Shipping in Touhou Project

Touhou is a series that is no stranger to Shipping, but with so many years under it's belt, the sheer amount of possible pairs has become staggering. Today I'm looking at a bunch of pairs, namely the more well known ones, and finding what initially sparked interest in those pairs, and some of my own opinions on them. Buckle up, because even restricting to mainly popular stuff proved to be no small amount!
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Sources ended up being VERY long, so here's a Pastebin, if you are brave enough to venture through it. It is at least organized by order of appearance (I hope): pastebin.com/5QSNAt7F
Music Used:
Touhou Project
Touhou Puppet Dance Performance
Kubinashi Recollection
Gensou No Keifu
Sengoku Gensokyo
Fantasy Maiden Wars
Touhou Lost Branch of Legend
Touhou Scarlet Rhythm Carnival
Touhou Soccer
NITORI BOX
Scarlet Curiosity
Touhou Mystical Chain
Touhou For The Busy Person
GENSOU Skydrift
3rd Eye
Touhou Genso Wanderer
Touhou Double Focus

[@Migu1259]

Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:07 ReiMari (Reimu & Marisa) 3:03 ReiAri (Reimu & Alice) 4:49 (Reimu & Yukari) 6:24 Reimu & Suika intermission 6:40 Reimu & Aya 7:13 Reimu & ~Luigi~ Sanae 8:53 Marisa-Pairings 9:05 MariAri (Marisa & Alice) 11:15 PatchyMari (Marisa & Patchouli) 12:05 Surprise!! 13:04 EoSD 13:14 Cirno & Daiyousei 15:03 Cirno & Aya 15:45 Meiling & Sakuya 17:04 Meiling & Flandre 17:51 Sakuya & Remilia 19:05 Remilia & Flandre (With a Disclaimer) 20:25 PCB 20:40 Letty & Cirno 21:33 Ran & Chen 22:31 Chen & Orin 22:59 Alice & Yuuka 24:01 Alice & Sakuya 25:16 Alice & Medicine 26:03 Youmu & Yuyuko 27:27 Ran & Yuuma 28:10 Ran & Yukari 29:30 Yukari & Yuyuko 31:22 Hifu- NOPE, TIME FOR IN 31:25 Mystia & Kyouko 32:03 Keine & Mokou 33:09 Reisen & Youmu 33:44 Kaguya & Mokou (Violence Warning!) 36:07 PoFV, Aya & Momiji 37:37 Aya & Hatate 38:19 Komachi & Eiki 39:00 Yuuka & Tenshi 39:22 HiFuuJinRoku (Not Hifuu Time yet) 39:28 Hina & Nitori 39:58 Mountain-Intermission 40:12 SWR 40:13 Tenshi & Iku 40:48 Tenshi & Shion 41:42 SA 41:46 Yuugi & Parsee 42:25 Orin & Okuu 43:33 Koishi & Kokoro 44:30 Koishi & Flandre 44:59 UFO 45:01 Nazrin & Shou 46:04 Ichirin & Futo 46:35 Byakuren & Miko 47:24 UFO done, TD next 47:32 Seiga & Yoshika 48:16 Miko & Saki 48:59 Still no Hifuu, DDC next 49:05 Wakasagihime & Kagerou 49:51 Sekibanki & Kogasa 50:28 Seija & Shinmyoumaru 52:18 LoLK 52:21 Sagume & Doremy 53:26 Junko & Reisen 54:24 UDoALG 54:30 Hisami & Zanmu 55:31 Games are done, Written Works left HERE WE GO 55:39 Akyuu & Kosuzu 56:44 The End (YOU'D THINK, time for Hifuu) 56:50 Renko & Maribel 1:00:09 The Ships have Sailed (Outro & some Notes)

[@514komeiji5]

thank you for helping not burn my eyes sometime

[@Skullgod12]

I like how you included the violence warning on mokou x kaguya

[@diwieolaten8777]

No Junko and Hecatia 😭

[@AspreyFM]

Thank you I completely forgot to timestamp this one

[@f.u.m.o.5669]

God, do Koishi x Satori shippers go to Hell?

[@Sorahx1]

My favorite ship is ZUN and his beer

[@walmadagaming5723]

This is canon

[@Saji_0]

Canon ship

[@Sparkfox-]

The official one haha

[@rgbarrios0331]

Yes.

[@illchangeitlater4]

canon

[@livegeoduck5798]

The "ZUN brought Alice back in PCB so that Marisa could have a partner in IN" guy being right all along was a plot twist I was not expecting.

[@kgibbershnoxss]

Can't wait for part 2 where you cover all of the remaining 17,000-19,000 other ones

[@toumaaizen556]

By the time he does that, there will be about 20,000 more.

[@DryCombee]

Koishi/Momoyo when?

