I've already read this on danbooru, but I might as well post my thoughts here as well. Can't say this is as good as the others. It's more brutal, but it's not justified. The Buddhist temple situation was net positive with nobody actually getting hurt. Canni-can disposed of people who were going to commit suicide anyway and used them to maintain the peace. This, they skinned a child alive and then ate him for... what? Ceremony? There's no higher purpose here, no white to go with the black, no yang to the yin.

Eh, didn't like this one much. I think Zounose should have split this into two; Sanae becoming a god and human sacrifice are both interesting concepts, but sticking them together like this didn't allow either to get explored well

I dunno. Attempting to add 'white' would mean attempting to justify murder and cannibalism. Pretty tough order. As it is, it just aims to provide the a look at the more fundamental difference between humans, and the non-human inhabitants of Gensokyo. I think that's why Hina was the one escorting the youkai around in Canni-can: she doesn't need to eat the meat, but she doesn't have strong feelings about it either because she's not a human nor a youkai.

Pretty much everyone in Gensokyo is a dick. I could count the ones who aren't on the fingers of one hand. The humans don't exactly come off as any better in this doujin.

I've already read this on danbooru, but I might as well post my thoughts here as well. Can't say this is as good as the others. It's more brutal, but it's not justified. The Buddhist temple situation was net positive with nobody actually getting hurt. Canni-can disposed of people who were going to commit suicide anyway and used them to maintain the peace. This, they skinned a child alive and then ate him for... what? Ceremony? There's no higher purpose here, no white to go with the black, no yang to the yin.

One of the main ideas in Yakumi Sarai's works is that Gensokyo is the last resting place of things that are no longer believed in. In this case, human sacrifice was abolished in the outside world and so it now has to exist in Gensokyo because it is the very nature of Gensokyo is to carry on with the customs that no longer practiced outside. Failing to follow the custom would defeat the country's whole purpose and presumably do irreparable damage to the magic that maintains it. Yakumi Sarai plays this sort of tragic situation very well in my opinion.

I've already read this on danbooru, but I might as well post my thoughts here as well. Can't say this is as good as the others. It's more brutal, but it's not justified. The Buddhist temple situation was net positive with nobody actually getting hurt. Canni-can disposed of people who were going to commit suicide anyway and used them to maintain the peace. This, they skinned a child alive and then ate him for... what? Ceremony? There's no higher purpose here, no white to go with the black, no yang to the yin.

Felt like the comments I made on Canni-can are relevant here. Although Yakumi Sarai's works are pretty brutal, I think the ones that focus on human consumption/cannibalism highlight the perspective that eating humans is merely an extension of the brutality of eating (and by extension, living) in the first place.

Eating meat is brutal. Eating humans is exceptionally brutal. With the latter, comes the karmic weight of having consumed a sentient being for your own self-benefit. But that karmic burden is neither good nor evil. It simply is. It is up to the various beings (in this story, youkai and gods) who resolved to take on that weight to determine what they go on to do with their existences. (Well, as far as the Touhou universe goes in any case, if they fail to properly live up to that burden, may they be judged by Enma in Hell.)

The tengu and gods partake in human offerings, certainly, for the sake of ceremony. Essentially it is an act symbolizing their higher existences and karmic burden. Who knows if they live up to that pretention. But it also makes sense for such a ceremony to be the means by which Sanae ascends her humanity. Overall, I'm not sure if I could pick out particular favourites from amongst Sarai's works, but I don't think this one was bad.

One of the main ideas in Yakumi Sarai's works is that Gensokyo is the last resting place of things that are no longer believed in. In this case, human sacrifice was abolished in the outside world and so it now has to exist in Gensokyo because it is the very nature of Gensokyo is to carry on with the customs that no longer practiced outside. Failing to follow the custom would defeat the country's whole purpose and presumably do irreparable damage to the magic that maintains it. Yakumi Sarai plays this sort of tragic situation very well in my opinion.

I think THIS is the message to take from this doujin. Gods are only maintained through faith, and the humans of Gensokyo worship their gods through human sacrifice. If you reread page 18 and 19, Kanako and Suwako themselves didn't like the idea of eating a human being, either.

