August 2025 Monthly Digest

Tomorrow is a day I would normally be at Erie Anime Fest, but the schedule was changed and I’m not going there. I’m just hoping Anime Fest returns this November. Also, we reached that time of the year again – summer is starting to come to an end and everyone will be going back to school with the start of a new school year. I’ve said that every August for the past couple years.

Key Developments

Emiko Hosokawa Returns to Discord, Albeit in Role-Play Form

On the day after Independence Day, a miracle happened. While the Prophet was working on a PC-98 remix of the song The Spirit Butterfly Dances Through the Air from Touhou Houtenkyou ~ Treasure Castle Labyrinth when he got a friend request on Discord. He didn’t recognize the name at first until it took him seconds to realize that it was Hosokawa. After getting locked out of Discord for nearly three months earlier this year in mid-April in the weekend before Touhou Chouhatsuyou ~ Burgeoning Tresses of Longevity released on Steam, Hosokawa finally returned to Discord.

Things, however, are different this time around. She is mostly playing the VTuber character Ciel Chandelleur, who debuted last month. Due to the ongoing feud, Hosokawa has less involvement in future Drillimation games.

Shining Shattering Sky ~ Reverie of Breaking Unreality Alpha Now Available on itch.io

Last week, Drillimation Systems released the alpha for their newest game Shining Shattering Sky ~ Reverie of Breaking Unreality on itch.io. The first twenty stages of the game are free for anyone to download, play, and share. Designed to be a spiritual successor to their most popular game Touhou 1: The Highly Responsive to Prayers NES Demake, the game follows Tomohiro Uchida and Hikari Aogami, the parents of Chuhou Joutai character Kumiko Uchida, hunting for the supernatural in their dreams.

This game broke old traditions at Drillimation by being the first original game since the third Chuhou Joutai, the first new game in that series since 2022, and not have Studio Emiko’s involvement as a result of the ongoing feud. That said, we are hoping development continues smoothly.

Statistics

Over the past two months, the website’s subscribers increased by 136 for a total of 2,064 subscribers today.

Twitter

Drillimation’s follower count has continued to grow. Over the past two months, it increased by 137 for a total of 6,851 followers today.

Bluesky

Drillimation’s followers on Bluesky continues to grow. It increased by 192 for a total of 1,960 followers.

Instagram

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A post shared by Drillimation Systems (@drillimation.official)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Drillimation Systems (@drillimation.official)

Over the past two months:

• Content was viewed over 24,000 times.
• Drillimation’s followers struggled to increase as a result of a purge of Instagram accounts likely caused by AI. It remains roughly the same.

YouTube

We managed to get to 900. We’re at the halfway point to getting to 1,000, and if you want to see that special sooner, please subscribe to the channel. Anyway, over the past two months:

• Content was viewed over 12,500 times, bringing in over 256 watch hours.
• Subscribers increased by 48 for a total of 944 subscribers.

Future Goals

There isn’t anything major in our hands other than finishing Shining Shattering Sky ~ Reverie of Breaking Unreality. Anyone who wants to work on the game should head to the Careers page of the site for more information.