I guess that the crux of the issue, then: a lot of Japanese media I've consumed have been very good at depicting realistic symptoms of mental trauma or illness, but realistic treatments thereof have been either nonexistent or heavily misrepresented. I know why that trope exists (therapy doesn't make for the most dramatic stories), but it rubs me the wrong way when popular media romanticize or glamorize dangerous (self-)therapy methods. It's like those shonen manga where the protagonist should really stay down for the good of his own health, but still powers through on Fighting Spirit(tm) alone, with no lasting consequences to his body. But at least in that case, most readers are keenly aware that human bodies do not work that way: there is a lot more confusion about how mental health works, and popular stories like this one don't exactly help.

It's not just therapists- the trope applies to parents, police officers and teachers as well. Any sort of criminal case or stalking? Deal with it alone. Any kind of bullying at school? Teachers couldn't care less. Protagonist needs to go through a turbulent period? Oh, the parents that might've given them some advice and support have just left on a ten-month business trip (assuming they're even alive).

For all the Japanese idealisation of nakama, they sure don't seem to trust institutions or organized measures of help. While it more or less fits the tone of this story, I definitely agree that its incidence in Japanese media as a whole (even in idealistic stories) is frustrating at best and worrisome at worst. There's truth in television here, of course, since Japan does have a culture of sacrificing individual happiness for the harmony of the collective, not saddling others with your personal issues, not making a scene even if you're internally screaming, and always handling everything by yourself. It's extremely toxic, because the people who do rely on more rational measures and formal aid are invariably made to fail and look either weak or stupid so that our protagonists with their endless fortitude can seem better by comparison.

Looking at the issue in this way lends an interesting context to otaku media- the idealisation of perfect friends in a country plagued by introversion and social issues is definitely wish-fulfillment, but the lack of organizational support in most stories seems to suggest that Japanese writers have either internalised the whole 'self-help at all costs' principle and turned it into an ideal, or that they're so cynical about their teachers, parents and police chipping in with support that they can't even bring themselves to write about them in fantastic scenarios. There's also probably a very definite link to be established among the immense popularity of 'healing' SOL manga and anime in the past decade and the desire among Japanese youth for some manner of connection and support.

last edited at Nov 30, 2020 12:33PM

I haven't actually seen this show, but doesn't this ship sorta kinda count as incest, what with Akane being Rikka's creator and all? That'd explain why Taiyaki likes this ship so much, at least.

The show keeps it pretty ambiguous, but the two main theories are that:-

a) Rikka was someone Akane knew and had a crush on in the real world, but she couldn't bring herself to confess to her for fear of revealing her otaku tendencies, which is why she creates a world where she's perfect and popular. Rikka still exists as a character in this world and Akane still pines for her, but can't close the distance. Rikka's character arc is about how she comes to terms with her existence and learns to accept Akane, reassuring her that it's okay to go to the real world and openly express her interests, prompting Akane to leave the artificial, wish-fulfillment world behind; and-

b) Rikka is a part of Akane, representing the 'normal' persona she wore in order to hide her otaku tendencies. The stress of this performance was so great that Akane dissociated from herself, turning the two into separate people. Akane and Rikka's reconciliation in the show represents self-acceptance, as Akane realizes that she can let Rikka be her own person in the artificial world while she tries to live more genuinely in the real world.

All in all, the ship occupies a weird space between incest (at least if you consider a god dating her creation as such), selfcest, and just a standard-ass lesbian schoolgirl relationship, depending on what you choose to perceive Rikka as. Personally, I like to see her as a real person who Akane drew inspiration from to create Artificial!Rikka, because Akane's character arc is complicated enough without multiple-personality shennanigans, and also because the entire point of Rikka's arc is that she's a 'normie' who gradually comes to understand and appreciate the world of tokusatsu by engaging with the people within it. My headcanon is that after Akane goes back to the real world, she confesses her feelings to Rikka and then they begin a genuine, honest relationship as equals.

Currently on a SakiYachi binge; it's too bad there haven't been any full-length doujins scanlated for this ship - there's quite a few out already. Rival ships are as popular as ever, it seems.

