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So, the results of the Touhou Popularity Poll 2022 are up...


CountVonNumenor

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Well, at least there has been no alleged voting fraud this year... It's been a day already since the results have been published, and let's ay it has been interesting. Flandre is the absolute queen this year, having won not only the character vote, but also the music section as well (and works too by extension with EoSD ranking #1 spot). 

After one day, I thought things would clear up in terms of how to treat the results of the popularity poll. However, the only thing I feel now is sheer disappointment. "I am not mad, just disappointed" applies perfectly here. About what exactly to be disappointed?  I feel like slowly starting to descend into a hate phase, especially towards EoSD and all the "normie"/basic bitch stuff regarding Touhou. This is not healthy, so I may need help for getting over it. Why has Flandre won this year? There are a few reasons everyone talks about. 1) General character appeal - I never really cared about Flandre as a character. 2) Flandre came back after 20 years not only as a feature, but also as playable in an official game - I do not care about 17.5 more than just "funny goat with spork" and Stage 3 theme. 3) Fanon reinforcement especially in recent times - I seriously could not care more about Internet Survivor (I honestly believe it is a forgettable song - listened to it once, then never wanted/did not care to listen again).

But yeah, after all, I am also that kind of idiot who casts his vote on characters like Akyuu, Eiki or Raiko, so who the hell am I to talk. I guess I might also be salty for the fact everyone I voted for has fallen in popularity, some by quite a bit. 

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But for something more interesting, the results since the first popularity poll updated:

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Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/xmsrce/top_25_touhou_popularity_poll_results_through_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 


But let's see what others think about this year's results. Mine are not very relevant, so better just stick with the masses.

 

  • Appear as an extra boss in a 2002 game
  • Refuse to elaborate further
  • Never appear again
  • Become one of the most popular characters
  • Reappear 20 years later to kill an oil-addicted goat
  • Reach #1 in the popularity poll

(guy forgot about Internet Survivor)

 

  • "Why is Hecatia increasing in popularity? She's nowhere near the top, of course, but going from 42 to 34 to 29 looks like a pretty big uptick to me. Probably a bit due to the mobile game (Touhou Lost Word), since she’s a prominent character there and a strong unit."

 

  • "Marisa Second Place [:Marisad:]. Edit: I counted the amount of times Marisa has ended up in 2nd place. This is the 10th time she has gotten 2nd place."

 

  • Time to check in on your picks
  • Wriggle has jumped for the second year in a row, yaaay brainrot is spreading
  • Seija remains around 30-ish
  • Shimmy has dropped again. Consider the following: Wriggle is now more popular than Shinmyoumaru.
  • Okuu remains in the 35-40 range, Byakuren remains in the 45-50 range. It's so weird that they're not higher. Maybe it's an english vs. japanese fandom thing.
  • Nue remains in the 40-45 range. I love Nue but it seems super weird that she's more popular than Byakuren.
  • Cirno is at 15! She's making a comeback.

OTHER THINGS

  • I would like to shout out to the person that picked Salt Merchant as their #1.
  • Despite Cirno rising, Daiyousei continues to fall super hard. Fanon is no longer helping
  • On the flipside, Koakuma is rising super hard for no reason. Fanon is helping
  • Kogasa and Kokoro have left the top 20, Rumia and Suwako have re entered. I guess it's brainrot from someone.
  • Shout out to Kutsutsura, the least popular Touhou. I would think that a Touhou character's shoes would have some fans.

