How did you get into Touhou?

[Akira Diamond]

The Million Dollar question that has been asked before probably!
I remember playing a bit of Touhou PCB back in my early high school years (I'm 22 now), but wasn't too into it.
Going back to last year when two of my best friends that were into Touhou introduced me to Touhou Eurobeat covers, and I LOVE THEM. Personal favorites are Warning, Faith, and On the moon.
After that I decided to learn more about the story, characters and the games and that's how I reunited with PCB and decided to play the rest of the games as well and now here I am!
What's your story? 

[Isaac]

My first introduction was through 'Marisa stole the precious thing'. The video was on my recommendations and I loved it. I didn't know much about touhou then apart from hearing how great the music was. 

Then I played Luna Nights years later and finished my first touhou-related game. It was when I checked the ost that I found out they were all remixes. That time of discovering touhou was amazing, hearing the original themes of the characters and others like Bad Apple is something I won't forget.

When I asked my sister if she knew anything about touhou, she remembered watching Fantasy Kaleidoscope when it only had 3 episodes. 

From that point, I fell in love with the series and with all the characters, especially Parsee!

 

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Isaac

[Tayaya]

I learned about it when I found piano covers of Flandre's theme and Night of nights a few months ago.

I didn't know how to get into it since it seemed so big but I downloaded Lost word and fell in love with Youmu.

I then got PCB since I loved Youmu and eventually I got addicted and downloaded all of the main games (except PC-98).

Edited April 24, 2022 by Tayaya

[Darksymphony777]

I saw a picture of pachouli in a Yu-Gi-Oh video and was curious to who she was and I slowly fell down the rabbit hole

[Akira Diamond]

3 hours ago, Isaac said:

When I asked my sister if she knew anything about touhou, she remembered watching Fantasy Kaleidoscope when it only had 3 episodes. 

Fantasy Kaleidoscope was honestly pretty good, I love the Hisoutensoku bits with Cirno fighting Okuu and showing how damn powerful she is.

 

1 hour ago, Tayaya said:

I didn't know how to get into it since it seemed so big but I downloaded Lost world and fell in love with Youmu.

GOOD! Honestly, Youmu is too good of a design AND character, her theme is also pretty addictive.

[Darksymphony777]

14 minutes ago, Akira Diamond said:

Youmu is too good of a design AND character

shame she's over shadowed by a better character

 

smug yuyuko

[Akira Diamond]

11 minutes ago, Darksymphony777 said:

shame she's over shadowed by a better character

 

smug yuyuko

They're both really good on their own! PCB's cast might not be as popular as EoSD but damn, every character is so flashy with their own little quirks.

[Gou the frog]

Quite unusual but my experience was reversed. My first contact with Touhou was about 3 years ago. Back when I was 11, I was playing Rhythm Heaven and found a lot of remixes on Youtube. The first one being Nico Nico Douga Ryuuseigun, there I saw karate joe with a cool ribbon, also with Pepsi man looking outfit and was fighting off a staff carrying rainbow lantern girl. Before that there was a cat with a cool hat and everyone with cool hats. Reminds me of TF2.

The next day I was greeted with a night of nights rhythm heaven remix. I thought it was interesting but I said nope and got out of there. But at night I was greeted with Touhou X Rhythm Heaven Remix 10. So, I was fascinated by a lot of characters there.

After a week, I got Mac'rolled and met Mima on a flash animation. At the same evening mind you. Then, I was invested 'cause it won't leave me alone and I just rolled with it. Hehe... After that point, I loved the music, the character and everything. Special thanks to the SDM crew for pulling me into Touhou and didn't stop nagging me to check about it. Thus, I played my first non official Touhou game at 2020 December the 25th. Can you guess it? (Too many Rhythm)

Here the link for the curious:

Touhou Flash Animation > 『Touhou Flash Animation』Highly Responsive to Prayers [English Sub] - YouTube

