Banelings said: I don't get it, did something happen recently to warrant this as hilarious in hindsight?
its time to update your canon read at your own risk
Zun said: Kisume... She doesn't really understand what's she's doing, normally. I think of her as pretty brutal though. Words are useless against her; she'd just chop your head off, stick it in her bucket, and return home. The head you see may not even be Kisume's head.
I was always a huge fan of timid and cute bucket loli, but I loved this revelation. I always thought the Subterranean Animism cast as abominations and loved them for it anyway. This is only another reason for me to love Kisume even more.
Wait this was just revealed about her? Wow our cute bucket girl is ... just wow I never would have expected it. This would make a great story idea for a doujin if people would tear away from the Kisume they've though they knew all the time.
Kind of estabished that her species are man-eaters, cute loli or whatever
Touhou characters don't necessarily correspond directly to their original folk tale identities. Most people probably just guessed that the bucket-droppers are a lot tamer in Gensokyo, just dropping buckets on people's head without necessarily eating them.
I did pay more attention to Kisume's title though. It should have been clear from the moment she was specified as something monstrous.
By the way, this piece of information was also revealed about Kisume prior to the Symposium: her name has no surname and is made of katakana rather than hiragana because ZUN wanted to convey the feeling of using names based not on kanji but on pronunciation only.
What this basically means is that Kisume might have existed even before kanji was used in Japan, which makes Kisume freaking old.
Okay, I just thought, like ZUN designed them to look like cute girls, but they still act like their species should, e.g. Rumia, Mystia(?), now Kisume.. Kisume's profile says she's shy though, and she lives underground where humans seldom or never venture into, so I don't know.
Yep, that's how I envisioned the youkai characters too. Although, Gensokyo is supposed to be balanced so youkai actually refrain from eating humans. That's why it was mostly assumed that the in-game quotes about man-eating were just jokes and playful threats.
As for conflicts with her profile, just like Perfect Memento and CoLA, we should keep in mind that none of these lore books come directly from ZUN. They're always written from some character's perspectives and involve deliberate and unintended conflicts with older canon. Especially Perfect Memento and Symposium.
DOCoSPADEo said: How is this hilarious in hindsight?
This was drawn before SoPM was released, which revealed that she's not the cute bucket loli everyone saw her as but more of a crazy axe murderer sorta personality.
KichiroT said: This was drawn before SoPM was released, which revealed that she's not the cute bucket loli everyone saw her as but more of a crazy axe murderer sorta personality.
I almost hate to ask but... "SoPM"? Is that the new touhou manga?
Co250 said: its time to update your canon read at your own risk
Zun said: Kisume... She doesn't really understand what's she's doing, normally. I think of her as pretty brutal though. Words are useless against her; she'd just chop your head off, stick it in her bucket, and return home. The head you see may not even be Kisume's head.
Do consider ZUN wasn't saying that as Word of God but rather his own opinion as a person (if it was the former it'd be far more certain and authoritative)
StriderTuna said: Do consider ZUN wasn't saying that as Word of God but rather his own opinion as a person (if it was the former it'd be far more certain and authoritative)
This. If you guys would continue reading that quote's origin you'd see what Zun said was meant as a joke and more of a "what kind of aura/vibe she gives off to normal people".
She(or any other character in the series for that matter) is not a blood-thristy murder. No one has ever been actually killed/eaten during the events of ANY of the games. This is not a grimdark series, it's light-hearted in purpose, spirit and practice.
Edit: Flipped the post out of the pool as I didn't see the head at first. Reference to the joke stands. My bad.
Explosion said: This. If you guys would continue reading that quote's origin you'd see what Zun said was meant as a joke and more of a "what kind of aura/vibe she gives off to normal people".
She(or any other character in the series for that matter) is not a blood-thristy murder. No one has ever been actually killed/eaten during the events of ANY of the games. This is not a grimdark series, it's light-hearted in purpose, spirit and practice.
Edit: Flipped the post out of the pool as I didn't see the head at first. Reference to the joke stands. My bad.
It's like you missed the photograph with Kisume, her rapeface and a skeleton. Oh, and Yukari.
KichiroT said: It's like you missed the photograph with Kisume, her rapeface and a skeleton. Oh, and Yukari.
It's like you missed the fact that Zun didn't draw it, Kisume being shown there is a faded background image denoting its a recounting of the incident by Yukari and that the story accompanying it says: "The incident was settled as the skeletal remains were a misjudgment of a silver birch"
The whole thing was a prank about Kisume throwing tree branches around to scare people for fun. The picture is an embellishment by the artist.
It would really help if people would stop taking everything at face value and start reading for comprehension.
Explosion said: This. If you guys would continue reading that quote's origin you'd see what Zun said was meant as a joke and more of a "what kind of aura/vibe she gives off to normal people".
She(or any other character in the series for that matter) is not a blood-thristy murderer. No one has ever been actually killed/eaten during the events of ANY of the games. This is not a grimdark series, it's light-hearted in purpose, spirit and practice.
I think you're right. It would make sense that Kisume, a "real" tsurube-otoshi, would be completely different from how legends and lore would describe one.
Since Gensokyo is, as I understand it, a land of forgotten beings and unworshipped idols, the concept of a benevolent tsurube-otoshi (like Kisume) would fit well here, since human myth dictates that tsurube-otoshi are, well, like this ("Always Chaotic Evil", if you will). It seems even more true when you consider Sanae and Kyouko, who moved to Gensokyo because they were no longer considered divine or fantastic.
You could apply the same concept to creatures from western mythology as well, since many of them had their reputation tarnished with time (a satyr- or faun-like pagan god, for example, became the derivation for Satan, as I understand it-- no offense to Christians intended). There are some theologists who believe that many fantastic creatures and heralded dieties from western-based pagan sects had their reputation tarnished by the Catholic Church, thus giving way to common mythology.
And finally, if you can believe what they say about Yukari, she may very well have created this realm a few hundred years ago for the very purpose I stated.
Forgive me if I sounded like I was babbling on and on, or heck, if I got some basic facts about Touhou wrong, but I agree with my fellow Danbooruian here.
Explosion said: This. If you guys would continue reading that quote's origin you'd see what Zun said was meant as a joke and more of a "what kind of aura/vibe she gives off to normal people".
She(or any other character in the series for that matter) is not a blood-thristy murder. No one has ever been actually killed/eaten during the events of ANY of the games. This is not a grimdark series, it's light-hearted in purpose, spirit and practice.