MMaestro said: I think its just a poke at the fanon.
Even though canon has pretty harmless youkai, despite the fandom fighting the 4935409548905830th time over whether or not youkai are horrible eldritch mosnters or actually don't eat people, according to Akyuu.
The concept is intersting, no doubt. But I dare say that those who have forgotten the true nature of a youkai are the vast majority of the touhou fandom, who see everyone as cute lolis that just shoot each other with multicolored "bullets".
Of course thats just the cute side of it...
Also, I dare say that the one who lost most in this doujin was Flan. She might have nullified Koishi power, yet she had to destroy her own subcounsciousness. Is that recuperable?, I dont think so. On the other hand, Koishi pretty much didnt lost anything but the ability to use her power on Flan.
RaptorJesus said: Even though canon has pretty harmless youkai, despite the fandom fighting the 4935409548905830th time over whether or not youkai are horrible eldritch mosnters or actually don't eat people, according to Akyuu.
Touhou fandom: two fans, five opinions.
Oh, no doubt there are harmless youkai. The issue is that ALL youkai get portrayed as harmless because of the fanon running wild with the danmaku rules and the games' "they're all loli girls" imagery.
I don't think the question should be whether or not Youkai as a whole are harmless or harmful beings, it should be which ones(or which races) can be treated as if you were talking to a regular person. As Akyuu said, it should be done on a case by case basis. Look at the Tengu's for instance. They pretty much have their own society which practically mirrors the humans. You got a Youkai city over here, and a human village over there. They also don't really give a crap about humans as long as they stay away from Youkai mountain. I honestly can't imagine Aya or Hatate on the same level as I would think about the vampires like Remilia and Flandre, or even a regular run of the mill Youkai like Rumia.
Tetsamaru said: I don't think the question should be whether or not Youkai as a whole are harmless or harmful beings, it should be which ones(or which races) can be treated as if you were talking to a regular person. As Akyuu said, it should be done on a case by case basis. Look at the Tengu's for instance. They pretty much have their own society which practically mirrors the humans. You got a Youkai city over here, and a human village over there. They also don't really give a crap about humans as long as they stay away from Youkai mountain. I honestly can't imagine Aya or Hatate on the same level as I would think about the vampires like Remilia and Flandre, or even a regular run of the mill Youkai like Rumia.
And then there are the youkai who started off being dangerous but have since mellowed out like Mystia (she threatens to eat the heroes when she first appears in Imperishable Night, but later we learn she has opened a grilled eel stand to try and get people to stop eating birds and she merely uses her powers to con humans into eating at her stand instead of luring them to their doom).
It's hard to say anything for certain because we have so many canon sources that show different interpretations of the characters. We even see Rumia hanging out at the Hakurei Shrine during a festival even though she's threatened to eat Reimu in the past.
Like humans, there are good youkai, neutral youkai, bad youkai, and very, VERY bad youkai!
Vampires are almost bad by default since they absolutely must feed off of humans, but we've seen that many youkai don't actually need to eat people (Mystia has threatened to do so, but clearly does not need to if the success of her stand and no mention of casualties since its opening is any indication).
That said, Flandre's bat-**** craziness is exagerrated by fanon. She's actually fairly calm and rational from what little we've seen of her in canon. At worst she just doesn't place much value on the lives of those who "play" with her (not surprising since danmaku duels can end in death even if the risk is minimized). In other words, she's forever a brat, much like Remilia, but without her sister's restraint. Hell, ZUN himself wrote in one of her character descriptions that she may not even realize that her food has human blood in it (Sakuya gives her normal food with human blood mixed in).
Koishi also has never given much indication that she is dangerous to people. At least nothing in her dialogue in her only canon appearance indicates that she is overly cruel or violent nor anything in her character description.
So I find it kind of hard to interpret this doujin as a "Take That" to fanon when it itself utilizes liberal doses of fanon characterization.
