Zenmi Project
| 前実Project Zenmi Project | |
|---|---|
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Created by [[MasCade and Team Himawashi]] | |
| Years active | 2019-present |
| Parent Series | Project Hishuu |
Zenmi Project[edit | edit source]
The Zenmi Project (前実Project / lit. Before Reality) is a western game series that specialises in shoot 'em ups by MasCade and Team Himawashi. The series is notable for taking heavy inspiration from the Touhou Project 
, the Len'en Project, Nanbei, and others. As such, it is a series of 2D (with 3D background) vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting games. Although it takes inspiration from these other series, the games are not fangames towards any of them. It is set in a separate world which features an entirely new cast of characters, therefore having its own canonicity and plot.
Works[edit | edit source]
General Information[edit | edit source]
The Zenmi Project takes place in the land of Higensou, containing humans and youkai alike. Teruka Usuma is the main protagonist, and together with her friend Manami Terumatsu. The two are friends who solve incidents who will discover dark secrets along the way.
In-game events[edit | edit source]
In-game events are similar to the Touhou Project ones. In Higensou, incidents occur once in a while, where there's an event that affects either a small part or all of Higensou with an unknown cause at the time it occurs. Frequently, incidents are due to a person's whim or curiosity, and usually Teruka (and on some cases others such as Manami) would go to investigate it to then find and punish the perpetrator. Such incidents can exist from a range of drawings coming to life to a poison epidemy. It appears that stage enemies will gain power from such events, leading to cases where a mere small-fry can defeat the protagonist.
While the project involves characters interacting with each other and having humour added to it, the stories can get very serious and deep in lore.
Name and Concept[edit | edit source]
As a series inspired by the Touhou Project , the name "前実Project" is based on Touhou's name (東方Project). The name Zenmi is composed of the kanji zen (前 lit. "before") and mi (実 lit. "reality"). The naming scheme of "前実ＯＯＯ" for each game originally comes from Touhou as well; it originally came from one of the first songs ZUN composed for Highly Responsive to Prayers , called Touhou Kaikidan (東方怪奇談). With some exceptions, the title of games of the Zenmi Project are generally under the format as shown in the following table:
| Format: | Japanese main title | double byte space | double byte wave dash | English subtitle |
| Example: | 前実怪絵元 | ' ' | '～' | Mysterious Origins |
Characters[edit | edit source]
The characters in this project are either human or youkai and take many references to the characters of the Touhou Project . In the Zenmi Project, both female and male characters appear.
Inspirations from the Touhou Project[edit | edit source]
There are many aspects of the Touhou Project that the Zenmi Project also has. The gameplay, character drawings and the music are all similar to Touhou in early creations, but have branched into something more unique. However, there are things that are based on Touhou but which are unique in their own way. For example, while Touhou often uses the kanji fu (符) in many of it's spell card s names, the aura skills in Zenmi use the kanjis reiki (霊気) and baku (爆). These three kanji have more or less overlapping meanings, but reiki is generally translated as "sign", whereas reiki is more like "aura". Baku is an alternative word that means "Burst".
In addition, in both series, characters' abilities are described in a way that intentionally sounds awkward or unnatural. In Touhou, characters' abilities are often described using the phrase teido no nouryoku (程度の能力) that roughly means "ability to the extent of ". Reimu Hakurei 's ability, for example, is "ability to the extent of flying" (空を飛ぶ程度の能力 sora wo tobu teido no nouryoku). Abilities in the Zenmi Project are described in a similar manner, but with the phrase nasaru (為さる) which roughly means "to (ability)". For example, Teruka's ability is "To manipulate Light (by swinging her sword), to transform into a Chōchin" (（刀を振って）光を操作し、超ちんに変身する (Katana o futte) hikari o sōsa shi,-chō-chin ni henshin suru).
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