What Touhou character do you consider to be underrepresented?

[CountVonNumenor]

What characters do you believe to be underdeveloped? Both in canon and fandom. I was initially looking to limit it to just EX stage bosses, but I think any character would fit in as well. Personally, I would say that out of all EX stage bosses, Raiko is getting the least amount of fanon. The only two things I jave seen about her fanon, besides fanart, are the sharp dress and... following: 

Quote

Being a personification of a drum, it's not uncommon for artists to depict her derriere being used as a drum by other people, and she is sometimes shown to have a masochistic attitude towards it.

I am quite glad she did at least 2-3 more canon appearances, as a background character in 15.5 and in dedicated article from Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia. As for other characters I think might be underrepresented by the fans, I would also count in Akyuu. Quite glad that at least she still has the appearances in official written works and the fanart. 

[Ken Hisuag]

I might come back to this later for a more personalized answer, but for now I'd offer that most characters are underdeveloped officially, regardless of representation. As for unofficial development, the fandom tends to focus on older characters post-PC-98 era; new characters will get a bit of development after initial exposure, and then usually fall off according to which ones receive more official development through the Tasofro titles (sometimes not even then; whatever happened to Doremy Sweet?). Statistically speaking, it would have to be one of the PC-98 characters, specifically a single-appearance midboss or early stage boss. So . . . Noroiko?

Oh, what about Genji? Despite being a major part of the first games, I don't see many explanations offered as to the character.

[OfficiallyIta]

This is a great question, but it's rather silly on my end to answer. I do believe Rumia to be very underrepresented. She is the stage one boss of Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. I am very aware she is not a strong / noteworthy character; however, she is the firsr boss of the windows era.

[Darksymphony777]

Hmmm I would say meiling due to being the  forgotten one among the SDM crew which makes sense since all she does is guard a gate from anyone not named Marisa while everyone else is important to the plot (remilia, sakuya) or hugely popular among certain parts of the fandom (patchouli, koakuma, flan) poor meiling just gets left in the dust.

 

Damn, now we need a meiling appreciation post

[adzi]

3 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

Hmmm I would say meiling due to being the  forgotten one among the SDM crew which makes sense since all she does is guard a gate from anyone not named Marisa while everyone else is important to the plot (remilia, sakuya) or hugely popular among certain parts of the fandom (patchouli, koakuma, flan) poor meiling just gets left in the dust.

 

Damn, now we need a meiling appreciation post

This is exactly what I wanted to post...

[buskerdog]

8 hours ago, Ken Hisuag said:

Oh, what about Genji? Despite being a major part of the first games, I don't see many explanations offered as to the character.

GENJIIIIII

Aw man Genji is actually underrated. According to ZUN, he's still living in a pond behind the Hakurei Shrine somewhere. Everyone's all like "Bring back Mima" and meanwhile I want Genji to have another appearance in a manga or something.

My first thought for underdeveloped characters however went to the Touhou 16 cast. Aunn deserves more spotlight 

Also, she's far from underdeveloped but I have to ask - where has Alice been in recent years????

[CountVonNumenor]

2 hours ago, buskerdog said:

Also, she's far from underdeveloped but I have to ask - where has Alice been in recent years????

Yeah. She barely got...anything? In like a whole decade or more. And to keep it in the realm of PC, another one who barely gets anything is Letty. I know, I know she's just a stage 1 boss, but come on, she pretty much only got an appearance in Bohemian Archive and perhaps a few random background appearances. And don't get me started on her lack of a fanon presence, where you only have either tons of "Letty is fat" jokes, or that she is  T H I C C (I would rather take the latter to explain why she has a larger hitbox). 

 

But to make something clear in this thread. It is not only about underrepresentation in canon (which really is a problem especially from Touhou 14 onwards), but also about lack of representation in fanon. Let me get it again:

- Raiko: sharply dressed and derriere drum

- Akyuu: have you ever heard of her even getting the smallest bit of fanon material or personality? 

- Letty: "Letty is fat" 

 

I would also talk about misrepresentation and fanon butchering/"character assassination" (an expression rather in vogue nowadays), but that would be a whole different discussion. 

[sodaodaoda]

3 hours ago, buskerdog said:

Also, she's far from underdeveloped but I have to ask - where has Alice been in recent years????

That's what I've been saying as well!!! I want her in a game

[Darksymphony777]

11 hours ago, adzi said:

This is exactly what I wanted to post...

Yes meiling fans unite

[adzi]

On 7/22/2022 at 1:44 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

- Akyuu: have you ever heard of her even getting the smallest bit of fanon material or personality?

Umm... hates fairies with passion?

 

 

16 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

Yes meiling fans unite

On three, two, one...

JAOOOOO!

[Darksymphony777]

4 hours ago, adzi said:

JAOOOOO

JAOOOOO!

