On April 06 2011 02:45 Aeres wrote: I think that the whole "battle only via danmaku" guideline is sort of an honor code, because a bunch of Reimu's opponents (the Scarlet sisters, Suika, Suwako, Shou, Tenshi, Yukari, etc) can fucking stomp Reimu in seconds in a real battle. Reimu is only human, after all, and most of her foes are youkai, which isn't really a fair contest. Danmaku allows Reimu to show her ability adequately. It is odd that someone like, say, Utsuho would agree to such terms (after all, she's trying to destroy the world, so why not use her powers to just kill Reimu?), but I guess youkai tend to be more reasonable than people in the real world.
I suppose so, but it's obvious Reimu only imposes the danmaku rules because she can't be beaten at it. Can't help but roll my eyes in suspicion when the person who made the rules happens to have a spellcard that makes her invulnerable (Fantasy Heaven), haha. Other youkai aren't quite bright enough, apparently.
On April 06 2011 02:45 Aeres wrote: I think that the whole "battle only via danmaku" guideline is sort of an honor code, because a bunch of Reimu's opponents (the Scarlet sisters, Suika, Suwako, Shou, Tenshi, Yukari, etc) can fucking stomp Reimu in seconds in a real battle. Reimu is only human, after all, and most of her foes are youkai, which isn't really a fair contest. Danmaku allows Reimu to show her ability adequately. It is odd that someone like, say, Utsuho would agree to such terms (after all, she's trying to destroy the world, so why not use her powers to just kill Reimu?), but I guess youkai tend to be more reasonable than people in the real world.
I suppose so, but it's obvious Reimu only imposes the danmaku rules because she can't be beaten at it. Can't help but roll my eyes in suspicion when the person who made the rules happens to have a spellcard that makes her invulnerable (Fantasy Heaven), haha. Other youkai aren't quite bright enough, apparently.
Like I said, it's a bit sketchy as to why the youkai are playing along. Really, though, I think the only youkai that canonically upholds this rule by her own code of honor is Alice. She finds no enjoyment in completely dominating her enemies, and finds much more fun in placing greater emphasis on strategy, so she always battles in such a way that her combat prowess is slightly more potent than the enemy's, to ensure a reasonably fair fight. Also, ZUN has said that Alice has never tried to unleash her full potential in a fight, because the thought of losing a battle despite going all-out is frightening to her.
lol discussing how Gensokyo will roll if it really existed haha
Hm... I dunno, like Aeres says, only explanation would be that fighting with danmaku would be the culture or something that is socially acceptable. Kind of like how before guns and tanks and stuff, they would only fight with swords, bows and the like. And duels were held with with a sword or the like Kind of like Samurai and/or Knights I suppose if I would want to draw a parallel
In trying to explain why Youkai would follow the rules,
From wiki: "Gensokyo youkai tend to live within the wilderness, far away from human settlements. Normal youkai seem to behave like wild animals, attacking humans within their territory on sight. Exceptional youkai are less common, but they often enjoy speaking to humans, and are much stronger than an ordinary Gensokyo human, one on one. These youkai are almost always humanoid in appearance, and can be quite unpredictable; friendly one moment, hostile the next. "
So I suppose we can assume that the humanoid/complex youkai are sophisticated enough or perhaps reasonable to follow the culture, or maybe even is part of culture and developed it. While the lesser Youkai might be more savage like, but weak. Meh, I really don't see the point of trying to explain it though lol
On April 06 2011 08:01 Aeres wrote: I just randomly came across this video when browsing YouTube. It's a pretty kickass arrangement of Tomorrow will be Special; Yesterday was Not.
By default, as quoted from the wiki page, at first the youkai were against the great Hakurei Barrier, but as time passed, few considered even opposing it. Yukari is a chess master in the grand scheme of things. She realized youkai needed a place to stay in lieu of rapid outside human expansion, to forge a place where Youkai were able to live without en-roaching too much on human territory, but she also realized that youkai are not youkai if they do not attack people. The youkai would complain if they were not able to defeat Reimu at times.
However, if Reimu was ever killed in combat, the Great Barrier would collapse and once again the worlds would intermingle, something most present youkai want to avoid at all costs. Therfore, Reimu found the solution in the spell card battles, which enabled youkai and humans to challenge each other in combat without the need of lethal force. Most youkai abide by the rules, the lower power youkai do it because it is an interesting way to pass the time (and a fun game at that), and the strong youkai use the spell card battle because they understand simultaneously the importance of Reimu, while also having fun and using strategy to beat humans.
Edit: If the lower level youkai refuses to listen (even if Reimu wins the card battle), then Reimu would simply use her binding and sealing spells, and that easily takes care of small fry. Double Edit: Oh yea, there are also so many powerful Youkai, that most wait for one another to make a move. Only when one has moved in a significant way will the others decide what they want to do that particular event. In short, a stalemate most of the time.
It may be easy for Youkai to brute force their way through humans, but it is not so easy with the spell card battles with someone as talented as Reimu and as hardworking as Marisa. Thus, the Youkai enjoy the challenge and the equilibrium between Youkai and Humans is preserved.
That's a good explanation, Reaper... but to me, that still doesn't really explain Utsuho. Of all the youkai, she seems like she'd care the least about Reimu's death; in fact, she might desire it so that the Hakurei Border would open and she could wreak havoc upon the outside world.
Unfortunately, I can't tell if she fights with spell cards or her power of nuclear fusion. If the former, then everything adds up, and Utsuho's pliability can be chalked up to Satori's will... but if the latter, does that make her a maverick? If so, would Yukari have had to intervene in the events of Subterranean Animism (or at least been forced to confront Kanako before the goddess gave Utsuho the powers of the Yatagarasu)?
Utsuho is kept in line as a "pet" by Satori, I'd figure. + Show Spoiler +
Or it's a Moriya Shrine Conspiracy!
Reaper's explanation is indeed well-structured. Reminded me of the danmafuku script for Concealed the Conclusion (one of the more well-known fanmade Touhou games), where this time, the "incident" is based off just that.
Utsuho was granted this power by the suggestion of Kanako to swallow a sun god, to "obtain a new power". Utusho pretty much mis-understood what Kanako said and decided to go upon the simple notion of "taking over the world" and burning it to cinders. As noted very often in the fighting games, Okuu is a birdbrain. She is such a simpleton that any subtle suggestion can sway her. Actually, Zun's description also describes her as a "birdbrain", which the common sense in our outside world is pretty dumb Lol. Also, Utsuho was previously a really weak hell raven before swallowing the Sun God, and so it fits with the notion that the weaker/younger youkai are dumber and less adept at controlling themselves (until they either mature or finally can control their own powers. Okuu is like a runaway power source, she can barely control it at times.)
For instance, if you play Cirno in the fighting game for the story, Okuu almost talks like a terminator when guarding a certain area. She intends to incinerate Cirno, but Cirno distracts her long enough to run away, at which point Okuu decides she got melted by her nuclear firepower. In Sanae's situation, she wanders into the core, and is also immediately set upon by Utusho. Sanae's exasperated explanations that she serves the same "boss" (Kanako) is largely ignored by Utusho, and Utusho plans to roast Sanae for being an "intruder and foreign substance". When Sanae finally beats Utsuho, she instantly believes Sanae to be one of her superiors, and lets Sanae pass without further incident.
Ah here we go, the Wiki explanation- Because Utsuho is manipulated by Kanako, seems to have a simple and boastful personality, and is called a birdbrain by Orin, she's often considered an idiot by fans. ZUN also indirectly calls her an idiot in her theme song's description. This leads to comparisons (or pairings) with Cirno, and as the stage 6 boss, Utsuho is sometimes called ⑥ (which is an inverted ⑨).
In Touhou Hisoutensoku, the idea of Utsuho being an idiot is corroborated. In Sanae Kochiya's story, she is called birdbrained by Sanae, forgot why she was fighting her in the first place, and then follows Sanae's orders after being told she was doing that. This was also stated in Reisen's script, who called her a moron.
I want to keep this thread alive, but since I have no reviews on any albums in particular, and no songs have jumped out at me recently, here's an adorable picture of Koishi.
On April 10 2011 21:45 Aeres wrote: I want to keep this thread alive, but since I have no reviews on any albums in particular, and no songs have jumped out at me recently, here's an adorable picture of Koishi.
I've never heard of this one, but that shouldn't matter should it One note is that all the songs get remixed from the first CD to the second CD except for the songs, Greenwhich of the Sky and Bloom nobly, cherry blossoms of Sumizome ~ Border of Life, former only on the first album and the latter on the second. So onto the review!
