Touhou 12 - Fires of Hokkai / Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind | Reacting To Video Game Music!

[@duckhunt2386]

24:08 On a stream just last week, ZUN was asked how long he plans to continue making Touhou games and his reply was definitively "forever"

[@YoannBB]

YOOO, do you perhaps have a link? Last time he said he'd keep making it because he was partly irrational or smth iirc. Also I've wanted to see whether or not he was still motivated because he didn't give us a second album like usual this year :/

[@oasdk3788]

@@YoannBB kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqDCcp2rqs16h8U He literally says forever in english since the question was asked in english

[@hermawandon7812]

As long as he still able to drink beer

[@GensouChronicle]

The JAM. This is my favorite stage in the entire series musically. The very dramatic opening with Fires of Hokkai following into the very triumphant opening of Emotional Skyscraper. And then a lot of the very flashy moments with Byakuren's spellcards tend to line up with phases of the song. Such an amazing finale.

[@hux0rd]

Oh Hi! Love your videos!

[@ryuura6642]

whoa, you're that guy from twitter!

[@dovakiin258]

22:30 Oh boy, personally, I think touhou truly is all about the lore, the meaning behind things, behind song names, spell card names, spell card shapes, character backstories, and more, the lore is so rich that each game is like a historical/folklore class of some piece of Japanese culture, the bullet hell aspect is like the way ZUN thought of expressing itself Soo yeah the story can get a bit emotional about certain characters and themes.

[@ShinNessTen]

Last Stages in Touhou Games tend to be extremely short, so usually ZUN tries to make a song for these stages that buildup to the final boss theme rather than compose a proper stage theme. As a result Stage 6 songs become a very unique blend in the OSTs.

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

Things like sea that reflects ones home planet and into backdoor and young descendant of tepes tend to agree

[@halinaqi2194]

@@cchieffkiefbeff Theres a mix of build up themes and more standard type of themes, EoSD, PCB, IN, MOF, SA, HSiFS are all more normal stage type themes with more urgency, While the rest are a lot more just hype/ build up. So I feel its mostly the newer games that made stage 6 themes a teaser for stage 6 boss themes than more unique pieces. UFO, TD, DDC, LoLK, WBaWC, UM are a either build up or arrangements of the final boss theme.

[@cherryflavouredfighter]

Now, I can hardly finish a touhou game to save my life, but the amount of time I've spent looking at the wiki, finding the mythos that each character draws from, and looking at fan-content, I love the franchise regardless. The whole thing is a wonderful melting pot of so many ideas written so openly as to allow for anyone to step in and make their own stories or art of any facet of any character. One of a bloody kind.

[@valivanvan]

Regarding the melancholy feel of the songs, it's definitely there for a reason. The final fight comes down to a clash of ideals, not of good guy vs. bad guy. The final boss (pictured in the second song) was sealed away in another world because she saw humans and youkai/monsters as equals. The protagonist who (inadvertently) unseals her at the end of the game thinks that youkai are natural enemies to humans. Under threat of being sealed away again for her ideology, the boss is forced to fight. Both sides think they're acting with good intentions, but they can't reconcile their beliefs. I first ended up checking out Touhou from the whole "impossible bullet hell game" reputation it seems to have online, but then *some* kind of secret ingredient made me just keep going deeper into the rabbit hole - it really has a certain kind of indie charm to it

[@neobullseye1]

To add to this, the lore of Touhou and the way Gensokyo works outright forces that opposition to be a thing. In short, all supernatural beings, ranging from the mightiest gods to the lowliest fairies, can only exist for as long as people believe in them. For most of human history, people believed in the supernatural, if only because we didn't unserstand the way the world works, feared this lack of understanding, then just made up our own thing. With the developments of science and an ever shrinking belief in all things supernatural in the Outside World (AKA the normal world we all live in), those supernatural beings will disappear. Gensokyo is like a safe haven, a final sanctuary for those beings -- but for that sanctuary to exist, a delicate balance has to be uphold. The humans in Gensokyo must know that the supernatural exist, must fear for it, but must also know that they in turn are safe as long as they stay within their own Village. Now then, what would happen if something or someone were to disrupt that balance? What if someone were to say, "actually, we can all live together in peace and harmony"? As idealistic as it sounds, as beautiful as it would be in the Outside world, in Gensokyo it would be disastrous. If the fear of the supernatural goes away, if people were willing to look deeper and reach understanding, the *belief* in the supernatural might falter too, and that would be an apocalyptic scenario. For as pure and good as Byakuren is, her ideals are intrinsically incompatible with Gensokyo's nature.

[@Dukstless]

@@neobullseye1 Fairies are not tied to human belief, but nature itself (and is why Luna Child and Sunny Milk fluctuate in power but Star Sapphire does not, as while sun and the moon are not always present in the sky, the stars are, even if usually too faint to see by a human's eye). To kill fairy for good, you would have to do some massive damage to the planet itself (for example, whatever the fuck happened in the Hifuu future). It's also why in GFW you don't have lives, but motivation - Cirno doesn't really die, she just runs out of motivation and gets distracted.

[@azurill_sun]

You've listened to a ton of final bosses at this point Lunatic Princess Nuclear Fusion Emotional Skyscraper Pure Furies Tonight Stars an Easygoing Egoist And Idolatrize World As for final stage themes, you've only really heard Fires of Hokkai and The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects

[@mrelectrodude9391]

If I’m not mistaken he also listened to Electric Heritage

[@mima_is_missing]

He also did unlocated hell as his very first Touhou reaction which is strange because i think if he were to listen to it again now he would see how much heavier it is than most Touhou stuff.

