Touhou Project

東方Project Touhou Project Toho Project, Touhou Series, Project Shrine Maiden
Created by Team Shanghai Alice
Years active	1996-present
No. of Installments	20 games
Sub-series	ZUN's Music Collection Touhou Kourindou Touhou Bougetsushou Touhou Sangetsusei Akyu's Untouched Score Touhou Ibarakasen Touhou Suzunaan
Official websites	http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/ http://kourindou.exblog.jp http://twitter.com/korindo

The Touhou Project (東方Project), or Project Shrine Maiden is a collective term for a series of 2D (with 3D background) vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting games as well as related print works made by Team Shanghai Alice, with four fighting game spinoffs co-produced with Twilight Frontier, called "danmaku action games." The works of Touhou Project are sometimes called the Touhou Series (東方シリーズ, Tōhō shirīzu) for convenience.

The Guinness World Records named the Touhou Project as the "worlds most prolific fan-made shooter series".

Name and Concept

Touhou (東方) means "Eastern" and can refer to some or all of the areas, cultures, or histories within East Asia. Historically the term "the Orient" was widely used to refer to trade goods, artwork, literature, or other items or topics related to countries in East Asia such as China, Japan, Korea, or Vietnam. According to the Music Room Special in Mystic Square, the naming scheme of 東方ＯＯＯ originally came from one of the first songs he composed for Highly Responsive to Prayers called Touhou Kaikidan (東方怪奇談). With some exceptions, the title of games/books/CDs of the Touhou Project are all under the format of "Japanese main title (double byte space: '　') (double byte wave dash: '～') (single byte space) English subtitle (single byte period)".

Designation

In the Japanese community, and the Chinese and Korean communities, the works are usually referred by the main title without the Touhou (e.g. 紅魔郷 (Koumakyou) for 東方紅魔郷　～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil). For short, they're referred by their third kanji/hanzi/hanja (e.g. 紅). However for some titles, there are exceptions: Hisoutensoku -> "天則" (Tensoku) or "則" (soku). Double Spoiler -> "DS". Fairy Wars -> Mostly "大戦争" (Daisensou); if abbreviation is needed, just 戦 is used. Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red -> "書籍文花帖" (lit. "the book Bunkachou"). Perfect Memento in Strict Sense -> (before SoPm) 求聞 (Gumon), (after SoPm) 史記 (Shiki). The Grimoire of Marisa -> グリモア (Gurimoa). Symposium of Post-mysticism -> 口授 (Kuju). Curiosities of Lotus Asia -> 香霖堂 (Kourindou). Silent Sinner in Blue -> 儚月抄 (Bougetsushou). Cage in Lunatic Runagate -> 小説抄 (lit. "Novel shou"). Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth -> Most commonly うどんげっしょー (Udon Gesshou). Music CDs are all referred by their full Japanese title, and Sangetsusei are called by "三月精" (Sangetsusei) + volumes.

In the Western community (English, French, Spanish, etc.), they are referred by their English subtitles (e.g. the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil). For short, they are referred by the acronyms of their subtitles (e.g. EoSD). The leading "the" is sometimes omitted in the former, but always in the latter. Works without an English subtitle may be referred by their main title, as with Touhou Hisoutensoku (Soku) and The Grimoire of Marisa (GoM), or by their translated subtitle, as with Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth (IotMaIotE).

Touhou "Series" not canon?

While some fans and many people who are not fans call the Touhou Project as "Touhou Series" (東方シリーズ, Tōhō shirīzu), ZUN himself has a tendency to avoid using this term. So quite a lot of (canon-inclined) fans consider it not canon and believe it is an inappropriate term. ZUN has given a reason to this in the after report of Gensou Denshou (幻想伝承). He said that he has been avoiding to use "series", because it has been established to have an image of "commercialism". He also said that Touhou is hard to be considered as a "series" - since system, story and characters are all unrelated per each work and only the worldview is same. But it should be noted that right after he said that he finished his line with: "...Well, it is a series though." making the audience burst out laughing.

Japanese culture

Main article: Touhou and Japanese culture

The Touhou Project has a lot of aspects to Japanese culture throughout the series, like mythology, traditions, and religion, most notably to the texts, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. It usually uses Japanese folklore and some traditions in storylines, and uses religion and mythology in characters. There are even a lot more links to Japanese culture, and they all come together creatively, making the series more traditional than modern itself.

Modern Science

Main article: Touhou and Modern Science

Modern science and technology hold very little aspects in the Touhou Project, but has become quite common in recent material.

