Lotus Eaters manga discussion thread

[Suspicious person]

Quite the bizarre chapter, the last chapter 11 is !

It's one thing for Reimu to be wary of the happenings in Geidontei, but for there to be something of interest to the people involved in the afterlife (Komachi) ? AND also custormern't who seems to be getting Mamizou on their case for insisting on reservation canceling Geidontei (not cool) for whatever reason too ? Very suspicious how lots of things are happening with Geidontei at the center. My suspicions would be that the recent supernatural rumors that surround Geidontei might have either been caused by or attracted some kind of supernatural entity of interest towards the afterlife people, and that Komachi's guess about Reimu investigating the same thing she does is wrong.

Like, there is something else that's going on that is completely unrelated to why Reimu decided to investigate Geidontei, and the thing in question involves some supernatural thing of interest to the afterlife people, and is related to Geidontei one way or another

My theory regarding the matter would be that there were 2 people that were going to meet up at Geidontei for an importan reason but met up with tragedy instead, and whoever it is that keeps making reservation at Geidontei is really just a ghost that's unable to accept their passing and keeps doing this reservation thing repeatedly, as missing the meetup at Geidontei would be their greatest regret and trying to have the meetup really mattered to them (like two lovers who were going on a secret date or something ?). Like, Geidontei might've gotten haunted by a ghost of a person that simply cannot acknowledge their death, which is why rumors about ghosts sprang up, why consistant reservation that wouldn't be respected kept happening, and why the afterlife employee Komachi is involved.

This is probably another thing that's gonna make Geidontei even more suspicious towards Reimu, even though it's probably not something that's caused by Miyoi herself imo. Fate itself seems to agree that the girl is perfect bulli material seems to have arranged events to allow her to be exactly that ...



_{Also, it's something that you could already see in a number of other works but damn is Mamizou flat}

[Lebon14]

...and a new chapter here too.
lol @ the fairies and reimu's ass

[Lebon14]

New month, new chapter. Featuring faces I don't remember seeing in a manga before!
Also, booze.

[Suspicious person]

Hmm, dunno why, but I get thiis fleeting feeling that Hakurei shrine is sooooo gonna get trounced by the competition in the next one ... but hey, chapter 13, woo

Been a while since we last saw Kanako. Aside from 17.5 and various games endings, I think the earlier WaHH chapters might've been the only time where she got a proper speaking role in a manga. Snake eyes seems quite fitting for everyone's (?) favorite sneaky snek lady.

Also, about Suika's booze provider, I thought it was gonna be Yuugi, but she said it was someone in the land of Oni ... putting aside the notion of crossing realms for the sake of getting booze, I'm kinda curious who that might be ... Between Geidontei probably getting really good booze from the land of booze lovers and Moryia Shrine (very pretty looking place btw)'s know-how on booze-making, I really can't see how Hakurei shrine's gonna impose itself on booze-making scene ...



And speaking of the next one, we might have to wait a little bit longer due to Mizutaki sensei breaking his right arm. Well wishes and fast recovery, I guess.

[Lebon14]

Also, about Suika's booze provider, I thought it was gonna be Yuugi, but she said it was someone in the land of Oni

No, no. She was really referencing Yuugi and her sake dish and its ability to convert bad booze into amazing booze.

[Lebon14]

After a long hiatus, we finally have a new chapter of Lotus Eaters. Nothing much in this one except my favorite cameo happened.

[Suspicious person]

New chapter 14, new happenings, new stuff to talk about. Miyoi discovers how the sausage gets made ... and quality sake or not, once you see it's primarly suspicious-insect-juice, you'll probaaaaaably have a second opinion about drinking the thing ...

