/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>15665398
>>15666507
>>15669110
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you that responded to my questions as well as everyone here who discussed the character of Sanae in any way.
Allow me to give me some of my answers then.

>Do you like her looks?
She's a shapely young woman. The stylized miko wear makes her look cool and divine, whereas the exposed shoulders and hairpins add a lot of cuteness. And the shades of blue and green are very pleasant to the eye when mixed with white.

>Her powers and danmaku?
I don't really like her in-story power that much, because I find vague semantic powers boring and cheap in general due to their lack of clear boundaries that physical ones have. But it's still a level above the likes of Sagume or Remilia, with the long cast time for great miracles acting as a limiter that also makes it more believable that Remi's destiny manipulation (which sounds like an outright lie).

Her application of this power into danmaku is another story. Unlike Reimu, she actually channels the power of gods to fight - and having Kanako's sky and Suwako's earth powers on command, she feels more like a type of elementalist like Patchouli and Futo, with her moveset being full of wind and water magic that is stylized after miracles. Add in some falling stars and her miko abilites such as talismans, energy barriers and youkai power drain, and she ends up with a highly fun and creative array of spells at her disposal.

>Her musical themes?
Faith is okay as something heavier that most of ZUN's stuff and is easy on the ears, but I think the theme never really building up to anything substantial hurts it's potential - and it's mood is highly unfitting to the real character of Sanae, being more about her deliberately projected divine image instead.

Primal Scene of Japan on the other hand is one of my absolute favorites. Tranquil, rural and beautiful, yet with a hint of mystic power behind it. This arrange illustrates that mood perfectly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMQ_O4uO1T8

>Her approach to life and position of a shrine maiden and a living goddess?
Considering she gave up on live in modern society just to heed the call of her goddesses and still works her hardest to allow them to live and prosper, Sanae's character is one of my primary inspirations in life. I can't not love that level of admirable devotion that does not kill her enjoyment of life at all - quite the opposite.

>Her backstory?
Her life before moving to Gensokyo is pretty much unknown, but judging from her sincere joyful behavior, it couldn't have been too horrible - especially now that ZUN had favorably compared her case with Sumireko's. While that makes her seem even more loyal to Kanako and Suwako (considering she propably gave up on a pretty nice life in Outside World, just to stake her future on a gamble for those two's sake), it's one of weaker aspects of her character so far - but it still gets some points for providing a lot of speculation fuel.

>Her interactions with other characters?
Quite the curious case. She's clearly an amicable person by nature, going by her friendly interactions with Reimu and Marisa, her attending pretty much all parties, her polite but clueless lines in 12.3, her sermons in human village and that scene with Nue. On the other hand, she clearly feels a need to maintain a degree of superiority over youkai - as made evident in UFO. She loves to underscore her divine nature in general, which makes her seem quite arrogant. But that doesn't have to be a flaw too - see her dedication to save lunarians in LoLK once she happily paints herself as their chosen heroine in her mind. Add in the rapport towards her goddesses that makes her seem more like their daughter than servant, and you get a highly interesting and fun character that is nice but sometimes a little condescending towards others.

>Fanon centered around her?
Unsurprisingly, I don't like her fanon much, with it being a mixed bag. On the one hand, her backstory often receives some great expansions (like Though The Wind Cries) and she gets a lot of fun and heartwarming family bonding with Kanako and Suwako in general. On the other hand, the two things she is known in the fanon for are extremely negative. The youkai exterminator meme is blown way out of proportion to make her seem like a bad person, and even twisted mostly towards Kogasa just to make her seem worse, even though she isn't particularly cruel to her in canon. Of course, this meme has *some* basis in canon, and it resulted in the creation of my favorite pairing in the series (Sanae X Kogasa), so it's not all bad. The slut meme on the other hand is spiteful, vindictive, baseless garbage that merits no further explanation.

Of course I refuse to even remotely give up on the former just because of the existence of the latter. But all-in-all, her fanon needs a lot of work to make it worthwhile to leave her great canon every so often.

>>14514741
The man knows his stuff.

>>14514762
>Reimu is lazy, but I'm sure if her shrine God showed up, then she would be the same.
I doubt that. Reimu gathers next to no faith for her god, and doesn't even know his name. If Hakurei showed up at the shrine demanding and explanation for this bullshit, Reimu probably wouldn't even know who he is.

A smile to greet you every day.