Foul Detective Satori web-manga discussion thread.

[Suspicious person]

Bit late, but new Foul Detective Satori chapter 28 out

Super straightforward chapter this time, as it seems we're closing on the end of the Myouren temple arc. The title of the arc refering to the underground actually made me think for a bit that there might be a chance that there'll be something that'll connect or bring us back to the underground, but the way things look it doesn't seem so

Regarding the possessed person this time, it turns out to be Kyouko. The manga's monthly release kinda made me forget some of the information, and I actually forgot that Kyouko actually appeared in this arc at all, lol. Anyway, the lack of Kyouko among the people worried about Byakuren (among the Myourenji people present in the premises in this arc) does indeed seems kinda sus considering the fact that Myourenji people kinda care about her a lot.

Mystery series generally require a bit of straightforwardness and obviousness in their reveals, so I for one appreciate that there is some logic / explanation behind why Kyouko is the one possessed, explanation that is somewhat consistent with the lack of screentime after the important happening AND already observable (or rather, her being unobservable) in previous chapters. While it would be undoubtedly much more exciting to deduce an actual willing accomplice than some poor sap being controlled without them being aware, imo this is much more preferable than stuff like Kaguya being freaking possessed offscreen in a location we weren't introduced to in the manga and apparently outrunning a flying Reimu straight to Eientei in order to let the plot take place. But speaking of straightforward and obvious, another big thing that is a part of the mystery genre is the part where the big bad reveal their motive : while we know it's a grudge against Gensokyo, actually hearing it from the horse's mouth seems much more appropriate to me.

Although the unexpected thing this time to me was the fact that the possessed Kyouko was trapped and confused by the weird restriction surrounding Myouren temple, which means that it's unlikely that she set up the barrier herself (She might consistently be painting a giant target on her back, but is probably not dumb enough to shoot herself in the foot like that). So, as far as barrier-proficient people that are not confused nor trapped inside Myourenji goes, it's probably got to be Yukari, who I coincidentally forgot made an appearance super-early on in this arc too.

So imo, here's what's going on :
- Yukari probably set up the barrier out of being tired of the BadHu's shenanigans
- Yukari enlisted Flandre's help and sent her to Myourenji to help deal with said source of shenanigans
- Yukari sent Satori there too cuz gap are a much superior means of transportation compared to piggybacks and Satori kinda need her getback for what happened in the bamboo forest AND not look like a fool detective by finally getting a proper confrontation

As for what's gonna happen, either BadHu gets sorted there and then, or she plays a trump card that allows her to get into the next TD arc. I actually think she's gonna get away with it again since we don't seem like we're getting that proper Reimu faceoff yet. And while Satori is supposedly the main character this time, imo we still need BadHu to tell Reimu what her beef with her is, plus the ass whooping that she's long had coming her way.

A few additionnal takeaways :
- Only noticed this upon reread, but this Nazrin DOES have new drip and an especially big bow
- More battle manga action sequences
- Marisa's broom reality check. No seriously what did she expect
- Kyouko REALLY in need of some exorcism right now, probably needs the uncute beaten out of her

[Suspicious person]

New chapter 29 is out after some weird kind of pause

Later chapters various Touhou mangas kinda have this weird tendency of changing into a battle manga (which is especially weird for this initially shoujo / mystery kinda manga), and such is the case for this chapter (and the previous one) as it set up a fight between Reimu, Byakuren and Shou vs Flan.

Chapter's very straightforward but surprisingly leaves room for speculation, for example regarding the mist and the help that Kyoukozuchi speculate Satori to be waiting for (just Flandre or someone else ?) ; pluus the ending with a suspicious looking Satori (possessed or not)

It's gonna be pretty embarrassing if Satori actually got possessed imo cuz that's another fail to add to her list of non-accomplishements in this manga, but the fact that she approaches Marisa (decidedly Mizuchi's favorite possession target) kinda leads me to put my stocks on the "yeah she's possessed" side of speculations

Myouren temple arc is coming to a close, but I feel like we haven't learned anything new or substantial regarding Mizuchi's motivations and plans : I'm kinda hoping that next chapters gonna clarify these else next arc is gonna have virtually the SAME beginning as the IN, MoF, and UFO arc have. I'll take anything 2hu, but even I would like to see quality writing instead of this particular formula for this manga. Slow pace + early chapters of new arcs having nothing happening is kinda unimpressive tbh.

Bunch of takeaways :
-Already in previous chapters, but damn, Marisa. Blood on my 2hu ? Yikes.
-Shou's one chance at getting some action in over a decade gets divided by 3
-Flandre looking more threatening than 2 big shots (+ Shou) for some reason ?

Also a bit unrelated, but fun Flandre fact : she HAS a spell card called "Scarlet Nihility" that she uses in her Route A ending in 17.5 : this means that she's the ONLY character who's got a named attack that's neither illustrated nor can be played in a game : since we are getting actual action / fight scenes, I'm kinda crossing my fingers to see if we're gonna get it in this manga (not likely, I know) or have some other kind of spell card.

[Lebon14]

Been a little while since I posted on here.

The last few chapters were great and it has the most action we had in an official manga ever.

[Suspicious person]

Somewhat late, but we're done with the Myouren temple happenstance into what seems to be an introduction of sorts to what's gonna happen next time and who's gonna take part in it. I actually feel like the plot is about to make a signifiant progress with this chapter, so here's hoping

The new chapter 32(?) reveal that Miss Miyadeguchi is in fact related to the Hakurei Shrine, so that's a W for the guys who expressed theories that goes around these lines, and she is now trapped in the underworld as the various entrances that lead there got sealed after she got sent there.