This makes me very happy. I'd heard that the Touhou fandom went through a bit of a slump post HSiFS, but WBaWC seems to have proven immensely popular among fans on both hemispheres. Now if only we'd get 17.5 soon so that Toutetsu can round out the hatesex gangster polycule.

This feels like an odd, absurd form of therapy precisely because Shiori is halfway between an imaginary friend and the Grim Reaper- Hinako's so convinced of her fantastical nature that she can finally express her true self with no fear of being pitied.

Except that forcefully confronting a person with a potential trigger for their trauma while overriding their explicit denial of consent is the worst possible "therapy". So far, I am inclined to think that Shiori is a real monster (i.e. not just Hinako's imagination), so her not comprehending the extent of Hinako's trauma is understandable in-story, but I would strongly discourage anyone to pull the same swim-or-die kind of "therapy" on a traumatized person IRL. The depiction a panic attack/PTSD episode in this chapter is scarily real.

Hence my point that she's an expression of all of Hinako's complexes and urges- both a desire to be killed and a desire to be saved. While I do agree that she's very likely not a figment of Hinako's imagination (since other people also react to her), I'd argue that she might be something like Monogatari's aberrations- an entity manipulated by psychosis as opposed to a member of an actual race of mermaids inhabiting an underground (underwater?) society. This story just seems too intensely personal for me to think of Shiori as just one part of a race of aquatic vampires- I think she has to have some kind of deeper connection to Hinako. There's also the fact that she saves Hinako from actual monsters that show up to eat her whenever her depression peaks, claiming that they're 'savage'. You could read the whole thing as a person with immense self-hate struggling between the urge to kill themselves on the spot, or to trudge on for another day. There's no neat binary between an optimistic 'I want to live' and a pessimistic 'I want to die' attitude in this case- Hinako's simply trying to choose between pitch darkness and an extremely grey ally.

In short, the story wouldn't work if there was a perfect, angelic, positive influence on Hinako's life, because then she wouldn't have ended up going all Rei Ayanami in the first place (not to mention the fact that it'd clash with the tone). The tension comes from the constant choices between rocks and hard places, between simple murderers and enigmatic torturers, and a common theme that I've found running through a lot of Japanese works about depression and angst are that there are no therapists- only well-meaning people that can't understand your pain, and similarly twisted people who get it, but might also make things worse. The only piece of Japanese media that I've ever seen a therapist in is SeaBed (which uses the novelty to reinforce the norm). All in all, the easy, cut-and-dried professionalism of a therapist in a bright room or the saccharine supportiveness of a manic pixie dream girl would never fit with the story, and seem dissonant at best and hypocritical at worst. Therefore, the dangerous, aggressive, condescending murder mermaid is Hinako's best shot at rehabilitation, not because it's a realistic way to cope with grief, but precisely because the entire world is insane in Hinako's eyes. The best thing she can do, given the circumstances, is pick the most beneficial flavour of madness and bond with her imaginary/nightmarish friend.

TL;DR- Hinako wants someone who behaves nothing like a therapist, because if Shiori sat her down and asked her to talk about her feelings (like Miko's been doing), Hinako would spit in her face and walk away. Ironically enough, this makes Shiori the best possible person to undertake Hinako's therapy, precisely because she doesn't pretend to give a shit and therefore comes off as more 'genuine' (even with her mermaid powers) than any of the faceless, real people Hinako ignores every day.

last edited at Nov 30, 2020 4:03AM

There's such a fun, push-pull, 'Do You Really Wanna Kill Me?' dynamic here. It feels like a game of chicken between two people who grow more interested in each other the closer they get, but also can't stop their momentum. Hinako's depression warping her mindset reminds me a bit of what Rei goes through in Sangatsu no Lion, and I wonder if they'll reveal that she literally wished Shiori into existence as a result of her combined desire to die and to be saved.

