A question I have about Touhou's legacy.

[FiliStradivarius]

There's no doubt that Touhou is one of, if not THE biggest fandom in the world. Literally every one has fallen in love with the world of Gensokyo and the characters that reside in it.

But, I have to ask. How did Touhou get popular and why?
I mean, characters like Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Flandre are remembered mostly for their appearance. A bit like Sephiroth from FF7. At least, that's what I can gather. They aren't exactly what I would call "compelling characters" or anything like that.

But then again, that probably isn't needed, because nobody really plays the games for the story, right?

So. I have a theory. Call it crackpot if you will, but hear me out.
I think the reason why Touhou and it's characters became so popular is the same reason Team Fortress 2 became popular. It's a combination of solid game play, characters with memorable personalities, in-jokes, memes, cool locations, and an obsession with silly hats.

Okay, that last part is mostly TF2, but I think you get the point. Heck, I think that might explain why Touhou and TF2 crossover with each other constantly. Both of them are extremely popular shooters with only one gender and both are extremely ridiculous (mostly for TF2).

Not to mention, both have huge amounts of fan content. TF2 has tons of SFM animations, and Touhou also has a lot of music videos. I think the reason the community exists is because the community is partially responsible for it's own existence, and is the result of a pre-destination paradox.

 

[sol ^_^]

honestly thats a good theory, but after EoSD came out, its popularity somehow just... existed of thin air. personally I think that touhou got popular via music, but got even more popular by the fandom with their memes and such

 

[FiliStradivarius]

Like I said, the fandom is partially responsible for it's own existence, and is the result of a pre-destination paradox.

"I've got causality loops of steel."
~Duke Nukem, maybe.

 

[Drunken_Flower]

musik

 

[Heffmoney]

It's folklore.

Prior to the movie theater, the way people told stories was a participative process. Instead of having one author, or worse, company "owning" the rights to dead characters, there would be multiple authors, each with their own spin on the characters and stories. People would pass these stories and traditions on from generation to generation. Through the process of retelling, the characters would change. They'd be "alive" in a manner of speaking. But now we live in an age of "reason". Where everything is as dead as the machines which rule over us.

For the polar opposite extreme, consider Star Wars. For those of you in gen z, there was a long time between the original trilogy and the prequels where it truly seemed another movie would never be made. A lot of licensed fan works, books, video games, comics, etc. created the "Legacy" canon. Characters did agreed upon things that didn't happen in the movies, and characters were created. For example everyone agreed Luke Skywalker would go on to marry a woman named Mara Jade. Then Disney bought the rights and decided all that didn't happen. The corporation asserted that it and it alone would get to tell the story, and everyone else would merely consume the story.

That isn't normal for the human experience.

Plus you have the fact that Touhou draws heavily from Japanese folklore, even history. Many of the characters were inspired by real life people, deities people once worshipped, and monsters people once feared. (Obviously everyone and everything got turned into an anime girl, but, meh.)

Make no mistake, Touhou is a pagan religion with a video game series attached to it. This fandom is built upon a deep human desire to connect with past generations that was "oh so wisely" severed in the 1960s. The method is a little different in that it uses the internet rather than the local watering hole.

The monks at the real life Moriya shrine must be laughing their asses off.

 

[FlyingTurtle02]

This is probably a minor aspect compared to its humongous fandom, but the games have an unreal amount of replay value.

Each game is like 40 mins long in total but takes an eternity to master. Now, why would you want to master such a game? The music and beautiful danmaku are probably more than enough reason to. Even if you lose the motivation to play for while, you could consume all sorts of touhou doujin media in the meantime: music, art, games, etc.

By consuming this media you simultaneously build up the motivation to play again, continuing the cycle.

I've been stuck in this loop for years and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[von Kurtos]

Greetings,

Personally, I think that Touhou's reputation will always remain a mystery, and that its popularity has been caused by a myriad of things that are vaguely and generally attractive to people, but somewhat different from person to person. I'm assuming that a lot of people in the community have asked other fans why they chose to occupy themselves with the game in the first place, and have gotten very diverse results; at least, that's my experience with interviewing fellow members. Some have told me that the Touhou lore has become a passion for them, while others have simply admitted that it's really all about cute girls. These two examples are about as radically different as you can get, so it's obvious to me that there's a wide variety of reasons as to why people enjoy Touhou. For example, I'm on a forum explaining my somewhat unclear perspective on why people like the Touhou series without even having any psychological studies or actual proof; all of this is just anecdotes, albeit hopefully easily recognizable ones. So, from my point of view, I joined the community to discuss with other people because I felt that this game series would have a fanbase with mostly lukewarm behavior; this is yet another motive that is easy to encounter among the majority, however, the conversational subject differs. Some may want to discuss game mechanics in-depth, others may prefer giving advice on writing game related fanfiction, while I personally am writing a completely useless mini-essay to showcase my subjective conclusion regarding this famous community.

Even if you lose the motivation to play for while, you could consume all sorts of touhou doujin media in the meantime: music, art, games, etc.

To me, this feels like a mix of curiosity and herd mentality; the first one, because seeing anime wallpapers with the same five anime girls should naturally intrigue someone, and the latter, because you may be encouraged to understand the origins of the same five anime girls, since you feel like they're all over the place and you need to know too, therefore being like your image of the majority. Also, Touhou media covers basically everything that could appeal to the average person, so you're at least bound to like a small portion of it.

Plus you have the fact that Touhou draws heavily from Japanese folklore, even history. Many of the characters were inspired by real life people, deities people once worshipped, and monsters people once feared.

Your point about folklore is especially interesting, but I found that the majority of people I have spoken to (as a quick disclaimer, I have likely talked more to people from the Western hemisphere, so results may vary, but this seems like a safe generalization as not every Touhou fan is from Japan, nor are they well-versed in the country's mythology; I personally do not know much about its culture) do not actually comprehend the origins of the characters. Therefore, your theory about relations to previous traditions seems a bit iffy in my opinion, but what I agree with is that it's basically human desire to tell stories and show your point of view on a certain topic. There's a lot of factors that have determined the open-ended character of the whole series, and I think you are especially right when you mention Disney. I believe that it's not exactly folklore, but more like a combination of things that have brought out the need to storytell within people.

It's a combination of solid game play, characters with memorable personalities, in-jokes, memes, cool locations, and an obsession with silly hats.

To sum it up, that'd be it, in my opinion. They're just some nice games that offer a bunch of media to understand afterwards. It doesn't contain whatever engrossing social commentary about current world issues, it's simply something easy to enjoy for most people, and that's exactly what makes it all great in a time period where everyone wants to be something grand.