This ship made very little sense to me... until I learned that Lyrica was also skilled at playing percussion instruments. Now I know they were meant to be.

^^
Maybe, ninryu. Maybe. But, consider the following:

1. Mima is a badass ghost MILF and Marisa's surrogate mom. Imagine her having a personality like Sarah Connor's from T-2 Judgment Day but without the PTSD, now imagine her going on adventures across the land with Marisa. We could have that.

2. I won't suggest you actually play the PC-98 games, but I would suggest you watch a few let's-plays of them and listen to the music, and I'm sure you'll understand why we're like the way we are (if you aren't already one of us, that is). But failing that...

3. There will come a time, far sooner than you think it will come, where what Touhou actually is will feel so radically different from the Touhou you fell in love with despite seemingly nothing at all changing, and you will not be able to rationalize why it feels that way. Your mind will tell you you should just leave the series, but your heart and soul won't be able to bear leaving all these memories behind. So you'll sit and wait, and eventually, you'll begin to irrationally believe that if this one character just comes back, everything you used to love about Touhou will come back with her, and everything can go back to the way it used to be.

That is what "Mima cope" is truly about.

So I've been thinking about this in the extended wait for a new chapter, and I've come up with a new theory. Be warned, FNAF theorizing-level psychosis incoming.

What if Miko isn't bullshitting? About there being two vengeful spirits, I mean; the part about it being two Mizuchis is clearly bullshit. The one currently possessing Hijiri is Mima because, c'mon, look at that face, and the second one is the First Hakurei Miko who we'll soon find out is laying low inside Toyosatomimi no Miko. In a mid-to-late story twist, we'll learn First Miko's name is also Hakurei Reimu but written using the kanji 博麗靈夢 just like Reimu was written in the PC-98 games. And this entire second run is ZUN's way of soft-canonizing the first 5 games, by having them set two generations ago.

But if that's the case, I don't know why the the First Miko would give up such a valuable bit of information so easily. It is possible they're working against each other, but if that's the reason, why all the subterfuge?

last edited at May 28, 2026 12:50PM

I'm not opposed to this interpretation, but the kanji used to write Megumu's name IS the kanji for "dragon..."

Realistically, I think it should be the other way around... with Megumu covered in way more kiss marks.

^
A bit late, but... welcome to modern Touhou shipping, where if it isn't REImari, MEIsaku or TERUmoko, with specifically that emphasis, the fandom as a whole has zero interest in it.

Chief Priest, ZUN, what are you doing? I know red herrings are supposed to be a thing in mysteries, and characters can only propose ideas based on the information they have, but we readers have knowledge the characters don't. We've seen Byakuren's possessed face, and it looks suspiciously Mima-like, not Mizuchi-like. Additionally, we have the end of the previous arc to inform us of the First Hakurei Miko. Those are our two most viable suspects because, 1) Mima is currently riding a high from ranking in the top 50 in the most recent Touhou Popularity Poll, and ZUN might want to capitalize on that popularity instead of continuing to suppress her; 2) It's clear Mizuchi still feels something for the First Hakurei Miko, so her trying to hide her existence even at the risk of incriminating herself makes sense; and 3) no other options have been established so far. Introducing an idea that would be so narratively unsatisfying to be the big twist when it is almost certainly not the case doesn't work because we've seen the better options (then again, I've come to feel ZUN has a bad habit of pissing up the nose of his oldest, most engaged fans, so I wouldn't put it past him to deliberately disregard these two options).

Also... why is this a Detective Satori story? In this recent run, only 57 of the total panels are dedicated to Satori doing detective work, she didn't even appear in chapter 3 and has spent every chapter beyond unconscious. I was kinda hoping they'd reveal she was faking it so she could tell everyone what's really going on, but this would've been the best time to reveal that, so I guess that wasn't the case...

I am nearly 4 late, but allow me to share my insight.

Aya makes Reimu a tsundere. Reimu constantly goes out of her way to show just how much Aya annoys her to no end, and yet she will team up with her, she will help her out/give her information with little prodding, and she will go out of her way to look good in front of her (see Lotus Eaters 71). And Aya, for all the times she tries to get sensationalism at Reimu's expense, does seem to have respect and a small degree of reverence for Reimu, both as the Hakurei Miko and just as a person, but she's also not going to let her kinda-sorta crush on Reimu get in the way of journalistic integrity (again, see Lotus Eaters 71). This could just be bias from the first AyaReimu doujin I ever read, but I also think both are fundamentally lonely people despite the big circle of friends they both keep, and I think they both can find solace in each other.

Ultimately though, I think the core of AyaReimu is "Trust." Reimu eventually gets close enough with Aya that she shares a deeply personal bit of information about herself, knowing Aya won't just turn around and publish it for all of Gensoukyou to see, and Aya can turn to Reimu as a source of comfort and security when the endless grind of tengu society gets to be too much for her (I don't know how accurate it is, but I have this image of tengu society in Touhou being one of endless competition full of metaphorical cutthroats and backstabbers).

That's how I've come to see AyaReimu, anyway.

last edited at Mar 10, 2026 3:56AM

Ysmir bless you, you who pushes the AyaReimu agenda on this website. You see with eyes far clearer than the common man.

How much disrespect does Satori need until Zun feels satisfied

Now you know what it's like to be an Alice fan. Rest assured, we feel your pain, and you're not alone.

I have never agreed with the idea of Meiling topping anyone, especially Sakuya. Not because I think she can't but more because she doesn't have anything to prove. You know how Grant Morrison conceived of All-Star Superman with the idea of [paraphrasing], "If you knew nothing in the world could kill you, wouldn't that make you the chillest guy on the planet?" I imagine Meiling the same way.

Besides, there's no realistic way Sakuya ever tops Remilia (unless Remilia lets it happen), so at least let her be on top with Meiling.

So, I was recently reminded about this series, and because of that, I also remembered that Book 4.5 never got a proper translation. Like, I kinda remembered the original translator having an agenda of sorts and just straight-up didn't translate a whole section of the story. And since it seems like no one else has done anything about it, I got tired of waiting and made my own translation in a Google document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YrCtAkuNFdxNR-Ov_ZisXYIs8gqcp6H92mnyAr9Mv7A/edit?usp=drivesdk

Anyone is free to use it for scanlation purposes, but take note: My skills are somewhere between passionate beginner and skilled apprentice. I feel satisfied with my work, but I'm still only about 85% confident in it. You should probably get someone with a firm grasp of the Japanese language to compare my script with the original text before you commit to anything.