Helloa! You have come to my shrines! From what I've gathered from my visits to neocities shrines are dedicated to things that I like. Stuff like specific characters or games. And so I thought it'd be appropriate to make some stuff for it. Starting with:
He is the king of Japan's Underworld. The secret ruler of Japan. The mahjong grandpa vampire himself!
He is known for fighting akagi in a mahjong death battle with washizu mahjong. A special game of mahjong modified by having three of every type of tile be made transparent. This adds another psychological layer to the game as the player will know have to decide if they want to discard their transparent tiles or keep their opaque tiles. Discarding opaque tiles can keep them in trickier positions as they are more likely to draw a transparent tile hence telling the other players what waits they are waiting on.
This epic battle of wits happen over 240 chapters in the titular manga akagi. It is the (second) last arc of the manga and was serialized for 20 years from 1997 to 2017. There is nothing quite like experiencing washizu mahjong in my opinion as we see the mangaka's art and writing both evolve in real time. You could argue this is the same for other long running series like one piece and while i would agree that they generally got better I feel like the difference here is how the writing for one piece just generally got better from the world to the characters while Akagi's writing specifically got better with how it dealt with the extremely tense moments and character of washizu. This is most indicative of how much his design changes over those 20 years. We can see the several battle scars of playing washizu mahjong, his face slowly melting making it look older and older till it looks like he is on his literal and figurative death bed (or chair in this case) in the last stretch of the last sessions last match.
I dedicate this shrine to him for how manic he can come of. He is what dracula would be if he wasn't a vampire. A man who sees the suffering of the young as beneath him and something to be amused by (hence the games of washizu mahjong). He is the purest definition of villainy. The type of pure evil that would get his picture on some evil encyclopedia. He is so freaking evil that the cleansing mirror which are supposed to show all his sins literally breaks after he looks into it. His cartoonish villainy is what makes the game so tense as we all know akagi is going to win. Instead the focus of the game becomes more over Washizu as it goes along. We see the dread in his heart. The inescapable fear he faces as he is left in his death struggle with akagi. His eccentric sense of evilness and ego is fun to watch. Especially with how manic he can come off. Like I mean just look at some of these panels!
As you can see this guy thinks that gods literally are his slave.
Beyond just that he literally goes to metaphorical hell in the later half of Washizu Mahjong. And my god is it just epic. There is nothing that can prepare you for some of the dumb gags or the epic highs of Washizu Goes To Hell. In all solid character. 1000/10
Ha Pitou. What can I say about my beloved Genocide cat? A lot actually. I honestly think they are a very endearing and interesting character you just don't really see in most media. I don't mean in that you don't usually see anime cats. They are rather frequent. But what I mean is an anime cat who is actually a cat, but also anime. All of their actions early on in the chimera ant arc can really be said to simply be them acting out of instinct. And well this poses the interesting and rather discomforting question of how nature can generally be very immoral. Because rather frankly stuff like them poking around Pokkles head or making Kite's dead body a training dummy can all be seen as rising from their cat like behaviour. They like playing with their food. Its just how cats are and while it is definitely evil from the context of a human being it isn't from the perspective of a cat. Beyond just that, theres the fact that Pitou is concious of their actions. It makes us reflect on how different nature is from humanity as a whole. Humans while we can be very evil, as made very clear through many points in the chimera ant arc, we also have the capacity to choose to go against our instincts and nature and be better. And we see this in Pitou too through them caring for a king as a person. Not just someone to protect or idealize but an actual person with actual thoughts, feelings and ambitions. This is shown in many instances from them being the royal guard who said that the king can pick his own name to being the one responsible for healing Komugi on his bequest. And this clearly creates a contrast. This empathy expands as the story goes on and they are even a bit empathetic towards Gon at the end of their life. We could also say that by seeing Komugi as being a really important person to the king that they understood how Gon must have felt when they revealed that they can do nothing to bring back Kite. They understand what it means to not be able to save someone important to them. And it really makes me wonder what would have happened if their character was alive after Chimera Ant. Not that they can be redeemed. They are well beyond it considering their little genocide but rather because of how they can improve. They are a character that I have been greatly endeared too by their contrasting nature being another representation of the idea of nature being explored in Chimera Ant. They are a character who makes me ask what would have happened under different circumstances than the one presented here. And thats why I love them so much. And this all comes back to my statement on them being a character you don't see much in media. They are an evil character you wish could be a better person but know can never be redeemed within the contexts of the story. A characters who's deeds were too evil to be forgiven by anyone. Yet they still have good qualities that make you ask what if. What if they didn't die? What if they tried to become a better person? They are a character who while never being redeemed could have been well, good. And I'm not saying that hate against Pitou doesn't make sense. I mean they murdered Kite and were one of the causes for Gon's downward spiral after all. Its valid to hate against them. I just personally find the idea of an evil character who can't be forgiven but can be a good person to just be intriguing.
