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Another (over)analysis of a Pastebin document


CountVonNumenor

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Writing the past analysis has been quite fun. The analysis of an April Fools post has been quite interesting, and helped me share some thoughts on what was going on at the time that was written. Therefore, I would like to make a new one, based on a document titled "Touhou Lore FAQ and Common Misconceptions". This wil be a long one, and as usual, I will start by bringing in the original text:

 

Spoiler

Touhou Lore FAQ and Common Misconceptions

Some questions and answers in the FAQ are more theoretical than factual and they will be marked as such.

F1. Who created Touhou?
Our lord, ZUN.

 

F2. How do/should I get started? 
This is ultimately up to you. Many people will give their own two cents on what games you should start with, or what written work you should start with, but in the end it is up to you. However, if you wish to get into the series with the least amount of confusion, here are some suggestions. 
- Start from the first relevant game (Touhou 6 - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil*)
- Start from the first written work Curiosities of Lotus Asia (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Curiosities_of_Lotus_Asia)
- Read the Gensokyo encyclopedias, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense then Symposium of Post-Mysticism in that order (PMISS: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Perfect_Memento_in_Strict_Sense) (SoPM: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Symposium_of_Post-mysticism)
- Read the first volume of Strange Creators of Outer World, specifically the section titled "Basic Knowledge of Fantastic Words" (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Basic_Knowledge_of_Fantastic_Words_2015)
Once again these are merely suggestions and it is up to you. As long as you can start somewhere and get the knowledge you're doing good. 
*While it may be more intuitive to think that the first Touhou game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, should be the starting point, due to the state of PC-98 games as it is, it isn't recommended to start here. Especially the 1st game, as it's the least relevant game in the franchise as a whole. 

 

F3. How/Where do I learn Touhou Lore?
You should always prioritize the official games, written works above all else. Stuff from fangames or fanworks will not provide sufficiently accurate lore, or lore that is not directed by personal interpretation or bias. As Touhou is a series all about filling in the cracks with your own interpretations, it is recommended that you see things at its source for the best experience. 
The Touhou Wiki (en.touhouwiki.net) provides a list of all of the official materials, as well as providing a place to read most written works (the ones that aren't manga). It also provides sources of interviews from ZUN. As it is a wiki, you should be wary of inaccurate information, but as for documentation this is one of the best places to go.
The Touhou Patch website (thpatch.net) is the best place for scripts from the games, the omake.txt files that come with the game (contains summary of the plot and profiles of characters featured in the game) as well as endings. ZUN has a rule that endings should not be shown on websites or in videos etc, but as Touhou Patch is a website about creating language patches this rule has to be overlooked for translation purposes. So if you wish to view the scripts from the video games, this is the best place to go to. 
Then there is mangadex (mangadex.org) where accurate scanslations for all previous and currently running touhou manga can be found. Just type the name into the search bar and they should pop up. 
Of course, you can just play the games yourself as well and experience Touhou for what it is. 

 

F4. Are the decimal games (i.e. Touhou 7.5, 9.5, etc) canon?
It's canon. If at least the story is done by ZUN, it's canon. 

 

F5. Is PC-98 (The first 5 installments in the Touhou franchise) canon?
The short answer is: Yes. 
The long answer is: It's complicated. 
ZUN has said multiple times in interviews that the world in the games of PC-98 are the same as they are in Windows, but he also makes it very clear that Windows Canon takes precedence, and any contradiction from PC-98 should be ignored as Windows takes precedence. The returning characters from PC-98 (Reimu, Marisa, Alice, Yuuka) are all the same characters from the previous platform, difference being is they have a last name now, they look different, they're more fleshed out etc. There's also the part where in the respective games where they appeared in (PCB for Alice, PoFV for Yuuka) they remark on not seeing Reimu or Marisa in a while. Clearly a reference to their past. 
Regardless though, the "lore" in PC-98 isn't even that serious anyway. There are some interesting bits here or there, but ultimately it's made up of very unserious and silly plots. So while it may be nice to know the characters from PC-98 are still in existence somewhere, they simply aren't relevant right now, and it is not known if ZUN will make them relevant ever again. The franchise is continually being built upon, and to go back to fix the issues with PC-98 would be a difficult process. A process that ZUN isn't willing to go through with as of now. 
So once again, while PC-98 is "technically" canon, it's also not relevant and is in a state of limbo. Just don't worry too much about it. 

Relevant Sources: 
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN's_Gensou_Denshou_Lecture
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN's_AWA_Q%26A_Panel
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Who's_Who_of_Humans_%26_Youkai_in_Gensokyo/Yuuka_Kazami

 

F6. Are the written works canon? 
They most certainly are canon. They are written by ZUN and they act as a way of expanding upon the Touhou universe in ways that the games wouldn't be able to. 

 

F7. Are the CD stories (Dolls in Psuedo Paradise, the Renko & Maribel stories, etc) canon?
While the events of DiPP are a bit up in the air, yes, these tales are canon. However, it should be noted that in the Renko/Maribel stories the events take place in the far future. 
And no, nobody knows who the Pierrot from DiPP is. 

 

F8. Is Inaba of the Earth & Inaba of the Moon canon?
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Still no. 

Now it's understandable why the question would come up as the Inaba 4koma is a part of the Bougetsushou collection (along with Silent Sinner in Blue and Cage in Lunatic Runagate) but there a several reasons to not even consider it semi-canon. 
a) It is not written by ZUN. ZUN is only credited as laying the foundation for the setting, but the contents of the manga have no involvement from him at all. 
b) The tone is drastically different from the other Bougetsushou entries. Its tone is even drastically different from the other Touhou entries in general, including the very unserious PC-98 games. 
c) Much of the events that take place in Inaba are completely contradictory to established facts already in canon, as far as interaction and as far as completely impossible stuff (i.e. Eirin getting sick). 
d) The events of Inaba are never referenced in any serious way in Touhou. There are only a few times where Inaba is given essentially a shoutout in win quotes in the fighting games or written works like Sangetsusei but that is about it. 
e) And something else to consider, but with the release of the latest Touhou manga (Cheating Detective Satori), there were a few other "official" Touhou manga that came out along with it (Starving Marisa's Blessed Meal, The Gensokyo of Humans, The Shinigami Rowing Her Boat as Usual) that are not canon. When you read these manga, there is a big warning telling you that this work isn't canon. Now this wasn't done with Inaba which came out oh so many years ago compared to now, but if Inaba were to come out today it most likely would get the same warning. It likely wasn't done back then because ZUN thought it'd be obvious to people that this work wasn't canon. Since Touhou has expanded so much then, and especially with many new Touhou fans being children ZUN probably wants to make things more clear to newer fans. 

It's also telling of how much the franchise has expanded in general, where non-canon official materials are becoming more of a thing. Just like other big doujin-born franchises like Fate. 
Something else to consider is that while these official materials are not canon, the fact they're official is something to behold. As it could taken as ZUN respecting the writer's "headcanon" enough to make it official, even if not canon. Take it as you will, but just remember that these works aren't actually canon. 

 

F9. What is the timeline of Touhou/How does time progress in Touhou?
There is an article on the touhou wiki that gives a nice summary of the timeline of Gensokyo. Be wary that not all information has a citation, but what is in this page is for the most part, true. 
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo_Timeline
To further summarize, time in Touhou runs parallel to our own**, meaning it is currently (as of this posting) December 2019 in Gensokyo. The events of EoSD took place in August 2003, meaning it has been 16 years since the Scarlet Mist incident. 
** Be aware that while the progression of time is the same as our world, the *effects* of time are not the same. Characters do not age up until ZUN wants them too. ZUN has called this "Sazae-time", which is named after a long running cartoon series in Japan. For us westerners, this could be comparable to The Simpsons. 

https://clarste.tumblr.com/post/174148682416/zun-recently-attended-a-convention-in-china-where
This link explains a little bit more about the meaning. In other words, while Akyuu is getting closer to 30, there is no worry about her dying. 

 

F10. What religions are present in Touhou? 
As you can probably tell by the name of the series, Touhou (Eastern) is primarily about the culture of the Orient, The Far East. Most prominently in Japan as Gensokyo is in Japan. The primary religions explored are Shinto and Buddhism. Other religions that are present are Taoism, Confucianism, and Shugendo. With the presence of Hecatia, who is the goddess Hecate in Greek mythology, you could say Hellenism is present as well. We also have characters like Sariel, and the couple of references to Jesus Christ so Judeo-Christianic religions also seem to be present. However the latter western/middle eastern references are more of an exception rather than the norm. ZUN has said himself that he would rather not tread too deeply into the monotheistic religions in Touhou as it is incompatible with the largely polytheistic religions that are present in this series. So no, don't expect Jesus to appear in a Touhou game. 

 

F11. How come Sakuya and Nitori are atheists? Isn't Touhou full of gods?
A good question, but it can be answered. Now, something you have to be aware of is how the world is viewed differently depending on the type of society you grew up in. If you grew up in a culturally Christian society, you're not gonna see things quite like someone who grew up in a culturally Pagan society. Christianity is monotheistic, and Paganism is polytheistic. There are further differences between Polytheists like Hellenists and Animists but I won't go into that. And the meaning of "atheism" also changes depending on if you grew up in monotheistic culture or polytheistic culture. In monotheism, there is one supreme god who created all things. If you claim you are atheist, you are saying that you do not believe in the existence of this singular supreme god, and that you also do not believe that you were created by some singular supreme god. Polytheists believe that there are multiple gods, each representing an aspect of nature, the human condition, or the universe. When you say that you are atheist, you are saying that you do not believe that these aspects of nature are "gods", but this does not mean that you don't believe it exists. After all, you can't deny nature. You just don't believe its worthy of worship. This is what it means when Sakuya or Nitori say they're atheists. They obviously can't deny the existence of these "beings called gods", they just don't worship them nor acknowledge their divinity.

 

F12. Was Toyosatomimi no Miko always a girl? 
Yes she was. Right in her profile from the character_setting.txt of Ten Desires shows this line "やんごとなき生まれの*彼女*は、幼い頃から様々な訴えを聞く事があった。" This sentence talks about her early life and how *she* listened to complaints. 彼女 means she/her, meaning that she is in fact, a she. This shows up multiples times. Historically in the outside world (our world) Shoutoku Taishi was known as a male, but in Gensokyo, as it turns out in reality she is a female. This is a very common theme in Touhou, where male figures from history or myth are now females. Shuten-douji was a male, but now they're a female (Suika Ibuki). Omoikane was a male, but now they're a female (Eirin Yagokoro). Even the White Hare of Inaba was a male, but now they're female (Tewi Inaba). Miko is no different in that regard. Also keep in mind that Miko is in Gensokyo in the first place is because people decided to stop believing in Prince Shoutoku being a real figure, believing that he is a mythical person. Which is actually how many historical scholars think in our own world, so it matches. 

 

F13. Are there any "relationships" between characters in Touhou? 
Technically there is. There are a few characters in Touhou that are married or formerly married. Namely the Watatsuki sisters, Seiga Kaku, and Junko. Watatsuki sisters are said to be married currently, and Junko originally had a husband that she would later murder. Seiga while not directly stated to have been married, if you go by the Chinese pronunciation of her name, Huo Qing'e (霍青娥), more comes to light. Qing'e is the name of a tale from "Strange Stories of a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异)". In the tale is a heroine whose goes by the surname "Wu" is following in her father's footsteps to seek Dao (Taoism), but falls in love with a man named "Huo" Huan and marries him. Later in the story she is presumed dead, but the husband finds out that she became a Xian (hermit) with her father and the husband seeks her return. Qing'e is presumed to be the first name of the heroine of the story, so her married name would be "Huo Qing'e", in other words, Seiga Kaku. The heroine of this tale is more than likely the hermit that we see in Touhou, so that means that Seiga was previously (or techincally) married. 

Now if we're speaking about romances going on between the named relevant characters in Touhou, such events have not occured. Touhou is a series that doesn't really delve into such matters or subjects related to it outside of what is mentioned in character backstories. 

A question like this was even brought up in an interview: (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/The_Untold_History_of_Japanese_Game_Developers_Interview)

"JS: I know some fan creations tend to veer towards, shall we say, amourous themes between certain characters.

ZUN: It's not something I particularly like, and sometimes a bit too much. The fans are free to do what they want, but it's not something I like. I have no plans to put something like that into one of my games. <laughs>"

Regardless of what the interview says, if you just observe the events in the series you'll notice that romance and sexuality is a topic that is almost never brought up. In the Love Letter Ghost chapters of Forbidden Scrollery, Reimu and Marisa mention how they wish they could receive love letters, or maybe you'd look at Silent Sinner in Blue where Reimu wanted to summon Lord Daikoku (Okuninushi) simply because "he was handsome", but this is really minor stuff in the grand scheme of the those plots.

Nontheless, these are topics not really explored in the series.

 

F14. Are there other worlds like Gensokyo?
The only other world that Gensokyo is compared to in Touhou is the Lunar Capital. Just like Gensokyo, the Lunar Capital is surrounded by a barrier of common sense* that prevents outsiders from entering. They are similar worlds, but the residents and the way its ran are different. 

Other than that, there is no other world that is like Gensokyo on Earth that is known as of now. 

*Be aware that the barrier surrounding Gensokyo is not physical. Once you enter the barrier of Gensokyo, you are in a dimension called the *other world*. And because of this, you could claim that "the Hakurei Barrier extends past the moon". There is no *shape* to the barrier. Just a general area in the outside world where Gensokyo "would" be. It's best not to overthink it. 

More FAQs will be added over time.

==========================================

 

 

Common Misconceptions 
The False Knowledge That Needs to be Ironed Out

CM1
"Lunarians are EVIL! They are space nazis!" 
This is likely the #1 misconception about Lunarians, and maybe Touhou as a whole that goes on in the Western community. Due to the overhate this group gets, everyone wants to attribute the worst kind of labels to them and assume they are the worst of everything, without even giving just a little bit of thought to what makes them not so good, and I dunno, why thinking that you should kill all Lunarians and blow up the moon is just extremely hypocritical. 

So just to start off, let's look at what Lunarians actually do. Lunarians are a people who live on the moon, and they hate "impurity". They avoid beings with impurity at all cost, and have a superiority about themselves and often like to speak about how much better they are compared to the impure, even going as far as threatening to kill Earthlings, but to no avail. (And no, the events of LoLK are something else entirely) 
So what is "impurity"? Impurity or "kegare" is "life energy". Beings that have kegare are considered living, and for one to live, they will eventually die. Lunarians (as well as celestials, ghosts, gods, etc) are pure, meaning they are "not living". As they are "not living", they cannot die. They "exist" forever, though they usually can be killed. Lunarians have a deep fear of decay and death, and associate kegare with the struggle for survival which they were disgusted with. Something else to keep in mind is that most Lunarians are gods, gods that have existed before humanity was even conceived. So they watched as the creatures on Earth struggled for survival in a Darwinistic world. With all of that in mind, it is no wonder they hate and fear kegare, because they do not wish to submit to such cruel behaviors, as well as ya know, not die. They watched the many thousands years of history of man, watching as they commit such vile and awful acts which are unthinkable even by our normal human standards, even more so by Lunarian standards, and judged all humans (and animals) as the same. This is why Lunarians hate humans, and this is why they hate "impurity". 
Yes it's true that Lunarians are extremely haughty with how they act, and it is true that they can be really petty and discriminative. However, their reasoning for avoiding humans is valid. There are Lunarians that are so extreme in this thinking of "avoiding all strife, and abstaining from all impurity" that the Lunarian Self Defense Corp (which is lead by the Watatsuki Sisters) receives discrimination from their own people, because a Self Defense Corp acknowledges the struggle for survival. And some go even further, and just consider all life as something unimportant, which is why the events of ULiL/LoLK went down in the first place. The Lunarians needed a place to escape to to avoid impurity, and they decided on Gensokyo. They did not care if all life in Gensokyo would be vaporized (and doing this would also wipe out all life on Earth in general, according to ZUN in the LoLK interview), which is why they had this plan as insurance. However there are those that are far more reasonable and humane, like the Watatsuki Sisters and Sagume. 
It's just important to remember that while there are some really bad Lunarians that exist, one should not assume that Lunarians are all the same. And another thing to remember, you would not be calling them "Space Nazis" if we didn't have Nazis in the first place. There is more that could be talked about, but I think I summed up the basic gist of it. They are for the most part, aren't evil, and should at least be given heat for the things that they actually do and not some made up bullcrap. 

