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{{work}}
[[File:touhou_img.jpg|frame|Clockwise from top left: [[Person of Mass Destruction|Flandre]], [[Ninja Maid|Sakuya]], [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|Remilia]], [[Cute Ghost Girl|Yuyuko]], [[Half
{{quote|
''Touhou Project'' ("Touhou", 東方, meaning ''Eastern'' or ''Oriental'', [[No Pronunciation Guide|pronounced]] "Toh Hoh") is a series of [[Doujin]] scrolling shooter games in the "[[Bullet Hell]]" subgenre, developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is most famous for its high difficulty level involving intricate bullet patterns, and the fact that instead of having spaceships and warfare vehicles, it has girls in frilly dresses: nearly every character is a [[Little Miss Badass]], [[Cute Monster Girl]], or [[Cute Witch]], and wears some degree of [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]] clothing. Much of its popularity, however, comes from its enormous [[Doujinshi]] and [[Shipping]] community, unusual in that the community is creating doujinshi based on doujinshi, and is taken to another level with the equally enormous amounts of amateur musical arranges of the games' music. Indeed, most of the characters are [[OC Stand
Nearly all the games in the series have a plot along these lines: In the [[Magical Land]] of [[Fantastic Nature Reserve|Gensokyo]] - a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] in Japan, which exists halfway inside [[Another Dimension]] thanks to a powerful magical barrier - some [[Anti
Like ''[[
See also the [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki extensive wiki] about the game series.
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* TH 12.8 ''Yousei Daisensou ~ Touhou Sangetsusei'' <ref>''Great Fairy Wars ~ Eastern Three Fairies''</ref> <ref>Referred to by English-speaking fans as ''Great Fairy Wars'' or simply ''Fairy Wars''.</ref>
* TH 13 ''Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires'' <ref>''Eastern Divine Spirit Mausoleum ~ Ten Desires''</ref>
* TH 13.5 ''Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade'' <ref>''Heart Fabric Tower ~ Hopeless Masquerade''</ref>
* TH 14 ''Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character'' <ref>''Eastern Bright Needle Castle ~ Ten Desires''</ref>
* TH 14.3 ''Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card''
* TH 14.5 ''Touhou Shinhiroku ~ Urban Legend in Limbo'' <ref>''Eastern Record of Deep Mysteries ~ Urban Legend in Limbo''</ref>
* TH 15 ''Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom'' <ref>''Ultramarine Orb Tale ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom''</ref>
* TH 15.5 ''Touhou Hyouibana ~ Antimony of Common Flowers'' <ref>''Flowers of Possession ~ Antimony of Common Flowers''</ref>
* TH 16 ''Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons'' <ref>''Eastern Jade Scepter of the Skies ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons''</ref>
*TH 17 ''Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature''<ref>''Eastern Oni-Shaped Creature ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature''</ref>
<big>'''Sister Series'''</big>
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* [[I Wanna Be the Shrine Maiden]] (''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' fangame)
* [[Koumajou Densetsu]] (Fangame crossover with ''[[Castlevania]]'')
* [[Mega Mari]] (''[[Mega Man (
* [[MUGEN]] (characters have been made to be a part of it)
* [[Patch Con]]
* [[Super Marisa World]] (''[[Super Mario World (
* [[Super Marisa Land]] ([[Spiritual Successor]] to the above)
** [[New Super Marisa Land]]
* [[Touhou Labyrinth]] (also known as ''[[Labyrinth of Touhou]]''; dungeon crawler in the style of ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'')
* [[Touhou Mother]] (''[[MOTHER]]'' and ''[[
* [[
* [[
<big>'''Other (see the [[Touhou
* [[Touhou Musou Kakyou]] ([[Fanime]] based on Touhou; has [[Names to Know
* [[Life of Maid]]
* [[
----
* [[Aesop Amnesia]]: Each of the character's storylines in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' ends with them learning [[An Aesop]]. If you play as Eiki, however, which takes place after all of the others, it turns out that everyone forgot or misunderstood what they were supposed to learn.
* [[The Alcoholic]]:
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* [[Already Done for You]]: Perspective [[Inverted]] in ''Ten Desires''. Mamizou found out that the heroines have already defeated Miko, the person whom she's called for by Nue to defeat. Doesn't stop her from fighting said heroines, just because. Considering [[Bonus Boss|Mamizou's]] [[That One Boss|power]], perhaps the heroines should just stay at home.
* [[Amazon Brigade]]: Almost all characters are female powerhouses. In contrast, the few living male characters aren't known to be fighters.
* [[Animesque]]: It is a Japanese property, but fan art, [[Fan Vid|Fan Vids]], and other such things are very prone to making it look like an anime series rather than a game. There's a reason why there's a [[Touhou
* [[Art Evolution]]: SO much of it getting zigzagged, leading to [[Memetic Mutation|Memetic Mutations]] such as Undead Zombie Reimu (her appearance in Mountain of Faith, which was notoriously bad, even for ZUN's art). The 12th Touhou game, ''UFO'', has been praised for ZUN's art improving.
* [[Asian Rune Chant]]: Referenced in some of Sanae's spellcards.
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** In ''Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'' Chiyuri is Yumemi's research assistant in "comparative physics".
** ''Mystic Square'' and ''The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'' both have [[Ninja Maid|Ninja Maids]] in the form of Yumeko and Sakuya, the latter being by far one of the most popular characters of the franchise.
** ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'' introduces [[
** Eirin and Reisen from ''Imperishable Night'' both fit the part, being Kaguya's pharmacist and pet respectively.
** Komachi from ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' also counts, since her official job is to be [[The Ferry Man]] of the Sanzu River.
** In ''Mountain of Faith'' Sanae is the priestess of both the final and extra boss.
** ''Subterranean Animism'' reverses this trend by having the [[Big Bad]] and the stage 5 boss be the pets of the stage 4 boss.
* [[Badass]]: ''[[World of Badass|Every]] [[Adaptational Badass|single]] [[Badass Adorable|girl]]'', but [[Beyond the Impossible|that]] [[
* [[Berserk Button]]: The fandom has one in the question "What anime is this?" as well as when someone on YouTube claims that ''Touhou'' [[A Worldwide Punomenon|stole from]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh71hePR8Q the McRoll.] For the uninitiated, the McRoll is based on Flandre's theme, ''not'' the other way around. Western fandom is also beginning to detest old memes ([[Hilarious in Hindsight|pads]], etc.).
** May the Lord have mercy on you if you tell Reimu she has awful night vision.
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* [[Beware the Silly Ones]]: Don't annoy off Yukari (or Yuyuko ''again''), Suwako, Suika, or Koishi, either.
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Youkai as a whole act "odd" by human standards, and Yukari is weird even by ''their'' standards.
* [[Bigger
** Yuuka's mansion, Mugenkan, in ''Lotus Land Story''. Justified, since it's located in a dream world.
** The Scarlet Devil Mansion. [[Hand Wave|Hand Waved]] - Sakuya uses her time and space manipulation to cause the effect.
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* [[The Cameo]]: ''Wild and Horned Hermit'' is absolutely covered in these. The story hasn't used many characters yet, but Azuma Aya seems to want to draw as many as possible.
* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Gensokyo has a food chain. [[To Serve Man|You're not at the top of it]], since most non-human characters ''will'' attempt to eat helpless humans away from the protection of a village. The youkai cast often threatens to eat the player character, but they're empty threats - none of the youkai eat humans anymore. Per usual, fanon jacks this up to insane levels.
* [[Cast Herd]]: Given the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|enormous number of characters]], it isn't surprising they tend to be split into distinct groups. Sometimes this is done per game, but other times, it's done based on location (Eientei/Moriya), based on intellect ("[[The Ditz|Team 9]]"), and so forth. Tends to be subverted over time as each group stars in [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Inaba_of_the_Moon_and_Inaba_of_the_Earth works that] [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Cage_in_Lunatic_Runagate elaborate on] [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Silent_Sinner_in_Blue their members'] [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Eastern_and_Little_Nature_Deity_/_Strange_and_Bright_Nature_Deity characterizations.]{{Dead link}}
* [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]/[[Foreshadowing]]: A meta version for the reader/player. ''Perfect Memento in Strict Sense'' was released in 2006 before the game ''Mountain of Faith''. With that in mind, look through some of the articles and realize just how much of ''Perfect Memento'' became used in future games.
* [[Cherry Blossoms]]: Present in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', [[Exactly What It Says
* [[City
* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]:
** The premise of ''Mountain of Faith'', along with [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]].
** If [[The One Guy|Rinnosuke]]'s theories are correct, the entire realm of Gensokyo ''inverts'' this. According to him, things such as magic, youkai, gods, etc. are able to exist in Gensokyo because people in the outside world ''actively disbelieve'' in them. For instance, in the tie-in manga ''Silent Sinner in Blue'', he manages to find information on the Moon landings because, as he claims, enough people have become convinced that they never happened. There is also evidence to the contrary (what with him being a [[Know
** In general, this is how youkai and gods come into being. The belief of them makes them stronger, while forgetting them causes them to ether disappear (Youkais) or return to being a nameless Divine Spirit (God). Gods, however are shaped by their Myths, which allows them to change their titles and powers due to their followers believing in them. Yasaka was orginally a Storm god before she became a Mountain god, for example. The real reason for Gensokyo is to seperate the Youkai from human imagiation, allowing them to shape themselves. This trope is played straight, subverted, and inverted all at the same time.
* [[Conservation of Competence]]
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** The Hakurei Shrine serves as a gateway between our world and Gensokyo, and has a traditional Japanese arch.
** The gate at the Netherworld (Hakugyokurou) is an subversion, in that it is placed at the entrance to the Netherworld, but it doesn't open. People just fly over it instead.
* [[
* [[Crossover]]: "If it exists, there's a crossover with ''Touhou''" is almost an internet rule. Seriously, it even has its [[Touhou
* [[Curtains Match the Window]]: All of the PC-98 characters have a same eye color as their hair (given that they're in their regular outfit). There is a fair share of Windows characters with this as well.
* [[Cut and Paste Translation]]: There is at least one instance wherein the English translators just made stuff up, namely the "only a stage 2 boss".
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* [[David Versus Goliath]]: Averted. The playable characters are all depicted as being at least as powerful and competent as any of the boss characters, and are the same size as the boss characters. Especially unusual in 2D scrolling shooter games, since most tend to have huge tanks and planes as bosses which are much bigger than the player character. The rules of danmaku, which every character follows, make sure that everyone has a chance of winning despite their difference in sheer power. The player characters even have their own [[Calling Your Attacks|special attacks]] comparable to boss characters' attacks... just not when you're controlling them.
