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It's the u-u-underdog~
Began as a doujinshi rant, evolved into a "UFO stuff is not as deep as others *sob*!" rant:
Case in point, from Omchicken's lovely doujinshi,
Basically, the circle has a pattern, as you can tell. The characters in focus will be the desired victims of other Touhou characters who suddenly feel the need to eat them up. Then a character will defend them all in the name of comedy. The problem here is, the explanation in UFO for everyone being perverted was because of supposedly, a "seed of non-identification" was attached to Nue's behind, causing others to see her in a different light, lusting for her, but then the explanation is suddenly thrown away because she discovered this while in a compromising position, meaning rather than one of her powers backfiring, everyone in the world really is a pervert after all.
Yes, it is in the name of comedy. I indeed got a cheap laugh out of it, but comparing to the Chireiden one where the same thing pretty much happens, thus entertainment, the characters in focus still maintain their dignity and are still, as far as they can be, in-character. This tells me tenfold of not only how this circle thinks of both games, but that they reflect the same thing going on everywhere else in the fandom in terms of UFO. I discuss this further below.
If you don't get it....Omchicken liked Chireiden, a lot. They loved the characters and explored them through the doujins they were in. They liked their scenario, their story in the game. In contrast, Omchicken didn't really care about UFO, and the only character they gave a damn about was Nue, and as I continued read their two UFO doujins, it increasingly started to look like they only cared about Nue because of what she wore, her fanservice, as opposed to any background or personality they could've potentially explored. This utterly disappointed me because I enjoyed their take on Chireiden, yet their take on UFO was simply a trainwreck of petty humour. The only good thing I got out of the UFO doujins that had meaning was the idea that a satori is a nue's natural enemy. That I liked. Notice how at the end of that collage, Satori is in the group of "Nue-chan rapers" ...did that not just deconstruct her character from the Chireiden doujinshi on the left!?!?!? Again I know, all in comedy, but one had comedy and some sort of resemblance of development while the other just had a bunch of cardboard-cutouts spouting out dialogue to make an audience laugh.
The rest of this rant is my discovery of why this is. (And then music discussion afterwards)
I've decided to talk about memes! Touhou memes of course, and how I hate some of them. I know, I know, hating them is...petty, but well it's not so much my hate as my wonder of why they get popular. I mean I laugh at a lot of them myself, but some of them just seem forced. There's a meme that IOSYS started up with a song (they tend to start memes, so) that involved the Captain. I am thanking the heavens it is not that popular, and I only see it being referenced occasionally by Youtube commenters, but I have a feeling part of the reason (and only part, as there are other instances of Murasa that are far more recognized, at least here in the western side, so I suppose this reason applies more for the Japanese fandom) is because the Captain isn't extremely popular like many other characters. If she were, that meme might have taken off.
...or the meme is just really bad and forced. I'm talking about Ketsu Anchor (not only is the artwork atrocious in the video itself) but I mean, that is a pretty farfetched pun, "anka" which is what the Japanese pronounce and call anchors means "ass" in...I forget what language, but also "duck" in Finnish. So the video apparently, is called Ketsu (lit. Ass) Anchor, with censored Donald Ducks all over the place...I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what on earth they're singing about, but it's IOSYS, so. But anyway it was SUPPOSEDLY a remix of Captain Murasa but...I would never put that in my mp3 player. The song was not good, the animation was bad, and as I've said...the meme was being forced.
Which makes me think of other memes, how do they come about anyway? And also, the memes that result from UFO in particular. This brings me back to my little rant on Omchicken (after all they can do whatever the hell they want, so) but it seems their doujinshi for UFO was not only shallower than their others, but the memes that have so far resulted from UFO are also more shallow. Or is that simply because UFO is still kind of fresh, so there isn't enough time for people to ruin their characters and flanderize their traits?
Well, there are some that popped up pretty much immediately. (BROFIST! CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA!) and others like "Watching you fap from the ceiling, since I'm Nazrin!" or "THE NEW YOUKAI MOE!" etc, but I don't think these stick (and "Since I'm Nazrin" gets repetitive because you can't really give it a creative alternative. For example when "Cirno is THE STRONGEST" came out, people didn't just repeat that phrase, they also applied it to situations, etc. that kept it alive for a while.) but the big ones I notice the most is for some reason the Japanese's fixation with Disney.
As in, they seem to find Disney things very funny, where you have to censor everything, by making fun of how they throw lawsuits on people using their property extremely easily. I already mentioned the Donald Ducks, but the biggest prepetrator of this is Nazrin as Mickey Mouse. I admit I did like one of these, where Nazrin was in a Steamboat Willie parody, but besides that it just seemed...kind of dumb. Is Nazrin being a mouse the only thing you can make fun of and laugh at? I thought the cats chasing her were slightly better because it was more than just copyright infringement over and over again but still. I suppose this is how the Donald Duck stuff came over as well...
