Chuhou Joutai

*This article is about the franchise as a whole. For the first game in the series, see Chuhou Joutai (video game).*
***Chuhou Joutai*** (中方(ちゅほう)状態(じょうたい), **Chūhō Jōtai**?, lit. *Middle State*) is a Japanese-American science fantasy multimedia franchise created and written by Susumu Takajima that is currently developed and owned by Drillimation Systems, focusing on a series of 2D manic shooters developed and published by Drillimation Systems and is the core franchise that makes up the *Drillimation Danmaku Universe*. The series began with the release of *Chuhou Joutai: The Middle State of War* in May 2020 with at least three installments as of 2022. The games are set within the fictional country of Kozan who is currently enduring a civil war with the communist militant group the Shintoist Province and Scarlet Devil of Team Crimson whose primary goal is to overthrow the monarch of Kozan and establish a socialist society. The series primarily centers on the adventures of Susumu "Driller" Takajima, a Japanese-American humanoid computer programmer trying to find an evil mastermind, Kagami Ochiai, a youkai-born idol singer aiding Driller on his adventures, and Konata, Kozan's beloved crown princess who acts as Driller's "fairy godmother."

The series is notable for being inspired by *Touhou Project*, but is marketed towards a younger demographic. The idea for *Chuhou Joutai* came when Drillimation wanted to take the danmaku titles they saw in Japan and simplify them for the western market. *Chuhou Joutai* also borrows several elements from *Touhou Project* into its universe, such as the concept of humanoids and youkai alike, its danmaku-based gameplay, as well as the title screen themes using the *Theme of Eastern Story* leitmotif. Starting from *Chuhou Joutai 2: Paraided!*, several names of locations that originate from *Touhou Project* were implemented, such as the Hakurei Shrine and Kourindou. The plot of *Chuhou Joutai*, particularly the villainous group SPASDOT (abbrieviated from Shintoist Province and Scarlet Devil of Team Crimson), takes inspiration from Cold War-era political fiction and terrorist propaganda, which form an integral part of the games' plots.

The series has garnered a positive critical response, with critics praising the simplified gameplay and accessibility to beginners. The series has a larger foothold in Japan than the rest of the world, with the games being featured on Japanese outlet 4Gamer.net multiple times.

## General information

Unlike *Touhou Project*, *Chuhou Joutai* takes place in a more modern, realistic version of Gensokyo, in a place called Kozan. According to Drillimation Systems, *Chuhou Joutai* is set 300 years into the future of the *Touhou Project* timeline. The timeline featured does not follow the one used in *Touhou Project*, but as suggested by the *Touhou Project* fangames that Drillimation produced, they take place during the Edo period, while *Chuhou Joutai* takes place in the present day. The series is also known for its pop culture-based humor, something other danmaku games lack. According to Drillimation, the humor is intended to be rewarding to players who beat a stage but decided to include humor in almost every cutscene in the game.

Drillimation Systems took inspiration from their home country of America, as well as the cultures of Canada and Japan when creating Kozan. For example, Drillimation took inspiration from their hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania for what would eventually become Kozankyo. They also took inspiration from nearby locations within the state of Pennsylvania for Gairai and Kinmyou, based on DuBois and Pittsburgh respectively.

 *Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess* | October 7, 2022

### Susumu Takajima

*Main article:* Susumu Takajima
**Susumu Takajima** (高島(たかじま)ススム, **Takajima Susumu**?), called **Driller** (ドリラー様, **Dorirā-sama**?) by most of Kozan's townsfolk and the youkai people, is the central protagonist of the series. He is usually depicted with brown hair arranged in spikes, wearing red headphones, t-shirt, sneakers, and grey shorts. The reason for his headphones is he is partially inspired by his creator who often wears headphones when out in public. He is a computer programmer and an avid gamer and is also an expert with electronic equipment. In the games' plots, he joins the Kozanese Royal Defense Force after getting arrested for attempting to join SPASDOT prior to the first game's events.

Several of Driller's traits are inspired by his creator's youth and pastimes. Driller is based on the typical shonen manga protagonist with his spiky hair and the typical schoolboy who likes flirting with girls and telling lots of jokes. He has had two love interests: Ayako Sugiwara was Driller's childhood friend before he met Kagami and ultimately broke up in junior high school. The other is Kagami Ochiai, who became linked after Kagami entered the same high school that Driller attends.

