(TL;DR for the lazy: poorly drawn anime girls in silly hats play the card-game equivalent of dodge-ball while speaking in incoherent and possibly mistranslated trash-talk)
prelude: what the fuck is a doujin
doujin is a word im gonna throw around a few times here and there. knowing what a doujin is is probably important in the context of a touhou.
From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
as far as i understand it, selling fanworks is a much more common thing in Japanese fandom culture; conventions, hobby shops, over the internet, all are places where that sorta thing can happen.In Japan, doujin (Japanese: 同人, Hepburn: dōjin) is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produced by these groups are also called doujin, including manga, magazines, novels, music (doujin music), anime, and video games (doujin soft). Print doujin works are collectively called doujinshi.
Doujin works are typically amateur and derivative in nature, though some professional artists participate in doujin culture as a way to publish material outside the regular publishing industry [Lydia Note: Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.].
Annual research by the research agency Media Create indicated that of the US$1.65 billion of the otaku industry in 2007, doujin sales made up 48% (US$792 million).[1]
While doujin works aren't always based on existing properties, many of them tend to be.
Touhou, despite being an original property, is a doujin work.
what the fuck is a touhou
(suitable background music: )
touhou is homestuck for weeaboos. touhou is my little pony for people who were even lower on the social hierarchy in high school. touhou is undertale for people that probably brew their own kombucha and haven't touched a single blade of grass in 2 years. touhou is what happens when you want to make a concept album but you accidentally create a long running series of video games instead, while also permanently infesting internet pop culture in the process as demonstrated here, here, here, here, here*, here, and here. in that regard, touhou is a lot like black mold or carbon monoxide poisoning; you usually don't notice it until its pointed it out to you, and then you just start noticing it everywhere. anyone who has ever interacted with the internet in some way, shape, or form has possibly encountered something directly from touhou or directly influenced by touhou, whether they knew it or not.
*yes, that second to last link is the real elon. and yes, the character in the stolen fanart he posted is from touhou project. said character is also a werewolf, not a catgirl.
For real, Touhou Project is a long-running series of vertical scrolling bullet hell (Danmaku) games, with the main series entries primarily developed by one man going by the name ZUN, working under Team Shanghai Alice (of which ZUN is the sole developer; though collaborations do happen, and there is also like a legal team or something). As emphasized above, the entire series is noticeable for its enormous impact on internet culture, due in part to the series creator's fairly relaxed stance on fan creations (you can pretty much sell any fanwork, including games, and as long as you're an independent creator you won't get sued. Although incredibly rare, ZUN has even contributed personally to some of these fanworks in the past).
what is it about
The series itself is set in Gensokyo, a province in Japan sealed off from (and mostly forgotten about by) the outside world around roughly the late 19th century. Gensokyo is populated by gods, youkai, fairies, and other whimsical mythical beings that the outside world had stopped believing in/fearing, due to rapid advancements in science and technology ending those beliefs/fears (youkai need human fear in order to survive); its pretty much a fantasy nature reserve in that regard.
Eventually, before the first windows game (Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil), an unseen incident, simply referred to as "The Vampire Incident" happens, and a conflict breaks out between humans and youkai. While details are kept intentionally vague, its heavily implied that shit went down, to put it mildly. After these events, Spellcard rules are agreed upon between Youkai and Humans alike, essentially fulfilling the inherent need for gratuitous violence while also conveniently avoiding the issues (like injury or death) that often accompanies said gratuitous violence. The series you thought was just bullet hell with silly hats is also, by sheer technicality, about card dueling.
Each mainline entry follows series protagonist Reimu Hakurei. A shrine maiden, officially her primary job is "Youkai Extermination", and the public appearance she puts on towards other humans is of one who would show no mercy to youkai. In practice however, her job is pretty much just keeping the balance between Youkai and Humans intact, lest everything go to shit; sometimes this does involve actual extermination, but most of the time this just boils down to spellcard battles with the villain of the week and getting really drunk with said youkai later (this happens a fair amount. there is an entire official spin-off manga focused on booze and Gensokyo's drinking culture. I'm not kidding).
