Touhou developers to be guests of NIS America at Anime Expo (July 1-4, 2016)

[Quwanti]

The second issue's CD will have Occult ? la Carte Occult Attract (new?), Retribution for the Eternal Night, and Last Occultism. Interesting picks. Last Occultism is actually said to be its full version.

I assume this is the version that was played in the Shinpiroku PS4 trailer. It's been a long time since ZUN used one a track from the older windows games. It also seems the subtitle of that one is "(something) and (something)". Though, the screenshot is a bit blurry so I'm probably wrong. :V

[Soul Devour]

ZUN: "After Anime Expo I'm going to to San Francisco. There's a publisher there that has said they want to interview me."

Hmm. a quick cursory glance at game publishers in San Francisco using this site yielded three publishers in and around the city. Capcom, whom we all know of (I hope), Deep Silver (Metro series, Killing Floor 2, Mighty No. 9, Saints Row and oh, this little gem) and a curious third entry, Autumn Games (Skullgirls).

Be interesting to see what comes of this, if anything.

[Hello Purvis]

Peacock's gonna be the next bonus character in a fighter, you heard it here.

[N-Forza]

The word ZUN used in the tweet is referring to a book publisher if I'm not utterly mistaken, so it's likely going to be an interview meant for some western publication.

[Drake]

Yeah I'm pretty sure we're talking about a book or magazine publisher here. My initial thoughts to go something like The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers.

[The ⑨th Zentillion]

Oh, man, wouldn't it be something if we saw certain titles of the print works get official western translations and repleses? Or the magazine for that matter...

[Tiamat]

Not sure if publishing Touhou Print Works over in the west would be very profitable.  They kinda rely on a LOT of Japanese culture to get the jokes and references across, even more so than the games do.

[N-Forza]

Older comics like the SSiB comics got translation in Asian markets, so it's not entirely far-fetched.

[Suwako Moriya]

Not sure if publishing Touhou Print Works over in the west would be very profitable.  They kinda rely on a LOT of Japanese culture to get the jokes and references across, even more so than the games do.

If Galaxy Angel can be sold to English-speaking markets, anything can.

[cuc]

It seems there's some slight confusion with the AX catalog. It lists ZUN's panel at 8:15-9:15 PM, rather than 9:30-10:30 PM. ZUN tweeted a clarification himself.

Most likely there were only plans for a ZUN panel when the catalog was finalized. When they added a fan game panel, they also had to move ZUN into the late night 9:30 PM timeslot.

EDIT around 20:00 PST: Apparently the staff just told the people waiting in line they had no idea where ZUN is? Somebody should show them ZUN's tweet.

[aUsernameIsFineToo]

Here is a transcript of the interview with ZUN.

[Critz]

While I am somewhat bummed that it's yet another Q&A panel and I still don't know the answer to what I consider two of most urgent canon questions (namely what sort of training is required to master flight in Gensokyo and whether spell card duels are magically enforced or agreed upon), I still hope that you guys have some way to verify the accuracy of this transcript - if only because that PC98 question is huge, Mima or not.

[aListers]

Here is a transcript of the interview with ZUN.

I applaud the one who asked about Mima!

Also, PC-98 games were canon. I'm sure that people will retranslate what he said to the point that it's so vague it may as well not have been asked. However, Mima is confirmed canon - kind of!

[cuc]

While I am somewhat bummed that it's yet another Q&A panel and I still don't know the answer to what I consider two of most urgent canon questions (namely what sort of training is required to master flight in Gensokyo and whether spell card duels are magically enforced or agreed upon), I still hope that you guys have some way to verify the accuracy of this transcript - if only because that PC98 question is huge, Mima or not.

The PC-98 question is no news. He wouldn't ever give you a different answer.

The most worthwhile question from the panel is this:

Can there be a game about Maribel and Renko? "There could be, but I can't actually control myself enough to start a game with ideas in mind"

His answer obviously got distorted by interpretation so we don't know what he really meant, but it must be an interesting one.

My guess is he was saying he prefers the flexibility of tailoring fresh new characters for a game from ground up, rather than using existing characters, which restricts his creativity. See the general lack of returning characters in Touhou games, and most recently in LoLK. The decimal games are an entire different matter, as they are easy-to-make small projects, where he reuses existing code and sprites.

