I've been wondering for a long time.. Why is Touhou so big..? It's been really annoying me to find almost every second picture on here being a touhou picture to the point I started adding "-touhou" to my tag searches.. The characters don't look bad so I decided to look into it but apparently it's only a game, which I stopped enjoying after a very short time. I didn't get to know the characters one bit and so I still have no interest in it. Do people like them despite not knowing who they actually are or is there actually a storyline to this..? I still feel like I haven't figured out what is the reason of it's popularity, so could someone please tell me..? Only reason I'd see is that I don't understand because I don't understand japanese. Thanks in advance.
There are hundreds of characters of whom at least one is bound to pander to your particular fetish, their personalities are established in most cases by fewer than 50 lines of dialogue so you can warp them any way you want, and unless you are an exceptionally inept artist your art is guaranteed to look better than that of the original game. It's the perfect subject for fanart and doujinshi.
However, instead of adding -touhou to all of your tag searches, you should probably add touhou to your blacklist (Click on My Account, then click Settings, it's at the very top.).
Here's a extremely absurd and I do mean extremely absurd idea, Why don't we just ban anything Touhou related and you don't have to worry about why people like the series anymore.
Edit: Another extremely absurd idea: Users known for posting Touhou related artworks (i.e ME) start posting less of it. I prefer the former but the latter is just as effective.
Mr_GT said: Here's a extremely absurd and I do mean extremely absurd idea, Why don't we just ban anything Touhou related and you don't have to worry about why people like the series anymore.
Edit: Another extremely absurd idea: Users known for posting Touhou related artworks (i.e ME) start posting less of it. I prefer the former but the latter is just as effective.
Those are less absurd and more stupid. Why even suggest that?
Because I felt like suggesting them that and I remember talk about banning Touhou from Danbooru some time ago. I forgot what was the verdict on it though. It's not like those idea will cause the demise of Danbooru or anything.
The idea of banning a series because of popularity though, which is at the core of your proposals, is a concept that would cause the demise of Danbooru on the other hand.
A "Nou Touhou" month, where nothing even related to it may knowingly be uploaded, hopefully spurring uploaders to tap into their other interests, and thus may the touhou-to-not-touhou ratio be lessened.
Some garbage gets mixed in, but Touhou or not, Danbooru shouldn't be deprived of quality work for any length of time simply because it's too popular or some don't like it.
Since this topic has not yet been locked, let me ask a related question I have been pondering about.
When you judge fan art inspired by "Clannad", "K-On!", "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", "Sailor Moon" or whatever, I suppose that a part of the procedure is comparing the characters' looks in your mind with their original or other well-known canonical designs. Did they come out "right"? Even if the artist was aiming at a completely different interpretation, the work's relation to the "neutral originals" still counts.
When it comes to Touhou, however, I doubt anyone actually uses ZUN's official art as the standard. Sure, his designs are the starting point, but not the norm.
While artistic approaches vary wildly, there seems to be a fairly established idea of how to draw Touhou characters in a "neutral" style. I maintain that e.g. post #417085 comes much closer to "neutral" than does e.g. post #510452.
Does anyone know who originated the generic style of Touhou illustrations? If there were multiple steps of development, who were the most definitive artists?
This is more than art history, this is also relevant when Danbooru staff view, approve and delete Touhou illustrations.
(Seriously, I would not wonder if somebody accidentally tagged a plain ZUN-style Marisa-and-Reimu pic by a random artist with yukkuri_shiteitte_ne.)
I don't think anyone "originated" the style you describe, Katajanmarja, for the simple reason that it consists of generic anime characters endowed with specific Touhou features.
But then again, there are "real" artists who have worked exceptionally closely with ZUN, illustrating his manga manuscripts, for example. And certain specific features, like Marisa's way to grin, have a touch of originality I rarely come across in art based on other copyrights.
(My own guess has been the doujin manga created by Aki Eda/Rocket Nenryou 21, but I am not well-read in Touhou fandom.)
