Possibly-crazy stuff you didn't notice for ages: thread 3

[cuc]

Marisa had the same pose (riding/holding a flower, surrounded by spheres) when she first appeared as a boss in SoEW. She rides an ordinary broom as a player character in PC-98 games though.

[Esoterica]

Marisa had the same pose (riding/holding a flower, surrounded by spheres) when she first appeared as a boss in SoEW. She rides an ordinary broom as a player character in PC-98 games though.

Right, that sounds vaguely familiar.  I only played SoEW maybe three or four times and it was a long time ago though, so I wasn't completely sure if I was remembering that right.

Seems kind of arbitrary that she only has it as a boss in two games, especially since she does have the broom and wand as a player character in LLS.

[teefa85]

I remember listening to the songs in Phantasmagria of Dimensional Dream, and noticing something interesting.  A bit of Marisa's theme, Dimension Dream, has similar chords to Mima's Reincarnation.  Considering PC-98 Marisa respected Mima a lot it doesn't exactly surprise me.

[Desu_Cake]

In this picture of Reimu, in amongst the weird lines of her hair, there's what looks suspiciously like a pointed ear.

Of course this leads me to the obvious conclusion that Reimu is secretly a half-elf.

[fondue]

^  :wat:

[nicholashin]

Time for something rather "general" and obvious in Windows non-spinoff games:
For stage 6 bosses, all but Miko uses bubbles at least once in their non-spells.
Their 4th spells always include some aimed bullets/lasers except Eirin.
All Extra bosses but Koishi use pellets as one of the bullets in their final spells. Yukari is a Phantasm boss.

[Desu_Cake]

^  :wat:

What's the matter? It does look a bit like an ear. Or at least like the sort of ear Zun would have been capable of drawing at the time.

[cuc]

Marisa had the same pose (riding/holding a flower, surrounded by spheres) when she first appeared as a boss in SoEW. She rides an ordinary broom as a player character in PC-98 games though.

Aaaaand I forgot to mention that her pose in her IN portrait and boss sprite is very similar to that. Definitely a callback to old games.

[Zil]

Their 4th spells always include some aimed bullets/lasers except Eirin.

Hell's Tokamak, Lifespring Infinity, Out of Place Artifact?

All Extra bosses but Koishi use pellets as one of the bullets in their final spells. Yukari is a Phantasm boss.

You meant petals I think, but okay.

[Drake]

lots of touhous wear hats!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nicholashin]

Hell's Tokamak, Lifespring Infinity, Out of Place Artifact?

Oh FAIL FAIL FAIL  :blush:
I think I go too general there as such pattern observation can end up to something like "the final boss has 5 spell 4 non-spell, Kaguya has 10 spell, Byakuren has 6 spells, Miko has 7 spells" =.=
Never mind, I know another one: In Byakuren's spells, she don't move if she has a lotus with her, and always move if she doesn't have a lotus with her. DS scene 12-3 is a really good example. The non-spells don't follow this rule though.

Since Mokou, the extra bosses have at least 2 types of patterns that repeats with slight variations.
Mokou has easier/harder red/purple rings. (4/5, 6/7/8)
Suwako has zig-zag pattern (3/6), reflecting pattern (2/5), streaming (4/7).
Koishi has ring spawning(1/4), slow streaming (7/8), although everything else is similar as well.
Nue has mini-suns (6/7) and amulet cluster (1/5).
Marisa has them all paired. (1/4)(2/5)(3/6)(7/8)
Mamizou....you get the idea.

[Drake]

There are tons and tons of design patterns and progressions ZUN uses throughout the series. Most of them, however, are completely generalized and you'll never find things that truly match up throughout if you're looking at numbers and explicit repetitions instead of meaning.

[cuc]

I'm recently reminded of this dialogue:

Ten Desires, Marisa scenario:

Have a look around.

These transient lights, like stars in the sky.
Each and every one of them is a human desire.

Observe a human's desires, and you can understand the entirety of that human.
Past, present, and future, as well.

One might say that this mausoleum is Gensokyo's Akashic Records....

This reminds me of the problem of Futo and Miko using spell card rules. I don't have time to go over the "something about Futo" thread again. Did anyone mentioned it there?

According to Miko. even during the short time between Miko's awakening and the player character's entrance, she was already able to learn a great deal about Gensokyo from the gathered spirits. She may have heard of the spell card rules from them, or at least now that she understood that she was in Gensokyo, she was willing to use spell card rules.

During that dialogue, Miko was bragging about how deeply she understood Gensokyo, when she knew far less than she thought. Later in SoPM, she would instead emphasize her ignorance about Gensokyo, as if she came out of her mausoleum completely unprepared. Too bad Marisa didn't call her out on her half-lie.

The remaining problem is why Futo can use spell cards. My explanation: she has no difficulty learning about new games of magic duels; it's all the other aspects of life that pose troubles to her.

[nintendonut888]

Yesterday, it hit my out of completely nowhere that the title/ending theme of Fairy Wars has the same basic melody as stage 2. Compare the eight second mark of the ending theme to the twelve second mark of the stage 2 theme.

[Arcorann]

In Perfect Cherry Blossom, if after playback of a replay the final score does not match the score in the replay, the game will write the new score to the replay; I now have an HS replay with a purported score of 9,055,281,490. :V

[cuc]

The name of Genbu Marsh, or Genbu Ravine, contains a few layers of real world reference.

First of all, there was a Genbu cave in Hyogo prefecture, probably named after the turtle-shell-like basalt rock formations around the cave.

Then a Japanese geologist Bunjiro Koto named basalt 玄武岩 "Genbu-gan" (Genbu rock) after the cave, thus forever associating "Genbu" with one of the most common types of rock on earth. In daily usage, the word "genbu-gan" appears much more often than just "genbu".