But I see it way too often...in the manzai, in fanart, in videos...not so much the meme itself but how it's done. I guess it's like other memes, it is amusing at first but gets tiring, but this time especially so. Where are the twists? I saw one picture which was one of those chart things that depict a Touhou boss in each difficulty. Easy modo they usually look super deformed and rather harmless, lunatic they either look badass or downright terrifying. Nazrin in lunatic mode is a spoof of the beginnings (or is it endings?) in classic Mickey Mouse cartoons where it has his head in the center with gradient-like red circles in the background. This time Nazrin takes Mickey's place and she's going "Haha! I'm Nazrin Haha!" Now that I found amusing. She didn't have dark ears or look like Mickey Mouse at all...it was slightly more subtle, a bit of a better twist...now that was amusing! Nazrin in that situation is indeed downright terrifying, that is what it's implying! THAT IS ACTUALLY FUNNY.
I guess asking memes to be clever is like asking fanfiction to be award-winning novels.
But it really feels like these kind of shallower memes were developed for UFO because well, the characters aren't as popular as I think they can be and also aren't as developed thus nothing can be taken off their character to be exaggerated beyond reason. More people care about Remilia going "Uuu~! Uuu~!" because she's ridiculously popular, so... The closest we have is Byakuren, but I find it kind of hard to give her memetic mutation considering her character. Sure, she's considered YOUKAI JESUS but that's not really much of a meme as just a nickname, like calling Hong Meiling CHINA or something. Byakuren is probably better compared to a bunch of other people but most people think of Jesus when they think of really nice selfless people, so that's why Jesus is there, while Meiling has lots of potential and character, but people just call her China because they only associate her with her clothes. So.... (Chen is also chinese, but being a cat girl overrides that with...catgirl-ness)
So what else can Byakuren spawn? The only thing I can think of at this very moment is that she was inducted into the Old Maids Alliance shortly after being introduced, which I think isn't that fitting. Sure she's over a thousand years old, and probably acts mature (the requirements to be in the club) but I don't really SEE her, in terms of looks at that old. Yukari seems old to me because her first outfit looks like old-lady victorian clothes, lololol, while both Eirin and Kanako seem to have old-lady hair/clothes, imo. Yuyuko's personality, at least in canon (which seems to be accepted by the fanon mostly, ignoring the whole glutton thing) is rather scheming, intelligent, possibly even manipulative, similar to Yukari, which I associate with a more mature-type of person, so that's why she's there. (Also her clothes does not scream YOUNG PERSON to me...but honestly Yuyuko is barely in this group for me, thus why I usually see the alliance with just Yukari, Eirin, and Kanako)
But Byakuren has a pretty cool outfit that doesn't seem like something old people would wear. Old people do not wear capes. They do not have gradient hair, their hair does not look like they use Herbal Essences three times in the shower. Byakuren's goal all those years ago was to retain her youth, and she seriously looks like she did. I mean, I think the biggest qualification into this club is how likely someone else in Touhou will call them an "old hag" (Babaa) and how they react. If some person ACTUALLY calls Byakuren an old hag...would she really get angry at them? Her personality doesn't...seem like that, at least in fanon. When in fanon everyone else seems to have actually been called an old hag at some point, and they got pissed.
So besides Kogasa who seems to have been turned into a buttmonkey woobie of sorts (or at least, someone who has such a ridiculous amount of misfortune that Hina would die trying should she attempt to absorb it) and I kind of don't count her because she's not really a Myouren Follower, who do we have left? I do like how Nazrin herself has actually developed a character (one of cynical and hypercompetence) which would be kind of hard to create a meme out of unless they turn her into Alice 2.0 or something. So the only characters we have left are Murasa, Shou, and Ichirin. Ichirin has...practically nothing going for her, and BROFIST seems to be the extent they could reach, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong...thus Murasa and Shou.
Well the one meme they tried with her (besides the fact that she is the MOTHERFUCKING CAPTAIN) is in my opinion an utter failure, so now I turn my eyes to Shou. Shou is quite a comedic character so far, despite being the most straightforward and honest of all youkai. They exaggerate her carelessness and her genre blindness, but I wonder if that's enough. (She does tend to lose all her clothes, thus being compared to Ran a few times...but I don't like comparing Shou/Nazrin to Ran/Chen. I want them to be an entity of their own!) Of course, I find that meme, if more prevalent would be as stupid as suppa tenko anyway (Suppa tenko is almost at the levels of yukkuri in terms of stupidity) so...what's left?
Why, Nue's face being stuffed by shrimp tempura while she cries NUUUUUUEEEEN~! of course. I've seen three images of it so far. The ascii art that has spawned that artwork is the best ascii art I've seen of Nue, especially compared to the rest on that page. I see potential here, though memes spread quite often due to being text-based as well, and people screaming NUUUUEEEEEN is too similar to CHEEEEEEEEN. (People are not skilled enough to paste that ascii art all over the place) so I doubt it'll pick up pace anytime soon.
