Kaguya

From left to right- Hatate Himekaidou, Aya Shameimaru, Momiji Inubashiri & Nitori Kawashiro. This was originally meant to be a post about Aya- I'm particularly fond of Hatate so I decided to do both of them, though. That, however, proved to be a problem. If I was doing Aya and Hatate, I would never talk about Momiji. Momiji isn't terribly important to the touhouverse, but she's a beloved 4th stage midboss with a lot of fanwork on her, so I decided that I'd cover all 3 of them, since they share the same species. I then went to look for a picture with the 3 of them and found that one, that also has Nitori. Nitori is a popular character that deserves a post of her own... But this was going to be unholy long anyway and I really liked that picture. So today we'll be covering all known residents of the youkai mountain, ignoring the 5 gods (one of them also being a miko) that live there... Though I must say I did entertain the thought of doing a "Mountain of Faith" post at once. Alright, blog logistics aside, let's get right into it! Aya Shameimaru is one of the most interesting touhou characters out there. She's the protagonist of two games of her own- being the only playable character in the first and the main one in the second- those games being Shoot the Bullet and Double Spoiler. Aya is a crow tengu (linked to Perfect Momento in Strict Sense article on tengu because this post doesn't need to be any longer than I'm sure it will be). Crow tengu are dreadfully fast- Aya is normally portrayed as the fastest amongst all of them, being often called the fastest being in Gensokyo. She mostly uses that speed for inconsequential matters, flying around and taking pictures of people and running a newspaper on Gensokyo events. Her two games are essentially her running around taking pictures of people shooting at her, lol. She carries 3 items with her at all times- a fan that she uses to manipulate wind, her camera and a small notebook that she uses to write interesting material. Friendly, carefree Bunbunmaru newspaper runner aside, she's also a legitimate tengu who will stop any trespassers climbing the mountain in and above tengu territory- while it's stated that she never used her true abilities in a danmaku fight, she's still a strong opponent that one should not anger- while she's generally going to be flying around writing things for her paper, she has a scary tendency to "accidentally win fights" against considerably strong enemies while trying to take pictures. Fact is, she's the one chosen by the tengu to stop trespassers, even though they're well aware she won't fight seriously. While her standing in tengu society is unkown, she's doubtlessly a powerful being. Aya is one of the most well-known touhou characters and has appeared in 10 different touhou games in one form or another- without counting mentions of her name, in which case she has appeared in every touhou game in the second generation of the touhou era up to Ten Desires. Inubashiri Momiji is the only known white-wolf tengu (though it is known that several of them live in the mountain). She's Aya's stage midboss, though it is known that they do not get along and fight whenever they meet- possibly because there's a lot of contrast between them. Momiji is faithful and loyal- while she has no in-game phrases, we know from print works that she'll always execute her orders to the letter. She has several fandom personalities and I'm not the best to talk about those, as I'm not particularly fond of her character- the only thing coming to mind being her as a tsundere to Aya. They're also commonly portrayed as good friends in stories where Hatate is involved, since Hatate tends to fill the rival role for Aya. She works as a mountain patrol to the tengu- and while she did fail to stop the protagonist in Mountain of Faith, she did suceed in reporting you to the tengu, since she managed to get Aya to show up before you managed to climb past their territory. Momiji has an amazing eyesight, being able to see a thousand ri ahead of her (about 4000 kilometers) and posseses a great sense of smell. She's also one of the very few touhou characters that fights with a sword- and perhaps the only one who also has a shield. Whenever she has free time, she spends it playing shogi with the kappa who live in the lower parts of the mountain. Himekaidou Hatate. She's the only other crow tengu known, and the alternate protagonist of Double Spoiler. Like Aya, she's also a reporter. Unlike Aya, she doesn't go around collecting news, instead relying on her spirit photography ability to gather material without having to move. Her occupation as a reporter obviously puts her in direct rivarly with Aya, who also runs a newspaper of her own. Her appearance in double spoiler grants her a lot of dialogue with Aya, time they mostly spend debating about what's the superior method of information gathering and what's the journalistic style that they should use. In fandom, Hatate is often portrayed as a younger tengu without Aya's experience (but still a lot of her recklessness). She seems to admire Momiji, being impressed by her vision and sense of smell. Curiously, however, is that fandom is much more likely to portray her as someone obsessed over Aya- sometimes even to the point of being a yandere- than to explore her relationship with Momiji. In comedic works, she's the embodiment of the annoying paparazzi, someone with a fearful ability for stalking, much to everyone's concern. Nitori Kawashiro is a kappa- the only named one in the touhou series. As such, she has the ability to control water. Much more interesting than that, however, are her skills as an engineer- she has advanced scientific knowledge that she uses to craft all sorts of gadgets she can use in a fight. Nitori is the personification of greed, fighting for the sake of her stall and the popularity of her gadgets during Hopeless Masquerade, being quick to come up with plots to maximize profits. She's also a very cheerful character who is warm and kind to her group of friends. Despite all that, she's incredibly shy with strangers. Out of all the recently used touhou characters, she's the one who keeps the mad scientist mantle, carrying a backpack will all sorts of tools. This is taken further in fandom, making her the living avatar of SCIENCE when apropriate. From greedy stall owner to mad scientist to shy kappa, she's always an optimistic character. She tries to stop the protagonist in the third stage of Montain of Faith, according to her, for their own sake. She also convinces Marisa to explore the ruins of the Old Hell of Blazing Flames during the events of Subterranean Animism, when she hears that there are tests related to nuclear energy happening down there. If picked, she will guide Marisa through that game, granting bonuses to her, changing Marisa's shoot-type and offering guidance through dialogue. And that covers all the tengu and kappa! Look forward to a post on the gods! And I leave you with Festival Coloring, a remix of several songs in the Mountain of Faith game at once, by Tumeneco & Get in the Ring- listen to it while waiting for the post on Gods!