 

CM2
"The reason why Clownpiece has her American flag design is so she can piss off the Lunarians." 
This is completely false, and a misconception that can easily be fixed by looking at LoLK interview in Strange Creators of Outer World (Which can be found on the wiki here: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Legacy_of_Lunatic_Kingdom_interview_with_ZUN) She wears the American flag design because she saw the flag, and liked it. That's it. Nothing ulterior to it. I also really believe that people only come up with this reason is because they're conflating their own dislike of Lunarians with Clownpiece and as so they project that onto Clownpiece for wearing her outfit. Such info isn't found in her summary profile in the LoLK omake.txt, nor is it mentioned in any written work, so it's clear that this misconception came about from word of mouth. 

 

CM3

"The Yama's name is Shikieiki Yamaxanadu"
This misconception has been pretty ironed out already, but there are some stragglers here or there. So may as well mention it. The reason why this misconception comes about is due to bad translation. The people who translated (四季映姫・ヤマザナドゥ) had no idea about Japanese syntax, and just assumed that "Shikieiki" was all one name. Not only this, but it's also partially ZUN's fault as well. In PoFV, her name in her boss title is "Shikieiki Yamaxanadu", which just further pushed this misconception for us non-Japanese speakers, especially being as how it is ZUN himself who did it. So as ZUN did it, it must be true right? It isn't like ZUN isn't bad at English or anything... (This would happen again with the HSiFS demo, with Eternity Larva) ZUN himself and many of the native Japanese speakers knew that Shikieiki wasn't all one name, it's much easier to see in Japanese and when you look at the PoFV character_setting.txt (it isn't omake.txt in this game for some reason), because it is specifically said here that "Eiki is her first name, Shiki is her last name, and Yamaxanadu is her title". (https://www.thpatch.net/wiki/Th09/characters_setting.txt/en)

 

CM4

"If it's not drawn by ZUN, then it isn't canon!" 
An extremely short-sighted argument given by people to try justify written works not being canon so they don't have to read it. The designs themselves were created by ZUN, and he is giving them permission to draw them in an official capacity. The story is written by ZUN still. Not only that, but to really show how short sighted this thinking is, just looking at other manga and written works. Usually the story writer and illustrator are two different people. Yet it is usually when *writers* change that people question canonocity. Not the illustrator, the WRITER. This is why Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth isn't canon. (See FAQ #7) Just because ZUN is the one who normally does each and every asset for his games doesn't suddenly mean that when his assets are cut in half and someone else does the other half means that it is therefore of no meaning. Nonetheless, while this misconception is actually not all that common, you may see it from time to time, and it is very stupid.

 

CM5

"Cirno is stupid baka 9! XD" (Translation: Cirno is really stupid!)
Now there's a lot to unwrap here, but let's start with the species of Fairies as a whole. Fairies vary in size from really small to relatively the size of your average 10 year old. Not only are they are big as small children, but they are as intelligent as small children. Take that for you will. In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (The Fairy Article) it also brings out how strength often equates to intelligence for fairies, so the stronger a fairy is, the more intelligent they tend to be. 
Now as for Cirno, she was legitimately the strongest known fairy in Gensokyo at the time (before Clownpiece showed up). And as a fairy, she would be on the smarter end compared to really weak fairies. She seems to be as smart as your typical elementary school kid, being capable of doing math fractions and the like.  However she is still quite unwise, often getting herself into bad situations based on her fixation with being "the strongest". 
So no, Cirno is not dumber than a sack of potatoes. She is as smart as what you would expect from a 10 year old, though her behavior and how fixated she is on "being the strongest" often leads to her doing things that are stupid. The reason why this whole "stupid" meme spawned is because of manual joke in the ninth Touhou Project installment, Phantasmagoria of Flower View. Where on a screenshot it was listing out the names of everything on the screen, with the 9th name being "バカ (Stupid in Japanese)", which was Cirno. And like with all memes, it progressively became more and more exaggerated, leading Cirno to become more and more flanderized. 

Cirno may be stupid, but she is not dumb. 

 

CM6
"There are no men in Gensokyo!" 
There are men in Gensokyo. 
Now I wish I would just end it off right there because I don't wanna have to explain such the reason to such a poorly thought out take, but explaining this stuff is why this section of the FAQ exists.
The reason for this misconception is usually because of very shallow knowledge about the Touhou Project series. More than likely this kind of person has not seen an actual official work or played an actual official Touhou game. They hear about the "setting" being Gensokyo, and hear about how Touhou is "primarily girls". So they go on to make the assumption that "no men exist in Gensokyo". And this further leads to even dumber takes like "Everyone in Gensokyo is gay." or something. When the reality is Gensokyo is a "world" with "people" in it, whether they are man or woman. 
For one thing, the setting of Touhou isn't "just" Gensokyo. Gensokyo is just the main setting in Touhou. There is the outside world, which is our world, which ya know, where 50% of the population is men. There is the Lunar Capital, which also has men as shown in SSiB, and of course in Gensokyo multiple unnamed men have been shown multiple times throughout the written works and even in the games (Touhou 13.5 Hopeless Masquerade most notably), among other things. Nonetheless though, it's pretty clear that the population of men is not small, nor lacking. If you just use some COMMON SENSE you will know that the amount of men quantifies equally to the amount of women, 50/50. 
Now, why aren't men represented as much? Simple. It isn't what ZUN wants to do. ZUN wants to make pretty and cute girls the center of the show, but it isn't like ZUN went off the deep end and make men not exist or whatever, because he didn't. Men exist, they just aren't the focus of Touhou's narrative. Powerful male youkai and gods have been mentioned in passing, but they just aren't focused on. The only male character that is commonly in focus is Rinnosuke, but he's only in a written work. 

Seriously this misconception is easily dispelled by just getting a little bit of knowledge of Touhou, but some ignorant people just go around spreading this misinfo to other ignorant people and then they get the wrong impression of Touhou as whole because of it. 

 

CM7
"Sakuya's power is stopping time! She's just like Dio! But wait how come WaHH said her power is moving at the speed of light??"

First off, let me just say this. Repeat after me.

SAKUYA IS NOT DIO. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? SHE TAKES SOME INSPIRATION FROM DIO, BUT SHE. IS. NOT. DIO. GET THAT IN YOUR HEADS RIGHT NOW!

I need to make that point extremely clear because certain people act like Sakuya is just Dio, so everything Dio can do Sakuya does, or whatever kind of crap. 
Anyway, let's start with Sakuya's ability. This misconception could very easily dispelled by just looking at Sakuya's wiki page on the touhou wiki (cough https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Sakuya_Izayoi#Ability) but I'll just spell it out right here. 

Sakuya's ability is to MANIPULATE TIME. More specifically Time and Space. 

Note that it does NOT say her ability is "stopping time", it's "manipulating" time. Meaning, she does more than just stopping time. She can speed up, slow down, reverse (does not apply to causality), and stop time. She has been shown to do all of these things throughout various games and written works.** 

Now the part where people get confused at is Sakuya's statement in Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 35, where Sakuya says that "what you see as stopping time is actually her accelerating her speed to light speeds". And when you assume her ability is only "stopping time" and you see this statement you're gonna get really confused. To clear up this confusion, you gotta remember what she said after this. "I cannot stop time *for other people*". This does not mean she can't stop time, but she can't stop time other people. Just think about it. Stopping time or speed yourself up to light speeds. Which is easier? Stopping time for the ENTIRE universe, or just speeding up yourself? Both achieve the same result due to the relativity of time. Or maybe you believe she is actually stopping time in an area, essentially creating an area of time in space where time has stopped? You could also claim she was lying because she was being interrogated by Reimu, but honestly it doesn't really matter. It's perfectly feasible in both scenarios for her to be stopping, or not stopping time. Just as long as you REMEMBER that her ability is manipulating time in general, and not limited to just stopping time. 

**Another common misconception brought up with Sakuya is that her power comes from her pocket watch. Nothing in Touhou has been shown, implied, or even said that ever mentions her pocket watch being the source of her power. People might point to one of her spell cards from SWR/Soku, but this once again is a hugely ignoring everything else about Sakuya. Sakuya has been shown multiple times to be able to manipulate the area of time (the space-time) of objects she throws such as HER KNIVES. So why wouldn't she be able to do so with the pocket watch? 

 

CM8
"Fortune Teller is innocent and Reimu is an evil tyrant!" 
This is probably the most controversial misconception, and frankly, even if I do explain this in detail those people are probably gonna deny what I'm saying anyway. Regardless though, this is an important misconception that I still quite often among certain people, and I felt is very necessary to give an explanation for it. 

In Forbidden Scrollery Chapter 24, there is an unnamed character that the fandom refers to as the Fortune Teller as that was his occupation. To sum up what happens in in that chapter, Kosuzu finds a book on his fortune telling techniques and begins to utilize them for accurate fortunes. However, six months prior the fortune teller had killed himself, and he had linked his emotions to the very book that Kosuzu found and was using. So over time as Kosuzu kept using this book, the fortune teller would eventually materialize in the realm of the living as a stabilized vengeful spirit. This freaked out Kosuzu upon him suddenly appearing and she fainted, and Reimu caught him. Fortune teller flew outside the village where Reimu confronted him, and while the fortune teller tried to get Reimu to let him go, he was ultimately killed by Reimu. Reimu called him a Jinyou (人妖), "the greatest sin that could ever be committed". 

This is a very rough summary of the events and I greatly recommend you read the chapters yourselves, but I digress. The reason why the fortune teller did as he did was because of his own fortune telling. He was able to unearth truths about Gensokyo that he saw as very daunting and horrifying. He saw the human village as a cattle farm for the youkai, and so he wanted no part of it. Rather than be cattle for youkai, he decided to just join them. When he was finally confronted by Reimu, he assumed that Reimu would be okay with him doing this, and even calling her a "youkai shrine maiden", yet he was still killed. 

Now I think it's pretty easy how one might come to sympathize with fortune teller, and even feel that Reimu was in fact the one in the wrong. However, I think this is where misconception starts. There are multiple things that need to be considered.

1) The actual truth about Gensokyo
For those who have been into Touhou you too might have come to the conclusion that the human village was nothing more than a place for youkai to farm human fear to sustain their existence. This isn't something new, and is even said in Touhou itself. If you simply leave it at that, yeah it does look pretty bad for the human villagers of Gensokyo. Why would you wanna be okay with this situation? Forced to remain in some settlement with no hope of escape and purely at the mercy of these monsters? 
Well something to be aware of is this is only one viewpoint, and a rather shortsighted one. Why does the Hakurei Barrier exist in the first place? Why is it *called* the Hakurei Barrier? Going back to the beginning, the barrier was erected in response to the declining belief in the supernatural. This was a collaborative effort between the humans AND youkai. The land of Gensokyo has existed as a haunted region of dangerous youkai for centuries long before, and it was various human exorcists and superhumans that went to the region in order to deal with the threat terrorizing the country. In time, those humans began to settle in the region, and they even began to have an actual relationship with the youkai. This has to be the case, because how else would the collaborative effort that was the Hakurei Barrier, which required multiple people to set it up? With this in mind, it's pretty clear that the humans that lived in 1885 when the barrier was erected, they agreed to having this kind of set up. But why would they? Aren't the youkai just being a parasite on the humans who live there? This comes to the next point. 
2) The actual power dynamic between humans and youkai
Youkai are stronger physically and spiritually than humans. A human can very easily be killed by a youkai, however at the same time, youkai need humans to exist and believe in them so that they don't die. Now if you just leave it at that, it's pretty clear that the youkai are just parasites, but here is another thing to remember: Humans also have an advantage over youkai. BECAUSE youkai require human belief, the youkai cannot kill the humans. In other words, humans actually have something over youkai as well, their belief. Not only that, but because youkai require belief, it is things based on belief that can defeat youkai. Why is something as mundane as fried soybeans able to defeat an Oni? Because of belief. Humans do not actually have the short end of the stick. If anything it can be argued that humans have the greatest advantage. However, even if this is true, this doesn't actually prove anything right? The youkai are still parasites right? They take from humans their belief, but give nothing in return, right? 
3) The actual relationship between humans and youkai
Humans give belief, and youkai give protection. In a later chapter of Forbidden Scrollery, it was learned about all of the support that youkai give to human villagers. A typhoon was passing overhead in Gensokyo, however the typhoon's strength was much notably lighter over the human village. The reason for this is because of the Tengu. The Tengu protected the human village from the dangerous wind and rain, and as so the villagers merely felt the weather as a regular shower. In the rivers the Kappa were protecting the village from flooding caused by the typhoon. However, when Kosuzu attempted to deliver a book to Reimu during the typhoon, as soon as she left the village she felt the typhoon's true strength and was subsequently injured and knocked out. Kosuzu was saved and nursed back to health by Aya, who is a tengu. Kosuzu never learned who saved her though, because her having her life saved by a tengu is a secret. Why? Because it could cause issues for the status quo. Humans are to fear youkai, so being saved by one would cause complications. Now it's pretty clear that Kosuzu had her life saved because of her position of as the book keeper of Suzuran, and the book store holding many books beneficial to youkai. However, even if she did not have that position, more than likely she'd still be saved. This is the kind of relationship youkai have with the human villagers. They protect them from all kinds of harm. And what was described was only just natural disasters. Who knows what other threats the youkai have been protecting the humans from. 
4) The Fortune Teller's sin.
So with all of those facts in mind, it's pretty clear that the whole situation in Gensokyo between humans and youkai are far more complicated than one can claim, and as so to take a one sided viewpoint would be wrong. This is precisely what Fortune Teller did. Now admittedly, as a human villager he would have been very ignorant of the truth of Gensokyo, and him being able to unearth this information from his fortune telling would certainly make it easy for him to be mislead if that was the only thing he learned. However, this doesn't excuse his arrogance. This is very evident by how he spoke to Reimu, and his actions with becoming a youkai. To humans, it is taboo to become a youkai. Why wouldn't it? The youkai are the feared monsters that exist outside the village. The enemies of humans. So to become one is to commit an incredibly grave sin. This has been made very clear throughout the series, most notably with Byakuren Hijiri. So Fortune Teller very much knew what he was doing was very wrong. However, in spite of that the method he chose was especially heinous. Why is that?
The human village is a land of humans. The area outside the village is the land of youkai. This is a very clear boundary. If one is to cross over to the other side, one must be willing to abide by either sides rules. When youkai come to the human village, they disguise themselves as humans and act as humans so as to not arouse fear. There are even youkai that live in the village such as Sekibanki, and they do not give away the fact that they are youkai at all. Going along and living their lives as humans. Now, if one is to go to the side of youkai, one most become like a youkai, act as youkai, and follow the rules of youkai. This is where the Fortune Teller sinned. His method of becoming a youkai involved human villagers. He chose to kill himself and use a book left behind in the village to bring himself into youkaihood. He was too wishy-washy, straddling the boundary between human (人) and supernatural (妖). Thus a 人妖. If the fortune teller were to become a youkai properly, he would leave the human village behind and sever all connections with it. This would have put his life at great risk of being killed by youkai yes, because the youkai are only to protect human villagers. However, if he was truly willing to commit to becoming a youkai, these risks would have been worth the effort. He would seclude himself and become a youkai, whatever that may be. Then once he became a youkai, he would bide his time. Waiting for the generation that last knew of him to die out, as youkai live much longer than humans ever could. Once that time has passed, he would be free. A true youkai. 
But alas, that isn't what he did. He chose to be wishy washy, he chose to be arrogant, and for that he was killed. The reason he died is because he was caught. If he did not want to get caught, he would not have chosen such a brazen method of becoming a youkai. That really is all there is to it. And no sympathy should be given of him, for he knew what he was doing was a grave sin. More than that, a grave sin committed based on an incredible misconception. 

