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shadowjackery · 7 months

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I myself have been mildly obsessing over this question for years, too, and I guess I'm doing a quick write-up today when I should be doing something else. Alas, my notes are a mess, so I have no solid demographic references to cite, sorry. Take all this with a hefty pile of salt.

(I agree that the real answer, of course, is that the Human Village is as big or as small as a writer needs it to be, but anyway...)

tl;dr: Let's say 5,000 in town, 50,000 total, but you could easily talk me into twice that.

I agree that "village" is probably not the best translation here for "Ningen-no-Sato". This is not a small farming settlement of a couple of hundred people. This is a full-size market town! The market is open every day and long into the night. There is at least one tall and sturdy wall with at least one gate. There are well-maintained roads, bridges, and at least one navigable canal. There are specialists and luxury goods: florists, printers, cobblers, lacemakers. There are restaurants and bars and probably hotels. There are some large and wealthy households, some of them merchants. I seem to recall I've seen beggars in one of the official comics. There are thousands of people living in this settlement, and many more outside of it and regularly passing through.

Pre-industrial urban populations tended to be small by our expectations; 5,000 could be a fair-sized town, 10,000 noteworthy. Big cities were tremendous political entities in their own right; feeding a metropolis like Rome, Beijing, or Tenochtitlan virtually required an empire.

Ningen-no-Sato isn't THAT big, but it feels like it gets larger rather than smaller with every new book and game; for now, let's say 5,000 souls to make easy napkin-back math. This number includes the usual handful of town-dwelling psychics, halfbreeds, werebeasts, and other closeted youkai, but doesn't count household spirits, fairies, and random bits of furniture on the verge of self-awareness.

The urban population is only a fraction of the total human population, usually 5-10%. Everyone else is rural, growing food and fiber, herding beasts, fishing, making charcoal, and all the other myriad basic production tasks that support a civilization. So if the town is 5,000, that suggests an overall human population of 45,000 to 100,000. Again, 50,000 gives us easy math, but you could talk me higher.

Yes, some of the people in the town are farming the land immediately around the town, but that's not enough to support the town population! They need to import food and fuel and the rest from the surrounding countryside, by boat and by cart, mostly by boat.

(If there were really were only 5,000 humans total, only living in the town proper, with Yukari gapping in rice: 1 koku of rice, what was considered enough for one person for one year, is 180 liters in volume. Some quick math suggests Yukari would need to steal between a dozen and fifteen ISO 40-foot cargo containers of rice every year, assuming no weight limit... but a town needs many other supplies as well. Yukari would need to install a railyard, I think, and bring in a container every week, at least. Having the locals do their own farming and production is probably more efficient, and certainly less work for her.)

The best sources I could get on pre-industrial population density seem to range from 30 people per square mile for poor, hardscrabble terrain, up to 120+ for some of those legendary fertile river valleys. Gensokyo's productivity might be lower than historical; dried ocean fish was an important fertilizer in Japan, and there's no ocean in Gensokyo. On the other hand, productivity might be higher; the local harvest goddess literally lives right down the road. Also, taxes will be lower than historically, because they aren't supporting an imperial military! (The roads and canals would be supported by corvée labor -- that's a required contribution of a certain number of days of work -- and the town itself probably levies a gate tax or market tax.)

Again, for the sake of easy math, let's say this is idyllic Miyazaki-movie-esque countryside supporting 100 people per square mile. That gives us about 500 square miles of territory, which is almost certainly not a geometrically perfect square or circle. Let's imagine a blob of territory stretching up and down the branches of a river valley, maybe 15-20 miles across at its narrowest, 30-40 miles across at its longest, nestled between forested mountains. Upriver are the lakes and foothills of the Youkai Mountains, beyond them waterfalls and greater peaks, and finally the highest distant peak, that the tengu call Yatsugatake, shining white with snowpack. There might even be a small glacier. Downriver, the water flows away beside a nearly-forgotten road to disappear beyond the Barrier.

Within this settled area are a few hundred villages (mura), most of them with a hundred or two farmfolk each, each village a mile or two apart. There are some larger villages at interesting points, and then the big town itself roughly in the center, on the river. Most people live in the longest-settled parts in the middle of this district, close to the main watercourses. Weirdos like Marisa and Rinnosuke live on the fringes. This whole zone is filled with little paths and irrigation canals, fields and paddies and ponds and orchards, well-tended hedges and stands of trees, beehives, barns, and storage sheds, and assorted tiny shrines. There might be a decent road or two -- probably at least one along the canal -- with rest-stops along the way. (Japan at the time of the Barrier had long been used to a fair level of background tourist traffic, though Gensokyo seems to have been in a quiet backwater.) The woodlands within and just surrounding this area are almost as well-tended as the croplands; foraging rights are carefully divided up, for firewood, wild plants and mushrooms, hunting and trapping and fishing. You'll see people in the woods and meadows every day.

