kozachenko

[kozachenko]

Since Gensokyo is essentially a pocket dimension, I feel like it could have infinite crossover potential because of how malleable it is. Specifically with other series/stories that utilize similar worldbuilding ideas to Touhou and would be really funny if they crossed over. While some of these are kinda shallow like "oh they both have Yokai interacting with a modern setting" I mainly did this for fun and because the potential is there. This is a really long text post so I'm just gonna put this all under a keep reading thingy.

First example I'd like to discuss is Yu Yu Hakusho. Since we know Shiki Eiki is the Yama assigned to Gensokyo, that means that the Yama in Yu Yu Hakusho could just be the one assigned to Earth. I also went to the wiki briefly to see what some of the other worlds in that show are that I haven't gotten to because I haven't finished the show yet and there's also a version of Makai in that show, and since it's so vast I think it would be fun if Touhou's Makai and Yu Yu Hakusho's Makai were both connected. Maybe Shinki's city in Makai wasn't the only existing city there since it's such a large location. In fact, I would like to dump any show that takes place in normal modern day Earth that have Makai as a potential world to go into, mainly for the sake of building together a large realm to work with.

The next example is Dandadan, and mainly because the idea of Okarun, Momo and their gaggle of idiots meeting Sumireko and going to Gensokyo sounds like an amazing crossover idea and Momo and Okarun would both love Gensokyo. Okarun would ask Nue so many questions and Momo would wanna be friends with Reimu so bad. Meanwhile, Seiko and Yukari are having the battle of the century and Turbo Granny and Mamizou are watching it together and catching up on stuff since I imagine they would be close friends lol. Also, the Lunarians would absolutely be considered aliens to Okarun and he'd be desperate to learn more about them.

Speaking of the Moon, I think it would be interesting if we added Sailor Moon to this hypothetical. I know a bit more on the world for that, and with the description of how the future Earth works you could probably work in some of the Hifuu Club stuff into some of the precursors to that. Also, I like the idea of the Lunar Capital staying on the hidden side of the moon while the moon civilization in Sailor Moon potentially lives on the more visible end of it, and the reason the Lunarians didn't get screwed over by Queen Beryl is because they stayed hidden pretty well. This one is kinda loosey goosey and I know there's a lot more space worldbuilding in this series but again, the idea sounded fun and I think you could definitely work this in if you felt like it.

Now that I think about it, could you hypothetically work in the Fate series/nasuverse into this as well? I know with one of the visual novels in that series there's a supercomputer on the moon and maybe that can coexist with the Lunarians??? IDK someone please tell me if you could work this in.

I think K-Pop Demon Hunters and Jentry Chau VS the Underworld could work here too. I like the idea of bringing some of Korean and Chinese folklore into this too since Touhou kinda brings it in already with some character based on Chinese folklore. Once again these two are kinda stretches, but with how Gensokyo works, I feel like some of the realms in that show too could be parts of Makai/the underworld that are kinda like the Animal Realm where they're close by it, or there is just one big underworld with all the different variants of Hell located to each culture's mythology. IDK how well that would work and if someone reading this is more familiar with either of those two please let me know. Once again both of those options are based on a "wouldn't it be funny if these characters went to Gensokyo?" type of deal. These two are kinda really stretching it though. Under this logic, I am also adding the Percy Jackson book series/universe and even the Welcome to Night Vale series. I loved the Percy Jackson books growing up and I have read one of the Welcome to Night Vale novels (the faceless old woman who secretly lives inside your home) and am working through another one right now (Welcome to Night Vale). I know that the latter doesn't have exact parallels to some of Touhou's worldbuilding rules/philosophies I think there is still something spritually there you could work with IDK. This one is mainly just vibes. Oh, also Gravity Falls, I absolutely think Gensokyo would be canon to that universe as well, and because I saw some really good art of Dipper asking Yukari where Mabel is and I love that concept so why not. As for more details on the Percy Jackson idea, even though it has some issues with how it portrays the gods and Greek mythology, I also think that's what makes it easy enough to include. These are incomplete interpretations of these gods by the people of that world, so it kinda fits with how Gensokyo works as well.

And now onto the things I don't think people would immediately think of as being shared universe material with Touhou. The common thread on these next few are "universes where human belief ends up impacting reality". First up is Mandel Catalogue, probably one of the more direct comparisons if you're into analog horror, but a funny possibility. This goes for stuff like Greylock as well even though I haven't watched it, I know the gist of it and that it also does the "people's belief in something impacts reality" thing too.

Here is where we begin leading into connecting Touhou to internet creepypastas, because I think the universe of Abandoned by Disney would also be one where Gensokyo would be canon. The idea of Reimu encountering the photnegative Mickey thing in the OG creepypasta and going "ah, so this is what America's Yokai are like" and not even batting an eye would be extremely funny (same idea with Mandela Catalogue, her not even being scared of the alternates because she's "dealt with worse" would be funny too). Like, no shit this is happening in countries other than Japan too, why wouldn't it? Also, bringing in some of the other stories I mentioned earlier, I think Okarun and Momo encountering this same thing would be really funny/interesting. Okarun would wanna collect the weird goop that comes out of the suit to see what it's composed of and Momo would probably be underwhelmed since it isn't trying to eat/kill either of them.

Please add more to this in the comments/reblogs if you guys have any other ideas. I love thinking about crossovers so please build onto this if you're insane like me as well. I know a lot of these are superficial but honestly this is all in good fun and I had this really dumb idea I wanted to share.

[kozachenko]

Hello, let's say hypothetically if you WERE 3 mayumi's in a trenchcoat what would you ask keiki if she had an ask blog like this:https://www.tumblr.com/askkeikiandco/785786104866603008/ask-keikico-master-post-welcome-to-ask?source=share

"Keiki, I know you're trying to conserve on resources after the incident, but can you please rebuild my main body so my consciousness isn't spread across three different bodies? I'm scared that the other two are gaining their own personalities and are starting to have their own individual existential crisis' and I'm pretty sure they're going to go after me soon and try to become the dominating consciousness. Also can I keep the trenchcoat? It looks really cool."

-The Mayumi at the head of the trenchcoat

[kozachenko]

Adding more to this headcanon because I just had another idea for it.

