Is Touhou a 'Bad Apple' for Christians?

[TheMewster]

Hey everyone, I'm TheMewster, and although I've been navigating CAA as a guest for a while, I'm kind of a shy new user. I have a question, so please bear with me...
Girls and guys, I was wondering about the game series 'Touhou Project'. I never played the games, but I used to watch the fanmade PVs. I quit because some of the spiritual content and Christianity don't exactly sit well together. Now, I'm wondering if the series is even bad. Will someone please investigate this series, list the bad (spiritual) content [color="Red"]IN THE OFFICIAL GAMES.[/color] Please don't judge the fanmade content, as I can use discernment well. (I learned my discernment skills from navigating Touhou.) Please tell me how it MAY affect me, as I'm strong in the Jesus, only God is to be worshipped, and sorcery is wrong areas needed to navigate this series, but I'm still figuring out a lot of the details to what I believe. I've been sitting through Greek mythology in History without wandering in or losing my faith, so I could probably handle Touhou, but just in case, can smebody please check it out?
[SIZE="5"][color="Red"][font="Arial Black"]WARNING---------------------[/font][/color][/SIZE]
Do check Let's Plays, Touhou Wiki, and Touhou's Wikipedia article, but don't go into Touhou Vocal Arrange until you are sure this series won't harm your faith. That's how I got hooked, that vocal arrange epicness. But is it a good idea for a Christian to go into a series with the spiritual content like Touhou, or is it a 'Bad Apple' for us? Thanks in advance, and God bless you.

[Midori]

Honestly I don't know if anybody can find the motivation to go through all that material and give you their judgement of it unless they are already steeped in it, and you can imagine that'd form a bias.

However, I have played a few touhou games and I can tell you with certainty that in the actual games the focus is not so much on the fairy tale aspects as it is on the "HOLY MOLY THAT'S A LOT OF BULLETS! I GOTTA DODGE!" part.

For a more serious answer, I think the level of 'spirituality' in Touhou is merely fictional magical things like you'd see in any fantasy anime. True, some of it is visually inspired by things in the Shinto religion, but it doesn't have the heart of it. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. I do not expect that the truth of God in your heart is so weak as to be overpowered by some playful depictions of magic.

EDIT: 'Bad Apple', eh? I see what you did there.

[TheMewster]

Thanks so muches Midori! God bless you and I hope He gives you a great day! Off to listen to some Vocal Arrange! (I think God led me to this forum for answers and now I can haz them!) God bless you again, and great job to you and all the mods on keeping the site clean!

[Midori]

Thanks! And like you said, my judgement does not necessarily apply to fanmade things. Once you get to the fan culture of anything, all bets are off.

[ABlipinTime]

I have to agree with Midori to an extent. I have seen the games played, and played one shortly (I didn't last too long, obviously). I've seen a bit of the spiritual aspect pop up here and there. After all, the reasoning behind the showers of bullets is (besides the programmer's intention) is the story line. If you don't pay attention to it (as in, by skipping the dialogue and what not), you can enjoy the colorful arrays of death flying at your character's face. However, that doesn't eliminate the fact that the games do have a very dark element to each of them.

I wouldn't compare the spiritual aspect to anime. Yes, both have evidence of it. However, the content is presented differently. (Need I explain?) For instance, dialogue in a the touhou games is text, easily ignorable. Anime? - spoken words. You hear the tone of voice of the characters even if you don't understand what they're saying. In games however, the game environment or world can be completely encapsulated in evil or have an evil tone and it ALL be at the forefront and noticeable. In anime, it's rather natural for the "camera" to be focuses on a character instead of zooming around the world showing off all the evil. The atmosphere experienced by the audience is limited by the viewpoint.

Or at least, that's my take on it.

Most importantly, I encourage you to pray about it. If your concerned, you have good reason to be. Don't take your concern lightly (as in, don't say "I'm worried for nothing/little"). Pray!

[Bobtheduck]

Don't know about the games as much, but the "Bad Apple" song is actually really depressing, despite being an impressive video.