Best looking Spell Card? (Pretty bulletz)

[NLTM]

Not which is the hardest, or most fun to do, but which one just makes you want to sit back and just... watch? after all, isn't the point of Danmaku to look pretty?

i'll have to go with Suwako's Froggy Braves the Elements, Byakuren's _{And shinki's} Devil's Recitation, or Kanako's Mountain of Faith/Virtue of Wind God.

[Sabino]

Ah the primal reason of danmakus!
I'd need to say...
Flandre's "Kagome Kagome", Kanako's "Mountain of Faith", Okuu's "Mega flare", Kaguya's "Hourai Branch - Rainbow danmaku", Yuugi's "Wind of Mt. Ooe" (Her reflecting bullets are really pretty too... as long as you don't care about dodging.) all of Yuyuko's butterfly danmaku, all of Meiling's rainbow danmaku :3

There's a lot more but these are what comes to me at the top of my head.

[Arcengal]

Danmaku Bounded Field, Resurrection Butterfly, Phantom of the Grand Guignol would be my top 3.

[Primula]

I would say Hourai Elixir, Starbow Break, Boundary of Life and Death, Border of Wave and Particle, Subterranean Rose, and Honest Man's Death.

I think I forgot some...

[ふねん1]

I'm probably an odd one out on this, but mine is Esoterica "Secretly Inherited Art of Danmaku". Because when I think of a danmaku pattern looking good, I don't think just "variety of colors" or "types of bullets used" (though they are still a factor), I want to see them arranged in a spectacular fashion. You run the gamut for this one, from the pentagrams being drawn, to them slowly shooting outward, to them uncurling so gracefully AND symmetrically. Not even VoWG can match this, if you ask me.

[orinrin]

I have to say that a lot of the stuff in MoF looks pretty nice.  VoWG/MoF is one of my favorite spell cards to look at.  It's usually the ones that have a variety of colors or fancy patterns (ie: star shapes) that are mentioned.  Not that I have a problem with that.

[8lue Wizard]

Starbow break and PCB Sumizome. Some of the water-themed ones, like Kappa's Pororoca and Froggy Braves the Elements deserve mention, too.

[Angel on the Steps]

I'm probably an odd one out on this, but mine is Esoterica "Secretly Inherited Art of Danmaku". Because when I think of a danmaku pattern looking good, I don't think just "variety of colors" or "types of bullets used" (though they are still a factor), I want to see them arranged in a spectacular fashion. You run the gamut for this one, from the pentagrams being drawn, to them slowly shooting outward, to them uncurling so gracefully AND symmetrically. Not even VoWG can match this, if you ask me.

Well, we're two oddballs then! I'd add her two openers and her final card to the list too, though they're nowhere near as impressive as Esoterica. Banquet of the Twelve General Gods also comes to mind for the same reason, and Apollo 13, and Border of Wave and Particle.

Otherwise, I'll go with Koishi, just Koishi (Philosophy of a Hated Person aside). For some reason, I can't remember any particularly noticeable card in the StB games, though...

[Tengukami]

Oh man. Where do I begin?

Basically, the entirety of fighting Reimu in Stage 4 of IN. I find it a lot of fun for the cleverness of the designs, each portion changing up on you in dynamics while maintaining the aesthetic themes.

I'll come up with more and why when I can get to my laptop and take a better look at my games.

[Hello Purvis]

Fasting of the Young Gaki is a personal favoring. I enjoy the implied wind currents in the wake of Youmu's slash a lot.

Too bad is also fucks my face 14 times out of 15 and thus is typically bombed and/or died to.

[Alpha Werewolf]

Oh man. Where do I begin?

Basically, the entirety of fighting Reimu in Stage 4 of IN. I find it a lot of fun for the cleverness of the designs, each portion changing up on you in dynamics while maintaining the aesthetic themes.

I'll come up with more and why when I can get to my laptop and take a better look at my games.

This, but mostly her circle cards (Evil Sealing Circle is one of them, at least - the ones that have bullets going into the border she creates and out of the other border).

[?q]

Fatal Light Trap (8-2 in Shoot the Bullet) has always been one of my favorites.  Yuyuko kind of dominates the pretty bulletz competition.

Event Horizon, Ikahasa's Moon Curse (Mokou's first spell), Bewitching Power Spoiler (EX-9 in Double Spoi

Spoiler:

l

er), and Old Spice Rain (10-5 in Shoot the Bullet) are also on the list.

[RainfallYoshi]

I've always loved Meiling's "Rainbow Wind Chime" and "Gorgeous Sweet Flower"/"Selaginella 9". Also, Patchy's "Princess Undine" despite it being a bucket of rage.

