Gensou Mangekyou: The Memories of Phantasm

Yorokobe Touhou fans, after the long-awaited 12 years, MyAnimeList finally decided to add this entry to their database. Fantasy Kaleidoscope ~The Memories of Phantasm~ (MoP for short) is a fan-made Anime series produced by a doujin circle name Manpuku Jinja. Currently known as the most popular Touhou Anime, not only does it attract Touhou fans in particular but many Anime fans in general.

Anime adaptation from whatever source has always been a hot potato for studios. People may wonder why franchises like FGO, Azur Lane, Kantai Collection have managed to get an official adaptation but Touhou still has not. First, we need to answer this question. ... How do we turn Touhou into an Anime adaptation? The best you could think of is making it with the structure of half plot half fight, right? But here’s the deal, the original plot is very lacking and the fight is also very unusual.
+ About the plot, it often just follows the same pattern for most games: A supernatural incident happens caused by some random powerful entities. The main protagonist, the miko of Hakurei Shrine, Hakurei Reimu embarks on a journey to resolve it and bring back Gensokyo to its balance. Every time she encounters an opponent, there’s usually a conversation, then two parties start fighting each other. As you can see, there are very few interesting things here without considering the lore. It’s almost impossible to craft a faithful adaptation of the game story while at the same time also having to maintain enjoyment for fans.
+ In Touhou, the fights go by the Spell Card System. Unlike a normal duel, a Touhou fight is a mental contest in which the most beautiful one wins and it isn’t meant to kill each other (very similar to the covenant in “No Game No Life”). It somewhat lessens the intensity since there’s no death threat no matter who wins or loses. Even ignoring that issue, the essence of Touhou fight – danmaku is very flashy, garish, and ostentatious that does not appeal to general audiences. You can argue that those Minus-T videos on Youtube are pretty eye-catching. It’s not wrong but just remember one thing, they are two different mediums. I don’t think any person would like to watch an Anime episode that straight 10 minutes just splattering colorful fireworks, let alone it takes several years with a great amount of effort to animate it.

I’m quite rambling with tons of info dumps but it’s only to show the difficulties that Manpuku Jinja had to consider when making this Anime. For a series that is gameplay and lore-heavy like this one, it’s hard for any non-hardcore person to dig deeper and rather just prefer gazing at flowers while on horseback. Thus, it’s reasonable that they didn’t pick a risky choice that could potentially alienate the fanbase but instead chose to turn it into a fanon in which fanservice prevails the actual plot with the sole intention of entertaining the audience as much as possible.

Despite such reasons, MoP still follows the original story, just not in chronological order. The first episode introduces the incident in Touhou 7. The next three episodes take place after the event in Touhou 11 but retell the flashback of Touhou 6. The fifth and sixth episodes show the story that happened after Touhou 9. The seventh episode is based on Cirno’s route in Touhou 12.3. Episode 8 to 13 tell the story of Touhou 8. Episode 14 to 17 tell the story of Touhou 10. And finally, episode 18 is a tribute episode that is entirely original and features all characters.

Talking about the direction, Manpuku Jinja simplified the two main factors I mentioned in the second paragraph, the plot and the fight, while adding on many fanservice and original scenes. I’d like to name some notable ones: the Onsen scene in the opening, the Yakumo’s bathing scene, the Sakuya’s Dio time-stopping scene (oh wait, this is canon), the Remilia and Flandre’s fighting scene, the Yuuka and Cirno’s confronting scene, the Shiki Eiki’s lecturing scene, the Tewi and Reisen’s poisoning scene, the Kaguya and Mokou’s quarrel scene, etc. I myself enjoy every minute of them and really appreciate the circle. They have to love Touhou and understand the fandom greatly so that they could incorporate many references ingeniously. But of course, at the end of the day, it still is an unofficial series and most of the characterizations are very far from their actual depictions in the source. For example, in this Anime, Flandre is locked up in the basement against her own will and is mistreated by other members of the mansion. This is nearly opposed to the canon version of her which she chooses to stay in the mansion of her own volition because she can not fully control her strength. In the print work “Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red”, she is seen talking to Aya with her sister Remilia. She’s quite strange and eccentric but not to the point of unhinged or lunatic like what was depicted in the Anime.

I guess it’s enough for an analysis of story and character. Let’s move to another aspect, art and animation. FYI, most of Manpuku Jinja staff participated in this project like Lunamoon or Tasuke are all veterans who used to work in the animation industry and had a lot of experience within them. That’s why every moment of MoP is so beautiful and memorable, from the elegant demeanor of physically matured characters (Yukari, Yuyuko, Kanako) and adorable expressions of young-looking ones (Cirno, Tewi, Chen, Flandre) to mesmerizing animation during action scenes. Along with the stellar art are the bewitching soundtracks, each one of them is a remix of an original song from the game. I’m very picky when it comes to music but Yuuhei Satellite never disappoints, all 4 openings and 18 endings are excellent to me. Especially the first one “色は匂へど 散りぬるを(Iro wa Nioedo, Chirinuru wo)” became an earworm for me when I first listened to it and till now, it still stands firm as one of my all-time favourite songs.

Though this adaptation is quite decent, there’re still some minus points that can’t go unmentioned. First off, this Anime doesn’t feature any voice acting and the versions widely known to most of us are but a fandub. Next thing, the circle did show a part of the fight between Okuu and Reimu in the opening and provided a little hint about Hijiri at the end of episode 4 but sadly, we never have a chance to see these two arcs getting animated. Another thing is the issue with episode composition, the stretching is really awkward and frustrating. Only 10 to 15 minutes for each episode but about 5 minutes of the running time is covered by opening, ending and unnecessary summaries. Had all episodes been more condensed, it surely would have been more engaging to watch. Of course, I acknowledge the financial problem Manpuku Jinja had to struggle with when making this project but still, a bit of dissatisfaction is unavoidable.

Well, this is the end of my review. By and large, I think this Anime does a great job being a goofy fanon adaptation that’s enjoyable to watch yet still respectful to the source. It doesn’t truly reflect what Touhou is but definitely serves as a good entrance for many newcomers. No matter whether you are a Touhou fan or not, I highly recommend this series.

Its a 8/10 if you dont know the context
a 9/10 if you know the games and when you consider
that its a work of pure dedication of the fandom then
you will be fine with making an exception and give it the 10/10 that it deserves
because it was made with so much passion and highest quality over multiple years
by non-professionals. I honestly think that this kind of aspiration deserves to be given the highest possible rating.

I dont really write reviews I just wanted to make this footnote with my rating,
if you're interested in the actual story play the games with a translation or read the declared ... offical mangas with it.
the anime will feel like a 7-8 out of 10 to you if you dont know the context and wont get the inside jokes.
If you know them however it will feel like a masterfully (in terms of raw quality) adapted piece of the fandom itself and contain insider jokes that go beyond the canon of the games that will make you smile or chuckle a lot.

the anime is ok for the most part, but my personal gripes are that it follows the story in a non-canonical order and there is way too much fanservicing
all the characters do have the same abilities as in the games but their personalities are flipped to fanon (i.e. flandre gets flanderized) but other than that story progresses basically the same (though there are some extra additions)
this anime can be a bit hard to understand if you havent played the games/read the story yet (this was me when i first started watching)

other than that the animation and art quality is pretty good considering this is a ... fanmade though if this isnt your type you might want to watch a summer day’s dream instead (however that costs money)