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"I was thinking about covering that series at one point. I have not personally watched it, but my best friend did, and told me a little bit what it is about long ago. The series I would have gone into next was rather going to be Memories of Phantasm. I have foreshadowed a summary + review for each episode since back in May when I wrote the multi-thread collection, yet still have to go through it. I have watched the first 7 episodes in the winter break at the end of 2020, yet never went further. Perhaps with the review, I may be able to finish the series and refresh on what I have already watched." - CountVonNumenor, in The time has come: CountVonNumenor is talking about KKHTA... (3rd November 2022) Merry Christmas everyone! The time has finally come. Just as I promised, I am no here to write the tread on Touhou Gensou Mangekyou, better known as The Memories of Phantasm or Fantasy Kaleidoscope (both names seem to be used interchangeably on the internet and in YouTube uploads of the series). Take this a my Christmas gift for the community. Since I was finally in the winter break, I have decided to give a watch again to the series. It's been 2 years since my previous attempt at going through the fan-made anime, and it stopped at Episode 7. Back then, I simply could not get forward after seeing all the negativity the series was getting as I was advancing through the episodes (I was watching one of those version you can find on YouTube, so the voice-over was quite far from good at times). One of the things that really made me get back to this idea was the recent review of the series made by Megafrog (video will be linked at the end). He nailed down excellently a lot of the main points when it comes to the strong and weak points of MoP. Therefore, my review will be instead a brief breakdown of each episode, followed by the raw, unfiltered opinions on the episode itself accompanied by screenshots and further comments. Unfortunately, I only have the raw thoughts and screenshots registered beginning with Episode 5,therefore I will have to find a different formula for everything before that. I have searched for a streaming platform (I really wanted to find a better voiceover version from that on YouTube, and actually found so on anime streaming websites), then got myself a couple free days to go through all the 17 episodes. I was planning to write this thread since yesterday and only have it published today, on the 25th December, but it seems like it took me longer than planned. I would like to thank @Isaac, @sodaodaoda and @Gou the frog in accompanying me while watching the episodes. It was extremely fun to discuss with them live as the things were unfolding in front of my eyes. I will probably try that again at some point in the future. Without any further ado, let's get into the content you have all come here for, shall we? Episode 1 - The Spring Snow Incident This is the beginning of the series. After a brief prologue scene giving us the origin of the never-coming spring incident from Perfect Cherry Blossom, we are introduced to probably one of the most recognizable intros for a fan-made Touhou project, on the music of Yuuhei Satellite (seriously, that song is so memorable). From here, we have a retelling of the events from Touhou 7, as seen in the vision of the show creators (and apparently the fandom itself), and not necessarily that of ZUN and game itself. So this is what I thought about it: from the first minutes, we basically establish Marisa as the main character; Reimu can still be considered a protagonist, but most of the focus seems to go towards Marisa at the Hakurei Shrine, we have a few things established: 1) Reimu is lazy, and as long as she is not bothered, she will not go out to solve the incident and 2) the brief Cirno representation was probably supposed to be the mid-stage boss in Stage 1 Marisa decides to go by herself solve the cause of the prolonged winter the fight against Letty is basically 2 shots, one of them being Letty falling defeated to the ground (this will be a common occurrence through the series with lesser bosses and budget restrains to animate battles) Stage 2: pretty much a cat-chase at what I guess is supposed to be Mayohiga? Stage 3: brief meeting at Alice's house, again made out of a few shots, or batter said snapshots (oh, I forgot to mention, Aya is already around, taking photos of wherever Marisa is going) Stage 4: we are literally bypassing Lily White and the Prismriver sisters without any bit of interaction Stage 5: finally at the stairs leading up to Hakugyokurou; the duel against Youmu begins after she insults us in a very generic "ah, a human is too weak to defeat us" kind of speech; we have a brief fight, after which Youmu is curb-stomped by Marisa after the latter used what looks to me like Blazing Star, ramming the half-human-half-phantom into a wall and knocking her out Stage 6: Ara Ara, we have a smug, big booba Yuyuko; we are finally at the first serious confrontation of the episode; and like any villain of the week, Yuyuko also has her own monologue meanwhile, Reimu is still chilling at her Shrine; it is only due to a timely arrival of Sakuya (in her PCB outfit, albeit with a skirt that slowly getting shorter with each shot she is in) that Reimu is convinced to go help Marisa (we don't see Sakya afterwards through the plot except for a cameo at the end) Reimu finally joins the battle at Hakugyokurou; the Yuuhei Satellite song starts again, and it is time for the final showdown; in her arrogance, Yuyuko falls into a trap set by Reimu, and is defeated via Fantasy Seal end scene: party at the Hakurei Shrine; everyone is happy, we have a friendly banter between Reimu and Marisa, then end credits ...except for the fact we have a post-credits scene; it seems to be in the brief aftermath of PCB, with Youmu and Yuyuko looking at the youkai cherry tree; we do get a surprise though - at Hakugyokurou, out of nowhere, Sanae shows up, the context and scenery implying that she just as arrived to Gensokyo (it would make sense, given tat just before Youmu arrived, the whole Yakumo family was there - we get there when we get there) Conclusion: this could be longer. I really wish more characters had some proper screen time, but I guess you cannot ask too much from a fan project after all, especially when the final goal is to make some money from your product (and even at that, MoP seems to have failed in some measure) Episode 2 - The Scarlet Mist Incident (Part 1) Interestingly enough, this episode has an alternative title in the title sequence: An interview without the Vampire, which is a clear reference to the film Interview with the Vampire from 1994. Anyway, time to make the timeline more confusing. Are you with me? Alright, let's go: the episode starts with a large banquet at the Moriya Shrine, in what looks to be the aftermath of Subterranean Animism after a few minutes of introduction, there comes the intro; we have a new intro from previous episode everything starts nicely - it is an intro that makes reference to the events of SA; at this point, you may be forgiven if you assumed it would be SA that will be covered in this episode... anyway, we have the formation of the gheizer and HOLY MOTHER OF MONKE, SOMEONE IS ABOUT TO CALL THE FBI - the fanservice scene with everyone naked at the hot springs comes out of nowhere, and can be very questionable; at least there is more about this intro to go a few more nice battle sequences, mostly Reimu vs Yuugi and a team battle between Reimu & Marisa vs Okuu and Orin at the Blazing Hell, then Reimu and Marisa chilling at another hot spring, this time dressed - good thing for Marisa that she wears bloomers, since we get quite a copious amount of Reimu thighs there anyway, about the episode itself oh yeah, those two are here, along with everyone from SA poor Nitori, she got blasted Team Rocket style by Kanako for an inappropriate comment we get more of the Moriya Shrine party, and