Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Hakurei Shrine~ => Touhou Addict Recovery Center => Topic started by: cuc on November 11, 2014, 02:11:23 PM
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A thread for discussing minor status updates about ZUN and Touhou, the second take.
Previous thread:
HERE (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,14315.0.html)
Names to know
* Name order is family name first, given name second. Unless noted, all names are pseudonyms. *
Hakurei Kannushi and family
ZUN: Sole member of Shanghai Alice Gengakudan (Shanghai Alice Fantasy Ensemble, English name: Team Shanghai Alice). Former employee at Taito. Making Touhou full-time since 2007, being a daddy full-time since 2014. @korindo (https://twitter.com/korindo)
ki-san: ZUN's wife and former co-worker. Game programmer. Loves frogs. Also loves drinking.
Doujin game-making friends
Unabara Iruka: Leader and designer of the doujin game developer Twilight Frontier (Tasofro for short), developer of Touhou fighting games. The pseudonym means "Ocean Dolphin". @unabara (https://twitter.com/unabara)
Akiyama Uni: a.k.a. U2, composer at Twilight Frontier. Wrote many beloved songs in the fighting games. @u2aki (https://twitter.com/u2aki)
D.N.A.: Real name: Ezaki Nozomu. Leader of the doujin game developer D.N.A. Softwares (Touhou Unreal Mahjong), he started the indie game event Digital Game Expo, and is now heading "Play,Doujin!", a programme to publish doujin games on PlayStation consoles. @dnasoftwares (https://twitter.com/dnasoftwares)
Ruw: Member of D.N.A. Softwares. Helps ZUN and Tasofro with business and legal matters. Can drink as much as ZUN. @Ruw (https://twitter.com/Ruw)
tbn: Member of the doujin game circle Daisessen, who often helps ZUN manage booths at conventions. @tbn_ (https://twitter.com/tbn_)
Heppoko: One half of the doujin game circle Eikyuu Loop (TWilight refrAIN, TWilight INSanity) until 2013, he is making games entirely on his own now. Works in the game industry by day. @heppoko (https://twitter.com/heppoko)
Murasame Aeju: The OTHER famous one-man doujin game maker who does nearly everything by himself, under the name of Platine Dispositif. The titles currently localized into English (Gundemonium trilogy and Bunny Must Die) represent only a small part of his highly varied portfolio. @_murasame (https://twitter.com/_murasame)
Game industry friends
Tanzawa Yūichi (real name): ZUN's former co-worker, now a game designer at Square Enix. Main member of the PoriPori Club web broadcast. @TANTAN_U1 (https://twitter.com/TANTAN_U1)
Kimura Yoshirō (real name): Legendary game designer known for creating cult classics such as Moon: Remix Adventure, Chulip, Rule of Rose, and Little King Story. Main member of PoriPori Club. @yoshiro_kimura (https://twitter.com/yoshiro_kimura)
Print work-related
Okonogi Tetsurō (real name): Editor of several Touhou print works at the publisher Ichijinsha until his resignation in July 2014. Hosts ZUN's monthly web broadcast "Radio Begins from the Second Pub" (Nikenme Radio). Has cameo appearances in the When They Cry franchise. @_nyogi (https://twitter.com/_nyogi)
Azuma Aya: Touhou fan artist, also artist of Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit (published by Ichijinsha). Graduated from college in 2014. @a_to_z (https://twitter.com/a_to_z)
Harukawa Moe: Artist of Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery (published by Kadokawa). Still in college.
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The current state of things:
-The second Digital Game Expo organized by D.N.A. will be held on Nov 16 (Sun) at the 2nd floor of UDX Building, Akihabara. Shanghai Alice, Twilight Frontier and Platine Dispositif will be present at D-01a, D-01b and D-02a respectively. Information on attendance (http://digigame-expo.org/attend-en)
-Autumn Reitaisai will be held on Nov 24 (Mon).
-The Touhou section of Comiket 87 takes place on its second day, Dec 29 (Mon). Twilight Frontier will be present at 東シ29a; their new release has yet to be announced.
Other activities of interest reported in the last thread:
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/001_zpsc5b431b2.jpg)
Here's a fun report (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41132480.html) from Touhou Memory.
A Touhou-themed art exhibition "Touhou Art Festival" will be held in "Gallery You", an art gallery in Kichijōji, on Nov 22 and 23, immediately before the Autumn Reitaisai. Entry will be free.
The artists are: Utsugi (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3402450), Koneneko (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1845025), Koyoi (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3232878), .COM (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=4500555), nisu (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=70143), Misawa Hiroshi (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=902690), and Megusuri (http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1462076).
The media are digital painting for .COM, Japanese traditional painting for Koyoi, and other Western styles for the other artists.
Make no mistake, one of the artists is different from the others. Six of them are young students still learning their trade; Misawa Hiroshi, however, is an oil painter with over 30 years of experience, known for his expertise in anatomy and dedication to education (plus willingness to draw Touhou, and intermingle with the nerdy Pixiv/NicoNico/Comiket crowd, of course!) Let's just say, you can buy his textbooks on oil painting and anatomy even in China.
Ōbari Kentarō, curator of the show said this about Misawa's "Ordinary Magician", the painting used in the poster above: "It's the largest painting displayed in our exhibition. You must see it with your own eyes to feel its power."
For the coming Sunday's Digital Game Expo, the doujin circle Endless Shirafu (∀kashicverse) has set up a competition (http://endless-shirafu.com/stg_caravan_2014/index.html).
During the expo, players in this "Doujin Shooting Game Caravan" competition will play the STG games displayed at certain booths for score. Both their scores and a stamp imprint representing said booth will be marked on their score sheets. After having played at 7 or more booths, they will turn their score sheets in at the booth of Endless Shirafu. Repeated attempts are allowed: after turning in your score sheet, you can get another sheet and try again.
- Everyone with 7 or more stamps will get Reward A.
- Everyone who collected all stamps will get Reward A and Reward B.
- The top 3 players by 3:00 PM will receive a "big prize".
They've already got 14 doujin STG developers signed up, including Shanghai Alice. If you are going to drop by (http://digigame-expo.org/attend-en) Akihabara this Sunday, this would be a fun thing to do.
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That STG contest sounds like great fun, and I don't even play for score. It just sounds like it would be a fun time. Plus, going over the different circles, a lot of these games look great.
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Forgot to mention this:
Twilight Frontier has released a demo for their most recent title, the sidescrolling STG Shoot Shoot Nitori, and announced they will release a downloadable version of the game through 4 doujin vendors on Dec 14: Toranoana, Melonbooks, DLSite, and Surfers' Paradise. This will be the first digital release in their history.
Unabara said (https://twitter.com/unabara/status/532132303653187585):Physical products are great, but we don't want to forego the convenience of a digital version...
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I'm always in support of digital versions, relying on others to get my games doesn't sit right with me so I'm very happy to see many devs going digital.
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I imagine this should help set more of a precedent to digitally distribute Touhou fangames.
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Digital Game Expo is near, and things are heating up!
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Via (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41240834.html) Touhou Memory:
Nal, leader of the doujin circle Edelweiss (Ether Vapor, Fairy Bloom, Astebreed) tweeted this after meeting ZUN:Nal (https://twitter.com/nal_ew/status/532143508383989760): I asked ZUN if he will continue making STGs. He said "I still want to make them! I want to make them even more now!" What an awesome guy, I thought...
He's not going to retire any soon, is he?
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D.N.A. and tbn will be hosting (http://www.dna-softwares.com/article/2261) a special Nae Radio broadcast at the Expo, from 1:30 to 3:30 PM. The show will be broadcast on Ustream here (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/naeradi-dna).
Many groups are showing their new works at the Expo. If you have wondered what will Tasofro show, well, a huge new game has been announced (https://twitter.com/unabara/status/532890869443985408) (click the link to see a screenshot)! Titled 在庫の達人 Zaiko no Tatsujin "Master of Inventory", the game is made in only two days.
And what does ZUN have to say today?
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533071698946318336) So I haven't notified you... out of the blue, I will be attending the doujin & indie game event, Digital Game Expo 2014. Guess I should get working on something I can bring there, right now.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533073899441750017) Ah, please don't misunderstand. It will be a minigame built only for playing at that place, containing nothing marketable. It's for Shooting Game Caravan.
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My thoughts: making a game in a short time frame specifically for an event, this is an idea they learnt from the Western indie culture. However, I'm not sure Unabara and ZUN have internalized the idea that the purpose of doing all that is for communication and interaction, which means these experimental minigames should also be released publically for free, preferrably with source code.
In any case, this is ZUN's first non-packaged game since Pubs at Dusk ~ Uwabami Breakers. Given that he have only two days to make it, it will likely reuse Touhou assets, which would make it part of Touhou canon. That's a curious thought.
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These two day games, if kinda sounds like that Hour of Code challenge I've heard going around college campuses. Is the short creation time a challenge they made themselves or is it a limit that Digital Games Expo is putting out?
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Those kinds of speed game making events are called "game jams" in the Western indie game world.
Digi Game Expo is only a doujin/indie game exhibition, not a game jam; you are only required to bring your original game (no adult content) to the expo. They either set the limit themselves, or are too lazy to be willing to spend more time on these games.
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ZUN has just tweeted about his contribution to the Caravan,"Danmaku Amanojaku (ISC) Gold Rush": https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533502892678733824
It'll feature a 10th cheat item that "destroys danmaku" so it'll probably be heavy on bullet-cancelling, and he says it was meant to be an easy game made just for score attacking.
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(http://i.imgur.com/VBUbt5b.png)
Fun fact: The coins in the picture appear to be the Canadian bullion gold maple leaf coin:
(http://i.imgur.com/8KDsGzQ.png)
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(http://i.imgur.com/VBUbt5b.png)
Text on the screenshot:
Danmaku Amanojaku Gold Rush
Special Game for Digital Game Expo Score Attack
(c)2014 Shanghai Alice Gengakudan
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533502892678733824) I've made it in this way, "Danmaku Amanojaku Gold Rush". A game where the amanojaku has obtained the 10th rule-breaking item, and must destroy the rule-breaking-ish danmaku. It's a game with low difficulty that lasts a short time, only for score attack. You must play it tomorrow.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533503310037151744) What would happen in the actual place on tomorrow's convention floor, I have absolutely no idea.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533505280575676416) |-`).｡oO(...I've wastefully built a score attack mode with a new game system.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533514316800987137) I fear it might be that tomorrow it'd be impossible for one player to challenge the game multiple times. They'd have to earn their scores in one try. That would be grisly.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533521707504381952) Ah, please note that Danmaku Amanojaku Gold Rush is not meant to be a marketable game. Making an unmarketable joke game is quite enjoyable.
It's easy to guess that the 10th rule-breaker is some sort of Midas touch that turns danmaku into gold. Which means... something from Nazrin and Shou?
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Do you think there would be any chance that he would put this game up on his website? If it does have some kind of short story to it I'd still like to play it even if its just for the event.
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He tweeted in game example it seems : https://twitter.com/korindo/status/533613383581302784
Edit: Seems more like Shinmyoumaru is going to feature this game. Smash bullets, get gold. ZUN lyfe. *spastic gestures*
Edit2: Sprite looks like Seija though.
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Thread opened, discussion goes there~
https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,17629.0.html
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If you have wondered what will Tasofro show, well, a huge new game has been announced (https://twitter.com/unabara/status/532890869443985408) (click the link to see a screenshot)! Titled 在庫の達人 Zaiko no Tatsujin "Master of Inventory", the game is made in only two days.
(http://i.imgur.com/wnOFBO4.jpg)
^ I'm a bit confused. Is this the game they will release at winter comiket as well or will they make a completely different one for that event? (This doesn't look like a Touhou fangame to me, btw)
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http://i.imgur.com/VBUbt5b.png
Fun fact: The coins in the picture appear to be the Canadian bullion gold maple leaf coin:
http://i.imgur.com/8KDsGzQ.png
ZUN confirmed that Gensokyo is located in Canada!
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The gold maple leaf coins were really popular in Japan during the bubble years, probably because of aggressive marketing + maple leaves being a popular, evocative symbol. Japan doesn't mint its own bullion coins, since there hasn't been any gold mining done in decades.
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The gold maple leaf coins were really popular in Japan during the bubble years, probably because of aggressive marketing + maple leaves being a popular, evocative symbol. Japan doesn't mint its own bullion coins, since there hasn't been any gold mining done in decades.
Wikipedia says it was the only gold coin continuously being minted and be available to the world for a while in late 20th century. Could that also be a reason? I have totally no idea, though!
ZUN's stream schedule:
2014-11-24 (Mon), 20:00 PM JST: PoriPori Club: ZUN and D.N.A. will talk about Digital Game Expo.
2014-11-26 (Wed), 20:00 PM JST: Nikenme Radio.
ZUN: With the manuscript done, I'm going to attend a meeting. Should I drink something warm?
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/535451146941255680) The meeting took place with Ms. Moe lecturing the editor throughout. I got my warm drinks.
Harukawa Moe is no ordinary newbie mangaka :].
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I don't think she was lecturing the editor, but ZUN lol.
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Wikipedia says it was the only gold coin continuously being minted and be available to the world for a while in late 20th century. Could that also be a reason? I have totally no idea, though!
