Hifuu Club (Read 1,324 times)

[spongelevator]

Hifuu Club
The Hifuu Club is pretty much the only time we see people living outside of Gensokyo, and I find it to be probably the most interesting part of Touhou lore
we know less about Maribel and Renko than many characters for sure, and that mystery leaves a lot of room to make theories and such about what's going on with them
one of those theories that I see the most is that Maribel is actually Yukari in some way
usually it goes something like Maribel's ability to see boundaries keeps growing until eventually she gains the ability to manipulate them and basically becomes Yukari? she ended up going back in time in Changeability of Strange Dream so time travel is possible in the Touhou universe
it's definitely something thing to think about, and the fact that ZUN probably won't ever say whether the theory is true or not makes it even more interesting because it'll just stay hypothetical forever
He mentioned Lafcadio Hearn when asked, so it seems he wants people to think that there's a connection between the two
there's some weaker theories about how Renko is Yuyuko or about Yukari being a combination of Renko and Maribel out there as well, though I haven't really heard much about either
so, what do you think is going on there? it may be a fruitless discussion but it aint no sans is ness
also magical astronomy is best CD 
Hifuu Club

[lazulum2]

There used to be a lot of good fan stuff about that back in the day. I remember Touhou Kinema Kan featuring Maribel in one of their videos. Never had any theories myself though, always figured they were in a sort of occult school club that ended up generating some sort of connection with Gensokyo.


Pic related, forgot I owned this until I read this thread. Not quite the album you mentioned though, just Ghostly Field Club.

[spongelevator]

yeah that's one of those good things about touhou, lots of stuff happened in the past and a lot of it's still up to read
did kinema kan make that one really long hifuu club animation? I remember hearing about one that was like half an hour long, though I didn't go and see it yet
ghostly field club's got some good stuff in there too. I always liked ZUN's music CDs more than the game soundtracks since when I first heard them lol
do stores in japan still sell new versions of those? or are they more in places like book offs or mandarakes or whatever

[lazulum2]

Yeah I still have some Ibarakasen sitting on my shelf that I need to read haha

Kinemakan always made shorts. Their full-length releases could be described as a collection of shorts. One of their shorts was an anime-opening styled video that was Hifuu themed I remember. Opened with Maribel and Renko on a train I think.
I think the one you're describing was made by a Chinese group. I think I have it sitting on a computer somewhere, never got around to watching it unfortunately.

Yeah ZUN's music CDs are good.
There's a specific hobby store in Akiba that always has a mountain of Touhou stuff in there, they have other stuff too but it has the largest dedicated Touhou selection of any place I know. Music, Doujin, games, mangas, etc. They usually have new selections of most official Touhou goods, and an impressive new selection of doujin goods. Can't remember the name off the top of my head, been a while, but I can get it for you if you want.

Book off, the big ones at least, you'll be surprised by what you can find. Anything you can think of, even N64, GBS, Famicom, etc. Very cheap too for the most part. Selections are inconsistent though given the nature of the business.

[Aeon]

the hifuu duo are the coolest. who cares if you can fly or shoot big lasers? the real challenge is being a college student with enough free time to hang out on the moon
maribel = yukari is something i'm not sure i can fully agree with because there are way too many unknowns inbetween and especially yukari's reaction to sumireko. yukari plays it way too cool for how closely related sumireko is to renko. maybe it's because she had a millennium to prepare, though
if i had to pick, i would have to say that it makes the most sense for maribel + renko = yukari. i hadn't heard that anywhere else until this thread, so it's just something i thought of. between the changing eye colour, yukari's proficiency in physics (renko's major), and the kind of proactiveness she has on things in gensokyo, that's what i think makes sense. well, that still misses everything inbetween [college girls exploring] and [creation of the great hakurei barrier]. but who knows, maybe it's not that sort of relation at all.

the lafcadio hearn thing is pretty interesting, one time i found out that the dude actually still has living descendants. hope none of them are getting harassed by youkai like maribel
i'm pretty sure that something big featuring maribel and renko will be released eventually, all the cds are kinda building up to something

also yeah there's the anime. i haven't seen it in a while but it is rad and they are supposedly making more. doujin anime can't be easy, i suppose.

