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I've never once taken part in this fandom, though I've only been a part of it for probably a good year and a half if that. Being social is not my strong suit, but I feel strongly enough about topics like this that I'm making my first reply on this site. I'll keep it very brief! No one is a bad fan. It doesn't matter how you consume content, whether it's a gacha, or a fan game you particularly enjoy, or even if you only like one game in the series. Hell, even if you just like the characters and fan animations, you're a fan. If you want to engage in the parts of the community you find fun, then go ahead and do it, and don't let any single person tell you that you're a bad fan for doing so. That's my take.

Before going into Retrospective 2022 (either on the 31st December 2022 or first days of January 2023), there is one more thing I would like to talk about before the end of the year. This thread is going hand in hand with the one I have posed yesterday. Just before the end of the year, I would like to make both an evaluation of my place within the community and the situation of the regular Touhou fan that engages with the series in one way or another. I was thinking about tackling this question for about a couple months, after a series of weird events. Before going into the thread itself, what makes someone a Touhou fan? Is there such a thing as "fakers", or everyone has their own place? Think of it, then come back to the question once the journey through this thread is complete. So, how did we end up here? Somewhere in July, out of all places possible, I ended up finding another person who knew about Touhou in a Warhammer 40K channel of a Sci-fi Discord server (probably like 10-15K people). The guy was randomly posting a Touhou hijack every now and then, and once I did have the chance to catch it. During one of those hijacks, I was also around, and like the innocent fool I was, I pointed out "oh hey, that's Touhou, nice". Then, I did my big mistake: I said I am familiar with the series. Which spiraled him into asking me how many or which of the official games I have played. When my answer was none, and that I was struggling to finish PCB on Easy, all hell broke loose. "How can you call yourself a Touhou fan? How can you not even finish that game? It is so easy". I responded that I may have not finished any game yet, but at least I read from the official literature (at the time, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense and the first 4 volumes of Forbidden Scrollery), yet that was not enough to qualify me. Then he proceeded to talk about how much he played the games, saying that playing them is one of the qualifying factors. The discussion died off, at least for a few more months. At the middle of November, I caught another one of his hijacks in the Warhammer channel. At the time, I responded with this image, which I thought combined in a funny way the two fandoms (for context, Orin and Space Marin of the Iron Warriors legion acting as if he were her big brother): Art by BIGCAT_4424 (source: https://twitter.com/BIGCAT_4424/status/1267026103106965507) The image itself did not spark any negative reactions, but the guy went into a big rant again about the games, starting to judge categories, who is a real fan and who is not. Then this happened (I have censored names for the name of privacy): The video attachment he posted was an MP4 file of the video "ULTRA Instinct Junko is Born" by lunaPrism. And from there, the discussion died again. It was never brought again, and probably never will (hopefully) if I stay low. Besides, I can not do anything about it, or even just comment, since it would be basically me, a low-ranking member, again a Discord mod. Looking for some more information, I started talking to the other Touhou communities on the question of what makes you a fan of Touhou. The big Touhou server had a very civilized discussion with me, even if it was very late in night. Them , I tried asking the same question on the Moriya Shrine's Discord server. Oh boy... Besides people saying that the take of the mod was "based", they also guided me towards the following image. This, is surely an interesting take: Basically, they have told me I am bad fan, and people like me are one of the causes leading to the decrease in quality of the Touhou community. (slight slander towards the Moriya Shrine Discord server; that place has serious quality control problems when it comes to behavior) When I went back to the other Touhou server, and presented them this image as "the answer I got to the same question from another Touhou community", everyone was in shock. The reaction was quite poor towards the image. They just could not believe someone would even come up with this when answering to the question "am I a bad fan?". Everyone dismissed this image, and I was told not to worry about it. And from that point, I have thought a little bit about how to address this question. Now, coming to the person