Autism and Touhou 

I'm autistic myself and I have a pretty big hyperfixation on Youmu Konpaku as some people may know. I relate to her character so much to the point I headcanon her being on the spectrum for various reasons, such as herself having a hyperfixation towards her swordmanship and her being socially awkward and "different". She also tries to act nice and professional most of the time, but lets her thoughts and emotions control her, which tends to happen to me as well. Other smaller things as well.

I wouldn't say Kasen was trying to make her behave differently. She was doing the equivalent of occupational therapy, making her actually do her profession. But Reimu, being Reimu, tried to convert that into enthusiasm rather than the typical, "I have to do this job even when I don't want to." That Occupational Therapy more or less tries to teach. So Reimu was obviously going to drop the task when she lost interest in it or when she stopped seeing the results she wanted.

Honestly I find it interesting how basically every autistic touhou fan I've seen (which is a decently large sample size) interprets a different character to be like, the ultimate autism being (for me it's Okuu, I really connect to that feeling of "extremely knowledgable about a specific topic that most people don't pay a second or even first thought to, but a bit of an aloof dork elsewhere" but I've also seen Youmu, Marisa and others get thrown around), huge testament to how much the series speaks to people like us

Shrine Autism Money Clan. We love casting spell cards 🔥🔥🔥

every time i listen to autistic people talk about their own experiences i go "oh damn thats also me" and spiral into a little self-identity crisis called "am i also autistic or is it just the really really big overlap between autism and adhd". and yeah touhou is really just the perfect franchise for a hyperfixation! lots of official media and wayyyyyy more fanworks to dive into. even if i get burnt out i can always just turn to a different section of the fanbase. as someone whose preferred method of getting into new fandoms is just diving into the thick of it with wild abandon, it's been absolutely fun seeing just how _vast_ touhou is. i'm pretty sure there's one or two characters in touhou that i relate super duper hard to, but i've got problems with empathy myself and can't really nail it down to some people specifically. plus, i'm still relatively new to the fandom and still learning all the different characters. your points about reimu put her as a really good candidate to that hypothetical list, though.

I'm also autistic, but the factor that really attracts me to Touhou is the gameplay (though the lore can be fun sometimes too). It's a series of games that require tons of practice and routing to get good at it, and I find this very enganging while other people would probably find frustrating. The uninterrupted pace captures my attention a lot better than other gaming generes and it has nearly infinite replay value. Despite only starting some months ago, I have well over 100 hours collectively on these games and there's definitely a ton of stuff I still need to learn.

Great video! I've always loved how so many characters embody traits that the world may consider mental 'disorders', but in Gensokyo, they're strengths. Gensokyo is full of all different kinds of people, and they're all loved for their differences. And I think ZUN knew what he was doing when he wrote these characters. I am not on the autism spectrum, but I can relate to a lot of other Touhou characters and see how they have experiences parallel to neurodivergent people. People with ADHD can relate to Aya, people with depression can relate to Mokou, people with bipolar can relate to Joon/Shion, people with psychotic affect disorders can relate to Nue, the list could really go on. And I think that plays into one of ZUN's greatest strengths as a writer, which is understanding many kinds of people and including them in his works.

Aya is another character I think has some level of autism and probably explains why I relate to her so much. To me, I feel she's not only misunderstood within the series itself, but also outside of the series by people who just reduce her to a lying journalist who only does things for her own self-benefit. But in my opinion at least, she never seems to do anything out of malice, most of her lies seem to stem from misunderstandings of situations and when she does get called out by someone like Eiki or Hecatia, she actually makes efforts to try and change her behaviour. Not to mention with the hindsight that Megumu's tripod is used for beating misbehaving tengu, it would explain why she gets so emotional when she sees Yukari beating Ran with her parasoul or Byakuren hitting people with a stick. Not only that, but she's also surprisingly isolated from the rest of the cast, hell we know where Hatate lives but not her still. It gives me the impression she doesn't have much in the way of friends and is a big outlier when it comes to tengu society, which is why it makes me happy to see her hanging out with the Geidontei crew, Mamizou going from a rival to a good friend is something I really appreciate. I wish I could go into more detail but I'd be here all day otherwise.

Did a double-take seeing this pop up in my feed.... I'm an autistic Touhou fan who's had Touhou as a huge 'special interest' for 14 years now! In middle school I used to have every single character and song name memorized (up through UFO) and would write lists upon lists in my notebooks; lists of the games, lists of the characters in order of appearence, lists of songs in order, etc. Didn't even dawn on me how 'odd' that was, that was just my form of fun lol I also really relate to and love Reimu, she's always been one of my top favorites!! Thank you for all the great Touhou discussion! I've been wanting to make Touhou content of my own for a long while, but have always felt too anxious, afraid I would be unable to hide that I'm obviously autistic. I don't know if I ever will but I feel more at ease seeing videos like this,,

So you see your own “Fantasy Nature” if you will when you look into Reimu. As an Autism person myself, I totally agree with the topics you highlighted about Touhou appealing to Autisic people. I even see parts of myself related to Kokoro having a hard time expressing and communicating what I’m thinking after listening to your thoughts! I don’t know who is related to someone who has trouble paying attention and focusing, but if there’s anyone you can find, let me know! This was a good video!