 

CM9
"Marisa is a Kleptomaniac and Reimu is poor and lives on donations!" 
This is one misconception I completely forgot about because I got too used to being around people knowing that this was clearly wrong. However, this is still a common misconception even now, so it must be explained. 
Marisa is NOT a kleptomaniac, in fact, she's actually a hoarder. Her house is filled with stuff she finds when she's out adventuring or picking up on the ground somewhere across Gensokyo. The only time Marisa is ever mentioned "stealing" is when it comes to Patchouli's books or the evidence of her copying spell card patterns from other characters such as Yuuka. (As well as her stealing stuff from Rinnosuke, which Reimu also does) Otherwise any reference to her thievery is very minimal. This is most easily noted in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, where Marisa's hoarding is very well expressed, with little mention of thievery except in those cases of her taking random stuff from Rinnosuke's shop. 
As for Reimu, this is a case of people not knowing much about Touhou or Reimu in general. They hear about how the shrine barely gets any donations and assume that this is Reimu's only means of income and that she has to be poor because of this, but actually there is more to this than what it seems. For the first thing, Gensokyo does not work like our world. There isn't a constant need for money and stuff. In fact they don't even have a standardized currency, a barter system is used. Second, and this is something ZUN mentioned a long time ago on the Genso Bulletin Board that "...those that live on in the wilderness like Reimu and Marisa live a wealthy life."* This right here should be more than enough proof that Reimu isn't actually poor, but there is also more to be said. The whole thing of Reimu being "poor" is also said in Touhou itself. However, it isn't that she's literally poor. It's more like her lack of wages is the result of her laziness. Reimu is fully capable of having regular income and donations to her shrines if she actually puts her mind to it, but she rarely ever does. She may have spurts of motivation once a while, but eventually that motivation will wear thin, and the money will stop coming in, as well as the donations. There is also another thing, but there is a character named Shion Yorigami that is a goddess of poverty, and apparently an "aura of poverty" had existed around the shrine Reimu's shrine for some time. Keeping fortune from coming there. It was highly implied to be Shion. So if that is to be considered, Reimu was likely being affected by Shion's poverty aura. There is also one last thing to look at, and that is Reimu's need for food. Which is none. Reimu never goes hungry. The mountain she lives on provides a lot of food she can get, she always seems to have enough money to buy food from the village, and she still has other means of getting food like borrowing mushrooms from Marisa. So any fanon jokes about her being poor and hungry are greatly exaggerated. 

*Reference: (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN%27s_reply_to_messages_on_the_former_Gensou_Bulletin_Board_1)

 

CM10
"Hou Yi shot down the sun and it landed on Junko's son, killing him." 
Very wrong. Just look at Junko's LoLK profile.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Junko#Official_Profiles

To give more context, Hou Yi was originally the husband of Chang'e, before Chang'e abandoned him to the moon. Hou Yi would go on a rampage and take over the kingdom of Junko's original husband, also having him killed. Because Junko was the queen, she became Hou Yi's wife. Shortly after Hou Yi would kill Junko's son. Junko would tend take revenge against Hou Yi, killing him. This is a very condensed version of the original (conflated) tale that Junko, Chang'e, and Hou Yi come from. However in Touhou, Junko would purify her anger and continue living on as a divine spirit of anger, holding a grudge against the original wife of Hou Yi, Chang'e. 

 

CM11
"[Insert Character] can totally do [Insert Ridiculous Thing] and beat [Insert Character]"
Have you ever heard of " 程度の能力 (teido no nouryoku)"? teido no nouryoku is a term that ZUN uses when he names the abilities of characters. This roughly translates to "Degree of (the) Ability". For instance, Kaguya's ability in Japanese is 永遠と須臾を操る程度の能力. "Degree of the ability to manipulate eternity and instantaneous". Sounds a bit odd and awkward, but trust me it's a bit odd even in Japanese. If he wanted to do things normally, he'd remove 程度 and just keep 能力. So why does ZUN put "teido no nouryoku" instead of just "nouryoku"? The reason being is because that word 程度 adds a vagueness, basically saying that an ability can only be done to a "certain degree", in other words, it's not limitless. 

Now of course this is just basic logic. How will you know how far a person's ability go unless it's specified? You can't assume that a character has limitless power when you haven't even seen what they're all capable of. Of course, such a person might also say that you can't prove that they "aren't not capable of doing" what they're claiming. This is what's known as the Devil's Proof. You cannot prove something doesn't exist. You can only prove something exists. This is also used as a logical fallacy. And this is a huge problem that pops up all over Touhou, and pretty much any franchise. 

Yes, I'm talking about the dreaded "Powerlevel Argument". Many people wanna figure out who the strongest Touhou is, often times for very petty reasons. And this leads to some of the worst, most frustrating, most awful conversations that you could ever have on the internet. Because it's nothing more than a shouting match of whose headcanon is the best and no one relents. 

Now, obviously this is no good in any context, but let's say you wish to discuss powerlevels in a perfectly civil way. 
It's not that you can't, but in Touhou, it's kind of pointless. Touhou is not a series focused on the might of characters. The rules of spell cards basically make it so that whatever power level you are doesn't really matter because the point of these battles is to be the most beautiful, not win by sheer strength. In a world with various magical beings with all sorts of spells, with levels of strength that can stretch so far away that there is absolutely no chance of winning... things would defintely play out much differently in this series. Nonetheless, as spell card rules aren't about brute strength, even the much weaker characters have a much better chance of winning a very powerful opponent that they would normally have no chance against. It is the perfect method of resolving conflicts without lasting harm, but also allows for conflicts to happen more often. 

Of course, this isn't only half of the issues that can occur. You have characters like Yukari or Flandre who have abilities that sound absolute. Manipulation of Boundaries? Ability to Destroy Anything? WOAH, that sounds soooooo OP right? 

Incredible abilities they may sound like, incredible abilities they may be, but they do not work like you think they are. 
Going back to what I previously said, you should not fall into the logical fallacy. You have not seen Yukari splitting the universe in half, and you have not seen Flandre destroying the concept of death, so why in the world are you stretching the definition this far? Just don't. Please stick with what has been shown in canon. 

And when you consider what's all been shown in canon, you realize quickly that such abilities aren't as great as you think they are. Using Yukari as an example, she has the ability to manipulate boundaries, meaning she could potentially manipulate anything with a duality. However, what exactly does this mean? In what way is it being manipulated? What can she can actually do and with what boundary? Does she actually have access to the assortment of abilities by manipulating a boundary? Can she even destroy a boundary? Can she create boundaries? What dualities are there? 
And when you ask yourself all of these questions, you realize how much actual goes into the ability and how much is not really known about it. We have seen multiple examples of Yukari utlizing her ability, like in PCB, IaMP, or AoCF, however Yukari still has her limits. She cannot travel to the moon whenever she wants for instance. 
Flandre's ability to 'destroy anything' isn't even as it sounds either. The only thing she's been shown destroying are physical objects. The "eyes" of objects are in her palm, and by squeezing these eyes she can make those objects burst. This isn't like pure destruction at all, it's more like she's squeezing something until it pops. What even is an eye? What has an eye? How small or big can an object get before she can't see its "eye" anymore? How many eyes can she burst at once? Does she need to have a visual of what she wants to destroy? etc etc

You likely get my point already. No ability is as it really sounds. You can only go by how it's described in the series. The abilities are also not the be all end all of what a character is capable of doing. Pretty much all characters can do other things besides their listed ability. Using Iku an example, her ability is to "read the atmosphere". She can read messages in the clouds, and she's also very good at adapting to various situations. She is also an oarfish, and is able to utilize the abilities granted to her by the Dragon God to use the powers of Lightning and Wind. So don't try to explain how an ability is related to all they're capable of, like trying to claim Iku's "reading the atmosphere" somehow gives her the ability to use lightning and wind... that's just really stupid. 

Finally, the thing that should be noted about abilities is that they're more expressions of a character's individuality rather than what a character is capable of doing necessarily. Let's look at a very infamous ability, The ability to manipulate fate, by Remilia. Now this sounds like she can manipulate a person's fate correct? Make things happen in such a way according to her will? Here is the thing though. 
1) Her ability has almost no explanation.
2) What is described as being like "manipulating fate" are either spreading curses, or how she changed Sakuya's original name. 
3) Remilia is a notorious liar. This could mean that when her ability is listed as "manipulating fate" it's possible that she's just lying to look cool.

But wait you may ask, how come the abilities are listed in such a way in the omake? Isn't that written in a third-person omniscient, basically like ZUN is the speaker? 

And here is the special thing, while it technically is, it also isn't. 
When you look at the Gensokyo Chronicles (PMiSS, SoPM), Akyuu herself also talks about the *abilities* that characters have. In other words, this is knowledge that people in Gensokyo have access to, such so that even Akyuu writes about it in the Gensokyo Chronicle. So who tells her these things? How does Akyuu get this information? She normally gets this information from accounts of witnesses like Reimu and Marisa, as well as the people/youkai themselves.

This means that these "abilities" are self proclaimed, or proclaimed by other people. So regardless of if the name actually describes what they're capable of doing, that is simply the name that people go by. It shows how the individual expresses themselves, as well as how people may see them in order to name their abilities.

 

 

So with that in mind, it draws a much clearer picture of what these abilities are. The name of the ability is not really what's important, it's what it can do. 
==Theoretical Questions==

T1. How old are the human characters in Touhou (Reimu, Marisa, etc)? 
That is a complicated question since almost all human characters have no known birth year, but there is some facts that can reasoned from currently existing information. Let's start with Reimu and Marisa. 

As we know, Gensokyo's time runs parallel to our own. We do know the birth month and year of one human character, Hieda no Akyuu. She was born around July of 1994 (Season 109 文月 Fumizuki) which makes her 25 years old (as of 2019 when this document was written). During the events of the Scarlet Mist incident (August 2003), Akyuu would have been 9 years old. Akyuu's first debut in Touhou was in 2006 in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, we know this is 2006, as well as the sister manga short, Memorizable Gensokyo, which show cases how Akyuu was coming up with entries and articles that would be put into the Gensokyo Chronicle. In the year 2006, Akyuu was 12 years old. The way Akyuu was depicted in this manga she was rather small, compared to Reimu and Marisa. Based on this, we can safely say that Reimu and Marisa are older than Akyuu. By how much, we don't know. Since things like genetics and puberty are a thing it could be said that Reimu and Marisa are at least 1 year older than Akyuu. It is impossible that Akyuu is older than Reimu and Marisa. Considering that 6 years later, the debut of the manga series Forbidden Scrollery shows a taller Akyuu (she is as tall, if not taller than Reimu in fact) where she is 18 years old it very clearly shows growth, as well as the fact that Reimu and Marisa (probably) stopped growing themselves around 6 years ago. 

One finally thing to consider is Gensokyo's calendar. Gensokyo runs on two calendar systems as brought out in the Gensokyo Timeline on the wiki. It also uses different names for months. 

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo_Timeline#Month_names

This was first seen in Aya's bunbunmaru news articles in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red. 

Example article: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Bohemian_Archive_in_Japanese_Red/Reimu

Finally, as you can probably see by looking at the timeline, each year has a season number (based after the erection of the Great Hakurei Barrier), a celestial body (sun, moon, star), a season (spring, summer, autumn, winter), and a wu xing element (fire, water, wood, metal, earth). The order given is the order done. This information was brought on by Yukari in Seasonal Dream Vision. 

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Seasonal_Dream_Vision/A_Beautiful_Flower_Blooming_Violet_Every_Sixty_Years

So for instance, in season 120 (2005), it is the year of sun, spring, and earth. In season 121 (2006), it is the year of moon, summer, and fire. 

So based on this information, we can calculate backwards to figure out an appropriate year for when Reimu and Marisa might have been born, as long as it is before 1994 when Akyuu was born. 

2005 (Season 120) Sun, Spring, Earth
2004 (Season 119) Star, Winter, Metal
2003 (Season 118) Moon, Autumn, Wood
2002 (Season 117) Sun, Summer, Water
2001 (Season 116) Star, Spring, Fire 
2000 (Season 115) Moon, Winter, Earth 
1999 (Season 114) Sun, Autumn, Metal 
1998 (Season 113) Star, Summer, Wood 
1997 (Season 112) Moon, Spring, Water 
1996 (Season 111) Sun, Winter, Fire 
1995 (Season 110) Star, Autumn, Earth 
1994 (Season 109) Moon, Summer, Metal (Akyuu's birthyear) 
1993 (Season 108) Sun, Spring, Wood 
1992 (Season 107) Star, Winter, Water 
1991 (Season 106) Moon, Autumn, Fire 
1990 (Season 105) Sun, Summer, Earth 
1989 (Season 104) Star, Spring, Metal 
1988 (Season 103) Moon, Winter, Wood 
1987 (Season 102) Sun, Autumn, Water
1986 (Season 101) Star, Summer, Fire

Another thing to keep in mind is that the years may not necessarily line up with our own. As it is the lunar calendar, the year usually begins around March or April. This would shift the possible years backwards by several months. This is just like the lunar calendar system in the real world, where for example, January 1997 is actually 1996 in the lunar calendar. 

So knowing all of this, it is important to note what elements the protagonists represent. Reimu's element is Wood, while Marisa's element is Water. This is brought out in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, as well as Patchouli's win quotes in Immaterial and Missing Power. 

So looking at the years before 1994, the possibles years that we have are 1993 and 1988 for Reimu, and 1992 and 1987 for Marisa. 

I don't think we should just look at the elements given though. The celestial bodies and seasons also play a role as well. And of all of the years mentioned, 1993 is the most fitting for Reimu, and 1992 is the most fitting for Marisa. 

1993 is the year of Sun, Spring, and Wood. This fits very well with Reimu, as Reimu is compared to not just Wood, but Spring. From her thematics as a Shrine Maiden of the East, as well as the fact that her default element in Hidden Star in Four Seasons being Spring. The Sun in something not expressly associated with Reimu, but she is consider how Yukari describes the sun in SDV, it will make sense. 

"The sun hopelessly fascinates everyone to it, and has so much pride that its presence makes the moon and stars disappear." 

Reimu is someone who always attracts people to her, regardless of if they're youkai or human. 

1992 is the year of Star, Winter, and Water. This fits very well with Marisa, as Marisa is has a lot of water associations from her outfit, to where she lives, and to the fact that her affinity with water is mentioned by multiple people, including herself. Most of all the water association is in her last name, Kirisame, which means drizzle. Winter is a season associated with Water, and her default element in Hidden Star in Four Seasons is Winter. Then there's the star, which is very obviously what has been her motif with her danmaku for the longest time. 

So with this in mind, Reimu would be around 26-27, and with Marisa being around 27-28 (as of 2019). 

As for Sakuya, we don't know. We probably won't ever know. Especially with her powers over time, she could potentially live forever anyway.

In the case of Kosuzu, during one of the manga chapters, Kosuzu remarks herself as "not being much younger than Akyuu". We don't exactly know what this means, but perhaps Kosuzu is at most 5 years younger than Akyuu. Meaning Kosuzu is between 19-24.

As for Sanae, she is most likely the same age as Reimu. If you consider the events of MoF take place in Autumn 2007, Akyuu would be 13 years old. If you consider that Sanae is around Reimu/Marisa's age, she'd have to be around 15 years old. 15 years old is high school age in Japan, so this is possible. 

And just to clear up any confusions, remember to look back at question F9. 

