While I don't really agree with the implication that Reimu's use of youjutsu means it isn't negative-etc, the point is still that youjutsu shouldn't mean a sort of negative-ish power or technique just because it uses the same you from youkai, especially since the character doesn't mean anything negative or shady either. Is there another reason it should?
I don't quite know enough about Japanese culture, but in Chinese, the word 妖 has negative connotations. It almost always means evil, even if the user isn't necessarily evil.
Youkai, Youma, Youki, etc. all have negative connotations. Even though Youki really only means "妖" - "Energy". You can usually see this in fighting animes where they talk about Youki or different types of ki, like Yuyuko Hakushou, and some others. There are less animes that talk about different types of magic, so Youjutsu, Jujutsu, and stuff like that don't get mentioned.
That one is nothing but a result of Meiling's fervent dream. Going by the example of Mamizou's HM midboss cards, it can be argued that this card should be attributed to Giant Catfish or Taisun rather than Reimu, since it's not used by the real her.
That might be it, but this should be in Meiling's perspective, being Meiling's dream. I don't believe Meiling was actually invaded by any dream demons or anything like that. So, the cards Meiling faces would be cards that Meiling believes the character in question can use.
The dream sequence starts when Meiling is in the Clock tower, which is after fighting against Pathcouli. Her two opponents before Reimu are Alice and Marisa, both using cards that aren't unusual about them.
Here, a younger ZUN used both "youjutsu" and "mahou" together to describe "mysterious magic".
In this context, yes, it would mean that Youjutsu and Mahou mean the same. So, this is his diary?
ZUN might have felt the word "mahou" has become so overused as to be meaningless - it's in almost every RPG, after all, so he came to prefer the less popular word "youjutsu", which has the implication of uncanny sorcery, to preserve the sense that the magic is beyond human understanding. That's my theory.
What is confusing is why would he differentiate it in the profiles? He does not interchange Youjutsu with Mahou when talking about any of the magicians. Actually, I don't think Youjutsu and Mahou are ever used interchangeably, but I could be mistaken.
I'm really not sure what you would consider "having little to do with youjutsu". I mean, what does Mokou have to do with youkai?
You don't necessarily have to be youkai to use Youjutsu, like Byakuren, she learns Youjutsu. Mokou's been alive for a thousand years or so, so who knows what she has learned. I made a list of those people, because I don't believe they would have anything to do with Youjutsu or unlikely to. Now, this is based on the assumption I make that Youjutsu has negative connotations. Which how I got those names. If any of those people I mentioned uses Youjutsu, then I am simply wrong.
Reimu is kind of on the iffy side because of occasions in which we do see her using "dark" type attacks.
Whether or not Reimu is shady as an individual, no one's ever challenged her on the grounds of using inappropriate magic (which they constantly do for Byakuren).
This is a good point, people would have challenged Reimu if her magic is considered evil.
