/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>36157941
It reminds me of the mid-2000s, when things weren't as bad as they are now.

The sheer versatility of the franchise in terms of the content we've witnessed indirectly helps me bask in how much of a fantasy Gensokyo is. It can be anything, just like Touhou has successfully become most anything.
It makes the series more genuine yet keep its fantasy aspect: If I am going through tough times, I can see Gensokyo through the incident aspect, relation between Yokai, their own issues, or I could take it easy if I wish to relax. I can mold my view of Gensokyo as I see fit.
It truly is the best franchise to take it easy, yet can also provide such great challenges. Everything I can mention could sound paradoxical to outsiders, but makes sense to people into Touhou.

>>36157941
Why is Aya NOT wearing geta?

>>36157941
Same.
It's just something you can't describe with words, but the fan content adds to that and always has.

>>36157941
It feels like a home I can return to one day, in a way.

>>36157941
That was the feeling and wonder I had first getting into it. I think the overabundance of memes and other bullshit has kind of killed it for me, but maybe I just lost my innocence. I still love it.

>>36157941
Touhou sure does give a nice and warm feeling, but the reason I still stay with it is because if I imagine there being no Touhou in my life, I feel completely empty and terrible.
I just can't seem to be able to enjoy a single bit of real life, might as well die if there wasn't this world beyond the border around.

>>36157941
I feel the same.

>>36157941
i feel that, something about the music and overall presentation feels weirdly familiar, as if i’ve seen or heard of it as a kid

>>36157941
I once dreamt I went to Gensokyo. It was a lucid dream.
Every night I wish that could happen again.

ageru

For me a significant part of why I love Touhou is how uniquely positive the setting feels. There are so many franchises and settings that would be awful to live in. Just pain and strife. But Gensokyo is different. It is not a paradise, really, there is a reasonable, realistic level of danger and toil, but at the end of the day it is a pleasant and peaceful place. No matter what, the villains are always invited to the afterparty. No matter what, things soon return to normal and life happily goes on. This kind of postive vibe is I feel sorely missing in today's world, and seeing it makes me happy

>>36183745
>ageru
?

>>36183831
its comfy.

>>36175427
Weird, I feel the exact opposite, as in, it all feels so unfamiliar (but still cozy) to me, and that’s why it’s such a comfort.

>>36157941
>populated by monsters
*populated by monsters who are also cute girls

i like touhou feet

>>36157941
dunno about you but earlier touhou games felt pretty melancholic and dreamlike to me. especially PCB, the entire game felt like one of those dramatic fever dream you have in your life atleast once.

>>36162382
Once all is forgotten, all shall return.

>>36229339
Somewhat the same here. EoSD felt like the start of something, PCB I can't really explain, but it feels a little more tense, but "fun" by the time IN rolls around.

>>36237877
Adding onto this, EOSD gives me a really eerie feeling. On a meta level, it’s very dated and the character portraits (especially Sakuya’s) are unnerving. It feels like an obscure indie game from a very long time ago, which, to be fair, it kind of is.
I agree that PCB is very melancholic in feeling. The winter setting, Yuyuko’s backstory, the Netherworld/Hakugyokurou feels particularly lonely, Mayohiga is an abandoned village, and the entire game feels so Japanese that it’s foreign.

>>36237877
I find every game prior to Hidden Star in Four Seasons intimidating. I always feel a bit nauseous and anxious when I play those games because of the music and atmosphere. HSiFS and the games afterwards all had cheerful vibes to them that the previous ones lacked.

>>36238466
>HSiFS and the games afterwards all had cheerful vibes to them that the previous ones lacked.
I thought I was the only one that noticed that. I didn't know what it was until you brought it up. It felt different, sure, but WBaWC was a curveball to me just going on the title screen music.

>>36238208
>I agree that PCB is very melancholic in feeling. The winter setting, Yuyuko’s backstory, the Netherworld/Hakugyokurou feels particularly lonely, Mayohiga is an abandoned village, and the entire game feels so Japanese that it’s foreign.
The latter half I agree with, but PCB in general is weird to me.