Normally, Zanmu wants to drag other people down with her into her pit of nihilism. While she doesn't realize it or doesn't want to admit it, it's a coping mechanism for her, but with Reimu it's different. She feels true sympathy for her. She'd never treat Reimu the same way she treats Hisami, but she'd still be really possesive of her all the same. Reimu is the hope she has that she can change, even if she's so far gone. Reimu is what Zanmu could have become had things been a little different, and she represents the hope that maybe, just maybe, her nihilistic views of the world are wrong and that there is hope.

You could also have Hisami get a bit of a thing for Reimu as well. She's a version of Zanmu who is actually genuine and doesn't just play with her feelings. She has all the good traits she probably liked about her in the first place, she's the woman Hisami originally fell in love with.

I think the funniest thing to happen would be Hisami and Zanmu being written in a weird fucked up love triangle with Reimu where Reimu has no fucking clue what's going on with them. Hisami loves Zanmu, but also finds some comfort in Reimu's presence, Zanmu enjoys toying with Hisami, but she also wants to give Reimu all the love and care that no one gave her in her life. And Reimu is just really confused. She definitely knows something is going on but has no idea how to describe it. Meanwhile, Zanmu and Hisami are both getting jealous of how much the other cares about Reimu, both because they want to spend time with her, and also because they want the attention of the other but none of them can do anything about it but try and sway Reimu away from the other.

Again, that's kind of a more comedic approach to how this whole thing could go, and you could easily make it more serious if you wanted, but whether you want to write Reimu and Zanmu's relationship or Reimu and Hisami's relationship platonically, romantically, or any other way it's flexible, but regardless, Reimu is getting caught in the crossfire of the mess that is Zanmu and Hisami's relationship. They're both like a really messy car crash and Reimu is the pedestrian that got hit in the collision. She'll make it out alive of course, in fact, her injuries won't be that severe, but boy will she have something to tell Marisa about when she sees her again.

Though frankly, the funniest outcome is either Zanmu or Hisami both confessing to Reimu and Reimu, with the most deadpan expression ever, saying, "both of you need at least 5 years of intensive therapy" and then walking away.

I have another Zan/Hisa headcannon because I'm thinking about them again yipeeee- My last post about this was a little more on the angsty side if you wanna write it like that, but this one definitely leans into the toxic side of things since I think it could make for an interesting dynamic.

So Zanmu has shown that she takes an interest in people who have strong willpower and don't just "give up" if they realize that their efforts are meaningless, if nothing comes of them (i.e. Reimu). We also know that Hisami has a one-sided crush on Zanmu, constantly trying to get her attention no matter what. Like I mentioned in my last post on the topic you could easily have it be Zanmu's fear of the relationship being "all for nothing" be the root cause of her not pursuing a relationship with Hisami. However, you could also make it so that Zanmu purposefully doesn't outwardly show reciprocation for Hisami's feelings but is deeply fascinated by her meaningless attempts at romantically engaging with her. She knows that any normal person would just give up after a while if they realized that the person they have a crush on doesn't give a single shit about them and move on, their efforts being meaningless. However, Hisami isn't like that one bit, she never seems to give up in trying to romance Zanmu, to the point where she will even get herself in trouble just for her attention and Zanmu loves it. She's entertained by this poor woman's desperate attempts to swoon someone who, from her perspective, obviously doesn't feel the same way. In fact, she doesn't want her own personal show to end, so once in a blue moon she drops one little flirtatious act, something so subtle that anyone else wouldn't even realize its actual intent-

Except for Hisami, desperate little Hisami. Like a dying traveler finding a mirage of an oasis in the desert, she doesn't know if it's actually legitimate or not, but what if it is?

All of this is for the purpose of making sure Hisami doesn't give up, so she can keep internally laughing at Hisami's foolishness for not realizing that nothing will come of this. As a way of congratulating her for her willpower. Who knows how long she's been playing this game of romantic cat and mouse for? Hell, maybe Hisami's masochism came as a recent development as a desperate call to Zanmu to finally give her some attention. She just doesn't know that Zanmu has had her eyes on her for a long time, but sees her love the same way a king sees their jester.

Leaning a bit further into headcannon/fanfic territory, you could even write Zanmu as a bit possesive, Hisami is her (metaphorical) jester after all, her deluded eyes are only to look at her. She probably gets a little jealous if she sees Hisami hanging around other people too much. The moment Hisami shows any interest in anyone else she either deliberately sabotages the relationship, intimidates the shit out of that person to back the fuck off, or gets rid of them through other means. This also has the double purpose of showing Hisami that every other relationship she tries to have will lead to nothing. Zanmu wants to be there the day that willpower is drained from Hisami's eyes. Only then will she actually tell Hisami she loves her to celebrate her enlightenment. Only then will she bring Hisami her nirvana. At that point, Hisami is all hers. The one thing in her entire life that won't fade into nothing.

Obviously from Hisami's perspective, this whole scenario is incredibly fucked and she doesn't realize it. It's even worse if she does know it's fucked up but is so desperate for attention she just...goes with it...She'll take anything as a sign of hope, that Zanmu does love her even if it goes against her better judgement. She's basically been driven to the point of insanity for this woman who laughs at every attempt she makes to swoon her. Hisami deserves so much better than this, and when she does have moments of clarity and she maybe wants to try and pursue a relationship with someone else-Zanmu cuts it off. One way or another Hisami is stuck in this loop. The only way it's allowed to end is for her to give up, to be so hollowed out and exhausted by this cycle that it breaks her.

Edit: Just another little addition to this, but I think you could also add a bit of Zanmu's "self riotousness" in there where she justifies her actions by having everyone around her thinking she'll reward Hisami for eventually letting go of her desires and reaching enlightenment, but of course it isn't as simple as that.

Edit Number 2: Another addition to this because I am still thinking about it. It could also be really interesting if another reason Zanmu is doing this is a bit of an ego boost. If she can cause someone like Hisami to crumble then she's capable of doing that to anyone. When Hisami eventually breaks and Zanmu finally goes into a relationship with her, Hisami will just become nothing but a pretty little trophy to Zanmu's manipulation, and she will make sure that no one can take it away from her.

Yeah this headcannon obviously leans into a bit of psychological horror and is...very dark for Touhou all things considered. I wouldn't even be mad if someone wasn't too big a fan of this, the dove is so dead you can't even eat it anymore, it's just a skeleton and this type of story isn't for everyone. But I do think that this can be a really interesting way to explore their relationship. I don't think Zanmu is a good person at all (at best I see her as morally grey) but I think that makes her kinda interesting if you were to write her that way.

