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Touhou Nekokayou #63: Catness

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Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red #63

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Characters: Remilia Scarlet, Patchouli Knowledge, Alice Margatroid, Shanghai, Sunny Milk, Marisa Kirisame

Not continuing from the previous comic.

I figure Patchouli and Remilia would have been friends for hundreds of years, even before Patchy summoned Koakuma, and long before they met Sakuya. I was considering putting the whole SDM crew there, but it just got too crowded.

In Immaterial and Missing Power, Patchy states that she rates peoples' ability to stop intruders as "catness," since intruders like Marisa are referred to as "rats", on a scale of 1 to 96 (the closest multiple of both three and four to 100, though she never specifies why this is so important).

Hm. This is the first time someone's called Marisa "the black-white" since Retelling of Scarlet Devil, even though it's semi-common in the games.

This is also the first time Shanghai has raised a frying pan to Marisa in a comic, rather than in prose.

Custom content: I took the bookshelf from the standard library-background for its appearance in panel 4; I put the eyes from eye #13 into the position for eye #12 for panel 6; the background thereof is the Sketchy BG with the colors inverted in MSPaint; and this squiggly-line thing.

Transcript

  1. (Remilia and Patchouli drink tea in the SDM.)
    Remilia: Wow, having tea with you is really nostalgic. It's just like old times, when it was just you and me ...
    Patchouli: With Flandre in the basement.
  2. Remilia: Hah. Yes. Though isn't it a bit ... unusual for you to leave the library unattended? You're usually on full Marisa-defense when Meiling's off the clock.
    SFX: she wanted to have the same off-duty time as Sakuya
    Patchouli: Ah, yes, that's actually part of an experiment ...
  3. (Sketchy pink background; image of Marisa getting hit by various magical attacks from a bookcase, and a closeup of the upper half of Patchouli's head.)
    Patchouli: My new "Ratcatcher" ward system will detect any rats which try to enter my library.
    Remilia: (off-panel) Can't you sense when someone tries to steal your books already?
    Patchouli: Yes, but only after the fact. The Ratcatcher will stop them in advance, and functions as a fully-automated defense mechanism.
  4. (Back to the tea party.)
    Remilia: (somewhat unimpressed) Uh-huh. And how likely is it to cause more trouble for the defenders than the attackers?
    Patchouli: Oh, don't worry -- it's designed to ignore "cats" and other legitimate visitors. I estimate that its catness rating will be 81.
  5. Remilia: (thoughtful) Hm. Well, I guess you've put a lot of work and thought into this, then. I suppose the only thing to do now is wait for an attack ...
    Patchouli: Yes, I suppose there's only so much you can do in a testing environment ...
  6. (Dynamic closeup of Patchouli as she Senses Something!)
    Text: BOOK THIEF!
  7. (Patchouli hurriedly puts down the teacup and turns to fly away.)
    Patchouli: I'm sorry, I must go to the library!
    Remilia: Ah ... I suppose it can't be helped, then.
  8. (They fly along through the hallway.)
    Patchouli: And why didn't it set off the Ratcatcher?
    Remilia: Uh, dunno. Maybe it took you literally?
    SFX: since the black-white is a human, not a rat
    Patchouli: MAGIC DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!
  9. (They encounter Alice, who (along with Shanghai) is walking down the hall the other way, escorted by Sunny Milk.)
    Sunny Milk: She should be ... ah!
    Alice: (annoyed) Starting to get tiresome, isn't it?
    Patchouli: Yes, follow us.
  10. (At the library, Marisa is grabbing books off the shelf; she has cat-ears and a tail, and feline eyes and a cat-like smirk. Alice and Patchouli are just entering; Shanghai is holding a frying pan.)
    Patchouli: ... oh.
    Remilia: (off-panel) You mean I was *right*?
    Marisa: Nyan, ze.
    Alice: Sigh ...

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.

26 Comments (auto-closed) (rss feed)

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Tunod

"Nyan, ze." I lol'd, so very hard.

Gpop

I was seriously expecting Chen or Orin =/.

KirbyM

Did you do that last panel just after the most recent create.swf update, or did you just edit out Koakuma in the book-throwing flash? I guess I should've added one of those red books as an object too.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

/ Modified by Dizzy H. Slightly Voided:

I added it just after the update, heh.

@Gpop: Why Chen or Orin? They don't steal books!

Anonymous

Huh. Do people use "black-white" in the games? I always thought it was a purely fannish parallelism to red-white, which definitely does get used for Reimu sometimes in them. And I can't believe I'm giving serious thought to this now.

Tewi Inonymous

:3 patchy your code sucks.
Should have just programmed it to attack marisa.

Pingy

Actually, some one stealing books OTHER than Marisa would be pretty funny. especially if the whole comic is leading you to expect Marisa to be the thief.
Orin is too much of a hard and trusty worker for me to expect to steal books, I could picture some one like Cirno talking Chen into stealing something tho..

SoF

Yes, there was definitely a missed opportunity to have Nazrin stuck in a giant magical mousetrap.

