History YMMV / Touhou

* FanHater: Some shmup fans don't mind playing ''Touhou'' as part of their shmup arsenal, but others will stab you in the face if you so much as mention it.

* [[JustHereForGodzilla Just Here For The]] {{Cute Monster Girl}}s: A number of fans don't really play the games so much as read doujinshi or indulge in character fanart.

* CrowningMusicofAwesome / EarWorm: Both the games themselves and the fan works around them have some [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CrowningMusic/TouhouProject awesome music.]]

* EarWorm: Both the games themselves and the fan works around them have some [[CrowningMusic/TouhouProject awesome music]].

* ChaoticNeutral:
** Despite being one of the two main heroines of the series, Marisa has no qualms with ransacking other people's homes whenever she has the free time to do so.
** Reimu has no problem with looting from what can be assumed to be Chen's house in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom''.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Practically every other character.
** Mima is ridiculously popular, considering she hasn't made a canon appearance in well over a decade.
** Ever since the release of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkgK8eUdpAo Bad Apple!! Shadow Art video,]] which is a remix of Elly's stage theme, Elly has quite notably grown in popularity, gaining fans who are technologically incapable of playing the game she's in.
** Next to Mima, Shinki is easily the most popular PC-98 character [[BrotherChuck that hasn't appeared in a Windows game]].
** For a little ice fairy, Cirno sure has a '''massive''' fanbase, partly due to her childish cockiness, and partly due to her {{leitmotif}}. She even graces the cover of ''Hisoutensoku'' despite not being terribly important to its plot.
** Hong Meiling was so popular that it lead to her winning the Touhou Saimoe tournament.
** Despite not having an official name and being just a midboss, Koakuma is extremely popular among the fandom. Even more so than most of the lesser liked stage bosses.
** Patchouli's fanbase is not insignificant and [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Patchouli_Knowledge Touhou Wiki]] states that, as of ''Double Spoiler'', she has appeared in 9 of the 12 Windows games -- though admittedly, three of those appearances are only in certain endings. This makes her the most recurring character after Reimu and Marisa themselves. Not bad for a girl who almost never actually leaves her home.
** Mokou has appeared in only one game minus ''Shoot the Bullet'' and appears sparingly in spinoffs, but is the ninth-most popular character in the series according to the popularity poll, higher than any other character introduced in ''Imperishable Night''. Considering the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters sheer number]] of them, this is pretty impressive.
** Momiji, despite still not having an ''official'' appearance or any dialogue, and only having a bit of a backstory.
** Out of the new characters from ''UFO'', Kogasa has ''by far'' the most fanart and the most fans gushing about her [[FetishFuelStationAttendant awesome combination of moe factors]].

** [[YourMileageMayVary Borderline case]] for ''Silent Sinner in Blue''. Mainly for introducing two [[TheWesley Wesleys]] who defeated popular characters in ways that can be best described as either DeusExMachina or outright cheating.

** A good amount of fanworks tend to portray Gensokyo as a nightmarish place, despite the fact that all the demons and monsters are cute girls. The "Test in Touhou" videos are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqgwQQfHe1Q prime]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYklrgySAd0&fmt=18 examples]] of this.
** If you look at Konngara carefully, you'll notice that there's blood dripping from the base of her "horn". It's likely a spike ''driven through her head''.
** A somewhat common depiction of certain characters like Yuuka and Flandre in fanart.

* LawfulGood: Shikieiki, especially in fanon, her being a stickler for the rules is played both straight and humourously. One remarkable example is the Akadako doujinshi "Mossarism," where she announces she'll do "naughty things" on her day off. Turns out her idea of "naughty things" is [[PokeThePoodle laughably tame]]. Including pretending to slip money into Reimu's donation box.
* LawfulNeutral:
** Youmu. Serving and protecting her master Yuyuko goes above all else, even when Yuyuko comes up with an insane plot to steal spring, which stirred the good guys a little.
** Shikieiki. Her job as the Yama requires her to be this when judging.