after some curiosity on the side of Sanae (we will get there when we get there), Marisa takes the role of story-teller and decides to tell us the story of the Scarlet Mist Incident (of course, with some support from Sakuya, to "fill some of the gaps" - again, we get there when we get there...) Storytime with Marisa we just start with some chill atmosphere at the Misty Lake; Cirno does her famous "Icicle Fall Easy", Aya shows up, and points Marisa towards the newly arrived wester style mansion (proved to be the Scarlet Devil Mansion later) Aya points out that she tried getting in numerous times, only to be stopped by the vicious gatekeeper (we are getting some setting for Meiling to be a tough opponent) Marisa breaks in the mansion, goes downstairs and finds Flandre's room now for the Flandre encounter: this is 2013, so the psycho child version of her is still up; the show did go for a soft version of that fan interpretation, but also for someone not realizing hor fragile things like humans actually are (more on that and her personality next time) Flan chases Marisa through the Mansion, and the two end up in the library of Patchouli; Flan is caught in a trap, and Patchy decided to take the fight on her own here comes the most annoying side-character, miss exposition herself, Koakuma Patchouli goes on a similar rand to that of Youmu last episode, directs a spell towards Marisa, and we get a cliffhanger ending of the episode Patchouli starts the Scarlet Mist and spreads it over Gensokyo cute intermission I forgot to talk about: I really like the waiting screens for each of the arcs (I will post them as we progress through the story) Episode 3 - The Scarlet Mist Incident (Part 2) first episode where we are getting a recap of the events, narrated by Marisa; together with the intro sequence (same one as past episode), we are at about 4 minutes into the episode already the party is till going since we have not met yet the Yakumo clan proper in the PCB episode, welcome to Yukari, Ran and Chen; what was the best way to introduce them? HOLY MOTHER OF MONKE x2, another hot springs scene, and kind of a long one (2 minutes of the whole screen time of the episode); the righting itself is... alright, but you just can't focus on it when you have two naked ladies in front of you only conveniently censored by mild steam and water reflections Touhou visual learner moment at its finest but to quote our friend Megafrog on the issue: we are back to the Marisa vs Patchouli battle; after a short, mostly off-screen battle (this will become another common occurrence through the series), Patchouli is defeated, and now both Marisa and Flandre are heading towards Remilia meanwhile, Reimu finally woke up and is heading towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion; Rumia gets her few seconds of screen time in this arc (about 17 seconds), coming in ball of darkness, missing Reimu and bumping into a tree, Meiling, previously established as a fierce gatekeeper, is defeated in on fell "sword vs gun" swoop, and now is time for Reimu to fight the real enemy, Sakuya hold up a second; this Meiling design was established to be the one not wearing pants; and even more so, some of the shots imply the fact she might not even have any underwear down there; does this mean that when she was laid down defeated, we got a small glimpse at her crotch? given the fact her clothes were torn in that area (more about torn clothes in the following episodes) the Sakuya fight respects the formula established until now: villain/villain's servant(s) keep a lengthy speech about the fact they cannot be stopped, the two characters start fighting, and Reimu wins; how does Reimu win this time? does she use a clever trick like in the Yuyuko fight? not really - we get her basically faking a death (perhaps a game reference?), spawns behind Sakuya, locks her in place with seals and giver the maid the final blow Marisa and Flandre finally reach Remilia; we get a bit more backstory about Flandre and how she was locked in her room, with the implication that the lack of contact and interaction with the rest of the SDM crew made her have problems, and then we end up with a fight between the two sisters Episode 4 - The Scarlet Mist Incident (Part 3) Remilia and Flandre keep fighting each other, while Reimu and Marisa finally meet the two sisters reconcile, then decid to fight together against the protagonists the beginning of an actual battle; again, the Yuuhei Satellite music plays, and we get some scenes pretty much shot-for-shot from the intro used in the PCB episode; the battle is concluded when Reimu dropped a huge Ying-Yang orb on the Scarlet sisters, blowing the Scarlet Devil Mansion (it can't be a Touhou doujin if the SDM doesn't explode...) YING YANG ORB TO THE FACE! and now we are back to the part; Flandre appears and starts another fight with Remilia over pudding end credits, and wait a second, another post-credits scene (after 4 episodes, none of them had the same outro; at least they had the money to create new end sequences for each episode); this time, we have a teaser... for UFO? we have Nitori walking through the woods, only to accidentally witness Shou and Nazrin discovering the place where Byakuren was sealed (and a glimpse of Byakuren as well); a teaser that will most likely lead to nothing in the future Conclusion: boobs, boobs everywhere. Ahem, I mean a fine trilogy; a bit long at some points, some fanservice that could be shortened, and probably what Megafrog is calling "the best worst fight of the show" (Reimu vs Sakuya) Episode 5 - The Flower Incident (Part 1) New arc, this time we have shifted focus to PoFV out of all games. Are we going to keep jumping around games like that for the rest of the episodes as well? Anyway, this is the filler/breather arc, but this is also the place from where my thoughts will become shorter and less organized. This is also where I started directly talking to Isaac as I was watching (though I may have actually done it since the EoSD arc, given i still have screenshots from that one as well). Anyway, on with the ideas: we have a new intro, with some cute arrangement of Fate of Sixty Years - it is actually quite an adorable intro, and it gives a lot of awesome shots of the characters we are going to meet (...or maybe not) through the arc - PoFV after all had quite a large and diverse cast I have never seen a happier Medicine than here since she was so present in Episode 5, I will call this one the Aya episode Aya goes to the Hakurei Shrine, asking Reimu to exterminate a youkai just so that she would have anything to write about in her newspaper; naturally, Reimu refuses, and Aya leaves disappointed Aya then heads to the Garden of the Sun; Cirno is already there, and gets the scare of her life (I am sorry, I mean her strongest senses detected something as very hazardous) now we meet Yuuka for the first and only time, and man, do I really love this voice-over for her; she really sounds like a woman in this fandub, compared to the fandub available on YouTube (I love this version of her so much...) I will also leave a sample showing what I mean in regards to the voice option for her: ahem, back to the topic; Yuuka ends up putting a flower on Cirno, and Aya leaves disappointed (again) that there was no action (I will actually start posting the random, unorganized thoughts from now on) quick visit at the Scarlet devil Mansion; Flandre grabs a screaming plant, Meiling is a running joke again, Patchouli faints and Sakuya pulls a ZA WARUDO on Aya, turning her into a pincushion (scream into the night) Poor Aya, she's becoming increasingly disappointed First Reimu refused going out to exterminate youkai, and now Yuuka proved to be harmless Hey, Kaguya and Eirin! Also Medicine! Miss Lily is so tiny here Oh yeah, time for the Tewi prank; can't wait to see her again getting forced to chug that bottle of poison... She fell for it oh, poor bunny, forced to get a taste of her own medicine; at least Reisen got her revenge meanwhile, Mokou