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Symposium Bonus

おまけインタビュー

Bonus Interview

本書で不遇なキャラの話をしよう

Let's talk about the characters who didn't appear in this book

Interviewer

あの、幻想郷縁起にも天狗の新聞にも出てこないキャラが居るんですが……、特に綿月姉妹。そもそもどんなキャラかすら知らない人も居そうです。他にも情報が欲しいキャラが居るので、お部屋の片づけを手伝うから教えて下さい。

So, a number of characters didn't appear in either the Gensokyo Chronicles or the Tengu newspapers... in particular, the Watatsuki sisters. To begin with, there are people who don't even know what kind of characters they are. Please tell us more about other characters, and I'll help you clean the room.

ZUN

えー。綿月姉妹は月の姫で、豊姫の方が「山と海をつなぐ能力」、これはどこでも移動できる能力ですね。重要なのは月の都と地上を移動できるという点で、山は幻想郷、海は月を意味しているわけです。

Well, the Watatsuki sisters are princesses of the moon. Toyohime has "the ability to connect mountains and seas", which is an ability to move anywhere she likes. Most importantly, she can move between the Lunar Capital and Earth, with Gensokyo being the "mountain" and the moon being the "sea".

Interviewer

あ、割と具体的な意味だったんですね。彼女は桃を食べてるイメージと超兵器を持ってるイメージしか……。

Ah, a rather concrete interpretation then. I've only imagined her as "eating peaches" or "carrying superweapons"...

ZUN

秋★枝さんにも兵器の説明はしてないという超アバウト仕様ですからね(笑)。で、妹の依姫の方が普通なキャラなんです。

I didn't explain the weapons to Aki★Eda so the depiction was super sloppy(laugh). Her sister Yorihime is a more ordinary character.

Interviewer

依姫はパワーアップ版主人公キャラという感じでした。

Yorihime feels like the powered up form of a protagonist character.

ZUN

彼女はチートキャラですからね。あれは科学力ではなくて純粋に彼女の能力なんです。降ろす神様が強い分だけ強くなれる。強すぎて漫画じゃないと出せませんね。ゲームはどんなボスでも倒せなきゃいけませんから。ゲームだからこそのキャラクターの制限ですね。

That's because she's a character with cheat-like abilities. It doesn't use the power of science at all; it's purely her own ability. More the stronger the summoned god is, more the stronger she gets. Since she's so strong, a manga is the only thing I can put her in. In games, you need to be able to defeat all of the bosses, after all. The character is limited precisely because it is a game.

Interviewer

なるほど。でも依姫が出てきたからこそ、霊夢の能力の一部が初めて具体的に描写されました。

I see. But Yorihime showing up meant that parts of Reimu's abilities was first illustrated concretely.

ZUN

そういう意味で、あの漫画の一番の見どころは三段ロケットが住吉三神ってところだと思うんですけどね。

In that regard, I personally think one of the best parts of that manga was when she summoned the Sumiyoshi sanjin (the three gods of the voyage) for the three-stage rocket.

Interviewer

月の都と幻想郷との接点はもう描かれないのでしょうか?

Will we see more interaction between the Lunar Capital and Gensokyo?

ZUN

難しいところですね。出てくるとしたら、もう一回人類が月に行ってからじゃないですか。NASAじゃなくて民間の方で儲かったら、あっという間に行きそうですよ。昔は冷戦が後押ししましたが、いまはお金ですかね。

That would be tough. Perhaps we should leave that until humanity travels to the moon again? A non-NASA, private, for-profit venture looks possible, and could happen any time. In the past it was spurred by the Cold War, and now it seems like it's money.

Interviewer

宇宙ネタはポロポロありますが、月の都に入る手続きと、茨華仙の家への入り方も似てますよね。

Space travel aside, the process of entering the Lunar Capital is pretty similar to entering Kasen's house, isn't it?

ZUN

月の都も仙人の家も、ちょっと似ているわけです。月の都に居る人間たちは、人間というよりも仙人や天人ぽいですね。

That's because the Lunar Capital and the house of a hermit are rather similar. The residents of the Lunar Capital are closer to hermits or celestials than humans.

Interviewer

そういえば月の都にも神様が居て、その人たちが一番偉いってことなんでしたっけ?

Now that you mention it, since there are also gods living on the moon, does that mean that Lunarians really are better?

ZUN

僕の中では月の都は高貴な神様たちが居る場所で、という設定なんです。で、反対に幻想郷には親しみやすいというか土着っぽい神様たちが居る。神様にもいろいろ派閥があるんだろうなって。で、永琳はその中の一人だったから、幻想郷に来ても他の人間と接触を持たないんです。

My thought is that the Lunar Capital is where the highest, noblest gods live - that sort of setting. On the other hand, Gensokyo is where the more friendly, indigenous gods live. I figured that there are factions even among gods. Eirin is one of them, which is why she isn't interacting with the other humans after she moved to Gensokyo.

Interviewer

なんだかいろいろ納得ですね。

That seems to clear up a lot of things.

ZUN

というわけで、本当に綿月姉妹は幻想郷側からはアンタッチャブルなんです。必要な措置として。あの2人の性格が楽しいから話が膨らみそうなので、お話を作ってみたいんですけどね。幻想郷の姉妹は、だいたい妹が壊れてるので。

Because of that, the Watatsuki sisters are truly untouchable to those from Gensokyo. As a necessary measure. Those two have fun-loving personalities and the story could expand even farther, so I would like to make a story about them. When it comes to Gensokyan sisters, in general the younger one is "broken".

