CountVonNumenor

Almost a month too late from my promised answer, but it is finally time to do it. I can no longer delay... Originally, I did not get the reference. It took me a bit until I saw your second reply and realized it's based on a quote from Symphony of the Night. Very clever The issue of unrealism is something I have addressed in another thread written around the same time as this one. I think we all people are attracted, or have the tendency to be attracted by perfection to some degree. About the comment regarding food, it happened to me a lot of times too, even if mostly when i was watching cooking shows. I would add more here, but I think some of the ideas will come the more I go through the replies... Indeed, the market is filed with materials from which to choose. Some might even call it (overly)saturated by it. But I guess that is the selling point it? After all, VNs/dating sims are still quite popular, even if they can be very shallow and copy tropes and formulas from one another. This one strikes close to home. I can't talk too much about myself, but from the perspective of someone who has never been in a relationship, I would say we might be a vulnerable target audience for waifu content. And I think that might even be the ultimate purpose of this kind of content? It's 4chan where it comes from after all. Some level of BS is always to be expected. Usually, I heard the term "cartoon crush" to be used for what would be the Western media equivalents of waifu/husbando. This one is quite fun. We are making so much fun of "Discord mods" and associate them wish stuff of the sorts, but it can happen to anyone of us at some given point. I like this perspective. It reminds me of a meme I have seen at one point in the past going along th lines of "Best girl this, best girl that / How about you become the best version of yourself to get the best girl irl?" (I hope I can also find it eventually). Perhaps it could work to use them as a motivation factor for self-improvement? Even if they do not exist, at least you can focus on how you could become a better person that could eventually get the guy/girl they like in real life. I agree on the idea no w/h can replace real love. The may get you feel better for a little bit of time, similarly to a drug, but when the effect goes, you will feel empty again. despite the fact I never really found myself declaring that I have a "waifu" (despite me liking a few characters in the way of "they are cool/pretty"), I know that feeling. It's not a pleasant one, that's all I can assure. To me, the confusing part comes from the fact my exposure to media containing waifu stuff has only been relatively recent. It started about 3 years ago, and was almost as if I was struck by a truck. I went from nothing of the sort to full-on stuff of the sort (especially after I picked Touhou), and it was a big change for me. I did not understand why I was liking the characters so much, as until then I was not the king of guy who would have a favorite character from a series (or even feel stuff similar to a crush for fictional content). Hello Cana! It's always good to have you in here. Now that you brought up that podcast, I grew curious and put it into my "Watch later" playlist. It reminds me of a brief episode from early 2021. At the time, I was still new into Touhou, and my favorite character was Youmu. And since I thought she was cool, just as you do with Patchouli (all my respect), I used an image of her as my profile picture. I t was brief, and it seems like I never came back to it (unless you count my current image of Sakamoto on Discord). This is the image I have used back then. It is part of a bigger art set made an artist called Hoshiringo. Basically, I like to call these "ZUN portraits, but RTX: ON". There are two big plates, one for EoSD and one for PC: Similarly to what I have told to Nekofire, I feel like characters we like form media can serve as inspiration to improve ourselves. Take a look at what you like/admire about that character, then look at how you can emulate them by yourself. Or maybe you can also look for someone who has some of these traits you prefer? I don't really know, I feel I am not the kind of person who should be talking about this... Sure, gacha does have that appeal element set as a selling point. A tool to drive sales if we are to call it as such. And I guess this actually works? Given the abundance of the industry, there will always be something that will fit for everyone (I would have originally compare this with throwing dung to a wall and see what sticks, but it might be more than that...). I agree that there is need for a critical point of view, and actually take a look at what makes a character to be a "waifu" for someone. Sometimes, I do not know if I actually like a character, or I just find their design/find the fanart to be very good/attractive. Therefore, I will try something I do not usually do, and actually talk a little bit about why I like one character or another (despite never having directly called them "mai waifu" or really thought of them as such): Hieda no Akyuu (Touhou): I really like bookworm characters (just as much as I like people of that kind in real life). It's something very cute about a character that works as an archivist-chronicles/historian, maybe also due to the fact I like history too. She is a dork, and I would say she is also adorkable. Bonus, I would say that reading Forbidden Scrollery made me find her even more interesting than before, even if many times she may act more like a living encyclopedia (side effect, FS also bumped Kosuzu all the way up into my top 5 2hus). Tanamachi Kaoru (Amagami): Amagami has been (and still is) a weird episode in my life. Normally, I would stay far from dating sims related media, but this one caught my attention mostly for this