Isaac

Kurumi is my favourite PC-98 character! I just think she's pretty cute and I like her vampire design a lot. Kurumi day on the touhou calendar is also on my birthday ; )

Welcome to Moriya Shrine Lavvie! Hope you'll enjoy talking around here and it's cool that you bought some of the offical games already!

Those are interesting scenarios that you came up with. I'll try to give my thoughts on a few of them now. If Touhou ended with Mystic Square, none of us here might've known about the series at all. Those games were still niche in Japan, so without any promotion like on social media or with public events like Reitaisai, the series would've been forgotten over time. The PC-98 era does have some memorable music and characters, but the amount of fanworks around then must've been tiny compared to after Eosd. I think touhou would've been somewhat popular today even if Eosd, PCB and IN were the only Windows games that released. These games have the most iconic themes in the series and UN Owen was her is probably how a lot of people discovered touhou music, including myself. The character designs are also iconic, so I think plenty of people still would've made artwork or other fan stuff related to them nowadays. Back in 2004 though, the touhou hype in Japan was exploding so much that when the first Reitaisai was held, there were over 100 groups participating! I love the way ZUN handles most of the offical touhou content on his own already. I wouldn't trust anyone else with the series other than him. If he decided to work with different companies though, they could help continue touhou for a long time and bring in more creative ideas. There is still the chance those companies could get greedy and ruin everything. We've seen this in gacha games like Lostword, where they're only focused on making as much money now, instead of respecting the fans and the series. This is usually how a lot of other indie franchises ended up being ruined too.

It's nice to see you around more Cosmic! There's a few questions I want to ask you as well! How did you first discover touhou? Which other video game franchises do you like? Who is the character in your profile picture?

It's completely fine to make a seperate thread for your AMA! I'll make sure to check out your artwork too!

Hi Deiffu! It's nice to meet you and I hope you enjoy being around here! It's cool that you cleared 4 of the main games already and I'm always happy to see more Mamizou fans!

I used to be in habit of just playing games and watching YouTube, so I understand if you didn't have enough time to watch more shows. It's nice to meet another person who enjoys Love is war though! It's one of favourites animes and I love the characters so much! My sister liked watching Saiki K and Jojo too. Hopefully you'll be able to visit those countries one day! I've always wanted to go to Iceland, since it's one of the best places to see the northern lights. There's plenty of fun activities to do over there like skiing. I also prefer places with nature, instead of being stuck in the city. I just find it peaceful to be surrounded by greenery and it's one of the reasons why I'm planning on moving to the countryside. As someone who lives in the UK, I enjoy the amount of rain we get here as well. I wanted to get involved with the Danganronpa community a few years ago. There weren't many forums to talk about it back then, but the series grew in popularity and I wouldn't consider it to be niche anymore. There's probably a lot of people in that community who are fans of touhou now!

Hi there! I have a few questions for you as well, if that's alright. Is there any anime series that you're watching at the moment? How many languages can you speak fluently? Which countries would you like to travel to in the future? Feel free to ask us any questions too!

SA has my favourite cast and I agree that all of those characters fit really well together! I love their different personalities and hearing their themes made me appreciate them even more. Parsee has been my favourite for years, but the rest of the characters are equally special to me. It was nice to see a few of them return in spinoffs like Foul Detective Satori and touhou 17.5. I love the casts from the other games too and there isn't a single touhou character that I dislike. Looking at cute fanart helped me to enjoy more characters dynamics as well like with Murasa and Ichirin.

I first discovered touhou through Bad Apple and Marisa stole the precious thing! It wasn't until I finished Luna Nights years later, that I wanted to get involved with the community and try out the official games. Then I played SA for the first time and I fell in love with the characters and music even more. I haven't stopped enjoying the series since then!

I honestly think touhou would be just as popular if EoSD released in 2022. The bullet hell gameplay might not be as relevant now compared to back then, but the music and character designs are still memorable. There's plenty of newcomers who are going back to play those older games as well, including the PC-98 ones. I'm not sure how ZUN would change the artstyle or gameplay based on popular stuff now, but I think he would still be flexible on his rules with fan made content. A lot of indie games try to build up their communities on social media, so I could see him taking influence from that again at least.

Even if you believe that you're forgetting what a real person looks like, at least you're starting to prefer characters that appear more mature and close to your age. Anime features are exaggerated like you said with having large eyes and being well endowed, so it's understandable why someone would get confused when people don't actually look like that. It helps keeping in contact with more people to not lose your sense of reality though. I guess another way anime can change our perception of reality is how some people view Japan itself. In most animes, characters have exaggerated personalities and voices, which isn't how ordinary Japanese people behavior at all. Japan is often portrayed as a magical place as well, where everything seems perfect. While there's plenty of interesting stuff to do and beautiful places to visit over there, Japan has it's own set of issues just like every other country in the world. By the way, it's nice to see all the cute Azur Lane and Fire Emblem artwork you saved in your gallery : )

