangame and fanimation numbers (or quality) any time soon. Like you said, Clarste; Touhou's a different sort of beast... Still, it all does explain the sadly poor influx of fanart for the last couple of games.

Also, yeah, I do see what you mean about it being boring to translate stuff we already know about, Clarste... I think the reason why I got caught up on that is because I started reading the SCoOW translations back in 2018 and, seeing as they were incomplete back then, I kinda figured "Eh, I'll give 'em some time and come back later, when there are more issues out and I can have myself a SCoOW marathon." And then that (obviously) didn't quite work out the way I planned it... Oh well, c'est la vie. ^^
Still, I did enjoy the "game overview" interviews with ZUN, and I think I learned a couple of new things from them, too... That said, as I was reading them I also couldn't help but consider how tedious it must've been to translate them... I was even kinda glad that I suck so badly at Japanese that the voice in my head that encourages me to translate works on my own assumes the shape of the Potato Jesus Painting — HashtagOldMemes — quite simply because it gave me an excuse not to do it. So yeah, I sympathize.

Kancolle doesn’t seem to have much to it

Just cute boats really.

Azur Lane does too but theirs are overall better YEAH I SAID IT

Kancolle started the influx of "anime waifu" gacha and fanartsis fuckin eat that shit up, pushing touhou out of the way a bit in that area

I mean, Kancolle's already dying too. The Kancolle Boom is over, and it lasted a bit shorter than the Touhou Boom. FGO is the king right now.

I said it started it, not that its still king

I'm not responding to you in particular, just pointing out that Touhou's "rival" isn't even Kancolle anymore.

Personally I'm rooting for Arknights. It's been pretty cool so far and I think it's got a shot.

New Lyrica Live, Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain

I read about a very interesting interpretation of Reimu and Marisa.

I never thought Marisa and Reimu as a fantasy for salarymen to be honest with you but it is a very interesting interpretation.

Question: do the villagers know the Bunbunmaru is written by a tengu? Or would the cancelled "Weekly Bunbunmaru" have been some big reveal? Late-stage Forbidden Scrollery mentioned something about tengu humanizing themselves to make them more relatable to villagers, like Mamizou wanted to, so has the Bunbunmaru always been doing that?

I would suspect they do. And if they do know, they don't seem to care.

Lotus Eaters 4

Is this the first time Youmu's had any dialogue in a manga since Silent Sinner? I think it is. Funny, my friend and I were mentioning that a couple weeks ago.

That was a fun little chapter though, seeing Marisa tackle something she's generally not known for. Though whatever could Miyoi be up to this time?

Miyoi manages to be less trustworthy than Yukari

I see there's a Yachie omake at the end.

Also, newest Cheating Detective Satori chapter is also out. Satori confirmed to have more footwear than just house slippers.

Edited by rmctagg09 on Feb 25th 2020 at 10:20:19 AM

Marisa a Lethal Chef when unhelped? Not surprising somehow.

Gal's picked up a resistance to mercury poisoning from all the alchemy and whatnot she gets into. That really lowers the bar for what you can survive on, cooking for yourself.

I have to wonder what tastes better to Remilia, Sukuya's cooking, or someone who's eaten Sakuya's cooking?

You're a mean drunk, Youmu.

Page 18 is... well, I wasn't expecting it, and it's a few grades above "giant demon pig" on the old Intimidatometer.

Thanks, as always, for sharing and translating, Clarste. But I have to ask, is there any context available for "The Haughty Grab Even the Red Ape?"

Cheating Detective Satori, ch.4 part 1, in which RemiSato shippers all over the world become dismayed that Remilia immediately decides that she doesn't like the idea of having her mind read, but that's fine because Remilia also has cute little mitten thingies on her wings.

Edited by IamTheCaligula on Feb 26th 2020 at 11:53:57 AM

Wasn't Marisa's Lethal Chef tendencies already established in Wild And Horned Hermit ch.34? I'm pretty sure that trying to reassure someone that the hemlock salad you're serving them is fine because you cooked the poisons out of the salad does not reassure them even half as much as you think it does.

Wrong link.

Three Fairies - Little Stone Heart Volume 4.

The artist behind the official Three Fairies mangas continues to work on other stuff.

If you need a catch-up you can find the other three parts here, here, and here.