Touhou 15: LOLK - Clownpiece / Junko Theme | Reacting To Video Game Music!

[@randommaster06]

It's hilarious that ZUN made both these songs longer than everything else on the OST. He KNEW people would be listening to them more than any other track in the game and didn't want the tracks to loop too often.

[@galeforcemusic]

Yes, people have tracked down most (all?) of the digital instruments that ZUN uses. The famous ZUNpet instrument is called Romantic Tp, and it comes with the Roland/Edirol SD-90. Someone uploaded the 50-second demo that comes with the synth to KZbin. Might be an interesting watch.

[@MostArmadillo]

people still searching for futo violin

[@tonyarceus777]

@MostArmadillo wait really? it's been 13 years and it's never been found? that's kinda crazy

[@Mrinsecure]

The term "lunatic" has often been used as synonymous with "insane," but the term itself comes from the root "Luna," meaning the moon. It comes from an old superstition that people went crazy on days of the full moon, leading them to refer to them as "moon-mad," or lunatics. Likewise, when someone is referred to as a "lunatic" by Touhou, it is often a reference to their mental state, but also usually to some tie they have with the moon.

[@blue_the_boy_kisser]

The Touhou Reneissance on this channel as of late is very appreciated 👀 18:48 "Theme of Eastern Story" btw

[@diosilos]

It's kinda crazy what ZUN has established with this simple melody, I had never listened to Dr Latency's version of Pure Furies, and as soon as I heard those few couple notes my eyes popped up, my eyebrows rised, and I went "HEY~ !" out loud with a smile !

[@user-samhag55]

'Dr.Latency's Freak Report' is part of a CD album series called 'ZUN's Music Collection' which includes several original songs and game arrangements. The arranged songs have a completely different story from the game series.

[@Colamarine]

A lot of ZUN's songs, even in the original japanese versions of the games, have one of the two titles written in english. The names of the games do the same thing - the full title of of touhou 15 is Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. Touhou has always had a blend of eastern and western influences, so it's probably just an extension of that. Not every double-titled song follows that rule, though, which is a little confusing.

[@Delirium9889]

Some double-titled songs do not have an English title such as Sumireko's theme

[@Karifean]

Man, seeing these kinds of reactions makes me personally realize just how much they remain tied to their context - getting to Clownpiece right after the previous stage theme, "Faraway Voyage of 380'000 Kilometers" which is also incredibly hype and catchy, and hearing "The Star-Spangled Pierrot" coming in and being overlaid with the sounds of her spamming bullets and lasers at you, without a doubt completely overwhelming you, and hearing the theme go on the entire time while you're dealing with this scary clown fairy, is just an experience hard to forget, or communicate in isolation. And then if you make it through it, the divine Stage 6 theme just brings down the energy for juuust a minute, before "Pure Furies" pits you against what feels like the final boss of final bosses. They're still awesome themes in isolation, but I appreciate a lot just how they take you on a journey and remain the backdrop for Touhou's really memorable sound effects too.

[@dr.latency34]

The deal with Clownpiece is she's a fairy from hell (fairies are natural energy personified in touhou, and she's energy from hell) purified to a point where she is basically a beacon of pure chaos, that is a courtesy of Junko, a vengeful spirit from space (yes that sounds weird indeed) that wants revenge on a goddess whose husband killed her son (convoluted i know) the plot of the game is basically a political drama between Junko and some other moon gods, the reason Clownpiece wears the American flag is because it pisses lunarians (people from the moon) the fuck off, they hate that flag because they think its humans trying to wage war on them by invading and planting a flag on their territory (the moon💀), she is also inspired in the statue of liberty because she carries a torch

[@MagGunDO17]

And if you think that's complicated, @ me and i'll write you up a Touhou 17 plot summary (trying not to go insane in the process)

[@VolcharaFeed]

As I remember, Chang'e's husband is also Junko's ex-husband

[@dr.latency34]

@@VolcharaFeed HUH?! how come im 7 years in this fandom and didn't know this💀

[@diosilos]

@@dr.latency34 Because that's incorrect x) Houyi, Chang'e's husband, has no personal relation to Junko, he "just" killed her son.

[@dr.latency34]

@@diosilos thanks i knew i wasn't crazy

[@ortrus5911]

Regarding your question about male characters, there are none when it comes to the actual games. Some do exist within official side works such as manga and short stories, but no male (unless we consider Miko or Unzan) has appeared in the actual game. When it comes to Clownpiece and her theme... the intro to her song really makes you understand shit got real. She might be the hardest boss you'll ever fight in the Easy and Normal difficulties, where she pummels you to the ground as if you were actually facing a Hard or Lunatic level boss. Junko on the otherside is more... tame in a way. She has a very straightforward mind of killing you (to the point she disregards many of the spellcard duel rules), but that pure desire of wanting to finish you off is very well reflected on her song. Often I feel like Zunpets are used to convey emotions the bosses experience at the peak of battle and in Junko's case that is her anger and hatred towards the lunarians and towards you for protecting them.