I've been taking a break from lostword since the start of this year. I was just disappointed in the direction the game was taking and I began to lose interest in the main story after Chapter 3. I can't blame you for not being motivated to update the other thread after all this either. It's a shame cause that was one of the first threads I talked in at Moriya Shrine and now it's associated with something that I dislike. I agree with everything that you mentioned here as well. The most insulting idea for me was to include different variations of characters with the Relic and Epics. A lot of them are just lazy designs, which could've been costumes instead. I don't mind seeing any of the classic variations though. That being said, there's no reason for 7 different Marisas to exist in the game. Japan thrives on gacha games unfortunately and they're a huge part of the gaming industry over there. Games like FGO continue to make ridiculous amounts, even though it's been years since it first released. There's always more gachas being made every year and some become very popular in a short amount of time. I'm just glad people like us are more aware of how terrible these games can really be. I think it's possible for lostword to generate a decent amount of revenue without being on mobile though. In an ideal world where I'm in charge of the development of lostword, these are the changes I would make immediately: Allow every character to be unlocked by completing challenges instead of only using crystals Allow every costume to be unlocked by completing challenges instead of only using god crystals Increase the drop rate of items by a large amount, so people don't have to rely on auto-play farming Occasionally make adjustments for every character, so there's no need to make different variations of them Take out items that are required to rank up higher such as paper dolls/disk and allow players to reach max level naturally Prioritise community feedback before deciding what content to include Provide better login and challenge bonuses

Hi there! I've got two questions for you if that's alright. How did you discover the touhou series? Also, when did Utsuho become your favourite character?

This seems like a nice thread to start the year! I have two questions for you, if that's alright! What other video game franchises would you consider to have a substantial impact on your life? Are there any particular countries you would like to travel to in the future?

I completely understand. I was nearly addicted to this sort of stuff in the Genshin community a few years ago. It was hard to avoid when there's so much nsfw and suggestive content on pixiv and twitter. I felt like I was losing the reasons why I found the characters interesting to begin with. I'm sorry if you thought that I was saying something negative against you.

It doesn't sound like he actively searches for that content. Count was just sharing how desensitized he got after being exposed to it on certain sites. Sure he might have enjoyed some of the less sexual stuff, but I dont think it's enough to make him disappointing either. I also think talking about the experience was necessary to add to the point of whether he was a bad fan or not. Happy new year by the way!

It's nice to finally see a thread dedicate to Fantasy Kaleidoscope and I'm glad you've caught up with all the episodes now! I haven't seen the show in a while just like Buskerdog, so this recap helps me remember the cool moments and saves me time. Despite my feelings on the show, I'll admit it was really fun to see your live reaction to these episodes and then talking about them after! We should definitely plan more stuff like this in the future. Since Fantasy Kaleidoscope opened the gateway to anime sites for you, Maybe you'll decide to watch other anime shows that we like one day : ) I think now would also be a good time to mention that we created a discord group recently! It's mainly for the people we genuinely trust, but I'd love to see more people from MS to join there. Please feel free to message either one of us about it anytime! Episode 17 really felt like the end of the story they were trying to tell and I would've liked to see them wrap up everything here as well. Even with the Tenshi teaser at the end, I can't imagine them working on full arcs like IN and MoF anymore. A special episode for Scarlet Weather Rhapsody would be nice though. Manpukujinja have been producing this show for over 12 years now, so maybe it's the right time to take a break.

Well, that debate with the Users was definitely interesting. I don't agree with a lot of fanon depictions myself, but User G feels more reasonable compared to User A and E. Personally, I think there's nothing wrong with having your own interpretations of the characters, as long as you're willing to accept the canon material exists and it isn't extreme. Seeing different sides of a character in artwork, fan games or other content can be really nice and it's what makes the touhou community interesting! I'll always believe that Koshi is just a cute yokai though, instead of some psychotic murder with a knife.

It's completely fine to share how you're feeling Mevs and I don't think you would bother anyone at all. I'm really sorry that happened to you, but I hope you'll be able to move on from this properly in time. I'm sure one day you'll be able to find someone else who will truly care about you as well. Please take care for now.

Just caught up on this thread now. There's a lot I agree with you Nekofire. I'm also not a fan of seeing these characters sexualised and I try to avoid that content as much as I can. However, I don't think Count wanted to say anything negative against you. It sounds like he was just comparing his experiences with fanart, like being desensitized to nsfw stuff on certain sites. It's nice that you're talking more in this thread though!

I also had rice, but with a spicy curry! By the way Mevs, it's nice to see you bring up more relaxed topics like this. It's also nice to meet someone from Brazil too!

Danmaku Kagura's service has now officially ended. Despite being another touhou gacha, I love all the illustrations and songs they managed to include in the game! There was a surprise announcement at the end of the farewell livestream too! Phantasia Lost is a continuation of Danmaku Kagura and it's arriving on steam in 2023! I hope they'll be able to include most of the content from the main game to this new version. Lastly, it was really nice to see all of the players being credited at the very end : )

Here is the content announced from the 2.5th anniversary dev letter of jp lostword. Reimu and Marisa now have an Epic swimsuit variation. As much as I love both of them, it's just disappointing to see characters that should've been costumes instead. Tewi and Mokou also have Ultra festival variations on the way. I actually thought blue Mokou would be an Epic character and while she does look cool, I'm still not interested with any of the Ufes. They're probably just focusing on these characters now, since everyone from Touhou 6-18 has been implemented already. However, there's another Mokou arriving shortly after. Her MV variation doesn't have a introduction video yet, but I still believe the Relic characters didn't need to exist at all. Even ZUN seemed confused about them in the dev letter livestream. The Prismrivers finally have their fantasy rebirth outfits and they're all beautiful! Lyrica looks really cute while she's sitting on her piano! For the jp christmas event, costumes for Eiki, Narumi and Eika were revealed. I think all of them are adorable! Since the global version likes to include costumes with new characters, we might see Narumi and Eika arriving soon!