Why Memories of Phantasm is Misunderstood

[@MegaFrog]

Acknowledgements/credits: Music Featured: Night Cafe: 00:07 - Thanks for Happiness 02:26 - The Same Road Till The Station 04:20 - Future Stamp 10:28 - Tomorrow with You 15:02 - Still a Little Sad 19:38 - Cheer Up 22:33 - Going with The Flow 28:19 - Two of Us at Dawn 32:27 - Goodbye with a Wink 36:09 - Dramatic Love Night Cafe 3: 41:33 - Angel's Wink 48:41 - Fireflies and Shooting Stars 51:19 - Flowers for All Hearts 01:01:57 - Seaside Driving 01:05:52 - Wishing on a Star 01:09:17 - Riding on The Wind KZbin doesn't like links in comments, so check the video description for links to these two albums. Acknowledgements: Yes, I understand now that Suwako's hand-clap animation is a reference to the Touhou fighting games. At the time I wrote the script, I had not spent enough time in Hisoutensoku to recognize this reference. The audio quality in some parts of the video declines from what I typically consider to be my standard. This is due to several copyright claims filed after my video was uploaded. Some parts of the video are blurred. This is because I made some very poor choices in video editing, and I acted extremely harshly towards other people with screenshots and blocks of text. I have blurred out this text and apologized to the people I hurt. I am never making a video this long again. It is too much work. KZbin is not my job, it is my hobby. And I simply cannot dedicate this much time and effort to a hobby.

[@ansyyxux]

1h vid lets goooooo

[@mohamedhabib6874]

an anime wouldn't give touhou the light it deserves, i truly believe making a touhou game similar to genshin would be the perfect idea. sort of open-world game and we already have 100+ character so that is perfect for gacha material. the stories of the original game is also perfect to add but why is no one seeing this opportunity?

[@Flandre-Scarlet]

@@mohamedhabib6874 because theres already touhou gacha and it's more sleep inducing than chloroform. And genshin's gacha isn't a good thing to want to copy.

[@Fujinondesu]

I find it very funny that your favorite episode is the episode based on a game that you had not spent enough time in to recognize some of the references.

[@seancatacombs]

In a way MoP is the working example of why ZUN has never pursued an official Touhou anime: The risk of losing control over the universe and how it's presented. I still enjoy the series *because* it's an unofficial fan series, i.e. an *interpretation* of the mythos. If it was an officially licensed work with a corporate production committee pulling the strings, it would be utterly infuriating. Even if hypothetical official anime was non-canonical, the very fact that it has corporate sponsors would lead a ton of people to just assume it's canonical and definitive. Look at how many people already struggle with the official-but-not-canonical distinction with Inaba of the Earth & Inaba of the Moon and Lost Word.

[@rainspectre3153]

It's made more complicated now because people have way more a relationship with 2hu's derivative works than they do the canon material. Mystia's Ikazaya by my estimates has had about ten times the sales UM has seen, and it's a commercial game on a commercial platform. The question of how exactly we interact with 2hu is now in flux, given that ZUN's actual work is now in the minority.

[@patrickserrats6919]

Wait inaba of the earth and inaba of the moon isnt canon? Thank god, i loved it but i cant stand the reisen abuse

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

The thing is, ZUN already kinda lost some control over the universe and how it’s presented. Sure, his word is considered important, he is well-regarded in the comunity, and even if new characters aren’t as popular as the older ones, they still get much more fanworks and fanart than any Touhou oc. But at the end of the day, the fanworks of Touhou have greatly eclipsed canon ones in popularity, so the fanworks can change the perception of the characters not only for a large chunk of the fans, but the public perception of what Touhou is. Even if this was definitely not what the fanworks intended, it is the result.

[@bc9402]

@@waluigiisthebest2802 As a new fan to the IP, I find that to be interesting. Touhou seems to have the opposite problem that other stuff I’m into has. Where other ips have become more restrictive and fan stuff even when written better is at the mercy of badly written canon, meanwhile Touhou seems to have too much freedom, and that has led to a clash on how some characters should be viewed or written. If I understand that right. I’m probably way off.

[@BinglesP]

I agree, it would lead to a ton of people correcting others about the "canon" when it's much more fun to come up with your own conclusions without fear of being wrong. That is why I find some fandoms so stressful.

[@tokaku]

oh my god, i had no idea that the series was still in production! I looked it up because I remembered it from a long while ago and I didn't know it had more than the two episodes. good video, it was really interesting.

[@Sadakorka]

hi, popular person

[@REALGECKO4526GEEKERYTIME]

TOKAKU???!!!!!

[@thepanman674]

Did not expect to find you here...

[@pphrph]

It is?

[@hatates_soul]

aged like milk dude

[@Pudding404]

Touhou has probably the most self-sustaining fandom. This whole more than one hour video just made me appriciate it so much more, especially the entire capital point, wow. I for one love the slice-of-life aspects more than the plot.

[@padoraye]

The title of most self sustaining fandom probably goes to tf2. The game has basically been community ran since 2017

[@dreading_bread5062]

@@padoraye touhou came out since 1997 downright decade before tf2 and I wouldn't say it is most self sustaining because the bot problems wasn't directly at start bot crisis started around late 2019-2020 where the problem is out of hand Where touhou have to stand for another decade for it to actually get popular

[@ShockInazuma]

@@dreading_bread5062 I would say even before the events of the bot crisis, TF2 was still pretty self-sustaining especially considering it used to get major updates. Of course, Touhou does outweigh it in terms of popularity and self-sustainment.

[@funny-gv3ml]

i dislike the slice of life part its boring as hell

[@Ivandsi]

If you like slice-of-life aspects then you might like the official Touhou manga that revolves around 3 fairies that live near Reimu xD

[@atwistedb]

Maybe the real memories of phantasm was inside of us all along

[@Touhou20246]

Nice philosophical idea for memories of phantasm.👍🏻🥰🤔🧐

[@TomimokaDiyuu]

Maybe the real memories were the phantasms made along the way

[@untitled_username]

maybe the real memories of phantasm were the friends we made along the way

[@Reminesu]

I can feel the memories of phantasm inside me

[@maybelookinaround]

What is this, some kind of Memories of Phantasm?

[@spaghettiking7312]

All I can say about this series is that it's the greatest blessing humanity could ever offer. Think of how fortunate we are to have such a series --- our own anime --- for this series we love? Fans of Mother or Metal Gear could only dream!

[@MedsieLovr]

No Komeiji Sisters tho

[@spaghettiking7312]

@@MedsieLovr Indeed, we one day strive for that cuteness to be animated.

[@Loner098]

What about Chrono Trigger or Breath of Fire?

[@therookieshaker7795]

And both are more popular than 2hu

[@snowpegasi]

@@therookieshaker7795 Yeah but their fans aren't nearly as obsessive or deranged as us tho, the Mother fans come close but no cigar.

[@MedsieLovr]

I Really hate the fact that the PoFV episodes are just compiled filler, this was the game where characters like Cirno or Reisen really showed their potential, the characters introduced are even better tho, it just doesn't do any justice to any of them (pretty sure half of the haters of the show are Eiki fans) Medicine barely appears, and she acts like any other random minor character (but that happens in every fanfic where she is not the main focus) Aya appears in the whole anime, not much to say about the PoFV arc. The rest is Komatits and Eiki ramblings, imo this arc had everything to be perfect (but it Isn't)

[@Suwawako]

PoFV is kinda a filler game anyway

[@MedsieLovr]

@@Suwawako It's not, it was supposed to be the finale of Touhou at some point. And it flashes out the concept of the previous Touhou games very well, those being of Life, Death, Eternity and Time. Eiki being the literal judge of hell, Komachi being a 'grim reaper' that knows the lifespan of nearly everyone, Medicine coming into being recently for unorthodox reasons, or Cirno questioning her very existence. Not a filler game, It's a very sweet comeback to what was the focus of the series back then

[@Zanmu_Nippaku]

@@MedsieLovr also Yuuka appeared there, that kinda showed that Zun didn't just thrown away retro touhou characters (yeah i know about Alice)

[@ShockInazuma]

@@MedsieLovr It’s not a filler game for sure, but it does kind of feel like one. The first Phantasmagoria as well. Idk, I guess it’s just because of the different styles used?

