Internet Spotlight: Touhou Project

You may have been wandering the internet and have noticed that there’s an abundance of various bishojo-type characters in the anime internet community. Witches, vampires, maids, shrine maidens, ghosts, bunny girls, cat girls, fairies, and all sorts of magical girls have all seemed to come from the same universe. Welcome to Touhou Project.

Attempting to write everything that goes on within the Touhou universe would be like trying to explain everything that happens in the Marvel or DC universe, it’s become that huge. However, all you really need to know is that Touhou is an ever expanding universe about magical girls who live in a realm called Gensokyo and the weird antics that occur within it. Most of the mainstream Touhou games come in the form of a top-down shoot-em-up similar to 1943 or Raiden. What makes Touhou different is not only its use of magical girls instead of jets, but its insane use of ammo known to many gamers as “bullet hell”.

However, it can be said that the large cast and memorable soundtrack of this game series have become its primary drawing force. Every character of this series, no matter how obscure, has a loyal fanbase and the music of Touhou has been mixed and remixed countless times. Much of what most people know about Touhou has also been determined by fanon, as it is filled with little in-jokes and memes all on their own. Attempting to cover everything about Touhou would make this a very long article indeed, but you can expect me to continue to make various references to this series from time to time. Perhaps your favorite song will be mentioned next, or your favorite character might get a shout out. From an obscure shoot-em up to a major force on Nico Nico Douga, you can bet that Touhou Project will be here to stay.