Our Cause
We are calling for Team Shanghai Alice: Reprise and Alliance Arts to stick to culturally-agreed community terminology in their translations by working with the community to create a public glossary documenting terminology that official translations should follow.

We would like to preface this by saying that this is not about objecting to any single translation decision. The translators handling the project are undoubtedly skilled in their craft and their efforts in bringing Touhou to a wider international audience is very appreciated, and we have no animosity towards any of them.

Official Touhou remakes with support for a wide variety of languages is a wonderful step for the series. It makes the series more accessible than ever and is a genuine celebration of the passionate fanbase that has supported Touhou over the years.

Our main hope is that future translation choices can build more closely on established community conventions, such as keeping familiar spellings like "Gensokyo" rather than shifting to "Gensoukyou".

Touhou has always thrived because of the relationship between its community. Official translations should strengthen that relationship instead of weakening it. If these translations are meant to represent Touhou to a wider audience, then they should also represent the community that helped make Touhou what it is today.

This does not mean every pre-existing translation should be used without scrutiny or that translators should be denied editorial judgment. Rather, we ask that culturally-agreed community conventions be treated as an important reference point, especially when they have been widely used for many years.

The Purpose of this Petition
This petition was created to show that the community would prefer to have terminology that is consistent with what we know and what we have been using for decades. We've already gotten in contact with the official translation team, and now we're just asking for help showing them that the community would prefer for official translations to adhere more closely to conventional terminology.

Why Does This Matter?
In translation, precedence often sets the standard for what we use going forward. This is the first time Touhou is being officially translated into so many languages and being so heavily promoted by the publisher. Due to the possibility that the terminology used in this translation will be adopted to become the new standard, it's important to minimize friction with long-time fans who've gotten acquainted with long-standing terminology. We need to advocate for translations that honor and respect the community’s decades-long history.

If this resonates with you, all we are asking is that you take the minute to sign the petition and help us share it around.

Can't This Be Solved With Community Patches?
Yes, this is true, but there's no reason that patches should be necessary in the first place. Rather than having to patch the game, we can ask for the translations that the game comes with by default to already have "conventional" translations and make patching wholly unnecessary in the first place.

Why Can't Old Translations Change?
They definitely can, and to reiterate what we've stated above, we aren't saying that every pre-existing translation should be used without scrutiny or that translators should be denied editorial judgment. Rather, we ask that culturally-agreed community conventions be treated as an important reference point, especially when they have been widely used for many years.

What Do We Hope to Achieve?
We would like to create a public glossary which includes at the very least the translated names of locations and characters that are conventionally used in the community, and for the Team Shanghai Alice: Reprise translation team to adopt this glossary. This would serve as a resource freely available for anyone who is writing Touhou-related content to reference.

Examples of what would be included in this glossary are the spelling of "Gensokyo" over "Gensoukyou" and the names "Hakugyokurou" and "Eientei".

To make it abundantly clear: This is not about any one translation decision! We would be doing the same thing had we been using Gensoukyou for decades and the new translation is Gensokyo.

How Can I Help?
1. Sign the petition!
2. Help share this around with people who may be interested.
3. Tag  @SAliceReprise and @AllianceArtsEN on Twitter/X with the hashtag #RepriseTouhouTranslations, and respectfully let them know that you disagree with these changes.

Contact
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to send me a message.  I can be reached on Discord as Reale_ly and Reale_tl, and on Twitter/X as reale_ly. Thank you for your time!

Please do not harass any of the individuals associated with EoSD: New Classic. We already have a line of contact with them and we are interested only in a constructive dialogue.