Interviewer

ZUNさんに妹は居ませんけど、何か恨みでもあるんですか(苦笑)。

ZUN, I know you don't have a younger sister, but do you have some kind of grudge against them?(bitter chuckle)


[緋想天キャラ]

[Scarlet Weather Rhapsody Characters]

Interviewer

天人と竜宮の使いについてもお伺いしたいんですが。

I'd like to ask some questions about celestials and the messengers of the Dragon Palace.

ZUN

まあ単純に神奈子・聖・神子と接点が無いからこの扱いですけど、天子なんて大分いい性格してるんですけどね。 ゲームの最後になると全員からいじめられるという。

Well, simply put, they were left out because they have nothing to do with Kanako, Hijiri or Miko, but Tenshi has a pretty good personality, doesn't she? In the end, the game was all about everyone bullying her.

Interviewer

キャラ付けがチルノ級な気がしますが。

She reminds me of Cirno in that sense.

ZUN

あの手の頭の悪い感じのキャラは増えましたね。そういうキャラの方が出しやすくて、臆病なキャラだと出しにくいですからね。ゲームなら霊夢が無理やり通りがかって倒せばいいですけど。

The number of characters at that level of intelligence has increased, hasn't it. That kind of character is easier to come up with, compared to timid characters, which tend to be harder. In the end, in a game, Reimu is just going to force her way past and defeat them anyway, though.

Interviewer

衣玖はどうなんですか?

What about Iku?

ZUN

空気を読める能力なんですが、全く活かされてないというか、逆に読んだからこそ幻想郷の空気ブレイカーたちに影響されて変になっちゃう。まあ真面目なことを言うと、空気を読むっていうのは空中を泳げるっていう意味なんですけどね。だから、多少会話がちぐはぐでもいいんです。

She has the ability to read the atmosphere, but she's terrible at taking advantage of it. In fact, because she read it, all of Gensokyo's resident atmosphere-breakers made things even worse. Well, seriously talking, reading the atmosphere means swimming in the sky. So it's not a problem even if their conversation gets awkward.

Interviewer

なるほど。

I see.

ZUN

そういえば衣玖の種族はカタカナでなく漢字で「竜宮の使い」と書きますが、竜宮は存在しているんです。それは月の都のことなんですが。

Oh yeah, Iku's species is not written as "Messenger of the Dragon Palace" in katakana, but in kanji, but the Dragon Palace really does exist.[1] That's the Lunar Capital I'm talking about.

Interviewer

天人は月の都にが住んでいるっていうのはそういうことなんですね。

You mean like how celestials live in the Lunar Capital.

ZUN

一応設定的にはその辺がいろいろ繋がっているんです。

The game setting says that there are various connections between the places.


[中ボスたち]

[Midbosses]

Interviewer

キスメや椛などの中ボスは?

What about the Midbosses like Kisume and Momiji?

ZUN

キスメとか……普段何やってるかわかんないね。ただ、かなり凶暴なイメージです。問答無用で首を刈ってきて、桶に入れて持って帰るという。あの首もキスメの首じゃないかもしれないね。

Kisume... I don't really know what she normally does. But, I have images of her being pretty brutal. 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.

Interviewer

怖ッ!

Scary!

ZUN

まああの顔は本人のものなんだけど、ちょっとそれくらいイヤなキャラです。椛は……白狐天狗は仲間が多いんですが、千里眼を持っているのですごく便利なキャラですね。

Well, the head you see really is hers, but she's that sort of unpleasant character. As for Momiji... she has a lot of White Wolf Tengu comrades, and has telegnosis (1000 li vision). Quite a handy person to have around.

Interviewer

そして案山子念報[2]は入っているのに、はたての項目が何処にも無いんですが……。

And even though you included the Kakashi Spirit News, there's no article about Hatate...

ZUN

文しか知らないキャラだからなぁ……文がはたてのことを新聞にする筈も無いし。でもはたては文には無い能力がある。念写は千里眼に近い能力ですが、映像化できるんですね。キーワードを思い浮かべるとそれに該当するものが出てくるという、Googleさん的な能力です。まあ、はたてを今の今まで(幻想郷縁起や新聞で取り上げていない事を)本気で忘れてましたけど、この本の設定では全く出せないし説明できないですね。

It's because no one knows her except Aya, and why would Aya put her in the newspaper? But Hatate does have an ability that Aya lacks. Thoughtography is like telegnosis except you can take pictures with it. You enter keywords that come to mind and related items come up, like Google san.[3] Well honestly, until just now I completely forgot that Hatate wasn't in either the Gensokyo Chronicles or the newspapers, so there isn't really a good in-universe explanation.


[華仙]

[Kasen]

Interviewer

幻想郷縁起には茨華仙も居ないわけですが。

Ibara Kasen isn't in the Gensokyo Chronicles either.

ZUN

彼女も使い勝手はそこそこいいキャラなんですが、何せ現在進行形なのでここで言い過ぎるのも違うかなと。というわけで、漫画の方をよろしくお願いします。

Kasen's a great character, but since she's part of a work-in-progress I figured I shouldn't reveal too much here. That said, please enjoy the manga.

Reference[]

1. ^  It is one of academic, especially biological customs in Japan — While the the most characteristic difference of usage between kanji and katakana is that kanji is used for Japanese, Chinese and Korean words (i.e. words generated in kanji-culture area) and katakana is for loanwords, the names of creature are supposed to be generally spelled in katakana, even if it is natural to write them in kanji or hiragana in everyday life. So what ZUN means is that we had better see the species of Iku literally as "Messenger of the Dragon Palace", which makes still unclear whether "king of herrings" has some relation or not.
2. ^  It is a misprinting of 花果子念報.
3. ^  There is a curious custom in Japanese usage; they sometimes call a non-living thing jokingly with a honorific like "san", "chan", and "sama" (perhaps it can be a expressional rhetoric of personification). In this case, Google is technologically so useful that it gives ZUN a kind of friendly feeling.

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