Prepubescent Girls in Frilly Dresses Shooting Lasers: All About Touhou Project

[Grand Master Kickface]

Touhou Project is a series of doujin shooters made by one man who goes by the pseudonym ZUN (which I can only assume translates to "he whom the god of ecstasy smiles upon and whose emissions are like that of the wild horses"). It is wildly popular in its home country of Japan where it has started something of a free culture movement.

There are a total of 11 main games so far in the Touhou series (and a few "side" games, like Shoot the Bullet or Scarlet Weather Rhapsody), though the series didn't start receiving much attention until the sixth game, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Personally, I think the eighth game, Imperishable Night, is where the series really hits its stride in terms of music and bullet pattern design. The appeal of Touhou games lies in their colorful and versatile array of characters, the synchronization of music and level design, but most of all, the freaking massive amount of bullets that are on the screen at once. They're referred to as danmaku (which roughly translates to "curtain fire") shooters because there are times when 50% of the screen is covered in bullet. But the challenge makes it all the more satisfying when you finally do succeed, a kind of ferocious euphoria that's missing from modern games. If I were to compare it to any other video game series, I would say it's most similar to the Mega Man games of old.

ZUN does not copyright his characters or music, so Touhou has possibly the most creative and involved fanbase on the planet. Touhou has its own annual convention called Hakurei Shrine Reitaisai, where not only does ZUN himself distribute trial versions of his new games, but thousands of fans sell their artwork, manga, and music rearranges of the songs heard in the game. ZUN sometimes even uses fan-created works for inspiration as part of the canon, and thus maintains a mutually beneficial relationship with his fans, encouraging the creative spirit on both sides. And a lot of the fanworks are really freaking good. And like any fanbase that has Internet connection, it's spawned its fair share of memes.

Unless you live in Japan, you'll most likely have to download or torrent the games through the Internet, but it's totally worth it. You can read more about it at Wikipedia or look at some gameplay videos to get a better feel for the games. Discuss anything related to Touhou Project here!