Nico Nico Douga Ryuuseigun > Rhythm Heaven (Custom Remix) - Nico Nico Douga Ryuuseigun - YouTube

Night of Nights Rhythm Heaven > Night of Nights - Rhythm Heaven Custom Remix - YouTube

Mac'rolled > 【十周年記念合作】M.C.ドナルドは不滅なのか？最終鬼畜道化師ドナルドール・Ｍ - YouTube

 

 

[siasiek]

I got interested in Touhou by seeing random people chatting about Remilia and Flandre

[sodaodaoda]

I remember watching some Windows crazy error videos when I was 11, and I really liked the song that was in the background (it was Marisa Stole The Precious Thing). After I found the song, I immediately fell in love with it and I started looking more into Touhou. I remember thinking that Alice was called Marisa, and that Touhou was a 2.5D platformer with a dungeon setting, for some reason, and that Alice was the main character.
And now I'm here, deep down in the Touhou rabbit hole, probably will stay in this hole for the whole eternity :p

Edited April 23, 2022 by sodaodaoda

[Isaac]

11 minutes ago, sodaodaoda said:

I remember watching some Windows crazy error videos when I was 11, and I really liked the song that was in the background (it was Marisa Stole The Precious Thing). After I found the song, I immediately fell in love with it and I started looking more into Touhou. I remember thinking that Alice was called Marisa, and that Touhou was a 2.5D platformer with a dungeon setting, for some reason, and that Alice was the main character.
And now I'm here, deep down in the Touhou rabbit hole, probably will stay in this hole for the whole eternity :p

Same here, I thought Alice was Marisa at the time. I also thought that it was from an anime I hadn't seen and wasn't expecting it to be a bullet hell.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Isaac

[TheM3ds]

I've already explained this in another post about a month ago but I might as well do it again.

My first exposure to Touhou was Ronald McDonald Insanity, I think this was around 2012-2014 but I'm not sure, I didn't know what U.N. Was her or Touhou was at the time but I still liked it, later on in my life during high school (or after that, I don't remember) when I was dealing with an internet addiction I discovered a couple of YTPMV's and more Ronald McDonald remixes that had Touhou music in it (I.E. NIght of Nights, Native Faith, Deaf to all but the song ETC.) but it wasn't until 2021 that I decided to revisit Ronald McDoanld Insanity again but this time I decided to listen to U.N. Owen Was Her and a couple of other songs and I found myself enjoying them, then I started to look into the series and found out that it has a HUGE amount of games, doujins, music, remixes, fanart and SO much more. At the time I was rather intimidated and I've been thinking to myself "Where the hell do I even start?", I knew about popular fangames like Luna Nights but my laptop at the time had very little storage space, I played a visual novel game called "Save Me Sakuya San!" which admittedly it was a sort of a weird place for me to start but I guess we all have a weird place to start in life, I thought the game was okay I guess but it did bring me some comfort at least, then I decided to look into the characters and the lore and needless to say: I was hooked. I loved learning about characters like Fujiwara No Mokou and the mythological inspiration behind each of the characters and the world of Genskoyo (despite how dark it was), since this year my life has been slowly been improving, I've been able to try out other games like Gensou Skydrift and Luna Nights, I've read some Doujins, I listened to some symphonic metal/synthwave covers of Touhou songs, hell I've even get around to making an account on this forum just to talk about Touhou and I'm glad I did, something about this series just keeps me interested and I don't think I'll be getting out of this rabbit-hole anytime soon but I've accepted that already.

I'm very sorry if this post was long to read, I did get a bit passionate around the middle to the end so I hope this doesn't bother anybody.

Edited April 23, 2022 by TheM3ds

[Akira Diamond]

2 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

I've already explained this in another post about a month ago but I might as well do it again.

