About a year ago, I was listening to Vocaloid songs on youtube, and came across a Vocaloid dubbing over of what I now know to be the flash of Marisa Stole the Precious Thing. At first, I was like, "Who the hell are these characters? Something from an obscure anime I've never heard of? Some obscure video game that's never been released outside of Japan?" (DING!) By checking links to the video, I learned it was from a franchise called "Touhou," which I knew nothing about.
A short while after that, some people on a messageboard I was going to were talking about "Doujin" games, and someone mentioned Touhou. Someone else also said, "If you're new, try out Perfect Cherry Blossom."
I downloaded the demo of PCB and . . . was kinda underwhelmed. To be honest, I just never got into SHMUPs. But the music, my god, the music! That music stayed stuck to my head for a while.
A few months pass, and I was surfing tvtropes. I was bored and thought to myself, "Hey, you know that Japanese game series Touhou? I wonder if there's an entry for that." There was. And from tvtropes, I found a youtube link to The Cruel Sisters and the Suffering Maid by Innocent Key.
Nothing was ever the same after that.