Bonus points if Marisa is looting in the background while Nazrin is whining about how the black-white tricked her.

myoro~n

Sunny is still working at the SDM? I thought they started that anti-slacker policy back in #47?

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Oh, on and off. They just aren't getting very many of the benefits of working there. You'll notice that Sakuya didn't say they were going to kick more fairies out.

... actually, you're prolly right, I probably should've used Lily instead.

SomethingUnreal

Nice work with panel #6. That yellow line, which reminds me of a heart monitor, looks good.
Marisa's text made me laugh too.

Draykon

This is definitely one of your better comics, 'cause it's actually funny. Props on "MAGIC DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY," a line I find myself frequently screaming.

Also, I only recall Patchy referring to Marisa as "The Black Thing." "Black-White" I don't think I've heard before.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

I'd suggest using better terminology than "better because it's actually funny" on the basis that it tells me nothing about why other ones aren't funny or how to make them better, but thanks.

And I dunno, I could swear I've heard "black-white" (or the other way around) used in canon before. I know there's a doujin called "The Puppetteer and the White-Black Witch, but, eh."

Also, now I'm working on a story which ... clarifies why it's Sunny there (warning, TVTropes, etc). As it is with canon, I prefer to work with what I'm given, not with what I'd rather have, i.e. I might change the dialogue and the fact that it's Reimu or Marisa working alone, but I wouldn't write out an entire character. Even if, um, I'm the one who ... gave it ... to me ... in the first place.

Draykon

Well, what I mean is that alot of times it feels as though you're not actually getting across any sort of joke, but rather just trying to explain a concept that might seem "interesting." An example might be the "internets" comic, whose sole purpose seemed to be to establish the nature of internet in your fanon, with the punch line at the end feeling like something tacked on at the last minute. (Regardless of whether or not it actually was) This in and of itself isn't that big a deal, but coupled with how direct that comic is, it makes it one of the not-better-ones.

Pardon if I'm being vague, I'm fairly bad at explaining things. And don't get my wrong, for the most part I like this comic, there are just a few improvements I'd like to see. :P

Anonymous

Muffin,
I'd say that you're doubling up on the punchline in that last pannel. I admit that it's appropriate for your characterisation of Remilia, but it's considered a bad practice for delivering a comic gag. Her dialogue seems roughly equivalent to "did you get it?" thrown in after a joke.

If you've not already seen them, I'd suggest you take a look at the Comic Strip Doctor articles to see where commercially employed comic artists are being criticised. The articles have some insight into the nature of a good joke.

Morgan

I kind of imagine the "Book Thief!" panel as being like those pop-in closeups of the character's faces in Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3. Which may not be what you had in mind, but it looks pretty cool in my head. `.`

"Why Chen or Orin? They don't steal books!" Maybe from the idea of it not working properly and catching cats instead? (Although I don't know why they would be there in the first place.) I know what my imagination went to was it catching bats instead of rats. Except I can't think of anyone very batlike but Remilia, and obviously she wasn't in the library. (Also I can't think of any reason why anyone who doesn't play Kingdom of Loathing would associate rats and bats. `.` )

"I admit that it's appropriate for your characterisation of Remilia,"

... Isn't that a good enough reason for Remilia to say it?

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

I just wanted to depict Marisa as a catgirl. :x (Yes, I am a fan of Happy Flame Time's oeuvre, why do you ask?)

Cassie

Errr, this is .... normal? I just think Marisa did a good bypass, that's all. Also, possible other suspects than Marisa : Yukari, Tei and Nazrin

Anonymous

"I admit that it's appropriate for your characterisation of Remilia,"

... Isn't that a good enough reason for Remilia to say it?

Characterisation isn't the only factor to pay attention to when making comics. Not when the comic is a comedy. Comedy means that the joke is your king, your god, your raison d'etre. Remilia not saying anything in the final pannel does not detract from her characterisation - she's not present in the scene without her line. Her line does, however, detract from the gag by doubling up on the punchline.

Muffin,
I'm not saying that you've made any fundamental mistakes in your choice of subject matter. It's just a little niggle about the joke delivery in the final pannel. I enjoy the comic enough that I want to see you improve.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Kay.

Morgan

I've never been under the impression that this comic was exclusively about comedy though. Even in pure comedy, I'd say that if the joke is king, then characterization is the *emperor* - because if you have continuing characters at all, and they stop acting in character, the jokes stop being funny. And having characters not speak up when they would can damage their characterization in the long run.

Also, I kind of think Remilia's comment makes the whole thing *funnier*. So, yeah, I pretty much disagree with you in every possible way. `.`

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

You have to admit I've generated plenty of controversy and discussion with this comic. So you know it must be good, at least on some level ... ;)

SoF

RAN SHOT FIRST

Morgan

Today I thought of an alternate comment:

"I guess magic *does* work that way."

(Personally, there's a line I like from one of the GURPS Magic sourcebooks: "Magic is not amenable to reality checks.")

Twilight

this is my third time reading this comic and I only now notice the comment about Sakuya and China being off together~ nice job.

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