Yeah, the kind of gold coins being sold varies depending on which countries have gold mines running or are selling off gold reserves. Gold is just gold but coins themselves become evocative depending on how they are used. For example, in the US the South African Krugerrand had a vaguely sinister reputation in the late 1980s, reflecting their origin in apartheid South Africa and percieved use by criminals.
The "gold rush" theme is certainly timely given Japan's current economic woes.
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Ha, "current". That's great.
ZUN: The meeting took place with Ms. Moe lecturing the editor throughout. I got my warm drinks.
Glad ZUN has his priorities straight!
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Ha, "current". That's great.
I was specifically referring to the snap elections.
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Gold Rush's stage is called "Financial Easing in Another Dimension". Easing is part of the Abenomics package, and apparently because the inflation had not reached the degree they planned, Bank of Japan did this (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/31/us-japan-economy-boj-idUSKBN0IK0B120141031) 3 weeks ago, causing the yen to plummet like it hadn't in a long time.
Autumn Reitaisai is not the only news of the moment. From the day before yesterday (Nov 22):
ZUN: I'm going to a female cousin's wedding. This is the first time I bring my son to Karuizawa. I'm a bit nervous.
ZUN was born in Hakuba Village, Nagano. Hakuba (the name means "White Horse") is a mountainous village that has turned into a ski resort in modern day. I actually had a perfect opportunity to write about it earlier this year, but was too busy at that time. Karuizawa, meanwhile, is a famous tourist destination in Nagano.
This would have been an ordinary family reunion. But the same night, a shallow-focus M6.7 earthquake shook Nagano, with its epicenter only a few kilometers to the east of Hakuba. Hakuba suffered the most damage from the earthquake. Several buildings collapsed, and dozens of people were injured.
ZUN: It was a big one. I'm in Karuizawa now.
ZUN: My hometown happens to be at the epicenter. Due to the wedding, none of my family are staying at home. Is that good luck or bad luck?
ZUN: We are all good here. But news from home says the east of Hakuba was struck hard.
ZUN: Television is reporting on Hakuba nonstop. It's scary to hear such a small village's name being repeated on television.
Nov 24:
ZUN: The earthquake images from around my Hakuba hometown leave me with no words. So does news like the collapse of my classmate's house.
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Well I'll be damned. Good call, sekibanki! So the spellcard is ... taking it easing.
Also, for some reason it makes sense to me that ZUN's family home would be in the rural mountains, as much as it informs his work. Glad he and his family are safe; I've been 15 years in a seismic/volcanic country and still can't get used to how scary earthquakes are. There's no panic quite like the earth moving under your feet.
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Contrarily, I was born in a seismic country, and one of my first memories is of a major disastrous earthquake in my area, but I still laugh whenever I feel an earthquake. Even though I know I probably shouldn't. There's something fun about the minor ones...
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Apparently the Reitaisai Committee has announced (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41466907.html) via their post-event stream: Reitaisai 12 will be held on May 10, 2015 (Sun); there will be a Taiwan Reitaisai.
No details on the Taiwan event seem to have been announced.
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(http://i.imgur.com/RHNs3EF.jpg)
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(http://i.imgur.com/RHNs3EF.jpg)
Krillin! Too soon!
Oddly my mind did go there, but my heart goes out to those who were hurt but this. I'm not familiar with earthquakes but torrnados I'm deathly afraid of though.
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There's no Suzunaan manga this month. Instead, we got chibi Kosuzu interviewing the sculptor of the Kosuzu figurine for the limited edition of Suzunaan Vol. 3.
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/1416837128238_zps0608402a.jpg)
Wasn't the limited editiion "strictly produced on demand"? From a corporate perspective, what's the point of informing consumers about it when the preorder period has long passed? Well, half a month ago some book store said you can still buy it there, and now Toranoana is also accepting new preorder.
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Apparently the Reitaisai Committee has announced (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41466907.html) via their post-event stream: Reitaisai 12 will be held on May 10, 2015 (Sun); there will be a Taiwan Reitaisai.
No details on the Taiwan event seem to have been announced.
Now I am confused.
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They're separate events. The regular annual one in Tokyo is in May. The date for the special one in Taiwan hasn't been decided yet.
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I misread it seems. I thought Reitaisai was on Saturday and a Taiwan Reitaisai was on Sunday, which confused me.
Guessing I am going to start looking for plane tickets.
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The way Harukawa pictures herself is as a...
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/harukawa_zpsd7e8343d.jpg)
Harukawa, ZUN and editor discussing the design of the figure.
A giant slug.
The sculptor of the figure being interviewed is Ano MEGAro (http://myfigurecollection.net/encyclopedia/8281).
The blogger behind Touhou Memory did writeups for his visit (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41452058.html) to A-Button and Touhou Art Festival, and Autumn Reitaisai (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41487738.html). Lots of pictures to look at in his articles.
For him, the highlight of Autumn Reitaisai was meeting someone who knew ZUN as a high school student, and meeting other people who have been avid reporters of Touhou news.
Sharon (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora), another important news source in the community, had an impressive collection, containing things like the two demo discs of IaMP, and the 4 posters of the second Reitaisai:
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/suimusou_zps336778ce.jpg)(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/reitaisai_zps9ccfbeed.jpg)
From Sharon:
According to ads (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537966717440249856) in this month's Comic REX magazine, Vol. 5 of Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit. will be released on Dec 27. The next issue of Comic REX will again come with a replacement cover for Vol. 5.
Book signing (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537969641532846080) in the afternoon of Dec 27, in Melonbooks Akihabara No.1, attendants must preorder the book at the store before Dec 13.
List (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537969054632275969) of vendor-specific bonus items.
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Man the amount of different designs of disks and jewel case ZUN must go through must be a headache to choose from.
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From Sharon:
According to ads (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537966717440249856) in this month's Comic REX magazine, Vol. 4 of Touhou Ibarakasen ~ Wild and Horned Hermit. will be released on Dec 27. The next issue of Comic REX will again come with a replacement cover for Vol. 4.
Book signing (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537969641532846080) in the afternoon of Dec 27, in Melonbooks Akihabara No.1, attendants must preorder the book at the store before Dec 13.
List (https://twitter.com/sharonpandora/status/537969054632275969) of vendor-specific bonus items.
Small correction: it's Vol. 5 ^^;;
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Thanks for the correction.
Because the advertisement used images of WaHH Vol. 4, we still don't know what Vol. 5 looks like.
As reminder: next issue of Febri, containing Chapter 26 of WaHH, will be released on Dec 17.
The limited edition of FS Vol. 3, the one with the Kosuzu figure, will be released on Dec 10.
The normal edition of FS Vol. 3 will be released on Dec 26.
EDIT:
An earlier Touhou Memory post (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41078550.html) about a combined Touhou convention in Kyoto, with more pics of Sharon's collection.
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Sorry for using this place for my own problems, but for various reasons, it's the place where I interact with you the most often. I've just now had a rather nasty case of bone fracture. My mind is still sound, but there're lots of treatments to go through. So, not available and stuff.
It's really about time I think about what I've been doing with my life, lol.
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What bone? In any case, get well soon!
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Sorry for using this place for my own problems, but for various reasons, it's the place where I interact with you the most often. I've just now had a rather nasty case of bone fracture. My mind is still sound, but there're lots of treatments to go through. So, not available and stuff.
It's really about time I think about what I've been doing with my life, lol.
How long will it take you to recover ?
Btw just like me with Facebook :v
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Sorry for using this place for my own problems, but for various reasons, it's the place where I interact with you the most often. I've just now had a rather nasty case of bone fracture. My mind is still sound, but there're lots of treatments to go through. So, not available and stuff.
It's really about time I think about what I've been doing with my life, lol.
Take a rest and get well soon :)
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My mind is still sound
I like how you added that in there.
But otherwise, do take it easy! :flowerpower:
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>What fracture
A childhood fracture on my thigh bone had not recovered as well as I thought. It snapped at an impact that would normally leave a bruise. They say it's curable.
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Ow.
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Best of luck on recovery road!
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recovery road!
...this makes me think of Pokemon for some reason :V
Anyway, I wish you good luck cuc. I'm sure you'll get well soon and keep contributing to the community as you always do ^^
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Oh the title changed! News is coming!
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I don't have much to do now. Update away!
A few months ago, a ZUN-signed "Touhou complete set" appeared in a Mandrake store in Tokyo, with the asking price of 1 million yen.
It seems this is No.3 of several sets given as prizes to the audience at ZUN's Dawn of Touhou speech in 2004. The set contains important pieces of Touhou history such as the C62 CD-R version of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, the C63 demo of PCB, and the C66 flyer for IN.
Now, a Japanese fan has bought the set with 0.92 million yen, and posted its photos online.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41556571.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41566704.html
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I don't have much to do now. Update away!
A few months ago, a ZUN-signed "Touhou complete set" appeared in a Mandrake store in Tokyo, with the asking price of 100 million yen.
It seems this is No.4 of several sets given as prizes to the audience at ZUN's Dawn of Touhou speech in 2004. The set contains important pieces of Touhou history such as the C62 CD-R version of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, the C63 demo of PCB, and the C66 flyer for IN.
Now, a Japanese fan has bought the set with 92 million yen, and posted its photos online.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41556571.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/41566704.html
92 million yen... the rarity of those better be worth the price.
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Hold up, the pics in those links have 1 followed by 6 zeros, does it mean 1 million? 100 million is an insane amount if its really that XD.
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Yes, it's only 1 million yen. That's still pretty close to $10,000 though.
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Fixed. It does show I have plenty of other things to worry about.
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Could Touhou be the answer to boosting Japan's economy? I think it will.
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Well, at least a million yen is a price a shmo like myself could potentially pay. I can't even fantasize about owning a 100mil ZUN box.
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It sounds like the buyer has deleted his twitter account and put C62 DiPP on auction for 0.85 m yen. Huh.
Also Amazon has updated info on FS Vol. 3: cover for limited edition, price (780 + 62 yen) for regular.
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It sounds like the buyer has deleted his twitter account and put C62 DiPP on auction for 0.85 m yen. Huh.
?! ?! ?! Suspicious ?
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Impulse buy gone horribly wrong, I reckon.
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Impulse buy gone horribly wrong, I reckon.
> Scolded by girlfriend
> Scolded by wife
> Scolded by parents?
Also if it is such an rare item (or possibly rare) why sell under your own buy price? I guess it must be something gone horribly wrong.
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I dunno, if he's only selling part of the set for about the price of the set altogether, I think he might be trying to do some severe price gouging.
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My surgery is tomorrow. Involves replacing benign tumor with bone implants (2nd time since the childhood fracture).
Also, steel plates for fixation (the childhood surgery wrapped my waist in gypsum instead...)
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Actually my condition might not even be classified as a tumor today.
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Obligatory link. (http://youtu.be/Tb5IZ8Mni3I)
I dunno, if he's only selling part of the set for about the price of the set altogether, I think he might be trying to do some severe price gouging.
I think so too. He could've planned to buy the entire set, only to resell them in parts, and profit from it.
Either that, or he's planning to sell DiPP to recoup most of what he spent.
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Actually my condition might not even be classified as a tumor today.
OT: Is that good or bad? Hang in there, Cuc!
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Hope all goes well, cuc!
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I don't know about the English name at the moment, probably Nonossifying fibroma?
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I don't know about the English name at the moment, probably Nonossifying fibroma?
So a benign tumor formed from connective tissue that hasn't/won't become bone tissue? These can happen in areas of broken bone from my understanding, so that helps explains things a little.
Using bone implants is the medical standard for fusing bone as bone seeks out bone to connect with when it's damaged. Simply placing fragments in the right area will help a lot more than nothing at all. It's how vertebral fusions are performed. The stainless steel plates will hold everything in place long enough for it to heal properly.
I have NO comment about the gypsum wrap because that's clear outta left field from what I know about physiological science and wound healing.
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My first fracture, happening during a P.E. class, was initially a small crack - neither debilitating nor very painful. It was not diagnosed, as we didn't take any X-ray photo. We only properly recognized the problem after a few weeks, when the pain suddenly became unbearable. That was how the tumor came to be.
Re: gypsum, the first fracture was not severe in itself, I was too young, and the doctor must have decided fixating the waist and the whole leg was preferable.
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Hold on Cuc! i'm sure things will get better soon! ;)
Insane for the 10K dollar Zun set!
it's a little sad he re-sells just the DiPP alone to recoup his money, cause then it's not the complete set anymore... but guess he can do whatever he want, he bought it legit after all...
i just hope he's not planning to re-sell it in pieces to other fan for 3X overall Price like a Greedy Mafia bastard :]
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Hah, if you want a real story about troublesome medical practice in China: like many Chinese people, I suffered from Injection-induced Gluteus Muscle Contracture, which might affect growth, and would somewhat limit the range of motion of the legs - I couldn't sit cross-legged or do a full squat while holding both legs together. This was due to China's overreliance on intramuscular injection in the buttocks, a practice only put to a stop when the widespread of said condition was recognized as a problem in the 90s.
For me, that meant two more operations as a teenager.
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First post post-operation.
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You're alive! :toot:
How drugged up and high are you?
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How drugged up and high are you?
Not enough, he can still write correctly.
I hope you're okay though.
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It seems like Touhou 14.5 has been announced:
https://twitter.com/korindo/status/547263752240787456 (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/547263752240787456)
It's being made by Tasofro (in collaboration with Team Shanghai Alice), and is titled 東方深秘録 ~ Urban Legend in Limbo. A trial version of it is going to be sold at C87 for 100 yen.