Also, while I love your choice of questions, I'm afraid all you can get from him is "I don't know". Last year he actually said on twitter: "Sorry, I will not respond to any questions related to the fiction/worldbuilding/universe/canon (設定). Well, depending on circumstances there might be times I do (laugh". While in the context he was talking about twitter, I think we can agree this rule has been well applied to his other public appearances.

[Tiamat]

The general answer to Maribel and Renko being in a game could basically be summed up as "Maybe".  I'm not sure what else they were expecting ZUN to answer with.  If he said "No", he's unnecessarily restricting himself because maybe one day he will want to have them in a game.  If he says "Yes", he's unnecessarily restricting himself cause now he's forced to have them be in a game or else he'd be a meanie for lying (and we already know that most games tend to be thought up by ZUN on the spot rather than planned way in advance... well, unless my memory was wrong).

Even ZUN doesn't know if Momiji and Aya have wolf and pointy ears, respectively.  Though that's not too surprising (all he ever made for Momiji was a sprite and the pointy-ears thing seems to just happen randomly from his art style sometimes).  Still nice to get confirmation (that even ZUN doesn't know) on that one though since it was never certain to the fans which was the case.

Whether or not PC-98 is canon is mostly just academic at this point.  If ZUN one day decides to bring back Mima, ZUN will bring back Mima, regardless of whether or not PC-98 is "canon".  After all, that's the case with Alice and Yuuka.  They and their storylines don't seem to care about whether it's canon (they don't really contradict PC-98, at least if you consider that Alice in PC-98 was never confirmed to be born in Makai) or not (they're vague enough that they could potentially just be tongue-in cheek references and don't really confirm it, either)

[Tengukami]

Whether or not PC-98 is canon is mostly just academic at this point.

I agree. It doesn't seem to matter how often he says PC-98 can be thought of as a separate thing; some PC-98 fans seem to have this need for validation that is very strange. Like, if you enjoy the games, why does it matter? If ZUN wants to bring any of those characters back, he will, provided he can do so in a way that makes sense - as he has said every time he's asked this question.

[Clarste]

To put things in perspective, this was ZUN's commentary about Alice in the latest Strange Creator of Outside World magazine:

The trial version goes up to stage 3, but I didn't want to give away what would show up in the subsequent stages, or the final boss. So I brought back a character from the past just to make the players feel like it might have something to do with that (lol). The fact that the demos have 3 stages has had a huge effect on the setting and characters, and how I present them.

In other words, the right context to bring Alice back was to troll the audience into expecting other PC-98 characters in PCB.

[cuc]

Re: the Renko and Merry question

The "maybe" part is guaranteed. It's the rationale (however irrelevant to the actual question) that's interesting.

Re: the canonicity of PC-98 is academic

Well said, though I'd add that "canon" as the contemporary fandom culture imagines it really only exist for corporate projects where multiple creators must take care maintaining an illusion of consistency. Even then, its existence is tenuous and easily broken.

(That's the meaning we use when we say "PC-98 games are Touhou canon". It's more accurately called "canonical continuity", as opposed to the sense of "canon" as the body of works that are authoritative, i.e. the bible for the Christian community; L. Frank Baum's Oz books; everything Touhou written by ZUN.)

The canonical continuity is much less meaningful for ZUN, for whom doujin creation means doing whatever he wants, however he likes it. He wouldn't love pinning himself down for the need of fulfilling some obligation of continuity.


I did forget to post this. It's our old friend Itsuari (FiveAnt) putting nearly all AX-related tweets up to the panel in one list. The panel stuff begins on Page 2.

http://togetter.com/li/994742

Among other things, it was interesting to know from the fan game panel that following the schedule of commercial game development is a huge challenge to doujin devs. You could also see that the word ZUN used for Yukari's danmaku and character is 気持ち悪い (unpleasant).

EDIT:
A recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSBYVHFUvmQ

[Drake]

You could also see that the word ZUN used for Yukari's danmaku and character is 気持ち悪い (unpleasant)

called it

[Fulisha of Light]

Here is a transcript of the interview with ZUN.