is just shrugging it as just another day at Eintei I guess now Aya finally got something to write about? and now for another cute commercial break sequence ok, now to Mystia's Izakaya moment funny detail I have noticed: Mystia's theme is briefly playing in the background, be it in-universe through some sort of speaker at the bar or just from the overall OST of the episode it's just a few notes, but it's already recognizable and now Eiki is here, angrier than usual... outro Episode 6 - The Flower Incident (Part 2) Aya is narrating this episode's recap section; I love how she embellished the truth despite the fact we could very clearly see what was going on in the scenes she was talking about (many times pretty much the opposite from her claims) interesting voice choices for Mokou and Keine (both are very good); very lady-like (something I really appreciate, if not have a soft spot for) and now for the famous Youmu-Komachi dialogue oh no, the Yama is here now Eiki is furious, Komachi is scared, and Youmu is hammered: (incoming Donald Duck voice lecture - that was THE ACTUAL AUDIO from the episode not before Eiki getting pushed back from the bounce of Komachi's boobs (because their size had to be somehow emphasized) poor Mystia, Komachi did not pay... and now time to lecture Youmu nice how she (Youmu )suddenly woke up to be sober when realizing Lady Enma from Hell was right next to her holding the Myon like a plushy is adorable though interesting how Youmu turned from the serious minion in Episode 1 to this goofball in Episode 6 now we are dragged again into a title screen that has an alternative title for the episode, more precisely being called Judgement Day (Part 2) in the sequence oh poor Youmu, she is now slowly dying inside next to the Yama as she gets lectured Myon is down in a faint... ...and so is she: my oh my, Aya is here now, and with torn clothes too wait a minute, is it just me, or her boobs increased in size since last episode?! Nice cut, Aya oh no, it's time for Aya to be lectured too famous last words: "I'm off duty today" and so, the Donald Duck lecture begins... yay, at least Mystia is back ok, Aya getting slapped with the Rod of Remorse sure was random and unexpected at least she got a good pillow for the night; I am sure Komachi will not be bothered: that must have been a rough night for Youmu - get drunk, be lectured by the Yama and threatened you will go to hell, suffer an emotional breakdown, then continue getting lectured for the rest of the night and now for the intermission with Sanae and the Yakumo clan; welcome to Gensokyo, Sanae Chen does cat things in the background and is adorable hey, we finally get the Prismriver sisters do something as we are back at the Hakurei Shrine since we are getting to the end, and everyone is trying to run from the Yama seems like Lyrica was the most vocal out of the three sisters in their scene; our few precious seconds of the Prismriver sisters in a speaking role and now Suika joins the scene, scared by Eiki and Reimu is just as scary now for the ending; normally, I would not say anything since one images makes as much as a million words, but here it is So much for Marisa... I like the outro song, it's a nice remix for Higan Retour and of course, since the arc is over, we are getting another teaser; this time, it is for the Mountain of Faith arc, which actually does happen (finally) Conclusion: a bit of an unnecessary arc. It was nice to get a breath after the battles of the previous arc, but I think it could have been executed better. Also god, this little version of Eiki... I know, I know, they wanted to go with her fanon/"Danzai Yamaxanadu" version, but I guess it is not my cup of tea. Episode 7 - The Mysterious Giant Youkai Now, all of a sudden, the creators of the show have decided to randomly jump forward in time, presenting us the Cirno route in Touhou Hisoutensoku. ok, we are back to the Yuuhei Satellite intro from first episode; well, just am excuse to listen again to that magnificent song oh, I love the Godzilla reference from the title of this episode "Daidarabocchi, King of the Monsters!" Meiling is sleeping again on duty... nice introduction of Alice; I have the feeling she will be much better in this show than her usual fanon (which is quite a surprise) looks like Cirno still has to train in using Perfect Freeze oh, it's cute that Daiyousei still cares about the wellbeing of Cirno even they had an argument now at the Hakurei Shrine; Sanae is here, which just confuses the heck out of me (mostly due to the random order of the story arcs and rewritings done by Manpukujinja to make their plot work) hey, a maneki-neko in the background No, Reimu, I was talking about a little cat and now Sanae is geeking out over the idea the Daidarabocchi could be a robot, and that they could be real in Gensokyo she is all so fired up about the idea also this on to the next scene hmm, I see the market scene is filled with static background characters literally everyone is frozen there as they have not been animated; it starts becoming visible that the production/animation team is starting to cut corners with the animation process and effort put into things) the Myoren Temple group is back and this time, Shou has her beloved pagoda I really like this version of Alice; amazing how out of all pieces of fanon, MoP was the one to come up with an awesome version of Alice - calm, a helpful person, and just lacking any ill intentions new commercial break transition screen: Okuu Time! again, nice voice pick for Utsuho - she really does sound like an imposing woman in this version of the fan voice-over time for the battle of the bird-brains - the literal birdbrain vs the ⑨ Yes you are, dummy [...] meanwhile, in Okuu's (bird)brain: (Nuclear Fusion starts playing) meanwhile, at Chireiden - there we have our 10 seconds of shared screen-time for Satori and Koishi in this episode holy shit, I really love this new voice-over, especially that for Okuu; quite a progress from the version I have seen in YouTube - she sounded so bored and monotone there Yeah, she is scary (and hot - both literally and metaphorically) Daiyousei to the rescue! ...and if course, Cirno failed AGAIN at Perfect Freeze poor Dai-Chan, she can't catch a break from getting frozen... (WARNING: Count is about to geek out over this depiction of Okuu) I just love the combination of good character design and woman voice Okuu was given in this episode. Oh god, she's hot, not gonna lie (both literally and metaphorically). Alright, where was I? Ah, yeah, Daiyousei is not here to help Cirno, and she ended up frozen in another failed attempt at Perfect Freeze... Reminds me of a saying we have here in Romania: "Mare e grădina Domnului" (basically meaning there is room for anything possible; or just like Okuu said) Also sudden Suwako hat smash - oh, poor her (birb gonna cry) anyway... even now, at the end of the story, Meiling is still sleeping; never mind, she just woke up. How was the dream about fighting the giant catfish, Meiling? awww, Cirno and Daiyousei finally came to terms nice reveal about the Goliath Doll at the end also do I hear an arrangement for The Grimoire of Alice in the background? alright, this time the outro is just a compilation of Cirno scenes from the previous episodes - literally EVERY Cirno scene (even some from the following story arc) and I think the song is the one related to Hisoutensoku? I don't really know the songs from the early fighter games Conclusion: surprisingly, an overall very good episode. I really like the Alice-Daiyousei dynamic, and gave us probably one of my favorite fanon versions of our beloved puppeteer. Okuu might just just as much of a birdbrain as fans depicted her, but she is still my beloved birdbrain. I see a lot of people online hate this episode (after all, this is where I stopped at my first watch, seing all the comments), but I think it was actually good. And i see that I have backing when it comes to that (more on that at end). Episode 8 - The Eternal