Which brings me to another question of shallowness, undevelopedness...newness, etc. Is it me, or does the UFO characters get compared to older Touhou characters more often than any other? I guess you could arguably roughly say SA is EoSD rehashed (but I still think they're much different >_>) but UFO's a bit closer in this department. (Then again they've been comparing since ZUN introduced a second shrine maiden!) but I mean...NAZRIN IS CHEN! SHOU IS RAN! Kogasa is the NEW Youkai Moe...that means there was an old one! (Yuuka!) Murasa and Byakuren are supposedly expies of Yumemi and Chiyuri. Ichirin is arguably China (this is the closest I've got for her, again she has nothing much, really) but most infamously:
Nue is Flandre.
Well, I as a super biased UFO fangirl (though I TRULY believe this, even without my goggles..) think they are blindingly different from all these comparisons. These comparisons popped up because the fans could not embrace the fact that there are brand new characters and must compare with their comfort zone to understand the new ones better. I guess that's just human nature, but...maybe there are small similarities. I guess Flan and Nue both have crazy wings, and SLIGHTLY similar themes, but that's it. Nue is nothing like Flandre, just like the rest of them, nothing like the other.
And so I continue to ponder. Popularity and memes are entwined, and so far I think the handling of UFO has been a bit poor.
-
Lists are amazing. I like lists.
Title - Did You See That Shadow? (UNL)
Stage 1 - A God That Loves People ~ Romantic Fall (MoF)
Boss 1 - A Tiny Tiny Clever Commander (UFO)
Stage 2 - The Road of Apotropaic God ~ Dark Road (MoF), The Bridge People No Longer Cross (SA)
Boss 2 - Green Eyed Jealousy (SA)
Stage 3 - Gensokyo the Gods Loved (MoF), Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World (IN)
Boss 3 - Doll Judgement (PCB)
Stage 4 - The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky (PCB), Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall (MoF)
Boss 4 - Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye (SA)
Stage 5 - Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome (IN), Lullaby of a Deserted Hell (SA)
Boss 5 - Faith is for the Transient People (MoF)
Stage 6 - Fires of Hokkai (UFO)
Boss 6 - Cosmic Mind ~ Emotional Skyscraper (UFO)
Extra Stage - Last Remote (SA), Extend Ash, Hourai Victim (IN)
Extra Boss - Native Faith (MoF), Heian Alien (UFO)
Ending - Dream of a Spring Breeze (PCB)
Credits - Eternal Steam Engine (UNL)
PoFV - Wind God Girl
EosD - 0
PCB - 3
IN - 3
MoF - 6
SA - 5
UFO - 4
THUS WHY I REQUIRE A MOUNTAIN OF FAITH REMIX PLAYLIST LIKE RIGHT NOW!
And now Spotto will discuss why she chose what she chose. First of all, the most baffling thing about my list is probably the lack of any EoSD songs whatsoever.
As I have discussed last time, I was talking about my reasons for both Meiling and Patchouli to be so low in my character sort. I'm pretty sure that combined with the fact that I barely have EoSD characters in my top twenty at all, has solidified the fact that, well...EoSD is my least favourite Touhou game.
EVERYONE GASPS.
I have played it, so I can even discuss its gameplay! But I cannot compare its gameplay with the other games, so I can only judge these games on characters and music alone until I play the others. (And perhaps I should just play easy modo so I can move on to PCB or something >_> But I wanna beat Remilia FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUU SAKUYA)
But the idea here is....EVERYONE loves EoSD! It is THE game with THE biggest fanbase, being the oldest of the WIndows games since people started caring about Touhou when EoSD came out (Those poor PC-98 games...) and basically the game you pretty much compare with, with the rest of the games. If people paid attention to PC-98 games, they would be the template for the rest to follow, but besides an unfortunate minority of the fans and possibly ZUN himself, the template for the rest of the Touhou games to follow is indeed EoSD. There's Rumia and her rumoured EX-Rumia form, the adorable Daiyousei, the always memetic Cirno, the buttmonkey of buttmonkeys Meiling, the adorable Koakuma, the hailed hikkiomori Patchouli, the elegant maid Sakuya, the charismatic vampire Remilia, and the insane young mistress, Flandre. WHAT IS THERE NOT TO LOVE?
Then there's the music, which this post should be about. The songs are brilliant. The songs are amazing. I completely agree! The one song I constantly hum and definitely remember the tune of EVERY TIME...is Septette for the Dead Princess. So why is the music lacking in my list, why are the characters lacking in my favourites!?
Well, the only song I really like, like REALLY REALLY like in EosD IS Septette for the Dead Princess. I also like U.N Owen, but I particularly love Septette for the Dead Princess. The problem here is I like EVERY BOSS SIX THEME, from Remilia's to Byakuren's! I love Septette, Border of Life, Lunatic Princess, Suwa Foughten Field, Nuclear Fusion, and Cosmic Mind! ALL OF THEM, but I felt I had to choose just one, and I truly, really, REALLY am in love with Byakuren songs entirely (thus Fires of Hokkai, lol) they have amazing remixes and are just beautiful on their own...one TINY step further than the other songs, and so why EoSD did not make my list.
