How does Gensokyo even work?
I personally love to think of that being the case. That there exist other "fantasy lands" in Touhou's world. I mean, Touhou's world is so potentially expansive, there could even be fantasy lands somewhere far out in space. Despite Touhou's lore not being my favorite, just the very possibilities that there exist other "Gensokyos" in it's world is really fascinating to think about. I would say that there probably exist those other "fantasy lands" in places such as Europe (excluding probably the European part of Russia, as I imagine Russia's "Gensokyo" to exist somewhere in the Kamchatka Peninsula or other Far East Russian territories), maybe somewhere in someplace such as the Balkans area, mainly because of how forgotten the Balkans usually are. Other "fantasy lands" probably exist in Peru and West Virginia for South and North America respectively, and ones likely exist in other parts of Asia such as China or Iran. Anyway, for non-Japanese stuff entering Gensokyo, I personally believe that there probably is some sort of "cross-cultural" setup between the different "fantasy lands" (whether the leaders of those lands know of this phenomenon or not is subject to interpretation) where stuff from other countries are able to end up in a completely different land on rare occasions, that even extending to humans or other supernatural/mythological creatures.
Actually, you can interpret this whole Idea in a far more interesting way. You can assume that these lands are connected in a way similar to how wormholes function. While they may be on 2 different points on the world, there may be a sort of fantasy tunnel connecting both fantasy lands (much like how wormholes work), hence allowing items from Swedish Gensokyo to end up all the way in Mexican Gensokyo. And as a matter of fact, maybe all Gensokyos are interconnected with fantasy tunnels of their own or something. How it works further in depth doesn't matter, maybe a really powerful Youkai oversees these said tunnels and is the "Youkai of Boundary Networking" or "Cross-Tunneling Trade". Again, the specifics don't matter. What does matter here is that interpreting it this way tells us that maybe the Russian and English magazines dropped into their respective Gensokyos, and by luck or coincidence, ended up traveling through a fantasy tunnel and wound up in Gensokyo that way. That could also explain why some foreign Youkais end up in Gensokyo, and it would explain where Mima went after PC98, Lmao ^-^
I just adore storytelling and creating different concepts and such, so this is at least one idea of at least a few Touhou fan work concepts I've come up with. This creative side of myself is one of the main reasons I'm interested in Touhou in the first place.
That's awesome! I actually also aspire to make a Touhou fangame myself, and I started a few days ago! It's nothing special, just a shmup as usual with Murasa taking the spotlight, but I thought I should just throw in my own tidbit since you threw yours in. From an aspiring Touhou fangame dev to another, I'm sure if you start working to make it, it'll turn out great! But yeah, back on topic of the thread, lol
That's really fair, and I understand you there. I love how open to interpretation Touhou can get, and thanks to that the fandom still thrives. Heck, even that small idea I threw out of wormholes connecting different Gensokyos might need to be expanded on in the future ^^
Oh. And one of the main reasons the youkai decided to invade Gensokyo (using a mysterious gap which appeared in one of the borders of Gensokyo) is to transform Gensokyo into a form of military dictatorship and use Gensokyo as a staging ground to do the exact same thing to Touhou's world as she did to her own world. Because of how she herself came into being, she absolutely despises the idea of the "mundane and scientific" ruling over everything. Though she does not hate science or humans by themselves. The only reason she stops her invasion of Gensokyo is in recognition of the power of the heroine. Just wanted to add all that in. ( I'm someone who goes off-topic a lot. lol)
Your idea sounds so cool! And it's a really unique idea too, it's honestly been a minute myself since I've heard something refreshing like that. But anywho, we really should stop filling the thread with banter which isn't even related to the topic. (I noticed, lmao)
We definitely should. lol
Lunar Capital is basically Gensokyo of the Moon, and it is connected by multiple tunnels located in the Dream World (TH15, level 3 is the passage No.4 between Gensokyo and the Capital). Things don't just go from Earth to Moon and back, but the Lunarians know the secret of using it. Basically, your idea is canon
Definitely makes it more fun to think of it that way.
Yes, that’s true! That goes ahead and even strengthens such an Idea! I was trying to think how maybe that wouldn’t work for the sake of playing devil’s advocate on my own Idea, but I found nothing. I thought maybe it could only be done between the Earth and Moon because the Lunarians are familiar with Earth and Likewise, but that’s just false, as the Lunarians scarcely descend to earth because they see it as impure, so they wouldn’t have enough information on earth to set up such a tunnel. That also shot down another theory that maybe a spirit from another Gensokyo reconned our Gensokyo to create the tunnel, as it’s clear that to form the tunnels information isn’t needed. Without being able to form a sensible contradiction, that means that the Idea of Fantasy tunnels can exist since they don’t need information to their destination. It could be explained that maybe the reason the Moon and Earth are connected is because they both have traces of magic/faith, and if that’s how tunnels form, then it makes sense that Fantasy tunnels subconsciously connect the fantasy barriers due to traces of magic/faith from each barrier. Either way, if that somehow is a contradiction or is disproven then it doesn’t really matter anyways. The tunnels simply are, and there’s not much more to say about it. (Also, my bad for getting so carried away with this Idea, it’s a fun concept to poke around with, lmaoo)
I think Touhou is one of the few series in which contradictions make a lot of sense (ironic considering Gensokyo is a place where common sense is intended to go kaput). I mean, in regards to official Touhou works, ZUN has directly stated that for some characters like Reimu, how her personality is, is how others perceive her. She can be calm, caring and friendly to one person, or lazy, stubborn and rude to another. So, who is to say that your idea could even be contradictory at all?
If it weren't a touhou forum.
Myself who is fascinated with dreams likes this idea.