12th Touhou Series Popularity Contest!

[game2011]

What does the "firsts" in the results mean?

[ZM]

What does the "firsts" in the results mean?

They were first on someone's vote.

Also: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2251329?tags=touhou
Imouto sandwich.

[Espadas]

It's pretty amusing that for the nth time we have an Aki Sandwich. It's almost a running joke by now.

I'm kinda surprised by the ABYSS between Reimu and everyone else. I guess more than a few WEREN'T happy with Koishi stealing the throne.

Something unexpected: Rumia is steadily climbing the ranks! O.o  Can't think of any reason for this.....

Pretty happy with the songs. Border of Life will probably forever be my first choice, but my inner bastard is pleased that the Scarlet duo keep kicking asses.

This is mostly because i find really annoying that every year there are tons of comments bashing Septette, completely forgetting the simplest of the reasons: just because there are new songs, doesn't mean the tastes have changed. If truckloads of people voted for Septette for almost a decade no-stop, why would you expect them to change vote now?

[Ps]

Kanako is #71
Suwako is #34

...

[Flandre5carlet]

Character poll:
-Koishi dropping from #1; just as expected, it was yet another rush of LOLHYPE from the fandom that died out after the game release.
-No Memepiece in top 20, I'm happy.
-Predictable but not particularly disappointing top 10. I
-Kaguya #41, I am saddened.
-Flandre #5, I am happy.
-Renko ranking fairly high, I am happy.
-Same for Eiki.
-Best ranked newhu is Sagume, as should be.
-Scarlet Sandwich for Youmu.
-Miko ranking higher than Byakuren, I am pleased.
-How is the unnamed Jinyou from Forbidden Scrollery even this high?

Music poll:
-Necrofantasia #6, Evening Star #90. Such poor tastes in Yukari themes.  :X
-No Phantasm Machine ~ Phantom Factory in top 100. Sad.
-No Voyage 1970 in top 100. Sad.
-Futatsuiwa from Sado barely in the top 100. Sad.
-Predictable top 10, but I don't mind it.
-I don't mind the top 2, in fact I'm pretty happy about it, for reasons Espadas described.
-The top 100 is overall very lacking in amazing music from the CDs.
-Lunatic Eyes in top 50, okay-ish I guess.

[Quwanti]

Interesting to see that almost all of EoSD's music is slowly creeping up in the rankings for the past two polls.

-No Futatsuiwa from Sado in top 100. Sad.

It's 91th.

[Flandre5carlet]

Oh, I'm not sure how I missed it, thanks. Still a pretty disappointing result, but.. at least it's there, I guess.

[Hello Purvis]

Yall did your duty. There will be no punishments to make an example of anyone. Moral has improved, beatings discontinued.

I'm still amazed that Kisume beats any windows character. But I won't complain!

[aListers]

Of course, Reimu would take back her throne - the fact that, even if just for a year, she didn't hold it is what made me happy though. She can take back her place as the most popular but her streak was beaten and that's what mattered.

Personally surprised that Clownpiece wasn't very high up. Maybe we should be promoting these to the west a bit more to get 'murica fairy up. Then again, the Japanese always have more numbers than us as Reimu never wins western polls.

I feel slightly guilty helping Koishi drop to 3rd now as well. Replacing Reimu with Koishi was a lot better than it would've been if we'd replaced her with Marisa.

Also happy that the Jinyou got suprisingly high. While it's arguable if he needed to die or not, he was still not a bad guy by any means. At least we acknowledge the blood on Reimu's hands.

Sakuya, Flandre and Remilia seem to have held their ground for 3 years straight now. They've all maintained the same rank for 3 years straight. The next one down the list to do that was Nue at 38.

It seems that more people are voting again. We've  surpassed pre-Kantai collection boom levels now it seems - albiet that slump may have been the year break rather than a mass betrayal. We're only about 1000 voters off from 2012. The results were to be expected - with exception of Sagume surpassing Clownpiece and I'd say that she's the most deserving character to do so. Nothing I'm jumping around about like last year.

[Silent Harmony]

No real surprises this year sadly, but that's to be expected. I read an opinion recently on how one way Japan's conservative society manifests itself is in their copycat media where everybody does the same thing over and over and consumers constantly eat it up because its something they're used to and comfortable with. That's opposed to, say, the USA where we demand innovation seemingly every-other season. We are always looking for the "next big thing" even when what we have is still perfectly legitimate in the present.

Neither is necessarily right or wrong when done right. The USA's constant push for advancement leads to innovations and constant evolution in things like technology, science, politics, and society. Japan's conservatism leads to efficiency and perfection of a single concept (like in their automotive industry) before moving on.

That really shows in the popularity poll, where the familiar greats (Reimu, Marisa, the entire SDM cast) are constantly at the top, while new characters struggle to break through until years later (as Drake's graphs illustrate), which Japan seems perfectly fine with but the WTC constantly bemoans.

Yall did your duty. There will be no punishments to make an example of anyone. Moral has improved, beatings discontinued.

I'm still amazed that Kisume beats any windows character. But I won't complain!

Not only did she beat other Windows characters, she beat 2/3 of the Prismriver sisters and a Tsukumo. It's shocking to me that a Stage 1 midboss with 0 dialogue beat 3 stage 4 bosses. Also I just realized how funny yet depressing it is as a former band nerd that the 3 lowest Windows female Touhou characters are all music-based.

Interesting* notes:

• Rumia is the highest rated Stage 1 boss at 25, while Kogasa is the highest rated Stage 2 boss at 22. Kogasa is also the only boss introduced between UFO and DDC I believe to break the top 25. Her popularity is somewhat surprising in that respect, since the only major thing I can think of involving her lately would be Mizuki Hitoshi's web diary, but even that is just him using her as an avatar as opposed to her being herself.
• Someone mentioned the Aki sandwich may as well be a meme, but same could be said of the Scarlet Sandwich. Not only has there been one 3 years in a row, but the Scarlet sisters have been in the same position each year (5th and 7th). Sakuya (4th) and Momiji (21st) are the only other top-25 character to be ranked in the same position for the last 3 years.
• Koakuma and Daiyousei are rated above Wakasagi and Minoriko. I call shenanigans. :colbert: Ok but seriously Dai, a midboss who doesn't even have an official name much less a personality, earned more votes than Eirin, a final boss and major character in the series. The power of fandom and fanon ladies and gentlemen!

[Ryason55]

Oh, Mystia got 51st. Still dropping, but she's at least she's somewhat holding her ground, considering that 4 of the new characters ranked higher than her, and she only dropped 1 rank.

[SirSlarty]

47	40	44	Keine Kamishirasawa	2302	256
48	46	42	Kagerou Imaizumi	2269	167

Poll Result Fanart to Look Out For:

* Keine and Kagerou

Yes, please.

[ZM]

Yes, please.

Keine and Kagerou: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2251553?tags=touhou

[Jeremie]

I literally went ahead and decided to joke around the character results. They might come off as mean-spirited but it's not serious especially since I'm making fun of even my favorite characters regardless of their ranking.  :V

https://www.facebook.com/mamizouthetanukiofsweetpotatoes/posts/1113238048717150:0

[kevin1127]

It's sad that the most interesting thing I found about this vote is not the result but those people who doubt the voting system.

[SirSlarty]

Keine and Kagerou: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2251553?tags=touhou

Already yoinked that one  :V

[Koog]

Poll Result Fanart to Look Out For:

* Youmu in a Scarlet sandwich
* Reisen in a Yuyuko and Yukari sandwich
* Yukari and Yuuka
* Keine and Kagerou
* Maribel placing far away from Renko... but right next to Sumireko
* Lunasa ranking 27 positions higher than her sisters
* Yumemi in an Aki sandwich
* Benben Tsukumo in a sandwich with two of the Three Fairies
* Kisume still in the top 100 (#98)
* Yatsuhashi Tsukumo in a sandwich with two of the Prismrivers
* Unzan is the lowest ranked Windows game character

Merlin not in top 100.

[the old guy]

Mamizou not being in the top 50?

Touhou fandom has shit taste, more at 11.

[Drake]

Yall did your duty. There will be no punishments to make an example of anyone. Moral has improved, beatings discontinued.

I'm still amazed that Kisume beats any windows character. But I won't complain!

There was actually somewhat of a rally on twitter to make sure Kisume wasn't the first Windows character to get below 100.

[Helepolis]

There was actually somewhat of a rally on twitter to make sure Kisume wasn't the first Windows character to get below 100.

Yea, Chamupei had drawn this picture as support on Pixiv (image on danbooru, nsfw warning)
[nsfw]http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2242114?tags=parent%3A2251662[/nsfw]

[N-Forza]

Merlin not in top 100.

Maybe if she stopped spinning so much, she wouldn't get disoriented.

[Kilgamayan]

Good observations:

i?m fucking crying all the comments left by the people who voted for the fortune-teller (the guy Reimu killed in FS) are joke comments, people were voting for him as a joke, that?s why he got so many votes holy shiiittt

most of them are people rewriting his lines about how he wanted to quit being human into stuff related to the poll or other things, while others are just quoting his final words where he tries to beg reimu for mercy but gets cut off, but the one that killed me was:

初めて知った東方キャラクターなので
he was the character who introduced me to touhou, so

someone left a fkn essay on why Reimu killing the fortune teller was unjust and at the end left a ton of hashtags #Don?tForgiveHakurei #HakureiResign #AbolishTheHakureiShrine

god i wish had the energy to sit and properly translate some of these but shit.

maybe another day

reading the comments for your faves is pretty nice. it makes me in a good mood, even when say, a good 30% of Kasen?s comments simply read ?boob?

