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As some of you may have noticed, I have barely been active at the Moriya Shrine forum for the past months. For anyone wondering, I am still doing fine, I have just been a little busy with college life and trying to get through all my courses. However, there is another question that rose - am I slowly losing interest in this series? Background I have discovered Touhou somewhere in October 2020. Ever since, I have become increasingly hooked up into this fictional world, along with all the creations fans have put up. I feel like the peak of my activity in the Touhou community started in early 2022, as I finally joined this forum and became very active in discussing a series that I really enjoyed. Things started to change, however, as 2023 started to march on... There are a few symptoms I have noticed: 1. I have become less active in discussions about Touhou As mentioned earlier, I have been less active than I would have liked for the past months. In the past, I used to roll a thread every few days, and maintain discussion about it in tens of essay-sized comments. Today though, I think this is probably my first thread in weeks, if not outright months. A lot of the energy I used to have is simply gone, and I really need something that would help me get back at it. 2. I have started to find other series that caught my interest A warning sign for that started when I opened up the threads about other series people like, along with the discussions about other series and anime in general. First cracks started to appear in January-Febraury this year. That was when I first got my attention diverted to another series, that being Amagami. As time went on, things went a little wild, as what started as a curiosity about the world and characters of Kancolle and Azur Lane ended up with me playing the latter. (what can I say, I just believe Ise is pretty, and Hood has a very sweet and elegant demeanor). As time went on, I started to pay less attention to what was going on with Touhou, and focused more on what I thought I was enjoying at the time. I thought I was just picking a new series in order to keep myself fresh and avoid a Touhou burnout, but it seems like new the new things I discover keep me away from Touhou. 3. I am not feeling as excited anymore about new Touhou things Back in my first months of being a Touhou fan, I remember that I used to be extremely excited for the announcement of Touhou 18. For comparison, nowadays I am barely aware of the fact Touhou 19 is gong to be released (actually, I have plenty of moments in which I am even forgetting there is going to be a 19th mainline game). Same is going for the official literature. I am not feeling any thrill anymore for the release of a new chapter from the ongoing manga series (not that I even kept so much in touch with them outside the CDS capter which gave us Mizuchi). Probably my greatest moment of excitement was when I bought the entire Forbidden Scrollery collection, but it's been already a year since I bought the first volume, and I still have two more to read. One more example would be that of listening to Akatsuki Records, In the past, I was keeping up with all of their new music videos, but for the past months, I have skipped three songs in a row. I have told myself I need to get back and listent to them, but I have yet to do so... I really need to see what their ost recent songs are like (last one I kept up with was the Sekibanki song). Actually, I think I have barely listened to any Touhou music recently, the only saving saving grace being that I kept on listening to Ghostly Field Club and Changeability of Strange Dream. 4. I still have not got to finish (or even just play) any related game, be it official or fan-made This is something that I have also said at the end of last year, when I was writing the question if I am a bad fan of the series. The only game I have tried is Touhou 7, and I could even finish that one. SKILL ISSUES GALORE. I have not managed to find yet any fan game that I really wanted to play, and I do not know if Touhou LostWord really counts as an actual game (and not just a gambling machine masked as a Touhou game)... 5. I have lost a big art of my diligence in collecting things that I like In the past, I was always very curious and excited for whatever new Touhou fanart was being posted online. I used to collect them on a daily basis (which I am doing since December 2020), then I used to stored them on my Pinterest gallery (shameless plugin moment). However, despite the fact I am still doing it, I am just feeling less excited. I have better tools for finding more images, but it takes me more days until I actually send them to my favorites gallery. Until then, they are just clogging the tabs of the browser. Basically, what used to be a fun activity has become a chore. And I cannot just stop doing it, mostly due to FOMO (a general problem for me with anything Touhou related, and probably compatible with all of the points above). So, what is going on with me? Are those signs I am on the verge of dropping my position as someone who likes the series? Have I lost my passion for Touhou? Am I less and less interested for what is going on in the community? And even worse - what still keeps me as a Touhou fan? So many questions...