Since it's being made by Tasofro, I guess it will be another fighting game or an expansion pack to HM (like Soku is to SWR).
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Discussion of Touhou 14.5 goes here:
https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,17762.0.html
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You're alive! :toot:
How drugged up and high are you?
The moment I woke up in the operation room, my mind pictured every sentence uttered by the anaesthetist and other doctors as tweets, complete with hashtags. That's about it.
There's a hella lot of minor updates I can translate. For now, enjoy the new FS cover art for December's Comp Ace magazine! Happy Winter Solstice!
(http://abload.de/thumb/81d2fcv0qalgdpzd.jpg) (http://abload.de/image.php?img=81d2fcv0qalgdpzd.jpg)
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ZUN's Nikenme Radio stream may no longer be backed by his publisher, but it doesn't stop him from making 2014's last show more of a extravangaza.
Tomorrow's (Dec 29) show will be an end-of-year dinner party with several fans who applied through twitter. I'm sure it will be a total chaos.
Last year's special Nikenme actually turned out not exactly for the best. Here's hoping things'll be better. For example, the (all male) fans could be a little less overenthuastic when interacting with Azuma Aya this time...
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Hope you get well cuc.
ZUN's Nikenme Radio stream may no longer be backed by his publisher, but it doesn't stop him from making 2014's last show more of a extravangaza.
Not enough listeners?
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Okonogi-san worked at Ichijinsha until earlier this year, and also hosted the Nikenme sessions. As of October's session he isn't hosting anymore, ZUN pays for it himself.
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Happy new year!
Here we have the conclusion to the story of the million yen Touhou box set.
The Touhou Memory blogger has sat down to talk with the buyer of the box set, and taken (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/42071005.html) pictures.
These include the clearest images of the PC-98 floppy disks I've ever seen. The Touhou Memory blogger once questioned whether the blonde sleeping girl on the Mystic Square cover art is Marisa or Alice; now we can see that she is indeed Alice.
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Happy new year!
Here we have the conclusion to the story of the million yen Touhou box set.
The Touhou Memory blogger has sat down to talk with the buyer of the box set, and taken (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/42071005.html) pictures.
These include the clearest images of the PC-98 floppy disks I've ever seen. The Touhou Memory blogger once questioned whether the blonde sleeping girl on the Mystic Square cover art is Marisa or Alice; now we can see that she is indeed Alice.
Oh wow it's so clear now, and what are those on the backs on the characters of Dim. dream?
Who is that on the CD cover of DiPP?
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Oh wow it's so clear now, and what are those on the backs on the characters of Dim. dream?
They'r string loops, like an xmas ornament
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They'r string loops, like an xmas ornament
Interesting choice heh.
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Something more relevant to japanese culture would be teruterubozu, instead.
Also, the character on the DiPP disc is just some random drawing, as ZUN was oft to do in those days.
In any case, I'm really excited about these pictures, especially the brilliant quality of the DiPP story, as has been covered previously.
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Something more relevant to japanese culture would be teruterubozu, instead.
Not overly familiar with that, what is it? (Currently cant look it up sorry.)
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Not overly familiar with that, what is it? (Currently cant look it up sorry.)
A traditional Japanese doll made either with white paper of cloth where a string is tied on it to form a "head" and hanged outside. Its purpose is to bring good weather and drive rain away.
A picture reference (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Teruterubouzu.jpg)
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It's not the only fan-made Touhou font project, but this one is somehow in the news today. If you like it, please support the author.
http://font.heartx.info/
In their live stream, the Reitaisai Committee has just announced that the Taiwan Reitaisai will be held on June 6, 2015. (The usual spring Reitaisai is on May 10, 2015.)
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It's not the only fan-made Touhou font project, but this one is somehow in the news today. If you like it, please support the author.
http://font.heartx.info/
In their live stream, the Reitaisai Committee has just announced that the Taiwan Reitaisai will be held on June 6, 2015. (The usual spring Reitaisai is on May 10, 2015.)
Oh that's some beautiful font! I'm definitely supporting this.
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This year, NicoNico Super Conference has a spinoff: Tōkaigi 2015 (meaning: Fight Conference 2015), aka Game Party Japan 2015.
http://tokaigi.jp/
Held from Jan 31 to Feb 1 in Makahari Messe Hall, this celebration of games has a Self-Made Game Area.
http://tokaigi.jp/2015/booth/indiesgame.html
There's a booth where you can bring your own game to receive the advice of experts, and ZUN will be an advisor at 12:00 on Jan 31.
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There's a booth where you can bring your own game to receive the advice of experts, and ZUN will be an advisor at 12:00 on Jan 31.
Who are some of the other experts giving advice during the event?
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Who are some of the other experts giving advice during the event?
Yeah, I was going to translate that (all names in this thread are family name first).
On both Jan 31 and Feb 1:
1:00 PM - Tada Kōji & Itō Akihiro, employees at Sony Computer Entertainment in charge of indie games
2:00 PM - Nakamura Kōichi, founder and director of Chunsoft, who got his start as an amateur game programmer
3:00 PM - Ōmae Hiroki, director of Unity Japan
At 12:00, Feb 1, instead of ZUN, the advisor will be someone from the development team of RPG Maker.
At the event, several historically significant "self-made" games will also be available for play to the public, including Door Door (the debut title of Nakamura Kōichi), the PC-98 Touhou games, Cave Story, Ao Oni, Crimson Room, Corpse Party, and more.
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The site for Taiwan Reitaisai has opened (http://reitaisai.com/rtstw/).
Event Name: Hakurei Shrine Regular Grand Festival in Taiwan
Date: June 6, 2015 (Saturday)
Location: Undetermined
Main Organizer: Hakurei Shrine Office (the organizer of Reitaisai)
Supporting Group: GJ
Circle Attendance Fees:
Applying from the Japanese site: 2000 yen (two circle passes)
Applying from the Taiwanese site: 400 new Taiwan dollar
So GJ, an organizer of doujin events in Taiwan, will undertake the Taiwan Reitaisai.
Chinese Wikipedia entry:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/GJ%E5%90%8C%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%8C%E8%B2%A9%E5%94%AE%E6%9C%83
Their website:
http://gjs.tw/
EDIT:
Eh what the heck, apparently a few hours ago they actually had a location on the website, which was later changed into "undetermined". Source: http://www.plurk.com/p/kolpqy
The old location: 国立台湾師範大学公館校区
Which is where the School of Science is located in National Taiwan Normal University.
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Are there no catalogs or an English site?
I'd like to check their doujin works. There were some great ones from Singapore so I'm curious about what they can show here.
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Are there no catalogs or an English site?
I'd like to check their doujin works. There were some great ones from Singapore so I'm curious about what they can show here.
Things are still in early stages. The registration has not opened yet.
They've updated the site with Chinese info. The doujin event organizer 和同會 (http://jpgathering.com/) has been added. The location is still undetermined, but it will be in Taipei.
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Judging from twitter, Ruw has been a little troubled by the Touhou Smash incident. He pointed out (https://twitter.com/Ruw/status/556317719998365696) that part of the problem is that doujinshi is a permission to "make what you enjoy making", but people can get ambitious, turning it into "make a huge, awesome thing". He agrees (https://twitter.com/Ruw/status/556337834554970112) that there's no proper channel for distributing Touhou fan games outside of Japan at present, "I had thought about it when in Atlanta."
In fandom hearsay, Ruw has the reputation of not being the nicest, or the most open-minded guy. Some of that might be his fault, but I think somebody will always get cast in the role of the bad cop.
However, my attention is caught by this (https://twitter.com/Ruw/status/556333761168560128) exchange.
Ruw: So Reitaisai Taiwan is on June 6. And E3 2015 is June 16 ~ 18. That's a nice gap inbetween.
U2 Aki: You got schedule?
Ruw: We still need to organize the Retro Digital Game Expo, so I have to consider our schedule. Seems I can't go...
U2 Aki: I wonder if I can.
So they are considering visiting E3 2015. Maybe they will even go to Game Developers Conference one day?
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Judging from twitter, Ruw has been a little troubled by the Touhou Smash incident. He pointed out (https://twitter.com/Ruw/status/556317719998365696) that part of the problem is that doujinshi is a permission to "make what you enjoy making", but people can get ambitious, turning it into "make a huge, awesome thing". He agrees (https://twitter.com/Ruw/status/556337834554970112) that there's no proper channel for distributing Touhou fan games at present, "I had thought about it when in Atlanta."
I have not heard about the Touhou Smash incident. Is is a Moriya conspiracy? Do you have some links that talk about this matter? I would like to know more.
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I have not heard about the Touhou Smash incident. Is is a Moriya conspiracy? Do you have some links that talk about this matter? I would like to know more.
Have fun. (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,17884.0.html)
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I have finally checked off "write about what happened the day before ZUN left for Atlanta" from my to-do list. Give it a read (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,16752.msg1159928.html#msg1159928) if you didn't know what "Touhou Police" 東方警察 means.
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/Touhou_Police_zpsb201b0d4.jpg)
Today I feel like sharing a few unorganized thoughts about some concepts. Good thing this thread is pretty much my column.
インディーズ "indies"
As an English speaker, you know the word "indie" is an abbreviation of "independent (music)". Aside from the material aspect of "music produced independently from the major labels", it also carries connotations of self-reliance, authenticity and rebellous spirit. But in Japan, people are more familiar with the Japanese neologism インディーズ (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA) "indies". When they think of "indies", the image they have is of amateur bands not good enough to be picked up by major labels. It is still roughly an equivalent word, but the nuance has changed.
When the indie game movement is introduced into Japan, this has created a little confusion. Should "indie game" in Japanese be インディーゲーム "indie game", or インディーズゲーム "indies game"? On one hand, people are more used to "indies", but on the other hand, that word has a not entirely positive air that the vanguards of the indie movement want to avoid. Even now, Japanese media are split on which spelling to use, while supporters of the movement tend to prefer "indie game".
インディーゲーム "indie game"
There are more than one way you can understand "indie games". You can say internet distribution has freed the medium from increasingly risk-averse traditional publishers, giving niche products, experiments and diverse voices a chance to flourish. But the media often prefer to view the indie game story as yet another variation of the same "triumph of the enterprising young men" narrative. When Western journalists write about indie games in Japan, they always begin by saying Japan has yet to produce a billion-dollar success like Minecraft; apparently the worth of the indie movement is now judged by whether it can make new billionaires.
So far, the Japanese media have mostly propagated the latter view of indie games. Let me tell you a story.
The grand prize of Independent Games Festival 2013 was awarded to Cart Life (http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/), a game that simulates the mundane life of three street vendors. The game, despite its (well-crafted) lo-fi graphics and music, has brought almost everyone who played it to tears. Before winning the prize, several prominent websites had already featured the game and its creator Richard Hofmeier, so there was no excuse for anyone who followed indie games closely to have not heard of the game. Moreover, on the second day of IGF 2013, Hofmeier performed a memorable act of generosity, giving his booth (http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/28/igf-grand-prize-winner-gives-his-booth-away-to-howling-dogs/) to the text adventure creator Porpentine and her game Howling Dogs (http://aliendovecote.com/uploads/twine/howling%20dogs.html).
The victory of an unusual game. A humble and selfless creator giving up his glory to another. These should make for an exciting news story. But every Japanese coverage of IGF 2013 I saw mentioned Cart Life by name only, without even a one-line description of what it is about, as if the writers had never heard of this game.
If I am a doujin developer whose only exposure to indie games is their Japanese coverage, I would definitely regard the movement with suspicion.
同人 "doujin"
The word "doujin" consists of two kanji: 同 "the same", and 人 "people". The actual meaning of the word is "like-minded people", and 同人誌 "doujinshi" means "magazines by like-minded people". The word "doujinshi" was coined by the literary circles of Meiji era to refer to the non-commercial magazines they editted and produced themselves. According to wikipedia (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%8C%E4%BA%BA), at the beginning of Comic Market, the early otaku actually borrowed the English word "fanzine", referring to their self-published manga as "manga fanzine", and the adoption of the word "doujinshi" took place later.
I don't think the concept of "doujin" is particularly hard to understand if you look at its roots: people who share the same hobby exchanging their self-published writings or drawings. The early otaku would have preferred to exchange their works one by one; they only started charging money to simplify the process and cover each other's expenses. The otaku are far from saints, but they did not, and still often do not make doujinshi while wishing to make money, or let people outside of their own fandoms see their works. The vast majority of doujin creators still do it at a deficit.
同人ゴロ "doujin-goro"
A portmanteau of "doujin" and "gorotsuki" (vagrants), "doujin-goro" initially refers to doujin makers who do frowned-upon things such as plagiarism, or using big name artists to trick people into buying a manga anthology that has little real content (I'm basing this on the Nico encyclopedia entry (http://dic.nicovideo.jp/k/a/%E5%90%8C%E4%BA%BA%E3%82%B4%E3%83%AD)). In recent years, it has been increasingly used for a different meaning.
By the time ZUN returned to the doujin world in 2002, it has grown enough that Comiket-goers began to call the popular circles 大手サークル "ohte circles", with the same word ohte used to describe powerful companies. An ohte circle's doujinshi always sells out quickly, and their income is often enough for one to quit their day jobs to live on doujinshi (plus freelance work in the anime/manga/game industry). (Note: doujin cannot be used as a way for tax evasion. Ohte circles do have income taxes to pay.)
