this is touhou – Ananke's Stuff

ciryes:

Depending on who you’ll ask, you’ll get a lot of different answers to this question!

To put it simply, Touhou is a series of bullet hell video games, a spin on the typical shoot-‘em-up genre in which the screen is spammed with projectiles, the player has a very small hitbox, and has to navigate these patterns.

Screenshot of DoDonPachi, a typical Danmaku game.

Touhou in itself is actually easier compared to other danmaku games, and arguably has some of the most beautiful patterns instead of just missile spams. If you want to start with one, start with 7 or 8, the easiest in my opinion. The series only really ‘starts’ at 5, 1-5 use different mechanics and aren’t for Windows, and are generally disregarded by the creator, but still loved by the fans.

The biggest difference from the typical spaceships, giant mechs, missiles, lasers and bullets is that in Touhou, the setting is a sealed-away world in Japan where mythical creatures live, and your player character, and every boss is a basically a girl in a frilly outfit. And with the series having 14 main games and 8 side games, there’s a LOT of characters. Over 130 if you count some of the more minor ones.

And these are only the ones from 6 to 11.

The world in which Touhou takes place in is known as Gensokyo or Gensoukyou depending on how it’s translated, which is a sealed-off pocket world in which eastern and western mythical creatures such as kitsune, bakeneko, gods, vampires, magicians and fairies coexist with humans in (mostly) harmony. The games are heavily based off Japanese mythology and history, for example, 8 is based off Kaguya-hime no Monogatari or The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, 14 is inspired by the tale of Issun-boushi or ‘Inch Boy’, and the final boss of 13 is Prince Shoutoku (In girl form, of course).

For me, this is what really sets Touhou apart and makes me a Touhou fan, but the setting is really just one part of it. Hell, you don’t even need to play the games to be a fan.

Another of Touhou’s key features is the music. Each game has two dozen or so music tracks, and they’re really popular, with a multitude of fan-made arranges and remixes and Touhou-style tracks. Some people are into it entirely for the music.

♫ Border of Life, Yuyuko Saigyouji’s theme from Touhou 7 ♫

This is just one example. There are hundreds, as well as music CDs.

And did I mention this whole series was made by just one person? Jun’ya Oota, going by the pseudonym ZUN, is the sole creator of each official Touhou main game. (Some of them were made in cooperation with the Doujin Circle Twilight Frontier).

Now, although this guy’s great at making games and his musical talent is legendary, the same cannot be said about his art skill, which has become a bit of a joke in the fandom.

But the fans of the series have made so much fanart that it’s almost impossible to count. As of this post, there are 400,341 Touhou images on Danbooru alone.

Hina Kagiyama. Image Source

It’s really, really popular with artists. (And porn. There is so much porn. Use Safebooru. Blame Japan.)

Now. What do I do for the Touhou fandom, you ask? I make photoshops and corny videos. That is what I do. You’ll also get some youtubers making more serious projects (often using create.swf, a character making/video frame making program by Walfas) but if you follow me you’re going to get fanart and stupid jokes.

So basically, not everybody in the fandom is in it for the same stuff. If you want to make jokes about it, cool. If you’re a hardcore gamer who wants to clear every game on Lunatic mode without even shooting, cool. If you want to draw all the art, go ahead. If you like listening to or making music, sweet. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT YOUR LIFE’S AMBITION TO WHACK THE WHACKER TO EVERY SINGLE TOUHOU HENTAI IMAGE, GOOD LUCK TO YOU MY FRIEND.

But whatever you choose, welcome to the fandom, enjoy your stay, and I hope it’s fun for you! Hopefully I helped!