[@annaairahala9462]

Has he done Alice in Wonderland? Because based on this reaction I feel like he might like that one

[@azurill_sun]

@@annaairahala9462 only PC98 he's done are Reimu and Marisa

[@absoutezeo2126]

Touhou 10-15 was an era of especially melodic themes, especially when it came to major characters like Byakuren here. Fires of Hokkai definitely stands out amongst the entire Touhou catalogue for the slower tempo and buildup, as well as that signature heartbeat sound. Because it's for the short stage just before you fight the final boss, the loop is similarly short but impactful. It's really just intro music rather than a full stage theme, but it represents the important plot point of Byakuren being sealed in Hokkai for 1000 years as her followers awaited her return. As for Emotional Skyscraper, it's the theme of the final boss herself, Byakuren. She's a savior figure in the story of Touhou 12, and every major character you meet along the way is acting in her interests due to her showing kindness toward them in the past. She is beloved and revered as well as quite a powerful magic user in her own right, so the intense build-up from Fires of Hokkai could represent her imprisonment and outward status while Emotional Skyscraper is representative of Byakuren on a personal level; it has a certain warmth and gentleness to it while still being spectacular.

[@clericneokun]

Fires of Hokkai is definitely one of the more atmospheric songs in the soundtrack. The entire stage is straight up fanservice to everyone who experienced the more old school PC-98 touhou games. Also, you mentioned that it was building up to something yet it just looped back. It's because final stage songs are often very brief and designed to build up to the proper boss theme.

[@ThatGuyFromBeyond]

I joined your patreon just to see if these 2 had been requested yet. Glad you got to listen to both final stage and boss theme together

[@StarlightFromAbyss]

I just randomly ran into it and then got sucked in by fandom. It's kinda nuts how far and wide Touhou reaches. If you spend any significant time on the internet, there is 99.9% chance you either ran into Touhou, ran into Touhou not knowing what it was or ran into a Touhou reference at least once. Like a bunch of Touhou references in League of Legends. There is surprisingly deep lore to the world under the hood, more properly explored in manga series and text annotations to works. Then there is catchy music. And then creativity of a large fanbase on top of it. It is wild.

[@T_Man]

Song that plays during the buildup to fighting Yokai Jesus and Song that plays while fighting Yokai Jesus

[@redskared8093]

I absolutely love the rhythmic beat that starts up the Fires of Hokkai, like a heartbeat.

[@DTisEmo]

My intro to touhou was through the Bad Apple PV, probably the most popular touhou related media. After stumbling across a certain ghostly final boss's theme, I was hooked. Touhou is pretty much like a glacier when it comes to the story. What is explicitly shown is rather simple and straightforward, but if you peer below the surface, there are a lot of interesting implications. The wildly differing interpretations by the fan base, and the creator being welcoming of such theorizing is what makes it as popular as it is.

[@Dukstless]

Fun fact: Back in Touhou 5, Mystic Square, the game that focused on Makai, the final stage theme comment includes a "I wanted to do a heartbeat here, but this isn't that kind of game lol." line. So of course, when ZUN revisits Makai in the Windows era, the final stage theme has a heartbeat sound to it. Also yes, the beginning is calm, and it's on purpose. The stage itself isn't that hard, but it's sandwiched between one of the hardest Stage 5 bosses in the series (curvy lasers, my beloathed) and a Stage 6 boss that isn't exactly a walk in the park either.

[@brickstonesonn9276]

This is my favorite stage of the entire game. The context/story really plays into the emotional music: Throughout Touhou 12, you've been wondering what kind of villain the enemies are trying to revive. Because apparently that villain was sealed in Makai; a realm of demons, long ago. When this stage begins its completely dark and silent; there's only heartbeat sounds. It makes you wonder what kind of evil the final boss will be. This is when Fires of Hokkai plays, and it really builds anticipation. But then you get to the end of the stage, and you see a beautiful sunset sky, and the final boss comes in, and you realize that *you* were the villain all along. Because all your enemies have been trying to revive their savior. Someone that is probably one of the most morally good characters in the entire series (touhou is full of morally gray characters, including the main characters). Then emotional skyscraper plays. That song is the embodiment of your enemies' hope that they've been fighting for for centuries.

[@SuperChrim]

This is one of my favorite stages of the entire series. One of the coolest aspects is that this takes place in a setting called “Makai” Touhou 5 a long long time ago was also a game that took place in Makai. The boss of this stage, Byakuren, uses a pattern from the final boss of Touhou 5, and background looks eerily familiar to the final battle of Touhou. And the best part is this. In the comments ZUN left for the final stage theme for Touhou 5, he said “The stage is just there for you to collect some items before the final boss, so it's pretty short. Actually, I wanted to try to do this with just a heartbeat sound, but this isn't that kind of game (lol)” He actually revisited the heartbeat idea for Fires of Hokkai!

