My reason for leaving the Touhou fanbase (more appropriate title, no one cares for the song anyway)

Title: Isolation of shutter
Circle: monochrome-coat
Album: Cutie POP's Tone
Arrange: 乙P
Lyrics: mono
Vocals: 39*

Source: ネメシスの要塞 (Nemesis's Stronghold)
From: ダブルスポイラー　～ 東方文花帖 (Touhou Bunkachou ~ Double Spoiler)

#1: (M3-25) HAPPY I SCREAM!! - 深淵風影: Already goes in the direction I imagined, but feels a bit empty. Youkai Mountain gets added as chorus to compensate for the lack of arranging. But being the first arrange, you can't blame them.
#2: (Tora Matsuri 2010) DDBY - Syncopation / Square Night: I don't like jazz. Sorry.
#3: (C78) disfact - 全テ拒絶スル最果テノ地: Only listened to the crossfade, and that was enough. Cheap, dissonant synthy revoice.
#4: (C78) sisimai-brothers - 赤道直下: Cheap MIDI revoice. Adds nothing to the song, only takes away. Just listen to the original.
#5: (C78) C-CLAYS - a.m.2:00: I still don't like jazz. Or jazz/pop, for that matter.
#6: (C78) TatshMusicCirle - Stray: Horrendous trance. Source is arranged beyond recognization, only the chord progression remains. Heck, label it as Heian Alien and it would be more appropriate.
#7: (C78) Rolling Contact - sheep's clothing: Horrendous hardcore trance, or "hands up". Why? Just why? Also, you are not the first one to use those samples *yawn*
#8: (C78) fang - Solid Prominence: Drum&Bass, again. Stupid samples, again. Sounds like Japan doesn't know what to do with that theme, so let's just copy-paste original sections over a random beat, over and over and over!
#9: (C79) SOUND HOLIC - shoot the speed: Obnoxious pop. Only takes 8 bars from the source.

SERIOUSLY JAPAN, WAS IT THAT HARD? After nearly 9 months and "only" 9 other arranges (this is the 10th one, according to vgmdb), you finally deem it neccessary to arrange my most beloved Touhou theme in the most generic techno/trance/whatever style, and at least try to capture the atmosphere of the source.
Usually, something like this is only the first step to more creative arranges. But if it took this long...

Actually, I'd should be grateful, but I feel bad about uploading this.

This was pretty much the only reason I got this album, and seeing it as the longest track made me rejoice at first. But then I took a listen, and my hopes immediately fell apart as I see all the length used for the most bland and generic trance song structure, with next to no change-ups.
And to make matters worse, they even had to channel Alstroemeria Records' famous Bad Apple arrange in the intro. A desperate attempt to squeeze out popularity?
The only thing that keeps the song interesting is the chorus, copypasted from the source. Come on.

This is no Seihou or fairy manga CD track. This is a theme from a recent main series game. If anything, this is what needs arranges now. Not TH06/07/08. We had enough of those. And yeah, I don't mind if you arrange one or two tracks from those games for good measure, but the recent works is what you should focus on, in my opinion.
I know I shouldn't complain about doujin work, since this is your hobby after all, but why are you wasting your creativity on rearranging the same stuff over and over and over, perhaps not even realizing that something in a similar style has been done to death already?

You know what that feels like? Like a slap in the face. As if they would laugh at me for loving that source.

Well done, Japan. Well done. Now excuse me, I'll go crying.

...

Oh yeah, and that Ruse Rain arrange on this disc, you know, that "obscure" extra stage theme from Fairy Wars? Happy and cutesy mid-tempo pop in the vein of IOSYS. Is that what you associate with an extra stage?
(Sorry to anyone who came here while searching for arranges for that one.)

...

No, I don't hate you, you're actually pretty awesome for the most part. It just feels that bitter.


(No complete album uploads this time, since I'm not that much impressed with anything from C79. Maybe I come to like some other song, and upload that one, if not yet done.)

Image source:
http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=490419 (direct)
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=13610317 (pixiv)

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Touhou
• 東方
• Vocal
• Arrange
• Music
• Soundtrack
• Remix
• ヴォーカル
• アレンジ
• C79

[DrAWily]

Soo.... You left the touhou fanbase... because the Touhou Fanbase... wasn't active enough? am I hearing this right?