Now strictly speaking, with the villain clearly identified and more or less sent to prison, it can be said that there are no more real stake at hand here, but the main girls JUST have to be petty and really, REALLY seem like they are going to break through the underground's seal and go to Miss Miyadeguchi cuz they need that getback

I quite like the fact that we're bringing the girls from the previous arcs for this, but it seems to me like we're decidedly going the battle manga route. Now, we've had SO MUCH slice of life stuff in this series to the point where I've managed my expectations and seek out excitement in other series : I quite like NON slice of life stuff as far as touhou goes, but at the same time it seems like an unusual direction to take for this initially mystery manga. I have a remark on that aspect that I'm gonna save for a final review when this manga is completed.

I guess we still need that exposition from Miss Miyadeguchi and hopefullly, HOPEFULLY make use of the opportunity that she presents to get a window to peer into the backstory of Gensokyo.

Minor takeaways :
- Satori showing the MOST skin in the entirety of this series
- Remilia's very cool and sharp look, in comparison to her previous girly (and I assume very pink) one
- Flandre and her own way of being considerate ?
- Reimu, Remilia and Sakuya showing the cutest smile when thinking about absolutely trouncing someone

[Inunaki]

I mean, they said they couldn't be sure that they blocked off every exit, but seeing what Reimu's doing makes me think they're not going to go the "she somehow found a way out" route.

Also, is it bad that my first thought when I read this was "Poor Parsee, she's now out of a job"? She's my favourite character, but she hasn't even appeared in this, so I guess it's sorta odd that I'm thinking about her...

I'm glad, however, that we finally have some backstory for Mizuchi, even if it's only vague now I'm hoping this is a sign that we'll soon be getting more information about her and her exact motives.

[Inunaki]

After two months, we have received a new update.

It was mostly Mizuchi-centric. I like the new character development for Mizuchi, especially since we've only seen her behave more-or-less in one manner. Getting a bigger glimpse into her personality was really nice.

Also, Yuugi taking pity on her and siding with her is interesting. Not just due to the obvious "Yuugi is now helping Mizuchi" development, but if someone who was previously annoyed by her actions actually sympathised with her to the point of actively aiding her, then this I feel is a big development. Whatever this is, it isn't anything minor (I imagine "vengeful spirit" is not a high bar, provided something has made you angry enough, some people can get real petty) and it clearly makes the Miyadeguchis sympathetic. It isn't some cut-and-dry case where Miyadeguchi is clearly in the wrong and the Hakureis were in the right and Miyadeguchi is being petty about it (and maybe that was obvious but cmon, they haven't exactly given the reader any reason to be sympathetic to Mizuchi until now) and I feel it's going to be really interesting when the rest of the cast figure out what exactly happened (from a storywriting perspective, it's unthinkable that they wouldn't find out).

It seems Reimu knows to an extent, but I wonder how much. Back when I first read the previous chapter, I felt that Reimu had just vaguely heard about the Miyadeguchis and simply decided to go after Mizuchi out of pettiness because it was clearly established to be about her, but re-reading it, I'm not so sure. I'm not sure if she knows exactly what happened and is attacking out of honest belief that the Miyadeguchis were in the wrong, or if my previous belief that she's just being petty is correct. I guess we'll have to see.

It seems, at the very least, that my last post was right and we're going to be getting more information about what Mizuchi is getting revenge over, so that's a plus.

Overall, a really good chapter in my opinion. I personally really like Mizuchi and am sorta rooting for her over Satori, Reimu and the others (though that might just be because I tend to sympathise with villains a lot more) and I hope this doesn't end with her being exterminated, though as a vengeful spirit I wonder if she'll cease to exist if she actually succeeds. I hope whatever happens, she doesn't come out too badly.

[nintendonut888]

I'm surprised that it's such a common reading of the last two chapters that Reimu is going after Mizuchi out of pettiness or because she hates the Miyadeguchi. It's not clear what exactly her feelings are or what she's going to do, but from the start I had the sense she feels some manner of responsibility towards Mizuchi for whatever happened in the past. Whether that's sympathy or merely an element of understanding before she stands her ground though, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm excited to see where the story takes us as we presumably head towards the final act.

[Inunaki]

I'm surprised that it's such a common reading of the last two chapters that Reimu is going after Mizuchi out of pettiness or because she hates the Miyadeguchi. It's not clear what exactly her feelings are or what she's going to do, but from the start I had the sense she feels some manner of responsibility towards Mizuchi for whatever happened in the past. Whether that's sympathy or merely an element of understanding before she stands her ground though, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm excited to see where the story takes us as we presumably head towards the final act.

To me, it was the way she worded things. She spoke very vaguely about it, saying the Miyadeguchis served Hakurei Shrine and that it happened before she was born, which is a very vague way of putting things so I originally felt that she might not have known the full story. And then her final words are "We hit back!", which personally felt to me like an indication that she just wanted to get revenge on Mizuchi rather than anything to do with her past, especially considering that Mizuchi was already sealed in Former Hell, it just felt like she was going after her unnecessarily out of spite, due to the confirmation that this incident was about her.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting things, but that's the sense that I got having read it at first. As I said, I'm no longer so sure, but that was my original thought process.

