Table of Contents
Touhou Project
Touhou Project (東方Project, lit. “Eastern Project”) is a large collection of Japanese works centered around a danmaku video game series by the doujin circle, “Team Shanghai Alice” (上海アリス幻樂団),1) though it's often credited to “Jun'ya Ōta” (太田順也) or “ZUN” instead.
It began development in 1995, but wasn't shown to the public until 1996.2) The series receives significant praise for its music, fascinating visuals, unique stories, and having an absurdly huge cast of human and humanoid characters with plenty of supplemental lore in the print works.
Overview
For the most part, Touhou Project is set in a fictional, closed off land hidden within the mountains of Japan called “Gensōkyō” (幻想郷, lit. “Fantasy Land”) and most of the games are about resolving incidents or shenanigans caused by supernatural beings in their universe. However, this isn't a strict formula and some of the works simply try to expand on daily life in Gensōkyō.
List of works
PC-98 games
While attending Tokyo Denki University, ZUN joined a doujin circle called “Amusement Makers” and he'd use “ZUN Soft” as his brand name. In order to differentiate these works from the later works, they're often referred to as the “old works” (旧作, kyūsaku) or “PC-98 version” (PC-98版, pīshī kyūhachi ban) in Japanese discussions, while the English community simply uses “PC-98 games” instead.
No. | Work name | Release date |
---|---|---|
01 (HRtP) | Touhou 東方靈異伝 〜 Highly Responsive to Prayers | 1996-11-0X (Hatoyama Matsuri) |
02 (SoEW) | Touhou 東方封魔録 〜 the Story of Eastern Wonderland | 1997-08-15 (Comiket 52) |
03 (PoDD) | Touhou 東方夢時空 〜 Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream | 1997-12-29 (Comiket 53) |
04 (LLS) | Touhou 東方幻想郷 〜 Lotus Land Story | 1998-08-14 (Comiket 54) |
05 (MS) | Touhou 東方怪綺談 〜 Mystic Square | 1998-12-30 (Comiket 55) |
Windows games
After a long pause, ZUN would resume activities under the doujin circle, “Team Shanghai Alice”, and start to work with Microsoft Windows computers, thus the term: “Windows version” (Windows版, Uindouzu-ban). In addition, he'd collaborate with the doujin circle, “Twilight Frontier” (黄昏フロンティア, Tasogare Furontia), for fighting games and other non-standard works.
No. | Work name | Release date |
---|---|---|
The Early Trilogy | ||
06 (EoSD) | Touhou 東方紅魔郷 〜 the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. | 2002-08-11 (Comiket 62) |
07 (PCB) | Touhou 東方妖々夢 〜 Perfect Cherry Blossom | 2003-08-17 (Comiket 64) |
07.5 (IaMP) | Touhou 東方萃夢想 〜 Immaterial and Missing Power. | 2004-12-30 (Comiket 67) |
08 (IN) | Touhou 東方永夜抄 〜 Imperishable Night | 2004-08-15 (Comiket 66) |
09 (PoFV) | Touhou 東方花映塚 〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View | 2005-08-14 (Comiket 68) |
09.5 (StB) | Touhou 東方文花帖 〜 Shoot the Bullet | 2005-12-30 (Comiket 69) |
