I remenber this question showing up on /jp/ many times and never really coming to a actual answer so I'll try to ask it here: why do you think Touhou is so popular? Is it the music, the genre, the characters? There are so many other danmaku that feature look-a-like mechanics and characters, soundtrack, and yet Touhou is amazingly more popular than the rest of those. So, what is your opinion on the subject?
All 3. Also I think Touhou is so popular because it was the first to do something like this with its setting and music style. Previously STGs almost always involved a space ship in space, shooting aliens from space.
ZUN combined great music, bullet patterns and little girls in frilly dresses. I don't know if he was the first to do it, but he's the one known for it, and that's what counts.
Happened to be made in such a way as to encourage doujin
All the other games lacked hats.
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