Characters, music, personalities.

~Hakurei Shrine~ > Touhou Addict Recovery Center

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VIVItheFujoshi:
oh,our fab music anailsis is return!
...
waiting for Chiyuri,Yumemi...and please this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02q4YVg6cPE ...who is from ZUN, originally for the edition of CoLA in book but ended like a Kourindou-Rinnosuke theme for Touhou Unreal Mahjong (the edition of the book was retrased some years and only now will appears in this spring...i want who new song will appear, then) i want know how many secret things of Rinnosuke you can discover in this song.

Fightest:
And we're back! For as long as it'll take me to get through Ten Desires, anyway. I've got the first write-up nice and ready on a different computer, so I'll upload that within a day. For the meantime, I'll talk about the music of Ten Desires in general.

The impression I get is that ZUN spent a lot of time experimenting with his approaches and devices in 12, and came up with a lot of interesting ideas that, in one way or another, lacked a certain degree of polish. I am talking mostly about the stage music that, whilst still keeping ZUN's distinctive melodies, included unusual elements compared to the more "typical" stage music of 11 and, to an even greater degree, 10.

With 13, I'm really feeling that ZUN's more in control, and has a larger repertoire of musical devices than before. The stage themes in Ten Desires have a strong personality, and A Small Desire's Starry Sky is nothing short of phenomenal. That said, I feel that the boss themes this time around are a weak area - they have drive and personality, certainly, but none really strike me in any way or another. True Administrator is probably the worst culprit here, not only seeming to not know what it wants to be, but also actually being easily half as long as any other final boss theme due to the what is essentially a loop at 1:15.

In other comments, I've had a few requests come in for analysis of stage themes, but I'm afraid I won't do those unless they're something I really like and don't mind listening to over and over again. There aren't too many of these, but Ten Desires has significantly added to this list.

I will not be continuing with character analyses for the pc-98 touhous because, frankly, I hate chiptunes, and I've run out of exceptions.

Alfred F. Jones:
W-wait, no Yumemi?

SCREW THIS I'M LOCKING THE THREAD AGAIN >:(

Spoiler: Looking forward to Ten Desires analysis regardless. :<[/size]

Fightest:
Kyouko Kasodani - Youkai Girl at the Gate

Perhaps appropriately for a sound-and-voice-themed character, we see very little of Kyouko in this piece, but we most certainly hear a great many aspects of her. Indeed, this is unsurprising: Kyouko is a newcomer to her new
abode - the Myouren temple - and is no doubt wary of seeming obtrusive. On the other hand, her very embodiment is that of mountain echo, of sound and of voice - she cannot help but be heard where ever she might go.

Our first impression of Kyouko is the 20-second introduction, filled with diminished chords and tritones - very atonal and impenetrable, rigidly-structured and presented with little melody to follow. This, of course, is not her personality - we first hear her in the middle of reciting her sutras, drowning out everything else that might be happening around us, proudly proclaiming wisdom to the rest of the world, regardless of who might be listening. There is a small amount of comedy in her recital, with the exaggerated and overdrawn emphasis notes on strong beats that tells us that Kyouko might be pious, but she is not solemn in her belief, and is ready to take things with an appropriate grain of salt.

The second part, then, provides quite a contrast to the confidence that we heard in the first. Instead, we get a subdued bass line and a halting, uncertain melody. Gone are the trumpets, replaced by an unlikely flute, giving us a windy, echoing segment that seems almost barebones in its instrumentation. It seems unnecessary to delve too deep into Kyouko's psyche to bring out the root of this transformation - the piece attempts to evoke the spirit of a desolate mountainpeak, where no doubt Kyouko spent a portion of her life before descending to the Myouren temple. It is natural to feel doubt and isolation in Kyouko's situation, where she can never be sure that her sutras - her passion and devotion - ever reach anyone who can appreciate them.

However, the trumpets soon join in, heralding the inevitable mood change to tell us that Kyouko is not one to wallow in such moods for too long. And the change comes, giving us an energetic - if not always major - melody, its confidence and determination restored with a steady rhythm. The third part of the piece portrays Kyouko as calm and sensible, rarely making leaps in the melodic line, always favouring long, tied notes over staccato passages. She is not above enjoying herself, however, letting a little whimsy free every so often.

Fightest:
Yoshika Miyako - Rigid Paradise

The most curious thing in this small piece is that its two most distinctive-sounding parts - the opening and the melody that appears later - are, in fact, very closely alike. There can be no doubt that this similarity forms the core of Yoshika's concept and character.

When the piece starts we are thrown into a very unusual - for ZUN - set of unmistakable harmonic minors. I cannot help but note that ZUN himself comments that this has given the opening an "Egyptian" feel, which seems all too apt, considering the Ancient Egyptians' extensive religious rituals regarding death and burial.
It is ironic, then, that Yoshika openly flaunts her refusal to stay dead in the comic exaggeration of the presentation of the opening: the instrumentation is loud and brash and the very short length of the segment being repeated over and over again almost makes it sound like Yoshika is taunting the listener.

No doubt finding herself very amusing, Yoshika almost seems to burst out laughing at her own joke from 0:10 to 0:24, before going back into her same old routine. Perhaps Yoshika is not the brightest or most-refined match in the book with her inability to keep a straight face while telling her only joke or even to come up with a new one, but one must admit that her enthusiasm can be infectious, no doubt transmitted through a bite of hers.

At 0:48 Yoshika has grown tired of the one-zombie comedy act and her true nature shines through. The listener will note that the melody we are presented with is actually extremely similar to that of the opening - we simply move to a melodic minor as opposed to a harmonic one and a single note in the second bar's third beat goes down instead of up. Perhaps unwittingly, Yoshika demonstrates to us that her mocking portrayal of death and burial are, in fact, extremely close, inseparable from her.
It seems Yoshika has experienced a change in herself upon becoming zombified and refuses to acknowledge her changed nature, staving away the inevitable realisation by what amounts to cruelly mocking herself. It is hard to say whether she is simply embarassed at her unflattering undead form or whether the resentment runs deeper, but it is likely closer to the former - as the opening, so is the melody of the second part very short, repeating and repeating to show us that Yoshika is not one for an insightful, extended thought or a deep grudge.
Perhaps Yoshika is simply afraid of change, never straying far from her comfort zone and returning every time to a familiar starting position.

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