 

T2. What would happen if Gensokyo ceased to exist? 
It would just stop existing.
Jokes aside, I understand where people are coming from when this question is asked. What they're really trying to say is "What would happen if the Hakurei Barrier disappeared?" 
Just to get it out of the way, but Gensokyo did not start existing when the Hakurei Barrier was erected in 1885. Gensokyo has existed for thousands of years before as an infamous region in full of youkai that terrorized the land. When the barrier was erected, the area was sealed off into "fantasy". The physical area still exists, but the area of Gensokyo is basically hidden unless you find a weakness in the barrier or know how to get in. 
Anyway what would happen if this barrier disappeared you may ask? Well somethings to consider, and that is why did it have to exist in the first place? It is because people in the outside world began to stop believing in the supernatural, and this was a threat to supernatural beings, gods and youkai alike. So in other to preserve the supernatural, the Hakurei Barrier was setup. 

Let's just start with the beings of Gensokyo. 

Humans are perfectly fine, they're just humans. 

Gods and youkai may run into some issues, but let's start with Gods. 

Gods are known to rely on faith, but what would happen to them if the barrier collapsed? Since basically all of the gods in Gensokyo are Shinto gods, what would happen is simple. They would not cease to exist, but they would become forgotten and return to their pure, nameless state. This of course won't apply to all gods, because if the god in question is an Amatsukami (Heavenly god) or Kunitsukami (Earthly god) they will be fine regardless, because these gods existed before humanity even existed. 
Youkai on the other hand have the shorter end of the stick. If a youkai is forgotten, they will cease existing period. There is a way around this, and this is if they write a record of themselves in a youma book. However, they won't come back unless someone reads the book. Regardless though, much weak youkai will die outright. Classical or powerful youkai like Oni, Tengu, Kappa, among others will do just fine though with some struggle. Remember that Mamizou, a Tanuki, was living in the outside world until 2011. A Tanuki, which is a classical youkai. 
Fairies might stop existing outright, or maybe only exist in small, unknown pockets of nature. 
Now the last thing is what would happen to the land? Gensokyo is overlapped on already established land on the outside in the Nagano region of Japan. Youkai Mountain is also Mt. Yatsugatake in Japan, in a state before it was destroyed by Konohana-Sakuyahime. In those instances, I have no idea what would happen. 

 

T3. How does Koishi even work? 
Some things to keep note of before I explain: 1) Koishi is a youkai, not a human. So I highly recommend that you don't think too much about how her mind works. 2) Koishi is a youkai, not a human. So I highly recommend that you don't think too much about how her mind works.

Why did I repeat myself? Because you will save yourself a lot of needless headaches. 

Anyway, the whole idea of Koishi's condition is based on Freudian Psychology. In Freudian Psychology there is the three portions of the psyche: Superego (Conscious), Ego (Subconscious), and Id (Unconscious). When Koishi closed her third eye, she suppressed her superego, which allowed her Id to take full control. This means that she cannot create new experiences nor feel any emotion. How she was before closing her eye is how she will remain until she opens her eye again. Though since she's acting purely on Id, there is no filter for feelings, so she is acting completely uninhibited. This does not mean that she cannot "think", she can think, just not consciously. Every action she does is based purely on feeling, as well as based on the previous experiences and connections she made before closing her eye. This is why even though she has no feelings, she still acts as if she loves her sister or loves her pets, because that is what she would do before she closed her eye. Because Koishi closed her eye, there are special characteristics about her: 

1) She cannot be perceived unless she appears before you. 
2) Once she leaves your perception, you will forget she ever existed. This can be circumvented by being aware of people related to Koishi, such as Satori or Orin. However, you will still forget she was there at that time. 
3) Because of her nature, only children or animals would be able to perceive her normally due to their mental facilities not being as developed or advanced. 

And that is all there is really to Koishi. You're much better off observing how Koishi is by seeing how she acts in the games and written works. 

 

T4. How does Kaguya's power work? 
Kaguya's ability is a form of manipulating space-time, just like what Sakuya does. However what Kaguya is capable of doing is on a much higher scale than what Sakuya is capable of. Even with the current understanding of Kaguya's ability, there is a some vagueness that is has never really be explored, and its possible that Kaguya is capable of doing more than what is described. So what will be talked about is what we know and what can be inferred. 

Manipulation of Eternity 
Eternity is defined in Touhou as not having "history". What does not have "history" cannot change. In other words, you could say eternity is the ability to resist change. What does not change is "pure", free of kegare. Kegare in touhou is also called "impurity". Impurity is "life force". What has "life force" is impure because it will die. A being that does not have kegare cannot die, because they are neither dead nor alive. Now if you are still able to follow along, I'll start listing off the applications of Eternity.

1) Affecting the state of change on an object. One notable application of this is pure lands. It is a world that does not change. Examples of pure lands are Heaven, Higan, Netherworld, and of course the Lunar Capital. Pure lands have an affect on all things that reside there. What was previously impure will become pure, able to last for an eternity. As pure lands are locations outside of "history", you could say that when Eientei was previously a pure land, it was quite literally another world. 
2) Make things more durable. It is mentioned that objects in pure lands, such as vases, won't break when falling to the ground. This is because of its nature of resisting change. This would also mean that what is pure is more durable. 

Manipulation of Instantaneous
Manipulation of the instantaneous is being able to control the smallest measurements of space-time. By binding these instances together, Kaguya can affect how she experiences time or affect the space around her. Here are some applications. 

1) Experience time differently from others. You could think of this like a frame by frame sequence. A single frame represents an instance in time, and Kaguya is able to experience a single frame of time for much longer than a normal person could. This means that for her, she could see the world be paused before her, or perhaps watch the world go by in slow motion. 
2) Create loops in space-time. The infinite corridor in Imperishable Night is such a case. It isn't specified to be instantaneous manipulation, but its more than likely this part of her ability since what is described about manipulation of eternity does not seem to apply here. By binding the instances of space-time of a location in a certain way, she can create a location of seemingly infinite space. This might also be applicable to someone's perception of time as well, though that is purely speculation. 
3) Permanent constriction. This isn't actually implied to be an ability of Kaguya's "specifically", however this is a call back to the femtofiber used by Toyohime in Silent Sinner in Blue. The femtofiber is a specially woven rope that is the ultimate means of confinement. Impure beings will not be able to break out of femtofiber, ever. And pure beings will have difficulty too, especially if multiple lengths of rope are used to keep them confined. The femtofiber is based on the principles of time, instances. So if you consider how femtofibers are based on instances, it could be inferred that Kaguya may be able to do something similar. 
4) Manipulating the "duration" of time. This might be considered an application of both of Kaguya's abilities. While it hasn't been shown, it's highly probable that Kaguya can change the duration of time, just like how Sakuya is able to speed up and slow down time. As Kaguya can manipulate the instances of time and able to weave them, it may be possible she can manipulate the "rate" of duration. Being able to change how quickly or slowly time flows in an area. 

Nonetheless though, Kaguya's abilities even with all of this explained and inferred, there's more that isn't known. Her ability is nonetheless very poetic. Eternity and Instantaneous.

I have linked the original Pastebin document in the "how do ages/aging work in Touhou", but since that document is no longer available. However, a new one has been updated on May 3rd by the Touhou community Discord server, and now I am using the most recent version of it https://www.4binz.org/670. I am not yet sure how much has there been changed, or if this is just a re-upload of it on a new platform.

 

 

Now, to get into the content itself. Buckle up, this is gonna be another long one...

Spoiler

Touhou Lore FAQ and Common Misconceptions

Some questions and answers in the FAQ are more theoretical than factual and they will be marked as such.

F1. Who created Touhou?
Our lord, ZUN.

Alright, so we are beginning with a brief introduction. Also, a mentionion of our friendly, beer-loving lord ZUN.

 

Spoiler

F2. How do/should I get started? 
This is ultimately up to you. Many people will give their own two cents on what games you should start with, or what written work you should start with, but in the end it is up to you. However, if you wish to get into the series with the least amount of confusion, here are some suggestions. 
- Start from the first relevant game (Touhou 6 - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil*)
- Start from the first written work Curiosities of Lotus Asia (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Curiosities_of_Lotus_Asia)
- Read the Gensokyo encyclopedias, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense then Symposium of Post-Mysticism in that order (PMISS: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Perfect_Memento_in_Strict_Sense) (SoPM: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Symposium_of_Post-mysticism)
- Read the first volume of Strange Creators of Outer World, specifically the section titled "Basic Knowledge of Fantastic Words" (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Basic_Knowledge_of_Fantastic_Words_2015)
Once again these are merely suggestions and it is up to you. As long as you can start somewhere and get the knowledge you're doing good. 
*While it may be more intuitive to think that the first Touhou game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, should be the starting point, due to the state of PC-98 games as it is, it isn't recommended to start here. Especially the 1st game, as it's the least relevant game in the franchise as a whole.

Quite a good, sensible question. There are quite a lot of people who get into Touhou, yet they are not very sure where to start from. I was honestly in the same situation too when I got in. I personally started with YouTube videos from Magiftw, then got into the wiki to read articles. After a while, I did start asking questions on r/touhou. In the end, I decided to just stick with the wiki, especially since I could find translated bits from the important books and article reproductions. Now, with the order proposed in this paragraph. 

  • I have honestly never played EoSD. However, I have watched a few playthroughs, so I got to see the story and am quite familiar with it.
  • I have never read Curiosities of Lotus Asia. I should probably get into it though, espeially since I think that was the introduction for Akyuu. 
  • I have read from the Gensokyo Encyclopedias. And I absolutely love them. That was probably among the first bits of official content I have read, and I feel it has helped me a lot in learning about the characters. I only wish we got a new encyclopedia about the characters from Touhou 14-18
  • Recently, I did start reading from Strange Creators of Outer World. The notes there are very interesting, and I like the illustrations for the characters. I did not get into the section titled "Basic Knowledge of Fantastic Words", but I got into "Who's Who of Humans and Youkai".

It is also quite appreciated the text also provides with links to the wiki for where you can find these things to read.

 

Spoiler

F4. Are the decimal games (i.e. Touhou 7.5, 9.5, etc) canon?
It's canon. If at least the story is done by ZUN, it's canon. 

Honestly, quite weird why would people find the decimal games non-canon. As long as they are created by ZUN (even if in collaboration), they are more than likely canon.

 

Spoiler

F5. Is PC-98 (The first 5 installments in the Touhou franchise) canon?
The short answer is: Yes. 
The long answer is: It's complicated. 
ZUN has said multiple times in interviews that the world in the games of PC-98 are the same as they are in Windows, but he also makes it very clear that Windows Canon takes precedence, and any contradiction from PC-98 should be ignored as Windows takes precedence. The returning characters from PC-98 (Reimu, Marisa, Alice, Yuuka) are all the same characters from the previous platform, difference being is they have a last name now, they look different, they're more fleshed out etc. There's also the part where in the respective games where they appeared in (PCB for Alice, PoFV for Yuuka) they remark on not seeing Reimu or Marisa in a while. Clearly a reference to their past. 
Regardless though, the "lore" in PC-98 isn't even that serious anyway. There are some interesting bits here or there, but ultimately it's made up of very unserious and silly plots. So while it may be nice to know the characters from PC-98 are still in existence somewhere, they simply aren't relevant right now, and it is not known if ZUN will make them relevant ever again. The franchise is continually being built upon, and to go back to fix the issues with PC-98 would be a difficult process. A process that ZUN isn't willing to go through with as of now. 
So once again, while PC-98 is "technically" canon, it's also not relevant and is in a state of limbo. Just don't worry too much about it. 

Relevant Sources: 
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN's_Gensou_Denshou_Lecture
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN's_AWA_Q%26A_Panel
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Who's_Who_of_Humans_%26_Youkai_in_Gensokyo/Yuuka_Kazami

Personaly, I think Touhou 1-5 is canon. Just like everybody says, as long as it does not contradict information from the Windows era, there is no reason to disregard the first 5 games. I mean sure, they raise some questions like how did Reimu and Marisa change their design from PC-98 to Windows or where are most of the PC-98 era characters nowadays (where Mima?), but perhaps we will get an answer eventually. Othwise, we have the fans to create their own explanations.

 

Spoiler

F6. Are the written works canon? 
They most certainly are canon. They are written by ZUN and they act as a way of expanding upon the Touhou universe in ways that the games wouldn't be able to. 

Check what I have written earlier about the decimal games. Second verse, same as the first.

 

Spoiler

F7. Are the CD stories (Dolls in Psuedo Paradise, the Renko & Maribel stories, etc) canon?
While the events of DiPP are a bit up in the air, yes, these tales are canon. However, it should be noted that in the Renko/Maribel stories the events take place in the far future. 
And no, nobody knows who the Pierrot from DiPP is. 

Even if I am not the greatest fan of DiPP, I still like the stories coming from the CDs. I am not as used to them (only read the story for DiPP and bits from those involving Maribel and Renko), as I was paying more attention to the music itself, but I am happy they exist. Especially those involving Hifuu. I ended up loving Merry and Renko so much they ended up in my top 5 favorite 2hus. Time to go on a little tangent. People like those two for various reasons. And this was a dscussion we have had during an Sprey livestream. Some like them for "obvious reasons" (I guess "obvious reasons" refers to the fact we have a couple of teenage girls, with great potentials for fans to write/draw yuri), but I think they are interesting, their design is also interesting, and in a way I feel they are quite relatable (it's not like I have moments every now and then when I also start geeking out about stuff or want to explore mysterious places). But back on the topic...

 

Spoiler

F8. Is Inaba of the Earth & Inaba of the Moon canon?
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Still no. 

Now it's understandable why the question would come up as the Inaba 4koma is a part of the Bougetsushou collection (along with Silent Sinner in Blue and Cage in Lunatic Runagate) but there a several reasons to not even consider it semi-canon. 
a) It is not written by ZUN. ZUN is only credited as laying the foundation for the setting, but the contents of the manga have no involvement from him at all. 
b) The tone is drastically different from the other Bougetsushou entries. Its tone is even drastically different from the other Touhou entries in general, including the very unserious PC-98 games. 
c) Much of the events that take place in Inaba are completely contradictory to established facts already in canon, as far as interaction and as far as completely impossible stuff (i.e. Eirin getting sick). 
d) The events of Inaba are never referenced in any serious way in Touhou. There are only a few times where Inaba is given essentially a shoutout in win quotes in the fighting games or written works like Sangetsusei but that is about it. 
e) And something else to consider, but with the release of the latest Touhou manga (Cheating Detective Satori), there were a few other "official" Touhou manga that came out along with it (Starving Marisa's Blessed Meal, The Gensokyo of Humans, The Shinigami Rowing Her Boat as Usual) that are not canon. When you read these manga, there is a big warning telling you that this work isn't canon. Now this wasn't done with Inaba which came out oh so many years ago compared to now, but if Inaba were to come out today it most likely would get the same warning. It likely wasn't done back then because ZUN thought it'd be obvious to people that this work wasn't canon. Since Touhou has expanded so much then, and especially with many new Touhou fans being children ZUN probably wants to make things more clear to newer fans. 

It's also telling of how much the franchise has expanded in general, where non-canon official materials are becoming more of a thing. Just like other big doujin-born franchises like Fate. 
Something else to consider is that while these official materials are not canon, the fact they're official is something to behold. As it could taken as ZUN respecting the writer's "headcanon" enough to make it official, even if not canon. Take it as you will, but just remember that these works aren't actually canon. 

Learning that "Inaba of the Earth & Inaba of the Moon" is not a canon work must have been one of the first things I learn as a Touhou fan. I did not know abou the whole process of how that stoy came to be though, and why did it end up as non-canon. Funny enough, "Inaba of the Earth & Inaba of the Moon" is also how I used to nickname Tewi and Reisen at the beginning since I did not know their names yet. And I think this nickname on my side came after watching one of the Kinema Kan animations where there was a scene of those two pounding moch under the night sky of the Bamboo Forest (and Tewi being the classic mischievous rabbit).