 

  • "There's two people (count them, 2!) that voted for Kasen's arm as their favourite character. Let me repeat that. Two. Who voted for an arm. As their favourite character. Over the character the arm belongs to."
  •  
  • "Honestly considering what I see of the fandom I'm surprised that there wasn't some giant collaborative effort to get Cirno to come 9th... (none that I saw at least, certainly not a successful one)"
     
  • [best description I have seen for Touhou 17.5]: "Disabled backdoor woman busts locked child out of a basement to kill an oil addicted goat"

 

  • "I don't think so. I'm thinking it is due Flandre depicts an important part of Touhou Project like the Creeper would mean for Minecraft despite is a character that isn't too frequently present in canon but along with the years as much people was joining in the fandom, people began to embody who's Flandre by fanworks that were created and her music from EoSD. I'd say Flandre is a characters that does better in fanon that canon after all and not just because Internet Survivor, Lost Word (Gouyoku Ibun or Cheating Detective Satori in Canon), it's been all. I'm more impressed by the fact this is the year where people voted the most."

     
  • "I’m honestly not surprised, and to be honest I would’ve put in a vote for her since she’s growing on me as of recent, but I ran out of slots. I think there was a perfect storm for Flandre to take first place this year for a couple of reasons: 1) EoSD’s 20th anniversary. 2) Flandre’s sudden return to the games in 17.5, and as a playable character for that matter. 3) Internet Survivor Flandre being released just about a month ago. 4) Flandre receiving a popular and powerful alt in LostWord. These are just a few that came to my mind. Now normally I would have a rant about EoSD constantly overshadowing other games in the series in popularity polls but given that it was its 20th anniversary this year, I think it’s fair that it receives the spotlight this year. I’m glad Marisa got 2nd place at least."

 

  • "Kinda sad that the vote for music almost the same like last year. Kinda hope for more people to listen the underrated one."
     
  • "Yuyuko has lost, henceforth, as I promised, I have punched someone. Also why the hell is TENSHI so low?"
     
  • "Jeez, she won in all three categories, of course in games and music it'd be hard for other things to win but the difference between first and second was really small."
     
  • "😭and beatMARIO are unstoppable"

 

  • "Alright, alright, I know there’s going to be lot of salt and discussion about the character polls especially with flan winning, but lets talk about the real upset here. That’s right we’re talking about the music votes, specifically, the sheer *disrespect* for the songs on the music CDs. Now I get it, music CDs aren't as popular as the game’s OST for an obvious reason but COME ON. "Blue Sea of 53 Minutes" is all the way at two hundred twenty fucking four (224)! "Magical Astronomy", one of the best songs ZUN has ever written is at 249. Not that the normal songs were done right either, Momoyo's theme deserves better and the fighting game songs are being slept on hard. Point is, y'all are missing out."

 

  • "I knew Flandre was going to take first place sooner or later. Youmu can't keep that streak of staying in first place for the third time and Reimu can't win again because she won enough times before. Give the other gals a chance to be number one."

 

  • Seeing my votes and where they got placed:
  • Letty's at 101st. Letty almost got into the 2 digits... Almost... (I'm one of the 86 who had Letty as their top vote)
  • Shizuha's at 89th, separated from her sister sadly.
  • Okina's at 43rd, nice nice...
  • Kaguya's at 40th, pretty good. (Mokou's at 8th though, haha harhar...)
  • Aya's at 12th, my favorite number, ayayaya!
  • Koishi's at 6th, she fell out of the top 5...
  • And Marisa's at 2nd. Unfortunate, she was only a few hundred votes away. Flandre's pretty cool though. Internet Survivor is a real banger!

 

  • "I'd like to mention Mokou being 8th. In every single category. She is also the EX boss of the 8th game in the series. And within IN she is the 8th new character to be introduced. And last year she was also 8th. It's perfect." (Reply: I blame Khorne - Count's note: Khorne is the good of blooshed in the Warhammer universe (also his "sacred" number is 8); he is one of the main 4 gods of an alternative realm called Chaos, which tends to connect itself with the real space through the Warp; I will explain more later for anyone interested)

 

  • "No Scarlet Sandwich this year and Reimu is losing popularity."

 

  • "No cap that's very surprising. Was expecting Reimu & Marisa to be 1 & 2 as usual. But not only did flan take 1st place, Marisa overtook Reimu as well. I wonder how much the new wave of western fans have affected the results..."