### Kagami Ochiai

*Main article:* Kagami Ochiai
**Kagami Ochiai** (落合(おちあい)カガミ, **Ochiai Kagami**?) is the female protagonist of the series, and is Driller's sidekick. She is very intelligent and attends the same school as Driller. Kagami is based on costumed magical girls and idol singers (whose costumes often resemble). She likes singing and dancing, cosplaying and dressing up, and like Driller, is also an avid gamer. Like her sidekick Driller, she often helps with thwarting the plans of Crimsonites associated with SPASDOT.

Kagami speaks the Kansai dialect in the Japanese versions of the games starting in the second installment, as she begins training to become a geisha like her mother.

### Crown Princess Konata

*Main article:* Crown Princess Konata
**Crown Princess Konata** (コナタ皇太(こうたい)子(し), **Konata Kōtaishi**?) is a major non-playable character in the series, and is the half-youkai heir apparent to the Kozanese throne. She is Driller's fairy godmother, willing to do what Driller requests, given if it's in her ability to do so. Like Driller and Kagami, she too is an avid gamer, and like Kagami is also a singer, dancer, and cosplayer as well. She also enjoys cooking and hunting as well and is also a military general for the Kozanese Royal Defense Force.

Like Driller, she too had two love interests. Most of the time, she is attached to a character who only goes by the name of Horii as mentioned in *Chuhou Joutai 2: Paraided!*. The other interest is Driller himself, whom she took as a date to a royal ball in *Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess*.

## Differences from the *Touhou Project* games

* *Chuhou Joutai* games generally feature eight stages as opposed to six and include at least one extra stage.
* Players are given a health bar. This sets how many times a player can be hit before they faint. Once they do, they must pay a revival fee to continue playing or face a game over. According to Drillimation, this feature was inspired by the likes of *The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords*.
* Cutscenes play out in a slideshow format instead of the traditional visual novel-style overlay.
* All *Chuhou Joutai* games include a tutorial, something the mainline *Touhou Project* games lack.
* *Chuhou Joutai* has a more diverse bestiary of enemies than to what can be found in *Touhou Project*.
* The difficulty for the extra stage can now be selected as opposed to being on one difficulty.
* In an attempt to appeal to bigger demographics, *Chuhou Joutai* has its fair share of male characters with the main character being one of them.

## Concept and themes

While the franchise is aimed primarily at kids, mature topics such as death or innuendo are occasionally brought in to cater to older players. Certain thematic elements are intended to have a shocking or emotional impact on the player regardless of age. However, violent and/or suggestive references are kept at a minimum in all regions to ensure the age ratings are kept intact.

### Japanese culture

Due to the name *Chuhou Joutai* originating from the Japanese language (literally meaning *Middle State* in English), various aspects of Japanese culture are present in the game, even though it takes place in a mostly western setting. Some mythological elements such as youkai-born humanoids are also present as part of an entire race. Despite this, the series still combines aspects of both Japanese and American culture into its world, and many American customs such as driving on the right are practiced by the characters.

### Modern science

Various science-fiction elements including ray guns capable of firing danmaku are present in *Chuhou Joutai*.

## Development

Pre-production on the game began as early as 2014. The *Chuhou Joutai* name was not made public until the summer of 2017 in a Dream Logos Wiki post back when Drillimation Systems was the owner of the site. The first game's development was made underway in the summer of 2018.

### Programming

All games in the *Chuhou Joutai* series are developed using the GameMaker engine. During the first game's development, each stage took over a month to develop, since it was Drillimation's first game. After detailed storyboarding and preparation of audiovisual assets, each stage was programmed using a single image as the backdrop instead of tiling, followed by the overlaying of enemies and other objects. Because there are eight stages plus a post-game extra stage, every *Chuhou Joutai* game took a great deal of time to develop. The first game took over a year and a half before it entered the post-production phase, and the second game took only six months, roughly a third of the first game's development time. The third game was developed in only four and a half months.

Some effects were proven impossible to create in Paint.NET and were instead created in Adobe Photoshop or in GameMaker's built-in particle system. The game's creator extensively studied Photoshop's system and functions during the development of all three games in order to create the best-looking visuals.

### Music

The music featured in every game was composed by Susumu Takajima himself. Inspiration has been taken from a wide variety of sources and games, mainly the *Touhou Project* series. The style varies between installments; the first game took inspiration from western sources, the second took on a Japanese feel, and the third returned to the western feel that most *Touhou Project* games convey. All soundtracks are composed in OpenMPT using a variety of royalty-free samples. The first two games had the soundtrack done in multiple formats for players who wanted to experience the game from the perspective of an MS-DOS game. The NES soundtrack used in the first *Chuhou Joutai* game was written in FamiTracker, and the PC-98 soundtrack in the second game was written in BambooTracker.

## References

1. ↑ https://drillimation.com/testimonials Testimonials - Drillimation Systems