case - am I a bad fan? Originally, I have addressed this question ever since my early days in the fandom. I have eventually addressed the following text and question on r/touhou on the 8th December, 2021, just 1 year after getting into the series. This was my original text: And now, one year later, this is what the situation looks like, and what has changed: Canon: I am still struggling to finish PCB, but things are not going much better. The best I could achieve was the Prismriver sisters battle, but only after I used all the Continues (damn you, Stage 3 and first half of Stage 4). And that was on "Easy Modo" I have not advanced much more in reading Bohemian Archive, but I can say that I have briefly read through the characters section for Perfect Memento, as we well as briefly reading though multiple parts of Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia. Probably my greatest achievement however was finishing the first 5 volumes of Forbidden Scrollery, with two more to go in the following weeks hopefully. and not just read FS, but actually own physical copies of all the volumes. There is a funny anecdote that given the low supply here in Romania, I may have accidentally ended up buying the entire stock for the first 3 volumes from that manga (now even more so as I bough the final volumes). Before I ordered them, they were in Limited Edition. Now, they are in No Stock remaining: Along with Changeability of Strange Dream and Neo-traditionalism of Japan, I have finally added Ghostly Field Club to the list of CDs I have listened to (actually, right now I am listening to GFC again, since I like it very much). For the next year, I am planning to listen to the other music CSs as well (I may have already listened to CD 9.5, but I am not so sure how much it counts as an actual product and not just a glorified commercial) Fanon: The only fanon game I have constantly played still is Touhou LostWord I have a few more ideas for fan games, but I never ended up sticking with them. My Steam library has a section for free Touhou fan games, yet they still wait to be played. In it, there is stuff like Hina-Chan 2nd Break, Servants of Harvest Wish, Perfect Memento of Touhou Question and Touhou Mystery Reel. Out of all these titles, Touhou Mystery Reel is the only one I have actually played until now. And it convinced me of two things: 1) I suck at platform games and 2) I suck at fighting games. But more on that in my eventual discussion about looking for a Touhou themed game to enjoy... The music scene is just as rich as last year in my collection, even though through the year I have added a few more names like Komeiji Records, Konagusuri, Lyrica Live, Stringstorm (given he has started creating Touhou music), YaboiMatoi, Yuuhei Satellite, Demetori (even if I am still just scratching the surface) and UNDEAD CORPORATION, as well as the regular one-off song I might be listening to from one group or another (some of them discovered through the remix tournaments). My collection of fanart that I like from the community has increased, reaching nowadays an astonishing number of 23.8k pieces. On that note, I have recently created a new Pinterest page, CVN database, that will act as a way to more properly categorize Touhou images of different characters and the games they have come from... if I manage to sort out all that stuf, given the rapid pace in which the collection is growing My skills at creating Touhou fanart have not improved; I am still doing just as poor of a job and as little of a contribution to the fandom as before, if not worse than before I have finally finished watching Memories of Phantasm, and I actually even wrote an extensive review for it here at the Shrine. Next on my list, perhaps after a detour towards Amagami, shall be Hifuu Activity Club Record, simply because I want to see the interaction between Maribel and Renko, and the way it is depicted (I have already seen a couple short clips, and it seems to be quite sweet) My stance towards the way I interpret the characters has changed quite a bit; I have had a period in which I was more of a purist, then I started switching towards a more relaxed attitude. Now, I still prefer some of the canon depictions, while for some characters I tend to accept adding a bit of fanon as well, especially when I consider it to make sense/fir the character in question, still making the difference however (like having it clear in my mind that "this is ZUN canon" or "this is fan canon") I may have actually made a few bad decisions and stir up the lack of satisfaction of the Touhou community, especially in moments like that when I brought up the whole issue of the mountains of NSFW materials we have and the turning of the Touhou characters into mere "waifus to fap to" also in the meantime, I have become a member of this community; in the large scale, it may further bring me some hate due to the sheer association with the group and what Moriya Shrine is, and will always be known for - be the "pirate bay of Touhou" I