8th [Annual] Touhou Popularity Poll! (Results included!)

[Drake]

The fandom subjectively being more fun than the games doesn't mean you can't be a part of the fandom if you play the games, and vice-versa. Although yes, it's likely way more people are in for the fandom than for the games. Like I said though, if you don't find the games fun and thus don't play very often, why are you voting in the player statistics section? Not saying you're restricted from voting, but why would people bother commenting on the games if they don't play them? The game-specific votes are counted by the people who DO play the games; if you selected that you don't own a certain game then it doesn't count your votes on said game. Even if you do talk about people who don't play the games often, about 90% of the people who voted have more than three games. If they don't find the series fun, why are they buying more games? On average of all the Windows games, 75% of people who voted own any given game. Most of the people who vote actually do play the games somewhat, at least enough to keep buying the games, but the overall skill level of the fanbase has gone down. Nnnnnnn.

[MatsuriSakuragi]

6. Sanae
7. Alice
8. Satori
10. Aya
12. Yuyuko
13. Youmu
15. Koishi
16. Utsuho
18. Nitori
19. Byakuren
20. Tenshi
21. Suwako

I am pleased.

74. Alice?s Dolls
80. Thermonuclear Deity Hisoutensoku
81. Reisen II
88. Furball
91. Unnamed Giant Catfish
93. Fairy (Maid, Sunflower etc)
94. UFOs

97. Ellen

What. :colbert:

[Iliq]

Okay so:

Yuuka comes out of nowhere to beat everyone except Reimu and Sakuya. 
Suika dropped slightly because she was drunk.
In two years, Koishi will be first. I like this.
Renko goes up through the power of science. Or logic. Maybe both.

And music:
All my picks are (relatively) unpopular except Hartmann's Youkai Girl. *sigh*
Voyage 1969 is too low compared to where it used to be. Which was still too low, but now it's even lower. At least Fires of Hokkai is increasing... sorta.
One of the 6 people who voted for World's End... woo?
Evening Star stays the same.
Songs in musical albums not named Greenwich in the Sky are ignored. >_>

So, I like popular characters and unpopular music. Hooray!

[HakureiSM]

1. Reimu

:smug:

Wish Reisen ranked higher, though.

[日巫子]

Yuuka comes out of nowhere to beat everyone except Reimu and Sakuya. 

Out of nowhere, indeed!  She beat Kogasa at her own game.

[Ryuu]

The fandom subjectively being more fun than the games doesn't mean you can't be a part of the fandom if you play the games, and vice-versa.

well yeah, of course

Although yes, it's likely way more people are in for the fandom than for the games. Like I said though, if you don't find the games fun and thus don't play very often, why are you voting in the player statistics section? Not saying you're restricted from voting, but why would people bother commenting on the games if they don't play them?

personally I only voted on the character poll. idk why people would vote for games if they don't play them either. maybe for accurate stats?

The game-specific votes are counted by the people who DO play the games; if you selected that you don't own a certain game then it doesn't count your votes on said game. Even if you do talk about people who don't play the games often, about 90% of the people who voted have more than three games. If they don't find the series fun, why are they buying more games?

because buying the games is the easiest way to support ZUN and the series.

On average of all the Windows games, 75% of people who voted own any given game. Most of the people who vote actually do play the games somewhat, at least enough to keep buying the games, but the overall skill level of the fanbase has gone down. Nnnnnnn.

in my experience, the more popular a game becomes, the lower the average skill level gets. so yeah

[orinrin]

Cosmic Mind is now in second place! /o/

[Shadoweh]

Kikuri

I still have no idea who this is.

I'm calling it now; Yuuka to win next year! I can't believe that; just so, so, so happy you have no idea!

where doing it man
where making this hapen

Seriously though is noone questioning how Sakuya warped back up to second? My guess would be the Castlevania game. I am sad it's not Reimu/Marisa/Yuka or Yuka/Alice/Marisa but still.