[@oak8194]

Emotional Skyscraper 〜　Cosmic Mind is absolutely one of the best tracks, not just within TH12, but the whole series for me! It’s just so majestic and grand, and it only gets better knowing the lore and all. Seriously, this song gets me emotional just like its name. LOL However, my top favourite of TH12 is still Captain Murasa. What an absolute banger!⚓️

[@Hezeri]

@@oak8194 Yeah, agreed. And the name is somehow so fitting. I don't usually get any "visions" while listening to songs, but even before checking the name, I had a vision of soaring higher up through the air.

[@oak8194]

@@Hezeri The Eurobeat version by T.Stebbins, “Savior of the Sky” with added lyrics about one who was saved by Byakuren is also really good. If you haven’t listened to it already, I highly recommend it!

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

If you want fire, get mokou’s theme: Touhou 8 Imperishable Night: Extra Stage Boss Theme: Reach For The Moon, Immortal Smoke

[@mrelectrodude9391]

Ohh good pick

[@AgentAaron101]

Geez I forgot how Lengthy these song names can be.

[@Angel_Flash]

EMOTIONAL SKYSCRAPER MY BELOVED

[@nettaraxy8815]

Loved your contemplative expression during Cosmic Mind, it's one of my favourite tracks in the series. The version you listened to is slightly different from the original game as ZUN re-arranged it for his album Trojan Green Asteroid, a mix of original tracks and rearranged tracks from the games. However, it's mostly the same. I don't know whether you've mentioned it in the past or whether it's a policy of yours, but perhaps you could watch a quick run of a boss after hearing the track, I find it always adds a bit of context/impact for Touhou especially. As other people have said the track here syncs up to a lot of the boss's attacks. There are plenty of "perfect" runs and are about 5-6 mins each, but if it's something you don't do that's totally fine. Keep up the good work!

[@brendansage6876]

It's a running joke in the franchise that "the slower and more ambient the Stage 6 theme, the more terrified you should be of the final boss fight". These are the Stage 6 and final boss themes respectively. Do with this information what you will. -This game is hard as balls-

[@aeternusvotum]

These were the two favorite themes of an old crush of mine and that's why I have so SO many different remixes of Emotional Skyscraper on my playlist - but by now it has truly grown on me and I would also say these belong to my favorite Touhou themes ♥

[@Hadaron]

I completely misunderstood your comment at first and thought you were saying you used to have a crush on Byakuren at first😂

[@爛帽子]

I've been waiting for this video since I saw one of your comments a few months ago, "Fires of Hokkai" is probably one of the most unique Touhou tracks. I'm excited for the upcoming Touhou 12 video, I really like those stage themes too.

[@Kaorukung]

Fire of Hokkai is so unique even for Stage 6 theme. Typically, stage 6 theme share the same characteristic with in every game. Short, and build up to the final boss. . Fire of Hokkai is extra special in that, not only the song itself, but the stage before the boss itself, both are designed to reference "Space Invader", the all-time classic shump game. Since Touhou12 on its own are all about UFO. So this stage is another love letter to the genre.

[@sp0nge1337]

Emotional Skyscraper is my all-time favourite Touhou track. I see it as Byakuren's unbridled joy at being released after a thousand years, and thankful at having a chance to meet her disciples again.

[@Ionasal_kkll_preciel]

Cosmic mind is one of THE songs to show off when you want to see how the gameplay mixes with the music because the characters attacks line up pretty well to the theme and that makes for pretty "emotional" moments. I hope we get to hear your thoughts on other slow and unique songs like "the lost emotion" and "lullaby of deserted hell" at some point. Also to answer your question - Ive been a part of it since I wanna say 2006-2008 and my introduction to it were random video recommendations of bosses from perfect cherry blossom. I always liked shoot em ups so seeing crazy bullet patterns and hearing the music got me hooked. I didnt really do any research back then so I started with PCB and I liked it so much that I went digging afterwards. I remember I didnt really know about emulation or the PC-98 games until way later down the line so I went down to 6 and then back up to the more recent titles at the time. The hole went pretty deep for me because of all the japanese memes, nico nico douga in general, fangames, fanart, manga and especially vocal/non-vocal covers and it lasted all the way up to 2024 with no issues so it ended up being a big part of me.

[@YeOldeManRiver]

UFO, Byakuren, and Emotional Skyscraper, for me, are the trifecta of perfection of Touhou. Don't ask me to explain why, all of it together just left the strongest impression on me.

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

Also, yes many touhou songs sound similar but thats mostly because of ZUN’s distinct writing style and his very recognizable instruments, each individual song has its own quirks and features that make them distinct and different from others that mostly include different instruments, how the songs are paced and structured, and how much he plays with each aspect of the song itself

[@bakedroyal_727]

emotional skyscraper is one of my favorite touhou songs

[@aaron4832]

Fires of Hokkai is my all time favourite Touhou song.

[@wolfan20]

The demetori version of emotional skycraper is epic as heck.

[@heenoiq]

Fires of Hokkai and Cosmic Mind are two Touhou songs that have stuck with me over the years. I've listened to a lot of Touhou music, but these two just have a special place, probably from the emotions they elicit.

[@yuomovaeh3028]

I found Touhou through music and even today the music/lore/atmosphere is more fascinating than the game itself. There's something so unique about Touhou.

[@SacredFaerie]

As probably stated before, Touhou started as an excuse; a vessel for ZUN to share his musical compositions. Besides that, he's also described touhou as his own diary of random thoughts he has and things he's interested in. So I'd say priority 1 of Touhou is the music, priority 2 is the story, lore, and meaning behind all the text and imagery in the games, and priority 3 is the gameplay.