All the characters are awesome too, and make a great dynamic, but no one stands out enough for me to truly, truly love. There's this one picture on Danbooru (danbooru warning, you know I wonder why I never use safebooru, but I'm too lazy to link there lololol) here which I just completely agree with the Myouren followers. *is beaten by SDM* *cough* Why is my avatar of Nazrin and not Cirno!? Why do I prefer Cosmic Mind over Septette!? Why do I love so many of the UFO cast but zero of the EoSD!?!?!?!?!
I continue to scratch my mind over it, to mull over it. Musical tastes aside, since I really truly love only one song from the game (well, I like the rest, they're pretty good, but compared to well, MoF...) But I mean, I just don't know why. Perhaps I'm just perplexed at why so many people live and work in the SDM in the first place. In PCB people are guarding gates or stealing spring because they work for the Mistress of the Netherworld, but they're all ghosts and such have something in common that puts them together. Not the strongest of reasons but, it's a reason! Then in IN the most notable group are the lunarians, which formed with reason. Two are exiled, one ran away and was taken in by the exiled, and they live on the land owned by the other person! Then in MoF, a shrine maiden and her gods, and in SA, a disliked satori and her pets, and in UFO, people who look up to their saviour...SDM is filled with mystery that although I have not tried to discover myself or search for material detailing it myself, seems to not have much existence in terms of why...it is.
I've seen some material dealing with why Sakuya is serving Remilia, but why is Patch Remilia's friend? Why is Meiling there? They say the SDM residents weren't always living in the SDM, and that they were recent arrivals to Gensokyo in fact. I've seen little tidbits detailed, like why Koakuma works for Patch, or something, but nothing that tells me what reason they have to be together in this one mansion, just that...they are. I don't get it. I don't think I have such a strong desire to figure out myself through creative means, but I usually do things like that if I have a hint or a clue of why they are there and that part is simply never touched on, at all. They are just there. They are just living together because. There appears to be no reason, nothing to imply anything.
The only closest thing I've seen is that Remilia defeated them all and so they, out of respect for her power or something, worked for her. (Perhaps it's a better alternative to her killing them or something, I don't know!) I've even contemplated many scenarios in how Sakuya ended up in the SDM, which I still kind of believe even if rather famous artists are throwing out their own theories and using their powerful artwork to influence my opinions.
That plus the fact that I like other music from other games in the series more (for the most part) is why Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil is my least favourite Windows Touhou game (excluding the decimal games like the fighters or StB or something, they don't count). I don't dislike the game at all, I do like it, but I just like the rest...more.
I think it's something like this:
UFO, SA, PCB, MoF, IN, PoFV, EoSD. (Actually I dunno if I should even include PoFV here, lol)
Now what else? I said before my favourite music came from SA and PCB, but then recently I've completely overlooked MoF and have discovered that MoF songs are absolutely orgasmic to the ears, thus my complete desperation to find a playlist of the remixes. (I am THIS close to just making my own D: ) I never actually liked UFO for its music (except again, Byakuren) but constant exposure to my ears has made all UFO music (and UFO itself, lol) grow on me. I always thought Murasa's theme (both stage and boss) were average, and Shou's was terrible (lol) and Heian Alien completely stupid, but now I love them all, including the themes of those I did not mention. SA though is still of my opinion the greatest musical Touhou game of all time. It has the best music of any game, no exceptions. PCB seems to like being second fiddle to every list I have ever. Great music, great characters, but never the best, it seems. Better than last or middle of the pack, though. Though recently I've gained appreciation for the stage four theme and CHEEEEEEEEEEEN's theme (I also like Phantom Ensemble, anything Yuyuko, and Necrofantasia/Necro Fantasy not to mention ALL OF STAGE THREE. Alice, you has amazing moosix.)
And Imperishable Night is there. I like the music, better than EoSD (lol) but it's never the best. The extra stage theme is brilliant though, but it rivals with LAST REMOTE (omfgzers!!!) for that position, so. I seem to like stage themes at lot from IN. Also Mokou's theme is good but waaaay too repetitive...that same tune over and over again, while great is...over and over again. D: Also both Reimu's and Marisa's theme...I'm not sure if they even count here considering they're remixes from their themes in the PC-98 days. O: (I DO like them though!)
Title and credits though? I think the spinoff games do better. I can just sit there on Hisoutensoku's title screen listening to that eargasm of a theme forever, and the staff roll theme, Eternal Steam Engine is just amazing. These aren't ZUN songs apparently, but still omg O: TRAINS!
(yes I know the UNL title is a remix of Evening Sky, but TRAINS and this one sounds even more AMAZING, so there.)
I believe I am using the adjective "amazing" too much, but OMG. THE MUSIC. IT IS AMAZING.
It has come to my attention that most people prefer other songs in other games to EoSD music. HUZZAH. I AM NORMAL. >_>
Too much ranting. THAT IS ALL.