Accompanying Reimu in the mainline entries is secondary protagonist Marisa Kirisame, an 'ordinary magician' who trains to be just as powerful as Reimu (despite being for all intents and purposes a "normal" human that can use magic), that has been in every game since the second one, and playable since the third. The main entries also regularly rotate through different additional playable characters, depending on their relevance to the plot.
the games. [they exist [you should play them]]
Contrary to popular internet belief, Touhou Project is actually a series of Video Games and not just a semi-connected gargle of weirdly drawn anime characters and overused fandom tropes. I'm sure at least 90% of the people reading this have seen bullet hell gameplay in some shape or form at some point (be it through CAVE shooters or otherwise). If you're part of the 10%, a video example will probably help:
Since the first release in 1997, 19 (official) games have been released in the series, with the latest one having been released this past August.
Each game (usually) comprises of 6 levels, along with a super difficult extra stage (or two in the 7th game's case) that can be unlocked later. While the games can pretty much be played independently from each other, there are some overarching story elements (like in entries 10 to 13).
Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream, Phantasmagoria of Flower View, and Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost are exceptions to the formula described above; they're versus games, where you directly compete with another character next to you, throwing bullet-hell hazards at each-other along the way.
Here is an example of that:
PC-98 Era (1997 to 1998) (yes 5 games released in the span of a year, but the first one started development in 1995 and was finished in 1996)
The first 5 games in the series (Highly Responsive to Prayers, Story of Eastern Wonderland, Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream, Lotus Land Story, and Mystic Square) were released for the PC-98 series of home computers popular in Japan, and their stories have a dubious place in the modern series canon; anything that doesn't contradict the current canon is still canon, but most of the events, as well as characters outside of the main protagonists (save for three exceptions, Alice Margatroid, Yuuka Kazami, and Genjii, who is mentioned in passing) aren't really mentioned again later on.
notable things about this era include
- reimu gets fucking crucified by marisa, who would later become her fanon and totally canonical gay love interest really good and close best friend, on top of secondary series protagonist.
- reimu flirts with, and then beats up the series' only canonically homophobe, in that order
- reimu fucking kills some people/youkai
- reimu is actually kind of unhinged in this era
- as a reward for beating up a PHD student, marisa is gifted a literal Intercontinental ballistic missile. She names it Mimi-chan.
- the first game is a breakout clone. it is the only mainline game not to be a bullet hell shmup.
- if you fail to get a good rank in the 4th game, the game just crashes halfway through a playthrough.
- if you fail to get a good rank in the 2nd game, the game says some very harsh things to you.
- genocide is a thing that is casually talked about by one of the characters (Yuuka Kazami). she is the touhou equivalent of that one kid who sits in the back of the classroom and watches gun review videos all day, while never actually doing anything else really.
- there is a talking and flying turtle that reimu rides on top of. he shares a name with an overwatch character and he is never brought up again outside of the PC-98 games (the exception to this being a passing mention in the latest game). he is also one of the few male characters to ever appear in the mainline series.
- there is a vengeful spirit named mima that everyone in the fandom seems to like. she does not show up outside of the pc-98 games, presumably because touhou as a series already has too many sarcastic wine mom-type characters.
thats it.
Early Windows Era (2002 to 2006)
By the turn of the millennium, the PC-98's user-base was beginning to decline (with the platform entirely being discontinued officially in 2003); at this point, the series jumped over to Microsoft Windows proper.
The early Windows Era is comprised of Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, Perfect Cherry Blossom, Imperishable Night, and Phantasmagoria of Flower View (which would be the second of three versus mode oriented games in the series). These games also set most of the groundwork for the overall canon, establishing major elements such as the separation of Gensokyo and the outside world.
This era is regarded as still having a small bit of jank (more so specifically with the 6th entry, EoSD), but imho these entries still hold up really well, especially Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night (I really like PCB you should play that one its great).
Main events that happen during this era that should probably be highlighted
- The Scarlet Mist Incident
- The Endless Winter Incident (somebody stole the entire season of Spring, but who?).
- The Endless Night Incident (somebody stole... the moon and replaced it with a fake. this time around, the player characters are the one who cause the named incident (creating an endless night), in order to get the moon back).
