Okay, so apparently, Kisume eats people (big news), keeps their heads, and sometimes use them to play hide-and-seek. Sometimes, you see a head popping out of bucket. Save it's not her. It's one of her victim's heads.
I mean, they'd rot and stuff, and Rin would steal them on her way through. It would be more practical for a youkai in a place where humans don't show up very often to eat all of them.
>>9172 It's rather easy to tell by referencing the profiles (the most truthful of canon material) and the manga (mostly truthful) and comparing them with the article and whatever conflicts is apparently the work of Aya being opinionated or Akyuu filling in the gaps with her opinion/intentionally fudging it up.
About the Kisume matter? ZUN's remarks came off as less Word of God announcement and more "I have no idea about her, but I personally think she's vicious" (as opposed to "Actually she's terribly vicious" or some other authoritative remark)
So, given what this book says about how Youkai work, Alice and Patchouli are probably some of the few Youkai who would be able to survive outside of Gensokyo.
Why do I say that? They're Magician Youkai; youkai are powered by stories of troublesome spirits, so they're powered by every story about witches doing shit like killing goats or whatever, and every time a "witch" gets persecuted as a result. The Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria? Powered them. The "DnD is corrupting our youth with satanic rituals" crowd? Empowered them. The batfuck crazy Haitian voodoo dictatorship? Empowered them.
No wonder Marisa is so close to becoming a Magician Youkai herself; she's practically a walking Witch stereotype herself.
>>9334 >No wonder Marisa is so close to becoming a Magician Youkai herself; she's practically a walking Witch stereotype herself.
That's funny. She dresses like a witch because she thinks she should look like one, and if you're right, the closer you are to a stereotype, the higher your chances to turn into a(n) youkai.
>>9358 That was Yorihime, wielding what was at the least a mirror with no imperfections whatsoever (impossible with human technology) and probably some kind of magic artifact, against Marisa's inferior copy of Master Spark. Yuuka can split into two mirror images and fire two Sparks at once.
If you read Aya's article on the incident Kisume was apparently involved in, it really comes off as Yukari trying to cover up a murder an underground youkai (Kisume) perpetrated in order to prevent the peace between humans and youkai from breaking down.
I know the thought of some of the youkai being murderous monsters ruins the perfect gensokyo that is in some people's heads, but keep in mind that real world humans murder each other all the time. It stands to reason that occasionally what is basically an actual monster would commit a murder.
Of course, those bones could have easily been fake just like the article implied (no one was missing), and Zun never actually said she takes people's heads. Just that she's the type that would do it. Or at least that is the impression I got as of the latest translation I had read.
So far the book is really good, though. It really gave a much clearer glimpse into what gensokyo is really like, overall.
>>9388 Kisume's article remarked on a type of tree or such that people mistook as remains. It's more Kisume trolling than anything truly malicious. But I'd imagine it was Yukari or Ran that buried the well.
Actually, the article postulated that it could have been a mis-identified wood. Then she goes on to say that it would be REALLY BAD if it turned out to actually be an actual victim. However, the wording of the article is extremely suspicious. Think of it this way: Aya has an interesting story and drops it because it might have been something innocuous. Read every other one of her articles and tell me that red flags don't start popping up. It is incredibly out of line with what she normally prints. Normally she goes out of her way to make a big deal of nothing. Yet here we have something that is potentially a huge deal, and she tries to play it off as if its nothing. And she does this after being told so by freaking Yukari.
My take on it is this:
Some remains popped up, and no one could tell where they came from. So either it is a long unsolved case of someone missing from the village, or it was an outsider. Either way it would be damaging to the delicate balance of peace between the humans and youkai. So Yukari basically pressures Aya to spin the article to make it seem harmless, steals the remains (exceedingly easy for her to do) so that no one can verify, and buries the well so there's no retaliation. Thus there is no escalation.
I'm not saying that is necessarily what happened, since there simply not enough information, but "someone said it might have been X" is not the same as "It definitely was X". I'm basically saying that there are more ways this could have gone down than the flimsy theory that is half heartedly stated in the article.
>>9404 Do I even really want to point out how stupid you sound right now Anon? Are you seriously hinting at grimdark in canon? What next, Marisa deciding that she should start stealing hearts literally?
There is so much wrong with what you said I don't even know where to start.
A.) No one said it was grimdark. If your idea of grimdark is a single youkai (who by it's very nature desires killing humans) commits a single murder, then you really need to open a newspaper sometime. People kill people. What on earth would make you think that somehow it is impossible for the same to happen in Gensokyo, especially when it is overwhelmingly populated with literal man-eating monsters? Do you think there's some brain washing field that prevents people from trying to kill each other? Because THAT Would be pretty fucked up too.