A list of characters less popular than Daiyousei: Komachi, Eirin,  Mamizou, Yuugi, Akyuu, Kanako, Tewi, Wakasagihime, Mima, all three Fairies of Light.

it still kind of bewilders me that Kogasa is nearly as popular as Patchouli though.

where are my ten thousand Kogasa figures if she?s so popular, huh?

How does this happen. How does one of the coolest characters, with tons of manga appearances, get stuck this low. The manipulative trickster type who actually comes off as a person instead of a walking plot device, who drives like half the stuff that happens in Forbidden Scrollery, who has one of the most memed-upon attacks in the fighters, who has a big fluffy tail. (Worth at least ten ranks right there.) Who sometimes just up and solves minor incidents that threaten to ruin her fun.

Where did we go wrong, Mamizou.

[Drake]

Yeah I have no idea how Mamizou ended up so low. Old guy is right, people have awful taste.

[Raikaria]

Raikaria vs the World:

Characters:

1: Seija - 27th
2: Yuuka - 19th
3: Seiga - 54th
4: Kogasa - 22nd
5: Shinki - 75th
6: Sanae - 12th
7: Rumia - 25th

Music:
1: Reach for the Moon; Immortal Smoke - 5th; and it's gone up!
2: Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom - Nuclear Fusion [Can't find]
3: Magical Storm - 277th [Wat]
4: Forbidden Magic - 355th
5: Staking your Life on a Prank - [Can't find; this had a really weird name]
6: Reverse Ideology - 40th
7: Old Yuanxien - 48th
8: The Grimoire of Alice - 80th
9: Strawberry Crisis!! - 118th [wat]
10: Spirit Battle - Perdition Crisis - 304th

Also Bad Apple only at 89th surprises me

Works

1: Imperishable Night [2nd]
2: Double Dealing Character
3: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
4: Mystic Square
5: Undefined Fantastic Object

The others are a lot harder to identify without being in game order


Now for some stats; note 'main game' discounts decimal games.

Lowest-ranked character with a game appearance and a name: SinGoyku. If we discount HRtP since it's... well.. HRtP; we get Orange.

Highest ranked character without an appearance in a main series game is Tenshi; with Kokoro right behind her, both above characters such as Yuyuko and Yukari.

Highest ranked character with 0 Firsts is... Rabbits. Somehow they beat Crows; which had 4 firsts. Somehow.

Highest ranked character without a game appearance at all is Renko, who is far above Maribel.

Highest ranked PC-98 without a post-PC-98 appearance is Shinki, who chronologically is the last PC-98 character met. If you were to count all PC-98 characters you get Reimu; obviously.

Lowest ranked character fought more than once: Rika; she is also the lowest ranked EXBoss; although she had way more Firsts than a lot of characters around her.

Lowest ranked character who has made appearances in multiple main games : Mima [NB: This discounts any ending appearances; since I've not seen every ending to every game so for all I know Unzan shows up in one]

Lowest ranked character to appear in multiple games: Unzan; who is ranked lower than a character who solely exists to be his hithox

Lowest ranked character playable in a main series game: Rikako Asakura [Also the lowest raked character with a surname and a game appearance]

Highest ranked character with 1 game appearance [Discounting backgrounds in fighting games]: Flandre [Ironically she would still win even if the fighting game backgrounds counted]. Flandre is also the highest ranked character who has never been playable.

[Helepolis]

Regarding the Fortune Teller
[attach=1]

There is also discussion going on at Danbooru about this.

Regarding "where are my thousands of kogasa figures" >> Pretty sure

Kasen's boobs > Can't say I can't disagree with those reasons.

About Mamizou > Is it perhaps possible that people "dislike her" because she isn't from mainland Japan story wise? Even though she is a Tanuki. Makes me wonder.

[hungrybookworm]

I don't think it's that people 'dislike' Mamizou, it's just that they might not like her as much as other characters. (We could ask the same thing about anyone else who isn't in the top 50.) I love Mamzo to bits and enjoy seeing her kick ass in FS, but if I have to choose only 7 characters then sacrifices must be made.

[ZM]

https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2251549?tags=touhou

(I hope to see those 8-bit sprites soon.)

[game2011]

Lowest ranked character to appear in multiple games: Unzan; who is ranked lower than a character who solely exists to be his hithox

This joke is no longer funny to me anymore.  In fact, it never was.

Highest ranked character with 1 game appearance [Discounting backgrounds in fighting games]: Flandre [Ironically she would still win even if the fighting game backgrounds counted]. Flandre is also the highest ranked character who has never been playable.

She doesn't appear in any of the fighting game backgrounds.

[Spotty Len]

She doesn't appear in any of the fighting game backgrounds.

Which still validates his point.

As for Mamizou, maybe it's just she didn't leave as much of an impact on people as we think. I don't see any particular reason of why she would be higher though, every character has a chance.

[PK]

Flandre was also in StB, though.