The Man, The Legend, Zun

The Bullet Hell genre of games wasn’t at all popular back a few decades ago. Their exposure is only limited to arcade releases, and there are no definitive products on the market that are destined to popularize it.



Until, of course, when Zun got drunk, and he came up with a brilliant idea.



Since then, Touhou was created, and it sparked a major increase in popularity for bullet hell games, and created the foundations for it, which is praised not only for its exciting and exhilarating gameplay, but also music of equal caliber.



It isn’t a far fetched idea when the music of Touhou is commonly referred to as a genre of it’s own, although in all respects, it’s more of an alternative version of Eurobeat, a fast paced type of music focused around engaging beats and an exciting melody full of turns and twists to further exaggerate their sense of excitement.



They all follow a basic, yet effective pattern. Start off with an atmosphere, building up the environment, before briefly introducing the main leitmotifs of the track. And slowly but surely, more instruments and harmonics join in, and all hell lets loose. Variations may occur with each track to set up different feelings, but even with the repetition, the fact that most of the tracks can be unique by themselves really says something about how brilliant of a composition philosophy it truly is.



Early renditions of Touhou music are 8-bit style tracks that have a basic percussion, followed by a steady melody, and fast harmonics, which later on became the definitive feeling that most bullet hell games would strive to become.



As the series evolved, so too did the music. Consecutive releases feature music that has much more polished samples with more complex creative philosophies to match its age. A real significant change started after Touhou 7, which featured more conventional instrumentation rather than a sole reliance on 8-bit music and synths.



There is no doubt that Zun’s work had influenced the evolution of Eurobeat music. And it is no coincidence that whenever you compare where Zun’s music initially started from, to the music he has now, or his other contemporaries, there is always a significant element that binds them together, giving them that unique and distinct flare. Even if you may not know much about Eurobeat to begin with, someone would always be able to associate it with Touhou. With obvious exceptions, of course, such as the tracks that came from Tokyo Drift, but even those have merits that would match what was initially from the Touhou series.



Looking at the present, the Touhou series still has a strong fanbase surrounding it, and if not for the telltale music, probably won’t be as big of a community as it could be. Other bullet hell works such as Bullet Hell Monday by Masayuki Ito, and other series spin offs, all can find roots back in the very first track in Touhou.



All of them may not be a top hit single or have a significant meaning behind it. But they all have a story to tell, and an environment to simulate. And damn are they good at fulfilling their intended purpose.



And that is what makes his work and contribution truly unique and distinct, and makes them worthwhile of all the attention it got, and deserved.













While Touhou is a Bullet Hell (danmaku) game, what separates it from its contender is the music, fanbase, characters and of course character artworks by Zun that looks like someone 30 cans of bud light down would draw, not a bad thing, far from it in fact, with artworks like this, he is just asking for the fanbase to do whatever with the art and come out with whatever interpretation they have in their mind.



Besides the art, the fact that you don’t get much information about the characters besides what they use as their attacks or from the few lines of dialogue that they have, means it is also another factor that encourages fans to have their own take on the characters besides the few core settings. And with that, not only did Zun’s original artwork laid the groundwork for the characters design, the fact that it encourages fans to have their own take on the characters based on said groundwork made it stay relevant even till this day.





Music of Touhou, all of the original sound tracks you can find from Touhou games are solely composed by Zun himself, which is kinda scary as there are hundreds of thousands of Touhou OST out there, and what is even more shocking is that most if not all of them are a hit and not miss. At this point, I’m convinced that almost everyone on the internet has heard of 1 or 2 Touhou music, if not the OST then the remixes fan/doujin circle has dished out throughout the years.



About fan remixes/ alteration of the original Touhou soundtrack



At this point in time, I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any genres of music that Touhou hasn’t touched on, from Irish folk to lo-fi, there shouldn’t be any genre that it has yet to cover. I mean, just look at Flowering night, Sakuya’s Theme from Phantasmagoria of Flower View, there’s countless covers of it ranging from death metal (everything will freeze) to something you would hear from idol master (A maid heart’s like a puppet). Like what IGN would say, there’s a little for everybody.



Back to the original topic, the OST that peak my interest the most are Hong MeiLing’s Theme, and un owen was her, both songs are from EoSD (Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil). MeiLing’s theme is something I would consider as underrated when compared to the myriad of Touhou OST, not that many people outside of fan circles know about her when you compare her to Sakuya, Flander Scarlet, Alice Margartoid, Reimu and Marisa. Her theme is something that fits quite nicely to her character, similar to her personality, the song takes a slow start as if waking up, then it kicks into high gear immediately, capturing her natural instinct to slack off during her work, and dutifulness when it counts. Also when it comes to fan remixes, the Eurobeat ver. is the one that I would highly recommend, Tear You Up by A-one (The vocals for this is by T-stebbins which is also behind some of the OST in Initial-D such as The top).





Besides Mei Ling’s Theme, Flander Scarlet’s theme Un Owen was Her is also an interesting OST to look at, the song is as unhinged as Flander Scarlet, the way the song starts is also beautiful, it is as if something popped off, and the atmosphere is as unstable as it can get, the chaos of the song ironically is harmonious with her attack patterns and personality, making the fight memorable and the song meaningful while lasting long terms in the head of us fans. Which I can be confident as to say, to those who are willing to sink a few hours into danmaku, Touhou OST would be one of the last things that leaves your head.