It's so great to see someone else who relates to Kokoro! I'm also on the spectrum, and I also have issues with my emotions in general, and I struggle with expressing them - and it gets even worse when I have to deal with my emotions in public, since I'm constantly worried if I'm appearing "normal" enough or if I'm showing them "correctly". Like, even if something makes me feel happy, I struggle with expressing it via smiling, for example, which leads to people assuming I don't actually care / I don't feel happy. However, Kokoro made me feel represented in a way, by seeing a character that's like me and can feel emotions without having to represent them in the traditional way of using your face. Her story of being able to develop in HM and discovering how to express herself by battling others was really meaningful to me, and made me feel like how I felt when I was learning to express myself via poetry, and how that helped me to understand myself and how i felt. But overall, amazing video! It was a really interesting watch.

Gensokyo is a world where neurodivergent people are the majority and neurotypical people are the minority.

Koishi Komeiji was and still is that character for me. She and Satori were were the characters that connected my wish to understand people and telepathy/mind reading... as well as an acknowledgement of the fear I grew up with to this point, still kinda living with it. I can't turn my autism off, something I know frustrates everyone around me... but if I really did "get rid of it"... then what? Koishi is always that reminder to me. She gave me the idea that ZUN understands something about me, and I have been excited to know where Koishi would go next... and maybe find that special person her heart could open to.

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in elementary school and I tend to jump from one hyperfixation to another, I discovered touhou this summer thanks to a metal cover of night of nights and I started to investigate on it, since then, my hyperfixation on touhou grew up to the point that almost every song that I listen is from touhou or touhou related, if you see my notes from the university, you will see a lot of doodles and sketches of sakuya, reimu, remilia, marisa, alice, cirno, utsuho, koishi, satori, flandre, daiyousei and more between my notes. I even bought a fumo of sakuya (bootleg) and fumo cirno. All I can say about touhou is that it is probably my greatest discovery on this year and I regret not knowing about it from before even though I have been exposed to touhou multiple times without even noticing. Also, I freaking love touhou community

As another autistic Touhou fan, I'd like to thank you a lot for making this video!!! I never really realized how many autistic traits Reimu had until now. I always interpreted Flandre as being autistic as well, personally. I even headcanon her as having a hyperfixation on old murder mystery novels, given all her references to And Then There Were None.

“I am an autistic Touhou fan” yeah and I’m wet water

Ironically, Reimu has been the biggest challenge for me when writing the characters in my doujin story I've been working on. Like she has her brand of sarcasm most people don't pick up on as being sarcastic ("The cat turned into a cat), is honest to an almost-brutal degree, but also tries to be friendly toward others AND has a hard time telling others what she is going through. In her arc of the "Greater Undertakings" story (my doujin), she fears she might be turning into a youkai, and it comes to a head when she takes it out on Yukari and bans her from the shrine, which also runs parallel to Yukari's own arc where she reaches her lowest point and feels like a failure. It actually takes Yuuka, Genjii, and Misumaru to help Reimu, while Okina and Kasen end up helping Yukari. Not to spoil both of their story arcs, but Reimu and Yukari make a promise to one another that Reimu will try to express her worries and concerns better and Yukari would try to do a better job listening. On a side note: the two characters I identify most with are Yuuka and Yukari. And writing Yuuka's interaction with each of the Sages has been as much of a delight as creaating my own iteration of Iwanagahime based on what little we hear of her from the print works. And, in a slight twist, Kasen also tells Yukari she needs to do a better job counting on the other Sages, meaning actually talking to them when she needs help. Yukari: "Even Okina?" Kasen: "Even that woman..." Okina: "I'm right here." Yuuka and Iwanagahime: (Eirin laughs to the side) "You sure are." Yukari: "I suppose you're right." And that's after Elly (now Eleanor) gives Yukari advice on being a mother. Long story is long. Anyways, cheers.

I like Ran, I like learning to control and handle things, remove the grass component from Rans kanji and you are left with observation/administration kanji. I like the obedience Ran represents. I am loyal to my word as if it meant the world and i expect the same from my surroundings, the worst late i achieved was by 20 seconds and i broke my word and i remember it. A contract is a contract, a role is a role, and violations are unacceptable. I like studying law, languages, history, culture and general natural sciences. I like being free to try things even if i am doomed to make a mistake from the beginning, i like freedom of speech for that reason since i like challanging things to dig for truth and i cant lie about my opinion. Its sick that some opinions land you in prison. If i am asked what i think and dont like it i will be genuine. I cant fathom how world works on conventional concepts, not even justice or nature, all this is makes me feel it is all fake so i dont like authorities or in general lords in my life that i didnt sign a contract with to obey. I just wish for peace, for integrity. All this madness stems from that people cant fulfill their duty to follow rationality and justice. It is childish not to, and shameful, and breaking promises shouldnt be a small deal. I enjoy "pentesting" and digging for information when i want to find specific things, after all i am testing my skills. For a few years ive been extinguishing emotions despite not feeling much beforehand. We banded up into a small group of equal autists and some company we tolerate but dont allow deeper access, place where we have fun without being scolded for not being compliant to the norms we dont get, imaginary rules we will never fathom. I really dont talk to anyone outside of the trusted circle, ive had enough bullies. Im doing engineers and i still dont know a single person out of like 150 people in our course. I only recognize one guy by his hair so far so i know i didnt confuse the hall. I hate eye contact so much, it is so vulgar and intimate. I hate sounds and people being loud for no reason, it is pollution just with sound, dont be an unhigenic selfish human, and treat it the same way you clean your waste. Japanese are right to have banned talking in some places. Yesterday i heard some americans being so loud and unthinking of others and i almost cried. Ive got touhou manga collection, totaling at over 60 books at the moment i think and distribute it in my country regularly because nobody else does that, almost all games on CD, a few cosplays and figurines. My Ran cosplay is around 700USD. I listen only to Ran/Yukari whatever theme and all arranges of it for a few years and nothing else and it doesnt get old. Youyoumu is the best touhou, ive completed it so many times. Tons of doujins and other arrange CDs. Touhou is where i flee to escape confusion of the mad world around me. I dont get it, i think there is nothing to get. Its all confusion. I wish for peace, integrity and loyalty to what is right and your own promises. We cant have it, "normal" people are full of hatred, selfishness, short-sighted, ignorant, lie, two faced, abusive and you are never able to trust them in any promise. So i live in gensokyo and i am not the mad one. I spent over an hour redacting and balancing this comment to be sufficiently good. Honestly your favorite character says almost everything about you.