[kozachenko]

Reblogging this because this is such an awesome take on her! I don't really have too much to add on myself, but even in Touhou 19 you can see how she often straight up insults some of the characters in the game, whether it be an insult to their intelligence (like Yachie here)

Or an insult to their judgment (in the case of Mamizou)

The fact that she also straight up laughs at them as well is also indicative of how much she respects them. She straight up just mocks the characters in this game and then boasts about herself before the fight begins. She believes that everything anyone does will be for nothing, so she laughs at anyone who thinks otherwise, viewing them as idiotic, unenlightened fools. She's an interesting take on this kind of nihilistic antagonist.

And eroding other people's confidence in themselves is exactly what she wants. She does it so no one is able to question her, so nothing threatens her power, so everything goes according to her plan. I also think her line when the player loses is very interesting, and is also an insult to the player as well. She figured that you, the player, wouldn't be able to actually beat her.

Her line of how pitiful isn't her actually feeling bad, it's her pitying the character, and the player, for putting in so much effort only for it to amount to nothing.

I never realized why Zanmu feels so personal as a villain to me.

People like her are who piss me off, they don't say "this is what I think or what I want" they say "this is the truth, and what will happen inevitably. If you argue otherwise, you are an idiot who doesn't get the big picture." It kinda angers me yet fills me with a sense of dread that they're right and I'm wrong, that erodes what little confidence I have in my life.

Basically eliminating all form of conflicting thought or even fun speculation while pretending to be an objective truth with no personal interests. You're an individual on this Earth as much as anyone else is, you know.

[kozachenko]

[kozachenko]

I feel bad for not really posting any actual drawings for a while, so here is a big sketch dump of a bunch of Zanmu drawings I did a month or two ago. I made these before the demo for Touhou 20 came out for anyone who wants a general idea of how long ago these were made. I also will use this as my opportunity to talk about Zanmu excessively because this woman lives in my head rent free and I don't know how I'm supposed to get her out. (click on the photos for better quality)

Artist's Notes and Headcanons;

Ok side note, how the fuck do you spell headcannon? I keep bouncing between headcanon (as in the camera company) and headcannon (like the thing on a pirate ship) and it legit just depends on my mood that day so someone please help me with this...Ok now onto Zanmu, I am SO normal about her that I will EXPLODE if I don't talk about her-

Edit: THANK YOU TO THE PERSON IN THE REBLOGS WHO TOLD ME THE CORRECT SPELLING OF HEADCANON OMG I HOPE BOTH SIDES OF YOUR PILLOW ARE ALWAYS COOL AT NIGHT, I HOPE THE SHOWER IS ALWAYS AT THE PERFECT TEMPERATURE FOR YOU, I HOPE YOUR FAVOURITE SNACK/DRINK IS ALWAYS IN THE FRIDGE/CUPPBOARD FOR YOU THANK YOOOOOOUUUUU!!!!

I love Zanmu so much. She's such a cool character to think about and I can't seem to get her out of my head. I think she's just really fun to draw. For a little while before these sketches, I remember feeling kinda lost on how to draw her in my lineless style, so I decided "fuck it" and tried drawing her as a weird abstract shadow thing to get some new ideas going. I find simplifying characters like this helps me out a lot. I used red in the back of the hair to try and define some shapes like her face, and also I've seen some designs of her that give her Buddhist prayer beads and omg I am in love with that design idea. I love adding ornate details when I'm doing my own designs of other characters, and I've always wanted to give Zanmu something around her neck but never figured out what kind of jewelry would work best. I liked the idea of making them red as well, for the sake of making the colour palette of the drawing more cohesive, plus it looked cool. For the hair of the shadow variant, I took some inspiration from Calamity Ganon's design in BoTW and had it kinda straggle out at the tips. I think even for when I draw Zanmu normally I want to do this, since her hair in her canon design gets these split ends and I really want to incorperate that. The only thing that I didn't really like was the lack of grey hairs. I love giving Zanmu these little gray hairs so much, and when I realized I couldn't fit it into the shadow design I was kinda sad.

I then got inspired by the side profile and made a version where I defined the side of the face more, to which I then immediately got some more inspiration (yeah the values are kinda bad and mush together and I did edit this but I don't have that version on me rn, so when I do get a hold of it I'll just fix it later). For whatever reason, I have an easier time drawing Zanmu from the side, mainly her eyes. For me I often go insane trying to get eyes right as they can help make a character really unique in a simplified style. So taking some notes from character design techniques and using guidelines to keep proportions and placement consistent, I actually managed to get some features I actually really liked! In my drawings of her, I always tried to include some eyebags/shadows under her eyes and kept her actual pupils small. I also added some makeup under her eye and even added some near her eyebrows because of some inspiration I got off of Pinterest. I gave the eyebrows a little more shape as well to make them look more dynamic, and I gave her the scars I usually like to give her (I don't care about lore here, I just think they look cool).

Whenever I draw Zanmu, I always try to give her an androgenous leaning physique, so I tried making the torso and shoulders proportionally larger than her head (how clearly that reads, if it reads at all IDK). I also was able to give her grey hairs again, which I always love to include, and made her horns super narrow and tall (mainly because I really like those kind of shapes and it allows me to really go nuts on the detailing). The rest was just standard fair for drawing Zanmu, same kinds of details, I once again place the little black dashes on the front piece of the shirt on top of it instead of below (tbh I kinda like drawing it that way more) and did a version with very dramatic lighting because I wanted to get some practice with it.

I went into a lot of detail on my Zan/Hisa headcanons in a previous post, but I wanted to add some here for funsies. I think Zanmu saw herself breaking mentally and losing hope at ever escaping the cycle of rebirth as her form of enlightenment. In terms of fighting styles, when she is in a fight, she fights like she has absolutely nothing to lose, because in her mind she legit doesn't. She's still calculating during it, but is incredibly unrelenting and incredibly brutal. She probably doesn't care if she loses, she just wants to prove how futile it is to fight against her. How it accomplishes nothing.

Important thing to note in canon is that she felt disconnected from that pacifist lifestyle and made up a nicer sounding term for essentially doing the same thing to spirits. Keep in mind, this is an example of her so called "self righteousness" disguising her actual intentions. Sure, she says she's "saving these spirits from their misery" but in reality she's just killing them the same way someone would kill an actual physical person. But by now, she doesn't really care if the majority of people hate her or love her. Remember, she's the one who told Reimu that peoples perceptions of Youkai can change their actual natures in that fortune book. There's a reason it was her who said that and not, say, Yukari, who'd actually have more of a reason to give a shit about Gensokyo. Zanmu's bluffing may not be an act of insecurity or trying to hide a weaker part of herself, but literally using the perception of the Oni to make her stronger by nature of how faith and belief works in this universe all the while doing fuck all to actually prove it, playing the system. It doesn't matter if people fear her, loathe her, or idolize her, she's just gonna keep getting stronger and stronger by nature of her title alone and her strategic nature.