That's very normal. Touhou only has so much official content (fan content mostly re-use official content, often in predictable ways so it's not as interesting) , and after almost 3 years you probably seen it all. Probably because every game/manga are just "incident of the week". Barely anything matter in the plot, so it's hard getting excited about "yet another incident". This is meant to be enjoyed casually, so you probably won't feel very "hyped". Take time to enjoy other series, and come back when you want a more relaxing and simple story. You know how many never even gave the games a chance? Don't force yourself if you don't like the gameplay, or stick to playing on Easy with Continues if you think you got skill issues, then move on from there to Easy 1CC, then Normal (since some game lock you out of the ending if you play on easy). Forget about Hard and Lunatic unless you really enjoy the game. Almost every game can be beaten very, well, easily on easy (10-11-12 are using the "bad" continue system, so use a patch if you don't want to repeat stages a lot). My personal recommendation is 7, since the "Cherry Border" give you a temporary shield you can use to practice dodging without worrying about getting hit. Well, being a "Touhou fan" isn't some kind of holy duty that you "have" to do. Touhou is just a multi-media series that you can enjoy or not. You don't have to like everything about it, and you don't have to always be talking about Touhou 24/7 (doing so makes for a pretty one-note and boring life). Just go with how you fell. You like it and are curious to discover more? Continue on ahead. Feeling like you've seen enough and want to move to the next thing? Go ahead, there's no Touhou police that's going to prevent you from doing so. There's no prestige to gain in enjoying something, only personal fun.

For these kinds of situations, I don't recommend overthinking because it could give the opposite effect of what you want. I found out about Touhou in 2019, which is when I created an account in Moriya Shrine (despite only started talking here recently). I became very obsessed with the games and played them a lot, but then years later, in 2022, I started not caring as much about Touhou, so I just took a break until I truly felt like I wanted to play again, and so I returned to the games. You can take a break and focus on something else, and come back later and realise that now you are much more interested in the series after the break, or you could give the official games another chance, since you said you only played th7.

I’ve got burnout on monster hunter and still find myself coming back to it. You can enjoy a series even when you wanna be involved with other ones. I’d say it be fine to maybe just take a break and enjoy what other series you wanna enjoy, instead of worrying about not being a fan of another series. Overall, just play and get involved in what is enjoyable to you and don’t worry about it.

