TOUHOU PROJECT

Why Utsuho?

she's silly. and badass. she sorta represents my inner chuunibyou in that way. i like that even though she's a little ditzy, she still works a whole ass job and knows what's important to her.

i also find it very interesting that through the whole main dialogue of subterranean animism you probably wouldn't have guessed that she's supposed to be "the dumb one" - like, she was just purely malicious! not to mention she's actually very knowledgable about nuclear energy and does her shit WELL. to me, she has the same silliness as every other touhou character! She's about as dumb as marisa tbh!!! but that's just my take ^^; i've learned to tolerate the flanderization enough, since really touhou is an ever-changing creature

Hell Raven?

one would think that the name "hell raven" 100% came from her, but the truth is the name "raven" for me came from an old OC that i created when i was quite young (maybe around the age of 8). the "hell" part did actually come from utsuho though. i mean, i guess i Always Liked Ravens so naturally i'd gravitate towards a "raven" character. i don't have an especially deep reason for liking her and making her the basis for my online presence, she's just kinda neat i guess.

yuuka

Yuuka "Fucking Awesome" Kazami is mysterious for many reasons but the important part is that she's cool.

she won the idgaf war in basically every feasible way. fights you in her honk shoo-ass pajamas and takes up 2 entire stages. shows up during mystic square literally because she's bored and wants to go to makai. gets isekai'd into kioh gyoku without explanation just to say shit like "What beautiful weather. Perfect for napping". survives the windows era reboot just so she can go look at some flowers. she literally could not care less about anything and she's one of the most powerful characters. Truly admirable.

in order, here is how i would rank her themes:

1. faint dream ~ inanimate dream
2. lovely mound of cherry blossoms ~ flower of japan
3. gensokyo, past and present ~ flower land
4. sleeping terror

No hate to sleeping terror.. in fact, i actually used to sorta not like gensokyo past and present. i think at first i thought it might have been too "boring" especially for a character like yuuka, but when i started grinding the fuck out of PoFV it grew on me a lot. i'll admit though the key change carries my opinion pretty hard. it might be surprising to see someone regard lovely mound that highly, but once you realize i'm also a big seihou fan you'll be like "no yeah that tracks". its just very beautiful, what more can i say? that woodwind-like instrument that kicks in at the chorus part is just lovely. faint dream requires no commentary because its just fucking awesome. maybe i feel this way because the actual fight itself is really hype and it definitely matches the energy of the song. peak pc98 boss music right there

reisen

she's an obvious favorite because shes a bunny and shes Purple.

i believe she was actually my *second* favorite when i was first getting into touhou, my first being sakuya. for some odd reason, reisen as a character feels oddly real to me, as in i believe she's actually pretty complex. lunarians and their history are such an odd part of touhou's worldbuilding because of how it directly relates to the outside world, but it makes for some damn good tragic writing. imperishable night really did feel like the early-windows "magnum opus", right? it's rightfully praised a ton as one of the most popular entries in the series, but even so it still feels like words fail to convey just how much it contributed to the setting and characters. taking all of that into account, i think reisen as a character is basically the perfect balance between serious and lighthearted. i can't help but smile when i think about how she found a perfect home in gensokyo with the eientei gang. she might be eirin's errand boy, but it's also very clear that eirin respects her dignity and personhood separate from her previous identity on the moon (definitely evident by the fact shes the only one who calls her Udonge). i didn't mean to make this into a whole dissection of her character, but i just thought it was interesting.

invisible full moon is also such a vibe. i used to rag on it because of how repetitive it was, but maybe the repetition was kind of The Point (with her ability and all). i will never get tired of hearing that chorus kick in with the electric guitar. it's just such a fitting song for her, it's both beautiful and powerful.

mai

i don't actually hate her despite her always being at the bottom of my lists LOL. the "i hate mai" bit came from when i was playing mystic square for the first time and mai said something mean about yuki (Called her a deadweight), so i was like "RUDE!!!!!" so.. that's basically it, its just a silly joke

as Mai's #1 Hater i have to say. i fucking love treacherous maiden ~ judas kiss. i like it a lot more than crimson dead actually, but both themes mirror each other in such a cool way i think. the melodies are structured somewhat similarly, which gives off the feeling of being two parts of a whole. cool, right?

if you're talking about characters that i like a considerably less amount than the others, just look at the three fairies. not that i have anything against them, it's just that when i see them i get the urge to yell "get off of my lawn!!" at them. except for maybe luna. hm maybe this is not the best thing to put in The Mai Section. but the chaos is fun i suppose