Night Incident (Part 1) We are going back in time, to the era of Imperishable Night. From here on, the plots start becoming a little annoying, scenes frustrating and sometimes either unnecessary or just extremely convenient. Get ready for 5 episodes that could have been so much shorter... prologue: alright, is what Eirin did to the Moon in the opening sequence basically an eclipse before bringing in the fake moon? new arc intro sequence; this time, it actually fits with what is going on Awww, this Keine is so pretty! is the theme used for the intro a version of Rise for the Moon, Immortal Smoke? or whatever the name of the Mokou theme was nice to see the teams forming though so the Tewi scene from previous intro happened in the larger context of this scene...; now it's even more weird that we had PoFV before IN Reimu wtf ...and now Sanae is part of Team Hakugyokurou? chronologically, Sanae was last seen at Hakugyokurou, at the end of the PCB episode since she just as arrived to Gensokyo (so in Episode 1) again, have I told you how much I like this version of Alice? quite a pleasant surprise ("Alice is great here" counter should be a thing) I am confused, which one is the actual name of the episode and arc? I see both The Night the Earth Stood Still and The Eternal Moon Incident; really like those title screens though poor Wriggle and Mystia, already defeated off-screen... we only see them knocked out more of Keine though anyway, great dynamic between Marisa and Alice- one as the bold one and the other as the calm, calculated and methodical side Fascinating and now for Reimu fighting Marisa I can't remember the details from IN, but I am sure it was not Yukari who messed with everything, right? given that she calls herself the culprit here in the anime, which creates some (artificial) tension between Reimu and Marisa and therefore leads to them fighting because I guess Stage 4 has to happen somehow; I need to check the game script again... the whole lead-up to the battle feels a little forced, even if it has to happen but again, I still need to remember what happened in the game Yukari is just smug and cocky like usual and now this arc's break screen: until now, there is some pattern I may have noticed in the show- Yukari is messing a lot with Reimu, and not treating her very well; however, when it comes to Sanae, Yukari is all friendly and "welcome to Gensokyo and all" is she actually planning something? yay, we got the famous Marisad finally they figured out the culprit is at Eintei quite a fiery entrance for Udon-chan - literally Episode 9 - The Eternal Night Incident (Part 2) BRUH - "Fantasy Kaleidoscope Episode 9 The Eternal Night Incident (Last part)" (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha) - if only... new narration by Marisa, retelling the actions of previous episode; this recap, together with the intro, last for about 4 minutes of of the total 12 minutes of screen-time; the outro and hype-building for the following episode also take about 2-3 minutes, so we can see how much actual content there really is as a reminder that we had 2 seconds of Wriggle and Mystia combined; Wriggle gets an extra couple seconds of screen-time in the arc intro, and so does Mystia until now, Team Hakugyokurou had 1 minute, and Team Scarlet did not even show up yet huh, only now I noticed; Marisa using Master Spark in the fight against Reimu turned into a very convenient way of finding Eintei and creating a path to it So convenient... oh wait, now I think Yukari would make sense to have a role in the events - did she make the night longer or something, so to give time to find out who created the fake Moon and replace it with the real one? I am still confused if I put it with the game, as I forgot critical information from the game and now for the subtle Lunatic Eyes music; Yukari and Alice are about to fight Reisen, while Reimu and Marisa continue on their way to find the real culprit never mind... oh damn it, a good chunk of the fight against Reisen happened off screen, or better said behind the walls of Eintei now we only get the dialogue between bnnuy, Alice and Yukari the visuals for the hallway are beautiful though; the infinite hallway is quite a fascinating place, and looks cool in the game too from what I have seen (probably some of my favorite visuals from this show) suddenly Tewi... so much for Tewi 2 seconds of off-screen combat and she surrendered at least she is still the troll we all know and love so much and now time to introduce Kaguya... yeah, they really went for a lengthy scene there while talking about Kaguya's backstory I did not even know what to focus on - the story, or having the princess naked in front of us yeah, Tewi is a troll: oooooh, time to fight Eirin; Tewi is still smug as heck second chatty side-kick character that gets blown away (first was Koakuma): Still a better side-kick than Koakuma oh boy, Voyage 1969? back to Reisen now I like the thing with her splitting into duplicates (Naruto-style); an effect of the lunatic eyes? and now time for Yukari to use her trump card - bring in the Hakugyokurou crew this looks like it will become a cool fight between Youmu and Reisen... "That's all, folks!" - it was literally... 5 seconds? So much build-up for nothing it took more seconds for Reisen to fall to the ground than the fight itself ...and now Youmu and Yuyuko are gone; they really felt like a Deus Ex Machina moment good thing we got the random Sane insertion to the scene: we are finally back to the battle between Eirin, Reimu and Marisa: visuals really are epic for the Eirin fight though and now cliffhanger until next episode; imagine buying this as a CD, as each episode came on its own separate CD/DVD/BlueRay damn it, I really need a counter for how many times they have said the following episode will be the conclusion; they did it about Ep 9, now they advertised Ep. 10 as the same (Ending, Part 1) at least that was specified Episode 10 - The Eternal Night Incident (Part 3) yet another recap I don't really know how muc they really planned ahead this series, or it was done on the go which may explain the random order of the arcs, unless they wanted t build their own narrative, independent from the games I mean more about how we got the arcs and order of games- PCB, the EoSD, PoFV, Hisoutensoku, IN and finally MoF or how the more this series goes, the longer and more bloated arcs become (cute, but rather unnecessary) tiny Marisa flashback: how many trump cards does Yukari have?! now it looks like she summoned Sakuya as another Deus Ex moment to save Marisa does this show imply that the sole reason team Scarlet exists is due to the fact Yukari summoned them? hmmm, this Remilia seems very confident; she clearly did not get that Charisma Break yet out of 12:26 minutes of screentime as of Episode 10, 3:38 minutes are the recap and intro, and the final 2:26 minutes are taken by the outro and announcement for the following episode so we are left with just under 6 and a half minutes of actual episode oof, the battle turned 180 degrees with the appearance of the Team Scarlet and now, Eirin got both Fantasy Seal and Master Spark to the face yay, the real Moon is back at least Reisen is still alive despite taking a ful-on sword blow (and with no major injuries either, just scratched clothes) some more Reimu-Yukari banter and we still did not get a proper meeting with Kaguya; did they go the Eirin fight route? never mind, there she is end screen Episode 11 - The Eternal Night Incident (Part 4) Episode 11 recap really wanted to give us the full nude shot of Kaguya in there; that came out of nowhere, but I should no longer be amazed with the tone of this series (Take instead a fully-clothed Kaguya; she look pretty in the animation style of MoP) wait, we are going to have a full episode dedicated to the Extra stage? I guess more screen-time for Mokou (spoiler: only from next time) awww, they (Kaguya and Eirin) are having such a pretty, totally-not-yuri moment, it's cute [visibly confused