What do you like or hate most in Touhou? (either the art or the fandom)

[Damien]

Love :
- hidden depths of character's personality (Like Marisa giving donation to Reimu secretly, Flandre being more charismatic than her sister, Sakuya have fishing hobby that she won't share to the rest of the mansion, Eiki's leisure time is reading shonen manga, etc.)
- Gensokyan interact to each other, rather than just with their own peers/groups.
- Gensokyan doing their daily lives.
- Balance of dark & lighthearted story (like Zounose)
- Gensokyan trying to solve problems without using any danmakus.
- Gensokyan find or discover something new in Gensokyo.
- Gensokyan explore the uninhabited part of Gensokyo.
- Gensokyo scenery & location

Hate :
- Rape, Gore, bullying/abuse, or any kind of that thing.
- Lolified or oversexualized 2hu (cause in my headcannon that they're all wearing bloomers and actually being modest, hell, I even think some of them are Asexual)
- overused memes and jokes
- character degradation because of said memes
- Sinsacks

Absolute despise :
- Buront & his memes & his characters (yeah, screw you, you self-insert son of a bitch. The way he talks cryptic on stuff really getting my nerves & make me furious all the time. I hope your obnoxious talking style & meme will die as time progress. So yeah, fuck you all)

Neutral :
- Yukkuri. I might get a heat for this, but yukkuri abuse is a must for shitheads only (torture & mind-break is more preferable [SHITHEAD'S YUKKURI ONLY]). I can go along with the niceheads tough.

Now I have my opinions, and so are yours.

So post it in here guys!

[Paz legalces]

Love:
-Almost everything Touhou related unless state otherwise below
-Yes, even the gore and guro stuffs (a lovehate)... I am sorry .-.

Hate:
-Text fanfics
-OCs (famous Japanese OCs are fine though; as opposed to Western OCs)
-People who likes Reimu simply because she is the only 2hu they recognize
-Reimu's popularity
-Reimu
-The over attachment to EoSD simply because that is the most famous iteration
-Yukkuri Absuses (can stand 2hu abuses... but I draw the limit at Yukkuri since the only thing you can enjoy out of Yukkuri abuses are the senseless violence which I don't enjoy at all... as oppose to the girls abuse for there is... something else... to enjoy)... again, I am sorry .-.


Absolute despise :
-Hatred for Hijiri

Neutral :
-EoSD cast is fine... I suppose, but the over exposure to them make them grow kinda stale comparing to other iterations (they are kinda like rice to meal; a necessary staple for the fandom... but boring since every meal is with rice)

[Damien]

Hate:
-Text fanfics
-OCs (famous Japanese OCs are fine though; as opposed to Western OCs)

- er... I don't get it  Isn't all fanfiction in a form of text or writing? could've been simpler if you just say fanfics. 

- lol...    I understand this, somehow is not fitting to have Western OC's when Gensokyo is actually located in Japan (as most of them are self-inserts btw).  Japan-originated-OC's is fine for me too as long they're not creepy obsessed Otaku.

[Usamiko]

Love:

-The music, first and foremost. It's what lead me to try out the games, and while I love them to varying degrees, I like every single theme.
-The character designs. I really love the clothing, hairstyle, and color schemes of the characters. They each have their own uniqueness that identifies themselves from the rest of the characters. I love Alice's design the most.
-The fanworks. Most especially, again, the music.
-The beautiful patterns. Main reason why I save replays often, even crappy ones, just to enjoy the danmaku without worrying of losing a life.

-Hate
-Yukkuri. I don't know, but I just find them ridiculous.

Absolutely despise
-Hentai shit

Neutral
-The idea of male characters in the games. Depends on their personality whether I'll like them or not.

[Paz legalces]

- er... I don't get it  Isn't all fanfiction in a form of text or writing? could've been simpler if you just say fanfics. 