Maybe Hinako feels like she can only have an honest relationship with someone who cares nothing for her and reinforces her regret and guilt, but by very virtue of having such a relationship, she's eroding her own desire for oblivion. It's like that saying- "People who really want to die just go ahead and die. They don't write suicide notes or make grand statements." In so many ways, Shiori being a figment of Hinako's imagination or a fulfillment of her wishes would really drive in the psychological metaphors at the heart of this story.

This feels like an odd, absurd form of therapy precisely because Shiori is halfway between an imaginary friend and the Grim Reaper- Hinako's so convinced of her fantastical nature that she can finally express her true self with no fear of being pitied. Shiori, in her craziness, allows her to step towards sanity, and I wonder if the ending will be Hinako finally recovering and then having to deal with Shiori melting away, or if she'll have Shiori stick around forever as her emotional support GF. Since mermaid flesh is supposed to make you immortal, I could see Hinako needing to 'consume' Shiori and take her back into herself, uniting both sides of her persona and thus attaining long-term stability and mental health. Bonus points if Shiori turns out to resemble someone she knew or idolised as a child, or the person she always wanted to be. It'd also be hilarious if Shiori told Hinako to find new hope and move on, prompting her to hook up with the childhood friend.

Even so, it's too early in the game to tell where this'll go, since even an honest exploration of the premise would be violent, fascinating and intense.

Oil spills, thrills and Chiruno. What more do you need for a good time?

This is an interesting, complicated work. Reimu is one of Touhou's most interesting characters to be sure, a protagonist who's got the traits of a final boss and only grows more mysterious the more you learn about her. When ZUN himself admits that he's not always certain what goes through her head, you know you've got the perfect character for fanworks. This is a story fanatically dedicated to analyzing Reimu, and though I'm not a big fan of her characterization here, I must admit that it's intense as hell.

I love the way the metanarrative of Reimu as a videogame protagonist seeps into her position in Gensokyo at large, especially since even canon Reimu seems to be aware that she's the lead character in a story and will always resolve the incident, which is why she never really needs to work (although this contrasts with the endless deaths one shall suffer while actually playing a Touhou game, which could be described as the process of infinitely polishing yourself until you align with the ideal of the Eternal Shrine Maiden). Reimu is described as Taoist in her approach to life, always aware of a fundamental 'way' that guides her to victory, but perfect protagonists get boring very easily, and hence everyone who writes Reimu needs to give her some flaws. Where I think the fans differ from ZUN is that while ZUN gives Reimu personal failings, a lack of insight, bad impulse control or various other human flaws, the fans often critique Reimu's position itself, seeing what she represents as a restrictive, empty shell that stunts her personal identity and stops her from being a person (indeed, I recall reading a doujin that actually made her a machine).

While this is a natural, compelling and interesting way to engage with Reimu (particularly for dark or angsty fanworks), I feel like many of them, this one included, lean too much into Reimu as a symbol instead of her as a person. Time and time again, they reuse the hackneyed plot point of Who is Reimu Hakurei, the person? and strive to establish some kind of shrine maiden vs. regular human binary. It's a bog-standard setup used for internal drama across fiction- just swap shrine maiden with 'king' or 'superhero' or 'actor', and have someone exposit about performativity and appearances versus reality.

But what makes Reimu so interesting, at least to me personally, is that she doesn't fit into this simple binary, and that she rarely angsts about her role versus her personality. Most of her dilemmas are played for comedy, such as the classic yokai miko complaint, but Reimu doesn't lose her humanity or get ostracised or stoned by the villagers like so many fanworks depict- she's simply seen as eccentric, and is rather poorer than she'd like to be. She doesn't need to make any grand sacrifices or explain herself to anyone, but neither is she someone who's organized enough to lead a balanced life. The fun thing about Reimu is that she eludes definition in every sense, behaving in ways so immensely unpredictable that they can't even be called unpredictability, because you gradually start to see an odd sort of logic shining through. She's not deranged and she's not composed, not a conformist and not a contrarian, not trying to be rebellious, but not avoiding it either. The harder you try to assign an adjective to her, the more exceptions you'll find, and while fanworks are fundamentally subjective, Reimu is one of those few characters who would seem completely and totally different even when written by the same author (ZUN himself being the biggest example).

