Aya Shameimaru

Aya Shameimaru is Gensokyo's resident reporter, known for writing "slightly" exaggerated news articles about anything that happens in Gensokyo. She's very strong and is probably stronger than she shows since she sometimes "accidentally wins" battles while only meaning to cover a news story.

During the events of Phantasmagoria of Flower View she sets out to cover what promises to be an interesting news story, apparently having had completely forgotten that the exact same event had occurred 60 years ago. Even though she was alive and around during the previous flower incident, perhaps her memory is clouded by the thousands of facts and rumors she hears every day.

When Aya was sent by the other tengu to see who the intruder on Youkai Mountain was during Mountain of Faith she was surprised to see it was the heroine. Although Aya doesn't want to fight the heroine, she prioritizes her bosses' orders. She decides to "go easy" on the heroine and leads her to the new shrine, believing that the heroine could get rid of a large nuisance to the tengu.

During the events of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody she goes around doing her job, and after an encounter with Reimu and Marisa she decides to infiltrate the Scarlet Devil Mansion to report on the Scarlet Devil and write an article about her. Remilia mentions something about the weather incident, and Aya goes back to the Youkai Mountain. There she meets an infuriated Reimu complaining about an earthquake destroying her shrine. In spite of the situation, Aya defeats her as an intruder.

Appearance

 * (Touhou 12.5) Same as her Touhou 10 appearance, but with puffier and longer hair, her calf-high socks from Touhou 10.5, and an orange armband reading 「取材中」 (Shuzaichuu: "collecting material"). She is also shown without her fan and white puffs. Her ears are visible again but now pointed. The color of her camera lens is now red.
 * (Touhou 10.5) Same as her Touhou 9 appearance, but wears calf-high socks.
 * (Touhou 10.5, alternate outfit) Hair and dress are gray, blouse is dark gray, fan is orange instead of yellow, and Tokin is blue instead of red. Normal ears are visible in her portrait.
 * (Touhou 10) Red eyes, semi-long black hair. Wears a white blouse with brown leaf-print sides, a black short skirt with brown leaf-print portions, and a Tokin with several white puffs of feathers hanging from it. Carries a hauchiwa fan.
 * (Touhou 9) Red eyes, semi-long black hair, with a crow perched on her shoulder. Wears a white blouse, a black short skirt, and a Tokin. Carries a journal of some sort. She is no longer shown with wings.
 * (Touhou 9, alternative outfit) Same as above, but her Tokin is green, and her fan is blue.


 * (Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red) Red eyes, semi-long black hair, usually seen with a crow following her. Wears a white blouse, a black short skirt, and a Tokin. She is sometimes shown with black wings.

Relationships

 * Momiji Inubashiri (Colleague)
 * Lord Tenma (Chief)
 * Hatate Himekaidou (Rival, colleague)
 * Reimu Hakurei (Ally)
 * Minoriko Aki (Practice partner)
 * Has also interviewed most of the characters from TH06 to TH12 once or more.

Trivia

 * Aya is the first character in the series to originally appear in an artbook, then later in a game.
 * A silhouette of Aya occupies the front of Shoot the Bullet's jewel case.
 * ZUN once commented that the gaming concept of Shoot the Bullet was around since the same time he created Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, since such a game required a camera-using character. Aya was created specifically to fit that purpose.
 * In Mountain of Faith, Aya is the first stage 4 boss in a Windows game not to have some sort of gimmick/variation based on the playable character (i.e. Patchouli's different spell cards in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Reimu or Marisa in Imperishable Night, etc.).
 * In Touhou Hisoutensoku, she has a palette that resembles Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier.
 * She is the only character introduced in Phantasmagoria of Flower View to return in a later main game, which is Mountain of Faith.
 * There was a rather nasty western fan uproar over Aya appearing in Mountain of Faith, with various insulting remarks made against her. The reasons for this were: general fan outrage at the changes made in the game (Reimu and Marisa only, no master Spark), Aya getting her own game (Shoot the Bullet), choosing to ignore the underlying facts behind it (The concept predates Aya's creation and was a quick project to go with Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red.
 * These days the incident is seen in a negative light and fan opinion of Aya is higher compared to then.