PriestOfPain

I used to switch around my username a lot but I've settled on my current one a few years ago when Dark Souls 3 came out. I was playing as a cleric with a big mace and I though to myself "I should have named this character the Priest of Pain". It has a good ring to it, so its been my username for a few years now.

Assuming that nothing horrible happens within the next few hours I will also be attending, but only on Saturday.

Like what @SoundOfRayne said, it's a bit too early to declare a new renaissance of fan content. However, over the past year I've definitely noticed a boost in quality of Touhou fanworks within the western community. A new contributor that I haven't seen mentioned yet is the YouTube channel Stringstorm. He is primarily known for his Warhammer 40k music but over the past year he has started to create songs and covers for Touhou. His most recent work is a cover for Okuu's theme, Nuclear Fusion and there are many more to come.

Very messy, I know.

For a beginner, I would recommend either 7 or 8. These games aren't too crazy so a newer player can ease into them and branch off from there. Some of the more recent games (16, 17, and 18) are also easier compared to other entries in the series, but they heavily involve a unique gimmick so I wouldn't recommend them as a first game. If you're into fighting games, then check out Hisoutensoku as I would consider it to be the peak of the spinoffs.

As unhealthy as it is, I usually skip breakfast. I might eat a piece of fruit or toast if I have the time, but I'll typically have a larger lunch to compensate.

I'm not sure if this is the best thread to post this, but it seems close enough. Recently a new Youtube channel name GensouChronicle has cropped up and while he has only uploaded a couple of videos, they are very high quality. So if you've got a craving for western Touhou lore discussion, check him out. Here is his latest upload

I usually read for about 30 minutes before bed. I used to read a decent amount when I was a kid, but then I stopped for a period of time only to pick the habit up again. As for the study on how people who read less have trouble writing, I might just be an outlier. I've always struggled when it comes to writing and I constantly rewrite sections of text, even with simple posts like this.

I've always wanted a map of Gensokyo, maybe one day we'll get an official one from ZUN.

I'm bad to the bone

I'm bad to the bone.

Funny how you bring this up, I was actually thinking about it the other day. I haven't been keeping up with their albums but looking at their article on the touhou wiki it seems they at least release some sort of touhou-related album once or twice a year. As for their animated videos, the last one I remember being relevant was the 9th year anniversary of Cirnos perfect math class which is going to be 5 years old in a few weeks. If they've posted any new touhou music videos since then they have done a great job of hiding them from me. In terms of their relevancy, even if they fall off the face of the earth they will still be historically significant in the community with all of their previous works. Many people (including myself) were initially exposed to touhou just by having one of their videos appear in their recommended on Youtube and I imagine that won't change anytime soon.

I've found my people. Throwing my two cents into this, I'd say that it mainly deals with how many times characters appear whether it be in canon or fanworks. Characters like Sakuya and Aya have been around for around 20ish years, so they've had plenty of time to permeate throughout the series. I think a big reason why people like them is simply because they can associate them with more content than other characters like Rika who have been around for longer but have not gotten much love from the source material or the community. Using Sakuya as an example again, she has been playable in a few mainline games, has plenty of remixes of her themes, an endless amount of fanart, plenty of fangames, etc. I can't remember the last time I have seen fanart for a character like Riko that I didn't go out of my way to look for.

In my opinion, IOSYSs biggest sin is flanderization. It is pretty blatant in Convictor Yamaxanadu, especially during the whole "dissing scene", but a lot of their songs are guilty of it. I think the problem stems from the fact that a lot of characters in Touhou do not make a lot of appearances which results in many of them not being deeply fleshed out. So when the fanon comes along they tend to exaggerate the traits of characters which tends to result in poor representations of them. This is why I love the covers by Lyrica Live, she is way more respectful of the canon and the characters and does a great job of representing them.