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: At least one ending to every game involves the main character having a tea party with the [[Big Bad]], and [[The Dragon|dragons]] Sakuya Izayoi, Youmu Konpaku, Sanae Kochiya, and even Marisa Kirisame have become playable characters after getting defeated.
* [[Did We Just Have Tea
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: In the PC-98 games, you defeat the Angel of Death, [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|two goddesses who created their own dream world (just because your player character was bored)]], and The Goddess of Hell. In the Windows series, the protagonist stops the mistress of the Netherworld with the power to invoke death in mortals, the local Charon equivalent, one of the Judges of the dead (who is implied to be more powerful than anything in Gensokyo), five gods, a hell raven who gains the power of nuclear fusion after devouring a dead sun god, and a vampire that can destroy anything she sees, not to mention the [[Reality Warper|reality-warping]] youkai who may have created Gensokyo itself. This is one of the purposes behind the spell card system - it allows even weak humans and youkai a chance at fighting stronger opponents to settle accounts, without needless, one-sided bloodshed.
* [[Do Not Spoil This Ending]]: ZUN has requested that the fanbase keep the endings of the games secret and, for the most part, the fanbase complies (although you can find all of them if you know where to look). Given that request, and the fact that, to get a good ending, one has to 1 credit clear the game, seeing the good ending of a game is [[Earn Your Fun|a great accomplishment, indeed.]]
* [[Dragons Up the Yin-Yang]]: Dragons are almost never mentioned or seen, but they are said to be in the ''highest'' class of beings in Gensokyo. The only dragon spoken of in canon is worshiped as a god by human and youkai alike for his power to create or destroy anything. It's said that he appeared in the sky on the day the Great Hakurei Border was erected.
** Kasen however has a baby pet dragon and it's status as a [[Goo-Goo Godlike|godlike being makes itself known right away by causing a (very local) rainstorm]].
* [[Dream Land]]: The later stages of ''Story of Eastern Wonderland'' and the extra stage of ''Lotus Land Story''.
* [[Drop
* [[Drunken Master]]: The creator of the games, ZUN, is a drinker, and [[Memetic Mutation]] has progressed it to the point where, much like Suika Ibuki, he is ''never sober''. This isn't too far from the truth. Practically every image of him seems to show a beer within arm's reach, and ZUN himself admitted being drunk during some of ''Imperishable Night'''s development.
* [[Dummied Out]]: Rin Satsuki in ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil''. Needless to say, she's prime [[OC Stand
* [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]]: A large chunk of the cast.
* [[Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs|Every Girl Without]] [[Nice Hat|Nice Hats]] [[Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs|Is Cuter With Hair Decorations]]
* [[Everyone Is a Super]]: From common fairies to even average Gensokyo humans, who have some magic powers, it is flat-out assumed ''everyone'' has some kind of special powers or danmaku powers here.
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Eyes of Gold]]: Fairly common in Gensokyo.
* [[The Fair Folk]]: [[Youkai]] tend to act like this. They have been relatively behaving this generation due to a lazy yet powerful [[Miko]] and trigger-happy [[Cute Witch]] who have been [[Defeat Means Friendship|befriending them]] constantly.
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** Other fairy tales are sometimes referenced in spell cards.
* [[Fanime]]:
** ''[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Project_Side_Story Touhou Project Side Story]'' by SOUND HOLIC, released at Comiket 73. Features a now non-canon depiction of the Lunarians. It introduced a [[
** ''[[
** Yuuhei Satellite's ''Gensou Magenkyou'' (or ''Fantasy Kaleidoscope''), which retells the story of Perfect Cherry Blossom {{spoiler|albeit with an [[Anachronism Stew]] around the end parts}}. Although the original version had no voice-acting, it can be found with a Japanese fandub [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w337ij3wtXA here].
** ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bbNnLnPiw Patchouli to Explode]'', released at Reitaisai SP2. Unlike the other examples here, it's based on a doujinshi and follows a small cast. This was not enough to keep it above being mediocre.
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* [[Fantastic Nature Reserve]]
* [[Fantastic Racism]]:
** The residents of the underground are mostly youkai who are hated or feared, usually for their power. A notable example is the [[Mind Reading|satori species]]. According to Hatate's comments from ''Double Spoiler'' on Satori's spells, there used to be many satoris on Youkai Mountain, but they were banished to [[Fantastic Ghetto|the underground]] because of their [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' brings up the question of whether it's youkai who are oppressing humans or the other way around. It should be noted that the cycle of youkai terrorizing humans and being "exterminated" in turn is actually [[Inherent in
** Reimu is unique in that, despite one of the few dealing with youkai being jerks on a daily basis, she doesn't care about them one way or another.
* [[Fan Vid|Fan Vids]]: [[Touhou
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Flandre]][[Flanderization|ization]]: [[Fanon]] is fond of this, characters commonly reduced to a single character quirk which may or may not have been a major part of their character in the original games. Given that this happens to every single character, often in multiple ways, a full list of every change would far, ''far'' larger than this page.
* [[Flying Firepower]]: ''Everyone''.
* [[Full-Contact Magic]]: At least in the fighting games, as well as in [[Doujinshi|fanworks]], the intense nature of spell card duels is portrayed as having a fierce physical combat aspect, especially for the more physically abled girls.
* [[Fun
* [[Functional Magic]]: Inherent Gift, Theurgy, Device Magic, Alchemical Magic, Rule Magic, and Force Magic are all present.
* [[
▲* [[Fun With Acronyms]]: Most of the games' names have both a Japanese portion and an English portion. The Western community refers to games by the acronyms of their English parts: ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'' - ''PCB'', ''Imperishable Night'' - ''IN'', etc. One wonders if ZUN took notice, as the 12th game's English name is ''[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Undefined Fantastic Object]]''.
* [[Gaiden Game]]: Anything with a decimal point in its number.
* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: In Ten Desires, the game will up and crash if you are not using a bomb, a valuable resource, when the Survival Card of the Extra Boss ends. This is the ''second last'' attack in the entire game.
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** [[Resurrective Immortality]]:
*** All who drink the Hourai Elixir gain the resurrective type.
*** The fairies work like this: They have very short life spans, but are reborn in the same shape (a healthy one, that is) as soon as they die even if they're blown to pieces, essentially making them immortal.
** [[The Ageless]]:
*** [[Witch Species|Magicians]] who become "complete" gain a this - [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|they stop aging]], but disease may or may not still kill them, as they're still [[Squishy Wizard|as fragile as humans]].
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*** Toyosatomimi no Miko and company were seeking this, as was Byakuren.
* [[Immortal Immaturity]]: Practically everyone. Notable exceptions are Kaguya and Yuyuko, when she's not busy harassing her guardian.
▲* [[Improbably-Female Cast]]: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud, and Rinnosuke, who is an [[Expanded Universe]] character and [[Non Action Guy]]. The PC-98 games had Genji, who doesn't count due to being a turtle, and [[Gender Bender|half]] of Shingyoku as well.
* [[Informed Ability]]: Due to how danmaku battles work,<ref>they're essentially a formalized dueling system designed to level the playing field and reduce lethality</ref> most characters' stated abilities have very little relevance to their gameplay performance.
* [[It Amused Me]]: Bored characters do a lot of crazy things in this series and are occasionally responsible for the entire plot with no further motive than to shake things up. Many extra stage fights are along these lines on the part of both protagonist and boss. This is the entire reason why Tenshi comes down in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''.
* [[Justified Trope]]: ''So'' many. The Spell Card Rules, drafted by Reimu, justify [[Non
* [[Kicking Ass in All Her Finery]]: Almost everyone wears pretty frilly dresses.
* [[Kori Kombat]]: ''Touhou'' has the Tanuki-based Mamizou Futatsuiwa and the Kitsune-based Ran Yakumo, who utterly hate each other's guts. Playing on an old Japanese myth, Mamizou is even meant to be a stand-in for Danzaburou of legend and is responsible for kicking out all the foxes from Sado.
* [[Leitmotif]]: Each boss in the main series gets a unique song for her [[Boss Battle]], which naturally becomes her [[Leitmotif]] in fanworks.
* [[Let's Fight Like Gentlemen]]: The [[Justified Trope|justification]] for the danmaku combat system.
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* [[Mooks]]: Fairies, in addition to the lesser-used Fuzzballs and Doofy Ghosts. Fairies are [[Suicidal Overconfidence|suicidally overconfident]], weak, and effectively immortal (regenerative), though the last [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|doesn't manifest in the games]], probably because they "respawn" somewhere safe offscreen. These factors combine to make them pretty much perfect mooks.
* [[Multiple Endings]]
* [[
* [[Mundane Utility]]:
**
** Turns out that ghosts make excellent air conditioners.
** Similarly, there's an entire pool on Danbooru of Cirno being used for mundane ends, such as chilling drinks.
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** ZUN also has a [[Nice Hat]].
* [[The Night That Never Ends]]: The plot of ''Imperishable Night'' plays with this. It's ''your characters'' causing it, so they can find the source of the real incident.
* [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]: Despite what the majority of [[Shipping|fan]] [[Rule 34|work]] will tell you, all the official content has virtually no romance (and always kept to backstories or non-sequitur jokes) and absolutely no sexual themes.
* [[Non
** The spell card rules mean the games follow this trope. There is very strong lampshading of this, and very good reasoning for characters ''not'' wanting to kill the human characters. Also, since most of the characters are youkai, odds are many of them can't be killed by physical damage anyway, while the fairies which provide most mook enemies are said to have very short lifespans but constantly revive, giving them little concept of mortality.
** A good number of characters are implied to have killed people, but no one that's introduced ever dies. The only exception to this is Mokou apparently dying during her battle... and it doesn't count, since she's immortal.
* [[Non
** From Touhou 13's staff roll: "[[Lampshade Hanging|Lately I've been wondering if there's a real point to the staff roll]]."
* [[Not Drawn to Scale]]: In particular, boss characters tend to look taller in cut-ins than they would logically seem to be based on their sprites or other aspects of their character. Most fans depict Remilia as fairly short, but her cut-in makes her as tall as Reimu.
{{quote|If their sizes appear to be different on the game screen than given above, it's because of some mystic force like perspective, so [[
* [[Older Than They Look]]: Applies to pretty much every character that isn't stated to be completely human, which is Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Sanae. And even then, questions have been raised about Sakuya, even in-universe.