Welcome to my first topic in here! Disclaimer: The theory is based on the information given in Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story, Touhou 5 Mystic Square, Kioh Gyoku, Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red Touhou 7 Perfect Cherry Blossom and Touhou 12 Unidentified Fantastic Object. Spoiler warning! If you've spent enough time enjoying the Touhou Project, it's likely you know the saga's origin in the PC-9800 Computers before the jump to Windows with Touhou 6 Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil. ZUN never gave an official explanation citing the reasons for the changes in the continuity after Touhou's jump, aside leaving hints of the past events and characters existence through cameos, like Mima in Akyu's Untouched Score 4, Shinki in Touhou 12 or even character remakes like Yuuka and Alice. What if I told you I found an explanation with somewhat solid footing? Here we go... The story begins in the events of Touhou 5 MS, with Yuuka Kazami, the mysterious, aggressive and powerful Youkai. She noticed the residents of Makai in Gensokyo and decided to explore their origins as a form of entertainment. She just wrecks everything in her way, either by force or words, just read what she said to Shinki: "Massacres are a kind of game, too. It doesn't matter whether it's humans or Makai residents." After you beat the game in a 1 Continue Clear (1cc), the ending is revealed. Yuuka learned something valuable in her destructive tour in Makai, Magic is powerful. She tried to cast her own spells to no avail, so she started stalking Marisa to at best learn from her or at worst steal her magic. Apparently, Yuuka failed. Some time later, a Magician from Makai, Alice Margatroid, that tried to stop Yuuka in Stage 3 of Touhou 5 decided to get revenge with the help of her new magical powers, granted by The Grimoire of Alice. Even with the Ultimate Magic, Alice failed in her mission, but surprisingly could escape total defeat at the hands of Yuuka (or so she thought). After that... "Hhhhh, this time, let's follow this girl around. And then, let's take away her magic. " In Mystic Square, the ending is left open, but Yuuka's plan worked. We can know that from Her Character Profile in Kioh Gyoku (Seihou, a collaboration ZUN did with Shunsatsu sare do? and Amusement Makers). "Also, after Mystic Square's extra ending, as planned, Yuuka received the ultimate magic. The author himself doesn't know exactly what it is." Here's when the theory kicks in into full gear. What's the worst that could happen with the Ultimate Magic (whose limit we don't know) at the hands of a powerful psychopath with no control over magic, like Yuuka? Universal destruction. Yuuka's playing with The Grimoire caused unforeseen consequences that lead to the destruction of the PC98 Universe. Luckily, this Universal Destruction was the Rebirth of the Universe, with unforeseen consequences. Most of the inhabitants of Gensokyo faced one of these fates. Erasure from the Universe Memory Loss Being Replaced by a Doppelgänger Physical Changes Of the main characters, we are certain that Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame likely suffered physical changes coupled with Memory Loss. Yuuka Kazami, the culprit behind The Rebirth Incident, was replaced with a Doppelgänger as her personality is completely different from PC98. She is now the flower Youkai who lives in the Garden of the Sun. Although, a faint memory of what appear to be the events of Mystic Square remains. "Flowers and ghosts and..., hmm. Speaking of which, this happened once before, didn't it? How many decades ago was it? It's been so ordinary since then, I can't remember." Other characters that we know survived the Rebirth, with a lack of detail, are Shinki and Mima. But what about Alice? Alice was the only true survivor of the Inccident, likely due to her being the owner of The Grimoire. We don't truly know what happened to Alice or how she recovered and sealed The Grimoire (reinforced by her theme in Hisotensoku being a remix of "The Grimoire of Alice"). The story does tell us that she became less childish and is a Youkai-Magician who's very friendly to humans. Alice learned her lesson, The Ultimate Magic brings unexpected consequences. The theory is now over. At first i thought that Alice was the one who reseted the universe, but finding that Yuuka actually stole The Grimoire was unexpected. Without that the theory falls apart, unless you consider Marisa reading The Grimoire in her Touhou 5 Extra Stage as the catalyst. Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, Canon!?!? Before I go, I want to add how this theory ties in with another theory related to Alice. It's a bit of a stretch even for theory standards. This is why it'separated. The Crazy Alice Theory. Alice awakened in Gensokyo without memories in a frail mental state as part of the Eight Honest People transported to Gensokyo in the scrapped story of Dolls of Pseudo Paradise. Keep in mind that this is highly unlikely to be canon, as ZUN changed the story in the next release of Dolls of Pseudo Paradise. It would be a strange decision by ZUN to make 20-year-old side material canon. In this story, these Eight Honest People, suffer death at the hands of the Pierrot (not Clownpiece) except The Coward, who committed suicide in a forest due to his weak will. But something happened to him, He Revived. He then returned to his friends, hiding his Rebirth. Soon after, The Pierrot killed everyone except The Coward, who realized He was the murderer. Filled with guilt, he once again tried to commit suicide. The ending of the story tells us about a Shrine Maiden (implied to be Reimu Hakurei) who saw a Blond Woman coming from the direction of the Western Abandoned House, who stuck her tongue at the Shrine Maiden to quickly bow and walked away (apparently leaving Gensokyo from the Maiden's perspective). She also realized she was the only woman in the Group of Men (was she the murderer and only 7 Men were present?) "Yes, that was the day we were lost in this paradise. And right away, I stopped being human." In Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, we get to know that Alice performed a ritual pretty similar to one of the deaths of the Honest Men, thanks to Aya's reporting. She also showed sings of bad memory, as Aya spoke with her during the ritual, but Alice forgot about it. Another reveal we get is that Alice is a frequent user of Eirin's Butterfly Dream Pill that guarantees dreaming about becoming a butterfly and enjoying the life. Overdosing in this drug or just having a too enjoyable dream causes the Dream Self to switch places with you. That's maybe related to her personality shifts? After all, it's revealed that the Dream Selfs present in Touhou are much more aggressive and more like a direct line to their feelings, closer to the unconscious. Pretty unsettling, right? The amount of coincidences scares me, although Alice looks too friendly for a mass murderer, even with the Dream Self. That's why I think in this theory PC98 Alice somehow got mixed with the Original Windows Alice, that's crazy. Only explanation that comes to mind.