Anyway, considering the artist's right arm accident and the need to properly recover, a drop in quality is kind of expected at some points for this chapter 14 (compare for example how a high view of the back of Moriya Shrine was drawn in this chapter 14 compared to how it was in the previous chapter), but honestly it doesn't seem to have much of an impact on the quality of the drawing : character designs are properly respected, expressions are still very vivid ... the non-background, relevant characters that we see up close aren't drawn in a sloppy manner at all. These kind of details probably don't matter that much, but we should be grateful for the efforts and consistant quality that is provided by the manga making people, and that despite troubles they encounter, in making this for our enjoyement.

The chapter itself is more booze talk. While we already know about sake bugs and Suika having her ways for getting excellent booze, Kanako too seems to have her own ways ... ways that seem to break some rules of Gensokyo. Since the humans of Gensokyo are not really familiar with the proper japanese sake that Kanako want to make them experience, I think it's fair to speculater that it's something that she imported from the outside world ...

As for how things are gonna unfold for the next chapter, we previously had Reimu who said that she was gonna throw some kind of sake event to counter Moriya Shrine's sake event in the chapter 13, with Reimu being Reimu, she probably not going to have the means to provide quality sake by herself and is gonna need someone's else's help (someone that's not Yukari, who hasn't been properly introduced in this manga yet). As for that someone, we have Miyoi, who got Suika to get her excellent quality booze in order to prove the rude customer (Kanako) wrong, but can't really do that since Kanako didn't come ... I think that Reimu entering Geidontei this time is about trying to get Miyoi to provide the booze for the Hakurei Shrine Sake event, similar to how food from Geidontei made their way to Hakurei Shrine night parties from the earlier chapters. How things are gonna develop is not so certain, but we've got the possibility for Miyoi's ability to kick in, and hopefully a clarification regarding Kanako's potentially rule violating ways of acquiring quality booze.



Also, this is probably irrelevant towards what is going on in this booze arc, but we do see some kind of details that can help determine a timeline for this particular arc's events, as this chapter (and the previous one) being in autumn, with the maples leaves to tell you so, this chapter shows a waxing crescent moon that later becomes a first quarter moon! I'm too lazy to calculate and determine the timeline of this chapter myself, so I'm just leaving that here for the ones who are interested in this kind of thing. Nice little detail, methinks.

[Lebon14]

And another new chapter! Where Kanako gets dunked on. Also more wolf tengu mobs. Been forever!

[Lebon14]

...and another new chapter. The usual place where the chapters were usually uploaded went down because of a database attack.
So, if you know the translator, a uploaded somewhere else for us to read.

This time, we're dealing with another ghost. And Aya somehow has big plans for Hijiri.

[Suspicious person]

Very, VERY late on this, but apparently Touhou Suichouka got localised, just like FS, and got received a translation for that.

I've seen a bunch of talks about mention of the use of "Ghoul" instead of Youkai (which is both funny and weird to me, considering the fact that FS's localisation kept "Youkai" as "Youkai") and "Demon" instead of "Oni". Not particularly interested in seeing "those" kind of debates again, but imo, it's probably gonna be like how it was for FS, where the translation is quite honestly as good as the ones we're used to except it doesn't use the terminology we're used to. I'm sorta hoping that things are gonna be alright going forward for this manga series.

But at any rate, no matter what kind of wording the translators working for this are gonna choose, imo it's not necessarily gonna something that is gonna have a big impact on the terminology already agreed upon by the Overseas Touhou Community at large : the release IS official, but the translation is just there.

Another thing I absolutely don't get (and it was the case for FS too) is the exclusion of "Touhou" from the book's title ?!!! Generally, it's the people who are familiar with Touhou who will pick up Touhou books, and the fact that these books count as new entries into the series is what makes them interesting ... I cannot picture people discovering Touhou through this relativelyu isolated manga called "the Lotus Eater", even less so since unlike FS, there aren't a lot of reference to other works ... I don't get the reasoning behing removing the title this very series is known for, it's like what if you picked just any Fate series related work and the word "Fate" was nowhere to be seen on them ?!!!