[nintendonut888]

Reimu already knew she was the personal target of the incident since the second arc though. If she hadn't learned her name was Miyadeguchi, it sounds like she may have accepted the outcome as things are, but learning her tormenter's name caused her to choose to confront her directly, even at the risk of her own life. Frankly, more than anything, I just can't believe Reimu is the type of person who would act out of spite over clan politics from before she was born, and her body language didn't read as anger to me. It's very much vague what her thoughts towards Mizuchi are since we don't know what happened between the Hakurei and Miyadeguchi, but I would be very surprised if this encounter will be a simple matter of Reimu trying to exterminate her.

[Inunaki]

Reimu already knew she was the personal target of the incident since the second arc though. If she hadn't learned her name was Miyadeguchi, it sounds like she may have accepted the outcome as things are, but learning her tormenter's name caused her to choose to confront her directly, even at the risk of her own life. Frankly, more than anything, I just can't believe Reimu is the type of person who would act out of spite over clan politics from before she was born, and her body language didn't read as anger to me. It's very much vague what her thoughts towards Mizuchi are since we don't know what happened between the Hakurei and Miyadeguchi, but I would be very surprised if this encounter will be a simple matter of Reimu trying to exterminate her.

I didn't interpret it as her being spiteful over what happened with Mizuchi over things that happened before she was born, I interpreted it as her being spiteful after having direct confirmation that it was about her. It's been a while since I've read the whole thing, but I don't recall it being concretely established that it was targetting Hakurei, aside from them noticing the pattern of Mizuchi's targets and the incidents Reimu handled. Marisa even acknowledges this by saying "That just makes it even more certain! You're that spirit's main target!", the implication being that now they had concretely established it.

Anyway, as you said, her thoughts on the matter are vague. My interpretation of that vague-ness was that she's being super vague about what happened between the Hakurei and Miyadeguchi but directly after we get absolute confirmation that it's targetting her, she seems bent on fight Mizuchi even after she was already dealt with and in spite of all of Former Hell being blocked off.

[nintendonut888]

You likely should give the earlier chapters another look in that case, because a solid half of the PCB arc was Reimu freaking out over the revelation that she was Mizuchi's target after Satori told her, leading her to hide from everyone until Yukari helped her regain some of her nerve. Reimu's been more than aware that Mizuchi is after her for some time, and it was commented on multiple occasions how nervous and defensive her investigations were based on that knowledge. Learning her tormentor is a Miyadeguchi caused something to click in her mind on why she is being targeted, but the fact itself, or even that her grudge is aimed at the Hakurei Shrine, is not new information to her.

[Suspicious person]

Been a while, but chapter 35 of Satori Kaisen is out, in which we get to see Fraudeguchi's entire neighborhood gang up on Goatmu (and where we shall eventually see if all of the introduced cast are gonna get owned by Fraudeguchi in a series of 1v1 after scamming a win from Goatmu later down the line)

I kinda feel that the setup from the two previous chapters is kinda unnecessary if we're decidedly going the battle manga route. Now dunno if the hole that spewed vengeful spirits in the chapter is what Reimu used to force her way in the underground this time, but if it is, I think giving an opening for vengeful spirits to invade the surface world is extremely irresponsible if it's for the sake of some petty personal vendetta, even moreso if you consider the possibility that Miss Miyadeguchi could have made use of the opportunity herself ...

Alternatively, the opening could have also been created by other parties seeking to settle accounts with Miss Miyadeguchi, but there's currently nothing to hint at that.

It would be ideal if Reimu's little incursion in the underground was done with the help of Yukari's gaps rather than some brutish opening. Vaguely curious to see if Byakuren's suspicion towards whatever might be going on in the Hakurei Shrine is gonna lead her to the truth of the matter or if she's just gonna find Yukari there (cuz she's probably the person communicating with Reimu & helping her, just like in SA. I can see her chilling in the Shrine during this)

The way this underground arcs present itself, the underground dwellers don't seem to have either much initiative or control over the events that are happening, so most of the problems should by the surface dwellers (whether it be the activation of the sealing systems or the creation of the opening this time

The only question to me is whether Fraudeguchi had some failsafe from a previous era in play : we still haven't been told why she seems to have such accurate and updated information about the surface world (if ZUN remembers that), plus there probably being a reason why she's called the jailbreak king : either 1/the opening this time is caused by the heroines, in which case they are petty and irresponsible (and in which case Reimu's gotta have a more compelling reason than getting payback) ; or 2/ it's caused by some failsafe Miss Miyadeguchi prepared (kinda expecting there to be no failsafe else she woulsn't be so down in the dumps in the previous chapters)



Minor takeaways :
-Reimu's binding vow on her gohei's length which give her a stronger striking power in exchange for reach
- That black undershirt of Parsee I assume mainly comes from fanworks seems to have received an officious status
- No danmaku ? I always had this vague impression that Touhou action should have bullets, but honestly the lack of bullets give more dynamic action sequences. Dunno why
- A scratch on Reimu ??? Very strange to see Reimu get grazed by an early game LitterallyHu

Regardless of the possible implications from Reimu's behavior this time, I for one appreciate the return of the brand of Reimu that went to heaven to beat up and drag someone for repairs : a one-woman invasion of former hell where all the residents are on edge against you sorta works as a flex

[Suspicious person]

New chapter 36 continuation's been out for a while, and aside from all the flashiness, I think this one might have an interesting implication :

If Byakuren's observation regarding the hole having been opened from the outside is correct, then it could only be explained by there being an accomplice of sorts for Miss Miyadeguchi.

