Perfect Cherry Blossom. This game is where Touhou starts feeling like, well, Touhou. While EoSD introduced the new setting of Gensokyo to the Touhou series, PCB is where the series starts defining it's world and it's lore. Having said that, how do the characters in this game stack up? Well that's what we're going to discuss today.
Just a quick note. We'll also include Suika in this discussion. Even though Immaterial and Missing Power canonically takes place after Imperishable Night, the former is labeled as the 7.5th game in the series, as in, it's supposed to be a follow up to PCB. So I think it's fair game.
So without further ado...
Perfect Cherry Blossom Cast (from left to right): Lunasa Prismriver, Merlin Prismriver, Lyrica Prismriver, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Youmu Konpaku, Lily White, Suika Ibuki, Chen, Yukari Yakumo, Ran Yakumo, Letty Whiterock, Alice Margatroid (Art by Dairi)
Letty Whiterock (What Winter Left Behind)
A Yuki-onna who serves as this game's first boss. Letty is only seen during the winter; as spring arrives, Letty goes into hibernation. She's very cold towards humans, and is known to freeze any she comes across.
My Thoughts: There isn't really much for me to say about my feelings towards Letty. She's a Yuki-onna who hangs out during the winter, and leaves during the following seasons. She's commonly depicted to be a guardian towards Cirno, despite canonically not liking being grouped with the ice fairy. Of course, I like to imagine that Letty is fine with Cirno and fine with being with her; It's just that she doesn't like being compared to Cirno, considering how weak fairies usually are in Touhou. Other than that, there's not much for me to say about Letty. You'll only get the chance to run into her at the beginning and end of each year, and that's about it.
Fun Fact: Letty's name is actually a reference to Lettie Blacklock, a character from one of Agatha Christie's book: A Murder is Announced.
Chen (Black Cat of Bad Omens)
Chen is a nekomata youkai and the shikigami of Ran Yakumo. As Ran is also Yukari's shikigami, that means Chen is also subservient to Yukari as well. Chen is also very close friends with Rin Kaenbyou. The two are known to play often, and Chen even picked up the habit to offering corpses to Ran from Orin, much to the former's chagrin
My Thoughts: I don't take as much of an interest in her as I do Ran or Yukari, but I still think Chen is an alright character. Thinking about it, I think Chen's song has the shortest loop of any stage boss theme in the series. It probably doesn't even take a minute to loop... Of course, having said that, while I am fine with Chen, I want to say that I really can't stand that one Chen joke. Y'know the one. The one where someone (usually Ran) yells Chen's name often accompanied by a nosebleed. It just get's very irritating, y'know? But putting that aside, like I said, Chen is an alright character to me.
Alice Margatroid (Seven-Colored Puppeteer)
A doll-controlling-magician who lives in the Forest of Magic. While aloof and self-confident, she's not above showing kindness towards others, as she's willing to let lost humans lodge at home for the night, and is willing (albeit reluctant) to help her neighbor and rival, Marisa Kirisame.
My Thoughts: You might have noticed that I've been holding off on talking about her and Yuuka in the PC-98 discusion post. That's because I wanted to save them for each of their respective Windows debuts. Having said that, here's my view on Alice.
As you may know, I'm not too crazy about Marisa or Patchouli. But out of the witch trio, I'd say I like Alice the most. Mostly for her personality. She's aloof, self-confident, and not afraid to speak her mind or battle someone if the challenge presents itself. But she's also timid, choosing to hold back out fear of what could happen if she were to lose while going all out. Above all, she's kind, and not afraid to helps others, especially if they're human. Don't get me wrong, she's no saint, but still, she's probably one of the kindest people you'll run into Gensokyo. Like with her fellow stage 3 boss, Meiling, it's honestly a crying shame that people misinterpret her in fan works, by either making her a Tsundere or even a Yandere for Marisa when Alice is so much more complex than that. Plus, some of Alice's more unpleasant traits usually surface when she's interacting with Marisa anyway. I'm not saying that they don't have some level of respect for each other. Canon has shown plenty of instances where they do. But still, you can't deny that Marisa usually brings out the worst in Alice.