>>36238208
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuc7L50iUhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQAliyNOVUo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW93YFbawPU
the stage music especially feels a lot like it

>>36157941
Yes, I really get what you mean. I get that magical feeling too from some vtubers, so I really understand, man.

>>36162382
>>36183831
This sums it up pretty well.
Sometimes I think I feel too attached. A few years ago I got pretty addicted to Genius of Sappheiros and that's all I wanted to know about for awhile.
It felt like home.

I like to use Touhou as a medium for me to escape from reality for a bit

>>36257366
ill bump this thread to honour your attempt at keeping it alive through shitty bait

I'm going to confess I've been around for a while and never touched touhou outside of playing the games for maybe 10 hours at most.

Where are people getting all this world and story from? I remember dodging bullets and shit, then some lolis would say shit for a few seconds and then I'd dodge their bullets and the music was cool. But then I see paragraphs of lore, where?

>>36285674
In games: dialogues, character profiles, in-game txt. files
Outside of games: ZUN's written works, mangas and interviews.

>>36162382
one day we will all get to gensokyo, anon, just a matter of time

>>36172759
I >>36290012 meant to reply to you as well, just hold on a bit more anon, the play is almost over.

>>36183591
One day you'll sleep and wake up there, anon.

>>36157941
It's the kind of world a lot of us would like the real one to be like. Our world isn't that exciting, everything has already been explored and what remains to be know can only be through complex researches that most people can't aspire to participate in.
People aren't interesting either, it feels like they're all the same thanks to the nicely formated "culture" made by huge corporations. Also most of the time they're just dumb, uncaring, rude, or all of those at once.

On the other hand Gensokyo is a beautiful world with crazy things happening regularly. All the characters are very distinct from the others, each with their own unique appearance, personnality and abilities. They're well-behaved and elegant, even when they hate each other. Conflicts are solved by beautiful display of abilities rather than mindless violence even for those powerful enough to theorically be capable of killing entires armies by themselves.

There's also the fact that Gensokyo exists somewhat in "real time" with the real world. It's not happening in a distant past or in the far future, it's not some kind of alternate world which looks like Earth but isn't. It's right there, embeded in our world somewhere hidden by a barrier of fantasy. The world of Touhou can hardly be described as "realistic" but by saying that mystical creatures, gods and magic actually do exists but most of them have just "retired" into Gensokyo really makes the world feel "real": it's not a fictional world with its own physical laws, it's just a part of our own world that's hidden away.

Also, unlike most series Touhou doesn't have one defined storyline with a beginning and an end. Instead it's composed of multiple self-contained short stories each contributing to deepen the world but never changing it drastically. Your favorite characters will always be there (just hope it's not the forturne teller), interacting with each other as usual.
It's just so comfy. You could live there and life would never be dull, when nothing happens it'd be relaxing, when things happens it'd be exciting. You'd have a lot of cool people to talk to and have fun with.

And then you have the passion of not only ZUN but also all the other creators doing their best to bring this world to life as much as they can.

>>36157941
I am understand how you feel, anon, I feel the same way and it's hard to describe it

>>36157941
The late 2000s were magical for me largely thanks to Touhou.

There’s a sort of “brainfuzz” feeling, like an actual very slight tingle, that I get from Gensokyo’s ‘mood’. It’s similar to ASMR when it’s actually doing the sound frequency that triggers a tingly response, or being half awake laying in bed before falling back to sleep. This is mostly from the earlier works but it still exists to some extent in the modern stuff. I cant think of another fictional setting that can give me quite the same feeling.

>>36183831
>It is not a paradise, really, there is a reasonable, realistic level of danger and toil, but at the end of the day it is a pleasant and peaceful place.
I think this is an important part of it. A lot of series try to be hardcore grim or just totally saccharine. Touhou has strong mellow country life vibes while also allowing for flashy anime danmaku battles, and some danger.

