A truly professional fanime.
Known in full as
Touhou Niji Sousaku Doujin Anime: Musou Kakyou ~A Summer Day's Dream~, this series is a
Fanime based off of the popular
Touhou games. However, unlike most
Fanime discussed here, this one has a significant difference: it was produced by the well-known
doujin group MAIKAZE, who managed to gain a lot of notoriety with the project by roping in some
very big-name voice actresses to help out.
It's springtime in Gensokyo, and Reimu is preparing for the annual feast. But something is amiss, as she soon finds out — the Hakurei Shrine's donation box has been stolen! And it's not just there, either; the Scarlet Devil Mansion and its library have been robbed as well. With the help of Marisa and Aya, can Reimu get to the bottom of this incident before the feast is ruined?
The first episode was released at Comiket 75, on December 29th, 2008; a total of three episodes are planned, with the second episode being released at Comiket 82 on August 12th, 2012. It should be noted that the series was originally titled the
Touhou Anime Project, but was changed to its current name after ZUN, the creator of the games, expressed concern over it being mistaken for an official product.
The site for the series can be found
here
(in Japanese.).
This anime provides examples of:
- All-Star Cast: See the Touhou Wiki entry for a complete list and links to their Anime News Network articles. Notably, Aki Toyosaki (as Suika) was the least well-known member of the cast at the time the first episode was released, about four months before her breakout role as Yui in K-On!.
- This is more than likely the real reason for the delays—having to pay to use these big names probably isn't cheap as well has having having the time to do voice-work for a work like this.
- Animation Bump: Based on the trailers the second episode look much better and animate even smoother than the first episode.
- Art Evolution: From what can be seen from the trailer, there is a noticeable bump in the animation quality from episode one to episode two. Could actually justify the overly long wait for its release.
- Berserk Button: Patchy does not take kindly to getting hit in the face with one of her own books. At all.
- Blackmail: Aya does this to Marisa to get her into helping her and Reimu out, complete with pink sparkles in the background.
- Breast Expansion: Reisen now has visible boobs.
- The Cameo: Hong Meiling. Also, silhouettes of Cirno and Rumia appear in the Eye Catches.
- The 2nd episode opening also features Yukari Yakumo and Utsuho Reiuji.
- Captain Obvious: Remilia and Reimu. It's really an As You Know conversation.
Reimu: However, the number of residents who can make that happen overnight...
- Casting Gag: It's too obvious why they choose Rie Tanaka (Sakuya) for voicing a maid.
- Conspicuously Light Patch
- Cute Little Fangs: Remilia being she's a vampire. Also Suika.
- Development Hell: Where the third episode currently resides.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Aya accidentally hits Patchouli with a book, she takes it out on Reimu, who was trying to interrogate her about her missing donation box, by busting out her Royal Flare spell card. Reimu doesn't really hold back when retaliating either.
- Then there's Youmu's reaction to have her watermelon stolen. Reisen barely avoids getting skewered through the head!
- Really, this is Gensokyo. Disproportionate retribution is the name of the game here.
- Elemental Powers: Patchouli is an elementalist after all. So far we've only seen her create an earth wall and use her Sun Sign: Royal Flare spellcard, but hopefully she'll stick around for episode two and show us why she's called the One-Week Wizard.
- Freudian Slip: Sakuya at one point almost referred Meiling as "China", before correcting it.
- Gag Sub: There is a trollsub here, which has the same function as an abridged series.
- Genki Girl: Aya, almost aggressively so.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Patchy upon getting up after getting a book to the face. Uh oh...
- Heavy Sleeper: Meiling, who doesn't even wake up and notice Aya is right in front of her taking pictures.
- Hey, It's That Voice!:
- I Believe I Can Fly: It is Touhou after all. However, special mention must go to Aya. As a Tengu, she can be mistaken as a jet when seen from a distance.
- Jerkass: Reimu. She goes to the SDM in order to unfairly accuse Patchouli of stealing her donation box, and completely expects her to continue their conversation when Patchy clearly just got struck by a heavy book to the face.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall
Reimu: We already figured that out at the end of episode one.
- My Name Is Not Durwood: Tewi calls Aya "Shinbun" (Newspaper), even after being corrected.
- Mysterious Watcher: A shadow peers out of the trees at the Hakurei Shrine in episode 1 and someone is listening at Patchouli's door in episode 2. Both instances involve Marisa.
- Mythology Gag: Kaguya does this half-asleep. She's holding a Sega Saturn controller (after we just went through a conversation with Yuyuko), and she's even been playing STGs and danmaku games. Aya, however, takes this further: she has the camera charge meter from her own games as she's taking a picture!
- Names to Know in Anime: Rie Tanaka (Sakuya), Kikuko Inoue (the narrator), and Mai Nakahara (Reimu), among others.
- No Export for You: There are English subtitles, thanks in part to KirbyM. So, for all you English-speaking fans that want to support MAIKAZE and hopefully push the second and third episodes out of Development Hell... good luck with that. Almost none of the retailers who stock the first disc ship internationally.
- Off Model: There are a few instances of weird reflections and extra fingers.
- Oh Crap: Reimu gets this kind of face when she realizes that her donation box is missing.
- Poor Communication Kills: In episode 2, several important bits of information are not passed along:
- Marisa finds Patchouli's supposedly lost book, but neither of them tell Remilia, Sakuya, and Reimu, who are discussing the incident.
- Aya forgets to tell Tewi that the banquet was canceled.
- Youmu never mentions to Reisen that the watermelon Tewi gave her was actually taken from Youmu.
- Promoted Fanboy: KirbyM, better known as the creator of the popular Walfas fansite, was specifically asked to help with the official English subtitles for the DVD release.
- Puni Plush: The character design has elements of this, which looks incongruous next to the lavishly detailed backgrounds.
- Real Song Theme Tune: The opening theme is a shortened version of one of Maikaze's earlier tracks, which was part of an album they had released at the 5th Reitaisai event, 7 months before Comiket 75, when the first episode was released.
- Relationship Voice Actor: They haven't directly interacted with each other, but Marisa and Sakuya are Shinkuu and Suigintou respectively
- Scenery Porn: Even though the character animation may have some problems, the background art is outstanding.
- Shout Out: One of the books in the first shot of the Voile Library is titled Wikipedia.
- Surprisingly Good English: The English subtitles. MAIKAZE took the extra precaution of asking a native English speaker (KirbyM) to proofread the translation, and it shows.
- Technical Pacifist: It's shown here that Reisen only used her Lunatic Red Eyes as a last resort, in this case, when Youmu is more or less trying to turn her into a rabbit stew.
- Theme Tune Cameo: Suika can be heard humming the Theme Song when helping Reimu in the storehouse.
- The Thing That Goes Doink: Subverted in the Hakugyokurou scene of episode 2. Heard but never seen.
- Throw the Book at Them: Patchouli gets one in the face when Marisa and Aya start arguing (and she even goes 'mukyuu!' as she falls over.) It doesn't go over well with her, to say the least.
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