Every Single Touhou Anime

Touhou Anime Doujins exist because ZUN refuses to make an official Touhou Anime. Come with me on a Journey as I explore every single Doujin Anime that the Touhou Project has to offer.
I uncover 3 projects that came to fruition, 3 that never came to be, and 1 that is infamous for being lost media. I dig into what each Anime has to offer as well as what happened to the various cancelled productions.
IMPORTANT if you are looking for Links:
I spent 6 months on writing, recording, and editing. This is my longest video yet and I hope you find some enjoyment in it.
Supplemental Document (complete through Hakureisou): docs.google.co...
Links:
Original Reddit Post: / list_of_unofficial_fan...
Favorite Doujins Playlist: • Touhou Doujins
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:28 Intro: Doujins
4:45 Intro: ZUN's Guidelines
8:16 The Perfect Setup
12:04 Anime Tenchou x Touhou Project**
20:49 Memories of Phantasm
29:52 Touhou Hakureisou*
39:46 Meteors of Triple Dimension*
47:23 The Sealed Esoteric History
58:55 Danmaku!! Animated Series*
1:10:51 Anime-esc Lighting Round
1:21:49 A Summer Day's Dream
1:35:15 Outro
1:38:49 Endslate
* Indicates Unreleased
** Indicates Lost media

[@Nyaanachi]

Edit: PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING! While I appreciate the enthusiasm from you guys, 20+ people have already corrected me that I mistook Satori for Hata no Kokoro. Please keep the comments original and clever, thank you! Original Comment: Wow thank you guys so much! 🥹 This video has been blowing up all day and I’m glad y’all are enjoying it. I’ve just casually been at work, replying to a comment here and there. I’m going to create a google document detailing all the extra information on these projects, websites I used, art I used, music I used, and footage I used. Along with that, I will be including various edits to information and mistakes I made in the video. So PLEASE if you are knowledgeable on Touhou correct me on my mistakes. I seriously can’t thank y’all enough. I will make more Touhou content in the future (after I brush up on pronunciations).

[@GensouChronicle]

Since you asked for mistakes, I'll give a few. You said PC98 isn't canon - it actually is. ZUN confirmed this on the caveat that if there is ever anything that contradicts, you can assume the Windows take is canon. Reimu does not love killing people/is 'the crimson slasher' in canon. She's actually a very kind-hearted girl, but also doesn't like showing it. There is a lot that can be said about her character, but I mainly wanted to point that out. 'ZUN dropped the ball with Sanae's character.' This felt like a strange thing to say when I think you said your knowledge of the canon only goes to Touhou 10, where Sanae has had plenty of appearances. A lot of Sanae's character can be summed up as a diligent girl who was thrust into this fantasy world and early on did her best to try and fit in. She's one of the more fleshed out characters in canon. While ZUN doesn't go over her life in the Outside World, I think it was a bit much to say that when you haven't really seen much of her character. I'm not gonna rake you over the coals for character pronunciations though. Just know that other people probably will as this video gets traction (because it will). Congrats on that by the way. It looks like you did a lot of research to make this. My favorite anime is Summers Day Dream for the same reasons as well, so I was happy to hear you say that.

[@dylandelahaie7800]

Where KKHTA tho ?

[@lorenzorentniop717]

Cool video dude! I'm a Touhou fan myself and I'm glad more of these videos come out!

[@YuyuHakurei]

Maribel and Renko are originally from a canon light novel. The title is Changeability of Strange Dreams and it is mildly difficult to find. xD. It's mostly about Renko and Maribel love love time. Renko and Maribel are raging lesbians as well. They are canonly written to be lesbians though unlike most Touhou characters. It doesn't have the most detail in the world. There is music video on youtube that explains it about as well as the novel within like 6 minutes. "absolute one-way street" is the name. That video is a little different than a lot of the touhou videos as it's just flat out some of the events that happen in that novel. Where most others have some degree of filling in the story with headcanon filler. That video is just events from the novel so it's a recreation with no made up stuff in it. The novel has a ton of Yuri moments though. That would be the main reason to read it I think. Though the plot written with more detail near the end is a good reason too. These would be fan translations though so there may be mistranslations. The community in general is pretty good at being as accurate as possible though. Of the side stories this is the most important one. It explains certain things about a few important characters in the series that you may have had questions about with no definite answer. This is pretty much the only story that gives a detailed backstory to Yukari in general.

[@aaronkelly1762]

​​@@dylandelahaie7800 That's not animated. It's more of a video manga, with some elements of motion comics.

[@unlucky-me1791]

There’s actually an another Touhou anime, a lost anime actually, its called “Touhou Little Dream” made by Misaki in 2005. It’s about Elis Scarlet a fan made character who’s in love with Lyrica Prismriver. But sadly it disappeared in 2011, where the tsunami and earthquake occur.

[@Nyaanachi]

I did not know about this one. It sounded super cute and unique. There’s next to no information about it on the web though :(. I hope it didn’t disappear because of the earthquake, that was a terribly tragic event for Japan.

[@BM-13_KATYUSHA]

Sounds lame, I'm glad it's lost media.

[@tranminhnguyen6217]

@@BM-13_KATYUSHA You're lame, I'm glad you're a lost child

[@creecw]

​@@BM-13_KATYUSHA brutally honest

[@BM-13_KATYUSHA]

@@creecw It really does sound like someone's lame fanfiction. It's like one of those things that everyone would watch and praise just to be nice but eventually a lot of potential new fans will think that it's the best this community has to offer and leave. Just like kkhta, nobody really likes kkhta because it's badly written, confusing and unnecessarily edgy trash but everyone talks about it like it's up there with a summer day's dream or little reimu. It's just not. It would harm the community and our image more than it would help it, you can still make stuff like that just don't hype it up like it will be the next memories of phantasm.

[@Kirkklan]

"How'd you get this VA on your Touhou animation!?" "Well, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who's in contact with this gal that helped me get the voices."

[@PhantomGato-v-]

Orin's meow being used as a censor is absolute art.

[@blockeontheleafeon]

Any sound from Touhou being used as a censor makes the person censoring swear words awesome. Love that kind of thing.