As the otaku's public image improves, the audience of otaku content keeps growing, and the profitability of a successful doujin circle has only gone up. In today's context, the phrase "doujin-goro" is thrown around as an accusation that a circle is in it only for money, keeps chasing the next big thing that sells well, and has no actual love for the subject matter.
Now you know what the yukkuri Touhou Police on the shirt is saying: ゴロは許さない... 絶対にだ... "Doujin-goro will not be tolerated... absolutely..."
Like ZUN said, there's nothing wrong in trying to make money through doujinshi (but it's not very efficient, he added). I think chasing the latest trend is a valid choice for doujin makers. I'm much more concerned about certain "circles" that are run as fully fledged companies while enjoying the benefits of the doujin world.
Given how much is at stake in the extended anime/manga fandom now, perhaps the best expressions of the doujin spirit is found in those fanzines about unpopular topics like tea or retro video games (http://www.wired.com/2012/12/japan-gaming-doujin/).
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同人ゴロ "doujin-goro"
A portmanteau of "doujin" and "gorotsuki" (vagrants), "doujin-goro" initially refers to doujin makers who do frowned-upon things such as plagiarism, or using big name creators to trick people into buying a manga anthology that has little real content (I'm basing this on the Nico encyclopedia entry (http://dic.nicovideo.jp/k/a/%E5%90%8C%E4%BA%BA%E3%82%B4%E3%83%AD). In recent years, it has been increasingly used for a different meaning.
Interesting. That was not a term I've ever come across.
In today's context, the phrase "doujin-goro" is thrown around as an accusation that a circle is in it only for money, keeps chasing the next big thing that sells well, and has no actual love for the subject matter.
This has interesting implications though. Does that mean circles that tend to release doujinshis based on popular animes of the season are accused as such?
I can understand the appeal of doing so though, because only so many works can be wrung out of an older series, and staying current keeps a circle relevant.
But yeah, those who stick to investing time into making products related to unpopular series truly embody the doujin spirit. I may not be interested in their topic, but their passion has my utmost respect.
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Interesting. That was not a term I've ever come across.This has interesting implications though. Does that mean circles that tend to release doujinshis based on popular animes of the season are accused as such?
I can understand the appeal of doing so though, because only so many works can be wrung out of an older series, and staying current keeps a circle relevant.
Yeah, in fairness, this relates to 98.7% (I'm making that up) of doujin circles. Pretty much all series, no matter how popular, eventually fall by the wayside as artists move on and gain new interests. There are only a true few that manage to keep real attention for so long. Such as Evangelion, and even that wouldn't have retained so much interest in it without the Rebuild resurgence.
I think there's also something of a catch 22 in the idea of a greedy doujin artist. If you're trying to capitalize on doujin, let alone be so successful that it you're going to make a living off it, let alone be 1% of the ones that can do well enough to be well off (without moving to your own series in a major magazine, I mean), you're going to have a bad time.
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Not all such people are trying to make a profit off doujin work. Many of them are job hunters, drawing whatever is the most popular thing(s) at the moment in hopes that word of their work will reach the ears of some company. A lot of nukige artists are ex-doujin artists who took the first job opportunity they got.
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The whole doujin-goro thing really reminds me of all the cynicism from several fans on Danbooru and 'a certain imageboard' whenever a famous Touhou fanartist or doujin circle shifts their theme mostly to Kancolle. Has anyone from Japan ever accused of these circles as being 'doujin-goro'?
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Yep. Dunno why you would think this is something exclusive to the western fandom.
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ZUN just announced something on his twitter with a link to a stream:
ZUN: " 本日、20時より本年最初の二軒目ラジオを放送しますよー。アレやソレの話をする位呑んでもいいでしょうか？ http://ustre.am/i8fu "
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The year's first Nikkenme Radio show, talking about stuff, probably plans for the coming months. He might even touch on the recent fiascos...
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He'll probably spare half a minute of the show to say "I'm releasing a new game this year".
The list of registered circles for Reitaisai 12 is here:
http://reitaisai.com/rts12/uketuke-circlelist
We can see Twilight Frontier and "Shanghai Alice" (not only is the circle name incomplete, it doesn't even have the applicant's name) on the list. This suggests at least Tasofro's Touhou 14.5 will be released there.
There are 3804 circles in total. Tohomemory thinks that while Reitaisai 12 will allow one circle to occupy a double-sized space, making the old practice of registering as two circles to gain two booth spaces obsolete, the number of registered circles has not decreased as much as he thought.
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Fuck I will be at work when the stream goes live. I might watch it silently but without any audio.
Also the Circle List blew my mind for various personal reasons. I won't add the noise here.
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ZUN just announced something on his twitter with a link to a stream:
ZUN: " 本日、20時より本年最初の二軒目ラジオを放送しますよー。アレやソレの話をする位呑んでもいいでしょうか？ http://ustre.am/i8fu "
Sadly even if I was able to watch it timing wise, I wouldn't be able to understand at all; so I'll be waiting for a possible transcript and/or translation of what was said there. Or like a condensed summary or something.
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In today's show: ZUN talked about Touhou, but said nothing about what precisely he'll do. He said (http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/42522620.html) he would "hate" to release his games to PlayStation, and only fan games will be ported. He said he rearranged his bookshelf specially for the NHK World interview, putting interesting-looking books there (that might explain why we seem to see some of the same books that appeared in the 2010 NHK interview...)
He also watched an official NicoNico live stream of playing PC-98 Touhou games.
In this month's Comp Ace column, he wrote down these words about his prospect of 2015:
さて、2015年の僕の抱負ですが、今年は望む望まざる関係なく変化の年になると思います。ここ二、三年前から蒔いていた種が生長し、順調にいけば収獲に向かうはずです。ですので、変化に柔軟に対応しつつ、芯を残す事が今年の抱負です。無事に収獲でき、新たな種が自然に蒔かれるように頑張りたいですね。子供も生まれましたし、个人的には楽しい一年になると思っています。そんなこんなで2015年も宜しくお願い致します。
Translating it should be a task for people better than me, but he's saying, whether he likes it or not, 2015 will be a year of changes for him. The time has come to reap the fruits of the seeds sowed two or three years ago. He will weather the changes while keeping his true self intact, harvest the fruits, and plant new seeds. Having already given birth to a child, his 2015 will be an enjoyable year.
This surprisingly candid (but still opaque) declaration for a post-MoF ZUN was what he had in mind coming (https://twitter.com/tohomemory/status/560395884119080960) into today's show: "Last year I made a declaration of changes. This year it will be put into practice." Today's ZUN-quote (https://twitter.com/tohomemory/status/560397630342041601):
"To keep doing what you have always been doing while you are being changed, this is a kind of change in itself."
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Remember the "Marisa dies in 2015" thread from some weeks ago? Did ZUN foreshadow his life events 10 years ago? Will he succumb to despair? Will he make life-altering changes to his works? Is he getting tired of touhou? ZUN confirmed to be Hideaki Anno? Rebuild of Evangelion 4.0 when? :o
Being realistic, what should we expect?
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To answer your question, I read that last quote as saying "I'll try to make Touhou games like I've always done, even if now I have to divide my attention to my son and new businesses."
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Basically ZUN doesn't stops being ZUN, but becomes ZUN. I like this ZUN.
(http://i.imgur.com/8SyM7pP.png)
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Translating it should be a task for people better than me
It would be if you wouldn't slip in random simplified kanji :P
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Ouch, that post was made on a phone. The text was copied from a Baidu forum post. I spent several minutes changing the more than a dozen characters auto-converted by Baidu by hand. Seems I missed one (长 vs. 長). The next time I had to post something like that, I'll just leave all the simplified Chinese characters in and tell people to :dealwithit:
Seriously, Baidu's auto-conversion is more annoying than useful, especially considering nearly every Chinese can read traditional characters. Sensible people should always avoid posting Japanese info from Baidu forum, but sometimes you have to.
It is announced (http://reitaisai.com/rtstw/archives/29) a flyer for Taiwan Reitaisai will be distributed at Taiwan's Fancy Frontier 25 convention (Jan 31 to Feb 1). During the same period, ZUN has the NicoNico game advisor thing going on, so he probably wouldn't fly to Taiwan this time.
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At this moment (noon of Feb 12, 2015):
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/565706828991184897) Done applying for Comiket.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/565708555400249344) The Comiket 40th year anniversary questionnaire is so specific. Who's going to spend 500 hours a month on doujin activities... Huh?
The options of the question (how much time you spend on doujin activities each month) are:
a. 2 hours (the only time you spend is for attending Comiket)
b. 5 hours (about 4 days in half a year)
c. 10 hours (one weekend each month)
d. 20 hours (3 hours each week plus one weekend each month)
e. 50 hours (1 hour each day plus one weekend each month)
f. 100 hours (2 hours each day plus two weekends each month)
g. 200 hours (8 hours each day, including all weekends)
h. 500 hours (16 hours each day, including all weekends)
While the question's designer has... questionable arithmetic skills, the joke here should be obvious. ZUN calls Touhou his life's work, so in a sense every hour in his life is contributing to his doujinshi, and the option seems made for him.
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The options of the question (how much time you spend on doujin activities each month) are:
a. 2 hours (the only time you spend is for attending Comiket)
b. 5 hours (about 4 days in half a year)
c. 10 hours (one weekend each month)
d. 20 hours (3 hours each week plus one weekend each month)
e. 50 hours (1 hour each day plus one weekend each month)
f. 100 hours (2 hours each day plus two weekends each month)
g. 200 hours (8 hours each day, including all weekends)
h. 500 hours (16 hours each day, including all weekends)
While the question's designer has... questionable arithmetic skills, the joke here should be obvious. ZUN calls Touhou his life's work, so in a sense every hour in his life is contributing to his doujinshi, and the option seems made for him.
Applause to the questionnaire designer of the con. :]
Though I think there are other people who do as well, ZUN is the only one doing it without being hardcore.
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With my current doujin game, I am dangling between 100 hours and 200 hours currently. ~ 2 - 4 hours a day for weekdays and up to 8 hours per weekend. I stopped having a life until Reitaisai, orz.
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Taiwan Reitaisai update:
Location: Sanchong District General Gymnasium, New Taipei City (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Taipei_City)
(Chinese Name: 三重區綜合體育館 (http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E4%B8%89%E9%87%8D%E9%AB%94%E8%82%B2%E5%A0%B4))
Time: 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Jun 6, 2015
No. of Circle Spaces (Planned): 120
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Time for a twitter update, because there's something you should know.
Three months ago (Dec 9), ZUN had a small accident in the wee hours of the day.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/542027370173984768) I accidentally sprained my back.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/542189812757696512) Went to a bone-setting clinic. Being surrounded by old ladies is a novel experience.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/543254531920764928) I can move my body freely at last. For someone who'd never held anything heavier than a gamepad, the son is too heavy.
A typical bone-setting clinic is a small private therapy clinic that treats the patient using traditional methods including acunpuncture and Judo-derived techniques. (Reference: Japanese wikipedia: 1 (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8E%A5%E9%AA%A8%E9%99%A2), 2 (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B4%E4%BD%93))
Since then, while he still seemed to be in overall good health, he has been visiting the clinic for periodical therapy, and the clinic has been an occasional topic of his tweets, for example:
ZUN: The bone-setting clinic's doctor said my muscles have been slightly atrophied, and for my initial exercise, I should walk more. So I started playing Ingress again.
Or today:
ZUN: I've come to enjoy listening to the grannies beside me at the bone-setting clinic.
ZUN: The clinic's doctor told me I shouldn't play too much Majora's Mask.
Obviously, the doctor was talking about the 3DS version. Staring down at a 3DS certainly can be bad for your neck, but isn't staring down at your iPhone the same thing?
Famitsu did (http://www.famitsu.com/news/201502/09071204.html) a report on the "self-made game" area of the Nico game festival, where many landmark amateur/doujin/indie games of Japan were playable, including the PC-98 Touhou games and IaMP, and ZUN played the role of a advisor to junior game makers. Please refer to the article for pictures.
For the advisor segment, the reporter brought a small game he made as a new year postcard, where the player has to jump to dodge incoming sheep. ZUN pointed out the jumping in the game follows a straight V-trajectory, which is unsatisfying. He said the jump can have strong and weak variants, and more than one sheep can appear simultaneously; the player will become more excited if colliding with the sheep can send the player avatar flying; there can be awards for the player, such as "flying through the center results in double score".
Another interesting feature of the self-made game area was its 15 meter-long exhibition board, which displayed a timeline of Japanese amateur/doujin/indie games.
As far as I know, previously, ZUN had only told us that the first Touhou game was made in 1995, which was months before it was publicly shown in a Tokyo Denki University school festival in 1996. According to the exhibition board, Touhou 1 was completed in the August of 1995:
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/2015Tokaigi_zpsg1gcyyc6.jpg)
While we are talking about history: recently ZUN has been unclear about whether he quitted Taito in 2007 or 2008. Evidences point to the time being early 2007. He said (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,13935.0.html) the direct cause of his resignation was being assigned to do the programming simultaneous for a game's DS and PSP versions. As we know, the DS and PSP platforms are different enough that there were few high-profile games made for both, and one of the exceptions was Taito's Space Invaders Extreme, developed in 2007 and released in 2008.
