Web Video / Koishi Komeiji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure

Her hat is her friend, and it helps her relax. <3

"THIS ALL HAPPENED BECAUSE OF A FISHING ROD."

— A YouTube Commenter

Koishi Komeiji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure (or "Komeiji Koishi No Dokidoki Daibouken" in Japanese) is a 2009 Web Original series of videos made by Nico Nico Douga user Sentaku-sen, telling a harrowing, violent and badly-drawn story about Koishi Komeiji attempting to acquire a fishing rod. Set in Gensokyo (albeit with the 'crazy' throttle stuck on full), it's notable for portraying a number of Touhou Project characters as substantially more mentally unhinged than they are in Canon. As far as Touhou Project fan-fiction goes, it's at the very extreme end of Darker and Edgier as well as Bloodier and Gorier reinterpretations of Gensokyo. It is well-known in Japanese Touhou fandom for its Crapsaccharine World depiction of Gensokyou where everyone is Driven to Madness.

Can be seen here.

You can begin watching the series (if you dare...) in English here.

---

This show provides examples of

• A Million Is a Statistic: A pretty heart-wrenching subversion, given the fact that so many named Touhou characters die, especially later on when we get a tally the number of Gensokyo denizens who had turned into Kaiju after the destruction of the Great Hakurei Barrier and a countdown of every one that gets slaughtered by the Lunarians until the number became 0. This beyond horrible deed obviously is not taken lightly by anyone, even one of the culprits had a moment of thought whether this matter could've been solved with less violence.
• Adaptational Badass / Adaptational Wimp: A lot of characters have differing power levels than they do in canon Touhou.
  • Koishi is capable of holding her own against Flandre and even defeating her, whereas if episode 3 stayed truer to canon their confrontation would have had Flandre use her destruction powers to kill Koishi almost immediately.
  • While Koakuma is a meek and easily flustered devil in canon, here she's one of the strongest non-Lunarian characters in the setting and has the ability to absorb the powers of Gensokyo residents who die.
  • Reisen II manages to kill Yukari. Granted, it was only after she lured Yukari into a trap and used some very underhanded and cruel tactics, but she still manages to take out one of the strongest yokai in Gensokyo despite being a relatively weak character in canon.
  • While the Lunar Capital was already home to a lot of strong characters in canon, here the Lunarians are by far and away the strongest faction in the setting, having among other things an entire army of Budda statue Humongous Mechas.
  • Whereas Junko's plan to destroy the Lunar Capital nearly succeeded in canon, here she's defeated by the Lunarians the moment she tries it.
• Adaptational Villainy: While a lot of characters are driven mad by the Hate Plague, the ones who truly qualify are Koakuma, just about everyone from the Lunar Capital, and Koishi herself, as all of them act out of their own free will, though Koishi at least was driven mad deliberately by the Watatsuki sisters. It's also implied Nue may have not been infected and instead willfully decided to take part in Byakuren's raid on the youkai village.
• Alien Invasion:
  • Well, a Youkai Invasion lead by Byakuren, but with the prerequisite UFOs.
  • In the finale, Watatsuki no Toyohime informs the world that the peace will be broken by an alien invasion. The aliens in question being the residents of Gensokyo, transformed into savage monsters by the effects of the moon.
• Anyone Can Die: Gensokyo has a lot of named characters and most of them end up dying over the course of the series, to the point where it's easier to list the few residents who survive, that being Yukari, Patchouli, Koakuma and Koishi... As well Renko and Maribel too, but even then that's debatable.
• Appendage Assimilation: Koishi to Yukari...almost wholesale.
• Art Evolution: The drawing improves with each episode, going from the very rough style of the first episodes, to a much more smoother style by the time of episode 7. Episodes 11, 12 and the first part of 13 are in Deliberately Monochrome, with the occasional Splash of Color.
• Artifact Title: It may be called Koishi Komeiji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure, but as the series goes on it becomes far more focused around the madness gripping Gensokyo and various characters getting consumed by it or trying to put a stop to it, with Koishi herself spending most of it on the sidelines.
• Attempted Rape: Some delinquents attempted to violate Sanae as shown in the flashback to her school years in Part 7.
• Back from the Dead: Koishi in Part 9. Comes back at first as some kind of spider-like tentacle creature, which then proceeds to assimilate part of Yukari's corpse, including her head.
