東方鈴奈庵～ Forbidden Scrollery.

FORBIDDEN SCROLLERY

Fantasy

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
7
RELEASE
July 26, 2017
CHAPTERS
54

DESCRIPTION

Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery is a Touhou official comic published by Kadokawa in Comp Ace beginning on October 26, 2012.

It introduces the human book renter and collector Kosuzu Motoori as the main character, with the story centered around her mysterious ability to decipher any book no matter the language or script, and her assortment of various rare and dangerous demon books.

CAST

Reimu Hakurei
Marisa Kirisame
Kosuzu Motoori
Mamizou Futatsuiwa
Hieda no Akyuu
Sakuya Izayoi
Remilia Scarlet
Reisen Udongein Inaba
Youmu Konpaku
Yukari Yakumo
Yuyuko Saigyouji
Aya Shameimaru
Sanae Kochiya
Yuuka Kazami
Byakuren Hijiri
Nue Houjuu
Nitori Kawashiro
Hata no Kokoro
Rinnosuke Morichika
Letty Whiterock

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Spongeedd
90/100
I like Touhou lore :)
I like how one can just dismiss Forbidden Scrollery as nothing more but a human village slice-of-life because it can be easily masked as such, but I think it's such an interesting commentary on how important and central the human village is overall to the world of Gensokyo. It all can seem a little bit hard to catch on given how a lot of the recurring locations are basically the street of Suuzunan, the Hieda Residence and random houses around the village, as well as the semi-regular Hakurei Shrine sighting, given it is centered more around the 'weakest' area of Gensokyo.
With how both Akyuu and Mamizou mention how the youkai made the village to sustain their existence and that the more influence your youkai group has over the village, the more 'power' you have over Gensokyo; it's pretty interesting to see these heavy ideals be always at play from like chapter 14 onwards. You can see signs of this with Mamizou's constant advances on Suuzunan, to the point where she just ends up threatening Kosuzu to give her the Night Parade scroll, how the Kappa invade the place at night in order to use their storagehouse for future negotiations, how Aya quite literally sneaked into the village like Mamizou in order to promote the Tengu's craft AND protecting them from harsh, destructive weather... It's fun to think that even unintentionally, one part about this world that is deemed cruel due to the youkai being so kind to the most defenseless species, even if it can have its ulterior motives it was also shown a lot of the times it can be pretty selfless, or to just up their monetary gain while also providing the inhabitants more care.
Kosuzu being powerless and scared but very interested in the fantastic aspects of her world made for a pretty fun and light-hearted main pov of the whole thing, but with how much build-up it all had for the ending to show how leaving humans on Gensokyo unchecked after interacting with youkai for so long can cause things to go haywire if you're not careful enough. Ultimately the realization that 'youkai aren't enemies as long as they're not harming us' feels a little bit hollow from where the story stood, because right before that conclusion, Mamizou was quite literally threatening her passively-aggressively ? (I support her go off my queen you little sly grandma), but its hard to just brush off a possible threat because a youkai is just 'using' someone and not causing them any harm, which is why Reimu having overlooked Kosuzu as a whole ends up as a pretty good way to make a conclusion, she really underestimated her curiosity for the occult, and ended up letting her get harmed.
Pretty good read for Touhou lore knowledge, it did begin lighthearted but its more of a 'reading in-between the lines' kind of manga, I like having a look at the daily lives of the usual incident resolvers but also seeing how the humans in the human village can have their own powers to solve themselves, while also learning more about the youkai that suround them.
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