[@Carlioo41]

Additionally, the final boss of UFO was originally Myouren Hijiri, a buddhist priest that appears in some buddhist stories. But since ZUN envisions him as an old man with a beard and felt that it'd be weird if an old man was the final boss of a Touhou game, he changed it to his sister Byakuren (who's completely fictional afaik).

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

PC-98 turtle

[@Akumasama]

There is another male character who has appeared in official Touhou games: Genjii, the turtle Reimu rode on the back of in PC-98 games.

[@IceAokiji303]

About the structure of Touhou song titles: Many of them are built with a [Japanese line] ~ [English line] structure. The videos you see, due to circulating in the English fnadom, of course usually have the Japanese part translated. Why they are like that, I don't know, probably just something ZUN likes doing (and I agree, it's a lot of fun, I'm sad he's been doing it less recently). Junko's theme is actually an unusual inversion of this, being "ピュアヒューリーズ　～ 心の在処 (pyua hyūrīzu ~ kokoro no arika)", where the English part comes first, and is in Katakana instead of Romaji (Latin alphabet) unlike most of the songs that follow this pattern. One you know that follows the structure more traditionally is "竹取飛翔　～ Lunatic Princess", where the Japanese reads "Taketori hishou (Flight of the Bamboo Cutter)". Additionally, the game titles themselves follow this pattern, having a 5-Kanji Japanese name, followed by ~ and an English title. For example, the full title of game 15 is "東方紺珠伝　～ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom" (the Japanese part reading "Touhou Kanjuden", or "Eastern Ultramarine Orb Tale"). The game series originally went by the name "Project Shrine Maiden", but because ZUN kept starting each title with the Kanji 東方 (Touhou, "Eastern"), it's come to be called "Touhou Project" over time. For a full list of the full names of the main line games (written with full title, then Romaji and translation of the Japanese part): 東方靈異伝　～ The Highly Responsive to Prayers (Touhou Reiiden - Wondrous Eastern Tale) 東方封魔録　～ the Story of Eastern Wonderland (Touhou Fuumaroku - Oriental Demon-Sealing Record) 東方夢時空　～ Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream (Touhou Yumejikuu - Oriental Dream Dimensions) 東方幻想郷　～ Lotus Land Story (Touhou Gensoukyou - Eastern Fantasy Land) 東方怪綺談　～ Mystic Square (Touhou Kaikidan - Fantastic Eastern Romantic Story) 東方紅魔郷　～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Touhou Koumakyou - Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil) 東方妖々夢　～ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Touhou Youyoumu - Eastern Ghostly Dream) 東方永夜抄　～ Imperishable Night (Touhou Eiyashou - Eternal Night Vignette from the East) 東方花映塚　～ Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Touhou Kaeizuka - Oriental Flower Viewing Mound) 東方風神録　～ Mountain of Faith (Touhou Fuujinroku - Eastern Wind God Chronicles) 東方地霊殿　～ Subterranean Animism (Touhou Chireiden - Eastern Palace of the Earth Spirits) 東方星蓮船　～ Undefined Fantastic Object (Touhou Seirensen - Star-Lotus Ship of the East) 東方神霊廟　～ Ten Desires (Touhou Shinreibyou - Divine Spirit Mausoleum of the East) 東方輝針城　～ Double Dealing Character (Touhou Kishinjou - Eastern Castle of Shining Needles) 東方紺珠伝　～ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom (Touhou Kanjuden - Eastern story of the Ultramarine Orb) 東方天空璋　～ Hidden Star in Four Seasons (Touhou Tenkuushou - Heavenly Jade Dipper of the East) 東方鬼形獣　～ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature (Touhou Kikeijuu - Oni-Shaped Beast of the East) 東方虹龍洞　～ Unconnected Marketeers (Touhou Kouryuudou - Eastern Rainbow Dragon Cave) 東方獣王園　〜 Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost (Touhou Juuouen - Eastern Beast King Garden)

[@Ale_CD7]

The only thing I can say is "Yep!"

[@therealrakuster]

One of the fun things I like about Demetori with their arranges is how they often use the same format with the English changed to be a little more metal.