[@MedsieLovr]

@@ShockInazuma the first Phantasmagoria might be the most complete PC-98 game ngl

[@p2trivej]

Didn't know there was so much backlash against MoP. I've just entered Touhou fandom during the last four years, and my jaw was on the floor when I discovered you guys had this awesome full-scale fan-made anime. Heck, I didn't even know an anime could be fan-made. I really appreciate MoP for what it is. Your point still stands, and I agree with some of your criticism. In general, the anime feels like a fan-made project with a shoestring budget made for fans. Hence, a lot of cameos and characters appearing out of turn. Aya, for example, needs to appear early on; otherwise, we might have never seen her at all. Who knew back then whether this anime would get to the Mountain of Faith? This also explains why the villains all have the same recurring theme. Since this series span over a long period of time. When they got to Kaguya, they might forget they gave her this exact same motive as they did Remilia. Despite for average human and yokai as the superior being are such a common theme for villains in shonen anime. All in all, the people behind Mop earn from me so much respect. I could really see how wonderful the series would turn out if they had more budget and worked on a regular, tight schedule.

[@myb701]

it's pretty sad how Touhou fans treat any fan work that becomes popular, regardless of the quality. They're always put under the lens to be inspected for any inconsistency and blamed for it's repercussions on the fandom. it's specially infuriating when you consider the inconsistencies the official mangas have (like Reimu being a completely different person in every single one), and the bare-bones exploration ZUN gives to his own characters and locations before moving onto making a new batch of scrimblo bimblos.

[@GensouChronicle]

I'm glad you spent a bit of extra time just explaining Authorial Intention for the viewers. As much as it would be nice to just not do it for the sake of slimming the video down, I think your point would have been lost on more people. Nice call there. While I considering myself someone who isn't a fan of what this series does, both the animators and musical artists both deserve credit for what they've managed to accomplish over the years. Creating an anime of any sort of quality is impressive for a fan work. But that's probably where my praise ends. If only to go back to your point of authorial intention, I think I can sum up my thoughts like this. While the author's intention is immutable, that should in no way exclude it from any criticism that a viewer can place upon it. Especially when the intention is more or less, "Our goal is to flanderize the entire series inside of a fan anime." Which, while sounding harsh, only feels accurate. I think your 'bottom line' to this video nicely explains the problem while tying into the title. It's main problem is identity. On the topic of the fanservice, I don't think it's so uncertain as being 'unknown' why people didn't like it. Previews and the opening, which were many people's first impression, gave off a specific vibe, and not one that would have that sort of content(Something you bring up later in the video). The scenes come out of nowhere- and in my opinion just look silly(Wearing hats and holding umbrellas in the bath). I don't mind these sorts of scenes- when they are done well. Basically, it's not the eroticism factor- just the fact that it looks so corny/weird while feeling completely out of place with everything else. You pretty much nailed the story and characterization issues. Even if the Flandre-Remilia characterization is meant to be a touching moment, it makes no sense and just hopes the audience is too dumb to notice. That isn't to ignore the parts that are perfectly fine like with Dai and Cirno, of course. 'The rest of the episodes in the series aren't worth mentioning' lol. The non-professional use of an official twitter account should say plenty about the leadership of the project though. There's a reason why art/gimmick twitters lose followers when they start tweeting about these sorts of things/complain instead of posting what people follow for. (Obviously, people can use their accounts how they like, but they shouldn't be surprised when people aren't as open-minded.) As you correctly put, these are 'escapes', and to have those tainted turns people away. tl;dr I blame the people in charge of the project. All of that talent would have been better utilized under different people. Anyways, great work. This was a nicely put together video considering its length. For as much as I dislike a lot of things about it, MoP impressed upon new and old fans alike just how absolutely dedicated Touhou fans are.

[@MedsieLovr]

Best part about this Fanime are the silly redubs you can make with it, sorta like those Sonic Adventures real time fandubs.

[@MegaFrog]

The script was originally considerably longer, but I realized during development that it would be completely out of the scope of my artistic capabilities, so I cut out a lot of content that I didn't feel was necessary to the main point of the video. But I'm glad you liked it and took the time to write out this comment, it shows that I communicated my points well enough. I don't plan on doing any more videos like this, but I would like to see the community as a whole think a little more carefully about authorial intention when criticizing Touhou fanworks.

[@seancatacombs]

This is why Sealed Esoteric History has a much better reputation in the fanbase these days. Like the best kinds of fanfiction, instead of simply trying to adapt existing stories into a new medium, it takes the established universe and deliberately dives into less-explored areas, speculating entirely new stories out of them. Zounose's huge library of Touhou doujin are very similar.

[@GensouChronicle]

@@Bellitchi You can correct me if I'm misinterpreting the first two sentences in your comment, but isn't "expressing myself however I like" and "having a right to complain" exactly what my comment is? I think my take was extremely measured compared to most that hate the anime. I praised parts that deserve it, and criticized parts that I felt need it.

[@MegaFrog]

Creators have the right to express themselves how they wish, but if they want to make money off of their product, they need to avoid being antagonistic towards their customers.

[@DeltaPie]

I think a large portion of why the fandom gives such undue judgment with the lore deviations is because it assigned it a role that it was never trying to fill - the whole misunderstanding you discussed. MoP is the introductory Touhou media for a vast portion of fans, and people who are already fans know this as well. Hence, they hold MoP to a higher standard because they have placed MoP in that higher position of being the “unofficial official” Touhou anime, when in reality it is simply another doujin work in a sea of many. In other words, Touhou fans have appointed MoP as an ambassador of the Touhou _games_ as an anime adaptation, then tear it down for failing the job that they assigned it to do. In a way, I don’t really blame people for placing MoP in this position. The “Is this an anime?” crowd has to be answered in some way, and while some could respond with a 10-page rant on the intricacies of Patchouli’s spellcard design, others respond with “…yeah, sure.” They then point to MoP simply because it is more popular. Years of this have led to MoP being assigned the role of an adaptation of the games when it was never intended to fulfill that (hence the misunderstood part). Fans of MoP misunderstand it, at least on the Western side of things, since the whole “adaptation of fanon” aspect is not communicated at all across the language barrier. So fans point to MoP as a cute anime adaptation of the games that newcomers can watch. Critics of MoP see fans of MoP giving these directions and assume the same thing the fans did - that MoP was intended to be an adaptation of the games, leading to things such as the lore deviations list. Summer Day’s Dream and Hifuu Activity Record escape criticism by not being MoP and (from what I’ve seen, and I may be wrong) remaining fairly niche, even amongst the actual Touhou community. Hence, they don’t escape the Touhou fandom as much and aren’t subjected to the ambassador scrutiny. The nuance of MoP also isn’t very easily explained to the many newcomers whose first exposure is MoP. You wouldn’t respond to “what anime is this?” with “uhhh well it’s an adaption of a video game series, but it isn’t actually an adaptation of the actual games but the fanworks of it. What’s a fanwork you say? Well-”. MoP was forced into the role of being an adaptation of the _games_ by the fans, critics, and poor clueless newcomers. But what about other fanworks that breach containment? Why aren’t they subject to the same ambassador scrutiny by the fandom? Now that I think of it, they kind of are. The old memes have their critics for overuse, and I think that’s in part because they view these memes as ambassadors of the canon rather than fandom-specific flandreized memes that spread like wildfire outside the Touhou community. I think we can also see this with people who dislike the popularity of fumos, again with people assigning something the ambassador role to it when it’s really just a funny plushie. We see a similar phenomenon with LostWord, with people criticizing it’s inaccuracies in terms of characterization and fanservice, though in this case it’s a product rather than exclusively a creative work so the context is different - that’s a discussion for another time. So obviously MoP is a bad ambassador for the games since it wasn’t intended to be one, but what about being an ambassador for the entire Touhou Project (including fanworks)? I think that the quality issues still drag it down, but the fact that there is a fan ANIME for Touhou is a good testament to and representation of the creative talent of the fanbase. In my opinion MoP’s most impressive feat is existing. Perhaps it does in some way fulfill the role enforced on it by the fans and the algorithm, but not in the way that Touhou fans think it should.

[@rainspectre3153]

Well, with LW, it's worth remembering it's intended to introduce people to the franchise. The reason it and DanKagu exists is because ZUN felt he couldn't get younger people, namely his own children, into the franchise through his own work.

[@khidorahian]

@@rainspectre3153 where was that said? I'd love to see that article

[@cinnamoncat8950]

Very long but did read :)

[@Niiue]

I absolutely agree with this. MoP is just another fanwork, albeit a very high quality one, but a fanwork nonetheless. If it was viewed as such, there would be much praise for how much work was put into it, and the mischaracterization wouldn't be considered as hot of a criticism since it's just another fanwork with their own interpretations of the characters. (This goes for the fanservice as well) I also agree with you on the part that MoP is a great summation of the Touhou community as a whole, atleast in terms of efforts.