[ebarrett]

Froggy Braves the Elements. Honorable mention to "Faraway Lands, Gaze on this Earth!" (Tenshi's next-to-last)

[nintendonut888]

Virtue of Wind God is purty.

As for others that are very pleasing to the eyes...

Gengetu Spark is the coolest-looking attack in PC-98 IMO, though Devil's Recitation is awesome in its own way.

Eirin's last word (Butterfly Net whatever) is good at one thing and one thing only, and that's looking good.

Border of Wave and Particle, much as I hate it, I have to admit it's cool to look at.

Fatal Light Trap, 8-2 in StB, is quite nice.

Those are my favorites.

[scherzo]

Many of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I'll add "Brilliant Dragon Bullet" to the mix. The card's symmetric cascading lasers are just hypnotizing.

[jvpenguin]

I really like God's Realm (Keine's Last Spell).
Also Marisa's Event Horizon/Stardust Reverie. So pretty :3

Everything else I like has been said though :V

[Tengukami]

I don't think naming a card that's already been mentioned is a bad thing.

[Serp]

Oh man. Where do I begin?

Basically, the entirety of fighting Reimu in Stage 4 of IN. I find it a lot of fun for the cleverness of the designs, each portion changing up on you in dynamics while maintaining the aesthetic themes.

I started playing Touhou with EoSD, moved on to PCB, and only then played through Imperishable Night, but it was during the fight with Reimu in IN that it hit me all at once how awesome Touhou was.  For some reason, it all just clicked for me at that point.

[swamp147]

Those who liked Reimu's cards in IN should play LLS as Marisa and fight Reimu there

Classic Reimu's attacks aren't as impressive as Windows Reimu's, but it's good to know how her IN attacks originated. Oh, and I find LLS Reimu about 47x harder than IN Reimu. She used to be much more brutal

That said, I like Yumeko's knife/sword/laser pseudo-streaming attack, as well as a lot of the one's already mentioned (Gengetsu Spark for being so badass and Phantom of the Grand Guignol for being pretty).
Oh, and some of Iku's spellcards from DS. Her curvy shots and lasers are pretty.

[Sen]

Byakuren's "Flying Fantastica/Legendary Flying Object," no contest. I also always thought Letty's final spellcard on Lunatic had just the prettiest shade of blue ever.

Honorable Mentions to Marisa's "Event Horizon," Reisen's "Mind Shaker," and pretty much everything Koishi has in Double Spoiler.

[Shizzo]

Sigh of Purgatory and Rorschach in Danmaku <3

[Aoshi-shi]

Heaven Spider's Butterfly-Catching Web.
....
That's all I have to say.

[Bananamatic]

seamless ceiling
 :smug:

[Formless God]

Recollection seamless ceiling
 :smug:

:smug:

Plus Superhuman and Radiant Treasure Gun.

[Zengar Zombolt]

Life Spring Infinity, Nitori's Trauma in the Glittering Depths (Don't ask) and Alice's Dolls in Sea (StB).

[PC]

Spell card 85 in IN, Black Magic "Event Horizon"

Marisa's cards are always purty, combined with such an organized pattern of stars... 

[K.K.]

I think all of Kaguya's spells look neat, well minus the last spells.
Oh and also Resurrection Butterfly 80%. It looks like an eye to me for some reason...

[Alfred F. Jones]

As strange as it is for me to pick a card like this: StB's EX-6, Mokou's Five-Coloured Turtles. I say it's strange for me to pick it because the card itself is such gimmicky bullshit-- It is LITERALLY micro-streaming. But once you figure out the gimmick and creep slowly slowly slowly from one side of the screen to the other, the card itself becomes trivial and you can look away from Aya to see the rest of the screen, and godDAMN if all that multi-coloured danmaku isn't gorgeous.

Oh, and everything Yuyuko has. Ever. Special mentions to Perfect Cherry Blossom of Sumizome (her penultimate card in PCB) and her StB 8-4 which has the long and awkward but still nervous-making name of Swallowtail Butterfly Pattern's Death Spear. It is beautiful.

[Matsuri]

Special mentions to Perfect Cherry Blossom of Sumizome (her penultimate card in PCB)

I mentioned a couple days ago to you on IRC that Yuyuko has my all-time favorite card in the series-- and that's the one, right there. It's a perfect balance of pattern and unpredictability-- and it just has a wonderful feel to it-- the Saigyou Ayakashi is about to bloom, and you're meandering along falling petals and ethereal butterflies. It's beautiful. :*

Perfect Cherry Blossom is my favorite game in the series (though, oddly enough, only one of my top-five favorite characters is in it (and she's not exclusive to the game, either )), and Perfect Cherry Blossom of Sumizome is a significant reason why it is-- the intuitive, clever scoring system, music, story, and stages aside.