I have always been a believer of the possibility of there being AT LEAST one serious accomplice, cuz not only an actual willing accomplice seems much more interesting than some poor mind controlled saps imo, but also because that might be more reasonable (than, say, what her possible abilities might be for example) when it comes to explaining how Miss Miyadeguchi's got not only updated intel but also proper information regarding a bunch of people to target (as well as directions), all that despite being stuck in Hell.

Going by that line of thought, if someone's gotta be an accomplice, then among all of the characters who's been introduced in this manga so far, imo Yukari's got a pretty good chance of yet again being the big bad cat :

Motivation wise, nothing is certain cuz it's currently speculation, but I think the recent reveals of Miss Miyadeguchi being related to the Hakurei Shrine (plus Yukari's standing in regards to them in general kinda makes me think back to Yukari being possessedin the PCB arc yet "somehow" managing to save a bit of her magical powers, quite unlike everyone else : could it actually be because of something more than her being capable ? Also there being the issue with possessed-and-dumped Alice, a youkai, for whose sake possessed Yukari sent Marisa to her place to nurse her ?!! Bit weird considering Miss Miyadeguchi's attitude towards youkai.

Anyway I think there's some weirdness and irregularities regarding Yukari's circumstances as a possessed person that it's probably worth considering her as a suspect. It wouldn't be the first time for her to have done dangerous and risky things in order to accomplish some sort of obscure goal or for showing her consideration : it's like when she spread a literal doomsday urban legend in FS or pretty much gave Kosuzu the extra push towards Youkaiification (whatever you call the process) in FS, or other stuff that she's done in the past like her Lunarian-provoking actions in SSiB for her goals there ... she takes big risks but it's generally fine cuz they won't come to fruition by means of interruption by the protagonists most of the time.

Imo, it's possible Yukari's aware of Miss Miyadeguchi's circumstances and whatever's going on in this manga is mainly possible because of some considerations she's showing for her. If there really happens to be an accomplice and if it turns out to be Yukari, I could see her sticking Miss Miyadeguchi on Marisa partly because she's Reimu's bestie or something

At any rate, this is the first time where Miss Miyadeguchi actually deals some real damage to the Hakurei Shrine, what's with it actually getting demolished. We've been told for the longest time that Reimu is the vengeful spirit's target, but it hasn't directly harmed her in the slightest for the longest time. It's a shame we don't get told what she's aiming for with this stunt, but then again, what does the Hakurei Shrine getting wrecked means ? Why, renovations of course. And quite possibly add one or two new things around. Curious to see if the eventual rebuildingof the Shrine will have suspicious additions that would allow Miss Miyadeguchi to haunt it for a while ; or if there is an immediate goal that can be reached with its destruction

Also curious to see if Marisa's gonna come into play again, and if so, with what kind of role, cuz she's been completely absent this arc. Possessions aside, there's no reason for her to outright collab with an unknown evil stranger, but I could see her getting directions from an acquaintance that's working with said evil stranger.



Minor notes :
- Yamame being ... very competent ? Tbh I think it would have been hilarious if she actually got one shot in the previous chapter but oh well
- Also noticed after previous chapter reread, but Yamame's pupils looks like spiders when she means business back there
- Reimu fun time despite that delicious poison plus super radiation combo, not to mention hell's miasma, also no scar from previous scratch : she's no human, she's a freaking machine
- Yuugi and SDM crew still not coming into play ?

I also wonder if we're gonna get back to some previous plot points(?) / oddities such as Alice's circumstances or the thing that happened with Hatate's not-internet.

[Suspicious person]

Chapter 38's been out for a bit, with a completely out of left field reveal and a more shocking development

The accomplice who secretely assisted Miss Miyadeguchi actually turned out to be Suika who, together with Yuugi, broke the restriction of the Underworld to help vengeful ghost girl to get out. Now as someone who hasn't made an appearance in this manga, her suddenly coming into the picture in such a manner is just completely weird and unexpected for me : as far as this manga goes, I think that does NOT reward people who kinda try to deduct what is happening as she hasn't been teased in any way whatsoever in this manga. It probably has intersting implications for Touhou fans who follow this manga, but for randos who potentially stumbled here and try to appreciate this manga for what it is, it's probably just super weird. Going by this manga being primarily a manga made for Touhou fans (who should be expected to know lore and stuff), I am willing to give it a "*shrug* why not ?" and assume that Suika and her exceptionnal intelligence gathering capabilities + connection to hell are what was behind Miss Miyadeguchi being pretty updated on the current stuff going on in Gensokyo despite having been in Hell for all her lifetime afterlifetime (assuming that Suika didn't just start helping Miss Miyadeguchi after she got sealed but before too)

Additional considerations can be made due to the fact that she's a youkai, not unlike those that were targeted by Miss Miyadeguchi, and can be said to have a rather favorable relationship with the Hakurei Shrine and Yukari : why would she ruin the putting-the-bad-guy-in-jail-and-then-beat-her-up-there operation that Reimu and Yukari's got going on ? And how did she get involved with Miss Miyadeguchi ? Also Miss Miyadeguchi's face when they say Suika looks more like a "huh." than a "heh !", kinda makes me wonder if she knew she had an outside helper.

