Touhou Project: Why you so Prolific?

Touhou Project

Every Otaku should know the popular, doujin game series entitled Touhou Project. Since the first installment's release [which dates way back into the 90's], the game has garnered fans from all over the globe. It's one-man developer [Team Shanghai Alice] probably expected that the game would spawn more of its kind and could eventually gain a huge fan base  The sudden "Guinness World Record" award may have been shocking for him, though. 

Moving on. With over 120 playable female characters to choose from, there's no telling when your gaming experience would end. And if you get tired of two-dimensional installments, there's always the 3-dimensional versions to look forward to. Touhou Kobuto and DynaMarisa are two 3D touhou-based games created by different developers as a tribute to Touhou Project as a whole. A doujin doujin game...?

 

So... There are lots of girls in this game... The target audience must be female...

NO. Touhou is for EVERYONE. The main reason why there are lots of girls is for the sake of... I don't know. Loveable... Adorable... Cuteness? Moe? Fan Service? Probably all of the above but the reason still hasn't been clearly stated. There IS one male character and his name is Rinnosuke. Poor guy. Probably gets beaten up everyday by the rest of the girls. 

It's a 2-D game... It should've been outdated years ago.

We know. But Touhou exists for that very reason. Think of it as reliving the good old days when you would waste your time watching a heavily pixelated Super Mario. Other than that, Touhou is fun. And like I stated earlier, touhou-based 3-D games exist, so if you get bored of 2-D, you could easily go 3-D. 

It has an anime... but the anime seems to have only one episode with no dubs.

That's Touhou: Memories of Phantasm/ Fantasy Kaleidoscope. It's a doujin anime. And it already has dubs. One girl worked incredibly hard to dub every character in that episode. See how far fans would go just to see their favorite characters in an anime series? They're so dedicated that it's bringing me to tears!

What's this shadow art thingy? It's--

That's Bad Apple -- the infamous touhou music video! One look at it makes it seem almost like the shadows of real people. Touhou fans are so creative ♥. The unlimited rain of fan-made artworks and videos dedicated to touhou is what's helping the touhou fanbase grow and grow and grow and grow...

What are these? Yukkuri--

Yukkuris are a different species themselves. Almost every touhou character has a yukkuri version of themselves. Stay away from Alice though... There's no telling what she could do.