Fan animation from China: Hifuu Club Activity Record

[aUsernameIsFineToo]

> 24 minutes
> Lunar War
> OCs



Seriously, that art is gorgeous.

[H4xolotl]

Adult Kaguya looks very elegant and beautiful

They did a good job designer her

[monhan]

At first, i thought it'll cover the stories of the Lunarians, prior to the First Genso-Lunar War, but I'm quite glad that I was wrong. They'll probably still cover that, but most of them may be in the complementing comic.
Though with how it's presented, it will probably cover the event through the Lunarians(Eirin) point of view. It's nice, since we can see their interactions (the Watatsukis need it), Tsukuyomi being the likely candidate of one of the OC, and the landscape of the Lunar Capital.
Still, I'm also more interested to see the war from the Youkai(Yukari) side. I'd like to see how she planned and prepared all that. Gathering the elder youkais and such. It would be a pleasure to behold.

And does this mean the art will keep getting better as they go? All of my yes.
Can't wait until it's Byakuren and Murasa's part.

[N-Forza]

> 24 minutes
> Lunar War
> OCs

[img-takemymoney]

At least two of those three also describe that ancient Sound Holic animation, btw. :V

[Clarste]

I see they subscribe to the ZUN school of character design: keep adding details until you run out of space on their clothes. I'm now imagining this being animated by the cast of Shirobako though, which adds some morbid humor to the production.

[Flandre5carlet]

Original characters, eh? Hmm.. Not too sure what to think of that other than hope they pull it off well.
I'm guessing they'll most likely be Tsukuyomi and/or Toyohime and Yorihime's respective husbands/future husbands, but we'll see.

With that said, these designs are amazing. I think I'm in love with this adult Kaguya. Eirin's is also beautiful.

At least two of those three also describe that ancient Sound Holic animation, btw. :V

Pls no.

[Tengukami]

Yeah, I gasped at the sight of Lunar Capital Eirin. That is really lovely stuff. Although I, too, kinda wince at the idea of OCs in my Lunar War, everything else I've seen come out of this project so far has vastly exceeded expectations. So I'm hoping for good things here.  Also holding out hope to see the *himes given stuff like depth and weaknesses. That would also be pretty cool.

[Suspicious person]

Gorgeous~ but how are they going to go from the hifuu club people to the moonfolks ? Already been hyped by this but now I'm also curious  :3

_{Hope they'll leave some stuff for eventual future Touhou fanimators to work with}

[hungrybookworm]

OCs are useful for filling roles that can't be taken by any of the other hundred or so touhou characters. Which means they're either gonna be dudes, cannon fodder, or both. (The Watatsuki husbands maybe? Some cute rabbits who'll get the chop near the end? Who knows!)

Looks good either way.

[Clarste]

Gorgeous~ but how are they going to go from the hifuu club people to the moonfolks ? Already been hyped by this but now I'm also curious  :3

_{Hope they'll leave some stuff for eventual future Touhou fanimators to work with}

The premise has been clear from the beginning: the Necromancy Club is just a framing device to tell a bunch of different backstories. The implied but unseen stories that the Touhou series constantly uses. Presumably they'll see it in a vision, or find an old mysterious book, or whatever.

OCs are useful for filling roles that can't be taken by any of the other hundred or so touhou characters. Which means they're either gonna be dudes, cannon fodder, or both. (The Watatsuki husbands maybe? Some cute rabbits who'll get the chop near the end? Who knows!)

Looks good either way.

I'm assuming the OCs are moonpeople, because it certainly wouldn't make sense to use other characters in those roles. Tsukuyomi and such.

[cuc]

As anyone who's been watching Shirobako should know by now, an essential job in the modern anime industry is the sakuga kantoku - "animation supervisors" who revise the drawn frames, because given the industry's reliance on freelancers and outsourcing, there's simply no way to ensure the quality of the frames when they are drawn. A show's character designer is generally also the "chief animation supervisor" who as a veteran key animator, must design each character with how they should be animated in mind, and will actually be responsible for keeping them in line with her vision.

True animators should have ample reasons to hate these designs. If they can be animated at all, it would take a well-coordinated team of veterans, not a production team that already had trouble keeping simpler characters on-model in the opening.

[LunaWillow]

Ah, those designes look so nice! I especially love Eirin's. I hope the animators will be able to animate them.

Hype get! Can't wait for more information.