Case in point, from Omchicken's lovely doujinshi,
Basically, the circle has a pattern, as you can tell. The characters in focus will be the desired victims of other Touhou characters who suddenly feel the need to eat them up. Then a character will defend them all in the name of comedy. The problem here is, the explanation in UFO for everyone being perverted was because of supposedly, a "seed of non-identification" was attached to Nue's behind, causing others to see her in a different light, lusting for her, but then the explanation is suddenly thrown away because she discovered this while in a compromising position, meaning rather than one of her powers backfiring, everyone in the world really is a pervert after all.
Yes, it is in the name of comedy. I indeed got a cheap laugh out of it, but comparing to the Chireiden one where the same thing pretty much happens, thus entertainment, the characters in focus still maintain their dignity and are still, as far as they can be, in-character. This tells me tenfold of not only how this circle thinks of both games, but that they reflect the same thing going on everywhere else in the fandom in terms of UFO. I discuss this further below.
If you don't get it....Omchicken liked Chireiden, a lot. They loved the characters and explored them through the doujins they were in. They liked their scenario, their story in the game. In contrast, Omchicken didn't really care about UFO, and the only character they gave a damn about was Nue, and as I continued read their two UFO doujins, it increasingly started to look like they only cared about Nue because of what she wore, her fanservice, as opposed to any background or personality they could've potentially explored. This utterly disappointed me because I enjoyed their take on Chireiden, yet their take on UFO was simply a trainwreck of petty humour. The only good thing I got out of the UFO doujins that had meaning was the idea that a satori is a nue's natural enemy. That I liked. Notice how at the end of that collage, Satori is in the group of "Nue-chan rapers" ...did that not just deconstruct her character from the Chireiden doujinshi on the left!?!?!? Again I know, all in comedy, but one had comedy and some sort of resemblance of development while the other just had a bunch of cardboard-cutouts spouting out dialogue to make an audience laugh.
The rest of this rant is my discovery of why this is. (And then music discussion afterwards)
I've decided to talk about memes! Touhou memes of course, and how I hate some of them. I know, I know, hating them is...petty, but well it's not so much my hate as my wonder of why they get popular. I mean I laugh at a lot of them myself, but some of them just seem forced. There's a meme that IOSYS started up with a song (they tend to start memes, so) that involved the Captain. I am thanking the heavens it is not that popular, and I only see it being referenced occasionally by Youtube commenters, but I have a feeling part of the reason (and only part, as there are other instances of Murasa that are far more recognized, at least here in the western side, so I suppose this reason applies more for the Japanese fandom) is because the Captain isn't extremely popular like many other characters. If she were, that meme might have taken off.
...or the meme is just really bad and forced. I'm talking about Ketsu Anchor (not only is the artwork atrocious in the video itself) but I mean, that is a pretty farfetched pun, "anka" which is what the Japanese pronounce and call anchors means "ass" in...I forget what language, but also "duck" in Finnish. So the video apparently, is called Ketsu (lit. Ass) Anchor, with censored Donald Ducks all over the place...I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what on earth they're singing about, but it's IOSYS, so. But anyway it was SUPPOSEDLY a remix of Captain Murasa but...I would never put that in my mp3 player. The song was not good, the animation was bad, and as I've said...the meme was being forced.
Which makes me think of other memes, how do they come about anyway? And also, the memes that result from UFO in particular. This brings me back to my little rant on Omchicken (after all they can do whatever the hell they want, so) but it seems their doujinshi for UFO was not only shallower than their others, but the memes that have so far resulted from UFO are also more shallow. Or is that simply because UFO is still kind of fresh, so there isn't enough time for people to ruin their characters and flanderize their traits?
Well, there are some that popped up pretty much immediately. (BROFIST! CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA!) and others like "Watching you fap from the ceiling, since I'm Nazrin!" or "THE NEW YOUKAI MOE!" etc, but I don't think these stick (and "Since I'm Nazrin" gets repetitive because you can't really give it a creative alternative. For example when "Cirno is THE STRONGEST" came out, people didn't just repeat that phrase, they also applied it to situations, etc. that kept it alive for a while.) but the big ones I notice the most is for some reason the Japanese's fixation with Disney.
As in, they seem to find Disney things very funny, where you have to censor everything, by making fun of how they throw lawsuits on people using their property extremely easily. I already mentioned the Donald Ducks, but the biggest prepetrator of this is Nazrin as Mickey Mouse. I admit I did like one of these, where Nazrin was in a Steamboat Willie parody, but besides that it just seemed...kind of dumb. Is Nazrin being a mouse the only thing you can make fun of and laugh at? I thought the cats chasing her were slightly better because it was more than just copyright infringement over and over again but still. I suppose this is how the Donald Duck stuff came over as well...
