The Touhou Electric Wind Instrument
(a.k.a. Touhou EWI or even TEWI) is a series of animated videos created by artist/musician WINN where each video features one or more of the protagonists from the Touhou Project games playing a character or stage theme on the titular Electric Wind Instrument. Many of the videos also feature a battle or event to coincide with the theme being played.
Oh, and the featured character(s) in every video wear(s) a School Swimsuit and/or School Sport Uniform at some point.
Videos in the Series
Listed as "Song Name," Game Name - Video Star
- 1. "Native Faith," Mountain of Faith - Suwako Moriya
- 2. "Faith is for the Transient People," Mountain of Faith - Sanae Kochiya
- 3. "The Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain," Mountain of Faith - Aya Shameimaru
- 4. "Higan Retour ~ Riverside View," Phantasmagoria of Flower View - Komachi Onozuka
- 5. "Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple," Perfect Cherry Blossom - Youmu Konpaku
- 6. "U.N. Owen Was Her?," Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Flandre Scarlet
- 7. "Reach for the Moon. Immortal Smoke," Imperishable Night - Fujiwara no Mokou
- 8. "Voyage 1969," Imperishable Night - Eirin Yagokoro
- EX. "Necrofantasia," Perfect Cherry Blossom - Yukari Yakumo and collaborator Tanukimono
- ⑨. "Beloved Tomboyish Daughter," Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Cirno
- 10. "Septette for the Dead Princess," Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Remilia Scarlet
- 11. "Deaf to All But the Song," Imperishable Night - Mystia Lorelei
- 12. "Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's 'Kappa' ~ Candid Friend," - Mountain of Faith - Nitori Kawashiro
- 13. "Dark Side of Fate," Mountain of Faith - Hina Kagiyama
- 14. "The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field," Mountain of Faith - Kanako Yasaka
- 15. "Green-eyed Jealousy," Subterranean Animism - Parsee Mizuhashi
- 16. "Plain Asia," Imperishable Night - Keine Kamishirasawa
- 17. "A Flower-Studded Sake Dish on Mt. Ooe," Subterranean Animism - Yuugi Hoshiguma
- 18. "Reincarnation," Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream - Mima
- EX 2. "Vanishing Dream ~ Lost Dream," Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream - Kana Anaberal
- "Satori Maiden ~ 3rd Eye," Subterranean Animism - Satori and Koishi Komeiji
- 19. "Legendary Fish," Scarlet Weather Rhapsody - Iku Nagae
- 20. "Demystify Feast," Immaterial and Missing Power - Yukari Yakumo
- 21. "Innocent Treasures" (ZUN's theme) - Maribel Hearn and Renko Usami
- 22. "Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall," Mountain of Faith - Momiji Inubashiri
- 23. "Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind," Undefined Fantastic Object - Byakuren Hijiri
- 24. "Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect," Imperishable Night - Wriggle Nightbug
- 25. "Swordsman of a Distant Star," Highly Responsive to Prayers - Konngara
- 26. "Alice Maestra," Lotus Land Story - Reimu Hakurei (PC-98 version)
- 27. "Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome Kagome," Imperishable Night - Tewi Inaba
- 28. "Lullaby of Deserted Hell," Subterranean Animism - Rin Kaenbyou
- 29. "Legendary Illusion ~ Infinite Being," Mystic Square - Shinki
- 30. "Shoutoku Legend ~ True Administrator," Ten Desires - Toyosatomimi no Miko
- 31. "Kobito of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess," Double Dealing Character - Shinmyoumaru Sukuna
- 32. "Bamboo Forest of the Full Moon," Double Dealing Character - Kagerou Imaizumi
- 33. "Pure Furies ~ Whereabouts of the Heart," Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom - Junko
- 34. "Pandemonic Planet," Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom - Hecatia Lapislazuli
- 35. "Tonight Stars an Easygoing Egoist(Live ver.) ~ Egoistic Flowers," Antinomy of Common Flowers - Jo'on and Shion Yorigami
- 36. "Alice in Wonderland," Mystic Square - Alice [Margatroid] (PC-98, then Perfect Cherry Blossom versions)
- 37. "Entrusting this World to Idols ~ Idolatrize World," Wily Beast and Weakest Creature - Keiki Haniyasushin
- 38. "Complete Darkness," Story of Eastern Wonderland - Mima
- 39. "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now? ~ Immemorial Marketeers," Unconnected Marketeers - Chimata Tenkyuu
- 40. "At the End of Spring," Undefined Fantastic Object - Nazrin
These appear in this YouTube playlist but not the NicoVideo list, and show video of the musician(s) playing instrument(s) instead of character animations.