Then beyond that is the REAL unclaimed wilderness. Unclaimed by humans, that is. Folks who live near the bounds shutter their doors at night and hang up prayer strips.

Lots of people live within a day's walk, ride, or row of the main town. For the rest, going into town for business can take you a few days: hike in, stay one or two nights, then go back home. Hiking from one end of the Human Settlement to the other and back might take a week if you're taking your time about it, but a post rider or magical flyer can do the journey in a day or less. Marisa or Alice can pop into town on broom-back for a day trip, easy-peasy, but you can see why it can take days for Marisa and Reimu to track down an incident.

In a car, on a modern highway, you'd drive past all this in less than an hour and never notice it was there. Our industrialized world collapses scale.

With this many humans around, Mystia's business plan makes a little more sense. If there's only one tiny center of habitation, huddled nervously behind their palisade at night, she does no business. But with this many paths and villages, there are often people on the roads in the evening, hustling home from business with their neighbors or an over-late stay in town, and willing to take a chance on an unfamiliar food stall.

With this many humans around, Sekibanki makes sense. If there were only a few hundred humans, everyone is related to everyone and there are no strangers. But with tens of teaming thousands, Banki-chan can just start renting a room in town with the vague explanation that she came from, "uh… up north? Lookin' for work, you know," and that's enough.

I'm personally of the opinion that youkai-eating-humans is far less common than either side would have you believe -- it's not unheard of, we've seen killings in the manga in both directions, but it's not a regular occurrence. I do not think that the Three Fairies of Light are dragging children into their cute little treehouse to suck the marrow from their bones. We don't need to calculate predation statistics on the human population. Roll that number into the regular (human-on-human) murder rate, whatever it is, and move on.

I also don't think we need to calculate the youkai burden on Gensokyo's farmers. A lot of youkai don't exactly eat per se: Yuuka Kazami gardens for her own whims, not for survival; gods can live off offerings; Kogasa can feed off of surprise; and so on. And a lot of youkai eat like wild beasts and live in holes, only switching to human form when they feel like it. Meanwhile, the more organized youkai have their own lands, away from prying human eyes: the tengu would have their herds and fields and mines up in the foothills of their mountains, and the secretive rabbit-folk of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost would farm their own rice to pound their own mochi to tithe to the manor at Eientei. Finally, fairies raiding your berry bushes and apple orchards for snacks probably evens out with other fairies helping the sun shine, the rains fall, and your crops grow; it's all just the circle of life in Gensokyo.

(Side note: I think it's funny that Nitori and her cronies were so proudly secretive about their "new invention" of a greenhouse for cucumbers. It shows how little the kappa or yamawaro use agriculture in their daily lives. The Romans were experimenting with solar greenhouses for cucumbers two thousand years ago; Korea had climate-controlled greenhouses for orange trees in the 15th century. This is not a new technology! I wonder what the kappa think human farmers even do all day, if perhaps they imagine that our fields just grow like that naturally and we just happen to hang out there.)

Since the physical requirements of many youkai are low, whatever valuables they do acquire, they're quite happy to spend. Kogasa mentions in one manga that a few blacksmith gigs give her enough money to play for the rest of the year. Farmers often have a side gig for outside trade, something to do in the off-season that brings in a little extra cash. I imagine there's quite a steady market among the danmaku girls for new combat boots and lacey ribbons, not to mention moonshine.

Anyway, I'd argue for "the Human Settlement" or "the Human Villages" (plural) or "the Human District" for the overall region. Once upon a time, the town itself might have been Gensou-machi or Gensou-to or something like that, but I like the idea of the locals calling the biggest town they've ever seen "The Village" as a nickname that started as a joke and eventually stuck, and now no one but Akyuu remembers the original name.

the population of the human village

… is a topic I’ve been unnecessarily thinking about for a long time, and I’m half-asleep and bored, so let’s talk about it. Right now. Right now. Nobody is going to care about this and nobody should care about this, but sometimes I think about dumb stuff.

We don’t get many good looks at the human village. There are a few high-level views of it in the manga. The best one I can think of is in FS 31:

I mean, I don’t think an illustration in the manga is a strictly authoritative source, but I’d say it’s roughly accurate. More importantly, I guess, it’s bigger than I see a lot of fanworks suggest. That’s definitely bigger than anything we’d call a ‘village’ around where I grew up, really. (Note: I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so we had no standards.)