But I see it way too often...in the manzai, in fanart, in videos...not so much the meme itself but how it's done. I guess it's like other memes, it is amusing at first but gets tiring, but this time especially so. Where are the twists? I saw one picture which was one of those chart things that depict a Touhou boss in each difficulty. Easy modo they usually look super deformed and rather harmless, lunatic they either look badass or downright terrifying. Nazrin in lunatic mode is a spoof of the beginnings (or is it endings?) in classic Mickey Mouse cartoons where it has his head in the center with gradient-like red circles in the background. This time Nazrin takes Mickey's place and she's going "Haha! I'm Nazrin Haha!" Now that I found amusing. She didn't have dark ears or look like Mickey Mouse at all...it was slightly more subtle, a bit of a better twist...now that was amusing! Nazrin in that situation is indeed downright terrifying, that is what it's implying! THAT IS ACTUALLY FUNNY.
I guess asking memes to be clever is like asking fanfiction to be award-winning novels.
But it really feels like these kind of shallower memes were developed for UFO because well, the characters aren't as popular as I think they can be and also aren't as developed thus nothing can be taken off their character to be exaggerated beyond reason. More people care about Remilia going "Uuu~! Uuu~!" because she's ridiculously popular, so... The closest we have is Byakuren, but I find it kind of hard to give her memetic mutation considering her character. Sure, she's considered YOUKAI JESUS but that's not really much of a meme as just a nickname, like calling Hong Meiling CHINA or something. Byakuren is probably better compared to a bunch of other people but most people think of Jesus when they think of really nice selfless people, so that's why Jesus is there, while Meiling has lots of potential and character, but people just call her China because they only associate her with her clothes. So.... (Chen is also chinese, but being a cat girl overrides that with...catgirl-ness)
So what else can Byakuren spawn? The only thing I can think of at this very moment is that she was inducted into the Old Maids Alliance shortly after being introduced, which I think isn't that fitting. Sure she's over a thousand years old, and probably acts mature (the requirements to be in the club) but I don't really SEE her, in terms of looks at that old. Yukari seems old to me because her first outfit looks like old-lady victorian clothes, lololol, while both Eirin and Kanako seem to have old-lady hair/clothes, imo. Yuyuko's personality, at least in canon (which seems to be accepted by the fanon mostly, ignoring the whole glutton thing) is rather scheming, intelligent, possibly even manipulative, similar to Yukari, which I associate with a more mature-type of person, so that's why she's there. (Also her clothes does not scream YOUNG PERSON to me...but honestly Yuyuko is barely in this group for me, thus why I usually see the alliance with just Yukari, Eirin, and Kanako)
But Byakuren has a pretty cool outfit that doesn't seem like something old people would wear. Old people do not wear capes. They do not have gradient hair, their hair does not look like they use Herbal Essences three times in the shower. Byakuren's goal all those years ago was to retain her youth, and she seriously looks like she did. I mean, I think the biggest qualification into this club is how likely someone else in Touhou will call them an "old hag" (Babaa) and how they react. If some person ACTUALLY calls Byakuren an old hag...would she really get angry at them? Her personality doesn't...seem like that, at least in fanon. When in fanon everyone else seems to have actually been called an old hag at some point, and they got pissed.
So besides Kogasa who seems to have been turned into a buttmonkey woobie of sorts (or at least, someone who has such a ridiculous amount of misfortune that Hina would die trying should she attempt to absorb it) and I kind of don't count her because she's not really a Myouren Follower, who do we have left? I do like how Nazrin herself has actually developed a character (one of cynical and hypercompetence) which would be kind of hard to create a meme out of unless they turn her into Alice 2.0 or something. So the only characters we have left are Murasa, Shou, and Ichirin. Ichirin has...practically nothing going for her, and BROFIST seems to be the extent they could reach, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong...thus Murasa and Shou.
Well the one meme they tried with her (besides the fact that she is the MOTHERFUCKING CAPTAIN) is in my opinion an utter failure, so now I turn my eyes to Shou. Shou is quite a comedic character so far, despite being the most straightforward and honest of all youkai. They exaggerate her carelessness and her genre blindness, but I wonder if that's enough. (She does tend to lose all her clothes, thus being compared to Ran a few times...but I don't like comparing Shou/Nazrin to Ran/Chen. I want them to be an entity of their own!) Of course, I find that meme, if more prevalent would be as stupid as suppa tenko anyway (Suppa tenko is almost at the levels of yukkuri in terms of stupidity) so...what's left?
Why, Nue's face being stuffed by shrimp tempura while she cries NUUUUUUEEEEN~! of course. I've seen three images of it so far. The ascii art that has spawned that artwork is the best ascii art I've seen of Nue, especially compared to the rest on that page. I see potential here, though memes spread quite often due to being text-based as well, and people screaming NUUUUEEEEEN is too similar to CHEEEEEEEEN. (People are not skilled enough to paste that ascii art all over the place) so I doubt it'll pick up pace anytime soon.
