Is Gensou Mangekyou: The Memories of Phantasm worth watching?
- Thread starter maki
- Start date
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
I personally think it's pretty good, though I believe that the two main things that bring it down is the fanservice (well, I'm someone who just looks down upon fanservice as a whole anyway) and the episodes not often following the order and story of the Touhou games very accurately (indeed, much of the episodes' stories are heavily out of order of the Touhou games' releases). Other than that though, the animation is incredibly good, and the fan voice acting is generally pretty well done as well. Though I think it is definitely something you'd have to watch yourself to decide on whether you believe it to be worth watching or not. Still, I hope that this was at least somewhat helpful in determining your decision.
Last edited:
fazun
Nothingburger
Animation quality? Good
Canon? Like zero canon, don't even try to learn something about touhou by watchin that, also too much fan service
Cirno's butt in the opening? Included
You know, there's no things not worth learning, and I cannot say I was displeased. AFAIK it's the only successful touhou anime, and if you're really desperate to watch one and not afraid of sexualised gals, you're welcome
Canon? Like zero canon, don't even try to learn something about touhou by watchin that, also too much fan service
Cirno's butt in the opening? Included
You know, there's no things not worth learning, and I cannot say I was displeased. AFAIK it's the only successful touhou anime, and if you're really desperate to watch one and not afraid of sexualised gals, you're welcome
- Admin
- #4
Not worth it, it's like a bunch of ideas thrown together that's very desapointing in terms of execution.
It tries to recap the previous games' story but other than 6 it's very brief and glosses over so many things.
The "fights" if you can call them that are very uninteresting, you'd figure that a danmaku battle would be a creative gold mine but no it's just "shoot random projectiles that act like background fodder until the character that's destined to win pulls out their special 100% no miss lmao get fucked move"
Not even the fanservice is good, it's like trying to show you tits but also stepping back at each opportunity so it feels half assed.
It tries to lean into the canon by recapping but also is mostly fanon characterization and tropes, so they didn't even get the appeal right. It's neither a recap, nor a fan story, nor even an eye spectacle for the hell of it, it's genuinely nothing but a bunch of touhou characters moving around in a pseudo story. Sure the specials like the cirno one might be interesting to see just how it goes, but it's ultimately not worth your time. People hype it up because it's clip material that you show to people not familiar with touhou and say "did you know that this is fanmade??" so they can get their internet points.
It tries to recap the previous games' story but other than 6 it's very brief and glosses over so many things.
The "fights" if you can call them that are very uninteresting, you'd figure that a danmaku battle would be a creative gold mine but no it's just "shoot random projectiles that act like background fodder until the character that's destined to win pulls out their special 100% no miss lmao get fucked move"
Not even the fanservice is good, it's like trying to show you tits but also stepping back at each opportunity so it feels half assed.
It tries to lean into the canon by recapping but also is mostly fanon characterization and tropes, so they didn't even get the appeal right. It's neither a recap, nor a fan story, nor even an eye spectacle for the hell of it, it's genuinely nothing but a bunch of touhou characters moving around in a pseudo story. Sure the specials like the cirno one might be interesting to see just how it goes, but it's ultimately not worth your time. People hype it up because it's clip material that you show to people not familiar with touhou and say "did you know that this is fanmade??" so they can get their internet points.
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
Oh. I forgot one thing. While the anime itself may not entirely be good, the openings and endings most certainly are. The first opening of the anime is one of the main songs which brought me into Touhou in the first place. Yuuhei Satellite's music as a whole is incredibly good and beautiful.
Last edited:
YuyuFumo
Silly Ghost Princess
Yeah, learned that the hard way when I downloaded a few episodes off YouTube to watch on a flight thinking it wasn't going to be anything too sexual. My hands moved 'bout as fast as lightning to close the media player as soon as her glutes appeared on screen.
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
I don't even remember that part myself. Though maybe my brain just represses that trauma. Heh. To be more serious, as I've said in a previous thread I made, I despise when the Touhou fairies are depicted sexually, even more-so than I do with the Touhou characters as a whole. Mainly because of the fairies in Touhou generally being depicted as more child-like.Yeah, learned that the hard way when I downloaded a few episodes off YouTube to watch on a flight thinking it wasn't going to be anything too sexual. My hands moved 'bout as fast as lightning to close the media player as soon as her glutes appeared on screen.
sumwun
Meme of Eastern Story
Each episode is like 15 minutes long, and most of them are free on Youtube. I say just watch 2 or 3 episodes and then decide if you want to keep watching.
