Fanservice in Touhou, at least as much as I have seen yet

[Gou the frog]

Honestly it does get a little ecchi (monster musume is a somewhat horny manga) a character named papi, a harpy proceeds to get groped by another character named suu who is a slime while cosplayed as okuu (suu is the costume since....well she can do stuff no other slime can). Which gets overshadowed by the fact that the manga also did a metal gear solid reference by having snek girl miia hide in a cardboard box

..while also dressed as snake. Yes this is a real thing, if you want I can provide proof

I'm not sure if I want to see the proof but sounds somewhat interesting? 

I'll brace for the worst.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

One more interesting Byakuren fact. People consider as a bit of fanservice the fact she has PC-98 inspired spell-cards. In a way, it actually makes a bit of sense, given that she was sealed away in Makai for a long time. To quote the wiki about those spell-cards:
 

• During her second-to-last (fourth) spell card on Easy, the stars under the health bar show she has two lives left. She does, but only on higher difficulties. The same spell card looks like one of Shinki's attack patterns.
  
• Byakuren's Lotus Butterfly seems to be a reference to YuugenMagan's evil eyes. The two share a similar presentation and shoot similar danmaku patterns. This, of course, makes sense as Byakuren, like YuugenMagan, appears in Makai.
  

Guess it counts as fanservice due to the fact it was also created in order to appeal to old PC-98 era players?

 

[Gou the frog]

Guess it counts as fanservice due to the fact it was also created in order to appeal to old PC-98 era players?

It count as fan service for the old ones.

I think if Zun make Mima returned to the mine series, that'll be the biggest fanservice in the history of Touhou. I think that she once appeared in an official manga? (Memories are a bit foggy). It's a win-win for both Zun and the community. Considering she is the one character that haven't showed up the games yet from the Pc-98 era. The old fans will appreciate it and I Gou too shall since she is one of my first character that I've seen after joining Touhou.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

I think that she once appeared in an official manga? (Memories are a bit foggy)

Indeed, Mima did appear once in the Windows era. However, it was on the cover for Akyuu's Untouched Score vol. 4

 

[Gou the frog]

Indeed, Mima did appear once in the Windows era. However, it was on the cover for Akyuu's Untouched Score vol. 4

I was right after all, thank you for clarifying it further.

 

[Darksymphony777]

I'm not sure if I want to see the proof but sounds somewhat interesting? 

I'll brace for the worst.

did you mean metal gear snek or okuu harpy cosplayer getting slimed

View attachment 2464

 

[Gou the frog]

did you mean metal gear snek or okuu harpy cosplayer getting slimed

I was expecting both of them actually. This being in the horny zone worried me a bit.

 

[Darksymphony777]

This being in the horny zone worried me a bit.

just be lucky i didn't show the previous page where we saw a naked harpy chest, i may be dumb but i'm not stupid to show THAT

 

[CountVonNumenor]

just be lucky i didn't show the previous page where we saw a naked harpy chest, i may be dumb but i'm not stupid to show THAT

I think marking it as spoiler would have been the best option. However, I am not here to complain - that would be pure hypocrisy. 
Now I wonder where this discussion could be taken next, if there is still interest for it. 

 

[Isaac]

Not sure if it's relevant to this topic but I remembered last year (around May) I did a Pixiv search to see which character has the most horny art. Because.

This is the top 50 I think? (Left one by total; right one by percentage of all works)

Spoiler

Thanks again for providing research, it's interesting to see even if I hate this type of content. I feel bad for Kasen, Sanae and others.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

By noticing a few of the stats in that chart:

Sanae - 13.7%
Eirin - 13%
Byakuren - 12.6%
Reisen Udongein Inaba - 12%
Ran Yakumo -11.8%
Yorihime & Toyohime - 11.6% (each)
Patchouli - 11.3%
Yuugi - 10.5%
Yukari - 10.15%
Sakuya - 10.1%
Aya - 10%
Iku - 9.87%
Raiko - 9.85%
Keine - 9.81%
Yuuka - 9.61%

Now time for the observations. Some of these numbers seem to be rather obvious (I will be mostly try to refer to just the fanservice kind of having undressed characters, and try stay as far as possible from anything involving intercourse unless it becomes relevant):
 

• Sanae did get some sort of "fanservice" reputation in the fandom, and I do not understand the reason why. Many people I ask refer to her as "Reimu, but fanservice", "Reimu, but with boobs" or simply as "doujin fam". Did this come to be just because of one doujin in which Sanae is called a "good girl"? Even the wiki mentions that doujin when referring to her fanon material. 
  