- "Flight of the Bamboo Cutter ~ Lunatic Princess," Perfect Cherry Blossom - Houraisan Kaguya
- "Last Remote," Subterranean Animism - Extra Stage Theme
- "Ghostly Band ~ Phantom Ensemble," Perfect Cherry Blossom - Lunasa, Lyrica, and Merlin Prismriver
- "Because Princess Inada Is Scolding Me," Mountain of Faith - Minoriko Aki
- "Bloom Nobly, Ink-Black Cherry Blossoms ~ Border of Life," Perfect Cherry Blossom - Yuyuko Saigyouji
- "Love-Colored Master Spark," Imperishable Night - Marisa Kirisame
This Video Series Provides Examples Of The Following:
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Many of the battle sequences showcase danmaku battles and patterns as wonderfully as the original games do.
- Art Evolution: The first couple videos used a rather crude and simple art style, which was Super-Deformed and used Thick-Line Animation, but it became progressively better and more beautiful and elaborate later on.
- Ascended Meme: Several popular Touhou memes made their way into the videos:
- The name tag on Youmu's swimsuit in "Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple" reads "Myon" instead of her actual name.
- The "MAlice Cannon" glitch from Imperishable Night is used to defeat Mystia in her video.
- Yuugi balances her sake dish on her EWI and her "sake not even drop."
- Byakuren earned Nazrin's trust by dangling a piece of cheese on a fish hook in front of her, referencing a flash game in which Nazrin slowly succumbs to the temptation to bite at the cheese.
- Yuyuko advances on Mystia, but is quickly defeated by the "Wriggle Kick!" from Imperishable Night.
- Author Appeal: The School Swimsuit and School Sport Uniform: The main character is almost always in the swimsuit while an antagonist or ally will likely be wearing the gym shirt and buruma. Yuugi is the main exception.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: "Bamboo Forest of the Full Moon" has a bit of negative continuity for the sake of this as Kagerou is wearing her long sleeves to cover how hairy she gets during the full moon but, once she sheds her dress for the video's swimsuit appearance, her extra hair is gone.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Yuyuko is often a source of comedy or part of a Funny Background Event but, in "Demystify Feast," she has a legitimately dangerous and terrifying presence courtesy of curbstomping both Sakuya and Patchouli combined.
- Big Damn Hero:
- Remilia saving Sakuya and Patchouli from Yuyuko's attack during "Demystify Feast."
- Yuuka lending Mima a hand during the latter's battle with Shinki.
- Tewi uses some sharks in a Flash Back during her video to cross a river, but spites them after their help, making the sharks really angry. Then Ookuninushi from the folk tale "The White Hare of Inaba" Explanation shows up to save her.
- Both Reimu and Marisa arrive to help Youmu in her battle against Keiki.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: What Satori and Koishi were doing in the talent show before Yuugi's performance.
- Bound and Gagged: Byakuren during her time sealed in Hokkai as depicted by her video.
- The Cameo:
- Tanukimono in "Necrofantasia" as Yukari spirits him away to Gensokyo for a while.
- Mike has a brief appearance at the end of "Complete Darkness."
- Call-Back: Marisa drawing a card from Mike in "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now? ~ Immemorial Marketeers" is the same shot at the end of "Complete Darkness."
- The Cavalry: Aya arrives to assist Mystia when the latter is having trouble against Marisa.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Mayumi appears for a second as one of the riders in Keiki's Haniwa "Horse-and-Rider Idol Sculpting Art" spell card, then saves Keiki from the combined onslaught from the heroines.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Ookuninushi from "The White Hare of Inaba" saves Tewi just as she's about to be eaten by a shark. He also was the one who gave her a pink School Swimsuit.
- Cliffhanger: Shinki's video ends with the battle against her at her final phase from the game rather than establishing a clear victor.