[@t0x1cfire75]

One of the best aspects of touhou music, that you won't be able to experience on this channel at least, it's the absurd amount of fan covers/remixes that exist. You can literally pick any song, and it will have dozens upon dozens of remixes in every genre imaginable. If you are in the mood for metal, they have metal covers, they have eurobeat, they have folk acoustic versions, and hundreds more. And they are all actually good. Someone once put together an archive of all the good quality song remixes and the like, and the archive ended up as over 4tb. And that was back in like 2014, when most computers didn't even have 1tb. One of the best examples of the remixes would be bad apple. A cover of it has achieved such popularity, that it has escaped the touhou sphere and become a more known song throughout the internet, breaching into the Fandom of many different series. And if you want to take it to even more of an extreme, the song that was used for Nyancat, was originally a song for a touhou meme, even if it wasn't a cover for a touhou song itself. The cranking sound in the beginning makes a lot more sense if you look at the original touhou version which came out on KZbin roughly 8 months before the original Nyancat video was uploaded. And probably even earlier on niconico (the early internet Japanese youtube competitor)

[@sunwarrior25]

I've always loved that brief full stop in Clownpiece's theme.

[@StormEyeB]

So Clownpiece's theme has a bit of infamy for causing some PTSD in Touhou fans. Because she is arguably the most difficult boss in *the entire main series.* Everything about her, from the gameplay, to her design, to even her lore is designed to make people go mad. The moment she shows up earlier in the stage, the difficulty suddenly spikes and the following part of that game feels like a brick wall you have to smash your head on for hours to eventually get through. Even the way she attacks takes you off guard, as some of her spellcards have some unfair RNG, and even are designed in an upside down way so playing on normal mode may be more difficult than hard mode. In comparison, Junko, the final boss of this game, attacks in a far more direct and straightforward way, even though she doesn't hold back on the challenge either. It's even reflected a lot in their themes, since Clownpiece feels a lot more unorthodox and varied, while Junko has a simple but grander motif with that chromatic scale. Either way, if you play this game, you're expected to become VERY familiar with these characters and their themes, and will likely end up going through a lot of emotions in overcoming them. But at least their themes are one of the only things I never got tired of listening to while playing.

[@valivanvan]

i appreciate the enthusiasm about clownpiece, but she's certainly far away from the most difficult boss in the series ;p (she's still pretty brutal though, and her infamy is warranted)

[@flandechocolate9675]

if clownpiece is the hardest boss then i guess idk what i have been playing

[@lasatar6428]

Eh she's not that hard.

[@hoppefrosk]

The thing about Clownpiece, is that the difference between her attacks on the lower and higher difficulties isn't that huge, compared to most other bosses. Granted, her non-spells are absolutely brutal on Lunatic difficulty, but her actual spell card attacks are almost the same, which means that they take most players really off-guard when they finally get to her. That's not even getting into how many of her attacks require specific tricks to reliably dodge.

[@CrestedPeak9]

Yeah... she's really nowhere close to the hardest boss in the series. On Lunatic mode, she only has two major difficulty spikes in her first two nonspells. Every other pattern is either static and routable or strategy-based, which makes them very consistent and far simpler once practiced. Her notoriety likely comes from how some of her patterns are most definitely overtuned on lower difficulties; Hell Eclipse and Flash and Stripe on Normal are unironically more difficult than their Lunatic variants. The rest of it is likely just how blind-killery the patterns are as a whole, which leaves a very strong impression especially when playing Pointdevice.

[@momsaccount4033]

Yeah one thing I LOVE about Touhou music is that ZUN can compose amazing and unique songs while still making everything feel familiar. His style is so recognizable even if he experiments with different tones and instrumentation.

[@dr.latency34]

(Dr. Latency's freak report is a CD featuring some arrangements from other touhou games as well as new songs)

[@therealshrinemaiden6898]

these 2 songs are awesome, touhou 15 definitely has some unique sounds for touhou, though i wish you had listened to the song that immediately precedes Pure Furies in the game, "The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects", since it leads pretty nicely into it and shares motifs

[@BlazeEmerald]

So, on the one hand Lunatic is the game's highest difficulty setting, but on the other hand, it goes into the history of the word as Lunacy was a term for madness, believed to be caused by the moon, hence it's use for moon related characters. Kaguyahime was an exiled moon princess, Clownpiece is a hell fairy sent to annoy the moon people. As for the Title ~ Subtitle nature, in Japanese the first one is in Japanese, while the second is in English, so in English we get the translation of the Japanese title and then the English title.