There are hardships and it certainly isnt a perfect world, which makes it believable. Kind of ironic that’s a big part of what makes it such a good fantasy and so easy to escape into.

But the mellowness is a very important element too, it’s a place where it’s fine to take things day by day. That attitude is accepted, expected, encouraged even.

>>36229339
>>36238208
EoSD’s character art looks a little deformed in the way that people in a dream can look deformed once you recognize it’s a dream and become lucid.

>>36285674
There have been multiple official manga and short story collections, and some of the albums also come with stories that go with the songs. There’s also a surprising amount of lore hidden in things like song names and spellcard names, which briefly appear in-game when either of those things start. When a new touhou game releases and translations begin, people start making tons of weird but convincing connections out of them and a puzzle of background lore starts being put together. If you’re familiar with the Souls games and how the fandom collectively pieces things together with those games, a new touhou release is surprisingly similar to that.

Tenshi eating a corndog makes you feel strange. Why is Tenshi eating a corndog? It's like you're in a dream.

>>36337028
why wouldn't tenshi be eating a corndog? think about it

From what I've read this is similar to the feeling that people get from actual religions but since I'm a godless communist I wouldn't know myself.

>>36346034
have you considered taoism?

>>36346034
you aren't a communist, you are just a confused youngster who has not seen politics beyond superficial memes and puppet plays yet, trying to fit in somewhere.

>>36348235
"godless communist" is a meme you dip

>>36348247
Since when have you been having these fantasies of fellating your father and then sucking all the shit out of his asshole?

>>36348358
take your meds

get the fuck out of my comfy thread, worthless nigger outsider

it's just a mediocre bullet hell with ugly drawn characters.

I guess the fandom adds a lot, but it's literally Japanese Undertale.

>>36347695
please respond

>>36347695
>>36348746
Not him but you should always read the To Te Ching. No other spiritual book is so packed full of so much wisdom in so little pages, even if you're a christian it is always worth a read and you can finish it in a few hours.
Jonathan Star has best translation these days imo.

>>36348746
I can't into Taoism because to this day I'm not precisely sure what it actually is.

>>36157941
Excellent thread, I feel the same way. I think it's threefold for me.

For one, I'm interested in religious studies. I think studying religions for their own sake is extremely interesting, and it gives you an insight into various cultural and ethnographic values. Of course, Touhou is based largely around religion, so I think the tension between the Shinto, the Buddhists and the Taoists provide an interesting setup for the conflict of many of the games. I enjoy studying these religions on their own from time to time and thinking how their doctrines affect the characters.

Secondly, I'm Catholic. This sounds like a bizarre way to intrude on this subject, but a large portion of Catholicism is recognizing the special qualities of patron saints, who are saints associated with prayers for certain qualities. In a similar way, Touhou characters are associated with certain qualities, substances, etc based on their canonical roles. This personification of qualities stemmed from my religious experiences and I think it gave me another perspective on my appreciation for the cast of characters.

Finally, I live in a historic area and I place a great emphasis on living history on a day-to-day basis. Although I'm in the US, I live in one of the oldest states. In my local area are many venerable houses, businesses and places of worship that date to before the American Revolution. They have a certain majesty to them, knowing that someone constructed these structures ages ago, back when we were but a colonial outpost of England, let alone the UK. Touhou has a similar connection, where its setting is a version of mythological preserved Japan stuck-in-time before the Meiji era and the advent of modernism.

Beyond all this, ZUN's passion and soul behind the series is the real driving force. Touhou is an expansion of one man's spirit for the past 24 years, and it is as honest as anyone could have written. I have immense respect for that. One day before I die, I would like to shake his hand and honestly thank him for all he has done.

>>36160037
>>36183831
>>36299970
Good posts

>>36348796
Just focus on cultivating attention to what you do on a daily basis.
If you find yourself sending off a 4chan post and then 10 minutes later can't remember what you even wrote, well that's what I mean by attention

>>36348767
I was the one trying to recommend him it, so I don't get why you responded to me but I appreciate your help anon

I was gonna write this entire thing but realized it read like some shitty college paper so I'll just say besides worldbuilding I really like the way ZUN writes his characters.
They feel like real people with different motivations, quirks, etc. He's able to differentiate the humans and monsters by having them literally work on different logic, and you get to see the yokai girls problem solve much differently compared to humans making every little story ZUN writes fun to read.