Here are some businesses/etc that we know are in the village:

One school (Keine’s school)

One specialty book store (Suzunaan)

A master diviner who has multiple students (from FS 25)

Multiple pubs (FS 22)

A guy who made his money off selling salt and got rich (well, there was. Dead now. FS 36)

Quite a few restaurants (WaHH 7)

A florist (Yuuka’s PMiSS article)

… which all make me place a pretty high minimum on the village’s size. Apart from Akyuu’s books, Suzunaan doesn’t seem particularly in demand, so it doesn’t seem like the kinda place that would pop up in a settlement of a few hundred people. Kinda the same for the diviners. There are actually statistics for number of bars per capita; it’s hard to find actually good ones with a quick search, but apparently modern Tokyo has about 1 bar per 900 residents, so let’s use that as a general order of magnitude kinda thing. (Ironically, I had far less luck finding stats on the number of schools per capita. Japan’s historic situation is kinda unique there, too, so let’s just give up on estimating it.)

On top of the above: It’s pretty obvious that the village is large enough that everybody doesn’t know each other. Pretty much any time stuff in the village becomes important, it’s always “that one shop downtown” or “a guy who runs an udon place.” There are a few chapters dealing with outsiders showing up, too, and nobody ever seems too surprised to see a new face around or, say, sees a new kid showing up to their classes and questions the fact that they don’t know their parents.

Comparing it with historic Japanese cities… well, Hakodate had about 10,000 people in 1850 (which is probably about the best historic point to use as reference,) and by that point it also had multiple temples and pretty active trade. Probably too high. Population data seems pretty hazy and unreliable that far back, so comparisons for anything smaller are hard to find, if they’re out there. But hey, let’s say 10,000 is significantly more than the village.

Combining all that, I guess I’d put the population somewhere in the low/mid thousands? Three to five thousand, maybe. Big enough that people definitely won’t know each other, small enough to have some reference for most other people, even if it’s only ‘yeah, he runs a shop over that way, married to the old tailor’s daughter.’ Also just big enough to support some weird specialty shops and probably have a few indistinct districts. (At least, specialty shops that aren’t frilly hat outlets, which is presumably one of the most reliable industries in Gensokyo.) Probably big enough to start approaching the viable threshold for industrial development and stuff, which I guess could make an interesting plot hook.

… actually, probably enough that they significantly outnumber the non-fairy youkai, with the numbers I’ve always felt like canon hints at. (if there are significantly more than, like, 100 kappa, I will be shocked.) Huh.

#touhou project #worldbuilding

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shadowjackery · 10 months

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I’m glad so many of you enjoyed the comic. (And in case you missed it over the weekend, here’s the link again: https://www.tumblr.com/shadowjackery/721059908254121985/the-gladdest-thing-under-the-sun?source=share)

My favorite tags so far:

You. You get it.

[Descriptive text:

Yuuka Kazami stands triumphant, surrounded by flames and darkness, the sharpened point of her parasol held like a rapier to the throat of fallen Yumeko, whose useless swords are scattered about. Shinki stands nearby, smiling furiously, emitting beams of energy like wings.

To the side is a text box, that reads:

“Peer-Reviewed Tags:

#it truly captures the inhuman nature of Yuuka #also OP you made her Really Hot

#damn! she’s fucked in the head!”

Yuuka says, “Darling, genocide is just a game!” A heart floats in her words.

Shinki says, “Are you making light of Makai? I’ll have you know I made everything here.”

Yuuka says, “Well, compared to ME...”]

#sketch #touhou #yuuka kazami #shinki #mystic square #thank you

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shadowjackery · 10 months

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The Gladdest Thing Under the Sun

I honestly thought we were supposed to wait a couple of days after the zine’s release, but, heck, everyone else is doing it, so here we are: My contribution to @gensokyozine . I’ve wanted to do this story for a while, so I hope you enjoy!

Descriptive text for the visually impaired or for easy quotation:

PAGE 1

Title: "Shadowjack presents: The Gladdest Thing under the Sun"

Yuuka Kazami, a youkai woman, climbs the cracked stone steps to the ramshackle Hakurei Shrine. She carries a parasol. Up the wooded hill, through the pines, stand the shrine gate and two guardian komainu -- one of whom, Aunn, is alive and waving cheerfully, tail wagging. The plum and cherry trees atop the hill are in bloom. Dandelions sprout as Yuuka passes.

PAGE 2, PANEL 1

Title: "Yuuka Kazami, Flower Mistress of the Four Seasons"

Yuuka wears a summer outfit that evokes the mid-20th century: a vest over a short-sleeved blouse with a necktie, a knee-length pencil skirt, hose and heels, a handkerchief neatly folded in her vest pocket. She also wears glossy leather gauntlets and tight sleeve garters. Her hair is bobbed and curled in 1930s fashion. Her eyes are slitted, like a snake's.

