Yamato Maya

Yamato Maya is a first-year student at Keiho Women's University, as well as the drummer of Pastel*Palettes.

Prior to joining the band, she was a studio musician. Originally, Maya was only a temporary member of the band, but was prompted to join permanently by Chisato due to their lack of finding an idol drummer, and after they had seen Maya without her glasses. She started playing the drums after being inspired by Kana, the drummer for the band.

Appearance
Maya has shoulder-length, pale brown hair with layered forelocks and a tuft of bangs covering her forehead. She has dark green eyes and wears red half-rim glasses. In her initial outfit, Maya wears a white tank-top paired with black pants that have thin suspender straps, brown fingerless gloves, and a long, dull blue jacket tied around her waist. Her outfit is completed with a beige newspaper boy cap.

During winter, she wears a black turtleneck sweater, an army green short skirt and forest green leggings. During summer, she wears short-sleeved white hoodie with a walking, drawn black cat and the text "Cat Walk" on it, and with a reddish-brown flannel tied around her waist. She also wears black trousers.

During performances, she removes her glasses and uses contact lenses.

Personality
A tomboy who appears awkward around other people, Maya isn't very social and used to be a bit socially withdrawn prior to becoming a drummer. But around musical equipment, she becomes ecstatic and is impossible to stop when talking about her beloved hobby, unless she herself realizes she is rambling on. She has a casual way of speaking and tends to sometimes use the short version of "desu", "-ssu" while ending her sentences. Despite this, she refers to everyone, including those who are younger than her, with the "-san" honorific.

Maya admires Eve for her looks and is also good friends with her, and Aya as well for her dedication to becoming a great idol. Because of her awkward nature, she is also often teased by Hina (unintentionally most of the time) and gently scolded by Chisato because of her unique "huehehe" laugh. Despite this, the other band members, as well as other characters, acknowledge her as a very reliable girl and enjoy listening to her knowledge of music and different kinds of musical equipment. She is also quite smart, and having known Kaoru for many years, Maya is also able to "translate" the things that Kaoru says.

Maya was shown to be insecure at first whether she deserved to be, and was fitting enough, to be an idol. As the story goes on, along with her interacting with the other members, especially Aya, Maya realizes she enjoys being an idol and wants to stay in Pastel*Palettes no matter what. She also initially did not believe that she would gain a lot of fans, as she thought of herself as more plain compared to the other band members.

Game Interactions
A list of characters Maya interacts with in the game (during Lives and in the dialogues at the end of every game).

Etymology
Maya's full name itself is a palindrome, a fact she likes mentioning during her introductions.

Yamato (大和) refers to the country of Japan.

Maya (麻弥): Ma (麻) means "hemp" and Ya (弥) means "full, flow."

Trivia

 * Maya refers to herself with the "jibun" pronoun, which literally means "oneself" and is a very casual pronoun.
 * Adding to this, she is also the first girl in the series who refers to herself with a unique pronoun and not with "watashi", "atashi", or in third person like Ako, Hagumi and Reona.
 * After the event My Ideal, Maya starts frequently writing magazine columns.
 * Maya is a regular at Ryuuseidou, the pawnshop Arisa's grandparents own, and often buys drum-related things from there.
 * She loves cats and dislikes dogs.
 * Maya has a slight fear of heights.
 * She has the same height as Sayo.
 * She has the habit of going into tight spaces and finds being in them comfortable and calming.
 * According to Yukina, if Yukina hadn't met Ako, she would have considered inviting Maya to join Roselia instead due to her dedicated personality and knowledge of music.
 * Maya enjoys playing carnival games and is especially skilled at the shooting gallery.
 * In the Zombieland Saga Revenge collaboration, her character design was based on, and her title was "Legendary Gadget Geek".