Are they... and what's that they've got mounted under the fuselage? Some kind of capsule... maybe a ... are they releasing it just over the Mii Apartments building? Oh ... OH MY GOOOD!!! DUCK AND COVER! IT'S...
A SURPRISE TICKER TAPE PARADE??!!
Congratulations! I'm halfway to snapping the game right in half (so, snapped quarter-way?)! For those who don't know the game stops counting at 9999.
So that's what all the "Happy 5000" banners were all about. I thought it was some kind of promo for a new science fiction movie about a futuristic utopia or whatever. I asked Kiba but he said something like "Not Japanese, not a game, not my problem" and went back to launching attacks on an AI-controlled harbour in one of those computer games of his.
I'm so glad it was just a celebration for Okuu's Look-alike's wonderful contributions to the island and not some kind of high-speed urban renewal programme. Or maybe some of the islands got wind of the more nefarious of Okuu's Look-alike's deeds and decided to launch a pre-emptive strike. Well, don't do it while I'm still on this island, okay?
So that also explains where my temporary boss Aya Shameimaru has gone, off to 'create' the news rather than simply reporting it. But she did leave me a couple of assignments - a few reports, and a project to interview another of Gensokyo Island's residents. Let's see what we've got here...
Ah, first of all, today the second child of Tia Arlert and Tadakichi Mihama, their son Levi, graduated from the Gensokyo Island children factory and was given his kit, backpack, and silly quote, ready to see the world. In fact, Okuu's Look-alike took special care to ensure that Levi would not be confused for a certain other Levi who bore absolutely no resemblance in either appearance or personality.
Actually, anyone old enough to be in the target audience of Attack on Titan should be old enough to get the reference.
As to why Levi was sent off to explore the world, I guess you could say his future was in his jeans... er, genes. I mean, just look at him, he's practically a copy of his dad apart from having his mother's eyes and mouth, and on first glance they're almost the same. Come to think of it, so are other parent-child pairings like Marisa Kirisame and Toyohime Kirisame, or Shou Toramaru and Hoshi Toramaru, but... well, word of the dictator Okuu's Look-alike was that Levi was just too generic-looking. And besides, to get to the bottom of things, having a character whose entire raison d'être was making a whole butt-load of jokes about trousers would be totally pants.
With that being said, another of Gensokyo Island's couples without a child to represent them also decided to toss their hat into the ring. This time, however, it was a pairing of which Okuu's Look-alike was known to heartily approve, who has also underperformed in the productivity department ever since their marriage.
That's Overlord Mao behind the pumpkin hat and muscle suit, it's just attire required for experiments.
Overlord Mao announced that he and his wife Patchouli Knowledge were making plans for only their second child, their first daughter Carmilla having been the last traveller to depart Gensokyo Island some time ago. However, knowing that Mao is a demoniac mad scientist and part time researcher, while Patchouli is a hikikomori... well, that, and also a youkai mad researcher and part-time scientist, it's a little worrying when one considers what a result of their "coupling" could be. Especially when coupled with those electric couplers next to the apparatus Mao's standing in front of in that picture.
Coupling is truly an alarming thing indeed, isn't it? And it seems that today, one of those forbidden little pairings happened - when an islander attempts to set up two others on a blind date, and Okuu's Look-alike agrees to it but does her darndest to ensure the two blind daters are as incompatible as possible. Well, one of them just succeeded.
Western hero wannabe boy meets Eastern otaku wannabe girl. What could possibly go wrong?
Reisen Udongein Inaba, probably after her long years suffering as a test subject under her mad doctor boss Eirin Yagokoro and mad prankster partner Tewi Inaba, today decided to do a little experimenting of her own by sending Almaz Beoulve, the son of Konata Izumi and Ramza Beoulve and her best friend on Gensokyo Island, off on a prank blind date. And who should it be with but Hinoko Gassenarl, daughter of Sanae Kochiya and Baldren Gassenarl, and fellow second-generation islander? Okuu's Look-alike was absolutely roaring with anger when the two hit it off perfectly, and Reisen's satisfied grin in the background did little more than add to her rage.
Speaking of roaring with anger, that's a perfect time to move on to the subject of today's interview. I'd already mentioned her name earlier in this report, but now's the time to bring it up again - it's Shou Toramaru, the tiger youkai who's the husband of Aya Shameimaru. Maru maru, I'm getting confused, but anyway I wonder why Aya didn't decided to interview her husband herself?