In all likelihood, ZUN resigned at the outset of the Space Invaders Extreme project. By comparison, the Touhou Bougetsushou project was announced on May 9, 2007, with the first chapter of SSiB coming out only a month later on June 8. A large project like Bougetsushou requires coordination, and its planning must have started very early.
It's hard to say whether the conception of MoF started before or after his resignation, but Touhou Bougetsushou could only have happened because of it.
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...I get this weird impression that you're some kind of Touhou archaeologist.
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...I get this weird impression that you're some kind of Touhou archaeologist.
Criticism cannot happen without knowing the context in which the work was made. :flowerpower:
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(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/2015Tokaigi_zpsg1gcyyc6.jpg)
ChoRenSha 68K! A totally underrated shooter!
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That was also playable at the event, just across from the PC-98 Touhou machine.
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So the anniversary will be around the time of Comiket 88. I don't mind if he postponed the possible release of ULiL to that event with whatever he has in store later, just to make it as big as possible.(also so I won't get too distracted to it on May :v)
When will we get an archeologist Touhou, I wonder.
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Coming soon to universities near you:
Major in Touhou Studies
PhD in Touhou Studies
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Happy Chinese new year, folks!
Before joking about breaking into the academia, you can look at things from the plain old perspective of preserving history lol. Did you know, even the US release date of a game as immensely popular and important as Super Mario Bros. may have already been forgotten (http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/167392/sad_but_true_we_cant_prove_when_.php)?
Another NicoNico-related activity ZUN did (and he took it quite seriously) was judging (http://blog.nicovideo.jp/niconews/ni049884.html) for his namesake award in the website's 4th Self-made Game Festival.
He gave his ZUN Award to the game "Ato no Ato" (which seems to translate to Ato's Footprints). It's an escort-based action game, where your gargoyle-looking character must protect a girl who is following your footsteps. ZUN praised the game prototype for the developer's attention to detail and down-to-earth attitude.
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Touhou is almost a month older than I am. I'm not used to that anymore - there is a little bit of nostalgia about something so important to me being so old.
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Happy Chinese new year, folks!
Before joking about breaking into the academia, you can look at things from the plain old perspective of preserving history lol. Did you know, even the US release date of a game as immensely popular and important as Super Mario Bros. may have already been forgotten (http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/167392/sad_but_true_we_cant_prove_when_.php)?
SMB's release date in America isn't October 18?
www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Bros.
And Happy Chinese New Year to you too!
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SMB's release date in America isn't October 18?
www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Bros.
And Happy Chinese New Year to you too!
While it takes a long time to get to the point, if you skim through the article I linked, you'll see that the accuracy of Nintendo's official date (Oct 18) is far from proven. I used it as an example of outstanding work in game history investigation.
In more NicoNico news, the ZUN Beer booth will continue with the 2015 NicoNico Super Conference (Mar 25).
http://www.chokaigi.jp/2015/booth/cho_zunbeer.html
Last year, he used the beer booth as an opportunity (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,14315.msg1090494.html#msg1090494) to express his interest in the indie game movement. I bet this year's beer will have something to do with fatherhood.
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Online registration for Taiwan Reitaisai has began. It's at a much smaller scale than the main Reitaisai, but also significant cheaper to attend!
http://reitaisai.com/rtstw/
ZUN's next Nikenme Radio stream will start at 8 PM, Feb 27.
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Some tidbits from today's Nikenme stream:
- Touhou's 20 year anniversary also marks the 20th year since ZUN left his hometown to live in the greater Tokyo region (first as a college student, than as a working man.) Touhou is of drinking age now.
- Okonogi brings up a fan letter from a girl in fifth grade received by Ichijinsha (in recent years there have been quite a few fan letters from little kids for ZUN). ZUN: "So in ten years, she'll start making Touhou fan works? That's scary!" (laughter)
- They opened a box of "Houraisen Kaguya" (蓬莱泉輝夜). This is a limited edition sake featuring TOKIAME's artwork, produced by Suimusou (https://twitter.com/sake_suimusou) (萃夢荘), an inn/restaraunt run by a Touhou fan, in collaboration with the sake brand Houraisen (http://www.houraisen.co.jp/) (蓬莱泉, "Fountain of Hourai"), sold only at Feb 23's doujin event Touhou Goudou Saiji (http://project-d.biz/tohosaiji/) (東方合同祭事).
It seems if you want to buy it, you'll have to line up early at next year's Goudou Saiji.
The artwork adorning the sake's box (there're actually more small artworks inside):
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/houraisen_zps71nk4tga.jpg)
The bottle:
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/houraisenbottle_zps5d2g32hc.jpg)
- ZUN is feeling anxious, because he will attend a daycare school's explanatory meeting, so he won't be able to drink until tomorrow. Due to his work, he will send his son to the daycare school starting this April.
- ZUN said he has been speaking too often of retirement like Miyazaki Hayao.
- Another sentiment he has been hinting at in recent years is that he doesn't like Touhou's domination of the doujin world. He would prefer there to be something that can stand against Touhou.
Today's ZUN-quote (https://twitter.com/tohomemory/status/571283541884936192): "In the future, my new games will be leaked by my son."
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Gosh, that box art sure is pretty. I believe each bottle was sold for around 35 USD.
- Another sentiment he has been hinting at in recent years is that he doesn't like Touhou's domination of the doujin world. He would prefer there to be something that can stand against Touhou.
Isn't Kancolle gaining quite a following in Comiket? Then again, since Kancolle isn't originally a doujin work, maybe that's what he was referring to. In which case, yeah, I can't think of anything else that even comes close to Touhou's popularity.
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Is ZUN retiring anytime soon?
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The joke is that he says he's going to retire every year.
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In today's official Reitaisai stream, they announced there'll be another Autumn Reitaisai this year.
In other news, the Taiwanese organizer of Taiwan Reitaisai has opened its websites.
Their registration page:
http://gjs.tw/reitaisaiweb/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/864601610247711/
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Reitaisai 12 in Tokyo announced the circle booth numbers and Hall positions. http://reitaisai.com/rts12/4157
I'm located at K36b and Forza seems located at そ08b. We're in 2 completely different sides Forza :ohdear:
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Why didn't you request to be his neighbor then :) ?
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Why didn't you request to be his neighbor then :) ?
I thought they tended to group circles by type and have a section for the first year circles, since that was the impression I got when I was there during Reitaisai 9.
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In addition, circles can also specify that they want to be neighbors with each other.
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Why didn't you request to be his neighbor then :) ?
I didn't actually knew whether we were going to sign up as Drill Chichikuri. It came off as a surprise for me.
I noticed also for example Barney-san was last year close to us in same row but both Forza and Barney are in the そ row. We somehow got put at K. But Ryuu-ichi is also at K34a, I am guessing they applied for double space.
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The circles have begun to receive their Reitaisai manuals. According to the manual, this year's Autumn Reitaisai will be held on Oct 18 (Sun).
If you want to hear about the continued decline of Touhou, whatever that means, 3833 circles will attend this May's Reitaisai, of which 215 are using double-sized booths - a new rule added this year (in previous years, you must apply for two spaces in the names of two separate circles, and join the two spaces into one booth). After taking account of that, Reitaisai 12's number of booth spaces (4048) has again fallen from Reitaisai 11 (4312) by about 250.
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Weird, seems like they switched order with Koromu. I guess it sort of makes sense though, given how last year it was barely a month away from Comiket which was also in Tokyo.
In any case, this will make attending M3 as well a bit tricky...
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If you want to hear about the continued decline of Touhou, whatever that means, 3833 circles will attend this May's Reitaisai, of which 215 are using double-sized booths - a new rule added this year (in previous years, you must apply for two spaces in the names of two separate circles, and join the two spaces into one booth). After taking account of that, Reitaisai 12's number of booth spaces (4048) has again fallen from Reitaisai 11 (4312) by about 250.
Hm. Pure speculation here, but maybe the economy is a significant factor in the drop in participation. But then, there would have to be a downward trend in doujin stuff in general for that to be the case, and I don't know how doujin stuff in general has been doing.
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One question I have, how many of these circles had moved on the become their own thing. It could mean that many people have started their own thing rather than declining interest in Touhou.
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Hm. Pure speculation here, but maybe the economy is a significant factor in the drop in participation. But then, there would have to be a downward trend in doujin stuff in general for that to be the case, and I don't know how doujin stuff in general has been doing.
I doubt that. 2014 was booming for Kantai Collection but idle for Touhou. As much as I hate KanColle, I see why people are converting to the series that's constantly updated.
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Hm. Pure speculation here, but maybe the economy is a significant factor in the drop in participation. But then, there would have to be a downward trend in doujin stuff in general for that to be the case, and I don't know how doujin stuff in general has been doing.
Printing manga and CDs doesn't cost that much more than it used to. Some circles are just drawing porn of more straight to the point otaku bait waifu crap now, while others are getting too busy at work and/or too old.
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I wouldn't get too worried. Touhou has definitely peaked in Japan, I think, but at this point I'd be surprised if it ever completely goes away. At least while ZUN is alive and working on Touhou. (In fact, if my twitter timeline is anything to go by, this Reitaisai is going to be packed full of Forbidden Scrollery stuff thanks to last month's chapter...)
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Yeah, Reitaisai is still occupying the entirety of Big Sight's east hall, and Touhou could easily taken up more space at Comiket should its organizers allow it to.
While they don't have the influence a new game would have, the comics have been keeping things going just fine. And on the doujin side of things, while the number of events may have dropped off a bit, they seem to be more robust, featuring concerts and whatnot.
There is a definite decline as people move on for whatever reason, but the relatively young fanbase means there's a potential pool of talent there to replace them.
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There were just way too many events back then. I remember back in 2012 there was a Touhou event (or sometimes even multiple events) almost every single week. That was insane, and honestly that would still be too much even if Touhou was mainstream. It's great to see event organizers focusing more on quality over quantity.
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Artists moving on is indeed a thing and inevitable as well. Some "grow up" and quit the doujin or become less active, or they adapt to a new hype/popularity. I know that Shino for example moved from Touhou to Puella Magi and now to Kancolle. Didn't also spot his booth on the circle list so either joined forces or didn't sign up.
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There were just way too many events back then. I remember back in 2012 there was a Touhou event (or sometimes even multiple events) almost every single week. That was insane, and honestly that would still be too much even if Touhou was mainstream. It's great to see event organizers focusing more on quality over quantity.
I think you already know that, but to clarify, part of the cause was that as the doujin convention process becomes highly streamlined, it had become popular for convention organizers to start multiple smaller events that are held together under one roof. These small events are nominally separate with their own websites, but in practice they are essentially different sections of the same convention. This has allowed the smaller events to diversify and have niche subjects. That's why so many doujin events have sprung up in recent years.
For example, you can see links to three other Touhou events and one doujin music event on the page for this Akyuu-themed event in Kyoto. They are all organized by one group, and held together.
http://ninth-gen-teaparty.info/
This month's Nikenme Radio will be on March 26 (https://twitter.com/_nyogi/status/577737753212760064). The topic is undetermined, but Okonogi thinks they might end up talking about Nintendo's new alliance with the mobile game developer DeNA, and about their own ages.
By the way, ZUN is feeling quite excited by Nintendo's announcement. Not because of the event itself, but because of the sense that a new era is dawning.
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There are also cases where the circles or artists that "took an interest in something else" are scorned by rabid fans. This isn't exactly something new, and we know that some had it worse than others. Like for example, Cercis(Carcharias). Even if she'll be participating in Reitaisai 12, the general respond in some threads are telling her to "f**k off and just do your other stuff". This is related to that Doujin-goro term cuc once mentioned.
And regarding the declining amount of circles, people need to remember that Reitaisai isn't the only Touhou event there is, like Not Bigode has said. It is the biggest, but considering that even just for this year's Autumn there will be theme/characters/group-specific events such as Touhou Akatsuki(EoSD), Kisouen(Four Seasons), Suwa Fuujinsai(MoF), Bunbunmaru Tomo no Kai(Tengus), Autumn Reitaisai, Kouroumu, and the Dai ⑨-shuu. Heck, I probably missed some of them.
So I think it's not so much a decline than because they have to choose which event to attend to.
Still, if Touhou is dying in any way, I'd say that it's "dying" in the West. Because people keep saying so and it keeps spreading everywhere, thus affecting their view.
And oh, an alliance? Did I miss something?
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Like for example, Cercis(Carcharias). Even if she'll be participating in Reitaisai 12, the general respond in some threads are telling her to "f**k off and just do your other stuff"
ah, cis...or maku raco now i suppose lol
I was reading this one thread and it seemed like a lot of people were exasperated that the Tojiko series has yet to come to a conclusion? and literally jumping ship/being too unwell to draw, a lot of the comments were like "Stop giving us hope" or something www
it does feel like kancolle has been picking up speed compared to touhou especially with the anime, but hopefully the new fighter will make more splashes compared to shinkirou
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The Nintendo-DeNA partnership should be the news headline in many place now, but the official press release is here (http://dena.com/intl/press/2015/03/nintendo-and-dena-form-business-and-capital-alliance.html).
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/577863846448078848) I gained another year. However, lately I have the feeling that the acceleration of time has been reset.
