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 it 超幕張ラガー "Super Makuhari Lager".
This year's Conference has produced its fair share of ZUN-anecdotes. ZUN
tweeted 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 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 where ZUN told interviewers in a hoarse voice, if there is ever a Touhou anime, he would write everything himself.
ZUN: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.