 

  • "Mokou is basically the winner, since all the characters above her are the faces of Touhou and the faces of a series can never be defeated when it comes to popularity. Mokou is the first character on the list who is not an absolute fan favourite, meaning that only people who really, really like her voted for her. And the difference in points between 7 and 8 is almost as big as the difference between 8 and 9. Meaning she has the most fans. Mokou Army represent."

 

  • [Spotted the Fortune Teller stan]: "Why is the fucking fortune teller 104th?"

 

  • User 1: "I don't like this top 5. Seems the most people only know Touhou 6 and 7 occasionally. There are so cool characters and a lot of them would earn this places much more than the Standard, mainstream ones."
  • User 2: "True. Honestly it really sucks that SOMEHOW the Touhou 6 and 7 characters are the most popular, when I personally feel like there are better characters out there... oh well. What can I really do?"
  • User 3: "I mean, the protagonists and the EoSD/PCB characters have way more canon manga/print work/game appearances than any other character (except rare cases like Mamizou). Look at the cast of EoSD, everyone in there is either a protagonist (Sakuya and Cirno) or is playable (Remilia, Sakuya, Cirno, Meiling, Patchouli and Flandre). Cirno got her own game and Flandre is the only character other than Reimu who ever solved an incident in the .5 games. There's plenty of reasons to like them."

     
  • "Man, Okina is #43 🥲 Well, at least most of the songs I voted are on the top (Idolatrize World being #6 is neat but I thought it was going to be a little higher) and Flan won, which is cool!"

 

Some fun things about the music ranks that I noticed:

  • The music section doesn't change throughout the top 20, with the only exception being the sudden jump of Reisen's theme, about 8 ranks is quite high, especially since she doesn't have any new remixes and the top 20 is very competitive (maybe because of gacha games?).
  • Junko's theme keeps sinking lower and lower (sad Junko's fanboy noise).
  • The highest jump is Scarlet Tower ~ Eastern Dream (EoSD staff roll), which is 29th from 68th, 39 ranks increased, whereas the lowest sink is The Princess Who Slays Dragon Kings (Momoyo 's theme), which drops from 49 to 80, about 31 ranks lower. (Technically, there are some songs that jump higher or drop lower, but they are at the bottom half, and most of the time the number of votes is only about 2 digits, so not very meaningful).
  • However, the theme that falls the hardest is Inchlings of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess (Shinmy's theme), which completely disappeared from the top 20 (19 before), and now sits quietly at 32.
  • Shanghai Teahouse ~ Chinese Tea and The Gensokyo The Gods Loved, those two songs always follow closely together lol, they have stuck with each other from 2016 till now.
  • Both themes associated with Hina received a sudden rise in popularity, and her rank increased by 3, guess she has some new dedicated fans?


Now about the character:

The top 20 are all fan-favorited, so there is nothing new to report. But some statistics:

 

Highest

Lowest

EoSD

Flandre

Daiyousei

PCB

Youmu

Lyrica

IN

Mokou

Wriggle

PoFV

Aya

Medicine

MoF

Sanae

Minoriko

SA

Koishi

Kisume

UFO

Kogasa

Ichirin (or Unzan)

TD

Miko

Kyouko

DDC

Seija

Yatsuhashi

LoLK

Junko (Hecatia right after)

Ringo

HSiFS

Okina

Nemuno

WBaWC

Cake (Keiki)

Urumi

UM

Chimata

Sannyo

Print works

Kasen

Mizuchi

Spin-off

Tenko (Tenshi)

Hatate

 

Stage

Character

Rank

1

Rumia

17

2

Cirno

15

3

Alice

11

4

Satori

9

5

Youmu

4

6

Remilia

8

Extra

Flandre

1

The highest playable character is, of course, Flandre, but not counting her (and other fan-favorites for obvious reasons), then Futo at 37 (Nitori at 35 if you count SA), and the lowest is Ichirin at 114 (which is like really weird if you asked me, even a random fortune teller is more famous than her). HSiFS casts are the lowest amongst all the characters, with the highest being Okina and the second highest being Aunn at 95, all the others are past 100.