Anyway, back to our favorite(?) vengeful spirit, since Yuugi pretty much sided with her out of pity (presumably), similar reason could be why Suika would back her up too. So whatever backstory she's gonna have, I really hope ZUN's gonna be able to make something really poignant. Like, she's been Hakurei Shrinemaidening for a while but had to go cuz of outdated values not fitting for the future direction Gensokyo was to take or something PLUS extra flavor. I'm not super confident in ZUN's ability at telling sad and griping stuff so, uh, I hope he's at least gonna make something that'll make me go like "wooooow, that's dirty, they did her bad" or something

Personally, I'm still slightly hanging on the possibility of Yukari having played a hand in Miss Miyadeguchi getting freed up still, not only cuz of previous irregulaities in PCB arc, but also because of her connection with Suika (whose motivation for getting involved is currently unsure as someone who really don't strike as a hero of justice, avenger of the wronged) : could it be possible that Yukari got Suika to get involved with Miss Miyadeguchi ? I also find it very suspicious that somehow, Yukari also got Reimu away from her Shrine on a relatively dangerous mission AND just about miss Miss Miyadeguchi as she does some reckless stuff on the surface : the Hakurei Shrine getting wasted plus the mountain going boom is such a big gaffe from her part that I kinda wonder if there's a bigger meaning behind her the Reimu - Miyadeguchi faceoff to be delayed AND Reimu SOMEHOW being isolated from the action at a critical time ...

As for the mountain going boom, honestly, it's a development that I never expected to happen, especially not in a manga : it's a pretty old part of the setting (BaiJR prolly) and supposedly under the control of Suwako, so I didn't really expect it being mentionned much earlier in the manga to be of importance. Pretty much nothing important besides the tengus joining the investigation happen during the MoF arc anyway, so the eruption kinda suggests that whatever she did at that time may be related to facilitating what's going on right now.

Now regarding Miss Miyadeguchi's actions through this series, this is obviously a much higher escalation. I personally believe that she pulled an ABC murder style approach in this manga, and her going in order of incident causers really was to justify her going to the mountain to pull out this feat. For what purpose ? Is there some secret in the mountains ? That remains to be seen ...

Anyway, with all the happenings aside, there still remains a bunch of oddities that I'm not sure are gonna get reexplored :
- Why did she KO Alice, if she is pretty much secluded and have little bearing to her endgame (of which the eruption is presumably part of)
- What shocked Hatate ?
- Why is Suika part of all this ?
Plus we're still waiting for the SDM crew to make their move, and we also gotta wait to see if we're gonna have everybody vs Miss Miyadeguchi or Miss Miyadeguchi AND a bunch of allies (such as Yuugi and Suika vs the gang)

All in all, a chapter that doesn't tell a lot BUT with potentially massive implications, considering the fact that we have a former Hakurei no Miko and a freaking volcano ERUPTION, which easily clears 90% of previous incidents in terms of dangerousness.

Also Satori's relevance seem pretty minuscule as we go forward in the series, poor baby girl



Minor takeaways :
- Sanae's Kanako, uh, boob grab ? I've always felt that Kanako has, as the cool kidz say, such a negative rizz that I feel that giving her a playable role or even trying to sexualize her still don't help her image in the eyes of the community
- Marisa's complete absence in this arc, kinda weird considering how she keep forcefully sticking her nose in all of the previous ones

[Roashiki]

No lore this chapter but we did get to see the kappa mob again and was treated to the rematch of utsuho vs reimu.

[Suspicious person]

What are the odds of Yukari bringing Reimu and Okuu to the surface, I wonder ? Especially since her bringing Reimu down there has got to have contributed to the collapse of the underworld's seal

Also feels like the eruption actually coming from the Geyser center instead of the mountain  allows much room for an easier scaling down. Despite the massive break-in later in the chapter, I kinda feel that having some clear targets to beat up feels a bit more reassuring than dealing with a proper natural disaster

This newer chapter 39 of Sidelines Observer Satori serms to be shaping things up into a Surface people Vs Underground dwellers, and might possibly work as a proper illustration of SA's worse-ish scenario had it come to pass



Minor takeaways :
-Kawaii uguu ~☆ Kappa returns
-Reimu still basking in that radioactive everything while Marisa is told to keep out, a bad day for the pro Marisa powerscaling agenda
-Kinda wonder if other previous victims are also going to come back to get a piece of that action (especially Alice, c'mon fo something)
-All the recent escalations yet we're at the 9th chapter of the SA arc, and we still have Miss Miyadeguchi's story and motivations, Suika and Yuugi, the recent geyser issue + eruption's resolution, plus Satori having to do something (among others) to think about. Either these are gonna happen in a newer arc, or this SA arc is gonna be a super long (albeit more interesting) arc

[kapmin]

I like that the kappa mob continue to be relevant in the manga, makes the series feel more alive.

Give me back the WaHH trio tho...

[Roashiki]

Not much to talk about again this chapter but I did enjoy seeing the absurd scale of okuu's attack. Are we absolutely sure okuu isn't a god?

[Suspicious person]

The new chapter 40 giving Miss Miyadeguchi a new title is kinda suspicious since she's already had one before. In universe she's called the Eternal Criminal (not a title), the Jailbreak King (back in her intro chapter), and now Casuality of the Great Barrier. Kinda interesting cuz unlike the Various Kasens, it's not like she's transformed or anything. But at any rate title are either for flavor most of the time, or a bit descriptive of what / who such or such person is : we already know that she's got an issue with the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu, Gensokyo, and is not a super big fan of the Youkai filth, but directly mentioning the Barrier as something related to her surprise early retirement is pretty interesting (like, is the first title for her as a vengeful spirit while the 2nd one is for her as a Hakurei no Miko ?)