Fundamentally, you don't learn to write Reimu or draw up a list of traits or figure out her core appeal- you look at a piece of paper, stare up at this misty, ambiguous red-white entity, and strive to grasp some corner of her essence that you might oversimplify and whittle down into a clear three-act story arc. This story's take on Reimu is what you get when you try and cram every single one of her traits into a psychoanalytical profile and figure out what makes her 'tick'- a reductive, unrealistic caricature who's turned into the dreary snapshot of a system, a clumsy attempt to create a grand theory of Gensokyo and figure out where the Hakurei variable fits. But in trying to explore Reimu's hidden depths, the story misses out on one of the most obvious aspects of her character- as ZUN so neatly puts it, "She's carefree on the outside, but deep down, she's even more carefree."

Reimu is complex precisely because she's simple, fascinating precisely because she's plain- the homogenizing, unifying tendency to turn people into character profiles won't work on her, because she's random and capricious in a way that only a real person can be. And this is something that characterizes Touhou as a whole- ZUN doesn't write his characters as anime archetypes, but as people, who'll preach something in the morning, contradict it in the afternoon, forget about it by noon, dream about flowers at night, repeat the cycle next morning, and then do something completely different the day-after-tomorrow. They dodge tropes as easily as they dodge danmaku, laughing at your puny classifications while firing hundreds of contradictions back, and Reimu, whose very power is to float away from reality, has turned this into an art form designed solely to torment every artist who ever tries to paint a portrait of her.

In conclusion, what this story misses about Reimu is that she's not a faceless puppet occupying the role of the Hakurei miko who needs Marisa to constantly remind her of why she's her own person. Reimu is individuality itself, the very essence of uniqueness, who doesn't inhabit a position, but makes it her her own. She is the shrine maiden, but what other shrine maiden has befriended yokai, created the spellcard system, beaten gods and gone to the underworld because of food poisoning? Who could ever hope to imitate Reimu or embody her brilliance, both within the world of Touhou and in the wider cultural sphere beyond it? Reimu isn't a shadow- if anything, she becomes more fascinatingly multifaceted the longer the Touhou project goes on, because each page gives her a new memory, a new identity, a new photograph to add to the collection, endlessly complicating and expanding her legacy. In being so fiercely fictional and devoted to entertainment and fun, she embodies reality itself. "Who is Reimu Hakurei?" a thousand fanworks might ask, but the response, now and always, will simply be, "Reimu is Reimu." We can't imagine her being anyone else, even if it's a version of herself that she was five seconds ago.

This has been a pretty long post, but I hope I've been able to illustrate the appeal of Reimu's character (or anti-character), and how it represents the ethos of the Touhou franchise as a whole. Of course, that ethos also declares that every fanwork is legitimate, and this is a particularly good one, precisely because it makes you think. I could never have expressed my feelings about Reimu in a spontaneous debate or conversation, because there'd be way too much data to sift through, way too many examples to select and analyze. But by boiling her down to such a simple, compelling set of core traits and ideas, this story allowed me to craft clear counterarguments and develop my own stance. It helped me gain an understanding of a well-loved character precisely because it presented me with such a different, unique take on her, and that is something only doujinshi can do. They're fascinating precisely because they take risks, using the central pillar of a story or a universe to express a fan-author's individuality, and by moving away from the source, they help us go full circle, appreciating both the deviation and the origin. By that criterion, this doujin is a moving, brilliant, thought-provoking masterpiece, and I'm grateful I came across it.

Suika does it all- freeloading, romantic advice, immortal counsel, alcohol reviewing and trash pickup. For one of Japan's most feared demons, she's pretty nifty.

Reimu, like every wise lesbian, wants to see her girlfriend in stockings. She's just a bit more... literal than most.

Anyone here reads the works of Xierra099?

I checked out their DeviantArt profile, and there seems to be some very interesting art there. I liked this piece in particular-
https://www.deviantart.com/xierra099/art/Good-Witches-Nerds-853779253

Really captures what makes the artstyle of each show special while still maintaining a neat, central consistency.