* [[
* [[Only Six Faces]]: Not only is ZUN susceptible to this with his famously crappy character art, but so are some of the official manga artists, such as Aki Eda (''Silent Sinner in Blue'') and Makoto Hirasaka (''Touhou Sangetsusei'').
** One step up in the fighting games. As far as Alphes' character portraits go, literally everyone has the same face.
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* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Mr. Kirisame is the only parent of a canon character who is not dead, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for. And even then, he's only mentioned, and Marisa quickly ignores and attempts to change the subject.
* [[Pettanko]]:
**
***Suika gets [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX050NcDNAU a song] dedicated to this.
** The [[Fighting Game]] installments of the series have really muddied the waters here, as the art was done by an artist who is perfectly capable of and willing to draw girls with busts.
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: In ''Imperishable Night'', the [[Let's You and Him Fight|boss fight with either Reimu or Marisa]] is the result of one or both sides either not understanding what's actually going on, or outright ''refusing'' to listen. When the Ghost Team tries to mention the Moon to Marisa, Marisa says "this has nothing to do with the Moon!" and if Magic Team brings it up to Reimu, she turns around and blames them for the Moon as well!
* [[Power
* [[Powerup Full-Color Change]]: In ''Hisoutensoku'', characters with superarmor become red-tinted, while the auto-counterhit state Meiling can acquire is indicated by her becoming yellow.
* [[Punny Name]]: Hisoutensoku ("lacking perception of natural laws"), the [[Humongous Mecha]] that ''Touhou'' 12.3 is named after, is a pun [[On/shout Out|shout Out]] to [[wikipedia:Gakutensoku|Gakutensoku]] ("learning from natural laws"), Japan's first robot [[Steampunk|built in 1929]].
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* [[Schizo-Tech]]: There are actually four different technology levels in Gensokyo: humans and youkai, who are pretty much at medieval level; items that come from the modern world outside (and, in the PC-98 games, came with the Outsiders themselves); the kappas, who are tinkering and working on [[Magitek]], including Optical Camouflage and Hellfire-powered geothermal power plants; and the Lunarians, who top the tech tree in canon and have futuristic technology, which in ''Silent Sinner in Blue'' is revealed to be a Japanese version of [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]. Even the ''outdated'' technology that the renegade Lunarians displayed in an exposition in Gensokyo is far more advanced than anything on Earth.
* [[School Swimsuit]]: Fairly common in fanart in general. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUqeBa36UDM Touhou] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=527Anv-Ne00 EWI] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tOLOodEF0 series] by WINN, has the girls play their themes and fire danmaku at the same time [[Captain Obvious|while wearing school swimsuits]].
* [[
** Subverted in both ''Lotus Land Story'' and ''Imperishable Night'', when the character you didn't select shows up as one of the bosses.
** Naturally averted in the versus shooters and fighting games where you get to fight most of the characters you didn't pick. ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' and ''Hisoutensoku'' even have everyone's story canonically happening in some order.
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** In a broader sense, the entire series itself has next to nothing resembling sexual or romantic content, but you would ''[[Rule 34|never]]'' guess that from the fandom.
** [[Bare Your Midriff]]: Fanart often shows the blouses worn by characters such as Reimu, Marisa, Flandre or Sanae riding up when they raise their arms.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Many characters are [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to one thing or another. Full details on all of them on [[Touhou
** Many, ''many'' references to ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', including a character named Alice.
** ZUN is an admitted fanboy of ''[[
** Three different characters have references to the works of [[
** Stage 6 of ''UFO'' has rows of fairies that move in a zig-zag pattern and fire bullets straight downwards, as a reference to ''Space Invaders''.
** Nue, the Extra Stage boss of the above game, has mutiple. She has a spell card that uses [[
** One strip in ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' contains a reference to the ''[[
{{quote|
** In the same title, there's also a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]].
** Makai in ''Mystic Square'' is basically one big [[Shout-Out]] to John Milton's ''[[Paradise Lost]]''.
** In ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', most times when you defeat and enemy, the game will call them a DEAD PARROT. [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Hmmm, I wonder what that could be a shout out to...]]
** A few of the bullet patterns seem directly inspired by patterns from other [[Bullet Hell]] games. [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_influences Look at this list and decide for yourself.]
** There are also references to [[Fist of the North Star]] in the fighting games, most notably Hisoutensoku. If Reimu's ultimate spellcard "Fantasy Heaven" ("''Musou Tensei''" in Japanese, which happens to be a [[
*** Additionally, [[The Power of the Sun|Utsuho Reiuji]]'s sprite animations greatly resemble those of Souther. [http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/File:Utsuho_Similarities.png See for yourself].
** In the fangame ''Concealed the Conclusion'', one of the characters gives the following line:
{{quote|
* [[Sleeper Hit]]: Even the fandom is baffled at how a simple shooting game got so popular.
* [[Slice of Life]]: Very common in official written works, especially the manga ''Eastern and Little Deity'' / ''Strange and Bright Nature Deity'' / ''Oriental Sacred Place''<ref>yes, that's one series with title changes</ref> and the short story serial ''Curiosities of Lotus Asia''. This tends to put off some fans [[Genre Shift|who are used to the combat-heavy games]], though others enjoy the laid-back view of Gensokyo.
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** Fanworks can be anywhere on the scale. ZUN seems to encourage this intentionally, for instance by never explicitly nailing down how dangerous it ''really'' is for humans to live in Gensokyo.