Lily White (Fairy Herald of Spring)
The Mid Boss of Stage 4. Lily White is a fairy who heralds the coming of Spring. She's know to spray danmaku as she announces Spring's arrival, but it's more out of excitement than aggression. Lily is one of the friendliest characters in the Touhou series as well as one of the youkai who is the least hostile towards humans.
My Thoughts: I got nothing. Her sole purpose is announcing the arrival of the vernal equinox and that's it. Also, Spring is somehow the best and worst season at the same time. The scenery in Springtime is absolutely gorgeous, especially in certain regions of the world. Plus the temperature in Spring usually just right. Not too hot like in the Summer, and not too cold like in the Winter. Now why is it also the worst? One word. Allergies. Having to deal with pollen in the air is the WORST. But now I'm just rambling on about Spring instead of Lily.
Bottom of the line? Lily's not so noteworthy in my opinion. Also Lily Black is literally just Lily White but she's cosplaying as the Yama. Sooooo, yeah. Next.
The Prismriver Sisters (Three Poltergeist Sisters)
This trio of poltergeist sisters are skilled musicians who are popular among youkai. These poltergeist were created by Layla Prismriver, who based them off her late older sisters after their father, Count Prismriver, died in an accident. Even after the 4 sisters died, the poltergeists take refuge in their ancestral home to this day as they continue to hone their music skills.
The sister in black is Lunasa. She's the oldest of the sisters and plays the violin. She's very calm and reserved, but also quite melancholic and pessimistic, due to her honest personality being taken advantage of in the past. The sister in white is Merlin. She's the middle sister and plays the trumpet. Merlin is very upbeat; she's never seen depressed. However, she does have a habit of becoming obsessed with anything she's interested in, to the point where it becomes a mania for her. The sister in red is Lyrica. She's the youngest of the sisters and plays the keyboard. Lyrica is very clever, but also very lazy. She prefers to try and get her to fight for her while she sits on the sidelines and snarks.
My Thoughts: As a whole, I kinda like the idea of the Prismrivers. Three siblings who perform music together. Plus, personality-wise, they're pretty distinct from each other. I have heard some theories that in-universe, they're responsible for most of the songs you hear in Touhou Project. It's honestly quite an interesting explanation. The three are pretty close in my opinion, but if you were to ask how I'd rank them... I think I would say Lunasa, Lyrica, and finally Merlin. They're still all pretty good, even if none of them are one of my all time favorites of this game.
Youmu Konpaku (Half-Human Half-Phantom Gardener)
Youmu lives at Hakugyokurou, the shrine that oversees the Netherworld, and serves as Yuyuko's right-hand-woman, being a gardener, and swordplay instructor. Her two blades, Roukanken and Hakuroken, are said to be able to cut through almost anything as well as confusion, respectively. Youmu is straightforward, diligent, and loyal to her mistress, but said straightforwardness makes her easy to be manipulated by those around her, especially Yuyuko.
My Thoughts: For a while, Youmu was my favorite character from PCB. If you don't count Reisen, then she's certainly my favorite out of the main human protagonists. And I still do like Youmu a lot! She's cute, she's cool, and she's also a bit of a dork who ironically is afraid of ghosts. The whole "cool" factor for Youmu might be played up a bit in fanon, but I personally don't find it a big deal. Plus it's usually not at the expense of any other particular characters in the series (*cough cough* Sakuya). Also, there is this one Touhou fan game (Koumajou Densetsu II: Stranger's Requiem) where she's voiced by Ryō Hirohashi, who, as you may know, is the current Japanese voice actress for Sonic the Hedgehog's Miles "Tails" Prower. What does this sorta minor fact about one fangame have to do with me liking Youmu? I don't know, but being a Sonic fan who also likes the fluffy little two-tailed furball, that fact just kind of appeals to me.
Bottom-Line? I like Youmu. She's one of my favorite characters in the series, and for a while, I actually preferred her over her mistress, Yuyuko.