[Suspicious person]

OCs are useful for filling roles that can't be taken by any of the other hundred or so touhou characters. Which means they're either gonna be dudes, cannon fodder, or both. (The Watatsuki husbands maybe? Some cute rabbits who'll get the chop near the end? Who knows!)

Looks good either way.

I'm assuming the OCs are moonpeople, because it certainly wouldn't make sense to use other characters in those roles. Tsukuyomi and such.

Maybe the OCs could be the circle's rendition of the characters from the original Tale of the bamboo cutter too, as they would be relevant in the story : "Kaguya"'s adoptive family, the suitors...

[cuc]

Here's the OC update. It has laid out the thinking process behind the characters. Dudes and dudettes of MotK, prepare to be assaulted by a thinking pattern utterly different from anything you're familiar with lol (in the Touhousphere, at least).


- As pointed out by ZUN's afterword for SSiB, the Lunar Capital is similar to ancient China in architecture (and clothing, and presumably, social structure).

- SSiB indicates Eirin has powerful political rivals in the Capital.

- It seems jockeying for political power for selfish reasons would create kegare, so the rivals should have non-selfish motives. For a Chinese-style society, kinship makes for a good motivation.

- If Tsukuyomu, the king of the moon trusts Eirin over his own kin, it makes sense for the princes to worry about an outsider gaining so much power.

- So the OC concept is that after founding the Capital, Tsukuyomu had given the rulership of the Capital to his Princes and Princesses, and appointed Eirin as a supervisor who had more real power than the Princes.

- Not all Princes are Eirin's enemies. However, the two Princes to be introduced have the strongest animosity towards Eirin.

- The Princes are based on other names of Tsukuyomu; the idea is that the legends attributed to Tsukuyomu in history were actually done by different Princes in his name.

1. Prince Tsuku

Symbolizing the nigi-mitama "harmonious soul" of the four souls, the genderless Prince Tsuku has the highest status among Tsukuyomu's direct offsprings, and is the best regarded by Tsukuyomu.

With intelligence that rivals Eirin, they are responsible for governing the Lunar Capital.

("Tsuku" simply means "the moon".)



2. Prince Sasarae

Symbolizing the ara-mitama "rude soul" of the four souls, Prince Sasarae is the commander of the Lunar Capital army, above the Wakatsuki sisters.

He was the very person who suspected the Wakatsuki sisters of treason in SSiB.

("Sasarae" means "slender and lovely". Sasarae-otoko, "the slender and lovely strong man" is a poetic epithet for the moon.)

[Suspicious person]

lol Neko finally drew male characters

Here's the OC update. It has laid out the thinking process behind the characters. Dudes and dudettes of MotK, prepare to be assaulted by a thinking pattern utterly different from anything you're familiar with lol (in the Touhousphere, at least).
*reasoning*

*Handclaps* Magnificent~ it's not ZUN level but still awesome. The Moon saga related stuff have always been one of the most complicated thing ever in Touhou, and that without adding politics in. Whoever is dealing with the storyboard must really know their stuff. Maybe the time has finally come where someone'll make sense of the moon saga ? All my hype. The OCs are well thought  and all but I'm not sure whether they'll be well received or not, though. _{ZUN, make them canon pls}

[cuc]

lol Neko finally drew male characters

Well, I guess if you care about it so. He drew the concept art that informed these design sheets, and will draw these characters (and more) in the comic.

[Doki-Doki]

OC's that look promising? The Watatsuki's in anime form? FIRST EPISODE IS 24 MINUTES LONG? This is going to be a gooooood year for Touhou.

[Prime32]

...I think I saw this guy in a super robot anime once. :V

[Kaizaki]

This is wonderful. The character designs are great, the reasoning behind the OCs is sound, and it seems the troupe researched the (lore and real life) concepts they are working with. Is this level of depth and detail, story-wise, a first for Touhou anime?

Political rivals will certainly make things interesting and help explain the moon saga. I wonder if Kaguya is a direct descendant and one of the ruling Princesses...

Sasarae definitely looks "slender and lovely", by the way. :D

[MewMewHeart]

-Looks at the male OCs and concepts of lore-

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCKING GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Tengukami]

Not to split hairs, but if Tsuku is "genderless", why use "he"? Secretly male?

Just asking for clarification's sake; don't really care too hard about fictional character pronouns.

[cuc]

Symbolizing the nigi-mitama "harmonious soul" of the four souls, the genderless Prince Tsuku has the highest status among Tsukuyomu's direct offsprings, and is the best regarded by Tsukuyomu.

