Zun had no resources (not enough colours and pixels) and didn't really want to make "special" characters that would be memorable except from the protagonists and maybe Shinki (the gem of pc98). I think that's why Zun doesn't bring them back, he just used the good ideas in the newer characters (like Yumeko=the knife maid=Sakuya) but the designs aren't appealing to him because he started giving background to the windows designs. Still these pc98 girls are all cute.
I like to imagine this being a specific satori trait. Their weak hands are probably so useless they don't even use them a lot
Exactly so! That's still why I love Touhou. It's very rare for a work to perfectly encapsulate that fairy tale fantasy feel, and yet Touhou does it brilliantly. Especially with the older works. It really does feel like a child's fantasy, and I think that is why a lot of the newer Touhou works don't "seem as good". They still retain that element of "fantasy", but just not as strongly as it used to. While I think that UFO and TD are good games in their own right and Byakuren and Miko good characters in their own rights, I feel that introduction of them is what started the "watering down" of much of Touhou's deep "fantasyness". Though, as I said before, even the newer games and works retain that "fantasy", but just not as well as before.
I could easily believe that, given satori's arms are about half the length of a normal arm and you cant even make out her hand
I mean, it's possible ZUN already had that idea, but who knows. Both Reimu and Yamame also have short arms in the same game, so it's probably just a result of ZUN drawing while drunk. lol
The religious wars era was part of Zun's "you don't really have to follow these lying ass media people" message with Kokoro as the final boss of centrism. Surely he did that gently, without any demonisation at all, but the whole idea wasn't Gensokyesque from the very beginning. Maybe the "fantasy" you talk about is intentionally going down a little because Gensokyo cannot resist foreign influence, as shown in every new game.
Koishi is good (for KKHTA. Normal Touhou couldn't bear a koishi that dark) but her sister looks edgy as hell imo. I think Satori's design is a thing to be treated with care because you can easily turn it into shit with wrong colours
I haven't ever watched KKHTA in it's full capacity, but I enough about it to know that I probably wouldn't like it to well. I love dark storytelling, but edgy for the sake of being edgy is just... ehh...
Yeah, I suppose. But for my own case, I just don't like it very much. Kokoro is one of my favorite Touhou characters, but HM's story just makes me deeply uncomfortable. Mainly because I'm very critical and suspicious of atheism and agnosticism from personal circumstances and rationalization. Though that would be a whole different topic...
The artist started KKHTA with zero drawing skills and zero intention of doing something serious. While watching you can notice an increase in both and suddenly it becomes boring.
I think that part is definitely true. From what I've heard KKHTA was a lot "better" when the creator didn't take it too seriously.
Kokoro does a religious dance for the shrine at the end, she isn't an atheist at all. I think the message was "you can believe whatever you want without being annoying". Kappa were supposed to be atheist for a long time, but suddenly it's confirmed that they pray to some ancient snake god of the lake. Therefore the only true atheist is Sakuya.
This is at least why I don't consider atheism to be a "truth" in Gensokyo. And already with Sakuya, I believe she either calls herself an "atheist" as a joke or just because she prefers Remilia over the gods of Gensokyo. Not to mention, I'd rather just consider her to not be a true "atheist" either way.
Personally I think KKHTA has a pretty charming artstyle when it's not being over the top edgy. Sorta reminds me of Samurai Jack and PPG in a way
Well, I think I consider "charming" to be more like ZUN's style.
She's atheist in a different way. Of course she knows Kanako and the gang exist, she just doesn't, well, give her faith to any of them. Them easterners just have a different concept of God/gods
KKHTA isn't just about edginess, gore and purposeless killing, it has its own nice storytelling and stuff, for example, in one early episode reimu and remilia had wholesome conversation about gifting flandre an umbrella for her birthday and starting to let her go outside, or the further episodes being more about 2 sides fighting another rather than happy tree friends thingy. KKHTA may be a little edgy but it's not its only purpose, i like kkhta because of it's art that gets better each episode, as well as for the lore.
Yeah. I think it's possible that Sakuya probably believes in either a monotheistic view or just in general doesn't believe the gods of Gensokyo to be true "gods".
How she's supposed to believe in mono God if her master is a demon and the master's friend is a witch