She is also 100% nihilistic, jaded, and cynical. Not in the "emo, misunderstood angsty" kinda way, but more in the absurdist "haha nothing matters and it's funny how people still care" kind of way. She probably also enjoys seeing someone have a rude awakening about (what she believes is) the true nature of the world and breaking. Hell, she'd probably enjoy delivering that rude awakening herself, as she'd be guaranteed to get a front row seat to their break down. She wants to drag other people down into this cynical, empty abyss with her, and finds it amusing when she sees someone who is so full of willpower and determination just-fall apart. She'd probably even convince them that she's helping them find inner peace. Leaving their unattainable and unrealistic dreams behind.

The scene would go something like this, she'd probably kneel down to this individual, collapsed and broken on the ground. Lifting up their chin to look in their eyes, she'd stare into their empty eyes, now resembling the same darkness hers have. Then, placing a hand on the chest feeling their lethargic heartbeat, she'd say, "Do you feel the gaping hole in your heart? Does your body feel hollow, no longer weighed by your pointless, unattainable desires? That emptiness you feel is enlightenment my dear, freedom from the shackles of Samsara. For at long last you have attained Nirvana, and I am the one who graciously gifted it to you...."

Also, if a new religious war themed fighting game for Touhou came out and Zanmu needed a motivation, she'd 100% start a doomsday cult dedicated to making her a god so she can end all of existence and bring everyone peace in her own way. She'd refer to the world as "a sick, dying animal that needs to be humanely put out of its misery" and would be one the number one threats to deal with because for some reason she keeps rolling Nat 20's on every single charisma check she gets and waaaay too many people are joining her and if she actually achieves her goal then there is a certain risk of THE FUCKING WORLD ENDING. (this is an idea I have been noodling with in my brain for too long, and all of that isn't accounting for how the Oni of Hell would probably speed up this process, making it even more dire lmao)

[kozachenko]

I have another Zan/Hisa headcannon (idea) because I'm thinking about them again yipeeee- My last post about this was a little more on the angsty side if you wanna write it like that, but this one definitely leans into the toxic side of things since I think it could make for an interesting dynamic.

So Zanmu has shown that she takes an interest in people who have strong willpower and don't just "give up" if they realize that their efforts are meaningless, if nothing comes of them (i.e. Reimu). We also know that Hisami has a one-sided crush on Zanmu, constantly trying to get her attention no matter what. Like I mentioned in my last post on the topic you could easily have it be Zanmu's fear of the relationship being "all for nothing" be the root cause of her not pursuing a relationship with Hisami. However, you could also make it so that Zanmu purposefully doesn't outwardly show reciprocation for Hisami's feelings but is deeply fascinated by her meaningless attempts at romantically engaging with her. She knows that any normal person would just give up after a while if they realized that the person they have a crush on doesn't give a single shit about them and move on, their efforts being meaningless. However, Hisami isn't like that one bit, she never seems to give up in trying to romance Zanmu, to the point where she will even get herself in trouble just for her attention and Zanmu loves it. She's entertained by this poor woman's desperate attempts to swoon someone who, from her perspective, obviously doesn't feel the same way. In fact, she doesn't want her own personal show to end, so once in a blue moon she drops one little flirtatious act, something so subtle that anyone else wouldn't even realize its actual intent-

Except for Hisami, desperate little Hisami. Like a dying traveler finding a mirage of an oasis in the desert, she doesn't know if it's actually legitimate or not, but what if it is?

All of this is for the purpose of making sure Hisami doesn't give up, so she can keep internally laughing at Hisami's foolishness for not realizing that nothing will come of this. As a way of congratulating her for her willpower. Who knows how long she's been playing this game of romantic cat and mouse for? Hell, maybe Hisami's masochism came as a recent development as a desperate call to Zanmu to finally give her some attention (though she could have always been like that and Zanmu just awakened that in her). She just doesn't know that Zanmu has had her eyes on her for a long time, but sees her love the same way a jester sees their king.

Leaning a bit further into headcannon/fanfic territory, you could even write Zanmu as a bit possesive, Hisami is her (metaphorical) jester after all, her deluded eyes are only to look at her. She probably gets a little jealous if she sees Hisami hanging around other people too much. The moment Hisami shows any interest in anyone else she either deliberately sabotages the relationship, intimidates the shit out of that person to back the fuck off, or gets rid of them through other means. This also has the double purpose of showing Hisami that every other relationship she tries to have will lead to nothing. Zanmu wants to be there the day that willpower is drained from Hisami's eyes. Only then will she actually tell Hisami she loves her to celebrate her enlightenment. Only then will she bring Hisami her nirvana. At that point, Hisami is all hers. The one thing in her entire life that won't fade into nothing.

Obviously from Hisami's perspective, this whole scenario is incredibly fucked and she doesn't realize it. It's even worse if she does know it's fucked up but is so desperate for attention she just...goes with it...She'll take anything as a sign of hope, that Zanmu does love her even if it goes against her better judgement. She's basically been driven to the point of insanity for this woman who laughs at every attempt she makes to swoon her. Hisami deserves so much better than this, and when she does have moments of clarity and she maybe wants to try and pursue a relationship with someone else-Zanmu cuts it off. One way or another Hisami is stuck in this loop. The only way it's allowed to end is for her to give up, to be so hollowed out and exhausted by this cycle that it breaks her.

Edit: Just another little addition to this, but I think you could also add a bit of Zanmu's "self riotousness" in there where she justifies her actions by having everyone around her thinking she'll reward Hisami for eventually letting go of her desires and reaching enlightenment, but of course it isn't as simple as that.

Edit Number 2: Another addition to this because I am still thinking about it. It could also be really interesting if another reason Zanmu is doing this is a bit of an ego boost. If she can cause someone like Hisami to crumble then she's capable of doing that to anyone. When Hisami eventually breaks and Zanmu finally goes into a relationship with her, Hisami will just become nothing but a pretty little trophy to Zanmu's manipulation, and she will make sure that no one can take it away from her.