Well, if rumours are to be believed, Shou has been in a bit of a funk recently and refused to speak to many of her good friends, including her wife, and has messed up all her relationships. But Aya would just say "Oh, it's about journalistic integrity..." when explaining why she couldn't write a report about her own husband. I'd bet she's just passing the buck... oh well. Time to take the tiger by its tail... here is Shou Toramaru!
Shou Toramaru
All information correct as of 4 March 2015
Shou's gone on a bit of a bender recently. I wonder why? Look at those eyes! It's the Eye of the Tiger!!!
Name: Shou Toramaru
Nickname: Shou
Date of Birth: 15th August 1996
Personality: Independent Artist
Favourite Colour: Orange
Quotation: "I am Bishamonten"
Shou Toramaru is the 5th Stage Boss character of Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object by Team Shanghai Alice. She is a tiger youkai, although according to the wiki she isn't an actual tiger transformed into a youkai, but rather a youkai born out of the people's fears of tigers. Y'know, since tigers don't live in Japan... sort of like Europe and lions, for example. Although she was originally a dangerous youkai, she was converted to Buddhism by her present master, Byakuren Hijiri. She eventually became so devout that she was granted the honour of being the god Bishamonten's representative - Bishamonten being a deity of wealth, victory, and war, among other things. After the events of Undefined Fantastic Object, Shou now serves as a disciple and also a resident deity of Byakuren's newly built Myouren Temple.
Shou's most well known ability, apart from being a tiger and leading to numerous cat jokes involving her mouse youkai assistant Nazrin, is that of utilising a Jewelled Pagoda she carries to channel the power of Bishamonten to do things like find treasures and shoot curvy lazors. No, Bishamonten clearly does not care about physics. In addition, although Shou puts on a serious front due to her job, she can also be silly at times as she's also known for being obsessed about keeping a tough appearance, and being a bit of a klutz by repeatedly losing the Jewelled Pagoda, requiring Nazrin's help to find it. In short, despite her role as Bishamonten's avatar, she has a very fallible, dare I say even human side to her.
Like Minamitsu Murasa, her fellow Buddhist and Myouren Temple member, here on Gensokyo Island these different facets manifest in Shou to give her a rather contradictary personality - cool but also nervous, tough but also afraid, and having the ability to find things yet constantly losing them. So I thought it would be fair to give her the Independent Artist personality, fit for someone who won't hesitate to express their desire to strike out and make an impact on the world but who is held back by their own failings and insecurities. And, for the same reasons as Murasa, Shou also serves the role of a "male" character here, so take care when using the QR code.
Shou, her wife Aya, and their son Hoshi lost somewhere in Basel. I don't think we're in Gensokyo anymore, Toramaru!
Wife: Aya Shameimaru
Best Friend: Recette Lemongrass
Children: Shouko, Ayako, Hoshi Toramaru, Fumiko
Shou is normally a really loving husband and father and one of the most popular people on Gensokyo Island, but she really seems to be in a rut recently. Maybe she lost the Jewelled Pagoda again? And this time, without Nazrin to help her out, too! Regardless of the reasons, Shou's relations with all the people important to her - wife, child, and best friend, have all plummeted in recent days, and as a result she's dwelling somewhere at the bottom of the popularity chart despite previously being a regular top scorer. Who knows why this happened? Who knows how to fix it? The RNG can answer the first question, but as for the second...
Let's not talk about what Shou is going through right now, but rather what she normally is. First, a really sweet husband who says lots of lovely things about her wife Aya Shameimaru, and indulges her wife's cravings for delicious Hot Dogs, and let's not ask where those Hot Dogs are coming from. A lovely dad, who looks almost just like her son Hoshi Toramaru and behaves just like him too, chilling out together in either of their apartments. And also too, a reliable friend to Recette Lemongrass, a friendly if somewhat morose playmate, who's always able to be counted upon in a crisis to offer her knowledge and assistance.
Oh goodness, I made it sound like she's dead or something. Ugh. But in all truth the Shou we all used to know a week ago must have had some kind of nasty RNG accident or something and the one that took her place is now a massive grump who does nothing more than keep to herself and moan about everyone and anything, and probably gets pissed every night at the (non-accessible) Gensokyo Island pub as well. Perhaps over time the old Shou will come back, but let's hope everyone else's faith can hold fast until it does happen.
