Lesser Known Touhou Girls

[@Plus9Attack]

After editing i’ve noticed that a lot of touhou girls just don't have shoes on… What did Zun mean by this? Here is the link to my Nemuno Cleaver: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3140822003

[@CubeKnot]

Most Touhou girls use flight as their main or only mode of transportation, so they don't have to wear shoes (and shoes inside buildings are usually "illegal" in Japan). Notable exceptions include characters whose influence is Western (eg. Marisa, Alice, Remilia, Sakuya) who all wear very western shoes and characters who naturally spend a lot of time outside and on the ground (eg. Mokou, the Aki Sisters, Nitori) who will wear shoes appropriate for the occasion. Also, characters who appear in a lot of games tend to have different outfits that sometimes reflect what they were doing before the events of the game or how much time they had to prepare for it, eg. Yukari; who is sometimes in her battle gear and sometimes in her PJs. The shoeless state of some characters may be because you just defeated their guards, broke into their house, and are now demanding answers on the current incident. You know, classic Gensokyo doings.

[@Plus9Attack]

im glad you are this passionate. i was just making a foot fetish joke LOL

[@CubeKnot]

@@Plus9Attack Lol, I figured! The whole shoes/no shoes thing was actually something that stuck out to me when I first got into Touhou, so I thought I'd elucidate for anyone who was curious. Cool video, btw!

[@Plus9Attack]

keep it up! more people need to have this kind of passion for touhou

[@fumo-fumo-fumo]

2hu feet 2hu feet 2hu feet 2hu feet 2hu feet 2hu feet

[@rage3888]

Characters like Nemuno and Letty always seem to stick out with me. I love those lesser known characters

[@Plus9Attack]

i wish people made more things with Letty, i love her theme and design

[@a_soulspark]

4:26 I love you saying "I forget the names of these two constantly" while Satono's name has a typo on it. if this was intentional it's genius lol

[@Plus9Attack]

it wasn't LOL i can't believe i didn't catch that, but we'll say it was for comedic effect :)

[@lemskull602]

Forgotten girls but Letty not even mentioned only showed blurred. Funny and sad at the same time

[@Plus9Attack]

sometimes i forget that Letty is lesser known. i love Letty and her theme

[@sheepcommander_]

I know Letty only from Cirno memes and from twitter accounts

[@angrysunflower222]

Well, i was thinking of a touhou fanwork with Nemuno as the main character. It's...basically Madness Combat with touhou characters.

[@Plus9Attack]

that would be sick

[@sheepcommander_]

more madness combat overlap pls

[@gsunfoxes]

Oh boy, a video covering less popular touhou characters? This is my time to shine, as a big fan of characters who people tend to overlook at first. (So uh, i wrote a super long comment talking about all these characters and why i find them cool, but youtube is not letting me post it because its too long, so i'll split it up into two comments, hopefully you dont mind) I think Minoriko and Shizuha are a pretty fun duo when you look more into their appearances in other official works. Minoriko is the more energetic and cheerful one of the two, representing the bountiful harvests of autumn, while Shizuha is pessimistic and quiet. In Grimoire of Usami, (Where many of the characters throughout the series show up and have their spellcards rated by the protagonists) both of them get to show off one of their spellcards each. Minoriko shows up with baked potatoes for all the judges (Which is actually part of her spellcard! She shoots baked potatoes at you!) while Shizuha introduces her spellcard with a very over the top melancholic and poetic explanation that the judges find annoying I think this dynamic of Minoriko who's like a cheerful farmer and Shizuha who's a melancholic artist makes them really memorable. I really like how in Mountain of Faith theyre sort of the opposite of Kanako and Suwako, where the Akis are just two small gods of autumn just barely scraping by, but close with the humans of the village, as opposed to Kanako who's very business focused and keeps coming up with big new schemes to bring the Moriya Shrine more faith and success. I have much less to say about Kisume, since she's purely a midboss with no real connection to other characters and very little info from her profile, and she's never gotten any dialogue before. What we do know of her is pretty funny though, cause everything points to her being a really fearsome youkai. She appears in an article in Symposium of Post Mysticism where its said she cackled and threw bones at children who went to see a well which reportedly had human remains in it. ZUN himself has said that his only view of her is that she's pretty brutal. "Words are useless against her; she'd just chop your head off, put it in her bucket, and go home." He even says the head in Kisume's portrait might not even be her own. It's funny that in some fanworks, she's portrayed as very shy and quiet (looking at you, LostWord) while in official works everything we know about her suggests that she's pretty ruthless. For the Tsukumo sisters, i think some other people could say a lot more since ive seen some very dedicated fans for them, but i'll try my best here cause i think theyre cool as well. Benben and Yatsuhashi are tsukumogami born from an old biwa and koto respectively, and they were born because of the power of Shinmyoumaru's miracle mallet, that also caused other youkai in gensokyo who usually stayed quiet to go berserk. When they woke up, they immediately had the grand goal of creating a utopia for their fellow tsukumogami, due to the Miracle Mallet's power still influencing them. But after the incident is resolved and the Miracle Mallet loses its power again, the two of them start to worry about what will happen to them as their youkai forms were powered by the Mallet, and without it they'd soon return to being just regular instruments again. This is where Raiko, another tsukumogami, showed them how to find new instruments to inhabit and draw power from, from the outside world. What i personally like about these two is how they arent actually related by blood, as stated in their profiles: "Benben plays the part of the cool, grown-up older sister, and Yatsuhashi plays the part of the hot-blooded, reckless younger sister. They're said to be sisters, but it's just because they became tsukumogami at the same time. They're not blood relatives." I think theres a lot of potential for fanworks to dive deeper into their familial bond with eachother, so its kind of sad that they're this unpopular.