Were Summer Daydream and Sealed Esoteric History not successful?
fazun
Nothingburger
My memory was
Ashurbanipal_01
Onshi
It's dogshit don't watch it.
fazun
Nothingburger
I tried to be rational, but honestly that's the truth
Bhrjr
Onshi
Shhh... Lunamoon and the rest of the Japanese fans are watching, you know? And they will tear you apart for any criticisms on twitter.
Ashurbanipal_01
Onshi
Explain the lore
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
Both of those are really such good Touhou animations. I consider both of those to be at least mostly canon. At the very least in regards to Sealed Esoteric History.
fazun
Nothingburger
Really? The main artist is like that?
MonkeGaming67
Onshi
It's mid and mischaracterizes a shit ton of the characters like having Eiki being an angry midget and forcing Yukari to be a villain. The fanservice isn't too great either. It's mostly just Cirno's ass and lesbian-ish shit. I prefer the Yukari and Yuyuko nipples and that one scene where Ran is in the hotspring. The art and music are pretty good though.
Dioxaz
Onshi
I'm going to give my honest opinion here, as a fan of the series myself. I'm not usually vocal about it because of its perceived bad stigma. A part of this bad stigma stems from the fact that even fan series such as Mushishi Wriggle, Scarlet Karakasa and Voice of a White Wolf appear to do a better job at telling a story than this series. But such series are getting rarer nowadays and Gensou Mangekyou may age like wine with all the prevailing AI slop (mostly done on Sora or Seedance) these days.
Even though it's not a must-see for me anymore (there are many interesting works out there, sometimes presented in the same way but you have to found out yourself, that's the charm of Touhou), I think this series is more than fine and does the job for the most part despite the circle's questionable choices and apparent lack of budget. The key is looking at this work as another Touhou doujin among others and not the Touhou anime.
Also, as some other commenter said, I recommend ignoring reactions from social media and recommend trying to make your own judgement after watching one episode or two instead.
This is Manpuku Jinja's own playlist (with English subs except episode 2 and without voice). And here's a playlist with popular fandubs.
The series is also available fandubbed on streaming sites such as 9anime but I haven't been able to open one of them currently (I wanted to see which fandubs they picked up, as @CountVonNumenor seems to have preferred them). For the curious, there are even voiceless epsiodes in HD devoied of any subs.
I also think the overall negativity towards it to be a bit excessive and sometimes opportunistic (probing reactions from social media isn't that good of an idea). There are many things that this series does get right but end up ignored because random 2hufan X or Y didn't get (enough of) what they were hoping for.
Many elements of characterizations and lore are indeed incorporated, but mostly during scenes that appear less important to the viewer (typically talking scenes, and that includes that so-called hot spring scene in episode 3). Now that incorporation being well done or not is another debate, but you can't fault them for trying at least. Each covered arc has in fact its own identity (if one wants to call that an "identity") by trying different things on their own. On a personal level, I think all their attempts fell a bit flat (Musou Kakyou is better in that regard), but YMMV.
If you want thoughtful and more nuanced opinions about it, this thread by @CountVonNumenor is the way to go.
Edit: Many of us are under the impression this series has poor reception among the fandom (whatever you count as "fandom") but there is a lot of bias going on because we're already part of that "fandom". Reactions towards it are in fact mostly positive, as those pages from MAL and aniDB suggest it.
Even though it's not a must-see for me anymore (there are many interesting works out there, sometimes presented in the same way but you have to found out yourself, that's the charm of Touhou), I think this series is more than fine and does the job for the most part despite the circle's questionable choices and apparent lack of budget. The key is looking at this work as another Touhou doujin among others and not the Touhou anime.
Also, as some other commenter said, I recommend ignoring reactions from social media and recommend trying to make your own judgement after watching one episode or two instead.
This is Manpuku Jinja's own playlist (with English subs except episode 2 and without voice). And here's a playlist with popular fandubs.
The series is also available fandubbed on streaming sites such as 9anime but I haven't been able to open one of them currently (I wanted to see which fandubs they picked up, as @CountVonNumenor seems to have preferred them). For the curious, there are even voiceless epsiodes in HD devoied of any subs.