Tenshi is the only known Tennin (Celestial, in the english fanbase) of the touhou universe... Celestials can be divided in two categories; The ones who achieved enlightening and entered Nirvana and the ones who gained immortality and ascended to heaven. Incidentally, Celestials aren't truly immortal, they just constantly beat the shinigami who comes for their souls, continually extending their lifespan. Celestials are extremely rare and are generally good people- normally being Hermits (who I'll get to once I'm talking about Miko) who were "promoted" to their position. Tenshi, however, became a tennin because of an arrangement that ascended her entire clan... As a result of living in heaven her whole life, she's an extremely spoiled girl, deeming heavenly life boring and causing the Scarlet Weather Rhapsody incident, creating localized earthquakes and almost destroying Gensokyo out of boredom. While she has no training, she is unbeliavably strong and tough- Being one of the strongest characters in the touhouverse. This, coupled with her delinquent personality brought by a sheltered living environment, makes her an incredibly volatile character. She fights using keystones that control the earth and the sword of hisou, a blade that only celestials can wield, that holds power over the skies and people, able to change the weather of any given area. You probably realized it, but out of the whole touhou cast, Tenshi isn't a particularly interesting character. She is, however, one of the most relevant ones in a fanwork I'll be posting soon... Which is why I decided to cover her at once. I leave you with a remix of her stage theme, Flawless Clothing of the Celestials, by Kairo.

I'll do her soon, as she's an important character to a lot of fanworks. Just debating on whether or not I should do her coupled with Chen and Ran in the same post, too.

Any request? I'm willing to cover just about anyone, though I already have the next few posts planned.

