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Video/Tabletop Games For video games, I am down to play pretty much any brutally difficult single-player game (I wonder why I love Touhou project so much ). Examples of some of my favorites include Darkest Dungeon, Noita, and Celeste. Beyond that, I also really enjoy designing games of that similar genre, so I'm decently involved in the Super Mario World ROM hacking community. Beyond just video games, I love D&D a lot. I usually fill the role of Game Master because I love the design and worldbuilding that goes into it, and it really sparks my creativity overall! TV Series / Movies When it comes to TV series, I watch quite a bit of anime, but not an obscene amount. For the most part I stick to the romance genre, but I do love a number of shows outside of that. For example, I'm currently watching all of Initial D and absolutely loving it, and my all-time favorite show is Rascal does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which, sure, it is a romance, but it also airs on the side of psychological thriller as well. For movies, I love mind-bending films such as Inception or Edge of Tomorrow!

Interesting thought. However, what is the proof for it? I mean I have personally seen it too in more or less ironic tones being said, but I never really took it seriously. It is basically this situation (cue to An Incorrect Summary of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) My_source_is_that_I_made_it_the_F_up.mp4 Still, interesting point. Alo, despite this coming from Reddit (and a 9 years old thread to add to it), what this person said is not to be ignored: (original thread: Help me understand ZUN's philosophy https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/1rhif8/help_me_to_understand_zuns_philosophy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Back in the days when pirate websites like Moriya Shrine were still seen as justified, ZUN was not even planning to port his games to Steam yet as he was not caring about anything outside Japan, and the first fan-made anime were getting into a bit of trouble with the use of professional voice acting Meanwhile, there is also this opinion, much more recent, coming from Danbooru (as I was talking about that website in a recent discussion), in the context of a Touhou image that sparked much controversy: Then, there is this discussion based on a story card from Touhou LostWord which for some reason caught up on Twitter, then was discussed again on Reddit (sometimes, I really need to use any source if it is for research and studying human behaviour): Alright, now with the actual opinions expressed about the card itself, art and reception: User 1: I don't know if it's the reason in this particular case but I've seen a lot of people on Twitter who genuinely hate over-sexualisation of Touhou characters, which is really weird to me considering that a massive proportion of fanworks do over-sexualise the characters and that's a pretty big part of why the series is as big as it is (which is ironic considering the art ZUN draws). This game literally wouldn't exist if hordes of degenerates didn't draw mountains of Touhou porn over the last 20 years, increasing attention to the series, and I applaud their service. User 2 (reply): It’s not that hard to understand why a large portion of fans would hate over-sexualization when you consider that almost all the cannon material is void of sexualization. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that promotional Yuugi art by Alphes. User 3 (reply to User 1): This is quite an overstatement, imo. How many of those people who stumbled across porn as their exclusive first experience of touhou actually ended up supporting the game monetarily? How many people exist that actually had the porn as their first experience in the first place? How many people go spend money on non-porn content due to seeing porn online in general? Considering how many people have seen Bad Apple/U.N. Owen was her and other Touhou related music/video content (especially being featured in a lot of Nico Nico Douga videos), I sincerely find it hard to believe that a majority of consumers came from porn and not the variety of other content on many other websites nor do I believe the porn is high on the list of defining features that contribute towards purchase decisions that result in money that goes towards the game's development (I doubt ZUN sees any of the money from doujin/porn producers and people aren't buying the game for ZUN's attractive art). All of that is to say that the game series has far more qualities to it that far outweigh the porn aspect as far as its success. Saying the touhou series wouldn't exist without porn is like saying that every game and anime wouldn't exist without porn. It's absurdity. User 4 (reply to User 3): I am personally a degenerate so I whole-heartedly welcome the lewding, but I could see how somebody could dislike the over-sexualization. While l00ds have definitely helped the community grow, I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are a crucial part of the fandom. The mainline games as well as the SFW creative freedom that ZUN promotes is what has shaped the community by and large, and I think those alone could have definitely kept the fandom alive and well, if smaller. Somebody who loves the mainline games and/or characters might not like the franchise getting 'degraded' into just sexy anime women. User 5 (reply): This, for the most part. It seems to happen with basically every gacha game because the majority of the playerbase is, to put it bluntly, desperately horny. It stands out more here because unlike, say, Fate (which has characters like Nero) and Fire Emblem (ditto Tharja), Touhou has never been a "sexy" series. Hell, it's never even lived in the same town. I have a sex drive as functional as anyone else's and I enjoy a nice rack, but I also realize that I can find more porn on the internet, for free, than I could ever consume in my lifetime, so it doesn't need to be part of my gaming as well. Nobody likes a coomer who can't enjoy anything they can't get off to, and I have a lot of respect for ZUN keeping lewd content decisively out of his games. Seeing it here just feels crass. At least for now, I am not here to express my opinion on the matter. The materials presented are offered for starting a discussion, and anyone can take whatever they want out of it (after all, we have the right to expressing our opinion). Just let the info sink in...