[@rathadiosolivier5970]

My Touhou experience started when a friend of mine asked if I've heard or seen it before. I didn't know the name but I saw several fan arts of the two protagonists and after hearing that these arts are connected to Touhou I decided to give it a try since I really liked Marisa's design. Played 6,7, and before I fell in love with the series after experiencing Marisa's Touhou 8 theme "Love Coloured Master Spark". I've been hooked and continued to play to play the rest since.

[@DTHVaren]

The stage theme and boss theme of Saint Byakuren Hijiri. Needless to say, a pretty influential character in Touhou and her boss theme definitely conveys that sort of heavenly feeling yet exudes a sort of triumphant power worthy for a fight against one of the most powerful magic users in the setting.

[@Yuca31]

Emotional skyscraper is my favorite stage boss theme ever ! This is the song that introduced me to the fandom. Like after hearing that I had to check the lore the games and everything.

[@Shugadonk]

Touhou 12 actually came out in 2009, the "2000" means the windows 2000 operating system. Main series touhou games usually alternate from being released every year to releasing every two years.

[@azurill_sun]

As for how I got into Touhou, Lost Word was a very new gacha at the time and the world was so expansive that I started playing the games to get more to sink my teeth in Honestly feels like for almost any aspect, there is something in Touhou that can resonate with anyone with how varied the characters and even the games are

[@爛帽子]

24:40 About 10 years ago, I listened to some of the most iconic Touhou fan arrangements like "Cirno's Perfect Math Class" by IOSYS and watched the famous "Bad Apple shadow art" video and the "Ronald McDonald insanity" meme video, but at the time I had no idea what Touhou was and I didn't care about it. It wasn't until recently (around 2017) that I saw an interesting Touhou mmd video and thought to myself, "Man, I should look into the Touhou series". After browsing some Touhou wiki articles and listening to a few original tracks (coincidentally, they don't have ZUNpets), I decided to play the games. The first one I played was Touhou 6, the first Touhou game on Windows. When I opened the game and heard Touhou 6's title theme with the ZUNpets for the first time, I immediatedly got goosebumps from it. Maybe I'm just too sensitive because I always get goosebumps from the music I like no matter how many times I hear them (apprently not everyone can get goosebumps from music), since then I've fallen in love with the series and ZUN's music. Interestingly, I played Pokemon Emerald as a kid and I really liked the music, and it seems like Pokemon gen 3 music is famous for their trumpet and french horn. I guess I've liked those instruments since I was a kid.

[@WolfyWoof24]

Seems you really liked the emotional tones to this ZUN song. Then i think you might have just got a very small glimpse from it, as you have mostly listened to final boss themes where the tension and impactfullness is at maximum. I would highly recommend the very early touhou music albums: ZUN's Music Collection 1 - Dolls in Pseudo Paradise being the very first music collection released as a standalone CD room without a relation to a game. Its amazingly emotional and mystical. ZUN's Music Collection 1 - Ghostly Field Club Its an album that has amazing mystical and ghastly tones. I'm an old touhou fan that although i really love the amazing boss themes, always saddens me that the more tone down and calm songs don't get their spotlight as much despite how amazing they are.

[@dawk7]

Oh god, one of, if not my favorite final stage theme. Fires of Hokkai not only transitions super cleanly- the actual gameplay beats syncing up on that walk, and building, and all the way to just... a heartbeat. The moment the stage ends proper synchs up to that lone heartbeat. The rest of the loop is to not leave the pre-battle conversation entirely silent, but it's... eerie. All of that, to introduce one Byakuren Hijiri. A "corrupted" saintess sealed in a hell of sorts. She's a fool whose path paved by good intentions led her to nothing but betrayal. And when you reach her, the conversation is almost bittersweet. And Emotional Skyscraper... well, it's aptly named, innit? On regards of a point you asked, if Touhou games tend to go "soft to hard" music wise, or viceversa. As a general rule, the final stage is small, quick, and a rush to the big and bombastic final boss. Some have a frantic pace, some have a soft pace, it depends on the game and ZUN is pretty swell at matching the proper energy. Some are a dash to the end, some are tense, some are frantic, and some even lean more towards the monstruous "youkai" aspect! But soft songs for the final stage? Those are certainly a rarity, I'd say the only ones that count are 12, 15 (Which you've already heard, it was "The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects"!) and 18 have had them. The thing is the final stage build-up really represents what you are about to face. These three final bosses in particular, you have one forsaken nun that vouches for peace in here, then there's an old lady that has practically lost her marbles after the loss of her family, and finally a god teetering on the edge of vanishing from being forgotten. The walk to them isn't hesitant, but there's an undertone of sorrow in them. And of course, they're definitely nice compositions, but as per usual, one can't forget it's Video Game music! A lot of what makes them great can hinge on the greater context of where they're played, haha. I love the background visuals that accompany Fires of Hokkai.

[@IvanBaAl961]

Danmaku serves as a way of self-expression. It's not all about power and difficulty. Stage 6 themes are probably most different one from another.

[@donaldkennson245]

finallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy kinda coincidence this got picked considering u just did the fire-themed stuff

[@JessesAuditorium]

That's what I said haha

[@KeelHeel]

Emotional skyrscaper has an average bpm for a touhou track, 164 iirc. Final boss themes are usually a smidge faster at around 169-172, though they do not always feel faster than earlier themes due to them almost always having emotional segments without drums and that crazy fast backing. On average, the bpm of the songs do increase as the game progresses, however (though there are many exceptions, with some first stage bosses reaching 164 bpm).

