Is it big in America?

^Touhou is a series of bullet-hell shooter games (like Gradius, but insane) that has a huge, almost entirely fan-material-based fandom.

It's enormous in Japan, and a good chunk of it bled over into the US via the Internet.

@Boobustuber: I was just tossing out an approximation. And suffice to say that most of us weren't in on the show when it first started airing.

But how did the fandom get that big?

Yeah I don't get it, making a space shooter game and replacing the spaceships with little girls draws that much of a crowd?

^The games are fun, and a lot of fanworks and doujin went out. There are a metric shitton of characters in Touhou, they're all cute, and they all have fanbases.

Naturally, there's Touhou crossovers with Ponies :D My little Touhouny!

Weirdly, a lot of people claim that the appeal is the fact that the games' portrait art kinda sucks. It makes people less likely to worry about nailing the art style because honestly, you don't have to be very good to imitate it or do better. So it generated a lot more fanart and fancomics than most other series. It also helps that while the art isn't that great, the designs are really distinct, so it's easy for people to latch onto them. Throw in the fact that the setting is really malleable, and you have a recipe for people to obsess over it.

It's not that dissimilar to MLP; the art style is simplistic enough that making fan art isn't too difficult, and the way the setting is presented makes it really easy to fit fanon into the holes.

I'm not gonna say anything about the video because I'm in too good of a mood to spoil it by mocking fundamentalists.

Catching up...

If it's got Twilight spazzing out, it's comedy gold for sure. She's so silly when she panics.

And the only thing I remember about my introduction to MLP was (a) stumbling on the works page on TV Tropes, (b) watching the Know Your Meme summation, and (c) watching "Bridle Gossip" on the Hub web site. Then it's "okay, let's try another video", and after a half-dozen trips to YouTube later, that's how Equestria was made.

—R.J.

There's a whole stack of reasons why Touhou is popular.

1. Lots of different characters, and I mean well over a hundred girls to get to know :D
2. ZUN is a godly musician. With chiptunes and FM Synth at that.
3. A surprisingly in-depth world with pretty neat stories that draw from mythology.
4. Gensokyo is a fantasy wonderland, even more whimsical than Equstria, although a little more dangerous.
5. Danmaku is prettier than conventional bullet hell. Also, many resources online so it's easy to introduce to people.
6. Fanwork and meme critical mass makes the fandom almost self-sustaining. Especially the fanmusic.

Ponies are approaching that territory.

1. If you include all variations of ponies cross-generationally, you have hundreds of ponies to choose from.
2. Daniel Ingram is an aces musician, and some of the songs from the older generations were pretty neat too.
3. Quite a lot of pop-culture and mythology references. FiM in particular has a well-shaped mythology behind it. (Thank you Lauren Faust, you really are best pony :3)
4. Never mind Ponyland and the older worlds, Equestria is practically a utopia, especially compared to a crapsack world like Earth.
5. National TV makes it easily accessible by everyone, making it easy to welcome bronies to the herd.
6. Fanwork has begun to mushroom, approaching Touhou tier (even Madoka Magica hasn't got that far yet! Must be all the Urobutcher-tier GRIMDARK scaring people away :V)

...Is Rarity really that easy to equal to Rouge?

^Why do you ask? She has the same sort of class (and the same taste in gems), but they're not really that similar.

It was a thought in my head that lingered from some discussion ages ago, that may or may not have transpired in this thread.

(It came to me while I was listening to music from Sonic Adventure 2.)

Argh. I get so annoyed by people like that as I feel like they give us Christians a bad name.

As for how I got into the show, I heard it getting talked about a lot, tried watching it, thought "this is actually not bad", then, "Why do I like this show?! I don't understand!" then just accepted my love for it.

Hey, guys... I just had an idea.

Going off the discussion we had a day or two ago, what do you all think of the idea of a brony coming out video? Wednesday was National Coming Out Day in the US, and - not to put too fine a point on it - by the very nature of our fandom, the general assumption from most non-bronies when they hear about us is to assume we're gay. The fact that that's the default assumption is a disservice both to gay rights and to bronies, so I figured, why not make a video that allows lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer bronies to declare their love for pony while also coming out at the same time, while straight bronies can announce both their fandom and their support for their LGBTQ family?

It's a bit late for COD this year, but is this a good idea, do you think? Would anyone be interested in participating if this were to happen?

Just a note: If this happens, I want it to happen big. Eq Daily big.

edited 13th Oct '11 11:00:31 PM by RedSavant

No. Coming Out Day is necessary because homophobia and persecution of homosexuals is a real problem that needs to be addressed.

MLP fandom is just for fun, and while people who give you grief for enjoying the show is annoying, it's nowhere near the same level.

Haters gonna hate. Just love and tolerate the shit outta them.

—R.J.

My God... Even the pony named tropes aren't immune from that troll. Are there any mods up at this time?

Please don't appropriate something as big as Coming Out Day for a pony show. I mean dude, it's just a cartoon.

OH good, I wasn't the only one who thought that idea was pretty dumb.

Problem solved. That troll needs to get a life.

I haven't seen any bridge trolls in Equestria.

Episode idea? Three little ponies and the bridge troll?

It would try to mock and intimidate them from beneath the bridge, but doesn't actually come into view. Might throw things too.

It's inane and irratinoal statements would rile up the intellectual Twilight up quite a bit at first.

In the end, it's just some small, skinny... Thing. A tiny troll.

Yes, I just made that up in less than a minute. And stole it from that old fairy tale of three goats and a bridge troll.

edited 13th Oct '11 11:59:20 PM by KuroFox

Write eeeeeeet

I'm an ideas man, but a bad writer.

Twilight Sparkle: she comes from the future.