Yeah this idea obviously leans into a bit of psychological horror and is...very dark for Touhou all things considered. I wouldn't even be mad if someone wasn't too big a fan of this, the dove is so dead you can't even eat it anymore, it's just a skeleton and this type of story isn't for everyone and I still enjoy more of the nicer interpretations of their relationships. But I do think that this can be a really interesting way to explore their relationship. I don't think Zanmu is a good person at all (at best I see her as morally grey) but I think that makes her kinda interesting if you were to write her that way.

[kozachenko]

Just wanna add a quick update to the whole "Touhou AI" situation. Here is a link to a Twitter post that includes all the AI generated images used back in Touhou 19. The reason the game never included a warning about it was because Steam hadn't introduced their AI policy yet. From my research (a brief Google search) it looks like they added it in 2024, a year after Touhou 19's release. I'm sharing this here because I wanted to draw attention to the fact that ZUN has used AI before Touhou 20, and somehow Touhou 19's AI usage is especially ironic given his stance in the Omake about "AI not touching the Indie scene" so....yaaaaay.

The post below has two main threads with images plus a bonus of images that OP wasn't 100% certain were AI or not. Looking in the comments you'll also find some extra stuff claryfying when these backgrounds where used in the game (mainly for Hisami's spellcard backgrounds, though if you watch gameplay, you can probably search for these images in the backgrounds as well). I wasn't sure if anyone else here knew about these images, but this post surfaced roughly 3 days after the demo's release, so I'm surprised this discovery never gained more traction after that.

also REMINDER DO NOT HARASS ZUN, THERE ARE OBVOUSLY DIFFERENCES IN THE WAY JAPAN SEES AI THAN THE WEST (I mean...even then there are artists who are speaking against it) AND WHILE ZUN DID DO SOMETHING WRONG I REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO DOGPILE HIM ON THIS.

I'm not mad, I'm just typing in all caps for the sake of being safe and preventing any harassment to happen because of my post.

[kozachenko]

Sneak Peak of a Cookie Run thing I'm working on! These are some photos of my sketchbook where I'm doing some planning for it.

Artist's Notes;

I have a page dedicated to Smoked Cheese Cookie but...I am kinda struggling with him and translating him into my style. Also, god bless the highlighter and pen sketching combo because lord it is helping me so much. For Captain Caviar's posed drawing I had to make the pose myself and because I'm not a big burly man the anatomy and proportions are off. Actually, just don't mind the lack of care into the hands, I'll worry about that when I digitally draw these. Also, Skater Cookie's pose was based on a really cool skateboarding pose I find on Pinterest and I freehanded Piñata Cookie's pose, I made up my own poses for Buckwheat and Captain Caviar myself. I don't know when I'll release the final product of what I'm working on so stay tuned!

[kozachenko]

After reading the newest chapters of Lotus Eaters and CDS as a way of me slowly getting back into Touhou (alongside my recent shitposts that I made with the Inscryption AU and the FNAF comparison) I was about to make a very long rant text post about how I feel about the current state of Touhou. I refrained from posting it and after coming back roughly 30 minutes later...fuck it, a major part of this series is fan works, if I don't like the current state of the series I might as well just write some kind of fanfic or try working on something, even if I entertain myself with ideas in my head I'll be happy (currently thinking about a lot of Zan/Hisa stuff because that ship has grown on me like a weed). Even if I'm kinda off base with characterization, who cares, a lot of older fan works in the Touhou community weren't 100% canon compliant, some even making up backstories for some characters as well. If any of you guys have some genuinely great fanworks to read please tell me, I wanna get more into that stuff.

[kozachenko]

If you really think about it, Touhou Project was kinda the first Five Nights at Freddy's. Not in the "mascot horror" kinda way but more so in the "long running indie game series that inspired countless fan-songs, fan-games, fan-comics, and even has a bunch of canon written works relating to it, with games that started off simple in the early days of the series but slowly grew to be more and more ambitious and complex with mechanics to varying degrees of success, alongside newer entries that people debate the quality of" kind of way.

No this is not me trying to make up a FNAF Au, I already have an Inscryption AU I gotta work on and am currently in the middle of dealing with a Cookie Run obsession. Though a FNAF AU of anything is inherently funny to me.

Though if I were to assign roles right now, Keiki would be the Puppet, I'm just saying. The puppet's whole "Give Gifts Give Life" thing would fit with Keiki's whole haniwa shtick as Haniwa were meant to protect the dead in the afterlife. Reimu and Marisa would be nightguards working at the AU's equivalent of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and take night shifts for each other. Marisa probably enjoys the nightshift and, if she were to play FNAF irl would 100% attempt 20/20/20/20 mode, she just has that energy. Reimu meanwhile....would probably just sleep during the entirety of it after placing barriers on the security office to ward off the possessed animatronics. In fact, she'd probably be the AU's equivalent to Arnold from SoTM because the idea of her being incredibly sleep deprived and having to sit through that fucking welcome show twice is really funny. It would be really funny if Yukari and Okina were William and Henry as well, Yukari is even purple so it kinda fits lmao. Still don't know who phone guy would be though, so if anyone wants to take this idea and run with it be my guest.

[kozachenko]

Ok so I have gotten very into cookie run recently and have already done some doodles of some of the characters as humans hooraaaaaay I actually have played the game before (and even drew human designs of the characters I liked the most) but left for a while and only got back into it recently.

Artist's Notes;

So not only did I use these quick portrait drawings to get a sense of how I wanted to draw these guys as humans in the future, but I also wanted to mess around with stylization since I wanted to explore some new avenues with my rendering style and even the way I draw shapes. I...also have to catch up on a lot of the story leading up to Beast Yeast since I don't know how much of the Crisipia story I need to know before going into the Beast Yeast storyline. A lot of what I know of the characters after the BTS event (oh yeah I left the game during that time because I was bored of the BTS event) comes from people talking about the game.

So I did the Shadow Milk portrait first and it is probably my favourite one in terms of how I depicted him. For context, I listen to the Japanese dub of the game and had only heard Shadow Milk's English dub VA in clips before (His English VA does a fantastic job by the way, he's so unhinged and portrays the "clown" part of his character perfectly). So, I come back to the game after seeing some animatics on it and wanting to know what I missed and immediately Shadow Milk stood out to me. I am a sucker for jester themed designs, and the abundance of eyes in his hair and just his vibes in general immediately let me know that he would be on track to becoming my new favourite character for a while (I know, it's basic and very new-gen, but trust me he isn't the only one I like a lot, Affogato cookie, Cotton Cookie, Black Rasin cookie, and Black Pearl Cookie were my OG favourites). So since I've only heard his english voice before I decided during my "skip the story to watch later and get rewards to Gacha" to listen in on a bit of the story to hear Shadow Milk's voice just so I know if I've gotten him in the gacha. And so I listen to his JP voice and immediately became inspired. It felt really different to the delivery his English voice had, and it immediately gave me "main villain in a Final Fantasy game" vibes (I haven't played Final Fantasy 6 yet but he reminded me of Kefka since they're both...y'know...clowns...). This also strongly influenced the direction I wanted to go in if I ever wanted to draw Shadow Milk in my style. I approached drawing his face here a bit different to what I usually do, in that I drew the eyes first and then painted the base of the face behind them on a separate layer (by "paint" I mean I just screwed around with some blob shapes before I settle on something that felt anatomically right). Drawing in the rest of the features and the hair was pretty easy enough, I even added in some little clown cheeks because I thought it would fit him, though it was kinda hard getting the white Eye to look right with the way I drew the rest of his face. I added some subtle eye makeup to make him look more dramatic and used a very bright blue for the shading since I thought it fit. The real hell started when I had to render the clown collar....Oh my fucking god I don't know how people do it so easily. I had to look up other people's fanart to try and get even the slightest idea on how I was supposed to even start with it since it's a weird as fuck shape. I eventually made a layer for the "cap" of the neck piece and just drew in the cloth underneath it to give the illusion that it's a full piece of clothing (I need to study clown clothing jesus christ), so uh... try not to look at his collar to closely the rendering on it is so scuffed....I do think I kinda cooked with his soul jam though, rendering gemstones is fun :D ! I also really like how the smaller bits of clothing turned out, I tried out rendering with the dry gouache brush in Clip Studio and it gave the material this nice velvety look with the highlights that I love omg. I really like Shadow Milk as a character too even outside his design. I know I said that I know basically nothing from the BTS event onwards, but from what I've gathered from fanart and discussions, he fascinates me. I love trickster villain type characters and his relationship with Pure Vanilla cookie is also incredibly interesting. I don't enjoy the ship because I think it's "super cute and romantic omg" but I mainly just wanna put them in a room together and see what happens in a controlled lab experiment (again, I really gotta read the story to actually know more of what happens between them but I don't know if I should finish Crisipia first or not).

Next up is Eternal Sugar Cookie, who I drew second and also because her design caught my eye when getting back into the game. I think the newest update is actually really neat, and I love the references to the "Garden of Earthly Delights" as someone who enjoys art history (I still don't know much about art history though lol). I also think the little devil wings and tail hiding in her design also intrigued me as well, as if you know me from my time in the Touhou fandom you'd know that I am a big fan of characters who have good intentions to protect and keep people happy but...maybe go just a tad bit too far in their methods (what I'm saying is she kinda gives me Keiki vibes in terms of her motivations, I still gotta read the story to get more insight but still). I also had a pretty clear direction that I wanted to go with her, that being someone so beautiful that they just seem... really really off. That's kinda the vibe I'm getting from episodes 9 and 10 of Beast Yeast without reading the story as well. For her portrait I gave her them big Ol' shoujo manga eyes with a bunch of sparkles, looking at ball jointed dolls for reference since I thought it would kinda lean her towards the uncanny valley a bit. Her naturally kinda long and weird eye lashes also helped out a ton with this, and I also gave her those funky heart eyebrows that were inspired by those weird heart eyebrows in Gacha Life because I thought those fit (yes I have played it for character design ideas. I also really liked rendering her soul jam, gemstones are so fun to render. I also gave her little elf ears which, admittedly I do wish I could have given Shadow Milk but that's just gonna be something I choose whether or not I wanna add when I draw him later down the line. I just thought they kinda fit Eternal Sugar cookie a lot. WAIT FUCK I AM REALIZING JUST NOW I FORGOT HER LITTLE HALO AHOGE FUCKING HELL- ok sorry I was reminded of it and got distracted, that's also something I need to add when and if I draw her more later on (much like Keiki, Eternal Sugar Cookie also has a small design element that I am most likely gonna keep fucking forgetting woohoo...). I also ran into a struggle with Eternal Sugar Cookie, that being her hair... I don't have too too much experience rendering drill curls like that, so I just kinda winged it (hehehehheheheh) while l looked at a few references online. In the end, I kinda ended up splitting them so it's kinda like slightly looser curls, and they ended up kinda having a similar shape language to wings oddly enough (I think I'm seeing things) so I'm happy with how that turned out. I didn't do too much in terms of clothes, again these are mainly bust up portraits and I wanted to focus on getting some of their vibes across with their faces so I'll focus on clothing when I draw full body versions of them.

And now for Pure Vanilla cookie, who was actually my favourite long before his Beast Yeast episodes. While I do like his English voice actor (he's voiced by the same guy that plays Sasuke, Ben 10, and Mumble from the licensed tie in video game Happy Feet 2 which I played on the DS) I ultimately prefer his Japanese voice...IDK there's just something slightly more natural about his JP voice actor's delivery to me, it's hard to explain. I kinda took both voices into account when doing his drawing because I do think they both have good qualities to them. I took a lot of inspiration from Greek Statues for his more realistic face since it just...felt right. I kinda struggled with making his white eyelashes read correctly and even be visible at all, but I am super happy with the way his lips turned out. I tried out a more painterly style of rendering for this piece as well, keeping a lot of my rendering on the same layer as my base and only merging pieces like the irises and eyebrows when I feel like i have developed them individually enough. For the rendering, I tried out using the pencil brush to make it feel more sketchy in some parts, though I do think I could have gone a bit harder with the values on it. I do like what it adds though, the lip and nose highlights turned out really well. With the hair, I deviated from his design a bit and made it a bit wavier/messy. It fit more with the image I had in my mind and I wanted to try it. I liked it enough to where I literally copy and pasted it to the more simplified version I had of him and just added some more rendering to that as well lol (I did NOT feel like doing realistic hair rendering for light blonde hair that day). Speaking of I'll talk about that next. It's a bit more in my wheelhouse to do more stylized faces in my art and that's because it just appeals to me more visually. I was really tired when doing that version as well, but I kinda mourn the loss of some of the softness of the more realistic version of his face. I do like the rendering I did with the dry brush though. It has a neat spray-painted kind of look to it and I like it a lot. I do wanna keep exploring more semi-realistic styles though, I love the look it has as well and it'll help me simplify faces better since I literally used the realistic face as a base for the stylized face (you can tell I was sleep drawing the PV drawings lol). Also, I know that you technically have more freedom to make the cookie's skin tones whatever colour you want, but I personally prefer sticking to their OG design's colours. I don't have much experience rendering darker skin tones and I commend the game for being so diverse with the skin colours when so many other gacha games stick to the same shades of blinding paper white all the time (looking at you Genshin). I do wish to try drawing non-Eurocentric features a bit more as well, this game is a great catalyst for helping me get out of my comfort zone since it actually has men in it (and I almost never drew men before, these are the consequences of exclusively drawing Touhou Project fanart digitally lol) and characters with a variety of different skin tones. I was really eepy when drawing PV so I just... didn't wanna draw his outfit... I've had struggles with it before and I have an entire Pinterest board of ideas which I have never really done before for fan designs of a character. I also just wanted to focus on skin rendering as well and experimenting with that so don't mind it lol.