[@GodOfWheatRiceBall]

The story in Touhou can be hard to understand, it includes history, culture, occult of Japan, Touhou is basically bullet hell game in an abandoned old Japan, it's hard for me to explain, but its story definitely has some depth in it, it brought out some topics I think it's interesting, romantic thinking is important for understanding it. How I get into Touhou is quite simple, when I was 10-12 I saw my sister (she likes japan stuff, she draw hatsune miku on her door) playing fanmade Touhou game on her phone, many years later, I remembered that game again, and when I play the game, I really like U.N.Owen was her? (me when I only like funny music), so I search the song on youtube, and get really confused: "東方紅魔郷 (touhou 6)? that's not the game I heard it from.", so I am finally trying to know what Touhou is. At first, I only found videos explain the characters and more musics from the game (I don't like lyrics in music at the time, so it's all music directly from the game), I starts playing the music in the room trying to make my brother (my only friend) curious, after he asked me about the music, he said to me that he already knows about Touhou for a while now, but he only watched the fanmade anime and doesn't understand anything about it, so me and my brother played the official game for the first time, I got intrigued by how much people doesn't really understand it, and dig really deep to a point that I can't get out.

[@johnathansfacew8528]

GOATED Stage and bossfight. My favourite in the series because of its homage to the PC98 game Mystic Square and its final stage theme originally having a heartbeat sound in mind before being changed to something different because ZUN thought it didn't fit the game that time. Also the build up and story for Byakuren is really just that good and these songs just do her character a lot of justice.

[@bobipine]

My Touhou history, sure. I first got into the series through it's music actually. Randomly heard 'U.N. Owen was her?' somewhere, liked it, started looking into it a little, all the fan music and art. Eventually gave it a shot, tried Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil (Touhou 6). And got absolutely destroyed. Kept trying, but once I made it to Hong Meiling, that's where it clicked. The colourful attack pattern, the piano opening, that was my "I get it moment" Kept trying to play a few of the games but ultimately I'm just too bad at them, so I retired to the sidelines enjoying the music. The boss theme in question was 'Shangai Alice of Meijin 17' I don't think she's up there in the absolute favorite characters of people, but I got a soft spot because of that "I get it" moment.

[@vianneyb.8776]

I can't remember exactly how I discovered Touhou. I know it was around 2015, when I got my first personal computer, and I know I started with Touhou 6's soundtrack and slowly discovered the next soundtracks. I was also glad that I discovered "UN Owen was her?" before Ronald McDonald's Insanity, so my mind was untainted when I first saw the meme lol Fires of Hokkai is very high in my personal favorite tracks. It's just so atmospheric. On the other hand, despite its popularity, Emotional Skyscraper is not particularly high in that list. I definitely like the part in the middle, the pay-off to the build-up, but there are many more which I prefer (ex: Cheat Against the Impossible Danmaku; Beware The Umbrella Left There Forever...). I think the most emotional track I can think of is Sakura, Sakura - Japanize Dream.

[@ortrus5911]

This, along the ones from Touhou 15, is for me the best combo of stage song leading into boss, and knowing the story only makes it a lot better. Also, there is this video of a group of elder folk interpreting both songs with traditional japanese instruments, it was a spectacle to behold.

[@lucascoelho3171]

Can you link this video? I love to listen folk versions of touhou songs

[@ortrus5911]

@@lucascoelho3171 Sure! kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6DYd5t8r5xlpa8

[@ortrus5911]

​@@lucascoelho3171Tried to, but seems auto moderation took it down. Just look "Touhou Fires of Hokkai Traditional", the channel should be TheGreator

[@diamzaphkiel3833]

Personally, emotional songs in Touhou are the ones i like the most. Emotional Skyscraper is definitely my favourite soundtrack in the series, it's so unique even for a final boss theme... Though I have to say I prefer the original over the remix, cause the remix adds some percussions and electronic instruments which I don't really think fits the atmosphere of the song. Anyway, love that you have been enjoying Touhou music so far, can't waot to see your reactions to the most unique ones!

[@beckanhaf]

Wow, I didn't expect someone to share the same opinion re: the self-arrange. I totally agree. IIRC, ZUN re-arranges tracks in order to re-contextualize them for the Hifuu club story (set in the near-future on a modern spacecraft), so I don't think it's any wonder it sounds better in its original context. Personally, I'm definitely biased toward original in-game arranges vs Hifuu re-arranges, but also specifically towards the UFO instruments, which are relatively chiller(?) than a lot of other Touhou OSTs (esp. the newer ones).

[@diamzaphkiel3833]

@@beckanhaf To me it depends. I actually really like some Hifuu remixes, like Fate of Sixty Years and Pure Furies. Hell, the Necrofantasia remix from Magical Astronomy is 10 times better than the original... For some other tracks I think the remix really fucked them up, like Hartmann's Youkai Girl from Trojan Green Asteroid.

