How did you find out about Touhou?

[Rikter]

I first learned about it when I was directed to this parody of overdrive. Upon learning it was A parody I watched the original. Which made even less sence to me. Months later I asked some people about any good games they would reccomend me and the only one they said that I hadn't played was Touhou.

[Serela]

A year or two ago I was bored and searched "hardest boss ever" on youtube. Well, I didn't find Touhou, I found Mushieme... err... "however you spell it"sama. But in the related videos were some japanese-user-uploaded videos of Touhou games. I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at, as the only time I'd seen a Shmup was Galaga at Pizza Hut, and the videos were all japanese and low quality. I just looked at the pretty patterns.

Then early this year, I noticed Slaves and Light(Who doesn't play Touhou anymore) talking about Touhou in the random section of a forum I used to go to, and recognized the name. So I decided I'd download it, I tried it out... and yeah. <3 Now I is hardcore fan. Other shmups seem so deadbeat~

[Drake]

I find there's an oddly accurate correlation between the number of people who came for the artistic style and stayed for the community, with the people who came from the PVs and stayed for the games.

After much thought I still haven't been able to figure out how I got here. I just phased in somehow.

[Solais]

Uhh, at least I know that I started being a fan in this April, yet I knew about Touhou for at least a year. I don't know what caused me to check out Touhou, but it was something Genderbent Haruhi and/or Vocaloid relation. Anyway, when I found out that Touhou is actually a Shmup, my favorite game genre, instead of the "The Greatest Fanwank what you must stay away from", I was already sold. And it just became better.

EDIT: After some thought... yeah Mushihime-sama video. That was the last kick.

[Shizumarashi Mayuzumi]

Was visiting the vaguely-boyfriend-type-thing, he played some IN, I was like "Hmmmm, that looks fun," *tries* "Oh man, this is hard but it's so awesome."

And now I'm better than he is.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

A friend of mine who's obsessed with shmups and cute girls tried to get me into Perfect Cherry Blossom. He gave me no clear warning or explanation about precisely what "bullet hell" means. I forget whether I ran out of continues on Chen or shortly into stage 3. I uninstalled it and didn't look back.

Then ... well, I started to notice it here and there. Other people seemed interested. Then someone tried to get me into IN, which flopped a bit because I wasn't given any clear explanation of the time-system and how it related to Bad End, but then I came back to it. Then someone on a MUSH mistook my character's name ("Dizzy-chan") for what proved to be an IRC bot belonging to MaullarMaullar, and then I ended up in his channel. (Actually I forget which order those last two bits happened in exactly.)

And the rest, as they say (though not usually without some sort of qualifier like "as they say" -- it's almost never "the rest is history," but instead "the rest, as they say, is history" or something like that), is history.

[Seian Verian]

I was looking through youtube for music, when I found a song with an awesome title. Fate of Sixty Years. Specifically, this remix. I listened through more Fate of Sixty Years remixes, before finding Riverside View. Then Septette, U.N. Owen, Phantom Ensemble, Master Spark... Before I knew it, I was addicted to Touhou remixes in general. It was a while before I played the games, but now I'm addicted to Touhou in general <3

[Scooter1000]

I was playing Osu! and downloaded this beatmap one day. After playing it a few times, I started to wonder where Cirno was from, so I searched the video for any hints. I was eventually linked to Cirno's Perfect Math Class. After finding out where Cirno came from, I thought to myself, "Hey, this sounds familiar... Oh yeah! I saw some videos about this before!" then I ran off to find those videos and gradually, I started becoming more and more addicted.

The thing I find funny is that I subconsciously avoided Touhou for over a year. Marisa Stole the Precious Thing was one of the first things on my song list for Osu!, but I never looked into it. I also avoided all U.N. Owen remixes that I saw. Heck, I even saw some gameplay videos, but those weren't interesting at the time.

:V

[Gpop]

Oh my god I have to type this out again.

Ok I'll try to make this short.

Started with MUGEN.

Found Touhou characters.

Searched up IaMP.

Started with that.

Looked for sequels/prequels.

Found Dracil's IN extra stage video.