Oh my god, they were bodymates.

Aside from Nanoha and Madoka, isn't there yuri in Yuki Yuna? Also, does Flip Flappers count? They're magical (I think), they transform (sometimes), they fight an evil secret organization, and they have a mascot.

->Doesn't count Symphogear

Symphogear is excellent and deserves more love. Also, the gacha game features Hibiki in a suit, automatically making it the greatest piece of media ever produced (tearfully pats XDU NA's corpse).

humans are fundamentally rational

I'll admit that I don't fully understand this species' mental processes, but that statement doesn't seem consistent with what I've observed of their behaviour so far...

To elaborate, rationality here simply means 'acting in a way that offers an individual benefits or avoids harm'. So in a hyper-religious society that believes in the existence of a sin-determined afterlife as fact, it would be 'rational' not to steal food from a neighbour even if you're starving, because the agony of being thrown into eternal damnation for your crimes would outweigh the benefits of a quick meal (to say nothing of the very real consequences of getting caught and punished for your crime). In an atheistic, individualistic society that incentivizes looking out for number one, it simply becomes a question of whether or not you can get away with it. So logic is different in different places and different times, depending on a metric ton of factors like culture, philosophy, politics, yadda, yadda, yadda. Really makes you appreciate how honest and unpretentious lizards are.

By the way, I've been meaning to introduce myself. So here goes: I'm Lizbo the lily-loving lizanthrope lurker, and I'm here for the lizards. Or I was, at any rate. Somewhere along the way I got sucked in by the homo sapiens-themed manga, and recently I've even started reading the ones that don't focus solely on their reproductive practices. (Still haven't figured out how that's supposed to work...) Anyway, I thought it was about time to join up and give the community the benefit of my insights.

We look forward to your cold-blooded wisdom.

And why people just roll with this like it's normal, Zun Best Art?! What?!

I'm guessing this is where the misunderstanding began- ObtainCheese couldn't get enough context from this half-meme, half-serious discussion and figured that Random was praising ZUN's art for its paedophilic qualities. Elevown and I then explained why this wasn't the case. Isn't Image Thread Drama CSI fun?

He wasn't referring to ZUN's art as being pedophilic territory, but rather this particular art piece in which an obviously adult person is preying on a child who doesn't know how to react to her advances. At least that's what I get from this picture.

Yeah, this picture definitely has those vibes to it. It's tagged Age Gap, but not Lolicon, presumably because the child in question is not framed in a sexual light, even though the general situation is sexually charged. I guess the people in charge of tagging prioritized the lady without a shirt over the kid, leading to ambiguous tagging, leading to comment section warfare. In short, business as usual.

Weird food-related taboos are dime a dozen in belief systems and folk practices the world over, of course.

---

Cherokee tradition says that it is unhealthy meat which may make you weak & sick.

QED. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To be fair, most of these traditions evolved from practical concerns. It's commonly theorized that Jewish ideas of kosher and non-kosher food arose from a desire to avoid consuming meats that had a higher risk of carrying diseases or infections, or were just harder to treat in general. The same goes for why certain vegetarian cultures, like Japan (which banned meat for around 12 centuries) don't count fish as meat, because animals were resource-intensive to raise and considerably more useful for long-term farming than short term consumption. As a cultural justification, the doctrine of karma was used to discourage eating other lifeforms (apart from the poor fish).

So a lot of the traditions that might seem 'weird' or 'primitive' now had pretty good justifications back when they were devised. Anthropologically speaking, these conventions become ironclad and non-questionable in local culture, leading to people often forgetting the central logic behind them, which creates narratives of tradition vs modernity and 'superstitious barbarians' in the modern world, even though humans are fundamentally rational and rarely act without some kind of reward-perception. In this case, there'd be a much lower chance of getting food-poisoning from a store-brought turkey today, as compared to a wild turkey hunted and cooked centuries ago with the methods of the time. So what was survival instinct for folks back then seems like strange superstition to us now. Whether folks opt to keep old traditions alive out of a sense of respect for the ways of their ancestors or choose to indulge in the pleasures of the modern world is, of course, a matter of personal discretion.