Don't worry Count! It's natural to get saturated, especially in your case, as you literally wrote essays on a semi-daily basis about Touhou. Just give it time and you will gain the enthusiasm back. You don't have to stay involved in the community to say that you "like Touhou", do what you enjoy. As Space Banana says, try enjoying another part of Touhou. Some ideas: Search for more remixes of the music, play the fighting games, play other main games (16, 10 and 5 are on the easier side, and it inspires me to play them, they are just soo pretty).

still a banger

Time for another plot exploration! Future Plot! What is being talked about Touhou's story being in a post-future state in which characters have changed (in appearance, thinking, maturity, or living status/ETC.) disregards ZUN's floating timeline, which ages characters according to when it is needed. How the setting could've changed: If you've been part of the fanbase for long enough, you've probably heard about spell card rules and other interesting tidbits that make up the plot for Touhou. All of that could change over time, as Gensokyo is currently seen as a safe place for both humans and youkai, though it might see bigger threats that could topple this law. Based on these I'm going to create an example of Gensokyo's future. Keep in mind that this is a theoretical piece based on current information with a tinge of dissolution of the actual ramifications of the plot. Basically trying to be loose on official information while trying to be something else for a bit of fun. Just think like Akyuu is writing this. Now time to introduce the changes! The Story We aren't going to take this too far into the future in which the MCs are long gone (that's for another time), but probably around an era in which the main characters have sort of already done most of the incident resolution enough to become somewhat pros in dealing with major threats (something around young to mid-adults 25–30). Incidents around this time are few, with much of the dispute being settled in Danmaku play, but violent youkai are one of the major reasons for some of these incidents occurring on a wide scale given the situation on the outside world being quite chaotic and influencing some of the denizens who are affected by these thoughts. Reimu Reimu, at this point in time, had to take up the full mantle of dealing with both youkai and humans who turned into youkai, along with being a dutiful shrine maiden. (If that really mattered in the first place.) Her demeanor is rather more mature given the responsibilities she was saddled with, though her attitude is still reminiscent of her teenage version. Her clothing would more closely represent traditional shrine maiden clothes, though more outfitted for movement, comfort, and the standard array of accessories she would usually have. Whacking the yin-yang orb and bashing her enemies with her gohei stick along with her ofudas (needles) are still her favorite modes of punishment and execution. That much aside, she still is friends with many Youkai who she deems are not harmful to disrupting the peace of Gensokyo; that much doesn't help her reputation with the humans in the village, who still think her shrine is a place filled with dangerous Youkai. Marisa Given how Marisa is constantly seeking to empower herself and is in constant contact with incidents, Marisa would've probably been on her way to becoming somewhat of a youkai magician given her obsession with mushrooms and magic, leading her to become something akin to Patchouli and Alice. Though her magic powers would probably be on par with Reimu's given the fact that both of them train with each other in both power and Danmaku, Her personality is rather reserved, but somewhat outgoing and upbeat to those who see it from a public perspective. Aside from her attitude, her clothes are still quite the same, but they have been adjusted to fit more items within various magic pouches and her size. Her usual routines are more refined than in her younger years, as she has focused her efforts on acquiring important magical items that she has deemed necessary for her potions and magic. She has often taken up the job of clearing out problematic and dangerous youkai within the forest and paths of Gensokyo. Her arsenal is still quite the same, but her spell cards are vast in terms of firepower, learned over many years of adapting other spell cards to her own. Her mini-Hakkero and broom stick are still her tools of the trade. Youkai Of Gensokyo As with all Youkai, most are rather the types that are good and the ones that are terrible for the balance of Gensokyo. Most youkai try to stay out of trouble given their reputation, which relies on both human fear and the avoidance of exterminators who drive them out of places where they lurk. The treaties of the land are still held as they were years ago, so not much has happened in the years as much of the underworld Youkai are respecting the rules made. That aside, some youkai do rise up and cause a fuss whenever they feel bored or have some type of plan in action, though it is usually the former rather than the latter. Otherwise, some youkai just outright cause panic and mayhem due to their personality being quite prude and hot to those that don't fit their personality. All of them are equalized with a good beatdown or extermination. Sages of Gensokyo Due to the unknown nature of the sages of Gensokyo, not many know of their operations or who their identities are within meetings. One thing is for certain, though: they are one of the most powerful in Gensokyo and keep the peace as they represent the many factions within the barrier. That aside, they mostly operate within their own areas and only convene whenever a credible threat needs their attention. They remain neutral for the time being. Yakumos One of the more prosperous yet mysterious clans is probably one of the most important to keeping Gensokyo thriving both outside and inside. The head of the clan is the well-known Yakumo Yukari, who seems to be in different places at different times. She still holds a close connection with the Hakurei shrine maiden and the magician, which has led both of them to become quite the exterminators. (quite ironic) Yukari's personality still remains the same as ever for a youkai, as she still makes others do stuff for her while she sleeps (most of it being her two Shikigami, Ran and Chen), though all of it seems to be keeping the peace of Gensokyo. She still wears her current attire for work and sleep but has been seen in other clothes aside from the usual. Right going to end that for the examples. All of this is an exploration of what a future Gensokyo would be like in a not-quite-so-distant future. I haven't gone quite into the drastic future in which everything is thrown at the wall yet, but that is for another time.

