Tall or short Eiki?

[CountVonNumenor]

This may not be the most serious topic of discussion, but I do have a bit of curiosity. Ever since I have been into the fandom, I have seen the discussion about canon vs fanon depiction of Eiki Shiki going on, usually with people not really liking her fanon version. Because of this, I am looking to see how do people like her?

 

Personally, I am not too much of a fan of the angry loli midget Eiki that is constantly wrathful and sends people to Hell due to arbitrary reasons (like having bigger boobs than hers). Especially after reading about her and from the canon sources she appears in, I actually did start like that character. Paradoxically though, or like a bit of hypocrisy, I still find stuff like Convictor Yamaxanadu from IOSYS funny to watch. And the fact that one of her portraits, the one from Grimoire of Marisa, made her look child-like, only put more fire for that fanon image of a kindergartener looking girl.

 

For me, I tend to see Eiki Shiki as a person with good intentions and who wants people to repent/be better in order to avoid a bad afterlife, even if she could be stern. At least in my mind, she does not fit with the always angry midget image, but I would rather like to depict her as a more mature and maybe gracious woman, and maybe somewhere between mid-height and tall, since I also like imagining her as rather imposing. Honestly, it took me a bit of time until I started exploring the characters of PoFV, but now I ended up with Eiki being among my favorite Touhou characters. I like her design, her music theme is also very good, and is overall the kind of character I really want to learn more about and read any bit of related canon material.

 

In the end, I would like to know to know how you prefer interpreting her, and what do you like about the character.

[Macbeth]

I love eiki she my gf irl and she fine the way she is

[CountVonNumenor]

6 hours ago, Macbeth said:

I love eiki she my gf irl and she fine the way she is

Oh no, this answer reminds me way too much of that one XG3E weeb dude on YouTube (creator of the "I want mommy/I want milk" shitpost format) and his daily community posts  about how much he wants to [you know what] Reisen. Or that other person, BlankGuy, who is a strong supporter of gatekeeping and just throwing around inflammatory ideas for the sake of creating toxicity. 

I know you might be joking (I hope), but that sentence reminded me way toouch of some people I really despise. 

[Eva]

tall eiki is serious smol eiki is not serious

 

[CountVonNumenor]

I think when it comes to fanart depictions of Eiki, probably one of my favorite is the one created by Iganashi1. There's just something I like a lot about his version of the Yama. 

 

Link for the artist: https://twitter.com/Iganashi1?s=20&t=gqtQgGsPsZJ4dEnLS3HTPg

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by CountVonNumenor

[Darksymphony777]

canonically eiki is supposedly almost as tall as komachi

[Tenkko]

i don't like the boob jokes but i don't mind her being a bit more unhinged for funnies. height is irrelevant.

(YES iganashi's eiki is great. very leggy)

 

[StrongDrunkenChild]

I really like that first Eiki pic. Specifically the face. Kindof reminds me of Bryan Lee O'malley stuff.

Edit: oh yeah this artist is incredible

Edited April 9, 2022 by StrongDrunkenChild

[CountVonNumenor]

1 hour ago, Darksymphony777 said:

canonically eiki is supposedly almost as tall as komachi

That is how I knew it too. However, where did the short, fanon-favorite version of Eiki come from? Is it due to the depiction from Grimoire of Marisa (I really do not like so much the style in that book, as everyone looks like a kindergartener - especially Eiki) and Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, or was it purely something done by the fans in order to  create a contrast between her and Komachi (on the model of that from Bleach with Rangiku Matsumoto and her short boss)?

 

12 minutes ago, StrongDrunkenChild said:

I really like that first Eiki pic. Specifically the face. Kindof reminds me of Bryan Lee O'malley stuff.

Edit: oh yeah this artist is incredible

Yeah, I really like his/her style of drawing. It has enough simplicity, yet at the same time conveys so much. That, and the characters drawn look extremely cute. 

[Tenkko]

10 minutes ago, CountVonNumenor said:

That is how I knew it too. However, where did the short, fanon-favorite version of Eiki come from? Is it due to the depiction from Grimoire of Marisa (I really do not like so much the style in that book, as everyone looks like a kindergartener - especially Eiki) and Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, or was it purely something done by the fans in order to  create a contrast between her and Komachi (on the model of that from Bleach with Rangiku Matsumoto and her short boss)?

somewhere around 2006-2007, i don't know exactly what the catalyst was. maybe PMiSS fueled it. i think it's just an exaggeration of her PoFV appearance, and small and angry being a common combo they also made her short.

