Sunday, September 04, 2005 22:31
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A holder to bind them all (Touhou)
"Touhou" (東方) has been the genre name of the Team Shanghai Alice / Zun mega-phenomenon that has overshadowed doujin shmups for the last 3 or 4 years. (Do I really need to introduce it?) The fever hasn't stopped, in fact it's stepped up a bit since Zun released his latest game Phantasmagoria of Flower View (東方花映塚) at the last Comic Market 68 in August. (I'm still waiting for an affordable copy!) Being doujin doesn't mean it's immune from being copied (flattered?) again and again, so here we have other doujin groups basing their efforts off of Zun's creativity. It's grand affair. Zun created a whole universe, and the other groups fill it in.
I am a bit burnt out with Touhou music covers and arrange CDs (they still occupy a large part of doujin audio CD shelf space), but I still keep my eye out on the doujinshi and related games. This last CM68 I didn't go, but I allowed myself to buy the following items via proxy as shown in the picture:
The CD case contains the game Touhou Jifuushiro ... the Alternative Age (東方時封城) which is a danmaq effort into "historic Touhou STG" action. It's a copy (or duplicate or clone or ripoff) of the shmuppy goodness in the spirit of Zun games. Which is okay, I guess.
But notice the silhouette. The character graphics are pitfully crude and we are saved from the horror. The music is snappy, but it's too close to the original.
But I can't fault the game play. The bullet patterns are superb and colorful. Where Zun opted for primary blue (#0000FF?) and primary red (#FF0000?) for the curtain fire in his later games, Touhou Jifuushiro gives you the whole pastel spectrum. It sort of reminds me of the early Touhou:
This full game is good at 700 yen, but if you want, try the Touhou Jifuushiro demo. ("TRIAL_1.00/B140" 57 MB! download)
The other thing dominating the picture above is a card holder binder! Yes, this is cool! In the last Zun game Touhou Eiyashou Imperishable Night (東方永夜抄), one of the fabulous game submodes was "Spell Card" collecting. One group (or a collaboration?), Touhou Radio, stepped up to the plate to give the fans a card collection set and a binder to hold them (東方らぢおスペルカードホルダー), priced at a sensible 1000 yen each. Offiical artwork card binders usually cost 2000 yen and up. I didn't know about this until I picked up the last available binder at Melon Books. Lucky!
Zun's rendition of the "pseudo-dolls in paradise" is adequate, but to my anime-tainted eyes, I like other artists' artwork. Here's a close up of Reimu Hakurei from the binder itself. I really love the eyes. But with that big bow-tie head band, she looks pretty close to neko-mimi. Ahaha. I really need to figure out who drew this.
There will be a Touhou "only" convention in my area next Sunday, called Touhou Kouroumu (東方紅楼夢). Before, I decided not to go, but I may change my mind. I gotta pick up a pamphlet at Melon Books to see if they have Touhou Radio attending. I gotta put something shmup related in the holder, you see.