[Smok, destroyer of thoughts]

Touhou wiki is your friend.

And Mokou drops every year >.> I'm so not pleased.

[Dweller]

61   56   45   Mima    953   132   
67   61   54   Shinki   685   50   

They are being forgotten. :ohdear:

[Iryan]

I still don't quite get why Broken Moon is so popular when IaMPs title screen theme is not. It is also by far the highest ranked touhou song that is not actually made by ZUN.

*opinions*

Wait, the participants of the poll have gone down as well?

Hmmm...

To me, participants going down and lunatic/hard clears going down would tell me that a good number of the better shmup players in the touhou fandom didn't vote because they had their minds on other shmups. Maybe only temporary because of a recent CAVE release, maybe because they "moved up" towards even harder shmups, mainly the newer games were too gimmicky for them, I don't know.

[ruikomatsu]

Reimu. I am pleased.

Yuuka above Marisa? That's new to me.

[Dragoshi]

Cool to see that Mokou and Utsuho are still doing pretty well even if they dropped a spot or two, so, uh. Yaaaaaaaay, etc.

Neat to see Yuka pop up in the top 3 as well, too

[N-Forza]

Aya in 10th is awesome. Lyrica being the least popular Prismriver isn't.

[Iryan]

Aya in 10th is awesome. Lyrica being the least popular Prismriver isn't.

She isn't!

Layla is way lower than her!  :V

[Wark]

夢消失〜 Lost Dream being 72nd and Aya in 10th place are quite nice. Expected somewhat better results for Hatate though.

Chen is not even in top-50 anymore >_>

[Mimachiro]

Out of nowhere, indeed!  She beat Kogasa at her own game.

Because there can only be one Youkai Moe! No one can ever take that one from Yuuka! (As much as I like  , Yuuka is still Number One.)

[Solais]

Let's see, music.

Septette is first again? I mean yeah I like it too, but it's getting really boring, just like the SDM.
Cosmic mind being the second is good though.
Mysterious Mountain is 24th, good.
Haigoku Lullaby being 33th is pleasing, but it could be higher.
Fairy Wars being 75th, hmmm, I say good for a newcomer with only a few arranges.
Eternal Steam Engine is 88th and the full version from the soundtrack is even lower. Sad.

Also:
Poor Daiyosei, now that she got between the two Akis, now there are a growing number of fanarts where the Akis bully her.

[shadowbringer]

Also:...not that I want to start a fight on this again, but with all the IaMP vs SWR/Soku fights that break out in the western fandom (and the seeming general favouritism towards IaMP)... it's kind of interesting to see that IaMP doesn't carry that love on an international scale (Nevermind being the least beloved of the Windows games).

or that the fighting game players aren't interested enough in Touhou to bother with the poll :p
really, IaMP deserves more appreciation than this. To quote someone on GFW, people are missing out.

Now, about lunatic clears.. I prefer to play for score over survival, because I can't ignore score (not that I've participated in the poll, due to procrastinating and missing the deadline). I only managed to clear EoSD on Lunatic because I forced myself to avoid score, and that was stressful. Also, Varth being on the Shmup of the Week at that time, so I had to clear EoSD asap to start (re)playing Varth. (my first time reaching stage 18 and then getting to stage 25 was an unique experience, it beat 1ccing EoSD Lunatic )

[Helepolis]

Cosmic mind kicked Border of Life from 2nd place. Interesting.

No matter what people say about Septette it remains, according to the votes of the people, the best composed song in Touhou.

[Garlyle]

or that the fighting game players aren't interested enough in Touhou to bother with the poll :p
really, IaMP deserves more appreciation than this. To quote someone on GFW, people are missing out.

Except... Hisoutensoku is a fighting game as well, and it placed pretty well!

