Miscellaneous Questions 5: Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Leon゠Helsing]

Speaking of the Makai article, it seems that it's still lacking a reference for the statement that it's filled with miasma that while physically harmful to humans it also strengthens magical spells and seals. Was that ever stated in any canon material?

[Romantique Tp]

http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Undefined_Fantastic_Object/Story/Marisa_A%27s_Scenario
http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Undefined_Fantastic_Object/Story/Marisa_B%27s_Scenario

[Leon゠Helsing]

I really need to start improving my (nearly non-existent) skills on danmaku. >.>
Anyway, anyone willing to edit the article's missing reference to point to those? I'm not exactly that savvy on editing wikis either.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Are those Sakuya-like fairies called fairy maids or maid fairies?
And...do other households in Gensokyo other than the Scarlet Devil Mansion (e.g. the Shining Needle Castle) have them? People say they're unique to the SDM, but the games state otherwise, you can even find them onboard Murasa's ship.

[Drake]

Generally called fairy maids over maid fairies.
I think you're mistaken though, the sprites aren't indicators that they're maids. The fairies in EoSD don't have special sprites for them or anything, they're just said to be so.

[Abraham Lincoln]

I was talking about those fairies which appear to be in maid clothing.

[shockdude]

What music genre does ZUN'S music fall into? That is, if I were looking for non-touhou music of a similar style, what should I search for?

[Leon゠Helsing]

Kinda hard to say, ZUN's done quite a variety of styles. If anything, people tend to identify his music with the unique set of synths he uses.

[Raikaria]

Yes; on one end you have what Zun classes as 'hard rock' such as Lunar Clock ~ Lunar Dial [Maids and Hard Rock go together well], and then you have the instrumental; almost orchestral pieces such as Phantom Ensemble.

You have fast-paced; wild pieces like Futasuwia from Sado; and you have slow; peaceful things such as Mystical Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple.

There are playful peices like Beloved Tomboyish Girl; and menacing pieces like Septette for the Dead Princess; which in contrast feels almost oppressive and hopeless.

There is no one genre of ZUN music. That's why remixes cover so many genres; from rock to metal to orchestral or even jazz.  Just a glance at my 'remix' playlist shows Jazz; Techno; Trance; Rock; Metal; Orchestral; Folk; Eurobeat and even Gothic [Mostly remixes of Third Eye]. Considering remixes are generally inspired by the origionals; it suggests that there is an element of multiple genres.

[Romantique Tp]

ZUN's style is a mix of jazz fusion (which these days might as well be a musician in-joke meaning "I do whatever I want"), new age, 70's~80's japanese pop and 80's~90's video game music. He composes by improvising on his keyboard until he finds something he likes, and picks instruments based on what he thinks will fit.

While it's true ZUN's music is fairly flexible, that's not the reason why it gets arranges of so many different genres. Any music that gets many arranges is also arranged to a big variety of genres.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Well, I think ZUN's music is a fusion of genres. For example, TD was predominantly trance-based and DDC was mostly inspired by rock. However, it is possible to hear other genres in it as well.

Is ZUN influenced by fan works? A lot of his newer characters and music resemble those from Touhou fan games like Mystical Power Plant. Shinmyoumaru looks like the kodama

[shockdude]

Thanks for the help!

Kinda hard to say, ZUN's done quite a variety of styles. If anything, people tend to identify his music with the unique set of synths he uses.

This is more in line with what I was looking for. There are lots of Touhou songs and Touhou remixes spanning all sorts of genres, but few arrangements use similar instrumentation to what ZUN uses.
An example I've found is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygNLfhN4IM
If I were to find more Touhou-like music, does anyone know what search terms I could use?

[Romantique Tp]

You should have been more specific.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/東方風自作曲リンク
http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/%E9%87%8E%E7%94%9F%E3%81%AEZUN
http://www.nicovideo.jp/search/SD%2090
http://www.nicovideo.jp/search/SD%2080

[Drake]

Some links to artist mylists and personal comments

Wanwan: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/15159770
Senpi: Has vanished from the internet. Can still find works with tag: http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/%E6%88%A6%E3%83%94%E3%83%BC
Yosiyosi: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/11691289
Samidare: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/3036030
Kiryuu: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/11729122
Taji: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/6992171
Ryuuou: http://www.nicovideo.jp/mylist/12108752

Wanwan I find isn't all that great. I could go into detail about that but eh. He certainly has quantity, though?

Senpi has this thing where his songs are like "yeah this song is awesome" -> "still good" -> "ok nope awful". Way too much noise in many of his songs that otherwise could be great. He just sort of makes a mess trying to go over the top and I wish he wouldn't.

Yosiyosi I've found is hit-or-miss. He has good songs but I don't ever want to hear Rumble Temple again.

Samidare is Samidare.

Kiryuu is pretty good. He has a nice grasp of each game's individual flavour and how to flesh together nice melodies. His stuff has a lot of character. He doesn't do Touhou-styled works anymore though.

Taji was my favorite for a while. He has an impressive handle on the SD-90; what instruments to use, how and where to use them and combine them.

Ryuuou, I think, is simply the best. I cannot praise him highly enough. Every new composition he comes out with is just fantastic.
ねずみ色の夕立
海賊の島　～ Romantic Sea
【神霊廟風】 東方妖々夢 ～ Ancient Temple
albalbgljfldbasda

[Romantique Tp]

Speaking of, have you done anything recently with that SD-20 of yours Drake ?