[@gsunfoxes]

Now, all the Hidden Star in Four Seasons characters. I think you already described what makes the backup dancers interesting, so im gonna skip over them, even though i could probably say something about their personalities and how theyre distinct from eachother, but this comment is already getting super long lmao Narumi though, i have a lot to say about her, cause i think she's extremely underappreciated and she's so fun every time she appears. Like you said, she's a jizo statue from the forest of magic that came to life and became a magician due to the magical power in the forest, and her magic focuses on controlling life. Marisa was even friends with her before the events of the game! Also, about how you'd like her to be portrayed with Eika more with fanworks, theres actually even more canon basis for this now! In Hundredth Black Market, Narumi appears on the Sai no Kawara stage (the riverbed of the sanzu river, where the stillborn spirits like Eika are forced to stay) and in Marisa's comment on her, she says that Narumi works there sometimes and is tasked with making sure the stone towers the children make dont fall over. She seems like a very nice and polite person at first, who's also a bit introverted and withdrawn as well, as she just prefers to stay at home most of the time instead of going out to investigate incidents. But sometimes she has these silly moments where she does something unexpected, like when she shows up at Kourindou in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, and asks if Sumireko's for sale "I know you only ever sell useless junk from the Outside World here, but now you've got an Outside World HUMAN in stock? So, how much are you asking?" She's also in Grimoire of Usami, where she almost sets fire to the entire audience as she shows off her spellcards. One of her spellcards, by the way, is "Magic Sign "Gigantic Pet Bullet Lifeform"" where a giant fireball flies around and flings more, smaller fireballs at you. her comment for it is: "Everyone's working so hard to shoot their own bullets, huh? Haven't they ever heard of "work smarter, not harder"? The bullets I shoot are all living beings. Prepare to be surprised by my cute little pet giant fireball! I'm sure you'll all fall in love with her cuteness!" She says as Reimu and Marisa start to get more and more concerned about the safety of the audience members (Nobody was hurt in the end, though) I really like Narumi, she's so much fun whenever she shows up and theres a lot you could do with her in fanworks, either having her interact with the other magicians of the forest of magic or Eika and the stillborn spirits of Sai no Kawara. I think its mostly a shame that she isn't very often included as part of the magician group (Marisa, Patchouli and Alice) in fanworks, she's a magician as well! Nemuno! Funny cleaver wielding mountain grandma! I think Nemuno is interesting for how there's a lot more to her than at first glance. She's a yamanba, a reclusive species of youkai that barely has any contact with other youkai, or even other of their own kind. She's even got a deal with the tengu that says that tengu aren't allowed to enter her territory. The people of the human village assume that whenever someone goes missing in the mountains, that it's the work of Yamanba murdering them somehow. Many of Nemuno's spells also reference this in their names, and i mean pretty much most of her attacks involve her throwing hundreds of knives at you. She seems like a pretty scary youkai, but if you look a bit closer, she actually has a very kind side to her as well. The human villagers may believe the Yamanba kill anyone who enters their territory, no questions asked, but her profile states that they actually just send people back with a warning, and if they encounter lost children, they'll raise them to be upstanding members of society. This is reflected in her design in a kind of cool way, i think. She wears what appears to be tattered rags, but what looks to be tatters in the cloth are actually carefully cut designs, kinda like how at first she appears to be a terrifying murderous youkai, but that theres actually a kind and human-like part to her. This is