Image source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/132766454.

Touhou Project.

A game series that is somehow both well-known and not well-known at the same time.

Touhou Project is well-known.

If you were there during the 2000s, you might have heard about Touhou Project through the viral song Bad Apple, a soundtrack within the series. You might have also learned about Touhou Project as the famous bullet hell game that everyone kept dying yet everyone kept playing. You might have also known Touhou Project through the various memes that have long since become staples of the Touhou Project fandom.

Touhou Project is not well-known.

Not everyone appreciates how astonishing the danmaku are. Not everyone appreciates how beautiful the character themes are. Not everyone appreciates how mesmerizing the world building is. And yet, those are all the aspects that made up the charm of Touhou Project.

Hell, the last time I went to an anime concert and they had Touhou Project, it was Bad Apple. Now, Bad Apple is an absolute banger, but we also have tens of other soundtracks of the same caliber or even higher.

So, what is Touhou Project?

It’s a bullet hell game. In the lingo, we call ‘em danmaku, a Japanese term that directly translates to “barrage”. But it’s not just any bullet hell game. The game wasn’t made by a game developer who wished to promote his game. It was made by a composer who wished to promote his music.

That’s what makes Touhou Project so uniquely special.

Normally, you write the story, then you try to get the music to work with the story. That only works if your story is good enough in the first place, and even then you still have to make sure the music can properly enhance the story. Most importantly, it’s quite easy to lose track of the core emotions of the story, with all the logic and events going on within the story.

That wasn’t the case with Touhou Project.

The gameplay, the danmaku patterns, the characters, the world building, the story.

All were there to serve the music that he created, the emotions that inspired him.

That’s why everything in Touhou Project feels so random, yet so mesmerizing at the same time. Just like emotions.

Aaaaand it just so happened that the guy was so darn good at dodging stuff that his games engrained nightmares into the mind of every single person who dared play them.

So, if you want to experience something truly unique, go discover Touhou Project for yourself. You may not enjoy the gameplay to the fullest (it’s bullet hell, it’s niche as hell, and I have skill issues as well), but you won’t regret the experience.

And btw, Kochiya Sanae is my beloved wife.