"Because people who don't like it don't comment because they don't care" if that were true I wouldn't say that, cause of the four fanarts on this site for this pairing, the other three have a good bunch, of "cursed ship" "nice art but not my ship" "it doesn't make sense" and so and so.

This is very true. For some strange reason, people treat Sayaka X Yuu as some kind of cursed, forbidden ship, to the point where an outsider would think that it involved abuse or paedophilia instead of the grave sin of being merely non-canon. It's not just on Dynasty, because this forum seems to have chronic issues with people taking unasked-for shits on the happiness of others, but also on other platforms, including the Bloom Into You subreddit. The vitriol died down after Haru was introduced, primarily because people shifted from trashing the ship to making memes about twins, but I'm still not sure why a perfectly innocuous pairing attracted such ire.

The only reason I can think of is that a lot of people got into yuri as a whole because of YagaKimi, and probably saw ToukoxYuu as some grand, legendary ship that never ought to be threatened under any circumstances, even if it's by another girl in a piece of fanart. This is a singularly dumb way to think, but pretty common with those that grow attached to their ships and see all other pairings as something to be stomped out. I've seen straight ships in primarily gay series that get less hate than SaaYuu- heck, Akko X Andrew gets less hate than SaaYuu.

Regardless of how much someone might like the canon pairing, hating this ship is pretty immature, because people have a right to draw and enjoy what they want without some Canon-snorting Inquisitor kicking down the door. Artists put effort into creating the art, fans have a great time appreciating the art, and yet someone who's got an entire ocean of content to kick around in feels the need to horn in and ruin everyone's fun. Heck, it's not even like someone's asking for fans to explain the appeal in a respectful manner- this is legit, 2000s-era 4chan weeaboo 'Muh ship is better than yours, all other pairings die' bullshit.

last edited at Nov 29, 2020 2:09AM

Aside from Nanoha and Madoka, isn't there yuri in Yuki Yuna? Also, does Flip Flappers count? They're magical (I think), they transform (sometimes), they fight an evil secret organization, and they have a mascot.

^ Tougo is canonically gay for Yuna, and the gacha game takes the anime's nascent gayness and turns it up to eleven (there was a mock polyamourous wedding involved at one point). Symphogear also very clearly counts, being descended from Nanoha, and since I've exclusively heard Flip Flappers being classified as yuri before anyone mentions the magical girl stuff, I'd definitely say it counts. MadoHomu is... complicated- in Urobuchi's words, "I don't think it is that special -- a really strong friendship turns into a lovelike-relationship without the sexual attraction, in their case." Whether this is Urobuchi trying to make a valiant effort to represent homoromantic women or just him being physically unable to utter the word 'love' without adding in fifteen caveats is upto readers to decide. The fans, in many cases, very sensibly enforce death of the author and build the subtext into something beautiful, which might even be the intention- many franchises specifically don't make any ships canon so that fans can see all pairings as equal and mix and match to their pleasure (the official term, I believe, is open-pairings vs. closed pairings).

There's a part of me that wants to hope that if same-sex marriage gets legalized in Japan, a ton of the tiptoeing and uncertainty around homosexuality might shift, giving us a flood of canon pairings (in most CGDCT or magical shows, the subtext is already there, so all you'd need is to pen in a confession scene). However, even straight romance in Japan, despite being idealized, normalized and endorsed, is still portrayed pretty conservatively in most het manga, so I'm not very optimistic. Still, even if there isn't an overnight change, we'll probably get a lot more gayness in the next decade, since yuri's profitability as an additive to every genre is becoming increasingly harder to dispute.

Not sure what you are saying- if its good or bad- but I assume they are just joking that ZUN's character art style makes them look like children even though they are not?

It's probably this, yeah. Unironically saying 'Touhou is a series filled with lolis' is a good way for people to advertise that they nothing about it. Regarding ZUN's art, the more recent games show a marked improvement, and he's also learned how to draw tits. He just doesn't like drawing them, and even apologized for giving one of WbaWC's characters boobs because they were 'stereotypical'. ZUN is so galaxy brain that he thinks of breasts as the exception rather than the norm. He just wants people to be aerodynamic and have hollow bones, having realized that flying through the skies is infinitely sexier than gazing at some bored dame's mammaries.