But at any rate, I haven't seen how the various wordiing and terminology are for myself (even for the free chapters). Probably gonna wait for the series to be concluded and everything being neatly available in volumes before actually getting em.

[Lebon14]

Next Monday is the release of the next issue of Lotus Eaters and we won't have a translation for it as Clarste stopped translating it after the Official translation got announced.
That means that we're stuck either:
1. waiting the original translation to catch up
2. Another translator takes up the job.

Personally, I wouldn't mind doing the editing. I'd love to get the RAWs but I just don't know how to get them. ...sigh

I loved this manga so much.

[nintendonut888]

Supposedly someone has volunteered to take up the mantle of translating, but it remains to be seen if this comes to anything since they proclaimed this anonymously.

To be honest, my biggest worry with this official translation is that them not knowing the terminology may make it legitimately difficult to parse some of the text, since Touhou has a lot of idiosyncratic phrases and terms that don't have set translations. While I respect Clarste's decision to step down, it is a shame because he had developed a very recognizable voice that could be trusted on these matters. In contrast, one can't help but get the sense the new translators don't actually know much about Touhou. Either way, this is how things are, so we can just hope the new translation goes well.

[Lebon14]

Supposedly someone has volunteered to take up the mantle of translating, but it remains to be seen if this comes to anything since they proclaimed this anonymously.

To be honest, my biggest worry with this official translation is that them not knowing the terminology may make it legitimately difficult to parse some of the text, since Touhou has a lot of idiosyncratic phrases and terms that don't have set translations. While I respect Clarste's decision to step down, it is a shame because he had developed a very recognizable voice that could be trusted on these matters. In contrast, one can't help but get the sense the new translators don't actually know much about Touhou. Either way, this is how things are, so we can just hope the new translation goes well.

I hope somebody sprungs up. Heck, I'd be delighted to work with a translator myself and do editing if needed.
As for Clarste, you are absolutely right. He was very mediculous and always ready to explain his word choices. And that's why I always loved fan translation on well-established franchises because they usually go the long way to use correct terminology used in a fandom.

Now, for a general manga that's just starting out, it wouldn't matter where the translator would come from really. But not our fandom. Too much intricacies.

[Suspicious person]

Oh wow, someone took the mantle for the translation of this series, kudos to this mysterious translator
I find quite interesting the fact that they chose gakugaku to name their tumblr thingy, makes me wonder if it's somebody who is related to the Gaku Gaku Animal Land of old, who left their mark in the Touhou doujin scanlation scene, or if it's a completely new individual who want to pay them homage in a roundabout way. Aside from there not being the usual booze related illustrations for the ZUN corners, scanlations is gonna be back, and will warm the seat until the localized translation arrives.

If the previous chapter 20 was in a large part explaining the motives of Yukari in chapter 19, chapter 21 pick up on the rainy season and the little frog that were introduced in chapter 20.

The rainy chapter really reminded me of a Zounose doujin called "RAINFALL", where what's going on is referred by best Moriya goddess as "just bad weather". That's the kind of vibe that I got from this chapter too, especially with how Aya concluded the discussion of the Geidontei youkai gang (you know something serious is going on when Aya is the one who gets the fact straight ...). Simple bad weather, no string attached. Forbidden Scrollery already mentionned that there are a bunch of failsafe to protect the human village in case disaster struck (tengu against wind related problems, kappa against the water ones), but with the kappas dipping, the arrangements goes down the drain ...

While the conclusion is probably not going to be as tragic as how the doujin was (and since I can't picture ZUN giving the series a more tragic turn, the series being mainly comedic), some kind of resolution by any one of the established forces s probably gonna happen. Probably an established force other than the kappas, who took a dip, unless ZUN decides to reverse course and make them not look irresponsible.