 

Spoiler

F9. What is the timeline of Touhou/How does time progress in Touhou?
There is an article on the touhou wiki that gives a nice summary of the timeline of Gensokyo. Be wary that not all information has a citation, but what is in this page is for the most part, true. 
https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo_Timeline
To further summarize, time in Touhou runs parallel to our own**, meaning it is currently (as of this posting) December 2019 in Gensokyo. The events of EoSD took place in August 2003, meaning it has been 16 years since the Scarlet Mist incident. 
** Be aware that while the progression of time is the same as our world, the *effects* of time are not the same. Characters do not age up until ZUN wants them too. ZUN has called this "Sazae-time", which is named after a long running cartoon series in Japan. For us westerners, this could be comparable to The Simpsons. 

https://clarste.tumblr.com/post/174148682416/zun-recently-attended-a-convention-in-china-where
This link explains a little bit more about the meaning. In other words, while Akyuu is getting closer to 30, there is no worry about her dying. 

Interesting thought on the development of time and how it passes in Gensokyo. It is a very messy topic, and we have tackled it before in the "How aging works" thread. At least I can feel relieved Akyuu will not die any time soon despire her only having 2 more years left of life (judging that the Children of Miare only live 30 years, and Akyuu has just a bit over 2 years left - so normally she'd live until August 2024). People even seem to explain her online as "do not worry, this is just a character that will die soon", but I guess this seems to be coming from lack of knowledge in regards to the "Sazae-time" thing going on in Gensokyo.

 

Spoiler

F10. What religions are present in Touhou? 
As you can probably tell by the name of the series, Touhou (Eastern) is primarily about the culture of the Orient, The Far East. Most prominently in Japan as Gensokyo is in Japan. The primary religions explored are Shinto and Buddhism. Other religions that are present are Taoism, Confucianism, and Shugendo. With the presence of Hecatia, who is the goddess Hecate in Greek mythology, you could say Hellenism is present as well. We also have characters like Sariel, and the couple of references to Jesus Christ so Judeo-Christianic religions also seem to be present. However the latter western/middle eastern references are more of an exception rather than the norm. ZUN has said himself that he would rather not tread too deeply into the monotheistic religions in Touhou as it is incompatible with the largely polytheistic religions that are present in this series. So no, don't expect Jesus to appear in a Touhou game. 

It would be interesting to see more of the Western religions in Touhou, but I guess they just do not fit. We did get some references to Christianity and Jesus hrist in Wild and Horned Hermit, but I guess manga might be the best place where to make such references. There's also the joke/discussion whether Yumemi from PC-98 is a Christian or not with that big cross she has, but that is entire discussion in itself.

 

Spoiler

F11. How come Sakuya and Nitori are atheists? Isn't Touhou full of gods?
A good question, but it can be answered. Now, something you have to be aware of is how the world is viewed differently depending on the type of society you grew up in. If you grew up in a culturally Christian society, you're not gonna see things quite like someone who grew up in a culturally Pagan society. Christianity is monotheistic, and Paganism is polytheistic. There are further differences between Polytheists like Hellenists and Animists but I won't go into that. And the meaning of "atheism" also changes depending on if you grew up in monotheistic culture or polytheistic culture. In monotheism, there is one supreme god who created all things. If you claim you are atheist, you are saying that you do not believe in the existence of this singular supreme god, and that you also do not believe that you were created by some singular supreme god. Polytheists believe that there are multiple gods, each representing an aspect of nature, the human condition, or the universe. When you say that you are atheist, you are saying that you do not believe that these aspects of nature are "gods", but this does not mean that you don't believe it exists. After all, you can't deny nature. You just don't believe its worthy of worship. This is what it means when Sakuya or Nitori say they're atheists. They obviously can't deny the existence of these "beings called gods", they just don't worship them nor acknowledge their divinity.

This is a bit of an odd topic in general. I did hear about the Sakuya part, yet never thought about the possibility of Nitori being an atheist too. Actually, the whole of the SDM is in interesting bunch, and I an quite curious what is their position as a whole in regards to religion. 

 

Spoiler

F12. Was Toyosatomimi no Miko always a girl? 
Yes she was. Right in her profile from the character_setting.txt of Ten Desires shows this line "やんごとなき生まれの*彼女*は、幼い頃から様々な訴えを聞く事があった。" This sentence talks about her early life and how *she* listened to complaints. 彼女 means she/her, meaning that she is in fact, a she. This shows up multiples times. Historically in the outside world (our world) Shoutoku Taishi was known as a male, but in Gensokyo, as it turns out in reality she is a female. This is a very common theme in Touhou, where male figures from history or myth are now females. Shuten-douji was a male, but now they're a female (Suika Ibuki). Omoikane was a male, but now they're a female (Eirin Yagokoro). Even the White Hare of Inaba was a male, but now they're female (Tewi Inaba). Miko is no different in that regard. Also keep in mind that Miko is in Gensokyo in the first place is because people decided to stop believing in Prince Shoutoku being a real figure, believing that he is a mythical person. Which is actually how many historical scholars think in our own world, so it matches. 

At some point I was actualy wondering that. Since in real life, if Shoutoku Taishi was a real historical figure and not just a myth, he more than likely was a man. But then, how did he turn into a woman? It is not as simple as "ZUN-ification beam" (thought that would be funny). So for a while I did hear at least a couple options: either that he is actually a man (maybe a trap or even a futa according to some), while the other theory being that Touhou is pulling some sort of Fate and would go by the hypothesis Shoutoku was actually a woman when he/she was alive (which would make the relation woth Tojiko a little odd...). This explanation is actually interesting though.

 

Spoiler

F13. Are there any "relationships" between characters in Touhou? 
Technically there is. There are a few characters in Touhou that are married or formerly married. Namely the Watatsuki sisters, Seiga Kaku, and Junko. Watatsuki sisters are said to be married currently, and Junko originally had a husband that she would later murder. Seiga while not directly stated to have been married, if you go by the Chinese pronunciation of her name, Huo Qing'e (霍青娥), more comes to light. Qing'e is the name of a tale from "Strange Stories of a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异)". In the tale is a heroine whose goes by the surname "Wu" is following in her father's footsteps to seek Dao (Taoism), but falls in love with a man named "Huo" Huan and marries him. Later in the story she is presumed dead, but the husband finds out that she became a Xian (hermit) with her father and the husband seeks her return. Qing'e is presumed to be the first name of the heroine of the story, so her married name would be "Huo Qing'e", in other words, Seiga Kaku. The heroine of this tale is more than likely the hermit that we see in Touhou, so that means that Seiga was previously (or techincally) married. 

Now if we're speaking about romances going on between the named relevant characters in Touhou, such events have not occured. Touhou is a series that doesn't really delve into such matters or subjects related to it outside of what is mentioned in character backstories. 

A question like this was even brought up in an interview: (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/The_Untold_History_of_Japanese_Game_Developers_Interview)

"JS: I know some fan creations tend to veer towards, shall we say, amourous themes between certain characters.

ZUN: It's not something I particularly like, and sometimes a bit too much. The fans are free to do what they want, but it's not something I like. I have no plans to put something like that into one of my games. <laughs>"

Regardless of what the interview says, if you just observe the events in the series you'll notice that romance and sexuality is a topic that is almost never brought up. In the Love Letter Ghost chapters of Forbidden Scrollery, Reimu and Marisa mention how they wish they could receive love letters, or maybe you'd look at Silent Sinner in Blue where Reimu wanted to summon Lord Daikoku (Okuninushi) simply because "he was handsome", but this is really minor stuff in the grand scheme of the those plots.

Nontheless, these are topics not really explored in the series.

I have already talked abou this in other threads (or maybe I didn't? new CVN thread idea leaked). What I find remarkable though about th 2hus is that you would not expect them to be/have been married. Just like in the paragraph, the Watatsukis have husbands, Junko had a husband and a son, and Seiga... well it is complicated, but I like the explanation in that paragraph. And even with this sort of info, people are amazed when you tell them these actually exist, as they always think Touhou is all about "underage lolis". Even Urban Dictionary explain Touhou the following way: 
 

Quote

"A series of danmaku shooting games made by one guy under the name ZUN. He is worshiped as a God on many image boards who view his work as some of the best shit ever.
Basically the game involves you flying around as a loli dodging bullets of many a color (blood red, royal blue, cum bubble white, etc.) while laying the beat down on other lolis who want to destroy you for their own personal gain. Usually. Touhou is popular mainly because of the HUGE amount of fan works and shit other people put out for it, doujins, fan games, and even a trading card game. Tons of inside jokes revolve around the series and characters and a lot of it is frowned upon outside the small circle of fans by people calling players and fans of the game "pedophiles" and "touhoutards" /a/ and /v/ boards on 4chan say they hate it but only because the majority of them suck nuts at it. There is a Touhou Wiki and a deticated Touhou image board on Wakachan."
(explanation uploaded on October 16, 2007 by user [DoA] Shunt)

As for the whole question of ships, it never bothered me. Heck, even my collection of Touhou art is guilty of histing a few sections dedicated to couples, be them drawn romantically (still safe for work) or just comrades/allies in battle.

 

Spoiler

F14. Are there other worlds like Gensokyo?
The only other world that Gensokyo is compared to in Touhou is the Lunar Capital. Just like Gensokyo, the Lunar Capital is surrounded by a barrier of common sense* that prevents outsiders from entering. They are similar worlds, but the residents and the way its ran are different. 

Other than that, there is no other world that is like Gensokyo on Earth that is known as of now. 

*Be aware that the barrier surrounding Gensokyo is not physical. Once you enter the barrier of Gensokyo, you are in a dimension called the *other world*. And because of this, you could claim that "the Hakurei Barrier extends past the moon". There is no *shape* to the barrier. Just a general area in the outside world where Gensokyo "would" be. It's best not to overthink it. 

 Always wanted to know how many world and parallel stuff is goin on in there. If we put PC-98 into the mix, there imght be a bit more too.

 

 

Part 2

Alright, I have finished the general questions. Time to get ito the misconceptions. This is gonna be just as long. Forgive me if I come up with just 1-2 lines for a hyge paragraph, sometimes I just have nothing more or better to say about the topic (or it was already very well covered by the original paragraphs itself).

Spoiler

Common Misconceptions 
The False Knowledge That Needs to be Ironed Out

CM1
"Lunarians are EVIL! They are space nazis!" 
This is likely the #1 misconception about Lunarians, and maybe Touhou as a whole that goes on in the Western community. Due to the overhate this group gets, everyone wants to attribute the worst kind of labels to them and assume they are the worst of everything, without even giving just a little bit of thought to what makes them not so good, and I dunno, why thinking that you should kill all Lunarians and blow up the moon is just extremely hypocritical. 

So just to start off, let's look at what Lunarians actually do. Lunarians are a people who live on the moon, and they hate "impurity". They avoid beings with impurity at all cost, and have a superiority about themselves and often like to speak about how much better they are compared to the impure, even going as far as threatening to kill Earthlings, but to no avail. (And no, the events of LoLK are something else entirely) 
So what is "impurity"? Impurity or "kegare" is "life energy". Beings that have kegare are considered living, and for one to live, they will eventually die. Lunarians (as well as celestials, ghosts, gods, etc) are pure, meaning they are "not living". As they are "not living", they cannot die. They "exist" forever, though they usually can be killed. Lunarians have a deep fear of decay and death, and associate kegare with the struggle for survival which they were disgusted with. Something else to keep in mind is that most Lunarians are gods, gods that have existed before humanity was even conceived. So they watched as the creatures on Earth struggled for survival in a Darwinistic world. With all of that in mind, it is no wonder they hate and fear kegare, because they do not wish to submit to such cruel behaviors, as well as ya know, not die. They watched the many thousands years of history of man, watching as they commit such vile and awful acts which are unthinkable even by our normal human standards, even more so by Lunarian standards, and judged all humans (and animals) as the same. This is why Lunarians hate humans, and this is why they hate "impurity". 

Yes it's true that Lunarians are extremely haughty with how they act, and it is true that they can be really petty and discriminative. However, their reasoning for avoiding humans is valid. There are Lunarians that are so extreme in this thinking of "avoiding all strife, and abstaining from all impurity" that the Lunarian Self Defense Corp (which is lead by the Watatsuki Sisters) receives discrimination from their own people, because a Self Defense Corp acknowledges the struggle for survival. And some go even further, and just consider all life as something unimportant, which is why the events of ULiL/LoLK went down in the first place. The Lunarians needed a place to escape to to avoid impurity, and they decided on Gensokyo. They did not care if all life in Gensokyo would be vaporized (and doing this would also wipe out all life on Earth in general, according to ZUN in the LoLK interview), which is why they had this plan as insurance. However there are those that are far more reasonable and humane, like the Watatsuki Sisters and Sagume. 
It's just important to remember that while there are some really bad Lunarians that exist, one should not assume that Lunarians are all the same. And another thing to remember, you would not be calling them "Space Nazis" if we didn't have Nazis in the first place. There is more that could be talked about, but I think I summed up the basic gist of it. They are for the most part, aren't evil, and should at least be given heat for the things that they actually do and not some made up bullcrap. 

Ah, the classic "why people hate the Lunarians". I am not the greatest fan of that faction, but I think they got quite a lot of undeserved hate from the fandom, becoming quite a bit of a punching bag towards which to channel all the anger. I know they got a rough introduction in Silent Sinner in Blue, and fanworks like KKHTA only made the situation even worse with the Lunarins coming to Gensokyo to slaughter everyone (still) alive. One thing is to have a society like that described on the Moon, which might sound rather rough, and a totally different thing to end up calling them "Moon Nazis"/"The Greater Lunarian Reich" (but to be fair, at how much the word "Nazi" is being thrown around nowadays especially in social media, it very much lost its meaning). Recently though, even if in smal numbers, I have seen fanworks starting to go a bit more into them, and make them less unlikeable. For example, Lost Word gave us quite a bit of Lunarian content, including an entire story presented from their perspective. And, even if this is just fanon, Toyohime at least seems to be rather chill in LW, while Rei'sen seems to be very stressed at work and Yorihime like a harsh instructor, bu twith good intentions. 

 

Spoiler

CM2
"The reason why Clownpiece has her American flag design is so she can piss off the Lunarians." 
This is completely false, and a misconception that can easily be fixed by looking at LoLK interview in Strange Creators of Outer World (Which can be found on the wiki here: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Strange_Creators_of_Outer_World/Legacy_of_Lunatic_Kingdom_interview_with_ZUN) She wears the American flag design because she saw the flag, and liked it. That's it. Nothing ulterior to it. I also really believe that people only come up with this reason is because they're conflating their own dislike of Lunarians with Clownpiece and as so they project that onto Clownpiece for wearing her outfit. Such info isn't found in her summary profile in the LoLK omake.txt, nor is it mentioned in any written work, so it's clear that this misconception came about from word of mouth. 

Huh, initially I did fall into the trap of thinking the desing choice for Clownpiece was done in order to intimidate the Lunarians given the Americans getting on the Moon, the Apollo 13 incident (in Touhou lore) ending up being connected to the characters and the whole war on the Moon surface. Also the hell fair was specially brough from Hecatia by Junko in her invasion during the events of LoLK. But finding out Clownpiece only adopted the pattern becuase she liked it... well, it's a little anti-climactic to be honest. But if lord ZUN said it, we can do nothing about.

