Official Touhou Project Magazine 2016: w/ Uni Akiyama and ZUN's music CD

[cuc]

ZUN's interview on the Dengeki Online stream has just ended.
(Some screencaps and info from Tohomemory and Vanishing Hermit)

- ZUN: I don't make console games because it's too much trouble for me.
- ZUN: The magazine is in some way a celebration of the 20th anniversary.

- Okonogi showed a few sneak peeks of the magazine:


- As Okonogi booted up LoLK's music room, they began talking about the game's music.
- ZUN: Writing the Stage 4 theme was a pleasant experience. When I spend time thinking about how to write a song, the song tends to be bad. Writing whatever comes to my mind is pleasant.
- ZUN: Due to the lore, [LoLK] absolutely must be a hard game.
- ZUN: Stage 5 feels like a shooting game from the past.
- ZUN: Extra Stage is Stage 7, thus it is part of the main story.
- ZUN: This time for players, beating Easy is enough. I wouldn't force them to [play on harder difficulties.]

- ZUN: (Browsing twitter on his phone) I see a cosplay of Clownpiece from the American TouhouCon. America has a good fandom environment. I'd like to go there again.
- He recently received an invitation from an event in France. [cuc: Japan Expo 2015, perhaps?]

- ZUN: As for the moons of the Stage 5 boss, I couldn't beat them myself when I tried it.
- ZUN: The writing process for the Stage 5 boss theme was very freewheeling.

- ZUN's food and drink column will continue on Comp Ace.
- ZUN: (Looking at pictures of his son) My son is so cute. Okonogi: You already said that during the interview.

- ZUN: Making the [danmaku] is fun, but dodging them is a pain.
- ZUN: (About the spacey motif of LoLK music) I heart space.

- The next issue of the magazine will be released in spring 2016.
- ZUN: The character introductions [in the magazine] are not written by me. In the past when I wrote them myself, people found them difficult to understand.

During the final audience Q&A session:
Q: Why is Hecatia wearing the weird T-shirt?
ZUN: For the answer to this question, please read about it in Gairai Ihen.

[cuc]

Another reminder to people:
You can preorder the book at Amazon, and it WILL ship overseas (Link)

I want to point out that Reimu and Marisa are entwining their fingers on the cover:

Artists: Alstroemeria Records, SOUND HOLIC, and Yuuhei Satellite
Kind of a boringly safe selection.

I wonder if this is ZUN's way of teasing the shippers.

Lol, for the sake of your sanity, try not to read too much into Genji Asai's artwork. He slips all kind of weird crap into his Touhou illustrations.

More sneak peeks:






"Touhou Kourindou ~ Curiosities of Lotus Asia."
Chapter 1: The alone and aloof curio shop owner

[Quwanti]

Artists: Alstroemeria Records, SOUND HOLIC, and Yuuhei Satellite
Kind of a boringly safe selection.

I wonder if ZUN will provide a new song on the CD, or is it arrangements only?

I like it that the first chapter seems to be about ULiL.

[cuc]

Arrangements only, it seems.

Eh, there's another one from the stream which I wasn't sure about. ZUN said Hecatia's planets do "sink into her head".

That's more than the confirmation anyone would ever need about the planets.

[Kilgamayan]

- ZUN: (Browsing twitter on his phone) I see a cosplay of Clownpiece from the American TouhouCon. America has a good fandom environment. I'd like to go there again.

!!!!!!!!!

Also, I'm 99% sure I know who this is. If I see her again today, I'll have to tell her.

[hungrybookworm]

I wholeheartedly approve of the cover, more Sumireko and maji ikemen Kourin.

- He recently received an invitation from an event in France. [cuc: Japan Expo 2015, perhaps?]

Goddamnit ZUN please come to Europe.

[Anseriform]

- ZUN: (Browsing twitter on his phone) I see a cosplay of Clownpiece from the American TouhouCon. America has a good fandom environment. I'd like to go there again.
- He recently received an invitation from an event in France. [cuc: Japan Expo 2015, perhaps?]

 

Does this mean ZUN got invited but didn't go (Japan Expo 2015 was in July) or is it an invitation for an upcoming event?