where i'd end my rambling about Nemuno, but thanks to the newest game, Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, theres actually a bit more to say about her! This is because one of the new characters, Son Biten. Biten's design is very similar to Nemuno's with the same kind of cloths with cut patterns in them. This is because Biten awakened as a sarugami in The Sanctuary/Sacred Grounds, which is where the yamanba live (this also seems to have been hinted at with Nemuno's ability being to create sanctuaries) Seiran, the moon rabbit, also says that the Sanctuary can be used as a passageway to the Lunar Capital (And she says that this is the reason for it being called a sacred ground) which is really interesting. Whether Biten knows Nemuno specifically, or if the clothes she wears are just the type of clothing most yamanba wear, is unclear. But it does give us just a little but more to speculate about with Nemuno and i think thats super cool! Ok. Last character. I promise this comment is almost over i just have a lot to say lmao She may seem like just a regular butterfly fairy, but theres some things hidden under the surface (bit of a recurring theme with all these characters, huh?) that i find very interesting. She's not just a butterfly fairy, but a fairy that represents every stage of butterflies, so in a way she embodies growth, rebirth and metamorphosis. In Cirno's extra stage in Hidden Star in Four Seasons, Okina speculates that Eternity may be an enemy of hers, Tokoyo no Kami. And now i dont know enough about to properly explain, but basically it was a god worshipped by a cult in Ancient Japan, and this cult was brought to an end by Hata no Kawakatsu. Hata no Kawakatsu was conflated with Matara-jin, whom Okina is based on. I think its left vague if Eternity really was Tokoyo no Kami, but i think her being this unassuming butterfly fairy who may have been worshipped as the god of a cult in the past is awesome, thankfully theres some people who've done really cool fanart based on this. That ended up being pretty long, oops. I am passionate about touhou characters! I think that theres a lot more to touhou's characters than people give them credit for, like i could find this much to say about all these characters who for the most part dont appear all that much or are very important. I think they have plenty of personality and interesting traits in canon, that the best of fanworks are able to expand upon and take inspiration from, properly using the characters that dont get much time to shine in official works. Sorry for the length of this comment again lmao

[@caprob_9867]

After watching this I gotta mention Medicine Melancholy, the poor girl is rarely known even by this video

[@ItsGamein]

I see medicine in doujins and fanart all the time

[@Pudding404]

Ok, +9atk did the funny tf2 kisume meme, he earned my sub. Benben and Yatsuhashbrowns deserve love too.

[@daichungus]

I agree, more people need to recognize that all touhou girls exist for a reason other than just being another enemy to defeat. While I play the games for the sake of playing (I always skip the dialogue lol), I really did get into the fandom because of the characters, through memes. It's funny to look back when I didn't even know the popular 2hus names. But now that I'm kinda getting bored of seeing them all the time through social media, I'm interested in the far more obscure side of things, especially characters and lore. In all seriousness, this is a really good video. I really loved your EoSD 1cc guide and found it to be pretty useful (still stuck on Patchy though), and really wish there was a similar one for MoF. Thanks for prioritizing quality over quantity in this era of mass-produced KZbin. P.S. I like Hina the most, but all of the girls are good!

[@dushiido]

I can't believe for the recent upload! I've just been watching your EoSD normal 1cc guide and finally got it last week too-- so thank you for that Great video by the way! It felt pretty good that I can recognize all of them, though it's funny I could hardly distinguish Yatsuashi from Benben. I've even heard someone say that the Tsukumos are remembered for being so forgettable, which is ironic.