Windows Era Part II (2007 to 2011)
By 2007, Touhou had been around for a decade. Enter Mountain of Faith, the 10th game, created as a 'return to form' after 8 and 9 got really experimental. Gameplay is on par with Embodiment of Scarlet Devil; it sets out to do one thing (be a "back to basics" Touhou game), and it does it pretty well. If you hypothetically needed an example of "the most Touhou game of all time", Mountain of Faith is probably the ideal example. The 11th game, Subterranean Animism, follows this trend, but reintroduces the partner system as seen in Imperishable Night, along with being a pretty huge step up in difficulty from 10. This era is pretty notable, in that unlike the previous Windows era, Mountain of Faith kicks off an overarching story that is continued through the 11th entry, as well as the 12th and 13th entries, Undefined Fantastic Object and Ten Desires.
Windows Era Part III (2013 to now)
This era encompasses pretty much a decades worth of games now (Double Dealing Character, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, Hidden Star in Four Seasons, Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, Unconnected Marketeers, and Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost).
By 2013, the series had pretty much found its footing for good. Basic gameplay doesn't vary as radically as the earlier entries (3 lives, a few continues, beat the game without using a continue and you get the good ending), but that doesn't mean new mechanics aren't embraced or experimented with at this point. When a series has as many entries as Touhou does, a common stereotype is that quality starts to kinda go down; while this era definitely does have a few low points at times (while not bad, the soundtrack to 18 was kinda mid ngl), the high points are still incredibly high (WBaWC ranks really close to Perfect Cherry Blossom in terms of overall quality IMHO, UDoALG is really fun if a bit unbalanced, the ability card system introduced in UM is probably one of my favorite new additions to the series and really creates some fun gameplay scenarios, the stage 6 boss themes in WBaWC and LoLK are some of the best, if not the best in the entire series). also UDoALG adds a character that is for all intents and purposes literally just Son Goku and I love her.
spin-off games
You know how I said there were 19 games? i lied. there are actually 32 games. 13 spinoffs have been released between mainline entries.
- 7.5: Immaterial and Missing Power
- 9.5: Shoot the Bullet
- 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody
- 12.3: Hisoutensoku
- 12.5: Double Spoiler
- 12.8: Fairy Wars
- 14.3: Impossible Spell Card
- 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo
- 15.5: Antinomy of Common Flowers
- 16.5: Violet Detector
- 17.5: Gouyoku Ibun - Sunken Fossil World
- 18.5: 100th Black Market.
These can pretty much be split into two genres
- Danmaku collections.
- Fighting games.
The fighting games are collaborations with another doujin game developer group, Twilight Frontier, but are still canon.
The Danmaku collections are what they say on the tin; games consisting of really funky bullet patterns that work well on their own, but maybe not so well in a full-on arcade style shoot'em'up. The one exception to this is Great Fairy Wars, which has multiple routes, but is more similar to existing mainline Touhou titles.
Not gonna lie and say I've played all the spin-offs (I've only played 9.5 (it is really good)), but yeah. Don't worry, we're still barely scratching the surface.
recommended starting points
If you need recommendations, 7, 10, and 13 are all pretty good jumping in points; 7 because of its very forgiving main mechanic, 10 because of it's "back-to-basics" approach and also because Marisa's second shot type is completely broken and allows you to beat most stage bosses in mere seconds, and 13 for mostly the same reasons as 10 except with no broken shot types.
15 is worth mentioning because of Point-device Mode, a gameplay mode exclusive to this entry that removes lives and replaces them with checkpoints, where dying respawns you at a checkpoint (these checkpoints also save your progress allowing you to continue later, the only mainline game to let you do this). You can die as much as you want, but the overall difficulty of the game has been raised to compensate, even on the lowest difficulty setting. Did I mention that one of the named inspirations behind this entry was famous indie game I want to be the guy? Yeah. Have fun!
You can start off with 6 if you really want to begin from the start of the Windows era, but be warned that it is slightly more difficult and lacks common features seen in 7 onward (visible hitbox when in focus mode, a boss position icon at the bottom of the screen). This entry is also one of the only Windows games to have an invisible ranking system, where difficulty adjusts based on how well you play (like in the PC-98 games). 6 (along with 10) also don't allow you to see the Best Ending on Easy mode, and in 6's case the final stage is locked behind Normal and higher.
In terms of games not to start with,
- the PC-98 games (1-5) aren't really recommended as starting points for the series, due mostly to their jank. If you really want to start with a PC-98 title, 5 and 4 are considered to be closest to the Windows games in terms of actually gameplay.
