Doujinshi of The Week ~ Natural Girl Sanae by Pe-Tan

Hello everyone! This is my first blog post ^_^ 

This is something I'll do weekly I guess, as I love love LOVE Touhou doujinshi. People are just so creative!

This week, I'm reviewing...

It's pretty short, only 12 pages, and pretty unknown. I'm the only person who's ever translated this! (It's on my Youtube channel)

Well, what makes this short doujinshi so captivating?

It starts out pretty stupid, then becomes a bittersweet story that might make you shed a tear or two.

It starts out with pre-Gensokyo Sanae reading a magazine article about milk making your chest grow. 

And of course, Sanae being a bit gullible, tries it. 

It doesn't work. 

Obviously, because how does one even think that's true?

So, you get the idea, "This is just another 'Sanae is an airhead with no common sense' book. Oh, brother."

And it's sort of like that, but for only a few pages.

She goes to the convenience store and sees some of her friends and catches up with them, and then she finds one of her friend's grandpa sitting on a bench. She says hi, and this is where it all changes.

The grandpa doesn't respond to Sanae with "How are you?", but "Have you ever wondered what dying is like?"

Sanae makes a bit of a cheeky answer (Also I love how differently this portrays Sanae. She's not exactly as sweet and obedient as she is in canon or other fan depictions. She's just a quirky, cheeky teenager.) and laughs it off, not knowing that this question is going to make about things a lot.

Then, Sanae gets home and watches a soap opera with Kanako, who is assuming the role of the mother at the Moriya household. 

It's a very cheesy and unrealistic one. And Kanako is not a fan because "It's making a stereotype about the gods."

This is important though, Kanako says to Sanae,

Only the humans can perform miracles.

 Sanae is still human technically. She's just a human with divine heritage and special abilities no one else has. Maybe Kanako is humbling Sanae so she doesn't get too cocky about her abilities and Sanae probably didn't listen.

But it also shows how humans can make a difference in this world.

Now, here's the super heavy part.

The grandpa has passed, and the Moriya household visits to pay respects.

Sanae's pretty sad about the passing. He seems to have been a great friend to her.

This event sort of makes Sanae lose her own faith.

Now, I don't think Kanako has told Sanae she and Suwako are gods and Sanae is a living god at this point, considering this dialogue.

But Sanae doesn't believe because of how hard she's grieving. But Suwako steps in.

(Crap, I just realized I sort of messed up on Suwako's dialogue then. It should just be "The gods only simply exist. The humans are the ones that feel and take action." Not we or us, because they can't tell her yet.)

Anyways, yeah. This is a pretty hard moment. But it makes you think about how humans take action, right?

Then, we get to a flashback of when Sanae was with the grandpa on the bench that day.

It's a very bittersweet moment.

This is just a very thought-provoking story.

It makes you think about what can we do as humans to make something happen. Even when things are out of our control. 

It sort of has a message of "Carpe diem" To seize the day and live to your fullest.

And it's true, because you never know what's going to happen

I hope you enjoyed this short review, because I enjoyed this story very very much.

Bye! o(^▽^)o