• Bad Boss: The Watatsuki sisters toward Satori. Even though she's nominally on their side they treat her with disdain.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Koakuma, Toyohime and Lord Tsukuyomi completely succeed in conducting the Moonlight Descent Ceremony, with Gensokyo destroyed everyone in the outside world turned into satoris, the Moon and Earth reawakened and reunited, and Patchouli captured and Koakuma able to do with her as she pleases. And as of the Time Skip in episode 19/8, their victory has stuck.
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: Prior to the beginning of the series, the Lunarians invaded the outside world and abolished all war while uplifting humanity into peace and prosperity, though they only did this as one step towards the Moonlight Descent Ceremony.
• Berserk Button: Do NOT mess with Koishi's hat.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Aside from those already driven crazy, Kogasa goes from cute, assuming youkai, to saving herself from Sanae's Cold-Blooded Torture via umbrella impalement, all while crucified. It's clearly desperate self-defense rather than Unstoppable Rage, but the way she gives her trademark tongue expression and chants 'Urameshiya' beforehand should remind you that Kogasa's job is scaring people, so it isn't a surprise if she does her trademark thing.
• Big Bad: Koakuma is revealed to be the reason why everyone in Gensokyo is going bat-shit crazy. Except not exactly.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: It appears that Koakuma and Reisen II are working together. It turns out later that Koakuma and Reisen II are acting on behalf of the Watatsuki sisters, the actual Duumvirate.
• Big Bad Ensemble: You've got Mokou rampaging in the Human Village, Sanae hunting innocent youkai, Byakuren leading an invasion to kill all the humans and Koakuma and Reisen II also up to something mysterious. The series also hints at someone from the moon behind the latter's involvement, later revealed to be the Watatsuki sisters who are also the masterminds behind the whole plot.
• Big Damn Heroes: Marisa and Alice show up in the nick of time to prevent Nitori from being burned at the stake by a turned crazy Hina.
  • Reisen coming out of nowhere to render Reisen II unconscious before the latter can shoot Reimu.
  • Kanako also performed this awesomely for Sanae to prevent an imminent rape by her bullies.
  • In episode 12, Marisa and Alice again saving the Human Village from Mokou's rampage, then later Mamizou saving in extremis Alice from Nue while Miko and her group saves Marisa from Byakuren's fleet.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Koakuma poses as Patchouli's shy and meek assistant. In reality, she's a homicidal psychopath who doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself and Patchouli, manipulating everyone—including Patchouli—in order to bring her plan into fruition.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Much more so than the Touhou games, which barely feature any serious injuries.
  • To put this in perspective, the first real fight in the series is when Meiling prevents Koishi from entering the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She gets the entire front of her neck torn out so that the spine is visible.
  • Sanae captures and tortures Kogasa, before getting killed herself by impalement via the latter's umbrella.
  • Mokou destroys the human village, and kills everyone in it.
  • Star Sapphire literally pulps the other two fairies with a chainsaw.
  • Tewi breaks Reisen's legs with a mochi-pounding mallet.
  • Satori decapitates Rin with her bare hands...while being carried to safety.
  • Reisen II kills Yukari by detonating a bomb implanted inside Ran's stomach, then emptying her rifle ammo on her, then by detonating another bomb implanted inside Chen's stomach.
  • In the flashback scenes, a mother drowned her own baby just because it annoyed her the hell out of her, then the baby got possessed by Koishi and then killed (and possesed) said mother, and then using her as a meat puppet, she killed random people just for the funsies, and then she got roadkilled by a truck (riven by a moon rabbit) but that didn't stop koishi to continue her killing spree...
  • Visually every Kaiju vs their anti-kaiju vijokas can count too
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Calling Koishi outright evil is a stretch, but she's definitely not playing by anyone else's sense of morality. She apparently gets better after assimilating Yukari's head.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Sanae. She gets viciously bullied, beaten up, almost raped, her house is burnt down and her parents are killed.
  • The induced madness aside, Flan gets this in spades. Torn apart by Koishi, felt even more abandoned than before by Remilia, and then given "Break Them by Talking" lectures by Koakuma to further break her spirit...along with a rainstorm INDOORS to weaken her further.