may have also expanded a little bit into watching some of the...less than safe for work art of Touhou, but that one came mostly by extension since I am using Danbooru so much as my main search engine for Touhou art. It was a shock at the beginning (like for anyone who sees their favorite series being turned into something lewd, the first reaction is.. hard to describe), but in time, I have grown rather desensitized about it. For a better understanding of the situation: And this, kids, is a little bit more of a darker side of mine And for the final question... What really makes one a Touhou fan? Is there really such a thing as a wrong way to enjoy Touhou? Is there something that really makes you say "yeah, that guy is a real fan" or "no, he is not"? The discussion has always been going one way or another. At the beginning, I have had the bad experience of meeting people like BlankGuy... The ever-known "if you are only in for the girls, you are not a real Touhou fan; go play some waifu gacha instead" (unfortunately, the more relevant image was lost to time and files no longer embedding/working). On a surprising twist of fate, he seems to be having a change of heart after everything he did. Could this be genuine? I really hope so. However, I have seen that before with XG3E as well, and immediately afterwards, he ended going back to the customs of milking the "Touhou mommy" format he created/made popular. But, like the very naive person I am, I would really like to believe this is actually a change for the better, and that I could give him a second chance. (also oh no, he knows about some of my threads from the past. If things really have changed, I would like to apologize. It is just that some of the early claims really left a poor taste for some of the people) Good luck to him, and hope next time I will mention the name of BlankGuy, it will be in a positive context ... then there is this image talking about how the players of a specific Touhou fan game are not real Touhou fans (for context, LostWord player = fake Touhou fan)... ... and we are ending it with TheOVJM and his take on the same category of Touhou fans (and for a bonus already mentioned in the Google Doc thread) Anyway, some however say that anyone is welcome in the community, and as long as they enjoy any aspect regarding Touhou, you are part of the group. Some like the art, others enjoy playing the games or even like going for a challenge. Others have been attracted by the fan-games, or just love reading the official or fan-written manga. And some are just here for the porn. Given how vast Touhou is, there is something to satisfy everyone. Therefore, why are we so bothered calling people "primaries" and "secondaries" (terms which are still unironically used now, at the end of 2022)? Probably the best take I have heard until now in regards to the question has been that of the rising star in terms of Touhou lore content, GensouChronicle. Seriously, all my respect for the guy, he is doing such a great job covering a variety of topics, and I even made some references to him through the Memories of Phantasm review (spoiler: everyone is an S tier; in his eyes, everyone can be a Touhou fan) As a bonus, on a needlessly sensitive issue for the fandom, and a reason brought by some for branding people as real or fake fans (that of the Fumo and their recent rise in popularity), GensouChronicle had the following to say:

On separate note, I consider the switch of DanKagu from a gacha game to a... non-gacha game an improvement. Yeah, the fact that whatever people achieved in the gacha version is lost forever sucks, but that's the problem with "games as service" as a whole, and shouldn't really be used against the standalone release of DanKagu.

Never a simple post with you, huh Count? Just as I'm trying to write up a response to the Memories of Phantasm post, I get the notification for this. Well, this topic's a little more important. So, I've read through it all pretty quickly, and I've got some pretty strong feelings on the matter. So, just to get the first question out of the way, "Am I a bad Touhou fan?" Short answer: No. Long answer: Fuck no. There is no debate on this. There is no justifiable, well-intentioned way to make a case that there are "better" or "worse" ways to be a fan. And this doesn't just apply to Touhou. It applies to everything. Gatekeeping is inexcusable in my book. It always has been, and it's always going to be. I think that the basis behind this problem, and why some act the way they do about other people joining in their fandoms, is a psychological concept known as "the Other." As per the webpage: "The Other is an individual who is perceived by the group as not belonging, as being different in some fundamental way. Any stranger becomes the Other. The group sees itself as the norm and judges those who do not meet that norm (that is, who are different in any way) as the Other. Perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as a lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly. The