My first exposure to Touhou was Ronald McDonald Insanity, I think this was around 2012-2014 but I'm not sure, I didn't know what U.N. Was her or Touhou was at the time but I still liked it, later on in my life during high school (or after that, I don't remember) when I was dealing with an internet addiction I discovered a couple of YTPMV's and more Ronald McDonald remixes that had Touhou music in it (I.E. NIght of Nights, Native Faith, Deaf to all but the song ETC.) but it wasn't until 2021 that I decided to revisit Ronald McDoanld Insanity again but this time I decided to listen to U.N. Owen Was Her and a couple of other songs and I found myself enjoying them, then I started to look into the series and found out that it has a HUGE amount of games, doujins, music, remixes, fanart and SO much more. At the time I was rather intimidated and I've been thinking to myself "Where the hell do I even start?", I knew about popular fangames like Luna Nights but my laptop at the time had very little storage space, I played a visual novel game called "Save Me Sakuya San!" which admittedly it was a sort of a weird place for me to start but I guess we all have a weird place to start in life, I thought the game was okay I guess but it did bring me some comfort at least, then I decided to look into the characters and the lore and needless to say: I was hooked. I loved learning about characters like Fujiwara No Mokou and the mythological inspiration behind each of the characters and the world of Genskoyo (despite how dark it was), since this year my life has been slowly been improving, I've been able to try out other games like Gensou Skydrift and Luna Nights, I've read some Doujins, I listened to some symphonic metal/synthwave covers of Touhou songs, hell I've even get around to making an account on this forum just to talk about Touhou and I'm glad I did, something about this series just keeps me interested and I don't think I'll be getting out of this rabbit-hole anytime soon but I've accepted that already.

I'm very sorry if this post was long to read, I did get a bit passionate around the middle to the end so I hope this doesn't bother anybody.

Damn, that's awesome! Tbh, most people get into touhou thanks to the fan-games so you're good. Long posts mean that you're passionate about this and I love to see that!

[Isaac]

4 hours ago, TheM3ds said:

I loved learning about characters like Fujiwara No Mokou and the mythological inspiration behind each of the characters and the world of Genskoyo (despite how dark it was), since this year my life has been slowly been improving, I've been able to try out other games like Gensou Skydrift and Luna Nights, I've read some Doujins, I listened to some symphonic metal/synthwave covers of Touhou songs, hell I've even get around to making an account on this forum just to talk about Touhou and I'm glad I did, something about this series just keeps me interested and I don't think I'll be getting out of this rabbit-hole anytime soon but I've accepted that already.

I'm very sorry if this post was long to read, I did get a bit passionate around the middle to the end so I hope this doesn't bother anybody.

I loved learning and finding out the mythology behind the characters too. My favourites are all associated with having sad or cool backstories which made me love them.

As Akira said, it's always fine to talk in length with something you're passionate about. Hearing how you all discovered touhou has been interesting!

[TheM3ds]

35 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I loved learning and finding out the mythology behind the characters too. My favourites are all associated with having sad or cool backstories which made me love them.

As Akira said, it's always fine to talk in length with something you're passionate about. Hearing how you all discovered touhou has been interesting!

I love characters with sad/tragic backstories too, especially cool ones!

I genuinely do appreciate the positivity from you all, as well as hearing your stories!

Edited April 24, 2022 by TheM3ds

[Gou the frog]

31 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I loved learning and finding out the mythology behind the characters too. My favourites are all associated with having sad or cool backstories which made me love them.

Truly is. I was already interested in mythology since I was exposed to it back when I was so young.

There're a lot of reasons why I like Touhou Characters. Like your topic, sad/tragic backstories but if they're somewhat unique I'm all in. There's no deep reasons to like about a Touhou Character for me at least, if they're filling with souls and overflowing with emotions. Why do I like Mima? She's interesting: her clothes. 

Well, I'm glad I've you guys here in this forums. 

[buskerdog]

My story of getting into Touhou is a bit long winded and has already been told on this forum, so I'll just link to it here instead.

Something I can remember clearly is that as soon as those ZUNpets on the EoSD title theme kicked in for the first time I played that game, is the exact moment I knew I was getting into something very special.

