 | "Getting the Hang of It" by Akira
(2010-09-06) |
It took 3.5 hours to complete this page. It takes time to get back to the drawing level I was years ago. Overall, I drew this page quite well. I didn't have too much trouble with both pencil and ink. The only time consuming part was deciding Laika's outfit. It's very easy for me to draw cute characters like Kotone and Lisa, but Laika has to be a beautiful instead of cute. I can make Kotone wear Sailor costume (if I run out of ideas), but I can't go for an easy way out for Laika. So I always have trouble with Laika's outfit. I need to go through fashion magazines more often, I guess.
There is no punch line or any joke in this strip. I just wanted to draw Laika. Next is Haruna-san.
Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum
 | "Looking into Touhou with detail - Sakuya Izayoi" by Totaku
(2010-09-06) |
Labor day is here, time to take a day off, relax and have some barbeque. But I though at the very least I could give you all something to look over as usual. For now, I will be introducing you to one of the more major charaters in the Touhou series that occured as a stage 5 boss in Emobidment of Scarlet Devil. The Perfect and Elegant Maid, Sakuya Izayoi.
Sakuya Izayoi
When the team get directions from PAtchouli to go down to main hall to talk to the master, Reimu and Marisa end up confronting a maid along the way who was busy cleaning. Course after a brife conversation between them, the maid realized that the two were "trash" that needed to be disposed off. This maid was of course...Sakuya.
Sakuya is the head maid of the Scarlet Devil mansion, and is the only "human" that works within the mansion. Most of the maids in the SDM are actually fairies, but Sakuya is more than meets the eye. Despite being a maid, Sakuya is remarkably talented with using her knives with deadly accuracy as they are her main tool that she uses in danmaku combat. She is capable of launching a massive load of knives which she is also capable of ricochet off of ceilings and walls making them even more dangerous.
But what makes Sakuya way more dangerous is her one special talent. The ability to freeze time. With this ability Sakuya is capable of freezing time and then throwing knives onto the feild which freeze in specific areas before she let's time resume, and at times she can also freeze time to alter the direction of knives in mid flight!
Due to these features and many more, Sakuya is considered a very skilled opponent when Reimu and Marisa do battle with her. But eventually after a long struggle they were able to defeat the maid. Sakuya then let's them through but when the team realize that the master of the mansion is located up on the roof top and pursue her, Sakuya once again attempt to put a stop to Reimu and Marisa before they can reach her master. But once again Sakuya is beaten and thus then the team confronts the master of the Scarlet Devil Mansion....
The events following EoSD, Sakuya was a charater who ended up returning in a number of games. Both in the shooters and fighters and within some of the offical mangas as well.
Sakuya mainly got involved during the events of PCB, IN, PoFV, IaMP and SWR. But was also an important charater with the manga Silent Sinner in Blue as well....
Otherwise, most of the time, Sakuya mainly stays within the mansion grounds most of the time cleaning things and going to the human village to shop....
Of course looking at her spellcard, alot of them are all themed based on either time, or serial killer type motifs. And also the ability to throw knives and freeze time, of course also makes Sakuya seem to connect alot to the vampire charater Dio from Jojo's Bizzare Adventure which even ZUN has mentioned of before hand in a commentary of one of Sakuya's spellcard. So she is likely a refference to Dio Brando. And obviously fans picked up on it. :P
Course with her appearing within multiple games in series, fans became attached to her and sadly after PoFV, Sakuya drifted away from being playable except in the fighters, so of course, some people in the fanbase seem to always want her to come back, but alas, ZUN always has to make room to add more to the world that is Gensokyo.
Based on some information gather of her from some people within the human village, Sakuya looks to be within her late teens or possible early twenties. But at the same time, hints suggest she could be older than that because of how she uses time to freeze things. So it may have an affect on her making her stay young to some extent, meaning she could older than she looks. But there is no confirmation on that....
There are also rumors that suggest that Sakuya was a former vampire hunter before she became the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion too... But there even storys from fans that suggest that she may not be of this world either.... but I'll explain more about that in the future...
Also Sakuya's popularity allowed her to become the second of third most popular Touhou charater through most of the games up until the more recent games....
In the world of fanon, Sakuya is pretty much protrayed as the perfect and elegant maid in her doujins. And seems to always come across as well mannered and polite and will only dish out a serving a pain when she's either fighting intruders or dealing with Meiling's laziness.
Which brings up another point. Often times, within the doujins and art, Fans love to protray Sakuya as Meiling's superior. Always constantly going after her when she sleeps on her job or lets someone go in through the gate. So constantly we usually get pictures of Meiling with a knife stuck through her hat thanks to Sakuya's determination to keep Meiling in check. :P
This in turn also lead to fans sometimes to protray Sakuya and Meiling with a type of relationship. Though this of course is all based what the individual thinks about the two in general. Other cases include also Sakuya's relations with her master too which is an improtant factor since she's the maid that serves her master.
Another important factor is Sakuya's eyes. While in the orginal game they were read, every game following it, they became blue. However, it was within the fighters IaMP when she uses her spellcards that sometimes, her eyes turn red. Which has become an interesting part of fanart as sometimes fans will try to capture her eyes turning red when she invokes a spellcard.
Finally as a joke among the fans, many view Sakuya's chest size to have changed over time. Start out flat in EoSD, and remained like that up to IaMP which then in turn, her chest actually had some visible signs of size to them. Because of this, fans sometimes question ZUN's reasons for the changes, and on most parts, they speculated that she is now secretly wearing "pads". So because of this, the pad joke has become an excessive meme used for Sakuya both by western and eastern fans alike. Even to the point that the "Ipad became a Sakuya refference. Course now adays even ZUN has explained that the meme was overdone, but the fanbase roars on.
Maybe if we stop the pad jokes, she might appear in another shooter...think about it people. :P
This is it for now, next time, we will cover the final boss of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the master and Scarlet Devil herself.... Remilia Scarlet.
Till next time!
Totaku
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