Other in a society may have few or no legal rights, may be characterized as less intelligent or as immoral, and may even be regarded as sub-human." I wasn't sure whether I should bring this one up. The Other is a concept most often used alongside some pretty heavy topics like, for example: differences in race and ethnicity, social class, religion, and political stances. Pretty heavy stuff with a lot of severe implications behind them. And I would be a damned idiot if I tried to make the case that gatekeeping in a fandom is equivalent to being a racist and a bigot. But... I can't deny that when I see stuff like you put in your post, Count, this was the first thing that came to mind. I think on a fundamental level, this is the reason why gatekeeping happens. People like feeling like they're part of something special; that they found this hidden gem, and they get to place themselves in an "us" against "them" scenario because they understand something that others around them don't. It massages their ego to feel like they're part of this "special elite," even though it would make more sense to want more people involved, so that they would have more opportunities to share their passions with others. But people don't want that. If their fandom gets popular, they're not the "special ones" anymore; just another face in the crowd. So to stave it off, they, the "us," have to do something to set themselves apart from the "them." "They" aren't "us" and they can't be "us," because if "they" can be "us," then there's no point in being "us." The Touhou fandom is... weird. Weird in the sense that it is simultaneously an absolute powerhousing giant of a fandom, yet relatively obscure. It's big enough that a lot of people (I'd argue most people) find out about it through means other than its official material. At the same time, getting invested in it takes work. Say you wanna play the games. Sure, the later entries are available on Steam, but they're costly, and aren't officially patched for any language other than Japanese. Better google up a patch. Oh, and I hope you actually like and are decent at shoot-em-ups. You're not getting much story if you can't beat the game. Wanna read the manga? Hope you already know who these characters are; they're not gonna be introduced. Oh yeah, and these also aren't made available in your language. Please, I just want my WaHH... Is that too much to ask? OG Touhou fans outside of Japan had to work their asses off to get into this fandom. It's not hard to imagine them getting an ego when new people join in because Touhou is now infinitely more accessible than it was in their time. Now we get "fake fans." They didn't put in the same amount of time and work and dedication that we did, and yet they get to keep the same title of "fan?" And now even inside the fandom, it's still "us" vs "them." Okay, that's enough on the nature of gatekeeping. Worrying about whether you fit someone else's definition of a "fan" isn't just a fruitless endeavor; it's a harmful one. If you let someone assume the role of an authority on what constitutes a fan, not only are you putting your own enjoyment of Touhou at risk, but also reinforcing their stance that their are "better" and "worse" fans for other newcomers. That's why gatekeeping needs to be nipped in the bud and never be tolerated. I'm not totally happy with my post. I still have the second question to answer about "What makes someone a Touhou fan?" But, I'm out of time for today, and I really don't want to wait a whole 'nother day to get my thoughts out. I'll definitely be coming back to this thread to close things up.

I'm glad I decided to sleep before coming back to finish this post. I seem to always have a better perspective on things after waking up. I was gonna come in with a spiel about how "there's no definition for what makes someone a fan" and how "only you can define whether you consider yourself a fan or not." But, that one never really felt complete. Something felt off. "There's no such thing as a bad fan"? Of course there are. I just talked about how awful these people are who gatekeep others from the fandom. How I could I in good conscience make the claim that no one can be a bad fan when I clearly admonish that kind of behavior? I didn't agree with this. I liked the sentiment, but just as you said, it felt incomplete. But you got me questioning; thinking about what was missing from it. I've enjoyed things that I never considered myself a fan of. Hell, even within Touhou, I had been engorged with content for well over a month before I could consider myself a fan. Tons of games and fangames, animations, music, art; I saw so much, and I loved all of (most of) it, but I never really wanted to tell people I was a fan. And then FDF II happened, and before you say anything, I know. "Mom!!! SoundOfRayne's jerking off FDF II again!!!" Okay, I get it. FDF II is special to me and I won't shut up about it. But that's just it. It's special to me, and I wanted to share that