Miscellaneous Questions 5: Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Drake]

I've actually never thought of that similarity, but even if that was exactly Flandre's power and we start appealing to TYPE-MOON universes, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception also have limitations, including e.g. not being able to "kill" things that have no concept of death, which happens to be precisely how people of Hourai are described :derp:

[monhan]

I've actually never thought of that similarity, but even if that was exactly Flandre's power and we start appealing to TYPE-MOON universes, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception also have limitations, including e.g. not being able to "kill" things that have no concept of death, which happens to be precisely how people of Hourai are described :derp:

The same thing was also pointed out in the TYPE-MOON universe regarding the Types that cannot be killed by the eyes. But can be killed by conceptual weapons like the Black Barrel which invokes the concept of death to the target, basically giving the "death" back to them.
Unless there's something like that around, the Hourai immortals are as deadless as can be. Locking/banishing them up is the only way if you want them to stop messing around.

Probably confusing it with a similar ability from Tsukihime/Kara no Kyoukai. In which targeting the magical weak points specifically bypasses immortality.

Even the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception doesn't always erase the person (like *poof*) or target when they're killed. A simple way to describe it is that when it kills something, the target loses it's "identity" and go die their logical end. Like for example, Shiki from Tsukihime once "killed" a corridor, and what happened was that it crumbled down and become just a bunch of boulders. It's still rock, but definitely not a corridor anymore, and they certainly didn't disintegrate. For a human example, the target turned to dusts, like how a human body returns to dust after death. So it's definitely not erasing existence like deleting them completely, but more like when you erase a writing. The words are gone, but there are dirt remains.

At times, I wish these kind of more detailed explanation of the girls' abilities are put into the wiki to avoid such misunderstandings.

[Drake]

http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Flandre_Scarlet#Abilities ?

[monhan]

http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Flandre_Scarlet#Abilities ?

Yes, and yet people still misinterpreted it. Perhaps the little bit about it only affecting physical objects(perhaps also magical?) and not erasing things from existence will make for less misunderstanding.
Honestly, the kinds of stuff we talked about here, theories regarding their story and ability, why not just put them there?
Just noticed that, unlike most of the other characters, Flan got some special section(treatment) with all the mysteries, theories, and generally more elaborate explanation for the other part, like the ability section you've shown me.

Also the whole thing about a Hourai Immortal having no concept of death and its explanation will surely come in handy if it's put into the description of Mokou's ability. If it's the matter of it being not stated in canon, a theory section can always be made.
Because from what I've noticed, it only went as far as Imperishable Night casts. Maybe because they have more lore? Maybe so.

[Drake]

Speculations don't really belong on a wiki; at least not on the main character pages alongside the actual information. That's about it. Maybe I could retouch the Ability section but stating/explaining what's known is about all you can reasonably do. I still don't even know how the dude even got "erases things from existence" out of Flandre's ability.

Speaking about the Flandre Theory section, I actually intended to dismantle that (or at least heavily modify it) and forgot about it. I put my objections in the talk page, which were that speculation shouldn't be on the main page, that the section makes it seem as though there's equal evidence for and against being locked up (there isn't), and it ignores the burden of proof of the "locked" claim, while by default nobody should assume she is locked up anyways. It's a bad section.

[Maple]

I need analysis from a professional on the subject _{"professional" meaning someone who knows the basics of music}:

In general, 2hu music fits mostly on what music genre? (it's obvious that some songs are from different genres to others, please clarify with examples)

Optional: "genre" deals mostly with instruments used or with composition (ie. time, pitch, melody, etc.)?

[binbinbake]

Is there a Touhou "Let it Go" with Cirno/Letty/ maybe Mai? With the enormous size of the Touhou fanbase, someone probably animated "Let it Go" with one of the (see in Subject) mentioned ice-themed characters?
If so, I'd like to see that 
(I am more or less expecting there to be something like that...)

[Zil]

In general, 2hu music fits mostly on what music genre? (it's obvious that some songs are from different genres to others, please clarify with examples)

Optional: "genre" deals mostly with instruments used or with composition (ie. time, pitch, melody, etc.)?

Try jazz fusion, though imo vgm is basically a genre unto itself.

[the old guy]

Whats up with Gensokyo's dating system? Its weird. (Its like X day of Y month of Z year or something)

[Colticide]

Whats up with Gensokyo's dating system? Its weird. (Its like X day of Y month of Z year or something)

You can find an explination here. http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo_Timeline

I believe it's the Old style Japanese used for Months but was discarded.

