Koishi Fanon vs. Canon - [ Touhou ]

#touhouproject #東方project #touhou #touhoumemes
Koishi Komeiji, the Third Eye of Love, and one of the most popular characters in fanon. With a franchise heavily centered around fan content, it's no surprise that a well known character's entire persona is distorted beyond canonical depictions
You guys wanted to see this video according to poll results, so here it is. Another Fanon vs. Canon video, and we all know how well they tend to do in my channel lol
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Artwork by dairi
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[Ace-Intervention]

Canon Koishi is so chill, just wondering around gensokyo like doesn’t even using her brain at all… oh wait she doesn’t

[Ashen]

Canon koishi just carelessly wonders around Gensokyo like "No thoughts, head empty"

[oh-seecreations]

kkhta has done irreparable damage to how koishi is viewed in fandom

[WillfredoDammendSS]

Flandre in canon:
"Stays at the basement as she like"
"Have a brain to somewhat control her power"
"Doesn't touch grass"
"Wants to play around with everyone at SDM"

Flandre in fanon:
"You die if you interact"
"Go crazy"
"Bloody fucking Murderer"
"Get tortured by her sister a lot including Abusive"
"Being an actual brat in SDM"
"Had a huge PTSD"

[bramnemeth]

Canon Koishi: no thoughts, head empty
Fanon Koishi: my hat is my friend, he helps calm me down

[gavansalamat]

Marisa in canon: THIEF

Marisa in fanon: THIEF

[keyaidiotka]

Fandom taked very serious the fact that she is unconscious

[eggegg]

Fanon Marisa: A burglar
Canon Marisa: A borrower of items

[Dreigonix]

I do think ZUN was well aware of the dark side of Koishi. Her theme song makes that _very_ clear, as does her taking on the persona of a slasher villain in ULiL. She is usually pretty chill and carefree, but like someone else said, the fact that she is no-thoughts-head-empty and has no conscious mind means she could very easily snap if something went even slightly wrong. That said, she’s not like that ALL the time…

[-q]

Everyone gangsta until a green haired little girl says "hat is frend"

[Youhadabadday]

I mean, to be fair, Canon Koishi's personality is boiled down to "I have no personality because I have no thoughts". The poor girl is running purely off of primal instinct alone, so I can totally see her adopting the Fanon Persona if things go south HARD. The most likely situation that would result in this that I can think of at the moment would be if someone she loves, say Satori or Okuu, ends up getting themselves killed. Her raw unfiltered emotions would probably go into overdrive if that happened, and she would have no qualms picking up a knife and relentlessly hunting down the one who hurt her family. Again, though, this is all speculation based on the theory that Canon Koishi can become Fanon Koishi if the situation is right.

[Pudding]

Canon Koishi is that of a carefree child that just wanders around and has fun, the issues she causes aren't even done out of ill-will, but done out of lack of self-awareness or common sense, but that just honestly makes her more endearing.

Fanon Koishi is just the closing of her 3rd eye taken way out of proportion to where she's out of tune with her emotions, she does things because she can, just taken in an entirely different way than canon.

I don't mind either, they both make for interesting characters types.

[XfromDarkHorse]

Eiki in Canon: Taller than Komachi.
Eiki in Fanon: Short loli.

[Elberich]

Ah yes, the Heart Throbbing Adventure.

[Sekibankiii]

Canon koishi is a carefree child who has only caused problems because of lack of self awareness.

Fanon koishi is a literal psychopath who i wouldnt even dare get 100 feet close to her even if i knew how to peform ultrakill tech in real life.

Kkhta kosihi, nah, id rather be froced to do radiant markoth 100 times in a row with only one finger in hollow knight than to ever think about that "series".

[raptrcz]

"me love not thimkin"
-Koosh Kemji

[SetAbominae]

Touhou’s fanon seems to have a habit of turning basically all characters violent and utterly unhinged (fanon Sakuya being shown as abusive, when canon Sakuya is somewhat of a sassy older sister figure*). I think the only two exceptions are Sanae and Kisume:

- Sanae in the fanon is depicted as a ditzy weeb who looks up to Reimu, and is ultimately kind/caring, often having to clean up after Kanako/Suwako. Canon Sanae is a ruthless businesswomen who is absolutely in on whatever the two aforementioned Gods are up to; a slime who jumps in on any and all fads to improve her Shrine’s popularity (Marisa basically says this in Forbidden Scrollery). She also has no understanding nor care for how balance in Gensokyo works (unlike Reimu and Yukari), so would actively endanger the whole thing by mercilessly hunting youkai.

- Kisume is always portrayed as frail, shy and weak. ZUN himself has said he imagines her as a thoroughly unpleasant and violent individual that’s avoided for a reason.

*except when Remilia and her drink from Kasen’s medicinal sake box and get given oni personalities; this is the only time it’s canonically shown for either to be mean to Meiling.

[nawalathhariansyah]

Canon Koishi is just having fun without a single care!

Fanon Koishi is an unhinged lunatic who is constantly having an existential crisis!

[melody]

"There's no Kogasa, you can close the video"
EoSD Sakuya on the last frame:

[hesiod_delta]

The problem is that Koishi deliberately wipes away cognitive function, so it's hard to tell how she acts. How she still manages to speak, how she is able to understand anything in her environment. It's hard to really understand what her condition actually means, so many doujin makers have a hard time figuring out how to write her.

I've seen some say that Koishi's fanon depiction is based on demonization of mental illness, and there is also the annoying pervasiveness of the yandere trope in general. Luckily, the yandere bubble will hopefully burst as a result of backlash, giving us more grounded depiction. It's just hard to make a character that is based on mental emptiness.