Story of Religions and Gods | ||
10 (MoF) | Touhou 東方風神録 〜 Mountain of Faith | 2007-08-17 (Comiket 72) |
10.5 (SWR) | Touhou 東方緋想天 〜 Scarlet Weather Rhapsody | 2008-05-25 (Reitaisai 5) |
11 (SA) | Touhou 東方地霊殿 〜 Subterranean Animism | 2008-08-16 (Comiket 74) |
12 (UFO) | Touhou 東方星蓮船 〜 Undefined Fantastic Object | 2009-08-15 (Comiket 76) |
12.3 (Soku) | Touhou 東方非想天則 超弩級ギニョルの謎を追え |
|
12.5 (DS) | Double Spoiler ~ Touhou ダブルスポイラー 〜 東方文花帖 | 2010-03-14 (Reitaisai 7) |
12.8 | 妖精大戦争 〜 東方三月精 | 2010-08-14 (Comiket 78) |
13 (TD) | Touhou 東方神霊廟 〜 Ten Desires | 2011-08-13 (Comiket 80) |
13.5 (HM) | Touhou 東方心綺楼 〜 Hopeless Masquerade | 2013-05-26 (Reitaisai 10) |
Story of Hierarchy and Balance | ||
14 (DDC) | Touhou 東方輝針城 〜 Double Dealing Character | 2013-08-12 (Comiket 84) |
14.3 (ISC) | Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card 弾幕アマノジャク 〜 Impossible Spell Card | 2014-05-11 (Reitaisai 11) |
14.5 (ULiL) | Touhou 東方深秘録 ~ Urban Legend in Limbo | 2015-05-10 (Reitaisai 12) |
15 (LoLK) | Touhou 東方紺珠伝 ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom | 2015-08-14 (Comiket 88) |
15.5 (AoCF) | Touhou 東方憑依華 ~ Antinomy of Common Flowers | 2017-12-29 (Comiket 93) |
16 (HSiFS) | Touhou 東方天空璋 ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons | 2017-08-13 (Comiket 92) |
16.5 (VD) | 秘封ナイトメアダイアリー ~ Violet Detector | 2018-08-10 (Comiket 94) |
17 (WBaWC) | Touhou 東方鬼形獣 ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature | 2019-08-12 (Comiket 96) |
17.5 | Touhou 東方剛欲異聞 ~ 水没した沈愁地獄 | 2021-10-24 (Steam) |
18 (UM) | Touhou 東方虹龍洞 〜 Unconnected Marketeers | 2021-05-04 (Steam) |
18.5 | バレットフィリア達の闇市場 〜 100th Black Market | 2022-08-14 (Comiket 100) |
19 (UDoALG) | Touhou 東方獣王園 〜 Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost | 2023-08-13 (C102, Steam) |
Literature
Kourindou CoLA (Rinnosuke) : 2004-01-05, 2007-10-26 CoLA (Sumireko) : active, 2015-09-30, 2024-01-31 section Touhou Sangetsusei EaLND : 2005-03-26, 2006-03-25 SaBND : 2006-05-26, 2009-01-26 OSP : 2009-05-26, 2012-02-25 VFiS : 2016-01-27, 2019-09-26 section Touhou
Bunka/Gumon BAiJR : 2005-08-11, 30d PMiSS : 2006-12-27, 30d SoPM : 2012-04-27, 30d AFiEU : 2017-03-30, 30d section Touhou Shikoubana SDV : 2005-10-01, 30d section Touhou Bougetsushou SSiB : 2007-05-09, 2009-04-09 CiLR : 2007-06-25, 2009-06-25 IotEIotM : 2007-06-22, 2009-12-22 section The Grimoire of Marisa : 2009-07-28, 30d Usami : 2019-04-27, 30d section Touhou Ibarakasen WaHH : 2010-07-24, 2020-06-29 section Touhou Suzunaan FS : 2012-10-26, 2017-07-26 section Touhou Gairai Ihen SCoOW : active, 2015-09-30, 2024-01-31 section Touhou Chikireiden FDS : active, 2019-10-28, 2024-05-01 section Touhou Suichouka LE : active, 2019-11-26, 2024-05-01
This section is a placeholder. Maybe. Everything past this point in the article is a bit rushed.
