History YMMV / Touhou

** Anyone new to Touhou series, especially western fans would find it rather difficult to see many "seemingly pre adolescent girls"[[note]]Especially Suika Ibuki and The Three Fairies of Light[[/note]] [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl having party and getting wasted on high frequency]]. Not only most of those "seemingly pre adolescent girls" are actually OlderThanTheyLook, the drinking culture in Japan is also different from many country in the west.

** Anyone new to Touhou series, especially western fans would find it rather difficult to see many "seemingly pre adolescent girls"[[note]]Especially Suika Ibuki and The Three Fairies of Light[[/note]] having party and getting wasted on high frequency. Not only most of those "seemingly pre adolescent girls" are actually OlderThanTheyLook, the drinking culture in Japan is also different from many country in the west.

** Anyone new to Touhou series, especially western fans would find it rather difficult to see many "seemingly pre adolescent girls"[[note]]Especially Suika Ibuki and The Three Fairies of Light[[/note]] having party and getting wasted on high frequency. Not only most of those "seemingly pre adolescent girls" are actually OlderThanTheyLook, but the drinking culture in Japan is different from many country in the west.

** Assuming that Koishi Komeiji's [[FinishingMove Last Word (Brambly Rose Garden)]] in ''Hopeless Masquerade'' is inspired or a ripoff from [[{{VideoGame/Undertale}} Chara and their genocide tendencies]] is a good way to tick off Touhou fans because of how untrue it is. Koishi Komeiji debuted in ''Subterranean Animism'' (2008) and ''Hopeless Masquerade'' was published in 2012, while Undertale was published in 2015.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r64yEVv-r34 pichun]] that plays when you die often invokes this for players who aren't very good at the games.
** Can become a ''SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound'' when heard in combination with one of your bombs, meaning that you [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow cancelled out your death with a frame-perfect bomb usage.]]

** Asking "What anime is this?" will lead to a lot of groans since Touhou is a video game series that (currently) has no official anime.

* ItWasHisSled: The most likely thing you will hear about the Fortune Teller upon bringing him up is that he was KilledOffForReal by Reimu.

** Kogasa's return in ''Submerged Hell of Sunken Sorrow'' was, quite fittingly, a surprise. She only exists as a joke. The joke being that [[{{Filler}} she was irrelevant to the story of every game she appeared in before then]]. Especially her debut in ''Undefined Fantastic Object'', where every character played a major role in the game's plot besides her).

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The form ZUN used to add the "trumpet"[[note]]specifically, the "Romantic Tp" featured in the Edirol SD-90[[/note]] in some of his compositions. Fans used to create covers InTheStyleOf Touhou [=OSTs=] using the same MIDI instruments as basis, but most of them focus heavily on the "[[MemeticMutation ZUNpets]]". With that, listening to ZUN's compositions back again doesn't feel so good...

** Assuming that Koishi Komeiji's [[FinishingMove Last Word (Brambly Rose Garden)]] in ''Hopeless Masquerade'' is inspired or a ripoff from [[{{VideoGame/Undertale}} Chara and her genocide tendencies]] is a good way to tick off Touhou fans because of how untrue it is. Koishi Komeiji debuted in ''Subterranean Animism'' (2008) and ''Hopeless Masquerade'' was published in 2012, while Undertale was published in 2015.

** Practically overnight after the full version of Wily Beast and Weakest Creature was released, Saki Kurokoma became a ''literal'' Ensemble Darkhorse. Her explosive popularity is mostly attributed to her cowboy-inspired design; the sheer absurdity of a cowgirl Touhou made people doubt she was real at first, and tons of "howdy" and "yeehaw" related memes sprung up around her. Her cowgirl design also made her [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff very popular amongst]] [[AmericansAreCowboys Americans]].

* ''YMMV/TouhouHyouibanaAntinomyOf CommonFlowers''

* TranslationTrainwreck: The English subtitles that were added to ''Antinomy of Common Flowers''' Steam release has this in spades. Not only are there a few cases of BlindIdiotTranslation, but there's also things like grammatical errors, typos, and ''tons'' of broken English. On top of that, it only translates the dialogue, leaving things like spell cards and music tracks untouched. Most fans just patch the game with the FanTranslation instead.

** Cirno. She became overwhelmingly popular, which eventually led to a large backlash of people who got sick of seeing her absolutely everywhere. Nowadays half of the fandom still loves her, while the other half wishes this overrated character would just go die in a hole somewhere.