For this chapter, I find suspicious the fact that there is WAY too much emphasis on the frog , even having the Geidontei youkai gang discuss if it has some kind of relation with what is happening. Imo, as a possible resolution, we could have best Moriya goddess (with best hat) drop by and help the human village possibly come in, and later drop by Geidontei. Moriya Shrine and Geidontei have some kind of relation since Kanako does drop by there to enjoy some booze. It wouldn't seem inapropriate to me if she talked to Suwako about the place and if Suwako goes there out of curiosity. The chapter's emphasis on the frog wouldn't seem super weird : putting aside the fact that frogs and safe homecoming could be associated through puns, Moriya Shrine does sell a bunch of talisman for safe homecoming (and these particular blessing were more associated with Suwako iirc) ; and Suwako is quite fond of frogs.

So yeah, imo, best Moriya goddess could pull, give some help to the filthy plebe, gather a bunch of faith on the way, and drop some kind of frog related talk or something.

[Suspicious person]

Chapter 24's been out for quite a while now, hmm

Checking back on this manga, the latest chapter 23 and 24 really strike me as a repeat of that chapter of WaHH where the Zashiki Warashi left their households for a time. While the Okina picture from chapter 23 made it seem like there could be something bigger going on, actually there wasn't at all, it's just a chill, cool regular day in the land of fantasy. I find it weird that the random Zashiki Warashi would know of the secret domain of Okina somehow. How did they even contact her in order to get there ?

It's a bit like in WaHH too where they get to go to the outside world in order to work in big franchise hotels (iirc, but don't quote me on that). Either they are special in some way, or there is some suspicious brand of favoritism from the leading figures when it comes to this particular race ...

Also gotta appreciate the fact that the random greater fairies from the final chapters of VFiS get to make a cameo in chapter 23, color palette and all. Some mob characters are oddly interesting that I kinda want to see em occupy the background a bit more. Hopefully we'll one day get an opportunity to have the FS Doomer or the WaHH dark haired kappa again



All in all, this "A """"ghoul's"""" life is full of ups and downs" arc is, all in all, pretty chill and tame. Prolly nothing to glean from it unless you really, really overthink a bunch of stuff

[Suspicious person]

Been a while, but this manga gets to be the first one to give a proper talking role to a 18th generation(?) 2hu in the form of Sannyo ! And speaking of historic(?) Touhou things, Sannyo also gets to show the MOST skin and it even seems to me like it's the first time we get to see a few millimeters of cleavage in a Touhou manga, huh. With tobacco, booze and gambling, we now need some guns, sex and drugs to make this the most vice laden Touhou manga, so looking forward to that.

Bit of a shame for TH17 gang, but kinda hoping that's because they're to get more roles in games or something.

When I saw the dice in the last chapter 30, I instantaneously thought that there might be some Jojo part 4 style dice cheating, what's with Jojo being among ZUN's favorite things ever to take inspiration from and to reference. Also, speaking of "among" things, a bit of a Touhou amogus moment as a human venting their gambling needs in Sannyo's place kinda lead her to opening a gambling place inside, guess where, Geidontei, which is really getting fatter by the month.

In TH18, Sannyo kinda comes off as an elegant but pretty rough and rude gal imo, but this manga illustrates her as more sharp and sophisticated. These bonus characterizations are always nice to see, and would have been real cool for TH17 characters too ... Anyway, If Sannyo is to pop up in a game one of these days, I hope it's with that one-sleeve down kind of design, as it will help her look like her own character instead of a Yorihime-at-home kinda girl.

[nintendonut888]

Incidentally, the sleeve thing is apparently a customary thing for female dealers in chou-han, or at least it is in popular imagination. Dealers are often topless in order to minimize accusations of cheating, so Sannyo is exposing her dealing arm to the same effect. This amount of skin is unusual for Touhou to be sure, but it's for a fair reason so it doesn't stand out too much, in my opinion.

Also really, as a Kaiji fan, Mamizou fell for the most basic mindgame out there. Of course Sannyo would break the pattern that she knew Mamizou would catch on to. She's got no one to blame but herself for getting cleaned out.