 

  • What caused the rise of Rumia so much? And Momiji
     
  • I will never not be sad about Ran and Iku's lack of recognition. I will be happy about Ran's 34, though.
     
  • Ofc the overrated shitheads win again
     
  • Mima up to 75th place from 82nd, I will take this W

 

Anyway, congratulations to the winners of this year

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Honestly, all three tops are quite disappointing. Overrated characters got the character top (Mokou gang forever though) - all of them are either too popular because of simply being popular. The music top is rigged and the most disappointing, many good themes are somewhere in the depths. I feel like first three should't be taken into consideration. Game top is not really surprising or disappointing, people tend to play EoSD and IN only since first one is the most popular and first windows game, and IN because it is called "the easiest" game.

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I'm going to be honest here. I think some people are taking the results way too seriously. At the end of the day, the popularity poll is just meant to be something fun for the community. It shouldn't affect how you feel about certain characters and themes, since it's your vote that matters the most. That being said, I love all the characters, so I'm happy with any outcome!

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4 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I'm going to be honest here. I think some people are taking the results way too seriously. At the end of the day, the popularity poll is just meant to be something fun for the community. It shouldn't affect how you feel about certain characters and themes, since it's your vote that matters the most. That being said, I love all the characters, so I'm happy with any outcome!

I agree with this sentiment. It's a popularity poll, so I'm always quite puzzled that people are disappointed or angry or whatever when the popular thing inevitably wins. EoSD might not be my favorite shooter and U. N. Owen might not be my favorite song, but regardless of whether you consider them "overrated" or whatever the ultimate outcome is the same:

  • "I think they're overrated" - Why be disappointed with the results then? If the number of people that like it exceeds what you expect then it placing high should be no surprise (as being disappointed entails that you had different expectations).
  • "I don't think they're overrated, but (less popular thing) is better so it should've won/placed higher/etc." - That's not the point. Fans of a medium aren't automatically experienced critics, and most people won't use high placements on a popularity poll to discover new works/songs/whatever anyways because if it placed high on a popularity poll there's a pretty good chance they already know about it.

Is this just the innate human underdog effect where they desperately want to root for the less likely candidate even in this scenario where the premise of the contest is to gauge the exact opposite? Who knows.

(Also, as a side note, I believe most people like Internet Survivor for the high effort and passionately-made PV more so than the song itself.)

And now that the civilized part of the post is over, ahem

Spoiler

WE WIN FLANDRE BROS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KOISHI AND YOUMU BTFOOO RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH #FLANDRESWEEP

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33 minutes ago, Isaac said:

I'm going to be honest here. I think some people are taking the results way too seriously. At the end of the day, the popularity poll is just meant to be something fun for the community. It shouldn't affect how you feel about certain characters and themes, since it's your vote that matters the most. That being said, I love all the characters, so I'm happy with any outcome!

 

15 minutes ago, ACE_DEUCE said:

I agree with this sentiment. It's a popularity poll, so I'm always quite puzzled that people are disappointed or angry or whatever when the popular thing inevitably wins. EoSD might not be my favorite shooter and U. N. Owen might not be my favorite song, but regardless of whether you consider them "overrated" or whatever the ultimate outcome is the same:

 

Yeah, i guess that is true. I guess though many of us become very invested in this whole thing and the whole "waifu" idea that you forget the whole purpose of the poll - having fun. It just stings though to see when someone you like/appreciate is pretty much falling in popularity/in becoming irrelevant. Combined with seeing characters you do not care of score higher...yeah. 

Whenever I become too invested in something, I end up forgetting to have fun with it. 