[@mission2858]

why just censor it with a bleep when that is another room for creativity. - a prime example is youtuber Drippy's way of censoring the killing sound effects in his Yandere Simulator Videos

[@blockeontheleafeon]

@@mission2858 I know right. Even the little things can show off someone's personality.

[@mission2858]

@@blockeontheleafeon yes.

[@blockeontheleafeon]

@@mission2858 Glad you think so.

[@wriggletime1412]

I sometimes hear people call Touhou characters by their last names but calling Mokou "Fujiwara" is a new one

[@Nyaanachi]

The names will always be something I slip up on. I think I defaulted to Fujiwara because it’s easier to pronounce.

[@PhantomGato-v-]

​@@Nyaanachimoh koh.

[@baconsoup8346]

Oh uh, the thing about Yuyuko being gluttonous isn't really a fanon thing, she does eat a lot, and puts off her sword training with Youmu just to make her be her cook, Yuyuko's relationship to food is just exaggerated to a extreme by Touhou fans cause it's fun. In all honesty Yuyuko is more lazy & something of a tormentor (not in a malicious way) to Youmu than she is food obsessed, she makes Youmu feel pretty stupid/useless when she toys with her in the canon works. As for pronunciation I think 'Mo-ko' is how you say Mokou.@@Nyaanachi

[@Nyaanachi]

@@baconsoup8346 Yeah I was thinking about it and I’m like “Wait if Touhou is To-ho then Mokou has gotta be Mo-ko” I feel so stupid now. Also, yeah it makes sense that some of the fanon is an over exaggeration of canon. I need to know where y’all get all this neat trivia because I’ve got some reading to do.

[@M0mazosMissy]

What were you thinking it would be? Just plain "No"?

[@EbullientSMP]

Touhou anime are truly special with how much effort they put into it. Summer Day's Dream might be one of the best looking anime ever made IMO and its so hard to imagine it was made by fans. My favorite one, Hifuu Club Activity Record, moved me to the point of tears. The love and passion these creators have for this franchise is insane and on full display in each of these works.

[@Nyaanachi]

They’re really unique among fan content because it’s a hard feat to pull off. I hope new circles and creators are inspired to make animations in the future, even if they aren’t full length. Many of these projects have been known about for a while so it’s be neat to see some fresh faces.

[@divadiva1968]

Finally someone figured out the Summer Day Dream n Hifuu Club instead of the MoP one

[@NEETKitten]

Didn't A Summer Day's Dream get in trouble for looking "too official" or something to that effect? I remember hearing about people seeing all the A-list VAs they got and saying it was an official anime, and the creator had to change the marketing cuz of those rumors. Was that a thing or did I imagine it? Edit: never mind, I'm stupid. It was mentioned in the video. That's what I get for commenting before I watch.

[@notarealfirstnamenotareall746]

Asking what anime Touhou characters are from is a guaranteed way to farm angry comments. Same with Vocaloid.

[@kenzierajendra]

The first thing that got me into touhou was team fortress 2 It's funny how these 2 games are so linked together despite being so different (well, there are some minor similarities but still)

[@Nyaanachi]

The overlap within these communities will always baffle me, but I’m all for it. The “Touhou for Boys” Tumblr thread always comes to mind when I think of TF2 and Touhou (and bonkumiru ofc).

[@mikubrot]

- primarily single-gender cast - characters are both interesting yet easy to understand - creators openly support and encourage fan-creations - strong meme culture yeah i see the overlap

[@redblueandgray]

@@mikubrothats

[@HirokaAkita]

As i always say it: Just name one other franchise with fans that go as far as Touhou goes. There isn't. Whatever the medium is, Touhou fans will or already did made. The passion, extents, and the damn sheer quality with quantity that Touhou fans made with their fan works... is outright outstanding.

[@user-slayer]

Doom fans after playing doom with grains of salt

[@Yellowpikachu1]

Fate fans daring to rear their face in:

[@ShenauticOfficial]

The only fanbase I know came close was Undertale.

[@PhnxKap]

​@@ShenauticOfficialUndertale at its peak could rival Touhou lmao (i'm both an undertale and a touhou fan)

[@molluscumlore]

@@PhnxKap Not particularly since longevity is also a huge factor, and the touhou fandom has been around for 20 years at this point. But maybe undertale can ramp back up and do it, we'll see. I think it'd be more fitting to compare with like, the star trek fandom since that one's been around for like 60 years and was/is popular enough for people to work around the much stricter copyright. Since the lax copyright is why touhou has propagated so hard you've gotta find either stuff with similarly lax copyright and decently big fandoms or supersized fandoms large enough for fan projects to slip under the radar.

[@blockeontheleafeon]

I'm glad there's someone else out there that adores Sanae as a character. I never knew about the fanworks that depicted Sanae's backstory until now. It's awesome that people can create something like that and stick with it.

[@unendlich4315]

At 42:43, Yuka's hair grows, which is her Old Works design. Also it is Kurumi that is shown at 43:02 43:21 shows Chiyuri Kitashirakawa, an assistant of Yumemi.

[@Nyaanachi]

That actually makes a lot of sense. I guess it wasn’t just Reimu who had two character designs for that show. Thank you for recognizing those characters, I’ll include them in the information document I’m making (the one with links and extra information)

[@maskedsponge]

Summer day's dream episode 4 is one of the greatest looking anime episodes ever and its made mostly by one guy, Tokine has to be involved in professional productions under another name I will not believe that he only does this for Touhou

[@Nyaanachi]

Right! Like this dude has got to have some job in the industry if he can make an independent project look THAT good.

[@PerpetuallyMalding]

​@@Nyaanachi I just need to find some place to watch it. I'll pay if I have to, Tokine needs some funds to make it *even better*

[@moonlordgaming4537]

Wait a moment you forgotten the best fan made anime for touhou project! Sr pelo’s retelling of the scarlet mist incident!