* [[Space Station]]: Torifune, introduced in ''Trojan Green Asteroid''. It is<ref>or will be, with the Mary and Renko stories taking place in the future</ref> a Japanese space station designed to test terraforming practices. Then it somehow became an illusion and is now a fantasy jungle floating in outer space.
* [[Spell My Name
* [[Spring Is Late]]: In ''Perfect Cherry Blossom''.
* [[Story Arc]]: So far, the series can be split into two arcs, with characters from the first unlikely to show up in the second.
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** The second Arc so far represents every version released for Windows, with a new villain every time. Also, games after ''Touhou'' 10 have a plot that is kick-started by events in the game before.
* [[Stronger Sibling]]
{{quote|
* [[Stronger
* [[Stupid Statement Dance Mix]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB5IIsX0wS4 ''It Stops at the Affected Area and Immediately Dissolves ~ Lunatic Udongein'',] best known for its [[Ear Worm]] (O-Over Dr-drive! O-O-Over Dr-Dr-Drive!) is a prime example, but quite a few of [[IOSYS]]' ''Touhou''-inspired songs could easily count.
* [[Theme Naming]]:
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** Might be the case for some unexpected creatures. In one chapter of one of the manga, it's suggested a couple of times that a mysterious egg may be from a ''cat youkai''.
** The same chapter also confirms crow tengu having eggs, and while they're related to birds, the two examples we've seen of that species look basically human.
▲* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome]]: '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Qa9AIxJhs Touhou Soccer.]'''
* [[White and Grey Morality]]:
** Those who are [[Designated Hero|good]] are [[Somebody
** Most of the final bosses in the series are more selfish than they are outright evil as well, having a lack of consideration for the rest of Gensokyo rather than outright finding ''pleasure'' in screwing over everyone else.
** A few notable exceptions: the Saigyou Ayakashi of ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'' - a mindless, man-eating tree; Utsuho Reiuji during ''Subterranean Animism'', who was [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|mad with power]] and wanted to ''melt the surface world'' (although to be fair, she's also rather stupid); and Taisui Xingjun, provided he actually exists.
* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: And ''lots'' of them. See the [[Touhou
* [[Wings Do Nothing]]: ''Everyone'' in Gensokyo has a method for flying, whether they use wings or not. One footnote in ''Perfect Memento'' says that "... even without wings we can all fly." This shouldn't be too surprising given that [[Everyone Is a Super]].
* [[Witch Species]]: "Magician" is both a species and job description. Natural magicians are born able to use magic and don't need to eat, but are otherwise identical to humans. Human magicians need to learn a spell to replicate the bit about not eating. After that, they can both learn spells to stop aging, at which point they're considered "complete" magicians. It's never actually stated that the magician species is the result of the [[Lamarck Was Right|"abandoning food" magic being inheritable]], but [[Wild Mass Guessing|it seems likely]].
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* [[World of Action Girls]]: Yup.
* [[World of Badass]]: Pretty much.
* [[Xanatos Gambit]] / [[Batman Gambit]]: The entirety of ''Silent Sinner in Blue''. The second is inside the first.
* [[Youkai]]: Makes up a very large portion of the cast, even when not taking the minor stage bosses into consideration.
** [[Moe Anthropomorphism]]: A lot of the characters are actually humanoid representations of abstract concepts.
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** [[Human Aliens|Human Youkai]]: Some ''do'' look completely human.
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]:
** For actual blue-haired characters, Remilia, Nitori, Tenshi, Kogasa and Cirno count. Though Remilia's initial appearance featured her with [[White
** Even excluding the youkai, there are the silver-haired Sakuya, Youmu, Keine, Mokou, and Eirin, though the latter is from the Moon.
** And the green-haired Sanae.
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** Kanako's and Tenshi's ''shimenawa''.
▲== Tropes in the games' gameplay ==
* [[Air Jousting]]: Marisa's broom charge attacks in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]: From ''Lotus Land Story'' onward, bosses will change the background.
* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: The fighting games. Highlights include not particularly understanding if the character is melee or range oriented, using moves that can't possibly hit, virtually never using cards,<ref>Arcade mode only. Story mode AI doesn't have cards to use.</ref> and difficulty selection in arcade mode doing nothing. This was bad enough for people to start work on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcBtCUEV-K0 an AI hack] but the project seems to have died since.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]] / [[Difficult but Awesome]]: Depending on who you ask, certain shot types are straight on unwieldy or rather useful but take some getting used to.
** Half the shot-types in ''Mountain of Faith'' and ''Subterranean Animism'', namely ''MoF''{{'}}s ReimuC and MarisaA, and ''SA''{{'}}s ReimuC and... all of Marisa's.
*** MarisaA in ''SA'' isn't too bad, and she still has enough power in her focused state to still deliver hurt to enemies up front.
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' is actually pretty good with avoiding this, with all-around great shot-types... and MarisaB.
*** Overall, typical wide-spread shot types suck in these games. It's usually better to just take [[Homing Projectile|Homing Amulets]] instead.
** Marisa's Master Spark bomb in ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' definitely falls under Awesome But Impractical. The massive speed penalty it saddles her with makes it nearly impossible to collect a UFO that isn't flying almost directly at you. Timing color changes is even worse.