[@beckanhaf]

@@diamzaphkiel3833 Oh yeah I definitely still like most Hifuu arranges, just not as much as the originals. I get what you mean about the original Necrofantasia though, since it's so cacophonous (which is why I like it). The Hifuu arranges of Chinese Tea, Locked Girl, Phantom Factory, etc. stick out to me as the most creative ones, so I enjoy them a lot more than the others. These are the ones most worth reacting to side-by-side w/ their originals IMO. The Hartmann arrange is kind of creative, but not my cup of tea. One thing I really like about some Hifuu arranges is they have pretty neat endings, like Night Falls ~ Evening Star, Sleepness Night of Eastern Country, and Retribution for the Eternal Night.

[@diamzaphkiel3833]

@@beckanhaf Definitely agree with you with the "neat endings"; I love remixes that don't just loop in fade-out at the end but have a unique and more interesting conclusion. Also yeah, I really enjoy all the remakes you cited, even if maybe not as much as the originals, since they are still great while changing a lot from the originals. And yes, I don't really enjoy the cacophonous sound from the original Necrofantasia, but I also think the way the remix is composed is really well constructed as a whole long song (Great beginning, great progression on the main melody, great ending).

[@brandoloura]

I heard of touhou when a guy who did video game bgm accapellas did a extra stage boss theme about 10ish years ago. Don't know why but I decided to take the deep dive into the series 2 and a half years ago and was never seen again. No regrets

[@InfiniteDrillWorks]

Im so damn happy you finally got to listen to Emotional Skyscraper!

[@swagus99]

hey Jesse have you ever listened to Demetori? It's a two brother band that does some really outstanding Touhou covers (Emotional Skyscraper is great btw) I know it's not music directly from a video game but i think you will have a blast listening / reacting to it :)

[@tcg2717]

Man, hearing Emotional Skyscraper really takes me back. Such a great song. ZUN is seriously a god lol.

[@smol_hornet613]

The Rabbithole deepens. On the subject of remixes: ZUN remixes his own songs a lot. Like, *a lot.* Many of the more popular older songs have multiple versions of them - one from the game they were from, and newer ones that are usually on the Touhou CD albums that ZUN puts out aside from the games. Regarding your comment on the different feel of Fires of Hokkai: The CDs are where a lot of those kinds of tracks are found. Fires of Hokkai sets a very different tone compared to any of Touhou's final stage themes, but ZUN has done similar tracks outside of the games. Touhou music generally comes off as being very fast, loud and bombastic - because it usually is, and because those are the tracks that have gotten the most popular. But amid all that there are tracks like these, which stand out in a completely different sense. Blue Sea of 53 Minutes would blow your mind in that regard, I reckon. Don't worry, it's not actually 53 minutes long.

[@LastRemote94]

yeah, stage 6 themes are usually short like The Young Descendant of Tepes or Cemetery of Onbashira, these are too good i wish it was longer Cosmic Mind is one of the best final stage theme, and it is remix version it was not bad but I prefer the original Also, that character (Hijiri Byakuren) actually called "Youkai Jesus", check out the lore wiki or game if you interested :v

[@brickstonesonn9276]

Touhou lore is deep as fuck. Its fundamentally intertwined with asian folklore & myths; as in real life folklore plays a direct physical role in the story(not just acting as inspiration). There's fans out there that read actual historical texts from ancient india about hindu scripture just to understand more about Touhou lore. Im big into Touhou lore too, but ive never gone that far.

[@Promise9]

Touhou lore is huge if you really look for it, there's a ton of different official media to just learn about the world and it's characters apart from the games, like multiple manga, music albums that contain short stories and even world concept books.

[@HaxeRain]

So about the 2nd track, Emotional Skyscrapper, ZUN often aside the games, also makes CD albums where he is much more free in terms of instruments and quality, these come with some written story he does to accompany them, and are a mix of new tracks and others he remixes with more clean quality, that is the "Troian Asteroid" part of, refering ot the album title where this remix comes from About the stage and boss themes, the motif of the stage theme is, ZUN wish from the pc98 era of wanting to implement a heartbeat on a theme, he finally did so in that stage, the story behind it is that, the boss of stage 6, Byakuren, was sealed long ago and her followers finally unseal her, the stage portion ends as Byakuren wakes up and has a sunrise behind her back, and the boss theme itself is her basically letting out her stiffness, she is one of the biggest outliers when it comes to final bosses where she means actual no harm and is one of the more well behaved and good intended characters in the verse, hence why the theme is much more grandiose and melancholic lacking a real sense of urgency as others final bosses have

[@sunwarrior25]

The music in these games is a bit more static, with stage elements timed to appear at various places in the song. It even pauses when the game pauses! The stage music starts when the stage does, and the boss theme usually starts sometime into the conversation with the boss for that stage. EDIT: Also, I'm glad that someone has suggested some of the more mellow tracks. Um... You asked in a previous video whether Touhou has mariachi. I think Urban Legend in Limbo has some tracks that come close.

