Touhou Project

The Touhou Project (Japanese: 東方Project, Hepburn: Tōhō Purojekuto; sometimes written in Japanese as 東方プロジェクト), also known simply as Touhou (東方; meaning "Eastern" or "Oriental"), is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by independent Japanese dōjin soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. The team's sole member, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, has independently developed programming, graphics, writing, and music for the series, publishing 20 mainline games and 13 spin-offs since 1997. ZUN has also produced related print works and music albums, and collaborated with dōjin developer Twilight Frontier on seven of the official spin-offs, six of which are fighting games.

The first five games were developed for the Japanese PC-98 computer, with the first, Highly Responsive to Prayers, released in August 1997; the series' signature danmaku (弾幕; lit. 'bullet curtain') mechanics were introduced in the second game, Story of Eastern Wonderland (also 1997). The release of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil in August 2002 marked a shift to Microsoft Windows. Numerous sequels followed, including several spin-offs departing from the traditional shoot 'em up format.