Awe'd by bullets.

Downloaded everything else.

Here I am.

[Slowpoke]

again

puberty -> boner -> search for fap material -> deviantART -> 4chan -> /a/ -> Touhou

[AlexX Unlimited]

Kinda hard to explain... mostly started playing a year or so ago. Didn't really start joining any community until I could 1CC normal mode of any of the games (which turned into "any game that wasn't Imperishable Night" since apparently that one doesn't count >.>). Probably out of simple embarrassment over how bad I was (yeah, I know most people here make the exact same claim, but they could 1CC stuff period... I couldn't even 1CC easy mode at first).

[Arcengal]

A year or two ago I was bored and searched "hardest boss ever" on youtube. Well, I didn't find Touhou, I found Mushieme... err... "however you spell it"sama. But in the related videos were some japanese-user-uploaded videos of Touhou games.

This, almost to the letter. It was a run of IN extra. I finally started playing after I heard Necrofantasia for the first time.

[Helix ⑨]

I also watched 'The hardest game ever' video, that was the spark that lit my interest in curtain fire shooters. So a few months pass, once in a while I'd happen to see that video again, then 1 day I started browsing a bit and I came to some guy's IN extra stage clear. And I was watching it and then he reached mokou.... jezus christ.... that theme.... it's... it's..... GODLY!!111@2 *MUST DOWNLOAD NOW!!* So basically I started out with PCB and then went on to IN and my dream was to some day beat IN's extra stage. I have that now and even after 9000+ attempts that song is still awesome!

[skutieos]

...I was McRolled

[Doomsday]

...I was McRolled

[Slaves]

well like most people it started with Marisa Stole the Precious thing -> McRoll

but it was really this song that had this picture in the original video.

from that video i searched Hartmann's Youkai Girl, which lead me to SA, which lead to me researching the games. and then i somehow ended up here.

[flurk]

saw a vid of IN extra stage clear AGES ago, thought it was an arcade platform so at that point i wished i could play it but just gave up.

then last year, after lots of little dropped hints about this thing called touhou by an online friend of mine, i finally asked him WTF IS THIS TOUHOU OF WHICH YOU SPEAK OF? and he gave me a link and i was like HOW CAN I GET THIS GAME?

and here i am.

well i actually started off just playing eosd (after losing patience in HRtP lol). it took me quite a while to just full clear normal (with the last remaining life of the last credit, lol), moved on to all windows games, gradually watched more and more PVs early this year, and here i am browsing motk every day, getting a few normal 1ccs, playing and arranging themes for the guitar, cycling through touhou wallpapers everyday, etc, etc.

[Kain]

Unlike most, I heard the song behind Mcrolled, looked the name of the song up, found a flandre lunatic run, was awed.

Half a year or so later, some guy at a tourney had a SWR setup, I played it, loved it, looked stuff up, found epic music. Introduced it to my freinds, and suddenly, a touhou community popped up.

Up until recently, the only touhou game Ive played was SWR/Hisouten, but I have downloaded EoSD and PCB, and refuse to move on until Ive beaten them on normal or above.

[non-lolicon Ange fan]

About a year ago, I was listening to Vocaloid songs on youtube, and came across a Vocaloid dubbing over of what I now know to be the flash of Marisa Stole the Precious Thing. At first, I was like, "Who the hell are these characters? Something from an obscure anime I've never heard of? Some obscure video game that's never been released outside of Japan?" (DING!) By checking links to the video, I learned it was from a franchise called "Touhou," which I knew nothing about.

A short while after that, some people on a messageboard I was going to were talking about "Doujin" games, and someone mentioned Touhou. Someone else also said, "If you're new, try out Perfect Cherry Blossom."

I downloaded the demo of PCB and . . . was kinda underwhelmed. To be honest, I just never got into SHMUPs. But the music, my god, the music! That music stayed stuck to my head for a while.

A few months pass, and I was surfing tvtropes. I was bored and thought to myself, "Hey, you know that Japanese game series Touhou? I wonder if there's an entry for that." There was. And from tvtropes, I found a youtube link to The Cruel Sisters and the Suffering Maid by Innocent Key.