Like, what's her relationship towards it ? Is it something she cares about or not ? If yes, then is her grudge towards Reimu due to Reimu not doing a good job towards it, or if no, is it because it actually turned out to benefit the youkai that she's enemies with and she got pushed out of the way despite her good services ? I think it would be interesting and make her grudge more personnal if she turned out to have played a big and direct role in the creation of the Barrier : imagine your creation getting perverted to serve the interests of your mortal enemies : that would be a twist.

At any rate, regarding the chapter 40, dunno how it is for everyone else, but some of the action is not very clear to me : is the black storm thingy spewing oil from which vengeful spirits spawns ? Did Okuu's big attack wipe the black storm plus a respectable chunk of the invaders ? Plus I can't quite understand the scale + effect of the attack : Reimu just had a short chat with Marisa before going back in : did they get far enough for the explosion's aoe damage not to reach Marisa and friends ? Cuz depending on how things went, I feel like the escalation from the previous chapters might have gotten handled right there.

And back to the action, while I MUCH appreciate a shounen-y approach instead of the usual (like, DECADE kind of usual) slice of life approach, we don't really have a power system or a even power scale to base the action around of : in game, the player uses a combination of strategy and skill to get by, but it's a bit different here. We don't see why Utsuho would decide to go for a self-harming attack instead of keeping at Reimu like how she previously did ; we don't know what's Reimu's plan to deal with Okuu instead, she just keeps going at her (what would she have done if Yukari didn't chip in an gave her a barrier ?) ; we can't really be sure about where the girls bottom line lies : how much punishment can they endure or deal. While it's nice that we have proper action sequences, I feel like the lack of instropection or planning from the girls make them not so much clever, and its a lot of flashiness and less substance. I hope Miss Miyadeguchi is gonna be defeated because of something pretty deliberate from the main girls, not just because of getting overpowered by the heroines. I don't want the bad guy to lose because the plot has decided that she loses in order to progress, I want her to lose because of a deliberate set of choices / strategy from the main girls (especially Satori, c'mon you can do it)

And about Miss Miyadeguchi's action, this one kinda weirded me a bit. On a surface level, possessing Okuu gives her a MASSIVE firepower boost and make her a dangerous threat towards Gensokyo, but past that, I think there are some considerations to be made : there WERE more opportunities to go after Reimu (with the element of surprise) before, but she hasn't. So why now, with Okuu ? Was she waiting for her to be weakened ? Or to use her firepower to deal REAL damage to Gensokyo ? Or is there some bigger purpose ? She has already possessed Sakuya and Yukari before, if the main idea was to get a powerful possessed person to fight Reimu with then it's just weird that she'd do so now instead of then.

And still on the topic of possession, in the MoF arc, we've seen Miss Miyadeguchi struggle with electronics cuz possessing Nitori didn't give her Nitori's expertise, while in the UFO arc, one of the main idea was that forcing a fight would allow to check people who don't correctly use their abilities in battle : so, possession clearly doesn't give all the faculties of the possessed : so regarding Okuu's possession, what's the main idea ? Cuz if she's suddenly super proficient with her big boom related abilities, it pretty much take away from established vengeful spirit possession mechanism lore we're told by this manga : I hope ZUN's not gonna throw these away for the sake of a big battle, and that there'll be a bigger meaning behind Okuu's possession.



No real takeaways besides Satori's ability being used to skip dialogue cuz straighforward action chapter, but I've seen some people referring to the Kawaii uguu ~☆ Kappa from before as Fani-chan, how do we feel about this nickname, gentlemen ? Cuz it's been a long time since an unnamed character got a fan nickname so it's something that might be worthy of consideration

[Suspicious person]

New chapter 41 out

Straight up hands chapter

But before that, personally,  if all the guys I've had issues with previously but am relatively cool with now magically got socked in the jaw successively, I'd assume it would have been done by a secret admirer of mine of the maniacal variety (who really wanted to see the job done) rather than someone who secretly wishes harm upon me.

Point is, with Miss Miyadeguchi's endgame apparently being about scaring Reimu, I'm a bit weirded out by her choosing to go after vague acquaintances of Reimu instead of doing something else : not only are the incident-related people mostly Youkai, but they are also not exactly her best buds. Besides, it's not like Reimu is the only one who met these people in that previous order, there's Marisa too, how would Reimu assume that the targeting of previous incident causers is about sending a message to her if there is another person involved in those same sequence of incidents ? It'd be more reasonable to think that this is targeting incident resolvers, not Reimu specifically. In fact, Reimu only got scared because super smart people who have some knowledge about the culprit told her that she is the target, not because Reimu figured it out for herself : as such, the vengeful spirit's let's-scare-Reimu-operation is not very well thought out. I find the lack of a greater goal besides the scaring of Reimu a bit disappointing (despite all the time spent in previous arcs), considering all that. Kinda expected her to be a bit of a mastermind considering how she outsmarted Yukari and freaking Eirin previously (fraud list needs update maybe ?) ...