[CountVonNumenor]

4 hours ago, adzi said:

Umm... hates fairies with passion?

I am not sure of that one is canon or fanon. Though I have a feeling it is the former. I was referring to the fact Akyuu was not touched too much by fanon, so she pretty much does not exist in there. At least she has books written from her PoV and the appearance in Forbidden Scrollery. 

[White L]

Yuuka and Shou, easy picks.

[CountVonNumenor]

8 minutes ago, White L said:

Yuuka and Shou, easy picks.

Yuuka may not have shown in canon since... I forgot since when, but she does have a big presence in fanon materials. As for Shou, she surely doesn't appear in either. 

[Darksymphony777]

2 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

Yuuka may not have shown in canon since... I forgot since when, but she does have a big presence in fanon materials. As for Shou, she surely doesn't appear in either. 

I would argue that yuuka is the most fanoned minor character of the entire franchise.

 

I would add mamizou but it's possible that being a tanuki she's has something big planned but won't matter until much later.

[CountVonNumenor]

21 minutes ago, Darksymphony777 said:

I would add mamizou but it's possible that being a tanuki she's has something big planned but won't matter until much later.

Mamizou? I think she already has been featured quite a bit in canon. Especially since she basically hijacked Forbidden Scrollery, and now she did it again in Lotus Eaters. The latter is pretty much "The Mamizou Show", and Miyoi barely has anything to do with it. As for fanon Mamizou...maybe you are right. All I know about her fanon is either granny, or jokes about the nature of tanuki as a species and their special "gift" (though I guess female tanuki might exist as well, without the "gift"). 

[CountVonNumenor]

On 7/22/2022 at 3:19 AM, Ken Hisuag said:

whatever happened to Doremy Sweet?

Very good question, to be honest. 

[Darksymphony777]

2 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

As for fanon Mamizou...maybe you are right. All I know about her fanon is either granny, or jokes about the nature of tanuki as a species and their special "gift" (though I guess female tanuki might exist as well, without the "gift")

I didn't know about lotus eaters being taken over by mamizou.

 

However the granny thing is a canon since she is actually feeling her age meaning she's quite possibly a old lady in her tanuki form. As for the gift I mean.....they earth move that gift to her chest or they give her that gift down there anyway.

 

 

What about Junko? In canon once LOLK ended she's only been relegated to cameos and fanon only really uses her for jokes involving reisen. Granted she might be important if a manga carries on the plot line from the three faires about okina declaring war against Hecatia 

[Paracausality]

A couple of PC-98 characters, specifically Konngara and Sariel(all the information we have on them can literally be summed up in 1 sentence...maybe even 1 phrase lmao), and maybe PC-98 Reimu herself as she was literally a murderhobo in early Touhou lol.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Scyzer

[Auto Memories Doll]

Mimi-Chan we could use more of the sentient female intercontinental ballistic missile in the Touhou series 

 

[CountVonNumenor]

20 hours ago, Scyzer said:

A couple of PC-98 characters, specifically Konngara and Sariel(all the information we have on them can literally be summed up in 1 sentence...maybe even 1 phrase lmao), and maybe PC-98 Reimu herself as she was literally a murderhobo in early Touhou lol.

Thing is that many PC-98 characters (and a number of them in Windows era as well) are lacking even a basic Omake text. I think something that might be relevant would be the tier list made by AspreyFM based on the Omake for each character and how much it provides about the character, worldbuilding or both. I am not sure if there is an image version of the list, but I will link the final part of the series (he streamed it every Saturday for a few weeks until completing the sorting).

If I get a bot of time (or maybe a bit more), I could try to reverse-engineer the tier list and provide it in here as well. 

[Paracausality]

5 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

Thing is that many PC-98 characters (and a number of them in Windows era as well) are lacking even a basic Omake text. I think something that might be relevant would be the tier list made by AspreyFM based on the Omake for each character and how much it provides about the character, worldbuilding or both. I am not sure if there is an image version of the list, but I will link the final part of the series (he streamed it every Saturday for a few weeks until completing the sorting).

If I get a bot of time (or maybe a bit more), I could try to reverse-engineer the tier list and provide it in here as well. 

Much appreciated

[CountVonNumenor]

Like I promised. here is the reverse-engineered tier list:

[Ka Takane]

Wait a sec, how the heck is Nitori a tier lower than Takane?

[CountVonNumenor]

5 hours ago, Ka Takane said:

Wait a sec, how the heck is Nitori a tier lower than Takane?

Don't ask me, ask Asprey. I think he justified it during the livestream (the tier list has been done live, once every week for 5 weeks). I think he justified it that Nitori got more personality in the written works, and he did not really count those? (Asprey also said he is not going to check out CDS or Lotus Eaters until those two series are complete, so it might take a while). Also again, this tier list is entirely based on game Omake texts. Not really anything from outside the games.