Well technically I was being pedantic since doujin manga is also a form of fanfic, doujin fan game is also a form of fanfic
...but putting it on a medium that requires skills are what filters out the one with actual talent and the one that just do text fics... because they can

[Suspicious person]

About the fandom

Likes
-Stories that illustrate well the characters, the lore... even the spellcards
-Stories that manage to exploit well the canon or show another side of it
-Any fan's take on Touhou backstory. Even if its inaccurate.
-Stories involving Tenshi (Fav 2hu, but I still feel refreshed at seeing her getting beaten up... Am I a horrible person?)
-WTFish, weird, twisted, creepy stories (Bonus point if Koishi is in!)
-ANYTHING involving Maribel and Renko
-Music arranges
-Fangames (especially "The genius of Sappheiros")
-Fanarts
-Moar

Dislikes
-Generic stories whose only Touhouness is the slap-2hu-face-on-an-otherwise-different-character, with no relevance to Touhou's universe nor charm
-Generic high school settings stories (unless they're damn good)
-Romantic stories (well, to a certain extent, but... Am I a horrible person?)
-Hentai, hentai, hentai and hentai. Did I already mention that I also dislike hentai?
-OCs (unless if it's for a fangame)
-Nosebleed Alice
-Creepy perverts who somehow get sexually aroused by Touhou characters (HOW AND WHY?!!!)
-Hipstards fans who think that newhu games are sucks and 2hu is kill

Neutral

What anime is this

-Yuri pairings
-Great artstyle spent on generic stories
-Unfaithfulness to canon
-Mima's diehards fans

Creepy
-Girlish Yukari  :ohdear:

About the official materials

Likes
-Pretty much EVERYTHING
-The music. Already mentionned in the EVERYTHING, but it deserves a special mention

Dislikes
-Things that are not included in the EVERYTHING
-Elitards fans who thinks that newfags are sucks and fanwork is kill

Neutral
-Mima not being the final boss... again
-PC-98 games
-ZUNart. No, really, it grew to the point where "ZUN DRAWS BETTER THAN YOU" can no longer be used as an insult  :V (Have it ever been?)

Creepy
-Yukari throwing heart shaped danmaku in ISC  :ohdear:

What I'd like to see
Novelty. This should be alright from time to time.

I like the official works and alway look forward to how the fan'll make use of them.

[Fulisha of Light]

Love:
- All of the characters' designs. They're really unique and pretty
- Koishi and Rinnosuke in particular~
- The music. Always fun to listen to as I'm working or walking around
- The story
- The danmaku patterns

Hate:
- The hentai
- People asking for Mima. I don't see the appeal


Absolute despise:
- People thinking males are not allowed in Touhou, and they can't use magic

Neutral:
- Yuri. I'm a yaoi fan, but I don't really hate yuri all that much. Just depends on how its done.
- OCs, depending on how they're done

And that's my two scents  :V

[Omegahugger]

Love
- Momiji. Period. =D Also Byakuren. ......Ok, so, more generally, the wide cast of characters which allows everyone to find someone they really enjoy.
- Danmaku! Beautiful and challenging patterns? Count me in.
- The music. Not just ZUN's music but everything. There's so much of it and it's all great!
- That moment when you not only clear an extra stage but realize you can consistently do it.
- Learning about japanese mythology and folklore. I probably know more about it at this point than my own culture's folklore and it's all thanks to Touhou.
- Succesfully using Yukari's train spellcard on someone just getting up in Soku. That always cracks me up. BAM, train to the face!
- Stage 1 midboss Cirno encounters. It's like running into an old friend..... and violently blowing her away while cackling maniacally! =) Hey, someone needs to be the target-practice fairy.....

Hate
- Fanfiction. There's no barrier to entry here: pick up a keyboard and a text-editor and you're good to go. Sadly, this also means there's an overwhelming amount of people who think they can write just because they can 'write'. It doesn't work that way. Find something that takes investment to give your creativity wings! =)
- ZUN 'forgetting' about a character. I guess it's hard to balance out 100+ characters in a storyline but..... yeah..... it's a bit frustrating when a character is just tossed aside so new ones can be introduced (and given the same treatment in the next game).
- The weirder scoring systems. If I have to chase down one more UFO only to have it change colors as I'm grabbing it or lead me into a bullet, I'm going to fine Nue and force-feed her one of the little annoyances.
- Headcanon and shipping. Touhou has a rich enough amount of storyline material and characters. There's no need for this nonsense.....

Despise
- Self-inserts and mary-sue OCs. These never work. Never. They just reflect on a total lack of creativity.
- Yukkuris. Seriously. What the hell. No.... just... no. =/
- Deathbomb fail. That 'oh shit!' moment when you get hit by a bullet without expecting it with a full stock of bombs, only to pound the bomb key moments after you die.

Indifferent
- The patterns. It's clear there's none - ZUN does whatever he wants. But it's also kind of expected at this point and almost a tradition to have someone claiming the next game will be a Phantasmagoria because ZUN "follows" a certain pattern.
- Mima-lust. It's pretty obvious ZUN has 0 intention of bringing her back. He probably barely even remembers her at this point. But much like the patterns, this is a tradition of sorts.

