Sharing the impoverished times together, more than a year on this place, more than six years in entirety.
It’s been a very long while. I haven’t changed that much regarding my liking for the game. More like time makes it pass that I was almost on the verge of forgetting it. But no matter. I always upheld my support for the Impoverished Miko, and as the Impoverished Otaku, I think I should carry on with it.
Touhou never fails to mesmerize people with its beautiful patterns, hard-as-concrete difficulty, witty characters, and supernatural storyline. Touhou creator ZUN opened his universe for the fans with expectations that the people who appreciate his work would understand and patronize them more than he can. What he expected happened, but he didn’t expect something as grandslam as his legacy is as of now.
The Touhou Project is a strange and wonderful phenomenon. To date, we have twelve official computer games, all produced entirely by one man. But in addition, we have several fanmade games, a fanmade OVA voiced by an all-star cast, an annual fan convention, at least two professionally penned manga series and hundreds of fanmade manga, totaling literally thousands of pages. Let’s not forget figurines, UFO catchers, everything related to Yukkuris… The virtual universe built by Touhou fans is immense, and the scary thing is that it’s become almost self-sustaining.
2DT (2009/10/21)
They say the abundance of ability makes up for lack of material possession. Then, does being broke mean you can take on the world?
Human imagination is a very marvelous thing. It’s something that goes beyond conceptualization, materialization, administration, and realization. Yet, the ways it can reach out from the creator to its target audience is something else altogether. ZUN did not intend to create something that would go beyond the tenets of shooting games, but he did, and all of Gensokyo followed him in his cause. The rest is something that Kamishirasawa Keine would have to take care of.
Not only did he create a whole new genre of shooting games. ZUN also created a variety of players that not only showcase their own styles of playing the game, but change the overall perception and playability of the games. They would play Touhou without focusing (the Reckless), without that much interest to firing (the Calm), without any intention of using overpowered spells to defeat an enemy or clear a wall of undodgeable bullets (the Pacifists), or without any will to back down from where they stand (the Unmoving). From the creator, to the game, to the players, the possibilities seemed endless.
Probably the best example of all the styles listed above. As for the name of the spellcard, its Vocal Sign “Howl of the Horned Owl”, available on Stage 2 Lunatic of Imperishable Night.
You can say that the idea works for both parties, the creator and the fan. This is not only evident to the branch games that were spawned by official collaboration, the canon paperbacks, and the musical media. It is needless to say that the community itself is the one that keeps the genre alive, and they do it to challenge themselves more into discovering the mysteries of patterned curtain fire. As festivals and official games are pitted into their countdowns, new patterns and difficulties are sought, new characters are spawned, more shippings and non-official content are made, and new ways of playing bullet hell are devised. As if ZUN merely showed us the way, and we’re free to pave it as we please. And that’s like him officially saying Cirno is an idiot, and us making a fuss on celebrating said idiot’s “holiday”.
What’s more interesting is that ZUN doesn’t see himself as a god, even though he’s already a god on every Touhou fan’s eyes. He just continuously works on his games, alone, drunk with his beer, and fantasizing about what his fantasy girl harem will do for his next creation. He keeps to himself till that fated day, where he sets up his stall on the convention to let his rabid community have a taste of what’s to come. And the fans, ever anticipating, would offer no quarter for the sake of reception and fandom.
Thanks 2DT, for making me remember my Touhou heritage.
Further Reading
The IdiotStrongest Character Profile:
Knowing Touhou – Knowing the Machination, One Gear at a Time:
And Of Course, The Man Behind It All:
Hey, anytime. It’s fascinating stuff.
… I really ought to add you to my blogroll. Today, today, for sure.
Like I said, it’s been a while. Having to remember Touhou is like paying homage to all the good times of the past, including the creation of this blog, which was inspired by the times I shared with Reimu. Not being able to remember that seemed like a sacrilege for this place.
And yes, thank you for adding me up on your blogroll.