I also think the overall negativity towards it to be a bit excessive and sometimes opportunistic (probing reactions from social media isn't that good of an idea). There are many things that this series does get right but end up ignored because random 2hufan X or Y didn't get (enough of) what they were hoping for.
Many elements of characterizations and lore are indeed incorporated, but mostly during scenes that appear less important to the viewer (typically talking scenes, and that includes that so-called hot spring scene in episode 3). Now that incorporation being well done or not is another debate, but you can't fault them for trying at least. Each covered arc has in fact its own identity (if one wants to call that an "identity") by trying different things on their own. On a personal level, I think all their attempts fell a bit flat (Musou Kakyou is better in that regard), but YMMV.
If you want thoughtful and more nuanced opinions about it, this thread by @CountVonNumenor is the way to go.
Edit: Many of us are under the impression this series has poor reception among the fandom (whatever you count as "fandom") but there is a lot of bias going on because we're already part of that "fandom". Reactions towards it are in fact mostly positive, as those pages from MAL and aniDB suggest it.
Last edited:
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
Very much agree on all that you said. It's not the best Touhou anime by any means, but people tend to slanderize it more than they should. I personally never normally pay much attention to what people on social say about such things (in my view, threads like this tend to have more open and accurate interpretations than what most on social media say), so that is already why I had given Mangekyou a chance. I've found some of the best works (not just with Touhou) by ignoring those negative comments as well.
Bhrjr
Onshi
Here.
Lunamoon, Tommy whatever guy that runs Manpuku Jinja, and Japanese fans are all just brainless people spewing "muh doujin work" or "stop being mean to meeee!!!" in the face of any criticism, and can't state the narrative merits of their animation because there isn't any.
I'd like to criticize everyone equally, Zun and fans alike.
Can you genuinely say that Summer Day's Dream and Hifuu Club Activity Records are narratively superior, and not that you're "being conditioned" to have less biases on them due to getting less criticisms? (Where it's really only because they're less popular)
See how some hifuu fans also pick faults with it, it's not like JoesSR and Maikaze cares more about storytelling than Lunamoon and Manpuku. There was a drama within the HCAR production team where the guy in charge of literally every visual aspect of the anime quit due to feeling like JoesSR doesn't care about plot. Can you really confidently talk about the qualities of HCAR when the main artist is saying this like:
- "there are many reasons, but i don't think he has any self-esteem and a sense of responsibility as a creator. they have a lot of purposes to make anime (secret secret activity records), but completely for purposes other than "i want to tell this story".
It's just a "doujin anime" for them. They don't have a careful funding plan that an anime is actually supposed to have, leading to long, long production period for some mediocre plot at the end. The only reason why HCAR exists is solely because of Joessr (as mentioned above), a "nepobaby" Chinese Touhou fan with a lot of inherited wealth which he used to fund this anime, among many other Touhou ventures. This info is common knowledge if you're in the Chinese fandom. The reason why HCAR has gone into production hell currently is not just because of the artist quitting, but also because his family went to financial disarray during covid.
Yes, because you definitely care for "Prince Sasarae", "Prince Tsuku", "Kochiya Yayoi ", and last but not least, "Lafcadio Hearn". Can you really say you like and is passionate about HCAR when I've laid out far, far more things about this anime? If something more popular like Mystia's Izakaya or Lostword had this many ocs, wouldn't everyone be lambasting on them being ocfests? Why does HCAR get so many passes?
I still think it's immature for the main artist to throw a hissy fit on twitter.
I did hear about them, so I'll try watching them to get a fair perspective, and maybe find some good inspiration for the characters.
Last edited:
SateriCat17
Neko Youkai Meijin
I'm not even sure what you're on about with much of that. I've not been "conditioned" to like Musou Kakyo and Hifuu Club Esoterica. I've barely seen many people even talk about either of those. I discovered both of those from an anime pirate website I use and liked both of them after watching them. Besides, I take my own views of most things more closely than others in regards to storytelling and such (as storytelling is a big interest of mine). I don't consider the "OCs" in Hifuu Club Esoterica as being a bad thing either. In my view, it does very nicely in connecting the story to the wider "mystique" of Touhou lore. I'm not even saying either Musou Kakyou and Hifuu Club Esoterica have "masterful" storytelling either. I've personally seen far greater examples of storytelling. I just believe their stories are great for what they are.
Last edited: