Is TOUHOU Music Actually TOO REPETITIVE? - The Gensokyo the Gods Loved 

Hey I have a bunch of other videos on Touhou music: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DhdopiSqotU.html&pp=gAQBiAQB

I think the beauty of the Touhou music is how well they lend themselves to covers of multiple genres, fueled by the creator gives individuals or fan groups full permission to remix, cover, etc. the songs as they please. I think of ZUN as preparing the canvas and the fans go crazy with creating the art.

曲を聴いただけで考察出来るなんて…凄すぎる。いつかネクロファンタジアや恋色マスタースパークもぜひ聴いて欲しいです。

Yesn't.. The big issue is that if you just start to dabble in Touhou music, you often hear the same five, six, ten, twenty tracks that just happen to be evergreens, and a lot of them are older tracks where ZUN didn't yet have the sheer skill and feel for engaging compositions he does nowadays. For example, The Gensokyo the Gods Loved is more than a decade old, but compare it to, say, "Where is that Bustling Marketplace now?" and it's a world of a difference.

Zun definitely has a super recognizable style but it feels like lately he's been experimenting with newer sound fonts and instruments in the newer games so you might find them interesting to check out. Idolatrize World from touhou 17 is one of my favorites

Teacher: Today we're learning about music genres! So, what genres do you all know? Student A: Pop Student B: Rock n' Roll Davi: _T o u h o u_ P.S. When you'll do another Touhou video, I recommend you listening to _Last Remote_ next. It has disturbing, beautiful and scary parts all in one song! And for once, NOT only Touhou-sequence spam.

I feel like you should check an entire Touhou OST one of these days. They aren't long (normally just 17 tracks), and there's usually a kind of musical journey that ZUN wants to convey when you're playing the games. Keep in mind these are short games that last less than 30 minutes per run.

The reason most of the songs requested sound similar is because people request the ones they like the most, which happens to fit in a certain style of music. While the famous Touhou progression is indeed predominant, there are a lot of songs with different other styles scattered throughout the 18 games. From the top of my head we have: -Touhou 6 Sakuya Theme: Lunar Clock -Touhou 11 Stage 5 Theme: Lullaby of a Deserted Hell -Touhou 11 Utsuho's Theme: Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom -Most of Touhou 13 OST, I would pick the stage 6 boss (True Administrator) and Extra Stage Boss (Futatsuiwa from Sado) -Touhou 14 Sekibanki's Theme: Dullahan Under the Willows -Touhou 15 Doremi's Theme: Eternal Spring Dream -Touhou 15 Stage 6 Theme: The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects -Touhou 15 Junko's theme (You can almost say one is the continuation of the stage 6 theme) -Touhou 18 Momoyo's Theme: The Princess Who Slays Dragon Kings

_“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”_

So far you have reviewed the songs that are in the taste of most Touhou fans, Great job because all of them are really iconic. But I also think you should give a look at some of the "less" popular songs, "Poison Body ~ Forsaken Doll" specifically is according to ZUN himself one of his most unique compositions. -Oh yeah and this is all about the song and nothing else, nothing to do with the fact it's my favorite character theme and how she's really underrated and forgotten all the time-

I think it feels repetitive because the newest song you've reviewed is from Touhou 14.3 and that game is nearly ten years old. He does become more experimental in newer games, I like Hidden Star In All Seasons from Touhou 16, for instance.

Wow this is the first stage theme you react to, Gensokyo The Gods Loved is considered by many touhou fan to be touhou national anthem

I don't have a problem with using a repetitive theme because there are enough changes in the key and melodies to keep it interesting.

Amazing video as always! Too repetitive is way too addictive. I like it. I've never actually played the game, but I feel this track has a beautiful melody that makes me feel a sense of nostalgia and a bit sentimental. My friend, who is a dedicated Touhou fan, often plays this track. It puts me in a fantastic mood when we're driving past places like the shrine or the ravine, especially during this beautiful autumn leaf season. Thanks for the video, Davi!

i feel like the gensokyo the gods loved is one of the most identifiable touhou songs, in the sense that it uses the "touhou sequence" as you call it more than most songs, it's definitely the song you can listen to and think "yeah, this is 100% touhou" there are definitely some songs by zun that don't follow the general formula of most touhou songs, the one that immediately comes to mind is "heian alien" from touhou 12 undefined fantastic object, or really, most songs from touhou 12 after, all feel pretty unique compared to most of the songs prior. ZUN kind of had a shift in music direction from that point on, definitely showing it's complete shift starting from touhou 15 and on. his music became more complex, if there's one song i'd recommend you to check out apart from heian alien it'd probably be "secret god matara - hidden star in all seasons" from touhou 16. really though, i have become addicted to zun's music, i think the simple songs are amazing because they're so easy to follow along with, but even i would have to admit that they can get a bit repetitive. His more complex songs are also amazing though, touhou 15's soundtrack is phenomenal. reading zun's notes on the music that he leaves in the game is pretty fascinating, i'd have to say that goes for most of the notes that he leaves in the game, however. i'd say that i can definitely tell these songs definitely feel like touhou and my music theory knowledge stalled at 12th grade in highschool where theory wasn't the main focus of my school's curriculum so i may or may not be underqualified to say they're completely different lol amazing video as always Davi, cheers ps: if you ever feel like it, i'd recommend checking out some of the fan arrangements of songs, TOKYO ACTIVE NEETS is a group i always recommend to people, very simple and just less of the electronic midi sound that zun has in his songs, also not as wild as some fan groups such as IOSYS

I think part of the 'problem' is that Touhou might be very similar, but there's only about a dozen tracks per game compared to other video games. But when you listen to them one at a time over the course of months the same way you listen to other series it sounds more repetitive than it is.

Thank you for uploading Touhou music analysis videos (and thanks to the people who request the videos), I always learn many new things about Touhou music from them! Also congrats on 100k!

「今宵は飄逸なエゴイスト」 「偶像に世界を委ねて~Idoratrize World」 「秘神マターラ～Hidden Star in All Seasons.」とか あと「平安のエイリアン」は凄まじいし面白い 個人的に「不思議なお祓い棒」も聞いてみて欲しい 考察を聞いてて楽しい

This is actually one of my all time favorite songs. The sense of happiness and joyous freedom mixed with an overarching air of melancholy gives this song so much weight and emotion that is always indicative of the most iconic Touhou songs whenever ZUN is pulling out all the stops. Plus, I love the title of this song. “The Gensokyo the Gods Loved” implies a past tense, meaning that the song represents an “ideal Gensokyo” worthy of divine blessing. It’s beautiful.

You've covered a theme from: - Touhou 6 (U.N. Owen was her) - Touhou 10 (This one) - Touhou 11 (Hartmann's Youkai Girl) - Touhou 14 (Reverse Ideology) And 2 from Touhou 8 (Reach for the Moon - Immortal Smoke & Gensokyo Millenium - History of the Moon) Many fans of Touhou see Touhou 6, 7, and 8 and the best of the "classic" Touhou games, with the best music of the series. Personally, my favorite game is Touhou 7. I recommend either "Bloom Nobly, Cherry Blossoms of Sumizone - Border of Life" or "Necrofantasia" from Touhou 7. Keep up the Touhou! We love it! : D

CONTINUE FAZENDO OS VÍDEOS SOBRE TOUHOU, AMO SEU TRABALHO DAVI ❤❤

東方を取りあげて下さりありがとうございます！ ぜひ平安のエイリアン（HEIAN Alien）を聞いて欲しいです。600曲を超える東方曲の中で最も不安定で奇妙に観じる曲です。連鎖的に起こるエネルギーの爆発を連想させる曲調は私にとってとても魅力的です。

もし良ければ、「kouchakan ~ Chinese Tea」 東方紅茶館 を聴いてみて欲しい。

この曲を動画で紹介するなんてセンスがいいぜ ピアノを弾いて解説してくれるの分かりやすくて良いね！

As times go, one can feel ZUN times when he goes more and more adventurous and then gets used to new systems and instruments, which are also considered as eras in itself with his compositions, in his newer installments he has been trying more and more things too, if you can, id suggest to check themes like Fires of Hokkai from Touhou 13, Electric Heritage from Touhou 17, Lunar Rainbow or The Great Fantastic Underground Railway Network from Touhou 18, and from his new game, which i really reccomend, Tiny Shangri-la and a really interesting track, The Deviant's Unobstructed Light, both from touhou 19, both are really interesting in instrumental choice and such, first one having the first use of erhu in ZUN works, and the other having some vocals or chorus adding different feelings to the themes, and yes, while ZUN may come to some as repetitive, that core aspect of touhou music is what gives the identity the series has and allows so many people to come and make covers, remixes and whatever you can imagine on any type of music genre you can imagine or find on the internet

Hello, I am a Japanese studying English. Your contents are perfect for my English listening practice: Clear English, attractive reactions, interesting opinions, and my favorite musics🥰 My recommendation is "Suwa Foughten Field", it's also a wonderful track, I think.

東方の曲なら次は偶像に世界を委ねて（Idoratrize World）を聞いてみて欲しい。きっと気に入ってくれるよ。

If ZUN wanted his music to be recognizable as his own, he's done it well, seeing as most consider Touhou music as pretty much its own genre. While I really like how ZUN does his music, I think it would be even better if ZUN experimented some more, and tried some more unique things. Like with Primordial Beat ~ Pristine Beat - ZUN originally wanted to have drums be the main instrument (which I would've LOVED), and I wish he followed up on that. (primordial beat is still one of the most unique touhou songs and one of my favorites tho)

I enjoyed your interpretations, impressions and insights. As me Japanese, the impression I got when I first heard this song was that the melody at the beginning reminded me of the opening melody of the children's song 'Toryanse(通りゃんせ)' not only is that song very old, but it can still be heard on the streets as a signal for blind people to cross the pedestrian crossing. Toryanse's lyrics are about border checkpoints, it makes the player realise that me has entered a new stage, it is a new reconstruction of an old piece, it is a very jazz approach.

Thanks for this video! Always nice to see Touhou music! As many people said a lot is happening in terms of music with newest games - it would be awesome for you to check Tiny Shangri La - I think it have big chance to surprise you! It would also be interesting to see you checking some old stuff - from "forbidden" PC98 era I wholeheartedly recommend Doll of Misery! Edit: although in terms of being different I'd say Crazy Backdoor Dancers or Perpetual Snow of Komakusa Blossoms would do nicely as well - for entirely different reasons

Never really thought much about this... cool.... makes me more aware of the music.... thank you. Appreciate your pointing out these things.. 😁

I think ZUN definitely put more efforts on composing melodies instead of arranging the chords. Although the chords are kind of repetitive, Touhou melodies are really beautiful and unique in each track. This really need some flairs and I think ordinary people can't come up with such many addictive melodies.

Hii GREAT JOB, DAVI! I'm a one of the viewer from Japan, and it is so gradful for me to see your explanation of Touhou music. Actually there are only few videos to analyze Touhou music so your video is helpful for people don't understand well about music like me. Hope do my favorite one, Emotional Skyscraper ~Cosmic Mind~, too :)

As someone who has been hearing the entirety of the Touhou ost from 1-19 (45 hours in total!) I can say that yes and no, most of the bosses have the same chords, but most of the people listening wont even realize, because of how different it sounds. (And most of the actual repetitive ones are from stage themes/1-3 stage bosses)

I recommend you to hear Pierrot of the Star-Spangled Banner from touhou 15

I didn't knew this song had a key change! Great video, Davi!

This one is my favorite track from Touhou! idk if it is just the catchy melody, or something, but I really like this one! Thank you, KradNosnatef, for suggesting it! (And Davi for making the video, of course) 😃👍

Love these touhou songs analysis!!!!! thank you

your analysis of touhou as genre makes me intrigued on how you feel about Son Biten or Zanmu's theme from touhou 19. The instruments and vibe in those two themes are very different from usual and im interested to hear ahout the composition from a musician's perspective!

Haven't finished the vid yet but I promise if you are looking for more variety from ZUN, do check more modern touhou games, im currently obssesed with Nippaku Zanmu's Theme from touhou 19! I think the OSTs for UFO (Touhou 12) and Ten Desires (Touhou 13) have incredible picks like emotional skyscraper ~ cosmic mind and the popular Desire Drive. Those are just my personal favs i recommend :)

I find it really funny, because in 2 of the tracks, ZUN accidentally did the same exact chorus for 2 final boses, those being 'The Concealed Four Seasons' and 'Necrofantasia.' He later confirmed in an interview that he didn't mean to make them sound so similar, even though the bosses are pretty related.

I love your reaction to Toho's music. I`m looking forward to working with you.

I really like your analysis of the touhou osts. Maybe it would be interesting to make a video on an ost from the first games (pc-98) or the latest games, to see if ZUN's style has evolved much. A lot of the music presented here comes from what you might call the golden age of Touhou and is indeed in a fairly similar style.

Music is truly a wonderful world of it's own. But I do have one request from you, and that is to react and give your thoughts on the Risk of Rain 2 ost, it is just so relaxing, deep & a vibe from start to finish. Also great video =D

Great content as always! Analysis of "Soviet Connection" (GTA4 theme) would be awesome to see! Cheers from 🇨🇦!

I love the gensokyo the gods loved it’s the song I auditioned with for classical clarinet in my place’s equivalent of college and it’s what I consider to be the quintessential touhou song like there’s nothing fancy just the basic classic zun style that made me fall in love with the franchise(not to say that the deviations like the recent biten and zamnu’s themes are bad I love them for their uniqueness too)

I've suggested this song in the comments many times, it's my favorite ZUN track, thanks for covering it.

This one's been turned into the opening for a fan anime more than once, that's how iconic it is!

Always a treat to see Touhou on this channel! thanks for the react!

When davi uploads it is destined to be a good day

the most amazing thing about zun is that everything is self-taught. programming the entire game, making the drawings/characters, their backstory, and composing the music, all are self-taught. there should be a limit to how talented a single individual being can be... the best of it all? he isn't a douche about it and is in fact very modest. the themes people have selected for u have mostly been "extra stage" bosses and are post-game bosses which is why they feel very similar yet are different. if you listen to a stage theme like this one here, you will hear it sounds very japanese in this case, that's because in the game you are about to enter a "japan" from a time period that no longer exists, hence why the theme of a "japan" the gods loved. if you go back to the game where koishi is from, you should have a listen to "Lullaby of Deserted Hell" and see how different it sounds thematically yet has that zun touch. he's created like over 20 games by himself and wrote the music for all of them and once you go through all of them you can really understand his genius is at a level that simply cannot be touched by people who have spent years studying music and composition. you really FEEL the music when you actually hear it in the game while playing as if it's very much part of the game instead of just background music. you can just feel how all the pieces just perfectly connect because he was the sole person in charge of everything.

You actually already heard a variation of that "main melody" in another song you already reacted to. It's the main melody of Mouko's Theme, as well, with small changes. I know I've also heard it in a few other Touhou songs. It's probably a leit motif for something. In fact, I'm pretty sure a varation of the melody is used for the Zunpets in Gensokyou Millenium. Maybe it's the motif for "Gensokyou" itself?

You've done so many 'classic' Touhou theme. I do really want you to see you do "Where is that Bustling Market Place Now" and "Entrusting This World to Idols"

Newer touhou songs use different instruments and you really feel like zun's style evolved, i think it could be interesting for you to check one of the newer touhou game musics

he actually has become a little more experimental with his style after a few games (this is very evident in TH19's Kingdom of Nothingness)

Try touhou 19 music. (it's the latest installment, and it tries something experimental with the music, specifically Son Biten theme, and Zanmu theme)

If you do Junko's theme, "Pure Furies ~ Whereabouts of the Heart," I recommend you start with "The Sea Where One's Home Planet Reflects," from the same game as one is a continuation of the other.

言葉通じなくても共有できる 音楽ってすごい

There's a particular Touhou stage theme that might be interesting for you to review, it's called Rural Makai City Esoteria, give it a listen one of these days, it's great

Time to add new recommendations, this time from the music CDs. How about Ancient Temple in the Netherworld, Border Between Dream and Reality, or Instant that Exceeds Planck's Time? None of these were used in games, but ZUN has a number of songs exclusive to the music CDs.

At this point, I'd recommend picking one of the games, and just listening to its soundtrack. Many of the main line titles (without the decimal points) are fairly linear, so you can fairly reasonably follow the story just by listening to a playlist.

You should try Kingdom of Nothingness from the newest Touhou 19, it's very different from whatever you've probably heard so far and would give you newer example of Zuns work

You could try to hear Primordial Beats Pristine Beats, in that one ZUN also add drumbeat into the mix, which makes it kinda stands out from other ost

I love this music because of its nostalgic melody. It reminds me an image of Japanese folk songs such as played in old festivals or something. I don’t know where the image or nostalgia come from.

You should listen to the Collab song between ZUN, the creator of Touhou Project and Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale and Deltarune, song wich was released just yesterday!!! The song is called U.N. Owen was hero, wich is a mashup between Battle against a true hero from Toby, and U.N. Owes was her from ZUN

他の動画にもコメントしちゃったんですが、是非「始原のビート　～ Pristine Beat」と「神さびた古戦場　～ Suwa Foughten Field」を解説していただきたいです！ 神さびた古戦場は今回解説していただいた神々が恋した幻想郷と同じディスク収録の曲です。

Hey Davi watchers familiar with Touhou. Are there any tracks by ZUN that you think are different enough that they cannot instantly be recognized as Touhou/ZUN music? I am thinking maybe "Phantasm Machine ~ Phantom Factory " from Changeability of Strange Dream

東方が世界でも多く知られていることがとても嬉しいです。 私も東方のファンです。

you should listen to "a world of nightmares never seen before". it's a pretty cool touhou ost

hello, I know you from some Japanese guys share your videos with translation. your analysis about TOUHOU's characters just like god. I'm so impressive now!!

stage 2 , hina, nitori, kanako and suwako themes are my fav in this game coming on top of my head

Now you should react to the memories of Phantasm OP1 which is a remix of this which is a good exemple of how the fanbase builds of the base themes

If you like touhou music I highly recomend hearing Lullaby of Deserted Hell For me is the most different and special musica from the ones I know and have even having a different vibe its still a clearly a touhou music in a positive way i think

I have been listening and remaking many music from the touhou games I've yet to have the time to post them but one thing I noticed is that in the later games I can see that there are differences within the songs like different instruments that carry that specific track while some feel like the normal ZUN. Right now I am trying to cover touhou 4 but after making touhou1-3 I feel the repetitive nature. Then after I made 6-7 I felt he grew but when I went to 8 I felt a bit of the repetition. However, he does really well with his small knowledge of music to have made these awesome tracks and touhou 19 had bangers obviously the covered songs are repetitive not a big fan of them but the new songs I don't know how but he just makes each of them special

Touhou music is typically self similar, but not the same. The same could be said for any classical composer. ZUN is a composer after all, he doesn't record, he writes. Also pretty much every video loops the tracks because they're short. Every stage has 2 themes, a stage theme and a boss theme. Also the games basically play like an album right from the main menu, with each stage having a different atmosphere.

I believe that one of the things that makes sound like Touhou is the familiarity each song brings with surprises at every turn, you can never get too familiar with Gensokyo.

神々の恋した幻想郷は日本らしさがとても溢れている神曲だと思う

hey bro! I'm Japanese. I always enjoy watching your videos! I have a request, can I ask it? One of Touhou's songs is called「Septette for a Dead Princess」. I want you to listen to it. Sorry for the video from a long time ago.thank you!

If you want an instrument that doesn't feel midi : "Tiny Shangri-La" from Touhou 19. The key changes are wild in this btw. On another note, "Legend of Hourai" is unlike anything you've heard before. It sounds extremely traditional and he made an effort to make the instruments extra-realistic (even though he used outdated instruments)

This is one of the most popular Stage music, Mountain of Faith (Touhou 10), Stage 3. The stage that introduce the kappa. As this is a stage music - meaning that, in game, you're on track forward the boss of the stage, slaying a lot of fairies on the way - a stage song tend to repeat often. A few of the stage music are used as theme for character that only show as midbosses. For one example in the same game on Stage 4, a character named Momiji only show up as a midboss, so the stage song is used as her own theme "Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall".

The thing about touhou music, is all the remixes the comunity has made along all these years, since it's basically copy-right free, there's an insane amount of remixes. You can find touhou music remixes in every style imaginable. Like, that one time Akatsuki Records made an Irish Folk music out of a song with egyptian vibes which is a theme of a chinese zombi girl.

im a HUGE touhou fan and have listened to and enjoyed many of its songs but greatly struggle to remember which one is which, i can in an instant tell when a song is from touhou but never what song it is. Even the legendary bad apple ive had a but of a strugfle to recognize a couple times, but i feel like a lot of these sort of cult classic videogames have the same effect for me, mainly risk of rain and team fortress two, i can tell you its from there but not which song, maybe its a level of interest thing, becausd im not that way with undertale which i was super deep into

リクエストしてもよろしいでしょうか 東方の曲で ｢霊知の太陽信仰 〜 Nuclear Fusion｣ という曲です 可能であればよろしくお願いします

Davi do a full game ost reaction already 🤧 I recommend touhou 8 imperishable night as the whole ost is mostly played with piano.

Once you get into Touhou music, you can NEVER leave...

Finally Touhou commentary on music!

after waiting for century. you finally back for touhou:>

i'm super curious about how you'd feel about "Lullaby of a Deserted Hell" from Touhou 11 or "Kingdom of Nothingness" from Touhou 19

Niiice, you got to this song! Thanks for the great job! 👏 I want to make a point about the "repetitiveness" of Touhou music that is directed at multiple other music critics, not just you. Touhou is a bullet hell schmup game. Nearly all it's music is made to suit it. Therefore, there is certain formula that is kept to ensure it FITS a bullet hell and FITS the Touhou vibe (which is what you were saying). This is different from games like RPGs, which have a plethora of moods and moments. Touhou gameplay are stages followed by bosses with no "resting moments" or anything like that, exactly the same way as an arcade shooter. Therefore, there is less variety. But if you listen with some context of how the game pans out (you don't even need to know the plot, just the gameplay), suddenly the music becomes unique. This is the issue with listening completely blind... I just wish critics would get at least a little bit more context when listening to a song.

You should try listening to Dolls in Psuedo Paradise, also his previous work on composing Seihou and PC-98

I recommend themes from the latest games like the Chimata theme or the Zanmu theme!

Hi great video!

Touhou 10 was my first Touhou so this song is very special to me. In fact, it's one of the song that got me interested in music composition :)

Touhou 19 ost my beloved

You should do emotional skyscraper

いい曲ですよね にとりちゃんかわいい

You also can try to listen to zun's music album like "dolls in pseudo Paradies" for example they also have there own Story whit each Track. Even though some of them are just barely changed songs from the games they more or less better version of his songs

私だったら 恋色マスタースパーク 狂気の瞳〜invisible full moon 平安のエイリアン 亡き王女の為のセプテット 妖魔夜行 人形裁判〜人の形弄びし少女 星条旗のピエロ 聴いて見て欲しいです！！

There is this Touhou track called "A midsummer fairy's dream". It is from Touhou 16: Hidden Star in Four Seasons and it is definitely one of the most unique tracks in the franchise, as I'm pretty sure the Touhou sequence is not in it (and if it is, it is very hard to notice, same for the ZUNpets). I also don't recall it featuring any sort of piano. While it is one of my favourite tracks because of that uniqueness, I also have to admit that, because it lacks those elements, it doesn't feel as much like a Touhou track. It fits bullet hell gameplay incredibly well in my opinion, but it doesn't sound like your usual Touhou song at all. I really recommend listening to it.

Maybe it's because majority of the songs are in the middle of the timeline, in old and newer games, zun has some crazy tunes that don't necessarily have the same type of melodies, a hidden gem that i love to share is touhou 16: no more going through doors, excellent theme