I'm OK with her nature as a vengeful spirit leading her to torment Reimu, but at the same time, her modus operandi is too hectic and does not necessarily makes sense : first of, she couldn't bear a grudge against Reimu specifically as she couldn't have been born at the time she was wronged (backstory incoming for proper explanation) ; second, current Reimu can't be said to be as afraid as she was at the end of PCB arc, as she literally dares to charge into Hell to look for a confrontation, so there's some backpedalling regarding Miss Miyadeguchi's previous goal of scaring Reimu ; third, Reimu is literally the Hakurei no Miko, you CANNOT guarantee a victory against her (not to mention she's fighting Reimu through possession : if Utsuho with full faculties doesn't fold Reimu, how would a possessed Utsuho that doesn't fully uses her abilities be able to ? (only brute force and hand-cannon fire, no sun generation)) ; fourth and finally, her plans have already been thwarted after being sent to the Underworld : not only could she already not follow the order of incidents under secrecy anymore as she gets more and more exposed the more she keeps going, but her return to the surface is only owed to the goodwill of others (Suika and Yuugi) rather than her own abilities. This means that she never had the ability to fullfill her grudges by herself in the first place, so I'm *still* secretly hoping that there is a bigger meaning and bigger objective besides harassing Reimu here (her current achievements would be leveling the shrine and facilitating a massive vengeful spirit break-in)

As for the big happening in this chapter 41, namely vengeful spirit form / grudge Reimu, we already have people who gets youkaified by means of exposure to constant youkai energy (like Ichirin), people using various kind of energy (occcult, seasonal, trance, even beast spirits) to empower themselves, and even a time in AoCF where Reimu's spiritual power massively surged during her fight with Shion. Empowering oneself with vengeful spirit's energy therefore fall in lines with previous usage of various kind of energy, but for this manga in particular, I feel like it's introduction is rather bizarre : the only vengeful spirit lore we get in this manga is that they can possess a bunch of things and generally drain the magic power (+ stamina) of those of the magical variety : now it gives her massive power ? Don't really wanna be an armchair author, but I kinda wonder if there's a way to properly preface it before this chapter, as it gives a proper meaning to gathering the attention of vengeful spirits from the previous chapters's fights.

And speaking of fights, I'm unimpressed by Reimu's overall performance for this manga : she curbstomps trash mobs, but just relies on brute force most of the time : no barrier techniques, no gap abilities, no divine arts, just brute force and luck (she literally got bailed by Yukari previously) ? AND gets a SCRATCH from LiterallywHu Yamame ?! : and now she needs the evil version of the popularity system to get an upper hand ?!!!! Sorry, but she gotta try a bit harder than that.

The main thing I'm looking forward to next is the long-overdue backstory of Miss Miyadeguchi, the introduction of which seems kinda awkward to me : it's pretty normal for battle or action mangas to give the backstory while the action is not over in order to give some sort of emotional stake in the story, plus a cathartic ends when the big finisher arrives, but here Miss Miyadeguchi's possessed body already got whacked, and she's pretty much doing it to get the sympathy of the vengeful spirit audience. A bit weird. Is it to justify a proper round 2 with an empowered version of herself ? Plus we also need closure for Yuugi, Suika, the SDM crew wanting in and probably Satori.

And I feel like I have a vague idea of Miss Miyadeguchi's backstory at this point anyways, but I'm still curious to see how ZUN is gonna handle it. I've always felt like ZUN is on the timid side as far as being an authour goes, so I'd like to see if he can make me feel sympathy for Miss Miyadeguchi when she was still alive. More importantly, we're gonna get a design for her when she was still alive, with legs and feet (not a fetish guy but this is important) BUT potentially in a Hakurei Shrine outfit, so there's also that to look forward to.



No real takeaways besides Satori's ability really showing its limits : "Can't see it properly at this range" ?, alright man, can we disable her ability with a flashbang or smokescreen next ? Boy are these Satori stocks going down ...

[Roashiki]

Chapter 42 is out and oh my goodness. It's not translated yet but mizuchi's past is told and it's dark, probably the darkest touhou chapter in history. All I can say is that yea mizuchi is well within her right to be mad, hell I'll say that it was unfair to even send her to hell in the first place.

[Suspicious person]

This chapter 42 finally clarifies the gist of her grudge + possibly why Suika is helping her : she's was an extermination specialist (that gave away her humanity, but we'll get back to that later) affiliated to the Hakurei Shrine (as the Miyadeguchi family served under them) that fell to the youkai scum. Also kinda expected her to be a Hakurei no Miko proper rather than a random miko affiliated to the Shrine, but that's more of the same.

The most unexpected and interesting part to me was the fact Miss Miyadeguchi was actually a Jinyou, a human who became a youkai, AND even partook in attacks on human : meaning that she switched sides, from humanity to the youkai one. Furthermore, her transformation from human to youkai was not just motivated by self preservation, but also by some ideal related to how the relationship between youkai and humans (particularly the extermination specialists) was to be (an ideal that she may have shared with Suika). Unfortunately we don't get insight into what she thinks of youkai in this chapter plus the additional explanation (besides survival) for why she'd become a youkai.