 

15 minutes ago, ACE_DEUCE said:

(Also, as a side note, I believe most people like Internet Survivor for the high effort and passionately-made PV more so than the song itself.)

Perhaps I should give it a second chance. I see it is a popular song, yet after one listen, I did not feel like I wanted to hear it again. But the video in itself looked good. Focusing it on Flan might be what did no tick for me, as she is one of the second half on the tier list character for me (never found the appeal of the vampire loli idea). But again, maybe the song is better than I remember (I literally can't remember anything out of it). So why not. Again, at the end of the opening post I did congratulate the winners of this year. If you are a person that likes Touhou 6, this sure has been your lucky year - also happy birthday, as the game turned 20 just less than a couple months ago.   

 

15 minutes ago, ACE_DEUCE said:

WE WIN FLANDRE BROS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KOISHI AND YOUMU BTFOOO RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGH #FLANDRESWEEP

Glad to see you are happy. As long as people are happy, I am happy too. 

 

15 minutes ago, ACE_DEUCE said:

"I don't think they're overrated, but (less popular thing) is better so it should've won/placed higher/etc." - That's not the point. Fans of a medium aren't automatically experienced critics, and most people won't use high placements on a popularity poll to discover new works/songs/whatever anyways because if it placed high on a popularity poll there's a pretty good chance they already know about it.

Personally, I would not have said "overrated" as much as "overused". I can understand these have been fan-favorites for 2 decades now, but it is always funny the surprise when something completely unexpected goes up in the ranks. Also perhaps I may need a break, as there were moments when I had the feeling the entirety of Touhou fandom revolves around EoSD. Not that is completely bad, but I feel there are other other things in this vast ocean called Touhou people forget about way too easily. Be it a song, a character etc. If you dig enough through the series, you may find more things you did not expect to enjoy. 


Also please keep in mind. Everything below the linked thread from r/touhou are quotes taken from the comment section. They do not reflet the view of that who wrote this thread here on Moriya, so take it as somebody else's interpretation of what is going on.

Edited by CountVonNumenor
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Honestly I tend to disregard looking at the top picks in favor of seeing how the lower ones stack up against each other, as it's much more interesting to me. I'll admit, as someone who makes derivative work (music) and occasionally helps others with fan projects/jam games, I care a bit more about what other people care about to an extent. It's useful data to gauge what fans on average are interested in.

However, personally, I find the results disappointing. It's not a "I wish my favorite character won" but more of a "Oh boy, I can't wait for more derivative works to focus only on the casts from the first few Windows games again". I'm a fan, I consume fanworks. Sometimes I want a little more variety in the things I consume. EoSD often feels like it casts this huge shadow over the rest of the series in that regard. It sort of reminds me of how Generation I is to the Pokemon franchise, but in the fanwork sphere.

With that all said, I definitely understand everything that led to Flandre getting 1st, being 17.5, the 20th Anniversary of EoSD, and apparently some fanmade things I'm not entirely in-the-know about.

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23 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

But for something more interesting, the results since the first popularity poll updated:

I can proudly say that Meiling is still here in the vast top 25th. Although, the cast from 16th onwards to 18th is appeared to be missing. 

I don't really know how I feel about her taking most of the categories. Maybe I'm slaty that EoSD is overshadowing the other titles but perhaps, I'm proud she is at the first place for the first time. In any case, it turned out to be a surprise since I foresaw that her theme will stay at top 5. Lo and behold, would you look at that.

On 9/25/2022 at 9:16 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

But yeah, after all, I am also that kind of idiot who casts his vote on characters like Akyuu, Eiki or Raiko, so who the hell am I to talk.

Do you need a hand on that matter? Cause evidently, I happen to be one of those people.

On 9/25/2022 at 9:16 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

guess she has some new dedicated fans?

Call and they will arrive.