- 11 and 12 are considered to be more difficult, even on the lower difficulties.
- 3, 9, and 19 have a unique versus focused play style. While 3 and 9 are good games in their own right, they're dissimilar enough from the rest of the series as a whole, so its difficult to recommend them as starting points. While the same applies to 19, this one is actually probably one of the most forgiving mainline Touhou entries period (each route only has one ending, and using continues doesn't prevent you from seeing said ending); if you want to try one of the versus entries, I'd actually recommend this one.
the music
you know how i mentioned "touhou is what happens when you try to make a concept album but accidentally make a video game instead"?
yeah we're gonna talk about that now. on top of the games themselves (and their accompanying soundtracks), there is also ZUN's Music Collection, a series of albums comprised of rearrangements of songs from the games, as well as original compositions, each having their own story to go alongside it.
the first one, Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, consists of new compositions, arrangements from the PC-98 games, and a few arrangements from the (recently released at the time) 6th game. This might be one of my favourite albums of all time, like literally just in general; you ever have something make you feel nostalgia for something you've never known? yeah i don't know how this album does it. every composition and arrangement here is honestly a 10/10. its fucking amazing.
the second album, Ghostly Field Club, introduces Maribel Hearn and Renko Usami, two university students in the outside world that are the only members of their school's 'Secret Sealing Club', a club that supposedly studies the occult; in actuality they just drink a lot of tea and discuss physics and Maribel's weird-ass dreams of some place called Gensokyo. The rest of the albums onward from this one have an interconnected story following the two, set in the outside world in the far future. There is also some potential lore relevance that has not been fully explored yet which makes things, in my opinion, even more intriguing in the grand scheme of things.
my personal picks
honestly if i had less restraint this list would be longer.
i could tell you what i like about these but im lazy its probably easier if i show them.
(i'll made a spotify list with all of these later. for now just uhh, use youtube or something).
edit: i made a spotify playlist! i also added a few more personal favs that I forgot to add earlier
unfortunately, one of the songs wasn't on spotify; that one in particular can be found here.
additionally, i highly recommend checking out the soundtrack for Perfect Cherry Blossom, as well as Dolls in Pseudo Paradise; both are great albums in general imho.
the original list is kept down below:
Shanghai Teahouse ~ Chinese Tea (from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil)
Desire Drive (from Ten Desires)
Doll Judgement ~ The girl who played with people's shapes (from Perfect Cherry Blossom)
Border of Life (from Perfect Cherry Blossom)
Hiroari shoots a Strange Bird ~ Til When? (also from Perfect Cherry Blossom, noticing a pattern?)
Necrofantasia (guess what? PCB)
(you know what pretend the next few entries are just every track in Perfect Cherry Blossom)
Immortal Smoke (from Imperishable Night)
The Gensokyo the Gods Loved (from Mountain of Faith)
Faith is for the Transient People (from Mountain of Faith)
Road of the Apotropaic God (from Mountain of Faith
Pure Furies - Whereabouts of the Heart (from Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom)
Tiny Shangri-La (from Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost)
Innocent Treasures - Kid's Festival (from Changeability of Strange Dream)
Hiroshige No. 36 - Super Neo Express (from Retrospective 53 Minutes)
G-Free (from Magical Astronomy)
Satellite Cafe Terrace (from Magical Astronomy)
Nostalgic Blood of the East (from Imperishable Night)
Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion (from Subterranean Animism)
Broken Moon (from Scarlet Weather Rhapsody)
Witching Dream (from Lotus Land Story)
Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly (technically not from a Touhou game (Seihou Shuusou Gyoku), but first appears as Reimu's boss theme in that game (she cameos as an extra stage boss), and appears in Touhou proper in Dolls in Psuedo Paradise. Has a killer rearrangement in Urban Legend in Limbo)
Love Coloured Master Spark (from Imperishable Night, actually a rearrangement of Marisa's theme from Story of Eastern Wonderland)
Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle (also from Imperishable Night, also a rearrangement of Reimu's theme from Lotus Land Story, which is in turn is based on Magic Mirror from Highly Responsive to Prayers)
Sacred Lot (from Highly Responsive to Prayers)
Bad Apple (from Lotus Land Story (but probably better known from this))
Curious Old Shanghai Tile (from Touhou Unreal Mahjong (technically a fangame, but this song was composed by ZUN so it still counts))
Legend of Hourai (from Dolls in Pseudo Paradise)
Forest of Dolls (from Dolls in Pseudo Paradise)
(you know what? pretend the entirety of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise is listed here too.)