[@Loner098]

@@khidorahian Well it could be possible to find that article yourself because KZbin will remove any comments that have links in them.

[@pridelord4028]

This probably just me, but I am glad that I watch osana reimu and reireimu before diving deep into the fandom. It really gave me this mindset that every fanworks are a seperate universe and seperate story build by the minds of the different fans. This led me to differenciate many fanworks and categorize differently instead of viewing them as a unified concept. For example: flandre has 3 major interpretation, the earliest one is the earliest psyco flandre due to the lack of lore before any printworks explaining her demeaner more or how people that fought flandre thougth she was due to trauma, the one that came on later after that is the cutesy or moe flandre during the rise of moe around 2010, the last one is the delinquent flandre that came out after the statement that flandre is voluntarily locked herself in making it seem like she's in her rebellious phase while no one is capable of doing anything about it. This example is from my own experience watching and reading many fanworks, but also some analyzing of when it emerge or what happen during it's emergence.

[@HyperVanilo]

Flandre is an introvert, simple, not locked away by Remilia nor locked herself in her own room.

[@HelloWarudoTH6]

Osana Reimu and Reireimu are masterpieces

[@supreme_xenon]

You're consuming too much fanworks, discussing lore with you would be a pain in the butt

[@aereonexapprentice7205]

I love how the reply of this comment exactly represents the sides of the fandom: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Y'all are free to judge which is which.

[@HyperVanilo]

@@aereonexapprentice7205 Since 2005

[@adventuresteamstudios242]

To be honest, Memories of Phantasm and Touhou Lost Word are both the reasons why I got into the Touhou series as a whole, if it wasn't for these amazing people, i would have never had found this series

[@BladeofRagna]

Lost Word was my reason why I got into Touhou. The ideas being presented with their world had me fascinated and wanted to learn more about it. Primarily through the official content anyways (cue screams of agony going through 6-18)

[@sakuyaenjoyer]

Technically speaking, Suwako does use rock hands in the fighting game spin-offs, so it is based on something from the franchise.

[@albertonishiyama1980]

Those are more about "the ritual of Clapping hands at shrines", tho. They even go in the correct patern for it in the NPC fights. So one hand hoaming around while the other is nowhere to be seem still a weird choice.

[@sakuyaenjoyer]

@@albertonishiyama1980 oh ok, didn't know the real meaning behind them.

[@JasonGonzales-g9s]

Would it prove Suwako is an earthbender?

[@marixsunnyotp3142]

5:15 "This intro goes fuxking hard!" *×moment of silence×*

[@MegaFrog]

The audio was removed due to a copyright claim.

[@DeadSpaceWing]

There's no solving the KZbin Incident.

[@albertonishiyama1980]

One thing to add to the "Creator's Intention" discussion is that noone at Manpuku is really trying that hard. They love Touhou, sure, and do their best to show it. But they're also a bunch of veterans (LunaMoon worked in the fucking Gundam Franchise, the one franchise people can be more assholes with minor erros than Touhou) that have a lot of problems with the industry and are making MoP as a "hobby project where I can do whatever I want". So if LunaMoon or someone else have this one thing they really want to do, but the work would never forgive, they go ahead and put it in MoP. That's the reason there's so much Fanservice, random cameos and all. They're most of the time venting out the frustation of having this kind of ideas shut down on their mainstream works and really wanting to try it and see how the end product looks like.

[@MegaFrog]

This is a great perspective! I wanted to work it into the video too, but I didn't find a way to relate it to the rest of the script. I think a lot of Tommy's writing also reflects his political opinions on anime and other Japanese media, but the script I wrote about that portion got too politically charged, so I removed it. But I definitely agree. In a lot of ways, MoP makes unusual decisions because the creators want to flex the fact that they're independent and can make whatever decisions they like with the series.

[@orcinus2104]

What are you rambling about? The earthen fists are Suwako's canon attack from hisoutensoku (see 合掌「だいだらぼっちの参拝」Clap "Daidarabotchi's Worship")

[@carloscastellanosdarkeyesi6126]

Yeah, it fits her because of how clapping is part of a ritual to begin worship at shinto shrines. But the point is that it's a random, funny surprise attack done quickly and discretely, which is pretty different from its depiction here

[@azurda7483]

Yeah, that point was a bit weird. I love FMA and I didn't see it as a reference to that series at all?

[@megakoopa2361]

This was a really nice watch and it was nice seeing a KZbinr critically break down and analysize the points of a show they dislike, but also treat it with the respect it deserves as a fan made passion project for once.

[@fourhashtag89]

I absolutely adore memories of phantasm, and for a completely different reason than why I adore the other two touhou fan animes. Whilst watching your video, it reminded me of the olden days when I used to watch memories of phantasm as a new touhou fan, it showed me what the fans of the project are capable of, and it also helped me adore touhou as a whole, and as we can see now many years later I still adore with all my heart, and I'm sure that memories of phantasm helped a great deal with that. Maybe it's just nostalgia that elevates my fondness of this fan anime, but through good and bad, I truly cannot imagine the touhou community thriving like this without the creation of memories of phantasm.

[@CelestialReturner]

True story. I remember watching Memories Of Phantasm back in first two years of highschool. I'm was very enticed by Yuyuko and then Yukari for four reasons. EDIT: Moving on. If I were to make my own derivative work on Touhou in a heartbeat, it should be a fighting game dedicated to The King Of Fighters Series! That's if I have the life skills for it!

[@jackbonhomie]

The upper spheres or the lower spheres?

[@KOINOYOKUSHIRYOKU]

King of peak fiction, you mean?

[@InmateOmighty]

@@jackbonhomie Yuyuko is better in both

[@JK-yg1gf]

i can't really bring a lot of arguments to the table, but Suwako actually attacks with giant hands in Touhou 12.3. The Cirno episode is also inspired by that game.

[@supreme_xenon]

Funny that many people have pointed this out but MegaFrog never replies to such comment

[@EntityXIII]

I wanted to say thank you for making this in-depth video examining MoP. I would still have appreciated seeing this if I wasn't planning my own fanmade content--not animated but still--that interprets the world and characters. I agree it's good to look at the aspects of good and bad of not just the product itself but what went into it, because yes there are always lessons to be learned. What is life or hobbies without the lessons we learn?

[@metalmaple-fluffyhoney54]

Hot damn, this video do be a learning experience The fact only one episode had official voice acting, and on a re-release that is Tha's wild Donald Duck caught me off-guard, funniest shit I've seen this week

[@totallyalpharius507]

I used to gobble up anything Touhou along with the plate and cutlery back in 2010s. This fanime was no exception, but somewhere, sometime along the line, my interest waned and I never finished i, so I have no idea how many episodes it got. While I'm no longer as passionate about Touhou as I used to be, KZbin algorithm does remind me of it from time to time. As it did today.

[@BlueSharpe]

34:25 we actually know exactly what this technique is and its works exactly the same way in the game. its called Instant Dimensional Rift from th12.3. you can recognize it by the star patterned that is formed.

[@pieperson444]

while you can't reason someone out of a boner, it is pretty reasonable to not expect fanservice to not undercut the rest of an experience, which is usually the issue i have with it. also, this video was great, I learned a shitton

[@cataquackwarlord5389]

Thanks so much for such an in-depth analysis. There was a lot here that I learned about the context of MoP for the first time, and it gives me a better understanding of the reasons behind the ups and downs of the series. In fact, it has encouraged meto watched episode 7 again.

[@inactive_ina]

finally someone properly talking about this show ive been waiting to see extended commentary on all of it

[@gansmith]

A very good video and really good amount of research in reporting on what is still a very niche work of fiction. Despite feeling like a really mediocre shounen-like anime fanwork, I've acknowledged and respected the amount of resources and passion it manages to gather despite being a fully indie project. My main complaint is how this anime series misleads so many newcomers on what Touhou is. Many think of the anime like it's an anime adaptation because it is the natural trend for all popular Japanese media. Newcomers tend to miss out on the more unique aspects and storytelling the games and written works provide because they think the games and written works tell the stories the same way as this anime. Since it follows the chronological events of Touhou, it is easy to confuse it as an official adaptation compared to the other animated Touhou animated fanworks that follow the spirit of standard doujins fanworks by telling their own unique stories. Memories of Phantasm has turned into an unwilling unofficial anime adaptation despite the disclaimer at the beginning of each episode that many people miss or forget about. I just wished Memories of Phantasm was at least better at retelling the main events of the series.

[@MegaFrog]

That seems more like the fault of the viewers than the fault of the series to me. It's yet another facet of MoP that people misunderstood.

