Wasa reimu is a defect, just like pugs and Scottish folds.

Unlike other yukkuri with functional and useful braids, wasa reimu's braids are very short and highly lacked of "fingers", therefore they cannot properly interact with objects, let alone holding them. Due to having such terrible appendages, wasa reimu will find it difficult to work for the "yucieties" and will greatly depend on other yukkuri.

You may ask "But how about Myon, Chen, and other braidless yukkuri?". Well, those yukkuri types are born with no braids at all, so they will have to find ways to work around. Wasa yukkuri are born with such huge braids but cannot use them much, therefore, a defect.

Pugs and Scottish folds should have naturally died off because of how defective their body are, but because "Mr. Human" want their cuteness, so they inevitably live on and suffer more. In some stories, wasa yukkuri are highly priced, so they are bred at all cost, even at the death of dozens of unwanted koyukkuri to get one wasa.

So, what do you think?

Like Pugs and Scottish folds, wasas are prized by humans for their cuteness (and among some mother Reimus because they can "take it easy" the best). As long as you have that, you'll have wasas. Now I'll wait for our resident anti-wasa fanatic to weigh in on the puffballs.

BTW, I've seen stories where braidless yukkuri still used their hair bangs to hold/grab stuff, but most others have them using prehensile tongues. Only the bedied and freakish osayukkuri types have arms and hands.

boom said:

Now I'll wait for our resident anti-wasa fanatic to weigh in on the puffballs.

(つ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)つ He's coming.

The in yuniverse explanation about wasa reimus is probably as simple as they were born with a shorter hair tube which is why the ends are all fluffy like that. It is a defect for sure but I doubt it is that physically debilitating unlike a shelled marisa which is very likely to have a hell of a time moving around.

They probably COULD compact it to a regular reimu's braid shape but would not naturally want to bother doing so because it would demean their specialness (like spoiled and entitled humans would not want to do things they consider beneath them because they are so used to be pampered by others).

Anyways about the braidless yukkuris being normally depicted as not using their hair limbs, that is just because of two main reasons:

1) they look awkward for the most part as their logical hair limbs are not where you'd expect a human hand to be placed if you give human like anatomy to a yu which is the upper part of the head as the head, the hip area to the body and so on.

Marisas, Meiling, Sakuyas and those with prominent hair features at the side of the head but not too far away to the back are very easy to draw using their braids. Add the fact that they normally have ribbons that clearly define those features very prominently, you'd see how easy it is to draw them.

2) most of the artists that draw yus are doing it for the attention for the most vocal and probably numerous members of the fanbase that are of the "yukkuri-are-weak-and-stupid" variety so they tend to not be very creative and just go with the typical tongue limbs for most of the time with the exception that Marisas and Reimus appearing to be using their hair as limbs.

There were a few pics of the yus in the past using their hair as limbs but they did not catch on because it was probably thought that it would be more humorous that yus use their tongues as limbs. This also, probably, make yukkuris appear even dumber which seems to be what the majority wanted or was more comfortable with at that time (about the same time a rash of ankos and english fics started gimping yukkuri magic as harmless to humans -_- and even ayas were depicted as not even faster than a human child. *SMH*. Talk about insecurity issues).

Anyways, I actually created a topic regarding hair limbs sometime this January when I was secretly gathering ideas for my yukkuri sim rpg text game.
http://oyp.yunyah.com/forum_topics/10426 and for the most part back then I was not imaginative enough to picture out forelocks and sidelocks as hair limbs and it was only when I started getting sick of drawing Reimus and Marisas that I looked at the viability of sidelocks and forelocks. The process is pretty hit and miss because the hair limbs are either too long (Satono and Mai) or too short (Koishi and Myon) if you want to keep the resemblance between the touhou character's head and the yukkuri counterpart..

---

I rechecked and back then Eibura actually made most of the art depicting yukkuri other than the usual Marisa and Reimu using their forelocks, sidelocks, tassels and ears.

Canttakeiteasy said:

Talk about insecurity issues

I agree.

Wasa's are strictly an abyuse fanon thing, no? Never really thought those authors to put a whole lot of effort into making things tie out logically.

Cute_Aggression said:

(つ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)つ He's coming.

Phrasing!

#wasalivesmatter

Err, I don't know why this suddenly came out on top but here are my two-cents:
Regarding wasa as a "defect": sure it's a defect and a mutant, but there may be some situations where a wasa may benefit from it (I don't know, like there a big thing with a hole like a coin, other koyu cannot bring it because it may tear their braids apart, but a wasa with its big braids cannot be easy to tear, or in one of kiriraitaa - the father of wasa, manga where he drew wasa use its braid as a way to comfort and soothe its siblings, which of course can also be achieved by normal Reimu). Like I said, very situational, but could still be useful, unlike some others totally useless like Shell Marisa. Nevertheless, I have never seen a wasa utilise its huge braid before, so it's true that those things are "useless" in terms of ability.

The older generation wasa is much more likable, due to its rarity, its appearance and its attitude (yeah, weird but unlike modern wasa, older wasa is nowhere near the shittiness of those), so if we talk about the "feelings" it carries within, it's not that bad, so it's not entirely useless, at least you can keep it as a pet.

As for other "braidless" yukkuri, unlike Reimu, they have things that are a huge boost over a braidless Reimu. Like Chen, which has its double tail and is faster, Myon is much stronger and more versatile than Reimu and it can use tools much more adept than our little red-ribbon anko bag. Kaguya? Immortal. Tenshi? Can use her tresses, and she's tougher than Reimu.

P/s: Wow, discussing yukkuri is so fun, too bad that I know this site too late to be able to join those fights.

Cosmos said:

P/s: Wow, discussing yukkuri is so fun, too bad that I know this site too late to be able to join those fights.

Those were the days.

BaronMind said:

Those were the days.

debate it again