Reception and Fanworks
A prodigious amount of derivative works based on Touhou have been created since the release of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. These include dōjinshi, dōjin music, MAD movies, dōjin anime, and dōjin games (even though the Touhou games themselves are dōjin games). The vast scope of Touhou derivatives prompted commentary, noting that Touhou Project became an unmissable aspect of Japanese consumer generated media. These dōjin activities are mostly responsible for adding original attributes to characters that ZUN may not have intended. Yuri pairings are prevalent among Touhou dōjinshi. Japanese fans have a habit of giving their favorite characters nicknames, often based on in-references. ZUN, for the most part, had acknowledged, appreciated, and even encouraged these derivative works by imposing very few restrictions on the use of his works. The major restrictions are on unauthorized commercial distribution (as opposed to dōjin) and the spoiler of endings; proper attribution to Team Shanghai Alice is a recommendation. ZUN stated himself that he did not want the Touhou Project game series to be officially commercialized. There are fan made projects, but when videos are posted, the title must have dōjin or fan made in it.
In terms of publication volume, there were no circles publishing Touhou derivative works at Comiket 64 in August 2003. The first recent publication of such works occurred during December 2003, following the release of Perfect Cherry Blossom; seven circles sold Touhou derivative works at Comiket 65 in December 2003. As of Comiket 74 in August 2008, a total of 885 circles were scheduled to have Touhou derivative works on display or for sale, out of a total of 35,000 circles participating at Comiket.
The dōjin games based on Touhou include adaptations of other game series' mechanics with Touhou characters, such as Super Marisa Land and Super Marisa World (parodies of the Mario games with the titles being a play on Super Mario Land and Super Mario World, respectively), MegaMari (based on the Mega Man series), and Touhou Soccer (based on the Captain Tsubasa games by Tecmo). The music of Touhou is also very popular and many arrangement CDs can be found for sale at Comiket and other Japanese conventions.
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Among the most popular derivatives are the series of Flash videos created by the dōjin music circle IOSYS. Many of them, most notable of which is "Marisa Stole the Precious Thing", are popular on otaku internet forums and Nico Nico Douga. A major internet meme that grew out from the Touhou fandom is "Yukkuri shite itte ne!!!" (ゆっくりしていってね!!!?, often translated as "Take it easy!!!"), involving disembodied bun-heads of Touhou characters, which originated from a disfigured attempt to draw the main characters Reimu and Marisa with Shift JIS art. They were so popular that the phrase "Yukkuri shite itte ne!!!" won bronze for 2008's "Net Slang of the Year" in Japan. The bun-heads, which became known as "yukkuri", also appear in Internet advertisements, the anime Natsu no Arashi! and Pani Poni Dash!, and most notably, the front page of 2channel, the largest Internet forum in the world. Yuyuko Saigyouji and Reimu Hakurei also make cameo character appearances in Square Enix's game Lord of Vermilion Re:2.
Several fanmade anime had been made for Touhou. An unofficial dōjin anime project by the dōjin circle Maikaze, titled A Summer's Day Dream (東方 夢想夏郷?), is a fan-made anime adaptation with an original plot featuring Touhou characters, with two episodes released in 2008 and 2012. Albeit created by an amateur studio, the animation project notably featured high-ranking professional voice actors. Another dōjin anime by the circle Manpuku Jinja, titled Fantasy Kaleidoscope ~ The Memories of Phantasm (幻想万華鏡?), was released at Comiket 80 in 2011, with one episode released based on the storyline of Perfect Cherry Blossom. A short derivative animated project, Anime Tenchou x Touhou Project (アニメ店長 x 東方Project?) was produced by Ufotable in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Japanese goods chain, Animate, as a promotional video for the store combining the world of Touhou with Animate's mascot, Meito Anizawa.
The Touhou Project was nominated for the eleventh annual Media Arts Plaza awards held by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, under the Entertainment category. However, Nintendo's Wii Sports was given the Grand Prize award and Touhou Project failed to win any awards.
Read more about this topic: Touhou Project
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