Art by takahero http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=takahero
I’ve been playing/listening to a lot of Touhou-related stuff in the past few days, and I began to think about why it was that I never feel compelled to post about anything from this franchise, which is without a doubt one of my favorites. What makes Touhou so fun is, of course, only a little bit to do with the canonical games, and more to do with the endless whirlpool of series fanon. Looking through Touhou-related goods, you could find something to say ‘woah, that’s badass!’ about just about every minute of every day, but if I love to post about things I find awesome so much, then what’s with the lack of Touhou posts? And then I realized that it is simply because I have nothing to add to them.
The thing is, Touhou is basically an endless net of fetishes. It’s a series that has a little ‘something for everyone’, and that’s why so many people can get into it so hard. Everyone has that one aspect of Touhou that rocks their world (for me, it’s the Scarlet Devil sisters and all of that amazing music) and for them, that can be all of what makes Touhou great. It’s like a medium all it’s own – I’ve known Touhou fans who I didn’t even have anything to say to, because the characters they liked were ones I’d never even heard of, and they didn’t particularly care for my darling Mansion. So point being, what you are going to get out of Touhou is only what you ask for.
art by takahero http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=takahero this is exactly what I want my art to look like
Even if two people watch Gurren Lagann, and one only likes it for the mech fights, not really caring for the plot, while the other watches it for the plot, not really caring about the mech fights, at least both of them saw everything in the show. That means that there are a lot of avenues of the show for us to discuss. If I did a post on a specific element of Gurren Lagann, it could give you a new perspective on what you’ve seen, or it could strengthen the ideas you’ve had, etc. This does not exist for Touhou, because what you get out of it is what you go looking for.
takahero does bright, too, I wanna do that! http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=takahero
What good would it do me to post about a certain video, or a certain doujin, or a certain piece of art, beyond just sharing it? Not much, because the other people who see the image are already fully aware of what makes it awesome. If I know a guy who is a big fan of Flandre Scarlet, and I see a great picture of her and decide to send it to him, I don’t need to give it with a full explanation of what makes it awesome – as a fellow Flandre fan, chances are he saw it as immediately as I did.
That might have been too bright for Rumia~
I’ve spoken to many Touhou fans, but very, VERY rarely do we have any deep conversation. It’s usually ‘have you seen X?’ ‘Yeah, that was awesome! Have you seen Y?’ ‘No, link’ ‘(link)’ ‘wow, this is awesome!’ And I’m not saying that it isn’t meaningful – if anything, that’s awesome. It’s a great way to strike up an instant bond with someone because you know that the two of you recognize something intrinsic to your tastes in the work presented. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an image of Remilia Scarlet and thought ‘man, that’s what I wish I could draw!’ and realized that this meant someone out there felt the same way I did (shame I can’t talk to most of them, though!)
It’s really that way with all fanon – I don’t go posting about every fanfic, fanmade video, and fanart I see of Gurren Lagann, I just link to the guys who care, and we share a good laugh. It’s only because Touhou is pretty much ALL fanon that I can’t bring myself to find any posts on it.
However, I’m going to make it easier to share things. I recently made a tumblr account on scarletmonochrome.tumblr.com. If you want to see what kind of artwork, videos, and other cool Touhou shit I like, that would be a good place to follow. Sadly, I don’t think this blog will ever have much Touhou beyond the art in posts.
Lately (from reading the Touhou Wiki) I’ve been getting interested in the Lunarian exiles and the Eientei. The backstory’s rather fascinating. But the Scarlet Sisters are probably my favorite, too. I may write about them soon.
By the way, this is about a different Touhou character entirely, but have you listened to this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z94Nhms7CeI
It’s awesome. :)
I am sorry to say that I turned away as soon as I saw ‘Dragonforce.’ I have a major personal beef with Dragonforce, so I instinctively refuse to watch anything related to them. Sorry >_< in return, though, I offer this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BGpEQrVxCg
Don’t worry, it’s not actually Dragonforce. It’s just speed metal that somebody labeled “Dragonforce” for some odd reason.
… Ah, I’ve heard this one. It’s awesome.
K, listened, this is pretty fucking awesome! I get the comparison, but the jackass who ULd this shouldn’t have labelled it Dragonforce when it has nothing to do with them, lol. I wonder if I can find a version without that in the title. Anyway it’s badass!
I’m only vaguely familiar with Touhou because a few of my friends like it, and Touhou fan art is all over pixiv. But I probably won’t get into it unless they make a Touhou anime series. I’m not much of a gamer and I usually can’t get into characters unless there’s some outside medium for me to see them interact in, like anime episodes.
As Shance mentions below, there is a 10-minute anime Touhou movie, though it really really pays to already know the characters going into it. But most of Touhou is told through manga and images, plot-wise.
Whereas if you want to talk about the fanon itself, I think there could be more productive conversation coming from there. :P
N is actually right. It’s the virality of Touhou (thanks 2DT and Schneider, I still remember those posts of yours with clarity and precision) that lets it cater to almost anyone. ZUN mostly bases the stories from Japanese folklore (which 2DT got interested in, because Imperishable Night’s story revolved around The Story of Kaguya-hime), which not only gives the Japanese culture a new flavor and perspective, it also opens a lot of ways for fans to create material from. They even use other material to show how they love their Touhou characters to the point of being epically awesome (like this Patlabor X Imperishable Night parody here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7m-1rV6gro / original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6Gy6_pm3s&feature=video_response). It makes you ask how much time and money do these people invest just to make something like those, and it wouldn’t matter. The fact that it’s awesome should already compensate as an answer already.
Yumeka: There’s already a Touhou fan anime that’s currently in continuation. The first episode, you can find somewhere or maybe even Youtube has it. Powerhouse seiyuu cast, subpar animation, but it’s good nevertheless.
2DT: You NEED to go on GTalk so we can talk about how far you are in Touhou.
And Digiboy, there’s actually one more thing you need to know about the word Dragonforce: http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Tenshi_Hinanai
Of course. After all this post was about the fanon as a whole~ And I’ve actually had a Touhou-related post cooking in my backroom for months, though I haven’t developed it enough to post it yet.
I don’t get what that link has to do with Dragonforce.
Tenshi’s western nickname during the first few days of Touhou Hisouten was Chiquita Dragonforce. Just because.
Ah. Well, that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the video’s use of the word, seeing as he and other uploaders were just saying things like OMG IT SOUNDS LIKE THROUGH THE FIR AND FLAMES!!!11!!!