【Touhou Manzai】 Magic Astronomy
Sorry everyone. My partner and I are done making lyrics.
Our new passion is... stand-up comedy! I hope you'll continue to support us!
(Just barely made the upload in time... geez. This was such an overly ambitious joke project. Happy April Fool's Day! And don't worry, more lyrics are still on the way.)
This video is heavily based on the "Touhou M-1 Grand Prix" series of partner comedy skits by the Japanese doujin circle, R-note. As my partner Lori-hime and I collaborated on both the art and the audio, we were intentionally trying to capture the style of their precedent. I recommend searching for any of those Grand Prix skits that have been translated and uploaded; they can be quite entertaining.
Here, Renko Usami and Maribel Hearn star in perhaps the very first English-language Touhou manzai skit! "Manzai" is a unique genre of Japanese comedy act where a "straight man" (tsukkomi) and a "funny man" (boke) bounce off of each other in absurd conversations.
I definitely feel like the Sealing Club's dynamic is suited for this. This project's concept originally stemmed from a discussion about which of them is the "straight man" or the "funny man" in their relationship. The straight man is supposed to be the one who brings the funny man down to earth. Keeping Merry's fantasy-filled mind grounded in reality is Renko's job, right? Renko is a scientist who exhibits a matter-of-fact, know-it-all sort of confidence, which seems like it should paint her as the more serious skeptic. But actually, Merry is by far the more cautious of the two, while Renko is the type who believes anything she hears and chases adventure at any cost. Sometimes it feels like Renko is the one who needs to be grounded. So it's an interesting interplay there where they can switch roles.
... There are an astounding amount of comments asking us to continue this as a series. We did work very hard on it, but because it was always meant to be a silly one-time thing, we didn't expect this reception at all! Well... When next year's April rolls around, we'll see!