Upon knowing that Kanako and Suwako would accept, Sanae immediately labeled them as "evil", similarly to how she labeled humans the same way in Yakumi Sarai's other doujin, "DODO". She grew a little then, and in having faith in Kanako and Suwako (who explicitly said they want her to stay around forever), and accepting the offering, she receives faith, and becomes a goddess herself.

Humans can't be placed under the tentpole labeling of "good" and "evil", and neither can deities. Both life forms must have to do what they can to stay alive, even if they don't like it.

I honestly didn't catch all this until someone on Danbooru spelled it out for me. While I don't agree with the message, I feel like I can accept the story. I wonder how Yakumi Sarai will portray Sanae after this, though?

last edited at Jul 23, 2014 1:05AM

One of the main ideas in Yakumi Sarai's works is that Gensokyo is the last resting place of things that are no longer believed in. In this case, human sacrifice was abolished in the outside world and so it now has to exist in Gensokyo because it is the very nature of Gensokyo is to carry on with the customs that no longer practiced outside. Failing to follow the custom would defeat the country's whole purpose and presumably do irreparable damage to the magic that maintains it. Yakumi Sarai plays this sort of tragic situation very well in my opinion.

I think THIS is the message to take from this doujin. Gods are only maintained through faith, and the humans of Gensokyo worship their gods through human sacrifice. If you reread page 18 and 19, Kanako and Suwako themselves didn't like the idea of eating a human being, either.

Upon knowing that Kanako and Suwako would accept, Sanae immediately labeled them as "evil", similarly to how she labeled humans the same way in Yakumi Sarai's other doujin, "DODO". She grew a little then, and in having faith in Kanako and Suwako (who explicitly said they want her to stay around forever), and accepting the offering, she receives faith, and becomes a goddess herself.

Humans can't be placed under the tentpole labeling of "good" and "evil", and neither can deities. Both life forms must have to do what they can to stay alive, even if they don't like it.

I honestly didn't catch all this until someone on Danbooru spelled it out for me. While I don't agree with the message, I feel like I can accept the story. I wonder how Yakumi Sarai will portray Sanae after this, though?

This concept makes me wonder how aztec deities would fit on Gensokyo, shame that only Japanese in origin gets into.

I thought I'd never have to do this again but WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE FLIPPING OUT ABOUT THIS SICKENING BOOK IT IS TRULY ONE OF THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I HAVE EVER READ THIS MORE F*CKED UP THAN MOST OF DOWMAN'S WORKS THIS IS IS GROTESQUE IT SULLY'S TOUHOU'S REPUTATION AS A FUN AND JOYFUL WORLD AND TURNS IT INTO SOMETHING NEEDLESSLY REPULSIVE AND DARK.if you are just looking at the comments before reading it leave now forgive me but I had to bring up these issues

I thought I'd never have to do this again but WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE FLIPPING OUT ABOUT THIS SICKENING BOOK IT IS TRULY ONE OF THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I HAVE EVER READ THIS MORE F*CKED UP THAN MOST OF DOWMAN'S WORKS THIS IS IS GROTESQUE IT SULLY'S TOUHOU'S REPUTATION AS A FUN AND JOYFUL WORLD AND TURNS IT INTO SOMETHING NEEDLESSLY REPULSIVE AND DARK.if you are just looking at the comments before reading it leave now forgive me but I had to bring up these issues

Not really, Yukari getting people to being eaten is heavily implied on Wild Horned Hermit and that one is canon. If anything the doujin writers are the ones who are manipulating the facts to make the touhous more appealing, they just look like girls but they're still monsters after all.

I thought I'd never have to do this again but WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE FLIPPING OUT ABOUT THIS SICKENING BOOK IT IS TRULY ONE OF THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I HAVE EVER READ THIS MORE F*CKED UP THAN MOST OF DOWMAN'S WORKS THIS IS IS GROTESQUE IT SULLY'S TOUHOU'S REPUTATION AS A FUN AND JOYFUL WORLD AND TURNS IT INTO SOMETHING NEEDLESSLY REPULSIVE AND DARK.if you are just looking at the comments before reading it leave now forgive me but I had to bring up these issues

Not really, Yukari getting people to being eaten is heavily implied on Wild Horned Hermit and that one is canon. If anything the doujin writers are the ones who are manipulating the facts to make the touhous more appealing, they just look like girls but they're still monsters after all.