[@Plus9Attack]

congrats on the 1cc! No need to thank me, you did it yourself! Also its quite funny that over time how many touhou girls get remembered by not being remembered, bc i remember it being for the aki sisters way back when. I wonder who's next?

[@spaghettiking7312]

Every one of them is perfect.

[@SusScrofus]

I think that HSiFS characters are not that popular because they are supposed to be hidden. They didn't attract any attention to them before Okina gave them power.

[@pandakekok9]

Well except for Nemuno. She wasn't supposed to even be known until the protagonist just randomly trespassed her territory lol. Old hunter hag just chilling stocking up on her food thinking it's autumn

[@Koik1]

I absolutely enjoy this video good job :3 Every touhou gotta need to show love

[@_sarq]

Absolute diehard fan of kisume & eika personally, always fun seeing people acknowledge the more underrated characters. If we’re talking REAL obscure bullshit, shoutouts to all five other jacketko fans out there.

[@RhythicManRhythm]

nice vid. yatsuhashi is so very cool

[@unjustified_individual]

narumi nemuno eternity benben yatsuhashi minoriko shizuha

[@YuumasLover-Zed]

Thanks to Lost Word you will know these characters pretty well.

[@Plus9Attack]

ew lost word

[@_sarq]

Unironically agree with this, while I haven’t touched it in months, giving spotlight to really underrated characters is one thing Lost Word does surprisingly well

[@billman__1010]

It’s really weird how HSiFS has the most “meh” cast of the franchise. Like, it would’ve been a banger cast and they’d be fondly remembered had it come out during, say, around MoF era, but now they’re just awkward “there” characters.

[@Plus9Attack]

yeah its really sad, i personally really like some of designs in HSiFS but if we are comparing it to say 19, then yeah. I also think another reason might be due to HSiFS being released in a low point for touhou, as there wasn't a lot going on then

[@slycat9449]

0:46 oh easy We have big ears, hillbilly, eternity larva, benben, not benben, minestrone, and maplewise

[@Plus9Attack]

you're the only person to get it right so far

[@slycat9449]

Yippee Really though I feel like there's a ton to be said about the characters you showed, both about what makes them cool and what makes them forgettable

[@Plus9Attack]

thats touhou for you, i mainly just wanted to give something brief so people would feel more inclined to look further into these characters... and for time, don't need an hour long video for everything

[@zurtxxfridge]

wait, this got reccomended to me the second it got uploaded. omg

[@somethingelse9598]

Same

[@akliendaz6379]

I forgot narumi’s last name 😭😭😭

[@fumo-fumo-fumo]

I like the Aki sisters. Their designs ae nice.

[@Beepers559]

Honestly, I know it’s a massive pipe dream, but I really hope for bosses like yuugenmagan and kikuri to come back. Even sariel as well, heck I’d even accept the shrine rank returning as a guest miniboss or something

[@mikubrot]

personally, I'm a misumaru superfan, which is one of the lowest rated th characters. also I knew all of the character names simply because I'm autistic

[@MukyuMyonNyanMimi]

0:33 I know them all, from right to left their first game appearance was 10, 10, 14, 14, 16, 16, 16.

[@Alexs23743]

"You don't have to go around finding randoes to battle! You'll have all the battles you'll ever need...with ME! YOU! ME! RIVALS! YES!?!" ...Wait. That's not Nemuno. D:

[@sheepcommander_]

5:27 WHAT THEME IS THAT YOIYAMI DANCERS

[@blockeontheleafeon]

Now we have a reason for Narumi and the Prismriver Sisters to hang out. Remember, they tragically died with a 4th one missing.

[@1INBAL]

The forth one was still alive and her memories created the prismriver sister in touhou so not exactly the one who died became the prismriver but her memories.

[@blockeontheleafeon]

@@1INBAL Layla is still alive? Where'd you get this information?

[@1INBAL]

@@blockeontheleafeon I wrote was alive in past tense

[@blockeontheleafeon]

@@1INBAL Gotcha.

[@SoldadoCatolico]

Another 2hu content creator makes a banging video only to never be seen again. Many such cases.