Enough. You should know that there's so much more important than the fanworks. Think of the back stories, look at the fan art. look back at old favorites, and for Hakurei, Kanako, and Namusen's sake, be a bit more patient.

Touhou is having some hard times, and we can't just have people abandon ship. It may not be popular, but it's a damn good game with damn good works.

[NamelessLegacy]

@DrAWily Sorry, but that's nothing new.

1. Touhou _is_ popular, and the fanbase is very active. It's just shallow and misdirects so much of its efforts into the creation of more and more redundancy.

2. ZUN insists that he and every fanwork creator uses this antiquated and xenophobic doujin system, and thus contributes to this unorganized mess. And after some observations, I came to the conclusion that he even hates the very notion of us dirty gaijin being fans of his work.

[NamelessLegacy]

@DrAWily Of course we could build up parallel Western communities and do everything better, like Distant Phantasm is doing right now. But no matter how good we get, I don't like the idea that the fandom will always be split as a result.

Now look at the Pony fandom. No restrictions by the creators, a way more centralized organization, an explicit atmosphere of love and tolerance, no language barrier, and skillful yet still approachable people throughout. It's what I always wanted Touhou to be.

[NamelessLegacy]

@DrAWily So why should we even spend countless hours to fix "all that is wrong", when the grass is so much greener there?

3. I'm not interested in any stories or characters. I tried, it felt forced, and it never was my reason for being a fan. Period.

4. Read the comments below about the patience aspect.

By the way... didn't ZUN say sometime after PoFV that "he would be glad if the fandom died down"? He's such an amazing musician and programmer that I want to grant him this wish.

[KitsuneShapeShifter]

@NamelessLegacy ''I'm not interested in any stories or characters. I tried, it felt forced, and it never was my reason for being a fan. Period.''

Then you weren't a fan of touhou in the first place.

[NamelessLegacy]

@KitsuneShapeShifter Apparently, playing and enjoying the MAIN SERIES games themselves for over 2 years doesn't count a single bit towards being a fan!

I was also responsible for a small number of game hacking achievements that made the life of you lazy gaijin fans a lot nicer.

Only trolls would use terms such as "True Touhou Fan". But yeah, that's what the fanbase consists of. Hate everywhere. No wonder that ponies have surpassed you in pretty much every regard.

[NamelessLegacy]

@dranxis It's even sadder if you see it in the context of my personal Touhou experience.

UFO was the first release I fully witnessed. At least after the next Comiket, we had mindblowing remixes of everything. For me, that set the bar for what the fanbase can do.

But after DS and FW, the fanbase failed to meet this "standard".

And sadly, it doesn't comfort me one bit whether anyone here feels my pain. Because that distant, meme-driven hive mind that produces all these remixes sure doesn't.

[NezumimiNecroVampire]

Of course there will be redundency; not everyone listen to every arranges ever created. That would be super expensive (because some albums aren't sold anymore, you have to buy in auctions, etc) if you do it legally, which is what most Japanese tend to do. You'll also have to know how big the Touhou fanbase is. There just isn't enough music genre and Touhou music to satisfy 100+ arrangers posting like 30+ music each year..

[DrAWily]

@NamelessLegacy

3. Well, That's you're opinion. not gonna force you there. It's a cultural experiance, all based off folklore... I've always found it an interesting thing to look at, though some of the characters, even I don't care for.

4. Zun is an ass. He's not his game, he's a drunk bastard that imputs code randomly and comes out with a complex, addictive game. Most of us hate him. Truth be told though, he's always drunk at interviews, and when he isn't, he actually is quite apreciative.

[DrAWily]

@NamelessLegacy

Western Communities are something we should avoid. bring only the people we know into the fandom. That's how we avoid things like future McRolld's. Maybe an English sect, but it needs to be private.

...You are not bringing up Pony fandom. for god sakes... that's just... a sausage fest waiting to happen. love, tolerance? who the hell do you think we are? Touhou is private for it's reasons... just a bit too much, is all.

[DrAWily]

@NamelessLegacy 1: Touhou fanbase isn't just the official works. have you considered looking at people on, IDK... here for instance? not every work is good, but It's more varried than you think. While I will agree, it does have similar themes, that's just Touhou in general.

2. Once again, you're talking about Official work. I'm sorry, but most ignore Zun. He's Xenophobic... which is rather annoying, yes, but would you really want the majority of Americans playing? That's not how even we want it.