Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方花映塚

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Even from pretty girl pics, you learn about culture, tech, language, linguistics, if observant. That pic is 小野塚 小町 (Komachi Onozuka), from bullet hell video game Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方花映塚. There's cultural depth to the char's story.

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小野塚 小町 (Komachi Onozuka)

First notice the title Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方花映塚. That's a lot linguistics and history to dig in. First note the word “Phantasmagoria”. here's Wikipedia.

Phantasmagoria wp 2023-12-16
Phantasmagoria wp 2023-12-16 Phantasmagoria

Then note the Chinese 東方花映塚 (literally: Oriental Flower Viewing/Show Mound), the char “塚”. Even if you Chinese, that char no unstand. It's ancient char but mostly used in Japanese today. It means burial mound.

zhǒng = burial mound. cemetery. tomb.

also interesting is the character 映. In Chinese, it means projection, show, broadcast.

but what is “Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方花映塚”? it's a bullet hell video game. Note the fitting phrase “bullet hell”. That encompasses the history of video games, its evolution.

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Bullet hell

here's actual game play

Phantasmagoria of Flower View g7gmm

here's a previous generation of the game

Perfect Cherry Blossom 2023-12-17 JQYM
  • https://youtu.be/VL5VZuUcX74
  • 東方妖々夢 (Perfect Cherry Blossom) Phantasm ノーミスノーボムノー結界フルスペカ 霊夢B 60fps
  • bullet hell

you can clearly see what bullet hell means.

and here comes the math. in a plane, with projectiles flying, what's the probability of sure death? i.e. is it possible at some point the bullet hell is so hell that there is no path to avoid death? how to design the firing origin direction speed so this happens or does not happen?

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小野塚 小町 (Komachi Onozuka)

now, the char 小野塚 小町. Her story in game is a funny variant of old China/Japan mythology.

supposed to ferry dead spirits across the Sanzu River, but her slacking off made the already abundant spirits reside in the flowers of Gensokyo, hence causing the massive blooming incident.

The Sanzu River (三途の川 Sanzu-no-kawa), or River of Three Crossings, is a Japanese Buddhist tradition and religious belief similar to the River Styx.

In Greek mythology, Styx (/ˈstɪks/; Ancient Greek: Στύξ [stýks]; lit. "Shuddering"[1]) was a goddess and river of the Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas, and the mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia. She sided with Zeus in his war against the Titans, and because of this, to honor her, Zeus decreed that the solemn oaths of the gods be sworn by the water of Styx.[2]

River Styx

it's amazing how fans created pro level artwork of the game. I 1st learned about this game because a Chinese girl used her name in China forum.

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小野塚 小町 (Komachi Onozuka)

Note that she's always holding a scythe. The myth is similar to western myth the Grim Reaper, charon, river Styx.

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Charon (mythology)

the red flowers around her, isn't any, but Red Spider lily. For the story, see 王菲 《彼岸花》 (Flower of Paradise) 曼珠沙华的故事

The Video Game: Phantasmagoria of Flower View 東方花映塚

phantasmagoria of flower view
“phantasmagoria of flower view” 《東方花映塚》

Phantasmagoria of Flower View, quote:

Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View. (東方花映塚 〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View. lit. Oriental Flower Viewing Mound?) is the ninth official game in the Touhou Project scrolling shoot 'em up series. It is often abbreviated as PoFV in English speaking circles. Phantasmagoria of Flower View, like the third Touhou game Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, differs from other games in the series in that two equally matched characters fight competitively instead of one player clearing stage bosses. In this regard, the gameplay most resembles Twinkle Star Sprites by ADK.

《東方花映塚 ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View.》(日语:東方花映塚(とうほうかえいづか) 〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View.)是由同人組織上海愛莉絲幻樂團所製作的彈幕射擊遊戲,是東方Project的第9彈。 本作品標題的英文部分是參照東方Project第3作《東方夢時空 ~ Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream.》而來的,但兩作故事之間並無關連。

Note, this series of shooting games since 1996, is created by 1 single person 太田 順也. He did the coding, music, artwork, script (aka story). He has a twitter, at https://x.com/korindo