Still waiting for a Hikaru no Go parody of Youmu and Yuyuko 620https://i.ur.com/MkO57A5.png Myon Having read my fair share of niche interest/hobbyist manga including competitive PC overclockinghttps://anilist.co/manga/57395/87Clockers/ and rakugohttps://anilist.co/manga/144866/Akanebanashi/ I was nonetheless somewhat perplexed at a Touhouhttps://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/TouhouWiki mahjong centric series. Though considering how frighteningly eclectic and creative Touhou doujin culture is from all those NND MADs to that fangame where you play as Reisen shooting suppositories up unsuspecting anuseshttps://www..com/watch?v=PQmWpafFeVU I shouldnt have been. I dont possess the slightest interest in mahjong having found Tobaku Datenroku Kaijihttps://anilist.co/manga/33574/TobakuDatenrokuKaiji/ the weakest portion in the overall series but in Gensokyos setting its a surprisingly great combination of nicheness. While Touhou lore is expansively deep and a real rabbithole to get lost in at night moreso than the Bamboo Forest of the Lost theres a vagueness around character abilities that understandably doesnt get explored so deeply in most of the official games. Thus youll often just have to rely on the official wikis word for character bios and fandom conjectures based off game dialogue ZUNs interviews etc. This lack of definition certainly doesnt tantamount to a flaw discussions and conjectures around the extent to a characters abilities is enjoyable in any powersystemoriented series. Interesting and amusing conjectures are boundless in the fandom such as the end result of Rinnosukes ability to realize the name/purpose of any object faced with Nues ability to hide the true nature of things and this series is yet another case of great creative liberties at work. Besides Youmu/Yuyuko being my favorite Touhou duo the initial reason for gravitation Hayahiro Ushirohttps://anilist.co/staff/242741/HayahiroUshiro interestingly sets the actionoriented abilities of Gensokyos residents in a passive strategic setting without losing the flare of danmaku battles. True to any gambling series the Hakurei Shrine strictly bans cheating in its mahjong tournament open to all Gensokyo denizens though cheating isnt cheating if never caught in the act. This restricts the epileptic showboating display of many characters powers and instead use them in a new passiveaggressive manner. In a 4player battle standard to mahjong no less giving rise to some random mashups and creative interpretations of character abilities. Doujin appeal aside the technical mahjong and battle aspect has its merits. The flow of the matches clearly reflect the psyche of the characters particularly the struggling persevering Youmu and the move explanations are thorough on behalf of her analyses and serious personality. The plot centered around a knockout tournament the matches never drag beyond a few chapters and give opportunities for refreshing matches adopting different strategies. Both as a fanwork and a mahjong strategy series Ushiro excels in both regards each aspect playing off each other. 620https://i.ur.com/3VVdmwa.png 620https://i.ur.com/05lDeJl.png Though what makes this novelty of an interesting combination of two games into an actual narrative is the halfghost halfhuman protagonist. Possessing no ability with mahjong aptitude like Satoris mindreading or Sanaes broken miracles Youmu instead relies on pure technical aptitude and experience. This point in mind the series will bog you down with relevant mahjong jargon all graciously and thoroughly explained in the scan teams notes in addition to the authors creative liberties with character powers. Like most mahjong series just be aware of how points/scores works the names of certain tiles/tile combinations and youre set. Though even if one feels too bogged down by this info simply reading the flow of the matches is sufficient as theyre largely part of Youmus development narrative. One doesnt need any prior grasp on mahjong to read this series and likewise nonTouhou fans dont need much lore knowledge. Touhou games are largely episodic and this series isnt even canon so one can simply treat this as a CGDCTnatured series especially with Hayahiro Ushiros amusingly slackened artstyle. The power explanations may be perplexing though and these matches may not be as exciting or interesting if one isnt familiar with the characters. Still Youmu is Youmu. Fan or not its hard not to root for her underdog tale striving for the strongest. 620https://i.ur.com/4nO5NVV.png Though the title of strongest has well past been taken alreadyhttps://i.ur.com/PW6lLcg.png but I digress.