Author Topic: ZUN and Touhou status update  (Read 412623 times)

Tengukami

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Text on the cake: Congratulations for release

Are those ... pancakes?

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

And no sauce? Heresy!

No comment on the maid cafe, but if that can make ZUN visits America again then I guess it's alright.

Metaflare

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This "Touhou Cafe" will be opened on March 21 during Con-nichiwa, in Tucson, Arizona.


holy shit i am lucky to live here

Helepolis

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That's 群馬県から来た少女 Gunma-ken kara Kita Shoujo, a free Android and iOS game released to promote the eponymous light novel, which in turn promotes/parodies the local culture of Gunma Prefecture. Actually, the author of the book seems to at least have a hand in making the game...

It looks very, very MSX indeed (video):

MSX!! My childhood computer for gaming before I got blessed with a Sega 16bit.

I am curious about Reitaisai.

cuc

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This week's Comp Ace will have another Touhou cover.


Meanwhile, Kadokawa has opened an official site for FS.
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/sp/toho_suzunaan/



Quote
ZUN: Doing some video editing. I'm not used to this.

ZUN: BTW, tomorrow on the 25th, the Nikenme Radio broadcast will begin from 8:00PM. We may talk a little about BitSummit.
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

cuc

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: 2014 spring event schedule
« Reply #665 on: February 26, 2014, 06:42:46 AM »
In the Comp Ace magazine, Harukawa Moe has announced that she will have a book-signing at AnimeJapan.

What's AnimeJapan? It's Japan's two anime expos, combined into a super-large anime expo. It's a great stage Harukawa is stepping into; on the other hand, in the galaxy of the entire anime industry, Touhou Suzunaan will necessarily not be the brightest star.

With this announcement, we probably have a schedule for 2014 spring set out.

March 7-9: ZUN attending an indie roundtable at BitSummit indie game event, Kyoto
March 22-23: Harukawa Moe's book-signing at AnimeJapan anime expo
April 26-27: ZUN Beer & Reitaisai Super Condensed at NicoNico Super Conference
May 11: Reitaisai 11
« Last Edit: February 26, 2014, 10:22:34 AM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

Monkeypro257

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: 2014 spring event schedule
« Reply #666 on: February 26, 2014, 07:35:09 AM »
Ugh, Reitaisai 11, y u not hurry up already. ;_; (But it will come quicker than we think, maybe)

Fumi

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: 2014 spring event schedule
« Reply #667 on: March 04, 2014, 03:30:52 AM »
As far as I know, if it's going to be an official game, ZUN would anounce it weeks before the demo.

Either way if it's not he will anounce it a few days before the event so we all have to wait, thought basing on recent releases ZUN is following the pattern of releasing a game a year, then the next one releases spin-offs/music CDs, it might not be true but probably this year would be the case, considering we already got two games last year and that he hasn't been that active when it comes to official games (like he did pre-UFO)

Who knows... but ;___; I have hope he will release remakesofpc98 lol, maybe because of the recent importance he gave to these games.

And if I'm not wrong ZUN said "... It's still really rough. Let's not talk about it now." when they asked him about what's he working on. Let's remember ZUN said on the day he made a showcase of PC-98 games that he lost the "source code" for said games. Maybe he is redoing them for scratch? Idk

That's what I think anyway but we just have to wait ;___;

cuc

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #668 on: March 04, 2014, 06:10:32 AM »
The time schedule of BitSummit 2014 has been released:
http://bitsummitmmxiv.indie-stream.net/?page_id=23

Kimura and ZUN's talk session is scheduled at 4:00 PM, March 8 (Saturday).

Discuss the event in the news thread:
http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,16523.0.html
« Last Edit: March 04, 2014, 06:17:55 AM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

cuc

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #669 on: March 06, 2014, 01:52:51 PM »
BitSummit will begin tomorrow, and the doujin devs are coming to Kyoto one after another. Meanwhile, I'm still not getting anything done.