• Canon Marches On: When the series first started, Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object hadn't even been fully released yet. It would be a lot harder for the events of the series to take place given all the powerful residents Gensokyo gains from Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom who could have easily stepped in and shut the conflict down.
• Canon Welding: The first episode came out before even Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object was fully released, with later episodes weaving in characters introduced in the newer games.
  • Episode 8 sees Byakuren and her Myouren Temple followers making their debut in the series.
  • In episode 12, the Mausoleum crew from Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires show up to help defend a human village from Byakuren's youkai army.
  • Part 3 of the finale features Wakasagihime from Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character in a cameo as one of the Gensokyo residents seen being turned into kaiju.
  • The finale features the new Lunarian characters introduced in Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom as part of the Lunar Capital's military. Also making a brief cameo is Junko, who is shown having been defeated by the Lunarians with their Vijoka.
  • Hata no Kokoro of Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade makes a brief appearance in Koishi's flashback in part 8 of the finale. As well in part 3 of the finale as one of the characters who succumbed to the lunacy too.
• Cerebus Retcon: Koishi has little reason for acting so much more unhinged and crazy than her canon stuff in the first two episodes other than for shock value. Later episodes implicitly reveal that Koishi's craziness is part of the the Lunarians' plan to drive everyone in Gensokyo mad.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The series starts off a simple Black Comedy where Koishi is much crazier than usual, but by episode 3 a more intricate plot with serious undertones starts to set in.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Koishi. In a very disturbing kind of way.
• Combat Tentacles: Koishi and Satori both have the tentacles sprouting from their third eyes and use them to great effect.
• Cosmic Horror Reveal: The"Moonlight Descent Ceremony" turns out to be the Lunarians following the will of the Moon itself, which is actually a satori-like Eldritch Abomination that fell in love with the Earth (a fellow Eldritch Abomination) but was separated from him in the best when he developed life.
• Crack Fic: Starts off as one, being a Dark Fic with (intentionally?) terrible art and a bucketload of OO Cness. Eventually, the plot shows up and it loses that classification.
• Crapsaccharine World: The introductions up until Part 7 or so hammer this home hard. The early ones recap the previous part with crayon drawings, implied to be by Koishi herself.
• Cruel and Unusual Death : Happens a lot of times. Being one of the darkest Touhou fanworks, this is to be expected.
• Cruel Mercy: Satori gets kept alive by Toyohime, but only so Toyohime can force her to watch the carnage that ensues from the Moonlight Descent Plan being put in action.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Koishi (EX-boss) versus Meiling (3rd Stage Boss). Meiling survives, though.
  • Another example would be Part 8, where Koishi fights Yukari Yakumo. It doesn't end well for Koishi.
  • Kaiju Reimu and Marisa against Yorihime. It ends with them dead.
  • Medicine Melancholy vs. Yuuka Kazami, we only see the aftermath of the fight, with a limbless Medicine desperately trying to crawl away. Turns out Yuuka is trying to save Medicine from something else that took her limbs. Whatever it is, 10 episodes later and Yuuka's still fighting it.
  • Reisen vs. Reisen II. Sedation tends to do that.
  • Every Anti-[Insert type]-Kaiju Combat Vijoka against their correct opponents, as the Vijoka are each specially outfitted to deal with a specific kind of kaiju.
• Cute and Psycho: EVERYONE... Well, not everyone, but definitely the vast majority.
• Darker and Edgier: Ah-yup. If you wanted to see various Touhou characters get maimed as Gensokyo descends into rioting and madness, and where the villains repeatedly succeed in their goals despite how cruel they are, then this is the story for you.
• Darkest Hour: The night of October 4th. Everyone in Gensokyo except Koishi Yakumo becomes driven with madness and become a giant, monstrous version of themselves. And then, Flandre breaks the Hakurei Barrier.
• Dark Messiah: Byakuren, who is depicted as a mix between a savior-like figure and a fascistic demagogue rallying the youkai to cleanse Gensokyo of humanity.
• Death Equals Redemption: Sanae remembers in her dying moments why she came to Gensokyo in the first place and realizes what kind of monster she had become.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Koakuma is completely beneath anyone's suspicion in the SDM (save Flan), and Satori accusing her of dark planning gets her blasted out of the mansion by Remi and Patchy.
