I guess either this guy is a normie or I'm deathly autistic because I love all of these girls

also the last one is pretty relateable lol

weak

if i recall, Zun did going to add byakuren brother (myouren hijiri) in the games, but he just doesnt want to cause imbalance because ig touhou was always meant to be all female cast kind of thing

Narumi shows up as a guest, but Kisume & Eternity show up as unlockable partners edit; Also worth mentioning is the fact that the developers of Mystia’s Izakaya have mentioned that they’re currently working on an entire game focused on the Aki sisters

The forth one was still alive and her memories created the prismriver sister in touhou so not exactly the one who died became the prismriver but her memories.

@@1INBAL Layla is still alive? Where'd you get this information?

@@blockeontheleafeon I wrote was alive in past tense

@@1INBAL Gotcha.

Now, all the Hidden Star in Four Seasons characters. I think you already described what makes the backup dancers interesting, so im gonna skip over them, even though i could probably say something about their personalities and how theyre distinct from eachother, but this comment is already getting super long lmao Narumi though, i have a lot to say about her, cause i think she's extremely underappreciated and she's so fun every time she appears. Like you said, she's a jizo statue from the forest of magic that came to life and became a magician due to the magical power in the forest, and her magic focuses on controlling life. Marisa was even friends with her before the events of the game! Also, about how you'd like her to be portrayed with Eika more with fanworks, theres actually even more canon basis for this now! In Hundredth Black Market, Narumi appears on the Sai no Kawara stage (the riverbed of the sanzu river, where the stillborn spirits like Eika are forced to stay) and in Marisa's comment on her, she says that Narumi works there sometimes and is tasked with making sure the stone towers the children make dont fall over. She seems like a very nice and polite person at first, who's also a bit introverted and withdrawn as well, as she just prefers to stay at home most of the time instead of going out to investigate incidents. But sometimes she has these silly moments where she does something unexpected, like when she shows up at Kourindou in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, and asks if Sumireko's for sale "I know you only ever sell useless junk from the Outside World here, but now you've got an Outside World HUMAN in stock? So, how much are you asking?" She's also in Grimoire of Usami, where she almost sets fire to the entire audience as she shows off her spellcards. One of her spellcards, by the way, is "Magic Sign "Gigantic Pet Bullet Lifeform"" where a giant fireball flies around and flings more, smaller fireballs at you. her comment for it is: "Everyone's working so hard to shoot their own bullets, huh? Haven't they ever heard of "work smarter, not harder"? The bullets I shoot are all living beings. Prepare to be surprised by my cute little pet giant fireball! I'm sure you'll all fall in love with her cuteness!" She says as Reimu and Marisa start to get more and more concerned about the safety of the audience members (Nobody was hurt in the end, though) I really like Narumi, she's so much fun whenever she shows up and theres a lot you could do with her in fanworks, either having her interact with the other magicians of the forest of magic or Eika and the stillborn spirits of Sai no Kawara. I think its mostly a shame that she isn't very often included as part of the magician group (Marisa, Patchouli and Alice) in fanworks, she's a magician as well! Nemuno! Funny cleaver wielding mountain grandma! I think Nemuno is interesting for how there's a lot more to her than at first glance. She's a yamanba, a reclusive species of youkai that barely has any contact with other youkai, or even other of their own kind. She's even got a deal with the tengu that says that tengu aren't allowed to enter her territory. The people of the human village assume that whenever someone goes missing in the mountains, that it's the work of Yamanba murdering them somehow. Many of Nemuno's spells also reference this in their names, and i mean pretty much most of her attacks involve her throwing hundreds of knives at you. She seems like a pretty scary youkai, but if you look a bit closer, she actually has a very kind side to her as well. The human villagers may believe the Yamanba kill anyone who enters their territory, no questions asked, but her profile states that they actually just send people back with a warning, and if they encounter lost children, they'll raise them to be upstanding members of society. This is reflected in her design in a kind of cool way, i think. She wears what appears to be tattered rags, but what looks to be tatters in the cloth are actually carefully cut designs, kinda like how at first she appears to be a terrifying murderous youkai, but that theres actually a kind and human-like part to her. This is where i'd end my rambling about Nemuno, but thanks to the newest game, Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, theres actually a bit more to say about her! This is because one of the new characters, Son Biten. Biten's design is very similar to Nemuno's with the same kind of cloths with cut patterns in them. This is because Biten awakened as a sarugami in The Sanctuary/Sacred Grounds, which is where the yamanba live (this also seems to have been hinted at with Nemuno's ability being to create sanctuaries) Seiran, the moon rabbit, also says that the Sanctuary can be used as a passageway to the Lunar Capital (And she says that this is the reason for it being called a sacred ground) which is really interesting. Whether Biten knows Nemuno specifically, or if the clothes she wears are just the type of clothing most yamanba wear, is unclear. But it does give us just a little but more to speculate about with Nemuno and i think thats super cool! Ok. Last character. I promise this comment is almost over i just have a lot to say lmao She may seem like just a regular butterfly fairy, but theres some things hidden under the surface (bit of a recurring theme with all these characters, huh?) that i find very interesting. She's not just a butterfly fairy, but a fairy that represents every stage of butterflies, so in a way she embodies growth, rebirth and metamorphosis. In Cirno's extra stage in Hidden Star in Four Seasons, Okina speculates that Eternity may be an enemy of hers, Tokoyo no Kami. And now i dont know enough about to properly explain, but basically it was a god worshipped by a cult in Ancient Japan, and this cult was brought to an end by Hata no Kawakatsu. Hata no Kawakatsu was conflated with Matara-jin, whom Okina is based on. I think its left vague if Eternity really was Tokoyo no Kami, but i think her being this unassuming butterfly fairy who may have been worshipped as the god of a cult in the past is awesome, thankfully theres some people who've done really cool fanart based on this. That ended up being pretty long, oops. I am passionate about touhou characters! I think that theres a lot more to touhou's characters than people give them credit for, like i could find this much to say about all these characters who for the most part dont appear all that much or are very important. I think they have plenty of personality and interesting traits in canon, that the best of fanworks are able to expand upon and take inspiration from, properly using the characters that dont get much time to shine in official works. Sorry for the length of this comment again lmao