[shockdude]

You should have been more specific.

Some links to artist mylists and personal comments

Excellent, thanks!
Out of sheer curiosity, are there any Western artists of a similar style? It doesn't have to be strictly SD-90 stuff, if that matters. If not, that's ok.

[snowflake247]

I think Youtube and Nicovideo user Princess Sylvysprit does some Touhou-style original music. They're the only one I know of, though.

[Romantique Tp]

There's at least 3 or 4 other guys, but honestly none of them truly stand out... It's like people think tacking the trumpet into every song will turn them into ZUN, and forget there's a lot more to ZUN's music than just trumpets. But hey, you gotta start somewhere right ? I've not checked on them in a while, so they might have improved since then.

If you're still interested, you should be able to find them easily (less than 2 minutes) by just searching on YouTube or Soundcloud.

[Biakmon]

- Was it stated somewhere in the PC-98 game that Yuuka was the "Owner" of Mugenken?

If not, why the term owner was put alongside her name in Touhou Wiki?
- Residents

• Yuuka Kazami

(Owner)
[/list]

From Touhou Wiki (canon):

- He's stated that the Windows era is canon to Touhou and that the PC-98 isn't, where there's no relations.

Can someone clarify the part in bold cause I still find that part vague. For example, is the Window Yuuka the same Yuuka who was once an occupant of Mugenkan.
Don't mind if their personality or character design change.

- He's also stated that the older characters aren't gone and just don't get to be shown on game-screen.

From the second statement can we safely assume/or at least assume that even if most of the PC-98 shown anymore and irrespectively of whether they will appear of not, they still there for the most parts.
Note: I'm asking if all or almost all of the past touhou characters did even exist and still exist in the actual Touhou universe or are there existence itself was null (for the most part never existed in the first place)!

[Drake]

stage 5 both scenarios

I'm the master of this mansion, Yuuka.
Nice to meet you. ♥

As for the second question we had a big discussion recently, here.
He's said before that you can think of PC-98 as though it were a derivative work. A proper answer to your question really depends on why you're asking; if you want an impartial status of canon, you should generally ignore PC-98. But it isn't as though this means you should just ignore them as works entirely, especially if you're creating fanworks that you just want to "get accurately" or something.

[Voltorn]

Question about Kasen:
- In the wiki, it's written that Kazen is able to perform the following:

To connect separate spaces: This was shown at the same time as the aforementioned remote control of artificial arms. Upon inserting her artificial arm beneath her apron, a detached artificial arm appeared in a separate place. In this state, upon seizing something and bringing it back, the seized object was also withdrawn together from beneath her apron.

Is it safe to say that Kasen possesses an ability that functions in a similar way as Yukari's gap?  :V

Thanks

[Clarste]

Question about Kasen:
- In the wiki, it's written that Kazen is able to perform the following:

Is it safe to say that Kasen possesses an ability that functions in a similar way as Yukari's gap?  :V

Thanks

Personally, I never saw it as teleporting, just that she stuck her arm in clothes so it wouldn't look as suspicious when she detached it.  I suppose it's not out of the question that she can teleport it though. I don't think that would really be enough to make her meaningfully similar to Yukari.

In general though, most characters have access to generic youkai magic which doesn't get much description or attention. The wiki focuses on a bunch of random things Kasen has done, but the only reason we see these things is because she's the (spoiler alert?) youkai who happens to get the most face time in the comics. I wouldn't read too much into except to say "Kasen can use a variety of youkai magic, as is befitting for a *bleep*". Incidentally, her "power" for the purposes of the character pages seems to be "to guide animals".

[Abraham Lincoln]

Ridiculous question: is Nazrin a rat or a mouse?

[Tengukami]

Ridiculous question: is Nazrin a rat or a mouse?

I'm noticing you ask a lot of questions that can be quickly and easily answered just by going to the wiki first. There's a reason we put that suggestion in the OP.

[Abraham Lincoln]

I'm noticing you ask a lot of questions that can be quickly and easily answered just by going to the wiki first. There's a reason we put that suggestion in the OP.

The wiki doesn't answer this. Maybe I'm on the wrong wiki.
Well, anyway, "nezumi" translates to both rat and mouse, so technically she can be either. This is really stupid since I ended up answering my own question.  :V

[Tengukami]

See the OP for the link to the wiki.

[Abraham Lincoln]

See the OP for the link to the wiki.

I am a fool.

[Voltorn]

I've read some fanon works where Yukari could spy using her gap ability. Has this been done canonically?

Thanks.

[Drake]

As far as I can recall the only instance of Yukari explicitly shown to be spying is with her shikigami crows during SSiB/CiLR, and I suppose you might count the zashiki-warashi. But in most cases if Yukari has spied, you wouldn't know about it until it becomes clear that she has spied in some way; the method itself isn't often made obvious. That's just part of Yukari's character.

That being said, the skill card description of Magic Eye "Laplace's Demon" from Hisoutensoku is:

A large number of eyes appear staring at the enemy. Once the eyes see an exploitable weakness, they attack. It seems this is how Yukari knows what's going on in all of Gensokyo at all times.

Of course this isn't exactly proof that this is the method, but it's definitely a ZUN-ism way of half-confirming it, and at the very least it establishes that Yukari keeps watch all over Gensokyo.

[Prime32]

There's another case in Oriental Sacred Place chapter 10