Yuyuko Saigyouji (Ghost Girl in the Netherworld Tower)
Yuyuko is the Ghost Princess of the Netherworld and an old friend of Yukari Yakumo. During her lifetime, Yuyuko possessed the power to control the spirits of the dead, however it eventually grew into the power to kill others with just a thought. Yuyuko was so terrified by this that she committed suicide. Despite her tragic past, Yuyuko is very cheerful, playful, and friendly, for a ghost. She's also a notorious glutton, and likes messing with her servant, Youmu. Though it's clearly all just in good fun. Despite her gluttonous and seemingly airheaded nature, however, Yuyuko is also capable of being extremely knowledgable and cunning. Possibly even more so than Yukari herself...
My Thoughts: As I said, for a while, I did prefer Youmu over Yuyuko. But after a while, I think I actually prefer Yuyuko over Youmu now. They're both in my Top 10, don't get wrong. It's just that I think Yuyuko actually has more going for her in my opinion. Let me put it in this way.
Yuyuko is the Epitome of Beauty. She has a beautiful design, a beautiful personality, beautifully graceful fighting style (see fighting game sprites), her song, Border of Life, is beautiful, and Yuyuko has one of the most beautifully tragic backstories in the series.
I didn't really think too much of her before, but after thinking about it some more, I feel like Yuyuko could actually be one of my favorites in the series. Right up their with the likes of Meiling, Utsuho, and Reisen (more on the latter two later). It's just a shame that like with many of the characters in the series, Yuyuko suffers with the problem of flanderization. In her case it's focusing on her gluttonous trait. It can be funny at times, but still, there's more to Yuyuko than just eating anything and everything.
Ran Yakumo (Shikigami of the Gap Youkai)
Master of Chen and the Shikigami and Righthand Woman of Yukari Yakumo. Ran is a former resident of the Animal Realm and an associate of the notorious Yuuma Toutetsu before the latter become the leader of the Gouyoku Alliance. However, Ran started to become disgusted with the realm's beastly ideology and left for Gensokyo. Eventually Yukari found her, and the gap youkai made Ran her shikigami. Being a kitsune (or a shikigami possessing the body of a kitsune) that possesses a full set of nine tails, Ran is a very wise, old, and powerful youkai. She's powerful enough to have a shikigami of her own, Chen.
My Thoughts: I didn't think too much about Ran before. I liked her design, but that was mostly due to me liking the aforementioned Tails from the Sonic Series who, as you may or may not know, is actually based off of the legendary kitsune. (I still like to joke about Ran being Tails' long lost ancestomother. Lol.) However, some time after UDoALG came out and expanded on her backstory, I think I've grown to like Ran much more. I think her history is Yuuma is interesting because of the possible scenarios you can make with them. What kind of scenarios? One word. ANGST. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, and I am sure that the two are still pretty close friends (at least I've read that Yuuma still treats her as such), but still whether you view them as former friends or even exes, the fact that they've gone in drastically different directions in life coupled with the fact that Yuuma is unrepentantly evil and (along with her rivals, Yachie and Saki) intends to conquer Gensokyo for herself which Yukari and Ran would not approve of, I can imagine it could cause a rift in the two's friendship. I just think it's interesting to explore the concept of how their circumstances could impact their relationship.
As for Ran's theme, Necrofantasy. It pretty good, even if I prefer the theme most associate her with Charming Domination ~ Who Done It? (I personally associate with the Yakumo family as a whole), as well as Yukari's theme Necrofantasia (which is a remix of Necrofantasy). In the former's case, It has this sort of climatic feel to it; As if you're in the final stretch before facing off against Yukari, with just both of her shikigami's (or at least Ran) standing in your way. It's one of if not one of my favorite stage themes in all of Touhou, especially the PCB Version.
Overall, Ran might be one my favorite characters from PCB, besides Yuyuko and Youmu.
Yukari Yakumo (Youkai of Boundaries)
A legendary youkai sage who serves as Ran and Chen's master and is able to manipulate boundaries. Her gaps allow her to travel almost anywhere, including the Outside World! Yukari is rather whimsical and lazy; She spends most of her time asleep, and in her waking hours, she likes to mess around with those around her. Despite this, Yukari is an extremely powerful youkai and is also very cunning. Because of how well informed she is, Yukari is a master planner, and is able to manipulate events and the people around her to get what she wants. Because of her unpredictable personality, many humans and youkai alike tend to avoid Yukari. Nobody knows what she will do next...