[Macbeth]

I used to browse /f/ when I was younger about 9 or so years ago and i learned about this inreresting thing called 2hu tuesdays. 
 

thee board would spam touhou flash games and other old touhou flashes that people would play. I still play the ones i have in my hard drive time to time

Edited April 25, 2022 by Macbeth

[Turbonator]

Fell for the "Bad apple on X" meme in early 2021 and the rest is history.

[mirukubun]

I got into Touhou thanks to U.N. Owen Was Her and all the music videos like Cirno's Perfect Math Class, Bad Apple, Priere, etc. ૮₍ ´ ꒳ `₎ა I tried the games a long time ago but dropped all interest because I thought the games were too hard for me. Now my interest recently rekindled and I've been listening to a lot of songs and playing them for fun even if I suck at it lol. ꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱

[Queen Honeybumble]

I was absorbed into Touhou originally through nuclear fusion power, of course. Friend of mine made me watch Nuclear fusion dojo, and then all the assorted things we all love like Marisa stole the precious thing, Scarlet Police, etc. You know the drill, I was forever destined for and bound to Touhou. My first introduction to any Touhou games was kind of strange cuz I didn't know where to start, and one day I saw a game on the playstation store, so my first ever Touhou game was Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet...

I stayed in cuz the music and memes are totally rad

[SasaMisa]

My initial exposure was through a single dojinshi called Bousou-Get! centered around Reisen & Eirin, which was part of a batch download back in 2007. Had no idea at the time precisely what Touhou Project was other than it being some kind of shoot 'em up. Saw a few characters here and there on various image sites following that, but even years later, I still didn't know more than a handful of them (Suika; Marisa; Suwako; Cirno, to name a few), plus I constantly continued to mix the girls up. (^_^;)

That all changed in late 2013 though, when I accidentally came across Estheone's fantastic Wandering Souls on YouTube and decided to give a try for myself. Fell in love with the characters, story, music, etc. instantly and the rest is history since it wasn't long before I was delving into exactly where they all came from originally. Having a mate who was into arcade vertical scrollers certainly helped in that regard as well. (^_^)

Edited July 21, 2022 by SasaMisa
Adding some text.

[Gou the frog]

I truly have unlocked my most purest memories of childhood. That being my four years old self was lucky enough to own a i-pad and this was the third video that I watched ever since I got into youtube. The first one being Team Fabulous 2 (Fortress) 2 video by kitty0706, The Second being PvZ soundtracks and the third one being a remix of a remix: A Touhou PV: Tsurupettan/Delicious Flat Chest with window error remix. (The orginal was made by IOSYS. This truly might be my first contact of Touhou even though I have no idea what I was watching that time.) 

 

 

I'm singing baka mitai, 'cause kitty pass away in Covid, PvZ series died off on the hands of EA, and to put a nail in the coffin if it there ain't 2 more nails already, IOSYS stopped making these kinds of PV and even if they make one, they aren't very recent and doesn't have the same feel as those opposed from 2010-2014. We all have to move on, damm, it's raining heavily today with thunder and storms. At least, Touhou won't be falling down nether PvZ nor TF2 from their golden position. I believe in the communities no you guys! Hehe.... Let's all have fun and have a thing or two to reminisce when we got older, lads!

[Reicirna_731]

Surprisingly, I got into Touhou because of Bad Apple, UN Was Her, and some black midi videos when I was obsessed with them at the time, most of those videos are based around Touhou songs, and because I enjoyed listening to osts from the games.

I also want to add that I played some Touhou fan games from the Android store.

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Reicirna_731
Wanted to add something

[Jisenko]

I first played Touhou Luna Nights back in 2020, but lost interest quickly, despite liking the music. I came back to it on November of last year and played through it fully. Honestly one of my favorite games to this day. After i finished Luna Nights i started playing the official Touhou games with my first one being IN then followed by the rest!