[Uruwi]

Love:

Marisa, Youmu, Yuyuko, Nitori. Plus more characters.
(I also like Marisa's PoDD/LLS appearance because it looks a bit comical.)
Yuyuko portrayed as a glutton.
Cirno portrayed as an idiot.
Danmaku.
Music (well, except for SA stage 2). ZUN is an extremely talented composer. It's pretty hard to find his secret.
1CCing.
Every opportunity to allude to Touhou.

Hate:

SA Stage 2.
Wind Blowing from Mt. Ooe.
Dying on the early stages. Or with bombs in stock.
And for that matter, games that aren't generous on lives. TD gets a break because it's laughably easy in terms of dodging.
Fangames that lag. PIB is probably the worst offender.
Fake sleeves.
Having a hard time buying the games.

Absolutely Despise:

The pad meme (see below).
Sexualization of characters. I do not want any more lewd pictures on my Google+ feed.

Neutral:

Sealing Club.
Reimu and Sanae.
Music arranges.

[Szayelaporro Granz]

Love:
-The danmaku pattern in general. They are like fireworks!
-Touhou music are my all time favorite! Much better than mainstream songs.
-Touhou fanarts tend to be reaaaaally well-drawn.
-Challenging difficulty (I haven't improved for a while though, haha).
-Hidden depths of the characters.
-Character designs. I love frilly clothes.
-Extra materials such as manga and fanbook.

Hate:
-Exaggerated character traits. Actually, I don't mind this for fun as long they aren't EVERYWHERE.
-Mima. Just give up, Mima fanboys.
-It's hard to find a good doujin, bleugh :ohdear:
-People whining over recent Touhou fighting games. Just think of them as extra material.

Absolutely despise:
-Degrading character potrayal.
-"Gensokyans are all lolis trololololol". Yukari, Yuuka, Byakuren, Eirin, Yuugi and Kanako would like to have a word with you.
-Most fanfics in general. I think Touhou suffers from this more than any other series.

Neutral:
-Yukkuri abuse. Why not, they are just fictional characters after all! Good to remove some real life stress- *shot*
-ZUNart. It grows on me after a while.
-Yuri relationship.

[Shiina Tamai]

Likes:
The music and its remixes
The characters (I can't bring myself to hate any of them)
The detailed backstory
The sub-culture

Dislikes:
People who use Touhou characters for their sexual fetishes.
Hentai involving child-like characters such as fairies.
Rancid memes.

[jester147]

Likes:
-The games. (except you SA, no one likes you :p)
-The music, the PC-98 ones needs more love.
-YUYUKO TO ARISU!
-MariAli, MeiSaku and YuYukari.
-Awesome fanart.
-The Walfas community.
-The ever increasing fandom that also increase the awesome fan content.

Dislikes:
-The Fan Dumb side of the fandom
-Any overused fandom depiction such as PA- *knifed
-Many NSFW content, they make me feel nauseous.
-Gappies or Self-Inserts, unless portrayed really well.
-Gappy or Self-Insert fics, see above.

Absolutely despise:
-Trolls and Hate Dumbs.

Neutral:
-Yukkuris.
-The fanfics, I don't read them, but I know many exists out there.
-OCs.

Fanfic covers all scope of fan stories. It could be doujin manga, a text fic, or even an anime.
Examples of fanime are Osana Reimu/Reireimu(?), Diamond in the Rough, and Musou Kakyou.

[Jeremie]

Fandom

Like

- Expanding upon canon while trying to remain in character
- Lighthearted comics/pictures full of comedy moments
- Heart-warming comics/pictures
- Tearjerker comics/pictures  that aren't trying to be forceful in their approach
- Fan speculations (especially when they make sense)
- Standard yukkuri stuff (no abuse or not getting too much into details)
- Fan games
- The Touhou community in general. They're capable of doing so many amazing things together and in person, they're pretty fun to hang around with.
- Several doujinshi artists (my favourite Touhou artist is Angeldust/Abyssdragon for their SFW works)