Which brings me to another question of shallowness, undevelopedness...newness, etc. Is it me, or does the UFO characters get compared to older Touhou characters more often than any other? I guess you could arguably roughly say SA is EoSD rehashed (but I still think they're much different >_>) but UFO's a bit closer in this department. (Then again they've been comparing since ZUN introduced a second shrine maiden!) but I mean...NAZRIN IS CHEN! SHOU IS RAN! Kogasa is the NEW Youkai Moe...that means there was an old one! (Yuuka!) Murasa and Byakuren are supposedly expies of Yumemi and Chiyuri. Ichirin is arguably China (this is the closest I've got for her, again she has nothing much, really) but most infamously:
Nue is Flandre.
Well, I as a super biased UFO fangirl (though I TRULY believe this, even without my goggles..) think they are blindingly different from all these comparisons. These comparisons popped up because the fans could not embrace the fact that there are brand new characters and must compare with their comfort zone to understand the new ones better. I guess that's just human nature, but...maybe there are small similarities. I guess Flan and Nue both have crazy wings, and SLIGHTLY similar themes, but that's it. Nue is nothing like Flandre, just like the rest of them, nothing like the other.
And so I continue to ponder. Popularity and memes are entwined, and so far I think the handling of UFO has been a bit poor.
-
Lists are amazing. I like lists.
Title - Did You See That Shadow? (UNL)
Stage 1 - A God That Loves People ~ Romantic Fall (MoF)
Boss 1 - A Tiny Tiny Clever Commander (UFO)
Stage 2 - The Road of Apotropaic God ~ Dark Road (MoF), The Bridge People No Longer Cross (SA)
Boss 2 - Green Eyed Jealousy (SA)
Stage 3 - Gensokyo the Gods Loved (MoF), Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World (IN)
Boss 3 - Doll Judgement (PCB)
Stage 4 - The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky (PCB), Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall (MoF)
Boss 4 - Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye (SA)
Stage 5 - Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome-Kagome (IN), Lullaby of a Deserted Hell (SA)
Boss 5 - Faith is for the Transient People (MoF)
Stage 6 - Fires of Hokkai (UFO)
Boss 6 - Cosmic Mind ~ Emotional Skyscraper (UFO)
Extra Stage - Last Remote (SA), Extend Ash, Hourai Victim (IN)
Extra Boss - Native Faith (MoF), Heian Alien (UFO)
Ending - Dream of a Spring Breeze (PCB)
Credits - Eternal Steam Engine (UNL)
PoFV - Wind God Girl
EosD - 0
PCB - 3
IN - 3
MoF - 6
SA - 5
UFO - 4
THUS WHY I REQUIRE A MOUNTAIN OF FAITH REMIX PLAYLIST LIKE RIGHT NOW!
And now Spotto will discuss why she chose what she chose. First of all, the most baffling thing about my list is probably the lack of any EoSD songs whatsoever.
As I have discussed last time, I was talking about my reasons for both Meiling and Patchouli to be so low in my character sort. I'm pretty sure that combined with the fact that I barely have EoSD characters in my top twenty at all, has solidified the fact that, well...EoSD is my least favourite Touhou game.
EVERYONE GASPS.
I have played it, so I can even discuss its gameplay! But I cannot compare its gameplay with the other games, so I can only judge these games on characters and music alone until I play the others. (And perhaps I should just play easy modo so I can move on to PCB or something >_> But I wanna beat Remilia FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUU SAKUYA)
But the idea here is....EVERYONE loves EoSD! It is THE game with THE biggest fanbase, being the oldest of the WIndows games since people started caring about Touhou when EoSD came out (Those poor PC-98 games...) and basically the game you pretty much compare with, with the rest of the games. If people paid attention to PC-98 games, they would be the template for the rest to follow, but besides an unfortunate minority of the fans and possibly ZUN himself, the template for the rest of the Touhou games to follow is indeed EoSD. There's Rumia and her rumoured EX-Rumia form, the adorable Daiyousei, the always memetic Cirno, the buttmonkey of buttmonkeys Meiling, the adorable Koakuma, the hailed hikkiomori Patchouli, the elegant maid Sakuya, the charismatic vampire Remilia, and the insane young mistress, Flandre. WHAT IS THERE NOT TO LOVE?
Then there's the music, which this post should be about. The songs are brilliant. The songs are amazing. I completely agree! The one song I constantly hum and definitely remember the tune of EVERY TIME...is Septette for the Dead Princess. So why is the music lacking in my list, why are the characters lacking in my favourites!?
Well, the only song I really like, like REALLY REALLY like in EosD IS Septette for the Dead Princess. I also like U.N Owen, but I particularly love Septette for the Dead Princess. The problem here is I like EVERY BOSS SIX THEME, from Remilia's to Byakuren's! I love Septette, Border of Life, Lunatic Princess, Suwa Foughten Field, Nuclear Fusion, and Cosmic Mind! ALL OF THEM, but I felt I had to choose just one, and I truly, really, REALLY am in love with Byakuren songs entirely (thus Fires of Hokkai, lol) they have amazing remixes and are just beautiful on their own...one TINY step further than the other songs, and so why EoSD did not make my list.