Ok that'll be enough for all the heavy morality stuff. Why else do I love murder cat? Well for one they are stylish as all hell. I mean how can I forget their blue vest with its yellow buttons. Their design is really striking in how they are just much more colorful than most of the cast. Not to say that the other chimera ant's have bad designs but Pitou's is just more visually striking for its use of more than a few colors. I also really just love how their personality most of the time is just cat. And I mean who doesn't love a characters who's personality is just cat. I mean seriously all their interactions with the other royal guards are comedic as all hell. They are just extremely fun in a rather bleak arc all things considered and pretty memorable too!
Anyway, here are some memes!
Note:The memes are coming soon. I'll first finish drawing pitou.//// Lol this never happened! Sorry about that! But I am back now (sorta!) and that means only one thing! More characters for me to add!
If it isn't the great evil spirit herself! She is a great character in my eyes even though she practically only shows up in 4 touhou games (with 3 talking roles no less!). She left a real mark in the sense that she is probably one of the most interesting Touhou characters. Sure we know nada about her backstory and she is from early Touhou so things will be naturally a bit more sillier, but she still retains a certain charisma after so long! Her first appearance is great! It's also possibly the most mysterious and intriguing as it's slightly more unsettling than her usual getups.
It looks something akin to a japanese school girl holding a knife with how she is in a sailor costume. It makes me ask if the event that led to her hating humanity so much related to something that happened early in her youth that made her lose faith in humanity. That would bring into question how old she was when she died, if ghosts age (probably not cause Yuyuko is there) and why don't the Hakurei's just destroy her. I mean really think about it. Of all the foes Reimu has faced, Mima was the only one to ever be sealed away. It feels very intentional and can get anyone writing about Mima a lot of narrative leverage. (It also fuels powerscaling debates but that's a topic for another day) All these things leave the player with the impression of a very mysterious character which is accentuated with Touhou 2.
I mean even their moon symbolism adds to this. Sure it can be taken as a generic magical symbol but it's also a very integral place in touhou lore and the occult in general. It is also something that Marisa's star symbolism can be said to be inspired by. Of course the lunarians probably never was on zun's mind but that makes me question how did Mima learn her magic? It once again asks a very interesting question about her overall character which is expertly done.
Of everything I love how she slowly becomes less evil overall as the pc-98 games go on. Going from wanting revenge on all of humanity to settling down to just annoy the heck out of Reimu. It is a really interesting dynamic as clearly Reimu holds some degree of annoyance and fear whenever she faces her. They do have an unstated history and it makes the change from pretty evil to majour nuisance interesting. I do think she might still have been plotting something by the end since she is Mima, but it would be nice to know if she just ended up retiring or something and giving the mantle of official 'Hakurei annoyer' to Marisa.
Finally... I know she might never come back. Yet I'm seriously glad about everything we did get. She was a really lively and fun character for when she was there in ze project. If she ever does come back... I'm glad she was able to.