Team Shanghai Alice

Team Shanghai Alice (上海アリス幻樂団 Shanhai Arisu Gengakudan, meaning "Shanghai Alice Ensemble") is a one-man[1] Japanese dōjin game developer specializing in shoot 'em ups. The team's only releases thus far have been the Touhou Project games and related merchandise.

Productions

Games

Main article: Touhou Project

As ZUN Soft

As Team Shanghai Alice

Music soundtracks

The soundtracks are mainly composed of ZUN's synthesized original music and tracks remixed from his games. As there are some loose references to the rest of the Touhou Project in the stories in the CD jacket, the CDs are still considered part of the Touhou Project.

Member

Jun'ya Ota
Native name 太田 順也
Born (1977-03-18) March 18, 1977[2]
Hakuba, Nagano, Japan
Education Tokyo Denki University
Alma mater Tokyo Denki University
Occupation Game developer, music composer, novelist, comic writer
Children 1

There is only one member of Team Shanghai Alice, who goes by the pseudonym "ZUN" and is the main programmer, scriptwriter, graphic artist, and music composer. His real name is Jun'ya Ōta (太田 順也 Ōta Jun'ya), as seen in the credits of his early games. He was born in Hakuba, Nagano.[3] Fans respectfully call him "Kannushi" (神主), a name he has sometimes used to refer to himself. ZUN married another programmer in 2012.[4]

While not using the Team Shanghai Alice name, ZUN has also participated in the making of the following dōjin games for Amusement Makers, a game development club in Tokyo Denki University:

ZUN also worked for Taito Corporation, and had participated in the production of their games such as:

He also uses the pseudonym "ZUN" instead of Team Shanghai Alice when publishing commercial works:

In 2007, he was in a team named "The Drinking Party" (呑んべぇ会) to make "Uwabami Breakers" (黄昏酒場～Uwabami Breakers～), a shoot'em up game about drinking—one of ZUN's greatest passions. Since November 2009, he runs a column about beer on the manga magazine Comptiq called "Which Came First, Hakurei Kannushi's Games or Beer?" (博麗神主のゲームが先かお酒が先か).

ZUN also collaborated with doujin circles other than Twilight Frontier and participated in some of the games they produced. So far, only two games by D.N.A. Software got him involved:

Name

The name "Team Shanghai Alice" was chosen to fit the overall theme of the Touhou games. "Shanghai", in ZUN's mind, is a multicultural city where the East and the West meet. "Alice" can be a child living in the foreign concessions, but the name Alice also suggests a fairy-tale element. So together, "Shanghai Alice" encompasses the blend of oriental and western aesthetics along with fantasy. As for "Ensemble" (幻樂団, in the team's Japanese name), ZUN originally intended his team to be a musical ensemble so he named his team as such. As a piece of trivia: one of Touhou Project's characters is a magician/puppeteer named Alice Margatroid, and one class of her dolls is called Shanghai. Another character named Meiling has a theme song called "Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17".

Notes

  1. ↑ Kaze no Iona (風のイオナ) (17 October 2010). "同人シューティング座談会" [Doujin Round Table Discussion]. Shooting Game Side Vol.1 [シューティングゲームサイド Vol.1] (in Japanese). MicroMagazine: 143. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Szczepaniak, John (2014). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers (Gold ed.). SMG Szczepaniak. p. 236. ISBN 9780992926021.
  3. ↑ Akiba-tsu in Nico Nico Douga 002 (あきば通 inニコニコ動画 002), 2009-02-04.
  4. ↑ "Touhou Project Creator ZUN Gets Married". Anime News Network.

References

External links

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