Do you also have a favourite Stage 1 boss? And a Stage 2 fav too?
the stage 1 boss i probably think about the most is Larva. Firstly, her boss theme, A Midsummer Fairy's Dream, is my favourite among all stage 1 bosses, without contest. The mysterious tune of it goes hand in hand with the intrigue and implication that she is not just some butterfly fairy, but is or used to be a god who has beef with Okina who presumably came out on top in whatever old conflict they had.
I also really like her design. Embarrassingly, it must've taken a year or something after I first saw her before I realised her design incorporates an the entire lifecycle, featuring the aspects of a larva, a pupa and the butterfly all at once. That's really really cool...
It is the kind of thing where I think its actually totally for the best that she never really gets elaborated on ever, and its just up to the fans to fill in whatever gaps and decide how much truth there is to all those implications? In my mind, the fact that she can be either or both "colourful bug friend of cirno" or "depowered diety now making by as a bug" is really interesting 🦋
If I think really quickly among stage 2 bosses, the ones that pop to my head as potential fav the most is Kogasa. Hardworking but kinda pitiful cute umbrella who sucks at being scary and is liked by children... A character that makes me happy to just know she exists ☂ Close second might be Mystia, who i've been consistently fond of ever since she was fleshed out with both her lamprey stand and being in a band with Kyouko (also a stage 2 boss, funny enough). Also I really like the Mystia Izakaya game on steam n_n
tangent but its fun to think about the various stage 1 and 2 dorks collectively. Their role is often just some 'average' or random fodder/locals of whatever location the protagonists are passing by that day (sometimes the stage 3 or 4 boss is also that, while 50/50 chance of it being someone actually relevant to the plot). I think the biggest exception to that has been ufo (only one who wasnt part of the myourenji crew was stage 2 boss kogasa) and lolk (everyone is directly involved in the incident in someway, even if doremy's role is maybe tangential). And i like the general consensus that the first (windows) boss, Rumia, is the go-to example of a youkai 'some guy'. If some story needs a random youkai attack or some definitive example of a dangerous wild youkai, you use rumia. Cirno also used to be the 'some guy' for fairies, though now she's also a mascot for the whole series, which i guess is not mutually exclusive.
anyhow TLDR, my fav stage 1 boss on the basis of rando with a lot going on is Larva, and fav stage 2 by that same standard is probably Kogasa.