lazulum2
i still think it's crazy that you can just walk into a store filled with touhou. if i searched around where i am, i might find an "anime" store that carries jojo and maybe fate, but nothing with touhou, or any doujin stuff.


also,

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

(magical astronomy is best tho)

[spongelevator]

lazulum2
I saw some kinema kan stuff and I liked that rinnosuke one quite a bit
those kinda quiet and peaceful animations are the best ones
also yeah a name would be quite good I will probably go to japan in like five years or so lol

Aeon
yeah there's pretty big gaps (funny) between events with the current day vs the creation of gensokyo and such so though Z U N is definitely hinting at something, there's definitely many possibilities as well
yukari's particularly good at math and she pretty much made ran who is also very good at it, so that makes the idea of both maribel and renko being yukari seem more possible yeah
it solves the question of where renko went, though it kinda makes me want to know what yukari was even doing when gensokyo was just created and how she met yuyuko and all lol
hopefully next CD will add more information because there's a lot of unanswered questions with all the different ideas I've heard so far

I've been to like three kinokuniyas and the main US book off and I rarely see anything touhou most of the time
I think I saw like one touhou book for 16 bucks at a kinokuniya once and nothing else lol
book off is really big so I wasn't sure where to look but I don't think there was much there
I've heard book offs in japan have way more stuff and with better prices
like being able to buy a full light novel series for 1500 yen
one day I will find a ZUN music CD out there maybe hopefully
also though I like magical astronomy as a whole the most, retrospective 53 minutes has that one neo super express music and that is probably my favorite one I've heard so far
very nice one

[lazulum2]

Aeon
When you put it that way it makes them all the more cooler and relatable haha
Speaking of the moon, it was Tanabata here in Japan recently, I wonder if ZUN will ever incorporate that into one of his games.

I like that theory, and yeah I imagine ZUN has some sort of future plan for the Hifuu club duo. I'll look forward to it. And are you referring to Manpukuu Jinja's animes? Those were always top quality, although I've fallen out of the loop unfortunately. Long overdue on picking up one of their episodes to support them. Or maybe a different one? Losing track of which circles are doing what these days haha

Yeah lines of descendency have historically been quite entrenched. I have a friend who is a descendant of Tokugawa (there are many haha), Yoshinobu was a distant cousin of his. Wonder what Lafcadio's descendants are up to now that you mention it though haha

And nice collection you've got there!

spongelevator
Yeah I should give those a watch again, they had a distinctive style to them that you don't see much anymore. That calmness and simplicity that some of their videos consisted of, very relaxing.

Looked it up, it's called AKIBA-HOBBY 秋葉原店. It changes location from time to time though (different parts of Akiba), so best to look up the location whenever you come. If you want other recommendations for spending time in Akiba I can offer more too. Good luck with your travels.

[Aeon]

i wouldn't be surprised if something were to happen with tanabata, the moon and stuff have always been kinda important in gensokyo. well, not that i'm super familiar with tanabata but i've seen it come up in anime and vns before
i was talking about the "hifuu club activity record" anime (the one with only two episodes, with the second being an hour long), but the memories of phantasm one by manpuku jinja is cool too. i haven't watched most of it, but tv-length animation adaptations of the games are rad even if they are a bit inaccurate

personal theory is that zun has been very slowly working on a game or the like alongside the normal releases featuring the hifuu duo, but that's just a guess. would be funny though if one day he just dropped a big game like that one day with no preface

[lazulum2]

Tanabata is about two stars that love each other, Kengyu and Orihime, they are only allowed to meet once a year. Japanese have celebrated it since at least Heian era (a thousand years ago)

Ahh right right. Didn't know there was a second episode, and didn't know it was an hour, something of a film at that point haha.

That seems plausible. Makes me wonder if ZUN works on multiple projects at once, making gradual progress on side projects as he focuses efforts on the main games. He did used to experiment a lot more with older games (the versus one, IN, etc.), maybe he's still experimenting on the side. Would be a very pleasant surprise.

