Main Page » Old Touhou stuff » Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red »

Touhou Nekokayou #103: Touhou Saisoutensoku #10: Penultimate Showdown

Created:

Always use secure-HTTP / Unsecure HTTP / Permanent Link

First Previous Random Next Latest

Format: png jpg (quality 25 50 70 90) gif

Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red #103

Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red #103a

First Previous Random Next Latest

Characters: Rin Satsuki, Yukari Yakumo, Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Meimu

東方再想天則 〜 Rethinking the Natural Law (Touhou 12.3i) begins here. Yep, next week's going to be the last one. Man, almost makes me wish I'd thought to do some kind of "steganography" puzzle like with the Catness storyline ... nah.

I have discovered that "Strange Bird of the Moon, Illusion of Mysterious Cat" was actually intended as being for Maribel Han. Oh well! It works out in the end, anyway. That said, we have learned still more nothing about Rin Satsuki! Except that she has an erhu. It has no real significance, I guess, except that Rin Satsuki has an erhu as part of her character design.

I wanted to use the "catch some sun" line (which is almost worthy of David Caruso), but I don't think Utsuho is intelligent enough to come up with her on her own, so I came up with a way to make it (a) plausible and (b) make the line even sillier. I'm also pleased with how Sakuya's slasher smile turned out; KirbyM added it to create.swf at my request, but it's kinda too small to really be as effective as this one. I had to photoshop the "shadowed eyes" onto the "Dio Sakuya" object, anyway.

It's fun to write an It's All About Me (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. Muffin will not be held responsible for hours of time lost as a result of following it.But see also this disclaimer) character, because they tend to say the darnedest things, particularly since Meimu is ten. (I considered having her respond to Rin's "self-centered little girl" speech with something like "You don't think I deserve it!?" but I decided that this would be trying too hard.)

I guess Sakuya would have to be playable in the unexpanded version of my Bizarro-Touhou Hisoutensoku, wouldn't she? Ah well. Regardless, I gave Meimu a theme, finally: "Edge of Spacetime ~ Navy-Blue Generation." It sounds a bit more like a danmaku-game tune than a fighting-game theme, I think. It's still more or less to my satisfaction.

Transcript

  1. (Yukari and Rin Satsuki stand under the Hakurei Shrine's torii arch, staring at each other.)
    SFX: AWKWARD SILENCE!
    Rin: .....
  2. (They don't meet each other's gaze.)
    Rin: (sweatdrop) So, um ...
    Yukari: (sweatdrop) Yeah, uh ... hi ... Satsuki.
    Rin: Hello, Kyoukai.*
    Footnote: *lit. "Boundary"
  3. (They get more serious.)
    Rin: You here to finish what you started?
    Yukari: I could ask you the same thing.
  4. (Reimu and Marisa are sitting at the steps of the Shrine. Mugs of green tea are sitting next to them (including the one Rin left).)
    Marisa: Uh-oh.
    Reimu: Yeah ... let's get ready to butt in if we need to ...
  5. (Rin and Yukari facing off.)
    Rin: Hmm.
    Yukari: Hmm ...
  6. Rin: Actually, y'know what? Forget it.
    Yukari: Oh?
  7. (They both smile.)
    Rin: Yeah ... we've both changed in the past 3100 years since "it" happened. I think it's best to let bygones be bygones.
    Yukari: If you can say that, it's obvious that *you've* changed.
  8. Rin: Not the arrogant human sorceress you remember, am I? But yes, let's just forgive and forget. Except maybe keeping an Agent Smith quote as an in-joke.
    Yukari: Agent Smith ...!? Oh, right, you've been in the Outside World for the past several years, haven't you?
  9. (Reimu and Marisa at the Shrine's steps again.)
    Reimu: ... who?
    Marisa: Oh yeah, you haven't seen any of the Matrix movies, have you?
    Reimu: ... no. Is there any chance you can explain it without having to explain everything about the Outside World?
  10. Marisa: Well, I'm guessin' the quote she's talkin' about is ... (a large blob of pixellated-out text)
    Reimu: ... ah, yeah, that makes sense.
  11. (Yukari and Rin again.)
    Rin: Well, this ended up a lot more gracefully than it began ...
    Yukari: Hah. I can't really argue with that.
  12. (Yukari gaps an erhu and bow into her hands.)
    Yukari: By the way, I believe this is yours. Reimu gave it to me after she told me about you -- she'd been keeping it as a memento.
    Rin: (delighted) Oh! Well, thank you! I got a replacement in the Outside, but it just wasn't the same.
  13. (Yukari gives Rin the erhu and bow.)
    Yukari: So, what now? I listened in a bit from a gap. What do we do about this "Meimu" character?
    Rin: Don't worry, I have a plan.
  14. (Side view of the shrine's porch; Reimu is getting up.)
    Rin: Reimu, you might not like this ...
    Reimu: (darkly) Oh well don't try to work up my enthusiasm too much or anything!
  15. (A long panel in Gap Land, except Meimu's just alone this time.)
    Meimu: Well, those three are beaten now ... or, uh, not *beaten.* But, um, it's time for Rin to show up soon ...
  16. (A gap open and Utsuho jumps out upside-down.)
    Meimu: Ah, and now -- huh!?
    Utsuho: (her text is also upside-down) UNYU!
    Meimu: (sweatdrop) Wait, what the heck!?
  17. (Utsuho stands in her signature pose with one hand raised to a black-sun thing.)
    Meimu: How did *you* get here!?
    Utsuho: That kirin-lady told me to say ... "Would you like to catch some sun!?"
    Meimu: Erk!
  18. (Meimu is looking rather roasted as Utsuho departs through a gap, and Sakuya arrives through another one in a Dio pose and a psychotic grin, armed with knives.)
    Sakuya: Hello. You have committed a fatal exception error.
    Meimu: W-what!? Isn't that a computer thing?
    Sakuya: Well, I meant that my lady and I take exception to trying to kidnap Meiling like that. It was therefore a fatal error.
  19. (Sakuya departs through a gap. Meimu, who is now also knifed a bit, summons Rin Satsuki through an Aperture.)
    Meimu: RIIIIIIN!
    Rin: Ah!
    SFX: ZUN
  20. (Rin lands, the Aperture closing above her.)
    SFX: BEOom
    Rin: Oh, hi there. Are you enjoying yourself?
    Meimu: "Enjoying myself"!? You weren't supposed to send *them* at me!!
  21. Meimu: And I was supposed to just aperture them here myself, anyway!
    Rin: Uh-huh. Meimu, it's time for me to confess that you did not, in fact, truly convince me to fight against my best friend.
  22. Meimu: Oh, I see how it is! You'd rather stick with your *friends* than with --
    Rin: -- a self-centered little girl whom I've known for all of two hours, who wants to wreck the past entirely for her own whims?
  23. Meimu: You don't care about me at all, do you!?
    Rin: Not really. Maybe my future self does, but that would give her all the more reason to want to stop you.
  24. (Meimu suddenly powers up in a purplish glow, sending the knives flying and making her roastedness disappear.)
    Meimu: FINE THEN!
    Rin: Hmm.
  25. (Meimu rises into the air. Reimu is directly behind her.)
    Meimu: I'm gonna fight for really reals this time! Reimu can wait 'til I'm done with you!!
    Rin: Funny you should put it that way ...