[@wahresschaff]

Clownpiece induces hatred and anger on sight. By FAR the most difficult boss in the Touhou franchise on normal difficulty all things considered. Since she is the "fairy from hell" and tends to make things go "lunatic" (lunatic being the hardest game difficulty), she is by default BARELY different from her lunatic bossfight counterpart. Literal hell to play against. This also going alongside the idea that Touhou 15 introduced a new point device mode, where you had 1 life only with a set of bombs and you would always respawn at a checkpoint instead of dying, meaning you had infinite tries. Let me tell you: Touhou 15 really wanted to build on that infinite tries idea, because it is so incredibly difficult to no continue clear.

[@brickstonesonn9276]

Junko has the ability to control the purity of anything. When her son died because of Chang'e, she was angry at Chang'e. She wanted to take revenge, so much so, that she purified her own anger; turning herself into the pure embodiment of fury. That's why her theme is called "Pure Furies". The song is supposed to sound like *pure* anger building up over & over again.

[@dr.latency34]

Ah yes, i gave a freak report once

[@ShinNessTen]

As of today, there are over 150 girl characters and I believe at least 10 male characters in Touhou of which a grand total of 3 appeared in the Games themselves. Yeah, it's probably save to say it's dominated by girls. And the reason why, as ZUN stated years ago, is because drawing girls was easier for him.

[@lunaticrambler2593]

As far as I'm aware, that's not his primary reason why. If you look at ZUN's wikipedia page under "Design philosophy", there is a sourced quote of ZUN as to why: > he (ZUN) has claimed danmaku is meant to be beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, which is also the main reason why the majority of Touhou characters are female. ZUN believes there is a feminine charm to danmaku, which would be lost with male characters, and that the presence of female characters should not be interpreted as fan service.

[@T_Man]

Zun also just really likes drawing frilly clothing

[@absoutezeo2126]

The reason why the tracks are all formatted like this: "Track title ~ subtitle" ...is because the original title is in Japanese while the subtitle is in English. The title usually describes the situation or background while the subtitle describes the character (sometimes it's reversed though). Whenever fans translate the track names, it usually ends up all in English. Also, on the subject of Touhou music sounding very samey, that is because almost all you've heard has been boss tracks, the vast majority of which have to keep high energy and sound somewhat menacing or fantastical. The normal stage tracks are quite underrated, (mostly because people don't actually play the games lol) and they add a ton of variety to the series. I'd even go as far as saying that the stage themes are what really give Touhou its musical identity outside of the more in-your-face boss tracks. Just as an example, the moody, atmospheric soundscape of Touhou 11's stage themes is so different from just listening to boss themes back-to-back, yet it fits perfectly for the game and the series.

[@alejandrotti10]

"Clownpiece's theme. She's the most crazy-strong fairy seen yet. Although she's pretty ordinary in the head. Having made it gothic, Japanese, and spacey at the same time, this is a pretty odd song. The fear of clowns is pretty widespread these days. But this fairy clown isn't all that scary... right?" -ZUN talking about Clownpiece, aka a regular fairy that is just as crazy as the difficulty spike the final bosses aided her with. "Junko's theme. I think this song says, "now this is unmistakably the final boss!" I didn't try to make it too complicated, or to add cool parts, or just overthink it in general. I hope you can enjoy her danmaku simply and purely." -ZUN talking about Junko, the divine spirit of purity.

[@crimsonbok]

Fun fact, Touhou is a game series. Many people don't know this.

[@azurill_sun]

I thought it was a trading card series

[@mrbrikcs]

Wasnt a manga? Dammit

[@HyperVanilo]

@@mrbrikcs Touhou has official manga for deeper lore

[@mrbrikcs]

@@HyperVanilo the "comedic porpouse" of this "escenary" was that. The subject "(me)" only "acknowledge" Touhou for his "book prints" even though it is a big "franchise". Making "that" the whole "nature" of the "franchise" gives to the "people" the "power" to make such a large "environment" of "derivative works" such as "literature"

[@HyperVanilo]

@@mrbrikcs Hmmm kay

[@WhipperTSnapper]

Not sure if anyone's brought it up already, but something worth noting about Touhou 15 is it features a new mode exclusive to that game called Pointdevice Mode, where instead of running the game on a set number of lives and trying to clear without continuing while gaining more along the way, you're given infinite lives in exchange for being taken back to checkpoints (during stages) or the start of whichever boss attack pattern you were on whenever you die. You can still play the game with a set number of lives by picking Legacy Mode if you'd like, but generally speaking, the game was designed around Pointdevice because ZUN wanted to try making a game with difficult, borderline-unfair patterns and a trial-and-error gameplay loop similar to I Wanna Be the Guy. Stage portions are timed around the music like usual, so whenever you die and go back to a checkpoint mid-stage, whichever stage theme you're listening to will pause and go back along with it to keep from falling out of sync with the action, but dying during a boss doesn't loop the song the same way; instead, it'll just keep playing for as long as it takes you to slug your way through the fight, including any time you spend idle in menus before choosing to either return to the main menu or try again. As the last two maingame bosses (not counting the extra stage), Clownpiece and Junko in particular have pretty notoriously-difficult fights, so if their themes come across as longer or more varied than those of most Touhou bosses (even the earlier ones from the same game), it's because there's no hard time limit on how long you can expect to spend stuck on them, at least on Pointdevice; either you know what you're doing in advance, or you're in it for the long haul, or you're in it until you give up.