[@corbeauwrite]

To give you an idea: Got into it from "ULiL Kasen's Theme: Battlefield of the Flower Threshold" which is a for an "intermediary" games : 'Touhou 14.5: Urban Legend in Limbo". Whole album is not made by ZUN but this composition is. It is likely a "niche" piece of music in the eyes of community. Played Touhou10 and was impressed by both the ambiance and music. Played Touhou18 and was impressed by both the ambiance and music. Tried others games, but while I spent a good time, I find myself not "clicking" with it, if you see what I mean. Music is still great. Months pass. Some pieces that was not on my mind at all, then you actually sing the main melodies without thinking. Because of the fan works. By curiosity, I collected 100+ different remixes of favorite theme, that is just for a level. (Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall) Learn how much a "base" can be modifed in so much differents ways. If I was a teacher in music, I would present this to students so they can learn about main melody structure and how much you can go against it (until it really breaks, which is surprisingly rare) You begin to realise the power of thousands of dojins and you can enjoy your favorite original music with thousands of differents flavors. You discover very different flavor, like a joyful melody that becomes a slow emotionnal burn or vice-versa. The emotionnal that is already charged by the original is ramped up more above by its new treatment. It's not always obviously, but oh boy, when it clicks, it clicks really hard emotionally. Played Touhou19 and was hooked by its music pieces "My turn to do things myself" The very weird thing that everyone says is : touhou music grows on you with time. At release of games, there is a subculture of "hate of novelty". Or saying ZUN underperform on behalf of the listener's expectations. But days/weeks/months pass and people re-appreciate the music for what it is. My guess is they drop down the comparaisons and expectations. People expect the "same soup" but when ZUN serve something different and fresh, they are quite unsatisfied on the moment. it takes time to appreciate a new taste of genre of music. It's the same thing with the newest games or characters. ZUN's music shines when you are emotionally invested into it? You should definitly try the midi works of ZUN, "SC-88Pro" playlist someday that is mostly forgotten by the community. "Romantique Tp" on youtube recollected all music on youtube, and I guess you will be surprised. Listen to the original, then listen to the 88Pro version. Fun fact, in games, it is standart to have the WAV, the ones that we all know. But touhou6 true original pieces are the 88Pro versions. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZi1d2mfrbZjmNU

[@turkia6148]

Apart from the games, Touhou has mangas, and music CDs, you listened to the rearrange CD version of Emotion Skyscraper. But fanmade stuff has basically spread to every single medium imaginable, not even joking there's Touhou has a collab with an amusement park. And yes, there's only 19 mainline games, but like 27 official games if you include the 0.5/0.3 games.

[@KeelHeel]

I was gonna say, the drums here sounds way more pronounced than they normally do. Can't say I recognize it either, not the usual elementic or damhard

[@YellowJacketNinja375]

Touhou games are like, short story arcade-style games where a shrine maiden and/or her friends get involved with an incident. In UFO, the protagonist chases flying saucers, which gets them involved with a group of youkai monsters trying to unseal their leader and savior, a buddhist nun who got involved with black magic and youkai because she feared death and wanted to become immortal, which got her sealed away in hell for being a heretic.

[@Kitin9083]

I'm a little late, but... Fires of Hokkai is a really unique song that prepares us for something, for the battle against "evil". But as some other commentators have already said, the true evil is ourselves. But I don't want to talk about this only within the framework of the Touhou 12. I want to compare this part with the Touhou 5 Mystic Square. (There will be a few spoilers about the 5th and 12th parts of Touhou) In the game, we constantly hear the word "Makai" - a world, where the main boss was sealed for 1000 years. For those who know about the old canon, it was interesting because Touhou 5 took place in Makai. In the 5th part, the main boss and villain was Shinki. After the final battle, Makai was destroyed, what became of the world and Shinki after that is not known for sure. Since Touhou 6 a new canon began, the old one was forgotten. And then, after all this time, after 6 games, we hear about Makai again. Reimu and Marisa, who were there in the 5th part, give unique comments about this place, about how much it has changed. And then I thought, are we really on the same Makai, and the final boss will be Shinki again. Will we see her again or at least find out what happened to her? In the game, it all came down to this, Byakuren's style is very similar to Shinki's. I waited until the last moment for her, but unfortunately, Shinki is in the past. And we'll probably never see her again. It's so sad, but at the same time it makes me move forward.

[@Hadaron]

Speaking of “songs that don’t match their titles” like Fires of Hokkai… I just heard Greenwich in the Sky the other day, which is one of ZUN’s songs composed for one of his CDs. It’s definitely not quite like the title would suggest!

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

Youve heard 6 final boss themes from (in order of when you listened to them not their numerical value) 17, 8, 15, 15.5, 11, 12 and have heard a total of 27 songs not counting any arrangements from ZUN or other people

[@munch8127]

hell yeah, UFO bangers are here. And what a start for them.

[@lorenzorentniop717]

🔥 as always

[@CrokedBlueCreeper101]

Two Touhou songs I recommend is "Idolatrize World" and "Reimu's Theme - Maiden Capriccio - Dream Battle (Xi Remix)". For the second one, the video is titled "93 東方Touhou [Metal/Mixed] Dream Battle"

[@mima_is_missing]

I absolutely adore fire of hokkai, it truly is the calm before the storm that is emotional skyscraper though i personally prefer fires of hokkai. If you want more unique and emotional Touhou tracks then i highly recommend Last Remote from Touhou 11 and no more going through doors from touhou 16. No more going doors starts ominous and gets emotional and last Remote is... something, probably my favourite song in the series

[@dracmeister]

Typically. Touhou final stage themes are very fast in tempo. Bar a few exceptions, Fires of Hokkai is one particular. The idea with the final stage themes as exhibited by Touhou 6 and 7's final stages and many others (7's final stage is so fast.) is to convey "You're very close to source of the incident, go get them!" And yes, typically these final stages ARE short too because half of it or the majority of it is fighting the final boss lol. Fires of Hokkai takes a more solemn, slow approach because of what you've heard about her through the previous bosses you fought; all of them have some connection to her. And Touhou 12 isn't a doomsday scenario either unlike most Touhou games can end up to be.