- Touhou Kourindou ~ Curiosities of Lotus Asia (2004-2007, 2015–)
- Touhou Sangetsusei
- Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Eastern and Little Nature Deity (2005–2006)
- Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Strange and Bright Nature Deity (2006–2009)
- Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Oriental Sacred Place (2009–2012)
- Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Visionary Fairies in Shrine (2016–2019)
- Touhou Bunka/Gumon
- Touhou Bunkachou ~ Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red (2005)
- Touhou Gumon Shiki ~ Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (2006)
- Touhou Gumon Kuju ~ Symposium of Post-Mysticism (2012)
- Touhou Bunka Shinpou ~ Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia (2017)
- Touhou Shikoubana ~ Seasonal Dream Vision (2005)
- Touhou Bougetsushou
- Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Silent Sinner in Blue (2007–2009)
- Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Cage in Lunatic Runagate (2008–2009)
- Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth (2007–2009)
- The Grimores
- The Grimoire of Marisa (2009)
- The Grimoire of Sumireko (2019)
- Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit (2010–2019)
- Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery (2012–2017)
- Touhou Gairai Ihen ~ Strange Creators of Outer World (2015–)
- Touhou Chikireiden ~ Hansoku Tantei Satori (2019–)
- Touhou Suichouka ~ Lotus Eater-tachi no Suisei (2019–)
Notes
- ZUN stated that Touhou Project is “not a series” in the past, but later admits that it kinda is one.3)4)
- I would interpret this as ZUN trying to make each game “standalone” and avoid continuity so it'd be easy for newcomers to simply join in without needing any prior knowledge.
- While Touhou Project is copyrighted by Team Shanghai Alice, it's well known that Touhou Project is fairly generous with somewhat loose guidelines when it comes to derivative fan works.5)
- The alternate English name, Project Shrine Maiden, is seen on the cover art of the first few Windows games, but it was changed to “Touhou Project” starting with Touhou Kaeidzuka (Phantasmagoria of Flower View) in 2005. Most foreign communities borrow the “Touhou Project” notation, but certain ones have their own variant of the name in their own language.
- In Chinese, it's called “东方Project” (Dōngfāng Project) for “Eastern Project”.
- In Korean, it's called “동방 프로젝트” (Dongbang Project) for “Eastern Project”.
- In Thai, it's called “โทโฮโปรเจค” (Thoḥo Porcekh).
See also
Please use the front page for this.
External links
- Team Shanghai Alice - The archaic website for the doujin circle behind Touhou Project.
- Touhou Yomoyama News - The official Touhou Project news portal since 2020.
- Hakurei Gensō Shofu (Hakurei's Fantasy Books) - The old blog from 2005 to 2020.
Hakurei Kannushi (@korindo) on Twitter - ZUN's Twitter account. It's mostly personal posts about beer and public/radio appearances, but he does post about Touhou Project once in a while.- ZUN on Bluesky
- Touhou Wiki [JA] - This wiki is a bit lacking, but it does exist for those curious.
- Touhou Project Popularity Poll - A poll that has recently split off from the wiki. See article.
- Touhou Mononeta Wiki - This wiki tries to extract the meaning of things. Volunteer-run.
- THBWiki [ZH] - This wiki is extremely detailed and visually pleasing. I can't stress this enough.
- Touhou Wiki [EN] - This wiki is a bit of a mess. It's mostly good for trivia and stuff.
- Touhou Project on Niconico Encyclopedia [JA]
- Touhou Project on Pixiv Encyclopedia [JA]
; " " ヾ ; " ; " ; ; ヾ "ゞ ; ; ; ゞ ; ;ヾ ; ; ヾ ;ゞ ⊂⊃ ヾ ; ;";;/" ; ;ヾ ;ヾ "" ; "i "; ;ヾ; ;ヾ; ;メヾ ゙ ⊂⊃ ii;, メソ ヾ; ;ゞ " ゙ |i;, |ソ ______ ゙ Il;: | ´> `ヽ、 )ノ i^ヽr,/^'i !i;: | _,.'-=[><]=.,_ (( ,i '"⌒`"' Y、 |!;; | ヽi <レノλノ)レ〉'_,, L(!ノハル」 iゝ II;; | ノレ§゚ ヮ゚ノiゝ(ノ . 从 i!、゚ヮ ゚ [!ノハ 从 ゝ,, し iHiヽ⊃/ .ノ;; 人 O旦⊂」,ヘリ """" く/'n_ n> (;;( ;;);;) 《 《 \⊃ ''""" ""''"""'' ''""""""'' ''""" """"''