(no respect for us short kings)

[CountVonNumenor]

1 minute ago, Tenkko said:

somewhere around 2006-2007, i don't know exactly what the catalyst was. maybe PMiSS fueled it. i think it's just an exaggeration of her PoFV appearance, and small and angry being a common combo they also made her short.

(no respect for us short kings)

There is respect for you to be given too. I am also rather short, at least for the standards of my current generation and all those I have lived with (I'm just under 175cm tall)(for some reason, a lot of those from my generation seem to be very tall, towering around me at over 180-190cm).
But back on topic. Personally really am not too much of a fan of the style/depiction from GoM:

[CountVonNumenor]

Wow, I am quite impressed how all of a sudden this thread gathered so much attention, weeks after original post. But I am happy to see discussion going 

[Darksymphony777]

I think in my opinion it was stems from Phantasmagoria of Flower View or more specifically how ZUN drew her in said game. My guess is that the art is so unfitting to look like an adult that people mistook her for a kid, this can also explain why she looks the way she does in grimoire of Marisa, the artists of the manga thought the same thing.

 

Though this does beg a question, who's the tallest touhou character

[Tenkko]

33 minutes ago, Darksymphony777 said:

Though this does beg a question, who's the tallest touhou character

im a believer of towering junko

[Darksymphony777]

1 minute ago, Tenkko said:

im a believer of towering junko

Tall Junko staring at you with a empty smile is intimidating as hell. But I would  say yuugi would slightly edge out junko with meiling being a bronze

[DavidX123]

Tall Eiki
Pretty sure the ending cutscene to Touhou 9 also revealed it to be that Eiki was a lot more taller than Komachi and Reimu

[Darksymphony777]

5 minutes ago, DavidX123 said:

Tall Eiki
Pretty sure the ending cutscene to Touhou 9 also revealed it to be that Eiki was a lot more taller than Komachi and Reimu

Komachi's ending in one of the fighting games (can't remember what it's called) reveals that she's slightly taller than eiki

[Tenkko]

honestly talking about canon heights is like talking about power levels

[CountVonNumenor]

At its origin, this thread was more about preference. Especially since the Reddit version of it also had a poll for deciding if you like the tall, short or somewhere in between depiction. 

[Darksymphony777]

On 4/9/2022 at 11:50 PM, Tenkko said:

honestly talking about canon heights is like talking about power levels

Yeah it is, though to be fair this thread is basically asking if one prefers a short yama or tall yama

[Gensokian Loser]

I disregard cannon in this, I have short Eiki headcannon. However, not loli Eiki, she's a mature and serious lady and despite her height, she is quite intimidating because of her demeanour. I don't know, it's an interesting combo. I agree with you on the personality bit though.

Where DID the child-like Eiki even come from? She's certainly not like that in the game, it's such a random turn.

[CountVonNumenor]

39 minutes ago, Gensokian Loser said:

I disregard cannon in this, I have short Eiki headcannon. However, not loli Eiki, she's a mature and serious lady and despite her height, she is quite intimidating because of her demeanour. I don't know, it's an interesting combo. I agree with you on the personality bit though.

Where DID the child-like Eiki even come from? She's certainly not like that in the game, it's such a random turn.

Oh, seems like a nice compromise option. Not too tall, but still dignified.
As for the child-like Eiki, I guess it is just the fandom what fandom does. Takes a character or a part of it, and overblows it. I am not very sure who was the first to implement it in fanon, but I would also blame official art (especially GoM) for it. After all, even official art drew her as a kindergartener, so I guess fans thought why not giver her a matching personality.

[Gou the frog]

For me, she's a very mature and a fair lady. Her height would be not too tall but not too short either.

She's in the middle, like ying and yang.

[CountVonNumenor]

4 hours ago, Gou the frog said:

For me, she's a very mature and a fair lady. Her height would be not too tall but not too short either.

She's in the middle, like ying and yang.

That is very much how I like imagining her too, even if slightly taller than those around her. However, your idea is perfectly balanced, as all things should be

[CountVonNumenor]

On 4/9/2022 at 11:10 PM, StrongDrunkenChild said:

I really like that first Eiki pic. Specifically the face. Kindof reminds me of Bryan Lee O'malley stuff.

Edit: oh yeah this artist is incredible

You are in luck. Iganashi has posted a new Eiki drawing today

Source: https://twitter.com/Iganashi1/status/1514997029705236485/photo/1

Seriously, his version of the Yama really makes me like to imagine her as an actual, mature woman that has good intentions, even if the way of showing it might be a little rough sometimes. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by CountVonNumenor