Works

PC-98 Games 東方靈異伝　～ Highly Responsive to Prayers 東方封魔録　～ Story of Eastern Wonderland 東方夢時空　～ Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream 東方幻想郷　～ Lotus Land Story 東方怪綺談　～ Mystic Square Windows Games 東方紅魔郷　～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil 東方妖々夢　～ Perfect Cherry Blossom 東方萃夢想　～ Immaterial and Missing Power 東方永夜抄　～ Imperishable Night 東方花映塚　～ Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方文花帖　～ Shoot the Bullet 東方風神録　～ Mountain of Faith 東方緋想天　～ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody 東方地霊殿　～ Subterranean Animism 東方星蓮船　～ Undefined Fantastic Object 東方非想天則　～ 超弩級ギニョルの謎を追え (Touhou Hisoutensoku) ダブルスポイラー　～ 東方文花帖 (Double Spoiler) 妖精大戦争　～ 東方三月精 (Fairy Wars) 東方神霊廟　～ Ten Desires 東方心綺楼　～ Hopeless Masquerade 東方輝針城　～ Double Dealing Character ZUN's Music Collection 蓬莱人形　～ Dolls in Pseudo Paradise 蓮台野夜行　～ Ghostly Field Club 夢違科学世紀　～ Changeability of Strange Dream 卯酉東海道　～ Retrospective 53 minutes 大空魔術　～ Magical Astronomy 未知の花　魅知の旅 (Unknown Flower, Mesmerizing Journey) 鳥船遺跡　～ Trojan Green Asteroid 伊弉諾物質　～ Neo-traditionalism of Japan

Akyu's Untouched Score 幺樂団の歴史1　～ Akyu's Untouched Score vol.1 幺樂団の歴史2　～ Akyu's Untouched Score vol.2 幺樂団の歴史3　～ Akyu's Untouched Score vol.3 幺樂団の歴史4　～ Akyu's Untouched Score vol.4 幺樂団の歴史5　～ Akyu's Untouched Score vol.5 Danmaku Action Game soundtracks 幻想曲抜萃 東方萃夢想 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK 全人類ノ天楽録 東方緋想天 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK 核熱造神ヒソウテンソク 東方非想天則 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK Written Works 東方文花帖　～ Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red 東方紫香花　～ Seasonal Dream Vision 東方求聞史紀　～ Perfect Memento in Strict Sense The Grimoire of Marisa 東方求聞口授　～ Symposium of Post-mysticism Comics 東方香霖堂　～ Curiosities of Lotus Asia 東方三月精 Series 東方三月精　～ Eastern and Little Nature Deity 東方三月精　～ Strange and Bright Nature Deity 東方三月精　～ Oriental Sacred Place 東方儚月抄 Series 東方儚月抄　～ Silent Sinner in Blue 東方儚月抄　～ Cage in Lunatic Runagate 東方儚月抄　～ 月のイナバと地上の因幡 (Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth) 東方茨歌仙　～ Wild and Horned Hermit 東方鈴奈庵　～ Forbidden Scrollery

System

Absence or presence of fundamental controls

	HRtP	SoEW	PoDD	LLS	MS	EoSD	PCB	IN	PoFV	StB	MoF	SA	UFO	DS	FW	TD
Player Character selection	×	×	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	×	○	○	○	○	×	○
Weapon choice	×	○	×	○	×	○	○	×	×	×	○	○	○	×	×	×
Slow movement	×	×	×	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Shot change during slow movement	×	×	×	×	×	○	○	○	×	×	○	○	○	×	×	○
Bomb: Bomb gauge consumption	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	×	×	×	○	×	○	○
Bomb: Power gauge consumption	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	○	×	×	×	×
Extend: Points	○	○	○	○	×	○	×	×	○	×	○	×	×	×	×	×
Extend: Special Item Collection	×	×	×	×	○	×	○	○	×	×	×	○	○	×	×	○
Extend: Other	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	×
Difficulty: Extra	×	○	×	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Difficulty: Phantasm	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	×
Difficulty: Spoiler	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	×	×
Continue: recover on-spot	×	○	×	○	○	○	○	○	×	×	×	×	×	×	○	○
Continue: from beginning of stage	○	×	○	×	×	×	×	×	○	×	○	○	○	×	×	×
	HRtP	SoEW	PoDD	LLS	MS	EoSD	PCB	IN	PoFV	StB	MoF	SA	UFO	DS	FW	TD

Additional Information

• All of ZUN's print works of the Touhou world include all the characters re/appearing in the Windows series at least once showing that the Windows games have a direct connection to the literature.
• The game Uwabami Breakers and the Seihou Project series have some relation to the Touhou Project, although they aren't part of it.