• I am not very sure how Eirin got so high on her spot, even if it is just percentage-wise. Maybe he fact she might be as old as the world and her more womanly look have been a factor to ensure people they will not just end up drawing CP? (it is not like like Eirin is usually placed in the "old ladies club" of Gensokyo)
  
• Byakuren is interesting. I can imagine that her biker outfit from the fighters was a boost to this, but I am not sure how far you can actually go from that towards proper R-18 material.
  
• Reisen is probably another one of the more (in)famous cases. I know she is a bunny girl and all, therefore fanservice and smut fuel. An for further reference, I even did get a bit into the famous "Drunkards in Eintei" doujin, from where we got the famous "I'm just a useless little bunny, only good for my sex appeal", in order to see what gave people the decision to feature her so much in smut. It is funny how one simple line in a doujin just encouraged the tendency of having Reisen featured in H-doujins and art. 
  

Spoiler

The (in)famous line in its original context (spoiler for obvious reasons)

• About Ran Yakumo, I am not very sure what to say. Probably association with Kitsune usually shaping as attractive women? Also the fanon meme of the "suppatenko" (exhibitionist Ran)  or something...
  
• Yorihime & Toyohime -  I am honestly amazed they even get H-material, given how unpopular they are in the fandom. Maybe it is more about revenge stuff (not gonna mention the r-word) and that 1% made out of Fusu art (gonna get there soon)?
  
• Patchouli - probably coming from an interesting concept we, humans, have created - "the forbidden fruit". In this case, the principle is simple: the more clothes a character has on, covering everything, the greater the desire to see them without those clothes. This principle might work on all 2hus, given how much ZUN likes covering them with as much clothing as possible. And since Patchouli has all those robes on her...it becomes obvious.  Is this how it works, or logic leaves me on this one?
  
• Yuugi - really not sure what to say on her. Big buff woman, I guess?
  
• Yukari - the reasons seem to be obvious. However, I cannot really come up with them right now. A bit of help?
  
• Sakuya - a bit and not so surprising at the same time to be in the category of characters with so much "saucy" works around her. How did this come to be? Is i a mutation of the pads meme? The only one such work I know is the one about Sakuya getting stuck through a wall (typical H-trope from what I can see - how do people even manage to get half stuck into something, especially a wall?) and people doing...stuff to her. 
  
• Aya(yayaya) - look who fate has turned on... The one character fans tend to portray as a pervert taking panty shots has become victim herself of perversion (I am totally not paid by Hatate to say this). Anyway, interesting to see her placed so high on the top. Guess protagonist + nice design + already established fanon?
  
• I will place Iku and Raiko together, since what I am going to say is mostly identical. None of them is very popular in terms of character. However, it is truly a surprise to see them ranking so high in terms of percent compared to other characters. They are also in my list of favorite characters, and so got my attention. I guess Raiko still has the fact she is a redhead going for her to motivate such "artistic" works.
  
• Keine - seriously, what can I say about her? I really have no idea.
  
• Yuuka - oh yeah. Also huh, another one of the 2hus from my personal top 10 favorites. I guess her fanon depiction has become fuel for some fetishes, and so a lot of fanservice? From what I have seen on Danbooru, most of her NSFW material tends to go from 0 to 100 real quick. From very mild, to very much not suitable for life and "this is such a bad day to have eyes".
  

(oh God, I finally finished analyzing them; the more I go, the more I feel drained of any inspiration on what to write; buckle up, I have one more paragraph to go)


Earlier, I mentioned the artist Fusu. I think he really fits in the definition of "fanservice". First time I saw his art, that was on r/touhou during the Fusu posting craze that ended up in a controversy. At the time, I was only familiar with his corny, POV kind of images where 2hus confess their love to the viewer. And and part in the fanservice things seemed to finish there, especially after checking his Pixiv and seeing it was clean from anything NSFW. However, I was wrong. VERY WRONG. After randomly finding his works on Danbooru too, I realized there's more about him, and that I only had "no NSFW" active on my Pixiv. Now, there seems to be a pattern in his POV works

1. Have the characters confess their feelings to the viewer
   
2. "Get to action", again in POV format (I cannot fully confirm yet this is the case, but it seems like every time he draws step 1, he also does the step 2 as well). Quite funny the way things escalate from simply talking to doing...things. 
   

Time to take a little rest, then see if there is any other reply I can answer to. I still have some free time. 