[@gansmith]

@@MegaFrog I did confess that to be true at the end. I just wished it was a better representation because the unfortunate cross it occasionaly has to carry for the newbies. The other animated fanworks don't because they have their own original stories. I will also add my gripes that despite the episodes being so short, they are full of filler with a full OP, a full ED, and couple of minutes of recap to then just get like 8 to 10 minutes of core content. That is ALOT of wasted time for such short episodes.

[@joooja]

@@gansmith Its just efficiency from the point of animators, especially when things like CTR and such weren't as widely analysed and understood. If this fanwork was remade today I'm sure there would be efficiencies to do better with NicoNico and KZbin algorithm but it is a product of its time

[@golemofthewoods]

This is such a good video. I've always had a soft spot for MoP, I remember watching the 1st episode so many times when I discovered it. While I've never been into the fan service aspect, I was always confused on why it was so hated so it, since I've seen much worse in the Touhou community. I really loved your message at the end about creating your stuff, I would love to make an animated series of Touhou, and play around with the characters, just cause I love Touhou so much. That's definitely not going to happen any time soon as I barely have the money to pay for rent, much less anything towards animating. Having said that, I've already made an animatic for an episode opening for the Imperishable Night series, and hopefully I can finish the full product soon. Anyway, very good video

[@vyllix8546]

Man this is the kind of Touhou related content i've always wanted! Seriously, great video man :]

[@deadface4875]

Pros: Good Art Style Cons: Completely Skips Every Fight

[@youtubeisntallowingmetocom9062]

THIS Except for Yuyuko's though, but still, I wanted a long epic fight

[@goldentiramisu7935]

every fight in MoP can be shortly described as "they bombed"

[@weirdberry2886]

So MoP it's me playing a game for the first time when I try to unlock as much stages to practice as possible

[@kapa_nitori]

"pressed [X]"

[@DeadSpaceWing]

​@Rafelandroid2 Doubt? Or actual Bomb button?

[@aaa-ht2ts]

watched the entire video. honestly one of the best i've watched in a while seeing someone go in depth about the show bringing up many valid points. agreed with mostly everything you have said

[@FullHitPoints]

Personally, I've always loved MoP. I think it might be because that since I already played the games they were based on, I overlooked any major writing errors since they were intended as loose adaptations of the franchise on an extremely tight budget, so just seeing these characters do their thing in anime form was fulfillment enough. I also know well enough about the series to know when it deviates from the official lore, and have been a fan long enough to anticipate fanon elements in fanworks, so it never truly bothered me as much as other people. Your video did explain one of my personal bugbears of the series, that being the overemphasis of Sanae in the series. Most of the characters who appear in scenes before their official game debut can be explained by the fact that they're Gensokyo natives, so it makes sense for Aya to appear in the PCB and EoSD episodes because she lives there. Sanae, on the other hand, had to be warped into Gensokyo from The Outside World in MoF, so having Sanae appear in nearly every single episode, even in episodes that take place before MoF, felt like they were "shilling" Sanae over other characters. However, knowing that they designed Sanae first and wanted to make use of her in a scene makes a lot of sense from a production stand-point. After all, why let all that talent go to waste?

[@keava]

45:17 oh my dear god she is making fucking mac and cheese

[@MegaFrog]

And no one can stop her

[@DeadSpaceWing]

​@@MegaFrogBut does she know how to make a grilled cheese?

[@12DAMDO]

honestly i like the battle scenes and the soundtrack... i'm not asking for anything more than that from Touhou, so anything else is just a bonus imo and the Flandre episode was my favorite but i might be biased because i just like Flandre over all lol

[@Merapsco]

ebin

[@segasonic4352]

ive always loved memories of phantasm but i get heavily why people dislike it

[@depresane]

Thank you for your input and effort. You explained in great detail what works and doesn't work in the series *and* in film in general. Every scriptwriter should watch this. I abandoned The Kaleidoscope after the third Scarlet part, as I felt it in my guts the series would not satisfy me anymore. Confusing character motivation, the sense that I'm watching a collection of scenes loosely put together, sexual fanservice used to keep viewers' attention, they all gradually discouraged me from continuing. A bit of blame is on me because, yes, I wanted to see the interpretation of the game lore. It was the time in my life where I had enough of repeated fandom takes. So, yeah, The Kaleidoscope was not for me. I would love to see more fanmade movies and series with Tōhō, both dramatic and comedic. There are dozens of characters, time periods and events to explore. Crowdfunding and paying apps become more frequent, too. Indeed, there is hope and space for fanmade Tōhō animation.

[@nohcat805]

Honestly, this is a great analysis from a perspective of someone who watched Memories of Phantasm as a standalone work, as my experiences were in some points quite similar. But before that, to the argument at 20:17. While the argument absolutely sound, it is also ignoring the long history of Touhou from a complete outsiders perspective. While digging deeper into things, you quickly find out that the Anime indeed wasn't meant as a representation of the series, but what it sadly is, is that it is the first representation for some people wanting to know about the series. In a world with so much Touhou media that it's daunting to join this fandom, people inside of it tend to forget that there is a reason why so many people, even up to this day, go and ask "what Anime is this from" and stumble upon the name of Touhou. So, the first instinctive reaction would be of course to Google "Touhou Anime", quickly stumbling about Memory of Phantasm and while the criticism towards the fans is justified, pointing out that Memories of Phantasm was never made to accurately represent the lore, I have the feeling, that at least partly, people do not allow this series to be all that fanservicey, because that this series has a high chance to be the first piece of media someone will consume of Touhou Project and having first time watcher experience the series that way and turning it away because of that, I think that's a reason why a huge majority of people are upset about the unnecessary fanservice. Well, as about myself who experienced first Touhou that way..., I honestly didn't care all that much, but that might be because I turn my brain off while watching Anime. Which comes to my second criticism of the series, which was mostly all said in the video already, so I won't rant too much about it. The first episode was honestly great and made me excited to watch the rest of the series, that feeling quickly fading off around the PoFV arc, as was said in the video all the hype they built off, lead to nowhere, giving me the feeling that it's not worth watching, especially after I learned that Touhou was a Shoot-and-Up series with a lot of girls. Some scenes felt pointless, and some characters gave me the feeling that they were disrupting the story. My confusion amplifying when the Filler-ish episodes of PoFV hit and I got the feeling that this series wasn't for someone like me at that time. A complete noob at Touhou who knew nothing about it. So, half a year later and speed consuming all the Touhou games from 1 to 18, playing all the Spin-off games, reading the official canon manga’s and reading the official, but uncanon licensed works and deep diving into Dynasties Doujin collection from the years 2006 to 2010 later, I felt ready to give the series another chance and find myself... ...mildly underwhelmed. The result was, I enjoyed the parts I already liked a bit better and felt insulted about the parts that I disliked and realizing that knowing my stuff, doesn't make the part them any better. Especially after realizing that my favorite character as of that point, Eiki was replaced by a brat that could only scold. What does this say about the series? Well, similar as this video already pointed out, it more felt like a collection of interesting, cool and good ideas, which were just thrown against the wall in the hopes that something good would come out of it. Like this comment of mine that is just a guys comment about an indie anime production and his opinion on it and while it's okay for someone like me to do it, because the likelihood of someone seriously going through this thought mess is unlikely, it's not okay for a series whose livelihood depends on the public perception on how good it is.

[@yogsothoth915]

I honestly thought that the "didn't think about Marisa" bit was a roundabout joke about Marisa's broken MoF shot type. But if that's the case, it's just as he said, that splits it's intended message during a final boss fight just because they thought Yukari needed to give exposition to explain the joke.

[@marcodardis5248]

Great video. I did some subbing to Spanish for those three Touhou fanimes and got to understand them a bit better than the first time I watched them I hope. I am a sucker for Touhou lore and canon but criticizing any of those for their deviation is totally mind blowing to me. Having said that, the other two animes got to me much more than MoP because of what they presented. One, a light hearted series yet somehow portraying a heavy melancholic feeling in its artistic expression, and the other an (maybe a bit over the top?) expansion on canon plot points using outsider main characters that I think are deeply loved by a niche part of the fandom. They know what they are doing, although they sometimes fumble the how. Also, music pieces from all of those are bangers like wtf Tokine, yuuhei satellite and yonder voice are godly musicians. Very different ones, fortunately.

[@niaula5557]

I just Can't fault people who are willing to put so much work into a series that isn't guaranteed to even be popular,, cuz you know that means all the motivation to continue comes purely from the creator and not the people watching.

