About BUTAOTOME

豚乙女 (romanized as Butaotome, stylized as BUTAOTOME) is a doujin music circle.
The original four members were drinking companions, then one day they “wanted to do something fun”. So, during Autumn 2009, they started the circle. They first uploaded stuff on niconico during November and the following months (cover songs, then their own Touhou arrangements), and they finally published their first album, Touhou Kaiten Mokuba, in March 2010. Since then, they always participated in every Comiket and Reitaisai (among other minor doujin events) where they bring their new releases. On the 3rd of December 2016, they announced their major debut under Avex, and they released their first major album, Furubokko, in March 2017. But they still continue their doujin activity with Touhou works. On the 24th of April 2020, the pianist Paprika announced her retirement from the group, to go overseas and expand her activities as pianist. However, the group continues their activities as 3 creatures.

BUTAOTOME’s main type of work is Touhou Project vocal arrangements. They are characterized by a fairly recognizable j-pop/rock sound provided by Comp, Ranko’s powerful vocals and Paprika’s distinctive piano. However, they often like to experiment. Every Touhou album is distinguished by a certain motif related to the selected Touhou themes or simply for the music style. The designs of the CDs are made by Ranko no Ane (Ranko’s older sister), and they also play an important role by giving more a unique feel to every album. Everything is created and produced solely by the four members of the circle (aside for a couple of albums, but for one of these it was part of the album’s theme) and most of the work is made in Comp’s personal studio called “Butagoya” (pigsty). They also release original albums and songs, which generally keep their more “standard” sound. Paprika also released the “Touhou Nekokenban” albums: at first they were pure piano albums with also instrumental renditions of BUTAOTOME’s vocal songs, but as the series has gone on, they became more experimental. This series stopped with the 20th album and Paprika’s retirement from the group.

They also have a large amount of live activity: quite often they play at special events/festivals, or as a singular circle (“one man live” in Japanese). They put a lot of energy into their performances. Ranko sings, Paprika plays the piano, Comp is on the bass and the Sis dances around. As of February 2024, the only countries they have played outside of Japan are China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Switzerland.

BUTAOTOME is extremely active in the Touhou Project derivative works territories, by releasing multiple albums per year, participating in many Touhou-only lives and spot sales through Japan, having their songs featured in various rhythm games and Touhou fangames, and other stuff.
Comp is also active in music production outside of the Touhou/doujin world, by making various songs for anime, Japanese TV shows, and other artists, and playing bass for other people’s compositions and arrangements.

Official website | Twitter | Youtube | Pixiv Fanbox | BOOTH

Name

The name “Butaotome” means “Pig Girl”. They chose this name because they wanted a name that could stick easily. Other candidates were “Geroshabu” and “Oketsu Climax”.

There are multiple spelling around: BUTAOTOME, Butaotome, Buta-Otome. Buta Otome… Only the first two are the ones currently used in official sources and album arts. All the others are unofficial/outdated. And for those who still use “buta-otome”: the logo doesn’t look like this.

Members

[Members screenshots are taken and edited from the Flowering Night 2020 live]

Former Member

[Screenshot was taken and edited from the Jump Otome DVD]

Gallery

Click here to see a small gallery of logos, member avatars, and promotional photoshoots.

About this website

Tiramisu Cowboy was created on August 6th, 2015. It’s almost entirely managed by one person, who goes by the names “Violet” and “Tiramise”.

I have been a BUTAOTOME fan since February 2012 and have been closely following their activities ever since. With Tiramisu Cowboy, I hope to share my love for BUTAOTOME, to give information about them to overseas fans, and to make them more accessible to those who can’t understand Japanese.

I do try to do something for this website every day, be it a small fix or a huge update, so the schedule for new posts is irregular. I usually publish quick updates and news on Twitter and Discord, but important news and recaps do get their own article.

If you want to use or repost elsewhere any of the translated content on this website (lyrics, blog posts, interviews, etc.), please ask for permission, and don’t use lyrics translations for unauthorized reuploads. Contacts are here.

The TC Crew