[@MrDalek2150]

​@@toumaaizen55620,000? I think you dropped about 6 zeroes.

[@toumaaizen556]

@@MrDalek2150 Oh yes I did. But that's cuz I didn't want to worry everyone about the actual number.

[@maglev957]

I did the math (180 squared) and it's AT LEAST 32,400 pairings and that number is most likely lowballing. This isn't even getting into poly ships.

[@trollingnoobs8384]

This isn't a ship anymore, That's a fucking whole fleet of Battleship

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

So… enough to count on one hand?

[@Cypooki]

40:50 Tenshion expert here, The main interesting thing about Wild and Horned Hermit chapter 45 that makes their relationship really interesting is the fact that, after everyone who attended the banquet hosted by Shion fell ill due to her misfortune, Shion got scared Tenshi might be angry at her but no, she even reassures her at the end of the chapter. You can see that in fanworks with Shion often depicted with abandonment issues

[@Edknowsnothing]

"The more well known ones" *Looks at the video lenght* Welp this is going to be a long ride

[@yossithe9031]

"ride" pun intended?

[@lottery5795]

Honestly, this was a really interesting look at Touhou ships and it’s cool to see where some of them originated from. Kinda surprised Kanako/Suwako and Junko/Hecatia didn’t show up though since I think those are both pretty popular.

[@bearful]

the junko/hecatia soldiers on twitter cook so hard to feed the masses its incredible

[@kyotokiranami]

Kinda disappointed no JunHeca though smh

[@Shyguymask]

Youmu and Yuyuko are very enjoyable together. Though I also like to imagine Youmu and Sakuya being friends.

[@josiahlute7808]

Why are you here

[@thepanman674]

​@@josiahlute7808 youmu mentioned

[@Jayverse2007]

@@josiahlute7808 youmu mentioned

[@Momijitheawoo]

Brah I kinda miss your vids ngl but I understand why you quit and respect. I hope you’re doing well.

[@IgoSplashman]

15:10 CirnAya: In th09 Cirno Ending, Cirno is feeling down and thinks about death and stuff because she got eaten by the giant toad, so Aya comes along and tells her to cheer up (and then gets excited as she's about to do something stupid). That's more than enough material for a big sis dynamic.

[@Pudding404]

The touhou games are often bare-bones when it comes to interactions, besides the main characters who are very slightly more fleshed out. Because of this, characters interacting is noticed alot more. Dynasty Reader was and still is a big gateway to this world for me. I'm very happy Koishi and Kokoro are mentioned, they both can't express emotions, both for very different reasons. They also meet from Koishi messing around and starting the events of Hopeless Masquerade. But the pair is overshadowed by Koishi x Flandre.

[@eazy7737]

The way you been talking about this video in the VODs got me hyped. You definitely did not disappoint, great work, Asprey.

[@AngryAragami]

In all seriousness, ReiMari is probably my favorite ship because it honestly doesn't change much of their dynamic. They already spend most of their time together, alternate between support and rivalry with no issues, and understand each other to the point where they don't really need to reaffirm their bond with words. What, if anything, they do when the shrine shutters are closed and the sake is out is officially None Of Our Business.

[@hopper8514]

Apparently marisa canonically does actually visit the shrine every day

[@amcursed]

The AyaCir thing is a classic start of a yuri story. One girl is sad, but then other girl shows up, sad girl vent and other girl give optimistic philosophical response, sad girl touched by other girl's words and was grateful to her. Even started to develop feelings for her. Cirno had an existential crisis after Eiki's lecture. She was brooding at a lake, Aya shows up, get her spirits back up and bam. Material.

[@genghisdingus]

Saw title. Was hoping for an explanation of the mail system in Gensokyo. I am disappointed.

[@seki108]

Surprised Suwako and Kanako as well as Junko and Hecatia weren't popular enough.......but damn was there a lot of ships discussed.

[@dormitory650]

yeah thought juncati was more popular 😭 got whiplash seeing junrei but no juncati tbh

[@marcar9marcar972]

Well you got to think, most of those people had husbands and offspring

[@seki108]

@@marcar9marcar972 Doesn't really change the fact that they are fairly popular ships in the fanbase. Hell, I'm surprised Junko/Reisen has more than Junko/Hecatia.....or just more interesting notes than 'yeah a lot of people ship them and they canonically interact'.

[@blitzenforcer7123]

i love how you started getting more unhinged as this went on. It was an absolute trip to go on with it all. Shipping has been a huge part of the fandom for me, going mental over shipping with friends was months and months of fun, maybe even years at this rate. Thinking about which nutjob would like this crackhead is just endless fun, and such a good thing to discuss. I'd like to throw my own crack ship into the picture, which would be Elly and Yumeko. Two underlings of two powerful women, with differing opinions of their own masters. At first they were rivals, due to Yuuka being an absolute maniac over wrecking Makai. Yumeko and Elly soon found a likeness in each other, and together they made up for the others weaknesses. To go with that, Kurumi and Sara is cool too. Awesome work!! I'd love to hear you rant more about these wacky women.