Dislike

- Attempts to make stories grimdark just for the sake of trying to make it look "deep".
- Scorn towards a person because they'd rather play Touhou on easy or aren't even good but still enjoys the series.
- Yukkuri abuse or in fact, any forms of abuse
- Most memes
- "The Watatsuki sisters are Mary Sues."
- People taking Touhou way too seriously
- Seeing ZUN as some sort of perfect being
- Mima still being brought up to this day
- That habit of a lot of the fanbase that seemingly hopes for the same at times
- "There's no males in Gensokyo"... except Rinnosuke, the humans in 13.5, the male rabbit in one of the official manga, the several old men we see, the guards on the Moon, several men mentioned in CiLR and so on.
- "All the characters are lolis" ... except Eirin and... you know the drill.
- Self-inserts/Mary Sue OCs (My character is named Perfectro Omnipotentro and his ability is to repel danmaku or absorb it to become stronger!!!!111111!!!!)
- Musou Kakyou: A Summer Day's Dream & some of the character interpretations in Fantasy Kaleidoscope (Koakuma, the Yakumo clan, Jar Jar Kochiya)


Neutral

- Most pairings. Borderlines on dislike.
- A few memes
- Fanfics

Touhou Official

Like

- Official print works (Cage in Lunatic Runagate, Retrospective 53 Minutes, Symposium of Post-Mysticism, The Skeptical Book Renter #1 & 2 and so on)
- Some of the emphasis on Japanese Mythology
- Touhou games that are a little more story driven (such as 10.5)
- Several characters. Eirin, Iku, Kasen, Minamitsu, Toyohime, Yorihime, Byakuren, Komachi and so forth.
- A lot of the music compositions. In fact I think that's ZUN's best talent compared to making games and writing stories.
- Touhou 8, 10.5 and 13 in particular

Dislike

- 7.5? More like Action 52.
- 9's A.I., aside of that I love the game.
- 10 (except for the iconic music themes, the characters and the story)
- U.N. Owen was her? for being blown out way, way out of proportion. The same goes for her sealed Satori extra stage  and alien "colleagues"
- While I like some of the emphasis on Japanese mythology in the official manga books, it's used way too often as filler at the expense of character development and progression of the story.
- No 1CC? Lol, no ending for you (aside for some exceptions)
- ZUN's trolling habits are amusing at times. Sometimes, not so much.

[Tengukami]

I'm going to go with a more balanced template here.

Love (canon):
- The music.
- The background art.
- The bullet patterns.
- The gameplay gimmicks.
- The character narratives.
- Imperishable Night, DDC, MoF and the photog games.
- ZUN's magnanimousness and generally being a pretty cool guy.

Love (fanon):
- The sprawling, crazy-ass fanbase.
- The wallpapers.
- Evidenced-based fan theories.
- Comedy fanfics.
- Yuri (deal w/ it).
- Fan games.
- Touhou Noob Excitement (or TNE, the kind of hyper, wide-eyed giddiness that people who have newly discovered Touhou often display).

Hate (canon):
- The fighting games. Yawn!
- Chen.
- The way PoFV will just lock up between random stages for no reason. No other game does this.

Hate (fanon):
- Fandom pedantry (i.e., pointless nitpicking and hairsplitting over some stupid detail, especially when I'm guilty of it).
- Touhou Fandom Entitlement (e.g. "this next game BETTER be a shooter!", "it's UNFAIR not to bring back [Character X]"), especially from people who haven't spent a dime on the games.
- People who think ZUN actually deliberately trolls the fanbase with his game-related choices.
- Busty 2hus.
- Nazi 2hus.
- Calling any of the 2hus "lolis", which is gross and makes you sound like a pedo.

Meh (canon):
- Ten Desires.
- The character art.
- The prospect of Touhou expanding into something more commercial. I'm honestly totally ambivalent about this. Like joining the EU, I can see both the good and the bad about the idea.

Meh (fanon):
- Yukkuris.
- Waifuism.
- Orchestral or metal remixes.

[Savory]

- People who think ZUN actually deliberately trolls the fanbase with his game-related choices.

This. So much.

[haoreos2]

Like (canon):
- Character interactions (especially in the fighting games and some written material)
- PMiSS, CoLA, and to a somewhat lesser extent BAiJR
- Character designs (about half of them)
- Yukari and Yuyuko's buddyness: understanding whatever the other is on about despite the layers of for-the-fun-of-it obfuscation, how they seem to have adopted themes and styles from each other, etc
- Overly convoluted explanations, plots, interpretations (especially Rinnosuke's culture gap ones)
- Music
- Spellcards (the variety, complexity, and sheer shiiinyyyneeesssss)
- Some game-specific characterizations: inexperienced Youmu (IaMP, SWR), aristocratic Remilia (EoSD, IaMP, SWR), etc
- The wonderful balance of "enough detail to enable analysis" and "enough ambiguity to warrant expansion"
- Zun seems like a pretty chill guy

Like (fanon):
- Music
- Fanimations
- Artwork
- Overly convoluted discussion, theorizing, headcanon or the like on mechanics, motivations, backstory, etc
- Calm and reasonable debate on interesting subjects
- Some characterizations: stoic Youmu, studious foreigner Alice, buddy Remilia and Patchouli, former serial killer or vampire hunter Sakuya, etc
- Some character interactions: many of those between Patchouli, Alice and Marisa, Reimu and Yukari, Youmu and Yuyuko, Remilia and Sakuya, Reimu and Marisa, or Ran and Yukari

Dislike (canon):
- Anything that lessens the setting (for example through characters possessing power way out of scale of the rest of the setting), either pretty unambiguously (the Lunarian suetopia, particularly the Watatsukis) or debatably so (Suika literally destroying the moon, the Dragon shtick)
- While I adore the dialogue and the plot is fine, I'm somehow worse at the actual game part of the fighters than I am at the shooters

Dislike (fanon):
- When people consider liking or disliking a character to be noble or contemptible based on whether said character is or isn't particularly popular
- Memes that haven't sprouted at least one enjoyable piece of music or animation or somesuch
- Buddhalike character interpretation (taking PoV canonical sources as gospel, assuming infinite depth and scale for a given power that has an impressive or theoretically limitless scope, "Youmu can cut at a decent fraction of the speed of light and Aya is even faster" and soforth)
- Trying to "correct" the above by having a character that is often subjected to such get thoroughly defeated (often nonsensically) to show they're actually super weaksauce (or alternatively that the other party is just super awesome)
- Some characterizations: nasty versions of rather friendly characters like Mokou or Shikieiki, one dimensional portrayals of characters in less detail constrained mediums, etc


I'm sure I've missed plenty but 'salready enough of a wall of text anyway. For "Meh" I'll just say the extremes of fluffy vs grimdark gensokyo; seen it done entertainingly both ways, but usually lackluster when the setting tends to either extreme.

[Shin Rokuren]

While my general likes and dislikes are already listed, one of my peeves is when I see people mentioning "x game is best" only because the characters they like are in it and have nothing to do with the game at all. So yeah, I don't mind if people say SDM is their favorite group, but saying that EoSD is the best game w/o even playing it or comparing it to the rest in the series gets in my nerves.

I also hate how SDM gets most of the love cause it has 2 "lolis" and a maid. Other groups get less love...

[Solomander]

Like canon
- Most character designs are pretty neat.
- Fighting games are fun.
- Music is nice too.

Dislike canon
- Some spellcards in the STG's are annoying.
- The art.

Like fanon
- There are a lot of nice video series made by the Touhou community like Osana Reimu and

Spoiler:

Koishi Komeiji's Heart Throbbing Adventure please don't judge.

- The fact that it's so popular.
- Fan games like Touhoumon.

Dislike fanon
- Sexualization of 2hu's.
- Yukkuris are literally worst 2hu meme

[Silent Harmony]

LIKE (canon):
- The variety. I love how every game brings something new to the table, from the "simplicity" of EoSD and MoF to the UFO system to the Cherry-border system and all the others. It's fun to get a new twist every time a Touhou game appears. I haven't even mentioned the .x games either.
- The cast. Honestly for a while there was at least 1 character that I hated, but now I'm neutral to liking everyone pretty much. ZUN has an enviable imagination to think up so many new characters.
- The music. Need I even explain?
- Easy difficulty. Go ahead and judge me. I like Easy mode existing. Even though I have a small handful of Normal clears in my name, I recently find myself going to Easy when I just want to play a game and kill time. It's nice and relaxing for someone at my skill level.

Like (fandom):
Fanworks: I know there's a lot of crap out there, but honestly that goes for any fandom so I can't hold that against the Touhou one. There are a lot of brilliant fanworks, whether it be art, music (arranges or original), fanfiction, doujinshi, or even full-fledged games. This community honestly is among the best in the world in my opinion.


Hate (canon):
- Circular health bars around bosses: Sorry I'm a traditionalist, I like my health bars up top and huge where they're less obscured by what's going on around the screen. Not that I really ever look at them either way, but a gripe is a gripe.
- "Easy" balancing: 90% of the time ZUN gets it right. The other 10% you wonder if he even tests the lower difficulties. The most infamous example is Mountain of Faith (the card) on Easy vs. Normal. Another great example is the Prismriver fight; just try fighting Lyrica on Easy, I dare you.

Hate (fandom):
- Bad memes: I know fans will be fans, but holy crap. PADS (and other examples of breast envy), "X" is a slut, "Y" is a pervert, Knife'd, Sanae is a psycho serial-killer, and much much more. How do people find this shit funny?!
- Sanae is a slut: I know I said that already but it bears repeating. Not only is slut-shaming horrible, but there's absolutely nothing pointing in this direction! The people who say this seem to typically be upset Sakuya fanboys who somehow believe that she had a "spot" that Sanae took.
- Mima/Shinki is coming back: No they're not. And even if they did it's because ZUN decided that it'd be good for the game and nothing more. It's his series.
- Complaining about X game: This feeling was huge with the recent 14.5 discussion turning into "let's flame ZUN/Tasafro". Again, it's not your series, it is ZUN's. He and Tasafro can do whatever they want because in the end it's a labor of love, not a commercial blockbuster series.
- Pirating: No. Just no.


Neutral (both):
- Relationshipping: Pretty much a hopeless romantic, so I was tempted to put this on "Like". However 99% of the time it is horribly done so that drops it down.

Spoiler:

That being said KageWaka's totally my otp.

- Fighting games: I'm not a fighting game fan, but I know a lot of people are. Honestly I really don't care how often they're made.
- Imperishable Night: Really neutral about this game. I can't explain why, there are a couple of good tracks and Eientei is interesting enough, but I just have no desire to buy it.
- Ten Desires: The other game I really am neutral about on almost all phases. Every other game has something, whether it be music, danmaku, gimmick, or characters, that I latch onto. Ten Desires has Kyoko and Night Sakura of Dead Spirits and that's it for me.

[Lt Colonel Summers]

Likes
1. Shanghai Doll or Hourai Doll. Anyone of Alice's dolls in general.
2. Gensokyo with modern day technologies (or futuristic ones, though those are rare)
3. Doujin artists from not just the USA or Japan, but China, South Korea, any other countries in general.
4. 2hus with guns of any kind.

Neutral
1. "What anime is this?" - I have no problem with this.
2. Yukkuri - this one too.
3. Researches put into the work - Doujins like Nanaroku's "Gensokyo Great Sports Day - 200 Yojana in a flash" has a surprising amount of research on Advanced Math, Engineering and Physics put into it, and all of them are accurate! But it didn't matter to me whether it's "Shown Their Work" or "Artistic License"...
4. Mima and Shinki - they're just characters. Even if they won't return in official works, they live on in Doujins. Same deal with the other PC-98 2hus.
5. Calling Gensokyo Communist - Gensokyo in canon is already as isolated from the rest of the world as real-life North Korea, so not surprising to me.

Dislikes
1. 2hus shouldn't use guns because they don't want to injure anyone - has anyone ever heard of Stun Guns or Tranquilizers? Or has anyone ever recalled seeing injuries inflicted by swords, fists or even the supposedly non-fatal Spell Cards?!
2. Nudity, censored or not - people like me already hate anything Rule 34 in general. In fact, I loathe Rule 34.
3. Sex scene, censored or not - ditto with the above.
4. Obsession with hats - the Touhou fandom's obsession with hats is on the same level as Team Fortress 2, and I really don't mind if someone wears hats or not. But insisting on wearing hats... Just no.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Love (canon):
- music
- bullet patterns, especially as they move and fan out from the boss, gosh those are lovely
- fun gameplay
- MarisaBugged in MoF
- Perfect Cherry Blossom
- Shoot the Bullet
- Subterranean Animism
- Undefined Fantastic Object
- the PC-98 games because they work flawlessly on my tiny netbook while none of the others do

Love (fanon):
- That there's a Touhou version of pretty much anything I could ever be interested in reading or playing or watching
- the really dedicated fanbase with its massive amounts of creativity and passion
- well-written fanfiction
- yuri fandom
- to add on to that, all the excellent female relationships that are going on in these games
- the community that's been drawn to these games in general, it's so creative and I love it

Hate (canon):
- Ten Desires
- Symposium of Post-Mysticism
- how pretty much all the games past Double Spoiler insist on not working on my laptop
- Symposium of Post-Mysticism (deserves mentioning twice)
- the continuing of the religious war storyline, which was interesting in MoF, downplayed in SA, done more lightheartedly in UFO, and overplayed and tired by 10D
- Highly Responsive to Prayers, all my hate