My Thoughts: Yukari. Yukari, Yukari, Yukari... My feelings toward Yukari are... mixed to say the least. What do I mean by that? She somehow manages to be incredible (in terms of power), attractive, annoying, insufferable, and scary all at the same time. I'm not going to bother explaining that second thing, so let's talk everything else.
I say she's incredible because she just goes to how powerful Touhou characters can get. Yukari isn't the MOST POWERFUL character ever to exist in fiction, or even the most powerful Touhou character, but she still comes very close to it. She's able to manipulate boundaries and borders. Do you know what that means? In a nutshell, it basically mean she can practically do whatever to heck she feels like. She's more or less a reality-warper. In a series where two vampire kids can manipulate fate and destroy absolutely anything, respectively, a ghost princess who can control death itself, a fairy tale princess who can manipulate eternity and the instantaneous, and a pet hell raven who make miniature stars, Yukari's ability is still pretty terrifying. I'm not saying all of Touhou's characters are nigh-unstoppable gods who can destroy anyone in a fight to the death, but still, and I say this as someone who watches Death Battle and has seen what kind of crazy stuff that characters it's featured can do, Yukari is the epitome of a cast whose more powerful characters are even capable of destroying most of Marvel, Dragon Ball, and even DC Comics casts, when they're at their fullest potential. Now how they'd fare against toons is another story entirely, but my point still stands.
Why do I say Yukari is annoying and insufferable? Well, let's just say she's not exactly the best person to be around... She's lazy, she's a prankster, and when she isn't one of those two things, she most likely has an ulterior motive in mind for taking an interest in you; like you being a part of her plan or something. She's unpredictable, but I'd say that's the whole point of her character. She can easily alternate being the ultimate good in a situation and the ultimate evil in another. Of course, I will give her credit. Everything she does is for the good of Gensokyo and for maintaining it's balance. So... yeah. As reiterate my ultimate good and evil point, she's not this justice-upholding hero, but she's not some cold and heartless villain either. She's could afford to treat Ran better though... And to stop being so sensitive about her age, at least in fanon.
Above all though, when you think about it Yukari is actually pretty... terrifying. As I said, she's one of the most powerful characters in Touhou, and maybe even all of fiction. And even if she isn't the latter, she's smart and cunning enough to outwit beings who are stronger than her... she's also aware of everything that goes on in Gensokyo, and while I imagine it's not easy to do because of how carefree she usually is, crossing her is basically a death sentence, so you have to watch yourself if you happen to cross paths with her even if she starts to get on your nerves. As if that wasn't scary enough, thanks to her gaps, Yukari can go almost anywhere, including the Outside World. Of course, she's just a fictional character, so there's no way she could actually show up in the real world, but still, the idea that Yukari could very well show up where you live at literally anytime, is terrifying. Especially if you take one of ZUN's comments about her separating Gensokyo from the real world at face value.
So what does all of THIS say about how I feel about Yukari? She's kinda weird. Her boss theme is pretty cool though.
Suika Ibuki (Tiny Night Parade a Hundred Demons)
Another old friend of Yukari's who has the ability to manipulate density. Suika is your typical oni. She has a love for drinking, partying, and fighting. She also possess the strength of an oni, being able to single handedly throw large boulders, and hates cowardice and dishonesty, even though she's slightly less honest than most oni. Suika herself is a happy-go-lucky fellow and can act as childish as she looks at times. However she's also very observant and can be rather critical of others at times.
My Thoughts: I'll make this shorter. Between her, Yuugi, and Kasen, I say I prefer Suika the least. She's not a character I dislike, she's just not one I hold much interest in. I do like her theme from SWR, Broken Moon though. It's pretty groovy.
Overall: I think PCB's cast is a step up from EoSD's. I don't really care too much for Letty or Lily, and Chen and IaMP debut, Suika, are just alright to me, but everyone else is a pretty interesting in their own right. Alice, The Prismrivers, Youmu, Yuyuko, Ran, and yes, even Yukari, have at least something about them that makes them pretty interesting to me, even if they're not a favorite of mine. I think overall, the PCB cast has this "je ne sais quoi" about them that I find very interesting. This game is where setting-wise, Touhou starts becoming more like "Touhou" as we know it, and I think these characters (at least most of them) really drive home that point.

