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Touhou Project

Touhou(Eastern) Project (東方Project(プロジェクト)) is a large collection of Japanese works that stem from a danmaku video game series by Team Shanghai Alice,1) a doujin circle led by Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, and the first entry had supposedly finished development in 1995 before it was shown off and released.2)

It's a series that receives heavy praise for its music, visuals, and extensive cast of human and humanoid characters which, depending on the exact character, may either have a lot of 'supplemental lore' or have a lot potential that is purposely left to the imagination.

Overview

For the most part, Touhou Project is set in 'Gensōkyō' (幻想郷),3) a fictional 'preserve' hidden in the Japanese mountains, and most of the works focus on resolving 'incidents' (異変, ihen) that are occasionally caused by supernatural beings in their universe, but it's not a strict formula. Some works expand on daily life, some works expand on backstories, and some works briefly shed light on the more grim aspects.

Development

As the story goes, ZUN attended Tokyo Denki, bought his first computer to create video game music, and made a couple of games under the 'ZUN Soft' label. These original entries would be retroactively called: the 'old works' (旧作, kyūsaku), the 'PC-98 version' (PC-98版, pīshī-kyūhachi ban), or the 'PC-98 games' in English. ZUN would find work at Taito, but eventually left as it frustrated him.

During this, ZUN resumed activities under the 'Team Shanghai Alice' label, and started to make video games with Microsoft Windows, thus the 'Windows version' (Windows版, Uindouzu-ban) began. Most people would retroactively regard the early-to-mid 2000s works as an 'early trilogy' (初期三部作, shoki sanbunsaku) and he'd start working with Twilight Frontier, while also releasing a number of CDs and print works.

However, the Touhou Project series would enter a 'soft reboot' with Touhou Fuujinroku in 2007 because ZUN started focusing on the worldbuilding aspect, while still sprinkling in his own commentary on the world. These latter eras don't have unofficial community nicknames, which may say a lot about the current state of the community, so I'm just coming up with what seems to be the most appropriate.

List of substantial works

PC-98 and Windows games

Toggle list of main games.

Manga series and novels

I still have plans to do a separate article on Touhou Kourindou and the Music CDs, so my notes can be more thorough than usual.

  • Touhou Kourindou (2004-2007, 2015–)
    A long series of side stories about Rinnosuke's antique store Kourindou and his inner monologue.
  • Touhou Sangetsusei (2005–2006, 2006–2009, 2009–2012, 2016–2019)
    A mostly light-hearted manga about the Three Fairies of Light and their shenanigans.
  • Touhou Bougetsushou (2007–2009)
    A highly ambitious, multimedia work that expands Touhou Eiyashou lore with the Lunar Capital.
  • Touhou Ibarakasen (2010–2019)
    A manga that focuses on Kasen Ibaraki and the role that she might've had in the past.
  • Touhou Suzunaan (2012–2017)
    A somewhat light-hearted manga that focuses on Kosuzu Motoori's naivety and the demon books.
  • Touhou Chireikiden (2019–)
    A manga that focuses on Satori Komeiji solving mysteries in Gensōkyō, except…
  • Touhou Suichouka (2019–)
    A manga that focuses on Miyoi Okunoda, the Poster Girl of Gedontei, and the bar she works at.

Criticisms

The purpose of this section is to point out that criticism exists.
Please do not interpret this as a personal rant or persuasive argument.

Most of the valid criticisms about Touhou Project have to do with how the danmaku games have become too 'casual' or 'uninspiring', how the 'worldbuilding' can feel rather spontaneous,4) how much of this world has technically been 'carried' by the fans,5) the 'doujin' contradiction, the strict price point,6) the numerous cases of suspected plagiarism,7) and the use of AI-generated backgrounds in his more recent works.

Other criticisms tend to be tangentially related. Some of the Japanese-language 'criticisms' are insane, if you can catch them.8) As for the Western side, the 'criticisms' are more personal, unrelated to the core content, because of how much the community overlaps with the work, so you will often find criticism of the community's 'vastness'9) or that person who thinks the series has been dying since 2009.

