mages:>lack youkai attributes, practically identical to humans in behaviour (for better or worse), and while not needing to eat or drink to survive, still need nutrients from time to time or else they get sick. probably the same thing about other physiological needs, such as exercise or sleepwhy are they considered youkai then? is it to look cool? hermits are ironically more youkai-like than them and they very rarely get labelled as such
>>47200075It's possible zun just categorized them as youkai for the sake of consistency in 8 and 11Otherwise marisa's and alice's team would break the human+youkai consistency And then to a lesser extent patchy in 11 I do think they shouldn't be called youkai considering youkai has japanese folklore connotations and alice + patchy are clearly meant to be european witch types
I still have to recheck quite a few things, since they're a weird case.They feel a bit like in the category of "magic creatures" or 魔物(?) maybe be a bit in the same category UMA or hobgoblins, maybe vampires form also are that or just half-youkai, since Flan being a basement dweller live is like digging your own grave as a yokai.They might fit the yokai role of Gensokyo due to not fearing youkai or their relation to the night/moon/stars, maybe it's the source of their powers being closer to that of youkai somehow.Considering how Alice immediately sees something wrong with the moon youkai could also have a more yokai like vision, and see frequencies a bit differently but I think most of it just points them to humans with some buffs.Maybe their isolationist behaviour or lack of sun based lifestyle makes them more yokai, but hermits despite the name in nip being more like mountain wizard or something also spend a lot of time alone meditating and such.
>>47200075>probably the same thing about other physiological needs, such as exercise or sleep>She still eats and sleeps and does everything a human would, despite not needing to do so.No, Akyuu explicitly mentions that magicians do not have human needs, and Patchouli certainly isn't getting any exercise and spends most of her days just reading books.They're youkai because they're magical inhuman creatures that aren't gods, and even then "youkai" is used so broadly in Touhou that sometimes it includes even them.
>>47200075>while not needing to eat or drink to surviveThey do everything a human does including get old and die unless they make themselves into proper mages according to PMiSS. One that did become a proper mage is a youkai. You can argue that one born a natural mage but isn't ageless yet is a (sub)human but there aren't any of those in Touhou, only humans and fully youkai-fied mages. >>47200157>Otherwise marisa's and alice's team would break the human+youkai consistency Youmu...
>>47203057>Youmu...I mean she seems to kinda count as a human in most cases iirc, and she only had half a bar.Being a half phantom seems to only have advantages!!! Except maybe...cha/int nerfs and weakness to cold/snow
>>47203118>she only had half a bar.That's how I chose to interpret "break the human+youkai consistency"
>>47202627>and Patchouli certainly isn't getting any exerciseWhy do you think she is always so fucking frail and sick? She doesnt move, her vitamin levels must also be fucked up
>>47202627Honestly I wonder if Akyuu just got this "western youkai" wrong and they are actual just humans and a born magician is just a human born in a magician family and thus still human until they abandon their worms or whatever.>>47203229It only half breaks it tho sorry had to say it
>>47209115>sorry had to say itDon't tell such half-hearted jokes.