1. Yuyuko Saigyouji
2. Ran Yakumo
3. Youmu Konpaku
4. Yukari Yakumo
5. Prismriver Sisters
6. Chen
7. Suika Ibuki
8. Letty Whiterock
9. Lily White

So those are my thoughts on the Perfect Cherry Blossom cast. Let me know what your thoughts are.
Up next will be the cast for Imperishable Night.

Hello everyone,
I am an artist and writer in the process of creating a webtoon. I hoped I could get a few opinions here about my lineart and it's quality, and if it takes away the visual appeal if I keep it rough.
Lineart is, quite simply put, the nemisis of my whole existence. I am about the slowest person on earth with it, even if I try to hurry, it makes my already hurt hand hurt even more, and on top of all that, I've recently developed a tremor in my hand because of health stuff that turns my lineart into the kind of cardiogram I'd have at the mere thought of drawing one straight line. Even simple lineart is just that hard to do, especially when I have a semi-clean sketch already that will always look better if I don't put in unreasonable amounts of time into the lineart.
Fine and thin lineart looks very beautiful in my eyes, but there is a point in quality were I just can't keep up in speed and health, even when using vector layers and other tricks. And art wise, for anything other than webtoons, I never even did any lineart to begin with, but instead just always cleaned up my sketch, so I'm more used to making something look nice after, and less trained in being quick and steady with lineart. The stabilization that Procreate has would help immensely (because Clip Studio's barely does anything for my trembling, poor hand), but it's such a process switching back and forth without even having any vector layers in Procreate that I'd only consider it if quality-wise, it'd bring up my comic to another level.
So, here are some examples of stuff I tried out so far.
The first two have just my sketches as the linework. I accidentally merged the lineart and color layer somewhere along the way for the first one, so I couldn't really clean up the hair and irises/eyes much, or refine the lighting further, but opinion on it would still be cool. The second one, however, would probably be the amount of clean-up I'd do for my sketch, just that I'd use the first oen instead (plus, I properly did the lighting there already). The last one has full, clean lineart, vector layers and all, of the level I'd wish to have in my webtoon if it weren't for the issues above (the head is sadly missing because it's a spoiler, but the face looks just as clean and has a detailled face that gives it that 'special occasion' shot feel). The lineart took so much time however and eventually started to hurt my hand that i didn't even attempt to put in the many intricate details of the belt I had initially planned. All three of them are not completely finished panels in general yet, so further refinement in lighting and shadow will still be added.
Still, how noticeable is the downgrade in line quality for the overall aesthetics? Would the extra time and effort for the clean lineart be worth it in direct comparison, even if just for the important panels (which I think i could manage at least)? Or would changing up line quality in the middle of work ruin the immersion? (Which is the feeling I get seeing clean lineart like the third picture suddenly appear among the messier ones)
I'd be happy to hear a few opinions about what you think, how it looks to you, and so on:) Constructive criticism is appreciated, as well as any tips that could help with my problem, even on something different than lineart itself if stands out to any of you (for example, I struggle with making a face look the same over and over). Usually, I'm all for drawing however I want, but I have noticed that especially clean lineart is an 'almost always there standard' I see through Orignals and Canvas both. Maybe my standards for my own art are just too high (I'm just a lone artist after all), but I'd honesty be pretty sad if something I pour my whole heart into comes off as lazy or sloppy just because of a thing I struggle with going against one of the more common industry standard's grain. Thank you for reading all this already (I know I write a little too much, whoops), and I wish a good day or night:)

Please take a moment to read this post, i desperately need answers.
Around a month ago me and my friends started a JAVA minecraft server. everything was fine until around two days ago. There are only 5 of us that play on it (2 inactive)
I think I should start with the very beginning.