The thing about Manga Reimu is that her writing often reflects the perspective of the main character. In Forbidden Scrollery she is depicted much more commanding and dutiful through the eyes of Kosuzu.

With how many characters there are with wide variety of abilities in Touhou, its very easy to find a character to relate to, especially for neuroatypical people. Miko is one of a few characters I've seen depicting auditory sensitivity, and the only one to depict such a character in a position of respect and authority I've come across. Many characters' unique abilities relate not with how they interact with the world, but how they process it. Think this also helps more people find characters to relate to that are lacking in other media.

As someone also on the autism spectrum, I appreciated this video and hearing your input! The Touhou fanbase is vast and seems infinite at times, I seem to find new channels making remixes and arrangements every day I go on RU-vid, and that fuels my continued fascination with this community. I appreciated your thoughts on Kokoro and Reimu as well. For me, it has been a very new experience seeing how carefree and accepting the residents of Gensokyo are, that may have been one of the reasons this series stuck out to me in the first place. I love Touhou as a representation of the beauty in a world where self-love, love for others, and a positive mindset are reinforced. This beauty makes the fanworks created out of it just as beautiful. I wondered what made Touhou so special, and your video helped me find these answers in my comment. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

god i wish i had a kasen, aya, and marisa in my life

I never realised Reimu's traits n' all lead towards an indication of her potentially being autistic, glad to see there's another character to relate to! Very very good video! ^.^

First off, amazing video i love your content and the points you bring up are great. I love touhou so much and it makes me happy to see content like this being made, however getting this on my recommended did feel like a callout 😭

And here i stood thinking Koishi was the most likely to have actual autism. You brought up Kokoro and i understood it fully well how it could be interpreted, masks and all. But bringing up Reimu was something i did not expect at all. I mostly binged Wild and Horned Hermit and Silent Sinner in Blue, and i did not notice at all that type of behaviour in there. Oh yes, i will follow the trend and also say i'm autistic. I MEAN IT'S IN MY NAME. AND MOST PEOPLE DON'T EVEN REALIZE. LIKE CMON MAN.

I'm definitely not the only autistic Touhou fan seeing this judging from the comments, but thank you so much - just from the title and the thumbnail I was like: "wow, this sure is the video for me, huh." (And there are indeed a lot of things to be said about notably Reimu and Kokoro through an autistic lens - thank you for speaking about these two! And I mean, I tend to like Marisa more as she represents a goal of self-love/acceptance and unrelenting dedication to her passion; but in terms of personality I really identify with Reimu more, and I think this really encapsulates why

I’ve been pretty slow in getting into this series (by which I mean it took me a while to pick up a fangame, and I still need to pick up one of the main games), but I still enjoy it quite a bit. As someone with autism, seeing this kind of video is always a treat.

Hi, I'm a brazillian Touhou Fan, and recently, I've been diagnosed with grade 2 autism. I've came back on this video. All I can say is: Thank you, people that are very close to me, said things like: "but you don't look autistic", "we need to cure this autism" and "God will cure your autism", but after watching this video again, I know that I'm not sick in the head, or something, I'm just different, and hope to people understand that I'm not inferior, just like Marisa understands and accepts Reimu. You made me feel way better. (Marisa's always been my favorite Touhou character, and now that I now she's that understandable with Reimu, I love her even more)

I remember getting into touhou at a young age because I thought the flandre boss on youtube was just a bunch of cool fireworks and it stimulated my tiny little autistic brain and now here I am

I'm also an autistic Touhou fan, and this is an excellent video! Well done!

Solid video! I think there's a lot to unpack with a character like Kokoro, especially when a lot of characters treat her like a quick problem to be solved, instead of understood. If you're somewhere on the spectrum, this can be...painfully relatable.

as a fellow autistic, I understand how you feel. Good job on explaining how you mostly rely to Reimu, I'm proud of ya, man! I think that one day, we will build a better world for everyone and we, autistic people will be understood better, keep up the fight, man, you're doing a good job!

I can feel this video in my bones... Gensokyo has always been a great place to be myself its just good... I mean... In Gensokyo in the end everyone is friends and "calm" and no one forces you to be in a certain way and this is just good... I really wish the world would become like Gensokyo where they treat you the same way regardless of what you are... But unfortunately it will probably never be like that... Anyway, speaking of other topics I find myself very much in Renko... I know many things but I don't have many friends I actually only have one so i realy can see me as Renko and my friend as Mary... Maybe its stupid but eh... I think its ok (?)