[@annaairahala9462]

That fadeout is an actual part of the remix. The CD remixes tend to have a finish to them unlike the game counterparts

[@SacredFaerie]

Lunatic is the name of the difficulty above Hard in the series. Regarding the word Lunatic, the general basis for the story of Touhou is that Youkai (Japanese monsters) are born from the moon and gain power from the moon and the darkness of shadows that it casts. The moon is one of the most important plot points in the series. For Lunatic Princess, that theme was for a princess who came from the moon. Here, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom is a game featuring an attack on the Lunarians, people of the moon.

[@absoutezeo2126]

Ooh baby, a triple! _Ahem_ So yeah, the game that these tracks are from takes place largely in space while people from the moon are invading earth and some other crazy stuff. I love how the mystical synths reflect that space-y kind of feeling. Clownpiece has a crazy and energetic theme because she's a mischievous fairy (from Hell) while Junko's theme is more dramatic and somber because she is a rather imposing and tragic figure (also the final boss). As for the arranged track, it's part of one of ZUN's albums where there's a pamphlet with a little story included in the CD case. The album is meant to be listened to all the way through while you read snippets that correspond to each track. It's a pretty unique experience, honestly! This also affects the tone of the music, as it often deviates from the original game's context. In this case, not much is changed because Junko is a very straightforward character!

[@yuomovaeh3028]

There's definitely something similar about Megaman music and Touhou music. I'v been thinking the same for years. I hope we get more Touhou reactions soon!

[@nathanperquin9910]

it kind of makes me want to see jesse find the absolute rabbit hole of Touhou eurobeat

[@cchieffkiefbeff]

Many touhou fans are diehard fans who have been around since the early 2000’s when touhou was rebirthed (2002) , and many are still fans today, making them fans of this series for almost to over two whole decades, many have been fans for a majority of their lives; plenty of doujin circles, groups who make doujin/fanworks also have been dedicating their time, resources efforts and love to this series for at least well over a decade too. (the probably first ever touhou fanwork was an arrangement album named “Stardust Reverie” that was made and sold in 2003) So the comparison of diehard fans in their 50s and 60s isn’t too far off, because plenty of touhou fans are in the same boat, albeit likely not that old but certainly the same in dedication to loving ZUN and his works

[@BlackdragonTheShadow]

Honestly for Junko’s theme I wished you also heard. “The sea that which One’s home reflects”(aka the stage theme) as it transitions really well into her Boss theme

[@sunwarrior25]

Now that I think about it. "Every Touhou song sounds the same/similar" is an interesting choice. I'm sure it makes the songs that break that pattern even more interesting!

[@JessesAuditorium]

Yea, not a bad thing. Just makes other stuff really stand out.

[@AbrahamTh10]

Clownpiwce my trauma 💀💀

[@GodOfWheatRiceBall]

Also, Dr. latency's freak report is an album ZUN made, he made many albums with different take on the past game soundtracks, and there's also original music included to fit the album story. Touhou has a sound to it, but I don't know if it's just me, sometimes I listen to an album music, I think it's unlike touhou, I just think it sounds very Zun-like.

[@SacredFaerie]

Regarding titles and subtitles, in Japanese, the title is essentially split into a Japanese half and an English half. This is usually done in a way where the Japanese and English say the same thing, but sometimes for flair, they say different things that both relate to the subject matter. Essentially, "Pure Furies" is like the "English title" and "Whereabouts of the Heart" is the Japanese title.

[@munch8127]

Now that you have delved into LoLK, I hope you get to at least some of the stage themes in it, like Unforgettable, the Nostalgic Greenery (Stage 1) and/or The Sea Where One's Home Planet's Reflects (Final Stage), just to compare the differences from one stage to the other. It is very impressive an judging how many of the request-doers do agree Stage Themes and other themes from 2hu also deserve some love, because most people focus on character themes only.

[@Merizae]

As soon as the drums started on the slowed down song I could really hear a Mega Man-esque feel to it.