- Clothing Damage: More often than not, if the main character doesn't start off in her School Swimsuit, her clothes will get ripped apart and leave her in one. The most notable example is in "Alice Maestra" as the numerous boss battles up to that point have caused Reimu to lose her miko robes.
- Continuity Nod: As Yukari is taking Tanukimono around Gensokyo during "Necrofantasia," they pass by several characters and see the aftermaths of the events from earlier videos.
- Defeat Means Friendship:
- "Deaf to All But the Song" ends with everyone in the video getting together for a round of drinks at Mystia's food stand.
- Subverted in "Kobito of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess." Reimu takes Shinmyoumaru home and keeps her tied up in a bug cage to keep her out of trouble.
- After defeating Alice in "Alice in Wonderland," Marisa was so impressed by the magic Alice used that she wants to learn more about it.
- Disney Villain Death: Parodied in "Kobito of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess" when Shinmyoumaru is defeated as the camera lingers on her reverting to normal size, falling out of her kimono, and the action slows down for a few seconds. Her expression also implies a Big "NO!".
- Dwindling Party: In "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now? ~ Immemorial Marketeers," all four heroines take on Chimata at once but Sakuya, Sanae, and Marisa all fall, leaving only Reimu left.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The early videos have the girls in a more super-deformed style.
- Fanservice: Usually seen at the start or end of a video.
- Follow the Leader: In-Universe. Shinmyoumaru's video begins with her watching Miko's video and wanting to make one herself, but the EWI is too big. Fortunately, Seija has a solution.
- Funny Background Event:
- Marisa flying by during "Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple" and Youmu's ghost half shooting her down.
- Reimu shooting at the Aki sisters and Marisa at Hina during "Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's 'Kappa' ~ Candid Friend."
- Watching Yuugi bounce along to the beat when she's not actively playing during Konngara's solo in "Swordsman of a Distant Star."
- Head-Turning Beauty: Junko at the end of "Pure Furies ~ Whereabouts of the Heart."
- Heroic Second Wind: Sakuya during her battle with Kagerou in "Bamboo Forest of the Full Moon."
- Human Pincushion: Yuyuko is reduced to this, courtesy of Sakuya, in "Demystify Feast." She is otherwise unaffected, since she's, y'know, already dead.
- Instant Expert:
- Youmu starts by referencing a how-to book on playing the EWI and surprises herself with a few sustained notes. Within moments, she's playing her original stage theme and ends up in concert with the Prismriver sisters.
- Cirno is bonked on the head by a stray EWI, picks it up, and is immediately able to play her own theme after a few test notes. Fans have noted that it takes her approximately nine seconds to start playing her song.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Parsee doesn't want to play with Kisume and Yamame when they invite her, but quickly fights for them after finding them defeated by Reimu.
- Late to the Party: Played for Laughs both times.
- In "Demystify Feast," Meiling wakes up to realize she overslept and missed the events of the battles in the video.
- In Byakuren's, Kogasa leaps out from behind Myouren's grave to surprise Byakuren long after Byakuren had already left.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Sakuya is the first one to get shot down when the heroines are fighting Chimata in "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now? ~ Immemorial Marketeers" courtesy of her rushing in close and ending up where the danmaku is the most dense.
- Let's Get Dangerous!:
- Yukari's expression in Eirin's video changes from looking like she's asleep while flying to this.
- Jo'on does this when she hands the EWI over to Shion so the former can fight Yukari seriously during "Tonight Stars an Easygoing Egoist(Live ver.) ~ Egoistic Flowers."
- Long List: A visual version in "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now? ~ Immemorial Marketeers" that showcases all of the cards the heroines use with a montage of all of the respective characters depicted (and in school swimsuits, of course).
- Mutual Kill: "Pandemonic Planet" ends with Reisen getting hit by the last of Hecatia and Junko's bullets right as she defeats them.
- Not So Stoic: Kanako loses her composure the moment she realizes that her attempt to defeat Suwako's new rings fails and she starts taking hits.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Komachi at the end of her video as she realizes Shikieiki's stick is swinging down on her.
- Sakuya when she sees that Meiling had brought Flandre out of the basement in "Septette for the Dead Princess."
- Utsuho when she almost pulls Satori's changing curtain back too early.
- Sakuya, after Yuyuko tanks a knife barrage, turns to her, and smiles.