Marisa] and in the spirit of Gensokyo, this cannot end without a danmaku battle; at least they got the word right (stil looking at you, LostWord and "battle of bullets") ...and Yukari left at least Kaguya seems to be having the fun of her life (meanwhile, in another scene) so this is where was Mokou... giving piggy rides to Cirno and again, I really love the voiceover for Mokou hey, a bit more screen time for Mystia and Wriggle; now I think we are at like... 6 seconds through the arc Ara, Kaguya is done as well (and with some slight fanservice to keep people watching) She still looks happy; must have been a fun night, filled with danmaku battles hey, I was not expecting to see Hatate in here ...the fuck happened here? Chen being adorable again what is the world is Yukari doing now at the top of the Youkai Maintain? Don't tell me this is her moving in the Moriya Shrine to Gensokyo yeah, there is, the Moriya Shrine, gods included new outro; does this mean there is one more episode in the arc? we did not have the Mokou fight yet and the test of courage Episode 12 - The Courage Test (Part 1) I was wrong; it looks like Imperishable Night Extra stage is getting not only a dedicated episode, but a dedicated sub-arc that I tend to merge together with the IN one. and now it is time for Mokou to be the next big baddie, even if until now she has shown no sign or reason for becoming one all she did was give piggy rides to Cirno through the arc again, two alternative names: Personally, I prefer The Only NEET Thing to Do and Aya is providing the comment to the trial of guts? looks like she really is used as a sports commentator in fan-made stuff (first time I saw it in LW, and now here) also a few more seconds of Wriggle and finally some more Rumia oh, I see it is actually Reisen doing the commentary/introduction to the trial, while Aya is also talking for some reason from another scene more Wriggle and Rumia ...and Mystia is alive (quite a surprise at the end of IN if you ask fanon; "Even in death, I still serve" ~ WH40K Venerable Dreadnought Mystia, probably); she still has to tend her Izakaya and ultimately become the God-Emperor of Hell's Kitchen Cirno is a true fighter at heart: more points for Eirin being cute and new transition screen time for Remilia to fight Mokou Oh God she's hot (literally and metaphorically) (we need an "oh god she's hot" moment counter) and we got our fight for now, just as quickly as it began time to interrupt for another scene we stil got a few second of it while Reimu and Kaguya were discussing about the whole trial and nature of Mokou ...and just as we were talking, Sakuya stopped time and brought Tewi tied to the roof and the episode is over... looks like this will be dragged into yet another episode new outro it feels as if Trial of Guts became its own two episodes mini-arc 6th episode already in this arc? this really extended quite a long maybe a little longer than it was welcome Episode 13 - The Test of Courage (Part 2) one more episode with Mokou though Marisa was about the joint the Remilia-Mokou fight, but then Keine happened boy oh boy oh boy, Hakutaku form Keine... and now for another scene, as quickly as we built this take a derpy Kaguya: and now finally, we are back to the duel begun in the previous episode oh shit... She will be fine, don't worry... poor Tewi, she is still tied up we need a compilation of "Kaguya being cute moments" and it looks like Keine did her famous headbutt (again, an off-screen battle, unless all she needed to do was headbutt Marisa to defeat her) or at least we get to see its aftermath... finally the arc is over time to see how much of a grind MoF shall be Conclusion: the arc started with a bit of a bang, and now it ended with a fuss. I really believe this story has dragged for a little too long, or at least longer than it was welcome. At least I hope the following arc will be better. 4 more episodes to go... Episode 14 - The Youkai Mountain Battle Incident (Part 1) Finally, time for Mountain of Faith to be put on screen. So much build-up for this arc through the series, it sure has to be worth, right... RIGHT? I am slowly starting to lose the meaning of even reviewing this series, since the arcs are slowly starting to give me less and less to talk about now to watch how Sanae destroys Reimu's donation box and now goodbye donation box... as well as a chunk of the Shrine itself so we have this new, hot-headed, self-proclaimed Shrine Maiden of the newly established Moriya Shrine; and now, she is asking the only other shrine in the land to accept becoming a subject of the newcomers or else perish we are basically in a "join Moriya Shrine or be destroyed" also the Yuuhei Satellite intro from first episode is back... again Reimu is ready to go to war, she won't accept the embarrassment from earlier: yeah, Reimu is ready to kick butt and chew bubblegum, and she is all out of bubblegum There you go, Reimu! stage 1: the Aki sisters... ...so much for the Aki sisters; they have lasted... about 1 shot and 5 seconds each? at least Minoriko still has the time and mood to talk about sweet potatoes stage 2: Hina time... ...so much for Hina (maybe 3 seconds?) Reimu sure is in full Terminator Mode now This line gives me Dark Souls vibe. "The Hakurei Miko invaded" at least Momiji gets more screen time and characterization than she actually got in MoF hey, the Tengu have phones - 19th century phones, but phones nonetheless; they do look classy. Wait, aren't they... a little outdated? Given that Tengu like Hatate have stuff like flip-phones, to just makes things funny. Or just the Tengu society is so excentric they managed to create modern phones, but dressed them in the aesthetic of 19th century (or pre-encapsulation of Gensokyo - since that happened less than 2 decades into the Meiji Restoration) devices for familiarity ladies and gentlemen, this arc;s waiting screen: and now back to Yukari in her shadow realm yeah, Yukari just wants this battle to happen Momiji is defeated during an off-screen battle: and now it is time for Aya; let's see how long it will be for her oooh, nice rock arrangement of Wind God Girl also Pokemon reference? (She's a Wind type) ah, just as the battle was about to start, and the episode is over I really like the style of the new outro and art for it Episode 15 - The Youkai Mountain Battle Incident (Part 2) time to see what actually happened in the battle against Aya she is all smug and cocky now (nothing new from bosses through the series) oh, so now Aya is willing to bargain the passing of Reimu towards the Moriya Shrine, I see and now, it is time for Reimu to defeat her effortlessly: (Don't worry, she will be back soon) wait, was a part of the Fantasy Seal animation recycled from another episode? it looks very similar to the same animation used in the fight against Eirin there goes Aya... another short, rather anticlimactic battle at least we get to see more of Marisa and Nitori speaking of which... Optical camouflage failed kappa ballistic missile! this scene is precious the missile failed failed, resulting in explosion great, now we have a kappa-induced tsunami at the Genbu Ravine I guess? (if I got the location correctly) did Nitori go full-on flirting, just after Marisa threatened to exterminate her? Another one to the fanon-made Marisa harem and now we finally arrived at the Moriya Shrine ok, we got a little bit of introduction to Kanako and Sanae through Ran, still in Yukari's shadow realm at their HQ - who Kanako is and where she came from , as well as a bit about Sanae being able to fulfill miracles now I really have the feeling Yukari is more favorable towards the newly established Moriya Shrine, since she gave them so much help in settling to Gensokyo, as well as the build-up towards this arc Kanako talking about how the MS will become the ultimate Shrine in Gensokyo - a speech full of ham, rather bombastic, and probably not too different from what Yuyuko, Remilia and Eirin have also said until now in their own final battles and now suddenly