So was the translation picked up again?

Yes, we're getting fairly regular updates on MD. Don't know when they'll be uploaded here, though.

This is brilliant on so many levels. The more gag manga I read, the more I realize that the authors scrawling 4komas while hopped up on LSD and distilled despair are the ones who've truly grasped the truth of the universe.

This is one of the most hilarious takes on Sakuya's career change that I've ever seen. Remilia deadass looked into the book of an European goth chick's fate, scribbled out the part labelled 'tragedy', pencilled in 'lesbian maid' next to it, and gave her the most weeaboo name she could think of in the 19th century. This is how love stories begin.

This is a masterpiece, and the fact that it never got completed is a goddamn tragedy. I came into this expecting some dumb, memetic fun and ended up cheering my throat raw for Reimu's valiant army of lesbians. It takes some major talent to balance batshit-insane humour with a legitimate sense of stakes and tension, often in the same scene.
#Release the WIz-GARAGE cut.

Oh, Tsukimizu. I love how their metaphors are so hilariously on the nose that they circle back into being esoteric and abstract. Reminds me of Utena and the iconic crimson sexmobile. The town's pretty interesting- at first glance, it seems like a heaven where thoughts influence reality, on second thought, it seems like a hell where your subconscious engineers endless new ordeals, and a third try makes you wonder if it's just purgatory for those that couldn't get anything of value done and wonder what the point of it all is. In the end, you realize that it's all of these things and also none of them, so very abstract and personal and bizarre and incomprehensible that the sum total of all the weirdos cancels out individual absurdity. And so, we loop back to inhabiting an obscure, sleepy local town, as large or small as the distance you're willing to walk to grab the groceries while debating Schopenhauer with your girlfriend.

last edited at Nov 29, 2020 9:24AM

Turkeys sure aren't pretty birds huh.

I quite agree. Who would want to eat something with a face like a diseased scrotum?

The quality of scrotums is not strain'd.
They droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the pubes beneath. They are twice blest:
They blesseth him that nibbles and him that jiggles.
They are wrinkly in the wrinkliest; they become
The royal turkey better than his feathers.
His ballsack shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of CBT;
But scrotums are above mere testicular sway.
They are enthronèd in the pants of chads;
And are an attribute to Adam Himself;
And earthly scrotum doth then show likest God's
When shrinkage seasons justice.

I think if I were to reduce it to single issue, it wouldn't be the quantity of content, but how fragmented it is. Most large franchises have a core installment or linear series thereof that will give you all the basics, and Touhou lacks that. The games are the closest, but they're not in order, most of them seem very episodic, the emphasis on the story in-game varies wildly, and some aren't even translated. So, if there even is a good jumping-off point, it is very hard to find.

Every single game, manga and spinoff is translated, the series follows an extremely linear timeline (roughly one incident per year), the Touhou wiki is widely considered to be extremely readable, comprehensive and accessible, and even if you're not into that, the TV Tropes page is extensive and has Cliffs Notes on every last character. As a whole, the project is considered accessible and fun precisely because it doesn't hit you with dense, complex lore or devote a hundred pages to explaining the magic system, but encourages thinking for yourself and interpreting various concepts and statements. That's the reason it has so many fanworks- the canon isn't an encyclopaedia so much as a launchpad.

Personally, I think you just seem to have a vested dislike for the franchise, probably because it didn't meet your expectations at an early point. That's perfectly fine- nobody's going to hold a gun to your head and order you to love Touhou. But if you insist on making claims about the series that are objectively wrong and misrepresenting it (to actual fans, no less), you're obviously going to get criticized. If you find it esoteric or weird or meandering or irreverent, then just say so- it's a sentiment that thousands will share, and considerably more honest than lambasting the games for not being 'in order' or translated.

Edit: Just saw your comment, never mind.

last edited at Nov 28, 2020 10:18AM