[Clarste]

Almost everything in Gensokyo is deliberately old-fashioned. Like, they don't use meters or liters to measure stuff, they use the old names of the months, etc.

[cuc]

Whats up with Gensokyo's dating system? Its weird. (Its like X day of Y month of Z year or something)

If you are talking about the "dates" on tengu newspapers, in addition to knowing about the youkai lunar calendar (preferably, after you've learnt about the real Japanese lunisolar calendar), also note that it is highly likely those are not real dates, but their issue numbers.

Drake and me had a in-depth discussion about it here.

[zemoo]

Does anyone know if there is any connection between the Japanese Kasha (what orin is) and the Hindu Rakshasa. They are both a type of Cat-Demon with similar sounding names from asian folklore.
Wikipedia tells me that Kasha means fire chariot and Rakshasa comes from "Rakshama!" (Sanskrit for "protect me!") so the names are likely not etymologically linked.

[cuc]

Does anyone know if there is any connection between the Japanese Kasha (what orin is) and the Hindu Rakshasa. They are both a type of Cat-Demon with similar sounding names from asian folklore.
Wikipedia tells me that Kasha means fire chariot and Rakshasa comes from "Rakshama!" (Sanskrit for "protect me!") so the names are likely not etymologically linked.

They have no etymological connection.

The word "rakshasa" is absorbed into the Japanese language through the medium of Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures. Middle Chinese (as in, the Chinese language of middle ages) transliterated "rakshasa" as 羅刹, which, according to online sources is very roughly pronounced la tshet. This becomes rasetu in Japanese, which is pronounced "rasetsu" in modern Japanese.

In short, the Japanese equivalent of the word "rakshasa" is "rasetsu".

Meanwhile, the word 火車 "kasha" itself means "wheel of fire" in Japanese. It originated as a torture device in Buddhist hell, which I don't think needs elaborating. In later Japanese imagination, it had come to refer to the demonic torturers of hell, and eventually became merged with the legends about necromantic cats. Thus, "kasha" became the name of a corpse-stealing cat youkai.

Orin is a demonic torturer of hell, as well as a necromantic cat who steals corpses. She's an amalgation of all that folklore history.

Trivia: you may know that Orin carries a wheelbarrow because of a pun: wheelbarrows are called 猫車 "cat carts" in Japanese. Online sources say, this is because wheelbarrows are more agile, and can pass through narrow spaces, just like cats.

[Colticide]

Meanwhile, the word 火車 "kasha" itself means "wheel of fire" in Japanese. It originated as a torture device in Buddhist hell, which I don't think needs elaborating. In later Japanese imagination, it had come to refer to the demonic torturers of hell, and eventually became merged with the legends about necromantic cats. Thus, "kasha" became the name of a corpse-stealing cat youkai.

I'm suddenly reminded of the demon Buer, I've seen in Caslevania is being a lion at times and others a wheel of fire. While the two are not related at all I wonder if there is some kind of inspiration between the legends.

[Clarste]

I'm suddenly reminded of the demon Buer, I've seen in Caslevania is being a lion at times and others a wheel of fire. While the two are not related at all I wonder if there is some kind of inspiration between the legends.

There's no real legend or mythology behind Buer, he's just one of the demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon. It's Occultism, which is alchemists deciding that everything would be cooler if spirits existed. It's basically fiction.

Now that I think about it, alchemy was the original chuunibyou, if you know what that is.

[Colticide]

There's no real legend or mythology behind Buer, he's just one of the demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon. It's Occultism, which is alchemists deciding that everything would be cooler if spirits existed. It's basically fiction.

Now that I think about it, alchemy was the original chuunibyou, if you know what that is.

If it's what the urban dictionary has on chuunibyou then yes I do now. Well that sucks, the whole Solomon things sounds really cool at least.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Is there a Touhou "Let it Go" with Cirno/Letty/ maybe Mai? With the enormous size of the Touhou fanbase, someone probably animated "Let it Go" with one of the (see in Subject) mentioned ice-themed characters?
If so, I'd like to see that 
(I am more or less expecting there to be something like that...)

I'm not exactly sure, but I think this comes fairly close.

(Translation)
Cirno: Let it go! Let it go!

[zemoo]

the Japanese equivalent of the word "rakshasa" is "rasetsu".