[kevin1127]

Oh wow, I was right
I always thought since ZUN made the music first and character danmaku stage second, if he made the music second, that would not be a good music

And great! New CoLA starts with Sumireko and...... an iPhone??? Okay.....
I feel like Sumireko is going to get more official appearance from now on

[Reu]

Oh wow, I was right
I always thought since ZUN made the music first and character danmaku stage second, if he made the music second, that would not be a good music

And great! New CoLA starts with Sumireko and...... an iPhone??? Okay.....
I feel like Sumireko is going to get more official appearance from now on

Maybe, maybe not.

But it does make sense for her to appear here at least once simply because Rinnosuke needs some more tech to be confused about.

[HalfGrand]

I'm wondering about the CoLA entry of this magazine and how it will fit in with ZUN's original CoLA from long ago.

Is it going to be more of a reboot of CoLA or a continuation of that series? If it is indeed a continuation then I thought it was finished.

[cuc]

Amazon has released the full image of the cover:


The Dengeki Moeoh website has finally given us a full preview of the magazine's contents.

- Special Feature 1: introduction to LoLK and interview with ZUN
- Special Feature 2: Introduction to ULiL and interview with game director Unabara
- The Play,Doujin! corner: interviews with the developers: Yuro (Cubetype), JYUNYA (Aqua Style), Zukki (Ryouiki Zero), Naocchi (programmer), and Mediascape
- Beginners' column about the world and characters of Touhou Project, with comments by ZUN
- The return of CoLA
- Comics by the following artists (I'm too lazy to transcribe, just note that they have Arata, the Inaba artist):
火鳥、相生青唯、葉庭、水炊き、水中花火、ととみねぎ、あらたとしひら
- Arrangement CD, and interviews with music circles

I'm wondering about the CoLA entry of this magazine and how it will fit in with ZUN's original CoLA from long ago.

Is it going to be more of a reboot of CoLA or a continuation of that series? If it is indeed a continuation then I thought it was finished.

Reboots are part of the CoLA experience . The old CoLA was published on and off over 4 years in five different places, and witnessed the death of two magazines and one website. Depending on your criteria, you can say CoLA had already been rebooted more than once. That's also why ZUN jokes about himself being a "magazine crusher". That's not even mentioning how much ZUN's own life and thinking had changed during the writing of CoLA. The stories from different periods in the CoLA book are as different from each other as they will be from the new chapters.

[Plubio]

Thank you very much, cuc. The cover looks amazing, and I'm glad to see Arata again.
I'm waiting for this, I'm looking forward reading new CoLA.

Too bad I'll have to wait to October 5 to get my own copy.
Will be worth, though.

[UTW]

The others seem to be Minato Hitori. Aioi Aoi, Haniwa, Mizutaki (also the artist of the random illustrations seen at the end of FS chapters), Suichuu Hanabi, and Totonemigi.

[hungrybookworm]

Minato Hitori? Of "Marisa gets haemorrhoids" and "Let's make udon soup out of Sakuya's used bathwater" fame? This'll be interesting, lol.

I hope they make a poster out of that cover someday, so I can stick it on my wall and all the poor souls visiting my flat will get a face full of reimari hand-holding when they walk inside.

[kevin1127]

First 15 pages
http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/watch/bk314457#playing

EDITED: OMG it looks like there are so much information on story and character of LoLK. The sad thing is I don't understand most of the meanings.

[Plubio]

God, it even mentions Imperishable Night, Eirin, Kaguya, Silent Sinner in Blue, Rei'sen and Yukari.
I need to translate this as soon as possible.

[hungrybookworm]

I caved in and got the ebook version of this in the end. Bought it off Amazon's kindle store (because I didn't need a VPN) which turned out to be a terrible idea. It wouldn't synch with my PC Kindle app, and the cloud viewer didn't have a zoom button so I couldn't read any of the kanji blah blah grumble grumble. Used a VPN and grabbed a second copy off bookwalker. Accepts paypal. Zooms in beautifully. Recommended. (My money... *sob*)

Anyway the Kourindou story was entertaining and the LoLK interview's great. Packed full of info about the lolks and the overall story. I've skimmed everything else and the character profiles/location encyclopaedia seem pretty well researched. If you can read Japanese I think this is worth the purchase. For those of you who don't read Japanese... watch warmly for translations. (The DDC interview never got translated so will anyone do the LoLK interview I wonder...)

[N-Forza]

If the DDC one is transcribed somewhere I might take a shot at it, but that's assuming I can find the time...

[hungrybookworm]

If the DDC one is transcribed somewhere I might take a shot at it, but that's assuming I can find the time...

It's right here on the wiki. If I trusted my Japanese more I'd have a crack at it myself. (There's something really intimidating about translating ZUN...) Maybe if it's still untranslated this time next year...

[N-Forza]

Perfect, I'll see about tackling it when I next have downtime.

Also, pertaining to the magazine, I scanned the interview real quick and found out that the American flag the fairies discovered may not have actually come from the moon.

[Kaizaki]

Urk. Must. Have. Patience. ><

[kevin1127]

Here are some of the information from LoLK interview
(This is taken from a Chinese website and I translated it, so there may be errors)

1. ZUN thinks the appearance of Yukari in Marisa's ending is the beginning.
2. Lunar Capital is based on Takama-ga-hara(高天原). There are other people like Chang'e and Lord Tsukuyomi, some of them are even greater than Tsukuyomi and there are beings greater than divine spirits. But ZUN has no intention to make those beings appear.  (damn, people greater than lord of Lunar Capital)
3. Eirin's status in Lunar Capital is not very high.  (one of the founders and sages in Lunar Capital, not very high in status, what kind of people are higher than Eirin)
4. Kishin is stronger than those fairies outside, but she neither can't go nor see what's out there, so she didn't know how strong enemy is.
5. Clownpiece changed her clothes after she saw the flag on the moon.
6. The true power of Urban Legend is not creating something out of nothing, it's rewriting the history. ( i have no idea what this means)
7. The story is just venting. Neither moving to Gensokyo nor invading Lunar Capital is serious (typical Touhou incident once again)
8. If Lunar Capital were moving to Gensokyo seriously, people in Gensokyo would disappeared and they won't even notice it. (how godly is Lunar Ca....oh wait, Lunarians ARE gods)
9. Hecatia is a being beyond Gensokyo and Lunar Capital, of course is greater than Eiki. (4chan power-level-argumen-er intensifies)
10. There are many more stuffs about hell. Eiki is just a judge from an organization created by oni from hell. (plz don't kill me if i translated this sentence wrong) And Reimu's position is not human sided, her job is just to protect Gensokyo's balance, protect balance between humans and youkais, and protects the barrier.
11. Hecatia's different colors have different personality. (fandom intensifies)
12. ZUN thinks Hecatia changes her cloth color AS her hair color changes.
13. The words on her clothes were originally "I (heart) Hell" instead of "Welcome (heart) hell". But he thinks this is too far so he changes it.
14. Hecatia is supposed to be a serious character, but ZUN wants to make her "serious but with weird outfit".
15. Gensokyo is part of the Spirit World. Every worlds that we don't understand is part of the Spirit World.

EDITED: Grammar error

[teefa85]

I'm not surprised by the Clownpiece thing.

[Drake]

1. ZUN thinks the appearance of Yukari in Marisa's ending is the beginning.

this is very good yes

2. Lunar Capital is based on Takama-ga-hara(高天原). There are other people like Chang'e and Lord Tsukuyomi, some of them are even greater than Tsukuyomi and there are beings greater than divine spirits. But ZUN has no intention to make those beings appear.  (damn, people greater than lord of Lunar Capital)

Entirely expected. Those greater than Tsukuyomi would just be some of the heavenly gods that existed before him.

3. Eirin's status in Lunar Capital is not very high.  (one of the founders and sages in Lunar Capital, not very high in status, what kind of people are higher than Eirin)

Same deal. Omoikane isn't one of the more major heavenly gods.

6. The true power of Urban Legend is not creating something out of nothing, it's rewriting the history. ( i have no idea what this means)

Very likely referring to how urban legends like "they never went to the moon" are the most powerful because if accepted they change history, i.e. the records of the past. An urban legend of a lady who stabs you with scissors isn't very powerful.