 

[CountVonNumenor]

Should I have pinged Tenkko in order to bring him in and continue the talk based on his original stats? 


Edit: you know what? I'll just do it. @Tenkko and @Isaac you might find the points explained above interesting, unless you have your own opinions on why that results. Also, I took just some of the characters, the ones I though to be more obvious picks (and so easier to explain), along with some that are also in my top 10 favorites. I intentionally avoided fairies and anyone else child-looking from the list since I was not really in the mood of trying to explain why someone would create CP (that's an entirely different can of worms, and goes all the way back in this thread to "why the Japanese are so ok with drawing hentai even of child characters")


And on an unrelated note: I know that my opinion of fanservice is mixed, depending on what the content is, but I think this one is quite cute as a drawing in itself. I think this one counts on the "for comedic purpose" category, as nothing lewd is going on (unfortunately, I really cannot find anymore who drew this image of Mokou and Keine - credit to whoever drew this)

 

[Tenkko]

Important distinction between suggestive or fanservice-y and you know, zorn, that's why I didn't know if the chart was relevant. The former usually doesn't get the R-18 tag.

Anyways UH. I mean you said it. There's sometimes correlation between the amount of suggestive stuff and how popular a character is, and sometimes there isn't. Others are favored for their appearance or ideas that get associated with them. Sometimes an artist becomes popular for drawing one character and others may follow suit, or a certain situation like fusu does yknow there's a lot to consider.

If you wanna get into the whole uh "why is this a thing" fuck dude idk. Though it's not always... entirely sexual? Or even not at all.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

I'd like to come back with a more developed answer, but right now I am not home. I'll b back in like 2 hours with a proper reply 

 

[Isaac]

Sorry for not responding earlier Count, there was more I wanted to discuss in the other threads.

The observations you made for those with higher percentages are interesting. It seems that most of the 'mature appearing' characters, according to the fandom, get more of that fanart. As tenko said, the situations could also contribute to more fanart such as Aya being depicted as a pervert.

Fusu:

I didn't know the person's name until now but their artwork was one of the first touhou related ones I found on Pixiv. I thought the fantasy confessions were really cute and I have some of them saved too. I was wondering if they were taking a break when I also realised that they've been making R-18 content all this time. I found out earlier this year but I never knew since my settings were kept safe. Guess I won't be making a cute commission from them anymore, shame.

That artwork of Mokou and Keine isn't too bad but it's an anime cliché I'm not a fan of. I often see this with the other characters too but it's mostly insulting.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

I am finally back. Time to reply...
 

Important distinction between suggestive or fanservice-y and you know, zorn, that's why I didn't know if the chart was relevant. The former usually doesn't get the R-18 tag.

Sure, there is indeed a difference between the two. However, the difference is at time so shady you no longer know whether to place some one way or another. As for suggestive not getting the R-18 treatment, I guess there is a limit of how suggestive it can be? But this reminds re of the discussion on gacha/anime art in general, with the whole "totally not NSFW/too suggestive (like clothes covering exactly the nipples -apparently covering them makes an image family-frindly, even if you still basically have a bare boob - and private part down there), but somehow still family-frindly". As for words to replace "p*rn", I usually like to jokingly use "corn", especially since a website called CornHub exists (I did not misspell it, there really is a website about different kinds of corn in parody of the other website with similar sounding name).  
 

Anyways UH. I mean you said it. There's sometimes correlation between the amount of suggestive stuff and how popular a character is, and sometimes there isn't. Others are favored for their appearance or ideas that get associated with them

What was UH? It is interesting though how some of the characters ended up becoming more popular in terms of inappropriate art. Like what made Sanae become the "doujin fam", same story with Reisen (even if for this one seems more obvious with the whole bunny girl thing, and the fact bunny girls have already been associated with inappropriate materials at least since the beginning of the Playboy magazine, so like 70 years ago). 
 

Sometimes an artist becomes popular for drawing one character and others may follow suit

Probably the best example I know is Sazanami Mio, aka the guy who has always been drawing Youmu and is known for almost religiously drawing her. When I first found his art and Pixiv page, I used to nickname it "the cult of Youmu". But I was perfectly fine with it, as I like his/her woks, and Myon is a character I am fond of.
 

If you wanna get into the whole uh "why is this a thing" fuck dude idk.

Yeah, that is a good question. Without making a lot of analysis, I would just say "people are horny". I just think there is a difference between being horny and drawing smut of an adult, and a whole different story when you depict a child doing naughty stuff that basically counts as cp. But like you said, it's not always about sexual stuff, so I guess... idk. Still a little questionable unless your intention was that to make a character art study or anything akin.