[@GiornoGiovannaGangstar]

general RInnosuke fan here! I love his interactions with Marisa AND Reimu a lot, being an older brother type and all that since he makes the girls' clothes and weapons, and no matter what bullshit they put him through he never really ends up kicking them out of his shop. I also love him doing some mentoring towards the two along the line of some interpretations of Yukari (one of my fave Rinno dojins " Imaginative Power of Meiji XX" displays this three way relationship very well) though generally, I find his antics with many of the chars to be top notch. Two Dojins which I enjoy a lot that really exemplify his strengths as a character IMO are "Serious Scare: Sealing-Rin" where he's the third wheel to Renko and Maribel and "Remilia's Longing Diary" which is Remilia x Reimu but Rinnosuke acting as a mediator as well as talking about the fact him and Remilia will outlive Reimu. He works best as a "straight man" to all the crazy in Gensokyo for me, someone who you can just chill with and talk about life n stuff I guess. No mention of Myouren X Rinnosuke tho unsubbed and reported

[@darkhorse744]

Fellow Rinnosuke lover here. I found a great doujin that's more about Marisa, but also has some great Rinnosuke stuff in it. It was about fake witches, I'll try to find it, I remember it was on Mangadex though. Personally I prefer Byakuren x Rinnosuke, they've canonically met (Rinnosuke brought Laika to her) and they talked for a bit. Wish more happened, what with him being the oldest known half-Youkai and all. Edit: The doujin is called "The Magician who loved a fake".

[@DanielRenardAnimation]

So this was the video you'd been mentioning over the course of the past few weeks or so. Splendid job gathering so much footage, as well info on each individual pairing, as well having to learn which pairings were substantial enough to even mention them here; Really, it would be an endless video, addressing everything down to the crackships and love-triangles. Well done! 👏👏👏 36:09 Aaaay~ 😸

[@AspreyFM]

Your mini was the perfect length for introducing them. It wasn't planned either, yet it perfectly captured their relationship, so how could I not?

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

Murasa x Palanquin Ship is my favourite ship in all of Touhou. I can't wait to see it being talked about in the video

[@TheKoakuma]

Nah, Chiyuri x Probability Space Hypervessel have it's own spice

[@telestare]

I'm amazed you shortened this to one hour

[@MedsieLovr]

25:44 Ah, I remember when I opened Medicine's page on the wiki that exact day, just to remember that Alice is in an arguably worse situation in canon appearances. I saw that part of the Stream, roughly around 4 hours if I remember correctly, unfortunately it falls in the category of "ZUN said so" which translates to "ZUN will forget about it once he gets drunk again" Daily reminder that ZUN said in PoFV's Medicine ending that she would get along with people more and then proceeded to do nothing about it, not even imply, which is just weird. The Eientei crew (specially Eirin) seemed like the perfect fit yet their interactions after PoFV are limited to fanworks and are uncommon. "I just don't get it, why would ZUN make his most masterpiece character just to not include her in anything afterwards?" -Gigachad

[@toumaaizen556]

Probably wants to save her for something that he knows will do well and add to her character. We don't want another Rey Skywalker.

[@NokkoGamma]

As long he still with his beloved beers, then the answer is YES

[@chimerayoyo]

Really good video, you covered a TON of ground on this humongous topic. That's amazing how much work and effort you put into it. Shipping is such a major thing in any fandom, it was great to learn about so much regarding it with Touhou. Several of my fave ships were talked about, which was cool to see. Surprised Hecatia/Junko wasn't mentioned, but the video was very long so I understand that a lot could not make it in.

[@harryavocad0]

What a timing, just finished watching your touhou introduction video and there is another one. Now gotta jump into touhou rabbit hole

[@mrwhiffy2045]

I'm shocked that you didn't do anything regarding Kanako and Suwako. I thought that was pretty well known but I guess I was mistaken. I guess there was one series of comics I read with Kanako and Suwako basically living together, but I think I remember that really well because it featured Suwako in a suit.

[@icecontrol1]

6:18 The funny thing about the fanart of the left is that the same artist has done way more shipping art of the two

[@joseal8340]

You really outdid yourself with this one, it was incredibly fun to watch, your editing is the best it's been, and the writing was very entertaining, even when i was already knowledgeable about the pairings it was very interesting hearing you go into detail about them. Shame ReiRemi didn't get talked about but i guess it's not as big as i wish it was huh.