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

Yes touhou is still doujin(basically japanese indie) to this day and ZUN has no interest in going corporate ever because he loves doujin and believes that it is a key part of what makes touhou what it is, and he is absolutely correct He also isnt pretty subtle about how he dislikes corporate greed and capitalistic values and corporatocracies and things like fighting over real-estate and doesnt believe that AI generated stuff could ever take over the feeling of making something yourself; he also believes panning to the lowest common denominator makes games lose their charm and that game companies should stop doing that

[@kain1989]

Touhou is love touhou is life

[@PerpetuallyMalding]

I need to find that mix of Cosmic Mind, it sounds better than the original and I must archive it

[@gearcomNPG]

The skyscraper made me cry. And I dont know why, don't even know what's the lore.

[@Karasca]

If you were around much on the internet around 2010 it was impossible to dodge touhou, it was really all over the place. That's when I started getting into the music of the series. About 10 years later I had a sudden pang of nostalgia for the series and really got into it, even learning to read Japanese just to play untranslated games haha. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there's enough (fan)content for this series to make touhou the only series that you interact with the rest of your life and never run out of new things to see. 130k+ registered fan arranges, by all means the real number is likely into the 200k's thousands of fangames, semi-monthly conventions, deep lore that a lot of people love to discuss and theorycraft, funny memes and plushies, millions of pieces of fanart, and one or more new works from ZUN every year.

[@joeldanielsson2355]

cosmic mind is one of those that sounds way better remixed

[@blue_the_boy_kisser]

Final stage and final boss themes are different in the context of Touhou.

[@va_amias]

oh these songs are SO good it's not even funny. just Peak

[@AbrahamTh10]

Cosmic mind is peak ❤

[@shanmianhiyueshongdaojukei9732]

May i suggest you react to the Touhou 7 song [ The Capital of Flowers in the Sky ] which is Stage 4 theme? It was my favorite song here.

[@MazeeKasurame]

I wonder if people recommended Hokou's Theme for the fire music theme.

[@HyperVanilo]

OSU fanboys be like, "Why the second music sounds like Scattered Faith?"

[@AltraHapi]

get off your schizo meds

[@brickstonesonn9276]

Touhou is mainstream in Japan specifically, but not in the west. Especially during 2005-2010. Not as much now.

[@korelore8841]

Fires of Budism.... Hokkai!!!, is like ascend to the nirvana just to meet Byakuren a.k.a. Jesuschrist.

[@myoumyou90]

One of my favorite Touhou series and my favorite last boss theme. You can tell by my user name...i missed the good old ERP days on KZbin.

[@FuIIDiveVR]

Why are there so many dislikes? What happened? Edit: This is confirmed to be a glitch with the firefox extension return youtube disklikes.

[@JessesAuditorium]

Hey there, can I ask what browser or whatever you're using? I don't see what you see, nor does youtube. Wondering if there was some glitch somewhere. Thanks!

[@basbas192]

@@JessesAuditorium Not the guy, but I use "Return KZbin Dislike" which is supposed to bring back dislikes but has been proven to be inaccurate. I also see many dislikes, 233 likes vs 360 dislikes rn using said extension

[@JessesAuditorium]

All good ty for answer! We determined the site that shows dislikes uses the same API as the extension and it just is going through a glitch. Strange but all groovy 👍

[@FuIIDiveVR]

@@JessesAuditorium Looks like you solved it!

[@Delirium9889]

Oh my god, i'm so glad Fires Of Hokkai song got requested, one of my favourite songs of all time, i love the emotional aura this song has and it just makes me drop tears every single time i hear it. And i love Cosmic Mind too but it's a bit overrated in the Touhou community imo(don't get me wrong i like it a lot), but eh who cares. How did i get into Touhou? That's kinda funny actually: i used to watch a spanish youtuber in like 2015 (i don't remember exactly) and he mentioned Touhou every now and then saying it was like a super difficult game and i was in that stage of my life where i just wanted challenges and that kind of stuff and then i decided to give it go...starting with Touhou 1 and oh boi it was a disaster lol. Turns out Touhou 1 isn't a bullet hell and it's more of a brick breaker type of game with bullet hell mechanics so i just dropped the series forgetting about it until 2023 where i listened to Bad Apple (one of the most known remixes Touhou has) and that song sticked to my brain like it was honey or something like that. Since that video displayed several Touhou characters i just wanted to know who they were, and i started to go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. I remember starting to do like connections when i learnt that some songs i used to hear back then were actually just Touhou remixes. Anyways, i'm so glad i gave Touhou a second go, i've made several friends thanks to it and the community is so welcoming and passionate. Well, i think this comment is long enough already (and certainly my broken english doesn't help at all). Nice video :P

[@hoppefrosk]

My first Touhou game was the demo version of this very one; Touhou 12, when that came out. Honestly, not a great entry point to Touhou. Undefined Fantastic Object is one of the harder games in the series, so it was very much a "thrown into the deep end"-kind of thing. Sort of wish I still had time and motivation to play and practice these games regularly, since there are some challenges that I left unfinished...

[@pancakeoverlord1886]

anyone know why the like to dislike ratio is so bad? lol