I will be quite busy the next few days so I probably won't be able to post any more updates till the weekend. Sorry about that. I'd think that proper translations will be steadily rolling out now that the scans are up, so please be patient. Oh yeah, I managed to get a copy of ZUN's new album, 鳥船遺跡 ～ Trojan Green Asteroid (credits go to the Chinese again).
Anyways, let's move on to talk about the book. I will start with Kanako and Suwako's profiles. They are quite long so bear with me.
Akyuu says that Kanako moved her base to Gensokyo probably because she thought that she could get more faith if she had both humans and youkai as followers. Her species is very suitable for being gods. Akyuu says though she'd like to know if Kanako were a human or something else before (becoming a god), it's impossible to determine that now.
She was apparently a god of wind and rain in the past, but now she is the god of the mountain. Although she and the mountain youkai seem to be keeping a mutually beneficial relationship, the truth is that no one knows if that is really the case. It could even be that they are just using each other for their own interests. Unlike the Hakurei shrine, Kanako has all kinds of business activities at her shrine. It seems that faith makes everything better, so she does whatever she can to keep it. She loves technological innovations, and seems to have little regard about traditions. Giving up the outside world and coming to Gensokyo is a very good example of this (probably implying that technological innovation has come to a halt in the outside world).
Kanako's appearance is dashing and eye-catching. It's meant to pressure her opponents apparently. Many gods, being spirits, don't have any physical form. Since many humans dislike things they cannot see and will stay away from such things, a corporeal form is needed to acquire faith. Although she is heavy-handed and self-righteous, it seems that people worship her precisely because of those qualities. Akyuu then says that keep in mind that many people who have this kind of personality also tend to be tricksters.
Regarding Kanako's ability, there are many mysteries surrounding it. If she is together with Suwako, they can transform the land, like opening holes in the ground. She seems to be good at making roads and constructing big buildings, but for unknown reasons she cannot use this ability on the shrine. Incidentally she helped with the construction of the Myouren temple. The exact circumstances are unclear but it was all done in one night.
She manages the underground geyser centre. There are many leaked (from the underground) vengeful spirits there, making it extremely dangerous to humans. These vengeful spirits will harm humans and youkai. There are many of them around the geyser centre because the centre is connected to hell. The spirits harm humans and youkai so that they will stay away. A god like Kanako is not affected by those spirits, which is why she took the job of managing the centre. Akyuu then comments that instead of saying the spirits are leaking, it's more like they are just floating out from underground. She warns that Kanako could very well be letting out the vengeful spirits on purpose.
The Moriya shrine is situated in the youkai mountain. It's much larger and more majestic than the Hakurei shrine, but because of the location, they don't really get more visitors than Reimu does. All the faith Kanako gets is pretty much from the tengu, kappa and other youkai living on the mountain. There are a lot of treasures (but Akyuu says they are just unusable junk in Gensokyo) in the shrine, and apparently they are kept securely in a treasure house. As she is from the outside world, Kanako has high living standards. However since they don't get many visitors at the shrine, it's impossible to rely on donations to get by. Kanako actually gets her money by selling advanced technology to the kappa.
She is not hostile against humans so there's no real need to be scared of her. While you don't have to worship her, you will be punished if you did something rude to her. Gods are dualistic beings, worship them and you will receive blessings; anger them and you will receive retribution. Troublesome things seem to annoy Kanako, so be really careful if you are not good at reading the mood. She is weak to offerings, so if you have done something rude to her, preparing some offerings should get you off the hook.
I think there's a lot of valuable information about Kanako here, and frankly she seems like a very reasonable figure. While Miko despises youkai and Byakuren doesn't think highly of humans, Kanako pretty much treats everyone the same as long as they don't cross her. Am I seeing some sort of character alignments between the three of them here?
Next up is Suwako.
A god who resides in the Moriya shrine. Unlike Kanako, she doesn't really leave the shrine that often. She is one of the yaoyorozu-no-kami, and in fact she didn't even have a spirit but rather existed solely because people believed in her. So really she should be the one worried about losing faith, not Kanako. However, unlike Kanako and Sanae who actively seek faith, Suwako is not so keen. Is it because she is bad at gathering faith from people? Or is it because of something else? It's just another one of the mysteries surrounding the Moriya shrine.