She rests her head on her hand and gazes up at Reimu, rapt. A cat with black and white fur, spotted something like a yin-yang ball, lies nearby, watching her carefully.

PAGE 2, PANEL 2

Title: "Reimu Hakurei, Mysterious Shrine Maiden of Paradise"

Reimu, a human woman with a long ponytail, looks down at Yuuka, sweating slightly. She says, "Um... you know..."

PAGE 2, PANEL 3

Reimu wears her usual red-white shrine maiden robes and ribbons, much patched and threadbare. She is barefoot on the porch, holding a broom.

Reimu: "When you look at me like that, I get the feeling I'm about to be CUT and PRESSED."

Yuuka is shocked. "Oh, my! I would NEVER. A wild flower is best viewed in its natural habitat, always!"

PAGE 2, PANEL 4

Reimu, smiling: "I'm a wildflower?"

Yuuka, grinning: "One of the best!"

PAGE 3, PANEL 1

Reimu greets Yuuka at the entrance to her residence. Yuuka bows formally. She has brought a package, wrapped in cloth with a floral pattern.

Yuuka: "Ojama shimasu."

Reimu: "Hai, hai."

Reimu: "Everything is flowers with you, isn't it?"

Yuuka: "It could hardly be otherwise, dear! I am what I am."

PAGE 3, PANEL 2

Yuuka takes off her shoes, while Reimu places the parasol on the weapons rack by the door. The top shelf holds scrolls, boxes labelled "needles" and "seals", and one Mk 2 hand grenade.

A large sign by the rack says in printed text, "Check ALL weapons before coming in! Including but not limited to: Swords, Axes, Bows, Spears, Guns, Wands, Staffs, Parasols, Lasers, Bombs, Poisons, Curses," and so on.

A handwritten post-it note has been tacked to it, saying, "SEIJA -- Do NOT obey this!"

Another, ripped and faded sign has been taped by the list, adding, "MARISA -- Whatever it is now: NO. I mean it."

There is a bullethole next to the sign.

A different yin-yang cat watches Yuuka.

Reimu says, "So what kind of flower is Marisa?"

Yuuka: "She reminds me of pampas grass."

Reimu: "?"

Yuuka: "One of a few varieties of cortaderia, somewhat resembling susuki."

PAGE 3, PANEL 3

The two women go inside where there's more shade.

Yuuka: "It's a fast-growing, invasive species that can contribute to rat infestations and dangerous wildfires."

Reimu, laughing: "A WEED!"

Yuuka: "But charming in its way."

PAGE 3, PANEL 4, OFFSET

Somewhere, Marisa sneezes.

PAGE 4, PANEL 1

In Reimu's kitchen, the two together prepare afternoon tea, while two different cats beg at their feet. Reimu pours hot water from a large kettle into a cast-iron teapot. Yuuka takes down bowls and cups, and opens up the Japanese-style lunchboxes she brought.

Yuuka has put on an apron that parodies the "piyo piyo apron" worn by Kyoko in the manga "Maison Ikkoku", but instead of a drawing of a baby chick on the chest, it has a drawing of a Dragon Quest slime, saying "suu suu".

Reimu: "You aren't bothered she stole the Master Spark from you?"

Yuuka: "Oh, Marisa didn't steal it from me! She bargained for it fairly."

Reimu stops what she's doing to turn toward Yuuka. "Bullshit."

Yuuka: "It's true! I was curious to learn a little magic, and in exchange for lessons I agreed to trade her a cutting."

Reimu: "Huh!"

Yuuka: "I don't mind helping another gardener to improve their art. She makes it bloom well, doesn't she?"

PAGE 4, PANEL 2

Yuuka carries a tray of sandwiches and snacks out of the kitchen.

Yuuka: "Besides... to cast it ONCE, she needs a device."

A surprise second Yuuka, with long hair, and wearing trousers instead of a skirt, whisks the teapot and cups from Reimu's hands, leaving Reimu with nothing to do.

Yuuka, the second: "But I by myself can cast it TWICE."

PAGE 5, PANEL 1

Only one Yuuka again. Yuuka and Reimu kneel on the veranda to take their tea. One yin-yang cat nearby sprawls asleep in the sun, an orange tabby circles curiously, and a third cat sulks by Reimu.

Reimu: "Okay, then how about... Alice?"

Yuuka: "Ohhh... Alice is special. With her pride and ingenuity, she bears the seed of great potential for power."

PAGE 5, PANEL 2

Yuuka beams with enthusiasm. She says, "Why, if one could but prune away a few of her mortal failings -- such as 'restraint' or 'mercy' -- she could make a truly MARVELLOUS youkai!"

We can now observe that Yuuka's necktie is not knotted, but instead held by a silver woggle marked with a "lily of the valley" emblem.