 

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"The Yama's name is Shikieiki Yamaxanadu"
This misconception has been pretty ironed out already, but there are some stragglers here or there. So may as well mention it. The reason why this misconception comes about is due to bad translation. The people who translated (四季映姫・ヤマザナドゥ) had no idea about Japanese syntax, and just assumed that "Shikieiki" was all one name. Not only this, but it's also partially ZUN's fault as well. In PoFV, her name in her boss title is "Shikieiki Yamaxanadu", which just further pushed this misconception for us non-Japanese speakers, especially being as how it is ZUN himself who did it. So as ZUN did it, it must be true right? It isn't like ZUN isn't bad at English or anything... (This would happen again with the HSiFS demo, with Eternity Larva) ZUN himself and many of the native Japanese speakers knew that Shikieiki wasn't all one name, it's much easier to see in Japanese and when you look at the PoFV character_setting.txt (it isn't omake.txt in this game for some reason), because it is specifically said here that "Eiki is her first name, Shiki is her last name, and Yamaxanadu is her title". (https://www.thpatch.net/wiki/Th09/characters_setting.txt/en)

I remember reading the discussion section for the Eiki article. The whole conversation was very interesting, especially since it was back in 2009 and it was about changing the name of the article. This is for anyone who wants to read that https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Eiki_Shiki,_Yamaxanadu

 

Spoiler

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"If it's not drawn by ZUN, then it isn't canon!" 
An extremely short-sighted argument given by people to try justify written works not being canon so they don't have to read it. The designs themselves were created by ZUN, and he is giving them permission to draw them in an official capacity. The story is written by ZUN still. Not only that, but to really show how short sighted this thinking is, just looking at other manga and written works. Usually the story writer and illustrator are two different people. Yet it is usually when *writers* change that people question canonocity. Not the illustrator, the WRITER. This is why Inaba of the Moon & Inaba of the Earth isn't canon. (See FAQ #7) Just because ZUN is the one who normally does each and every asset for his games doesn't suddenly mean that when his assets are cut in half and someone else does the other half means that it is therefore of no meaning. Nonetheless, while this misconception is actually not all that common, you may see it from time to time, and it is very stupid.

As long as the designs were made by ZUN, he directed the way things would be going (example how he worked with alphes and moderated his art style to fit with ZUN's vision), there is no way the things cannot be canon. To quote the wiki: 

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Unlike ZUN, it's been shown that alphes has a preference for drawing characters with some curves (as can be seen often on the front page of Tasofro's website). For example, in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Suika Ibuki's chest seems to be flat and Komachi Onozuka's seems to be large, with ZUN's guidelines presumably keeping it all in check. This may be a case of alphes being able to indulge in their preference with official art.


 

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"Cirno is stupid baka 9! XD" (Translation: Cirno is really stupid!)
Now there's a lot to unwrap here, but let's start with the species of Fairies as a whole. Fairies vary in size from really small to relatively the size of your average 10 year old. Not only are they are big as small children, but they are as intelligent as small children. Take that for you will. In Perfect Memento in Strict Sense (The Fairy Article) it also brings out how strength often equates to intelligence for fairies, so the stronger a fairy is, the more intelligent they tend to be. 
Now as for Cirno, she was legitimately the strongest known fairy in Gensokyo at the time (before Clownpiece showed up). And as a fairy, she would be on the smarter end compared to really weak fairies. She seems to be as smart as your typical elementary school kid, being capable of doing math fractions and the like.  However she is still quite unwise, often getting herself into bad situations based on her fixation with being "the strongest". 
So no, Cirno is not dumber than a sack of potatoes. She is as smart as what you would expect from a 10 year old, though her behavior and how fixated she is on "being the strongest" often leads to her doing things that are stupid. The reason why this whole "stupid" meme spawned is because of manual joke in the ninth Touhou Project installment, Phantasmagoria of Flower View. Where on a screenshot it was listing out the names of everything on the screen, with the 9th name being "バカ (Stupid in Japanese)", which was Cirno. And like with all memes, it progressively became more and more exaggerated, leading Cirno to become more and more flanderized. 

Cirno may be stupid, but she is not dumb. 

It's been 20 years (well, just 17 counting from PoFV onward). People are still unironically thinking Cirno is dumb? Brave, maybe a little foolish and overestimating her own chances? Sure. But not dumb. 

 

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"There are no men in Gensokyo!" 
There are men in Gensokyo. 
Now I wish I would just end it off right there because I don't wanna have to explain such the reason to such a poorly thought out take, but explaining this stuff is why this section of the FAQ exists.
The reason for this misconception is usually because of very shallow knowledge about the Touhou Project series. More than likely this kind of person has not seen an actual official work or played an actual official Touhou game. They hear about the "setting" being Gensokyo, and hear about how Touhou is "primarily girls". So they go on to make the assumption that "no men exist in Gensokyo". And this further leads to even dumber takes like "Everyone in Gensokyo is gay." or something. When the reality is Gensokyo is a "world" with "people" in it, whether they are man or woman. 
For one thing, the setting of Touhou isn't "just" Gensokyo. Gensokyo is just the main setting in Touhou. There is the outside world, which is our world, which ya know, where 50% of the population is men. There is the Lunar Capital, which also has men as shown in SSiB, and of course in Gensokyo multiple unnamed men have been shown multiple times throughout the written works and even in the games (Touhou 13.5 Hopeless Masquerade most notably), among other things. Nonetheless though, it's pretty clear that the population of men is not small, nor lacking. If you just use some COMMON SENSE you will know that the amount of men quantifies equally to the amount of women, 50/50. 
Now, why aren't men represented as much? Simple. It isn't what ZUN wants to do. ZUN wants to make pretty and cute girls the center of the show, but it isn't like ZUN went off the deep end and make men not exist or whatever, because he didn't. Men exist, they just aren't the focus of Touhou's narrative. Powerful male youkai and gods have been mentioned in passing, but they just aren't focused on. The only male character that is commonly in focus is Rinnosuke, but he's only in a written work. 

Seriously this misconception is easily dispelled by just getting a little bit of knowledge of Touhou, but some ignorant people just go around spreading this misinfo to other ignorant people and then they get the wrong impression of Touhou as whole because of it. 

This one is quite funny. It would be impossible for there not to be men in Gensokyo, especially among the human population. Af far as I know, humans are not like bacteria to reproduce through direct division. And if you need a stable population, a number of people are needed. Also all the arguments already mentioned in the original paragraph. 

 

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"Sakuya's power is stopping time! She's just like Dio! But wait how come WaHH said her power is moving at the speed of light??"

First off, let me just say this. Repeat after me.

SAKUYA IS NOT DIO. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? SHE TAKES SOME INSPIRATION FROM DIO, BUT SHE. IS. NOT. DIO. GET THAT IN YOUR HEADS RIGHT NOW!

I need to make that point extremely clear because certain people act like Sakuya is just Dio, so everything Dio can do Sakuya does, or whatever kind of crap. 
Anyway, let's start with Sakuya's ability. This misconception could very easily dispelled by just looking at Sakuya's wiki page on the touhou wiki (cough https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Sakuya_Izayoi#Ability) but I'll just spell it out right here. 

Sakuya's ability is to MANIPULATE TIME. More specifically Time and Space. 

Note that it does NOT say her ability is "stopping time", it's "manipulating" time. Meaning, she does more than just stopping time. She can speed up, slow down, reverse (does not apply to causality), and stop time. She has been shown to do all of these things throughout various games and written works.** 

Now the part where people get confused at is Sakuya's statement in Wild and Horned Hermit Chapter 35, where Sakuya says that "what you see as stopping time is actually her accelerating her speed to light speeds". And when you assume her ability is only "stopping time" and you see this statement you're gonna get really confused. To clear up this confusion, you gotta remember what she said after this. "I cannot stop time *for other people*". This does not mean she can't stop time, but she can't stop time other people. Just think about it. Stopping time or speed yourself up to light speeds. Which is easier? Stopping time for the ENTIRE universe, or just speeding up yourself? Both achieve the same result due to the relativity of time. Or maybe you believe she is actually stopping time in an area, essentially creating an area of time in space where time has stopped? You could also claim she was lying because she was being interrogated by Reimu, but honestly it doesn't really matter. It's perfectly feasible in both scenarios for her to be stopping, or not stopping time. Just as long as you REMEMBER that her ability is manipulating time in general, and not limited to just stopping time. 

**Another common misconception brought up with Sakuya is that her power comes from her pocket watch. Nothing in Touhou has been shown, implied, or even said that ever mentions her pocket watch being the source of her power. People might point to one of her spell cards from SWR/Soku, but this once again is a hugely ignoring everything else about Sakuya. Sakuya has been shown multiple times to be able to manipulate the area of time (the space-time) of objects she throws such as HER KNIVES. So why wouldn't she be able to do so with the pocket watch? 

So yeah, Sakuya has a number of references to Dio Brando, but she is not Dio Brando. Probably the funniest description of Sakuya I have ever seen is that she is "basically Dio, but waifu". Anyway, good to learn a little bit more about her abilities (might) work like.

 

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"Fortune Teller is innocent and Reimu is an evil tyrant!" 
This is probably the most controversial misconception, and frankly, even if I do explain this in detail those people are probably gonna deny what I'm saying anyway. Regardless though, this is an important misconception that I still quite often among certain people, and I felt is very necessary to give an explanation for it. 

In Forbidden Scrollery Chapter 24, there is an unnamed character that the fandom refers to as the Fortune Teller as that was his occupation. To sum up what happens in in that chapter, Kosuzu finds a book on his fortune telling techniques and begins to utilize them for accurate fortunes. However, six months prior the fortune teller had killed himself, and he had linked his emotions to the very book that Kosuzu found and was using. So over time as Kosuzu kept using this book, the fortune teller would eventually materialize in the realm of the living as a stabilized vengeful spirit. This freaked out Kosuzu upon him suddenly appearing and she fainted, and Reimu caught him. Fortune teller flew outside the village where Reimu confronted him, and while the fortune teller tried to get Reimu to let him go, he was ultimately killed by Reimu. Reimu called him a Jinyou (人妖), "the greatest sin that could ever be committed". 

This is a very rough summary of the events and I greatly recommend you read the chapters yourselves, but I digress. The reason why the fortune teller did as he did was because of his own fortune telling. He was able to unearth truths about Gensokyo that he saw as very daunting and horrifying. He saw the human village as a cattle farm for the youkai, and so he wanted no part of it. Rather than be cattle for youkai, he decided to just join them. When he was finally confronted by Reimu, he assumed that Reimu would be okay with him doing this, and even calling her a "youkai shrine maiden", yet he was still killed. 

Now I think it's pretty easy how one might come to sympathize with fortune teller, and even feel that Reimu was in fact the one in the wrong. However, I think this is where misconception starts. There are multiple things that need to be considered.

1) The actual truth about Gensokyo
For those who have been into Touhou you too might have come to the conclusion that the human village was nothing more than a place for youkai to farm human fear to sustain their existence. This isn't something new, and is even said in Touhou itself. If you simply leave it at that, yeah it does look pretty bad for the human villagers of Gensokyo. Why would you wanna be okay with this situation? Forced to remain in some settlement with no hope of escape and purely at the mercy of these monsters? 
Well something to be aware of is this is only one viewpoint, and a rather shortsighted one. Why does the Hakurei Barrier exist in the first place? Why is it *called* the Hakurei Barrier? Going back to the beginning, the barrier was erected in response to the declining belief in the supernatural. This was a collaborative effort between the humans AND youkai. The land of Gensokyo has existed as a haunted region of dangerous youkai for centuries long before, and it was various human exorcists and superhumans that went to the region in order to deal with the threat terrorizing the country. In time, those humans began to settle in the region, and they even began to have an actual relationship with the youkai. This has to be the case, because how else would the collaborative effort that was the Hakurei Barrier, which required multiple people to set it up? With this in mind, it's pretty clear that the humans that lived in 1885 when the barrier was erected, they agreed to having this kind of set up. But why would they? Aren't the youkai just being a parasite on the humans who live there? This comes to the next point. 
2) The actual power dynamic between humans and youkai
Youkai are stronger physically and spiritually than humans. A human can very easily be killed by a youkai, however at the same time, youkai need humans to exist and believe in them so that they don't die. Now if you just leave it at that, it's pretty clear that the youkai are just parasites, but here is another thing to remember: Humans also have an advantage over youkai. BECAUSE youkai require human belief, the youkai cannot kill the humans. In other words, humans actually have something over youkai as well, their belief. Not only that, but because youkai require belief, it is things based on belief that can defeat youkai. Why is something as mundane as fried soybeans able to defeat an Oni? Because of belief. Humans do not actually have the short end of the stick. If anything it can be argued that humans have the greatest advantage. However, even if this is true, this doesn't actually prove anything right? The youkai are still parasites right? They take from humans their belief, but give nothing in return, right? 
3) The actual relationship between humans and youkai
Humans give belief, and youkai give protection. In a later chapter of Forbidden Scrollery, it was learned about all of the support that youkai give to human villagers. A typhoon was passing overhead in Gensokyo, however the typhoon's strength was much notably lighter over the human village. The reason for this is because of the Tengu. The Tengu protected the human village from the dangerous wind and rain, and as so the villagers merely felt the weather as a regular shower. In the rivers the Kappa were protecting the village from flooding caused by the typhoon. However, when Kosuzu attempted to deliver a book to Reimu during the typhoon, as soon as she left the village she felt the typhoon's true strength and was subsequently injured and knocked out. Kosuzu was saved and nursed back to health by Aya, who is a tengu. Kosuzu never learned who saved her though, because her having her life saved by a tengu is a secret. Why? Because it could cause issues for the status quo. Humans are to fear youkai, so being saved by one would cause complications. Now it's pretty clear that Kosuzu had her life saved because of her position of as the book keeper of Suzuran, and the book store holding many books beneficial to youkai. However, even if she did not have that position, more than likely she'd still be saved. This is the kind of relationship youkai have with the human villagers. They protect them from all kinds of harm. And what was described was only just natural disasters. Who knows what other threats the youkai have been protecting the humans from. 
4) The Fortune Teller's sin.
So with all of those facts in mind, it's pretty clear that the whole situation in Gensokyo between humans and youkai are far more complicated than one can claim, and as so to take a one sided viewpoint would be wrong. This is precisely what Fortune Teller did. Now admittedly, as a human villager he would have been very ignorant of the truth of Gensokyo, and him being able to unearth this information from his fortune telling would certainly make it easy for him to be mislead if that was the only thing he learned. However, this doesn't excuse his arrogance. This is very evident by how he spoke to Reimu, and his actions with becoming a youkai. To humans, it is taboo to become a youkai. Why wouldn't it? The youkai are the feared monsters that exist outside the village. The enemies of humans. So to become one is to commit an incredibly grave sin. This has been made very clear throughout the series, most notably with Byakuren Hijiri. So Fortune Teller very much knew what he was doing was very wrong. However, in spite of that the method he chose was especially heinous. Why is that?
The human village is a land of humans. The area outside the village is the land of youkai. This is a very clear boundary. If one is to cross over to the other side, one must be willing to abide by either sides rules. When youkai come to the human village, they disguise themselves as humans and act as humans so as to not arouse fear. There are even youkai that live in the village such as Sekibanki, and they do not give away the fact that they are youkai at all. Going along and living their lives as humans. Now, if one is to go to the side of youkai, one most become like a youkai, act as youkai, and follow the rules of youkai. This is where the Fortune Teller sinned. His method of becoming a youkai involved human villagers. He chose to kill himself and use a book left behind in the village to bring himself into youkaihood. He was too wishy-washy, straddling the boundary between human (人) and supernatural (妖). Thus a 人妖. If the fortune teller were to become a youkai properly, he would leave the human village behind and sever all connections with it. This would have put his life at great risk of being killed by youkai yes, because the youkai are only to protect human villagers. However, if he was truly willing to commit to becoming a youkai, these risks would have been worth the effort. He would seclude himself and become a youkai, whatever that may be. Then once he became a youkai, he would bide his time. Waiting for the generation that last knew of him to die out, as youkai live much longer than humans ever could. Once that time has passed, he would be free. A true youkai. 
But alas, that isn't what he did. He chose to be wishy washy, he chose to be arrogant, and for that he was killed. The reason he died is because he was caught. If he did not want to get caught, he would not have chosen such a brazen method of becoming a youkai. That really is all there is to it. And no sympathy should be given of him, for he knew what he was doing was a grave sin. More than that, a grave sin committed based on an incredible misconception. 