If you wonder why I'm covering her now, it's because I realized that before writing about Sanae, Youmu, Sakuya and Reisen I'll have to cover their superiors... And while doing the Scarlet sisters first would make the most sense, Yuyuko is too interesting for me not to write about her first. Yuyuko is the 1000-years old ghostly master of the Hakugyokurou- the shrine that overlooks the netherworld. As its mistress, she's has absolute authority over the world of the dead, and is amongst the most powerful beings in the touhou universe- with the ability to instantly kill anything that lives. When killed by this ability, humans will bypass judgment and their souls will be sent to the netherworld, regardless of how saintly or evil they were in life. Her soul is unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation, as it- and her body- are currently being used as a seal on a powerful and evil youkai tree, the Saigyouji Ayakashi, that lies in the gardens of the Hakugyokurou. In life, she commited suicide for the sake of sealing that tree. She has forgotten about her exact cause of death... And, ironically, she was the perpetrator behind the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom, where she tried to revive the Ayakashi. Many touhou characters boast a very long lifespan, but even amongst the ones that have lived for thousands of years, she's known to be one of the wisest- and one of the best at hiding that too- she shows a playful, good-humored, whimsical personality, but truthfully, she always knows exactly what's happening, always giving cryptic hints to her servant, the straightfroward katana-wielding half-ghost garderner, Konpaku Youmu, one of the protagonists we'll be covering soon. In serious works, she's used as a cunning, powerful, wise being with a terrifying power that's an unpredictable wild card. She's not human or youkai- and that shouldn't be forgotten. She's a ghost. And if gensokyo were to crumble to dust, well, it wouldn't particularly concern her now, would it? In comedic works, she's a hungry ghost that eats everything, including other characters. Because maymays. And I leave you with a song about Yuyuko from C-Clays. Look forward to the post on Youmu!

Haha. I plan on dedicating this blog mostly to fan works, but I figured I might as well cover the important characters and some lore for newbies to the series, since I can't expect people in fuwa to know a lot about 'em. Next up should be the rest of the protagonist bunch (Sanae, Sakuya, Youmu and Reisen), then I'll move to the known incidents (and cover their relevant bosses)... After that I should be free to spam y'all with music, pictures and the like.

I don't get the whole santa hat thing, they look ridiculous. In your case, being that... Thing it actually contributes to make the avatar better. 8.5/10

Marisa Kirisame, the other main protagonist and youkai hunter of the touhou series, together with Reimu. Marisa is a human witch- unlike the other powerful humans in the series, she's the one that didn't have any special talent like Reimu's spiritual powers and Sakuya's time-manupilation abilities. She's a hard worker- the only one- and the countless hours she spent learning and perfecting her magic allowed her to become an expert in the "blowing the hell out of everything with lasers" school of magic. Most people love Marisa, and they have a reason to. It's hard not to appreciate this cleptomaniac magician, vacant shop owner, burglar and part-time youkai hunter in her adventures lasering everyone around. If Reimu is the to-go "good guy" protagonist in dark settings, Marisa is the one in light-hearted ones (a small book-stealing habit aside). Courageous, fun and always available for a fight, she makes the perfect choice for a "happy-go-lucky" scenario. That's not to say she's not a solid character in darker settings either- in fact, she may fit even better in those, as an egocentric, insane thief with no regards for her life, willing to anger the most powerful beings in the known world, from twisted youkai who lived for millenia to proud gods. She recklessly jumps into magic research and training, knowing that if she becomes more powerful she may become a youkai herself (of the "Magician" species- the most powerful youkai of that type being her only neighbor in the deserted forest they live in). And either way, most people love her. And they should- she's the one most people identify with. It's often said that she has a youkai's mind- but, with Reimu serving as the faith symbol, she's the most humane character out of the entire cast. Her desires and efforts and easily understandable and relateable- which is why she's so loved. And I leave you, once again, with a remix by Alstroemeria records about Marisa:

Image by Kieta Reimu. The main character of the touhou series and the current miko of the Hakurei shrine, carrying the burdens of managing the Hakurei Border and exterminating dangerous youkai. The personality of touhou characters is generally decided by the fandom, while the characters themselves only have the minimum amount of phrases needed for people to have a line on what they're thinking. This leads to, of course, several differents interpretations of how they are. In the most dark and serious works, Reimu is portrayed as a reluctant hero who is regularly forced into nigh-impossible battles against eldrich-like abominations wearing the face of humans, capable of bending concepts to their will, armored with nothing but her yin-yang floating orbs, flying power and aptitude with magical barriers. She will be portrayed as the only sane, trustable force fighting for the sake of humanity- her only allies being the only person she could call a friend, an unreliable, insane cleptomaniac witch fighting for the sole sake of finding treasures who is essentially a youkai in mind... And a totally green miko from a different shrine more occupied with swindling humans into worshiping her gods than actually protecting anyone. Wild and horned hermit suggests she's bitter about losing her parents (through the quote: "Believe not they will be around for you always: parents and daylight" [which is a modification of some haiku I forgot, by the way]) In comedic works, she's a poor miko going around looking for donations with a bunch of youkai friends who keep spooking humans away from her shrine, preventing her from getting any money. All in all, Reimu is a very well-known figure in the touhouverse that can be used in several different ways, and it would be impossible to cover them all. As the Hakurei miko, she is also arguably the most important character in the whole project- And definitely one of the most interesting ones, too. I leave you with a song about Reimu by Alstroemeria Records - Highly Responsive to Prayers.