Shou and Aya's kids - Shouko at top left in the black hair, Ayako in auburn at top right, Hoshi the boy at bottom left, and Fumiko at bottom right.
Food Preferences:
Worst: Tap Water
Worst Ever: Sports Drink
Okuu's Look-alike Rating - Sports Drink: Like. You know those slightly sweet, coloured, isotonic drinks that you can find at the supermarket? Compared to other foods that I only 'like', I don't have mixed feelings about Sports Drinks - I'd probably drink any and all of them. However, I don't have any particular preference for them, and if I had a choice I'd probably pick something else, heck, maybe even just bottled water since it's cheaper. In essence, while I don't hate it, there'd never be a situation where I'd go out of my way to get one, unless it was a free flow of only Sports Drinks and nothing else... but that would apply to any other food, too...
Song Participation:
(none)
Hmm, nope, I can't think of a song yet. Maybe something about losing the Jewelled Pagoda? But Shou's theme, The Tiger Patterned Vaisravana, is definitely one of the most unique songs in the entire Touhou canon with its exotic 'Indian'-style feel, and I have a thing for those sorts of songs.
Always losing things? It looks like Shou's into something kinky... or maybe she just remembered that she's a cat.
Apartment: Apt. 308
Islander Rating: Average Tier
Shou is the last of the third batch of islanders, and like her compatriot Minamitsu Murasa, she suffers from many of the same problems such as not having an All-Time Favourite Food, and generally not demanding very much. One thing Shou does excel at, however, is making friends, but it seems that the benefits of this have not been rubbing off on her, as it's usually the case that others seek her out rather than her going out of her way to make friends. Even so, her sheer number of friends goes to show (haha) how Shou's current low state is just a phase, and not the usual state of affairs.
Shou has been a rather tough character to place in Tomodachi Life, as while it isn't too hard to create a Mii approximation of the original, there aren't very many items that could give her Mii a feel of being very much like the actual Shou Toramaru. Striped hair was impossible, but Shou's unique dress with a tiger-striped scarf, for example, has several items that look close to it but are distinctly different in design or colour scheme. The Zebra-Print Dress, Leopard-Print Shirt, and even the Victorian Dress could be approximates, but simply look too different. And you don't want to be known as an idiot who confuses tiger stripes with leopard spots. In the end, I just went with something that looked nice on her in general, although I'm quite tempted to slap that Hanshin Tigers baseball jacket on her as well.
Similarly, it was hard to think of what Shou would have as an interior, so I just gave her whatever I had duplicates of - the Kitchen interior - and tried to give some reasoning to it, such as Shou being the manager of the café in the doujinshi Myouren Café by Rappaya. It also seems that, of Shou and her wife Aya, Shou would probably the one who could stand still long enough to cook a meal. Where else are those Tiger Hot Dogs coming from?
Shou was a tough character to put together, but it caught me by surprise how she found her niche on Gensokyo Island - a survivor crouching in a veritable tiger's den, if you will, from which she can keep burning bright. And while her moods have been tiger-striped of late, a tiger never changes its stripes, so she'll soon be back to eyeing the apex predator spot on the friendship league here at Gensokyo Island. So don't bother with catching a tiger by its toe (or with tuna sandwiches) - just add Shou to your island today!
(I'd be lion if I didn't kick myself for making all those tiger puns and references... ouch! Stop kicking!)
Her hair's actually dyed- wash it out to get her lotus headdress made from her eyebrows. Also use those non-canon cat ears if you wish.
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 3rd March 2015
Relationships and Marriage
Augustine Sycamore and Toyohime Kirisame became best friends!
Children
Overlord Mao announced that his wife Patchouli Knowledge was pregnant with their second child!
Levi, son of Tia Arlert and Tadakichi Mihama, grew up. He was made to leave Gensokyo Island and become a traveller!
BUNBUNMARU UPDATES, 4th March 2015
Happy 16th Birthday, Chiyo Mihama!
Relationships and Marriage
Almaz Beoulve and Hinoko Gassenarl became sweethearts! They were set up by Reisen Udongein Inaba!
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