I think this type of stuff is the most fun to headcanon. Thinking on what an immediate future for a character is very different than awhile ahead, so I’ve really liked the ideas presented here. The only thing I’d say isn’t too well supported is that Marisa strays far away from magic that would turn her to a youkai, as she feels it’s unnecessary and she doesn’t need it. It’s essentially her big piece of pride in her work with magic. Some of my thoughts for characters going forward in the future has mostly been of Keiki. Keiki is an interesting case as she’s stated to have left the animal realm to live on the surface. She wasn’t welcome in the animal realm largely because her nature of making humans to idols upset the realms balance and caused incidents, so she moved to stop that. The interesting part is that this would cause her to lose her intial source of faith, only really having mayumi left as a consistent source. My headcanon is that this causes Keiki to lose godhood and become a normal youkai, Hina style. She would basically be doomed to wander the surface, not really fitting anywhere and having a hard time to adjust. I don’t exactly know what she would do from there, but my feeling is that she might either seek revenge on who she thinks got her there, or try to seek shelter with one of the religion groups. So yeah, many characters are fun to think about where they would end up as results of incidents and time in my opinion! Sorry for rambling about something slightly unrelated though.

MANDALLIUM - Mirage ALL THE GENRES!!! Why this piece, though? Great find regardless, but I do wonder how prevalent this particular sort of hybrid genre is, given I can't recall coming across it before. Midocake - Doll Judgement ~ The Girl Who Played with People's Shapes I really appreciate the intricacies of the original track, which ironically makes alterations a bit harder to enjoy; when you're used to listening for small details, the absence of those details becomes distracting. As such, I decided to finally give this artist the spotlight (though I'm worried my translation isn't sufficiently accurate). Liverne - Capital City of Flowers in the Sky What a find this was! Given the infamy of the track in question, I had specific expectations for whatever I picked. This take appropriately captured the tone I wanted, and works well as a counterpart to the Bucuresti arrangement.

Summer holidays yay

those who know me a bit better know that I'm really fond of a great vocal on songs, and sometimes even if the beat isn't all that complex, a good vocal saves the song recently I have found a song that is truly unreal in that regard, and is quite possibly one of, if not the best vocal lead I've ever heard up until now the artist isn't someone I'm unfamiliar with either, but they truly outdid themselves in a spectacular manner I present to you a true masterpiece: Homura by Sennzai.