with other people. Up until that point, enjoying Touhou was for me and me alone. No girls allowed! But, this one was different. Not because I liked it the best, but because for the first time, I wanted to share how I felt about it with other people. And that's the conclusion I've reached. "What makes someone a [Touhou] fan?" When your enjoyment of something extends beyond yourself, that's when you're a fan. Is that answer broad as all hell? Oh, you bet it is! "How far beyond yourself do you have to get to be a 'real' fan?" Doesn't matter! Do you like playing the games and competing for score? You're a fan. Do you like looking up cool artwork of cute girls? You're a fan. Do you like scrolling through comment sections or forums to hear what other people have to say about "whatever Touhou?" You're a fan. Hell, do you just like sending memes about the plushie of a stupid ice fairy? You're still a fan even if I don't wanna admit it. Is it all positive? Of course not. We've had plenty of discussions here that were plenty critical of things inside and outside of the fandom. Being a fan of something doesn't mean you have to love everything about it. Making people feel welcome to talk about not just what they like, but what they don't, is the mark of a healthy community. And then we wrap it back around to the gatekeepers: a genuine, bona fide bad fan. Gatekeepers don't wanna share things. They want to cut the conversations off; keep the riff-raff out; keep things from changing so that the fandom stays centered around them and what they like. The worst part is that the things that they like are still in the fandom. Older games still have their dedicated fans. People still "play for score." Canon is still being explored and discussed. It's just not the only thing. Arguably, it never was. But rather than try and connect with their kindred spirits, they just try and force everyone else out. To what end? To make it easier to find people who think like they do? I don't have the answer to that. And, @CountVonNumenor, I need to correct something from my previous post. I said before that you weren't a bad Touhou fan, and that was seriously understating things. Over the last year, you've brought a lot of people together on the forums. You've brought debates and critiques and passions out of people. I've tried to enjoy the Shrine's Discord, but I doubt I'll ever be able to feel comfortable in it. These forums feel like a home to me to be able to express myself on my own terms. I wouldn't be surprised if others felt the same way. And even now, we've got someone new to jump in for something that you started. (Welcome to the Shrine @EerieCrypts, by the way.) Dude, if that's not evidence of a good Touhou fan, I don't know what is. I don't really like being sappy about it, but it feels fitting to close out the year. Don't let other people's arbitrary standards get you down. You're absolutely appreciated here.

Personally, I never had to deal with people calling me a bad fan, mainly because I didn't interact with other fans up until I found this forum. Well, there was this one guy on a Discord server I am in, but his messages and memes were either very political, suggestive, or sometimes straight up offensive, but that isn't what this thread is about. First question first, "Am I a bad fan?". I don't think you are a bad fan at all. You know what the fandom gatekeepers are. A bunch of people that judge people based on how and why they enjoy the series. For them, this is how it goes: "Oh, you didn't clear all the games on lunatic with a score bigger than 1 billion? Shame on you.", "You are telling me that you actually like a character from Touhou 6, 7 or 8? Go fuck yourself." (God forbid you tell them that you like a character from 6), "You play Lost Word? We don't want you here.", and so on. They think that they are holy knights sent by ZUN to cleanse the fandom from "fake" Touhou fans. I sometimes wonder what is the thought process behind their actions. There is no right way to enjoy Touhou. You can enjoy the shmup games, the fighter games, the print works, the CDs, the game's OSTs, and the enormous amount of fanwork. You can also enjoy whatever character, game or song you like, no matter if others think it's "overrated" or something. For the second question, "What makes a Touhou fan?" I'm pretty sure there is a more elaborate answer that I am not smart enough to give out. But by definition, a fan of something is someone that admires said something, so in other words, merely enjoying something part of the Touhou franchise, be it either canon or fanon is enough to qualify as a fan. I don't think I gave that good or complete of an answer to this question. Like you said, Touhou has something for everyone. You like cute girls? There is plenty of them. Fancy something dark in your life, we also have that. Enjoy mythology? Touhou is riddled with it. Are you more of a fan of fighters than shmups? Well, you're in luck. And those are just some examples of what the series has to offer.