[@FlanFlanScarlet]

Remilia smoking weed is still the funniest shit

[@Megapig9001]

When I saw Sealed Esoteric History for the first time on the Touhou Station stream I was blown away. From an animated retelling of Magical Astronomy to a fantastic original story about Sanae’s family, it was everything I dreamed of for a Touhou anime, and I went years without knowing it was as complete as it was. It’s my favorite of the Touhou anime by far, and the reason why I think it isn’t as big as the others is because it feels like an anime designed specifically for Touhou fans, wheras the rest feel like they’re designed to also appeal to people who’ve never seen Touhou before (which of course, isn’t bad). I love it to the point that I presented a slideshow of it to a film class. its cool to see a video this in-depth! I hope to see more Touhou from the future. i highly recommend giving the Touhou Music Collection stories a read. They’ve got some of Touhou's best storytelling.

[@KoishiFish]

No way it's *Him*!!!

[@trace6314]

nerd spotted²

[@Nyaanachi]

The Sealed Esoteric History was a treat to watch. It seems to be the only one out of the three that really wants to stretch and reimagine the lore. Kyoto Fantasy Troupe is an amazing Doujin Circle, so I hope this video can bring their work to a larger audience.

[@okuu5091]

It's not complete lol. A new episode came out just a few months back and it's only the first half of a two-parter. It's not ending anytime soon.

[@tatakaii610]

A Summer Day's Dream was actually the final push I needed to start my Japanese learning journey after not being able to find a subtitled version of episode 4, funnily enough! In fact, I think Touhou has sparked a lot of growth for me since I'm so inspired to see how many fanworks and how much talent the community has. I got into Touhou barely a year ago, but I'm hoping to start making my own fanworks. I actually didn't know that Danmaku!! was planned to come with an anime or that PC98 one, so good job on compiling all these animes and also for your valuable explanations as to why they were canceled (also RIP Anime Tenchou x Touhou OVA I still have hope).

[@manu987nc7]

Oh and I never see touhou summer day dream ep 4

[@Dioxaz]

NaokiP did a translation of episode 4 which was first released on /jp, then on their personal blog. I actually helped in timing it. Search for "Touhou Musou Kakyou - A Summer Day’s Dream 04" and look for naokip among search results. It's also present in a Musou Kakyou subtitle archive I made, which can be found by searching the following: Dioxaz summer day's dream ASS English sub archive

[@Unbelievablyunfunny]

I can't even find english subs for episode 1 and the rest

[@manu987nc7]

@@Unbelievablyunfunny I have them, the 1/2/2.5 and 3 if you want (can't post on youtube, copywriter law things, got deleted since 2021) try to find a way so I can send you.

[@synchrophrenia]

I'm actually celebrating my "descent into Touhou universe" anniversary on the 21st, so this was pretty cool timing! It made me reflect a little bit on my own journey through Touhou and how those early days were a lot of the OST and a lot of fangames.

[@Nyaanachi]

I’ve barely scratched the surface myself. I’m excited to continue my deep dive into Touhou (and my deep dive into proper pronunciations).

[@Catmsjahsn]

On a Maikaze twitter post from this September 1st, it says that A Summer Day’s Dream ep 5 is in production, alongside a Suika illustration

[@Nyaanachi]

Yeah I’m going to add that in the supplemental document. The episode was officially announced after I wrote the script so at the time I didn’t have proof.

[@KuruiynKur]

Really great video! I'm a touhou fan since a long time ago but I didn't have an idea of how many productions have been done in the past before this video, personally the one that I enjoyed the most was Summer day's dream as well. It's really sad seeing projects not being released and being forgotten over the years but interesting at the same time knowing how those series were going to be

[@Nyaanachi]

Glad I was able to enlighten you on some interesting works. Danmaku in particular is really sad because the one piece of animation for it was sooo close to being done and just never got finished. The finished ones are great, but it’s hard not to be a little disappointed.

[@nineseven4225]

I AM SO ANNOYED ABOUT STUDIO YURAKI’S BAD APPLE THAT NEVER RELEASED I was one of the few people who got to watch the storyboard for it, and it had the most unique Bad Apple song I’ve ever heard, because it had both male and female vocals that sung in English. Unlike the Bad Apple feat Sam Luff that’s on their channel with only male vocals… I can’t recall if it included piano as well, but it was so different and fantastic I’m angry it’s separate and never uploaded

[@Nyaanachi]

Danmaku had some of the most confident looking works out of any of these fan projects. It makes me all the more disappointed that many of the original videos are lost for the foreseeable future.

[@Dioxaz]

@@Nyaanachi I wonder why nobody asked Studio Yuraki about that, as they're still active. I'm too not a fan of how they milked up hype about that project then hid it under the carpet as if it was normal. Or, unless I'm lacking info.

[@Unbelievablyunfunny]

@@Dioxaz the person who made this vid did ask through gmail but got no answer, I'm guessing that the studio is really busy right now with commisions

[@ddddddaaaaaaavvvvvvv]

24:30 i think they did actually hire professional voice actors for the dvd release of episode 1 28:34 fujiwara is actually mokous clans name (fujiwara clan) so most people just default to calling her mokou 1:26:22 in modern japanese ゐ(wi) and い(i) make the same sound so the correct way to pronounce her name would be tei great video :)

[@Nyaanachi]

I’m very new to Touhou so thank you for the corrections. I’m always looking for new ways to improve my knowledge. Thanks for watching!

[@philiphunt-bull5817]

Tewi's name is intentionally supposed to be read the old way, what with her being the ruler of all earth rabits

[@--_--_--_--_]

That song that just repeat "tei tei tei tei" pretty much made me always remember how to pronunciante that rabbit name.

[@JcDizon]

You forgot to put the 2007 Touhou anime created by Soundholic called "Touhou Project Side Story: Memories of Stars". It seems to be among the oldest Touhou anime in existence but it also seems to be forgotten. It focuses on the Lunarian cast along with Sakuya who the anime considered to be a Lunarian.

[@Hifuutorian]

For the third episode of Sealed Esoteric History; Maribel actually meets Sakuya and is welcomed into the mansion in one of the dreams she is describing to Renko during *Changeability of Strange Dream.* She brings home some cookies that were given to her and uses them to convince Renko that it actually happened. Given how episode one was a kind of re-telling of Magical Astronomy, Episode three (and four) might be re-tellings of Changeability of Strange Dream as a result. (Or at least, parts of it. Another dream she describes to Renko is when she was in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and encountered Mokou. Given how there is a lot more backstory for the SDM visit and it is possibly being split apart into two episodes, they might be making that a separate arc entirely as well.)