[spongelevator]

with the hifuu club CDs in particular it seems there was a five year gap and a four year gap in between releases and it's been almost four years since the last release by now so he's probably working on games most of the time
ZUN comes out of nowhere and gives us Touhou 17.49: Kappa Wars
play as fan favorites such as nitori and red nitori, who has a cherry flavor
also the only thing I know about akihabara is that there's electronics stuff and some people there like curry lol
so if you have recommendations or informations then it would be a good learning experience for me

[lazulum2]

Wow had no idea the gaps between Hifuu releases were so big. Makes sense that ZUN works on games most of the time. First I've heard of 17.49. That's neat. Wonder if another release is nearing the corner then, maybe 2021.


I'll give some more pointers then
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If you're looking for Japanese manga or LNs, you won't find a larger selection than what's in Akiba. Toranoana is the best place, but they have three different locations all in Akiba.

Akiba also has several very large arcades, especially the Sega one by the station. Several floors of just about any arcade games you could want, classics such as Ketsui, Dodonpachi, Under Defeat, and newer stuff, Border Break, etc. Claw games and such too naturally.

If you're looking for food Akiba isn't really the best place. There's Star Kebab (as seen on TV place, popular among Japanese) but I can't imagine that strikes at your interests so much. If you really want a Japanese sort of place in Akiba a place called ちばチャン is where I'd recommend.

There's the maid cafes too, if that's your sort of thing. Only been once, some friends dragged me there because they knew I'd end up rambling on about some tertiary topic-- known for rambling about such things haha. Funny story in retrospect that I tell from time to time though, better spoken that typed.

[Aeon]

woah yeah that is a pretty big gap (ha). guess he just makes em when he feels like it.

whenever i go to japan i'll probably spend a good amount of time at the arcades in akiba, as long as they've got better games than "big bass wheel". mostly counting on rhythm games as finding a proper place with ddr, let alone stuff like pump it up or sound voltex, is pretty tough in the states.

maid cafes... i fear them with every part of my being, but my sister insists that i to go to some with her one day.

[spongelevator]

nah 17.49 is only real in my dreams
one day there will be cherry cola flavored nitori though I swear

sounds like akihabara has a lot of the good stuff there
yeah the first thing I thought when arcades were mentioned was people buying the entire sound voltex machine to be able to play it at home lol
so I would definitely want to play it there
much better than a malfunctioning claw machine

maid cafe is a funny moment in the making
though I wouldn't go unless at least two other people want to see what's going on in there

thank you very much for informations this will be helpful in the future

[lazulum2]

Aeon
I've never been into the rhythm games so much, but they have entire floors of different rhythm games at some of those arcades. I played a versus one with some friends a while back, the machine I played on had an entire genre category that was just "Touhou" haha

If you go it's best to go with friends, or in this case your sister haha, only way I can imagine enjoying the maid cafe. The girls who work there at least seem to have fun and enjoy the job at least.

spongelevator

Ah, I did run a quick search for it, figured it was a name given to a patch for a game.

Yeah Tokyo is an amazing city, different parts of the city offer in themselves more than many entire cities do in other countries.

Odaiba is another wonderful part, especially if you have a lady-friend. Had a great time with my ex there back in the day.

Shinjuku has a lot there too, Shinjuku-gyeon (park) is a beautiful place. My area is quite nice too (though I won't say, can't give too much info haha). Just a quick train away are other amazing places I'd recommend too, Kamakura, Kawagoe, etc.

Yeah I have a funny memory I share from time to time of one, if you're at a maid cafe with friends I think you'll probably have a funny story to remember

Yeah sure thing, always happy to share info about Japan, wonderful country. She and her people have been very good to me in the time I've been here

[Aeon]

sometimes i get the opportunity to drop by a place with a couple japanese rhythm games, and almost all of them have a "touhou" section. lets me obnoxiously listen to whatever i want, but unlike the car ride over, my pals can't do much about it except hit the notes with me
it may be a bit lame that all the rhythm arcade machines are stuck in japan, but it also means that a lot of people make open source versions of them for pc like stepmania, pump it up, osu, i think sound voltex has one, etc

i've gotta thank you for the info, too, considering i'll hopefully be going to japan at some point once quarantine is over
i looked up odaiba because i hadn't heard of it before, and it has a statue of liberty, just hanging out. in fact, apparently there are a bunch of replicas, all over the world. crazy. i would have thought that was more common information, but i guess most people just consider it "the american thing"