List of BitSummit exhibition participants, including a few devs who had made Touhou games (in Japanese): http://bitsummitmmxiv.indie-stream.net/?page_id=124



An earlier topic in this thread is "doujin doomsday": the possibility that Japan signing the TPP treaty will result in tighter copyright regulations that have a catastrophic effect on the doujin world. The negotiations apparently aren't going well, so the doujin world may have been spared this threat for the foreseeable future.

The current buzz points to another threat. As far as I can tell, it involves certain powerful groups deciding they can control the flow of info better. First, 2ch, Japan's largest forum, has banned reposting of its content, and many sites dedicated to collecting 2ch posts (and monetize it by pasting ads over their pages) have been shut down. It seems everyone will have to pay the fee to access old 2ch posts from now on. The second news sounds scarier: some publishers are threatening to ban internet spoilers and summaries - people who get the newest magazine before their regular street date, and immediately post photos, scans and synopsis on the internet.

While neither events have any direct bearings on Touhou, they may change Japan's internet ecosystem which Touhou fandom is a part of. Will this war on spoilers have any real consequences? We can only wait and see.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2014, 03:29:19 PM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

Colticide

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #670 on: March 07, 2014, 04:52:40 AM »
I was actually wondering why so many fangames exist in Japan but not over here, I assumed Japan had the same copyright law as we did but I would guess not. If this law did get through what would the do for touhou related games? Would it fall onto ZUN to decided wither to pursue action? Or would the government automatically get involved somehow? To be honest I can't see ZUN doing that as I'm sure he understands how much these games help build Touhou to what it is, indies need exposure of any kind.
Touhou Fugyouseki ~ Nightmare of Sleeping Girl English Patch
I run a crappy YouTube channel, check it out if you wish~

Drake

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #671 on: March 07, 2014, 05:17:52 AM »
Part of it might be law, but most of it is the culture behind it. The doujin culture and indie culture are fairly different in concept, mentality and in practice; both sides are heavily affected by the society in which they reside and that's how they've separately grown so far. There's also the problem of geography -- less in Europe, but in North America we can't easily have a country come together in events like Comiket. Our community and distribution methods are accordingly very heavily internet-based, whereas the japanese doujin scene can fairly easily get the whole country to come together physically, spreading material across the country is much easier, etc.

A Colorful Calculating Creative and Cuddly Crafty Callipygous Clever Commander
- original art by Aiけん | ウサホリ -

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #672 on: March 07, 2014, 05:26:51 AM »
I was actually wondering why so many fangames exist in Japan but not over here, I assumed Japan had the same copyright law as we did but I would guess not. If this law did get through what would the do for touhou related games? Would it fall onto ZUN to decided wither to pursue action? Or would the government automatically get involved somehow? To be honest I can't see ZUN doing that as I'm sure he understands how much these games help build Touhou to what it is, indies need exposure of any kind.

I did a research paper on this subject last year... Japanese copyright law isn't actually that different from American copyright law. There are a few little details, but none of those are particularly relevant and actually make it a bit stricter (there is no general "fair use" defense, just a list of explicit exceptions). What changes the circumstances are instead general legal principles that disincentive Japanese copyright holders from pursuing claims. Most notably, the court will not award punitive damages so oftentimes the costs of litigation for minor infringements exceed the recovery. So they're not really going to go after any but the largest infringers (other than larger companies that may be willing to lose money to protect their image).

What the TPP would have done is give government officials the right to confiscate allegedly infringing items without consulting the copyright holder. It was basically intended to be a matter of efficiency and timesaving, but as a matter of practice it would cause the enforcement of copyright in many many cases where the right holder didn't intend it. An "open license" like ZUN's would have become powerless. It's not hard to see how that would end doujin culture.

Edit: For the record, I was inspired by this topic and I cited ZUN a lot in the paper. I am a terrible person.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 05:40:01 AM by Clarste »

Colticide

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #673 on: March 07, 2014, 06:37:30 AM »
Ah so there are lot of touhou fangames for sale but for a large company like Nintendo you don't see Mario fan games for sale then, if I understand that correctly. Since Nintendo might think the games would ruin their image (but it's mostly they are just very protective of their IP.).