All Touhou characters are © Team Shanghai Alice and/or ZUN; create.swf is ⑨ KirbyM with help from Thefre. "Sakura petals" brush in main/4koma logo was made by Kisara Girl. "Falling leaves" brush in 60-Years logo came with Photoshop.

20 Comments (auto-closed) (rss feed)

CapedLuigisYoshi

Well, I must admit that redoing the arc has worked out in your favor. Much more character development, and that's always good.

Also, erhu. :3 I like that bit for some reason. Makes the character feel more complete. (And of course, it'll give you extra points with Theorin.)

CapedLuigisYoshi

Just listened to the music. Hearing it made me picture Meimu as a danmaku boss, and it really seemed to fit. If I ever get around to making that storyline I've been planning, I'll have to link to the music (giving you full credit, of course).

I wish I could compose...

sRc

¡nʎun

and oh god, Sakuya's smile made me laugh

Ariamaki

Man oh man, fantastic stuff. I especially liked the upside-down verbal wreckage.
Love your comics on the whole, although I just started reading recently.

Kitsune Inari

I wonder, is the Smith quote the one about mammals and virii? [tvtropes.org]

SoF

Oh Muffin. I always appreciate your ability to work unnecessary violins into a story. :3

CapedLuigisYoshi

@SoF: Was that pun intentional?

Young Demon Lord

What's Marisa talking about in panel (9)? "Any of the Matrix movies"? We all know there is only one, it was good, and it's too bad they never made any sequels.

Panel (9), CAPTCHA (9)...today is going to be interesting, considering I just got up.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Next time I'm going to head stupid jokes like that off at the pass by saying in the comments that Marisa doesn't necessarily have good taste in movies. :P

Young Demon Lord

:(

The xkcd reference wasn't good enough to justify the post?

Anonymous Hacker

I'm having some difficulty loading the images. They seem to randomly load half way or simple fail. Are you still generating the images on the fly from frames?

Joe4evr

@Anonymous Hacker: No, most of the comics are just split up in 2 parts. If you look closely, you can see the split between Rin and Yukari's conversation right before Rin says she's got a plan.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Yeah. I think the problem is the fact that the resulting images are the better part of 2 MB in size. If it's able to load it even partway, the generation itself isn't the problem, since by that time all the codework is done. I think I need to experiment a bit with being able to load it as JPG images ...

sRc

@Young Demon Lord:

IMO, thats as boring and tired as the "there is no tsukihime anime" meme. say you dont like them, but denying their existence is just insulting to all the people that did the work on them.

and I also happened to like both the tsukuhime anime and the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies, but thats beside the point.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

That's basically my philosophy, sRc. ... 'cept that I didn't like The Matrix Revolutions and haven't exposed myself to anything Tsukihime. But more power to you for being able to approach something with the resolute intentions of enjoying it, and succeeding.

(True story: my sister and I didn't really like the Hitchhiker's Guide movie when we watched it with our dad, and we made this clear to our mom. Her expectations were therefore low enough that when she finally watched it, she enjoyed it just fine.)

SoF

@CapedLuigisYoshi: My apologies. It was not my instrument to string you along like that. Any resonance to a pun is E-minorly inappropriate. Will you let it slide this 4/4 time? :3

CapedLuigisYoshi

You're lucky the last subject we covered in physics was waves, or I wouldn't have gotten the resonance pun. :3

That Guy

I have to say, I'm liking the new version more than the old version of the storyline. Although I'm also kinda glad that there's just one more comic. Not because I dislike the storyline, more because it's starting to suffer from Arc Fatigue
(Warning, link leads to TVTropes. That Guy will not be held responsible for hours of time lost as a result of following it - *shot for ripoff*) due to having to go over some of the same stuff again. (I apologize if I screwed up the hyperlink)

Duran

Meimu is getting near Tenshi levels in terms of being a glutton for punishment. Let's see she was smacked around by various folks ; Meiling, Cirno ("CIRNO SMASH PUNY TIME YOUKAI WITH GLACIER-MALLET!"), Sanae, and now Okuu and Sakuya. Next is Rin and Reimu.