 

Sorry for not responding earlier Count, there was more I wanted to discuss in the other threads.

No problem. Welcome back, and thank you for the contributions to other threads. Better later than never. 
 

The observations you made for those with higher percentages are interesting. It seems that most of the 'mature appearing' characters, according to the fandom, get more of that fanart. As tenko said, the situations could also contribute to more fanart such as Aya being depicted as a pervert.

Yeah, that is quite the interesting part. Many of the characters on the top tend to be generally depicted as more mature, sometimes going into the "mommy trope". Again, avoiding the fairies and such (how did they even end up so high on the list? looking at you, Star, Luna and Sunny...), one other character I did notice but did not talk about, despite being one of my favorite, is Eiki, who scored a 7.51% on the list. At least from daily visits on Danbooru, one thing was to be learnt: if you see art of a mature Eiki, there's like 80-90% (depending on the day) for it to be smut. As if that is the only reason for people to not draw her as the little angry loli (even if there's smut of that too). Initially, I thought I saw Akyuu on the list, and was going to talk about that and say it makes sense she like the only 2hu for which we have a clear age, and therefore an adult, but then I noticed she was not listed in either of the images. However, Kosuzu scored impressively high, with over 12% of her content. That is literally every 1 in 10 Kosuzu pics. 
 

Fusu:

I didn't know the person's name until now but their artwork was one of the first Touhou related ones I found on Pixiv. I thought the fantasy confessions were really cute and I have some of them saved too. I was wondering if they were taking a break when I also realized that they've been making R-18 content all this time. I found out earlier this year but I never knew since my settings were kept safe. Guess I won't be making a cute commission from them anymore, shame.

First time I encountered Fusu was through Reddit. It was towards the end of last year, when someone was daily posting translated Fusu art, and was gaining like 1-1.5K karma on a daily basis. After a while, people got mad, started a revolution, and made their own "counter-art" that was playing exactly on the opposite to what Fusu is expressing in his art. Following that, the translated art posts ceased. 

Initially, I did save some of the confessions since I thought they are cute too, but then woke up to some sort of reality they might be "cringe" and simply addressed to those poor bastards with no gf (I am in no better shape, so yeah), therefore his art fitting perfectly with the whole topic of this thread. Just like you, I initially though his art does not go further than th confession art, but thanks to Danbooru, I learnt there's more to it. That's how I learnt of the "part 2" for each of these drawings, when everything following that confessions leads directly to naughty R-18 stuff. 
 

That artwork of Mokou and Keine isn't too bad but it's an anime cliché I'm not a fan of. I often see this with the other characters too but it's mostly insulting.

On a second though, it does look a bit cliche. However, I still like it in some measure (more like drawing technique and stuff like that). Also can you please explain to me this anime trope? I have seen it many times, yet never took it as more than just "one of the girls has bigger boobs". Besides (possible) body shaming, I really wanna know why it is so insulting, especially knowing how commonly used the cliche is in media. 
 

 

[Isaac]

Sorry I should have specified more. Those situations where they are just looking at each other is fine, but there are often times that go further than this. It ties again with fanservice and usually involves focusing on breasts for too long or in worst cases touching people inappropriately.

Leads to the flanderization of more characters that I love.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

You mean it as things going from simply looking at each other to trying to prove Tenshi's theory from Yuuten Paradise (the M-1 Grand Prix skit with her and Yuuka)? It was honestly the last thing I could think as an outcome, but now that you mentioned, I can't unsee it anymore (not that I am fully complaining). 

 

[Isaac]

You mean it as things going from simply looking at each other to trying to prove Tenshi's theory from Yuuten Paradise (the M-1 Grand Prix skit with her and Yuuka)? It was honestly the last thing I could think as an outcome, but now that you mentioned, I can't unsee it anymore (not that I am fully complaining). 

I wouldn't say it in a yuri romantic way that tenshi mentioned. Although tenshi was very cute in that sense. It's more like touching each other to feel the difference is what goes too far, if you get what I mean. 

 

[Isaac]

Focusing again on the stats, I have no idea why the 3 fairies or Kosuzu have higher percentages. I thought they would have less compared to the more 'mature' characters but I guess not. As bad as the R-18 stuff already is, let's hope Eiki is featured as more adult than some depict her.

If only there was a way to conduct this research on twitter artwork as well. That would be interesting to see.