Touhou/Memes

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For a simple danmaku game, Touhou has spawned more memes than any others of its kind. Sometimes, the memes even become canon. Plus, these memes are breeding.

    1. Concentrate your mind.
    2. Mutter the spell into the Mini-Hakkero tenderly.
    3. Aim at someone you don't like.
    4. Unleash your annihilation of love!
  1. ↑ IOSYS's remix of Alice's leitmotif, and possibly the best-known Touhou meme. "Precious things" has since been adopted as the official euphemism for anything that Marisa steals, from books to Special Moves to virginity.
  2. ↑ Also by IOSYS. It helped contribute to Reisen's Fan Nickname (see below) and also contains "Yagokoro", a bizarre depiction of Eirin based off of a bad ASCII drawing. English speakers tend to call this song "Overdrive", even though it's really called "It Stops at the Affected Area and Dissolves Immediately ~ Lunatic Udongein".
  3. ↑ A remix of the remix by IOSYS, it is even more incomprehensible and horrifying. The phrase itself refers to Giygas from EarthBound
  4. ↑ A bizarre remix of "U.N. Owen Was Her?" starring Ronald McDonald, yet somehow more memetically popular.
  5. ↑ "Take it easy!" (literally "do it slowly"), this is the Catch Phrase of the Yukkuris, disembodied heads in the likeness of Touhou characters, the original image pictured above (though some types of Yukkuri get different catch phrases, such as Chen's "I get it!" and Remilia's "Uu! Uu!). Probably the largest Touhou meme of all, with gargantuan amounts of fanon even by the impressive standards of Touhou.
  6. ↑ This was a result of Kikuko Inoue incorporating her Catch Phrase into the "On the Next..." preview of Touhou Musou Kakyou, creating Wild Mass Guessing that she would be playing Yukari. We may learn later in 2011 when the new episode will be released.
  7. ↑ "Grandma", this is Yukari's Fan Nickname. It seems Kanako has inherited the nickname from her.
  8. ↑ A fanmade Cast Herd of Yukari, Yuyuko, Eirin, Kanako, and Byakuren, as the oldest-looking of all Touhou characters.
  9. ↑ Another attempt by Yukari to obfuscate her age, hiding it in one of her gaps.
  10. ↑ One of Cirno's spellcards in The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, possessing a big honking blind spot directly in front of her.
  11. ↑ The game the linked video is showing an Icicle Fall moment of is Bullet Heaven
  12. ↑ An arrange of Cirno's theme in which Cirno teaches mathematics (poorly).
  13. ↑ Said by Cirno in her route in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, it has been adopted as her Catch Phrase and a summary of her woefully inaccurate assessment of her strength. While she is definitely the strongest fairy, that isn't saying all that much.
  14. ↑ In retaliation to those calling Cirno stupid, fans have decided that Cirno is, in fact, a genius. Whether it is used mockingly or genuinely depends on the work, though again, she genuinely is surprisingly intelligent for a fairy.
  15. ↑ Cirno's use of "atai", a contracted form of the Japanese Pronoun "atashi". In English translations, this is occasionally rendered as "eye", as in "Eye'm the strongest!" (as a type of Funetik Aksent to indicate she's a Baka), but is well on its way to being a Discredited Meme.
  16. ↑ One of Cirno's many, many failed attempts at a Badass Boast, this one the most popular due to being the first.
  17. ↑ An entirely fan-made Cast Herd, led by Cirno (hence the name) and consisting of herself, Mystia, Wriggle, and Rumia, with occasionally also Daiyousei and Chen. They are depicted as basically a group of children, impetuous but determined, playing with each other and pranking everyone else.
  18. ↑ From Touhou Nekokayou, denotes Cirno smashing someone with a glacier-mallet. The phrase itself comes from the Scarlet Weather Rhapsody wiki.
  19. ↑ Utsuho's warning screen and sirens that accompany each of her spellcards in Subterranean Animism. Included in many drawings depicting Utsuho and musical arranges of her theme.
  20. ↑ Utsuho runs an exercise program.