The problem, however, is that after her death the world didn't quite progress in the way that she might have hoped for : the Hakurei Shrine (and the Miyadeguchi family under its service) decided to side with the youkai. Nowadays we know that youkai would have pretty much disappeared due to science's progress, while the necessity to keep some humans alive means that they can't properly use their power and slowly lose that too : so the Hakurei Shrine's intervention was definitely VERY favorable towards youkai's continued existence, while the current setting's incident management just keep them strong and doesn't feature proper exterminations (Reimu / the Hakurei Shrine basically keeps them around)

This presents a pretty unusual view of the setting, where its presented that the Hakurei Shrine is le bad, as Miss Miyadeguchi pretty much call them traitors towards humanity (even roped her family into that). The interesting thing to me lies in the fact that Miss Miyadeguchi HAS betrayed humanity herself (for self preservation and additional unclarified human-youkai relationship related reasons) : what is her point of contention against the Shrine siding with youkai ? And what is the world of youkai that she and Suika hoped for before the Hakurei shrine gone and done it ? Cuz strictly speaking, current Gensokyo is pretty much a haven for the youkai and is relatively safe for its native human population, despite the humans living in far inferior conditions when compared to the outside world AND even having the youkai scum infiltrating their society at every level : there a suspicious kind of peace, but humans definitely have the short end of the stick.

So imo, she's probably super pissed cuz not only she pretty much died for nothing BUT also because her "side" of the conflict sided with the youkai instead and benefited them greatly even in current setting touhou : even nowadays "youkai extermination" can be considered to be a farce. Reimu bears the brunt of her grudge cuz aside from the whatever previous disagreeable reasons there may be, Reimu IS the current face of Hakurei Shrine AND even plays a hand in what angers Miss Miyadeguchi cuz she sanctionned the spell card rules ... Presented like this, it makes more sense why she targets Reimu and follow the order of incidents that follow the spellcard rules in their resolution ...

As far as the human-youkai relationship goes, FS illustrates it best, and it suddenly appearing in this manga this late doesn't really allow it to be properly fleshed out in this particular manga. However, FS is more modern setting, while Miss Miyadeguchi's days and worldview is about a century or so earlier. So I'm a bit bummed that we only get this SUPER late, and don't even get to see what exactly is the world with youkai that Suika and Miss Miyadeguchi envisionned (or Miss Miyadeguchi's second reason to give up her humanity).

If we go back to the VERY old part of the setting regarding the start of Gensokyo, we have a land haunted by youkai as well as verious extermination specialists that gathered there (and eventually settle the place). IF there was neither Hakurei barrier nor the current arrangements regarding human village and youkai, the youkai would have eventually disappeared : bit of a speculation, but maybe the extermination specialists understood that they'll fall into complete irrelevance and into obscurity once the youkai are gone and decided to take action in order to secure their prosperity too (would suck to be left in some godforsaken woods once the job is done while the rest of the world move on).

And another additional speculation regarded to the balnce between powers here, but regarding Jinyous in general, surely the reason why their existence is a massive threat towards Gensokyo is because it means one less humans AND another enemy of humanity on one side (would still need to farm fear of their own, as seen in Miss Miyadeguchi having attacked humans despite decidedly being on their side, while also presenting an alternative towards living in fear of the youkai for the humans AND less humans to farm fear of : if transforming into Jinyou was presented as a proper option to the wider public, the human society could probably collapse (as just any of your neighboor could become a hostile monster), while the youkai could lose their control overthe humans as well as the fear they need (as becoming a youkai may become cool, they become less scary). Not to mention the increase of power Jinyou gets + the uncertainty of their agendas : what will they do ? even Miss Miyadeguchi herself was evidently pro human despite attacking them occasionally. Dunno if the potential forJinyous have something to do with Miss Miyadeguchi's view, but it wouldn't be surprising considering how she rejects the current state of things.

So yeah, all in all, a pretty interesting chapter if you read a bit into it. When I saw that she was actually a human turned youkai, I was like "wait a minute, isn't there a MORE interesting story to tell here ?!!!" Cuz aside from being acquainted with Suika early on and turning into a youkai on her suggestion, I feel like her end is not as interesting (cynical, I know) as what her life, ideals, and motivations that led her to become a Jinyou would be. Also VERY disappointed that the first time we get to view a proper Gensokyo backstory, it's just a few dialogue scenes tbqh.

Anyway, the ending of the chapter 42 shows Reimu doing quite a bit of thinking regarding Miss Miyadeguchi's circumstances and resentment. I quite like the usual depiction of Reimu where she's insensitive, cynical and pretty much cold hearted (FS Reimu superior), but I'm quite open to seeing a human side as well. Like ... is she feeling *gurgle* pity here ?! A bit weak for the crimson slasher but sure why not. What is she gonna do next chapter ? Whoop Miss Miyadeguchi's butt into the afterlife and be done with it ? Or have some kind of heart to heart conversation about current state of things ? Cuz after all, this is still touhou, and we have NEVER seen a 2hu removed from the setting (nor will we ever). Whatever's gonna happen next, imo we'll have the grudge towards Reimu significantly scaled down, but she'll still hold a bit towards Hakurei Shrine to keep existing (a bit like Tojiko).

Also things look like they're coming to a close, but we still haven't seen the SDM crew make a move, and the same goes for Yuugi and Suika (I hope their role is not just gonna be to open a hole and that's it), AND we still need a certain title character to do something.



Minor takeaways :
- An additional title for Miss Miyadeguchi "Traitorous human-youkai shrine maiden", making her the most titled character to appear in one work
- First bunch of youkai who actually eat a humanish person, also very poor table manners
- Jinyou having a 100% fatality rate (2 for 2) now, making it the most lethal race to be in the series
- Actually still don't know what Miss Miyadeguchi's abillity is, huh
- A single line of dialogue for Miss Satori