[@desmond9740]

I'm glad that the Hisoutensoku episode is getting the recognition it deserves! In the past, I absolutely HATED it because it only had one fight scene and the rest was "just dialogue"; but after rewatching the series, it quickly became one of my favorites because it didn't follow the traditional plot of the rest of the episodes and arcs. The Scarlet Weather Rhapsody episode/arc is currently in production and since both it and Hisoutensoku are fighting games, I have hope that it'll break the mold. Obviously, I also hope the "Main Game" arcs stop following the trend you mentioned in 40:36.

[@Skullgod12]

I kind of wonder if there will be another thing like memories of phantasm it would be nice to see.

[@veryredfumoze]

Wish they didn't skip UFO

[@Xylospring]

I want Byakuren so damn Bad....

[@Xylospring]

Shou...Nazrin...Ichirin. 😢

[@veryredfumoze]

I still wish they didn't skip ufo

[@Shyguymask]

The show didn't have enough Youmu.

[@azurda7483]

Facts, also good to see you here!

[@moh.syafrianabie8899]

Of course you had to mention Youmu

[@funny-gv3ml]

bro rumia only had 6 seconds of screen time lol

[@Sekibankiii]

The show did not have Sekibanki

[@Loner098]

Not even the Komeiji sisters either.

[@ToxicTaka]

I think the Koakuma exposition helps to establish her personality as a giddy fangirl of Patchouli and helps to accentuates the latter as somewhat of a threat to Marisa without confirming it; the closest I can think of would be Gary Oak from the first season of the Pokemon animated series and the group of cheerleaders that follow him. That said, I agree having Flan showcase this instead of just Koakuma dumping exposition would have helped both in terms of showing why this was a smart tactic and using Koakuma as a fangirl to gush over Patchouli and make her seem more of a threat than she actually is. For the humans are weak thing, I feel it should be expressed moreso through action rather than dialogue; I mean, it seems to be somewhat of an overarching thread throughout this series and even the original material--the spell card system was implemented to give humans a chance to help humans resolve the incidents with stronger youkai so that they can coexist peacefully within Gensokyo like was shown at the end of the 1st episode. I like how the Cirno filler was done and it opened a lot of potential for alternative story telling, but I feel like the 'humans are inferior/cant we just get along?' thing would still apply to Utsuho if she was facing a human--as weak as Cirno is compared to both Reimu and Utsuho, she is still a youkai. Given how other incidents after the Moriya Shrine were hinted at or even explictly referenced (SA and UFO specifically), I feel a fight between Reimu/Marisa and Utsuho (as hinted at in one of the openings) could have helped accentuate this bias youkai have towards humans, especially since prior to this both of them would have beaten Cirno fairly easily. ... Ok this was my third thing I wanted to mention, but this does seem like a major let down because so much could have been done in addition to this "filler" that would have helped the overall thing so much. And finally: Yukari's moyivation makes me want to brick my head into a wall; like ... why would she bother instigating the IN incident and then help Reimu by not only accompanying her, but also enlisting the aid of previous antagonists like Remillia and Yuyuko. I mean from what has been shown in this series and the theme of coexistence, you coulf have Yukari still instigating things, but in a way thay controls the pacing that allows Reimu to handle them individually instead of all at once; she could still be seen as manipulative, cunning, and somewhat antagonistic, but not completely villainous and certainly not incompetent. More thoughts to be edited later; just wanted to say this before I forgot. Final Edit: Ok phew~ thanks for doing thjs btw; I admit I was pretty awestruck by this adaptation since I enjoy the Touhou series and fandom, but having these things pointed was actually helpful for me.

[@gnixreal]

as someone who saw this before playing any of the touhou games, I can say that it was enjoyable, it didn't got me into the games (lost word did that for me), but I had a vague idea of what it was about Even after rewatching it after getting more into tha games/story, I still felt like it was it's own thing trying to do interesting spins on the plot, like the build up to the moriya shring being set up on top of Youkai Mountain my favorite scene, Eiki's lecture it always gets a laugh out of me

[@StephanusTavilrond]

I never realized that MoP was hated or widely criticized. I always loved it.

[@Forgeblaze]

When i watched this video, the portion at the Nelson Atkins Museum made me do a double take, since ive lived near it for a rather long time, so seeing it in a random hour long touhou fan anime video essay threw me for a bit of a loop lol Still, really great video and analysis, this was incredibly well written and edited. Great job across the board! Youve easily convinced me to sub and check out some of your other content. Keep it up!

[@verified_tinker1818]

As someone unfamiliar with Touhou, I _loved_ the fight between Reimu and Sakuya. I had no preconceptions about their strength (and, no, the story didn't show that Sakuya was stronger at all; that's your bias as someone who already knew that), and to me, it was a great action scene where Reimu won because she correctly predicted her opponent's movements and lead her into traps. Perhaps that's contrary to the lore, but as a standalone scene, it was fantastic.

[@peanuts5338]

touhou MoP was great, though the story was a bit wonky at times i still loved it. youre right that its basically a dream come true for one of my favorite series to get an anime, and thats kinda why i love it so much and hope they keep continuing it.

[@Hydrachaze]

During the sakuya fight, I actually felt that it was really smart how they set it up. The thing is, up until then, viewers never knew reimu’s true power, so by creating the feeling that sakuya was a really strong opponent compared to reimu and then having reimu just easily defeat her, it just puts into perspective how overpowered our protagonist is

[@brickstonesonn9276]

Imo the best parts of MoP are the ensemble scenes where it just shows you all the characters partying or hanging out without any particular focus, because those scenes just slaps you in the face with how many detailed characters & relations there are in touhou. The art & animation & music are also very good; better than many seasonal anime coming out these days in fact. But thats where all my praise ends. The plot and characterization and representation of the lore & characters is horrible. Even if we take out my obsession with Touhou lore & prioritize the show's authorial intent & judge it on its own, the writing of the show is so bad that I still cant get myself to like it. And that sucks since Touhou has such a unique premise & such strong characters & lore that even a basic bare-bones slice of life anime just exploring this world & characters' everyday would genuinely be very interesting & entertaining; which is generally something slice of life anime fails at doing. Any decent writer that sees this can easily utilize its possibilities, even if what theyre trying to make is not faithful to canon. Heck, imo even the Touhou fanon can be turned into really good stories if written well. Even the very worst fanon interpretations have genuinely decent story potential imo. MoP had such great potential to utilize all that, but completely squanders it with just plain bad writing. I will never recommend any new fan to watch MoP, in fact I would actively make sure they dont watch it. This is despite the fact that I believe introducing newcomers to Touhou through music, manga, and game fanworks is the best way to get them into Touhou; since it immediately teaches them the lesson that different fanworks have vastly different interpretations of Touhou as well as the fact that just because a fanwork looks very high quality & is written masterfully doesnt mean that its "official" or "canon", not to mention it also immediately shows them the quality + quantity of Touhou fanworks that makes the Touhou fandom so great. I would still definitely recommend an experienced fan to watch MoP just because of the quality of art & musical talent it demonstrates. Its just unfortunate that the talent isnt there when it comes to the writing.

[@-cloudscapes-]

Despite not knowing much about Touhou and never hearing of this show, this video was pretty entertaining and informative.

[@EndermanBoss]

This is definitely been a learning experience, thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[@-Anvil-]

I see this channel for the first time but lately it keeps appearing on my main yt, most often I hate it when someone has a bad opinion about what I like and I don't like learning the truth about something, but instead of spitting at you because of this fact I decided to watch it until the end, and you're damn right, when I watched this anime I didn't have much knowledge about the game yet and now I know that the things they packed there are not entirely true (well) from episode to episode I understood less, thank you for explaining I honestly want to watch it again, but I'll be more careful. Well done, and thanks for giving me some knowledge

[@-Anvil-]

It have been quite some time since i watched that last time my opinion change pretty much agree with this guy, God, the drawing has so much potential and it was used in a bad way

[@tarragon112]

memories of phantasm (but accurate to the plot) when

[@rsg5314]

I really liked this series, because we could see some characters personality, let’s be real, since when was the last time we saw a character with an actually personality more than “oh, so you are the shirine maiden, I m the boss you are looking for” in the games, the manga does better in that terms,they play with characters that we will no longer see in more games, touhou had and have a lot of potential but an official anime adaptation would ve hit harder in early 2000’s And if you ask me, Marisa is better as protagonist, she works so hard to be on pair with reimu who got blessed since born, she literally can eat whatever she wants and never will be fat, while Marisa needs to expose her self to dangerous magic items only to be overshadowed by reimu (I love reimu because she she is strong yes, but she needs to use her powers intelligent or people like yuyuko could one shot her”

[@animan095]

I have learned quite a bit thanks to your documentary. Thanks!

