Ever try explaining Touhou to someone, but couldn't?

[AMZYoshio]

Hey, anyone remember me? I'm not dead, funnily enough. Anyway, I was in the lengthy process of rebooting my website, which has been basically dead since 2007. While doing it, I decided to include a section where I just talk about stuff that I like (or don't), and Touhou became a very obvious subject for me to rant about.

http://www.antimatterzone.com/rants/2hu.html

Basically the point of this thread is to not only shamelessly plug for my website (:3) but to give a link to what may be a fairly comprehensive "beginning point" for people new to Touhou. Send the link to your friends who don't get it, to your siblings, whatever, whoever. I wanted to do this because I realized that Touhou can be a really weird thing to a lot of people, especially those not in-tune with more Japanese things, and I wanted to explain it in a much more western manner, while not losing the core of what Touhou is.

Also, just a note, I have zero problems with swearing on that website, seeing that it's mine, so if cursing offends you, here's a preemptive apology. It's not -that- bad, but, well, it's there.

[Failure McFailFace]

I actually made a presentation for Chinese school as a final project about Touhou. 5 minutes, explain your topic.

And yes, I attempted to explain Touhou to a few of my friends, but I tend to over complicate explanations.

[Mеа]

What you've got there is a pretty decent summary of Touhou, which I may possibly even use in the future.

I personally have never had a problem with trying to explain what Touhou is. Mostly because the people I've run into didn't really care, or already were pretty dedicated to other fanbases or western stuff.

[Helepolis]

Explaining touhou to someone who has nothing to do with Doujin culture, eastern manga/anime or gaming in general is extremely hard.

Even my elder sister back in 2009 seen me play the game and asked me: "Why do they look like dressed up dolls?". Honestly had the same impression, they looked like frilly dressed up dolls. She wasn't even commenting on the ZUN-art, just the general impression.

[Tengukami]

How I explained Touhou to friends my age:

Me: Remember Galaga?
Them: Hell yeah!
Me: OK now I imagine it with better bullet patterns, better music, and better art. And cast entirely by magic girls.
Them: What.
Me: And it's made by one guy, who writes whole books about the cast, too. And fans of the game make gajillions of songs, games and artworks in tribute.
Them: ... That's nuts.
Me: That's Touhou.

[Espadas]

How I explained Touhou to friends my age:

Me: Remember Galaga?
Them: Hell yeah!
Me: OK now I imagine it with better bullet patterns, better music, and better art. And cast entirely by magic girls.
Them: What.
Me: And it's made by one guy, who writes whole books about the cast, too. And fans of the game make gajillions of songs, games and artworks in tribute.
Them: ... That's nuts.
Me: That's Touhou.

LOL that is basically point-per-point what i do too, but i love to add "and at high difficulties is so hard you will scream"