Touhou - The Magician Who Loved a Fake (Doujinshi) - Vol. 3 Ch. 17 - The Only Real Magic

[MangaDex]

 

[Blaze9]

Is that a typo at page 23 "what's real is this feeling"?

Also, thank you guys for your efforts all along the way. This author is amazing.

This was a kind of an open ending. It's not completely clear if Marisa recovered her powers or what happened to Reimu's powers. I hope we get an epilogue in the volume release.

 

[Silfir]

So, Reimu's the fake? Excellent.

A couple chapters back I commented it was a story about depression. I was thinking, of course, of Marisa's symptoms, which were reminiscent of burnout. (Both actual, mental burnout, and metaphorical in the way she lost her magic.) Now it turns out it applies just as much to Reimu. Losing Marisa dropped her into an abyss, but to the outside, she still had to pretend she was okay. She couldn't disappoint expectations - the Hakurei does not waver. Better to isolate herself completely until, some way or the other, she would be forgotten, and nobody would expect anything of her anymore.

Except Marisa, having been down in the hole, knows the way out, and she isn't going to let go of Reimu's hand this time. And that's the story of true friendship... which is indistinguishable from love, really. It's just one facet of it.

The story hews very close to canon... mostly. This interpretation of Reimu is much more stoic and melancholic than the Reimu we usually see. ZUN writes Reimu doesn't experience character development - some may have taken that to mean that she's stuck forever being someone, or rather something, that she didn't choose to be, and that's why she's so grumpy - she is unhappy, deep down. I take a more optimistic stance - Reimu won't experience character development because she is legitimately content, happy, being who she is, deep down - but I deeply appreciate the counterpoint offered by this work that just because someone looks like they're content - "She'll be okay" - it doesn't mean they are. Not by a long shot.

I'd love to know if there's any word on what's next for the author. Do they have another one in them? I'd love to see it.

 

[hourai]

Thanks for translating this work !

So Alice took that dead witch's puppet when she retrieved her doll huh. But Patchouli, that's not how you use a chair... it seems to entertain Flandre though.

 

[Tds-PdV]

Thank you for doing the entire work!

At first I wasn’t expecting much, but the story end up being quite good and I didn’t expect the plot twist. The author must have put some serious thought and effort into this; totally worth the read.

 

[Levander]

Is that a typo at page 23 "what's real is this feeling"?

Nah, that's correct. An answer to the open question of what is or isn't real.
"What is real is this feeling."

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Nicopico]

; ;

 

[Siranto1]

Chose to read it at the right time it seems. An epilogue to clear up the loose ends would definitely be nice

 

[jojsr]

This is a pretty good Reimari story