10. There are many more stuffs about hell. Eiki is just a judge from an organization created by oni from hell. (plz don't kill me if i translated this sentence wrong)

"Created by" is probably wrong, seeing as we already have information about where the Ministry came from.

15. Gensokyo is part of the Spirit World. Every worlds that we don't understand is part of the Spirit World.

If this is 異界, I think we're using the term Otherworld(s) right now. In other words, both the Dream World and Gensokyo are otherworlds.

[kevin1127]

"Created by" is probably wrong, seeing as we already have information about where the Ministry came from.

I thought so. I suck at translating. But you got the point, I think.

If this is 異界, I think we're using the term Otherworld(s) right now. In other words, both the Dream World and Gensokyo are otherworlds.

I go by wiki translation of 異界, I don't know what is the official translation.

[Drake]

I think the problem in that regard is that the wiki is a bit inconsistent because what 異界 even means hasn't really been well-established as of LoLK, it was just mentioned as a thing that Hecatia has domain in and it's related to the Dream World. The term 異界 isn't easily translated and the intended meaning isn't clear either. I had previously figured that saying Otherworld/Spirit World was plainly equivalent to the Dream World, but if that answer is accurate then I would be mistaken. It's also the reason why people have used "Spirit World" to begin with; they figure it's just one thing. Is the relevant question in the preview version?

EDIT: Actually there's way more interesting information. I'm busy right now but I really want to try translating some of this soon.

EDIT: Okay so what he says in that answer is that 異界 isn't really one solid thing, it's a description. "Otherworld" or even "Other world" is probably a good enough translation judging by how he uses it here.

いろいろあるよね。幻想郷も「異界」のイメージです。要は、我々が認識していない世界をひっくるめて「異界」と言っているので。月と地球「以外」ですね。

"There are many of them. Gensokyo also evokes the impression of 'otherworld'. In essence, worlds that we don't recognize we all lump into 'otherworlds'. Worlds that aren't the moon or the Earth, really."
_{(also there's a pun with saying 異界 "ikai" and 以外 "igai")}

[Damien]

2. Lunar Capital is based on Takama-ga-hara(高天原). There are other people like Chang'e and Lord Tsukuyomi, some of them are even greater than Tsukuyomi and there are beings greater than divine spirits. But ZUN has no intention to make those beings appear.  (damn, people greater than lord of Lunar Capital)
3. Eirin's status in Lunar Capital is not very high.  (one of the founders and sages in Lunar Capital, not very high in status, what kind of people are higher than Eirin)

Of course it is. There are two collective group of gods that higher than Chang'e, Tsukuyomi, and Eirin (Omoikane) :
First is the Kamiyonanayo, pairs of seven generation Gods that exist after the creation of the heaven and earth, which Izanagi and Izanami are part of. And above Kamiyonanayo itself is the Kotoamatsukami, which is the collective name of Hitorigami (First Gods that came into existence at the time of the creation of the universe). Amenominakanushi place the position as the first kami in the universe.

[Shizzo]

All of those tidbits about Hecatia <3 <3 That just hypes my expectations that she'll get on the spotlight somewhere in the future!

[PK]

Of course it is. There are two collective group of gods that higher than Chang'e, Tsukuyomi, and Eirin (Omoikane) :
First is the Kamiyonanayo, pairs of seven generation Gods that exist after the creation of the heaven and earth, which Izanagi and Izanami are part of. And above Kamiyonanayo itself is the Kotoamatsukami, which is the collective name of Hitorigami (First Gods that came into existence at the time of the creation of the universe). Amenominakanushi place the position as the first kami in the universe.

How does Sagume's original deity rank compared to Omoikane? Is Sagume, a "very important" lunarian, supposed to be more important than Eirin, going by mythology?

[Damien]

How does Sagume's original deity rank compared to Omoikane? Is Sagume, a "very important" lunarian, supposed to be more important than Eirin, going by mythology?

Sagume seems below Eirin, since her original myth is a servant of deity Amewakahiko (Son of Amaterasu).