Native Faith (from Mountain of Faith)
im probably missing a ton of themes here too. i have too many favorites.
Perfect Cherry Blossom gets a shoutout because of how emotional and thematically relevant it feels to the game's story/premise. Especially when you finally learn the backstory behind that game's main antagonist. Border of Life (and also Pure Furies from Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom) are so fucking emotional. I love it.
personally I think the earlier works are the strongest musically, but the later games/albums aren't no slouches either.
The TVTropes page on Touhou Music estimates that every song in the entire series has anywhere between 60 to 200 remixes. It's fucking mental.
what if i dont like shooting games but i like reading books
you're in luck.
only two of the official tie-in manga so far have received official English localizations (Forbidden Scrollery and Lotus Eaters), but fan scanlations are incredibly common online. i am briefly going to talk about most of the adaptions.
Silent Sinner in Blue is the series' first official manga. it loosely ties into the events of Imperishable Night, but neither need to be seen in order to understand one or the other. It also ties into Cage in Lunatic Runagate, a novella comprised of short stories relating to the events of Silent Sinner in Blue and Imperishable Night. I've only read the first chapter of CiLR admittedly I still need to finish it please don't sue me.
"Touhou Sangetsusei" refers to a series of 4 Manga spinoffs, each interconnected (Eastern and Little Nature Deity, Strange and Bright Nature Deity, Oriental Sacred Place, Visionary Fairies in Shrine). It's more of a lighthearted slice-of-life deal, focusing on the daily lives of the 'three fairies of light'. Due to it's long running nature, some chapters interconnect with other concurrently running Touhou manga at the time, but its nothing that requires reading the other materials to understand. It's pretty cute, and has some fun character moments between the fairies and other series regulars.
"Wild and Horned Hermit" follows Ibaraki Kasen, a hermit that takes up a sudden interest with Reimu Hakurei and her shrine; through the course of the series she and Reimu become closer. I can't really say much beyond that without spoiling major parts of the story unfortunately, but its really good. My one major gripe with the series though is how unlikable Reimu becomes at points (she is a complete asshole in most of this), but it definitely works in context.
If you're unfamiliar with the series, "Forbidden Scrollery" is a good starting point in general; it follows Kosuzu Motoori, who runs a book rental shop, and takes a large interest in books embedded with Youkai spirit (Youma books). It has a more grounded portrayal of Youkai, depicting them as proper beasts (compared to other parts of the series), and doesn't really require much prior knowledge of the series, due to the main character themselves being sort of an outsider. Without spoiling much, I like how it explores the relationship between youkai and humans, and it ends in a pretty nice way.
"Lotus Eaters" is similar to Forbidden Scrollery, in that it follows a series outsider (this time a Youkai themselves), Miyoi, as they get involved in drunken shenanigans with the rest of the cast. The series is still on-going, so I don't have much to say yet beyond "it good".
"Foul Detective Satori" (Sometimes referred to as Cheating Detective Satori or Lying Detective Satori, depending on the translation), is for all intents and purposes a murder mystery series with zero murders; a vengeful spirit has escaped from the underground, and is possessing people (in order of their first appearance in the series). It is very much a cat-and-mouse sorta deal; it is exciting at times, but it does also drag out a bit at times.
As for the entries that aren't manga,
"Perfect Memento in Strictest Sense" and "Symposium of Post-mysticism" are encyclopedia-style books that essentially just provide biographies on the series' characters. Worth checking out if you really like lore/knowing way too much about weirdly drawn anime girls. However, these are in-universe encyclopedias, and while a lot of the content is accurate enough to it's world, some of it is wrong, biases, or even intentionally skewed, either to make certain characters appear scarier than they really are or just out of a lack of information (the book explicitly mentions this). touhou canon is as flexible as a rubber spoon.