[@fishingwithkirby3989]

as a certified shipping schizo there are a couple of big ones that were missed off the top of my head. suwako/kanako, junko/hecatia, kasen/komachi, eiki/komachi, kogasa/Nue, Nue/Mamizou, Mamizou/Kosuzu, akyuu/mamizou, yuuma/chiyari, sanae/Son Biten, Marisa/Enoko, sanae/tsukasa, yukari/okina, Nue/murasa. I think there are a couple more but they are like 1 or 2 images so I don't think they need any mentioning

[@burritowyrm6530]

genuinely the funniest interactions in fanon are clownpiece being junko and hecatia’s daughter

[@edwardtoth36]

There’s always a nonzero chance a part 2 is made. He did intentionally skip over some so the runtime wasn’t a half hour longer.

[@crosssilver6375]

2:19 Knew exactly which picture you were going to show when you mentioned that XD Fun bits about Randou. He's an american artist considered by many japanese fan as king of yuri, and he does ReiMari a lot back in the day. Also guess what ZUN IS FRIEND OF RANDOU Our beer lord ZUN must be onto something considering he also hired ReiMari mangaka to do his official works(Aki Eda, Azmaya etc.) We just need to let him cook more Anyways ReiMari is my comfort ship, MeiSaku/MokoKeine comes second

[@rossjones8656]

I'm beginning my journey and i don't know if i should be scared.

[@monedooo]

AN HOUR dear god

[@drexfivemorning3930]

I love that the number of ships in this game series is insanely abundant, so much so that You WILL find at least ONE touhou pair in either wholesome works or unwholesome ones.

[@virtuallylightblue]

An hour long video on Touhou shipping is what I least expected to see today

[@corbeauwrite]

top tier video, you are insane

[@chuldete]

About Daiyousei and Cirno, I remeber a interpretation of Daiyousei in a old RPG maker game (just a little game about Cirno, Daiyousei, Rumia, Wriggle and Mystia trying to become stronger), where Daiyousei role was... interesting to say the least, de acted more like a girl who was always anoyed by cirno and her friends. Daiyousei also had this thing where almost everyone and everything forgets about her (basically everytime Daiyousei is meantion outside of her friend group, they just call her by "that girl")

[@SamuraiCaveman]

I like the idea that everyone just calls her "big fairy" because no one bothers to ask her her name.

[@CerealKiller]

This is a spicy meatball of a Touhou video, thanks!

[@SpiritofFive]

I know it's only in one fan-work (two if you count the sequel), but I really liked the Osana Reimu ship of older Rumia and Reimu's mom.

[@the24thcolossusjustchillin39]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention any of the shipping phrase, but awesome vid anyway😂 Get your rest dude, you’ve earned it

[@MedsieLovr]

I'm here to see Dylan get angry at the SeijaxShinmy pairing lol.

[@yogsothoth915]

And, as a credit to his awesome objectivity, He made a surprisingly good argument for its workability, even then. (I'm personally surprised he seemingly didn't know Grimoire Of Usami had a manga portion until doing this project.)

[@spaghettiking7312]

I don't ship any characters, but I am an advocate for cuteness.

[@keel_esbiance]

Yup, it's cute to destroy family institute and love concept with dirty fantasy of weirdos

[@amberhide04]

the best ship is murasa

[@wx84]

I agree with you

[@toumaaizen556]

Also, the wiki has modified the entry of Medicine and Alice so until the interview video(or a transcript of it) is found, we don't have much to go off of.

[@KuruSeed]

nice that someone recognizes friend is a part of ships

[@honey3762]

the nice boat joke, man... those were good old days

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

honestly any video about this can be diluted to "everyone has been shipped with everyone, even people that have never met"

[@mbmproductions9217]

i know nothing about touhou but i still studied this video harder than my lectures in college

[@azulia888]

I’ll take this occasion to mention my favorite unknown ship : Raiko and Hecatia. I know they never interact, but I feel like if there’s one Gensokyan that Hecatia would respect, it’s Raiko, as Hecatia is pretty big on personal freedom, and Raiko literally bargained her existence to be able to keep hers. I know there’s like 20 artworks of them, but I still really love to see it. Also Unzan x Rinnosuke. That one is hilarious and awesome and it makes me happy whenever I see it

[@dinodude7290]

Unzan x rinnosuke my beloved

[@lazydelibird]

Dylan is really getting a lot of mileage out of that Alice image.

[@AJTheMightyGamer]

Bro COOKED with this one!

[@ANYNKevin]

I already knew this was going to be special but it’s even better lol. The cropped images for comedy and the Alicegasm emote from busy person being used in the best possible places is a cherry on top

[@ANYNKevin]

Also, Keiki/Mayumi, and Keiki/Chimata has been a recent set that’s really growing on me as of recently as it’s really nice (especially Keiki/Mayumi)

[@HoneylandUSA]

2:10 the artists original caption says 'Reimu is Marisa's Wife. Marisa is Reimu's Wife.' the second one featuring a staring contest is also the older one.