CD1: 1 - The Dark Blowhole 2 - Bichrome Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients 3 - Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 4 - Legend of Hourai 5 - Bad Apple!! 6 - Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures 7 - The Sealed Cloud Route 8 - Romance Hill of Cherry Petals ~ Japanese Flower 9 - Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land 10 - Heian Alien 11 - Greenwich of the Sky 12 - The Gensokyo the Gods Loved
CD2: 1 - The Gensokyo the Gods Loved 2 - Bad Apple!! 3 - The Sealed Cloud Route 4 - Legend of Hourai 5 - Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land 6 - Bichrome Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients 7 - Romance Hill of Cherry Petals ~ Japanese Flower 8 - Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 9 - Heian Alien 10 - The Dark Blowhole 11 - Bloom nobly, cherry blossoms of Sumizome ~ Border of Life 12 - Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures
So on the first CD, the first track is The Dark Blow. This song doesn't seem to get a lot of remixes as I believe it should. And to my surprise, the first song has male vocal! It's pretty rare to have one. I enjoyed his vocals, with one exception. The little improvised part before the chorus at 2:06 - 2:24, I didn't particularly enjoy how he articulated the song. He sounded like he was trying a bit too hard. But I do like that he is singing with emotion. With that bit of complaint out, I really enjoyed it. Electric guitar and piano is always a win.
Second song, we have Bichrome Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients. This is a song I'm not familiar with, so I gave it a quick listen on youtube. So the songs starts off with piano and vocals. 2 Vocals to be exact. A duet is always nice, and they switch off from one another really nicely. It's also great how you can harmonize with 2 vocalists. More circles should include duets in their works In terms of the song, it's actually sounds similar to the first in style
Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 is up next and quite frankly, I don't like this song. I find it gets boring fast, and it carries on over in this remix as well. The piano beginning is nice but didn't like the rest much. I just don't like the song much so can't do much about it.
So the next song, Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, is also another one I am not very familiar with. I'm guessing the instrument is a mandolin, but I could totally be wrong. It's a very nice and relaxing song. Turn on Rainy Mood and it makes for very easy listening
The fifth song we have the ever so popular Bad Apple!! Starts off with electric guitar and drums in a rock fashion. And the male vocalist from the first song returns. It was kind of odd at first listening because almost all the Bad Apple songs I listened to followed the original really closely. This one deviates just a bit.
Next we have Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures, which is another song I am not familiar with But this one is nice. I really enjoyed the vocals in this song, which fits the song extremely well.
Next up is The Sealed Cloud Route, which is stage 2 theme for UFO. The original is pretty speedy and upbeat, but this one is much more subdued. A soft piano song with electric guitar support. Hm... It's nice, but I would love to hear this in a upbeat techno/trance way. I think that would be awesome.
Ah... one of my favorite songs, Romance Hill of Cherry Petals ~ Japanese Flower, and I don't hear too many remixes of it sadly Soft piano intro into, uh, some shaker instrument, that totally fits the song. With acoustic guitar and accordian~ This song is really really beautifully done. And ahhh the chorus is so amazing. There is no way anyone can screw this song up. If they do, I'm going to have to buy their CD and BURN IT
Next song we have Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land. This song is from PoFV and is Yuka's theme. To be honest, I don't really like the original song, and this song doesn't appeal to me much as well. Although the part at 3:15 - 3:52 was absolutely amazing. Maybe because it's not part of the original melody :X
Next we have Heian Alien, and this starts up great. The male vocalist returns and kicks things up. The piano and electric guitars accompanies his voice extremely well. And overall its a really fun remix. Definitely listen
Greenwich of the Sky is the next track and I don't know this one as well. But I listened to the original and its pretty kickass. So I couldn't wait to listen to the remix :D And the remix doesn't disappoint. Starting with the electric guitar solo of the awesome chorus. I would totally love to hear a metal remix of this by Crow'sClaw or UI-70.
Last song for this CD, we have The Gensokyo the Gods Loved. And this remix is beautifully arranged. I love the vocals for the song and it fits the mood of the song. Best track of the first CD hands down. Well except for Japanese Flower, but they are so different you can't compare Can't just describe it with words, go listen to it
My favorite songs were Romance Hill of Cherry Petals ~ Japanese Flower, Heian Alien, and Gensokyo the Gods Loved.