[@metrothered]

Seeing Clownpiece in my feed triggered my clownPTSD

[@chrono.stasis]

15:43 that's good advice for actually not getting too overwhelmed by the zunpets lol, they're sometimes a bit too over the top for my ears to handle

[@cyberporygonZ]

I think those two songs are one of he cases where also looking onto the fight/gameplay visuals would be nice, as they fit particularly well and the story is affecting both fights gameplay a LOT

[@Hadaron]

A lot of people have already mentioned it, but yeah, Clownpiece is known for her ridiculous difficulty on Easy and Normal mode. The funniest thing about that, though, is that right before her, you fight a boss capable of jinxing things with her words. She tells your heroine to go to the Sea of Tranquility (where Junko the final boss is) and the trip there involves fighting Clownpiece, who’s ridiculously hard. So it’s very possible that said boss accidentally jinxed you and made it even harder than it normally would be.

[@thepanman674]

Pure Furies (Junko's Theme) is the theme of the final boss of what is, without a shadow of a doubt, THE hardest touhou game: Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. Look up the gameplay and compare the stages to compare the difficulty to the other games. It is abysmal in my eyes, and I have played my fair share of the games (and I don't even consider myself that good, as I quickly die in any game above Normal difficulty.) Rant aside, I absolutely love how much emotion is in Pure Furies. It just SCREAMS *pure* anger.

[@NMC213]

There's a trend in some of the more recent touhou games where the final boss theme is reprised in some way in their stage theme... in case you don't know what I mean by it, check "the sea where one's home planet reflects" and think about Pure Furies also, I don't know exactly why ZUN decided to do it, but the sub-titles separeted by a ~ are because the ACTUAL titles are half japanese and half english, sometimes half engurish instead(english written in katakana), with the japanese... so for example, Pure Furies in reality is "ピュアヒューリーズ" (Pyua - hyūrīzu), while Lunatic Princess is, in fact, "Lunatic Princess" even in japanese finally "Dr. Latency's Freak Report" is part of what's known as "ZUN's Music Collection"... as many people have told you during all the reactions, Touhou is more than just a couple of games, but a whole sub-culture, it figures that after a while, ZUN stopped doing only games and expanded a bit... Right now in the official side, Touhou is comprised of a bunch of games, a handful of mangas and other kinds of printworks, and a good number of music albums... some are just soundtracks, but the ZUN's Music Collection specifically are a series of stories with music attached to them. Most of that music are slight arrangements of the games OST, and some are complete originals, an example being the track "The Childlike Duo's Naturalis Historia" from the same album: Dr. Latency's Freak Report By the by... if you DO listen to "the sea where one's home planet reflects", that is part 2 of a sort of trilogy in TH15's music... is not really a trilogy, but the names of the tracks are evocative of each other.... if you listen to one, it could be a good idea to listen all 3... the trio would be: 1- "The Lake Reflects the Cleansed Moonlight" 2- "The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects" 3- "The Moon as Seen from the Shrine"

[@weirdlypicturedbeing2122]

Okay, so Clowpiece is one of two tracks (that I know of) that stick in my mind for changing some things on a loop. Namely, the beginning section and it's changed repeat on 4:57. The added ZUNpets on this sectionmake it really sound like it's gotten even more mad and I love that about it. The other track I won't explicitly name and talk about just in case it comes up and also cuz it'd look like a suggestion and suggesting in yt comments when the process is established is a mite cringe. Junko's theme never once sounds happy to me. Maybe it's the narrative affecting my view though. It does however sound like there were happy times through some of those background noises. There's a distinct sort of innocence or genuineness to some of the background sections for me. It's filled to the brim with emotions. It can almost be overwhelming. But it's a fun listen! And hearing it after a long time gives me some things to really look at. Also that slowed down bit does sort of remind me of some Megaman music. The percussion reminds me of it mostly. Oh you read my comment to here? Thank you! For viewers who really wanna know that other theme I didn't wanna name though, it's the Nuke bird's stage theme, not boss theme. I can also just reply in case that's too vague.

[@ThePawnedPawn]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but in Pierrot of the Star Spangled Banner, he was going for the image of a clown. He didn't want to call it Clown of the Star Spangled Banner, though, because of the difficulty many Japanese (among others) have with the L and R sound distinctions (ZUN wanted to avoid Crown of the Star Spangled Banner). And so Pierrot was settled on because it was close enough to the image. At least that's what I remember reading somewhere. It made sense to me and stuck with me. If I'm wrong, surely someone will correct me. 😃

[@francis_p]

Clownpiece and Junko are both contenders for the title of hardest Touhou boss. Also, due to the mechanics of Pointdevice mode (where you have no lives but instead retry immediately from the latest checkpoint) common failure means you can end up battling them endlessly. So their themes will easily get stuck in your head like some sort of PTSD trigger.