All the characters are awesome too, and make a great dynamic, but no one stands out enough for me to truly, truly love. There's this one picture on Danbooru (danbooru warning, you know I wonder why I never use safebooru, but I'm too lazy to link there lololol) here which I just completely agree with the Myouren followers. *is beaten by SDM* *cough* Why is my avatar of Nazrin and not Cirno!? Why do I prefer Cosmic Mind over Septette!? Why do I love so many of the UFO cast but zero of the EoSD!?!?!?!?!
I continue to scratch my mind over it, to mull over it. Musical tastes aside, since I really truly love only one song from the game (well, I like the rest, they're pretty good, but compared to well, MoF...) But I mean, I just don't know why. Perhaps I'm just perplexed at why so many people live and work in the SDM in the first place. In PCB people are guarding gates or stealing spring because they work for the Mistress of the Netherworld, but they're all ghosts and such have something in common that puts them together. Not the strongest of reasons but, it's a reason! Then in IN the most notable group are the lunarians, which formed with reason. Two are exiled, one ran away and was taken in by the exiled, and they live on the land owned by the other person! Then in MoF, a shrine maiden and her gods, and in SA, a disliked satori and her pets, and in UFO, people who look up to their saviour...SDM is filled with mystery that although I have not tried to discover myself or search for material detailing it myself, seems to not have much existence in terms of why...it is.
I've seen some material dealing with why Sakuya is serving Remilia, but why is Patch Remilia's friend? Why is Meiling there? They say the SDM residents weren't always living in the SDM, and that they were recent arrivals to Gensokyo in fact. I've seen little tidbits detailed, like why Koakuma works for Patch, or something, but nothing that tells me what reason they have to be together in this one mansion, just that...they are. I don't get it. I don't think I have such a strong desire to figure out myself through creative means, but I usually do things like that if I have a hint or a clue of why they are there and that part is simply never touched on, at all. They are just there. They are just living together because. There appears to be no reason, nothing to imply anything.
The only closest thing I've seen is that Remilia defeated them all and so they, out of respect for her power or something, worked for her. (Perhaps it's a better alternative to her killing them or something, I don't know!) I've even contemplated many scenarios in how Sakuya ended up in the SDM, which I still kind of believe even if rather famous artists are throwing out their own theories and using their powerful artwork to influence my opinions.
That plus the fact that I like other music from other games in the series more (for the most part) is why Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil is my least favourite Windows Touhou game (excluding the decimal games like the fighters or StB or something, they don't count). I don't dislike the game at all, I do like it, but I just like the rest...more.
I think it's something like this:
UFO, SA, PCB, MoF, IN, PoFV, EoSD. (Actually I dunno if I should even include PoFV here, lol)
Now what else? I said before my favourite music came from SA and PCB, but then recently I've completely overlooked MoF and have discovered that MoF songs are absolutely orgasmic to the ears, thus my complete desperation to find a playlist of the remixes. (I am THIS close to just making my own D: ) I never actually liked UFO for its music (except again, Byakuren) but constant exposure to my ears has made all UFO music (and UFO itself, lol) grow on me. I always thought Murasa's theme (both stage and boss) were average, and Shou's was terrible (lol) and Heian Alien completely stupid, but now I love them all, including the themes of those I did not mention. SA though is still of my opinion the greatest musical Touhou game of all time. It has the best music of any game, no exceptions. PCB seems to like being second fiddle to every list I have ever. Great music, great characters, but never the best, it seems. Better than last or middle of the pack, though. Though recently I've gained appreciation for the stage four theme and CHEEEEEEEEEEEN's theme (I also like Phantom Ensemble, anything Yuyuko, and Necrofantasia/Necro Fantasy not to mention ALL OF STAGE THREE. Alice, you has amazing moosix.)
And Imperishable Night is there. I like the music, better than EoSD (lol) but it's never the best. The extra stage theme is brilliant though, but it rivals with LAST REMOTE (omfgzers!!!) for that position, so. I seem to like stage themes at lot from IN. Also Mokou's theme is good but waaaay too repetitive...that same tune over and over again, while great is...over and over again. D: Also both Reimu's and Marisa's theme...I'm not sure if they even count here considering they're remixes from their themes in the PC-98 days. O: (I DO like them though!)
Title and credits though? I think the spinoff games do better. I can just sit there on Hisoutensoku's title screen listening to that eargasm of a theme forever, and the staff roll theme, Eternal Steam Engine is just amazing. These aren't ZUN songs apparently, but still omg O: TRAINS!
(yes I know the UNL title is a remix of Evening Sky, but TRAINS and this one sounds even more AMAZING, so there.)
I believe I am using the adjective "amazing" too much, but OMG. THE MUSIC. IT IS AMAZING.
It has come to my attention that most people prefer other songs in other games to EoSD music. HUZZAH. I AM NORMAL. >_>
Too much ranting. THAT IS ALL.