Hatate scene, spying the unfolding events from a bush EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK!? so this was the whole plan of Yukari?! KILL/GET RID OF REIMU?! These are not the words of Kanako, they came from the gap... and now a 2 vs 1 battle and now we also had a brief introduction scene of Suwako Yukari, Ran, who are you supporting here? end of the episode, see you next time I did not notice this Kosuzu image in the outro Episode 16 - The Youkai Mountain Battle Incident (Part 3) looks like Suwako wants to see what is going on with the battle; none of her business, time to chill and now Aya joined next to Hatate Nice cut, Aya! Quite a bit of side-boob, I see... kappa drill machine out of nowhere... so much for it, we crashed into a rock Marisa has joined the fight and now back to the battle, this time Reimu & Marisa vs Kanako & Sanae ...and Sanae is down, in one fell swoop (or better said 1 Master Spark) - this was again, 5-10 seconds since Marisa appeared? and with Manpukujinja, you you will always end up wondering how torn off will the defeated character's clothes be Answer: quite a lot (don't worry, it gets worse for Sanae as she lays down defeated) and now to mirror a scene from the EoSD arc: Sanae doesn't want to give up, but I guess she is too exhausted and weakened... and that kids, was Stage 5 in Mountain of Faith time to see Suwako take her place in combat Yeah Sanae, we know... You are exhausted, so better go to sleep, and pray your clothes don't get even more torn off in next scene you get a close-up oh yeah, those two are still here: so now we are merging Stage 6 and Extra in one battle and now the giant mountain hands are here: end of the episode also yet another new outro, this time with Hina's theme Episode 17 - The Youkai Mountain Battle Incident (Part 4) we are finally at the conclusion episode for this arc, and the final episode overall even if not in combat, the clothes of Sanae have become even more torn off Just a little more, and we are going to witness the bare shrine maiden boobies if we keep the pace... everyone, from all realms, is witnessing this final battle for domination between shrines ok, now I see the thing with Yukari: as she was not introduced in the PBC episode, the authors took the liberty to rewrite her as the overarching antagonist of the series so I guess now it makes more sense why she would want Reimu dead? (just wanna rewatch the Yukari section from Megafrog's video, then I can get back to the episode) (personal intermission) and now back to the actual episode... yay, Reimu saved Marisa ...and now with the choreography, music and pure idea, we are doing a carbon copy of the Reimu & Marisa vs Remilia & Flandre battle, except with Kanako & Suwako; we even have the same Yuuhei Satellite song playing did we just suddenly go MoF Marisa B and turned her into a jet (I mean mini Hakkero propelled) projectile? ...and Kanako is gone now Reimu uses Fantasy Nature against Suwako - and game over; the two goddesses have been defeated Marisa loves posing: and now we keep on having a competition of torn clothes in the most fanservice areas of a woman's body Sanae already provided in the previous image(s). Aya is providing the under-boob missing piece of clothing, as well as some (only now noticed) skirt bits missing all the way up to the crotch and... that feminine part... (bonus for the fact Marisa really loves having pictures of her being taken) ...Kanako goes for something similar, but with an extra on both boobs (though if combined with some other shots, she also has a lot of her thighs exposed as the skirt got torn off as well); Suwako is lucky though, with only just some cuts on the sleeves. ok, and now I see we got the origin of the banquet from first episode (actually not really, it is a different banquet held months before SA); things have come full circle drinking competition between gods and Tengu oh, this is a different banquet the one from the EoSD arc was during winter, this one is... whenever MoF took place so I was right - Episodes 2-4 take place at the end of SA, with s tory placed much earlier in history oh, Yukari decided to show up (look who is here after all the mess she has caused; as it is implied she was the grand mastermind behind every incident up to that point in Gensokyo) and holy cow, it really was Yukari who stirred up all incidents until now in the series ...and now she is gone, just as soon as she arrived Suika to the rescue - she has called the entire EoSD, PCB, IN and PoFV characters to the banquet Welcome to that part of the cast that merely existed and this is how we ended the story: now we have yet another new outro this episode could have worked nicely as a tie-up to the series... if only the did not tease a lot of other stuff, with this episode's post-credits screen teasing yet another arc (most likely Scarlet Weather Rhapsody) Conclusion: PLEASE, END THIS ALREADY! I don't know if it is from the fact I have watched 2 full arcs in one day, the fact the show has problems or that I have lost enjoyment the further I was going, but I am honestly happy it is over. This arc could have been a very good point to end the show, given it has been running since 2011 and the fact we have been building for over a decade just to get to this final showdown between the Hakurei and Moriya Shrine, but I guess they really want to keep producing it. I am done, at least for a while. AND THIS IS IT... the end of my less-than-24-hours-long marathon on watching Memories of Phantasm (well, 48 hours if also counting the writing of this review) this was... something 17 episodes, yet it could have very easily have fit into at most 12 episodes we had 4 arcs (EoSD, PoFV, IN and MoF), and 2 individual episodes (PCB and Hisoutensoku), unevenly distributed (it became extremely bloated towards the end; it became very tiring to go through both IN and MoF in one go) Conclusion Despite all my frustration with some of the moments, I would say that overall, the show has not been that much of an awful experience as some depict it. There is however one big problems about Memories of Phantasm. Not so big about the show itself, as much as about the way it was received and how people perceive it. Ever since its release, a lot of people have pushed MoP as basically the "ambassador" of Touhou anime. Even if this is a fan-made, unofficial product. For some, it might be the first contact with Touhou, which often strikes the "wHaT aNiMe iS tOuHoU?" question among groups of unaware people. It is a fan-made series, projecting the views of the fans on the series up to that point. Therefore, not the most accurate depiction of the game. And it really did not seek out to be that. Just like any other Touhou fanwork, it was looking to envision the way its authors perceived the wonderful and fascinating universe of Gensokyo. Even if their vision includes a lot of fanservice and big sized boobs... However, compared to any other fanworks, MoP has become a punching bag for the fandom when it comes to "everything wrong about the Touhou fans" (just like Touhou LostWord has become nowadays). But hey, let's look at the bright side of things. Maybe this series actually made at least one person actually become curious about what Touhou is, and from there we may have earned a dedicated fan. For every misguided, "filthy casual" bunch, there should be at least that one gem that stays with us and helps in building a better community. Or maybe am I being too optimistic? Basically, in the lack of an official anime adaptation (and not that we will ever get one), Memories of Phantasm has been forced into becoming the figurehead for Touhou animations. And it is hard to blame, especially when the overall visual quality of a product that was not created by a professional studio can actually pass as the product of a big company (seriously, I really love the art style of MoP). (bonus section, put into spoilers just to make things shorter in case this is already too long of a read) Megafrog (I swear, I