And there we go, WaHH, the end. 9 years in the running and an ending that I'd also consider pretty satisfactory : not only does it answer the how, why and when of the everything that suddenly got Reimu
, but it also make obvious Kasen's standing when it comes to her arm :
. Questions sorta gets answered, and the final chapter aptly puts Kasen in the limelight, showing her thoughts and feelings on stuff. I especially liked the way the story was told this time, its like the style completely changed. Things seems a bit ...
melodramatic :wat: ? Dunno, but it's got a very unusual tone.
Now, regarding the ending, except the fact that a Reimu and Tenshi properly confronted Kasen and know for a fact that she is an Oni, Kasen's identity as a Hermit is still pretty much preserved, and so is her relation to other people (since Reimu and Tenshi seems to want to keep it secret anyway) : stuff happened, but things managed to be tied out neatly in a way that lead back to the status quo where Reimu gets to put the arm on display for monies, similar to her previous business (?) ventures.
Now there are some people for whom the notion of status quo itself means, uhh, bad words, in Touhou, I think it's actually pretty fitting for this series, not only owing to its Slice of Life nature, but also something else about what WaHH is at its core : let's consider a few things : you've got an established setting, a clear and identified cast whose personality and motivations you're familiar AND familiarised with, along with some random events that happens in their "world" that lead them to react to it, generally in a silly and comedic way. What exactly is that formula specificaly ? Why, a
SITCOM's, of course. WaHH is, at its core, a
Sitcom (Situational Comedy), and it's not uncommon for these type of work to "end" when part of the setting changes, the setting being, in this case, Kasen searching for her arm for whatever purpose while hiding her true identity : she
while the status quo is respected and allow the series in general to go business as a usual, things cannot simply be the same for WaHH's "cast".
Now, there are probably a lot of thing to be said regarding how WaHH goes from it's first chapter up to the last, but for me personally, two things : 1/ the art, most obviously, which evolved a lot. Actually, just check and compare for yourself ; and 2/ regarding everything else in the light of the ending, while I've little doubt that ZUN
sorta knew where he wanted to go and what kind of conclusion he wanted to go for, a fair number of chapters seem fairly inconsequential in regard to the chapters that lead up to the last one. I guess these ones are probably the ones that give out that Slice of Life, Sitcom vibe the most ? At any rate, seeing some of the various characters that were new at the time the chapters they cameo'd in was released makes me think that WaHH was for the MOST part a bunch of stories that do not necessarily contribute to some kind of greater, overarching story arc and theme. Like, it was more about winging it than planning. Which is fine I guess ?
So yeah, it was nice while it lasted
More Touhou material is always good for me, so seeing one going away is soooooo gonna make the wait before the MONTHS of wait between VFiS publications feel longer. Hopefully we get new stuff, manga specifically, somewhere down the line.
... I guess this is a partner that's gonna be missin' for a while
Also, on a not-so-unrelated note ...
