Just out of curiosity, why does it seem that half or even far more of the past couple of months' submissions is related to Touhou or Kantai Collection? Are there that many mangaka and manga stylists who are just that obsessed with those two properties? It seems all out of proportion that two, basically, pachinko level games should have so much artists' effort dedicated to them. There is hardly any artwork related to the latest anime releases, little bits here and there. Some old favorites, a lot of original and custom artwork. These two games have taken over the genre and I don't understand why. Or is it just that they are safer from copyright violation accusations than other properties?
Just out of curiosity, why does it seem that half or even far more of the past couple of months' submissions related to Touhou or Kantai Collection? Are that many mangaka and manga stylists just that obsessed with those two properties? It seems all out of proportion that two, basically, pachinko level games should have so much artists' effort dedicated to them. There is hardly any artwork related to the latest anime releases, little bits here and there. Some old favorites, a lot of original and custom artwork. These two games have taken over the genre and I don't understand why. Or is it just that they are safer from copyright violation accusations than other properties?
They're just what's popular right now. KanColle itself is actually pretty fun if you like that sort of game and from what I've seen from their tweets, a lot of the artists also play it. So it's also just drawing what you are familiar with.
Touhou has always commanded a large portion of submissions (as long as danbooru's been around at least), so I'm not sure why you're just noticing it now.
KanColle, on the other hand, managed to find just the right magical combination of personifying the right things (as opposed to guns, or castles, or whatever else) while also having a large collection of them with enough interesting designs and interesting personalities.
also, do people really get copyright shit over drawing stuff
Touhou have always been huge for years,you shouldn't really be that surprise. As for reason for their popularity,I think it's about imagination rooms. Both have a lot of characters with distinct personalities and traits,with vague-ish settings and plots,plus regular updates. These,amongs other things,lend themselve to a sort of lego set-like properties:There weren't much details in the canon,so artists have a lot of freedom to make up their own.
Okay, here is my explanation, hopes it satisfies you, gridsleep.
Touhou, has been around for a nearly 20 years now, well, 2 more years and it is. People all around the world play it, artists from all around the world draw fan arts of it, spin-off games, animation works, songs, etc are made. It's now a tradition and a large part of the world's culture. Besides, it's a work where many people can add what they want to say into for it being not bounded to any limits that official works have because it's released as a game in Comiket. Great ideas, master pieces, heart warming/breaking stories or those that make us think alot can be found under this title's "doujinshi" works. And in those doujinshi works, they also have other tributes to them. It's just great, so great that I don't think anyone who knows of the Otaku culture can actually not know of the title. As such, many would make it their focus in art works. It's only nature.
Meanwhile, Kantai Collection is a game that, basically, personify war ships into girls. The idea is not new, but it still goes boom soon after release is because the variety of personality, look, stories it has. Especially, the game is about IJN warship in WW2. It's where so many things happened. You can tell stories about the war can it seems like you can never run out of thing to tell. The Japaneses also have a pride in their Navy as the IJN has a big part in many important names like Big7, the biggest battleship in history, the first aircraft carrier, etc. Tell me if it's not big. And as a fact, at the first Comiket after its release, the game already had so many doujin that it overwhelmed Touhou. There are also many artists whose works shared on Pixiv are solely under the title of Kantai Collection too like zepher for an instance.
And well, the new release Anime are not that popular, although to be animated they have to be popular to some points, but there can still be people who don't know them. Unlike Touhou, and might not be the topic of talks between so many people like Kantai Collection for this last year.
There's also a reason that because the 2 title are so popular, that people keep checking on them and works under their name get uploaded here. I know it because I myself am here because of Kancolle and am checking its tag everyday.
THose are my explanation and assumption. Hope it's not too long. Honestly, these kind of things can't be explained that easily you know.