  21. ↑ A troll sub of the above that has managed to become a meme of its own.
  22. ↑ A crossbreeding with a Nico Nico Douga meme revolving around a schoolbag commercial.
  23. ↑ Crossbreeding with a meme revolving around a 59-year-old man banging a drum.
  24. ↑ Reimu's Mountain of Faith portrait depicts her with incredibly pale skin, leading to the "explanation" that she is actually a zombie.
  25. ↑ Even his most die-hard fans admit that ZUN can't really draw, and jokes about it are endless.
  26. ↑ Testosterone Poisoning versions of Marisa and Rinnosuke respectively.
  27. ↑ The above used to be the source of the page image for Fan Disservice. It had to be seen to be believed.
  28. ↑ Sakuya has timehax abilities, uses knives, and while she isn't a vampire herself, she is very closely associated with two. The comparisons with Dio Brando were inevitable, and helped along by ZUN's many other Jojo's references.
  29. ↑ Fans were making parodies of the famous iPod advertisements with Sakuya, replacing iPod with iPad, for years before anyone even knew the iPad existed.
  30. ↑ Used in a similar fashion to the Candle Jack meme, Sakuya not liking people making that insinua
  31. ↑ An increasingly common variation is for Meiling to brag about her own (large) breasts, with predictable results.
  32. ↑ "Caved" refers to "horu", which can be interpreted as "violated anally" in Japanese. To say "I GOT CAVED BY EX-KEINE!" is roughly equal to saying "I GOT ASS-RAPED BY EX-KEINE!". (specifically, with her horns.)
  33. ↑ From a Happy Flame Time doujin, Cold Wind but Warm Winter, in which she gets drunk and demands that Kanako call her a good girl and pat her head. Used for basically any situation, genuinely when she's doing something good and ironically when she's doing something bad.
  34. ↑ Due to a few lines from the Undefined Fantastic Object demo after Sanae's defeat of Kogasa, fans came to the conclusion that Sanae is developing a sadistic streak.
  35. ↑ Sanae has become more belligerent, unstable, unreliable, and generally like a resident of Gensoukyou with each appearance, leading to the conclusion that simply moving to Gensoukyou is breaking her grip on reality, leading to this line, which Sanae says in Subterranean Animism.
  36. ↑ Sanae has become stronger as she loses her sanity, going from Stage 5 Boss to Ex-Mid-Boss to playable character, leading to this conclusion.
  37. ↑ Her appearances in numerous games and being playable in TH12, TH12.3 and TH13 have caused fans to draw parallels to how Aya became playable in many of the previous games by doing sexual favors for ZUN (see "Aya is ZUN's girlfriend" below). Futhermore, since she's often portrayed as a ditzy teenage girl who's been exposed to all the ills of the modern-day world, her image amongst Japanese fans has also shifted from a pure, goody-to-shoes girl to that of an indiscriminate nymphomaniac. This has caused many doujin artists to make her the subject of more H-doujins and hentai pictures than most other Touhou characters.
  38. ↑ Due to the resemblance when Kanako uses her onbashira in combat.
  39. ↑ Kaguya spends almost all her time in Eientei, leading to this. Fanartists often depict her engaging in typical Hikikomori activities like wearing a track suit, posting on Image Boards, and playing console games and MMORPGs. Kaguya is therefore the Touhou character most likely to be seen in fanart using a computer, even though canonically Gensoukyou doesn't have mainline electricity or any way to reach the internet.
  40. ↑ Patchouli is even more of a Hikikomori than Kaguya, spending at least a century in her library, though fan portrayals of her this way are less common. Rather famously, the two of them got along really well when they met in Life of Maid.
  41. ↑ A line from one of the more famous Ear Worms.
  42. ↑ From the doujin "Drunkards in Eientei" by Omchicken, this is used both to mock Reisen and as acknowledgement of the enormous amounts of Perverse Sexual Lust towards her.
  43. ↑ From a copypasta arguing that Touhou characters' power levels can't be judged from their relative positions in the games.
  44. ↑ The Fan Nickname for Unzan's attempts to actually punch the player.