[@GrahamChapman]

Many of TH's tracks have a title and a subtitle in order to convey more about the characters that they are about. E.g.: Two of the three main villains in LoLK, Clownpiece and Hecatia, are from Greece, with Clonwpiece being a Lampad and Hecatia being a chthonic goddess from classical mythology. This makes Junko, a Chinese spirit, stick out like a sore thumb. However, she's brought back into the fold with the others via the first part of her theme's title, "Pure Furies." Junko's name means "Pure Fox" and she has the ability to purify anything. She used this ability on herself in the past to purify herself of everything aside from her resentment so that she could focus entirely on her vengeance. The Furies in Greek mythology were chthonic goddesses of vengeance. So Junko is a Pure Fury... "Whereabouts of the heart", in the meantime, poetically refers to Junko's heart in a way that's meant to tickle your imagination and make you consider "the whereabouts of [Junko's] heart" when considered in conjunction with her tragic backstory... For being a spirit that's basically made of rancor, she's surprisingly quick to give up when the player barges in. Almost like her heart still isn't completely in it.

[@LoiValdes]

Shot out to the two hardest mandatory bosses in the series

[@dileblade7659]

touhou 15 LOLK........hello ptsd how are you my friend......This is the hardest touhou game in existence and would you look at that, its the hardest boss fight (clownpiece) and the stage 6 and final story boss (junko), not including extra stage. Dr. latency report is from zun's cd albums he makes. his newest one comes out in like a week after this comment. Lunatic is the hardest difficulty in touhou.

[@hoppefrosk]

So, on Clowpiece's looks. She's wearing the Stars and Stripes for a reason. In this game, there's a conflict with the Lunarians going on, which is to say, the major pantheon of gods in the Touhou universe, that live on the Moon. Those gods moved to the Moon to avoid the impurities of life and death, and Clownpiece, being a fairy, is essentially a being of pure life-energy. Furthermore, to mock those gods, she's wearing the US flag because NASA planting that flag on the Moon was a shameful thing for the Lunarians.

[@brickstonesonn9276]

The reason why "lunatic" appears so often requires a lot of explanation because its heavily based on the premise of Touhou's world. But the gist if it is "Lunacy" in Touhou refers to both "insanity" as well as the moon. Because "Luna" means moon. And "insanity" is really complicated & will take too long to explain how it works & why it's relevant. Generally any Touhou story that involves the moon will have a lot of "Lunacy" stuff in them. Touhou 8 & 15 both involve the moon.

[@namelessv125]

I can't answer why the songs have a title and subtitle, but I can offer a fun fact that Kirby music, at least in Japan, are often titled similarly that it can be difficult to discern which is a Kirby song and which is a Touhou song. Also if you're willing to listen to a remix on your spare time, I fully recommend 暁Records (Akatsuki Records), Psycho Lily. It's a remix of Junko's theme and really good. Specifically, the music video because it has english subs, might give you a gist of her character.

[@Hadaron]

The title and subtitle are often, but not always, the Japanese title followed by the English title. In the game titles, the spell card names, and certain songs, ZUN gives them a Japanese and English name alike. For example, Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial (Sakuya’s theme), Touhou 15 Kanjuuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, and Ice King ~ Frost King (Cirno spell card) all follow this naming convention.

[@IvanBaAl961]

Chang'e, are you watching?

[@GodOfWheatRiceBall]

About the "lunatic" naming, "lunatic" is the hardest difficuly mode in touhou, basically the game mode for lunatics, the game touhou 8 and touhou 15 are more about people on the moon, moon is a lifeless place because poeple there purified the whole place, they don't accept any kind of life and death, so they're lunatics as well.

[@Hadaron]

I mean, they’re mainly Lunatics because they live on the moon. Luna-tic. That’s the origin of the word; people used to think the moon could make people go crazy, hence stories of werewolves and vampires and such which always involve the full moon.

[@chainsofscarlet9054]

I'm having flashbacks. Save me from the scary hell fairy!

[@user-samhag55]

The pictures of Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom and Dr.Latency's Freak Report are fan art, so there's no need to worry about them. This is unnecessary information.

[@menosay1912]

There are very few male characters in Tohou, yes.