will link his video in just a moment) has pointed out very well 3 ways in which nobody really managed to understand the anime: Yes, this series is a mess. Yes, it has a lot of unnecessary and awkward fanservice used only just to patch and take attention from bad writing. Yes, a lot of things may not really make sense, and could be better executed. But does it deserve all the hate it tends to get from the seasoned Touhou veterans? At least for the first 7 episodes, it really tries to make its own thing with all it gets. And sometimes, we even get some good episodes, or at least pieces of an episode going well in a sea of dumpster fire. If we are to give credit to Memories of Phantasm for something, that would be how long it lasted. Many, if not most Touhou fan-made anime projects died out as soon as they appeared. Every now and often, you will see that sporadic PV for a "soon to come" series, only for you to find out the PV was from 10 years ago and nothing actually came besides that PV. The only other two (maybe three, if you also count the 3D animations released every few years by minusT) competitors when it comes to a fan-made Touhou anime that went for more than a PV: Summer Day's Dream and Sealed Esoteric History. Those two got a few episodes, but they are even more of a niche product, only known by their own specific public. To me, MoP is just a proof that there is possible to make a Touhou animated series, and actually have it survive for more than a decade, or at least long enough until it becomes a long-lasting name in the community - "you either die early as a hero, or live long enough to become the villain" as some would say. As to why I have not done this a proper review: this has already been done, and much better than I ever could by Megafrog. His video, released mere weeks ago, was my main drive to finally give a shot at writing this thread. Without him, it would have probably taken me even more to come up with it, quite likely leaving the project for the next year or so. He has covered the series very well in a 1 hour long review, with a specific focus on episodes 1-7 (as the rest afterwards copy the EoSD arc formula to some various degree). As a bonus, he even went further and actually made some research into the media posts of the doujin group, uncovering some rather interesting things about Manpukujinja and the people behind all this project. It is definitely a video i would recommend watching if you have 1 hour to spare, or just want to have something to listen to in the background when busy. This is probably the longest thread I have written this year. I was not expecting to come up with this kind of a monster all of a sudden, but I guess here we are now. Th video I promised so much I will link: This has been CountVonNumenor, and see you until the end of this year with at least one more thread, then an important one on the New Year Eve. See you, space cowboy

It's nice to finally see a thread dedicate to Fantasy Kaleidoscope and I'm glad you've caught up with all the episodes now! I haven't seen the show in a while just like Buskerdog, so this recap helps me remember the cool moments and saves me time. Despite my feelings on the show, I'll admit it was really fun to see your live reaction to these episodes and then talking about them after! We should definitely plan more stuff like this in the future. Since Fantasy Kaleidoscope opened the gateway to anime sites for you, Maybe you'll decide to watch other anime shows that we like one day : ) I think now would also be a good time to mention that we created a discord group recently! It's mainly for the people we genuinely trust, but I'd love to see more people from MS to join there. Please feel free to message either one of us about it anytime! Episode 17 really felt like the end of the story they were trying to tell and I would've liked to see them wrap up everything here as well. Even with the Tenshi teaser at the end, I can't imagine them working on full arcs like IN and MoF anymore. A special episode for Scarlet Weather Rhapsody would be nice though. Manpukujinja have been producing this show for over 12 years now, so maybe it's the right time to take a break.

Merry Christmas! I'm breaking my own rules today because I feel guilty for being unable to get this out earlier; it is done now. Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets – Beautiful Diver Somebody I know. To get some of the more obvious things out of the way: This is a quality arrangement, and of a relatively rarer theme to boot. I only discovered this circle fairly recently, but I’ve been consistently impressed with the musical arrangement and instrumentation; it’s a rock style with elements of jazz, but arranged in the style of eastern pop. While not technically unusual, in this case it is done with uncommonly high-quality production, putting it on a level with GET IN THE RING or Liz Triangle. As for the vocals, they compliment (and are complimented) admirably by the arrangement, and are of similar standard. Now getting into the complications: It is important to me to locate the lyric translations for vocal songs when possible, to better understand the piece’s presentation. This can be both a benefit and a determent, depending on the song; in this case it was a bit of both. On my initial listening, I was put off by the abrupt ending, which seemed to mess-up the otherwise serviceable progression. However, this turns out to serve a thematic purpose in conjunction with the song, representing the unendingness of the situation being sung about. In this way, knowing the lyrics improved my perception of the arrangement. On the other hand, the tone of the lyrics seems at odds with that of the music. The song would depict an emotionally despairing situation, regretful acceptance of an equally unnecessary and unrelinquishable resentment. In context of the accompanying music, one might interpret the tone as apathetic, ultimately making light of the circumstances and downplaying their impact. However, I do not have the impression this was the intended inference, primarily both for the implications of the ending and for the style of the vocal performance. I perceive a bitterness in the song, a resentment directed inward against the singer’s own outwardly directed resentment, i.e.grudge against own grudge, aware of the hypocrisy but failing to discern a rectification. Regardless of the intended meaning, the conflict between the music and lyrics results in unnecessary confusion for the attentive listener. In conclusion, it’s a great arrangement, though it does not especially stand out to me yet (give it a couple more listens). 7.6/10 Boga – The Doll Maker of Bucuresti A zunish entry. It never occurred to me for a EoSD style remix to appear in a tournament; as such remixes go, this is a fairly good one. The nature of the soundfont makes it easy to mess up and make oppressively obnoxious, which this piece does not do; the sound substitutions were handled well, resulting in a very clean mix that is faithful both to the source piece and the replicated style. The biggest drawback is that it’s more of a cover than a rearrangement; there’s little to no creativity in its composition. There’s nothing technically problematic with this, and it’s still nice to listen to, but after the previous entry it seems a bit bland. That my initial perceptions of the piece are so influenced by outside factors is unfortunate, but difficult to ignore. Pleasant and professional sound, but not particularly interesting. 6/10 TATAMI STUGIWO – Dance of the Poisoned Candy Christmas crossover! I respect the timing of this, and considering the temptation of gimmicky alternatives this is a surprisingly well-arranged (and well-constructed) option. While the Sugar Plum Fairy sections are clearly defined from the remix proper, there is still clearly a guiding idea for their rectification that is accomplished fairly skillfully. For the imagination alone, this is my favorite piece thus far. The weakness in this arrangement is the unfortunately audio quality, made all the more apparent by the contrast between the remix sections and the much cleaner sounding clips. The virtual instruments simply can’t measure up to the professional orchestra recordings, which is a shame because the piece had otherwise accomplished the harder task of cleanly transitioning between the two in the arrangement itself. This may be a harder thing to overlook for some, but thankfully it’s not quite so bad that I can’t still appreciate it. Creative idea executed decently. 8/10