So what ZUN did is to transplant the idea of basalt formations along with a cave into Gensokyo, etymology of the name included. The valley, needless to say, is a basalt valley formed by lava from Youkai mountain, not one caused by water erosion. And to add further to the joke, he named the valley 沢 "sawa" (more often meaning "swamp" than anything else) rather than 谷 "tani" (the common word for valley), because don't you see, the corresponding element for Genbu is water.

In this light, which name do you prefer, Genbu Marsh or Genbu Ravine? My position is now wavering, since words like "ravine" or "dale" carry a too strong connotation of "water erosion".

I feel tempted to add this to the wiki, but I've never been a wiki editor before.

[cuc]

And there's still more coincidence. The naming of "genbu-gan" happened in 1884, the year Great Hakurei Border was established.

The etymology of the word "ravine" is "violent rush of water". "Gully" is "water channel". "Dale" and "valley" are unrelated to water erosion.

On the other hand, the meaning of "sawa" as "valley" DOES come from water erosion.

Hmm, in the end, "marsh" or "ravine" may not matter that much. What actually matters is, the name's connection to basalt is extremely obvious in Japanese, not so in English. A Google search shows that "basalt" is always one of the first things mentioned about Genbu no Sawa.

[DNAbc]

When I finally got around to re-watch the 5th TH M-1, I finally noticed Reisen is actually Nue. :V

I am so unobservant.

[I have no name]

Every single Subterranean Animism boss theme has piano in it.

[Esper]

Sakuya's a human.

Patchouli is the name of a fragrance

Flandre is another way of saying Flander.

[Savory]

Every character in Ten Desires associate with Miko in some way incorporates a sharp weapon in their danmaku.

[Tao-Sensei]

-Kaguya has the Five Impossible Requests around her in her IN portrait.
-Aya's shoes are one-pegged Getas.
-Remilia's hand in EoSD are broken.


Seriously, Dafuq is with those hands?

[Aba Matindesu!]

-Remilia's hand in EoSD are broken.


Seriously, Dafuq is with those hands?

1. She was keeping up the mist spell at the time (which she's molding in the shape of bat wings, hence the figure)
2. ZUN ART IS BEST ART
3. #2 ad infinitum

[Chuckolator]

Sakuya's a human.

Patchouli is the name of a fragrance

Flandre is another way of saying Flander.

Taboo "Longinus"
Taboo "Maze of Friendship"
Q.E.D. "Ripples of 45 Years"

[Raitaki]

Sakuya has Roman numerals on her PoFV uniform.
Also I've just realized Shiki's EX attacks appear to shoot corndogs when she grazes.

[cuc]

Sakuya has Roman numerals on her PoFV uniform.

And Luna Child has moon phases on her skirt.

[SuccinctAndPunchy]

That in Shoot The Bullet, you can catch pictures of the timer, the spellcard name and other elements of the HUD.

Not sure if I have just been mentally filtering it out this whole time or if I've really only just now taken pictures of the timer.

[cuc]

This is a theory I heard of recently.

As CoLA has explained, the word "yakumo" originated from the phrase "yakumo tatsu". CoLA traced it to Susanoo's poem about founding the country of Izumo. The Izumo region actually had its own mythology recorded in Izumo Fudoki, that differs from the official, mainstream version in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. In this mythology, the founding of Izumo also started with the phrase "yakumo tatsu".

Now, the country of Izumo is said to be a marvelous country of gods, ruled by Ookuninushi. Later, Amaterasu would grant the three Imperial Regalia to her grandson Ninigi, and send him to earth as ruler of Japan, and Ookuninushi would surrender Izumo to Ninigi - peacefully, in the official account of the story. (All these, of course, are reflections of the early history of Japan, the exact meaning of which scholars are still debating about.)

So... isn't the connection blindingly obvious? Yukari is connected to Izumo, the paradise that was. The fall of Izumo and the imprisonment of Ookunishinushi is still on her mind, and Gensokyo is a revival or continuation of the ideal of Izumo. This is what she has been fighting for.

As evidence of Yukari's dislike for Amatsukami (heavenly gods), there was this line from Subterranean Animism EX:

(Is it okay to call gods idiots?
Well, I guess it is.)

I think this theory is the best kind of theory: simple and resonant. It's also consistent with my interpretation of Touhou. Thematically, my main problem is that it introduces the idea of "good ruler" into Touhou: "the world will be right again if the good ruler is in charge", not to mention this good ruler Ookuninushi happens to be male, in what should be a story of powerful women governing themselves. I'd prefer to view Ookuninushi and Izumo as representing the ideal that formed the foundation of Gensokyo, rather than a rightful regime to be restored.

From my reading, I gathered that at least part of Japanese fandom was enraged when SSiB Ch 19 spent nine pages talking about "femtofiber" rather than advancing the plot. They called it "proof that the plot is out of control". Whatever the significance of Ch 19 is, these fans completely missed its point.

[Raitaki]

@cuc: Isn't that from Curiosities of Lotus Asia?

...Also, does your name mean what I think it means? ;o
EDIT: Derp, just re-read your post >_>; But yeah...that one CoLA chapter was an interesting relevation on the meanings of Yukari's name ;o btw it's not really a theory, it's pretty much a canon interpretation of her name :3

[cuc]

@cuc: Isn't that from Curiosities of Lotus Asia?

...Also, does your name mean what I think it means? ;o

Rinnosuke fixated on how "yakumo" represents her power to trap people. This is the standard narrative trick of CoLA: Rinnosuke has lots of knowledge, so he can provide exposition; but he's also an idiot, so he tends to draw the wrong conclusion from this info, leaving the readers to decide its meaning by themselves.

My ID definitely doesn't mean what you think it means.