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ZUN: Difference between revisions

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===History===
===History===
ZUN was born on {{Birth date and age|1977|3|18|mf=yes}}, in [[wikipedia:Hakuba, Nagano|Hakuba]], [[wikipedia:Nagano|Nagano]], and graduated from [[wikipedia:Tokyo Denki University|Tokyo Denki University]], the home of [[Amusement Makers]]. The MAG-Net episode shows that in 2008, he lived in [[wikipedia:Ebina, Kanagawa|Ebina]], [[wikipedia:Kanagawa Prefecture|Kanagawa]]. His current residence is unknown.
ZUN was born on {{Birth date and age|1977|3|18|mf=yes}}, in [[wikipedia:Hakuba, Nagano|Hakuba]], [[wikipedia:Nagano|Nagano]], and graduated from [[wikipedia:Tokyo Denki University|Tokyo Denki University]], the home of [[Amusement Makers]]. The MAG-Net episode shows that at the time, he lived in [[wikipedia:Ebina, Kanagawa|Ebina]], [[wikipedia:Kanagawa Prefecture|Kanagawa]]. His current residence is unknown.


He has confirmed in an interview that he had started composing his own pieces of music since junior high school, and had learned how to play the [[wikipedia:Electone|Electone]] (which his parents had bought) and the trumpet (as part of a wind instruments ensemble) since elementary school.
He has confirmed in an interview that he had started composing his own pieces of music since junior high school, and had learned how to play the [[wikipedia:Electone|Electone]] (which his parents had bought) and the trumpet (as part of a wind instruments ensemble) since elementary school.

Revision as of 16:49, 4 June 2013

ZUN
Also known as Jun'ya Ota (太田順也 (おたじゅんや) )
ZUN
ZUN in his interview with "The Net Star" (2008)
Title

Hakurei Kannushi, Team Shanghai Alice Leader

Born

March 18, 1977 (1977-03-18) (age 47) Hakuba, Nagano, Japan

Location

Formally Ebina, Kanagawa, Japan, currently unknown

Gender

Male

Notable from

the Touhou Project

Circle(s)

Team Shanghai Alice

Occupation

Programmer, Game Director, Game Producer, Character Designer, Illustrator, Game Designer, Music Composer, Novelist

Music Themes

Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures (Changeability of Strange Dream)

Art Example

Reimu Hakurei
Reimu Hakurei in Lotus Land Story.
Reimu Hakurei
Reimu Hakurei in Double Dealing Character.

Music Example

Composed UFO Romance in the Night Sky from Undefined Fantastic Object.

Websites

Jun'ya Ota (太田順也 Ohta Jun'ya), pen-name ZUN, is the sole known member of Team Shanghai Alice, and is the designer, programmer, script writer, and composer of the extremely popular Touhou Project. He's seen to be rather reclusive and it's known that he's very fond of beer. He was employed by Taito Corporation,[1] and had been involved in the production of various Taito titles as a programmer.

Works

Games

Music Soundtracks

Print

Works with Taito Corporation

ZUN in the credits of EXIT.

Games unrelated to Touhou

Doujin Games

Doujin Albums

Biography

A limited biography of ZUN could be written based upon the lengthy texts included within his games (letters to the player) and interviews for various publications. Unfortunately, a large majority of these remain untranslated for the Touhou Wiki. Despite the current massive lack of information known or comprehensible, a good amount of relevant information is known about him.

Name

ZUN's real name was first revealed in the third Touhou Project game, Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream.

ZUN has used the nickname "ZUN" since his childhood, since it is a short form of his real name (in the arcade word, such manner was quite common for many players since most games had a three letter limit for the names to be input on the high score screen). The name is coincidentally the leading alphabets for "ZUNTATA", the sound team at Taito Corporation where he worked.

ZUN's real name is Jun'ya Ota (太田順也), seen in the documentation of the five PC-98 games, as well as the credits of Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream, Lotus Land Story and Mystic Square in 1997 and 1998; the name has also been listed in archives of ZUN's profile page on his website up to June 2002. Additionally, not mentioned officially but the same name has been shown in the number of Taito games ZUN had involved in. His name was also used on official documents.[2]

ZUN also refers to himself as the Hakurei Kannushi (博麗神主), or the head priest of the Hakurei Shrine, used as his byline on some Touhou print works and the name shown on his Twitter account. He has stated he "secretly works in the Hakurei Shrine as the shrine master" in Changeability of Strange Dream. In canon, the Hakurei Shrine in Gensokyo has received sake from the outside world as an offering on several occasions, which may be a joking reference to how well-known ZUN is for drinking more than an oni.

History

ZUN was born on March 18, 1977 (1977-03-18) (age 47), in Hakuba, Nagano, and graduated from Tokyo Denki University, the home of Amusement Makers. The MAG-Net episode shows that at the time, he lived in Ebina, Kanagawa. His current residence is unknown.

He has confirmed in an interview that he had started composing his own pieces of music since junior high school, and had learned how to play the Electone (which his parents had bought) and the trumpet (as part of a wind instruments ensemble) since elementary school.

According to a post made on ZUN's Twitter around September 2009, he now has a job other than making the Touhou games (what type of job he has wasn't stated, only that on the first day of work he was an hour early). He said in his interview with MAG-Net that his fondest ambition in life is to open a brewpub.

In a February 2012 radio interview, ZUN announced that he had recently married, with the formal ceremony to be held on May 27 (the day of Reitaisai 9). It's known that his wife is a programmer and that they originally met in 2004.

Appearance

ZUN appears to always wear a flat cap. He mainly wears a green, flower-patterned ascot and a black one with a gold and red design around it. He also wears glasses.

ZUN has stated in an interview that he weighs only 50kg (roughly 110lbs, around about 7.8st). Whether this is really accurate is impossible to truly confirm, but it's clear that he's very thin, almost ridiculously so.

Personality

ZUN appears to be a rather cheerful person, as seen in most of his interviews as he rather laughs at a lot of things. However, he can be rather quiet when talking. An example of him been quiet when talking is at the after-party of Hakurei Jinjya Reitaisai 8. He also can be nostalgic at times. He takes beer as one of his greatest passions, but for the true reason why he does and when he had his first beer is unknown.

It is known that ZUN is a fan of music that uses FM (Frequency Modulation) Synthesis, as most of the non-MIDI music in the PC-98 games were created using FM Synthesis. He also states in a note in the Akyu's Untouched Score albums that he resents the gradual phasing out of FM Synthesis that's occurring today.

Additional Information

ZUN in the fangame Touhou Unreal Mahjong.
  • ZUN appears as a playable character in the fangame Touhou Unreal Mahjong. Due to ZUN having involvment in the game, and that the in-game image is a real photo of ZUN, its canonicity is debatable.
  • In his interview on Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, ZUN said that he develops his games with Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop and Cubase SX.
  • The theme song "Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures" in Changeability of Strange Dream is ZUN's official theme. He has stated in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red that writing this song was somewhat embarrassing and that "It's like the theme song that plays when you make your entrance on a talk show". This has happened twice or more when ZUN entered a talk show.
    • This theme seems to be the only one that ZUN wrote lyrics for. However, he either couldn't or didn't get anyone to sing the vocal part, so the theme was left as a non-vocal.
  • He jokingly states in an e-mail that he has been working on, and will continue to work on, the Touhou Project games because a part of him lacks common sense. However, he has stated that the actual reason why he originally made the game series and Team Shanghai Alice is because he couldn't find any games he liked himself, so he decided to make games he liked entirely by himself. In the Swedish Magazine Interview, he replies to the last question with, "I'm going to keep making games that stand out, so if all my fans disappear I'm still happy I can keep doing the games I want."
    • Also, Taito created the game Darius Gaiden, which is one of ZUN's favorite shoot'em up games. This is another known reason for him to start the Touhou Project.
  • He has mentioned in the same Swedish Magazine Interview that the company he worked for didn't like his work on the Touhou Project very much since it meant that he was working two parts.

Fandom

Not even ZUN himself is safe from derivative works.
  • As it's his title, the word "Kannushi" (神主) is used interchangeably with "ZUN".
  • A figure creator called Moge Koubou made an action figure of ZUN. With his permission, it was sold at the 2009 Winter Comiket.
  • It's common for fans to jokingly state that what created Touhou and Gensokyo was beer, not ZUN.
  • There's a theory that ZUN might have trouble designing male characters due to the number of female characters. This theory is backed up by the following:
    • While a number of important male characters are mentioned in the Touhou canon, most of them weren't introduced to the series and don't have an official character design.
    • Myouren Hijiri was originally the final boss of Undefined Fantastic Object, but ZUN decided against it because he said "It would be weird to have an old man as the last boss in Touhou".
    • ZUN jokes about Gates from the Seihou Project having a girlish theme and that he didn't know how to create an appropriate theme for him.
  • In the game Touhou Soccer Moushuuden, he makes an appearance (but not in real looks) in the ending, announcing the second tournament.
  • In fanart and doujinshi, the unsound effect, "ZUUUU~N!", is sometimes used.
  • The trumpets heard in his music have often been referred to as "ZUNpets" (ZUNペット) by fans.
  • Because ZUN has been seen wearing this, he has been compared to Aya Shameimaru due to the similarity of their clothes. Aya has also been referred to as "ZUN's girlfriend" because of her recurring appearance in the games.

ZUN Speaks

Fully translated

Partially translated

Untranslated

Recovered

These videos were originally available and translated, but the uploader was forced to set them to private after several copyright claims.
They are now re-uploaded, though untranslated.

Gallery

External Links

References

  1. He is currently not employed by Taito. It was stated in Nico Nico Live (Association of Victims of Takeshi's Challenge -Come Out, Developers! Special-) broadcast on 3/31/2009.
  2. White Canvas Case: comment