I'm a massive Touhoufag - expect a nigh-incomprehensible review unless you are one as well.
Forbidden Scrollery is about a curious human girl thrust in a world where she does not belong; the land of Gensokyo, a land filled to the brim with mythological gods and youkai. A place where humans are weak and the minority, and not the leaders of society.
With a newfound ability to be able to read anything in any written language, she delves deeper into the world of Youkai, something that she has little understanding of beyond the written wiles of other humans.
Forbidden Scrollery is a Touhou printwork that delves into a darker, somewhat more serious side of Gensokyo. With this entry, the already established world of Touhou becomes deeper, and knowledge of what kinds of lives humans live in the land of Gensokyo becomes more apparent outside of the human-centric bias of the Hieda's written stories in other printworks like Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. Forbidden Scrollery has much less bias in the protagonist, in that it does not try to preserve the present state of affairs Gensokyo currently has.
ZUN, the creator of Touhou, likes to play with perspectives in his written works. As Touhou is not a franchise that focuses on an enthralling story but rather in creating a wondrous world, such types of writing is a welcome thing for many fans like me.
Being able to perceive the world in massively different perspectives of different types of characters makes the world a lot more alive and much less stale, while at the same time not make it seem jarring.
Thusly, in contrast to Sangetsusei's whimsical fairies and Wild and Horned Hermit's youkai enigma Kasen, we partake in the perspective of a human who knows nothing about the world she's in but the very basic of what already skewed information she already has available to her.
There is certainly something to behold as an innocent character tries to wander about around the setting trying to find answers.
Especially that sometimes, humans aren't quite satisfied with the answers they find.
In where humanity truly exists for a reason, what would a human do when the reason isn't quite as charming as it should be?
Forbidden Scrollery is about Kosuzu, but in a sense, it's more about the ever evolving world of Touhou. Questions regarding the state of humanity in Gensokyo, the status quo, how in control of their lives they actually are, and much more are in the contents of this manga.
Essentially, Forbidden Scrollery is not about Kosuzu learning about the world around her, but rather, a human learning about the world around her. The character itself isn't quite as important as what she stands for in the world of Touhou.
Duly note that Forbidden Scrollery is not about some grandiose adventure to unearth the history and mystery of Gensokyo. It is about the daily life of a human child slowly understanding the world around her through the various people and objects she interacts with. It's much more of a Slice of Life than any other genre.
For a series not much about plot, each episodic or semi-episodic entry is quite amusing even on its own. Each small arc in Forbidden Scrollery tells something about the world of Gensokyo and how it works, or expands upon something already known even further.
Some of the less prominent characters in Touhou also make appearances, and we see how they interact with the world of humans as they either frolick about or scare the populace for fun.
All in all, everything still ties to world of Touhou. Touhou is the Warhammer of Japan. /tg/ will agree on that, I'm sure.
I have so much more to talk about this, but I'd rather end this than write up 10,000 more words. Also want to note that Moe Harukawa's illustrations and drawings are top notch, and one of the best things about the manga.
All in all, Forbidden Scrollery is a very welcome addition to the world of Touhou, and I sincerely hope future printworks follow what Forbidden Scrollery has. It presents us a side of the world of Touhou we both always and never see, the world of humans.
Overall my favorite Touhou manga. Other than the somewhat rushed ending and the impenetrable wall of Touhou that prevents anyone that knows nothing about it to understand it (which is somewhat of a positive, really), Forbidden Scrollery is something great and not often seen.
