This is probably a better thread than any.
So I started playing Touhou back in late 2010, like November. I had been aware of the series' existence since the month prior due to a YouTube user including a remix of Sakuya's theme in one of his videos during a sped-up portion of gameplay. I liked the theme a lot, looked for the original, got hooked, and then found the games after that.
It wasn't until late 2011, early 2012 I was anywhere near close to 1cc'ing anything. My first 1cc was Imperishable Night on Normal using Reimu/Yukari, but it wasn't very good and I had to start with I think 7-8 default lives (since you can get those extras tacked on for losing a lot on the final boss). My first true 1cc, at least in my opinion, was of Ten Desires a few months later, using Reimu.
In 2012 I started to really improve, 1cc'ing EoSD (though I might've done it in late 2011, I don't have the replay anymore, I just know it was my third game 1cc'd), Perfect Cherry Blossom, and Mountain of Faith. 2012 I also moved to having a laptop instead of a desktop, and getting used to that was a little... different as I'd never owned a laptop before then. My progress then sort of halted for a while, I don't even remember doing very well with any game for a while.
Then came 2013. Oh boy, 2013. I... hardly did anything Touhou-related until Double Dealing Character, actually. Before DDC hit, I did get back into Touhou by clearing Mamizou a second time (the first time I wasn't happy with because of slowdown). I didn't play DDC until a week after it had released, but I 1cc'd it a couple of nights later using SakuyaA, and my 1cc literally came a couple of hours after a good friend of mine who's also a big Touhou fan had done it using the same character and shot type.
After that I hit Touhou fever harder than I had since late 2010/early 2011, but this time I was much better as a player. I cleared Lotus Land Story completely out of boredom, I wasn't even trying to do it, I just did while taking a break from the targets I had in mind: SA and UFO. Tackling these games was gonna be hard as hell, because, well, they're hard. :V But I turned to SA first because I had managed to improve to a point where I could make it to Rin continue-less. I couldn't say the same about UFO and being able to get to Shou.
So I kept on trucking and eventually, after many tries, I 1cc'd SA. I've only done it once as it's just so hard, it exhausted my want to play it again as a full game, but I go back for stage practices here and there. The replay is a bit bugged as skipping to Stage 6 causes the Utsuho fight to mess up, but as long as you don't fast forward and play the replay from Stage 5 or earlier it works, so I'm happy with it. After that I moved to UFO, which was easier to do once I got the hang of the UFOs. In fact I managed to clear that one within a week, in contrast to about 3 weeks of effort for SA.
That was about it for 2013. I would off and on attempt to beat Flandre, which I'm close to but still have yet to do, but other than that, my newest achievements actually happened this year. I was taking a break from trying to beat Flandre, and I would do stage practice a lot of Byakuren's stage, so I decided to give Mystic Square a go. Ended up 1cc'ing it after a few hours of trying. :V It was a lot harder than LLS, but I was coming off a hot streak as I had to re-1cc a lot of games so I had replays for them (IN, EoSD, MoF, namely).
So I just needed one more single-player shmup 1cc in the series: SoEW. It was rough... No ability to focus, no death bombing, bullet hit boxes being bigger than the bullet actually is, if you could think of something primitive and inconvenient about a shmup, SoEW has it. I don't fault it since it was the first shmup of the series, but damn, it showed. :I Nevertheless, after enough tries (took me a few nights), I managed to clear it.
So these are what I've managed to 1cc without repeating clears I've done with the same character and shot type:
Story of Eastern Wonderland - Normal - ReimuB
Lotus Land Story - Normal - ReimuA
Mystic Square - Normal - Reimu
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Normal - ReimuA (I have videos up for this one on YouTube)
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - Normal - MarisaA
Perfect Cherry Blossom - Normal - SakuyaA (I have videos up for this one on YouTube)
Imperishable Night - Normal - Reimu/Yukari (I have videos up for this one on YouTube)
Mountain of Faith - Normal - ReimuA (I have a video with commentary of this on an LP channel on YT)
Subterranean Animism - Normal - ReimuB (I have a video with commentary of this on an LP channel on YT)
Undefined Fantastic Object - Normal - SanaeA (I have a video with commentary of this on an LP channel on YT)
Ten Desires - Normal - Reimu
Ten Desires - Normal - Sanae (I have a video with commentary of this on an LP channel on YT)
Double Dealing Character - SakuyaA (I have a video with commentary of this one on an LP channel on YT)
So I'm working on 2 things right now in Touhou, both within EoSD: Beating Flandre, and 1cc'ing Hard. I'm hoping I can do the former soon, since I'm _REALLY_ close to it. I'm also hoping to 1cc several of the games with other characters. I'm almost able to do PCB as ReimuA, and and I can almost do DDC as ReimuA and MarisaA (I love the cursed weapon shot types :V). If it wasn't obvious, I tend to go for whoever can do homing most of the time, I'm not too good with shot types that don't have that unless the game is easy like TD~. I use a hitbox patch for EoSD, and I'm not quite good enough to play SoEW, LLS, MS, PCB or IN with only 3 lives to start, but I could easily take the hitbox out in EoSD and do 3 lives, I've played that game sooooooo many times, I just prefer to make my life easier (I don't do things for competition anyhow), but maybe I'll try to do that one day?
To anyone attempting a harder Touhou game, keep at it! I didn't think I could do it myself, but I broke through, it just takes practice! I've got faith in all of you that are trying to clear the games! *flies away to tackle Hard modes and Extra Stages*