With intelligence that rivals Eirin, they are responsible for governing the Lunar Capital.

I never wrote "he" for one second. I'm not familiar enough with the use of other genderqueer pronouns like xir, therefore I opted to stick to "they". If your question is re: Prince, I haven't found any alternate word for that.

(On an unrelated note, purely from a pedantic point of view, "he/him" remain as the academically recognized gender-neutral pronouns for people in the English language. But language is determined by the people who use it; if people don't want to use "he/him" this way, then this usage ceases to be viable.)

[Doki-Doki]

For some reason Prince Sasarae reminds me of Walhart from Fire Emblem: Awakening. Probably just me though.

[Flandre5carlet]

-OCs snip-

Interesting. Since this is Touhou, I expected the OCs to be female, but this is okay too.
Anyway, to echo others' claims so far, this all seems very interesting, and I can clearly see that a lot of time was spent studying the lore as well as all the other concepts in relation to this.
I also find Tsuku's design very fitting; less so the armor-clad Sasarae however.

I just hope that they won't turn into "Mary Sues" of sorts later down the line, specially when I read "With intelligence that rivals Eirin". OCs are fine and all, but I'm primarily here for the Touhou!  :V

[Maiden Synnae ミ☆]

I've been lurking on this thread a bit but just decided to post now.

I must say I find the project to be quite promising. The artwork of the characters look great as well, so I'm interested to see how the final product will turn out.

@ OC's:

Hey, those look pretty nice. I have no problems if they're male or female, but I agree with the above post that Sasarae looks a bit... "untouhou-ish". He is still decent, though.

So far we have the Nigi Mitama (peace/harmony) and the Ara Mitama (aggressiveness/passion). I'm looking forward to see the Saki Mitama (happiness/love) and the Kusi Mitama (wonder/wisdom) incarnations.

[Jeremie]

Interesting. Since this is Touhou, I expected the OCs to be female, but this is okay too.
Anyway, to echo others' claims so far, this all seems very interesting, and I can clearly see that a lot of time was spent studying the lore as well as all the other concepts in relation to this.
I also find Tsuku's design very fitting; less so the armor-clad Sasarae however.

I just hope that they won't turn into "Mary Sues" of sorts later down the line, specially when I read "With intelligence that rivals Eirin". OCs are fine and all, but I'm primarily here for the Touhou!  :V

This is pretty much what I'm thinking as well. Still, the fact that they have a lot of animosity towards Eirin makes their design a bit amusing in the context that I'm almost expecting a scene where we get Sasarae get angry, speak loudly and act like a complete jerk while we get Tsuku to have an evil smile at some point. I'm not genuinely expecting that but it would be kind of funny (positively if they end up being interesting) and if they don't then we still have at least Sakura, Marius, Fangirl Koakuma and Jar Jar Kochiya right?  :V

I'm just kidding but the fact that they're actually doing their research makes me more optimistic.  I'm truly looking forward to see how it'll turn out since the premise is genuinely interesting.

[Usamiko]

I just hope that they won't turn into "Mary Sues" of sorts later down the line, specially when I read "With intelligence that rivals Eirin". OCs are fine and all, but I'm primarily here for the Touhou!  :V

Oh, please no! I have been hoping for a Renko/Maribel fanime ever since I got into Touhou. Please don't let the story be ruined by cliches and whatnot D:

[Fulisha of Light]

I just hope that they won't turn into "Mary Sues" of sorts later down the line, specially when I read "With intelligence that rivals Eirin". OCs are fine and all, but I'm primarily here for the Touhou!  :V

Eirin's smart yes, but she's not the smartest thing in the universe, she just happens to be highly intelligent. Tsuku is just at her level, not exactly smarter than her. There's nothing wrong with an OC being as smart as an existing character, and here it's justified pretty well imo.

[Starxsword]

Uh, Eirin is the Genius of the moon. She is not simply just highly intelligent. She is probably the smartest being in the universe. Being even her equal is saying a lot about Tsuku.

[Clarste]

Eirin's smart yes, but she's not the smartest thing in the universe, she just happens to be highly intelligent. Tsuku is just at her level, not exactly smarter than her. There's nothing wrong with an OC being as smart as an existing character, and here it's justified pretty well imo.

...actually, she's Omoikane, the Shinto god of intelligence and wisdom. The SMT version of her is a big floating brain.