PAGE 5, PANEL 3

Yuuka blushes happily. "She might even be stronger than I. Wouldn't that be an interesting day?" A heart floats in her words.

Reimu tries to hide her concern. She thinks, "Ganbatte, Alice-san..." But only says out loud, "...er, uh... and Yukari?"

PAGE 6, PANEL 1

Yuuka grins wolfishly. "Yukari and I have an arrangement: She doesn't meddle in my garden, and I don't BURN DOWN hers."

Reimu: "Isn't it weird that a youkai of FLOWERS is so good at fighting?"

Yuuka: "I'm surprised to hear that from a Japanese!"

Reimu: "You say that like you're not."

PAGE 6, PANEL 2

Yuuka: "I am known in many lands, by many names, wherever flowers grow."

Yuuka narrates the scene from the foreground, wearing a woman's kimono and lacquered okobo sandals. She carries now a Japanese-style paper parasol. Her hair is tied up in a bun with a cherry-blossom kanzashi, and she wears a sunflower hair ornament. She is surrounded by flowers: chrysanthemum, hollyhock, and birthwort, and above her spreads blooming sakura.

Yuuka: "Did not your own samurai describe themselves as cherry blossoms, and fight for emperor and shogun under the banners of the chrysanthemum and hollyhock?"

In the midground, two armored samurai clash. The lower-status one has fallen to the ground; the richer has a bloody slash across his left eye. He swings his sword and chops the grounded man's spear in two, but the other is undaunted.

In the background, an army of horse and foot mounts the top of the hill, banners billowing.

PAGE 7, PANEL 1

Now Yuuka narrates wearing a huipil dress with embroidered shawl, and simple leather slippers. Her hair is done in buns, with a Mexican sunflower by her ear. A hummingbird flies near her. Growing around her are Aztec marigold, dahlias, banana yucca, and Mexican hat flowers.

Yuuka: "Across the sea to your east, the mighty Mexica gathered their 'hummingbird' soldiers to send to the 'Flower Wars' (they named them) to gather honor, blood, and sacrifices."

In the midground, the fighters are now two Nahuatl, one poor, one rich with a slashed left eye. The poorer one wears only a loincloth, and has a shield slung over his shoulder. His shield is painted with a hummingbird design, and from it hang a few feathers. The richer soldier wears a full-body jaguar costume, and wields a macuahuitl war-club. The poor soldier leaps to his feet and tackles his enemy, disarming him.

In the background, an army of Aztecs battle below a stepped pyramid and high mountains.

PAGE 7, PANEL 2

Now Yuuka narrates wearing men's doublet and hose, embroidered with fleur-de-lis and tulips, along with knee-high riding boots and gauntlets. Around her neck is a sunflower pendant. On her shoulder perches a falcon. About her feet, and entangling the narration boxes, are red, white, and yellow roses.

Yuuka: "And to the far west, the lords of the English struggled for a choice of kingly roses, red Lancaster or snowy York."

In the midground, the fighters are now two Englishmen, again one poorer, the other richer with the eye injury. The poorer soldier has some mail pieces and a simple brimmed helmet; the richer has plate armor, a full helm, and a shield. The rich fighter is overthrown, his foe about to stab him through the visor with his own arming sword.

In the background, mounted knights charge a line of archers behind wooden stakes. A church or fort stands on hills in the far distance.

Yuuka: "Flowers and War have always been intertwined."

PAGE 7, PANEL 3

We return to Reimu's veranda and cherry trees.

Reimu: "You've seen so many strange places... Do you have a favorite?"

Yuuka: "...it was in the west, in Flanders, perhaps a hundred years ago."

PAGE 8, PANEL 1

Yuuka invisibly narrates: "Such a war, Reimu! The men burrowed like moles, or took to the air like kites."

Above barbed wire, two airplanes spit tracers at each other. It is World War One.

PAGE 8, PANEL 2

Yuuka: "They plowed the earth with cannon, night and day."

Shirtless German artillerymen fire their gun amid sandbags. Something explodes close by.

PAGE 8, PANEL 3

Yuuka: "They slew by shot and poison, fire and blade."

A gasmasked French soldier, armed with pistol and entrenching tool, cautiously moves down a trench. An unseen enemy waits around the corner with rifle and bayonet.

PAGE 8, PANEL 4

Yuuka: "And for no purpose that I could see, no treasure nor slave."

Barbed wire and ruined buildings.

PAGE 8, PANEL 5

Yuuka, narrating: "The destruction was so maniacal it seemed no tree, no blade of grass, would ever grow there again. I thought you humans had gone absolutely mad!"

Yuuka, wearing colorful hat, coat, and umbrella, stands on a windy no-man's land, surrounded by dull mud and broken pieces. Tracer fire crosses the sky, coming from a distant machine-gun nest. She notices, but does not bother to avoid, the few bullets that land near her.