[@Plus9Attack]

got to keep the tradition alive

[@cheekibreeki904]

TFW a LostWord player knows more 2hus than a hardcore fan

[@oscara1573]

My favorite lesser known touhou is Shou. Best catgril

[@pining_tree6788]

You know it’s bad when by my knowledge only one of these characters shows up in Mystia Izakaya, the fan game centered around the underdeveloped and more forgotten girls

[@_sarq]

Narumi shows up as a guest, but Kisume & Eternity show up as unlockable partners edit; Also worth mentioning is the fact that the developers of Mystia’s Izakaya have mentioned that they’re currently working on an entire game focused on the Aki sisters

[@GordonJordanGJ4797]

I always ask myself if there’s a thunder god in gensokyo because if so im interested if it was a male character

[@fumo-fumo-fumo]

4:26 You have proven your point by spelling "Satono" wrong.

[@ssjcrafter8842]

I haven't a single Lunatic clear, and haven't even beaten every game, yet I remember... practically all of them(though I did forget some names, like Narumi who it took a while to remember the name of and Kisume who I couldn't until you mentioned her name... and from the characters you showed that's it, though a character you didn't show j is the cow girl from 17. can't remember her name) when it comes to designs/who the characters are, I remember basically all of them. I don't spend all that much time reading fanmade works either though... I guess I just have good memory? BTW Nemuno is supposed to be a scary, nice person, which I find nice Eternity is supposed to be Tokoyo no Kami from some cult

[@H1_R3Z]

Cow Girl's name is Urumi. I assume she got left out of this video because she was very popular around the release of the demo from 17 because of her design, but yeah, she kinda fell off really hard.

[@Joe-yx1gq]

To get Eternity Larva more popular just make Some kirby Morpho Knight jokes woth Cirno and ot should work

[@sunname6252]

Honestly I was surprised Nemuno was picked if for no other reason than the "OMG Zun drew big tits!"

[@1INBAL]

I named them all and I can only finish a game on easy. shizuha, minoriki, benben and yatsuhashi eternity nemuno and narumi. I blame lost word on that lol Benben and Yatsuhashi aren't sisters they just born at the same time their last name is the type of youkai they are and not represent a relation by blood. Eternity does show in visionary the manga about the fairies.

[@isidrotorrescamacho9113]

oktober fest tf2

[@Plus9Attack]

I completely forgot about the october first video while making this LOL what a throw back

[@SuperChrim]

Nice video. I was able to name all of them immediately heheh. Also maybe don’t stretch the game into 16:9 in your footage. It looks a little awkward.

[@Plus9Attack]

i stretched the game to 1920x1080 as i didn't want black bars on the sides. Most touhou games run in 4:3 so its bound to look weird sadly

[@SuperChrim]

@@Plus9Attack I dunno. Just a personal taste I guess but I’d prefer black bars or some letterbox background over a stretched game.

[@krylatich]

Any normal 1cc guides planned for the future? The first one got decently popular.

[@Plus9Attack]

I don't have any planned. I'm pretty bad at shmups and when it comes to guides i don't think i'm knowledgeable enough. I've thought about deleting the EoSD one for a good while but people seem to get something out of it

[@krylatich]

@Plus9Attack it's literally a perfect guide from a perspective of being good enough to complete the game while not excelling at it. Because of this it's way more approachable for a new player than professional guides. This kind of guides are obviously not immune to elitists who will come and trash on it because it doesn't meet their standards of skill but it doesn't make them any less useful.

[@Plus9Attack]

I think perfect might be a stretch but you might of just inflated my ego enough to think about it. They take a long time so i wouldn't expect it any time soon but i might take some time to start practicing PCB for the next guide

[@krylatich]

@@Plus9Attack great success XD

[@fumo-fumo-fumo]

I remember all the names of the girls you showed except for Benben's sister. I haven't beaten a single game btw. Wait, Raiko's popular?

[@sheepcommander_]

0:34 I only recognized the three on the right.. ONLY ONE OF THEM ISNT i bet on ... the far right one? oh faq you

[@NexusGideon]

who is touhou

[@Plus9Attack]

John Touhou Hakurei