As an autistic touhou fan who got into touhou because of your bad apple video, I (figuratively) jumped when I saw this video!

Damn man, you didn’t have to make a video on the whole fanbase

I'm not really autistic but I'd like to say that I have ADHD. I love how the Touhou community is easy to get along with, it's even better than what some of my classmates treat me. They sometimes go meh to me and are rarely kind to me, as I'm really talkative sometimes. I think the main problem is that i'm too loud and "sensitive on my feelings". If i can tell it's a joke, then it's acceptable, but when I don't see it when others do, they just get mad at me for exaggerating. The Touhou community has many people that are simple and able to learn how to make a conversation with me. I really appreciate it! So far, this is the best fandom i've been in.

I am autistic myself and I relate to Reimu, plus I also somewhat relate to Marisa and to a lesser extent Youmu and Sakuya. When I think of Reimu, I think of someone who is trying to blend in while trying to make things right. It is easily to see through those incidents in the games that Reimu is someone who wants to make things right, honestly I kind of have the same mindset. As for Marisa and Youmu, they are both workhouses looking to perfect their craft. I can relate to those characters mainly because of the fact that I needed to push myself harder to get the same results. Marisa in particular, because she essentially became one of the strongest characters through sheer hard work and determination alone, and that has always been my mindset. In terms of Sakuya, I appreciate her undying loyalty to Remilia. Sakuya is loyal to a fault and would go out of her way to please Remilia, plus she is capable fighter especially with her knives. I love Sakuya's fighting style and mannerisms because I see those in myself. I think you are spot on in your analysis when it comes to Touhou. The characters are relatable in one way or another, plus the series is easy to understand.

Autism is a requirement to enjoy touhou

Love your insights on Kokoro especially. Thanks for sharing.

About the earlier part, that's something I've noticed in the 4 or so years I've spent in the touhou hole. This series seems to attract a bunch of different people, but autistic ones in particular seem more common; and this video explains that pretty well.

I also have autism and ADHD, and I've known about Touhou for maybe about half a year now as my first exposure to it was the Bad Apple music video, and besides looking into small bits of things on the Touhou wikis, that has pretty much been my sole knowledge of it, but yesterday night (at the time of making this comment which is on April 30, 2024) I decided to look far deeper (as is my hobby with pretty much any subject that one think of, as I tend to look very deep into things that interest me, and to reiterate from previously, is pretty much anything) and I very fascinated by it's lore, music, ect. I suppose one of reasons for my interest in it is because of my interest of the Japanese Youkai (and supernatural subjects in general) but the fact that this series has brought so many people together is something I deeply love! I am happy that this series has meant so much to you and so many other people with the same conditions as myself! I am very thankful that ZUN decided to create such a fascinating series and community! -Alankuhaa Samuelkah Fischum Eircaru PS One thing that makes me different from most autistic people (including yourself) is that I am typically more aware of things (I am probably more aware of things that go on than most ever are) and the fact that I used to have trouble with "masking" but I gave up on it 2 years, yet almost to replace it, I have a hard time speaking to people.I also don't ever really attribute "autistic" traits to characters, but I can have a psychological? connection to characters (particularly main characters). Another thing is that I've not much had the problem of not recognizing people (except if I haven't seen them in a long time) yet this brings me to my last point in that I typically have a horrible memory as it seems to be where my brain possibly might not even entirely "forget" things but it is near-impossible to bring such memories to the surface so my problems are a bit different than some, yet the art of storytelling, music, art, ect has always brought me my attention and is something that highly influences me and so I think that my growing interest in Touhou might be God's way of beginning to change my long-standing problem of not understanding my clear way in life... Sorry for the long (and strange) tangents as I am tired because it is late at night and is in general something I prone to do. Also I am sort of writing this comment as I watch the video! XD

wanted to use this comment section for venting purpose but i can't turn my thoughts into words. i've never been diagnosed but for the past couple of years i've been feeling just like some weirdo outcast with learning disabilities then after talking with autistic friend i've been thinking about possibly just being autistic bur honestly i'm just happy that online you can find lots of people to relate to and become true friends with.

Rinnosuke is the autistic parent/uncle to Reimu and Marisa and he gives them space while also being there for them when they need him, because he understands what it's like.

It warms me up to see others relate to touhou like how i do! i loved everything about this video and thought it was all super relatable to me, as a high functioning autistic person, i like the characters i like for almost the same reasons you do! its a little different for our reasons but i really like koishi for sometimes i may slip up in what i say something that makes people look at me weird and sometimes wish to just be forgotten. but on the other hand i also feel like i can relate to suika for sometimes i realize i have friends that are always there for me and will just forget everything bad when im around them! when you said in the video that people like us tend to like characters based off of relatability i immediately agreed with it because its true! (atleast for me). i really enjoyed this video and its cool to see that a youtuber i look up to can relate to me more than most people! keep up the awesome work megapig9001! ヾ(^∇^)ノ

I am also in the autistic spectrum as well and I am of course a touhou project fan as well.👍🏻 edit: love this video oh and I actually now realize after watching this video that I also can relate in some way to Reimu but I also relate to suika ibuki because of her love of how honest Reimu herself is but I also have moments where I relate to kogasa due to her moment in her official lore form the wiki where she has moments of feeling useless and replaceable and I have had those moments in my life every once in a while.