Yuuka, narrating: "But it was I who did not understand your passion. When I learned your true intentions, I was deeply humbled."

PAGE 8, PANEL 6

Yuuka, narrating: "Did you know, Reimu? You can find graves in the wild by how the flowers grow. (Bone meal makes such good fertilizer.)"

The corpse of a soldier lies upon the ruined earth. But near his outstretched arm, a single bluebell, and a few patches of grass, have sprouted.

PAGE 8, PANEL 7

Now there are no bodies, but grass and wildflowers and bumblebees cover the ground. A shattered helmet has a flower growing through the holes.

Yuuka, narrating: "I tell you that after this great war, those fields FLUORISHED with color. Rainbows spilled on seas of green grass!"

PAGE 9

Yuuka, narrating: "And ever after, all through those lands, the people wore blood-red poppies, to remember and give thanks to their kindred who slept below, for this sight they had worked so hard to create."

Yuuka wears early-20th century men's hunting clothes: a sturdy jacket and breeches with knee-high boots and gloves. Her curled hair is in a loose pompadour. As ever, she has a parasol. The sun shines warmly. The hill Yuuka walks down is covered in grass and bright red poppy flowers, stretching on forever. The plants almost completely cover a few remaining pieces of military hardware: a broken machine-gun, a lost helmet, a twist of barbed wire. Yuuka smiles.

Yuuka, narrating: "Tens of thousands of men willingly buried themselves for nothing better than the GLORY of FLOWERS!"

PAGE 9, PANEL 2, INSET

We return to Reimu's veranda. Yuuka clutches a handkerchief, almost overcome with romantic tears.

Yuuka: "It was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen!"

Reimu stares at her and says nothing.

PAGE 10, PANEL 1

Yuuka says, "Excuse me!", wipes her tears, and takes out her compact to redo her makeup.

Reimu thinks, "Yuuka is one of my oldest friends, but she really is a monster, isn't she? I don't even know how to BEGIN to explain the truth to her... or if I even should."

PAGE 10, PANEL 2

Title: "FLOWERS appearing in this story."

Many cut flowers are arranged on a wooden surface, with identifying captions. In no particular order, they are: primrose, fleur-de-lis (yellow iris), common sunflower, anemone, dandelion, Mexican sunflower, tulip, rose, cempoalxóchitl (Aztec marigold), dahlia, banana yucca, Mexican hat flower, pineapple sage, bee orchid, celandine, Flanders poppy, lily-of-the-valley, bluebell, daffodil, kiku (chrysanthemum), aoi (birthwort), hollyhock, ume (Japanese plum), and sakura (Japanese cherry).

PAGE 10, PANEL 3

In a simplified art style:

Reimu pats Alice on the shoulder and says, "Alice, we sure attract some weird ones, don't we?"

Alice wears her usual workdress and hairband, but also has sturdy explosive ordnance disposal goggles and gloves. She is inserting a stick of dynamite into the back of a Hatsune Miku doll. Other dolls and marionettes (and one teddy bear) fill the room, all with visible dynamite fuzes sticking out of their heads, and all with glowing eyes.

Alice says, "Don't disturb me when I'm setting the explosive charges! If they went off, they could hurt the dolls."

Reimu: "...This is why she likes you, you know."

Alice: "?"

END

#fan comic #touhou #yuuka kazami #reimu hakurei

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shadowjackery · 10 months

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Now that I’m neither half asleep nor out, a HUGE thank you to everyone who participated in the Welcome to Gensokyo Zine, and another huge thank you to everyone who has or plans to check it out. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being in awe of what a treasure trove of wonderful fanworks it ended up being.

Also, a truly massive thank you to Yoshi. She was incredible throughout the production cycle and worked insanely hard (the amazing graphics she made for the zine are just the tip of the iceberg). I couldn’t have asked for a better co-mod and there’s 0% chance this zine would ever have been made without her. Special thanks to floops as well for coming in clutch when we discovered just how massive the project was actually going to be and for having really good ace attorney opinions

Have a lovely summer, everyone!

#It was a lot of fun and thanks for having us!

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shadowjackery · 10 months

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🎉 IT'S FINALLY HERE!! 🎉

Over 100 contributors, over 200 pages, and all free to download! We proudly present "Welcome to Gensokyo", a Touhou Project fanzine!

⬇️ https://gensokyozine.itch.io/gensokyozine

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shadowjackery · 10 months

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@gensokyozine

Three days until the release of Welcome to Gensokyo, a free digital zine with a zillion collaborators, including from me a 10 page color comic titled The Gladdest Thing Under the Sun, in which Yuuka talks about some of her favorite flowers.