• Dramatic Irony: A rather heart-wrenching example in part 4 of the finale, where human spectators cheer on Suika's death, even though she was one of the youkai who genuinely liked humans, and root for Toyohime and the Lunarians, who unbeknownst to them are the masterminds behind the Gensokyo kaijus attacking.
• Driven to Madness: The driving plot of the whole thing: SOMEONE is trying to drive all of Gensokyo crazy...and doing a damn fine job too. It's revealed to be the doing of the Watatsuki sisters, with the help of Koakuma and Satori (albeit begrudgingly for the latter).
  • In episode 19 part 3, they succeeded.
• Dying as Yourself:
  • Sanae regains her sanity just before she dies.
  • Also, the Kaiju versions of Suika, Flandre, Marisa and Reimu all regain themselves just before they die.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Reimu and Marisa manage to kill Yorihime just before dying themselves.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Scarlet Devil Mansion seems to be one, with Flandre emotionally stunted due to having been stuck in the basement for so long, Remilia unsure of how to manage her sister other than pushing her aside and Koakuma harboring perverted thoughts about Patchouli.
• Empty Shell: Patchouli, after the Hakurei Barrier is destroyed and is abducted by Koakuma. She feels regret upon realizing her blind trust on Koakuma doomed Gensokyo and helpless to do anything as Koakuma's captive.
• Evil Plan: Everything Koakuma and Reisen II do is for the sake of something called the "Moonlight Descent Ceremony".
• Evilutionary Biologist: One effect of the Moonlight Descent Plan is the forceful transformation of everyone on Earth into satori creatures, as the Lunarians consider them to be more to their liking.
• Exact Words: The Moonlight Descent plan. The Lunarians needed the Moonlight Descent Ceremony to purify the Earth in order to reunite the Moon and the Earth, the two being Star-Crossed Lovers that had been separated in the past due to Earth becoming tainted.
• Extremely Short Timespan: The duration of this whole incident (save for some flashbacks and the epilogue) take the duration of 2 whole days. Koishi's plan of getting a fishing road, the attack of the lunarians and the destruction of the Hakurei Barrier take place in October 4th, and the Space Kaiju's Invasion and extintion, as well the union of the Moon and the Earth take place in October 5th. And everything in between the two days when it comes to other stuff.
• Fan Sequel: Due to the series not having updated in years and there being no indication as to when the final part will release, there exists several fanfiction series like this one that continues the story.
• Femme Fatalons: Koishi has hands with very long, claw-like fingers. Their exact length tends to change, though.
• Fingore: When Koishi gets locked up in a room, she tries to literally claw at the door until all her nails are BARELY attached to her fingers. Then when the story comes back to her again, we find that all her nails have fallen off. Squicky indeed.
• Freudian Excuse: Episode 7 is one long one of these for Sanae, showing she was severely bullied while in school.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Early part of episode 2 shows Koishi tearing apart a grasshopper alive happily. This is a clear warning toward the audiences about how disturbing this story will go.
  • The opening of Episode 5 shows all the characters with severed heads, but Patchouli is the only one who has a normal appearance and she has her head. This foreshadows about how Koakuma sees everyone, caring little about everyone but Patchouli.
• Gambit Pileup: The plot is starting to look a little something like this. The players so far are the Watatsuki sisters, the masterminds behind everything, Satori who's forced to work for the sisters and desperately tries to double-cross them, and the remaining sane people of Gensokyo trying to understand what the hell is happening and stop it. There's also Lord Tsukuyomi and the rest of the moon, who are the ones really behind the Moonlight Descent Plan the Watatsuki sisters are carrying out, and the Moon itself, whose will the Lunarians are all following.
• Genre Shift: The first episodes were about Koishi being way more insane than usual and being very violent towards, or outright trying to kill, other Touhou characters. The series then shifts into Mind Screw territory when it becomes apparent that there are several master minds plotting against each other and Koishi is simply in the middle of all of it... and then the story shifts again by having Gensokyo fall to a Hate Plague, which drives everyone to insanity, the Hakurei Border gets destroyed by Flandre and now humanity has to deal with almost 30,000 Touhou Kaiju monsters.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Two of them. The first is Lord Tsukuyomi, ruler of the Moon, who devised the Moonlight Descent Plan in the first place and tasked the Watatsuki sisters with carrying it out. Then, behind him, is an even greater villain in the form of the Moon, who Lord Tsukuyomi sought to reawaken with the Moonlight Descent Plan.
