Alice's True Form (Theory)

[haoreos2]

To each their own, I suppose. Tewi and Mystia both look durned young to me (and using rumia's seal as a handwave is pretty suspect, considering the idea youkai age suddenly is baseless from what I can tell).
Even without those, and looking soley at human-type youkai, you've got Yukari (debatable, considering she looks pretty mature in some appearances such as IaMP), Patchouli, or Yuuka.
Personally I like to imagine youkai are just ageless and appeareances correspond to personality or somesuch, with some changing around on a whim; the real reason is probably just ZUN not considering a definite age as particularly important, or even dismissing it as restrictive (or the ever-popular phenomenon of fandom stuff making it into official or semi-official works and collaborations).


Also, I kinda recall something discussed a while back regarding copyright, and it seemed to be accepted that ZUN would actually have full rights to all of the PC-98 stuff by Japan's copyright laws at the time or something. Vague memories = fact, too, so yeah.

[Helepolis]

Youmu is a half human and she refers to others as humans in PCB. It really depends on where you are and since Alice is in Makai, it would make sense for her to refer to humans as humans.

Can't compare that with Youmu in PCB. She refers to "humans as humans" in the Netherworld, because (living)humans shouldn't be there in the first place. Makai is like a demon world which can be freely entered as far as it is described.

Then again something with barriers and stuff. Fuzzy/hazy explanations don't make it easier.

[Starxsword]

Bear in mind ZUN had to 're-create' Alice, since during the PC-98 era, he was bound by contract to Amusement Makers, and the PC-98 versions of the characters were effectively their property. This is also why ZUN had to re-create Reimu between MS and EoSD.

You say this as if it is a fact. Please provide factual evidence to back up your claim.

@Youkai and youth: Youkai can look young or old, age does not seem to be the issue. Cirno may look young, but she is at least 60 years old. Cirno is likely older than Patchouli or Alice.

@Rumia: Rumia is not canonically sealed by the ribbon. The only thing we know about Rumia is that she cannot touch her ribbon. Anything else is mere guesswork.

@Makai: I don't really think Makai is a place where one can freely enter. I also don't think humans are supposed to be hanging out at Makai either. The only other reference of entering Makai is in UFO where they had to go break Byakuren out of her prison.

[cuc]

I've just read the ESoD manual backstory again (wiki here, very poor translation with errors, but doesn't affect the part I want to talk about), and it's the clearest evidence that the current Touhou universe was only established in PCB. In that backstory, Gensokyo was not separated from the outside world by any magical barrier, so Reimu was afraid that when the red mist spread to the human village(s) (which were not part of Gensokyo), humans would be alarmed of Gensokyo's existence, thus come and destroy Gensokyo. The red mist was also deadly for humans ("in such thick youkai miasma, normal humans can last less than 30 minutes, and non-normal humans only have 30 minutes to last").

The CD-R version of DiPP which "Death of the Honest Men" came from was released alongside ESoD during C62 (August 2002). ZUN would completely replace the story when he re-released it during C63 (November 2002). This doesn't necessarily mean "Death of the Honest Men" is no longer canon, but it does mean the Gensokyo it writes about is the Gensokyo of ESoD, which is a very different place from the current canon.

I'm not saying you shouldn't base your theory on "Death of the Honest Men" or heck, anything pre-PCB; on the contrary, I think there's nothing wrong with theorizing for fun and brain gymnastics. I'm just saying the current canon only began to take shape around PCB, and if you seriously want to understand ZUN's perspective, there are contexts you can't ignore.

[cuc]

Here's a forgotten source about Alice: her scenario in IaMP.

Suika said: あなた達、魔族とは違うのよ、私は。 "I am different from [plural] you mazoku." She also called Alice a magician in her last line before the battle began.

"Mazoku" "the demonic race", just like "makai" "the demonic/magical realm", is a concept common in Japanese pseudo-Western fantasy (think Dragon Quest), indicating demons that are sentient and very similar to humans -- they are pretty much just demigods with dark powers, rather than the Western idea of devil with horns, hoofs or other grotesque features. I believe this is the only appearance of this word in all Touhou canon, including the PC-98 games. Another word that has appeared only once or twice in Touhou canon is "mamono" "demonic/magical being" (IN Scarlet team scenario), which in fantasy convention can refer to all kinds of monsters. The words that ARE commonly used in Touhou are "akuma" and the English word "devil".

The possibility that Alice was once human is not eliminated. First, perhaps a human can turn into a demon, and second, it's possible that magicians are technically a type of demon.