character. At first sight, there is nothing too special about Kaoru, but for me (and probably most people), what bring attention to her like a lighthouse is the messy, wavy hair. A lot of art pools add her into "gorgeous hair/haircut", which seems to be the selling point. Also after watching the series itself, I also like her more tomboy-ish nature and way to behave. Overall, I think this might be the first character I have ever been fanboy-ing over. Yamashiro (Kancolle): normally, I would stay far from games like this one. But I think from her on (if I am to even go to describe other characters mentioned), I would just end up saying that they are pretty. I just have a weakness for short(er) black hair, and I think the Miko outfit something I like (I like the red-white) contrast. Ironically, I have become more curious to learn about the real warship (IJN Yamashiro) that inspired this character, as well as the Fusou-class warships (Yamashiro and Fusou, her sister-ship, are part of this class). So just history stuff... Byleth (Fire Emblem): again, I just think she looks pretty. I am not familiar with the Fire Emblem series at all, and all I know is that the male version of Byleth was added in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Female Commander (GFL): again, I just like how she looks. Nothing else. She's the player's character, so I can't really add too much. Now you have really made me curious about the tastes of this friend of yours, especially if you say they might be similar to what I have listed... Interesting. I was not expecting for this to be something extreme even for weebs. I thought it was something associated with them in general... I have started watching Azumanga Daioh somewhere at the beginning of March, just after I finished with the first season of Amagami SS. The problem is that I have put it on an indefinite hiatus, and I am not sure when I will get back to it. But I really want to finish the series eventually. I am also familiar with Nichijou, and found a lot of clips from the series on YouTube. That series seems to be quite fun, and I really like some of the characters like Sakamoto (and explains why I am using him as my pfp on Discord nowadays). GyateGyate art is always cute. Apology accepted. Once I found out where it comes from, it became so much better. Therefore, why I pointed out so many times that usually I either find a character to be pretty looking or be interesting in the way in which they are built/depicted based on their actions and interests. Indeed, the problem of falling into obsession is a real thing, and we really do tend to stick with an idealized version of that individual. Doesn't that happen in real life as well though? I know that the breaking of the illusion has been something negative. Once the "phantasm" is lifted, they tend to either lose interest in that person, or just feel disappointed the partner was not exactly what they thought them to be. It did happen to me once, or better said I was the one someone had illusions about, yet when those broke, things went sour. But I do have a question: can the illusion related to waifus be broken? And if you manage to break it, would that mean a liberation from the phantasm and obsession? I think at some point all of us may have expectations of someone irl, and might feel a bit a bit disappointed when what you thought about them shatters. Therefore a question (taken from French Baguette Syndicate): do we actually fall in love with a person for who they are, or for the illusion we are projecting about that person? I will break this into two parts. First, isn't it something inheritably human to be afraid of change? A lot of people do not wish for change, and would like to maintain things the way they are at all costs. Which in turn risks to devolve into stagnation. Second, isn't the "fill-in-the-blanks with whatever you wish" one of the things that brought the Touhou community and fanon to life? people have always filled in the blanks with whatever they want/like about that character (which leads to what you mentioned later, in regards to Fusu for example). Again, pretty much what I have mentioned earlier about the birth of the fandom. Which I do feel like it was influenced to some degree about the rise of the "waifu" phenomenon at the time. I would talk more about Fusu, but I think I have expressed more than enough about him in a lot of previous threads of mine. Some people will always look for the easy way to obtain gratification/satisfaction. "The low hanging fruit" basically. Since a waifu does not change (unless the author of the series where said waifu comes from decides to continue the series and keep evolving the character), they just become timeless. And that is just something people will find easy to stick to. But yeah, people have to accept those around them with their good and bad points, since nothing is perfect in real life. Neither do I have anything that I would declare to be a "waifu", but just like you I do have characters that I like. I already explained a short version of what I like about Akyuu, so I will not go into further detail about that. Luckily, Akyuu has not really been turned into a waifu. She is still one of those side-characters some fans may not even know to exist. She did not escape the art of Fusu though (though I am not sure if he has any not-safe-for-work art of her outside one of the standard confessions). So I am not very sure if people focused on anything in order to turn her into a waifu, as she is a non-existent character for some. She is in the "you read the manga, you nerd" category. I would like to talk a bit about this, but I think the following image conveys much better everything I would have said. You know, "an image is worth a million words" or something like that... "You don't want a girlfriend, you want a toy"