• Hate Plague: Something is driving Gensokyo's residents to act crazy.
• Heart of Happiness: Say It with Hearts occurs a lot when Koishi's happy. Not only in her own speech, but on the screen itself..and said hearts might have eyes in them too.
• Hidden Villain: Played with. With how widespread the madness is and how many different people there are turning mad at once, Reimu finds it almost hard to believe there could be a mastermind behind an incident that big. At this point however, Koakuma has been implicitly revealed as said mastermind, and then it turns out she's just one of multiple conspirators.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Koakuma abducts Patchouli before the Hakurei Barrier and Gensokyo are destroyed.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • Yuyuko's Big Eater tendencies are heavily exasperated by the Hate Plague, resulting in her eating Youmu alive.
  • The youkai led by the Myouren Temple crew (with the exception of Shou and Nazrin, who refuse to go along with Byakuren's uprising) eat many of the humans they kill.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • How Sanae dies. By an umbrella, no less.
  • Also, Flandre Scarlet, courtesy of Koishi's... eye... tentacle... thing. and later down by Yorihime's blade... al beit, offscreen though.
• In-Joke: The "fishing rod" is becoming this with people with knowledge of the series advising others to "carry a fishing rod" just in case.
• Innocently Insensitive: In Episode 19/8, Koishi makes an offhanded comment about how she's sorry that the cattle that had to die, but it was worth it for the sake of a delicious dinner. Earlier, all of Gensokyo had to die for the sake of the Lunarians's Moonlight Descent Ceremony and Yukari notices that Koishi is implying the same thing. She doesn't take it well.
• Invincible Villain: The Lunarians and Koakuma. Their entire Evil Plan goes off without a hitch, they destroy Gensokyo, get the whole of humanity to willingly submit themselves to their guidance and completely succeed in everything they set out to do, with their victory being shown to have stuck after a seven year Time Skip. The only Lunarian to technically not be this is Yorihime, and even then it's telling that it takes the Dragon God, likely the most powerful deity in Gensokyo, to do any sort of damage to her.
• Kaiju: After the Hate Plague consumes the inhabitants of Gensokyo and the Hakurei Border gets destroyed, humanity (aided by the Lunarians) has to deal with almost 30,000 "space monsters" who are the former Gensokyo inhabitants, giant-sized and utterly mad with rage.
• Killed Offscreen: Iku Nagae, presumably by Tenshi who put her out of her misery. Koakuma also mentions Sanae killed Mystia during her "youkai extermination".
• Last of Their Kind: Satori and Koishi are the last satoris in existence. Except not, the Watatsuki sisters are also revealed to have become satoris.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: There has been many fanarts depicting the most important twists of the story including Koakuma turning out to be evil, Koishi's supposed death and her double resurrection-fusion with Yukari who also supposedly died, and Reisen's seemingly Not Too Dead to Save the Day. Fanarts depicting the Watatsuki sisters alongside Koakuma and Reisen II have also started to appear, revealing their heavy involvement in the events of the story.
• Lunacy: The Hate Plague driving Gensokyo's residents crazy turns out to come from the Moon and be the result of the Lunarians intentionally manipulating the Moon's rays in order to make everyone in Gensokyo go mad.
• Made of Iron: Koishi and Satori can withstand absurd amounts of punishment, even by youkai standards, whose constitution is far stronger than humans. Justified in that it wasn't their true body that was damaged.
• Mercy Kill: A tired and emotionally distressed Satori does this to Orin.
  • Iku presumably got one from Tenshi.
• Mind Screw: It's not clear which parts of the events depicted between Daiyousei and Cirno the night the mass-insanity began are real or a product of them being affected by the madness plague. It's later revealed that it did happen, but their memories were wiped afterwards.
• Mind Screwdriver: The first part of episode 11 explains a lot of the previous events, give us a Team Shot revealing who hasn't gone crazy and are fighting to resolve the incident, and gives concrete hints about the responsible behind the Hate Plague.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: The drawing style resembles this and Episode 5 opens up with one of these.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: After apparently being killed off by Tewi (Having her legs smashed apart by a mochi mallet), Reisen comes out of nowhere, completely intact, and saves Reimu's head from being blown by Reisen II's moon rifle by using Instant Sedation on Reisen II. It's implied later in Part 19 [2/9], where we see Tewi holding a straw doll with broken legs and a mochi mallet, that what we saw in part 8 is Tewi smashing that doll's legs, while the actual Reisen is somewhere out there, on her way to save Reimu or something.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Yuuka curb-stomping Medicine Melancholy. Turns out it was one of those "Yuuka is misunderstood" moments, as it was actually her protecting Medicine from something offscreen.