[@Nyaanachi]

It seems like a lot of the anime ties back to some of the canon works. I’ll have to go and read up on many of Maribel and Renko’s stories. Many other commenters have pointed out how interesting the Music Collections are.

[@Hifuutorian]

@@NyaanachiI am extremely biased when I say this but: I highly highly highly highly *highly* recommend them! I think they're the very best of what Touhou has to offer and narratively, are ZUN's discussion with himself about the things he believes and are ultimately his answer to the question of "Why do I even make Touhou in the first place?" *So* much of everything else about the series is enriched and informed by Maribel and Renko's stories, even if they have almost zero direct connection.

[@washys]

This is a great video! I'm glad that not only did you cover the three active animes, you also went into the unreleased works. I remember being around waiting for the next episode of Summer Day's Dream and Memories of Phantasm to drop and the Hifuu Club anime also started releasing at that time which blew away all my expectations from the start. I also remember seeing Studio Yuraki releasing their character reference sheets and was eagerly awaiting for Danmaku! to come out. Watching this video was a treat and the level of research you did really shines through, thank you

[@hexz618]

For Memories of Phantasm, my only problem with it is how misleading some characters personality is. I don't like it because MoP is the first exposure for many starting TH fans, and that first exposure will create your bias for the series and considering how badly unfaithfull MoP is to the original, it's definitely a horrible starting point. Other than that the pacing is just way too fast.

[@divadiva1968]

Too much fan service

[@bc9402]

Well correct me if I’m m wrong, I was under the impression that MoP was not meant to be accurate to Canon, but it was more based on fan interpretation on touhou characters and events. Hence why characters act closer to how many in the fandom portray them as, and not as they actually are. And that’s true of most fan works and doujins (and memes) This is partly why Zun had a stipulation in his guidelines that every fan work must make it clear stating that said work is non canon. As for this being bad for for starting fans first view of said characters, well I think that’s unfair to MoP. Because unless your first interaction is the games, your gonna get confused no matter what at first, as a recent fan myself, I’ve had many long time touhou fans tell me very different lore or interpretations of characters or touhou lore. Then add the stuff like print works, the games and the music stuff, and then the fan works like doujins, fan games etc. Your gonna run into some confusion one way or another.

[@animatorbluarc]

it's begun, touhou videos are beginning to pop into my recommended

[@tha1cpu]

You know it’s gonna be a good day when a new Touhou documentary drops. Great video!

[@HyperVanilo]

01:19 Not just any Remilia fumo, it's the CoLA Remilia fumo

[@lazydelibird]

Cool bug fact about Kinema kan. In the CDs the circle made also came with some storyboards of the PVs, and also the one with Rinnosuke is fantastic. Also, I hope you never touch the dark crevice of the fandom known as the Yukkuris.

[@TJ-Henry-Yoshi]

Holy hell bro, you went OFF with this

[@Nyaanachi]

I was OFF my rocker for 6 MONTHS!!! I will suffer a Subterranean Aneurysm…

[@TJ-Henry-Yoshi]

@@Nyaanachi You have Ten Desires and they are all for rest

[@XenoflareBahamut]

​@Nyaanachi You really got Embodied of Scarlet Devil

[@NEETKitten]

​@@Nyaanachi Don't worry man, I have a Mountain of Faith they you've recovered by now

[@emanuele556]

At 36:04, that's hata no kokoro right? At least, if I am wrong, I always thought that was her and not satori By the way, awesome video, I think I'll try to let friends watch it, al least the first part

[@Nyaanachi]

Yes, I believe a couple others have pointed that out after you as well. I will correct it in my supplemental document.

[@uboa8060]

43:19 the character is Chiyuri, Yumemi's assistant that she brought from the outside world with her

[@mrrp405]

Summer Day’s Dream is one of my favorite anime in general ever, from music to animation to background art, etc, and Possibly the plot, we’re gonna have to wait on that for an indefinite amount of time lol Oh also for “anime-esque” Kawayabug’s “Horned Owl and Bat” is fantastic

[@user-zu8jn1fj4w]

プロみたいなアニメが注目されがちだけど一人で作ってるアニメやMVもいっぱいあるから見てみるといいよ。無名時代の漫画家やアニメーターさんが作ってたりします。

[@ghettospaghetto1627]

This video is exactly what I needed as I slowly descend into newfound touhou brainrot, incredible work dude!

[@GensouChronicle]

Nice job.

[@lilestojkovicii6618]

The man himself The werewolf simp is here Nice, your videos are great

[@liatrisblossomheart4013]

36:29 it took me until this timestamp to realize the threepeater is the prismriver sisters holy shit

[@khidorahian]

Can’t fault you for mixing up Kokoro with Satori at 36:07, they look incredibly similar. I do think that if Touhou did get an Anime, Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Three Fairies is the series of mangas I'd like to see be fully adapted. However, I think Silent Sinner in Blue is perhaps the one most likely to get an adaption.

[@HyperVanilo]

Yes, you can fault him, Kokoro uses mask, Satori doesn't

[@Dukstless]