Meanwhile, the word 火車 "kasha" itself means "wheel of fire" in Japanese. It originated as a torture device in Buddhist hell, which I don't think needs elaborating. In later Japanese imagination, it had come to refer to the demonic torturers of hell, and eventually became merged with the legends about necromantic cats. Thus, "kasha" became the name of a corpse-stealing cat youkai.

Orin is a demonic torturer of hell, as well as a necromantic cat who steals corpses. She's an amalgation of all that folklore history.

Thanks for the reply. I had heard that Kasha steal corpses and bring the souls directly to hell, bypassing the Enma, but not that they tortured people. Is there anything else that might be synonymous with Kasha? The chant to keep Kasha away from funerals also targets Baku, a totally different, benevolent, nightmare-eating monster, I was briefly confused thinking that those two were the same, but I've concluded that they are not.

[cuc]

Thanks for the reply. I had heard that Kasha steal corpses and bring the souls directly to hell, bypassing the Enma, but not that they tortured people. Is there anything else that might be synonymous with Kasha? The chant to keep Kasha away from funerals also targets Baku, a totally different, benevolent, nightmare-eating monster, I was briefly confused thinking that those two were the same, but I've concluded that they are not.

These are fascinating things I've never heard of!

I only know about the most obvious thing: both kasha and nekomata are part of the Japanese belief of necromantic cats.

Oh, and Touhou Motoneta Wiki says the corpses stolen by kasha are the corpses of sinners. That seems to be a remnant of its identity as infernal torturer, which the wiki doesn't mention. On the other hand, it brings up two examples in classic literature of infernal torturers driving burning carts (as you can see, in Japanese, "wheel" and "wheeled vehicle" are the same kanji 車), who has come to the mortal realm to deliver a sinner to hell.

On another note, the ox cart (a symbol of aristocratic life) on fire is indeed a Japanese motif for hell.

[monhan]

Is there a Touhou "Let it Go" with Cirno/Letty/ maybe Mai? With the enormous size of the Touhou fanbase, someone probably animated "Let it Go" with one of the (see in Subject) mentioned ice-themed characters?
If so, I'd like to see that 
(I am more or less expecting there to be something like that...)

I'm not exactly sure, but I think this comes fairly close.

(Translation)
Cirno: Let it go! Let it go!

Well, obviously there is one who made it with MMD, though it's not very long.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm23730799
There's another one, but this one is more like "Let it all burn"

Another parody http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm23391182
Lastly, it's not "Let it go" but, this is my favorite. Like the one from before, they sang it themselves.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm24246451

[Biakmon]

1*) Who did the Japanese fan voice actress for those particular Touhou fan Fantasy Kaleidoscope animated series (ep 1-3)?
From what I heard all the voices are done by a single voice actress.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w337ij3wtXA (ep 1)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5910bTGLA (ep 2)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEff2L_ry5k (ep 3)

2) Also is this the same voice actress who did the '4th ep' of Touhou fan Fantasy Kaleidoscope or is it voices by another person?
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l8wZ2zJzSM (full 'ep 4' video)

- http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25295477 (ep 4 part 1) - same person as YT above
- http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25297330 (ep 4 part 2)

The reason I ask this is that I wanted to know if the voices of '4th ep' of that series was done by the same person as the 3 previous one (see above 1*) since it seems at the very least the voices were slightly different when compare the the 3 previous one...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w337ij3wtXA (ep 1)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5910bTGLA (ep 2)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEff2L_ry5k (ep 3)

Here is the same '4th ep' but done by another voice actress.... - http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25317909

[Abraham Lincoln]

On average, how long does it take for ZUN to produce one Touhou game?

[Drake]

It clearly says "Aizawa Pika, aka Pi" (相沢ぴか) in the second and third video, and Nico video descriptions. The fourth there was by (∩∩).
Pi-san dubbed the Spring Snow Incident too. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15360167

You're making it sound like they were "the" ones to do it, as if only one person has dubbed the videos. There are a bunch of different dubs from many different people.

[Biakmon]

It clearly says "Aizawa Pika, aka Pi" (相沢ぴか) in the second and third video, and Nico video descriptions. The fourth there was by (∩∩).
Pi-san dubbed the Spring Snow Incident too. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15360167

You're making it sound like they were "the" ones to do it, as if only one person has dubbed the videos. There are a bunch of different dubs from many different people.