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It's not every year that a Special Reitaisai event (SP, Autumn) is held, in these cases, it isn't every circle that is willing to take part in every single event. Last year's Autumn Reitaisai had ~1200 circles, let's say about 500 of them couldn't make it to Reitaisai 11 and decided to participate in the next one (which would be Reitaisai 12, but it ended up being the Autumn one instead) and not all of these circles are too skillful or at least experienced to be attending every convention with new material. So basically, there are circles which attended to Autumn Reitaisai and won't be in Reitaisai 12 as participating circles, otherwise I believe the numbers of the next Reitaisai would be around ~4400 (and besides that, there are other Touhou events during the whole year)
2 years between Ten Desires and DDC, and now almost 2 years between DDC and a spin-off game. ZUN got married and had a child. It's pretty normal that the numbers would go down a bit, I mean, fighting games are cool and all but the official non-spinoff games usually bring us an entire new character cast and new plot (useful for manga circles) and new music (for the music circles). The lack of new official material is what causes doujin circles numbers decrease. For instance, Kuroko no Basket had 400-600 circles for a while, when a new anime season aired, it skyrocketed to ~1400.
If you analyze Kancolle's numbers before the anime, it was pretty much constant. The game was always popular to be honest, a free browser game that's easy to play, of course it would be pretty known. And now, Kancolle is going through it's peak with the anime, but it seems to be slowing down a bit already, few months ago it was viral on niconico, but a few weeks ago, a Touhou video reached top 1 ranking again with overwhelming 300.000 views or something. While the most recent Kancolle video had only 100k and didn't even reach the top spot. The game is supposed to be how it is now, a simple game that everyone could play easily, meaning it can't really expand it's grounds to another platforms, otherwise it would lose it's very purpose. It's way easier to create things based on a game that gets updated constantly than on one that gets released in a margin of 1-2 years. Of course we, Touhou fans, have the mangas, but it's very little material compared to an entire game.
Believe it or not, one of the main reasons Touhou peaked at ~2011 was the anime created by manpuku jinja, it was successful enough to get four episodes despite it being fanmade. Japanese people love anime, that's why animations there in Japan cause the original source of a series (Light Novels and Mangas) to sell a lot if they're well made. While Kancolle had help to reach the peak with an official anime, Touhou was the same with a FAN animation, furthermore, I'm pretty sure that Kancolle's anime was made to please the fans and make the game more known, so it won't be getting fanmade animations (it has an official one already, questionably someone would want to do another). On the other hand, Touhou is getting a new one soon, if that "Hifuu Club Activity Record" project goes well (and it seems to be doing really fine), it surely will be something.
Okay, enough with the anime talk. Reminder that there will be Touhou doujin games in PS4 and Vita, and for some reason Japan loves Playstation a lot, meaning that if these games succeed, they will be really popular. Besides the console fangames, there will be the fighting game soon and hopefully Touhou 15 not that far from us.
And If I remember correctly, Touhou is getting a western release soon. The NHK interview was really suspicious, but the written script seemed to be reliable, and even without that, it was a bit obvious that ZUN would like to release his games here in the West too, afterall he experimented putting one of his works on a digital platform.
Touhou is well known outside Japan and it's getting more recognition here outside Japan to be fair. But regarding the numbers slight decreasing, it's because these cool things I stated above are still being done. Other series logic can be applied to Touhou too, if Touhou things weren't being valued at all, than I may would say that it's dying. But seriously, if even Startrek could reach an stable level on it's fanbase, how could not Touhou do the same? And by the way, with Touhou getting released here, it will get a lot more recognition than dumb speculations about it dying (like how it mainly was last year).
Just needed to spit it out, obviously with a bit of slow down from ZUN we would slow down too, and with his projects coming back to it's pace, we will just follow it. That's how the majority of the fanbases work after all.
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ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/578040242160021504) Thank you for so many congratulatory messages. Pardon me for answering back all of you in one tweet, as it's quite impossible for me to reply one-by-one. My aspiration for the 38th year, is to get that thing out.
Tomorrow (Mar 19), he will announce this year's Super ZUN Beer for the NicoNico Super Conference in a stream (http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv213822721).
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/578040242160021504): Thank you for so many congratulatory messages. Pardon me for answering back all of you in one tweet, as it's quite impossible for me to reply one-by-one. My aspiration for the 38th year, is to get that thing out.
Tomorrow (Mar 19), he will announce this year's Super ZUN Beer for the NicoNico Super Conference in a stream (http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv213822721).
What would be that thing that ZUN is refering to ? and what was the last super ZUN Beer about, I kinda forgot...
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It's the same thing he said he'd been working towards for years in the magazine column. I don't think he'd ever spoken this seriously of having a great, aspiring goal. Whatever it is, it's supposed to be some substantial undertaking.
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http://blog.livedoor.jp/tohomemory/archives/43261373.html
During the NicoNico Super Conference, Hiroyuki-san posed ZUN a question in regards to TPP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership) copyright laws and how they might affect Touhou doujin works. ZUN replied that if someone were arrested in relation to making Touhou derivative works, he would probably complain to the police. Hiroyuki followed up by giving the scenario of an ero artist, and asking what he would do even if it was just like, the worst sort of lolicon (using Ryuichiro Ban as a dummy example).
ZUN: "Even if it's stuff I detest, on principle I will defend them".
Hiroyuki: "Who? Who would you defend; lolicon-Ban-san, or the police's honor?"
("honor" meaning the eastern cultural aspect of saving face)
ZUN: "Nah, I won't be defending the police's honor". (Or rather, "I won't save face for the police")
Hiroyuki: "So, is it still okay if lolicon-Ban-san is making buttloads of money off of his Touhou ero goods?"
ZUN: "I'll trade my permission for buying me something nice" (everyone laughs)
Basically people are saying this was a very cool statement by ZUN in support of the freedom of derivative works. The scenario is a real concern with TPP's potential additions to Japanese copyright law (see post below), where even if the original author allows derivative works (i.e. won't take action themselves), the artist can still be charged. Potential reasons as to why Touhou circles might be charged in particular are unclear, but nonetheless ZUN outright saying that he will defend you even if he doesn't personally approve of the material, is still significant. As pointed out in the post, ZUN could easily say that such a situation would be too troublesome to deal with or that it doesn't affect him, and in doing so (or even if he just didn't give an answer at all) Touhou circles everywhere might have reason to be worried about stepping on some new legal boundaries. However, with this people can have a solid sense of security that ZUN's got their back.
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So under the new TPP, the government can overrule the wishes of the original owner? How the hell is that even legal?
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even if the original author gives permission, the artist can still be charged
What the **** did I just read? I'm not sure if that's legal in any way. That's like saying all creative works belong to the government by default, and they're the ones that have the final say on what can be done with it.
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Hiroyuki: "Who? Who would you defend; lolicon-Tomo-san, or the police's honor?"
Actually the nickname of the third guy (https://twitter.com/ryu16ban) in yesterday's stream is "Ban". "Tomo" is in all likelihood the real pronunciation of his name, but people always call him "Ban-san". He's a NicoNico official responsible for "2-dimensional" (anime and manga) businesses.
The main content of yesterday's stream was showing their visit of Baird Brewery, where ZUN-beer is made. ZUN said he noticed many female visitors at the Super Conference, and black tea and herbs (https://twitter.com/vanihami/status/578536538557927424) are popular with women. This year's ZUN-beer will be (https://twitter.com/vanihami/status/578537501108805632) a lager with the fragrance and freshness of herbs.
By the way, he actually said in a recent stream that "neither Hiroyuki-san nor Ban-san can be trusted". Not everyone he drinks with is his friend.
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It isn't about "overruling" the rights holder, it's that police could be informed about infringements and a case could be started right away, rather than action beginning only when the rights holder presses charges as it currently stands, which is what leads to doujin culture's ability to thrive from silent agreement between fans and the original author. When I say "permission" above, I mean a casual consent, not giving out the rights. The infringement is still illegal whether or not the rights holder cares to report it, so law enforcement could theoretically go right ahead if suddenly given the authority to. It's like draining all the "white" out of what makes it a grey legal area.
With respect to the offences described in Article 15.[1]-[4] above, each Party shall provide: [...] that its authorities may initiate legal action ex officio with respect to the offenses described in this Chapter, without the need for a formal complaint by a private party or right holder.
That's how it works already in many western countries, although in practice it seems like usually law enforcement won't do much unless the rights holder gets involved, since it makes a case more difficult, clearly. The main issue is that the TPP agreement plops in concepts that weren't already in Japanese copyright law, and without extra provisions on these additions you might end up with various unintended side-effects, and it's technically possible for these cases to arise. Some issues could easily be fixed by, for example, adding proper fair use provisions to allow parody that's in line with Japan's existing culture of derivative works. But until something like that happens we'll still be having these discussions.
Further reading: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Course_Pages/IP_Theory_13/Papers2Discuss/Kaneko_Japanese_fair_use.htm
@cuc: I can't believe I didn't catch it was onyomi considering I already knew it was Ryuichiro Ban. I'm dumb
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That's how it works already in many western countries, although in practice it seems like usually law enforcement won't do much unless the rights holder gets involved, since it makes a case more difficult, clearly. The main issue is that the TPP agreement plops in concepts that weren't already in Japanese copyright law, and without extra provisions on these additions you might end up with various unintended side-effects, and it's technically possible for these cases to arise. Some issues could easily be fixed by, for example, adding proper fair use provisions to allow parody that's in line with Japan's existing culture of derivative works. But until something like that happens we'll still be having these discussions.
Wow, the scary thing about that is I can see this being abused by trolls even worse than DCMA is. So, while the case is in motion, I suppose it would function like a C&D order, or would the affected party be able to continue like normal. BEcause I can see this generating alot of paperwork from some people who and to suppress or just be an asshole.
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It's probably best to think about this in terms of, say, Customs Officers. If they search a box being mailed across international borders and find bootleg copies of Hollywood movies, they'd want to have the right to start doing something about it without having to call some Hollywood producer and ask for permission to confiscate the bootlegs. From that perspective, having to wait for the rightholder to take action against something that's obviously illegal is completely absurd. Copyright law is fundamentally supposed to prevent copying after all, so in most cases it's pretty obvious when something is illegal.
The problem here is just that it doesn't draw a procedural line between blatant copyright abuse and the fuzzier derivative work issues. And, well, the people who enforce the law aren't actually legal experts (otherwise they'd be lawyers, not police), so modifying the copyright law itself doesn't strike me as very meaningful.
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First publicized photo of his son!
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/579091689765109761) The moment I saw these Invader rush mats I immediately bought one. The son is fully engrossed in repelling invaders
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/invader_zpszmqohjmx.jpg)
That's an officially licensed Space Invader (http://www.senken.co.jp/news/tatami-invadersgame/) rush mat.
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it has begun
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> Space Invaders
> Taito
Makes me wonder what it's like for a kid whose parents work in the video game industry...
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Instead of saying "my uncle who works at Nintendo said Reimu will be in the next Smash Bros. for the PS5," they'll brag "my dad who works at Nintendo said Reimu will be in the next Smash Bros. for the PS5."
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So in today's stream, ZUN got really drunk and rambled a lot of things, including many PR-unfriendly things like, I dunno, cheerfully announcing "the Touhou-related media companies are all my slaves", it seems he said that. The fandom, from stream watchers to people who heard about things second-hand, had been greatly entertained.
I don't think he disclosed any actually important info, but some of this stuff could be on the way to become new rumors and memes. For example, even though he hadn't watched it, the KanColle anime got duly mocked. He said if there'd ever be a Touhou anime, he'd write every word of its scenario. This is not news if you know him - for example, he said for a hypothetical Touhou anime, he'd keep tight control and make it its own story instead of an adaptation, in 2007's Gensou Denshou lecture. Nonetheless, people are exploding over that.
(Actually, in another occasion he also said he'd make a Touhou anime if people can prove to him that making anime is as fun as making games. Given that the anime industry's management and treatment of its workers are about a hundred times worse than ZUN's hated mainstream game industry, I'd say the likelihood of a Touhou anime shouldn't be overstated.)
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/583119036839395328): Today, I will recommend Ray-Ban sunglasses.
ZUN taking snipes
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ZUN: Today, I will recommend Ray-Ban sunglasses.
The context is that recently a lot of twitter account have somehow been hijacked to spam bootleg Ray-Ban sunglasses ads. Also, today is April the First.
He also tweeted yesterday that he may not be able to attend the indie game event BitSummit this year.
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Reitaisai 12 in Tokyo announced the circle booth numbers and Hall positions. http://reitaisai.com/rts12/4157
I'm located at K36b and Forza seems located at そ08b. We're in 2 completely different sides Forza :ohdear:
And I'm at N-46a! Also, I will attend TouhouCon in Anaheim, CA this September, so come see me if you pass by!
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And I'm at N-46a!
I will try to make a list of "Spaces I need to visit" like everybody makes. Please keep me reminded when we're closing in on Reitaisai.
Which reminds me, I need to ask Forza if he can purchase me a catalogue for Reitaisai. Even if I am circle entry again, I like having the Reitaisai catalogue as a memory.
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I'll check you out too. Even though I'm at the table, luckily I have an assistant, so I can make a few runs. But a well-planned list is extra important in that case.
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I'll check you out too. Even though I'm at the table, luckily I have an assistant, so I can make a few runs. But a well-planned list is extra important in that case.
Assuming we're with 4 (Vegas / Ryuuichi / Warugaki) I think I can make a round trip too with warugaki, pretty sure he wants to meet a few artists too because last year it was dramatic. Also last year I had it a bit easier because I wasn't officially "helper" so I could go/do what ever I wanted. I did though fan Ryuuichi for like an hour to finish up his sketches. Poor guy was sweating crazy and every time stopped picking up the fan, quick cooling and then continuing.
