Tag: Doujin Soft

Editorial

5 tips to help you stop being a secondary Touhou fan and start dodging bullets

It’s hard to pinpoint what it is about Touhou that draws people to it. Somewhere within the unique character designs, quirky personalities, stylish music and skillful game design lies the secret that made ZUN the otaku culture star that he is. However, the incredible popularity of his franchise has resulted in an interesting phenomenon among his fans: primary and secondary fandom.

I’m not sure how official this terminology is, but in general, Touhou fans can be divided into two categories: the people who enjoy it for the fan works and the memes, and the people who enjoy it for the source material. It’s essential to delve into both categories if you want to experience everything the franchise has to offer, but considering how mainstream it’s become, it’s safe to say that many of today’s Touhou fans shy away from the original games out of fear. I can’t blame them, either: bullet dodging is scary stuff. It’s tough for gamers, and it’s even tougher for non-gamers.

Regardless, you’ll be the one missing out if you don’t bite the bullet and try to grasp the intricacies of ZUN’s game design. After all, little girls shooting fairies can only take you so far – the beautiful chaos of the game’s extreme side are as important as any amount of techno remixes and yuri doujins. If you think you’re up for the task, read on for a few tips on how to experience Touhou fandom through its intimidating yet exhilarating source.

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Merchandise

The Touhou Collection

So, I was looking through some of my old unsorted merchandise recently when I suddenly realized something: I’ve got the entire current-gen Touhou series sitting in my room, still sealed as PaletWeb delivered them. I was thinking of putting them back where I found them, but much like in one of my previous merchandise posts, a familiar thought struck me – I’m a blogger, and what do bloggers do when they have a mass of things that they can’t really use but want to show the world anyway?

Yeah, you guessed it. They take pictures and post them instead of, y’know, actually writing something.

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Review

PC-98 Touhou – This stuff isn’t half bad

 

Over a decade after the launch of a certain infamous series of danmaku games (which, ironically enough, didn’t even start as danmaku), I think it’s safe to say that just about every otaku has at least heard of ZUN’s endeavours in the world of doujin soft and the production of arguably one of the best shmup series ever made. From the intensity of capturing trying to capture Yukari’s Boundary of Life and Death, to the heart-pounding conclusion of every 1cc run where you clear the last pattern with zero lives and zero bombs, and even to the fanboys constantly arguing over whether Marisa should be paired with Reimu or Alice, Touhou has, through some means or another, become a staple in otaku culture. However, there’s a certain little part of the series that people tend to forget; those five SNES-style games that started it all.

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