That... is bad. That's crazy to think they would have the right to do that. Why would they even make a bill like that in the first place? So many people would lose out on what they love to do and no longer make a profit on it too. This sounds a bit like SOPA and PIPA but different.
Touhou Fugyouseki ~ Nightmare of Sleeping Girl English Patch
I run a crappy YouTube channel, check it out if you wish~

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #674 on: March 07, 2014, 08:32:21 AM »
That... is bad. That's crazy to think they would have the right to do that. Why would they even make a bill like that in the first place? So many people would lose out on what they love to do and no longer make a profit on it too. This sounds a bit like SOPA and PIPA but different.

It's not a bill, it's a treaty. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty designed to smooth the edges on international trade. This part was aimed mostly at customs agents finding smuggled goods in the possession of international travelers: the effect on doujin culture would have been a distant side effect. International copyright law is pretty complicated because it has to make a lot of compromises between different countries. This was just one tiny part of a much larger thing. Also it was always subject to change through negotiation.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 08:38:27 AM by Clarste »

Colticide

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #675 on: March 08, 2014, 05:53:44 AM »
Thank you for explaining, not very good at understanding with these issues. Yes tomorrow the sit down talk will happen. Will there be a chance that someone will post on here what they talked about?
Touhou Fugyouseki ~ Nightmare of Sleeping Girl English Patch
I run a crappy YouTube channel, check it out if you wish~

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #676 on: March 08, 2014, 06:15:48 AM »
Thank you for explaining, not very good at understanding with these issues. Yes tomorrow the sit down talk will happen. Will there be a chance that someone will post on here what they talked about?

...isn't posting that kind of stuff the entire point of this thread?

Colticide

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #677 on: March 08, 2014, 06:42:38 AM »
Well just wasn't sure if anyone will translate what they say, haven't been here long enough to know for sure.
Touhou Fugyouseki ~ Nightmare of Sleeping Girl English Patch
I run a crappy YouTube channel, check it out if you wish~

N-Forza

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #678 on: March 08, 2014, 08:41:57 AM »
Unable to watch the stream, but DNA Software's twitter said ZUN announced he wants to sell downloadable versions for the international market.

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #679 on: March 08, 2014, 09:20:31 AM »
Unable to watch the stream, but DNA Software's twitter said ZUN announced he wants to sell downloadable versions for the international market.
Can you give any link, Forza?
He's talking about Touhou, right? Way to go!

Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #680 on: March 08, 2014, 09:49:15 AM »
DNA Software's tweet about it is at https://twitter.com/dnasoftwares/status/442200562184904704. Apparently the stream was being translated as it was going but unfortunately I tuned in after that part was over.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 09:56:26 AM by notext »

Drake

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #681 on: March 08, 2014, 09:50:01 AM »
He said during the talk that he sees the international audience and wants to make his games available overseas in the future. As far as I could tell, the language ZUN used was his usual "I intend to" sort of polite vague-ish stuff, but the way he talked about it was pretty decisive. He also stresses that he wants to maintain control over what Touhou is as a whole. In other words, he has to be careful about how he might expand the series in the future, similarly to how he tightened the reigns on potential commercial works.

I feel that it's difficult for him to wrench with the problem of having his brainchild create such an expansive fanbase that in part wants to take a piece of Touhou for themselves, and work to expand its reaches even further using alternate distribution methods,  yet still keep Touhou "doujin", and ultimately keep it his. By the nature of doujin works, it doesn't seem very stable when a work becomes as huge as Touhou and is faced with an international consumerbase, especially since other countries don't embrace or even acknowledge doujin culture the same way that Japan does. For one man to maintain control over this sort of thing is an ordeal to say the least.

A Colorful Calculating Creative and Cuddly Crafty Callipygous Clever Commander
- original art by Aiけん | ウサホリ -

Espadas

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #682 on: March 08, 2014, 11:00:41 AM »
I'm unsure about that "balancing" problem Drake mentioned.... Of course it's not easy with such a consumer base but i think because of the very nature of Touhou and its development it should fall under strong copyright laws.... after all ZUN think and make EVERY SINGLE THING about the games, so he have literally EVERY SINGLE RIGHT to them, international doujin aknowledgement or not.