0:55 - This isn't the official logo, by the way. I don't think the series has any official one; this one is a parody of FF logos and the one on Wikipedia uses katakana to spell out "Project", even though the name of the series is officially 東方Project (and it's important because iirc some dumbass copyrighted 東方プロジェクト only for ZUN to point out that's not the name lol). 7:43 - Pretty sure it's because he knows that Touhou runs heavily on pop culture osmosis (that is, knowing things via other sources than the actual thing, like how the TMNT gang is named after various Renaissance artists). He fears that an official anime project would simply push the games into obscurity (and he's not wrong; how many people playing Roguelikes or Roguelites nowadays even know what Rogue is? Or how Touhou's original Bad Apple has been massively overshadowed by the Alstroemeria remix and the Nico Nico animation). 26:30 - The liberties range from logical like getting around game mechanics (as you said, Scarlet Mist has both Reimu and Marisa), to larger ones (Sakuya has only a cameo in the Spring Show episodes, despite being playable in PCB... and as far as I know there's no mention of outside help when it comes to Kanako moving the shrine to Gensokyo but okay I guess they wanted to flex Yukari's superpowers) to just straight up nonsense (the chronology is fucked up, why is the flower incident covered before Eternal Night incident? Why is Sanae present during the Eternal Night??? Moriya gang was explicitly a relatively recent arrival in Mountain of Faith, even if you give some wiggling room, there's basically an entire game between these two) 40:23 - The PC-98 games are definitely canon to some degree, probably in what is called "broad strokes" (or basically, the general events). There's just way too many things: Alice recognizes Reimu in PCB but Reimu doesn't recognize her (Alice's design change is far more drastic than Reimu's), Yuuka recognizes Marisa in PoFV, Eartlight Ray's Spell Practice comment implies it's an old spellcard (it resembles a Marisa pattern in PoDD), Marisa's moveset in early fighters contains Orreries which at the time were only present in the PC-98 games, Reimu's comment in the newest game described somebody where the only character that matches the description is Genji... And probably other things I forgot about. The problem is that ZUN didn't really estabilish any hard rules until like PCB and only had it really figured out by MoF, so older games kindaaaaaa have things that don't really make sense anymore (even the famous EoSD isn't completely immune from that, like how the Great Hakurei Barrier just... doesn't exist at all, the in-game writing has more in common with PC-98 than the other G1 Windows games - which already are weird when compared to later Windows games- the backstories of boss characters in the extra material are all short - even Remilia's and Flandre's - and gameplay-wise it feels like a PC98 game with a new coat of paint and some new mechanics, like ability to save your runs as replays). 1:27:41 - Fun fact: In the omake for IN's demo, ZUN has listed reasons as to why he thinks Touhou wouldn't sell well in the West (at the time). One of the reasons was censorship, like how Ran's Ultimate Buddhist involves a rotating manji (and have fun explaining that manji was not invented by the Nationalist Germany lol) - a symbol that on Japanese maps represents a Buddhist temple - or how the man-eating youkai look like humans and it could be interpreted as cannibalism.

[@MukyuMyonNyanMimi]

Actually "Bad Apple!!" originates from the Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story stage 3 stage theme. Just incase: when commenting this I haven't even watched five minutes into the video incase this gets brought up later.

[@ricefieldworker7745]

I don’t know too much about touhou, but it will always be nostalgic to me because I somehow stumbled upon those old touhou MVs as a barely conscious 4-5 year old on the family pc. No wonder songs such as Night of Knights felt oddly familiar and nostalgic after hearing it a decade later

[@duckilyy_]

Moat ive seen of touhou was night of nights and also a what if video on how long you could theoretically survive in gensokyo as a normal human or something

[@duckilyy_]

If there really are touhou fan made animes then maybe it's time to start watching anime again... and see what touhou has lore wise too ig

[@dogethedoge25]

damn, i cant believe that video pops out to the point it attracts a lot of people that knows nothing about touhou

[@m.wafiraihan1364]

ngl, i thought that the Bad Apple from the Yuraki Studio is just your typical usual cover that came out a dozens of Bad Apple covers...never in my life have i thought that it was supposed to be a teaser for a whole ass fan anime!!! new knowledge aside, it's pretty refreshing to see more and more of Touhou video essays coming out far more often in the western media nowdays, making it felt like the fandom is becoming more bigger and spread out than it already has (but is also still somehow hidden at the same time, like, how does that even work???). thank you for your contribution for the fandom, truly from the bottom of my heart. (btw, are you going to cover more Touhou stuffs again in the future?)

[@Nyaanachi]

I’d like to potentially cover some of the canon manga. I could make a video on doujin manga but I am afraid of the length it would end up being 😥

[@HyperVanilo]

Touhou is basically Geely (car company) of video game world; both are big but no one has heard them

[@kellamyoshikage286]

同人誌's 誌 character specifically means documents, i.e. print. So "doujinshi" is only for printed works, and if you really wanted to stick to Japanese names for fan music, you would say something like "doujin ongaku".

[@gansmith]

There is so much praise to give for a video of this quality from a relatively newcomer was made that would take paragraphs, but I will keep it short. This has some amazing research that even some Touhou KZbin veterans have not matched for these anime projects. All the kudos to all your efforts.

[@Nyaanachi]

I was extremely diligent with research and still made mistakes that I had to correct with editors notes. It just goes to show that enough is never enough, but I’m glad the amount I did paid off.

[@CyprusBeyblade]

1:40:12 and now promised neverland people are doing Beyblade X with the kakegurui guys. God bless Touhou and its music

[@yeetyateyote5570]

42:55 her hair growing longer is probably differing between her short-hair modern appearance, and her long haired og appearance.

[@ROBird]

Here's a few gems you didn't mention. Mirae Somang- great animation channel here. Mocci- They do some amazing Maya animations. MTB- SFM guy, semi regularly animates touhou stuff. Classic! Touhou Cannonball- They had a pretty cool OP made by (I think?) A11. Sure there are a few more, feel free to put them below

[@Nyaanachi]

I’ve seen some of MTB’s stuff and I love their work. I’ve also heard of cannonball, the openings are very good but they were done mainly for the mobile game and not as an “anime project” so I hesitated to mention them. I also believe I found the openings after recording the script audio. I’ll have to check the others out when I get the chance.

[@annefrank125]

You've got deep into Touhou in 2022? That's recent

[@jorgecohen5621]

This long kind of essay are the type of video I like the most, and one about Touhou? and what's more, one really well made? This is certantly a video I will watch more than once.

[@maskedsponge]

Oh, and Chen's Gensokyo March is a song from hatsunetsumiko's album "Eclipse I" They are a really good doujin circle, kinda like a sister circle to Felt, which is one of my favorites. I'd recommend Moonlight Dance and Starlight Dance Floor from them

[@lukaschen3009]

Something about Kyoto Fantasy Troop and its leader Keisen/JoesSR. Keisen/JoesSR is the most famous Touhou fan in China and is on good terms with Zun. He led and funded some of the biggest fanmade projects including Sealed Esoteric History, some Touhou Orchestral Concerts and a lot of Touhou Only anime conventions in China. He and his friends run THBwiki, the Chinese Touhou wiki and are the moderators of the main Touhou forum on Baidu Tieba. Despite those, he claimed that he haven’t been very well financially due to all of the projects’ expenses and that may or may not impact the future of his works, including Sealed Esoteric History

[@hyundonglee6989]

Where can I find his info? I can't find any results.

[@JAOResnik]

The one with the stone mask is hata no kokoro, because she wears masks It seems the plot of meteors of triple dimension is about the different canons colliding, hence the title mentioning three dimensions, I'd guess pc-98 gensokyo, windows gensokyo and the outside world with sumireko

[@Nyaanachi]

Some of the information I found noted that it was supposed to encompass all of the Touhou media including manga, windows, music collections, pc-98 and even the seihou project. I couldn’t find enough to dig into the plot though so I refrained from speculating a ton on what it was supposed to entail. That would make a lot of sense if it were the case though.

[@devalous8281]

This was a great video and I’ve always been curious about the fan anime projects so this was a welcome surprise to get recommended by KZbin, here’s hoping to your success

[@angysheepgul]

57:48 You did not just... 💀

[@thisisaperson1536]

it took me a second but uh 💀

[@BinglesP]

I honestly love when people attempt to make Touhou animations. Even animatics satisfy me, I just love to see the characters and stories in such a way.

[@YuutaTogashi0707]

42:54 Her hair grows longer because her PC-98 design has long hair and her Windows design has shorter hair.

[@yuuaki2559]

My big leap into Touhou started with trying to find an anime version of it, only to realize A Summer Day's Dream (the only fanime I decided to watch at that time) was unfinished at the time (reaching episode 3.5). At least now I know that episode 4 has been released haha.

[@Makem12]

Countries should make laws to prevent lost media from becoming a thing. Places like the United States Japan and so on should have national archives for their media that companies are required to submit created works to. Maybe prevent full copyright protections until submission.

[@aaronkelly1762]

MMD has a ton of Touhou animations to it, mostly shit posts, but some people have made their own series and even movies. I also recommend this animated fight, which was part of a video manga series called 'God Doesn't Play with Dice' called Marisa Kirisame vs Yukari Yakumo. The fight is very impressive.

[@123Todayy]

summer days dream fans waiting another 5 years for the last episode here we go

[@nekom504]

Nice job dude. Half of the video I was like, "ohh, it sure was nice when that video came out...10 years ago already???"

[@backintheussr2506]

how convenient was just looking for something like this thanks my guy

[@Nyaanachi]

Glad I got it out in a timely manner 😂

[@CoasterCrest]

I really appreciate you using 5+ Omori songs in this video! It's an incredible soundtrack that worked so, so well for the game. The more franchises I explore the fandom of, the more fun it is to watch videos like this that blend together random in-jokes and references that seemingly have no real connection. I have never played a Touhou game or watched a single thing presented in this video (just some Touhou songs), and yet I was very engaged by this video, and everything I see and learn about it fascinates me. What a fantastic video, well done!

[@Nyaanachi]

I also made an Omori video not too long ago. I was relating to it heavily in my personal life at the time so I just sort of let the words come out in the form of a video. I have tons of Omori merchandise, mostly official prints. I want to play it more but even the amount I have played has made an impactful influence on my life. It seems a lot of people are finding the video who aren’t into Touhou. I’m glad it’s entertaining enough for a broad audience.

[@CoasterCrest]

@@Nyaanachi This video was how I stumbled upon your channel. I saw that Omori video on your list of videos, so I'll be sure to watch it sometime soon!

[@yokaipinata1416]

Just a quick observation. You briefly referred to the PC-98 games as "no longer canon". This is a common misconception. They're canon, just with the note that if any details are ever contradicted by modern works, the Windows information is correct. In fact, some Windows material makes subtle nods acknowledging events and characters from the PC-98 Era. For example, in PoFV, when Reimu accuses Yuuka of starting the incident, she says "Everything went back to normal when I defeated you back then!", with 'back then' referring to _Lotus Land Story._ And in _Imperishable Night,_ ZUN's comment on Marisa's "Earthlight Ray" notes she ran out of things to try and pulled out "this nostalgic old spell", referencing how it was originally her EX-Attack in _Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream._ And in _Curiosities of Lotus Asia,_ Reimu mentions that an evil spirit once haunted her shrine, a clear nod to Mima. As for why the project was abandoned, your theory that "they realized how much work animation was" is interesting. I had always assumed it was _the other way around,_ that the opening's inconsistent quality was because they abandoned the project before they finished animating that, with my theory for why they quit being simply lack of support.

[@Nyaanachi]

Yeah, a couple other people have also pointed out that PC-98 is canon as long as it doesn’t contradict windows lore. I will add that in the supplemental document. I think it would have been more accurate to say it’s hardly talked about (by ZUN not the fans). It makes sense that ZUN references it in early windows works but he has largely pushed many of the older characters aside (rip Mima).

[@supreme_xenon]

In Touhou 7 Alice recognize Reimu but the latter doesn't

[@yokaipinata1416]

@supreme_xenon Yes, that one too. My guess for why Reimu didn't recognize her is because of her drastic change in looks. (Reimu changed too, but she still looked quite recognizable from her old self, if that makes sense).

[@Hifuutorian]

Reimu mentions Genji in the most recent game (Touhou 19) as well! "A flying tortoise... Ugh, what's this? My distant memory..."

[@ironmaster6496]

GREAT VIDEO, i don't know what to say, i'm a big Touhou fan since i was in high school and followed every single one of these projects so they mean a lot to me, specially summer day's dream, not only you managed to explain them perfectly without spoiling but you also informed me about a lot of stuff i didn' know, so thank you very much for making this epic and informative video. from one Touhou fan to anothe, you made something really good and i wish you a happy new year

[@Nyaanachi]

I’m glad that this video made an impact on you, thanks for watching. It’s neat that many of the viewers have expressed that A Summer Day’s Dream is their favorite of the works. I didn’t know that one was so loved because I found many more people discussing MoP when researching for this video. Glad to know I’m not alone.