  • Marisa and Alice defeating Mokou.
• Off with Her Head!:
  • Shou and Nazrin's fate for betraying Byakuren, with their headless bodies tied into a pole.
  • Kaiju-Suika's fate, with her severed head impaled into a tower.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Hina has this moment when she notices one of Alice's explosive dolls just next to her about to explode.
  • Later, Yukari has one just before Ran, who was turned into a human bomb, explodes right in front of her.
• Ominous Floating Spaceship: The Lunarians' Vijoka, which take the form of huge, Buddha-shaped spaceships.
• Orphaned Series: Was this for quite some time, with Sentaku-bune dropping off the Internet in 2018 and no new episodes being released since part 8/9 of the Grand Finale in 2016. In January 2024 however, Sentaku would announce his return to the Internet and just two months later release a teaser for the final episode on YouTube.
• Poor Communication Kills: Remilia, toward Flan. Remilia was not there to save Meiling or Flan from Koishi's rampage, because she was at Reimu's discussing Flan's improvement and showing the parasol she had planned to give Flan when she returned to the mansion. As a result, Flan believes Remi only sees her as a burden, which is why she wasn't saved.
  Patchouli: You really don't know how to talk to her, do you?
• Portal Cut: Yukari uses her gaps to cut off all of Koishi's limbs simultaneously. And then gives her the guillotine treatment.
  • Also, Kaiju Reimu uses a gap to perform a suicidal attack on Yorihime. It works.
• Power Copying: Koakuma's power is apparently the ability to steal powers from the dead, implied by her use of a 'miracle' after Sanae's death. Confirmed after using Sunny's, Luna's, Mystia's, Youmu's, Cirno's and Iku's own powers to fight Reimu.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Satori and Koishi, apparently a common trait of their species. Their true body is actually their Third Eye. At least they are considerate enough to only take control of hosts that are already dead.
• Red Herring: Played with. Everything points toward Koishi being the cause of everyone turning mad in Gensokyo due to her ability to manipulate the unconscious mind, prompting Yukari to hunt her down and kill her. Turns out not only is she not the cause of the mass insanity, but she was deliberately set up as this trope to make Yukari fall into an ambush set by Reisen II and kill her.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Sanae's bullies react to their humiliation by Kanako's hands by burning her house down, with her parents inside. Sanae keeps the chain going by slaughtering them to the one.
  • Reisen II implies that this is also the motivation behind the Hate Plague-like events up to now.
• Say It with Hearts: Koishi does this often.
• Sharing a Body: Koishi and Yukari with Koishi being the dominant personality.
• Shout-Out: In Episode 5, Chen says she fished a two-kilo whitefish and intends to use it for dinner, referencing the "Kahen kilon siika!" meme from a Finnish Touhou fancomic.
  • "I believe in my hat who believes in me!"
  • "My name is Koishi Komeiji. You cut my arm off. Prepare to die."
  • A possibly subtle one: In Episode 8, Yukari says that her heart is "Far, far in the past", which might be a reference to the fan theory that Yukari is a much older Maribel Hearn that was Trapped in the Past.
  • Episode 9's head assimilation scene with Koishi's body fusing with Yukari's head is a possible reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure at the end of Part 1: Phantom Blood where Dio attempts to assimilate Jonathan Joestar's body as his own. And just like Dio, it is successful.
  • The drawing style of the entire series is a Shout-Out to the Dario Argento film Deep Red. More specifically, the wall drawing that Carlo drew of his deranged mother stabbing his father after the latter tried to take her to the clinic for her mental instability. In addition, Episode 5 opens with a Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book while a lullaby (specifically the "School At Night" lullaby) plays, which is the same lullaby that the killer needs to listen to in order for her to be able to kill someone, since it allows her to be in the same state of mind as when she killed her husband.
  • Episode 19 Part 1/9 has a Rainbow Dash plushie in a star gazing boy's room.