This year I will be assisting to avoid being rude/abusive.
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They'll sell catalogs at the venue, cheaper than at stores even.
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Well I don't know if everyone know this already but Playism says that Touhou will finally come to the west as they will release Double Dealing Character for the US catalog.
http://playism-games.com/article/touhou-finally-coming-to-the-west
I didn't read it about being translated but yaaay, finally!
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ZUN retweeted Playism's announcement, and...
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/585638242424377346) *Doki doki doki* [sound of heart beating nervously]
Playism Japan: (https://twitter.com/playismJP/status/585644728588312577) Touhou (the East) has come to the West.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/585676026769969152) The feeling of that word. Somehow I had felt it 15 years ago.
Did he just made a Seihou joke?
On the manga front:
azmaya: (https://twitter.com/a_to_z/status/585701372630323200) Due to health issues, I had been hospitalized since the end of March until the start of this week. WaHH Chapter 28, scheduled for released in this April's Febri magazine, has been put on hold... I was not seriously ill, and I've been recovering well, so please don't worry! Sorry for causing everyone trouble!
ZUN: So that's what happened. Please take good care of yourself.
azmaya: I'm really sorry about suspending the manga! I'll try to recover as quickly as possible!
ZUN: |-`).｡oO( Better not say anything inappropriate like "I've been at my busiest, so you helped me by freeing me from writing the next chapter's script".
So it looks like this month's WaHH has been delayed to June, and ZUN is at the height of game development.
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Tōno Mamare, the author of popular fantasy novels "Maoyu" and "Log Horizon", has been accused (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-04-13/log-horizon-author-mamare-touno-charged-with-tax-evasion/.87083) of tax evasion. In reaction to the news, ZUN tweeted:
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/587452007436263424) This is why if you want to do creative work by yourself, you must learn about taxes. You really had no idea where your earnings came from.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/587452689195237376) |-`).｡oO( ... One thing I completely forgot: when I had a tax inspection a few years ago, the official said to me, "we will be inspecting doujin activities from now on. I hope you can use your fame to help spread some basic knowledge about tax."
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/587455433545093120) It may come as a shock to have them call to check your taxes, when all you've done is making things as an individual. However, they will definitely come when your income reaches a certain level, and you should be prepared.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/587457576788328448) That tax inspector also said, "I can't beat Stage 5 at all. Please teach me." I wonder how he has been doing.
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Oh good, I was about to make a post about that. Judging by the number of retweets he's received in merely two hours, ZUN's word goes quite a ways even when he doesn't say much. It's almost all he has to do to promote awareness.
It's pretty hilarious how much Mamare had made without documenting any of it, too. Pretty mind-blowing.
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I saw this on my notification as well, wondering what it is about. Though after seeing what it is, decided not to look further. So that's what happened. I guess that's why knowledge on legal matters in the current society is very important. And I'm afraid I barely have enough.
Still, ZUN really comes prepared. Since it's a matter of his life's work after all.
So, what happened to him? It wasn't done on purpose, right?
And that last remark about not being able to beat stage 5 is just amusing.
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Is that the very concept of "tax" has something esotheric and presumably satanic hidden in it?
Every now and then i see threads on reddit about people who "went to public school all their life but never learned to account their taxes" (and the usual response is "if you learned basic math, then you know how to tax").
I'm 18 years old so i can't talk about personal experiencies with taxes aside of the automatic and omnipresent value-added tax.
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There is nothing magical about tax. If you earn money by working, you pay taxes (income tax). As student you probably are not bothered because you don't work or have a partime job where tax is at minimum deducted from your salary.
If you're running a business, you pay tax for the income of that business. I guess Doujin activities are just more tightly checked based on ZUN's tweets.
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Another interesting feature of the self-made game area was its 15 meter-long exhibition board, which displayed a timeline of Japanese amateur/doujin/indie games.
Recently they had made an online version of the amateur game timeline, and launched a wiki for Japanese self-made games.
During the festival, visitors were encouraged to make their own additions to the timeline using post-it notes. For the online version, they actually scanned dozens of these notes to replicate the experience. For instance, you can see a visitor wrote "I couldn't defeat Yuugen Magan!" under the HRtP entry.
For the wiki, they seem to want to turn it into both a document of Japanese amateur/doujin/indie game history, and a reference guide that help people get started making their own games.
You can read both here:
http://game.wiki.nicovideo.jp/indie/
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Rats, they didn't scan the "-%80" sticky note I put next to the "Steam platform launched" entry. :V
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This month's Nikenme Radio will be streamed live on April 23.
(http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad70/cucuct/Touhou/%20twitter.comt_yoshihonstatus588477212694687744_zpscgjeabtf.jpg)
According to Nikkei, the media conglomerate Kadokawa Group has announced its largest restructuring in years. It is cutting down the redundant organizations it has acquired through a series of mergers, and about 3000 employees will be laid off. The part that shocked the common Japanese people the most is that they will abandon the brand name of "Kadokawa Shoten" ("Kadokawa Bookshop"), the name the company was founded under. In a country that still puts a great value on tradition, this is a highly unusual move.
In the short term for Touhou, this probably just means new versions of Forbidden Scrollery and three fairies manga will be published under the name "KADOKAWA" (English, in all caps) from now on.
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RIP 書店 part of この番組は角川書店とご覧のスポンサーの提供でお送りします
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Nagamine Shin'ichirō: "Indie and doujin are hot!" They say. Yet here in the world-famous Akihabara, we have a doujin software shop in danger of closing down. I want people who hold this opinion to explain why.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588616675198537728) A "movement" unconnected to actual sales is hardly a movement. The trouble is, things never go well when someone wants to impose a "movement" on you from the outside.
This twitter exchange has launched a discussion that touches on several fronts. Nagamine (boss of the retrogaming-themed bar A-Button) was probably referring to the doujin game shop March Rabbit, which may very likely be shut down in a few months. In recent years, the store chains Melonbooks and Toranoana have almost created a duopoly on the doujin retail market, and March Rabbit is far from the only shop who cannot compete with them.
However, the main topic being discussed here is that despite Japanese media trying to pump up hype for an indie game movement of Japan's own, there simply aren't that many people interested in buying and/or making indie games.
Yasei no Otoko: If we are talking about increasing the number of doujin developers, I think the simplest way is to do another star-studded seminar, like 2009's GDGD. If not for GDGD, we wouldn't have SRC and Hydrangea today.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588628126558621696) We can do it. I'd say we can now discuss game making from a perspective different from back then.
Group of Doujin Game Developers (GDGD) (http://web.archive.org/web/20140817011111/http://gdgd.amatukami.com/) was a doujin game seminar started by ZUN and friends, held twice in 2009 (http://tcc.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/05/group-of-doujin.html) and 2010 respectively.
SRC is "Simulation RPG Construction", a tool set for making tactical RPGs. Hydrangea is a doujin circle/indie developer led by Yasei no Otoko.
Ruw: Anyhow, shouldn't you get things started by putting Danmaku Amanojaku on Playism?
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588623119453040640) I had decided to walk my own path.
Cryptic as ever.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588631057701863426) I'd just written about wanting to eat Cambodian food in the manuscript for my column, when the wife, who has no way of knowing it, came home with take-out Cambodian food. An interesting moment when we are thinking the same thing.
Heppoko: "A PC with an optical drive." This system requirement has become a problem nowadays.
Tora: How about selling download codes for the installer?
Heppoko: Seems next time we'll have to put a paper slip with the download code in the package.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588633065104101377) Can't we just sell games using USB drives?
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588887446869258240) I created some seasonal spirit for my son. (Photo) (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/588887446869258240)
May 5 is the Japanese Children's Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Day_%28Japan%29), traditionally a festival for boys (as opposed to Hina Festival, which is for girls). In the picture, ZUN has set up a "May Doll" that celebrates heroes and samurai. This one's design is based on the helmet of Date Masamune.
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Ruw: Anyhow, shouldn't you get things started by putting Danmaku Amanojaku on Playism?
ZUN: I had decided to walk my own path.
Ruw: You've always been following your own path and I get the feeling you always will!
Ruw's reply to this. (Also I'm getting confused with you bolding names without links.)
By the by, Reitaisai staff just announced (https://twitter.com/HakureijinjyaS/status/589341314921070593) that Play,Doujin! will be having a booth at Reitaisai where people can play trials of Mysterious Gensokyo, Genius of Sappheiros, and Genso no Ronde. Amusingly, the combination of this and the Bemani x Touhou (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,18274.0.html) collaboration will be branded as "Toho Game Show", i.e. "TGS", a very blatant parody of the Tokyo Game Show.
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"Toho Game Show" is an in-joke from Nikenme Radio. Because the Indie Game Festival part of Tokyo Game Show 2013 featured Touhou a bit too prominently (remember all those Touhou live performances that ZUN went out of his way to avoid?), Okonogi said: "The first time I saw the programme schedule, I thought it was Touhou Game Show."
The Reitaisai site has also been updated with circle lists for Reitaisai in Taiwan.
71 circles registered from the Taiwan side:
http://reitaisai.com/rtstw/circle-entry-list-tw
72 circles from the Japan side:
http://reitaisai.com/rtstw/circle-entry-list-jp
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/589973356931194880): I've submitted the material to print. Can't go back now.
ZUN: I have a feeling that the real work has yet to come...
He seems particularly nervous about this submission. Could this be "the thing"? It hasn't been very long since he started talking about it again.
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At first I thought it was a game, Touhou 14.8 or something like that since he said he's been eager to try making it, which gave me the notion that it's probably not a main game normal Shumps.
But reading this now, could it be a book? A novel perhaps? Because that's gonna be interesting for sure.
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He said 印刷物, "printed matter", which in this context is more likely some brochures or flyers rather than full books. He should be talking about something he will release at Reitaisai. In turn, this suggests his new release will not be a game demo, which has no jackets, but a full game or a music CD.
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The truth of ZUN's "printed matter" remains a mystery. It could be something entirely new, a new flyer for Reitaisai, or it could just be the next Forbidden Scrollery chapter.
He replied to a question about the appearance of Touhou arranges in arcade rhythm games:
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/590067852519976961) They have my permission. The condition is that they must obtain the consent of the musicians. While these are cases of commercial use, my stance on them is the same as with doujin fan creations: I will not give them any additional instructions regarding their content. I think it is a good thing for the musicians to gain more exposure. (Even better if this brings more business to the arcades.)
In today's Nikenme Radio stream, ZUN told us LoLK contains spoilers for ULiL. He also gave some long speeches about his personal philosophy, which I'll try to translate if I can find a summary.
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In today's Nikenme Radio stream, ZUN told us LoLK contains spoilers for ULiL. He also gave some long speeches about his personal philosophy, which I'll try to translate if I can find a summary.
Maybe i'm reading it wrong, but how can LoLK contain spoilers for ULiL if it comes after? You sure it isn't the opposite?
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Maybe i'm reading it wrong, but how can LoLK contain spoilers for ULiL if it comes after? You sure it isn't the opposite?
Well if you played LoLK before ULiL, then you could say that it does contain spoilers.
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Maybe i'm reading it wrong, but how can LoLK contain spoilers for ULiL if it comes after? You sure it isn't the opposite?
It would be like if you played Hisoutensoku before UFO (They released the same day) or if we were to be more general in terms of playing any game at any time (after full release) it would be as if IN contains spoilers for both PCB and EoSD
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The truth of ZUN's "printed matter" remains a mystery.
Now we know that his "printed matter" refers to the LoLK demo disc labels. Talk about a stretch.
Some info from April 23's Nikenme Radio - yeah, remember that this was from the day after LoLK's announcement.
- ZUN had been busy developing almost without leaving home since March.
- When LoLK was announced, ki-san asked ZUN: "How do you pronounce that?" (Referring to the game's main title, "Kanjuden", which has a rather archaic pronunciation.) This is how secretive ZUN has always been.
- ZUN: "The moment I decided I'll burn the game, a great weight left my chest!"
Here I'll explain a bit about the logistics of making doujin games. Mass-producing CDs and burning CD-Rs are two entirely different processes, as the former is done by stamping whole discs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc_manufacturing) on a production line. At ZUN's scale - a few thousand copies - this is significantly cheaper than burning CD-Rs, not to mention other issues with the later.
However, only specialized plants have the facility to make CDs, so you need to make reservations with them, and must fit into their schedule. (ZUN and his friends usually work with Popls (http://www.inv.co.jp/~popls/), an outfit specializing in printing doujin books and CDs.) You need a few days of buffer time, and can't put your hope on getting your CD printed the day before Reitaisai. Thus, ZUN deciding he will delay the deadline to the last day was an important decision.
- ZUN talked about having to redistribute his energy for making games to life and parenting.
- In his creative endeavor, the barrier of technology he has to overcome has been lowered, while the barrier of the mind has been raised.
- ZUN: "'Do what you enjoy.' I'm incapable of thinking in a different way." "What raised and nurtured me is 'Heaven'." "Only those who take a hold of luck can succeed." "I aimed for the gaps within luck."
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April 25 was the first day of Niconico Super Conference. Despite some hard partying beforehand, ZUN seemed to take on everything with stride as usual. The name of ZUN-beer had still not been decided, so he asked visitors for suggestions. In the end, he overruled all suggestions, and simply called (https://twitter.com/sharonrainswor2/status/591779117978128384) it 超幕張ラガー "Super Makuhari Lager".