* MemeticMolester:
** Marisa is occasionally seen groping the other girls in fanworks. Then she steals their precious things.
** [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rapetime_9051_7303.jpg Gengetsu]] as a result of fans dubbing her final attack "Gengetsu Rape Time".
** A recent Pixiv and Danbooru meme has Wriggle being {{Seme}} in H-fanart, as opposed to her common depiction of being weak and submissive.
** One 2ch user once lamented his failure at clearing extra stage of ''IN'', and his words were translated as "I GOT CAVED BY EX-KEINE!!!!", the Japanese word for "burrowing" being also a slang for gay sex. This resulted into her being portrayed as this trope in fanworks, Kaguya and Mokou being her usual victims owing to their constant warring irritating her.
* NightmareFuel:
** The fact that [[ImAHumanitarian Gensokyo has a food chain]] and that, as a normal human, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou you're at the bottom]].
** The Yukkuris.
** Some of the darker characters in the series, Flandre and Yuuka for instance, are [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into this. It says something about their [[MemeticMutation Memetic]] Nightmare Fuel status when any image of them giving a hug on Danbooru is met with many comments along the lines of "OH GOD NO!!"

* ParodySue: ZUN may have intended the Watatsuki sisters to be this.
* ReplacementScrappy:
** Some Sakuya fans were not happy about her being replaced by Sanae as the third playable character.
** Also inverted, as some fans of the newer characters are tired of all the bashing and have grown to dislike Sakuya.
* TearJerker: Several characters like Yuyuko, Byakuren, Mokou and the Prismriver Sisters have had tragic events in their lives, [[AllThereintheManual none of which are mentioned it in the games proper.]]
* TheWesley:
** Borderline case with Aya. She's accused of [[SpotlightStealingSquad stealing the spotlight]], but has an actual fanbase of her own. Tends to win battles by accident or lose on purpose.
** Fans of the series were annoyed with the way Yorihime had been defeating some of the series' most popular characters [[BoringInvincibleVillain rather cheaply]] in ''Silent Sinner in Blue''. Furthermore, she had been going at the pace of defeating only one character per chapter, thus causing the arc to [[AreTheyStillOnNamek span several chapters]].
** Toyohime, while not quite as hated as her sister, does garner some hate for [[spoiler:Yukari seeming to cave to her instantly. [[FanDumb Ignoring the fact]] that it was all [[XanatosGambit just as planned]] on Yukari's part]]. Still, people tend to prefer her over Yorihime, due to her [[MoeMoe "peach-eating moe~"]].

** [[PortmanteauCoupleName MAlice]] Cannon in ''IN''. Lasers in the earlier ''Touhou'' games were somewhat laggy in their hit detection. In ''IN''[='=]s case, this meant that you could switch between Alice and Marisa rapidly, and Alice's full damage would go through, the lag on the laser covering the time as Marisa.

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* GameBreaker:
** Marisa in ''Mountain of Faith''. Her B-type shot has a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] that makes it insanely powerful under the right circumstances, earning it the FanNickname of [=MarisaBugged=].
** Much less severe, but Marisa's teamup with Alice in ''Imperishable Night'' has access to another highly damaging exploit, which fans have dubbed the [[PortmanteauCoupleName Malice Cannon]].
** Sakuya's A-type shot in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'' is considered this by some since its unfocused mode covers the top of the screen, while the focused concentrates it entirely on single target and is homing withing a relatively wide angle. She also has ''four'' bombs per life with the same properties.
* GrowingTheBeard:
** ''Lotus Land Story'', where most of the standard ''Touhou'' gameplay features were introduced.
** ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', with the introduction of the Spell Card system.

* SurpriseDifficulty:
** Players familiar with fanworks come into Cirno's fight expecting it to be a joke. [[WakeUpCallBoss Then they eat icicle shotgun]]. And, while Icicle Fall ~ Easy deserves it's memetic status, the version on normal is actually fairly nasty. It's basically the same thing, except Cirno ''also'' fires a spread of larger bullets in front of her, meaning you actually have to navigate the icicles, which is harder than you'd think.
** [[BrickJoke Kogasa]].

