⛩️ Touhou Manga Ideas & Story Board ⛩️

[Reitisen]

Alright I wanted to start this as some sort of exercise and sharing for Touhou fans that love to do some world building and story telling! 

Mostly just post some ideas that you would think would be a great idea and try to explore how it would go down in Gensokyo. It doesn't have to be cannon as all things fanon are, but can be somewhat related as taking some inspiration and exploring it.

Here are some examples of ideas that are interesting to me:

 

1. Exploring a Touhou character's past. This one is for the unexplored pasts of perhaps things that weren't explored and or things mentioned.

- How would this character act according to their supposed past?

- Where did they live and how did that affect their character and others?

- Did they change in appearance over their time living?

- What powers did they develop over time?

2. Daily life of a character. I guess you can call this SLICE OF LIFE. Something that explores an actual daily occurrence in Gensokyo. IDK how this one would go down as Gensokyo is a mix of old Japan and fantasy. Just an exploration of what their regular normal routine is. (if they are applicable for non-zany/zany adventures)

- Do they have a job or responsibility?

- Who would they regularly visit?

- Do they celebrate special events?

- What is their hobby?

3. Retelling of certain incidents. The alternative theory if the protagonists simply didn't exist or couldn't beat / didn't arrive in time to stop an incident from occurring and or other agents appeared to deal with it themselves.

- How would the post-effects of the incident occur? 

- Would characters that wouldn't appear regularly, appear? (Deus ex Machina phenomena)

- Would Gensokyo tilt in balance?

Alright those are some example ideas. Now an example story board that lays out how a story would go out. I would be using the first prompt for this.

For this one I will be using Yukari as she fits the criteria of being

1. Old     2. Powerful     3. Mysterious     4. Foreign    5. Knowledgeable

The setting would take part in probably Europe, Some part of Asia (Probably ancient China), Japan, and then Gensokyo which can be somewhat pinpointed With lake Suwa as a Pin.

Let's get started then. I shall be telling a pseudo-history as there is a history timeline, but all of that pertains to Gensokyo itself, not Yukari. Also by the way, did you know time travel exists? Yeah NOT GONNA TOUCH THAT. Writer's nightmare. It will be heavily canon related though.

Expect a long read. 

At some time in a distant past where Fantasy and reality existed all around the world. A Youkai was realized/existed onto earth. Its form was non-existent, but was existing to cling onto some sort of myth or idea that humans thought up of, giving it power to materialize somewhere within Japan.

This "Youkai" was somewhat different from other Youkai, it was more meek, more intelligent, and quite mysterious as it itself didn't think like the usual Youkai in myths & legend. This one didn't follow the rules of the natural law of the world. It liked to watch those that interested it and rarely meddled with affairs. It only took action to those that had unusual powers or had a unique nature to them.

Eventually this Youkai wanted to see more of the world. So it started traveling to near by China where it studied the various types of knowledge and techniques which it adapted and used with its own mysterious abilities as some form of coverup. By now the Youkai has taken form as a Woman of various identities, not really taken a solid form to it's own liking.

It wasn't long after adapting to the local culture and knowledge that it heard about foreign travelers coming from the talks about the west and so it went along with its whims of curiosity and arrived somewhere within Europe. During this time, the Youkai decided to call itself "Yukari Yakumo" given the amount of names, stories, and knowledge and has taken an appearance of a long haired blonde woman with an oddly colored dress colored purple though her outfit is not quite completed just yet.

Now with her appearance, she travels back into Japan to establish herself within the Youkai hierarchy and settles around the middle part of Japan. her ears are everywhere, leading to her hearing about the myth of a eternally beautiful cherry blossom tree where people chose to die. Thus leading to the cherry blossom acquiring its Youkai nature and where Yukari sat, watching those old and sickly, die.

Eventually, Yukari hears about the daughter of the father who started the cherry blossom legend. Her own curiosity peeked when she heard that the daughter held the powers over the dead, and how it affected those around her. This lead to her observing this person and eventually meeting her and introducing herself as Yukari Yakumo a Youkai. Expecting something of a scared reaction, Yukari didn't expect the girl to also introduce herself as Yuyuko Saigyouji in a somewhat elated manner. From there a conversation was started, and they both shared parts of their lives and their livelihood. Yuyuko shares about her family history and how most people feared her and avoided herself. Yukari shares her journey, knowledge and stories that she has encountered over her various adventures over the centuries. Both seem to enjoy each others company and eventually a relationship forms between a Youkai and human. 

Unfortunately tragedy strikes, Yuyuko Saigyouji, being alienated and hated by those who she has known by her own uncontrolled power. Decides to take her own life under the Youkai tree, laying to rest just as her father has done in order to end her out of control power and her own misery with it. Yukari, shocked, can only watch as the Youkai tree consumes her friend, eventually burying Yuyuko underneath its roots. To this Yukari can only do one thing possible. Seal the tree and let it slumber so it can never kill again.

Perhaps as a sign and her own power, Yuyuko's ghost reformed into the mortal plane, but not without it's former memories and past life. Yukari can only do one thing, re-from the relationship and start talking to Yuyuko who is now a ghost of the Netherworld.

Time changes (Probably some centuries) and Yuyuko now has a job from the Yama to manage the ghosts of the land. Yukari at this time regularly visits Yuyuko in the Netherworld, regularly chatting and enjoying the garden. As of now Yuyuko now in the domain of Hakugyokuro.

Yukari at this time, is the top boss Youkai of Japan and her region that she and others now call "Gensokyo". During her reign she hears about some information about the forces on the moon and the Lunar inhabitants and starts drawing up plans to quell some of the rowdy Youkai who are willing to expand their reach beyond Japan. Eventually this begins the first Lunar war in which is entirely defeated as the Youkai are routed and repelled by the Lunarians as Yukari just simply retreats her forces, happy that her plan had worked. As a side effect, humans now know how much power she has. She begins to draw up another plan after seeing the Lunarians technology, knowing that the world is losing faith in myths & legends as technology begins to advance and humans in the region are starting to gain more power against the Youkai.

This begins the "Youkai Expansion Project" one of Yukari's biggest projects that she and her other compatriots would create a world separate from the real and fantasy, allowing the belief of Youkai to be concentrated within the land of Gensokyo. This draws in many Youkai who hear of this and immigration starts drawing in various kinds of rowdy rousers and types of Youkai.

 It is assumed that Yukari travels around the world to gather more information and knowledge. This is where she gains her true appearance of a mob cap, gloves, and her signature custom made umbrella.

Centuries more, the "Youkai Expansion Project" has achieved an approval from Yukari and so begins phase two. The creation of the "Great Hakurei Barrier" to which will seal off Gensokyo from the outside world from prying eyes. Much debate was had over such decision, but eventually it was built and established. It is also assumed that a generation of shrine maidens are established and picked among the human population. Choosing those that had the power and ability to become a shrine maiden and thus be the "Hakurei Shrine Maiden". This was something that Yukari and the other Youkais used in order to establish a balance between Humans & Youkai as a diplomat.

Over the years it seems like an incident occurs within Gensokyo, the first that will happen within its borders. This is called the "Vampire Incident" This involved a very familiar vampire called "Remilia Scarlet" who went and probably mascaraed a lot of the residents before the Youkai had enough and Yukari along with others wrote up the "Vampire Pact" creating the spell card rules which spread amongst the residents. It should also be mentioned that the current generations Hakurei Shrine Maiden was now Reimu Hakurei.

EOSD events follow after the enactment of the rules. This leads to Reimu defeating the EOSD crew and placating the troublesome vampire.

Yukari seems to now adopt a more lazy approach to her duties now that her plans are complete. She employs some Shikigamis to perform some of her duties while she "sleeps" and or "hibernates" for some time. This is assumed to be her exploring the now modern world.

This is where I will end it for now as the mainline games will explain everything else.

So if you have any ideas or want to share your story. Fell free to post it!

[buskerdog]

I find this post very interesting from the perspective of a game designer; my thing has always more been designing game mechanics and systems, but good stories undoubtedly make games that much better. One character I'd really like to explore is Mokou, as I find her whole backstory and revenge motivation against Kaguya extremely compelling and something quite different from what is seen in the rest of the cast. Also being someone who lives in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and one of the only people who can navigate it is an interesting idea to think about - what does her daily life in the forest look like? What kind of skills has she learned from being in such an environment for so long? How did she learn to navigate it so well?

Reimu, being my number one favourite character, is also someone I'd like to tell a story about. Her responsibility as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden - and her tendency to shirk that responsibility - are particularly notable things about her to explore. She always acts for the greater good, but her motivations are usually self-interested. She's an incredibly important person - and yet, she doesn't seem to recognise that importance, or take it seriously. This is actually one of the reasons why she became my favourite character - I find her fascinating as the series' main protagonist because although in fights she is powerful, as a person she's so incredibly flawed. But at the end the day, she'll still solve incidents time and time again, without so much as a "thank you" in return - it always feels like she's teetering on the edge of giving up her job entirely, yet there's something in her that motivates her be selfless. Unrelated to all that, but the fact she knows pretty much everyone also means that there's lots of room to explore her relationships with other characters.

[Pentastar]

I had one idea for a story that a group of outsiders come to Gensokyo to get retrieve sort of power or blessing to prevent a event that they saw in a vision of the future and thus causing some sort of incident.