[Exclusive] Uesaka Sumire Touhou Project Cosplay Photoshoot Interview (Part 1) (English Translation)

 [Full Exclusive] Getting to Know About How Uesaka Sumire Met Touhou Project and Why She Got Immersed In It With Cosplay Photoshoot

(This is fan-made English translation of Touhou Garakuta's interview. For the original interview and more photoshoots please visit here: https://touhougarakuta.com/interview/uesakasumire_1/)

Uesaka Sumire cosplays as Houraisan Kaguya

Uesaka Sumire-san is a voice actress who had performed cosplay as Hakurei Reimu at World Cosplay Summit and declared that she had participated on Comiket to support Touhou Project in her college days. With her cute looks, she has spread her influence to many Anime and video games, and now she appears in our journal for the first time!

Also, two original design costumes(!) of the Touhou characters have been made special for Uesaka Sumire-san. These cosplay gravure photos might be the first in all media and we are displaying them to public exclusively!

As we conduct the interview with Uesaka Sumire-san about her impressions of Touhou Project, we will also show behind-the-scenes of this special article series. In the first part, we will look at the world's first Houraisan Kaguya in Gensokyo. And now, we will talk about how Uesaka Sumire-san met Touhou Project.

How She Met Touhou Project, and Why She Got Immersed In It

The Immortal Hourai People, Houraisan Kaguya.

Uesaka-san appeared like the princess from The Tale of The Bamboo Cutter, "The costume is heavier than I thought" she said jokingly as she answers our interview questions. 

--Thank you very much for your time today. We are from "Touhou Garakuta Kusamurashi", a media specifically about Touhou Project. First off, may we ask you about how you (Uesaka Sumire-san) knew about Touhou Project?

Uesaka: It was probably... (she's reminiscing a bit), mostly because of the internet. I love video game music in the first place, so I remembered that I got into it because of the music. Nico Nico Douga was the craze back when I was in middle school, so that was the first time I watched the video about Touhou Project. 

I was never into shooting game, but I don't know why... it made me thought "There's actually a game world this wonderful". That's when I first bought Koumakyou. (note: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil/EoSD)

"Touhou Koumakyou - Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" Cover Art

--EoSD was the first one you bought?

Uesaka: Yes, but it was too difficult for me, so I couldn't finish the game... (laughs)

--Touhou is about overcoming yourself, so maybe the difficulty is too high.

Uesaka: That's why I couldn't clear the game, but it was interesting to see other players who are better than me. That's why I got to know "Ah, here comes the boss", as I saw Remilia. I gave up about clearing the game. Although I give up now, I would like to try clear it someday (laughs).

--Is there any deciding factor that made you love Touhou?

Uesaka: The music is amazing, above all else. The musics played by ZUN-san were all fascinating, I couldn't stop listening to them. 

The songs have many different instruments in them, and each song's name has a reference to improve the story. There aren't that many stories in the game itself, but I don't know why, there are many components in the game that enhance the feeling of the story. 

By the way, if we're talking about my favorite original song, it's kinda hard to pick just one... but if I really have to pick one, it would be "Desire Drive" I really love (Kaku) Seiga-chan. 

In the Shinreibyou game (note: Ten Desires), Toyosatomimi no Miko-chan's backstory feels a lot similar to Prince Shoutoku that it gives off wicked aura of her shadows as the fixer. That is really good. Also, I like jiangshi (laughs) so I often listen to "Desire Drive" while doing my work. Also I think there's also the ending song called "Desire Dream", right? (note: re-arranged version of "Desire Drive"). 

The songs are beautiful, and it has the deep lore between the characters that would be interesting to dive into... Those are the reasons I love Touhou so much!

We have brought to you the article about how Uesaka-san met Touhou Project. For the next article, we will explore the influence of video game music for Uesaka-san. 

We still have a lot of special photos(!) we would like to show to you. Please look forward for this special article series until the end.