Actually, there is some bad fan and it’s the ones who are claiming that liking this character or this franchise is a sin. Like in the Dragon Ball fandom, some people would like to kick me if I say that I prefer Dragon Ball GT more than Dragon Ball Z, the people I’m talking about are 100% bad fans because they don’t let me or some other person love what they want, they just want everyone to like the same thing… So to put it in a nutshell, according to me, bad fans exist and they are the one who are oppressing the whole fandom by forcing them to think the same thing and like the same stuff

1. Silver Forest - Keep the Faith OOOOOO I like this one a lotttt It sounds really dreamy, but energetic, maybe like being half asleep? But it's really good! I like the vocals, and I especially like the sparkly sounding instrument for the main melody!! It reminds me of old 2000s anime songs! Also that piano is so goooood, aah~ 9.5/10 2. IRON ATTACK! - Sturm und Drang Mmmm... I'm kinda indifferent to this one... It's not really my style. But I do like the use of traditional japanese instruments here! 6.5/10 3. Akatsuki Records - Gray Zone Hello, this is the part where I kill you! -the whole touhou fandom after reading this, probably (i hope someone gets the reference) I see I have met Stack again... hoo boy.. I'll be honest. I do not like a lot of Akatsuki Records songs. I do not like Stack's vocals. But the instrumentals are nice tho. It's a shame really, this song is so funky, it's nice. But I do not like how Stack sounds like she's forcing a certain "persona?" while singing every. single. time. And I don't like how she's trying to "rap"(?) while there's a pause between verses. Even while listening to other AkaRecord songs (that I like btw), it took me a LONG time to actually get to start listening to them without cringing, so there's that... I'm sorry, but I have to give this one a 4/10. I love the instrumental, it's so good, but the vocals are Stack... At least the chorus is okay...

There's a lot I can say on this topic but maybe later, my brain battery is low right now. Most importantly... You might wanna talk to me or a staff member if you have your qualms with my server. I'm not unapproachable, and prefer that people feel welcome. I'm just not looking at the place 24/7 due to real life. Btw gacha bad

For the end of the year, I will finish showcasing the Amagami characters by going through our final character, the protagonist himself: Character introduction: Junichi Tachibana General information (curtesy to the Amagami wiki): Junichi Tachibana (橘 純一 Tachibana Junichi) is the protagonist of the anime series and video game Amagami. Two years ago, he went out for a Christmas date with a girl that he'd recently confessed to. Unfortunately, she never showed up. Since that day he grew hesitant in the matters of love and despise Christmas Day. However, when he meets one of the six girls in the school, he might have a chance to change his current lifestyle. Appearance: Junichi has black hair and black eyes. He wears the standard school uniform. He usually seen wearing black coat rather than vest. His casual wear consist of a long-sleeve white v-neck with blue jeans. When Junichi is outdoor, he would sometimes wear a brown overcoat. Personality: Junichi has a calm and kind personality. He is also a very patient person but sometimes he can be very immature and forgetful. Even if he is currently in a state of depression, his way to treat everyone doesn't change. He is also very unselfish and helps anyone in need. He can occasionally be a pervert and will even accept to touch a girl who offers herself. He also watches porn if he feels lonely. In the anime, it was seen numerous times that Junichi has acrophobia, as in a fear of heights. However, it seems that 6 girls of the anime seem to accept that. Age: turned 18 during the main story of Amagami and Amagami SS - 26 in Amagami SS Plus Episode 10 (Sae Nakata Arc Part 2) - 27 in Amagami SS Episode 4 (Haruka Morishima Arc Part 4) and Episode 24 (Tsukasa Ayatsuji Arc Part 4) Some trivia from the same article: In Amagami SS Plus, Junichi is somewhat fond in photography, as seen as in the intro where you will see him holding a camera occasionally, as he is also into filming. He seems to be fond of oranges as he is seen eating in his home in some episodes. This is most notable during Morishima's arc in Amagami SS+ where the table was filled with oranges. This may be linked to his surname Tachibana which means "orange, tangerine" (橘). In the anime, in Tsukasa Ayatsuji's arc, Junichi and Tsukasa came back to the founder's festival 10 years later with there unnamed daughter, who bears a resemblance to the younger Tsukasa. He only fell in love at first sight (Haruka Morishima arc) once in the series. The same case could be said for Sae Nakata but it he was only attracted when he noticed her breasts. During the end of Morishima's arc it was revealed that he became a detective. This is the only instance shown where he gets a job in future sequences. He expresses a hope to become a police officer a few times in the game. His personality remains the same throughout the series and each arc but the dynamic with each female lead is what changes him in each arc. His parents were never seen in the entire series. He only proposed once in the entire series (Haruka Morishima) When