Nilix said: Is Kogasa surprised that she surprised someone?
No, she received mental trauma upon seeing Byakuren's true "face." The fandom gag is that because Byakuren is so old, her true form must be an old lady and that she's using magic to maintain a youthful appearance (thus the "rejuvenation" spell she referred to in the 4th panel).
sarcasteak said: No, she received mental trauma upon seeing Byakuren's true "face." The fandom gag is that because Byakuren is so old, her true form must be an old lady and that she's using magic to maintain a youthful appearance (thus the "rejuvenation" spell she referred to in the 4th panel).
Why aren't people saying the same thing about Alice though? They're both human magicians that have become ageless, aren't they?
Marisa is technically older since Alice is a kid when they meet. Reimu/Alice are technically in their twenties, too.
However, because they're not really allowed to age and Touhou is perpetually stuck in comic book time, after Alice was aged a few years in PCB, it brought her closer to Marisa and Reimu's ages.
Alice is a technically a Magician and thats considered to be a separate species in the Touhou universe, so her age and appearance is moot. Same goes for Patchouli.
MMaestro said: Alice is a technically a Magician and thats considered to be a separate species in the Touhou universe, so her age and appearance is moot. Same goes for Patchouli.
Huh, I didn't know that. I kind of figured that since they made a big point of becoming an unaging Magician taking a lot of time that Alice would be older.
Well, that, and since Marisa isn't a magician yet despite her skill.
But back to Byakuren, since Magicians quite simply don't age, where did this 'illusion' idea come from?
Byakuren specializes in magic that 'increases her physical abilities', so logically she could make herself look younger.
Must be noted that she only started pursuing 'black magic' AFTER Myouren died, so she could conceivably have been middle aged by the time she gave up her mortality.
Giant+Robot said: everyone going on about the Alice stuff.... no one brought up her being originally from Makai at the very least?
She was raised as a Magician in Makai, yes. It is still possible that she was brought there (Patchouli implied that human magicians attempting to speed up their transition to to youkai would journey to Makai for training).
its due to Shinki's dialogue, somthing along the lines of " I created everything here" that makes people think Alice is Shinki's daughter in the end though theres only speculation and no one is right, go... I mean Zun only knows
As funny as the gag was, it makes no sense. Byakuren doesn't "make herself look younger", she uses black magic to stop her body from aging. Its not an illusion or reversing her body to a young age (ala Genaki in Yu Yu Hakushou), she physically doesn't age at all any more. However, unlike Alice, she's not a magician-style youkai, she's still classified as a human. She apparently found away to do it without becoming a youka herself.
More to the point, she's over a thousand years old. If she suddenly did reverse back to her true age, even if only for a moment, she'd turn to dust!
OmniGman said: More to the point, she's over a thousand years old. If she suddenly did reverse back to her true age, even if only for a moment, she'd turn to dust!
Her true age is the point when she stopped aging, which is a lot less than a thousand years, because she stopped aging. The theory is that that's older than she currently appears, and that she uses magic to look younger because she can't reverse aging (only stop it). It's not an illusion or reversing, it's simply a body enhancement, which is her specialty.
Why aren't people saying the same thing about Alice though? They're both human magicians that have become ageless, aren't they?
Actually for Alice, it's the other way around than Hijiri: she used magic to make herself look older. At least that's the common belief and there are a few doujins that play around with this fact. Like sometimes if Alice wears out of magic she gets back her child appearance.
I've come to the newly built temple, but no one wants to be surprised... I'm hungry.Boo!Eek!She looks distracted, an easy target!Did something happen, Hijiri!?No, it's nothing. But I was so surprised that my rejuvenation wore off for an instant.