Thanks you for the clarification.
I wasn't really sure if whether the 4th ep was dubbed by Pi or by another person (∩∩). In fact I wasn't really sure if Aizawa Pika, aka Pi was the same person since almost every characters is in Kanji at NicoNico.

[cuc]

On average, how long does it take for ZUN to produce one Touhou game?

He has a standard answer to that question: four months.

It should be noted that these four months are purely for implementation. He would spend the rest of the year reading and thinking to plan out the vision for the next game. In professional video game development terminology, these 8 months can be considered his preproduction phase.

Obviously, this four month development period only became a staple after he had quitted his job to work on Touhou full time; the games he made at Taito took longer than that.

His spinoff games took shorter time and less effort to make.

[game2011]

Is it true that ZUN once said Touhou and Kantai Collection can go well together?  As in a crossover between those two is something he thinks is a good idea?

Thanks in advance!

[Drake]

He mentions it here and there. He doesn't really care for it himself and has casually mocked the gameplay (what gameplay amirite), but he more or less has to keep up with it to stay informed on trends in doujin culture. The tweet you're talking about is probably
https://twitter.com/korindo/status/382370568604897281
Which more or less says "but seriously kancolle and touhou are highly compatible so maybe i should be proactive and make a collaboration work"
This is immediately after a tweet where he's surprised that there's conflict between fandoms and jokes that he'll make a battleship character next and do a collab.

don't take the tweet too seriously though it's largely a joke

[cuc]

Is it true that ZUN once said Touhou and Kantai Collection can go well together?  As in a crossover between those two is something he thinks is a good idea?

Short answer:
He said that on twitter, with a sarcastic "w" ("lol") at the end. It was entirely in jest.

Long answer (because this was well-documented):
During and after 2013's 大⑨州東方祭 "Dai Kyushu Touhou Sai" (held on Sep 22), some circles at the convention came under fire for selling KanColle doujinshi at a Touhou convention. While it's common for circles to sell non-Touhou doujinshi on the side, it was said that the only new works they brought to the con were for KanColle, and all Touhou doujinshi they had were old ones.

As the quarrel continued on twitter, some guys jumped out to call themselves the "Touhou Police", claiming they would purge all artists that betrayed Touhou for KanColle.

On Sep 24 (the day before he left for Atlanta), ZUN seemed to have vaguely heard of there being some argument about Touhou and KanColle. He tweeted:

ZUN: What? I heard there's some sort of antagonism between Touhou and KanColle? Well, I may just up and do a collaboration, make some warship character lol

ZUN: Not really, this will get in the way with my work with Kadokawa (laugh)

ZUN: |-`).｡oO( But I think KanColle goes well with Touhou. You should be cooperative in your fan works~

Eternal Touhou: I think some might get the wrong idea that Touhou is indoctrinating otaku into the right wing through proselytizing Shintoism. What do you think about it?

ZUN: I wouldn't reject them even if they have misunderstandings. That's what Touhou is: true freedom is a cruel thing. [Referring to the Touhou ideal: freedom for creation and interpretation.]

ZUN: All in all, the most important thing is, don't quarrel with other fandoms. You can quarrel inside the Touhou fandom however you want.

ZUN: Speaking of warships, the only warship I'm familiar with is Spaceship Gomera [aka "Bio-Ship Paladin", a 1990 side-scrolling shooter by UPL].

Note: Eternal Touhou is the most obnoxious troll in the Japanese twitter Touhou fandom, and might have come up with the "Touhou Police" idea. They would later become a KanColle fan, change their twitter name to "Eternal KanKan", and keep on being a troll.

As you can see, ZUN just wanted to say "you should be nice to other fandoms", but he both displayed no real understanding of the problem, and chose to speak in the most sardonic way he can think of. His friends were immediately like "hey, you shouldn't say that", but that's too late. ZUN had given people the excuse they needed to escalate a small quarrel into a fandom slugfest.

Thankfully, soon they would see the enthusiasm of American Touhou fans displayed at Atlanta, and say, "what have we done?"

At least we get this Touhou Police T-shirt out of it:

[Tengukami]

Eternal Touhou: I think some might get the wrong idea that Touhou is indoctrinating otaku into the right wing through proselytizing Shintoism.

Obnoxious troll or not, this made me literally laugh out loud.

Actually the whole story of this fracas is pretty amusing to behold. Glad it wrapped up with Shock And AWA.