depicted of having a child in the future it is often the child is a girl and resembles the mother in during the start of the series. This applies to Sae Nakata and Tsukasa Ayatsuji. He is not a particularly bright student but excelled in mathematics. One episode depicted him being attracted to their teacher. According to Miya, he could only cook fried rice. He often exaggerates his fantasies especially when the perv side of him appears. In the series he dated two president of the foundation festival (Nakata and Ayatsuji). Even outside their respective arcs, Junichi shows interest or even slight attraction to the female leads except Kaoru and Rihoko (possibly because he considered them more as friends). In season 1 each of the arcs climaxes at Christmas eve (except Rihoko where the Christmas episode was finished by the 2nd episode of the arc). Rihoko is the only girl he didn't realize he had feelings for until season 2. He was depicted getting married only once in the series. In game, Ai Nanasaki is his only lead that regardless of the ending will love him still. Sae Nakata also has this disposition but it was implied that they never saw each other again in the bad ending. And now for the art gallery: Source: official material Illustration by kaoru348 (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/52935897) Illustration by wiori (source: Pixiv - illustration no longer available for the public) Illustration by h.i.t (source: Pixiv - illustration no longer available for the public) Illustration by shouji nigou (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/41658157) Collection of illustrations realized by santa (over 100 images), put together as a GIF (star of the GIF: Ayatsuji Tsukasa) Illustration by peg (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/34972386) illustration by yuzuki n dash (source: (C79) [Lv.X+] Soen Rihoko) I spot a few memes in here. Illustration by wiori (source: Pixiv - you know the drill...) (star of the image - Miss Takahashi Maya, creator of the current form of the Santa dresses contest in their high school - more about that in her character introduction) Illustration by ishikura keiichi (source: image board - quite possible to be official art for the anime) Illustration by nagisa manoa (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/15757054) Illustration by kasuga souichi (source: Pixiv - no longer available) Illustration by shouji nigou (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/11696508) Illustration by Takayama Kisai (source: https://yande.re/post/show/108205) - even here, people are still talking about Kaoru's gorgeously messy hair Illustration by peg (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/3863877) End thoughts This is it. The end of the character introductions for this year. I have left Junichi for the end because I think he has been a very interesting case. Usually, when I think of the stereotypical dating sim game, I think of a shallow protagonist, only useful as a vessel for the player to self-insert. However, quite possibly in part thanks to the anime adaptation, Junichi really got a bit of personality. And from what I read, he seems to actually be quite likeable. And maybe even a little bit relatable? At least in terms of personality and development until the game (and meeting all these girls), I may even dare say I have found some things that reminded me of when I was his age (17-18). But maybe this comes from the fact I am still half-baked, and do not really have a lot of experience be it with anime, dating sim games or just romance as a whole. In terms of exploring his fanart, there are just 10 pages of it despite the fact he is the main character. There are a lot of images of him interacting with the girls...sexually, but I guess it is not so bad as I thought it would be (he is 18, and the characters depicted with him are the same ago, slightly older or just a little bit younger). The only ones that cannot be redeemed are those involving incest (that ones can go straight to hell). However, there are also a lot of wholesome ones, from interactions with his colleagues to simple scenes of the future featuring Junichi, his wife and child. Of all kinds of interaction (safe or not), I think the most I have counted during my search were in regards to him and Kaoru. Which I think is extremely cute (and this is not just because I believe she is such a precious bean, I swear), they are just so cute when interacting. Anyway, as we are soon getting into the next year, I wanted to make sure I will not cross with unfinished business. If there is ay plan for expanding this thread to the connected series, that will most likely come through January or later. Until that, I will leave the floor to anyone willing to joining the discussion. I will probably end up coming back to posting Kaoru art in here, so don't mind me (unless you do, and would like to talk about it; I am open for discussion). Until that, see you next time.

I know I am many months late, but... I got into Touhou with Soku via an ex-friend. I was introduced to this site in order to download the game. Since at the time I wanted to get into Touhou but wasn't sure how, this site was nice to play the games. PCB was my first actual TH shooter. You could probably try asking your friends if they're curious about Touhou, but I'm not sure if that'd work