  45. ↑ Due to Unzan supporting her like a Stand, Ichirin was dubbed this, to match with Sakuya Brando (see above).
  46. ↑ A combination meme that references both Unzan's status as one of the only MANLY characters in Touhou, as well as Ichirin being massively overshadowed in popularity by him.
  47. ↑ Depictions of Ran as an exhibitionist are absurdly common.
  48. ↑ From Ran and Chen's skit in Touhou M-1 Grand Prix, used whenever Chen does something cute. On its way to becoming a Discredited Meme.
  49. ↑ Ran is constantly depicted to leak blood like a hose from Chen's mere presence, like this. Often extended to Sakuya as well.
  50. ↑ Meiling's yells this in Patchouli and Meiling's skit in Touhou M-1 Grand Prix. Almost universally adopted as Meiling's battle cry.
  51. ↑ The almost complete lack of males has led to every character depicted as homosexual by default.
  52. ↑ Gensoukyou is filled with magic, and to some extent literally exists contrary to reason, and is commonly used as a Hand Wave.
  53. ↑ Eirin is a phenomenal genius that could probably make a potion or drug for anything, and is sometimes considered to be the cause of some piece of madness.
  54. ↑ Yukari's power is limited only by her sloth, and the potential of the presense of an easily bored, not easily amused quasi-god has not been overlooked by the fans.
  55. ↑ The Moriya trio have been more active and ambitious than anyone else, directly and indirectly responsible for the plots of five games, and it is speculated they have many more planned.
  56. ↑ The entire joke was spawned after this doujin panel with Reimu explaining to Marisa the potential culprits, and Marisa replying with this line. This meme is very popular on Danbooru.
  57. ↑ Reimu's Designated Hero status is often Flanderized to the point of being a psychotic sadist, her dialogue choices in some games not helping one bit (especially in Undefined Fantastic Object).
  58. ↑ This represents Merupo, a Fan Nickname for Merlin Prismriver and the Game Breaking Bug she became known for, able to kill the player after being defeated. It originates from "Nurupo", a way of abbreviating "Null Pointer Exception."
  59. ↑ Fandom constantly joke that armpits are their only known form of arousal, inspired by how nearly every fan-depiction of Reimu has her wearing clothes that expose her armpits (her official character portraits could be interpreted either way).
  60. ↑ Reimu doesn't get many donations, so fandom depicts her as constantly harassing everyone for them.
  61. ↑ Reimu's One-Hit Kill spellcard in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. The name, attack, and music reference Fist of the North Star.
  62. ↑ People saying character Aya Shameimaru's last name.
  63. ↑ Aya has a starring role in multiple games, either as a playable character, a Boss, or a minor character, leading to jokes that Aya is giving ZUN sexual favours as bribes. It probably doesn't help that, when a photo of ZUN and his wife showed up, it was noted that (a) they apparently had met just after Imperishable Night was finished, and (b) outside of her glasses, she looks kind of like Aya...
  64. ↑ Nico Nico Douga meme that parodies the Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan ending sequence, and many versions exist using characters from other series besides Touhou.
  65. ↑ Though technically more resembling the Buddha, Byakuren's habit of saving youkai and advocating peace between them and humans has led to her being closely compared to Jesus Christ, leading to Fan Nicknames such as Youkai Jesus and Youchrist.
  66. ↑ Her bullet patterns are clearly inspired by other characters... and outright stealing Shinki's attack.
  67. ↑ The second Ensemble Darkhorse of Undefined Fantastic Object, Minamitsu has been declared as one of the few MANLY characters of Touhou.
  68. ↑ A stock reaction phrase in response to impossibly cute situations fanworks stick the characters in. Mainly used on Pixiv and by extension Danbooru so far, but doujin works seem to be spreading it around now. Originated from this Tsukihime doujinshi by Hiroyuki (the same author who gave us "A cat is fine too").
  69. ↑ This is how Marisa uses Master Spark, by Word of God.