* ThatOneBoss: Enough examples for [[{{ThatOneBoss/Touhou}} their own page]].
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
** The tenth game, ''Mountain of Faith'', generated discontent among fans because of the significant gameplay changes, such as linking the bomb system to weapon powerups, not having individualised bombs for each of the shot types, and making the continues send you back to the beginning of the level. Most notable was the removal of the "graze" system, where one is rewarded for getting close to bullets as often as possible without getting hit. This was thankfully put back in for ''Subterranean Animism'', where's it's actually the basis of the scoring system.
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' heralds the return of more classic features, such as the separate bomb bar and character-unique spell cards, but the ''[=UFO=]'' mechanic for this game proves annoying to many players, especially since using said mechanic is one of the few ways to gain more power, bombs, points, and lives.
** Doubly subverted with the spell card practice mode in ''Imperishable Night'', which allows you to practice cards you haven't even beaten yet, one at a time, unlike the traditional level practice. It was praised as the most useful feature in the series since the visible hitbox... and then disappeared the next game, never to be seen again, presumably because it made things too easy.
* TierInducedScrappy: Fans often describe [[OneManParty Alice solo]] as the worst playable character in ''Imperishable Night'' because of her narrow range of attack and terrible spell damage. [[CannotStandThemCannotLiveWithoutThem Possible justification]] of the [[PortmanteauCoupleName Malice]] Cannon, and maybe even the [[{{Shipping}} pairing]].

* WhatAnIdiot: On Easy difficulty, Cirno's Icicle Fall spell card has a blatant blind spot ''right in front of her.''

* LargeHam: Cirno in general, but most noticeable in ''Fairy Wars''.
-->'''Cirno:''' This atmosphere... it smells of WAR!

* {{Fanon}}: Touhou basically ''runs'' on fanon, with enough sheer fan material in it to make the average fan's head ''explode''. Some of it [[SureWhyNot has even been actually adopted into the canon by the author]].

** There's also disagreement within the fandom over how much ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' counts. It's the only official Touhou production that wasn't actually written by ZUN himself, and some of the characterization differs from his - especially since it's a gag series that plays fast and loose with such things to begin with.

** ''Lotus Land Story'', where most of the standard Touhou gameplay features were introduced.

** Parsee's difficulty is legendary among fans, since she's a Stage 2 boss with a lot of endgame gimmicks, but [[PuzzleBoss once you know how all her attacks work]] she's probably the easiest boss in SA. The result is that latecomers to SA wonder why she's so notorious.
* [[ItsPopularNowItSucks It's Popular, Now It Sucks]]: Part and parcel with UnpleasableFanbase and FanDumb, a notable and ''extremely'' vocal minority of the fan base are concerned with the game becoming popular with people who are not "real fans".
** The opposite holds true; that the fan works and characters are far more popular than the games themselves doesn't sit well with a lot of people.

* ReplacementScrappy: Some Sakuya fans were not happy about her being replaced by Sanae as the third playable character.
** And inverted, as some fans of the newer characters are tired of all the bashing and have grown to dislike Sakuya.
* SurpriseDifficulty: Players familiar with fanworks come into Cirno's fight expecting it to be a joke. [[WakeUpCallBoss Then they eat icicle shotgun]]. And, while Icicle Fall ~ Easy deserves it's memetic status, the version on normal is actually fairly nasty. It's basically the same thing, except Cirno ''also'' fires a spread of larger bullets in front of her, meaning you actually have to navigate the icicles, which is harder than you'd think.

*** Well, if it's [[LesYay peach-eating]], [[GirlOnGirlIsHot that shouldn't be surprising]].

* SurpriseDifficulty: Players familiar with fanworks come into Cirno's fight expecting it to be a joke. [[WakeUpCallBoss Then they eat icicle shotgun]]. And, while Icicle Fall ~ Easy deserves it's memetic status, the version on normal is actually fairly nasty. It's basically the same thing, except Cirno ''also'' fires a spread of larger bullets in front of her, meaning you have to navigate the icicles, which is harder than you'd think.

* LesYay: With only [[TheOneGuy one significant male character]] in the entire series, there's not many other options for [[{{Shipping}} Shippers]].

* GrowingTheBeard
** ''Lotus Land Story'', where most of the standard Touhou gameplay features were introduced.
** ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', with the introduction of the Spell Card system.