"Curiosities of Lotus Asia" is (or was) a running series of short stories centered around Rinnosuke Morichika, one of the series' few named and important male characters, on top of being Reimu and Marisa's token guy friend. Half youkai, half human, all himbo, he runs a used goods shop, selling any items of interest that fall into Gensokyo from the outside world, be it old computers, tea sets, or heavily outdated literature. Being part youkai, Rinnosuke's ability allows him to determine the purpose of an object just by looking at it; however, nothing else about an object (such as how its used, how it works, etc) is given, leading him to absolutely get major details wrong or completely misinterpret something. As a direct result of this, he is a serial mansplainer, in spite of 70% of his explanations being wrong in some form or fashion. The series is a slice of life, usually focusing on very mundane happenings between major series events. This is where a lot of the humor in the series comes from. Despite this though, he isn't really an idiot, just misguided at times.
While I wouldn't recommend reading this as your entry to Touhou project as a whole, I can't go without mentioning Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia, if only for the following reason:
they make fun of 2016-era american politics. i am not making this shit up. thats a real thing that happens canonically. there is a section where one of the characters is literally spewing Donald Trump quotes though it is later revealed that these quotes were incorrectly attributed to said character. Nothing like this happened in the series prior, and nothing like this has really happened since. Touhou as a series isn't a stranger to being influenced by contemporary events and happenings (a plot-line in one of the issues of the manga focuses on a social network analogue, for instance), but this is literally the most explicit that it ever gets, and it never happens again.
its also kinda funny almost? which is rare for any sort of comedy based on the 45th. The book literally ends with an incredibly explicit pro-immigration message. . the entire thing just lives rent free in my head. imagine being such a bad president that fucking reimu hakurei thinks you're garbage.
okay so whats the appeal
I don't really know how to explain this?
I know in my case, enjoyable bullet hell games combined with an absolutely killer soundtrack and an incredibly expansive lore with a lot of potential for crackpot fan theories.
There's also an incredibly huge part of the equation, which is:
the (stuff that the) fandom (produces)
the series is infamous for it's lenient guidelines regarding "unofficial content". Essentially
- if you are a small/independent creator or team, you can sell unofficial content in the same distribution channels as official content.
- if you are a business, you can request a license, and then sell unofficial content. (this happens a lot.)
you could probably have a huge semantic debate about what defines official and unofficial content; for the purposes of this thread unofficial content refers to content that Team Shanghai Alice did not have a hand in creating (outside of giving a license) or is not considered canon.
it would be impossible for me to quantify the number of fangames and derivatives (both sold and free) that are out there. below are a few choice examples:
- touhou puppet dance performance is a Pokemon clone.
- super marisa land is a Mario clone.
- Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony is a Castlevania game in every way except setting and characters. (also this one is pretty good and has a killer soundtrack, you should play it)
- touhou mother is an Earthbound fangame (this one doesnt even try to be its own thing, its quite literally an Earthbound/MOTHER crossover).
- Touhou Luna Nights is a proper Metroidvania, and one of the most popular fangames based on the property. Its also available on pretty much every major game console (and Steam).
there is an uncountable number of touhou covers/remixes/rearrangements/original-style compositions. so much so that spotify considers touhou to be an entire genre of music (found this out the hard way during the last Spotify Wrapped (dont ask)). i have a 3 hour long playlist that is just covers of one specific song from the 13th game.
im not even gonna try to get into any of the unofficial manga here. that being said, i'm gonna shoutout a personal favorite:
- At Chirei is a 3-part manga set before the events of Subterranean Animism; it focus on the Komeiji sisters, as well as establishes how two of that game's central characters gain their powers. Has a very chibi-esque art style, but don't let that be a turnoff. The last chapter made me cry.
pretty much all the artists that have worked on any canon touhou manga have also worked on doujin publications prior to or after working on canon materials. many of these doujin publications are also, to put it lightly, incredibly gay in nature. the artist that worked on the first official manga spinoff wrote an entire series that focused on reimu and marisa's relationship, which ultimately ends with them getting happily gay married. make of that what you will.
touhou anime? iirc Zun/Team Shanghai Alice have gone on record stating they aren't really interested in an official series/adaptation, despite numerous investors/producers having come to them regarding the idea before.
unofficial touhou anime? pfft. do you realize how much anime costs to produce? what kind of actual lunatics would produce an entirely unofficial touhou project anime with little financial incentive?