>>36348979
Just post it if you still have it around, anon. No one is going to judge you here. Be as honest as you want.

>>36348979
He really has a pretty unique writting style. No character can be categorized as a hero or a villain and instead they each have their own motivations pushing them to act a certain way, sometimes causing an incident in the process. But it's never because they're "evil" or something like that.

Each time there's a new Lotus Eater or Detective Satori chapter people complain about nothing happening but that's just how it is. Those manga show how the world function and what the characters are doing outside of major incidents. You can see how they act according to their personalities and motivations. I find reading those interactions between them to be very enjoyable.

>>36229339
Playing PCB for the first time is what sold me on the series. EoSD was nice, but the atmosphere of PCB just clicked with me.
>>36348835
>Touhou is an expansion of one man's spirit for the past 24 years, and it is as honest as anyone could have written
Not only that, but he's managed to inspire a bunch of artists and musicians. It's an ideal creative springboard.

>>36158306
what else gives similar vibes?

I love this thread. I love Touhou so much, I love everything about it. Words can't do it justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1x9HLtkDtc

>>36157941
newcomer here

I honestly don't get it, I installed a touhou game, it was really hard, too many bullets flying around and chaotic. Anyways, so it's a game with lots of bullets, and maybe a pic of some manga/anime type character on it. I don't get it, there didn't seem to be any long story to get into or anything. How can you guys be so magical about this? It's just a game with not very good graphics. I see no story.

>>36365963
have you checked the wiki before you type crackhead shit
has all the lore collected in one site so you don't have to dig in game files or spend all day looking for links to manga and novels

>>36366134
oh ok, thanks, so this touhou that everyone is excited about isn't about the games themselves so much as about some mangas, that makes more sense to me now

thanks

>>36366312
perhaps the franchise is not for you and that is totally ok just don't be retarded with "i don't understand"

>>36366542
I only posted hoping to understand, I tried a touhou game and didn't see anything emotional in the game that OP could be referring to, that was just making me scratch my head

>>36368162
so you were shit at the game and gave up right away "durrr I don't understand" gtfo idiot

>>36366312
>>36368162
If you don't have any prior exposure that's expected for a first impression. When I first started EoSD I thought it was fun but didn't understand where the huge overarching story came from. It was only until I combined the games with the printworks, official manga, etc that it started opening up to me.
Don't force yourself to get into it if it doesn't interest you though.

>>36348835
>ZUN's passion and soul behind the series is the real driving force. Touhou is an expansion of one man's spirit for the past 24 years, and it is as honest as anyone could have written. I have immense respect for that. One day before I die, I would like to shake his hand and honestly thank him for all he has done.

this is a great post that made me feel

As anons have already said with bigger and better words:
It's a place you can take it easy but also go on adventures with your 2hu and internet friends.
There is nothing quite like it.
Thank you ZUN

>>36183591
Do you remember any other details? I personally had two vivid dreams set in Gensokyo.

>>36382146
Not that anon but I had a dream where Yuuka gave me a sunflower on a pot and said "it's you now". I used to struggle with waking up early but now I do so every day, best (You) I got.

>>36337028
More like Tenshi is strange and she's eating a corndog.

I feel warm when I see the characters~

>>36363946
Antique visual novels around 2000.

>>36384797
That sounds nice. I also dreamed of her once, except in my dream she was mad at me for picking herbs without permission, although she softened up in the end.

I've actually posted about these dreams in the two 2hu dream threads that we had so you may have already seen them.

