Touhou Project
Touhou Project (東方Project, Tōhō Purojekuto) is a series of Japanese bullet hell video games created by Junya Ota, also known as "ZUN".
The series has gained a cult following both in and outside Japan, spawning several official doujinshi manga, albums, spin-offs, and fighting games.
Summary
The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
In the sixth game of the Touhou Project "The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil", the final boss Remilia Scarlet quotes Dio's famous bread phrase in Marisa's Scenario.
Sakuya Izayoi is a maid who is the servant of the vampires Remilia and Flandre Scarlet. It's generally assumed that she's a tribute to DIO, as she employs the same style of combat (stopping time and using throwing knives) and even has attacks named after DIO's Stand power: Illusion World "The World" and Sakuya's World. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has been referenced several times in the official games.
Sakuya may be a homage to Dio Brando, the main villain of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a vampire who is known for stopping time and being skilled at throwing knives. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has been referenced several times in the official games.
Sakuya has several homages to Dio Brando, the overall Big Bad of JoJo, including her time-stop powers (specifically "The World", which is the name of DIO's Stand), knife-throwing skills, and she's associated with vampires (Dio is a vampire, but close enough, right?). Scarlet Weather Rhapsody takes it a step further by giving her attack animations inspired by DIO's from the Capcom fighting game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future, as well as a DIO costume just to drive the point home. One of her scenes in Impossible Spell Card is named "I Don't Know What Happened", a reference to a scene where DIO uses his Stand to stop Polnareff from ascending a set of stairs.
Perfect Cherry Blossom
In Marisa's scenario in Perfect Cherry Blossom, she assumes that Ran is a "long-distance type" of shikigami. This is a reference to a classification of Stands known as "Long Range Stands", which are able to travel long distances away from thier users. This is further supported by the fact that the term is called "Long-Distance Operation Type" in Japanese.
Immaterial and Missing Power
One of Remillia's win quotes in Immaterial and Missing Power has her say "Useless, useless, useless!", a reference to DIO.
Imperishable Night
Two of Kaguya Houraisan's Spellcards have references to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the first one being Divine Treasure "Salamander Shield", states that the creatures would at least need blood that doesn't boil, and brings up Esidisi as an example. And the other one being New Impossible Request "Red Stone of Aja" in Shoot the Bullet referencing the stone in Battle Tendency, the Red Stone of Aja.
Marisa uses Jotaro Kujo's Catchphrase "Yare yare daze" after defeating Wriggle in Imperishable Night.
Subterranean Animism
In the eleventh game Subterranean Animism, Yuugi, an oni, fights Marisa "without spilling a drop of sake" (stated by Patchouli). In Marisa and Patchouli's scenario in Subterranean Animism, Patchouli notices that Yuugi didn't spill a drop of her sake during their fight. This is a reference to when Zeppeli tests Jonathan's Ripple skills by having hold a glass of wine, instructing him not to spill a single drop.
In an interview, ZUN mentions that her act of not spilling a drop of sake is reminiscent of Jonathan from Jojo; although he further adds the two characters are unrelated.[1]
In Symposium of Post-mysticism, an official Touhou Fanbook, Toyosatomimi no Miko says that Koishi Komeiji "stopped thinking", using the phrasing of the famous line After a while, he stopped thinking (そのうち、考えるのをやめた。, Sono Uchi Kangaeru no wo Yameta) referencing Kars.
Undefined Fantastic Object
One of Ichirin's attacks in the fighting games has her doing Jotaro's famous Jaguar Varied Assault with Unzan. She's also often referred to as "Ichirin Kujo" among Japanese fans.
Ten Desires
One of Miko's lines in Ten Desires is "Your next line is...", Joseph Joestar's catchphrase.
Hopeless Masquerade
In Hopeless Masquerade, after defeating Koishi, Marisa says "I'm sure you don't understand what I'm saying..." (何を言ってるのかわからねーと...), which is a reference to the line Polnareff says after encountering The World.
The same line is also referenced in The Grimoire of Marisa, in which Marisa says "The tengu and Sakuya do something similar, but for the tengu, it's just speed, and for Sakuya, it's just teleportation. Reimu's technique isn't something cheap like that. I'm sure you don't understand what I'm saying, but I don't really udnerstand it either."
Hidden Star in Four Seasons
In Marisa's scenario in Hidden Star in Four Seasons, she says "But I refuse!", a line from Rohan Kishibe. ZUN stated in an interview that this is his favorite line from JoJo.[2]
Double Dealing Character
In Double Dealing Character, one of Sakuya's Spell Cards erases the time (respectively the present and future) of the surrounding bullets and thus erases the bullets. This might be a reference to Diavolo's Stand and implies that Sakuya might not be only a reference to Dio. In the seventh game Perfect Cherry Blossom, once Marisa defeats Ran (a shikigami), she asks her if she is a Long-distance Type, because her master is far away and she is quite strong. This is a clearly reference to the Stand Types in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
100th Black Market
In 100th Black Market, Eika Ebisu has a spell card called "Stone Sign Red Stone Stack of Aja", further referencing the Red Stone of Aja in Touhou.
Other
Fangames
The Touhou series is unique in the sense that ZUN places very few restrictions on the use of his content in unofficial works, as well as giving permission to indie developers to release their fangames on different platforms.
In Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity, when meeting with Remilia on the Extra Route, Flandre will say "You thought it was Patchouli, but it was me, Flandre!", which is a reference to Dio Brando.
In Koumajou Densetsu II, Sakuya, Youmu and Remilia share voice actresses with Jolyne Cujoh, Reimi Sugimoto and Yasuho Hirose in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle.
Gallery
Marisa's dialogue with Remilia
Patchouli's reference to Will A. Zeppeli
ZUN's comment referencig Esidisi
Marisa's dialogue with Ran
Sakuya Izayoi in Touhou Luna Nights throwing knives while in stopped time.
Notes
References
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