*Someone made a Trump meme question here which wasn't answered. Envision your average wonderful AX con-goer here.*

Wtf why would someone ask this  :wat:

[Drake]

About the PC-98 question; listening to the recording, when the interpreter didn't know what the asker meant by "canon" they switched to saying "official", so the interpreter used the term 正式 ("official") to ask; ZUN replied "Official" in english, and followed 「正式でいいの、これでいいの？」("Is saying official alright? Is that fine?") . The interpreter was confused by what was meant and they gave up, while ZUN was basically "wait why are they excited over that, is this the right question?".

The key points of PC-98 discussion as a whole have already been given, but we can pretty much confirm that the question was misunderstood, as expected.

[Flandre5carlet]

Honestly the Q&A and panel in general seemed pretty uninteresting. Woo, a Mima question...

Also the PC98 thing is nothing new at all and if I recall he already stated before that they take place in the same world/continuity, but if inconsistencies exist then the newer material takes precedence.  But either way the question was poorly translated, so.. 

[aUsernameIsFineToo]

Wtf why would someone ask this  :wat:

Apparently those people tried to derail the panel with their totally out-of-place outbursts.

[Suspicious person]

Alright, so, long thing short, there's pretty much nothing new to learn from this, haha.

Honestly the Q&A and panel in general seemed pretty uninteresting. Woo, a Mima question...

Maybe it comes down to the questions, like, how interesting they are and what kind of answers they can bring ? But then again,  with ZUN being as dodgy as he is when it comes to the canon related question, getting a solid answer may not be guaranteed. He has always been more talkative regarding his personnal views and thoughts and how much these pertains to world building instead of strict canon stuff.

Questions about stuff that aren't usually being discussed should be asked when another occasion shows itself, like, dunno, various stuff from LoLK or whether he drinks coffee or something.

[aListers]

About the PC-98 question; listening to the recording, when the interpreter didn't know what the asker meant by "canon" they switched to saying "official", so the interpreter used the term 正式 ("official") to ask;

Out of curiosity, how would you best translate the term "canon"

I know we're never going to be able to ask it properly and every time Zun answers it, we'll instead translate the answer to be just as meaningless as always but is it a question that's possible to ask?

[cuc]

Like I said, the "canon" we use in the English discourse actually has at least two separate meanings.

One is the authoritative body of work. For our purpose, the adjective 公式 koushiki (official) is enough. The Sherlock Holmes fandom knows about 正典 seiten (canon) and 外典 kaiten (apocrypha), but for everybody else they are just biblical terms.

The other is the currently maintained continuity. The word for that should be 正史 seishi (officially composed history, sanctified history), as opposed to 非正史 hi-seishi (non-sanctified history). That's the word you use when you want to determine whether a piece of officially published fiction still "counts" for the universe, which is what Touhou fans mean when they debate whether the PC-98 games are canon. E.g. see the Japanese wiki for Star Wars and Star Trek.

Of course there's also fanon. Fanon, or fan-made ideas in general, are called 二次設定 niji settei (secondary settei), just as fan works are 二次創作 niji sousaku (secondary creation, generally translated as "derivative works"), hence canon as its opposite is 一次設定 ichiji settei (primary settei). For obvious reasons, you probably don't want to use the latter before ZUN.

設定 settei, literally "establishment; configuration", is a word originating from Edo era theatre, and for fiction refers to everything that forms the backstory: stage setting, worldbuilding, art design, characterization, history of events, and so on.


TL;DR:
Official continuity:
正史 seishi "sanctified history", thankfully a real life word normal people knows.

The opposite of fanon:
一次設定 ichiji settei "primary worldbuilding / characterization / etc.", fan speak, normal people won't understand.

Authoritative body of works:
Just call it 公式作品 koushiki sakuhin "official works" or official whatever. Don't bother with 正典 seiten, カノン kanon, キャノン kyanon or other translations of canon.

[Shadowlupus]

Someone had pointed out that whether Aya has wings or not has already been clarified in BAiJR Eirin article.

Aya: "That's also true, but... I guess what I mean to say is there wasn't any sense of speed. I haven't flown that slowly since my feathers grew."

[N-Forza]

She can have feathers without wings. Like penguins. And dinosaurs.

[Clarste]

Aya clearly has wings... sometimes.

[Tengukami]

I feel like the "does Aya have wings?" non-controversy is a troll question anyway.