>>36157941
it is dreamlike unlike any other series I've experienced
everything from the setting to the characters to the whole spellcard business to the music just builds together this location of infinite possibilities and stories
all the fan content certainly helps too, you've got mountains of illustrations and stories made by people all over the place who wanted to share a small piece of their own gensokyo with the world
one of the best experiences I've had in recent years was exploring the gensokyo minecraft map to a playlist of some of my favorite chill arranges, I can't imagine what an even more capable engine could spit out if someone were to put in the man hours needed to build such a world
I'll leave you with my favorite title theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3suCyu4JBcs

>>36395705
oh nice I should listen to this more often when I go running. Sometimes I put on the IN OST but I always skip ahead to the voyage tracks

>>36391171
ah, I saw the last dream thread though I didn't read it thoroughly. That's nice anon, always nice to have a good end in a dream.

>>36400862
That particular dream was made freaky by the context - I had it right after spending a day actually picking flowers for use in homebrewing.

The general appeal of 2hu for me is the characters, their characterizations give you the general idea, yet there's plenty of room for interpretation. The setting is also nicely balanced resembling quaint country life, as one other anon here put it, where things are generally comfy, except when someone decides to start shit from time to time. Although, being a fan of Doom and HP Lovecraft's work, I frequently catch myself daydreaming of Gensokyo getting invaded by a grim external force, forcing it's residents to unite in fending it off. The latter scenario also made its way into one of my dreams.

OP here. Kind of forgot about this thread but I’ll try and put this feeling into something a bit more cohesive, sorry if I sound a little autistic.

Touhou and Gensokyo are the perfect refuge from the outside world. I’m so tired of all the unnecessary fighting, greed and damage that people cause for absolutely no reason. Not only that, but most people are NPC’s solely concerned with themselves, living their lives consuming pointless media designed to exploit. Of course, not everyone is like this, but it’s such an overwhelming majority that it swallows out honest people who want no harm. Gensokyo is, as other anon’s have said, a place of peace, and full of people who truly are individuals. Individuals in their goals, personalities, even their looks, not struggling to fit into what everyone else is doing. There may be an incident or two, but most of the time, the culprit isn’t ‘evil’, but just someone who thinks differently, and someone who the heroines, and the audience, can come to understand and love for who they are.

Even down to the landscape itself, Gensokyo itself feels so familiar, yet full of wonder. I’m English (unfortunately), so I grew up around a lot of old buildings, and historic sites like castles and cathedrals. Touhou has this familiarity with religious areas and old buildings, but all of them are based around Japanese mythology, taking something nostalgic for me and warping it into something unknown. Yet, despite this, Gensokyo feels like home. It’s the ‘fantasy land’ I dreamed of as a kid, filled with magic and mystery, yet fleshed out, wonderfully written, and with that hint of unfamiliarity that just makes me want to explore it even more, and stay there forever.

>>36404823
Compared to what you can find on this very board, your write-up is not at all autistic.

I'm curious as to why you'd feel unfortunate to be born English. Isn't that the reason for your attraction to 2hu? If you were familiar with East Asian architecture and mythology, wouldn't part of the charm be lost since Gensokyo would seem more familiar to you?

>>36391030
Any particular recommendations?

It gives the same feeling as ancient tales, myths and shit, where people act like people, but also fantastic shit happens.

>>36157941
Sports and Touhou are my life at this point.V404H

>>36427062
What sports?

>>36299970
>There's also the fact that Gensokyo exists somewhat in "real time" with the real world. It's not happening in a distant past or in the far future, it's not some kind of alternate world which looks like Earth but isn't. It's right there, embeded in our world somewhere hidden by a barrier of fantasy.
This is a big part of the appeal for me. If it was a 100% disconnected fantasy world like say the Middle Earth/Hyrule/Azeroth it would be meh for me.

>>36437989
This past summer I did nothing but work, watch baseball, and practice spellcards in between innings. This fall I'm taking online classes so I plan to do more of the same, except now I have football and 1cc SA to look forward to as well. It's a comfy life.

>>36438982
what course?

>>36395705
this anon gets it

>>36157941
It's a... nostalgic thing. I don't really play the games much anymore, I don't have the reflexes for them.