[@1-upanimations878]

My first exposure to Touhou was in the form of a KZbinr called JzBoy. He made an animation of Marisa vs Asriel and I watched due to me going back to the Undertale community for the sake of nostalgia and since curiosity got the better of me, yeah…

[@user-mu9gp9ij8z]

When i tried to find voiceover for memories of phantasm i didnt get so much of it, and after some time i realised that original of memories of phantasm doesnt have any voices... Its just subtitles...

[@MegaCursed]

the outro part gave me some heavy Rei-Reimu flashbacks lol anyways great video!

[@kappamin3133]

Great video! its really a treat to see more people tackle more sides of touhou, being a big fan of the doujin scene! You mentioned the wiki page for Memories of Phantasm mostly containing comparisons to the main games and how they differ but not being able to find it. If you check the view history tab, it was actually there, someone just did a huge revamp back in september 2023. You can even find the version with the section by checking the older versions. The wiki page being mostly "deviations from lore" rather than actual info about the anime was joked about a bit in some circles im in, and was one of the points against the wiki since it wasn't greatly maintained in some parts. it was quite funny that MoP got a section dedicated to that when the other fanwork articles didn't Here's a couple touhou animation tidbits from the top of my head, might be interesting to some: There seems to be a few different animations floating around of scenes from Silent Sinner in Blue and a few more recreating a bunch of the portraits in the games,. They appear to be pretty old and no one really knows who made them to this day And speaking of Silent Sinner in Blue, in a recent Touhou Station Livestream where ZUN discussed the print works, he actually mentioned that the publisher for the series (ichijinsha) pushed for an anime to be made, but ZUN said that "he didnt write it in a way that allowed that" (translation from here: twitter.com/richard_effendi/status/1752348706324844641 )

[@Nyaanachi]

Thank you for the clarification on the wiki page and all the extra information. That adds up because I wrote the video over summer and finished writing it in August. The changes to the wiki were likely made right before I started editing that segment of the video. I’d love to see some of those Silent Sinner in Blue animations you mentioned. Also bold of ZUN to assume that any manga isn’t already in a good format for anime adaptation. I get his grievances with the industry though, he had bad experiences in the past when commercially developing games with companies.

[@kappamin3133]

@@Nyaanachi you should be able to find the animations on dbooru ( both the SSiB ones and the ZUN-style onrs), you have to look under thr deleted section tho

[@PerpetuallyMalding]

I don't exactly know how you got into my recommended feed, but I am quite pleased that the algorithm threw you into my sights. Very well done video and nice coverage of the Touhou anime sphere, have a like and a subscription. Also, welcome to this crazy little Fandom, enjoy your stay!

[@Okuu__Gaming_1]

Quick correction, bad apple(the famous 9ne) isn't official, but a remix of bad apple, which is the stage 3 theme of touhou 4

[@Nyaanachi]

Yes I was referring to the music video, but thank you for pointing that out. I could have put an editor’s note there but I spaced that one. I played a bit of the PC-98 games and realized there there was indeed an original Bad Apple track within ZUN’s work.

[@lilestojkovicii6618]

Nice to find fellow Summer days dream enjoyer

[@SuperMSL]

Oh my god the fumos playing the card game was super duper cute!!!!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@ShazotoTouge]

I looked up the voice cast for A Summer Day's Dream while watching this video... All I have to ask is how Tokine pulled it off because holy hell that is a STACKED voice cast.

[@NEETKitten]

But Stack isn't in A Summer Day's Dream. Jokes aside, yeah it's ridiculous how many A-list VAs they got.

[@twilightmoon96]

1:17:45 I got jumpscared by Sky Girls music lol That song is from Sky Girls' OVA in particular. Obviously, it's good enough to be put into a DDR game lol

[@blindedjourneyman]

luna nights was when I finally got in, absolutely LOVED the story and gameplay. there will NEVER be enough metroidvanias. before that it was the music. and this year I found out there was an mc server that was trying to build THE ENTIRE GENSOKYO IN MINECRAFT! and now as of last week I started the insanity of playing the official bullet hells. and now youre telling me theres 3 COMPLETED ANIMES?! I will so go watch em later with my bro he loves touhou much more than me.

[@piemparade]

Nyaanachi posted a banger, as usual

[@AzuRemilia]

First of all, welcome to the Rabbit Hole that is the Touhou!! You are at a point of no return, I hope you'll enjoy your stay!! I wanted to give some insight on things you mentioned: - "The Sealed Esoteric History" has a very loose way of arranging Touhou songs. It samples really short snippets, or stretches them to make them better fit the atmosphere. There are parts that sound just vague enough for me to tell they *are* arrangements, but are not clear enough (due to the voice acting and what not) for me to be 100% sure that it's the theme that I think it is. I'd have to listen to clean versions of them - "Chen's Gensokyo March" is an arrangement of Fantasy Legend of Tohno (PCB Stage 2 theme), mostly sampling the climax but it still very quickly ends up devolving into its own thing. Most Touhou arrangements do that, taking only a part of a song and arranging it into becoming basically its own original creation. Best way to hear the parallels at that rate is at the very start of a verse - RussMarrs2's animation coming close to ZUN's artstyle reminded me that I saw an animator that came closer. They had animations of Yuugi, Kogasa and Nazrin. I tried finding them on Danbooru again (where I originally found them) and I only found the Nazrin one, being attributed to Syope (a romanization of their pixiv username, they can still be found there as しょぺ) PS: As someone that's been part of this fanbase for almost 6 years... the dedication to the craft that I saw and even took part in is unbelievable! My personal theory is because I see a lot of Neurodivergent people in the fandom - Maybe we all just hyperfixate on the franchise to hell and back? Or maybe Discord is just an ND Hotspot idk lol

[@Nyaanachi]

Thank you for the insight on the music. It makes sense that a lot of Touhou arrangements only sample small parts of Touhou songs. Thinking about it now Tear Rain is very much like that to the point that it was hard to hear Flandre’s stage theme (I’m spacing in the name). And yes, hyper-fixation is definitely a huge aspect of the Touhou community 😂

[@reverseshin]

I’m sure some of the DVDs of anime Tenchou x Touhou Project were made and are just sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

[@Nobodylikesme246]

Half of the ova is found which is mainly just the anime tenchou section you can look it up

[@elusivegabegaming]

Would Touhou M1 Grand Prix also fall under the doujin anime category?