  • The Anti-Insect-Type Combat Vi-Joker can open up its face to fire a freaking beam.
  • We have a seemingly innocent character (in Koishi) descend down into being quite literally a broken character, even going as far as to replace their head with another, smarter character's, the enemies of the series are Lunarians, and Episode 19 Part 4/9 even shows these foes (and their weapons) coming out of dark sun-shaped spots in the sky. I wonder what other media has these traits...
• Sociopathic Hero: Marisa is a borderline one, not feeling a single shred of emotion at seeing the cadaver of her father. She states that all the time she spent isolated in the Forest of Magic to study magic killed her capacity to feel emotions. What prevents her for being a full sociopath is that she states that there are other people that she had bonded with and came to care for, such as Reimu and Alice. Worse, even though she makes a grave for her father, she states that it was only because she read a book where its heroine did the same, and follows by considering herself the Evil-fighting heroine like the one in that book, and starts following through the tropes inherent of this kind of story, notably being protected by Plot Armor. There's clearly something not right in her head!
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Part 6 opening song. You will never guess that such cute cheerful song would be used for a video series as demented as this.
  • Part 8. Showdown between Koishi and Yukari Yakumo. What song gets played over it? Renai Circulation.
  • Earlier, Carl Douglas' Kung Fu Fighting is played over a scene where Byakuren Hijiri is inciting a crowd of youkai to kill all the humans in Gensokyo.
  • Let's not forget the Umineko theme in part 9, which is usually played at banquets or when someone is watching the shoreline. This is played while fighting Reisen II.
    • That one doubles as a Mythology Gag and Fridge Brilliance because 'Dance of the Moon Rabbits' is also seen as the theme of the Chiester Sisters, who like Reisen II, are sniper bunny girls.
  • In episode 19/7, after Toyohime starts the unification of the Earth and the Moon, you would expecta heart-breaking theme to play, right?, Nope, instead you get a rearrange of Koishi's theme, named Hajimari no Uta.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: As it turns out, The Moon itself. She used to have a humanoid form and fell in love with another humanoid. However, when they were about to consummate their relationship, her mate became tainted and became what we know now as the Earth. Part of the Lunarians' motivation behind their plan is to remove the Earth's impurities (which is why the Lunarians needed to make world peace on Earth) so he could be reunited with the Moon again.
• Sugar Apocalypse: The series features Gensokyo getting slowly consumed by madness and bloodshed before being completely destroyed thanks to Koakuma and the Lunarians.
• Superdickery: Exactly how canon that part was seems to be debatable, because at the same time, Yuuka was seen seriously injuring Medicine. Yuuka later appears in an image along with the heroes, as someone trying to keep the peace. It turns out she was trying to save Medicine from something else... at least before the lunacy kicked in on her...
• Super Mode: Koishi and Satori have one letting them use their Combat Tentacles to near Lovecraftian levels as well as increasing their psychic powers. It manifests by their Third Eye merging inside their body and their left eye changing color (red for Koishi, black with a green vertically-slitted pupil for Satori) with a completely bloodshot sclera.
• Supporting Protagonist: Koishi is the title character, but after episode 8 she mostly becomes inconsequential to the plot, with other characters like Reimu being the ones who move the plot along. It's telling that it takes Yukari possessing her for Koishi to do anything.
• Talkative Loon: Koishi will talk to anyone and anything, including her hat, any one of her replacement hats, and a door.
• Talker and Doer: The Watatsuki sisters, Toyohime and Yorihime. The elder sibling does the talking and plotting, while the younger sibling does the heavy lifting such as fighting Kaiju!Reimu and Kaiju!Marisa.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: Koakuma seems like the main antagonist at first, but she's later implied to be working with Reisen II. Both are then revealed to be working for the Watatsuki sisters, of which Toyohime is the dominant one, who are in charge of the Moonlight Descent Ceremony and are carrying it out on behalf of Lord Tsukuyomi, who in turn is following the will of the Moon itself in helping it to reunite with the Earth, its former lover.
• Third-Person Person: Star refers to herself in the third person after she goes crazy. Particularly when she's fighting Cirno.
• Torture Technician: Sanae when she subjects Kogasa to Cold-Blooded Torture, turns out that she had a lot of practice in her past.
  • Reisen implies to be one when she incapacitate Reisen II.
