Touhou, obsession or pastime?

[CrNTD]

I think we can agree that Touhou with its many content has the potential to obsess quite alot and spend alot of time on it. There's never ending games, manga, fangames, music etc. which are all connected by the same world so it's very easy to go from one thing to the next.

For me right now I don't have much going on in real life now so it's taking up quite a bit of time for me, something like:
- Playing Touhou games or fangames: 1-2 hours a day
- Reading Touhou manga or lore on Touhou Wiki: 1 hour a day
- Listening to Touhou music: 1 hour a day, tho mostly while doing other stuff like cleaning/cooking/commute
- Making bad fan creations: 1 hours a day

I would consider this fairly obsessed, tough I guess it could be worse.

Given that this forum is quite old, I'm quite curious about obsession status of regulars who must be Touhou veterans. Would you consider Touhou to be just a pastime of yours, or an obsession? Also has this changed in the past, like were you obsessed more before, but eventually you had more things to do in real life and now it's just a pastime?

Also, do you think it's unhealthy to be obsessed with Touhou? Personally I'm not sure how to spend the time any better. You could pick up other hobbies, sure, but it's debatable if they're any better. With something like Touhou, you build knowledge of lore and gaming skill over time, which feels rewarding and like you achieve something, even if it's just in the 2D world. I guess other hobbies could be more social. But it's not a concern for everyone.

[degradingwindow]

My interest in Touhou has wavered over the years. I basically interact with Touhou at least once in my daily life, whether it be through music, internet surfing or going in this site. I've had a few peaks of consumption where the majority of the media I was consuming was Touhou related but those periods have only lasted a month or so. Most of the time during those periods, I have to make myself just stop consuming too much Touhou media because I don't want to feel burnt out. I remember when I first played Stardew Valley in 2020 during the pandemic, I was obsessed with that game to an unhealthy degree(since there was very little to do at that time). But when I eventually got burnt-out from the game, it was really really hard to get back into playing it. It's only now in 2024 that I've finally been able to pick up the game again and genuinely enjoy it again. I really don't want to have the same thing to happen to my love for Touhou. Sure there's probably enough Touhou content that could keep me entertained until my death, but if I consume too much of it too quickly, I would become bored with it. People eventually do move on from obsessing over one media to another because of boredom. Many Touhou fans have moved on from Touhou to Hololive, V-tubers, gacha games and all that stuff because even though there's so much content left to consume in Touhou, at some point people just want a new fresh experience with something. Falling out of love with something is really tough, and 99% of the time obsessing over something will lead to that. That's why sometimes limiting yourself when consuming media you enjoy is necessary in order to preserve your image of it. That method has worked for me at least and I've been able to enjoy Touhou for a much longer time but I do agree that there are many other factors that can appear in the process of obsession to boredom and Touhou is a very unique case among other series because it has such a wide variety in content and I feel like I'm drifting away into a more meta look at the stages of being a fan of something so I'll stop right here.

As for wherever it's unhealthy. In the end anything is unhealthy if done in excess so as long as you can limit yourself on it and not let affect you negatively then it's alright. Also with a series like Touhou that has such far reach into so many artistic forms, you don't have to limit yourself to just the games and lore. There have been many people who have formed hobbies in drawing, music making, writing and even programming from their love of Touhou so maybe you can use your own love for Touhou as a springboard into other hobbies.

[WitheringFlowerCrown]

Touhou is something that I eventually return to all the time, whether I like it or not.
I spent a lot of free time 1ccing multiple official games before real life and responsibilites kicked up and caused me to slow down. I generally split my time between Touhou and other things. Touhou is always involved in consumption of media, but it's only a small part of it. I'm a special kind of person in that I could play through an entire game and not be burned out if given enough time. Even then, Touhou has so much stuff that it's better to go through it piece-by-piece.
As for whether or not it's "Unhealthy": Quite literally anything is unhealthy in excess. When it comes to hobbies; Enjoying video games is good in moderation, that is, it shouldn't stand between you and key responsiblities you have to fulfil, and it should not be something that you still do even though it's not fun anymore.

Not to mention that other hobbies can link into you enjoying Touhou. Making Artwork, Writing Transformative Works (Fan-fiction), Composing Music, these are all things that were created from people's enjoyment of Touhou and other hobbies.

[High-Tension Yuuritsu]

Throughout my 6 years as a Touhou fan (today marks my 6th year in fact), I have tried to leave Touhou around 4 times. All of them failed, because while I may feel bored with Touhou at those periods, I had no other series to move on to, since I guess Touhou had already shaped a huge part of my interests and preferences at that point, and I ended up returning to Touhou again. After the 4th time this happened, I decided to never leave Touhou, ever again.

So here I am, a university student whose dream is to someday sell doujinshis at Reitaisai. Rather fluent in Japanese and am currently practicing art. I believe I can do it someday.

[marumuju]

I've only been at it for about a year now, but when compared to anything else I'm playing/reading/etc. I've noticed that I've been able to keep Touhou as a pleasurable pastime that I might do for an hour whenever I want to have fun. I do listen to the music more often than that, but it is still more "healthier" than when I have gotten obsessed with other things.

The "length" of Touhou games isn't as long as modern games or visual novels, so it doesn't lead into multi-hour binges for me to advance the plot. I enjoy the fact that these feel like older games; there are no Steam achievements or anything requiring 100 hours of gatcha-ing. Just something you can get through fast if you have the skill, the fun part is in building up the skill. I can handle not having enough skill and not having the game 100% completed for a long time, that's just how it used to be in the 00s! ヽ(´ー` )┌

I haven't considered doing any fan art although I do sometimes draw stuff, so technically I might make something in the future if I'm interested.