So, touhou. It's a bullet hell game series that happens in a feudal-japan-like land named 幻想郷 (Gensokyo- Roughly "Land of illusion"). Gensokyo's is a sealed-off, haunted area of Japan that went missing several millenia ago. It is estimated that the region is sealed off because the youkai that lived there had a reign of terror over japan, and brave human expeditions constantly tried to exorcise and anihilate them. The vicious battles could have lasted from months to decades, but what is known is that they ended with the creation of the Hakurei Shrine there, who made a barrier that completely took the land off the map, and no one can enter, leave or see the place. Ever since the creation of the hakurei barrier, the only gateway to the common world has been the hakurei shrine, isolated amongst several mountains. While leaving to the human world is virtually impossible for any Gensokyo resident (a few extremely rare exceptions aside), it's relatively easy for powerful beings to access other lands which aren't part of Gensokyo, like Higan, Makai, the Netherworld and a few others... Gensokyo's population consists mainly of youkai, but there's a human settlement in the land as well. Most youkai are known to eat humans regularly- they are also all significantly stronger and live much longer, with their lifespans often reaching millenia. To know more about youkai I would suggest reading the Youkai article in Perfect Momento in Strict Sense, which will explain them with some detail. This is somewhat outdated/wrong, but here's a map of Gensokyo, which I will expand on further in another episode of touhou lore, where I examine geographic locations in-depth. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, if you have any.

Weird, but I like it. 7/10.

Read post. Get hopeful. Not a giveaway, just some bs charity or w/e. 0/10, would ban if I could abuse my powers some more. Jokes aside, yay? I didn't actually read it, but if he's doing charity work that's good. Probably.

Story, by far. I think.

I see. How many VN's have you read? Which of 'em are your favorites? Aah, welcome to fuwa, by the way.

What's your favorite genre when it comes to VNs?

Go for it. No one should be forced to hold control in rewrite more than they have to. No clue how the hell people have the patience for that, I'd rather drop the game than to do as what other people here sugested. Dropping a game just because you are to lazy to hold Ctrl for 30min-1h at most really shows how little you appreciate a VN. Not to mention that you can just stuck button with something too. To begin with, I think that in the case of rewrite there's an auto-skip button within the VN, but it's true to some extent. Most VNs are absolutely garbage or painfully so-so. I don't have any appreciation for them. I already think Rewrite isn't worth reading for most people, add one hour of absolutely nothing from pressing control and I'd definitely skip it.

Go for it. No one should be forced to hold control in rewrite more than they have to. No clue how the hell people have the patience for that, I'd rather drop the game than to do as what other people here sugested.

Relevant: Not a fan of vanilla hentai to begin with, so there's no way for me to be actually useful in this thread. Just felt like posting this. I'll go ban myself now, byebye.

This is not a thread about otakuism, porn in neptunia or 2D and 3D. As such, an astounding 30 posts about those 3 subjects have been deleted (sheesh, and I'm supposed to be in a(n? [English is hard] LOA. what do we even have other mods for). Keep it going and it won't end as just a few posts disappearing~

Looks like it'll be narcissu, huh. Aww. Jokes aside, it's a genuinely good game.

8/10. She's great, but I'm not a fan of blondes.

Higanbana is my suggestion. I liked it over Higurashi and Umineko but less than Rose Guns Days.

Whip them to submission.

8/10. Nice art.

I tend to pick the "evil" ones, since fucking others to make things easier to me is how I go about things IRL and it helps with game immersion. I see protags doing all that selfless stuff and just go "why the hell would you do that?", for the most part. Can identify much better with the "evil" ones. Plus, it's just more interesting.