B.) The implication that Yukari (might be) trying to cover stuff like that up only makes the setting more endearing and interesting, at least to me. She tries her best, despite the occasional asshole trying to fuck things up, to preserve the peace and gradually improve relations between humans and youkai. If anything, that just makes the peace they HAVE managed to make for themselves all the more impactful.
C.) Then there's the simple fact that it is outright stated in the source material that Gensokyo is a bit more dangerous than it seems on the surface. In case you weren't paying attention:
1. Scarlet Mist incident was actually pretty dangerous. Remilia's mist was actually fatal to both humans and youkai. No confirmed deaths, but the fact that she spreads the mist shows a disregard for life.
2. PCB's incident resulted in a longer winter that nearly resulted in deaths. Sakuya was involved in the incident because she was worried about freezing to death once they ran out of fuel.
3. Gensokyo's history is bathed in blood. This isn't even debatable. Just how far into the past things started to calm down, though, is completely unknown.
4. Ever get a bad end in MoF, or UFO? Yeah... the youkai are kind of dicks.
5. Try reading some of the articles in SoPM. Murasa is a (lovable) dick that drowns people (no word if there have been any fatalities though, since its possible to survive a drowning). Mamizou plays life threatening pranks on people. Etc etc.
6. Several characters have outright stated that Gensokyo's peace is on the razor's edge, and is not sustainable. In fact, a decent portion of SoPM is dedicated to this topic. But anyone that has been paying attention to all the shit Zun has written over the years already probably knew that.
No one said Gensokyo was grimdark, and no one has argued that Gensokyo ISNT a relatively peaceful setting. They basically solve their problems by playing laser tag. What isn't to love? But don't you think it is a bit naive to think they don't have any serious problems?
No... let me rephrase that. Wouldn't it be boring if they didn't have any problems?
>>9432 Well, think of it like this; in our world, we have plenty of examples of people who are supposedly good friends, yet play incredibly cruel or even dangerous pranks on each other.
We call them "fraternities".
Mamizou might play a prank on you that goes a little too far, but assuming you manage to survive it, she'll probably be more than happy to sit down and drink with you until you're laughing about it. Or just too drunk to care.
>>9435 "Hello Outsider. You don't know me but I know you. For decades, you're been hunting innocent racoons to keep their skin, and tonight, roles are reversed. How fast can you run, human?"
>>9435 >Well, think of it like this; in our world, we have plenty of examples of people who are supposedly good friends, yet play incredibly cruel or even dangerous pranks on each other.
Oh yeah, I remember when I threw a toaster to my brother when he was under the shower. I said "think fast". He yelled like a little girl when the toaster toasted him. So much fun. And, you're right, I do that everyday \(^0^)/
Well, I used to, until my brother died in that wheelchair accident ;_;. Okay, shoving him down a staircase wasn't really clever, but it was too tempting.
>>9431 >Several characters have outright stated that Gensokyo's peace is on the razor's edge, and is not sustainable. In fact, a decent portion of SoPM is dedicated to this topic. But anyone that has been paying attention to all the shit Zun has written over the years already probably knew that.
Could you give some quotes supporting that argument?
I agree with you by the way but I can't be 100% sure without some direct quotes from canon.
>>9463 I wouldn't go that far but I believe Akyuu's afterwards in PoSM remarks on the balance of power in Gensokyo and how peace is sustained by the fact that the factions keep each other in check.
So if one faction were to gain a considerable amount of power and do something with it, the balance would be broken.
>>9694 Shoutoku landed in Gensokyo because he became a legend in the Outside World. Therefore, since Slenderman and Santa Claus are legends too, you can theorically see them lurking around young childrens.
>>9695 Santa probably wouldn't become a Youkai, because Youkai are created by people fearing things. They're existences that trouble humanity. Santa would probably just be a particularly powerful Catholic Saint.
Now Slenderman, on the other hand, has people telling lots of stories about him, portraying him as a "legendary" being that trouble humanity. Exactly the sort of stories that create Yokai.
Well, rest assured that if he exists in the Touhou universe, Slenderman can't be that strong. Between the various parodies of said entity and assorted admissions of falsehood of certain documentaries related to him, his existence is generally denied, which is at best weakening and at worst permanently fatal to youkai.
The problem with your argument is that Gensokyo and everything in it exists because people don't believe in it. That's one of the functions of the Great Hakurei Barrier after all.
>>9744 Until, you know, he actually manifests and starts murdering people. When the various Slenderman authors start disappearing, and the MO of their murders fits that of Slenderman...
Also, it occurs to me that there are probably "alien" youkai that abduct and anally probe people.
>>9775 perhaps due to the bleedover of science/etc from the outside world. But generally if something's believed non-existant in the outside world, it'll likely pop up in Gensokyo.
>>9775 Just because it lands in Gensokyo, that doesn't mean it's safe for them, they can still disappear.
Gensokyo isn't a bizarro outside, it's another world, following its own rules. Just because you can't live outside, that doesn't mean you can live in Gensokyo.