entirely unofficial touhou project anime
these are original animated series that are independent productions, created entirely without Team Shanghai Alice's involvement (aside from "hey can you call this something else just so nobody thinks this is official" in at least one instance). none of these are official and/or canon, and you'll probably never be able to find them on Crunchyroll or any (legitimate) streaming service for that matter.
i should probably preface this section by saying that despite these series' statuses as "unofficial/fanmade", this isn't meant to imply that these works are amateur-ish or lacking in quality; quite the contrary in fact, all of these productions are of an exceedingly high quality, which is frankly absolutely fucking insane considering their status as 'doujin work' (iirc, the production team behind the first example listed were all mostly seasoned industry professionals (didn't think that foreshadowing from the intro would come back, didja?)).
a number of projects have popped up in the past decade(s?). three of them seem to stick out prominently however
- Touhou Fantasy Kaleidoscope: Memories of Phantasm. A loose adaptation of the events in the mainline game entries, with some (read: many) creative liberties taken. Notable for it's portrayal of characters being more close to fanon then canon on top of the addition of fanservice not present in the material its based on; as a result, the series is considered divisive among fans. Despite that, this is definitely the closest the series has to a "proper" TV anime adaptation, spanning 18 half-hour episodes in total. My personal opinion? its fun; its pretty much just "what if touhou was an anime lol". it has some pretty impressive fight scenes, but be aware that its not an accurate representation of actual canon, and just try to enjoy it as an alternate interpretation of the series. Unfortunately, the series ends after the adaptation of Mountain of Faith (the 10th mainline entry), due to the production team experiencing financial issues. Also worth mentioning, the official releases of these episodes lack any voice acting, as animating and scoring an entire anime is already expensive as is. Naturally, some people in a fanbase are motivated enough to conjure up an entire actual fucking anime with full length episodes and a decently-long episode count, to say that several fandubs would follow is not a stretch, as unofficial fan-dubs of the project exist (i don't know if an english language one exists, but there are several Japanese language dubs. I know there is also an Arabic language dub; I do not know Arabic but I've heard that said dub is actually really good). I cannot attest to the quality of any of these since I do not speak Japanese (or Arabic), but if you can't stand to watch an anime with no voice acting, those are an option (most reuploads online use one of the fandubs anyways).
anyways heres a link to (what i think is anyways) the production team's official youtube playlist:
- Touhou: A Summer Day's Dream. A 4 part OVA series. In stark contrast to Memories of Phantasm, this one has a surprisingly high profile voice cast (the voice actor who plays Reimu Hakurei, Mai Nakahara, had also worked on other anime such as Kill La Kill, Danganronpa 3, Cells at Work, just to name a few). The series is an original story, revolving around a series of strange, potentially supernatural happenings the day of a banquet. The animation in the first episode is a bit iffy, but it really picks up in quality, and is def worth a watch. Minor and very vague spoiler: Unfortunately, the series ends on a cliffhanger, and from what I've heard a 5th episode isn't planned...
- Hifuu Club Activity Record - The Sealed Esoteric History. If Memories of Phantasm answered the question "What if touhou was an anime", this answers the question of "What if Touhou had like, a proper anime spin-off series". The series follows the same premise of ZUN's music collection albums, using Maribel and Renko's adventures and banter as a framing device to explore parts of Touhou lore. Unlike the music collection albums however, the three episodes so far dive more into major character backstories. Right now, only 3 episodes have been released, all of which can be found on Youtube as of writing. Honestly? I think this might be the best adaptation so far. They really nail the characters, and take reasonable creative liberties that help flesh out various parts of the lore, without ever feeling like it goes against the spirit original source material (the second episode really comes to mind here; an original character is introduced, but its totally within service of the original material. I think it works). It definitely feels like the most professional production of the three as well. I highly recommend this one.
keep in mind that all three of these are like, fully featured productions, with full length episodes. Until I knew what a Touhou was I genuinely thought that the first one mentioned, Fantasy Kaleidoscope, was an official adaptation that aired properly, because the production quality (in regards to the animation at least) is that good. And as far as I know, none of the examples listed above had the involvement of Team Shanghai Alice.