[@vitorsoares5809]

39:40 this could actually be inspired by the touhou fighting games where one of suwako's has her smashing her opponent between 2 giant rock hands, but she also has a much more powerfull one where she summons a giant rock snake so it still could have been used instead

[@SilentOnion]

i watched the first four episodes maany many years ago so i cant really have a proper opinion on mop but god damn do i appreciate its existence i mean its a whole purely fan made anime series. just the fact that the fandom came together to do more than just like a one minute test animation is something

[@scouttengu]

The part at 34:21 I think this is supposed to be a reference to the 'Death Bomb' mechanic in the mainline games. Y'know, where if you hit the bomb button and get hit at the same time you save yourself? That's what I thought this was supposed to be at least.

[@SpringySpring04]

I think that makes more sense actually

[@csodapaci]

Doesn't she have some spells that clone her?

[@ascetwo]

give this man every love you can this channel is too underrated amazing video haven't see anyone talk about this topic like that

[@snailboi7013]

For me fantasy kaleidescope was my first proper introduction to touhou

[@Rennnix]

38:50 "Suwako copying FMA" - the stone hands actually come from Touhou 12.3 Hisoutensoku where Suwako uses that ability in some of her attacks, and plus, fighting with stone hands is such a generic power that is was Not originated by FMA, it's like calling every piece of media that uses the Kyubi/Kitsune as a copy of Naruto. In Suwako's case, after a quick search, it's a reference to the Daidarabotchi, a youkai.

[@ShaneTheShadowyFigure]

I personally enjoyed the anime and saw nothing wrong with it, I think it was mostly what I expected and was not disappointed and never found it boring.

[@MetalX34]

can understand that they wanted to reimagine canon events and i'm all for it. not surprised people confused the show for an actual, faithful product tho. we're just not at an age where people take enough of a step back from faithfulness. ofc they can, but when there is a clear shift in tone or story, not when it's this close to main, canon storyline. i remember a doujin receiving similar flak cause it reenacted eosd, but took plenty of liberties: reimu's character, remilia's origin or motivations, etc. meanwhile i have not seen that (yet) in a kawayabug animation for instance.

[@Tha2442]

Pros: Good art and good animation for a fan project, and good music Cons: Fights are at best a minute or cut off when they hype up a fight some characters are given their cringe fanon interpretations (Flandre being the biggest example) That weird fan service scene with yukari, ran, and chen is just eh Voice acting can get annoying at times

[@MegaFrog]

You should probably watch the video before commenting.

[@arahman56]

some characters are given their cringe fanon interpretations (Flandre being the biggest example) Reminder that she got _zero_ canon characterization in the *17 years* between her introduction in EOSD and chapter 3.5 of Foul Detective Satori (and later her starring role in Sunken Fossil World).

[@ShockInazuma]

@@arahman56 At least she wasn't like most Touhou 1 characters. They haven't gotten a canon characterization at all even in the first games. (Not counting Reimu and Mima, of course.)

[@_MaxEnzo_]

"Voice acting can get annoying at times" the anime doesen't have voice acting......

[@abyssdrawssomestuff]

Don’t forget Eiki man they did her dirty 😅

[@hanakozaki_rin]

To fact that production is still on going to this day and the new episode 18 is gonna release yes I just found this after seeing the new episode 18 trailer

[@MegaFrog]

This is true! Manpuku Jinja announced a long time ago that MoP would not end with 17 episodes, which is why I mentioned that it is still in production. Though their recent tweets seem to suggest that episode 18 may be the last episode, though that remains to be seen.

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

While I get the “authorial intent” with the work trying to be its own thing and not be an adaptation, at the end of the day it is basically taking the plot of the games and rewriting them. The characters are the same, the basic premise is the same, but the details are different. The problem is that the differences are for the worse in many people’s eyes. Character traits are exaggerated, the plots become more similar to each other, etc. This is a bit of an issue, since the anachronic order make the series confusing to people unfamiliar with the games plots, but those who are familiar may be disappointed that the plots are so different, and not necessarily in a good way. I feel this mean that the series is primarily for Touhou fans who only look at fanworks. Which, admittedly is most fans, but the whole inconsistent tone means many fans only like some of the series, and find the rest jarring or boring. What the author intends is not always what the audience sees. And while this can be partially to blame on the audience not bothering to think about what the author intended, or even fundamentally misunderstand the thing they like, the author should also make sure their intent is clear enough most of the audience understands without having to be told what they intended, without feeling like it’s forced and unsubtle. Which is a difficult thing to do, especially on a meta level with being an adaptation or not. Personally, I think MoP is kinda an adaptation, since it is taking the plots for the games, modifying them, and then making it into an anime. Although I guess this depends on what one defines adaptation, and how similar a work needs to be to the original in order to be called an adaptation.

[@Loner098]

To be fair, the plots for for every Touhou game is...kinda the same in the anime: you shoot at a bunch of faries and dodge their bullets, fight against a boss to get through the stage, repeat until you get to whoever is causing the incident, beat them, and that's it.

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

@@Loner098 Sure, but the characterization of the characters and background lore make it interesting. My problem is memories of phantasm simplifies an already simple story, instead of expanding upon it, making the story feel like a complete afterthought.

[@Loner098]

@waluigiisthebest2802 So basically like the story of Super Mario RPG?

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

@@Loner098 Yeah

[@Sansnessundertale]

My thoughts on the first section on boobs/fan service, first off it’s a franchise made up of 99% and if not 100% wemon, of course there is gonna be fan service in a fanon adaptation like memories of phantasm. Second, from an art perspective, big boobs are not bad. Like the quote you said, “just because you don’t like something, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong”. And if people at this Doujin circle drawing boobies is important to them, then LET THEM DRAW THE DAMN BOOBS. Like you said it brings artistic fullfilment, accomplishments the goals of the creators and MAKES FOR A PLEASENT VIEWING EXPERIENCE. Personally, just let the artists and co producers do what they do. A little fan service does not hurt (as long as it doesn’t effect the anime In a significant way). And plus, think of it from the producers/artist perspective, if you are animating a anime, wouldn’t you want to add something you like to it? And again, doing these things from an artist perspective can give you fulfillment, make the artist feel they reached there goals, and really have a Great viewing experience.❤

[@BinglesP]

Discourse surrounding Authorial Intention has caused me so much anxiety over the years. I make multifandom fanwork, like fan art and fan fiction, but I end up scrapping a lot of drafts for things like Touhou and Mega Man since there is so much lore and so many potential critics who mistake my intentional deviations as misunderstanding canon, and trying to bother me about what was inaccurate over criticizing me for things that I can actually work on, from the way I implement those interpretations, to basic things like grammar and format. Even if most of the time I'm not popular enough to receive any comments at all, it still creeps at the back of my head from the idea due to reply threads I've been on on Twitter. I've also tried to do fanworks for things more obscure and/or taken less seriously, like Problem Solverz and Ed Edd n' Eddy, though even then it gives me a slight unease. I even have trouble making fan characters since I worry someone will find them as a Mary Sue or, by nature of me being a DeviantArt user, others accusing me of fulfilling some f/e/tish I don't have. I know part of this is just my usual anxiety, but I feel like I should speak out about this here anyway; let people interpret things like they want to, if it isn't hurting anyone. (Lesson not to MegaFrog since he clearly already knows that, just restating for clarity.)

[@corbeauwrite]

a good avice for you, leave twitter or keep it only for watching arts, this place is a shit hole for mental health, absolute piece of trash, it is designed to have people fight each others for mundane idiocies second, write for yourself first and foremost, you do write because you find writing fun, am I right? If you think what you do is A-awesome, then continu, when you do something good, 5% of people will love what you do (honesty is unique) and 5% will hate you too, while 90% still doesn't care. You can be criticize for grammar, but format? not obligatory, format can be an intentional tool of expression if done well. Even grammar can be broken in certain specific conditions but it's stricter. Anything is related to the intentions of the writer. You are an artist too on the core, what are you intentions to share emotions? I am actually writing a false self-insert in touhou with a male character (I know lot of fans hates it) and on top of it, I have lot of fun to NOT respect writer rules. So I have huge material from touhou (thanks with all the lore) and I have fun to do narrations that are not classics at all (characters presence indirectly influence writing, limited narration, magic changing the behavior of character, chracter is not main chracter). It's just so fucking funny to me to write, you don't know what to expect, I prefer to let my chracters lives their life and just observe how they will naturally react. I don't care about the exactitide of canon, MY story follows MY vision of canon and being direspectful of the classic lores could be a very interesting way of saying something. The important thing is YOU as a writer and YOUR emotions. I don't want to read someone that is boring or neutral or corporate or smooth for the sake of having lot of people liking the work, I want honesty and fucking taste, like food, I want the food to be really tasty. We have already good Lore people that does a great job but when I want to read a fiction, I want this to be outside of the classics. It's like going to a super weird restaurant but you enjoyed it because it was so weird and new. It doesn't hurt to go insane in writing and then delete 80% of it because it's too much, but meanwhile you wrote a lot and brainstorm lot of fresh ideas. tl dr : do things for yourself, and fuck garbagewitter

[@umamifan]

Good luck with that. People will flip at the very idea of such works

[@BinglesP]

@@umamifan it’s not even that drastic, they’re legit just small tweaks

[@mechadeka]

??? Stop wasting your life on Twitter and just do what you want.