Notes

  • During the early Windows trilogy, Touhou Project had the alternative English name of Project Shrine Maiden, which is visible on the boot-up screen (except for Touhou Kaeidzuka) and credits.
  • In the past, ZUN *used to* hesitate to call Touhou Project a 'series', as the numbering hasn't meant anything and, to paraphrase, he basically wanted to avoid the negative connotations of 'sequel' since he was aware that fans of his older works won't always like his newer works.10)11)12)
    • This might be related to his review of Gradius V on July 29, 2004, considering that he admitted that he probably wouldn't have played said game if it wasn't part of the Gradius series.13)
    • Personally, I'd interpret this as ZUN designing every Touhou Project game to be a 'standalone' entry, allowing newcomers to jump in without needing any prior knowledge of the series.
  • The manga portion of Touhou Bougetsushou was 'contentious' at the time, because it introduced new characters that easily defeat the fan favorites and tore through 'powerscaling' discussions.
  • While Touhou Project is technically copyrighted, their derivative work guidelines are famously lenient.14)
  • It isn't a secret that the Touhou Project community is diverse and massive, but this vastness has made it notoriously difficult to find common ground or people on the same wavelength as you.
    • There's a Japanese meme about how you can have a folklore enthusiast, a person who loves the community's fan works, a porn connoisseur, and a person that just likes ZUN in the same room, yet they always seem to gravitate to discussing gacha games because of the discrepency.
    • In addition, some Touhou Project doujin events in Japan have had problems with their R-18 aisles15) being stuffed away from the main traffic as the demographic range keeps getting younger.

See also

Just check the front page. 

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1)
The 'Shanghai Alice Fantasy Ensemble' (上海アリス幻樂団, Shanhai Arisu Gengakudan) uses the English name of 'Team Shanghai Alice' which has stuck around, unlike the 'Project Shrine Maiden' name.
2)
For some reason, ZUN makes a nitpick that Touhou Reiiden finished development in 1995, before it was unveiled at the 20th 'Hatoyama Matsuri' (鳩山祭) around November 3–4, 1996, then their first commercial sales were alongside Touhou Fuumaroku at Comiket 52 on August 15, 1997.
3)
The term 'Gensōkyō' (幻想郷) is commonly translated as 'Fantasy Land' (Land of Fantasy), but a case could be made for 'Illusion Land' (Land of Illusions) or 'Imaginary Land' (Land of the Imaginary/Imagined).
4)
For example, the 'religious' arc was highly unexpected when it first happened, before we eventually learned that it was meant to be worldbuilding, then the 'power hierarchy' arc kicked off, and briefly touches on the Lunar Capital storyline, before shifting focus onto the Animal Realm hierarchy with themes of greed or power.
5)
Some characters enjoy a wealth of content, while others have to rely on fan speculation. The series is a bit weird because the characters have 'just enough' content to work with, so they aren't flat, one-dimensional characters in a mindless CGDCT wonderland, but it doesn't erase the fact that you will be stuck with vague lore drops if you wish to avoid derivative interpretations of one-off characters.
6)
It should be pointed out that each mainline Touhou Project entry on Steam is $11–15 and never goes on sale, even if the older games require a trip to the PC Gaming Wiki, and the cost quickly adds up if you're trying to get a collection going. On the other hand, the price is nothing compared to the $60–80 that companies push with microtransactions and subscriptions, plus most of you pirate these damn games anyways.
7)
There's a lot of subjective cases (e.g. character design, danmaku patterns, music) that largely depends on your personal definitions of 'inspiration' or 'plagiarism', but then you have borrowed code (e.g. MASTER.LIB, SPRITE16.COM → ZUNSP.COM) and the technical copyright violations of royalty-free backgrounds (e.g. 京染紙 / The Yuzen Japanese Paper) due to its usage in commercial works.
8)
Most of the 'Touhou Anti(Hater)' (東方アンチ) stuff gets 'counter-vandalized' hard, but you aren't missing much. What's the issue with fan games based on existing games? Why would I care about a random scuffle between anonymous users? What does a suicidal mass murderer's book have to do with any of this?
9)
This is a *very condensed* bullet point. We could be here all day if we talk about people that hate: the early trilogy's oversaturation, the powerscaling discussions, the Grimsokyo discussions, the shipping content, the recycled memes, the engagement farmers, the fictosexuals, the people who masturbate to fictional characters, the people who wear their ideologies, etc. I have criticisms here too, but we're not focusing on that.
10)
"―特集―　シューティングの方法論 第2回" (2005). 4gamer.
11)
"ZUN's Gensou Denshou Lecture" (November 3, 2007). Touhou Wiki.
12)
"Strange Creators of Outer World/Introduction of Previous Works/Mountain of Faith/Mountain of Faith Interview with ZUN" (October 31, 2017). Touhou Wiki.
13)
"グラＶは" [Mirror] (July 29, 2004). Touhou Shofu.
14)
"Copyrights". Touhou Wiki.
15)
The technical Japanese term is 'R-18 Island' (R18島) or 'Eromanga Island' (エロマンガ島).
touhou_project.txt · Last modified: 2025-05-11 02:50:46 by namelessrumia