While these aren't technically anime (more like comics in video form), I can't not mention Osana Reimu and Suikakasen. Both series were done by the same author, and both actually made me cry a bit. They're on Youtube, and have english subtitles.
wait what the fuck even is this
every character has the dev's alcoholism projected into their personalities and copyright laws aren't enforced. go fucking nuts.
how do i get touhou
you can buy all the games from 9 onwards on steam.
if you want 6 through 8 you'll have to either buy a physical copy (they're still being produced iirc, the touhou wiki has a buyer's guide on how to obtain them), or just pirate them. There are two fangames on steam, Fantastic Danmaku Festival and Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II, that are loose remakes and follow the plots of 6 and 7: however, gameplay wise they're different from the original games, and are pretty much their own thing.
official translations for all the games (except like a few of the fighting games) don't exist; you'll have to rely on the touhou patch wiki for english translations (https://www.thpatch.net/wiki/Touhou_Pat ... :Main_page).
"wait isn't touhou big enough for official translations to exist?" yeah probably some of the manga/literature spinoffs have official translations/english publications
"so why don't the games have official translations?" idk lol. the series is definitely popular enough to warrant official translations. at least the fan translations lead to some pretty memorable lines
(there is actually some interesting context behind this line. This is a great article explaining the line in the original Japanese release, and the reasoning behind the fan translated version).
. what are those fumo things the zoomers keep posting about?
i actually bought one of those. the cost of shipping i paid for it was almost 1.5x the amount i paid for the item itself (thanks DHL). id rather not talk about it.
why do i like this???
jesus christ help me i cant escape this shit now that im technically a fan i'll be literally looking at specifications for fucking air conditioning units only to notice that they were posted by a guy with the username 'sakuyaizayoifan1999' and suddenly my mind is activated like a fucking sleeper agent genuinely help me
serious answer: Despite being kinda basic compared to other titles in the same genre, the games are really fun; they have that difficult and addictive quality, but they're not too difficult or unfair to the point where you don't want to play them at all; managing to go entire parts of a single playthrough (or even entire playthroughs) without losing a life is the most satisfying thing ever. You know that feeling you get when you're playing a rhythm game, and you just get into the zone? Yeah, that.
They're simple in concept, but really hard (and rewarding) to master, and every mainline entry has something unique about it that really allows it to stand on its own, whether that be in terms of story, mechanics, soundtrack, setting, characters, you name it. Each game has its own unique atmosphere; 7 feels very melancholy, 8 has a very panicked and rushed vibe to it, 10 has a super cool nature motif present throughout the entire thing, 11 makes you want to scream and cry because you're playing 11.
Calling the series' music 'amazing' would be an understatement. It is all god tier music, and its catchy as hell. There is a reason Touhou music is considered its own genre on Spotify. Touhou heavily inspired funny internet dog Toby Fox (both in terms of musical composition and game design) and that is really reflected in their works, especially UNDERTALE and DELTARUNE.
While I feel characters can sometimes fall flat personality wise in canon, The lore surrounding everything is really interesting; Gensokyo is positioned as a paradise, even though its really just a way for the Youkai to ensure their continued existence; but humans have as much power as the Youkai, as a loss of fear/belief would result in the Youkai going extinct, at the cost of valuable infrastructure and protection provided by the Kappa (tech people), the Tengu (able to harness the wind), and the Gods (not technically Youkai, though weaker Gods are pretty much Youkai. Did I mention that Gods exist and are just... regular dudes for the most part? did i mention atheism exists in a world inhabited by literal gods?????? (that one maid character that is clearly based on a certain Jojo character is one. Fitting.)). It doesn't really boil down to "ohh the youkai are evil as hell", it feels almost grounded, and doesn't approach a black or white mentality. Forbidden Scrollery deals with this concept a fair bit, and i highly recommend that one just in general, even if you don't have any interest in the rest of the series.
Obviously the games aren't perfect, but even still I feel like some of the flaws are just another reason as to why I like the series? like
look at this. yeah im probably cheating by using art from 20 years ago that isn't necessarily reflective of the series' style today, but god. its so scuffed. but also id rather this over whatever the hell genshin impact is aesthetically? idk thats probably me being an edgy contrarian but whatever.
i wasn't expecting to like this series. i really have no idea how it pulled me in like this.
afterword
if i did my job right, you will have walked away with more questions than answers. i hope this write-up confused and concerned you more than it explained anything.