* ThatOneBoss: Every game has at least one, without exception.
** ''Lotus Land Story''.
*** Elly, mainly because of her scythe. She throws it at you in the middle of her patterns, which already require a fair bit of precision, it's slightly homing, and ''it blocks your shots''. If you're playing a shot type that can't get around that it'll be a very long fight.
*** And then, there's Reimu. She is a ''bitch'' to defeat.
** In ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', the main downside to playing as Sakuya is you're forced to fight Merlin at the start of Prismriver Sisters battle.
** Stage 4: Uncanny of ''Imperishable Night'' has Reimu as a boss. Not so hard as she was in ''LLS'', but she is really hard anyways.
** In ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'', there's Aya. She's fast as hell, and due to the AI from this game, she is a hard opponent.
** Aya returns in ''Mountain of Faith'' as the stage 4 boss. The luck factor is vital for that fight.
** ''Subterranean Animism'' has so many candidates for this that it might well be called That One ''Game''.
*** Parsee Mizuhashi, despite only being a stage 2 boss, will become rather infamous for surprising players with how difficult her spell cards are. "Green-Eyed Monster" is particularly brutal, as she uses it when she encounters the players as a ''midboss'', and it's ''homing'', a quality typically reserved for the bosses of stages 5 and 6 in a ''Touhou'' game. Another gimmick not normally seen until endbosses is the DoppelgangerAttack, which Parsee also uses.
*** Yuugi usually trips up players due to the sheer brute force of her attacks. She's often cited as a reason to not assume a character's strength from their placement in the game. One such argument spawned the NOT EVEN DROP meme.
*** Satori can be this, depending on who your [[MissionControl option]] is, as she uses that character's spell cards. Part of the reason why Satori can be a bitchslap in the face is also due to the fact that many of her recollected spellcards are culled from the fighting games. That is, they originally didn't have any sort of representational danmaku pattern before. Heaven help you if you're playing as [=ReimuC=] and aren't prepared for "Tengu Macro Burst" to come hurtling at you. Those that aren't are from Shoot the Bullet, a game so tough that many Easy Mode players can't even get past the first set of stages. Have fun with Yukari's "Border of Wave and Particle", which was part of the Extra stage of [=StB=] (although that attack is painfully easy if you know what you're doing). And then, of course... there's Patchouli. Her torturous Water cards? Those are the ones that Satori chooses, even though it's not the element that Marisa remembers from Patchouli. Well, those and one of Patchouli's cards from the Extra stage of [=EoSD=], the Philosopher's Stone.
*** Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all. For beginners, there's the second non-spellcards from the cat form in the stage 5. Not so hard as it seems, but you can be clipped easily. Then there's ''Catwalk''. If you don't read the card correctly, well... And then, [[ItGotWorse there's the boss battle]]. The zombie fairies are the least of your worries. Her third boss spellcard, ''Needle Mountain of a Former Hell'' / ''The Needles of Yore and the Vengeful Spirits in Pain'', is really hard to read. Besides that you have to evade the bullet rain, you have to evade the needle wheels, which aims to your previous position. Good luck if you wanna capture it.
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object''.
*** Ichirin, together with Unzan.
*** CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA. If she doesn't mess you up, then...
*** Shou definitely will. Many people have great difficulty with her, especially the curvy lasers.

*** Satori can be this, depending on who your [[MissionControl option]] is, as she uses that character's spell cards. Part of the reason why Satori can be a bitchslap in the face is also due to the fact that many of her recollected spellcards are culled from the fighting games. That is, they originally didn't have any sort of representational danmaku pattern before. Heaven help you if you're playing as ReimuC and aren't prepared for "Tengu Macro Burst" to come hurtling at you. Those that aren't are from Shoot the Bullet, a game so tough that many Easy Mode players can't even get past the first set of stages. Have fun with Yukari's "Border of Wave and Particle", which was part of the Extra stage of StB (although that attack is painfully easy if you know what you're doing). And then, of course... there's Patchouli. Her torturous Water cards? Those are the ones that Satori chooses, even though it's not the element that Marisa remembers from Patchouli. Well, those and one of Patchouli's cards from the Extra stage of EoSD, the Philosopher's Stone.

*** Satori can be this, depending on who your [[MissionControl option]] is, as she uses that character's spell cards.

*** Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all. For beginners, there's the second non-spellcards from the cat form in the stage 5. Not so hard as it seems, but you can be clipped easily. Then there's ''Catwalk''. If you don't read the card correctly, well...
**** And then, [[ItGotWorse there's the boss battle]]. The zombie fairies are the least of your worries. Her third boss spellcard, ''Needle Mountain of a Former Hell'' / ''The Needles of Yore and the Vengeful Spirits in Pain'', is really hard to read. Besides that you have to evade the bullet rain, you have to evade the needle wheels, which aims to your previous position. Good luck if you wanna capture it.

*** Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all.

* ChaoticNeutral: Despite being one of the two main heroines of the series, Marisa has no qualms with ransacking other people's homes whenever she has the free time to do so.
** Reimu has no problem with looting from what can be assumed to be Chen's house in Perfect Cherry Blossom.

** IOSYS's "Border of Extacy", whose Flash animation is a MindScrew consisting of this and FanDisservice.

** In ''Lotus Land Story'', Elly, mainly because of her scythe. She throws it at you in the middle of her patterns, which already require a fair bit of precision, it's slightly homing, and ''it blocks your shots''. If you're playing a shot type that can't get around that it'll be a very long fight.

** In ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', the main downside to playing as Sakuya in, is that you're forced to fight Merlin at the start of the fight with the Prismriver sisters.
** Stage 4: Uncanny of ''Imperishable Night'' has Reimu as a boss. Not so hard as she was in LLS, but she is really hard anyways.

*** And she returns in ''Mountain of Faith'' as the stage 4 boss. The luck factor is vital during their combat.
** In ''Subterranean Animism'', Parsee Mizuhashi, despite only being a stage 2 boss, will become rather infamous for surprising players with how difficult her spell cards are. "Green-Eyed Monster" is particularly brutal, as she uses it when she encounters the players as a ''midboss'', and it's ''homing'', a quality typically reserved for the bosses of stages 5 and 6 in a ''Touhou'' game. Another gimmick not normally seen until endbosses is the DoppelgangerAttack, which Parsee also uses.
*** From the same game, Yuugi usually trips up players due to the sheer brute force of her attacks. She's often cited as a reason to not assume a character's strength from their placement in the game. One such argument spawned the NOT EVEN DROP meme.

*** ''Subterranean Animism'' has so many candidates for this that it might well be called That One ''Game'', but Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all.
** In ''Undefined Fantastic Object'', Ichirin, together with Unzan.
*** From the same game, CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA. If she doesn't mess you up, then...

** Even fairies can become this. Whenever Luna is the final boss in ''Fairy Wars'', the fight undergoes a ridiculous DifficultySpike.

** Stage 4: Uncanny of ''Imperishable Night'' has Reimu as a boss. She is a ''bitch'' to defeat.
** She's even worse in Marisa's scenario in ''Lotus Land Story''.
** Elly, mainly because of her scythe. She throws it at you in the middle of her patterns, which already require a fair bit of precision, it's slightly homing, and ''it blocks your shots''. If you're playing a shot type that can't get around that it'll be a very long fight.
** The main downside to playing as Sakuya in ''PCB'' - you're forced to fight Merlin at the start of the fight with the Prismriver sisters.
** Despite only being a stage 2 boss, Parsee's become rather infamous for surprising players with how difficult her spell cards are. "Green-Eyed Monster" is particularly brutal, as she uses it when she encounters the players as a ''midboss'', and it's ''homing'', a quality typically reserved for the bosses of stages 5 and 6 in a ''Touhou'' game. Another gimmick not normally seen until endbosses is the DoppelgangerAttack, which Parsee also uses.
** Yuugi usually trips up players due to the sheer brute force of her attacks. She's often cited as a reason to not assume a character's strength from their placement in the game. One such argument spawned the NOT EVEN DROP meme.
** Satori can be this, depending on who your [[MissionControl option]] is, as she uses that character's spell cards.
** ''Subterranean Animism'' has so many candidates for this that it might well be called That One ''Game'', but Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all.
** Ichirin, together with Unzan.
** CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA. If she doesn't mess you up, then...
** Shou definitely will. Many people have great difficulty with her, especially the curvy lasers.

** Shoot-em-up fans, who feel that ''Touhou'' has driven attention away from other shmups, particularly those with more mechanical visual styles.

* LoveItOrHateIt: Either it's the most infectious franchise you've dived into, or you find it to be the dumbest and most overrated shit of all time. The fandom plays very, very heavily into this.

* ThatOneBoss: Every game has at least one, without exception. See the "Shoot Em Up" section for specific examples.

** Doubly subverted with the spell card practice mode in ''Imperishable Night'', which allows you to practice cards you haven't even beaten yet, one at a time, unlike the traditional level practice. It was praised as the most useful feature in the series since the visible hitbox... and then disappeared the next game, never to be seen again, presumably because it made things too easy.