[@supreme_xenon]

Of course, it's a fan-anime that focus on telling jokes

[@literallyjustchickensandwich]

thanks for the supplemental document

[@akha445]

I just come to Touhou because Memories of Phantasm, I really dont hold any hope but curious because I know it a fanmade anime, and it really surprise me about how it look and how the story is told. I have played some touhou game before and know a little bit about headcanon. Action scene just in prediction for a fanmade anime so I really apreciate time i use to watch them.

[@williamcote4208]

The reason why Yuuka’s hair got longer in the “Meteors of triple dimensions” opening is because that’s how she looked like in the PC98 games. Yuuka is one of the 4, iirc, characters that made the jump from PC98 to Windows along with Reimu, Marisa and Alice.

[@Derk_Mage]

Beautiful. Underrated. Gensoutastic.

[@Desiderium_ASC]

I enjoyed Memories of phantasm the most. The artstyle is just so special

[@TheUmbraN0tG4ming]

This video was really entraintaining and got me to actually want to watch some of these shows. The only one i had watched was memories of phantasm which was honestly great and funny. Looking towards others.

[@Nyaanachi]

Thank you for watching! The other two are really great and definitely worth a watch. Maikaze is also working on a 5th episode of A Summer Day’s Dream, so there’s something to look forward to when you watch them.

[@aeth0]

It's not anime, but MinusT makes some really impressive 3D Touhou animations

[@wotanvonedelsburg1610]

exactly

[@madlysoldier5143]

All the characters mistaken aside (gdi mistaken Kokoro as Satori and Remilia as Kanako) I think I should add something more… - Memory of Phantasm for now is basically Finished with ep.18 that’s Original Story, unless there’re any change in the future, ep.18 is final. Which kinda make me salty that they ended up not having Subterranean Animalism story despite having Opening made for… hope there would be change in future but damn. - There’s also another OVA/Anime fan project which were made long time ago, old enough that basically talk about Lunarian, before ZUN expand further aside from IN with Official Manga. So that’s long time ago. The name is Touhou Project Side Story - Memory of Stars. Seem to have many SOUND HOLIC circle’s original song too. - IIRC Summer Day Dream had plan to continue EP.5 as Manga, and then they change the plan to make Anime instead, also the time gap of SDD is really something, 4 years gap. - Talking about year gap, MoP had gap between ep like about half a year, so the amount are different a lot.

[@blatch7022]

Gave you a +1 for Memory of Stars. That OVA is insane, but in a good way, and I really wish the video had covered it. It's also notable for coming out a year before A Summer Day's Dream's first episode. Only problem: it has little actual animation, but does feature a lot of Windows Movie Maker effects.

[@HyperVanilo]

How did he mistaken Kokoro with Satori and Remilia with Kanako?

[@madlysoldier5143]

@@HyperVaniloClassic 2hu mistake. 2hu’s headwear/hats are their identity Joke aside, if you don’t know about Touhou too much, you might only just depend it on Hair Color.

[@UnderfellSansTheEdgySkeleton]

Genuinely an amazing video On a small note regarding Google Translate though,never completely trust it when DeepL translate is honestly superior I love how based the algorithm is :)

[@KokoroHatsaru]

Touhou animes are bangers, but ya know what i would like to see? an inspired touhou anime of the pc98 releases as a vhs anime series, it would be pretty neat xd

[@niaula5557]

quick clarification, Manpuku Jinja has made it clear that the Memories of Phantasm project is based on "fan interpretation" of the game's story,. not the original games. this is a common misconception that i felt required some clarification.

[@niunai435]

I will forever see sakuya izayoi gives you advice and dabs as that one hoi4 touhou vn mod

[@achikaa]

28:30 why is yuyuko so stacked, that shit is almost as big as her head 💀💀

[@FreezinUrTundra]

Got interested after seeing a video that had Ran in it and then heard Lyrica Lives Clownpiece song. It just went from there.

[@iyehovaixboxgaming9855]

My theory for Meteors of Triple Dimension is that the story was going to have a sort of split of sorts. Involving Sumireko's Dreamworld Doppleganger to have a different dimensional perspective. Perhaps jumping between the PC98 Games, Mangas, and the Windows Games. There is more to the word "Occult" than the Paranormal, there is also the possibility of other dimensions (hence: Triple Dimension). Sumireko is most likely to be the center of the incident which involves her meddling with interdimensional barriers in a Ritual in the real world which Yukari may attempt to meddle in to sabotage it for one reason or another. To me it explains why characters in the PC98 Games, characters from the Windows Games, and characters from the mangas overlap. Literally just speculation from a story standpoint. For the most part, in the few works of Touhou I have read through and learned on my own, the Titles reflect an aspect if not foreshadowing the whole story. With the Doppleganger of Sumireko and meddling of Yukari, it easily could be a story of an incident which tells the two separate stories of the two eras of the Touhou games as well as the Manga materials. Just my speculation on what the story could've been based on the title, Touhou title format, and the interesting choice of characters.

[@disoti]

Amazing videio bro, keep it going!

[@GregAlloins]

I only got out of touhou quickly after realizing how big Touhou is, since i was new it felt like i was in the middle of China's busy streets.

[@mark009vn]

59:00 Nicca Ch. probably did much if not all of the materials for this thing.

[@ramenjd6239]

As someone who grew up in China, Touhou was such a huge part of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) fandom. Watching your video feels so nostalgic because I stopped following Touhou stuff when I got to uni in 2015. Thank you for putting effort into this over 1 hour video!!

[@confusedshovel1232]

I've known for touhou for a good long while but only in passing and I don't know anything about touhou. I've only recently peaked mild interest in learning about the touhou projects a few weeks ago from bad apple but with the ai dub of tf2 mercs. I mean I was already awared of the intertwine nature of the 2 fanbases but still