I think we should have a good talk about this topic.
I have had a lot of thinking about this topic for a long time. Recent twits by nmlgc and aggressive2hu inspired me to do more research to finally build a full picture.
I understood that we should act now until it is too late.
The more info I found for this post, the worse the situation became. And it is not just about Touhou, problems are much more serious, but mostly I will talk about Touhou because I really love Touhou and I hope to change situation for better at least for Touhou.
The goal of this post is not to bring hate towards anybody in the fandom or ZUN, but to help people understand the roots of the problems to resolve them.
CAUTION!! CAUTION!! CAUTION!!
If you still want to believe that there are no serious problems in Touhou fandom, and still want to believe in Touhou and doujin magic, well this post may bring you down.
You have been warned.
CAUTION!! CAUTION!! CAUTION!!
Before we start, I hope to see criticism which will explain where I am right and where I am wrong, because this topic is rarely discussed.
Thank you.
Have you noticed that something is not right? Have you noticed that there are much less new Touhou fangames, doujinshi and doujin music than for example 8 years ago? Have you noticed that a lot of new fan content is nearly unnoticed? Have you noticed that fandom is not united and split? Have you noticed that last Touhou games are rushed and story is less well-written?
Doujin events examples:
I suppose that everyone noticed at least some of those problems but I am surprised that nearly nobody tried to analyse why these have happened. Well, there are two main causes of the problems: the fandom and the franchise itself.
Fandom:
But there are other problems that may make people haters of not just fandom, but of Touhou itself.
Franchise:
But what I can say for sure if this topic is unnoticed and left undiscussed we won't be able to change the situation for better.
I thought that Touhou was an islet of safety in current sea of crisis of mass culture, but alas it is already under the water.
But wait, let's be clever and take a step further (unlike those haters): what about non-Touhou doujin scene, what is happening there? (Spoiler: the situation is similar there):
But everything is not lost! We can change the situation for better if we will stop being scattered and will work together. The worst thing now is just giving up.
Thank you for reading this. I would be really glad to receive criticism, corrections and proposals. I know this topic is controversial, but I think that it must be discussed. I just want Touhou fandom to become better. If you have any good ideas how to change the whole situation for better feel free to share them. Also feel free to share this post.
There are also some other related thoughts about this topic:
Afterwords:
If after reading this post you want to hate ZUN or anybody else then I think you didn't understand this post. This post shows that hate didn't change the situation for better and only made it worse.
We don't need to hate,
We need to act.
For the fans who are
Still with us.