But the thing is, the realm of Touhou —based on East Asian traditional folklore— is situated in that strange dimension where humans and supernatural beings co-exist, so the human concept of age is not in any way applicable to the Touhou characters. It's like dog years and human years. Furthermore, animals and inanimate objects gain sentient thought after they live for a very long time, and take on human-like forms, so the 900-year-old fox would never look like a 900-year-old human mummy.
But the thing is, the realm of Touhou —based on East Asian traditional folklore— is situated in that strange dimension where humans and supernatural beings co-exist, so the human concept of age is not in any way applicable to the Touhou characters. It's like dog years and human years. Furthermore, animals and inanimate objects gain sentient thought after they live for a very long time, and take on human-like forms, so the 900-year-old fox would never look like a 900-year-old human mummy.
Is here someone really into touhou? I mean as a shump? Because it really feels not that spectacular to me, pretty standard stuff. And the art is horrible, everybody looks like they're made of manju.
Also mountains of doujins. Really.
Is here someone really into touhou? I mean as a shump? Because it really feels not that spectacular to me, pretty standard stuff. And the art is horrible, everybody looks like they're made of manju.
Also mountains of doujins. Really.
It's been pointed out in a few articles that the sucess of Touhou, and other related phenomena (Hatsune Miku, for example), may be attributed to the huge emotional connection people make by submitting their contribution. Hakurei Jinja Reitaisai, the official Doujin festival for Touhou, had 114 participating circles in 2004; In 2011, it had a staggering 4,940 circles. Doesn't matter that it was drawn badly — Touhou fed a niche for Danmaku shooters, pulled people in with a backstory for the characters, and its creator blessed the community with permission to create user content. I think a parallel analogy in the Western hemisphere would be stuff like user-generated campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons.
I first came across the article on Hatsune Miku, in which the author demystified the Vocaloid's success, but since it was from years ago, it's buried under thousands of other positive searches. The following article (link provided) says pretty much the same and will have to do.
The problem with American pop stars is they have the almost predictable ability to go through that awkward train-wreck phase. Japanese pop star Hatsune Miku — who sells out concerts in hours — will never go through that phase. Hatsune will remain perfect, on time and in-step because she is a virtual creation.
The last time we checked in with Hatsune Miku, she was just getting started. Now she's a huge money-maker. Hatsune Miku just sold out four concerts in Tokyo last week with tickets going for 6,300 yen ($76) a pop. With 10,000 in attendance that's some payday for a virtual pop star.
So what's the big deal?
Hatsune Miku is an animated holographic 3D image that sings and dances with some serious sass. Check out the video below: there's no doubt she's got some serious pre-programmed moves and (to me) doesn't seem all that different from some big name, lip synched acts I've seen. (I won't name names.)
But the real attraction seems to be her status as a "vocaloid" — a singing synthesizer where a software program "creates" music by typing in lyrics and melody and is mixed together with existing vocal artists and sounds.
There are many vocaloids in Japan, but Hatsune Miku, created by Crypton Future Media, is the biggest. Fans develop a huge emotional connection to the vocaloids because users can actually create her hit songs. In fact, the ones from her concerts are the products of more than 20 people — both lyrically and vocally.
It's a pretty clever way to engage a fan base — by letting them lend their voice or lyrics anyway to their favorite star. In the words of one fan who flew all the way from Australia to attend the recent concerts:
"She gave a lot of people that didn't have a voice, a voice to express their feelings and thoughts," Daniel Noll told The Huffington Post.
And Noll wasn't the only one who gave their all to see their favorite hologram perform. Those who didn't get into the sold out shows gathered, some in costume, to watch in movie theater across Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Much of the fanfare could be due to the fact it was billed as one of her last performances, though she is said to be part of a popular vote to appear at the London Olympics.
sadly this is true, I checked a few sex shops in japan and gladly I didn't come across anything even remotely pedo, BUT while I was in Shibuya checking shops selling assorted shit from gashapons, keychains, CDs, plushes and that sorta thing I found DVDs with kids on the cover just sitting in a shelf,, which I found really odd, when I asked around about what was that about they told me that they are like a "grey line" its not porn because they don't show nudity and nothing like that but its basically children in swimwear smiling at the camera... CREEPY AS SHIT... so basically go around any sex shop without worrying in Japan but in the places you can buy anime stuff no one can hear you scream...
sadly this is true, I checked a few sex shops in japan and gladly I didn't come across anything even remotely pedo, BUT while I was in Shibuya checking shops selling assorted shit from gashapons, keychains, CDs, plushes and that sorta thing I found DVDs with kids on the cover just sitting in a shelf,, which I found really odd, when I asked around about what was that about they told me that they are like a "grey line" its not porn because they don't show nudity and nothing like that but its basically children in swimwear smiling at the camera... CREEPY AS SHIT... so basically go around any sex shop without worrying in Japan but in the places you can buy anime stuff no one can hear you scream...
I don't really think you can get any clearer than that.
Yes, Japanese managed to commoditize school children wearing swimwear, and it might seem creepy, but it's still not pr0n. If you're trying to pry behind the intent, then that's just akin to the advocacy of criminalizing the abstraction of thought.
And then it would be open season to prosecuting fashion show for children swimwear as pr0n.
(call me naïve, but I didn't know there were fashion show for children swimwears until I just Googled it now — but of course there must be, for clothing stores to checkout their season buy)