[@TheKoakuma]

And as usual PC-98 shipping got limited to the quartet and those gems weren't covered - ReiMei (Reimu x Meira the canon "You are a girl, I see no problems here") - ShinMa (Shinki x Mima, It's MariAli for grown-ups) - ShinByaku and ShinSari (Sariel x Shinki and Shinki x Byakuren, The three Makai Girls) - YukiMai (Yuki x Mai) - YumeChiyu, YumeSumi, YumeRenko, (Probability Space Hypervessel x Hifuu) - KonnSari (The first final bosses together) Looking forward for the 2nd chapter

[@foatballmanstudios2447]

We making it out of the Archive of our own with this one.

[@ivysclique]

peak video, thank you for making this

[@Wapcvm]

You forgot my favorite ship. All of them at the same time.

[@TeeV479]

suprised for the lack of suwako and kanako, I could have sworn they were shipped a lot...

[@iam9991000]

I love your thumbnails.

[@ShadekyuNTG]

i never really think about character shipping but i like idea of Orin & Goutokuji

[@dorothy726]

Alice & Marisa holds a special place in my heart since it was the first ship I ran into (& part of what drew me into Touhou as someone who hadn't figured out they were a lesbian yet). I hadn't heard of the Yukari & Yuyuko ship before but I absolutely adore it.

[@pinkcultgirl]

for me, touhou shipping is a very comforting place as a lesbian. the sheer amount of yuri- that takes all different shapes and sizes- thanks to so many talented artists is a safe haven away from real life to me sometimes. i really do appreciate the community so much, and how it's shaped online yuri culture from the get-go :> it was a shocking treat to have a character like hisami come out this summer and totally blow the old "every 2hu is straight" cope and seeth bs out of the water, and I'm exited to see the new age of yuri that she brings :3

[@molluscumlore]

Yeah it was certainly funny seeing the change from the hentai only touhou fans where it's like "no one's gay you're just delusional!" to trying desperately to come up with some reasoning for why hisami is somehow not gay for zanmu lol. But yeah there's so much touhou yuri I spent a while some time back hyperfixating on reading all of it that was available in english and still didn't come close to finishing. Another fun thing is that I believe that every single author ZUN has had make official touhou manga has written touhou yuri, mostly even before they got officially involved. Aya azuma loves reimari especially

[@AllVoiceHowdy]

​​@@molluscumloreare you saying hentai only touhou fans arr homophobic? If so, I beg to differ and you are completely wrong, in fact the opposite >:( also yeah 99% of 2hu manga artists have yuri works, its amazement

[@wx84]

If I can recall, there still aren’t any official ships since hisami’s obsession or infatuation with zanmu is an admiration type situation, the kind you would have for a leader or master instead of a romantic one. (Don’t attack me please I’m just correcting misinformation)

[@molluscumlore]

@@wx84 Nah, it's very much a lesbian type obsession. I played the game and saw the english translation, and compared a couple key lines to raw japanese and can confirm even if it's not romantic (which is doubtful. At least, in het pairs romance coming with attraction is taken as a given) it's very much sexual lol. She's not like "Fuck me zanmu!!" or anything because that's not ZUN's style, but she very much is trying to make zanmu punish her with a tone that only a masochist would be written as having. Like, "If you're feeling bad you can step on me, zanmu." is a line that she says. The raw doesn't *exactly* say "step on me", but it does use an onomatopoeia for punishment and saying "beat me" or "punish me" are equally suggestive. Not an attack on you, just saying it's very much canon lol

[@wx84]

@@molluscumlore Hmm I got told that there was an error in the translation and that the actual meaning is not romantic, which makes sense since ZUN doesn’t add romance in his games…. but I guess that’s a problem that can happen when translating other languages Also is masochism inherently sexual or romantic? I don’t know much about that specific subject sorry

[@zewhatyouwannasay]

A lot of Touhou is based on the relationships between the characters, and this is clearly a rather exhaustive overview of *all* of them, from Reimu x Green Reimu to Ran x Yuuma which I somehow never heard of before. It’s definitely more than a funny little Valentine’s Day treat, this video actually covers a lot of the important info someone getting into Touhou will learn. These videos never cease to impress! Also that Pastebin is massive!

[@mikubrot]

ranyuuma has only really appeared after th19, because of them once knowing eachother. apparently ran used to live in the animal realm

[@riotef2493]

My favorite crackship is Reimu/Flandre. The ship comes from Marissa's EoSD extra stage where she talks about marriage in reference to the nursery rhyme Flandre's ""and then there were none" spellcard is named after. Flandre asks who she would marry and Marissa offers to introduce her to a "girl at a shrine""

[@CaptainGeneralPeace]

Great video, great quality, looking forward to the next incident indeed.