Again, I forgot to mention a new upload... ...am I starting to grow indifferent? It is the second song in a row that I have not listened to despite being fresh upload

Based on my sorter results, I would say that a part of my top 10 characters do not have fanon surrounding them at all. Among those lacking any bit of fanon, I would count: Akyuu Raiko Kosuzu Tsukasa (I have some doubts about this one, but is there any fanon about her besides the song "Coooonsultant!"?) As for the rest of the characters in my top (as well as previous top 10 charts), I have what is one of my oldest threads at the Shrine:

Huh, nice to see I am not the only one. Also two things: 1) wait, Rina was involved with one more Touhou fan-game?! That's awesome! 2) You have made me curious for the Cirno and her VA part now....

Damn it, I forgot about the book...

Have you ever stumbled upon something you were not expecting to se be connected with the Touhou community and games? What would be one of the places where you were not expecting to find Touhou, but still found it? In my case, probably the connection I was never expecting to make was between Satou Rina and the Touhou fan-game Koumajou Densetsu 2. How does it come? Rina was the voice actor for Reimu in that game. To my surprise, the voice actor for a lot of characters that caught my interest (and one that I really like a lot) proves to have also been involved not only with Touhou, but also one of my top 10 favorite 2hus. Now, she not just the voice of Tanamachi Kaoru, Eula and Tennessee & California, but also the voice of our favorite red-white miko. And since her birthday was just a week ago, back on the 2nd of May (funny how it coincides with my father's birthday), I would like to wish a belated happy birthday to Rina. And now, enough fanboying on my side... What are some of the most unexpected connections and contributions to the Touhou community you have seen? Is there anything or anyone you were not expecting to do anything connected to the series?

There is a bit of a long story about the origin of my name, which I have written about in the AMA thread to begin all AMA threads. Probably the shortest version would be that I have gone through a variety of names beforehand, and the current one is a combination paying homage to my previous names. (also came as a need when I started my own DA art page...)

Oh, I love HELLOHELL! It's probably one of my favorite MSs of theirs since I started to actually catch those MSs as soon as they were released (which would be since May 2021 and VENTEN...). You truly are a man of culture Oh, I would definitely feel jealous about that too, so I can understand your feeling

Shit, I have definitely forgotten this time to update the thread. There is a new music video, and this time even I have forgotten to watch it given how I have been for the past week...

Honestly, I know pretty much nothing about Amusement Makers. Did they do anything after Mystic Square and after ZUN left the group? Are thy still around?

So... how many people do still need to answer? This is the last round of I am not wrong, so I think we should find a way to finish it. It's been almost 6 months already...

Oh god, only now I actually noticed how many answers I have collected in this thread... Given how absent I have been from the Shrine recently, I really should come back and answer to all of them. I find the topic brought up interesting, and therefore would like to bring the thread up for the newer public of the forum as well. I am always looking for more replies and discussion based on something I write - seeing discussions develop is probably one of the most satisfying feeling as you get the chance to learn a little bit about the way in which others see the same subject, therefore creating a more nuanced view of said subject. Anyway, I am back, at least to some measure...

A bit of a shorter opening presentation on my side today. Based on the idea of "Touhou Project, but if it came out 20 years later...", I stated thinking more and more about a series of alternate history scenarios: Touhou, but if the series never went past Mystic Square and ZUN just moved to another project What if ZUN never went to establish Team Shanghai Alice and get on his own project series What if Touhou ended with Imperishable Night, as it was initially envisioned What if ZUN actually decided that, instead of an indie series, he decided to profit of the great popularity of Touhou and decided to turn it into a commercial franchise? Which one of these do you find to be more interesting, and what other possible alternate timelines would you think of? I was trying to think of scenarios that perhaps could have been possible to happen, but I would also like to find out what do you think would happen in any of the cases.

Looks like I acquired a taste for Synthwave and retro recently