You know at first I was thinking "What is this guy on about?", then I kept listening and you made sense, it never occurred to me that that kind of interpretation could be a possibility, but now I can totally see why. For me personally, Reimu is not autistic but that just because I met people with that kind of attitude (Reimu's), and they were not autistic, they were like that because life "shaped" them that way, nevertheless I really appreciate the new perspective, it's always fun to have more ways of interpret stuff, so thanks for the new perspective!.

I have so much I want to say right now, As the person I am right now, there are so many things and details in touhou and how its made that I identify with and fall into. I just love how much interpretation could be made, and how much meaning could be derived in any part, It almost doesn't matter if the meaning wasn't there in the first place, the way touhou is made and the feeling of it all, I feel free to run wild with how I see it. There's so much more I could say and geek out about, but that all could be summed up in, man I love touhou I dont claim to be autistic or neurodivergent. I dont know yet but the way you see touhou and the subtext just resonates with me and how I view the series ^~^

I was having a bad day because of the abuse I suffered for being autistic and I felt that it was bad to have autism until I discovered Touhou thanks to sr Pelo and I fell in love with Reimu. thanks to her, I learned that there is nothing wrong with being autistic and that I can accept myslef. Watching this video makes me wonder if Zun is on the autistic spectrum or if he knows someone who is autistic. good video

You have to act normal because not many people will have the patience to deal with you if you show them your real self. I'm not autistic (at least I think I'm not) and all of the things you experience and blame on autism are also experienced by normal people, just maybe to a lesser extent. Everyone is constantly faking reactions, if you stopped smiling or frowning manually and did it only when your body forces you, you would almost always keep a straight face. If you hanged out with people only when you feel like it you would rarely do it. This is completely normal.

getting into cookie before touhou ruined my feeling about most characters

i haven't seen the full video yet, but i can confirm that flashy colors had me floating right to the games like a cartoon character smelling pie. strangely enough, my love for malware of all things helped me discover it in general after hearing about rensenware a few years back.. that and i accidentally had a ton of touhou memes on my phone & never noticed until about a year later

I kinda forgot that I was on the spectrum, thanks for the subtle nudge of a reminder. ngl what made me interested in Touhou was the music, the strangeness of the tunes, where I've still found it near impossible to move to another fandom just solely due to the music alone. Like, you see the subgenre "Uplifting Trance", you'd expect to hear an upbeat, euphoric song, and instead you hear a song that is in a minor key and is nostalgically depressing, where else can you easily get that combo? The thing I suppose many people with Autism have is a poorer ability to describe emotions, well for me at least. I can't really describe why I do like the music, but it's there.

It's really interesting that I have fallen out of Touhou a couple of times, but I always come back, I guess this plays a good reason why

Thank you for talking about this Mega this was so enjoyable to listen 💖💖💖💖

this wasnt the video i was expecting from you but i certainly appreciate it! touhou has a lot to appreciate for us brainweird people; arguably, one could argue that maribel is schizospec rep (though people will argue forever on whether she's *good* rep with how her arc only leads her to becoming more and more insane and more enabled by renko - personsally it parallels my own journey a lot). and there's also arguably some number of plural characters, touhou 17 with reimu and co being possessed, more obviously hecatia with her 3 selves. adhd has its places too, a lot of people like to interpret marisa as adhd, though for me as someone who has both i will never fully understand the difference between the two

Kuudere characters in general, of which Hata no Kokoro is part of, are often incorporating autistic traits. It's likely a Japanese cultural thing, however my ability of researching it is limited due to language barriers.

3:16 ok I'm really surprised to learn there's actually a term for this. In the past few years, as I realized I barely had any friends growing up and want to try to find some for myself, I've been meaning to focus on this "masking" thing (or rather forcing myself to be sociable) more to see if I could make some friends but then I also realized I have a HUGE fear of embarrassing myself in front of other people (ironically enough this is also why I'm afraid to talk to any person in public at all), probably because they may see me as cringe and don't really want to talk to me either because of the way I choose my words or how I misunderstand what people usually say. Coincidentally enough, this directly ties into the point you brought up about perspective taking at 5:36 (which is the trait I think I relate the most to), there are so many times where my brain is just in its own zone so I just say whatever I want, not even trying to think how others would react until after they actually reacted, even though I do choose my words carefully it still ends up sounding weird when they're spoken out loud; this is also what I believe to be the root cause of my extreme fear of embarrassment as well, too. Another trait I heavily relate to is hyperfixation (also mad props to you for catching up on One Piece from the beginning in just 3 weeks, if I have that much free time I would've done the same), in the past few months I'm hyperfixated on Geometry Dash because of the wait up to update 2.2 and even after said update's release for a bit, I tended to play for like 8-12 hours to get my account prepared for all the new stuff I wanted to get in 2.2, and honestly, if if it weren't for my parents stopping me and giving me an earful every time I would've pulled so many all-nighters I'd genuinely get sick with how fragile my body is every time I stay up past 2AM multiple days in a row while having only 5-6 hours of sleep per night. 9:08 oh and you really hit the nail on the head with this one, I truly believe that if we know FOR A FACT that this world is accepting as Gensokyo then I think all of us would have a wayyy easier time finding friends. I really want to be myself and I could only be so in front of a few certain people, and I'm honestly really grateful for them for putting up with the stuff I do and/or say, too. All I'm hoping for, really, is to be able to express myself in a way that I feel comfortable and that everyone around me thinks it's a-ok as well. I haven't dove that deep into Touhou yet (I'm learning the lore through playing the games themselves ever since I got into this series so it's really gonna take a while before going into stuff like the print works, especially with the fact that I currently stopped following touhou media for the time being until I'm caught up on One Piece (only on Luffy's flashback with Ace and Sabo post-Marineford)), but knowing what the community is like now judging from this video in particular (not counting all the r/2hujerk stuff) I think I'm gonna fit in just fine. I don't know if I'm on the spectrum or not since I've never really met up with any psychiatrist before, but I don't want to self-diagnose either since I don't really know much about this kind of stuff myself despite having seen and realized the amount of traits I have in common with autistic people; that's not to say I didn't learn anything from this video, though, as this definitely helped me understand more about myself as well, so thank you 👍.

im also an autistic person who gets really intense fixations and touhou has been amazing to be hyperfixated on for me because there's no shortage of content anywhere i have a feeling this obsession will last a super long time for me lol

About this, the fact that there’s a wide range of characters you can relate to much more than other series and also kinda just represents in a way. There’s just so much lore in the series that it feeds the hyper fixation and you can never get bored of the story or music. I’ve been in the Touhou hole for almost six years and over that time period, little did I know did I have ADHD since last year. Still working on finding more answers and such, but this series just speaks in a way many others often do not. (Or at least not realize it.) You brought up many great points and keep up with the content:)

Thank you for working on this video, im an autistic person with ADHD and i feel more confident with myself now.

Can we all just agree that in Gensokyo, autism is the norm? Acting sane and sound seems to be out of question.

This honesty hit me way too hard. I always find it fascinating that, despite having aitism and ADHD, i dont really connect the dots with it until someone explains. And after they do im like "...huh...im built like a touhou." Like i really know nothinf about my condition but i really like Reoimu alot more after this because i feel I can connect to her character on a more personal level. Id say my biggest issue with my autism would be my disconnect from the world. I can sit there emotionless and motionless for hours, im my own head. I cant think of a character like that though, maybe Dormey if you wanna get literal?

As an autistic 14yold I can relate with this video and relate to nue because she like scaring people like kogasa and I get myself too far with pranking people myself and nue and she tries to make friends just like me

Not sure if I am autistic since I haven't taken a test and act very differently compared to other people (I've had multiple people just straight up tell me my way of thinking is very weird and abnormal, thankfully they aren't trying to be mean most of the time) but I do agree that many of the Touhou characters definitely act in a way that's not considered to be "normal". Hell, I can't even think of a single Touhou character I know well enough and doesn't act in a strange manner compared to most people irl. Thats part of the appeal for me where despite everyone acts so differently from each other, they're still friends and treat each other with respect without having to worry about fitting in. Yeah they might throw a off handed remark about each other's weirdness but they still accept it as who they are without making a particularly big fuss about. Another thing I would like to bring up about Reimu is that from what I can remember reading the wiki (sadly haven't had the chance to actually play a game) she has troubles with expressing how she actually feels to others (in terms of her internal conflict between her duty to exterminate youkais and her personal desire to befriend them) which is something I think we all relate to in general and with autism I'd only imagine the issue is further amplified. Edit: One more thing I have noticed for Touhou is that it has a strong emphasis on expressing yourself, both in the canon story and the whole design philosphy ZUN has for Touhou since ZUN allows artists to make fan works to express their own creativity and even actively encourages that, so when thinking about it, it's not really a surprise that people with autism who struggles to express themselves without being judged would find the Touhou franchise appealing with it's emphasis on expressing yourself

Honestly this makes me feel so nice about being into Touhou, and honestly I love having a favorite character who I can relate to (that being Reisen, from what I’ve read she’s calm and thoughtful but also encumbered with anxiety and can be tipped off the edge by it. Fits me very well personally.)

I've had the suspicion ZUN himself is on the spectrum, I might be completely wrong on that, but it does explain why a lot of the Touhous do have some autistic traits. I feel like being into Touhou is an automatic diagnosis in itself lol.

Interesting thing about faces, I personally reconize faces fine, I just have an issue attaching a name to them. I can describe traits of their personality as soon as I see them, but I can't name them at a glance, even if I known them for years.

I have autism tbh

I have Asperger's and I haven't really experienced much of Touhou, but from what I read about her, I relate to Sumireko a lot. I am unsure if I see her as also having Asperger's, but I can certainly relate to her general feel of someone that really wishes for the Supernatural to be real. If I could, I would go to Gensokyō in a heartbeat, even if it would likely kill me.

Hello, a non autistic (not diagnosed, who may even know if that's actually a lie) but basically and ADHD, and, yeah these last days i have been for an unexplicable reason (it just popped up) obsessed with Koishi i'm always like, wow she's literally me and... Idk that makes me happy Someone i relate to way too hard is Patchouli, they're like The scrunklies

i dont know how much this is worth but i wrote an entire google doc on why i think koishi komeijis story is a metaphor for autism and masking!!!!!! it might just be me projecting but yk :,D

i feel like it's impossible to not interpret rinnosuke as neurodivergent considering infodumping is his whole thing. love him!!

As a woman with Asperger's ( a cousin to Autism), I would love to live in the world of Touhou. One of my favorite heroine is Marisa, even though I'm an introvert and she's an extrovert. I agree that Marisa is a great friend for an Autistic person, especially since she's the kind of person who can get you out of your shell

ohhhhh touhou autidm.... as an autistic touhou fan in a community with quite a few other autistic touhou fans it's fun hearing abt it gkdhvjdhf personally seijas one i kind of project onto or see my autism in; though within the universe, there's other reasons for her behavior, but the urge to bite at others and to go contrary bc it's one of the only ways to take control of one's behaviors and the way that people perceive you... a strong empathy for the underdog... difficulties partaking in more "positive" feelings and interactions bc how are you even supposed to respond to that? ofc, kokoro and reimu are more overt, but seija fills a certain something in my little autistic heart. it's a bad habit but i can get kind of contrarian and reject positive feedback and such at work because i feel out of control and overstimulated. also even though i get overstimulated from too much visual detail and clutter, danmaku is so nice on the eyes. bonus points.

"The two characters I relate to the most are Kokoro and Reimu" Hopefully not the yokai genocide part 💀

Before WBAWC came out my comfort Touhou was Eiki because of her heavy emphasis on right and wrong/strong sense of justice but when Keiki came out in WBAWC I was like 'there she is! That's my Touhou!!' And scrambled to make a cosplay of her in the September/October of 2019 which meant I was one of the first people to cosplay her ;w; I love how accepting the Touhou community is of autism

You forgot the most important reason: that you need autistic level hyperfixation to actually beat these damn games. Very nice character analysis though. Here’s hoping to a better world

Congratulations- you actually got me to like Reimu a bit more. My broader perception of her is generally one of a bigoted, genocidal, and generally evil person… but this video was actually really sweet and really relatable.

Man those comparisons with Reimu were incredibly vague. Horoscope levels of vague but enough to apply it to yourself

I'm a Asperger Autism from German and Touhou is one of my favorit series. I love nearly evry Charakter. I have translate Print Works like Perfekt Memento in Strike Sense and many, many Charakter Profiles into German for myself. I'm glad that I not the only one

Rinnosuke's every thought screams Asperges syndrome, in my opinion.

my biggest flex as an autistic touhou fan is that i won 1st place on a "recognize the touhou character from the frill/lace" competition on a con (everyone in that room was autistic, even the organizers of the competition)

I am autistic. I like utsuho because she is cool and blows up stuff.

I wish I was a Reimu kind of autism. Instead, I'm a cirno kind of autism

Finding autistic Touhou fans is like finding water in the ocean.

I never knew how much I shared between me and Reimu. It's funny. The only character I heavily associated with in canon was Koishi due to the "I love not thinking" line. The rest of the characters that I associated with, like Wriggle Nightbug, are headcannoned to have autism due to how I personally view them. I feel like Wriggle gets bullied or ostracized for being one of the weakest Youkai ever, even though she's well known for her Wriggle Kick which makes her one of the coolest people in Gensokyo. Again, that's still a strong headcanon about her that I came up with so that I can connect to her more. Makes what would've been a forgettable Stage 1 Boss into something more personal and interesting.

I’ve been meaning to get around to watching this video as an autistic Touhou fan myself, and here I finally am and I couldn’t agree more Touhou just has so much that appeals to autists, and I think you managed to show the gist of what pulls us in to love this series And characters really do feel like such a big part, you could make an argument for almost every character being autistic tbh Ofc there’s popular ones, like Reimu, Marisa, Kokoro, Sumireko, Kosuzu, Okuu, Kaguya, Eirin, and more But almost every character has something that someone autistic connects with I mean hell, Magicians as a species are practically just autism embodied lol For me personally, I relate to more than just this, but the biggest two I relate to are Reimu and Seija Seija might be a bit more of an uncommon one, but I also think part of it is due to the comorbidities I have with my autism In short, the negative stereotypes of the amanojaku cause her to continue perpetuating them in order to protect herself In ISC, there’s a line Seija has in the stage select that says, “whatever the means, whoever survives, wins” Though it’s such a simple line, it really spoke to me In a world that ostracizes me for who I am, sometimes you just need to do what you need to do to survive And hopefully, you find those people who can understand and slowly make things a bit better That’s one reason I love seishin, because I think Shinmy can be that person that Seija needs, without her running away as she always does And in a way that Seija doesn’t have to completely change, she can still be a little bastard, but learn to trust someone for once and finally start to contradict her negative stereotypes Part of it is definitely tied to my other problems with aggression, abandonment, and trust, that typically fall under other conditions, but they all go hand in hand with my autism that it feels I can’t talk about one without the other Honestly with how Touhou is, I wouldn’t be surprised if ZUN himself is autistic I love this series a lot and all the unique worldbuilding and characters, and I hope I can continue to consume and create Touhou content for many more years to come :)

I feel like calling Reimu autistic because of the examples you showed is like saying someone has OCD because they like it when things are tidy. I mean, if you relate to her I won't (and can't) stop you but like, it's a real bloody stretch. Also Kasen telling Reimu to do her job as a shrine maiden hardly seems like telling her "not to act like Reimu".

Huh- Y'know, this makes a lot of sense why I like Touhou now- And also why I like Bionicle- Great video! Glad to not feel alone in this world!

I think touhou chacters are relateable on the sense that none of them are fully evil but some are mislead from certain reasons. Even some arguably straight evil characters (deffo not yukari) have just as much good to them. For me its a few i relate too Reimu: i have trouble with names but not faces. Shes relateable in her desire to make friends but having troubles with the environment around her kinda going against it. Sanae: just being kinda a big nerd and wanting to understand science. Also doesnt drink Marisa: bold and shameless and lives freely is something i can admire. Patchy: calm, sleepy and likes reading and learning

What is Touhou? I search online and see so much different media.

So reimu is literally me

I'm not the best at describing how I feel, but I'll try my best. There's a surprisingly large amount of Touhou characters that fit in well with the autism spectrum. For someone like me it's a buffet of relateable characters. Despite Gensokyo being a harsh place for outsiders, once you get a hang of how it works it really feels comfy and like home. Heck, there's areas where it's better than our modern society such as how many treat people who are different and stuff like that.

so, as an autistic person, what i'm getting from this is that i should really get into touhou

as much as i like your content, this video kinda goes on the off-beat path. autism, is something 1 out of 100 children have. it is very interesting you are using terms that defines you, but to burst your bubble, many of those terms have synonyms everyone else can apply to. hyperfixation, can be allluded to motivation and interest. to have an interest into a franchise , can be described as being nerdy or objectively fascination. everyone does that to a degree, may it be music, art , sport or other hobbies and interests. we all do that. masks, is something in modern term, can also be defined as coping or socializing. peopl tend to wear these social masks, to find others with same interests, while other go the other way around to find people they might be interested in. sharing traits, personality, opinions , morales and ethical decisions all fall under the umbrella term of socializing which you describe as masking. its something everyone does to a degree. we all blend in, thats what we do. we humans are social animals, and therefore seek each others. defining yourself by a touhou character i might say is actually kind autistic, but it isnt rare either to be seen outside the autism spectrums. many defines being fan of something, often as idolizing and looking up to. they buy their items, they beseech their opnion or in some case, try to personalize themselves with said person or people. this is also known as a persona, (haha games..) where if you go back to masking, act upon and become something else you are not. but you see similarities in it, and define yourself in it. this is also something very normal. especially in children, who look up to someone and wants to become something similar in the future. same goes for autistics people interp. on what they define as. we all do it to some degree, nothing inheretly autistic. faceblindness: nahh reimu really isnt faceblind, shes just out there not eally giving a crap who you are. thats her personality. if she cares about you, she will remember you, but keep in mind shes a shrine maiden who meet several people everyday, do not forget human village. it is a common trope not to remember someone after seeing someone in awhile. and say i dont remember their face is such a saying, a hard translation to pull over to the western base. i think in fact autism is about finding meaning in things others dont, aka looking too deeply into something and creating headcannons in their head to fit their narrative and idea. kinda like the same case of people finding "proof" in one place, while 79 other sources saying otherwise, the person strongly hold the belief in that on source as the all or nothing breaker. a very common autistic trait. as for reimu staying up all night reading? classic trope of "girly adventures in romantic directions" - a classic on the whole i stayed up all night because this romantic novelle caught my interest... didnt get sleep due to that. its something everyone would do to be honest, autistic or not. cultural norms, depend on how we look into things in this world. as reimu sees the rabbit, her cultural norm is to eat it. its food. its not a case of being indifferent in mind, but more of a indiffrent in cultural enrichment of that meeting. again, not a autisitc trait, but more of a culture clash. reimu is not autistic, shes just her. yogsoth in the comments, explains the kasen headcannon you made, clear. something im woried about is your grasping of straws, how to identify or... rather "autismify" characters. i know you want to belong, but i think its unfair to ZUNs works , albeit your idea is deraitive fan fiction headcannon, it still kinda iffs me in the wrong spot. a character can be read in many ways, but it is a tad bit on the level of ableism, to try to make a character autistic, because of your own strong headcannons. and to be honest. many of your points is something the everyday joe, meets and experiences. no one forces reimu to be "normal" as everyon is different, everyone has their own ideas and thoughs. gensokyo is a place of a mishmash of many different, religions, culturues, youkais, who should not even co-exist with each others. ZUns way of writing these characters in, is not "autistic" , but more of a personality trait, that makes sense for the people who reads his works. and he does a damn hard good work, trying to make these indifferences work together. and its hard. you do see clashes of interest and disinterests in the universe. and thse indifferences, arent half bad. they gives nuance and a broade picture. but autism? doubtfully so. reimu is the main character so of course she will make friends along the way. she cant avoid it. its the fate of the main character . I think you describe is lastly the best. "i want a world that *I* want to see" , its your strong firm beliefs and faith in your own beliefs, that makes you feel strongly towards this personal headcannon. and oyu know what these indifferences in gensokyo is good. but please, dont try too hard making your headcannon a reality. maybe thats why i dont like fanon universe, shippings and such. they often deviates from the actual cannon. but hey, you tried. and thats okay too. and if that personal headcannon makes you happy, so do be it. autistic people are vastly different from each others, thats true. but lets not try to "claim" certain aspects and try to make them quirky or special. cause honestly, they are not. thanks for reading my TED talk.

Finally someone did a video about this!!!!! I was searching about this video and i finally found it

About 13 years ago I was hyperfixated on Alice Margatroid. I got the sadge over her being merely a fictional character, so I thought "Well, let's fix that" and irl namechanged to Alice. Did I ever regret that? Pfft. No. Am I autistic? Well, I did get tested once and they thought I wasn't autistic, but well, shows what they know.

I have austism spectrum and i'm big fan of touhou, i love this game

Never thought I’d be called out for traits I didn’t even know I had

Thank you so so much for making this vid megapig! I myself am an autistic Touhou fan and this video was amazing!!!! I have nothing else to say, just that this video was awesome and I’m giving it a like.