[@amberhide04]

only girbosses, gatekeepers (that sleep on the job) and gaslighters

[@Ragna6765]

when he said remix i believed for a second we would be getting maki´s The Sea Where One's Home Planet is Gone remix :(

[@NetMoverSitan]

If you think THAT plot is complicated, try deciphering the lore of Kingdom Hearts.

[@54fedase90]

Clownpiece theme triggers my killing urges

[@shaunfrost720]

Ah yes the two bosses i spent months trying to clear in normal mode 😅 Scratch that it took me 2 years to beat LoLK

[@annaairahala9462]

I think the stage themes sound less "samey" compared to the boss themes that all have the epic melody sound plus trumpets

[@l2QSrrfhEOdEnu48u0Tl..........]

Clownpiece is the most hated boss in Touhou 15. The boss fight is probably among the most hated ones in the entire series. In most Touhou games, when you encounter a difficult boss, you might lose a few lives and then continue or you get a game over; you don't get stuck on a single bullet pattern for hours. For Touhou 15, ZUN took inspiration from I Wanna Be the Guy, a game that is known for its high difficulty and trial & error gameplay. In the main game mode of Touhou 15, if you get hit by a bullet, you don't lose a life; you return to the previous checkpoint. You can get stuck on a single part for a long time while hearing the same music over and over. Despite being a stage 5 boss, Clownpiece, in my opinion, is even harder than the final boss.

[@IvanBaAl961]

You can play as usual in Legacy Mode. Pure ending would be harder to get, but you don't need it to unlock Extra stage.

[@masterofpuppets259]

You have to listen to the metal versions from Demetori, you will love them

[@T_Man]

Theme of a very angry mother cursed to forever greive the murder of her child and also a theme for funny clown fairy. . . I'll let you figure out which is which. (And Junko's theme would have been way cooler if you had listened to it with its accompanying stage 6 theme, but lmao I guess)

[@Colamarine]

Yeah don't get me wrong I love the touhou content, but damn I'm a little sad he didn't get to experience the sea where one's home planet reflects at the same time as pure furies. They tell such a different story together

[@T_Man]

Yeah if only someone had told them *specifically to do that*. Would be real shame if they somehow managed to ignore that despite saying otherwise :)

[@terraelaweonao]

Yeah, Touhou is mainly girls, because according to the creator, Danmaku (the bullet hell gameplay) is supposed to be elegant and beautiful, things that girls typically are whereas boys would be more aggressive and to the point. At least that was the reason Then, Now it's mainly that there are so many girl characters and has been such a staple of the series for so long that it'd be weird to suddenly introduce a random guy. Also, there are male characters in touhou, they just tend to be background rather than the focus and mostly in manga rather than the games. Examples of notable characters are Unzan (that old cloud guy that is always around Ichirin, this one has appeared in games), Rinnosuke (a half-human half-youkai merchant that sells relics of the "Outside World" (our world)), the Fortune Teller (a former human that turned youkai, which apparently is something bad, so the protagonist straight up killed him), Genji (an old turtle and mentor of the protagonist, has not been seen since 199X. Used to appear in games) and technically the Hakurei Kannushi (the "head priest" of the Hakurei Shrine (shrine where the protagonist lives and zone of great importance (also, a shrine that exists in the real world)), the Hakurei Kannushi is Zun himself, who supposedly secretly works in the shrine and apparently is the reason that suddenly Sake appears near the Hakurei shrine (he's known to drink a lot), this is more of a joke, but still worth noting I guess lol)

[@amberhide04]

tbh most touhou music really relies in one really melody but repeated throughout the song, which tbh can get pretty repetitive, i still enjoy it, but my favorite touhou song usually break this

[@kawausolin]

WARNING ! WARNING ! WARNING !

[@yasusannnnn]

touhou but it sounds different? the sealing club albums.....

[@penitente3337]

I believe the sub-titles are in english in the original song names, instead of japanese like the "main title" although that I can't explain. Style thing, maybe?

[@goldenrain4402]

Time for the other big ones like lunatic princess, history of the moon, necrofantasia and necro fantasy, idolatrize world, reach for the moon immortal smoke and more, The music is simply more memorable than the majority of soundtracks and there is still more too.

[@halinaqi2194]

He already reacted to lunatic princess, if you are referring to kaguyas theme

[@goldenrain4402]

@@halinaqi2194 cool

[@yuomovaeh3028]

Either of the Yakumo themes would be so dope. Also stuff like Lunatic Eyes, Fate of Sixty Years and Catastrophe in Bhava-agra are bangers.

[@hrosofkenterprise9768]

A❤

[@Yuki-zm3vv]

Fun fact 98% of touhou character are female

[@pliplin-bz9kz]

PLIS REACT TO MOUKOU THEMEEEEE