 

I really wish that our older cast and newer cast got a place in the ranking. As much as damm EoSD being one of my first games. I believe it's time to move on. I will wait for that day; doubt I'll be alive by then. Anyways, happy voting everyone.

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Truly is Yin & Yang. 

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4 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

Meiling up woohoo.

 

 

Now I'm being reminded of burning meiling, I wanna see her and Byakuren square off so bad 

i love that series, the fights were so good and i wish it continued. i like how they didnt make her win every single fight she did either, power level differences were believable. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/26/2022 at 6:17 PM, Darksymphony777 said:

Now I'm being reminded of burning meiling,

I've always been curious about that series. I should really check it out one day...

 

On 9/26/2022 at 7:50 AM, Ka Takane said:

Hey, that's my comment lol

Oh, nice to have found you. Enjoy the cameo :KoishiXD:
 

On 9/26/2022 at 5:52 PM, Gou the frog said:

Although, the cast from 16th onwards to 18th is appeared to be missing. 

I have already pointed that out a few minutes ago in the other popularity poll thread. It is quite a shame there is something about these characters preventing them from scoring higher. Like I said, it is a stark contrast from the game up to SA, an era when debuting characters could score #1 or at least top 5 with just a brief appearance in that game. The map of each year's top 20 from the opening post might show that quite clearly. 
 

On 9/26/2022 at 5:52 PM, Gou the frog said:

Do you need a hand on that matter? Cause evidently, I happen to be one of those people.

Oh, so I guess we are on the same boat. Welcome to the club! 

 

On 9/26/2022 at 7:39 AM, Turbonator said:

#cunnysweep

Seems like the power of cunny 😭 has been rather intense nowadays, or at least the meme still holds some relevance. Not only when it comes to Touhou, but apparently with the rest of anime too. Or maybe I just spent too much time around a bunch of degenerates...

 

On 9/26/2022 at 2:08 AM, Eulogous said:

Honestly I tend to disregard looking at the top picks in favor of seeing how the lower ones stack up against each other, as it's much more interesting to me. I'll admit, as someone who makes derivative work (music) and occasionally helps others with fan projects/jam games, I care a bit more about what other people care about to an extent. It's useful data to gauge what fans on average are interested in.

Interesting point. It reminds me of a few more more people who were saying they preferred looking at the chart from the lowest places first to the top, only to see something different than the same 5-6 2hus always taking the same places every year. But I can see why a content creator would try to align with the more popular stuff, as it could bring them more publicity and fans interested in that thing. 
 

On 9/26/2022 at 2:08 AM, Eulogous said:

However, personally, I find the results disappointing. It's not a "I wish my favorite character won" but more of a "Oh boy, I can't wait for more derivative works to focus only on the casts from the first few Windows games again". I'm a fan, I consume fanworks. Sometimes I want a little more variety in the things I consume. EoSD often feels like it casts this huge shadow over the rest of the series in that regard. It sort of reminds me of how Generation I is to the Pokemon franchise, but in the fanwork sphere.

Honestly, this is exactly the same feeling I had. Not so much about my favorites scoring low (they had low chance to even dream scoring high anyway) as it was about the same things ending up being overused...again. It feels as if the whole series only resumes and revolves around this select few characters and songs (in the case of Touhou being EoSD, maybe PCB and IN too, while for Pokemon it is Gen 1 like you pointed out). 

 

On 9/26/2022 at 2:08 AM, Eulogous said:

With that all said, I definitely understand everything that led to Flandre getting 1st, being 17.5, the 20th Anniversary of EoSD, and apparently some fanmade things I'm not entirely in-the-know about.

Indeed, Flandre and EoSD had a magic year, where a lot of things came together neatly for boosting its popularity. By now, I have ended up just growing indifferent to what happened, and just got back to my regular business of enjoying my favorites parts of the series.

 

Huh, it's been a long time and only now did I manage to finally catch up and reply to what has been going on. Sorry for all the waiting

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