I had a lot of fun playing this one! I gave it a spin last night and got wrecked... but after some rest, gave it another go and got a 1cc clear on normal mode.
The graphics, audio, and music are all great, and fit together nicely. It has an arcade presentation that I like a lot.
The gameplay itself is easy to learn, but fairly challenging (at least to a SHMUP/Bullet hell novice like myself). I found the laser to be the best weapon, and stockpiled bombs for the bosses... though even then used them sparingly. I had a giant pile by the final fight!
While playing, I had no idea what the energy was for... though I had a vague idea that it might be for powering up the weapons. Based on comments below, looks like that was correct. "Dodge" was also a complete mystery to me, but again, reading other comments below cleared that up.
I never really used the shift key at all. The movement speed was already fairly slow, and if anything I felt like I needed a speed boost key, not one that made me slower.
Anyhow, overall a great submission! One of my favorites for sure, nice work!