[@jungleboyayaya]

This video was very much well worth the build up wow also seeing my own art at 21:49 was surreal lol

[@noahandrulis9077]

46:51 of all the images in SoPM you had to choose the one depicting when everyone involved in SoPM starts flirting with Marisa.

[@user-qi3ip3lg2l]

最喜欢的一集😋 my favorite episode

[@Tigershark5639]

It's funny when people get into ship wars and stuff. I simply just apply multiverse string theory, and it solves everything!

[@jonfitzpatrick9942]

Cuz hittin' cybershell levels of straight meme-ery. Hour long video of imaginary relationships is why I'm On youtube. Any Doujin that ends with a happy Erin is a good doujin

[@abd-animation-22]

Omg This gonna cause a war You shouldn't have open this can of worms

[@nathanaeldean6301]

"Engaging in behaviour that would make her mother cry" Considering who (fanon views as) her mother, I think those would be tears of joy

[@gunmunz]

I REALLY hope ZUN follows up on MikoSaki Ether in a manga or maybe one of the side games. Just the potential of drama. Like imagine you were forced to leave your pet dog behind when you moved away only for it to show up on your doorstep years later...and its a mafia don.

[@WitherStone68]

6:53 MY GOAT FRRRR

[@goodgamer1419]

hell yeah less beans

[@gb3637]

Now this is a long video

[@Ashipwreckedguy]

Oh god the length of this video

[@yousefslimani99]

As for me it’s kinda weird that I become a touhou fan since late 2019 I just loved their music, their variety and their character design and I really enjoyed some touhou fan I played previously before I jumped to their official ones

[@StarkMaximum]

As a topic I find myself quite passionate about, as a guy who got his start writing fanfic for the things he loves, this is without a doubt my favorite video you've ever done. It's enlightening, it's validating, it's funny, and it gets me thinking about character pairs I may have just left for granted! My favorite ships are Aya/Momiji, Yukari/Yuyuko, Meiling/Sakuya, Youmu/Reisen, Yuugi/Parsee, Seiga/Yoshika (as toxic yuri as you like), as well as Reimu/Most people and Marisa/Most people, including each other (there's just too much potential with both of them). I will admit, Double Spoiler's release did a number on my blood pressure as I had to deal with a thousand "um actually" comments about how all my Aya/Momiji fanfic was now _wrong_ and _not canon_ and _must be purged,_ but like you said, it's an interesting challenge to make that ship work alongside Double Spoiler, but I choose to believe that ZUN was just fucking around and thought it would be funny and thus I am free to ignore it. That ship and the very specific dynamic I've hit on with it is _very important_ to me and I refuse to discard it just because a fucking side game said I have to. Now that I have a new entry into the top tier all time favorite Touhous with Sannyo, I'll have to put in the legwork and find someone to ship her with post-haste! Regarding Seija/Shinmo, I know you said you have your issues with how the pairing is played out because it seems to be based on a foundation of "Seija lied, Shinmo didn't care, now they kiss", and I'm very, very rusty on any character past UFO because I haven't been as closely linked to the 2hu fandom as I used to be so this may be entirely unfounded. But based on the way you described it, it seems like you could easily found a relationship there with a foundation of "Seija lied to get what she wanted, Shinmo forgave her because she's simply empathetic and doesn't hold grudges, and Seija was so confused by someone being forgiving to her that she began to cherish that unknown feeling", because from what I recall, most people don't like Seija and the feeling is often mutual. Perhaps Shinmo just managed to pierce that iron guard on Seija's heart with a well-placed "I forgive you"?

[@awoolensleevelet]

Thank you for this important research 🙏

[@flyingrafts7287]

I'm the kind of person who needs to watch a channel for a while and see a good amount of their videos to subscribe... I instantly subscribed when I heard 6:53

[@randommaster06]

Touhou Project, the series that launched a thousand ships.

[@Spine223]

BRO WHAT IS THAT THING, JUMPSCARE IN THE FIRST 2 SECONDS

[@IceWrenSolstice]

The RenMari slander! What I also think contributes to their shipping is that the original hifuu tracks feel more melancholic than most Touhou songs. I feel like there is always at least one track that makes me think something devastating is gonna happen to them in the future. Also, have you seen Marisa's reaction to Reimu dying in Wild and Horned Hermit? That sealed the deal for me that ReiMari is the best Marisa ship.

