All I got out of that is "It's weird and we really have no idea"
MERMAID
"Find the truth at whatever the cost! And then bend it so it's more interesting!"
I believe that's Aya's motto
"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow
The Fool
The Wind God Girl, huh?
As I've said before, I dislike representing characters as horrible people unless they were unambiguously meant to be seen as such. Aya's more than a little overenthusiastic, and she tends to easily mislead. But she's also an avid photographer.
... I'm going to say she's a light Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
I sure said that!
My favourite exchange from Bohemian Archive.
Ran: Even if you could fly many times faster than you do now? Even if you could become many times stronger?
Aya: Speed means nothing if it's decided for me. Flying free is what has meaning.
Ran: Even if you could land many times more scoops?
Aya: Ngh!
Ran: ...Do you want me to make you my shikigami?
She almost goes for it as well. That 'flying free' line does seem to tally with 'pride and independance', though.
edited 15th Sep '11 4:07:44 PM by asterism
Heart of Stone
Funny but not helpful
She's not necessarily a horrible person so much as a terrible person and someone that would be a chore to deal with.
Also, Aya has a lot of canon stuff to look at for interpretations.
Inaba, for example, although operating on Rule of Funny and Rule of Not Being Quite As Canon As Other Things, has an Aya chapter where Aya's description of her writing process is pretty close to what you could get reading between the lines of BAIJR.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Better! Harder! Faster! Stronger!*
edited 15th Sep '11 4:09:51 PM by Bocaj
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
And she's powerful enough that when she gets all up in your face, you more or less have to let her.
And she's annoying enough that Reimu has developed specific Anti-Aya spellcards.
Heart of Stone
MERMAID
Giant no solicitor signs and patterns that actually speed up when taking a shot.
Reimu really does not like Aya
"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow
Funny but not helpful
Aya gets back at her in SABND by using the Three Fairies. Its actually kind of epic.
I also just noticed that the Three Fairies pull their best pranks when someone else is pulling their strings. Cause they're dumb.
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Talisman [Exorcism of the Newspaper Subscription Solicitors]*
Barrier [Paparazzi-Repelling Barrier]
Heart of Stone
The Fool
Then again, Aya's high speed does make her less effective in danmaku play, if her playable outings have it right.
I sure said that!
Aya is surprisingly human-like, really.
Funny but not helpful
She probably has the reflexes so that her super speed doesn't have her running straight into stuff.
Our pitiful human brains can't keep up with it.
See, with me, I like her zany antics. And before I was familiar with canon, I read a lot of fanworks where she was all about journalism. And then I read all the BAIJR and the other stuff and as an ex-journalism student, the way she approaches journalism just irritates me.
edited 15th Sep '11 4:17:51 PM by Bocaj
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
Reading through her official profiles (though I haven't gotten to the Bohemien Archive stuff yet), I noticed it is mentioned in at least two profiles how courteous and polite she is to strong people and people she is interviewing. Of course, later entries also note how she changes how she acts depending on who she is talking to.
I'd like to think the reason she gets interviews in the first place is because, during the interview itself, Aya is nice, polite, energetic, though maybe a bit creepy with how she changes how she acts. It's only when they read the article that resulted from this that they learn that she planned to twist things around at their expense because she thought it would be cooler/sell more newspapers, and thus they get mad at her and are less willing to have more interviews.
Aya seems like the kind of person who would be nice to your face, then talk shit about you behind your back. Only with a newspaper.
edited 15th Sep '11 4:28:23 PM by Otherarrow
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She's the computer's best character in PoFV. Also mine
The comments on those are fun "Silly human, you know that won't do anything"
Funny but not helpful
Well, we know she's not honest and that Shameimaru is only her pen name but what do you know about her claim of "pure" that we don't know? Is it possible... that she lives on Earth?
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One Winged Egret
It's unlikely that Aya would write about the incidents, because in the official comic that came with BAIJR she dismissed the "stolen spring" incident as untrustworthy. Who's gonna take Reimu's word for it? Wasn't it just an unusually long winter?
Ghosts' Poet
Anything in specific?
you'll then have a grave in the clouds where you won't lie too cramped
I'd like to note that she ended up writing about the "stolen spring" incident anyway, though she bailed right before Reimu (and she does specify the shrine maiden) entered the Netherworld. Also, she blames the incident on Celestials, or as she puts it selfish "humans from the heavens".
edited 15th Sep '11 4:54:51 PM by Otherarrow
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It's time... to STOP!
Ayayayayayaya! Wow! You people talk fast! Too fast! Faster than my reporter instincts can follow! I don't even have time for Overview now!
Okay, I do!
Of Note
Aya's power is manipulation of wind. This seems par the course for Tengu, but Aya is apparently very, very good at it.
Aya is a pre-border Youkai. She knows the things man forgot to know.
Her crow's name is Sr. Editor Deepcrow. We decided that! It's thread canon!
Apparently she exchanges information with fellow Tengu, rather than steal all the scoops for herself. She warps and exaggerates everything, though.
She writes the Bunbunmaru News. A non-periodical newspaper dedicating to writing of rumors. Issues can be found in her side material-Bohemian Archive- and one issue can be found in Perfect Memento.