First track is Gensokyo the Gods Loved. After that amazing track from the first CD, this one has quite something to compete against. This one has a bit of a different tone, and the vocals, doesn't follow the song so linearly so it gives it a different appeal. Well done, although not as good as the other one
Second song is Bad Apple!! Started off pretty good, then once the vocals came in, I was not impressed. Immediately pressed next and so should you
The Sealed Cloud Route is up next and :D This was what I was looking more for in this song. Hm... now that I think about it, this is pretty similar sounding to the original version. With the soft "aaah" of chorus in the background and emphasis on certain portions of the song, a lot of simple nice touches are added to the song~
Next track is Legend of Hourai. Nothing spectacular about this track. Nice soft arrangement of a piece that I'm not familiar with I don't really like this song :/ the chorus just seems a bit off for me.
The next track is Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land. I hoped this track is much better than the other one and it was. But it can't change the fact that I don't really like this song. The intro was really nice. It was an amazing intro
Bichrome Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients is up next and it gets started with an amazing beat; One you can really get into. But that alone won't be enough for a great song. No it wouldn't. The verse goes on for quite a while, but chorus is pretty good. Definitely more Trance oriented and if you're not a fan of it, then you might not enjoy the song. I however like this genre so It's pretty lengthy at 7:10 and overall pretty good song
:D Romance Hill of Cherry Petals ~ Japanese Flower is up again and I just couldn't wait to listen~ Ahhhhh the chorus of the song is too good. You can't mess up this song. I really wanted to hear a vocal version of this song, but alas. Hmm while this version was more upbeat, I liked the one on the first CD better
Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17 is up again, and it's entirely done in Piano. I got to say this is an improvement. I enjoyed the track.
Heian Alien is up again. And that dreadful singer comes back from Bad Apple!! Skip
Next up is The Dark Blowhole. And I'm surprised they used the exact same vocalist for the exact same song from the first CD. Why did they do that? I dunno. This version is more electronic based compared to the rock version from the first CD. Which do I like better... I'm not sure. They are both ok lol. Nothing outstanding, although I do like his voice.
Bloom nobly, cherry blossoms of Sumizome ~ Border of Life is next. And this was an unexpected change of pace. A much more heavy style that I did not expect from this album. Nothing compared to UI-70's version of course, but still compared to the other songs in this album, I was a bit surprised. But nothing really outstanding.
The last song is Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures. Again another song I'm not familiar with. Vocals are nice and the song has nice effects.
I only liked a few songs from this album. The Sealed Cloud Route, Bichrome Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients, and Kid's Festival ~ Innocent Treasures.
On second thought, maybe I hyped up this album too much... I only really thought 6 out of the 24 songs were outstanding, and they had a couple outright bad tracks. Ugh... Spent so much time too hahaha But if you don't listen to anything, listen to these two: + Show Spoiler +
On April 11 2011 14:27 Wala.Revolution wrote: I don't know much about Touhou music but like many of the songs found on here. Are Sync.Art and other groups professional artists or fan musicians?
Where can I acquire good quality versions of the songs if someone can tell me?
They are fan musicians for the most part I believe
For good quality versions, it's amazing what google can do If you have trouble finding something send me a PM and I'll see what I can do~
:D Greenwich Sky is so good I can't believe I haven't heard this song before Speaking of SyncArt + Show Spoiler +
This version by Silver Forest is pretty awesome too + Show Spoiler +
Aaahhhhhh I really want to hear a good metal version though, Ui-70 would be awesome The Demetori version sucked pretty bad...
hm I'm really tempted to buy a CD from Paletweb Maybe actually pay for some of the gigs of music I have haha... anyone know if I have to pay shipping for each individual items if I order multiple stuff? That would be kind of retarded
edit: lol so I found an album called Super Hifu Club + Show Spoiler +
I was expecting awesome Touhou songs with Super Mario World elements, but was disappointed.
Was only mediocre 8-bit style songs Actually mediocre is being too nice It was pretty awful as in boring and repetitive...
I dunno why, but I uploaded a song from the album Girls' Sealing Club + Show Spoiler +
and yes all the songs are in that exact same style... Those gaps gets kind of annoying
EPT
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/XUuyn.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/FlCon.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/1/6/7/6/3/16763-1263766404.jpg)
In terms of the song, it's actually sounds similar to the first in style
But this one is nice. I really enjoyed the vocals in this song, which fits the song extremely well.
![[image loading]](http://image.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/i/j/wcanvas_220006422000)