Hate (fanon):
- the people who think Gensokyo should be super gritty and dark - they pretty much killed my desire to ever write for this series again
- disgusting fans who want to turn fandom from a place of relaxation where you can kick your feet up after a long day and enjoy good games with friends into unsafe places full of creeps

Meh (canon):
- Imperishable Night
- Cage in Lunatic Runagate. I told myself I would read it sometime. six years and going in this fandom and I've never read it. I think it's time for me to confess I just don't find it interesting.
- the Lunarians in general, come to think of it; they're all pretty meh
- whatever the most recent game was called, I barely cared. The final boss' name was Sukuna something and there was a mermaid. I think. That's how little of an impression it made on me. At least I mostly know the names of the characters in 10D.
- Embodiment of Scarlet Devil; even when I was new to the fandom I wasn't terribly interested in them.

Meh (fanon):
- yukkuris - are those still around? do people still care about those?
- people taking the Mima jihad seriously; it's just a joke, I would be amazed if anyone actually truly believed it would happen. People who take tongue in cheek jokes about it seriously are tiring.

[Uruwi]

- the continuing of the religious war storyline, which was interesting in MoF, downplayed in SA, done more lightheartedly in UFO, and overplayed and tired by 10D

You think UFO is lighthearted?
Anyway, I'm not a big fan of the rwars either.

[Ps]

Like:

• The characters
• The music
• Dodging bullets
• Death bombing
• "I'll make you have nightmares every time you see a head!"
• DDC -- now in H D  !  :getdown:
• Coming back to EoSD after focusing on other games and realizing I could capture some of Patchouli's spellcards
• The feeling of euphoria that comes with facing an extremely difficult boss and realizing I'm in way over my head
• Arrangements -- there are talented Touhou musicians in almost every genre. I just found Touhou Charleston. It was amazing.
• Doujins that portray Touhou as cute, funny, badass, or incredibly sappy
• Doujins with a unique take on the characters
• Crack pairings

Dislike:

• Dodging right into a bullet
• Realizing that my keyboard has a ghosting issue
• Burning out on Stage 4 every single time
• I can't figure out IaMP
• ZUN's character art is kind of... well...
• The use of the word "arrange" as a noun
• OCs that aren't by Gensoukoumuten
• NSFW doujins starring faceless males
• Doujins that exist to place meme'd-up versions of characters in vaguely heartwarming or lulzy situations
• Most stories about Chen and Ran-shama
• Various memes defaming Reimu, Sanae, and Meiling
• The cult of Cirno

[Alfred F. Jones]

You think UFO is lighthearted?
Anyway, I'm not a big fan of the rwars either.

I do, for some reason. My reasons are a really weird mix of personal frontline experience in fandom juxtaposed against game visuals and tone and settings.

First, I played the SHIT out of the demo, so it made the strongest visual impression on me by a long shot; when I think of UFO, I think of flying through the skies, above the clouds, very bright and airy colour palettes. The version of UFO we got during the full release significantly darkened the background colour palette, but by that point, my feelings towards UFO were firmly rooted in "bright, light and breezy". I guess as an artist I'm really influenced by visuals like that.

Then there's also the part where SA had been largely a reprieve from the religious war storyline (which the fandom didn't recognize as an overt storyline at the time; I'll come back to this in a bit), with the Moriya Shrine's machinations in the background technically kicking off the plot, but that was simple cause and effect and it was actually really damn cool to see continuity in the series like that. And then UFO was kicked off by events in SA! It was like a really cool chain of cause and effect. But anyway, SA doesn't really concern itself much with religious showmanship at all, so with it acting as a buffer between UFO and MoF, I didn't really see it as a war so much as an interesting new idea from ZUN to have a small background event in one game start off the plot of another.

Personal bias here: Byakuren struck me as incredibly like-able, not to mention the rest of Myouren-ji's crew, and being quite good at the game itself helped. (As a normal mode player, I'm still quite proud that it became the first extra stage I ever beat.) Interestingly, the people who DIDN'T like Byakuren and the Myouren-ji folks then got into huge rows over it with people who did like them (hey, in retrospect, that was like a preview of the religious wars!). And then the grimdark doujins of the UFO cast started becoming more and more common. And then when 10D full was released, a not-insignificant amount of the people who had disliked Byakuren went over to Team Taoism. So maybe somewhere along the way,  in my head, in-universe strife became associated with fandom strife. Wonderful.