Firestorm29

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #683 on: March 08, 2014, 03:34:17 PM »
I think the worry is more along the lines like the attempts to create a westren Reitaisai, and keeping it under control. Yea, he could simply just shoot it out on Steam, but the problem I think comes more from the ability (or desire) to create their own fanworks and respect his work the way doujin circles do by giving credit and whatnot.

cuc

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #684 on: March 08, 2014, 04:11:21 PM »
(Re: the control topic) No, not really. This isn't the main theme of today. I'll do a full report tomorrow, and address this topic here. I'll hit the pillows now.

(Besides, even Reitaisai is both officially and practically not affliated with ZUN.)
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 04:15:55 PM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

Drake

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #685 on: March 09, 2014, 07:42:19 AM »
I'm unsure about that "balancing" problem Drake mentioned.... Of course it's not easy with such a consumer base but i think because of the very nature of Touhou and its development it should fall under strong copyright laws.... after all ZUN think and make EVERY SINGLE THING about the games, so he have literally EVERY SINGLE RIGHT to them, international doujin aknowledgement or not.
I wasn't talking about laws and copyrights and legal ownership, though. Particularly, I don't think ZUN wants it to get to the point where he has to enact legal action anywhere.

The second paragraph were just my thoughts. He didn't go into any of that during any of the discussions, I just think it could be a potential problem. As far as I'm aware it's more that because ZUN doesn't speak any other languages he can't really communicate with the international audience as he might like, and the west doesn't naturally share the same respectful mentality of doujin culture that Touhou is built upon. Am I making any sense?

A Colorful Calculating Creative and Cuddly Crafty Callipygous Clever Commander
- original art by Aiけん | ウサホリ -

Kimidori

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #686 on: March 09, 2014, 01:36:07 PM »
ZUN is thinking about selling Touhou games online

Quote
いやー、ビットサミット楽しかった。居ただけで高揚したが、自分でブース出して無いのが悔やまれる。あ、あとトークでも言いましたが、海外も考えて東方のゲームのDL販売を検討しています

Translation by Sakuya_Lv9 on reddit
Quote
BitSummit was fun. Just being there is something, and something something about something. And, something. Maybe I should think about overseas fans and consider making Touhou games available for DL purchase.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2014, 01:40:00 PM by Kimidori »


"No matter what, cute is justice. If you're watching shows without moe, you should really be questioning your life decisions. The creation of 2D anime girls is the pinnacle of human achievement." -Logan M

hungrybookworm

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #687 on: March 09, 2014, 03:01:49 PM »
I don't know why but I feel weirdly anxious for some reason, even though this is really wonderful news (probably just because it's change). It'll definitely make aquiring Touhou legally a million times easier and cheaper for everyone outside of Japan.

Doujin wise, I don't think anything will change really. If some asshole in the West wanted to profit from Touhou, then they would've done it already, and I don't know if saying 'you're allowed to sell Touhou stuff online/at a convention overseas!' will make a ton of overseas fan creators insanely rich. Maybe if this was a fandom as insanely huge in the West as Sherlock or Supernatural there'd be reason to worry. I guess there might be an issue if fan games get on Steam or something? I just can't imagine it for fanfic, fanart or music arrangements though.

Things might be different for the Chinese or Korean fandoms though, maybe.

N-Forza

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #688 on: March 15, 2014, 03:13:50 PM »
The Reitaisai committee's stream announced an "Autumn Reitaisai" for November 24th. Seems like it might be something like the 2 Reitaisai SP event they had a couple of years ago.

cuc

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Re: ZUN and Touhou status update: BitSummit talk session at 4:00PM Mar 8
« Reply #689 on: March 15, 2014, 05:03:59 PM »
I think I mentioned before that they were considering extending Reitaisai to 2 days. It seems instead of that, they decided to experiment with a second one in autumn.

EDIT:
It turns out Kadokawa isn't going to do a book signing for anyone at AnimeJapan. Instead, they will be selling many pre-signed books at the event. Well, that has less significance.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2014, 02:40:34 AM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter