Touhou's Magic System: Explained

I've gotten a surprisingly high amount of comments related to me using Christianity as the example for casting magic. Even more surprising still, despite me saying that Christians are responsible for most of Western magic and therefore have a LOT of magic available to them, my example was somehow interpreted by a few as the opposite. Even going as far as saying I used them as an example at their expense. So I'm going to clarify here in case that part was confusing for people: -You can't just 'be religious' and suddenly have laser beams for powers. There needs to be a historical source within your religious practices that mention it. This was the point of the example, and as Christianity is a popular religion that we don't see really in Gensokyo, it's a perfect example to explain this. -With that example in mind, you CAN use anything that Christianity has defined. As a few people have pointed out, this can include protection prayers, rituals, and exorcisms among other things. There are MANY magic texts that stem from it and other Abrahamic religions. I made this VERY clear in the video.

My friend got jumped in Gensokyo City for trying to invoke the power of Christ against a Yokai. He fucking died.

Its so fascinating how ZUN made a magic system when he was talking to this frog girl at a bar.

More than Religious people, it's contemporary magicians who would have it easy "Wow, you can make cards disappear? Did you read my mind, by god you can do anything!" One of two would probably happen: 1 Fool enough villagers and yokai and suddenly you can actually do it 2 You keep stumbling into silly situations where you somehow can keep bullshitting people, never breaking their belief you can do actual magic, but never able to actually do real magic because you know for a fact you can't, yet situations keep happening where you somehow manage to pull through

Fantasy authors hates how ZUN can easily expand Touhou infinitely and has a simple boundary to explain on how a character got in there.

It ain't magic if it ain't flashy

You forgot one essential aspect of Touhou's hard magic, and that is Master Spark solves everything

i love how one of sumireko's spellcards is a fucking gun

NEW GENSOUCHRONICLE VIDEO DROPPED WE ARE SO BACK

Aunn was "born" recently but has been watching things for a long time as a statue. In addition to her probably knowing how spell cards work, I imagine this is why in HSiFS she talks to Reimu and Marisa like she knows them and they should know her

17:52 On my way to Gensokyo to use Sex Magic

One thing that I remember for being such an odd detail is that an early draft of the spell card duels handwaved the men disliking them for being unmanly. This is to my knowledge the only canon explanation for why Unzan's the only active male youkai in the games

I guess if the collective humanity's belief was the core of all magic in Gensokyo, it would mean that the human village is in more way than one the power source for everything in the setting. That would explain why every youkai and even the shrines tried so hard to spread their influence into the village

"Honey, let's go out together-" "NO. GensouChronicle just posted a video"

11:40 "Weaknesses, limits, and costs are more interesting than powers" I believe the meaning behind the spells is indeed the limitation behind this seemingly limitless power. Spells need a meaning to be a spell, and that's what so enthralling about them. Koishi's spells, for instance, include hearts and roses and the way they are shot at us, either getting repulsed from her into us or coming toward her, actually says a lot about herself, her feelings, and what she truly is. ZUN really knows not only how to write characters' personalities on their spells, but also in their themes. Energetic or Melancholic, each character's theme is pure art.

19:45 I don't even want to ask about the thought process that went into this one tier list.

11:20 she was so excited to take part after watching everybody else do it that she made the spell cards within minutes

soft magic is octopus soft: tender, yielding easily when direct pressure( logical analysis) is applied, but when those myriad mounds of muscle contract, the grip is nearly impossible to escape. Hard magic is carbide hard: unyielding when viewed in limited use, or independent of its intended purpose, but when it is used beyond its limits (i.e., when you try to scale the magic up beyond what it was intended to explain), it shatters from its own brittleness.

Dude you are such a good fucking writer. The way you script stuff always keeps me engaged.

What i take away from this is that i gotta start practicing sex magic in case i get sent to gensokyo