[@BinglesP]

@@mechadeka Sir/Ma'am/whatever, I barely even go on Twitter except to check notifs nowadays, I've even gone entire weeks without really using it purely unintentionally. I have an anxiety disorder with prescribed Zoloft medication that I have had since I was a preteen, and the internet is not the sole reason for that, but also the current issues of the world, stress brought by others irl, and my fear of the passage of time and the future of my own well being as well as the entire world. Twitter is not the issue here

[@Fannintendociccio1]

I only have gone through half of this so far real well made video, but I think I can already give out my renewed thoughts on the anime. I always had issues with the series, but that was always done with the assumption, the anime being official or not nonwithstanding, that the creators actually intended for the anime to, you know, represent the actual series and stuff (especially since they actually go through the main games' events), so all my, and I assume most other people's, complains have always derived from the canon divergence, and tbh not even regarding lore or anything, since any changes due to time limit are understandable, but mostly as how the anime actually gives newcomers an animated example of how the series actually is like. This is the reason why the fanservice bit always always annoyed me, because touhou is so unique among popular girl-filled Japanese indie series of being basically devoid of sexual and for the most part also romance, so that aspect in the anime is a very bad wrong impression to have for what touhou is like. But that absolutely changes with the fact the creators actually spoke out about their intentions! Now I feel much much better about it, and everyone should really know about it and stop suggesting the anime as a way to present the series to newcomers, as it's just a fun (very impressive!) silly fanmade fanon based thing. Just a nitpick on the sakuya battle rant, I think it actually works very well because reimu is purposefully acting like she is struggling while in the meantime she is setting up her trap which is both clever so she outsmarted sakuya by not revealing what she could do on the get go, so she took advantage of her flaws too, and the fact sakuya was defeated the same way she was defeated by the watatsuki sister with the same powers as reimu in the manga, by neutralizing her by making her unable to move out of the way, is very fitting. But all your complains are still very valid, especially with the newcomers in mind. Also suwako also uses earth hands and fists in the fighting game on top of snakes, especially the hands clasping together it's a very specific spell card she has in that, it was just a reference to that specifically, not a reference to other animes

[@timur_glazkov]

Oh man this is good, I agree. And this is such a good video, bravo! I was afraid that this 72-minute monster would sit in my Watch Later playlist to gather dust because I couldn't manage the time to watch it in one sitting.

[@Hydroxycarbonate]

I've been looking forward to this one. To be fair, I can't really blame the viewers for missing the author's intent with the show as it isn't explicity stated, apart from the blogposts or the tweets.

[@MegaFrog]

Most shows don't outright state their intentions, they are discovered by the audience. Like, for example, Bladerunner doesn't start with Harrison Ford coming on screen and saying "This film is an adaptation of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', but with these key differences." It's a bit of an exaggeration, but it would be a bit silly wouldn't it? I guess my point is that it's up to the audience to think about what they're seeing and make an informed opinion, but not every viewer wants to or can do that.

[@Hydroxycarbonate]

@@MegaFrog Fair enough.

[@waluigiisthebest2802]

@@MegaFrog The problem comes from when what the author says contradicts the work itself. MoF plot is clearly based on the games, so assuming that they are adaptations is a pretty safe assumption, especially if you consider many adaptations tend to change things.

[@arturoayala1004]

1:06:44 i'm kinda happy to see you about talking about hifuu club activity record (the sealed esoteric history), since i like that fanime... but... 1:06:56 but i'm kinda get worried about the relationship between the members of the kyoto fantasy troupe, since the whole "firing" of ori/antares due to... how to treat the story they're making (and about creatibity within it's characters), it's makes me think that sooner or latter, most of the troupe would disband and cease production of the fanime... As well, thanks to 1:07:01, i also know that the troupe was doing good with the help of a billonaire who was also a big fan of touhou, but knowing how the investment where and that he needs the fans's money to still be a float, i'm very much having complex feelings about this... Add to that (mostly the first), the troupe hasn't updated their web page in like... 1 year or so, since the last news was about the first teaser of the Destiny episode of the seh (sealed esoteric history), and hasn't do much else, as well their Niconico page hasn't been updated too... However, they do also have a weibo page and a billibilli one too, which also post stuff related to the fanime as well... however, trying to join in is hard since (due for me being mexican) it doesn't have the specific phone number to join in, they have both in english anf spanish but from spain, but mexican? Sorry but not... As well, there's also some pieces of merch they also sell (or sold) in the previous reitasais too, mostly doujins that do continúe the story of the Hifuu Club Activity Record (as well artbooks too), but, for the ones that are from some last years (2016-15 to be specific) it's kinda hard to find (and Moslty i do want a single DVD of just the OPENING of the series, as well with small pieces of merch they also did too, like a fake ID of renko, a pen, a fan and a bookmark set... and also the first CD of music of the first episode too...) and since i don't live in japan, i used ebay to buy them from, i know it doesn't help, but at least i can get them to see them... But hearing about all what's happening from behind of the scenes is just makes me have some problems with my faith onto the series, since: i do really like them and have a lot of potential for more episodes (mostly the ones based on the characters from the opening: we already got yukari, kanako/suwako, and remilia/sakuya; but we're still missing Byakuren/murasa, yuyuko and reisen/mokou... and in just in case, sumireko and renko/maribel centered plot of backstory... and reimu too, i guess?) But knowing that the creators are having problems with the staff and some are quiting, i'm kinda scared to see the series going to end, maybe after the second half of episode 3 destiny... i'm afraid for it to happen... But even then, hearing of 1:09:09 (and 1:09:53), i do kinda want to try to at least create something that could fit with the whole SEH story, even if it isn't official for it (or for the touhou canon in general), and trying to at least create a story based on the whole murasa/byakuren bit from the op, albeit, based in what you said in 1:07:56, my story would rely more into the "slice of life" aspect than the mystery/action aspect from what the series tries to be... on the sealing club part, on the murasa part, i feel the whole mystery would still fit in (even though i still don't know a lot of her, but i'm trying to read and understands about her backstory and how it would be implemented, the same with byakuren too)... i also am thinking of doing the same but with Rumia too, but i'm trying to distance it from works like osana reimu and more into trying to play with her key ability of the darkness. I'm a fan of the series and i'm trying to support the troupe through thick and thin, even if the series (or the staff) may have problems within itself, i just wanna have fun seeing the story and how it would end too, it is kinda one of my favorites ssc works yet, and i kinda want to see it being continue, even if the worse happens or gets cancelled, i just wanna see how it will end, and inspire other people to create works too... (maybe also reading the canon material too, but that's another thing, i can't force people to read the canon or to just see the wiki and tv troupes too, that's something the fans would do by themselves, i guess?) Sorry fo the long ramble, but i really had a lot of things to say about this series though.

[@Eltipoquevisteayer]

As for Aya, ZUN conceptualized a camerawoman since the begginings of the windows era, in the spirits of "someone has to film things from above as in the games"

[@maxicheese4609]

Where he said that?