It was a lot of fun and a good learning experience to hang out with a bunch of Touhou artists and writers and push to get this done. I know I’m looking forward to sitting and looking closely at what everyone else did on the project, and I hope you’ll enjoy, too.

#touhou #gensokyozine #zine preview #fan comic

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shadowjackery · 1 year

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Regarding Yuuka’s Glorious Hair

For a moment, I had genuinely forgotten I had followers. So many likes, for Reimu and Yuuka there! Thank you very much.

Regarding my Yuuka’s hair, about which I saw a few comments:

The last time she was in the modern world was the 1930s, before sleeping through all of World War 2 and getting woken up for Lotus Land Story, so she still thinks waves are mode. She harnesses Master Spark power to do her own marcelling with her fingertips directly, instead of with tongs.

One of the last talkies she saw was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, “made by those clever people who draw that Mouse”, and thought it was adorable. If anyone tells her that they later would adapt the fairy tale of Briar Rose, a personal favorite of hers, she would be delighted. Disappointed, though not surprised, that the Fairy Queen gets killed in Disney’s version, but still would watch it several times.

She also approved highly of Marlene Dietrich.

I like to follow ZUN’s example by drawing on historical inspiration for Touhou characters and then throwing half of it out the window again to see what happens.

#headcanon #touhou #yuuka kazami #1930s fashion #thank you dear readers

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shadowjackery · 1 year

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zine samples for Welcome to Gensokyo

I’m doing a piece for Welcome to Genzokyo, a Touhou Project zine scheduled for release in June, titled “The Gladdest Things Under the Sun”. I’m slightly more than halfway through right now, which hopefully puts me right on schedule.

Here’s a page from the start of the story, plus my character design sheets. Actually, Yuuka gets a lot more costumes in this story, but I only bothered to work out her classic outfit.

#sketches #color #comic #touhou project #reimu hakurei #yuuka kazami #gensokyozine

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shadowjackery · 1 year

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Oh, yes, the hell of trying to figure out what weird cartoon cosplay outfits would actually be made of. I feel your pain.

I vote for the 2-color apron. Something like this, maybe:

White chemise/smock as underlayer. I drew it here with a detachable collar, which was common enough, but it could be a sewn-in collar instead. Blue one-piece dress as overlayer. Lady's dresses buttoned in back, working dresses in front. I did it working-style here so there'd be cute buttons in front when she's not wearing the pinafore.

The pinafore is also two layers: As the base, a simple blue apron, matching the dress; then it has lots of pointless white frilly bits sewn on top. That mysterious middle rectangle could be ornamental pockets, probably too small to actually hold anything, or maybe even sewn shut.

I agree this makes no sense. A child’s play outfit would probably be more practical, and a rich lady probably would not want to look like a maid, and a working maid probably wouldn’t have such a fancy outfit, unless her mistress really wanted to splurge on uniforms for special events. Very much a cosplay outfit... in which case it might as well be just one piece all sewn together, like an off-the-rack Halloween costume.

KANA'S OUTFIT IS ELDRITCH HORROR LEVELS OF MADDENING. That blue thing

What is that. If it's a harness IT'S A VERY WEIRD ONE. I couldn't find a single one with the horizontal belts this far apart. And where are the buckles lady??? If it's an apron then like... it's kind of ugly! What are those blue edges girl! And where the hell does her shirt end? I can't tell, mister Ohta. Why did you draw it like that?

Those are the only two ways I can possibly imagine this LOVECRAFTIAN apron looking like it does. I still like it though

#character design #kana anaberal #touhou

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shadowjackery · 1 year

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Immediately I say: Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (1982). I saw it years before I ever saw an episode of the Original Series, and it still makes perfect sense on its own. And if you have seen the original series, it makes a perfect ending.

Famous Young Captain Kirk is now Respectable Old Admiral Kirk, and his comrades are all worried because he is trying to do the responsible thing and pass the torch to the next generation and it is slowly killing him, because Kirk is the kind of workaholic who really needs to be out there in the field Doing Things.

Add to this that he knows he has an adult son now, whom he's never met, and who probably hates him. (Kirk's ex, fortunately, does not hate him. They were both very career-focused and realized marriage wouldn't work out, so they agreed to separate. But it still hurts.)

Then during a training cruise with a bunch of raw cadets, the ship gets a distress call and has to respond without backup. Turns out an old enemy of Kirk -- a man who was spent decades building up a grudge into an obsession -- has escaped and come out for revenge, and has stolen something that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Suddenly, it's a desperate fight of one lone ship against another, and Kirk is back in the saddle for one more round... which could be the last.

Marvellous updating of the colorful 60s show to 80s tech-noir, channelling both high seas sailing adventures (this is long before Master and Commander, but that sort of thing) and Cold War movies like Hunt for Red October. Smart, literate, personal, briskly-paced, tightly-woven. Highly recommend.