** Death bombing introduced in the fifth game on. When your character gets hit, you have a fraction of a second to press the bomb button to save yourself. The timing varies with each game. However, the timing is very, very precise. You basically need to predict your own death in order to use it.
* [[Beam Spam]]: Every single character.
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: The whole series could be characterized as "And here, ZUN thought if you can win after 20 tries, the game is too easy".
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* [[Computers Are Fast]]: Not present in the normal Shoot Em Up games, but have fun beating [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x8cs2V2-Bg Lunatic AI] in the two-player games.
* [[Cosmetic Award]]: Clearing a scene with a high enough score in ''Shoot the Bullet'' or ''Double Spoiler'' unlocks commentary from Aya or Hatate. Score has no other purpose.
* [[Dead Character Walking]]: Certain versions of ''
* [[Desolation Shot]]: In ''Mystic Square'', the [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]] disappears when you dispel Shinki's penultimate spell and blast her wings off. The background of the battle's final phase is a slow pan down over Makai, which is now on fire as a result of the fight.
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: Most games seem to have one, usually around stage 4.
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** Sunny Milk, Luna Child and Star Sapphire in ''Fairy Wars''.
** Seiga and Yoshika in ''Ten Desires''.
** Miko, Tojiko and Futo for one of the former's spellcards in the same game
* [[Dynamic Difficulty]]: 4-6 have a system where the bullets become faster and denser over time. In the case of 4 and 5, it's somewhat tied to how well you're doing, but in 6 it just keeps going up until you die, which resets it.
* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]/[[Oddball in
* [[Every Ten Thousand Points]]: In many games you get an [[
* [[Expansion Pack]]:
** ''Touhou Hisoutensoku'', an add-on to ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' that introduces a new storyline and playable characters, including [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Meiling and Cirno.]]
** ''Double Spoiler'' can be considered this for ''Shoot the Bullet'', which was originally meant to be updated as new characters appeared.
* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: Any first completion of most games. To get the proper ending, you must not use any continues and not be on easy mode. Given the [[Bullet Hell|genre]], this is borderline impossible. And in the case of ''Imperishable Night'' it's completely impossible, since you have to get the normal ending before the good one.
** You could get the ex stage in ''Subterranean Animism'' on easy, but a bug relocks it.
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** It was repeated in stage 4 of ''Imperishable Night'', which has you fighting either Reimu or Marisa, depending on the team you choose.
** Much of the story of ''Immaterial and Missing Power'', ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', and ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''.
* [[First-Person Snapshooter]]: The [[Gaiden Game|Gaiden Games]] ''Shoot the Bullet'' and ''Double Spoiler'', in which you play a reporter whose sole method of dealing with enemies and bosses is [[Martial Arts and Crafts|taking pictures of them]].
* [[Follow the Leader]]: ''Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'' was made shortly after [[Twinkle Star Sprites]].
** Seihou was rather obviously inspired by Touhou.
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* [[It Got Worse]]: Most final bosses' and extra bosses' final spell cards start out fairly simple, even elementary... then it gets faster, or stacks more components simultaneously over time/damage. By the end, the spell is an all-out nightmarish mess that fills the screen or moves very quickly, or both.
* [[Kaizo Trap]]: After beating bosses, it takes a second before the projectiles turn into tokens. So if you aren't careful, you can win, but still die.
* [[Lethal Lava Land]]: ''
* [[Made of Explodium]]: Frogs. There's a shot-type and four
* [[Marathon Boss]]: By shmup standards, anyway. Each game has a [[Bonus Boss]] which typically takes 8-10 minutes to defeat.
* [[Mercy Mode]]: After running out of continues a few times in ''Imperishable Night'', the game's options allow you to start with a few additional lives. "A few" ultimately resulting in a continue's worth of lives totaling 8, where most other games only let you have half as many. Perhaps another reason for [[Easy Mode Mockery]] specifically in ''IN''. Somewhat played with - continuing after a certain point gets you a bad end and the inability to continue.
* [[Mickey Mousing]]: Some levels try to perfectly synchronize themselves with their music, to the extent where you get bonus enemies to destroy if you kill the midboss quickly, and perhaps even skip a pattern if you kill the first few too slowly.
* [[More Dakka]]: And how! [[Stalked
* [[Multiple Endings]]: At the very least, each shottype gets its own ending. Beyond that, specifics vary:
** Most games give you a character-specific bad ending for beating the game after using a continue. The ''Phantasmagoria'' games don't care, and ''Fairy Wars'' just doesn't give you an ending if you continue. ''Mountain of Faith'' also gives you one regardless of continues if [[Easy Mode Mockery|you played on easy]].
*** And in ''Lotus Land Story'' and ''the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', [[Easy Mode Mockery|after beating the fifth stage in easy mode, you proceed to the bad ending directly]].
***In ''Wily Beast and Weakest Creature'', Yachie prepares to end the heroine's life until they beg for another chance.
** The games that have route selections give you an ending based on which route you take.
** ''Imperishable Night'' combines the two above into something odd. You get a Bad Ending for ''running out'' of continues. You get a normal ending for facing Eirin as the final boss, who you'll be locked into fighting if it's your first time playing with that character or if you continued.
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** Games 10 through 12 made things worse by having continues send you back to the beginning of the stage (thankfully reverted back in ''Fairy Wars'') and removing the option to increase your base lives above three (this one still stands).