A bit of text from a different era. Before the Touhou era, I have gone through a few more series. However, never so quick as from November 2019 to October 2021.In less than a year, i have gone the following route: Star Wars, -> WH40k -> SMG4/Meta Runner -> Rhythm Heaven -> Touhou Project. Each time I got into something new, passion for each being more and more intense. When I got into Touhou, I realize I might have gone a bit too far down the rabbit hole of Japanese stuff, and since I tried to basically quarantine it and not get any further into the rabbit hole of anime (even if Touhou is a game series). Only exception ever since was Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, but I was quite chill with that one (and that one also happened in late 2022, so out of the time frame) Anyway, here is an example of writing I was doing back in the spring of 2020, while still being under lockdown and in the Meta Runner phase. At the time, Season 1 was still rather fresh, Season 2 was still a few month before getting announced, and I was binge watching SMG4 as there was nothing better to do. (originally posted here https://european-war-4.boards.net/thread/12720/meta-runner) It was the first time I was actually getting crazy for something, rewatching it multiple times and trying to find out as much as I could. At some point, I even found concept art for the character of Tari, and I was simply amazed by the idea of finding such a thing. Nowadays, I am more chill about the show. I started Season 2 when it appeared (October 2020, every Friday at local hour 23:00), but somehow lost track midway through. A lot of designs changed, some for the better and some...that maybe could have stayed the same, but there was indeed a bit of progress in animation (this whole thing is made in Unreal Engine). And now that a third season was announced (and further seasonal redesings), I am completely clueless. Season 1 Tari Concept art, apparently inspired by a drawing done by the younger sister of the creators

Using the pending tournament as an excuse to pause the Every Touhou Song Ever project, I present some original compositions in the Touhou style (Zunish). DJ Abner - Yosakoi Foxtrot A lot of these tend to be from fangame soundtracks, and certain names emerge as being especially talented in the genre. Aka Kyuketsuki - The Colorful Maiden, Through the Colorless World Two familiar names here, as I'm familiar with Oligarchomp from the Rivals of Aether workshop. Wanwan - Kite Flight ~ Winging Into Ancient Even this is fangame related, coming from the music team behind the Kaisendo Group series.

Following the second survey, this time, on r/touhou, results are up. Unfortunately, I could only get half the number of people involved, and so things are slightly less interesting. But, when it comes to the results, this is where we are (based on a 3 days poll): a total of 160 participants "I like it a lot/Ilove it" - 8.75% "I like it quite a bit" - 30.62% "It is OK/could have been better" - 28.75% "I don't really like it" - 6.87% "I hate it" - 3.75% "I have not played the game" - 21.25% This with this poll have gone...the way they did. At least in initial stages, based on poor reception. Which might explain the lower number of votes, as Lost Word has become in just a year some sort of stigma in the Touhou community. I think the following post reflects quite well the situation presented: But of course, the most popular comment was the one saying "I have not played Lost Word", to which "based" and "the only correct answer" ensued.

Most of said content is made by the Japanese. From Wikipedia: "Fictional child pornography such as Lolicon, and Shotacon are excluded from the law. These fall under "cultural and artistic activities" which are protected by freedom of expression."