western touhou fandom hierarchy

[kanedafanatic]

what im trying to describe is pretty simple imo, its basically a change in where the average western fan actually encounters and participates in touhou

older communities were more centered around forums, imageboards, translation sites, doujin circles, niconico/youtube, etc. so even if someone wasnt especially knowledgeable, they were at least usually interacting with touhou through communities where the games, fanworks, doujin culture, etc were actually part of the surrounding context

now a huge amount of western exposure comes through twitter/tiktok/shorts/etc where touhou is presented as isolated characters, memes, remixes, fumos, clips, collabs and whatever else the algorithm happens to push. obviously none of that is inherently bad and none of those people are fake fans, but the surrounding context is much easier to lose

so what im wondering is whether that actually represents a cultural shift in western touhou itself, or if im just noticing the most visible part of a much larger fandom that still has plenty of deeper communities underneath it

i dont really have a conclusion either way, thats kind of, yknow, why i made the thread in the first place...

Now that's much more clearer. I could've phrased it differently on my part but this, I can work with this. Thanks for clarifying your point.

What you're trying to point at is the disconnect between the Eastern side of the fandom and the Western side of it, am I wrong? That's that I'm getting at least. The way I understand it, because Touhou was smaller back then and people were directly interacting with circles, boards and communities, they were close to the series that they were involved and focused in. Nowadays, given the way the game series is introduced mainly through common social media, collabs and such as it' "own niche thing", it isolates them from the fact they are from Touhou Project and makes it as if they're decentralized. As if they are their "own" thing entirely with a slight range of characters and settings.

To tell a view: I get why it's hard to make a conclusion out of this. There's not much of an answer to tell. I wouldn't say it's a cultural shift, why would it be? The world functions on fumes, that I know. What I'm saying is why would we "cut" Touhou like that? Maybe some of the less initiated would act like this to start but, after some while they'll figure it out and invest into it (of course if they're interested.)

There's the fact that in popular representations, it's mainly the same cast of characters and songs that appears often. People would see a Sakuya edit on TikTok, the curious ones would figure out "Hmm what is that character? Oh, she's part that shoot'em-up series" and leave it at there or investigate further. Where exactly; I'd presume they'll look at TikTok first (assuming it starts from here), then Twitter or Reddit (both cesspools with Touhou communities) and assuming they're not buying the stupidity of both social medias, then here, towards the forums. wikis, circles and such. Then again, I don't assume everyone goes that pipeline but, that's how I presume it looks like for someone who have initiated into the realm of Touhou and wants to continue.

Finally, I'm pretty sure it's the main "visible layer" of Touhou. There are still communities that are deep into it, but I wouldn't say that it's as easy to get there as before. The truth would very likely stand at the middle: there's has been change as Touhou grew older but it's also how it goes. There will always be parts of the fandom that are very tied to the surronding context and naturally, that's what those who are interested in the series gravitates to. There will be the circlejerks who thinks of Touhou as some gimmicky gooner game or something, that's for those who want to feel part of a community for the sake of a title. For now, I assume it's fine. It's a matter of looking elsewhere if new fans want more enticing stuff.