Nothing was ever the same after that.

[Zengar Zombolt]

Youtube sillyness -> Mushihimesama -> EoSD Extra -> PCB Demo get.

[SukiSynth]

YouTube, Some random Naruto fanflash, then a Zelda fanflash, then a Haruhi AMV with Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, then PCB Demo.

Stopped for a few months, forgot it, saw the McRoll, heard U.N. Owen was Her, remembered Touhou, and voil?.

[Bias Bus]

Don't remember too well, but then again I hate trying to remember things like this...it's always such a bother...

-Needed ideas for characters
-Found a Wiki entry on Touhou (read the entire thing)
-Found MoTK 1st
-Downloaded PC98 about a year ago
-Blah blah blah The End

I was more enthusiastic back then, but hey, it's what happens when you stay in something for a good while.

[Garlyle]

3 years ago: Etrian Odyssey
IOSYS does F.O.E.
Look up other IOSYS stuff
"Oh hey Touhou Project remix?  Wonder what that is"

Two years pass
"...Okay, you know what?  I need to fucking find this Touhou stuff.  Hook me up"
"K download full pack here"
"Okay---IT'S BULLET HELL!?  DEAR GOD YES."

[LoveSign]

A friend of mine showed me IN a long time ago. I played it for a minute (with Marisa/Alice), and I was like 'WTF is this shit? It's all dark and weird and way too hard.'

Then a few years later it's like 'What's this PCB stuff - OMYGAWD <3 HOW COULD I NOT LIKE TOUHOU GAMES?!?!?' and it's been like that ever since.

[lmagus]

I played mushihimesama and wanted to find out more shmups for windows (i played mushihime on a ps2 emulator)

[Toasty]

Rocketboom's "know your meme".

I was researching in order to understand the speech of some /b/tard kids who were, sadly, /b/tards in person as well as across the internet. And then bam, touhou.

[8lue Wizard]

So, there I was on this anime board, bored. I see a touhou topic with... I think it was a Wriggle quote in the title ("But I don't wanna get shot to pieces!") It piques my curiosity. I find my way to TouhouWiki. Am intimidated by the sheer scope of it. Forget about it for a few months. Then one day I randomly said, "Man, wtf is this Touhou thing?", Googled "What is touhou" (or some such), and the rest, as they say, is history.

[N-Forza]

I honestly don't remember exactly. I remember seeing it on /a/ of course, but soon after I came to Japan I started watching more videos on Nico, and I found a parody of the Marisa Stole(ry video with Taniguchi from The Melacholy of Haruhi Suzimiya, which led the watching the original flash. Then at some point I watched the Cirno's Perfect Math Class video and maybe a few others, including watching some playthrough videos on YouTube.

Finally, after Comiket last winter, I was with a friend in Akihabara who played the games and I told him I wanted to buy a Touhou game with Cirno in it and he told me to get PCB. So I did.

[Dead Princess Sakana]

If I remember correctly for me it started with playing 'Help me, Eirin' in Osu on PC by chance. Liked it, then searched on Youtube and found pics of Eirin and the name Touhou. Liked the character design so I looked further.... and here I am now.

For a friend it went like this: Had to watch me play Touhou when he was doing university work again and again. Had to hear me talking about it. Had to see me buy UFO on our trip to Japan. Had to hear me talk more. Couldn't resist anymore. A few days ago he was playing EoSD 3 hours straight in the middle of the night 'cause he couldn't stop..... Just as flanned *evil grin*

[Kuma]

Saw a weird sidescolling platofrmer/damaku hybrid game at some anime convention.
No contact for a while.
Accidently stumbled onto the Wikipedia artical for Touhou project, Thinking it was the game from the con.
Did some reaserch.
IOSYS, Remixex, memes, ect.
Actual gameplay vids.
Found out about Walfas.
Joined MoTK.
Played an actual Danmaku game for the first time.
OH GOD THE BUUULLLLEEEETTSSSSSSSS~~~ THEY HURT SO GOOOOOOODD~~