  70. ↑ From her bizarre character profile in Kioh Gyoku (it may be A Worldwide Punomenon, as Yuuka is a flower youkai and Moe means "to bud"). Yuuka is depicted as Moe, prompting this phrase, about as often as she is depicted as being Ax Crazy, with further mutation combining the two to create the also popular Cute and Psycho portrayal. Youkai moe can also be applied to any moe picture of the characters.
  71. ↑ The first Ensemble Darkhorse of Undefined Fantastic Object, fans latched onto Kogasa due to extreme cuteness and massive Woobie points. Additionally, Kogasa has an umbrella much like Yuuka, hence the meme.
  72. ↑ Kogasa's extremely meta use of her "power to surprise people" ability has resulted in her surprising fans far more than she does other characters, prompting this line and variations (for example "Wild Kogasa used SURPRISE!", or "Well I'm surprised.")
  73. ↑ Actually based off another parody video for a different canon, but seems to have displaced the original. Besides, the song in the video is based on Eirin's theme, not Meiling's.
  74. ↑ A common Interrupting Meme.
  75. ↑ The standard loading message on Touhou games, it has become a meme frequently quoted by doujinshi and fanfic authors.
  76. ↑ In Imperishable Night the player often moves to the top of the screen to automatically collect all point items currently on-screen, and because Wriggle introduces herself by flying down from the top unsuspecting players get a kick in the face by her, leading to this meme. Further mutation associates her with Kamen Rider on occasion, due to Wriggle being an insect and the insect-themed armor of nearly all Riders up to Kamen Rider Den-O.
  77. ↑ Wriggle has not infrequently been depicted as a Memetic Sex God/Memetic Molester surpassing even Marisa.
  78. ↑ Cirno's unofficial Catch Phrase (particularly popular with the fanfic community on Touhou-Project.com).
  79. ↑ Flandre doesn't understand the "sex" (male or female) option and asks Sakuya. Hilarity Ensues.
  80. ↑ Reimu has a habit of setting everything on fire.
  81. ↑ Reimu has even more of a habit of utterly crushing everyone.
  82. ↑ Reimu checks her donations for the day.
  83. ↑ Yuyuko is used as an execution method for prisoners.
  84. ↑ As opposed to the "o_o"-eyed cat, which got mistaken for Chen early on and has stuck around ever since.
  85. ↑ Crossover meme with Chen and keyboard cat.
  86. ↑ Yuyuko mocks Youmu.
  87. ↑ It's her pee.
  88. ↑ A line by Remilia from the Can't Fix the Helmet doujinshi "A Talk in Bed".
  89. ↑ Patchouli says this after being defeated in Marisa's route in Immaterial and Missing Power, subsequently adopted as her Catch Phrase, or just when someone wants to make her cute.
  90. ↑ Sanae's appearance as a playable character in UFO has led to fanarts of Sakuya trying to reclaim her role as a playable character, or at least reacting to the fact that has been apparently replaced. Originated from ANGELTYPE doujin.
  91. ↑ Fan-portrayals of Remilia as an Elegant Gothic Lolita, emphasis on the elegant, are highly common, not helped by the fact she can act as such before devolving into a spoiled, petulant brat. Certain lines involving "miserable piles of secrets" are usually not far behind.
  92. ↑ Inevitably, subversions of the above were created, with Remilia acting composed and aloof only to collapse into tears (or a variant) soon after. Sometimes also involves her ducking pose in the fighting games.
  93. ↑ Crossover meme with School Days, as Komachi is a Shinigami with a boat.
  94. ↑ Some of Futo's spellcards show her jumping on a boat and surfing on it.
  95. ↑ In the fangame Touhou Soccer, the cast use their mighty powers to play soccer, this adopted as the only possible explanation for the ball still being intact after the beatings it receives.
  96. ↑ The omnipresent use of superpowered magical attacks on the poor ball leads to the joke that in Gensokyan soccer, kicking the ball is against the rules. A few characters do it anyways, though they all kick the ball in a superpowered way (Mokou, Aya, Wriggle, Ran, MANnosuke...)
  97. ↑ Mima's massively destructive attack in Touhou Soccer 2.
  98. ↑ Refers to the Mooks known as kedama (fuzzball). Often drawn with an odd expression on their faces, their resemblance to the F.O.E. orbs in Etrian Odyssey (fueled by an IOSYS video depicting them) have been picked up on by parts of the fanbase.
  99. ↑ There is a popular Epileptic Tree that Meiling is a dragon.
  100. ↑ Began after one of Iku's poses was noted as similar to a certain one in Saturday Night Fever.
  101. ↑ Rumia's Catch Phrase, a childish way of saying "Is that so~?"
  102. ↑ A reference to her spellcard in Double Spoiler.
  103. ↑ A shadow art video, using a song based on Elly's theme from Lotus Land Story, reached viral status and spread to an unbelievable scale, even by Touhou standards.
  104. ↑ CNN got their source wrong when they discussed the Bad Apple!! shadow art video, believing another version of the video (made to look like a slideshow animation) to be a "making of" video, prompting jokes about their competency such as this (another, less popular one being that they hired Aya for the segment). Segment can be found here.
  105. ↑ Joke from a spellcard she uses in Double Spoiler
  106. ↑ A spellcard Reimu uses in Double Spoiler.
  107. ↑ Touhou fans are notorious of crossing over and/or fusing Touhou with absolutely everything. The list behind that link is nowhere even close to being complete in listing them all.
  108. ↑ Males cosplaying as Touhou characters.
  109. ↑ From one of Ao Usagi's typically impenetrable creations, used jokingly as an explanation for anything Nazrin does. A classic example of a Forced Meme, with even people on the very page that spawned it sick of hearing about it.
  110. ↑ The name of Nazrin's theme, occasionally used to refer to Nazrin in general.
  111. ↑ The result of Rin being a difficult boss.
  112. ↑ A Fan Vid by Innocent Key, is is perhaps single-handedly responsible for the depiction of Remilia and Flandre molesting Sakuya.
  113. ↑ Also by Innocent Key, this Fan Vid either created or exemplifies the depiction of Aya as a pervert obsessed with Panty Shots.
  114. ↑ M = Masochist, S = Sadist. Yuuka's portrayal as a sexual sadist that can nonetheless attract anyone is almost endemic, compatible with both her Moe portrayals and her Ax Crazy portrayals.
  115. ↑ Tenshi's portrayal as a masochist is similarly endemic, not helped at all by the explanation for Scarlet Weather Rhapsody being that she was bored and wanted someone to beat her up.
  116. ↑ Parsee is portrayed as being jealous of everything and compelled to say so, which isn't that far from her actual personality. The meme here is that she does so using a mantra of her own name. A common variation is for other characters to get jealous of something or another, and begin muttering "paru paru" as well.
  117. ↑ The onomatopoeia fans have created for getting hit in the hitbox, also used for dying, massive damage or general Critical Existence Failure.
  118. ↑ A joke onomatopoeia for the dying sound effect.
  119. ↑ Another joke onomatopoeia used for absolutely anything.
  120. ↑ The onomatopoeia created for when Flandre makes something or someone explode (as in "She made it go kyuu~!").
  121. ↑ Typo of the game's final battle music "Fairy Wars" as it appears in the BGM list.
  122. ↑ In response to the main menu screenshot. The joke goes she's been hanging out with Letty too long. Started by bloggers, who've never seen her appearance in the Touhou Sangetsusei comics. Speaking of Letty...
  123. ↑ As a boss character in Perfect Cherry Blossom, her hitbox is larger than that of the other boss characters. She's the Stage 1 boss, so this is logical. This has turned into some fanart depicting Letty as being rather large herself. Naturally, the alternate fan explanation holds that only part of her is large.
  124. ↑ Suika's ode to Pettankos everywhere. Originally a Forced Meme, the song appeared in Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
  125. ↑ A relatively famous Pixiv artist drew Hatate as a depressed, dressing-in-black Yandere who cuts herself. The pictures and fanon personality spread, some even making Hatate as an outright yandere underneath her canon personality.
  126. ↑ Mima was a pivotal character in the PC-98 games, but since then has not even been mentioned, disappearing off the face of Gensoukyou. Subsequently this has become the standard response to any speculations about future Touhou installments, with Mima always being in the next game.
  127. ↑ Aside from her small story route in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody Sakuya has been completely absent, despite being playable for three consecutive mainline games. Although she still exists, when Youmu, of all people, returned to player character status in Ten Desires, while Sakuya remains in obscurity, the comparisons with Mima were inevitable.
  128. ↑ A Finnish meme that was assimilated into the Touhou memeplex after a Finnish Touhou fancomic used it. Thus, a common response to images of Chen with a fish is now "Kahen kilon siika!"
  129. ↑ How Cirno is known in Finland, partly because it's a common Finnish name, partly because Finnish people just can't pronounce "Cirno" properly; C is not a common letter in Finnish, leaving the pronounciation unclear to someone unfamiliar with the name. Sirno? Kirno? Tsirno? Chirno?
  130. ↑ In her portrait Yoshika's cap looks like a taxi driver's, and her sprite, with her arms jutting out in front of her and moving up and down slightly, makes it appears as if she has an invisible steering wheel, resulting in jokes like this.
  131. ↑ Yoshika's hat has a star on it, like Meiling's, and while she isn't Chinese she is a Chinese Vampire, almost immediately leading to this comparison.
  132. ↑ Videos of the bosses killing the player after they've already died. Targets of this include Kanako, Utsuho, Ran, Kogasa, and Ichirin.
  133. ↑ Name's the Same jokes quickly spawned involving Mamizou Futatsuiwa and Mami Tomoe.
  134. ↑ More Name's the Same jokes, due to Miko wearing headphones and looking a lot like Neku Sakuraba.
  135. ↑ A synonym for Touhou characters amongst fans in general. Prone to spelling variations such as "Touhoues" or "Toe Hoes"
  136. ↑ Used to mock people who do not like a fanon interpretation, or those who adhere close to canon.
  137. ↑ From a series of Fan Vids that give Koishi Komeiji one hell of an Alternative Character Interpretation.
  138. ↑ Hina's :D grin in Mountain of Faith is incredibly derpy and goofy looking, even for ZUN's notoriously bad art in that game, and attained some notoriety with fans on both sides of the pond.
  139. ↑ Some fan depictions exaggerate Reimu's Perpetual Poverty to the point where she has to eat weeds to survive. In one doujin she serves grass with rice to Sanae. When the latter gets angry, thinking she's being mocked, Reimu says that she specifically chose the better grass from the yard for her.
  140. ↑ Nearly every character wears a hat or hair decorations of some kind. Thus, this line was included in a parody of ZUN's design process, and it and variations were subsequently adopted as a joking response for any question involving Nice Hats or similar.
  141. ↑ ZUN's love of alcohol is legendary. Pictures of him without some sort of alcohol are almost non-existent, one of which, of him having a great honking beer glass, gained some infamy, and he claimed/admitted to being drunk for some of Imperishable Night's development. Inevitably, Flanderizations asserting that he would accept beer as payment, or drinks enough to challenge Suika, are incredibly widespread.
  142. ↑ A Fan Nickname for certain depictions of Alice, which depict her as a Butt Monkey Unlucky Everydude steamrolled by the Reimu/Marisa pairing, an evil bitch, or a jerkass ignored for Reimu/Marisa or the other pairings.
  143. ↑ One of the official mangas is named "Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth". Snowclone titles put just about anything in place of "the moon" and "the earth" to have the title refer to any other story, with "Inaba" staying in place as an Inherently Funny Word.
  144. ↑ A common response to superplay videos, since Marisa is a lower-tier character in most games. There are many variations depending on the actual video, all sharing the theme of "do it even better".
  145. ↑ A Danbooru meme that stems from this comic by Bomber Grape. Nowadays, any Touhou Doujin that gets uploaded to Danbooru and features the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the Hakurei shrine offertory box, or in some cases, anything at all exploding will have comments with the phrase.
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