 

CM9
"Marisa is a Kleptomaniac and Reimu is poor and lives on donations!" 
This is one misconception I completely forgot about because I got too used to being around people knowing that this was clearly wrong. However, this is still a common misconception even now, so it must be explained. 
Marisa is NOT a kleptomaniac, in fact, she's actually a hoarder. Her house is filled with stuff she finds when she's out adventuring or picking up on the ground somewhere across Gensokyo. The only time Marisa is ever mentioned "stealing" is when it comes to Patchouli's books or the evidence of her copying spell card patterns from other characters such as Yuuka. (As well as her stealing stuff from Rinnosuke, which Reimu also does) Otherwise any reference to her thievery is very minimal. This is most easily noted in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, where Marisa's hoarding is very well expressed, with little mention of thievery except in those cases of her taking random stuff from Rinnosuke's shop. 
As for Reimu, this is a case of people not knowing much about Touhou or Reimu in general. They hear about how the shrine barely gets any donations and assume that this is Reimu's only means of income and that she has to be poor because of this, but actually there is more to this than what it seems. For the first thing, Gensokyo does not work like our world. There isn't a constant need for money and stuff. In fact they don't even have a standardized currency, a barter system is used. Second, and this is something ZUN mentioned a long time ago on the Genso Bulletin Board that "...those that live on in the wilderness like Reimu and Marisa live a wealthy life."* This right here should be more than enough proof that Reimu isn't actually poor, but there is also more to be said. The whole thing of Reimu being "poor" is also said in Touhou itself. However, it isn't that she's literally poor. It's more like her lack of wages is the result of her laziness. Reimu is fully capable of having regular income and donations to her shrines if she actually puts her mind to it, but she rarely ever does. She may have spurts of motivation once a while, but eventually that motivation will wear thin, and the money will stop coming in, as well as the donations. There is also another thing, but there is a character named Shion Yorigami that is a goddess of poverty, and apparently an "aura of poverty" had existed around the shrine Reimu's shrine for some time. Keeping fortune from coming there. It was highly implied to be Shion. So if that is to be considered, Reimu was likely being affected by Shion's poverty aura. There is also one last thing to look at, and that is Reimu's need for food. Which is none. Reimu never goes hungry. The mountain she lives on provides a lot of food she can get, she always seems to have enough money to buy food from the village, and she still has other means of getting food like borrowing mushrooms from Marisa. So any fanon jokes about her being poor and hungry are greatly exaggerated. 

*Reference: (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN%27s_reply_to_messages_on_the_former_Gensou_Bulletin_Board_1)

This one is way too complicated, and I personally want to read Forbidden Scrollery when I got the time. So I will let you comment on the issue. The only thing I can contribute with is something I have written long ago about Reimu, and my perception shortly after I learnt about the whole thing with the Fortune Teller. 
 

Quote

2) Reimu Hakurei 

If I am to be honest, I had a period in which I absolutely hated Reimu. It came when I was still a relatively new fan, without too much knowledge of the lore. With an explanation missing half the context, when I first learnt about the whole Fortune Teller part and "I don't mind needless killing", I was basically raging about how could someone who's the protagonist, a cute girl supposed to be likeable, do such a horrying act. I was like "our protagonist, everybody...", but after I got to learn a little bit about what actually happened, things changed. I still find that episode a bit strange due to my lack of proper understanding of Eastern tradition (cultural shock you might call it), but at least it is much better nowadays. 

Anyway, to the next point...

 

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"Marisa is a Kleptomaniac and Reimu is poor and lives on donations!" 
This is one misconception I completely forgot about because I got too used to being around people knowing that this was clearly wrong. However, this is still a common misconception even now, so it must be explained. 
Marisa is NOT a kleptomaniac, in fact, she's actually a hoarder. Her house is filled with stuff she finds when she's out adventuring or picking up on the ground somewhere across Gensokyo. The only time Marisa is ever mentioned "stealing" is when it comes to Patchouli's books or the evidence of her copying spell card patterns from other characters such as Yuuka. (As well as her stealing stuff from Rinnosuke, which Reimu also does) Otherwise any reference to her thievery is very minimal. This is most easily noted in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, where Marisa's hoarding is very well expressed, with little mention of thievery except in those cases of her taking random stuff from Rinnosuke's shop. 
As for Reimu, this is a case of people not knowing much about Touhou or Reimu in general. They hear about how the shrine barely gets any donations and assume that this is Reimu's only means of income and that she has to be poor because of this, but actually there is more to this than what it seems. For the first thing, Gensokyo does not work like our world. There isn't a constant need for money and stuff. In fact they don't even have a standardized currency, a barter system is used. Second, and this is something ZUN mentioned a long time ago on the Genso Bulletin Board that "...those that live on in the wilderness like Reimu and Marisa live a wealthy life."* This right here should be more than enough proof that Reimu isn't actually poor, but there is also more to be said. The whole thing of Reimu being "poor" is also said in Touhou itself. However, it isn't that she's literally poor. It's more like her lack of wages is the result of her laziness. Reimu is fully capable of having regular income and donations to her shrines if she actually puts her mind to it, but she rarely ever does. She may have spurts of motivation once a while, but eventually that motivation will wear thin, and the money will stop coming in, as well as the donations. There is also another thing, but there is a character named Shion Yorigami that is a goddess of poverty, and apparently an "aura of poverty" had existed around the shrine Reimu's shrine for some time. Keeping fortune from coming there. It was highly implied to be Shion. So if that is to be considered, Reimu was likely being affected by Shion's poverty aura. There is also one last thing to look at, and that is Reimu's need for food. Which is none. Reimu never goes hungry. The mountain she lives on provides a lot of food she can get, she always seems to have enough money to buy food from the village, and she still has other means of getting food like borrowing mushrooms from Marisa. So any fanon jokes about her being poor and hungry are greatly exaggerated. 

*Reference: (https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN%27s_reply_to_messages_on_the_former_Gensou_Bulletin_Board_1)

Flanderization. Just like the idea of Reimu eating dirt, I guess (by the way, was that panel of Reimu inviting Yukari and Kasen (?) to eat some dirt with her part of a canon manga, or came from a fanon doujin?). I mean we do have the convicting photo done by Aya from Bohemian Archive, but knowing the nature of Aya and how she writes her news, there's plenty to talk about. 

018Marisa.JPG

 

Spoiler

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"Hou Yi shot down the sun and it landed on Junko's son, killing him." 
Very wrong. Just look at Junko's LoLK profile.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Junko#Official_Profiles

To give more context, Hou Yi was originally the husband of Chang'e, before Chang'e abandoned him to the moon. Hou Yi would go on a rampage and take over the kingdom of Junko's original husband, also having him killed. Because Junko was the queen, she became Hou Yi's wife. Shortly after Hou Yi would kill Junko's son. Junko would tend take revenge against Hou Yi, killing him. This is a very condensed version of the original (conflated) tale that Junko, Chang'e, and Hou Yi come from. However in Touhou, Junko would purify her anger and continue living on as a divine spirit of anger, holding a grudge against the original wife of Hou Yi, Chang'e. 

To me, the story has never really been clear to be honest. But I am quite sure I did not remember anything about a sun chrushing her child. If for anything, I was imagining that Junko's sun became one of the nine suns brought down by Hou Yi. Also, interesting idea that one of those suns was Apollo, and therefore the possible connection to Hecatia and how Hell lost its sun.

 

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"[Insert Character] can totally do [Insert Ridiculous Thing] and beat [Insert Character]"
Have you ever heard of " 程度の能力 (teido no nouryoku)"? teido no nouryoku is a term that ZUN uses when he names the abilities of characters. This roughly translates to "Degree of (the) Ability". For instance, Kaguya's ability in Japanese is 永遠と須臾を操る程度の能力. "Degree of the ability to manipulate eternity and instantaneous". Sounds a bit odd and awkward, but trust me it's a bit odd even in Japanese. If he wanted to do things normally, he'd remove 程度 and just keep 能力. So why does ZUN put "teido no nouryoku" instead of just "nouryoku"? The reason being is because that word 程度 adds a vagueness, basically saying that an ability can only be done to a "certain degree", in other words, it's not limitless. 

Now of course this is just basic logic. How will you know how far a person's ability go unless it's specified? You can't assume that a character has limitless power when you haven't even seen what they're all capable of. Of course, such a person might also say that you can't prove that they "aren't not capable of doing" what they're claiming. This is what's known as the Devil's Proof. You cannot prove something doesn't exist. You can only prove something exists. This is also used as a logical fallacy. And this is a huge problem that pops up all over Touhou, and pretty much any franchise. 

Yes, I'm talking about the dreaded "Powerlevel Argument". Many people wanna figure out who the strongest Touhou is, often times for very petty reasons. And this leads to some of the worst, most frustrating, most awful conversations that you could ever have on the internet. Because it's nothing more than a shouting match of whose headcanon is the best and no one relents. 

Now, obviously this is no good in any context, but let's say you wish to discuss powerlevels in a perfectly civil way. 
It's not that you can't, but in Touhou, it's kind of pointless. Touhou is not a series focused on the might of characters. The rules of spell cards basically make it so that whatever power level you are doesn't really matter because the point of these battles is to be the most beautiful, not win by sheer strength. In a world with various magical beings with all sorts of spells, with levels of strength that can stretch so far away that there is absolutely no chance of winning... things would defintely play out much differently in this series. Nonetheless, as spell card rules aren't about brute strength, even the much weaker characters have a much better chance of winning a very powerful opponent that they would normally have no chance against. It is the perfect method of resolving conflicts without lasting harm, but also allows for conflicts to happen more often. 

Of course, this isn't only half of the issues that can occur. You have characters like Yukari or Flandre who have abilities that sound absolute. Manipulation of Boundaries? Ability to Destroy Anything? WOAH, that sounds soooooo OP right? 

Incredible abilities they may sound like, incredible abilities they may be, but they do not work like you think they are. 
Going back to what I previously said, you should not fall into the logical fallacy. You have not seen Yukari splitting the universe in half, and you have not seen Flandre destroying the concept of death, so why in the world are you stretching the definition this far? Just don't. Please stick with what has been shown in canon. 

And when you consider what's all been shown in canon, you realize quickly that such abilities aren't as great as you think they are. Using Yukari as an example, she has the ability to manipulate boundaries, meaning she could potentially manipulate anything with a duality. However, what exactly does this mean? In what way is it being manipulated? What can she can actually do and with what boundary? Does she actually have access to the assortment of abilities by manipulating a boundary? Can she even destroy a boundary? Can she create boundaries? What dualities are there? 
And when you ask yourself all of these questions, you realize how much actual goes into the ability and how much is not really known about it. We have seen multiple examples of Yukari utlizing her ability, like in PCB, IaMP, or AoCF, however Yukari still has her limits. She cannot travel to the moon whenever she wants for instance. 
Flandre's ability to 'destroy anything' isn't even as it sounds either. The only thing she's been shown destroying are physical objects. The "eyes" of objects are in her palm, and by squeezing these eyes she can make those objects burst. This isn't like pure destruction at all, it's more like she's squeezing something until it pops. What even is an eye? What has an eye? How small or big can an object get before she can't see its "eye" anymore? How many eyes can she burst at once? Does she need to have a visual of what she wants to destroy? etc etc

You likely get my point already. No ability is as it really sounds. You can only go by how it's described in the series. The abilities are also not the be all end all of what a character is capable of doing. Pretty much all characters can do other things besides their listed ability. Using Iku an example, her ability is to "read the atmosphere". She can read messages in the clouds, and she's also very good at adapting to various situations. She is also an oarfish, and is able to utilize the abilities granted to her by the Dragon God to use the powers of Lightning and Wind. So don't try to explain how an ability is related to all they're capable of, like trying to claim Iku's "reading the atmosphere" somehow gives her the ability to use lightning and wind... that's just really stupid. 

Finally, the thing that should be noted about abilities is that they're more expressions of a character's individuality rather than what a character is capable of doing necessarily. Let's look at a very infamous ability, The ability to manipulate fate, by Remilia. Now this sounds like she can manipulate a person's fate correct? Make things happen in such a way according to her will? Here is the thing though. 
1) Her ability has almost no explanation.
2) What is described as being like "manipulating fate" are either spreading curses, or how she changed Sakuya's original name. 
3) Remilia is a notorious liar. This could mean that when her ability is listed as "manipulating fate" it's possible that she's just lying to look cool.

But wait you may ask, how come the abilities are listed in such a way in the omake? Isn't that written in a third-person omniscient, basically like ZUN is the speaker? 

And here is the special thing, while it technically is, it also isn't. 
When you look at the Gensokyo Chronicles (PMiSS, SoPM), Akyuu herself also talks about the *abilities* that characters have. In other words, this is knowledge that people in Gensokyo have access to, such so that even Akyuu writes about it in the Gensokyo Chronicle. So who tells her these things? How does Akyuu get this information? She normally gets this information from accounts of witnesses like Reimu and Marisa, as well as the people/youkai themselves.

This means that these "abilities" are self proclaimed, or proclaimed by other people. So regardless of if the name actually describes what they're capable of doing, that is simply the name that people go by. It shows how the individual expresses themselves, as well as how people may see them in order to name their abilities.

Stan, I'm not touching that one with a 20-foot pole

 

 

Part 3

Alright, time for theories...

Spoiler

So with that in mind, it draws a much clearer picture of what these abilities are. The name of the ability is not really what's important, it's what it can do. 
==Theoretical Questions==

T1. How old are the human characters in Touhou (Reimu, Marisa, etc)? 
That is a complicated question since almost all human characters have no known birth year, but there is some facts that can reasoned from currently existing information. Let's start with Reimu and Marisa. 

As we know, Gensokyo's time runs parallel to our own. We do know the birth month and year of one human character, Hieda no Akyuu. She was born around July of 1994 (Season 109 文月 Fumizuki) which makes her 25 years old (as of 2019 when this document was written). During the events of the Scarlet Mist incident (August 2003), Akyuu would have been 9 years old. Akyuu's first debut in Touhou was in 2006 in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, we know this is 2006, as well as the sister manga short, Memorizable Gensokyo, which show cases how Akyuu was coming up with entries and articles that would be put into the Gensokyo Chronicle. In the year 2006, Akyuu was 12 years old. The way Akyuu was depicted in this manga she was rather small, compared to Reimu and Marisa. Based on this, we can safely say that Reimu and Marisa are older than Akyuu. By how much, we don't know. Since things like genetics and puberty are a thing it could be said that Reimu and Marisa are at least 1 year older than Akyuu. It is impossible that Akyuu is older than Reimu and Marisa. Considering that 6 years later, the debut of the manga series Forbidden Scrollery shows a taller Akyuu (she is as tall, if not taller than Reimu in fact) where she is 18 years old it very clearly shows growth, as well as the fact that Reimu and Marisa (probably) stopped growing themselves around 6 years ago. 

One finally thing to consider is Gensokyo's calendar. Gensokyo runs on two calendar systems as brought out in the Gensokyo Timeline on the wiki. It also uses different names for months. 

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo_Timeline#Month_names

This was first seen in Aya's bunbunmaru news articles in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red. 

Example article: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Bohemian_Archive_in_Japanese_Red/Reimu

Finally, as you can probably see by looking at the timeline, each year has a season number (based after the erection of the Great Hakurei Barrier), a celestial body (sun, moon, star), a season (spring, summer, autumn, winter), and a wu xing element (fire, water, wood, metal, earth). The order given is the order done. This information was brought on by Yukari in Seasonal Dream Vision. 

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Seasonal_Dream_Vision/A_Beautiful_Flower_Blooming_Violet_Every_Sixty_Years

So for instance, in season 120 (2005), it is the year of sun, spring, and earth. In season 121 (2006), it is the year of moon, summer, and fire. 

So based on this information, we can calculate backwards to figure out an appropriate year for when Reimu and Marisa might have been born, as long as it is before 1994 when Akyuu was born. 