Rumia's probably the best example there, she's got the fairly ordinary cute girl look. Maybe even the sort of thing you'd see in real life. But she eats people, and nobody shies away from that. Given how most of the inhabitants of Gensokyo are based on traditional Japanese monsters, who were themselves very bloodthirsty (although most of the stories of Tengu I've read are more about them tripping up self-important priests as a lesson in humility) there's a dark undercurrent you can't get away from no matter how cute and fun the girls are.

Aside from which, that's really the point of fanfiction or doujins, isn't it? Taking an established continuity and looking a bit deeper at the implications. Most of the time that's fun escapism, but it can just as easily be deeply introspective or unflinchingly horriffic. That this leans towards the latter in no way invalidates the former, nor the source material. To a degree, it even honours the original by taking it seriously.

I find this a bit weird for godhood transition.
Becoming youkai this way would be understandable, but god? Or maybe it's more about abandoning humanity this way, Sanae is already half-way there, she just needs to let go of other half...

last edited at Jul 24, 2014 2:55PM

I find this a bit weird for godhood transition.
Becoming youkai this way would be understandable, but god? Or maybe it's more about abandoning humanity this way, Sanae is already half-way there, she just needs to let go of other half...

The latter, I think. A symbolic (and what better symbol than the real thing) putting her on the side of the inhuman, and since it's presented as an act or worship rather than pleasure or hunger it pushes her more in the direction of gods than that of youkai.

One more thing I noticed when re-reading is - "do not put your hands together". This is actually kinda curious moment. Don't say thanks. I guess, as a god, you're not supposed to act grateful anything you get, but rather just accept it as usual thing.

last edited at Jul 24, 2014 2:57PM

One of the main ideas in Yakumi Sarai's works is that Gensokyo is the last resting place of things that are no longer believed in. In this case, human sacrifice was abolished in the outside world and so it now has to exist in Gensokyo because it is the very nature of Gensokyo is to carry on with the customs that no longer practiced outside. Failing to follow the custom would defeat the country's whole purpose and presumably do irreparable damage to the magic that maintains it. Yakumi Sarai plays this sort of tragic situation very well in my opinion.

I think THIS is the message to take from this doujin. Gods are only maintained through faith, and the humans of Gensokyo worship their gods through human sacrifice. If you reread page 18 and 19, Kanako and Suwako themselves didn't like the idea of eating a human being, either.

Upon knowing that Kanako and Suwako would accept, Sanae immediately labeled them as "evil", similarly to how she labeled humans the same way in Yakumi Sarai's other doujin, "DODO". She grew a little then, and in having faith in Kanako and Suwako (who explicitly said they want her to stay around forever), and accepting the offering, she receives faith, and becomes a goddess herself.

Humans can't be placed under the tentpole labeling of "good" and "evil", and neither can deities. Both life forms must have to do what they can to stay alive, even if they don't like it.

I honestly didn't catch all this until someone on Danbooru spelled it out for me. While I don't agree with the message, I feel like I can accept the story. I wonder how Yakumi Sarai will portray Sanae after this, though?

On pages 13-14, however, you get Marisa's 'if it stopped in the outside world it would have come to this one' wham line. Human sacrifice became part of Gensokyo because it was no longer practiced outside. Now those who live in Gensokyo must maintain it. As for Sanae, partaking in the ritual was her last test. She had to give up her humanity by accepting the sacrifice in order to become a goddess. That's how I take it.

Not really, Yukari getting people to being eaten is heavily implied on Wild Horned Hermit and that one is canon. If anything the doujin writers are the ones who are manipulating the facts to make the touhous more appealing, they just look like girls but they're still monsters after all.

true but its implied no mater how i heavily it may beyou never should be 100% on something that isn't definately said(yes I know there are exceptions but in this instance) just look at the movie the sixth sense (my apology for bringing m.night shamalamadingdong) it was implied he was alive and wasn't but also I see you're argument but this is just depicted in such in unsettling and vile way I had too go on a rampage once sorry for that

last edited at Jul 25, 2014 1:52AM

I thought I'd never have to do this again but WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE FLIPPING OUT ABOUT THIS SICKENING BOOK IT IS TRULY ONE OF THE MOST DISGUSTING THINGS I HAVE EVER READ THIS MORE F*CKED UP THAN MOST OF DOWMAN'S WORKS THIS IS IS GROTESQUE IT SULLY'S TOUHOU'S REPUTATION AS A FUN AND JOYFUL WORLD AND TURNS IT INTO SOMETHING NEEDLESSLY REPULSIVE AND DARK.if you are just looking at the comments before reading it leave now forgive me but I had to bring up these issues