Overall, I'm happy with how these little doodles turned out. I do intend on drawing more Cookie Run fanart in the future because I have gotten waaay to into this game now and looking at the lore page on the wiki has been fun. The saddest thing is....out of the three I drew here.... I only have Pure Vanilla and his ancient awakened form.... Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar Cookie still haven't come home.... I have Burning Spice and Mystic Flour cookie though as well as the rest of the ancients to that's good (I am a VERY stubborn F2P gacha game player, I refuse to spend money on a phone game I can easily delete and lose all progress on). UPDATE: I have both Eternal Sugar Cookie and Shadow Milk now, I finally got Shadow Milk at the 300 pull gift on the fate banner and Eternal Sugar cookie with her soulstones from the Warden of The Heart event yipeeee~

Also, to the people who know me from the Touhou fandom, please don't mind the Cookie Run obsession, if I feel like continuing my Inscryption AU series and feel like drawing fanart again I will.... though I do have a little crossover ship cooking up between the two series' right now....

[kozachenko]

Even in some of the newer games too, like, in 17 the backdrop of the Animal Realm with the Kofun Tomb in the center of it, stage 6 literally changing sections because you are literally getting chased out. Touhou 18's stage 6 worked perfectly with the theme of the character it was for and the visual that appeared in it (the Lunar Rainbow) was literally the namesake for the stage theme music as well. Touhou 16 was especially good at this for its stages, the Land of the Backdoor having such a creative and unique visual identity with there being so much going on in it, and the final boss fight literally taking you back to locations from earlier in the game.

Even the spellcard backgrounds (which is where this whole AI thing started) had meanings to them even if most of the time yes, it was just random patterns. This was mainly a thing in the older games, but Sakuya's clock in the background of her spellcards, Eirin's spellcards in her fight taking you to different locations and important events in human history, Okuu's cat representing Orinn and the cats in Chernobyl. Yeah a lot of them are just random backgrounds, but with the characters whose lore and story mattered (I mention a lot of the final bosses here with the exception of Sakuya) there was creative effort put into them to convey their characters.

It's sad seeing the Touhou 20 AI backgrounds discourse with people siding with ZUN and doubling down saying "the backgrounds are not important/they are just stock photos"

1. As if there wasn't any artistry to that, as if the early Windows games didn't have some gorgeous, dynamic and immersive backgrounds that came together with the music to create some truly special atmospheres and stories.

2. As if these arguments aren't what executives use to justify paying less or firing artists that they consider less important, because their work is less obvious to their ignorant for-profit mindset.

[kozachenko]

Behold, my Touhou Project Inscryption Au that I started working on before all the stuff with Touhou 20 went down. Mainly finished this so I could get it out of my head lol.

No one asked for this. No one needed this, but I have free will and this is how I choose to use it lmao.

Artist's Notes;

Full disclaimer I have never played Inscryption before, I have only seen gameplay videos going through the entire game and have watched lore recaps, analyses, and videos on it. I do still love this game though and want to play it someday.

I remember it was during one of my many rewatches of Markiplier's Inscription playthrough (The Flying Uryaruli never gets old, plus they're kinda comfort videos lmao) that I thought of the dumb idea of "what if Chimata was in it?" and thus this idea was born. My initial concept of this was "the devil added microtransactions to his game" (bonus points if you understand that reference), which then evolved into "what if Megumu, Tsukasa, and Momoyo were the other scribes" which then evolved into me thinking way to fucking hard about this idea and deciding to swap out those three for other characters to be the scrybes. I'm sure you can tell who I chose for the new scrybes based on the cards (it's Zanmu and Keiki), though I did leave a hint as to who would be replacing which scrybe in this AU (hint, look at their health and attack line's, Keiki's attack is 1 btw it just got covered up by Zanmu's card). That part will probably become clearer as I develop the concept more (which will probably come in a long while) but in the meantime I'll explain the abilities more.

So I decided to adapt the cost into coins because in my mind, Chimata would focus really really hard on the collectathon trading card aspect. In fact, I imagine that in the beginning of this AU she's say something like, "and if you collect all of the cards, you'll be able to find a special little promo code in them. For what exactly? Well where's the fun in me telling you that now!" As I wrote in the image above (for those who can't read the font it says, "Balancing isn't exactly my forte, so some of the cards I gave you in your base deck have a 50/50 shot of being trash or stupidly overpowered!") Chimata probably doesn't care for the balancing and mainly wants to oversee the exchange in ownership with trading cards. I know characters like Nemuno or Ubame fit Leshy's vibes more but Chimata was kinda the progenitor of this idea and I think it would make more sense for her to care about cards so much so yeah lol (also there is a specific part in Act 1 of the game where I think Chimata's theming with the moon in Stage 6 of UM would work really well).

Also, in this AU, Sumireko would be the protagonist who runs a lost media Youtube channel where she discovers the cartridge with Inscryption in a similar way that Luke did in the OG game.

As for the effects on the cards, I'll go over them briefly:

Zanmu's sigil would negate the effects of the opposing creature's sigil, I was initially gonna give her the "if an opposing card attacks this one, it doesn't" sigil but decided that would be too OP and went for this idea instead.

Keiki's sigil basically functions like the warren sigil in the original game, where upon placing her down on the board she gives the player a free Haniwa card (which would be 1 attack 2 health and no cost). For obvious reasons I think this fits Keiki pretty well.

So the main purpose of this AU isn't to be 1 to 1 with the game's characters personality-wise (for reasons that will become apparent if you know who Keiki is substituting for) but in terms of theming I did try to think about who would fit best (other than Chimata but again, she's kinda got special treatment since I just though the idea of her constantly pulling out microtransactions to get herself more faith or trying desperately to convince Sumireko to get another person to play the game so she has someone to trade with would be funny). Visually this will also look different from Inscryption because...ain't no way I'm replicating that and also I want to use this as an oppurtunity to let myself do harsh lighting because I love doing harsh lighting in my drawings :D

Again, this is going to be an ongoing project of mine that is mainly gonna be shitposts like this. As you can see with the drawing I did not care about rendering the metal scale much and focused more on getting the shading on Chimata right. I also changed some things about her design and added some stuff, mainly changing how her dress pattern works, added some shoulder ornamentation to her cape, and gave her some nice big golden sphere earrings because I know she'd wear something like that.

Not the most proud of this piece (I finished this at around 10:30 at night so I was kinda eepy finishing this up) but for a shitpost, this is really all it need to be tbh.

[kozachenko]

New addition to this headcanon, since the new game's plot takes place around Youkai mountain and Kanako is all about bringing technology to Gensokyo, Kanako accidentally used an AI and fucked up Gensokyo's landscape so parts of the mountain look like AI generated slop and everyone is freaked out about it. The Tengu have called it the new Moriya Shrine Conspiracy.

Since all the AI stuff in Touhou 20 has linked back to Nareko, I now have the headcannon that Nareko got all her information on ancient Egypt from Chat GPT, and since she doesn't know any better, takes it as gospel. Also, when someone (probably Keine) told her that Cleopatra was actually Greek, she didn't take the news well and is still in De Nile to this day.

[kozachenko]

Spreading this around too because this also has some good information on Adobe Firefly that I didn't know about before making my own post about it. There's so much new information coming out about all the AI stuff that needs more exposure in the fandom.

As I mentioned in my own post about this, I don't think it's right that we should settle for "it could be worse" and I hope this doesn't become a pattern in newer Touhou games after 20. Touhou also matters to a lot of people, so I'm not surprised people are trying to lessen the impact of Gen AI being used. Heck, even for me I have basically been conflicted on how I feel about the series after this, so it's easy to fall into that trap. Also, in terms of how talked about this is on Tumblr, it's slowly becoming more talked about but it still needs to be discussed more.

This whole ordeal has become the Touhou fandom's 9/11 at this point and this whole thing has just been really disappointing.

heya, just to say i'll be taking a quick break from Touhou. I'm not sure how talked about it is on tumblr, but Touhou 20 has Generative AI used in Adobe Firefly for the backgrounds. I was already bummed by it, but seeing people's reactions being a bunch of changing mental gymnastics to excuse it or make it seem less bad is not it. Especially with a lukewarm thread making its way on socials to "document" this by someone who DID use AI in the past and doesn't mind its usage. While it's true that ZUN always relied on stock images for his backgrounds, the excuse that "he didnt know any better/it was an accident" has been debunked. now, people are using the excuse of "adobe firefly is ethical, actually". it's not! Firefly is half adobe assets like they claim they are, and half trained on midjourney, which, you know, is NOT a closed circuit and therefore NOT as ethical as it claims to be. Besides, "ethical" or not, it's still encouraging and endorsing the usage of generative imagery since ZUN is so influencial. Monkey see, monkey do. Others that follow his lead might not be as "ethical" as he says he is when they do it in their own turn. I've even seen people claim that it's "no different from him ripping off other series for his pc98 cast" which is a VERY wild and bold take to make in order to make it seem normal and misses the point. I don't want to dunk on ZUN or get the pitchforks out. I am being vocal BECAUSE touhou means so much to me and I want the best for the series i considered to be so rich and unique for all those years. And I don't think regarding ZUN as an unproblematic saint who isn't accountable for anything ever at all is a good stance. I just need this to sink in for me and to swallow that pill bc to say i'm disappointed, both in ZUN and in fans excusing this with rapidly changing alibis, is frankly not it.

I'm tired of fighting. I don't want to spark any drama but I am exhausted. Keep supporting your artists, keep fighting against the rise of AI and do not let it be normalized, even by people you look up to. I will always have my favorites very dear in my heart and it doesn't take away from them, if that's what you were wondering, but I need some time to swallow that pill. Thank you.

[kozachenko]

I'm too tired and bad at words to do a super deep dive. But I highly recommend reading that thread as Richard is good at words.

But I have to get this off my chest, so to make my opinion a long story short:

I'm not happy

I don't think any sort of genAI belongs in media regardless of how "clean" or minor it is.

I don't think ZUN is evil or beyond redemption or whatever considering his use doesn't replace any artists, it ultimately is a very minor element of the game where there was never much thought put into and he seemingly used an "ethical" model (which I still think is some bullshit but it would show he does has some consciousness about the use of AI.)

I do think he is pretty fucking stupid for making all this rah rah in 19 about AI and then using it the very next game.

I probably won't buy or play touhou 20 myself unless it's removed, genAI stuff geniunely makes my skin crawl. But I'm not going scorched earth and abandoning the series and I, a rando you don't know, would suggest you don't either.

Because I still love the artistry of the fans and the silly girls, I still love the story and worldbuilding (although I can't say i'm looking to dig into the themes of 20 considering my earlier point about 19.) And I still want to support all the artists who love this series too. So I will continue as I normally do, reblogging art and occasionally making dumb posts, this includes the characters from 20 and beyond.

I keep wondering if I'm overreacting or not. But ultimately I'm just really disappointed. Not because I expect a 50-something year old Japanese man to uphold my morals and worldview, but because I see Touhou as a whole to be a bastion of creativity and artistic freedom. So to see this from the creator, even if it's small and done as ethically as possible, stings me to be honest.

This is something I thought before this ordeal, but feel much stronger about now. For the love of fucking god ZUN, hire some help for these games. Shit, at least get Beatmario or Ki-san to find some non-AI stock images lol.

Oh no i wrote many words when i said i wouldn't waaaaaaahhh

(P.S. If you feel the same way then absolutely voice your displeasure via steam reviews, tweets, etc. But don't be an asshole or ultra aggressive and angry towards ZUN or those who play or make content of 20. That will probably change no minds. Save that energy for the tech companies and the governments that allow them to push genAI unregulated. ZUN at least shows some care and concern with it's use, they don't.)