Suspiciously Similar Song / Touhou Project

• "Heian Alien", the Optional Boss theme in Undefined Fantastic Object is suspiciously similar to "U.N. Owen Was Her?", the Optional Boss theme from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, to the point of referring to the former as "UFOwen Was Her?" Part of it also sounds very similar to "Divine Bloodlines" from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
  • On the topic of “U.N. Owen was Her?”, “Shrine Bros” from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game.
• ZUN commonly self-plagiarizes his music. "End of Spring", also from UFO, is similar to "Chinese Tea", also from The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
• "Our Hisoutensoku" from Touhou 12.3 is an intentional Shout-Out to the theme from Mazinger Z.
• In a similar vein, doing Reimu's Fatal KO move in the same game makes the background music jump to a suspiciously similar version of Ai Wo Torimadose. Like "Our Hisoutensoku", this was an intentional Shout-Out, due to the move being called "Musou Tensei".
• Sakuya's "Flowering Night" theme from "Phantasmagoria of Flower View" sounds an awful lot like the beginning of Iron Maiden's "The Trooper".
• Story Of Eastern Wonderland's stage 4 theme Himorogi, Burn In Violet sounds almost exactly like Final Fantasy 6's Decisive Battle that it's hard not to imagine that ZUN got inspired somehow.
• The first portion of Suwako's theme "Native Faith" is pretty heavily based on the final boss theme from Night Striker. This isn't random; ZUN used to work at Taito, so there's a good chance that this was his version of a tribute to Mar (Night Striker's composer).
• The arpeggio in the intro of Kaguya's theme (Lunatic Princess) from Imperishable Night is nearly identical to the Xevious theme.
• "Emotional Skyscraper~Cosmic Mind" resembles the intro theme from the Mega Drive version of Zero Wing.
• The theme for Makai Stages 16-19 in The Highly Responsive to Prayers is an intentional homage to the main BGM from The Legend of Kage, and is even named after the game.
• The main riff from the Jigoku Stage 6-9 theme from HRTP sounds like the Yellow Magic Orchestra song "Rydeen".
• Also from HRTP, the main arpeggio in "Angel Legend" is similar to "Heart of Fire" from Castlevania.
• "Magic Mirror" is similar to "Wicked Child", also from Castlevania.
• "Vanishing Dream~Lost Dream" from Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dream, especially the third part, is similar to the Soviet march "Polyushka Polye".
• The first half of Strawberry Crisis!!, also from PODD, resembles the intro and ending of The Morning Glow from Ys.
  • The HRTP version^note A bonus track on the remastered OST of "Theme of Eastern Story" also sounds a bit like "The Morning Glow".
• The chorus of "Brave Wings", a heavily rearranged Eurobeat version of "The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood", oddly resembles the Stage 3 BGM from the Mega Man bootleg Rocman X.
• The third part of "Sailor of Time", yet another PODD song, copies almost verbatim from the last part of "Flap Toward the Hope" from Raiden II.
• "Necrofantasia", Perfect Cherry Blossom's Extra Boss theme, has similarities with the Double Dragon theme.
• Reisen's theme from Imperishable Night, Invisible Full Moon, sounds similar to Cyber Maze Core from Mega Man X5.
• Maiden's Capriccio sounds similar to Haya Oh's theme from the PS2 remake of Space Harrier. This might be a coincidence, though, as Maiden's Capriccio is actually a remake of the homonymous song from Lotus Land Story.
• The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field, especially the second half, resembles Defend and Escape! from Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim.
• Gensokyo Millenium ~ History of the Moon sounds like Tong Poo by Yellow Magic Orchestra, as well as Into the Wilderness from Wild ARMs.
• "A Sacred Lot" sounds like the main menu music of The Raiden Project.
• "Plain Asia" from Imperishable Night sounds very similar to "Battle Against a True Hero" from Undertale. This may have been intentional, considering Toby Fox (creator of Undertale) is a Touhou fan, and "Battle Against A True Hero" uses the iconic "ZUNpets" used in many, many tracks throughout the Touhou Project, including "Plain Asia".
• Subterranean Animism's stage 5 theme, "Lullaby of a Deserted Hell" possibly draws inspiration from English traditional ballads "Scarborough Fair" and "Greensleeves".
• Get a Life from the musician Ian Andersen and The Bridge of the Lotus theme (an arrangement of The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky from Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom) have the exact same riff.
• Drunk as I Like and Retrofuture Clean.
• Hong Meiling's theme, "Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17" sounds like Glass no Juudai by Hikaru Genji.

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