She was chosen by Tenma to be a Negotiator In this city of amnesia in MOF, but lost on purpose, only fighting so she wouldn't be branded a traitor. She pointed them to the shrine so she could get her story. She was commended for this, but her actions are what lead to the Tengu and Kappa being the sources of faith for the Moriyas... or is that good?
She changes her mannerism when around people, so they always feel uncomfortable. Compare/Contrast to Iku, who is flexible in personality as well.
She uses Reimu to investigate the underground for her because Oni freak her out. She got better.
She is the protagonist of two games: STB and DS. I like DS better personally, it was a good half month of fun. Except for Satori. She was just awful.
Akyuu says she has black wings, but they aren't seen. Aya herself mentions wings in one game, but I forget which. Sorry.
She that thing at the top of the page with the repeating "ya's"? That's Aya's catchphrase!
She's the Fastest!... character in all of Touhou. Sorry, still got some Cirno left in me.
Her camera is implied to be made by the Kappa like Hatate's phone, but it's never been said outright.
Quotes Pending...
Music
I quite like Wind God Girl, but it feels a bit repetitive at times. That's probably because ZUN didn't use the full song from Bohemian Archive in the games. I need to find that. Still, both version are very jazzy, I guess would be the term. I like jazzy.
Supposedly Youkai Mountain is based of Wind God Girl, but it really does sound like its own song. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing, a very good thing. Sure Aya's a little theme overdosed, but still so long as those themes are good, does it really matter. I like this a little better than Wind God Girl, and I'm not really sure why.
Overview
Fast, Intuitive, Brave, Skillful. These are all words that describe the one and only Aya Shamemaru, but I have another. One that some may argue is horribly, horribly incorrect. Sure she may be a bit stuck in the past, using an old film camera to combat these new modern, high speed spell cards, but I ask you... does she not win? If its not broken, why fix it. Aya losing her old world identity would be a shame, an horrible, awful shame. Yes, a shame indeed. She is not a manipulator of wind, she IS the wind. That is why, the word I use is... Hero.
Phew, off the clock. Seriously, now... Aya does make a good protagonist, but she lacks the soul of a hero. She just doesn't have enough allies. Her closest friends are a shut-in rival, and a wolf tengu that keeps biting her... and Reimu, I guess. To me, Aya's just a tad stuck in the times, she fears Oni coming to retake the mountain, something that Yuugi has made clear they have no intention of doing in the next Millennium, using an old fashion camera, typing old fashion Yellow Journalism. In fact, does she even want to be a reporter. Her dialogue in DS against Hatate, made it sound like she would rather be a photographer, or at least a photo journalist. Taking pictures of the world to speak for themselves with little more than a descriptive annotation on the back, then to type whole stories. Still, she follows up her stories rather diligently, so I suppose she isn't going to go down the hierarchal ladder as a proud Crow Tengu just for a pulitzer.
edited 15th Sep '11 5:08:49 PM by Horselesshorseman
I have no horse, and I must ride. I accomplish unlockments.
Funny but not helpful
Its a lot of things. Her banter is entertaining but its terrible interview etiquette, STB and DS show her harassing people in exactly the way a reporter is not supposed to, she has terrible research initiative refusing to go to the effort to get to the truth, she makes stuff up to spice up the story, and she advertises services when the person being interviewed doesn't want her to.*
She is basically the cloth that the evil paparazzi character type is cut from.
I understand that journalism is different in Gensokyo and probably in Japan and that journalism isn't even Aya's primary job. But after getting proper journalism drilled into you for years, when you see someone gleefully doing it wrong, it just irks you. More than anything specific, its all the things combining into vague dislike.
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MERMAID
I like to think that Aya learned all of her jornalistic knowledge from a second-hand scource. That, mixed with her normal personality, created the Aya we know and...Know.
"Seriously, don't eat the mermaid. And not just because it's half cannibalism." ~Otherarrow
Funny but not helpful
That could work.
Of course.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
A part of me wants to think that Aya doesn't notice/blatently ignores that people dislike her. Reimu may have antiAya spell cards, but Aya and Reimu are the best of buds! She's just playing around! Momiji may bite and bicker with Aya, but that's just how wolves are. Everyone is waiting in anticipation for their day in Aya's spotlight! ...they just don't know it yet. And have an odd way of being grateful for it.
But yeah, this doesn't change the fact that Aya is a horrid journalist, though I highly doubt she realizes this.
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Aya is a ham. I will say this now.
Also, I forgot if this was canon somewhere or just a fan theory I heard once, but Aya reports on every incident. Maybe not accurately, with a lot more exaggeration and making stuff up. The heroines just don't notice her unless she directly gets in their way. And she probably calls it quits if the heroine ends up going anywhere Aya herself hasn't gone before. (such as all the "outside Gensoukyou" locations they somehow have access to.)
I like to think she also lets her imagination have too much creative control over her writing. Of course, I also think without it, her articles would have far less "filling" to them. I do not think she is a good reporter at all. She might be a good fiction writer though.
And I like her design.
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