This year's Conference has produced its fair share of ZUN-anecdotes. ZUN tweeted (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/591938874416369664) one: "The moment I noticed, I've already become a Love Liver." But the majority of them came from the official Reitaisai livestream, which I happened to have missed.
1. Reitaisai organizers: "Recently the fandom has become easier for newcomers to get into, hasn't it?"
ZUN: "The world of Touhou is better now. I won't say why, but the annoying people have left."
The sensationalist bloggers immediately seized (http://zakitakubu.com/2015/04/25/zun-makes-not-so-subtle-jab-at-kancolle-fans/) onto this: look! ZUN is talking about KanColle fans!
Honestly, I can't tell what exactly he was talking about. For all I know, he could be referring to the doujin shop White Canvas.
2. A fan: "Does Kagiyama Hina-chan have friends?"
ZUN: "There is such a character?"
Now that's how ZUN trolls people.
3. No one seems to have uploaded a recording of the whole stream, and all I can find is a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07MJxGgpNb4) where ZUN told interviewers in a hoarse voice, if there is ever a Touhou anime, he would write everything himself.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/591943812655685633) There are many more Super Conference attenders this year, but with very little disorder, so its attenders have now become experienced. Owing to you, I have recovered my MP. Thank you.
ZUN: However, this is the fourth Super Conference, and three times I've got my throat sore there. Perhaps the environment there is particularly bad for the throat.
Afterwards, he did the usual tweeting inbetween taking breaks...
ZUN: I ordered beer at Kakuyasu, but they have run out of beer boxes. I will be without beer for one day till they get their new boxes. A life and death situation.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/594010609143848960) Just as I tweeted, the wife came back with some Hitachino Nest Beer for me. With this, I can now go hide in my nest. [We caught a glimpse of LoLK from this photo.]
He resumed answering young people's questions:
Someone: Sorry for the abrupt question. Recently I've become interested in Touhou Project. It is your circle that made the initial danmaku games, isn't it? What is the relation between Manpuku Jinja and you? I apologize for my ignorance. I will keep on learning about Touhou.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/594140970515468288) Touhou Project is an overarching title for the oeuvre I have created. You can call them my way of life. Outside of the things associated with me, everything is a derivative fan work.
Someone: My friends from a Touhou LINE (a chatroom app) group said things like, Touhou is over, and Kannushi also wants to end it. Is what they said true? Your music has made me cry. Both your music and games are so great, I don't want to see them end, so I want to know how you think about it.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/595769759272214529) Thank you for asking. Whether in the past or in the future, my attitude has always been "make what I make when I want to". Even if all the players are gone, I think I would still not stop making them.
(Answering another young person...)
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/595964614891806721) I never set out with the goal of achieving what I have today, nor did I make any sort of special effort. All I did was to put in a little, enjoyable effort, for the goals right before me. If you ask someone like me to give you some advice, I can tell you to treasure what you can achieve now, and carry on while keeping it enjoyable. Well, also pay attention to your exams.
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"What raised and nurtured me is 'Heaven'."
Is there any particular meaning in this? Like, an idiom or some religious concept?
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So in today's stream, ZUN got really drunk and rambled a lot of things, including many PR-unfriendly things like, I dunno, cheerfully announcing "the Touhou-related media companies are all my slaves", it seems he said that. The fandom, from stream watchers to people who heard about things second-hand, had been greatly entertained.
Wait, is there any clarification/context behind this? Because this seems very... disturbing.
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Wait, is there any clarification/context behind this? Because this seems very... disturbing.
(Actually, in another occasion he also said he'd make a Touhou anime if people can prove to him that making anime is as fun as making games. Given that the anime industry's management and treatment of its workers are about a hundred times worse than ZUN's hated mainstream game industry, I'd say the likelihood of a Touhou anime shouldn't be overstated.)
Obviously, he was attacking to the PR department itself (different from, let's say, IT or accountability), not attacking Touhou's public image. Everybody hates marketing, and that's why many lulz were had.
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/598996649600372736): Since during game production I've really neglected them, for the next two weeks it'll be all family time.
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/600476155095883776): In just a bit we're going overseas.
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/600848749292728320): What a southern feel. We've come to Palau.
Southern from Japan of course meaning something more tropical and exotic.
(http://i.imgur.com/spS6Hkd.jpg)
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Since I can't really think of a spot to put this, even though parts have been mentioned here and there...
Yesterday's Nikenme broadcast seems to have had a couple of interesting tidbits mentioned by ZUN, summarized by @DraculaStoker: (https://twitter.com/DraculaStoker/status/603923714921504768)
- ZUN isn't sure whether or not he'll be able to finish LoLK by C88
- Flandre can't converse very well, so she doesn't go out
- Possible change [in artist] for WaHH? (please correct if this was the wrong interp)
- Reisen's species being listed as Human was in fact a mistake
- ZUN wanted to put a broken satellite into the background of Tenshi's fight in SWR
- Let's buy Splatoon
Also, (https://twitter.com/DraculaStoker/status/604259002441027584) ZUN: I'm not gonna let you say stuff like "Touhou is an easy game" lol
Hoho, maybe it bugs him a bit? Maybe this is where we see LoLK ramping up in difficulty?
(definitely adding more later)
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- Possible change [in artist] for WaHH? (please correct if this was the wrong interp)
Maybe I'm missing some context, but I thought it was about a change in magazine or something, which I thought cuc had already mentioned a while ago.
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Looking up use cases for the term used, that seems much more appropriate.
Also as said above I'll elaborate more on these in the morning since there are other accounts with more details.
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I almost want to say the part about Flandre is more that he hasn't been able to make an interesting story about her, which is why she hasn't been in anything lately. It's probably a lot clearer in context.
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I almost want to say the part about Flandre is more that he hasn't been able to make an interesting story about her, which is why she hasn't been in anything lately. It's probably a lot clearer in context.
That's how I read it too. ZUN can't write well for Flandre, so he doesn't use her in stories.
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- ZUN isn't sure whether or not he'll be able to finish LoLK by C88
Yea, if that is the case it will be C89 aka Winter Ket at this rate.
Personally I don't mind that. LoLK is seriously good impacting demo, no need to rush it.
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ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/625551440442867712) In-store reservations for Touhou Kanjuden start tomorrow. If you're interested, please confirm stock at any doujin shop's website.
ZUN: (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/625551741333803009) Getting high praise while still mid-development. Rather, from here on is the real thing.
Has it become a running joke with ZUN yet that it's always going to be "the real part is yet to come"? I feel like he's said this way too often recently.
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"I still need to work my fucking ass off to finish this." is what I get as a vibe :V
Maybe having a child is after all slowly influencing his effective focus on his development?
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Well, LoLK is already out for preorder in D-stage and Melonbooks, so I guess he managed to finish it but it was quite rushed.
Or maybe he's referring to a certain part of the development process? I don't really know what is the hardest part when making danmaku game.
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I don't really know what is the hardest part when making danmaku game.
I'd say testing them? "Is this pattern readable and possible to survive?", something like that.
iirc ZUN said Impossible Spell Card was a pain because of all the testing.
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Well, LoLK is already out for preorder in D-stage and Melonbooks, so I guess he managed to finish it but it was quite rushed.
Or maybe he's referring to a certain part of the development process? I don't really know what is the hardest part when making danmaku game.
If it's up for preorder then that means he's confident it'll be released at C88. It doesn't mean he's actually finished it yet, though! There's quite a few people on my twitter feed this comiket who seem to be putting their thing on melonbooks etc, but haven't actually sent it off for printing yet... Godspeed.
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/627716019092652032): You would expect game developers on the verge of burning the master CD to be thinking things like "I want to stir things up" and "I want to entertain people", but really it's more like their mental vocabulary is reduced to nothing but calls of "onsen. games. beer."
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/627716503173861376): I want to soak in an onsen while drinking beer and playing video games
(reading between the lines, ZUN is getting close to finishing the master)
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ZUN: I want to soak in an onsen while drinking beer and playing video games
That sounds... godly.
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Yeah! SummerKet, Touhou 15 release. Getting more and more excited.
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And of course, as expected:
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/628025978543935488): What a disaster. I already only have one Taiyo Yuden CD-R left.
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/628049537068740608): I went outside for the first time in a while but it's so hot I struggle to live
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/628053629547626496): Master copy sent! Ai Kyan Furai!
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/628055240005169157): [beer]
The Taiyo Yuden comment is probably relevant to their recent announcement that they would stop producing writable media at the end of the year. For context, this company was one of the pioneers of CD-R and their reputation for quality has remained constant, so now it's like people are trying to save a dying breed of CD-R.
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http://tohogairai.dengeki.com/
Seems we're getting something new from ZUN?
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This says it will be an official Touhou magazine. This is coming from Dengeki Bunko, a branch of ASCII Media Works that's specialized in subject-specific newspapers (Dengeki Playstation, etc) and has serialized various manga. I know them particularly from the Viva Tales Of magazine.
Quick and dirty translation:
With the full cooperation and supervision of its creator, ZUN, we bring you the latest form of Touhou Project. We introduce to you a smorgasbord of interviews with creators involved with Touhou Project in various ways, along with beginner-friendly terminology and worldbuilding explanations. Additionally, we have exclusive new ZUN serializations, and a special bonus guest artist arrange CD inside, so don't you miss it!
excite gaining
Fun thing about the title; they use 韋編 (ihen) which is a leather binding for bamboo scrolls, while 異変 (ihen) is our well-known term "incident".
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ZUN has just pointed us to the announcement of Branching Paths (http://branchingpaths.jp/), a documentary about Japanese indie game developers. The movie will be released in January 2016.
Of course, he will appear in the documentary, as can be seen in the teaser (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJsBXgrIvc).
According to their website, the origin of this documentary is fairly interesting. If you've been reading these threads from the beginning, you might remember a conference panel (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=14315.425) from 2013.
The long and short of it is, Nolife-TV, a French TV channel for geeks, conducted a survey on their forum about what French gamers think of Japanese video games, and their director Anne Ferrero gave a panel about these results at CEDEC 2013, Japan's largest game industry conference. Since Touhou ranked surprisingly high in the "favorite franchise" poll, the news got ZUN to tweet, "Is it about time to consider overseas development?"
After the conference, Kimura Yoshiro came to Ferrero, and asked her to shot a video series where Kimura interviewed Japanese indie devs. Ferrero later obtained funding from a Japanese production company to expand the interviews into a full-fledged documentary.
See, there's no contest. Kimura Yoshiro >> Ota Jun'ya :D .
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ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/665679949039210497): Gentle rain like today's is the ideal gaming weather. By all means, please come to Digi Game Expo in Akihabara for a showcase of indie and doujin games. Yours truly is also sloppily participating!
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/665698832609488896): Everything's all set up. Digi Game Expo, let's do well today!
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CT0Jj6QVEAEgXeh.jpg:small) (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CT0Jj6QVEAEgXeh.jpg:orig)
ZUN (https://twitter.com/korindo/status/665700191761096704): All the precious little games I've released until now! I'll be distributing them today, so please come visit me.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CT0KzBnUAAARjKR.jpg:small) (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CT0KzBnUAAARjKR.jpg:orig)
Today is Digital Game Expo, a doujin and indie game exhibition in Akihabara for circles and small companies alike to promote and sell their games, and connect with other developers. I was surprised at the first tweet because it made me think for a second that ZUN had prepared a mini game as he did last year (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,17617.msg1142848.html#msg1142848), but alas. He did bring his LLS setup he's carried around to a few events so that's pretty interesting, particularly for the many japanese fans who haven't played the PC-98 games. I guess it's also ZUN's way of showing what he had done in his early years as example for new developers, juxtaposing it with his most recent game.
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He also brought back Gold Rush which was a bit of surprise but makes sense. Also, he was selling all of his previous Windows releases, and the product listing (seen in the last picture in the above post) had a decidedly restaurant theme to it with a bunch of amusing little descriptions for each game.
EoSD: "A Chinese-style danmaku shooter comprised of fairies and vampires prepared by a maid."
PCB: "A danmaku shooter with soft snow and cherry blossom petals for a springtime feel."
IN: "A therapeutic danmaku shooter that will stir ancient memories when looking at the harvest moon."
PoFV: "A lively danmaku battle salad abundant with 16 distinct personalities."
StB: "Bunbunmaru Danmaku a la carte, a special entree from a tengu newspaper."
MoF: An amphibian danmaku shooter with snakes and frogs, prepared with premium ingredients and spirit."
SA: High-quality French ingredients?! Kiln-baked crow prepared Hell-style." (I don't get the first part)
UFO: "An enlightening UFO-style dish with no meat or fish, rich enough to send you flying through the air."
DS: "It's back! Dueling newspapers produced a sequel: Danmaku Paparazzi."
GFW: "The chef's capricious battle - ice cream once again."
TD: "A revival of a recipe from the Asuka period: A danmaku shooter that even Prince Shotoku may have once eaten."
DDC: "A full course of simple dishes in small containers. The chopsticks and bowls are for riding."
ISC: "Bad is good, and Seija is a Kijin! If this is delicious, anything is possible."
LoLK: "Care for a rice dumpling dessert? The rabbits worked hard pounding it."
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TD: "A revival of a recipe from the Asuka period: A danmaku shooter that even Prince Shotoku may have once eaten."
This just makes me giggle for some reason