Incredibly biased opinions on the other movies follow:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The first one is not very good: slow and meandering and the script is littered with scraps cribbed from a planned 1970s TV series that never happened. A big space whatsit is charging toward the Earth; the crew of the Enterprise eventually figure out it's sapient and make peaceful contact. Twilight Zone-y punchline ending which segues into a Close Encounters of the Third Kind-y cosmic ending. Very 1970s.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. As mentioned. With the original movies, the even-numbered ones are the good ones, and the odd-numbered ones are meh. Not bad, really, but meh.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Embarrassing sequel. All the character development from Star Trek II is chucked out to restore the status quo to set us up for Star Trek IV. Does have a fun turn from Christopher Lloyd (Doc in Back to the Future) as the villain.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Another really really good one. Watch this after Wrath of Khan. A big space whatsit is charging toward the Earth, and when Starfleet runs the intruder's radio calls through the databanks, the computer says it's whalesong.

"What the heck are whales?"

"A marine animal from Earth that went extinct in the early 21st century and were maybe sapient."

"Oh. Crap."

Since our heroes are already Wanted for Crimes because of Star Trek III, they decide, "Fuck it!" and time travel back to the 1980s to steal some whales from the past. This plan makes no sense and no one cares, including the whales. Hilarious, heartfelt, and just plain fun.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Meh. Tries too hard to be funny. A cult leader brainwashes our heroes and steals the ship to find God, who he says is inside the Giant Force Field at the Center of the Galaxy. The ending is a classic Trek bit, I won't spoil it for you if you do watch it.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Fairly good Cold War thriller. The Soviet Union, I mean, the Klingon Empire sues for peace with the USA, I mean, the Federation. Kirk is involved with the diplomatic mission, but then there's an assassination and he gets framed for it. Can they rescue Kirk from a Klingon gulag and track down the real assassins before the negotiations break down and World War Three, I mean, Space War Three breaks out? Well, of course! But first we have lasers and aliens.

Then there are the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies.

They all kind of suck.

I know, I’m sorry, someone out there probably loves these, but for me the whole vibe of the TV series was that it was comforting lo-fi Star Trek, very mellow and beige, and all of the movies are GRIM BATTLE PLUS SOME JOKES, and it just feels wrong to me. Grump grump grumble grump whinge.

In Generations, there's a crazy guy who wants to use a big space whatsit to kill a bunch of people so he can go to space heaven. Kirk and Picard (the TNG captain) get to fight side by side for a scene because of timey-wimey shenanigans.

First Contact involves the Borg, a scary assimilating hegemonic hivemind swarm who our heroes have thwarted over and again in the TV show. The Borg time travel back to Earth just after World War III when a Trek lore-important thing happened in hopes of screwing it all up and getting rid of those meddling humans once and for all. Everybody fights a bunch of robot zombies and helps an alcoholic ex-NASA rocket engineer stay sober long enough to finish his big invention so we can go Back to the Future. This one is I think the best of this batch.

Insurrection: There's this planet which is a fountain of youth and people are fighting over it. Meh.

Nemesis: I had given up on the TNG films by this point and never saw this one.

Then there are the Reboot (or “Kelvin”) movies, of which I've only seen the first one.

Star Trek (2009) is an "amusing action romp" as movie reviewers say. I thought it was silly and dumb but enthusiastic and pretty, and don’t regret owning it, but also never bothered to watch the sequels. This is the crazy lens flare one, which I actually didn't mind too much, because I’m tired of movies being all Grim Shadows and Grimmer Grime.

TL;DR: You wanna watch #2 Wrath of Khan, then #4 Voyage Home. Those are the best of them all, and they're perfectly good even you've never seen the series.

Honorable mention: Galaxy Quest, a parody which is one of those good parodies where the people who made it understood and liked the original. In the movie, the stars of Galaxy Quest, a (fictional) cult-classic 1980s sci-fi show, have been reduced to doing the fandom convention circuit because the show tanked their careers... and then they get abducted by friendly space aliens, who have picked up the broadcasts of the entire show and thought it was a documentary. The aliens need help from the brave heroes they have come to worship, and so have constructed a perfect replica of the ship from the show, including the stupid parts. Naturally, the actors eventually save the day, for real this time. By Grapthar’s Hammer, I quote this movie a normal amount.

Hope this is helpful, and hope you enjoy whatever you decide to watch.

I know some u are star trek nerds so answer me this-if me a casual wants to watch some of the movies where would be a good jumping point keep in mind I have never seen ANY star trek and all I know is absorbed thru pop culture osmosis like tea earl grey hot and kirk first manpreg in fandom history

#media review #star trek

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