Whenever I see people saying stuff like "Oh, I wish I could go to Gensokyo" or otherwise expressing the opinion that Touhou is just happy-happy moe, I really want to tell them to think about the setting and characters more closely. Youkai, no matter how cheerfully portrayed by fans, need to eat humans to survive; in fact Yakumi Sakurai addresses this very issue in Canni-Can, where Yukari has introduced a system to compromise between the need for harmony and youkai's need for human flesh. Even the ones labelled as weak and stupid (think Rumia or Cirno) would be more than enough to kill you, and would happily do so too - that danger is something that comes up in some works where Renko or Merry stray into Gensokyo, and is explicitly mentioned in "Changeability of Strange Dream". What harmony there is between the humans and youkai is really just maintained through the Hakurei miko's exercise of violence; it's a place governed by strength.

While I do enjoy many of the light-hearted works based on Touhou, I respect this creator for stepping away from that illusion of peaceful happiness and considering the darker aspects inherent in the very setting of Gensokyo. His works act as a brutal reminder that to accept Gensokyo and the situation in Touhou as ideal is simple naivete; perhaps the reason why everything is presented

in such an unsettling and vile way

is to remind us just why these practices exist in Gensokyo - i.e. that we rightly considered them reprehensible and so ended those traditions in our world.

Ch 14, on Kasen's chat with Yukari.

I... I just... I don't...
I wish I could say that this was bad. Really, I do. This was far, far too dark for my liking.
The story does not appeal to me at all. It repulses me to think about. But the way it was told was far too good to let me close the tab. I loved this and hated this at the same time.
I need some time to think.

Eh all those comments aside I thought this one was pretty good. It could even be so canon imo.

Kaeru no Kuni brought me back here, but for me what coylie says captures it exactly. And nez nails it every time.

Though what Marisa said on pages 13-14 here works for the story, gensokyo can't, and doesn't, carry on all the traditions that go to the wayside in our world. It's too small a place to contain the world's, or even just Japan's, spiritual and ritual history. I'm not even sure if there's a canon explanation for how cultural practices enter gensokyo, if they even do. It may just be the culture is locked from the late 1800s and only forgotten objects, like obsolete cell phone towers (or arcade cabinets!), can enter (and people, gods, buildings, etc).

But, I haven't finished wild horned hermit or silent sinner in blue yet, if they explain more

When she gave the sake to the guardian I though that Sanae had put something in the drink to make her fall asleep and would change places with the sacrifice, I would have loved to see the god's faces if they saw Sanae being the sacrifice, they would have stopped that fucking lame ritual right on the spot.

I've already read this on danbooru, but I might as well post my thoughts here as well. Can't say this is as good as the others. It's more brutal, but it's not justified. The Buddhist temple situation was net positive with nobody actually getting hurt. Canni-can disposed of people who were going to commit suicide anyway and used them to maintain the peace. This, they skinned a child alive and then ate him for... what? Ceremony? There's no higher purpose here, no white to go with the black, no yang to the yin.

Didn't someone offer a perfectly sound rebuttal on danbooru? Social mores and tradition keeping is roughly half the reason Gensokyo even exists. There are plenty of things wrong you can poke at in the Touhou-canon without inconsistently applying your particular set of moral mores. Outsider humans being "free game" for youkai, Reimu slaughtering humans-turned youkai, etc etc.

This was horrible.

This was horrible.

I disagree

Huh I liked this one a lot.

Touhou has always been plagued by questions of humanity and inhumaneness. I have not followed Sanae much, but she does appear to be a living god. And it is a well-known fact that gods live off of faith, as youkai live off human flesh and fear and humans live off of ordinary food stuff. A person prepared for the sole sake of sacrifice must contain so much holiness, an embodiment of faith and fear. And it's only natural that in a land where common sense doesn't exist, it could be possible for a human to eat another. Just perhaps.