** God help you if, for some weird reason, you want to beat [[Harder Than Hard|the extra stage.]] Even its in-game description is something to the effect of "Are you out of your mind?"
{{quote|
** And if that's not challenging enough for you, ''PCB'' has the lovely phantasm stage after the extra and ''IN'' has the last word spell card section. Even unlocking these is next to impossible. Actually beating them requires more effort than the rest of the game combined.
** All of the above are put to complete and utter shame by the [[Gaiden Game]] ''Shoot the Bullet'', which is 11 levels of the most sadistic, multi-layered spell cards in the whole series. Unlike any of the other games, you have no extra lives, no bombs, you lose when you time out, your only weapon is a camera that needs to be charged and manually aimed for long distance attacks, and some bosses are only vulnerable for a fraction of a second. Lastly, the difficulty ''is not adjustable at all''. You do take on each spell card individually and have infinite retries, but the incredible difficulty makes clearing it impossible for most people.
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** And of course for the really crazy people, there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je-mu6z532E Ultra mode hacks,] or cranking up the framerate to play at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDUdRryiE78 150% speed...]
* [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now]]: An in-game feature later games gives you a very tiny window after you are hit to bomb, thereby preventing a loss of a life. The eighth game actually makes an entire gameplay mechanic based around this, although that instance is more of a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment as the teammate of the one that was hit comes in and uses the bomb.
* [[
** The final card of the final boss is immune to bombs, though they still clear the bullets away (though usually with some diminished effect, like a smaller radius or only getting half of them
*** The only exception to the rule is Utsuho Reiuji, the final boss in ''Subterranean Animism'', which gains
** All [[Bonus Boss|extra and phantasm stage bosses]] have this effect for all spellcards, except in ''Fairy Wars''. In the versus shooters they are completely invincible for certain period of time.
* [[One
* [[Pacifist Run]]:
** The bosses' attacks are all on timers, and it's possible to beat them just by outlasting them. They'll even blow up at the end regardless of whether you fired any shots at them. Since this requires inhuman dodging skills on some of the harder attacks, it has become a favorite [[Self
** Most of the extra bosses actually have a secret difficulty on their last (or second-to-last, in Yukari's case) spell card, triggered by attempting to go pacifist. Normally, those spell cards start off easy, but get harder as the boss loses HP. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|To prevent cheesing the game]] and trivializing what should be a climactic end by just waiting, the spell card will have an extremely hard pattern, even harder than the normal final pattern, starting at 30 seconds left if the boss has not lost enough HP.
***[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fs2wsFJtuE Gengetsu] from ''Lotus Land Story'' exemplifies this.
* [[Parabolic Power Curve]]: It's generally accepted that the stage 5 boss will be harder than the final boss, or at least as hard. The reason for this is that stage 5 bosses tend to have more experimental or random patterns, with fewer bullets but much trickier dodging. Final bosses are all about large quantities of bullets at all times, but because they're fired in easily predicted patterns, they're not nearly as challenging for experienced players, even if it's their first time fighting that particular boss.
* [[Recursive Ammo]]
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** In the 2-player ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', the game uses a [[Split Screen]] approach in which using a spell card [[Smart Bomb|SmartBombs]] your side of the screen ''and'' puts bullets on your opponent's side of the screen.
** It's also a notable source of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], since in ''Imperishable Night'', the playable characters become bosses and use their [[Smart Bomb]] attacks on you as bullet patterns which look nothing like each other. This is lampshaded in the in-game commentary, where the author says, "This is another spell card that doesn't look much like when the player uses it."
* [[Stalked
** Rarely occurs, since [[Pacifist Run|Timing Out is a victory condition]], but some spell cards have an extra phase that usually begins when 30 seconds remain on said card. [[Reality Warper|Yukari]]'s second-to-last card, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTnLf1ju70 Boundary of Life and Death",] [[I Love Nuclear Power|Utsuho]]'s final card, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdtRhBxsPz8 Subterranean Sun",] and [[Memetic Molester|Gengetsu]]'s [[Fan Nickname|aptly nicknamed]] "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS-o5nYe9pw Gengetsu Rape Time"] all do this.
** ''Highly Responsive to Prayers'' does similarly, with random bullets shooting at you if the clock runs out on any stage.
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* [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]: Many, many, many times.
** When Mima flashes in ''Story of Eastern Wonderland'' it means she's about to ram you. Moving to the side is recommended.
** Yuuka has an attack more or less guaranteed to kill you the first time you see them in both fights in ''Lotus Land Story''. In her first fight, there's her so-called "[[Wave Motion Gun|Master Spark]]"; it's very obvious that she's about to do something, but there's no indication that you need to be on the side of the screen to survive. In the second fight she has an attack that places a shrinking circle under the player: Gamer instinct is to get as far away as possible... [[Death
** The fourth stage of ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'' has certain enemies that will cancel all bullets on screen when they die. The stage is much more passable if you know about them, but a first-time player won't.
*** In the same game, the normal bullet pattern Remilia uses after her second spell card is essentially a cheap shot against anyone not expecting it/not being careful enough, because it comes out '''WICKED''' fast.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Memetic Works]]
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 2010s]]
[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:Iyashikei]]
▲[[Category:Shoot Em Up]]
[[Category:Fighting Game]]
[[Category:Collectible Card Game]]
[[Category:Fantasy Video Games]]
[[Category:Vertical Scrolling Shooter]]
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