1. KISIDA KYODAN & THE AKEBOSI ROCKETS - Beautiful Diver This song has been quite a nice way to open the tournament. It is rather rare to see an arrangement based on A World of Nightmares Never Seen Before (the only other one I know is Sadomasochism from Akatsuki Records), and this one is quite a welcome addition. The only nitpick I can come up with, in the lack of a musical culture, is one that basically should not really be addressed. I found it odd that a song associated with Hecatia had the background image containing Doremy Sweet. Is there something I am missing? Is the Extra stage of LoLK happening in the Dream World? No matter what, I will rate this song 8.5/10 2. Boga - The Doll Maker of București (EoSD Arrange) This one has been an interesting pick. Initially, I have listened to this song at the recommendation of @sodaodaoda last summer, and I quickly fell in love with it. I am not really the greatest fan of EoSD (don't get me wrong, I still like the game, but for me PCB creates a greater nostalgia as it was my first direct contact with the games), but I appreciate the direction of the music from that era. Therefore, combining the unique music approach of the EoSD/DiPP era with a theme from PCB, it sure felt like something I really wanted to share. Also, is it wrong that I may greatly prefer The Doll Maker of București over Doll Judgement? Like last time, I will not offer an official rate of my own upload in order to be devoid of bias. But if I have to give it a grade, I would give it a 9/10 purely on the feelings it creates for me. If a song can make you interested in a character, then it means the song has something special. 3. TATAMI STUGIWO - Dance of the Poisoned Candy I really appreciate the classical music opening. And then we are slowly getting into the Touhou section of the song... Personally, I am extremely unfamiliar with Medicine's theme (but to be honest, it is pretty much the same about most themes from PoFV besides Yuuka, Komachi and Eiki's themes). But is always nice to explore new things. And from what I see, the classic music (correct me if I am wrong, but is it from The Nutcracker?) combined very nicely with the PoFV theme. And now I am at the Flower Land part. Always nice to have a little bit of Yuuka thrown into the mix, yet had a little bit of a hard time identifying the River Styx and Sixty Years segments fragments Drunke_Flower was talking about. The ending is quite energetic though, very upbeats, and it will make sure you are awake if you fell asleep (it sure gave me some energy while writing this). Anyway, this is also a good song, so I will rate it 8.5/10

Thank you CVN for this post, I haven't looked at MoP for a pretty long time and this was a really good recap/review of the series! I watched up to the end of Imperishable Night arc, as that's where the series finished at the time, and found the overall experience to be just "alright" in a similar way to what you concluded, which would explain why I never bothered to catch up with the new episodes after that. Huh, that sounds really cool! I'm sure you all had interesting things to say about it! And now, for some additional canon information I can provide to fill in a few holes: Eirin places a magical seal on the moon so that the Lunarians cannot pursue Kaguya on earth. Since the real moon becomes sealed away, she also creates a replacement fake moon. Unfortunately, this is having adverse effects on Youkai. Eirin's spell takes time to complete however, so the protagonists use magic to extend the duration of the night to find the culprit before the damage becomes irreversible. This is why there's an actual "time" resource in the game that the characters collect for playing well, and without enough of it, the game ends early. In Reimu's route it is of course Yukari manipulating the border of night and day to extend the night time, and since this explanation fits very soundly, along with being part of Reimu's story, it's generally the one fans accept as the "most canon", but all the teams have a method for extending the night. The Forbidden Magic team are using a spell from a grimoire (probably Alice's grimoire, but I'm not actually sure), the Scarlet team are using Sakuya's innate time manipulation powers, and the Netherworld team are... uh... Yuyuko just has powers, I guess? (actually, due to Yuyuko's closeness with Yukari, it could possibly be her again that's manipulating time behind the scenes.) This technique is "Instant Dimensional Rift", a skill card in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Hisoutensoku. The special move works like a counter - if Reimu is hit when she activates it, she teleports away to safety and a burst of ofuda appear in her place, assuming that same star-shaped formation you see in the anime before flying towards the attacker.

1. i know this group obviously however never really listened to them too much. overall instrumental is quite nice, tempo is a little too slow for my taster however. Vocal isn't my favorite, quite mediocre actually however i do really enjoy the guitar parts like 2:30 overall it would be a 6/10 for me 2. i do not know the artist but it's a quite nice style they got there, it's quite similar to ZUN's however it's not quite the same and it's overall pretty solid. Alice theme is also pretty solid which makes it a pleasant experience i would rate it 7.5/10 3. now this is quite creative piece of medi's theme it got a little bit of these eerie vibes which makes it really enjoyable, instruments blend really well together, however sometimes i feel like pitch of some is getting too high and a little too loud compared to the rest and it makes it worse even though it complements the style of the song. still really good though 8/10

3:10-3:32 River Styx, left stereo. 3:33-3:42 Sixty Years, right stereo.

LoLK extra stage is indeed in the dream world, and Doremy is the midboss ; )

Alright here we go 1. KISIDA KYODAN & THE AKEBOSI ROCKETS - Beautiful Diver Kishida is I think one of the first music groups I found, completely by accident. Still love them, really big fan of the tone they go for with the drums and guitars, and ofc ichigo's vocals are so damn good. I think they really shine in more laid back songs like this. Also A never before seen world of nightmares is a favorite of mine so this was an easy pick. ONSEN PROJECT has an acoustic version of this, also sung by ichigo (sneaks in a 4th entry) Anyways, 9/10 2. Boga - The Doll Maker of Bucuresti (EoSD Arrange) Oh shit Boga. Always loved the EoSD/DiPP style with the detuned instruments, I wish ZUN had done more of it. But this dude really nails that style so I guess it's as close as we'll get. Though there's really not much more to this one than what the original already brings, and it doesn't help that The Doll Maker of Bucuresti always gets overshadowed by Alice's actual theme for me I'm sorry. 7/10 3. TATAMI STUGIWO - Dance of the Poisoned Candy mmhm, interesting combo. I saw the name and the "christmas" in the title and expected it to be just Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and then Medicine's theme kicks in and I'm like "oh shit here we go". It's neat, I don't know what else to say about it. Mixing in the melodies of Yuuka and Komachi's theme in there is interesting, reminded me I need to go re-read PoFV stuff at some point. Had to turn down the volume for that last part, I don't know if it's Youtube compression or if it's actually compressed to shit but, ow. 7/10