Happy 2025! Lost in the Touhou mines...
January 1, 2025
Happy New Year to all! New Years Resolutions are something I feel like a lot of people tend to forget about by the end of the year, but I'm hoping this will be a little more concrete for me. I've began working on some good habits since the ass end of 2024, including but not limited to a consistent exercise schedule and a better diet, but like with all things it's been a real struggle. All progress means something, though; even failures mean you learned about what didn't work, so it's important that I take those struggles not as a sign of my weakness, but as a sign of moving forward, slowly but surely.
Amidst all that life-improvement stuff though, within the past two months or so I've found myself even deeper than ever before into something I had always enjoyed; that being Touhou Project!
I've always dabbled in the games before, as well as assorted fan media, but I would say my enthusiasm was largely passive. Not unusual, I don't think! I'd say I played the games a good deal more than the average fan, but the enjoyment skewed a bit more in the background for me. However, recently something reached out to me in my mid-20s and pulled me back in, and hard. One fateful day in November I decided I'd try to continue playing the game that originally hooked me — the controversial Touhou 12 ~ Undefined Fantastic Object — and before I knew it I was in deeper than ever before. Did my sensibilities change significantly? It's not like I ever disliked anything about the series before, but when I played the game this time, I was far more devoted to the shmup gameplay than I ever had been. Suddenly, I was thinking more about the delightfully charming dialogue! I was asking questions about the lore, and looking through as many resources as I could for the answers. I completed my first (Easy) 1CC of the series, on a game that is kind of notorious for having an annoying mechanic that makes people hate even entertaining the thought, and I feel very close to getting one on Normal. What happened! I don't know! I don't know!!! But I'm gone now... there's nothing of me left.
Suddenly, I'm drawing, too! I want to draw more of these characters!
People who are trying to get into Touhou Project may be let down by the minimal storytelling in the games; even the more involved stories can seem like an extended excuse for the game to happen, albeit with some very charming banter (one thing they don't tell you about Touhou is exactly how funny these games are!). But I enjoy and am in love with how interesting Touhou Project is as a world; ZUN seems to tell these stories from a "setting-first" perspective, and what characters get focus appears to be informed by what exactly he wants to say or tell in the world of Gensokyo. This even extends to the various official manga, which (out of those I've read) have been fun slice-of-life affairs focused less on characterization and moreso speckled with worldbuilding ideas and stories that capitalize on the intrigue of the setting. Amidst the setting, you have various dynamics and concepts to help it feel wider. Ideological conflict, trickster gods, animal crime lords, moon invaders, and everything in between really bring this series beyond just being a simple hodgepodge of Eastern mythology and into it being its own world worth looking into and enjoying. With a series like Touhou Project, you get as much out of it as you put in; if you're expecting everything to be laid bare through just a playthrough of a game, I'm afraid you won't be very satisfied. But if you look at the character bios, spinoffs, and most significantly the print works (lots of manga and books!) you'll find a setting like no other. Thanks to my renewed passion for playing the games themselves, I'd developed a deeper affection for the world running beneath them, and it's been fun to just let everything there is to offer take hold.
But what really capped off my current obsession with the series was a meeting with a particular person. I got to know someone wonderful near the end of this year who I became very close with. 😊 I love that person with all my heart, and as I've gotten deeper in the hole of my interests, I've been able to drag them with me too. As I indulged more in the series, I shared what I learned and enjoyed with them, and Touhou Project ended up becoming a bonding experience for us, which was in part because of the environment that they helped cultivate. I struggle a lot with feeling like I can comfortably navigate my own passions and interests in different environments around others, so it's a beautiful thing for me to connect tightly with someone over one thing or another in a way that feels like it's on an equal ground.
A Junko fumo just came in to keep my Nazrin company! Thank you Levo!
Really, that's just me yapping though about something that makes me happy. Touhou Project is a lot of things, and can be a lot of things for different people! It's challenging shmups, it's cute girls, it's awesome music, it's a framework for stories, it's great designs, it's all that and then some. While there is a lot of fan content to go around, there's nothing like what's actually there; and if you're largely familiar with fan content, if anything you might be quite surprised at what fanworks tend to get wrong (or right!)
My brain hasn't just been Touhou though! Aside from that, I started reading Golden Kamuy at the recommendation of a friend, and oh boy. I'm not in too deep yet, but it's got some great characters, gnarly action and awesome artwork, so I'm looking forward to continuing! I'm also finishing up Atelier Escha & Logy. I'll likely make a separate entry for it, but I've been enjoying it a ton, even without babygirl Ayesha 😢 I intend to read a lot more books this year too; I've fallen out of it quite a bit since I stopped working. Last time, I was in the middle of I, Robot. Oh, and the BanG Dream! Ave Mujica anime starts tomorrow. So much to get to!
Well, that's just what's been swimming in my mind this Winter. Back to having my 1CC ruined by Shou Toramaru! That tiger that I hate (love)...