There's a lot of things that could explain the discrepency - maybe it's just that SWR/Soku are much more accessible at first than IaMP, or are much more recent and fresher on people's minds - but it doesn't change the fact that IaMP placed pretty terribly.  I'll agree that IaMP deserves its some love too, but maybe it's a clue that SWR/Soku is deserving of some more love from the west than we've been giving it in the past.

[Yakitori]

Touhou wiki is your friend.

And Mokou drops every year >.> I'm so not pleased.

Patchouli also keeps dropping, which is kind of sad since she's my second favorite character.

[Iryan]

Technically, since the number of characters keeps increasing and the new places in the ranking cannot possibly be a higher number than 1 for obvious reasons, on average the placing of every character will drop over time.

[shadowbringer]

maybe it's just that SWR/Soku are much more accessible at first than IaMP

this.

maybe it's a clue that SWR/Soku is deserving of some more love from the west than we've been giving it in the past.

why, exactly?

[Garlyle]

why, exactly?

I just see IaMP vs SWR debates always leaning quite clearly to one side over here, when it gets brought up - if it comes down to the choice, it seems like the western fandom prefer IaMP (Or at least the people interested in these debates clearly do).  But, when put into comparison with the whole of the fandom, it's suddenly the opposite.  And I doubt that such a huge gap can be explained away purely by accessibility, either - it's a pretty massive gap, afterall.

I've heard that part of the reason nobody takes SWR/Soku over here seriously is that, well... nobody here takes SWR/Soku seriously, unlike IaMP, but this is different in Japan.  That might sound really silly, but in a way it's kind of true - that people are so quick to accept a singular answer like "Oh, yeah, it's just more accessible" as a full explanation for such a huge difference is evidence of it. 

Spoiler:

In all seriousness, I'm a little more irritated by the instinctive response in the western fandom of "soku is for babies go play iamp" than I might like to admit D:

Either way, like I said: people need to give a serious shot to whichever one they don't like as much (Or both, if they've been ignoring 'em).  Clearly there's reasons for people to still prefer IaMP... and clearly there's reasons people love Soku.

EDIT: While they're at it they should go try out the PC-98 games too D:

[ふねん1]

I believe the reason people over here take IaMP more seriously is because it's the closest thing to a traditional fighter out of the fighting spinoffs (even though it's still not traditional exactly). SWR and Hisoutensoku introduce some mechanics that really set it apart from other fighting games, and as a result their style of gameplay might make them a bit more hit-or-miss with people. Japan must not see it this way though, and fortunately for them they also have a good competitive scene to keep it popular, something Westerners do not have.

[Romantique Tp]

Either way, like I said: people need to give a serious shot to whichever one they don't like as much (Or both, if they've been ignoring 'em).  Clearly there's reasons for people to still prefer IaMP... and clearly there's reasons people love Soku.

I think everybody has already given SWR/S a chance, and the general consensus between those who actually play fighting games is that it's too boring and simple. It doesn't help that its simplicity doesn't allow for things that could have made the game more interesting either.
And then there's weather.

[Conqueror]

I still don't quite get why Broken Moon is so popular when IaMPs title screen theme is not. It is also by far the highest ranked touhou song that is not actually made by ZUN.

I don't understand why Broken Moon is in 12th place (I suppose people like a happier and bouncier remix of the title theme?), while Suika's actual IaMP theme, Missing Power, is at...79. Is there some mind-blowing remix of Broken Moon that I'm missing?

[Zengar Zombolt]

I don't understand why Broken Moon is in 12th place (I suppose people like a happier and bouncier remix of the title theme?), while Suika's actual IaMP theme, Missing Power, is at...79. Is there some mind-blowing remix of Broken Moon that I'm missing?

This. I mean it when I say I love Missing power much more than Broken Moon, so I don't quite get it.

[Iryan]

This. I mean it when I say I love Missing power much more than Broken Moon, so I don't quite get it.

As do I. It was one of the songs I voted for, so yeah.

But Broken Moon is technically a different version of Memory of Forgathering Dream, which makes it sound alot less interesting, so yeah.  :derp: