On the fourth day of Christmas, some lunatics have sent to me:
colorblazing madness
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
Hakurei Jinja Chounaikai Ondo (博麗神社町内会音頭) IOSYSRequested from jorj, this is one of two Touhou Project-related requests we got this year for our wish-related December feature, one whose song has some slightly different origin in comparison of all the other tracks we've seen so far... as this is not based from music of an actual Touhou game!
Back in the third millennium's beginning, there was a group of students of the Tokyo Denki University's Department of Science and Engineering that decided to band together in order to make games as members of the 'Amusement Makers', including among these the same ZUN who would later on branch out to become his own 1-man doujin circle. Aside from the PC-98 Touhou games, the circle also pursued vertical shoot-em-up experience with a series of games later branded together as the Seihou Project (西方Project, with Seihou standing for 'West'), one that would go along for a while with the remaining Amusement Makers members branding under the Shuunsatsu Sare Do? (瞬殺サレ道？) doujin group.
The first of the Seihou games, titled Shuusou Gyoku (秋霜玉, lit. 'Autumn Frost Orb'), has a robot maid by the name of VIVIT going out to run errands for her master while finding herself in troubles to be solved by curtain-fire action. In the Extra stage, she's been asked (as a joke) to search for the legendary Holy Grail, a request she tries to fullfil by traveling eastward, only to manage somehow into entering Gensokyo to fight her way through Marisa Kirisame and Reimu Hakurei, donning the same outfits that will be used for their Windows PC game debut (the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil), over 2 years later!
The BGM for Reimu's fight, Nishiki-hasu Hanacho～Ancients (二色蓮花蝶 ～ Ancients), is the base for one iconic arrangement from IOSYS members ARM and Kashiwagi Ruzarin (柏木るざりん), roughly translatable as 'Hakurei Shrine Neighborhood Association Marching Song' and fashioned as the 'ondo main theme' of the Hakurei miko lineage's shrine. The video featured above these lines was used both to introduce the song via one of the many popular Flash animations from the circle, but also to advertise the album the song actually premiered in: Touhou Makashinsai (東方真華神祭, lit. 'Eastern Splendid Divine Festival'), from the 5th Reitaisai edition of May 2008. The song would later on re-appear in the same circle's later album, most notably 2011's Grimoire of IOSYS – 東方BEST ALBUM vol.1 and 2014's PUNK IT! TOUHOU!2 -IOSYS HITS PUNK COVERS-.
HANIPAGANDA Akatsuki RecordsFrom bits of the earliest Windows-era Touhou lore, we're jumping into some of the latest ones thanks to the request of ArceusGreen!
This is HANIPAGANDA, one of the more recent hit sensations from doujin unit Akatsuki Records which is based on the Stage 5 boss theme Joutoujin of Ceramics (セラミックスの杖刀人) of the 2019 Touhou game Touhou Kikeijuu (東方鬼形獣 lit. 'Oni-shaped Beast') ～Wily Beast and Weakest Creature. The heroines heading to the Animal Kingdom are squaring off against the antropomorphized Mayumi Joutouguu (杖刀偶 磨弓), a haniwa leading an army of clay soldiers on behalf of her own maker Keiki Haniyasushin. Around the thought of 'What would a fiersome haniwa army's battle cry sound like?' comes this one song, gathering over 2 million views on YouTube through its official MV upload up here!
HANIPAGANDA's album debut with with the release of the same name from Comiket 97 (December 2019). Its original promo video (always on YouTube) had to be removed and reuploaded online due to some offensive imagery that was accidentally left in, also by admission of its maker Cafuu (カフウ) via Twitter post. Among WBaWC tunes thus far, this has been the luckiest one on gaming grounds, seeing how early it got adopted from Taito between its ongoing Groove Coaster series and the music/puzzle Touhou derivative game Touhou Spell Bubble. It even made it to the launch day song lineup of the ongoing gacha music game Touhou Danmaku Kagura, with Mayumi herself premiering as the first and (for the time being) only playable character from her source game.
