I don't know why some Touhou fans actually want Mima back when there are other PC-98 characters that didn't get the chance to even appear in other games other than their debut. Heck, I believe that Rika is the suitable rival for Reimu besides Marisa, since she believes she can beat her using just tanks. I believe that Mima have seen her days, and it's for the best of her not to always appear in every Touhou games.

In terms of power? Rika is a lil wimp who got her mechanical tanks obliterated by flying paper. But ideologically I think they'd be perfect rivals.

Okay, I do apologize to anyone who might've felt insulted by what I said. But that doesn't change the fact that I do, in fact, get physically ill by listening to TH17 and TH18 OSTs, and after analyzing them I did successfully identify that as stemming from the issues with instruments and compositions. If you can go beyond that and enjoy the melodies then more power to you, though.

That said...

It's quite telling that you use a track from the latest music CD as an example and not something from the games. And it also feels done in bad faith because I did point out:

I haven't looked into ZUN's music CDs for a long time so I never heard that one, but I never excluded the possibility that his stuff might get more tolerable for me again, and I do see 19 as somewhat of a step to that. So, y'know, mote in my eye, beam in yours.

But while we speak about that, I do have a challenge to whoever might want to accept it - make a thread about TH17-19 music where you point out everything you like or find notable about every single track. Just like THAT thread in the old forum did. I sure enjoyed reading that one. That would give me an incentive to go into detail about what I don't like about music from those games as a response. I don't want to do a thread like that myself for two reasons. One - I don't actually enjoy bashing Touhou, or even anything I outright dislike for that matter. I'm not shy to point out what I don't like after experiencing it, but I'm not dwelling on such opinions in long term. I might throw out some bad vibes on occasion, but I don't actively stew in them. And two... I know firsthand that Touhou fandom is utterly incapable of accepting any criticism for any official content, no matter how justified or detailed it might be. So while I COULD thoroughly explain why I find Touhou music disappointing lately, I know better than to bother unless it's in dialogue with people who are willing to go into detail on such matters. So I don't want to do something that would just be seen as a hit piece, and I'm genuinely open to see some differing points of view on Touhou music I don't find good besides the generic and nondescriptive "it's fine" kind of opinions.

Like I said in my previous post, the music is like the last thing I think is wrong with the newer games. I don't even most of the games from the second half of Gen 3 as games but I do still appreciate their soundtracks. Iunno what to say.

While I do think the community isn't necessarily the most objective when evaluating some things, that's any community really. It's not even as if everyone blindly likes everything, or that opinions are static. PCB went from the darling of the series to a punchline among the more gameplay-centered parts of the community, especially for Survival. DDC wasn't that well regarded when it came out and it still largely isn't. VD and HBM are heavily criticised to a fault almost. UDoALG is really split on opinions, since casuals really like it, the core gameplay audience didn't, and the ones who did went on to make their own subcommunity for it. I think it's less that Touhou players will blindly defend whatever as much as it is that there are many fans under many unrelated communities under the same Touhou umbrella, so you get a lot of different takes and there is something here for everyone.

> Kosuzu is not present, correct?

> "Do we know who she most commonly associates with? Maybe we can get information from others about her whereabouts last night."

> Nope!

> "She does frequent at Suzunaan, so perhaps Kosuzu?" Sanae suggests.

> Nod.
> "Mamizou could go either way. I played ignorant village newcomer generally worried about the situation, and when I mentioned hearing rumors the statue might be Yakumo herself, she instantly diverted toward theorizing it was placed there by Yakumo herself in some narcissistic maneuver. I even floated the idea of bringing in the red-white to track Yakumo down to find out for sure, and she immediately threw shade on the red-white for being willing to work with Yakumo in the past."
> "It's possible that that's what a genuinely-innocent Mamizou would think, but if she were the culprit trying to avoid suspicion, it's hard to say what she would have done differently."

> "I see, how suspicious..." Sanae thinks before asking "Any ideas on how we could determine her involvement with certainty?"

> One last check - does she still not seem suspicious of us?
> "Right. Enjoy your meal."
> Leave the store and head back to the inn.

> No hints of suspicion.
> She wishes you farewell as you leave the store and return to the inn and find Sanae waiting for you.
> "I think we can rule Unshou out, he was tending to a house call last night at the Myouren temple. One of their followers is recovering from food poisoning."