2005 (Season 120) Sun, Spring, Earth
2004 (Season 119) Star, Winter, Metal
2003 (Season 118) Moon, Autumn, Wood
2002 (Season 117) Sun, Summer, Water
2001 (Season 116) Star, Spring, Fire 
2000 (Season 115) Moon, Winter, Earth 
1999 (Season 114) Sun, Autumn, Metal 
1998 (Season 113) Star, Summer, Wood 
1997 (Season 112) Moon, Spring, Water 
1996 (Season 111) Sun, Winter, Fire 
1995 (Season 110) Star, Autumn, Earth 
1994 (Season 109) Moon, Summer, Metal (Akyuu's birthyear) 
1993 (Season 108) Sun, Spring, Wood 
1992 (Season 107) Star, Winter, Water 
1991 (Season 106) Moon, Autumn, Fire 
1990 (Season 105) Sun, Summer, Earth 
1989 (Season 104) Star, Spring, Metal 
1988 (Season 103) Moon, Winter, Wood 
1987 (Season 102) Sun, Autumn, Water
1986 (Season 101) Star, Summer, Fire

Another thing to keep in mind is that the years may not necessarily line up with our own. As it is the lunar calendar, the year usually begins around March or April. This would shift the possible years backwards by several months. This is just like the lunar calendar system in the real world, where for example, January 1997 is actually 1996 in the lunar calendar. 

So knowing all of this, it is important to note what elements the protagonists represent. Reimu's element is Wood, while Marisa's element is Water. This is brought out in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, as well as Patchouli's win quotes in Immaterial and Missing Power. 

So looking at the years before 1994, the possibles years that we have are 1993 and 1988 for Reimu, and 1992 and 1987 for Marisa. 

I don't think we should just look at the elements given though. The celestial bodies and seasons also play a role as well. And of all of the years mentioned, 1993 is the most fitting for Reimu, and 1992 is the most fitting for Marisa. 

1993 is the year of Sun, Spring, and Wood. This fits very well with Reimu, as Reimu is compared to not just Wood, but Spring. From her thematics as a Shrine Maiden of the East, as well as the fact that her default element in Hidden Star in Four Seasons being Spring. The Sun in something not expressly associated with Reimu, but she is consider how Yukari describes the sun in SDV, it will make sense. 

"The sun hopelessly fascinates everyone to it, and has so much pride that its presence makes the moon and stars disappear." 

Reimu is someone who always attracts people to her, regardless of if they're youkai or human. 

1992 is the year of Star, Winter, and Water. This fits very well with Marisa, as Marisa is has a lot of water associations from her outfit, to where she lives, and to the fact that her affinity with water is mentioned by multiple people, including herself. Most of all the water association is in her last name, Kirisame, which means drizzle. Winter is a season associated with Water, and her default element in Hidden Star in Four Seasons is Winter. Then there's the star, which is very obviously what has been her motif with her danmaku for the longest time. 

So with this in mind, Reimu would be around 26-27, and with Marisa being around 27-28 (as of 2019). 

As for Sakuya, we don't know. We probably won't ever know. Especially with her powers over time, she could potentially live forever anyway.

In the case of Kosuzu, during one of the manga chapters, Kosuzu remarks herself as "not being much younger than Akyuu". We don't exactly know what this means, but perhaps Kosuzu is at most 5 years younger than Akyuu. Meaning Kosuzu is between 19-24.

As for Sanae, she is most likely the same age as Reimu. If you consider the events of MoF take place in Autumn 2007, Akyuu would be 13 years old. If you consider that Sanae is around Reimu/Marisa's age, she'd have to be around 15 years old. 15 years old is high school age in Japan, so this is possible. 

And just to clear up any confusions, remember to look back at question F9. 

For a long time, I have very much relied my headcanon on this fragment. It provides for an interesting theory, but which might never get a clear answer. One can only hope this could be right, and the whole confusion in Touhou art be coming from an awful lot of incosistencies and artistic liberties. Like in here: 

Myon_evolution1.png

It looks as if Youmu is getting younger with the pasing year and new artistist depicting her in official materials

 

Spoiler

T2. What would happen if Gensokyo ceased to exist? 
It would just stop existing.
Jokes aside, I understand where people are coming from when this question is asked. What they're really trying to say is "What would happen if the Hakurei Barrier disappeared?" 
Just to get it out of the way, but Gensokyo did not start existing when the Hakurei Barrier was erected in 1885. Gensokyo has existed for thousands of years before as an infamous region in full of youkai that terrorized the land. When the barrier was erected, the area was sealed off into "fantasy". The physical area still exists, but the area of Gensokyo is basically hidden unless you find a weakness in the barrier or know how to get in. 
Anyway what would happen if this barrier disappeared you may ask? Well somethings to consider, and that is why did it have to exist in the first place? It is because people in the outside world began to stop believing in the supernatural, and this was a threat to supernatural beings, gods and youkai alike. So in other to preserve the supernatural, the Hakurei Barrier was setup. 

Let's just start with the beings of Gensokyo. 

Humans are perfectly fine, they're just humans. 

Gods and youkai may run into some issues, but let's start with Gods. 

Gods are known to rely on faith, but what would happen to them if the barrier collapsed? Since basically all of the gods in Gensokyo are Shinto gods, what would happen is simple. They would not cease to exist, but they would become forgotten and return to their pure, nameless state. This of course won't apply to all gods, because if the god in question is an Amatsukami (Heavenly god) or Kunitsukami (Earthly god) they will be fine regardless, because these gods existed before humanity even existed. 
Youkai on the other hand have the shorter end of the stick. If a youkai is forgotten, they will cease existing period. There is a way around this, and this is if they write a record of themselves in a youma book. However, they won't come back unless someone reads the book. Regardless though, much weak youkai will die outright. Classical or powerful youkai like Oni, Tengu, Kappa, among others will do just fine though with some struggle. Remember that Mamizou, a Tanuki, was living in the outside world until 2011. A Tanuki, which is a classical youkai. 
Fairies might stop existing outright, or maybe only exist in small, unknown pockets of nature. 
Now the last thing is what would happen to the land? Gensokyo is overlapped on already established land on the outside in the Nagano region of Japan. Youkai Mountain is also Mt. Yatsugatake in Japan, in a state before it was destroyed by Konohana-Sakuyahime. In those instances, I have no idea what would happen. 

I am not too familiar with the mythology of Japan, so I am not very sure what I could add in here.

 

I am honestly not gonna comment on the two theories regarding the powers and abilities of Koishi and Kaguya. If anyone knows a little better, please feel free to contribute. This has already taken me quite a long time to write, and it drained me of energy. Time for another break

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1 hour ago, CountVonNumenor said:

Part 2

Alright, I have finished the general questions. Time to get ito the misconceptions. This is gonna be just as long. Forgive me if I come up with just 1-2 lines for a hyge paragraph, sometimes I just have nothing more or better to say about the topic (or it was already very well covered by the original paragraphs itself).

how could you forget to bring up the most egregious, horrifying misconception of them all?

 

Spoiler

"Cirno is pronounced 'Sir-no' "

If you still think this in 2022, you are baka.

 

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32 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

"Cirno is pronounced 'Sir-no' "

If you still think this in 2022, you are baka.

Yeah, this one is absolutely true. Is it just a thing people do being more used to English prononciations? I have always seen that name as being pronounced something like "Chi-ru-no", which, in a matter of coincidence, fits with the way you pronounce "ci" in Romanian (basically, like the first part of the word "cheap" if I made it easier to understand). I did not mention this misconception because it was not brought up in the paragraph. Every time I hear someone say "Sir-no", I feel a bit like dying inside.

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This entire document was very confusing to me. At first, it seemed to be intended to serve the same function as the forum's "Intro to Touhou" article, but for the fandom rather than just the games. The canonicity questions seemed a bit odd to me, as I didn't think there was much confusion over this, and it seemed a waste of time to separate each question rather than just group them together under "what is canon?" Then it brought up Inaba of the Earth and Inaba of the Moon (which I have never heard of before), and from that point onward each question felt increasingly unnecessary, if not outright gatekeeping. F9 might have functioned well as its own article, but it needed to be a discussion rather than a proscribed "this is how it is, deal with it" (not because the author is wrong, but because presenting it in this way shuts down discussion, in which case why bring it up at all?). The remaining F-questions were all of similar caliber, and despite finding some of the information interesting, I didn't appreciate its presentation.

The problem gets worse going into the "Common Misconceptions" section. The majority of these are harmless misconceptions that aren't going to bother anyone, and the remaining entries are subjects of ongoing discussion in the community that are better served as such (specifically CM1, 8 & 11). Ironically, there's nothing I noticed in the entire post that I disagreed with (though some of the later parts went over my head), but the arrogant and overly invested presentation ruined any interest I initially had at engaging further.

The beauty of Touhou and its imaginative setting is the ability of others to participate in creative ways. This includes discussions of lore interpretations, memes, and even misconceptions. If we're going to take little things like "Sakyua = Dio" memes so seriously as to reprimand in capitals, then we've become too invested in a fictional series.

BTW, this criticism is directed at the original document, not any of the responses, which I'm sure are in good fun.

Edited by Ken Hisuag
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Hello. Nice to see a new answer in here, so I think perhaps I should come back with something too.
 

35 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

BTW, this criticism is directed at the original document, not any of the responses, which I'm sure are in good fun.

Interesting that you focused more on the text itself and not my comments about each paragraph too. Though to be fair, the main text was indeed the attraction of this thread. Also I guess your criticism is towards the original text, and not my notes, right?

 

37 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

This entire document was very confusing to me. At first, it seemed to be intended to serve the same function as the forum's "Intro to Touhou" article, but for the fandom rather than just the games.

All I can say about the document is that I am not he original creator of it, if things were not already clear. This one comes from a big Discord server dedicated to Touhou, and it is pinned as fundamental document on their #lore channel. And since this server seems to be in collaboration with the Discord server of the Touhou wiki, things are becoming even more interesting. 

 

39 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

Then it brought up Inaba of the Earth and Inaba of the Moon (which I have never heard of before)

Truth be told, learning Inaba of the Earth and Inaba of the Moon is not canon was among the first things I got to find out as a Touhou fan. All I know about that manga is that it is not canon (it uses the ZUN characters, but is not affiliated to Team Shanghai Alice), has Reisen and Tewi as protags, and is used by fans as fuel for the idea Kaguya and Mokou might actually be friends/at least care for each other. Otherwise, I am just as unfamiliar with it as you are. 


This is what the wiki says on the canonicity of the manga:
 

Spoiler

Despite being considered an official Touhou work, the canonicity of this manga is highly debatable due to its over-the-top comedic gag nature, events happening in the series that are contradictory to established facts (such as Eirin getting sick despite being a Hourai Immortal), ZUN reportedly being only loosely involved in its creation, and ZUN not being credited as the writer. It could be said that the relationships of certain characters, like the one between Fujiwara no Mokou and Kaguya Houraisan, can be gleaned from Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth as a source (if unreliable) to gauge their relationship. Several events in the comic were also referenced later in official works (the fast growing bamboo in Touhou Hisoutensoku's victory quotes, or Tewi Inaba's colored rabbits scam in Oriental Sacred Place, for example), although these could just be shout-outs.

With the publishing of Strange Creators of Outer World have come the release of a few official Touhou works in recent times. These works being The Gensokyo of Humans, Starving Marisa's Blessed Meal, and The Shinigami's Rowing Her Boat as Usual. They are published under Team Shanghai Alice, and before reading, a "Derivative Work Warning Page" is given. That is because while these works are official, they are not canon. With this in mind, it's possible that if Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth had come out at a later time this work too would have received such a warning.

Anyway, still a weird situation to me if you ask.

 

48 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

F9 might have functioned well as its own article, but it needed to be a discussion rather than a proscribed "this is how it is, deal with it" (not because the author is wrong, but because presenting it in this way shuts down discussion, in which case why bring it up at all?)

Indeed, this could be an entire article all by itself. The topic is interesting, yet also confusing at the same time, and that is why I even came up long ago with a thread in regards to the way characters age and time passes in Gensokyo

Out of curiosity, I have actually gone to read a little bit about the interview with ZUN at the convention in China, and it was quite a read:

Quote

Q: How do you design characters from China? Also, do you plan to introduce more Chinese characters like Meiling, Seiga, and Junko?

A: When you’re delving into Japanese myth you’ll pretty much always run into China, so I’d expect to keep seeing Chinese stories from here on out.

Q: Are there any youkai or gods that aren’t on either the Earth or the moon? If so, are they ever going to appear in the Touhou series?

A: I’m sure there are. I can imagine them, after all.

Q: Who’s the pierrot who appears in the music CD “Dolls in Pseudo Paradise”? Is it a character from a game, or a character just for the music CD? (This question was met with thunderous applause)

A: I don’t know. (Even more applause)

Q: It’s been 24 years since the 109th Season when Akyuu was born, so how is she going to meet her fate? (Large applause)

A: Touhou uses Sazae-san time, so she’s going to live forever (as long as the story keeps going). Akyuu won’t die, and Reimu and the others won’t grow old. That’s Sazae-san time.

Q: What’s the most important thing in making a game? I’ve seen the answer you gave back in 2005, but what do you think now?

A: What’s most important depends on the work itself. So for Touhou I can think of a number of things, but maybe alcohol? (Audience laughs)

Q: At a previous convention you once said “Touhou is an ero game (ie: porn).” What did you mean by that? Do you ever consider adding erotic elements?

A: Danmaku just feels good for some reason. So I guess it’s erotic in that sense? (Large applause)

Q: Is it possible for the Sealing Club members Renko and Merry to ever show up in the same game as Sumireko?

A: When we’re talking about the future, pretty much anything’s possible. So I won’t say no.

Q: Other than games, manga, and novels, what other types of works do you consider making?

A: I can only do so much, so I wouldn’t say I have any particular desire to do anything like that, but if there’s something I can do I like to give it a try.

Q: Do you have any plans to introduce any other kinds of foreign culture into your current worldbuilding?

A: Again, this is about the future, so anything’s possible.

Q: As the founder of Team Shanghai Alice, do you plan to participate in any anime/manga events in Shanghai in the near future?

A: Oh, good idea. Sure, definitely. (Cheers and applause)

Q: I started a Touhou-themed college circle, and we participate in all kinds of events and activities, but do you have any advice?

A: Thank you for having a Touhou circle. I don’t really have any advice, but if I had to say one thing, it’s that you should feel free to quit if it ever stops being fun.

 

(I have posted the whole interview because the rest of the questions & answers go to interesting, weird or just WTF at times, but I guess this is our friendly ZUN being at it again)

with the original tweet and questions https://twitter.com/craback23/status/998490322219892736?s=20&t=kzIceHZBysdRcrXz13L6zg

DdtZm8NUwAAVTPf?format=jpg&name=large

DdtZntxU8AAOR7Z?format=jpg&name=large

 

56 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

despite finding some of the information interesting, I didn't appreciate its presentation.

Yeah, that seems to be a general problem through the text. 

 

57 minutes ago, Ken Hisuag said:

The problem gets worse going into the "Common Misconceptions" section. The majority of these are harmless misconceptions that aren't going to bother anyone, and the remaining entries are subjects of ongoing discussion in the community that are better served as such (specifically CM1, 8 & 11).

I guess sometimes canon purists tend to get very annoyed when fan interpretations create a false image about a character, false image in which newbies could fall into. The "Lunarians = Space Nazis" (CM1) is actually a real problem at the level of the fandom. Same with CM8 and 11. Perhaps they should have been explained in a different way, without what you consider to be an air of superiority (I have not fully read them with enough attention to notice, but it is indeed very much a possibility the text is like that). I guess some people are just too invested into the things (may or may not be the same of people we tell to "go touch grass"?).

 

1 hour ago, Ken Hisuag said:

The beauty of Touhou and its imaginative setting is the ability of others to participate in creative ways. This includes discussions of lore interpretations, memes, and even misconceptions. If we're going to take little things like "Sakyua = Dio" memes so seriously as to reprimand in capitals, then we've become too invested in a fictional series.

Very nice way to put it. I could not have expressed it better, as most probably I would have gone into an overthought explanation. But seriously though, some might be a little too invested into this fictional universe. Which is another one of those moments making me wonder if Touhou isn't actually a new religion by now, with ZUN's works as gospel (at how religions/things people believe in nowadays seems to work, it might actually become a religion soon). Touhou-ism...

 

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