** Sanae's newly discovered interest in youkai extermination[[note]]Where "extermination" really just amounts to ritualized playfighting[[/note]] has led to fans [[{{Flanderization}} taking it a bit far]] and giving her a sadistic streak and a fanatical zeal for it.
** Alice gets turned into a creepy loser who murders her lovers or love rivals often, for whatever reason.
** Koishi is turned into a psychotic murderer by fans who take "subconscious reading" as [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead a very bad thing.]]
** Byakuren is often either depicted as a naive loony or a genocidal murderer. Or both. Mostly from suspicion that people who try to be good aren't, and further exacerbated by [=SoPM=] and the fact that she sides with youkai against humans and dodged several questions from Miko.
** Aya being a creepy peeper and possibly molester.
** Reimu herself has been turned into something much worse in fan works than she was in the main games and print works, usually due to {{Flanderization}}.

** Calling Sakuya as "[[LightNovel/FateZero Saku]][[Manga/CardcaptorSakura ra]]" or "[[VideoGame/CorpseParty Sa]][[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica yaka]]".

** An infamous example would be ''Mountain of Faith'' as it had many changes compared to the previous game. These days it's VindicatedByHistory and considered a good game in its own right.

* TooAwesomeToUse:
** Continues. With the exception of ''Mountain of Faith'' and ''Subterrenean Animism''[[note]] which simply restart the stage you got a game over on, making these also a case of [[AwesomeButImpractical Awesome, but Impractical]][[/note]], they'll immediately bring you back with a fresh set of lives and bombs, as well as a full powerup to help you get through [[ThatOneLevel whatever]] [[{{ThatOneAttack/Touhou}} killed]] [[{{ThatOneBoss/Touhou}} you]]. And you get five of them to start, which should be plenty to get you through the game if you have at least some idea of what you're doing. Problem is, the instant you use one, you've already robbed yourself of the true ending and [[BonusDungeon Extra stage]][[note]]and in the case of ''Story of Eastern Woodland'', ''Lotus Land Story'', ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', and ''Imperishible Night'', ''[[FinalBoss the final boss]]'' [[/note]], as they require a no-continue clear. You're better off just restarting the game if you get a [[GameOver game over]].

** Calling Sakuya "Sakura" or "Sayaka".

** The gameplay of the mainline titles. They are seen as genuinely fun and a potential GatewaySeries to other BulletHell titles, or [[ItsHardSoItSucks unfun, excessively difficult exercises in masochism]], which those who believe the latter taking the EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame route or just sticking to the [[MorePopularSpinoff fighting games]].

*** Hoo boy, Cirno. Despite originating as a mere stage 2 boss, her BoisterousWeakling LargeHam status made her surprisingly popular with the fanbase, though her fame really '''exploded''' in ''Phantasmagoria of Flower View'' where ZUN himself turned her into a [[MemeticMutation memetic juggernaut]] with the infamous "⑨ - {{Baka}}" in the instruction manual. To this day, Cirno is one of the most popular minor characters in the series, continues appearing in the games semi-regularly as either a minor foe or even a playable character, and has had a spinoff title centered entirely on her.

** The nature of danmaku battles in the PC-98 games with some assuming they were lethal battles.

** Mokou's boss music, "Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke", is a reference to "the smoke that rises to the moon even to this day" of Mt. Fuji, where the Hourai Elixir was thrown into at the end of ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter''.

** The story has evolved a lot from its initial outings with the somewhat ExcusePlot of the earlier games to the somewhat more central but still largely self-contained plots starting with the Windows reboot. Then it grew again starting with ''Mountain of Faith'' where it now evolved into whole connected arcs.

* ItWasHisSled: The most likely thing you will hear about the Fortune Teller upon bringing him up is that he is KilledOffForReal by Reimu.

** The joke that Kaguya is a NEET stems from the implication that she spent hundreds of years in her mansion without leaving, despite the fact that she does so because she is a fugitive who needs to stay hidden from the envoys of the moon. Later appearances shows that Kaguya is actively looking for something new to do, often holding events and going outside to kill boredom.

* MagnificentBitch:
** Yukari is a slight heroic example. She led a youkai invasion to the Moon and let them get routed... just to teach them that greed and expansionism is bad. And then we have ''Silent Sinner In Blue''. [[spoiler:Turns out the whole invasion this time was a distraction so that Yuyuko could steal lunar treasures. Yuyuko found the treasures boring and brought back sake instead... which not only still pissed off the Lunarians who were supposed to be protecting that stuff, but also allowed Yukari to complete her true plan of making Eirin fear the Youkai when she served her the Lunar Capital sake in [[https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Cage_in_Lunatic_Runagate/Last_Chapter Cage in Lunatic Runagate]] to gave her an unsolvable mystery with ominous implications]].
** Toyosatomimi no Miko set up Buddhism to cow the population, setting herself as something of a holy saint, while actually on the side of the Buddhists' sworn enemies. Countless people died just to ensure that no one could endanger her prospect of becoming immortal. She can give [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics St. Ajora]] a run for her money. If not for Buddhists wising up and sealing away her resting place, she would have gotten away with her plan.