How did Touhou become so popular? These character designs are awful.
Sarcasm? I will say that I was never a fan of these two, it was the other cast that drew me in. For example Cirno is adorable, and Yukari is one of the most well written and interesting characters I’ve seen.
How did Touhou become so popular? These character designs are awful.
Well, everyone has their own opinion. I wouldn't really know why the designs are awful, I've seen worse, and at least ZUN is trying his best and improving. I personally enjoyed the designs alongside their personalities and their music.
Guess there's just some obstacles you can't get over. It's understandable if you can't be interested due to the graphics but at least try to understand a bit.
same reason why people like football or soccer, they just like it
That kind of response always bugs me. That's really a "throw up your hands and give up on ever knowing anything" that claims that applying any rational thought to anything is pointless, so why bother with anything?
I can't speak for everyone, but the "because memes" answer is probably closer to the truth. I became interested in Touhou because I started seeing all the fanworks and memes for it, and wanted to know what it was based off of, and then the fanfictions became far more interesting to me.
Having a single shared universe from which all sorts of fanon can spring is a great jumping-off point for a near-limitless amount of entertainment that you always know will have at least some connection to a shared set of ideas about a core group of characters or concepts. When I was younger, I read things like the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels or Dungeons and Dragons novels, which are really just professionally published fanfiction when you get down to it. At the same time, I was always reticent to get into standalone fictional universes unless they were really lengthy and fleshed-out, because I wouldn't really get as invested in the shared universe without such things.
As for sports in general, it often has a lot to do with having a shared social experience. Few people enjoy sports entirely alone - they get into it because someone else brings them into it as a bonding experience. Most sports watching is done socially, and even when there is someone who super-intensely wants to watch sports alone because THEIR team is playing, they're probably someone who has that deep emotional connection to that team or some specific player because of some experience they shared with someone else in the past.
For me: the loyality of us, the fanbase; the games, the music, the characters, the fact that a single guy has made almost every game of this whole saga.
