Bit of an odd question but I’m curious, what makes someone a real fan in your eyes? Not that it’s important or you need to pass some sort of trial to he a “real” fan I just think it would be interesting hearing people’s takes - especially after Touhou has had a lot of newer younger fans join due to memes and such without interacting with the games
Is it just consuming all of the official products: games, manga, etc
Do you need to read a lot of fan doujinshi and play unofficial games?
Do you need to post and discuss about the series online a lots perhaps making your own project / fan art or whatever
How extensive does your knowledge of the lore have to be? Super deep, or just a mix between the omake and fanon
Is it as simple as just claiming a girl and jerking off to her?

Think it’s an interesting thing to consider especially since the so called golden age of touhou and maybe the internet is over

The biggest Touhou fans are the people who know nothing about it other than putting the tags into Gelbooru and gooning super fucking hard every day

>>49646318
Holy meirabroken

>>49646301 (OP)
It means having played the games. Simply trying. Everything else, even 1cc's, are just a measure of determination. But if you've never touched the actual Touhou game, you aren't fan of it, you are fan of some riffs on it, closer to or further removed from the source material.

>>49646359
Yeah pretty much agree
Even just a surface level knowledge of the games puts you in the 80th percentile

>>49646359
This is a fact. I wasn't a Touhoufag until I torrented the collection with every game and actually played them, you don't actually need to beat it, just fucking play it. Before playing the games I saw Touhou characters everywhere, even had many arts of them saved, but I didn't know anything about the characters or what the series is about and neither got the references until I played EoSD and then fell into a rabbit role.

>>49646301 (OP)
In My case, being Youmu's and belonging to her forever

>>49646359
Echoing this. There is this dichotomy in the Touhou universe between the incident solving and the return to the peaceful status-quo. Even if it is a routine for the main two, they've earned that peace and it makes the taste of the sake with the final boss all the tastier.
Playing Touhou is a lot like this given that an arcade background is getting rarer and rarer, so for a lot of people, the idea of a 1cc is new, and it'll be a rich experience, like they're going on their own little incident solving adventure. The road will be paved with frustration, doubt, tension, but it all builds up to a near unmatched sense of accomplishment. One that either makes you yearn for more, or rest easy until next time. These two views are almost Marisa & Reimu's views coming out of an incident, funnily enough.

>>49646670
This except I belong to Yuugi

ignore the coping
you are a secondary until you've lunatic 1ccd every windows game

>>49646301 (OP)
Making content for Touhou. Being how entrenched it is in doujin culture I just can't see someone as a real fan if they don't give their own take on it a try.

>>49647044
>secondaryfag is here
Go plague a /v/ thread faggot

>>49647313
shh

>>49646301 (OP)
To me, being a part of the community, and being a person that people enjoy being around is more important than knowing literally everything about every Touhou ever and having No Bomb Lunatic 1ccs on every Touhou game. I feel like you gain those skills as you spend more time in the community, so gatekeeping what it means to be a "real fan" feels stupid and unnecessary, and you really only see people with nothing else interesting about their personality outside of "I like x media" saying shit like that. As a newgen myself, (didn't really get into Touhou until like 2019) It was just a fun group of people to talk about the funny characters and fumos with and the games and what not came a lot later.

Also jerking your shit to Touhous every chance you get.

I like Marisa

>>49647730
Marisa’s big fat butt
Is it the biggest in Gensokyo

Also yes based take, I think there is a certain barrier to entry to be considered an actual fan and not a tourist but that’s all

>>49647775
IMHO tourists usually aren't all that enjoyable to be around, and don't care to learn about Touhou, kinda like the "I like x media" but for the clout instead of for gatekeeping. If people have even a budding interest in the series and care to learn more about it I'd say they aren't a tourist.

>>49646301 (OP)
I think it's 1ccing your first game on normal. It's a commitment, even with the easiest ones, so by the end you do it, you will have made your mind on whether you like Touohu or not and will have a general idea of the online community. To many people, bullethells look almost impossible, so once you finish your first game, you will look at Touhou as a whole in a different way.

>>49647730
I agree with you, anon. There are a bunch of freaks that try to "protect" Touhou as if it were some sort of "immaculate and pure work", then I say, why don't you go and struggle and protect something truly important? I won't get any political here, because for that we have /pol/, but hey, I think you get my point. Having worldwide issues along with people's personal stuff, make it implausible to "fight" for a piece of media, that can be very good, I personally like Touhou and the characters very much. But I won't die or waste my time doing "gatekeeping" on X or any other website for it. I think we all have better and more helpful things to do

>>49647816
Me, who has been a fan for 6 years now and having only 1cc'ed PCB and IN on normal... simply bad at game.

>>49646359
In my case I got into it through the arranges then tried all the games so I can hear the originals in their original contexts, sucked at them because I'm not good at video games in general, then mostly just stuck to arranges. Great music scene for someone like me who is always looking for something new to listen to though.

>>49647965
Honestly, being a creator trumps literally any other metric in my book.

>>49647995
There has been a misunderstanding, I just listen to the arranges. Poor manual dexterity is why I can't draw or play music, but some to think of it, it's probably why I suck at hard video games too.

>>49648029
Either way, still a fan in my book.

>>49646301 (OP)
Enjoying Touhou for what it is and putting in an effort to experience all it has to offer. I don't like everything about it, but that's a matter of taste developed from talking, reading, and playing Touhou. To me there is no primary/secondary divide, from ZUN to the community it's all valid material to enjoy or not.
Actual secondaries are ones who don't care enough to dive deeper past memes and casual artwork browsing/jacking off; entirely surface level. It's okay to get into it through memes and remixes, but you're not going to be a fan unless you jump down the rabbit hole yourself. The desire to see and learn more is what separates a long time fan from one who will move onto other things once the novelty wore off.

>>49646301 (OP)
I dunno, I'm just a pro-wrestling enjoyer who like a touhou girl and shitposts. Especially shitposts.

>>49648317
NJPW or WWE?

>>49648327
NJPW right now, even if they need to get a fucking clue.
WWE is fucking boring and too much ads. Slim Jim tables have go away heat with me.

>>49648363
Based.

>>49647730
You sound retarded.

>>49648363
TKO ate up any soul WWE had left...

>>49648415
How did you know?!

>>49648637
TKO want WWE to be like their biggest money cow which is UFC and do all the worst shit ever.

Yukari a best

>>49646301 (OP)
Imo touhou is such a big and wide franchise that you can become a fan without ever touching the mainline games. If you engage with the touhou mainline or unofficial games, music or animations and your love for it goes beyond passing interest then I'd say you're a fan. What I think DOESN'T make you a fan is when the deepest you've engaged with it is some memes here and there or random art you spanked your monkey to. What also doesn't make you a fan is when you get into it and you try to force change to aspects you don't like about it Like criticism and headcanons are completely fair but there's that and then there's not being able to accept the franchise for what it is. If everything about the franchise offends you then you just aren't a fan.

All in all it's subjective and other people will have their own answers but that's my 2 cents on it. Basically just enjoy touhou and don't sweat the small shit.

>>49648363
Aren't NJPW owned by Tony?

>>49646301 (OP)
>What does it mean to be a Touhou fan
When you are told about child murder, you respond with: "The children probably deserved it."

>>49651577
For the last time, rabbi, Sanae isn't jewish

>>49651568
No but they do have a bit of a one sided partnership with AEW.

>>49652311
That's what she wants you to think, until one morning you wake up with no foreskin

>>49646301 (OP)
Being a Touhou fan means being actually properly interested in Touhou, going beyond surface level. Which will obviously look different for everyone - someone will get really into the music, someone will be a lore buff, someone will tryhard all the mainline games on lunatic, and so on. It's not about the type or volume of the consumption, it's about the depth. And, well, how much you actually like it.
Several people have already said similar things, and it's the most obvious and reasonable answer you can give, because being a fan pretty much means having an above-average level of interest in something. So what else could it possibly mean.

>>49655467

>>49655561
Kill yourself.

>>49655606
Meirabroken.

>>49655606
But he's agreeing with you...