My friend "Joe" (fake name) was just walking around doing his thing when suddenly he got the words "Search" in the chat. At first he brushed it off and forgot about it, but he realized that every time that he went over this specific spot the words "search" was sent in the chat. This happened while nobody was in the server, and it wasnt attached to dialogue, it was simply the word "search". he wrote the cords down and shared it with us. a day later i decided to go to the cords and was met with an eerie cave thing when i dug down. inside that cave i was met with chests and a barrel, along with a sign. the sing i will address later...
In a barrel towards the end of the cave thing was a book. The book was titled "Jo*rn**l" and was singed "em*et* wo**st*ck"
this freaked me out because with my knowledge of minecraft books are automatically signed by your username, and you cannot prevent that. Here i have a clip of me reading out loud this journal. https://outplayed.tv/media/BmYwrO
This is my analysis of it. https://outplayed.tv/media/52w0Wz
The sign in the cave said "that damned altar is further down. I destroyed its path"
After seeing this sign i dug around in random holes and found nothing, however when i dug a small 2x1 tunnel forward from the barrel where i found the book there was a cave. the cave was lit with torches. joe claims he did not loot this cave, and neither did i
At first me and Joe pointed the blame to my other friend, gabe. gabehas had experience with command blocks before, and we know that if a player were to do this, with the chat messages and the book and everything you would need a command block. In order to get a command block you need admin, however. Joe never gave gabe admin, and joe never spawned a command block. i would also like to say that ive known joe for almost 4 years now and i know he is NOT the type of person to put this much effort into a video game prank. He also does not know anything about command blocks and does not really have the talent to make such an elaborate puzzle.
I would also like to point out that there is a perfectly carved tunnel that leads from an entrance of the ravine into this cave. (https://outplayed.tv/media/Re5M13) (ignore buckshot roulette in the background)
we withheld this information from gabe out of suspicion until the next day (yesterday)
yesterday inside of his base, when entering gabes storage room joe got another "search" alert... just it was much more obvious than a chat message. instead he got a large text upon the middle of his screen saying "search lower". this time he took a screenshot
https://preview.redd.it/6drni6r1n90d1.png?width=2094&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc2bdeaa23673462eeece3d38d0f9c5f7f930fd8
https://preview.redd.it/93lquj1hq90d1.png?width=2094&format=png&auto=webp&s=06c52bdbc62931cfd45ed3546e8560096cbe14d5
we forgot about this for a couple of hours until suddenly joe suddenly started saying "oh my god, oh my god i think i found something.". I immediately came over.
Gabe had previously dug out a little area in our community villager center for some project he had and we found this:
https://outplayed.tv/media/zY4BxZ
A weird shrine with the sign "OCNIGIRI REIGNS" hanging. w
This was right under gabes room, the same room joe got the "search lower" message from, almost exactly directly under where he was standing at the time.
all fingers were pointed to gabe, so we confronted him. he gave us a fair point. while he does know how to code he does not know command block coding very well on java, and it has been a couple years since he used one. he also had no way to get his hands on one. also, im not sure if he has that amount of motivation.
Today i decided to get on and use the seed to create a singleplayer creative world. I went to the exact cords of these two locations and there was nothing there. meaning that it is not tied to the seed. even if it were to be one of the two inactive friends, how would they have the messages?
I am on lunar client, joe has some other mod that he uses (no hacking tho) and gabe has nothing. but we all see this room so what is it? what oculd it mean?
This is what i think the lore is so far:
From the jounral:
There is a strange entity haunting "Em*et* Wo**st*ck" that has foreseeing abilities, it is seeing the future of a tragedy to happen in this realm. it speaks in teh language of the enchantment table, which is also the language villagers speak. emet does not understand this language however, one word is chanted over and over which is OCNIGIRI.
From the shrine:
OCNIGIRI REIGNS points to the direction that the ocnigiri is what is causing this future, the word REIGNS is almost a corrupt ownership
also, gabe did point out that some villagers have been going missing, and i did in fact encounter one outside of the base. (keep inmind that the shrine is directly next to the villagers)
what do you guys think???? could the "*" in the book be code??? the authors name is boviosuly incomplete. This thing has me freaked out.
Here is a little extra compilation which includes the recording of me first encountering the cave, reading the book and mining around a bit https://outplayed.tv/media/XG8DM7