[@Eltipoquevisteayer]

@@maxicheese4609 in the wiki page about her, citing some interviews

[@neskey]

that was a really nice analysis, i appreciate the research that went behind the scenes as i would've never really dug into the artists and producers' backgrounds to that extent. so this was very informative. though i'd like to add something that i've noticed being in touhou community circles for as long as i have i can surely attest to the fact that the fans aren't just one group, there's a huge contrast of artistic, cultural, and political opinions that allow for the existence of any number of fan groups, and those people gain new members from their own respective likeness and expand their own opinion of how the community should be like, that's partly why the project is even as big as it is, ZUN has never directly discriminated against anyone who was willing to throw their hats in the ring with whatever idea for the project that they want, for better or for worse. however, that doesn't means that the fans themselves weren't willing to do that on his behalf. i've seen all kinds of opinions thrown around about how touhou should be "seen" as a main reference for everyone to follow, and that's not to say that i don't have my own biases of what that reference is. everyone does. but again, no one reference is enforced, so you have a bunch of fan groups of all differing opinions who are all growing as touhou is becoming more mainstream in the west, and those new fans are usually given advice for how to start getting into touhou based on that own group's biases. that's the reality of the fandom. what i think MoP was eerily good at is it's (unintentional) mirroring of that reality only in a practical and observable single work. you were completely right by saying it was an adaptation of the fandom, the fandom is chaotic and never agrees on anything and so does the show, the fandom has identity issues too, you can't separate it but you also can't lump it together. MoP's very long production also shows how the fandom has changed from it's relatively niche japanese following in the late 2000s to where we are today. it's attempt to be everything for everyone (or, contrarily, it's unwillingness to change and be reshaped by the fandom) is ironically what made everyone hate it. but even more ironically, that's an even more perfect recapturing of the fandom than what it would've been if they decided to hone in on one subject, yes, the fans are chaotic, stubborn, and annoying at times, but that's just what touhou always was

[@jaysanj152]

Had Memories of Phantasm be it's own thing and got it's own original story rather than following the footsteps based on the Fandom's perspective rather than canon.. It would have gotten a much more positive reception and people would have never misunderstood. This is why my personal favorite Reireimu and Osana Reimu (despite sadly not an anime) is amazing as it's purely an original work. Really sad to see this series at such situation..an Indie anime with such caliber of animation production is a given and a rarity and i'll still treasure it while accept its flaws.

[@vyllix8546]

As someone who has had this as one of their first ever Touhou content, i described it as mostly unmemorable and hard to follow at times, and now that i get the references it gets better but i still feel some of that because of that unfocused genre whole thing. About the fanservice i just didn't care much i still think it's out of place and doesn't help much with characterization nor plot development, and is just there, which is some of why i think some people may hate it, but i completely with the artistic way you described it's, well, reason. And for Yukari, god, such an unique character which can be representated and used in an infinity of ways, even her personality is a bit up to interpretation, so it's yeah, pretty sad to see a good satisfying use of the character in i would say most fanworks actually, but specially MoF which builds her up so much but just fails to really deliver on any of it, which is kind of a shame but i think just the idea of writting a character with such scale in power and presence is just really hard to follow through, i would really like to hear what's your favorite version/work the character is used/how is interpreted in!

[@АртурОголенко-б7о]

Suwako's stone hands come from hisoutensoku spells so I don't see any problem with that. Maybe a snake would really look more interesting but it wouldn't make as much sense as using an actual Suwako spell.

[@mofongoboy2057]

Not to be nitpicky but Suwako does use the Hand fist in Hisoutensoku

[@Niiue]

Looking through the comments it's very interesting reading everyone's thoughts and opinions on MoP and how many there are. I haven't watched the video yet; I may do so later and edit this comment when I do, but I suppose I'll just give my two cents on MoP in the meantime: Memories of Phantasm is very weird. It's widely considered *the* Touhou anime, so you'd think that it'd be accurate to the games it portrays and also not mischaracterize the characters. But the thing with Touhou is that *everybody* has their different interpretations to each character, and Memories of Phantasm is no different. So, the anime ends up mischaracterizing characters from their canon, or atleast widely accepted fanon selves (obvious examples being Eiki and Flandre). However, I think that MoP only has as much fault as an average Touhou fanwork in this regard. After all, it's just another fanwork that just so happened to be considered the main Touhou anime. Another comment explained this in great detail (i believe it's DeltaPie's) and I agreed with all of what they said. MoP is a great fanwork, but it's just that. A regular, very high quality fan work. Any fan work, no matter how good, should not be expected to act as a shining beacon of canonicity. It's fine as an introduction, any fanwork is really, but you should definitely add a disclaimer before directing someone to watch the anime as a start.

[@snowpegasi]

With all the slice of life bits added I'd say it's a safe bet the writers are probably from the fanfiction scene, ironically in the fanfiction scene slice of life is probably the most popular, most likely because danmaku battles are hard to write well, and character interactions are the bread and butter of fan fictions as a whole.

[@Suika182]

I lost all hope in MoP when they spend 4 episodes on the EoSD arc and Flandre was angsting about going outside (unlike her canon counterpart). I mean, I know fans love EoSD and the Scarlets, but they took most of the focus. And let's not get into Eiki, they did her dirty.

[@ehhidk]

Canon: Tall, Is a good therapist, based 🍷 Fanon: Loli, annoying, cringe 💀

[@Xo-3130]

Thing is those episodes were written a decade ago. Back then Flandre's personality was largely fanon based even in Japan. Its extremely recent that Flamdre's canon personality got more fleshed out. Which I think isn't brought up enough. MoP is more then likely written with a Touhou fandom that's sort of drifted away.

[@shanemcdowell3628]

Great, now I'm inspired to make Touhou Walfas videos.

[@dannozzer]

This is such a good video man, enjoyed it a lot. It's nice to see an in-depth analysis and not just another post pointing out MoP's flaws 🙏

[@kag2576]

Came to see a video on a touhou anime, left with literary and artistic knowledge😂 This video taught me a lot of MoP (now I know why the earliest releases have no dubbing whatsoever, that's how its made). For me it was one of the major introductions I had into the franchise and even back then I could tell there was a disparity between itself and the canon lore. I really enjoyed the show up until the IN arc where we were pretty much going through the same motions as the previous arc just it was paced more terribly and did little to payoff any of it's cliff-hangers. It's frustrating because there's so much that's good here and with a bit of fine tuning and a focus on making enjoyable characters over hitting plot beats this it could be amazing.

[@pedropimenta896]

...why I'm watching this, I barely know Touhou and it's 1am!

[@snakebot4986]

I personally think that Musou Kakyou is the best touhou fan anime we're going to get outside of one note PVs. Amazing that it's made by one person.

[@muha0644]

33:00 it's a jojo reference... You know, because Sakuya can stop time, and she's at the top of the stairs...

[@suleyth]

It made me really sad to find out MoP has never ever turned a profit. I understand why when you explain it, but man… It does sound tragic.

[@anmmmr44]

This is a great video essay that touches on alot of things, but in my personal opinion I only really noticed a few things while watching I did get a bit annoyed how meiling wasnt a fight and how long it took to go to the patchouli fight but, I really liked everything else regardless the repetitive nature wasnt really noticed by me just because I was so interested in things the show made me like, I also didnt look at it as an adaptation of the anime because I saw how it started and the fights werent portrayed the same, so I just assumed it was its own thing I thought it was neat to see characters I like but I guess all of this is an opinion and people are allowed to think whatever they wish! I liked it all in all though

[@_naitmer_328]

I think my only possible problem with MoP is that Fantasy Seal goes hard and speedruns the entire fight but in general, it's a nice adaptation.

[@C00L9UY]

34:25 You've obviously never gotten a clutch with a death bomb then....

[@ABowlofPho]

I've always liked it for what it was and it got me into Touhou, so it did its job for me at least.

[@rainspectre3153]

I'd say the real problem with MoP (besides the budgetary ones) is that they were too conservative, if anything. 2hu is a near-impossible franchise to directly "adapt", because large swaths of characterization and lore are left to fans to fill in, the stories of the actual games are paper-thin, and there's no consistent tone or direction for the franchise or its characters. One has to get creative to create something resembling a satisfying narrative, and while I agree with your point about how the anime isn't meant as an "adaptation", the problem is that its still using the original games as a framework. PoFV's adaptation is boring as shit? Well, that's because PoFV itself is a game with basically no real story outside of a couple random events and elements. There's not much to really tell. Really, if you were to try to adapt 2hu, you'd need to do something like what Gensou Taisen did and use the original material as a skeleton to be iterated upon. It doesn't even matter how accurate it is per say (most boom period fanworks are incredibly inaccurate both to established lore and what came later), but it needs to be at least something people can be interested in. As it stands, the anime is basically only powered by the novelty of seeing the characters animated, and that's something which I imagine wore off considerably as time continued.

[@hankwimbleton3119]

This review really reminded me about how I loved the early episodes of Memories of Phantasm, but it's big issue is inconsistency. The canon deviations were more infuriating because there were moments where it was really good at sticking to canon and even expanding it in believable and fun ways. The sudden influx of anticlimactic battles was infuriating because early on there were some really good ones.

[@sebastianphantom4173]

this is a really good video, thank you!