[@tastefullynerdy1161]

Honestly, shipping - alongside the music and fangames - is my main reason for having been a Touhou fan for more than 12 years. And what can I say... YukaYuyu is my Genskyo. Especially because with the right amount of brain acrobatics and the right mindset, you can ship everyone with everyone and it doesn't really come across as pure crack, all the while still forming adorable couples that are just wholesome. Shipping Shinki and Sariel? Weird but Sariel lives in hell, is an angel of Death and powerful, so maybe she's one of Shinki's earliest creations. Shinki x Mima? Easy, mega powerful bosses that just happen to be maternal figures of one of the most popular ship. Yuyuko x Eiki? Eiki is Yuyuko's boss, giving us a classic lazy employee vs strict boss dynamic. Youmu x Ran? Servants of my personal OTP who probably see each other often. Kanako x Chimata? Two goddesses who can bond over their love for money and mercantilism etc. etc. Shipping is an essential part of Touhou to me and as much a never-ending rabbit-hole as the music and fanworks.

[@eeveefrisk5659]

“And what you’re here for, the yuri dynamic.” well i’ve called out

[@AX-ROSE]

Very good video. I was kinda disappointed Oil Fire (Sanae/Tsukasa) wasn't covered, but given that ship is A: very new and B: not that popular except in pretty insular communities. But hey, regardless, still a fun vid

[@systemrestart120]

Was surprised you didn't mention any of the Nue pairings......... Kogasa/Nue and Murasa/Nue were kinda big back when UFO first came out. Kogasa/Murasa to a lesser extent, too. Maybe they've completely fallen off though.........

[@albirmsam9284]

Can i just say that i think your thumbnails are great? Because they definitely are!

[@kirbykraver8792]

I always find it kind of funny that Aya x Cirno is a decently popular ship for both when, ignoring fanon reasons (Cirno wouldn't care about the newspaper enough to be bothered by Aya's antics, Aya is a crow yokai and would be attracted to Cirno's shiny wings, etc.), their one significant interaction in canon in PoFV is "Aya talks Cirno out of an existential crisis." But hey, if it works, it works. I̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶,̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶a̶n̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶l̶l̶.̶

[@lanibentz9976]

Okay maybe it’s just because you explained them more then the other characters but…Maribelle and Renko actually have the most interesting story to me. Like I actually would love to read a full novelization of the two

[@zinovyrozhestvensky3636]

I merely like renko due to the fact I watched a video on the Harrison clock right as I learned about Renkos astronomical ability

[@misdre0111]

I am a doremy/sagume enjoyer and also have no explanation for you, other than that their designs look good together with a dreamy purple&soft vibe. doremy is one of my favourite characters and LoLK my favourite game, I saw art of them, I ship it because why not. (and because I'm thirsty) I have a feeling that a lot of shipping is based on just liking the pretty art tbh

[@dabluepittoo-aqua4213]

A lot of ships were covered here and I greatly respect the effort put into the video! Still there are a few that I wish were covered. Yuuka x Mima - This one's just cute I think. Both originate from PC-98, one's a troublemaker and the other's an intimidating loner. The interactions write themselves. Also nice that Mima can get some love considering she's awesome. Suwako x Kanako - Yeah, both of them are basically Sanae's parents. Remember a really cute origin story for Sanae being that Kanako adopted her after her parents died when she was a young girl. Junko x Hecatia - These two are just wholesome together, mainly thanks to a certain artist who specializes in this ship alongside have Clownpiece as their daughter and Reisen basically as a sibling for the pair. They also drew a bit of Yuuka x Mima so that also got my interest. As for the ship itself, it's quite cute. Mainly because Junko being able to love again after going through such a tragic life is a nice thought and both share a common goal. As for works I recommend: Beneath The Willows is a great fangame that features Sekibanki x Kogasa with a siding of Kagerou x Waki. It also covers LGBT+ topics quite well, which I really appreciate. There's also an artist who I'm friendly with that draws a lot of Okuu x Orin. Edit: Here are the sources: Junko x Hecatia artist (yoku-yukihime) - www.tumblr.com/yoku-yukihime Beneath The Willows - fionakaenbyou.itch.io/beneath-the-willows Okuu x Orin artist (R4bb2t) - twitter.com/R4bb2t

[@MrLunarias]

Great breakdown, and yeah even when one doesn't really like a character or pairing the art and stories can be really neat! One extremely uncommon pairing I personally really like for that aspect is Medicine X Yamame. They're both seen as relatively hated youkai by humans and their abilities involving poison and illness are rather complementary. It's fun to imagine them getting up to hijinks together, or working together to somehow use their normally hated powers in more positive ways. After all, both of their powers are never stated to only be usable in a negative way.

[@mythicalmew6054]

Dang, not even a single Tewi mention in the list of ships.