But the stories, the music, and you guys always have me come back into things intead of staying with what I already know.

I can live without living in Gensokyo, but I wouldn't say no to the offer.

>>36461034
we'll get there soon, anon, godspeed.

>>36157941
>>36158306
It’s the “wild west” feeling.
Novelty combined with a very limited scope of a seemingly fathomless world; add in a pinch of nostalgia for good measure.
Watching old RvB from 2003 gives me the same emotion.

>>36157941 (OP)
>>36158306
It’s the “wild west” feeling.
Novelty combined with a very limited scope of a seemingly fathomless world; add in a pinch of nostalgia for good measure.
Watching old RvB from 2003 gives me the same emotion.
>>36461034
Oh, wow, wandereranon. Have you had any more dreams with Mokou lately?

Left my trip on. fuck it ig
>>36463378
A couple. Nothing of any real significance, just... day-to-day life. getting prodded awake and chastised for sleeping until noon, and if I was going to do that "at least use a futon don't just use the porch like some- some vagrant-" at which point she was too busy laughing to keep going.

Yay puns

she really likes stracciatella, turns out. It's kinda like Roman egg-drop soup. ofc she dumped it on her rice which turns out is... really good. I make it sometimes still.

>>36424207
Pretty much. The youkai in-setting act like actual fantasy creatures who folllow different norms.

>>36461034
Playing the games causes the setting to somewhat split in my head. The games tend to inspire anger and hatred for the boss characters to the point where they become my main motivations for a 1cc.

Other materials, conversely, give off a comfy countryside life feeling.

>>36481279
It's a calm, comfortable place, until someone brings calamity to the town. Usually for, ultimately, a very petty reason.

>>36485792
That's what country life mostly is - serene until someone gets wasted at a local bar and starts shit.

>>36363946
Other stuff from the early 2000s.

I really like the vibe ZUNs other worlds outside of Gensokyo feel as well. The future outside world, the Dream World, Lunar Capital, etc. ZUN puts a lot of thought into his entire universe worldbuilding, especially the outside world. It's dystopian, but it doesn't feel like it physically, a psychological cage for humanity trying to emulate the past despite all the innovations. Like humanity in the future knows it's wrong yet keeps pushing forward.
New cd when

>>36491331
I think his best world building was with 8. the whole idea of the Lunarians coming to Gensokyo was really great

>>36481279
Youmu motivates me because she was so determined to stop you in PCB and her determination helps me get through the day

>>36286378
if i've never touched touhou before can i get into it by reading the novel or manga adaptations?

>>36506911
they reference some events that happen in the games and expect you to know of certain characters beforehand, they're original stories contained in the universe
i would just skim through wiki translations of the game omake.txt if you're really awful at bullet hells or just don't like them but interested in story

>>36463378
>It’s the “wild west” feeling.
I never thought of it that way before.

>>36427062
This but painting instead of sports

>>36404823
well said.

Oi.

>>36540024
Oi.

>>36542791
good morning

>>36550600
good morning

>>36542791

>>36562294
>one of THE most obscure Marvel Transformers characters AND Touhou
H-how

>>36563868
You forget that unlike /jp/, Toshiaki can actually enjoy things without incessantly bitching about it.
Galaxy Force is the only one I'm aware of at the moment, but they had their fair share of exposure to the franchise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRIy2vy31EQ

>>36564808
>You forget that unlike /jp/, Toshiaki can actually enjoy things without incessantly bitching about it.
What
>they had their fair share of exposure to the franchise
I know they got cues from Brave, but didn't know about Touhou, I haven't watched much of the "Unicron trilogy"/the three stuff.

>>36183831
It's peaceful if you live there*

If you're an outsider, it's hell on earth

>>36562294
bang bang bang

>>36542791
>>36550600
>>36550838
GOOOOD MORNING!

>>36491331
Gotta love the effort ZUN puts into the stories behind each CD. Anything Maribel+Renko related feels very whimsical to me.