Reitisen
Onshi
To give clarification to the title, ZUN seems to put the Touhou series in a kind of Sazae time space (characters generally do not age and the story generally stays the same), which has put Touhou in a kind of slice-of-life period if it were boiled down to a really generalized statement used in the Doujin scene.
This kind of development makes Touhou not really feel like it has developed nor have any kind of sense of concern for any kind of incident, as most people in the Touhou fandom never really had much concern for the story as the characters never lose nor change, which leads to the more prevalent aspect of Touhou as a fandom, the Moe-blob, and the general sentiment towards the more mature aspects of the fandom (no, its not the constant posting of horny on big platforms, but Touhou as a real-world aspect).
I'm going to state this here: I see Touhou in a more two-way street aspect. I don't like it when people see Touhou as only cute girls, nor do I like Gensokyo's Extreme Depression Edition. A general balance and progression is what most series, such as Adventure Time or Neon Genesis Evangelion, have made in terms of not being overly bearing towards the fanbase while also respecting that the fanbase can handle more mature themes rather than only relying on newcomers to make the fanbase as it is without any kind of change.
This leads me to the mature works, as I don't often see many Touhou works that do take this concept and spin it into what other series have made, except for maybe certain Doujin artists such as Zounose, who, even though they depict Gensokyo as a place for Youkai, make Gensokyo feel like a real world with characters that self-reflect on their own place within an eccentric world of Gensokyo rather than something of a setting that other Doujins seem to rely on for Slice-Of-Life scenarios with no focus on characters.
To give context to Zounose's works, they generally are for the more mature fanbase as they focus on more introspective topics rather than light-hearted stories as even though they do include violence, it isn't just violence for the sake of it, but a story to impact with it.
as an example in on of his works, Reimu isn't seen as the Hakurei shrine maiden, but rather herself and her responsibility with the duty as a shrine maiden, which is kind of covered by the official doujins, but not to the extent in which she is introspective enough to give a real thought to Reimu as a human being (Same with Sanae if you know other works from Zounose).
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Though most people seem to hate the general sentiment of more mature works as it seems they mostly ignore and or comment about how violent it is without the general context in contrast to what most people see as a generally cute series as I found out that discussions about series like this are generally buried with very few dedicated users talking about mature works in a forum-like way while Slice-Of-Life/4-Koma has been the most prevalent type of Doujin genre for Touhou in both people liking and discussing about it. (Set aside the KKHTA which is often used for edgy memes and shock humor nowadays).
That aside, I want to clear up some things that most fans seem to think is true with Touhou in its spell card rules and violence.
ZUN himself seems kind accepting of violence and the general breaking of rules in Touhou, as he does seem to generally accept the fact that violence is indeed the normality if you have played Imperishable Night in YUYU/YOUM scenario and also the whole entire character of Rumia eating humans without any kind of repercussion unless the person can fight back (which breaks the rules). Who's Who H&Y Rumia. So to keep in mind the Spell card rules aren't some kind of law that every being in Gensokyo follows, they are generally a rule that one must follow and can be broken as "Impossible Spell Card" did to which I found interesting as a story as to characters breaking the rule just to catch one Youkai, but it was never really covered as it was a side game rather than a main game which disappointed me as it was an interesting for Seija Kijin to be an actual Youkai that follows their own way of thinking rather than peaceful existence to be only put off as a nothing burger in the end even though they were probably the most antagonistic character in the series for what they did and planned. as stated here, "She's just a simple rebellious attention-seeker. She's pretty unusual for a Touhou character, in that she's clearly malicious and evil." Who's Who Seija Kijin
So here comes the question, do you guys think Touhou is being held back in terms of what is being done? In this sense, is the story itself affecting the way most people see Touhou as in fan works? Or is it something only Touhou has that all other franchises don't as most people covet the Characters more than the games and story themselves?
This kind of development makes Touhou not really feel like it has developed nor have any kind of sense of concern for any kind of incident, as most people in the Touhou fandom never really had much concern for the story as the characters never lose nor change, which leads to the more prevalent aspect of Touhou as a fandom, the Moe-blob, and the general sentiment towards the more mature aspects of the fandom (no, its not the constant posting of horny on big platforms, but Touhou as a real-world aspect).
I'm going to state this here: I see Touhou in a more two-way street aspect. I don't like it when people see Touhou as only cute girls, nor do I like Gensokyo's Extreme Depression Edition. A general balance and progression is what most series, such as Adventure Time or Neon Genesis Evangelion, have made in terms of not being overly bearing towards the fanbase while also respecting that the fanbase can handle more mature themes rather than only relying on newcomers to make the fanbase as it is without any kind of change.
This leads me to the mature works, as I don't often see many Touhou works that do take this concept and spin it into what other series have made, except for maybe certain Doujin artists such as Zounose, who, even though they depict Gensokyo as a place for Youkai, make Gensokyo feel like a real world with characters that self-reflect on their own place within an eccentric world of Gensokyo rather than something of a setting that other Doujins seem to rely on for Slice-Of-Life scenarios with no focus on characters.
To give context to Zounose's works, they generally are for the more mature fanbase as they focus on more introspective topics rather than light-hearted stories as even though they do include violence, it isn't just violence for the sake of it, but a story to impact with it.
as an example in on of his works, Reimu isn't seen as the Hakurei shrine maiden, but rather herself and her responsibility with the duty as a shrine maiden, which is kind of covered by the official doujins, but not to the extent in which she is introspective enough to give a real thought to Reimu as a human being (Same with Sanae if you know other works from Zounose).
View attachment 4538
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Though most people seem to hate the general sentiment of more mature works as it seems they mostly ignore and or comment about how violent it is without the general context in contrast to what most people see as a generally cute series as I found out that discussions about series like this are generally buried with very few dedicated users talking about mature works in a forum-like way while Slice-Of-Life/4-Koma has been the most prevalent type of Doujin genre for Touhou in both people liking and discussing about it. (Set aside the KKHTA which is often used for edgy memes and shock humor nowadays).
That aside, I want to clear up some things that most fans seem to think is true with Touhou in its spell card rules and violence.
ZUN himself seems kind accepting of violence and the general breaking of rules in Touhou, as he does seem to generally accept the fact that violence is indeed the normality if you have played Imperishable Night in YUYU/YOUM scenario and also the whole entire character of Rumia eating humans without any kind of repercussion unless the person can fight back (which breaks the rules). Who's Who H&Y Rumia. So to keep in mind the Spell card rules aren't some kind of law that every being in Gensokyo follows, they are generally a rule that one must follow and can be broken as "Impossible Spell Card" did to which I found interesting as a story as to characters breaking the rule just to catch one Youkai, but it was never really covered as it was a side game rather than a main game which disappointed me as it was an interesting for Seija Kijin to be an actual Youkai that follows their own way of thinking rather than peaceful existence to be only put off as a nothing burger in the end even though they were probably the most antagonistic character in the series for what they did and planned. as stated here, "She's just a simple rebellious attention-seeker. She's pretty unusual for a Touhou character, in that she's clearly malicious and evil." Who's Who Seija Kijin
So here comes the question, do you guys think Touhou is being held back in terms of what is being done? In this sense, is the story itself affecting the way most people see Touhou as in fan works? Or is it something only Touhou has that all other franchises don't as most people covet the Characters more than the games and story themselves?