She controls curse gods, and she was acting as a curse god when the Moriya shrine was still in the outside world. Even though it seems troublesome, there's no choice but to worship her or else bad things will happen (Akyuu says this is high-pressure selling of faith). Like many gods, her normal appearance is that of a human, but really she can choose any appearance she wants. When people worship her, her (divided) forms are usually frogs. Different kinds of frogs for different kind of prayers (road safety, money, beauty etc.). She is gentle but very hard to read. Unlike Kanako, Suwako is bit of a ditz. Akyuu thinks Suwako's personality is not very good.
When she is together with Kanako, they can transform lands, like opening holes in the ground. It's probably safe to say Suwako is actually the one doing all the work. Then again she isn't really the one doing the work, it's more like the curse gods under her command are carrying out all the tasks. Her ability is very versatile, not only she can change lands, she can also make crops grow better or curse the land so nothing will grow. Akyuu says Kanako uses Suwako's ability as a threat to gain faith.
The curse gods under Suwako's control are called Mishaguji in the outside world. They are a kind of native gods. Natives gods receive benefits in their territory, such that even if their opponent is of a higher level, they will still be stronger. If they leave their territory though, they will lose all of their faith. So it's really strange for someone like Suwako, who is a native god and commands curse gods who are also native gods, to move to Gensokyo. Did she think that "instead of being forgotten and losing faith in the outside world, let's just collect faith in a new place"? Incidentally the curse gods that follow her are even more mysterious than Suwako herself. They look like stone snakes, and anywhere they go turn into grass (cereal?) fields. Even though she is called a curse god, she also has the duality of being a harvest god, so it should be fine as long as you are well-behaved.
Since it's much harder to read her than Kanako, it's probably better to be cautious around her. Although there's no need to worry about being suddenly eaten by her. Even if she often shows up as a frog, she is actually not a frog goddess; so be careful with that. Prayers like "the frogs near the fields are too loud at night, could you do something about it?" will probably just turn the fields into wastelands.
It seems that she is just fond of frogs.
I think...Suwako passed down her ditziness to Sanae. Fascinating how Akyuu gave all this information about Suwako, and yet she is still very mysterious. She and Kanako certainly make an interesting duo though.
I probably won't go through other parts of the book in details...or more like I haven't read the entire thing yet. So yeah, Reimu thinks youkai extermination is justice but it seems like she would be willing to resolve issues peacefully if possible. I think Taoism doesn't really concern itself with the problem of good and evil, hence Seiga. Here are a few other things I thought were amusing.
- Being a Yamabiko, Kyouko typically shouts back what she hears. However she will respond differently to some special phrases. The ones Akyuu knows are, "Yahooooo!" → "Yafuuu!" (the standard reply); "Stuuuupid!" → "What did you say you little punk?!" (like a yankee youth); "Soooorrry!" → "Me tooo!" (very well-mannered); "Yamaaaaaaa!" → "Kawaaaaaa!" (reserved for Yamakawa-san); "What time is it nooooow?" → "That's really general isn't iiiiit?" (can only tell the approxiamte time?); "What's one plus oneeeee?" → "......" (terrible at maths)
- Parsee seems surprisingly normal if you talk to her directly, but afterwards she will say bad things behind your back
- Shou's Bishamonten Pagoda (a.k.a. laser pagoda) shoots Gamma laser beams (according to Eirin) that incinerate everything. It can also turn the soil into jewels (Eirin says that the Gamma laser changes the properties of the soil). This ability to create new treasures (redistribution of wealth) is the reason why Shou is called one of the Seven Lucky Gods
- Shou is all about laser beams. Being a treasure youkai, martial arts is not her forte. The long halberd she holds is just for show
- Nazrin only really answers to Shou, as such she is not very involved with the Myouren temple
- Yoshika defaults back to her principal behaviour (when she was still alive) when Seiga's ofuda is removed. Akyuu says that someone saw Yoshika composing poems on a carpet of red leaves in the graveyard. Akyuu finds that a little horrifying
- Yoshika will attack people for no particular reason. As she feels no pain or fear, Akyuu says that normal attacks are pointless against Yoshika. However since her movements are slow, it's easy to run away from her
Ribbit ribbit.
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