Welcome back to what I call “the simpler review corner!” Since I already published a news post today, I could have just waited until tomorrow before publishing this… But I wanted this post to be published on this specific day.
Only one small package for today. I have tons of packages incoming, but due to the season, nothing has arrived yet. Not even the new friends that were supposed to come for Christmas… Renko is sad, Alexa play Sally Mirai Yohou (oh fuck, that song turns 10 this year).
Starting with the Buta-related stuff…
It’s Obake no Sakurazome! It’s still a cute release and :YuyuHappy:. Full review here.
It’s the Fabulous keychain! I decided to buy it because Joon my beloved, and it looks much better in real life (seriously, the non-printed picture looks like a car…). I paired it with my Joon keychain.
One of the best purchases of 2023, hands down. This is an old 1569 anthology about Renko’s 30th birthday. It’s similar to the one about Merry’s birthday that I got early last year. It’s a book with comics and illustrations+CD+extra story book, and the CD contains a song with Ranko’s vocals. This was one of my white whales of my Hifuu collection, since it’s no longer available first hand and surugaya loves to split different items that were sold as a set. One day, seeing that the “book” was in stock on Suru, I decided to take the plunge and buy it, and I was planning to get the CD from someone who buys doujin albums for audio preservation. I paid 1200 yen on Suru, and while I was waiting for my package, I thought the price was a bit suspicious. When I finally got it, I had a huge smile on my face. It was the entire set!!! Holy sheep!!! No need to contact anyone!!!
Now the only item I miss for my ButaHifuu collection is THIS FUCKER. One day I’ll decide to pay 100 euro, I guess. I also feel like it appears in second-hand shops even more rarely…
Now let’s move on to the non-Buta stuff! You know, when talking about non-Buta stuff in this type of post, I’ve avoided talking about the music. I was thinking if I should start to include them, but in the end, I decided not to do so. Maybe one day I’ll make a subpage or something where I talk about the other Touhou music circles I like lol
Yume no Nokorobi wa Kaku no Gotoku ni (the embers of a dream are thus) by Aozora-Market. A more melancholic take on the connection between the Hifuu Club of the ZUN’s Music Collection and the one from the main Touhou series. It’s a story about an old Sumireko and her final dream of Gensoukyou. In the dream, she reverts to her teenager appearance and has a last meeting with Mokou. They have one last danmaku battle and then some talks about immortality and how Sumi’s granddaughter and friend will one day come to Gensoukyou too. In the end, time’s up – Sumireko abruptly leaves the fantasy world and dies in the real world, with little Renko and Merry are watching her with tears. Several years later, the duo takes the legacy of the Hifuu Club, and they manage to meet Mokou – the phoenix of the bamboo forest, as Renko’s grandma used to narrate about.
Ao, the author, passed away in 2018. While this book wasn’t his final work, it still hits quite hard… May he rest in peace.
CHANGE THE WORLD by Ichinose. This book collects all eight entries of their MeiSaku series in one. The way I came across this one was… dictated by fate, I’d say.
It’s an atypical story about Sakuya’s past. Instead of a super cool vampire hunter who gets defeated by Remilia or whatever, here she is a simple human child, who was ostracized due to her time-manipulation abilities and even betrayed by her mother. Meiling found her and so she started her new life in the Koumakan. Remilia and friends were her world, she grew up with them and they gave her everything, including her name. In the last two books, Sakuya tries to leave the mansion because now Reimu and Marisa are around and she can’t stand change. Meiling sees her past and reassures her that some things will never change and that the other SDM resident will always be there for her.
In some ways, it reminded me of some of the important messages in BUTAOTOME’s works, and also of my boyfriend. His favorite Touhou character is Sakuya, so good fanworks with the Cool Maid™ makes me think of him. Oh, and today is his birthday, so this post is kind of a present to him. Happy birthday 💜
“By the way, why didn’t you pick Sakuya as one of your Muses? Kagerenbo for the win!”
Aaand that’s all for this post! What’s next? Well, there is a lot. A couple of days before publishing this post, I received a couple of packages, but their review will arrive another time!
Also, I’m still sending positive waves to Ane. More context here. That social is amazing *sarcasm mode*.