The announcement of the release of the doujin anime by Maikaze have not gone without a word from ZUN himself.
There are a translation in Sankaku Complex. However, its translation set a different tone that could be taken wrong; in my point of view, it is a case of “Tradutore Traditore” or “Lost in Translation”. The reactions as you have guessed matched the tone of Sankaku’s translation, defensive or extreme.

However, the link I posted cast a different light on the sentiments of ZUN. You can read here the legitimate concerns of a creator, his fear to see his own creation slipping through his fingers and not being able to determine what’s canon what’s not.
This is a feeling I can fully feel after having seen one of my favorite authors getting betrayed twice.

People then arrogantly claims that Touhou would not be the phenomenon it is without the works of the fans, others accuses ZUN to cling on his creation, wanting to keep it in his own private club of fans. Others blames the “poseurs”, those who have known Touhou only through the bandwagon effect, the memes, the Iosys flashes, the doujins, the musical remixes, the fighting games, the windows shoot-em-ups (according to this reasoning, only those who have played Touhou games since the PC-98 games since the day they were released should be called true fans).

From the point of view of a casual fan who have gotten introduced to Touhou through Twilight Frontier’s “Touhou: Immaterial And Missing Power”, what do he think that ZUN think? As a aspiring creator, I can understand this fear. When one create something, it is always good, as a great motivation boost, to know that people not only read/listen/play what you do, but also comes up with fanarts, musics or any derivated works. It shows the interest that your brainchild, characters or universe, have sparkled. The work, in this case, ZUN’s, managed to reach people’s hearts. But slowly and surely it reaches the mainstream audience, sooner or later people would want it to be adapted as a series or a movie. These visual medias have a bigger impact on the majority of people than any others, the power of images, etc… People, especially the casual and mainstream audience, would likely take the canon in the movie, series or anime versions as the single and undeniable truth, the way the characters should be, the way the story had to happen.

(examples are plenty. I have run across fans of the “Hellsing” anime, the Gonzo version, who outright denied its original source, deeming it as “kiddy action gore freak show”. Ask the average Joe who have watched the trilogy “Lord of the Rings” if he have read the original books. People who have only seen the animated version of Hokuto no Ken, and never read the original manga are missing out a rich story, etc…)

For a sane and self-respecting author, it is a thought that is not bearable.

This is also why ZUN keeps on insisting that fans who draw doujins, make doujin anime should keep on reminding the customers that their works are derivative works, alternate interpretations of his creations. ZUN is well aware that his fans and their works are one part of the phenomenon and one part of the strenght of the community.

Fans, I hope, are aware that the phenomenon keeps growing because ZUN continues to release games, and occasional collaborations with doujin authors (Silent Sinner in Blue), with these games, new characters appears, waiting to be interpreted.

It is because God (I mean ZUN) and his fans works together that Touhou is now the way it is. Fans are attracted to it because the characters’ personalities could be seen as raw blocks of clay with general outlines, these blocks of clay are waiting to be shaped up according to the wishes and personal vision of the artist or the writer. The results then can touch any genre and any style, slice-of-life, romance, action, horror, cute, badass, creepy. The symbiosis worked to the point that ZUN acknowledged some quirks from the fans as canon (Cirno being called baka or the nameless devil in Patchouli’s stage being called Koakuma).

By publishing this, I think ZUN wanted his fans to keep their heads cool, not to jump their guns or carry away over a doujin anime with a professional voice cast. If I interpret it correctly, he want the fans to still remember that their interpretation of the characters is still in their hands and should not be dictated by a audiovisual work (animated series) that is not even official. In the end, Touhou is still his creation first, and fans should always remember that. Anyone is welcome, as long as they gives due and rightful credit (the shoot-em-ups and ZUN).

PS: Remember, ZUN get $$$ only when his fans buy his GAMES. Not from the doujins or the musical remixes. Therefore don’t throw accusations of greed.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Video game.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.