  Reisen: Don't worry, I'm good with captives. I might even say I'm looking forward to beating the info out of her.
• Unbuilt Trope: It was one of the first Touhou Dark Fics, but it could also be viewed as this for later Dark Fics in the Touhou series. Most of the characters are kept fairly accurate to how they are in canon, with even Flandre being given much more development and sympathy than she usually is in most fan works, and the reason Koishi, Mokou, Byakuren and most everyone else in Gensokyo is acting so deranged and unlike their canon selves turns out to be the result of an Evil Plan by Koakuma and the Lunarians to drive them all mad. The series also stops being about shock value by the third episode, after which everything is played for drama from then on.
• Unwitting Pawn: Strangely enough, the deeper the series goes, the more it seems Koishi herself is one of these. Turns out that she was an unwitting decoy used by the Watatsuki sisters to attract Yukari and have her assassinated in an ambush.
• Utopia: The first part of the finale reveals that Watatsuki no Toyohime, acting as an ambassador from the Moon, helped the Outside World achieve world peace, abolishing war and violence and suffering in the process. As anything that ceases to exist in the Outside World finds a place in Gensokyo, this has some very dire consequences for Gensokyo.
  • Apparently, this was done in an effort to purity the Earth so that he could be reunited with the Moon, the two having been lovers in the past that got separated due to Earth being tainted with impurity.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Lunarians, particularly Yorihime and Toyohime who are more or less worshipped by human from Outside World as heroes and role models instead of masterminds of genocide.
• The Voiceless: Watatsuki no Yorihime never speaks when she's with her sister, although she does say things when she's alone.
• Wham Episode:
  • Parts 8 and 9: Most of Gensokyo has descended into complete madness, Mokou continues her rampage against the Human Village and horribly wounds Keine, Byakuren gather a large fleet and Youkai army to wipe out all of the remaining humans, Koakuma is revealed to have been Evil All Along, Satori murders Orin, Yukari is killed by Reisen II and Koishi is revealed to not be completely dead as she assimilates with Yukari's remains, regaining a functional body and possibly part of Yukari's powers, and is free to continue to wreck havoc. Part 8 even has a disclaimer that it's the most violent and horrible episode to date!
  • Part 2 of episode 19 reveals the true purpose behind the Moonlight Descent Ceremony the Lunarians are working towards — to reunite the Moon, which is sentient, with her lover, the Earth.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Sakuya, Meiling, Yuugi, Kokoro, Miko, Futo, Tojiko, Seiga and Kasen are among the characters to appear who aren't ever seen being turned into kaiju or killed some other way, making it unknown if they were part of the death tally of kaijus or somehow managed to survive.
  • Nitori and Medicine seemed to be gone after the lunacy has expanded around gensokyo, and like the other characters above, it isn't unknown if they became part of the death tally of Kaijus, they survived, or died by any other characters (at least for Medicine's...)
  • Renko and Maribel are seen in episode 19/1 just attending a class in uni, a day before the catastrophe happens. After that, it isn't known if the Secret Sealing Club manage to survive the Lunacy, or they died in the Kaijus' rampage, or if they had a falling out around the timeskip...
  • While she never appears, Hecatia and Clownpiece's absence is conspicuous considering Junko is explicitly shown being defeated by the Lunarians, making it unknown if they were hunted down and slain alongside her or if this version of Junko never teamed up with them.
• When She Smiles: Hata no Kokoro, when she was talking to Koishi in a flashback scene of Episode 19 (8/9).
• White Hair, Black Heart: This Koishi has silvery white hair as opposed to the green hair she has in canon, and is substantially more evil and psychotic than her canon self.
• Why Am I Ticking?: A strange and horrifying variation demonstrated with Ran and Chen: 1) They're fuse lit bombs. 2) They're sewn into the stomachs of the victims. 3) The living bombs are fully aware of it.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sanae, she was horribly bullied in the outside world and got driven mad by a moon-induced Hate Plague on top of it.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the Lunatic Plague, a woman is seen beating down her kid against a wall, killing it, and in episode 13 another mother drown her newborn baby just because it annoyed her with it's constant crying.
• Yandere: Koakuma towards Patchouli. She allied with the Lunarians in order to destroy Gensokyo and everyone in it so that she could have Patchouli for herself.

---