UFO did definitely start having aspects of that religious war (and if you don't play Sanae routes, then it's just Reimu and Marisa setting off to beat up troublemakers, with Reimu bringing a bit more of a holy beatdown but still nothing out of the ordinary for her.) But it wasn't until 10D full release that it started becoming incredibly overt. Or maybe I'm just unobservant? But that demo started off visually dark from the start, and when full release came out, it became clear that we had reached the end of the chain of introducing our contestants in the contest I hadn't realized was being set up this whole time, although it was much more obvious in retrospect.

So that, in too many words, is why I thought UFO was lighthearted and tolerable while 10D was my breaking point with the dark new religious war storyline. And let's not even get into Symposium of Post-Mysticism, which I can only say one good thing about: the amazing art on its cover and through its pages. Including Seiga dressed as Santa stealing gifts for Christmas.

[Tengukami]

I also found UFO to be light. Even the music was, for the most part, right to the final boss fight. I hadn't thought about it before, but my lack of interest in TD probably was due in part to the whole religious thing get wild 'n' crazy. The Taoists really didn't do it for me as characters, and I felt like the arc was just checking off the last plausible faction to add to the power struggle before reaching an ending I thought was a very interesting take on the inevitable regained begrudging harmony.

Though for me, DDC brought me back to the series, and ISC is a great non-shooter. If you ever get bored some time and find the notion, I think you might like ISC (provided you had a machine that could run it).

[Alfred F. Jones]

I'll keep that rec in mind should I finally get a machine that is capable of playing it, many thanks!

[Helepolis]

I was wondering how one can hate Symposium of Post-Mysticism while there is no mention made of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. Both official works actually reveal the profile of all known Touhou characters and both were hosted/written by Akyuu as well.

[haoreos2]

I was wondering how one can hate Symposium of Post-Mysticism while there is no mention made of Perfect Memento in Strict Sense. Both official works actually reveal the profile of all known Touhou characters and both were hosted/written by Akyuu as well.

The subjects of interest are different though. If symposium declares interpretations of characters you like as incorrect/entirely fanon, but PMiSS didn't step on any toes, you could easily dislike the former while being chill with the latter.



Incidentally, regarding the whole "UFO is lighthearted" thing, I honestly don't consider any of the games to be particularly dark. Heck, IN was literally set at night and the atmosphere still felt light and cheery, like one o' dem fireworks festivals or something.

[ILikeBulletZ]

TD is clearly the darkest game, because...


I don't know... I just always though it was a slightly darker atmosphere than the others...

I mean just look (hear?) at the stage 1 music. Its certainly not as happy/peacefull/party-like sounding as every other Stage 1 music, that's for sure. Ok maybe it IS slightly peacefull but in a different way than, say, IN?s.

[snowflake247]

I think the games with the darkest atmosphere are HRtP and SoEW. I don't know exactly why, but something about them seems sort of lonely and melancholic. If we're only talking about Windows games, the darkest in my opinion would be SA and DDC. The first three stages of DDC have an almost "Halloween" feel to them in my opinion. Maybe it's because of the dullahan and the werewolf, and the big full moon in stage 3. The music plays a role in how "light" or "dark" I find a stage/game, too. Just compare "The Sealed Cloud Route" to "The Bridge People No Longer Cross", for instance.

Back on topic:

Like:
?The games.
?The characters.
?The music.
?The ridiculous number of music remixes.
?Fanartists who put their own unique spin on things.
?ZUN's art. (It's really cute in a way.)
?Danmakufu.
?Well-done OCs.
?The sheer creativity (both by ZUN and the fanbase).
?The references to Japanese folklore.
?Most things.

Dislike:
?Yukkuri abuse.
?"[Character] is a slut" memes.
?The "pads" meme.
?EoSD. It seems "unpolished" to me.
?Powerlevel arguments.
?"There are no such thing as men in Gensokyo!" Rinnosuke says hi.
?OCs who are Sues/Stus or just knockoffs of canon characters.
?The UFO system. Why should I have to chase little flying saucers around to get my resources?

Neutral:
?"Grimdark" and/or angsty fanworks.
?Yukkuris in general.
?Sexy fanart.
?The difficulty of the games. Sometimes it's fun and challenging, but sometimes it's just frustrating.
?Fanfics where someone from the outside world gets gapped into Gensokyo. A few of them are all right, but there are lots of poorly-executed ones.