- Parsee after Reimu uses Yukari's gap to teleport, then realizes "She's Right Behind Me!"
- Both Reimu and Marisa when Yuuka's Double Spark knocks both of them out as their battle was interrupting her sleep.
- Mima during her battle with Shinki and the latter unleashes more and more shots at her.
- Reimu during her battle with Sukuna and the latter uses her hammer to make Reimu grow larger, almost to the point of a Wardrobe Malfunction.
- Youmu during her battle with Keiki when the latter starts unleashing her laser grid.
- Reimu when she sees Mima transform in "Complete Darkness" and just barely gets a barrier up in time to deflect her initial barrage.
- Nazrin after Sanae unleashes a counter death-bomb on her in "At the End of Spring," causing her to become comically charred.
- One-Winged Angel: After Marisa is defeated in "Complete Darkness," Mima transforms into her later design before going on the offensive.
- Recursive Canon: Sukuna's video "Kobito of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess" starts with Sukuna watching Miko's video "Shoutoku Legend ~ True Administrator" on Nico Nico Douga, which inspires her to try playing an EWI too.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning:
- The first thing that Parsee sees when she encounters Reimu in "Green-eyed Jealousy."
- Shinki does this a few times during phase transitions in "Legendary Illusion ~ Infinite Being" and, at the start of the final phase, Mima returns the favor!
- Nazrin after "At the End of Spring" when she's searching for the pagoda and her dousing rods pick up that Seiran is carrying it. Nazrin turns to face the camera and her eyes flash red.
- School Sport Uniform: While the protagonist(s) will almost always be wearing a School Swimsuit, the antagonist(s) frequently will be in a School Sport Uniform as contrast.
- School Swimsuit: Each protagonist wears one at some point during her video, either from the start or later. Subverted by Yuugi, who wears a School Sport Uniform instead, then double-subverted in Konngara's video, where she wears the School Sport Uniform shirt over a School Swimsuit.
- Shout-Out:
- During Iku's, she collects several Gradius power-ups while shooting enemies down.
- When Marisa is taking aim at Reimu during "Alice Maestra," a Mass Effect-style targeting screen appears.
- During Rin's, she passes by several characters who died during their original works including Nei, Aerith Gainsborough, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and more.
- "Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall" starts with a picture of Momiji from below, while she's wearing a Striker Unit.
- "Cinderella Cage ~ Kagome Kagome" has Tewi do what seems to be Ranka Lee's "Kira Pose". It isn't however; it's actually a reference to the Visual Novel series Jiburiru the Devil Angel Note.
- At the start of "Kobito of the Shining Needle ~ Little Princess," the Miracle Mallet is on top of a stand that the Golden Hammer appears on in Super Smash Bros. games.
- Smug Snake: During the flashback sequence in "The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field," Kanako's expression showcases she knows she's already won in her original duel with Suwako, even before destroying her iron rings.
- So Last Season: In Kanako's, Suwako readies her iron rings to throw at Kanako, prompting a flashback to Kanako defeating Suwako by causing her rings to rust. Back in the present, Kanako tries to make them rust again, only to reveal they're now made of stainless steel and break through Kanako's attack, allowing Suwako to win the rematch.
- Tear Jerker: In-Universe. The Myouren group's collective recollections over their meetings with Byakuren and the kindness she showed them drive each (except Nazrin) to a single tear. Byakuren herself gets teary-eyed over their loyalty.
- Took a Level in Badass: When Reisen fights Junko in "Pure Furies ~ Whereabouts of the Heart," she appears very uncertain of herself and spends far more time dodging before firing back. When she fights Hecatia in "Pandemonic Planet," she's far more confident, begins firing back much earlier, and her reactions to the danmaku barrage are less Oh, Crap! and more "I saw that coming a mile away."
- Undying Loyalty: Byakuren's crew are all youkai to whom she showed great kindness in the past, which made them swear by this trope, and in her video we get to see what she did for them. Byakuren is then shown to be moved to tears by this.
- Unwilling Suspension: Alice at the end of "Alice in Wonderland" is tied up and suspended from the ceiling, much like how she is in Marisa's Extra ending in Mystic Square.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Reisen's facial expression combines this with a Flat "What" when she sees Junko arrive to assist Hecatia in "Pandemonic Planet."
