~Bunbunmaru News~ > Front Page Headlines
Official Touhou Project Magazine 2016: w/ Uni Akiyama and ZUN's music CD
(1/50) > >>
cuc:
UPDATE May 31, 2016: See here.

UPDATE:You can preorder the book at Amazon, and it WILL ship overseas (Link)

The ebook version is now available for preorder at Kadokawa's ebook store. (Link)

The ebook version DOES NOT contain contents of the music CD. It will become downloadable at 0 AM Sep 30 in Japan.

This particular book is region-locked, so if you are not in Japan, you will need some sort of VPN proxy to access the purchase page. For payment, a VISA or MasterCard credit card from any country should be enough.

Like most Japanese ebooks, you will need to download and read the book through Kadokawa's client app, which serves as DRM.


Dengeki Moeoh, a magazine under the auspices of Kadokawa Group, has announced that they are publishing an official Touhou Project magazine. The first issue, 『東方外來韋編 Strange Creators of Outer World. 壱』, will be available on Sep 30, 2015.


The official site of the Touhou magazine currently has a teaser page up. According to the page, the magazine is made with the full support and oversight of ZUN. It will feature interviews and introductions of doujin creators in all fields of Touhou fandom (beginning with ZUN himself, of course), newbie-friendly information on the Touhou universe, a new serialization by ZUN (EDIT: confirmed to be Touhou Kourindou), and a music arrangement CD by guest musicians.


Here are some pictures of PR materials spotted by a fan (source: 1, 2), showing more artwork by Masakichi:




Explanation of the title:
東方外來韋編 likely should be pronounced Touhou Gairai Ihen.

壱 is a formal document way of writing "ONE", marking this as the first issue.

外来 gairai is a common word meaning "of external origin, exogeneous" (e.g. imported goods, non-native person, foreign substance), written here using 來, the older form of the character "rai" instead of the modern standard 来.

Gensokyoans call books from the outside world 外来本 gairai hon, which we have been translating as "imported books".

韋編 ihen here is used as an overeducated old school scholar-ish way of saying "books". First of all, before paper was invented, ancient Chinese books were written on strips of bamboo or wood, bound together by leather cords. These leather bindings are called 韋編 wei bian. The word is connected to a story about the love of learning, 韋編三絕 "the leather bindings wore out three times":

--- Quote ---"In his old age Confucius loved to study the Book of Changes [...]. He studied this book so much that the leather thongs binding the wooden strips wore out three times."
--- End quote ---

Hence the main title can be roughly translated as Eastern Tomes of External Origins.
cuc:
I guess this should be the big 2015 bomb (or one of the bombs) ZUN has been teasing for the better half of this year. Unlike many previous "introduction to Touhou" publications - like the infamous Eastern and Bright Nature Deity appendix, he is clearly heavily involved with the magazine.

On the other hand, the title suggests the main purpose of the magazine is to act as a platform for showcasing fan talents, with the outside world as a metaphor for the Touhou fandom. This is consistent with what he has been doing with the Touhou brand in recent years - exploring ways to support doujin creators.

As for the new serialization, an easy guess is that it stars Sumireko, having adventures inside and outside Gensokyo.
PK:
First of all: Yay!
...
Does this mean FS and/or WaHH are coming to an end?

"Creators of outer world"...maybe some other Gensokyo-like place is involved, or they plan to create another one because it's becoming too small to host everyone? Would be great i believe, although it likely refers to something else.

Quwanti:

--- Quote from: cuc on August 13, 2015, 03:05:28 PM ---As for the new serialization, an easy guess is that it stars Sumireko, having adventures inside and outside Gensokyo.

--- End quote ---
That would be really great, actually. Really hoping for that one.
Suspicious person:
Ooooh ~ so we're getting a Touhouzine  this time ? Neat ! I'm curious about how it'll introduce Gensokyo to the newbies : all-in or little by little, since there'll supposedly be other issues beside this ? At any rate, it's gonna be refreshing read  :3


--- Quote from: cuc on August 13, 2015, 03:05:28 PM ---As for the new serialization, an easy guess is that it stars Sumireko, having adventures inside and outside Gensokyo.

--- End quote ---
That'd be pretty nice. If this is going to be for the newcomers too, maybe it won't be something too hard to digest, but something simple yet enjoyable like, dunno, maybe something like a 4koma  series or something ? At any rate, this might not introduce new characters (I hope it does, though)
Navigation
Message Index
Next page

Go to full version