[@raikaria3090]

That was it for UFO Me: No Kogabanki? That ones big enough even lost word ships them... oh wait it's under DDC

[@lukaschen3009]

2007 isn’t the earliest year for Touhou… some of these shippings surely date back much further. I bet there are even doujinshis of touhou ships in 2003 or so. But again, it’s much harder to find them

[@Hifuutorian]

Renko and Merry's stories are probably the most important ones to the backdrop of the series even if they have little to do with the ones in the game directly on a surface level. The entire metanarrative of their stories is "Why does a place like Gensokyo even exist?" because they're an exploration of ZUN thinking about "Why do I even still make this series?" His thoughts about society and [Current Topic] have cropped up more and more over time in the main stuff like with AFiEU or the plots to UC/100th Black Market being about NFTs but only as tiny aspects that don't really get into what they mean as a whole. The Hifuu stories are ALL about that-it dominates their narrative as explored by the two college girls. Them holding hands is just a bonus. I get that you intended it as a joke, but I really recommend to the others watching this that they give their stories a fair shake. It's extremely flawed to say their stories aren't relevant just because they don't include something like "And then Reimu exterminated a youkai and they were involved in an Incident" or something of the sort.

[@goyavoyage]

This! Also your username wonderfully checks out.

[@02xygen]

The current state of the series is a clusterfuck of a lot of things. To begin, It's not about mostly mythology anymore. Some of ZUN's personal views and thoughts about society have effectively seeped into his narrative. In one hand, it's either a hit or miss depending on what is happening at the moment, and in the other hand...It just doesn't feel interesting anymore. It feels like the series has turned into ZUN's personal rant device or something like that. I would kill for a return to basics or hell, even a shift in tone. We've been having a streak of games that don't even leave a big impact in Gensokyo and only pass as "incidents". If somehow he gets the courage needed to actually surprise its fanbase with something actually new, that'd be enough of a reason for me to gain interest in canon again. And to people that will say "but what about CDS or LE", the few ongoing official mangas are their very own thing and they aren't even finished, so I can't put out a consistent argument that won't be invalid in a couple chapters more.

[@Hifuutorian]

@@02xygen I'm someone who is an extremely new fan all things considered (A little over a year) so I can't tell you that I get the same impression. I imagine I might think differently if I were a long-time fan. But I don't see what makes the current streak of games any different in that regard. Pretty much everything after Phantasmagoria of Flower View has been "Streaks of games that don't even have a big impact in Gensokyo and only pass as 'incidents'". That's nearly 20 years at this point. ZUN seems to like arcs where he introduces brand new characters that creep up from seemingly nowhere as a direct result of a previous Incident and then cause their own. From Mountain of Faith causing Subterranean Animism causing Unidentified Fantastic Object causing Ten Desires causing Hopeless Masquerade. And the latter three while using mythology, definitely still are about ZUN's personal views and thoughts as they pertain to religion. That being said, I imagine Touhou 20 will probably be some kind of 'return to basics', whatever that looks like. I guess I personally just don't get the complaint about things not being 'actually new'. It's pretty much always been like this as far as I can tell. I do kind of wish he'd make another lore book like Symposium of Post-mysticism so the newest characters have somewhere to shine and we can have more stuff about the setting clarified though. But I also totally understand the reasons he's given for why he isn't really interested in making those kinds of books. I know you mentioned CDS just now and don't want to talk about it because it isn't finished, but some of the things revealed in it recently might interest you nonetheless?

[@Hifuutorian]

@@goyavoyage Thank you! :)

[@02xygen]

@@Hifuutorian I am aware of everything that's been going on CDS. I have high hopes that it won't have an empty finale and actually leave a mark on the series. But I might be a little too enthusiastic seeing how people treat it as the new worst thing after SSiB. I know it's messy, has an incredibly annoying antagonist who is smart as fuck and sells a lot of smoke with certain characters, but it's at least better than the 6th iteration of minor "villains" happening to do their business.

[@zarkthegreat]

Rinnosuke needs more justice...

[@avagames7741]

If you ever are gonna do a follow-up to this video, there’s a lot of ships you didn’t cover, and just some notable exclusions that somehow slipped by include: • Kanako & Suwako • Mamizou & Nue • Hecatia & Junko • Okina & Yukari • Yachie & Saki (or Keiki) • Megumu & Chimata (and/or Tsukasa and/or Momoyo, UM’s polycule is weird man)

[@AllVoiceHowdy]

MAMIZOU NUE WOOOOOO

[@imperishableneet]

You missed Kaguya/Eirin, that's a pretty big one (Help Me Eirin, etc.), and one of the ships more grounded in canon with the main plot of IN. It also nicely parallels Mokou/Keine.

[@spacemmd8064]

東方の楽しみ方は無限で調べれば調べるほど新しい発見があります