Minato Aqua (湊あくあ) is a marine maid Virtual YouTuber for Hololive 2nd Generation unit. Her YouTube channel was created on July 31st and her twitter account was created few days later. On August 08th 2018 she posted her video debut to YouTube[11]. On April 8th 2019 she debuted her first 3D model[12] and debuted her 3D swimsuit model[13] a few months later in August 17th 2019. She also got a New Year Live2D costume in January 2nd 2020[14].
Aqua is most known to be a cute airhead maid who likes to prank her friends, but somehow it almost always backfires due to the combinations of her less than desirable luck and lack of preparations. Because of that, she tends to be the target of jokes and pranks from other members.
She loves to play competitive PVP games like Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, League of Legends, and Apex Legends (where she managed to finish Season 4 at Diamond 4[15]). She also likes to complete challenge runs of games, some examples being beating Dark Souls in under 3 hours[16], a Sekiro speedrun in under 2 hours[17], or endurance Apex Legend stream until Diamond[18][19].
According to Aqua she joined Hololive as she was very introverted and wanted to be more social with other people. She auditioned for Hololive without knowing really what it was, only realizing at the audition that it is the agency with Tokino Sora and Shirakami Fubuki in it, that she knew of already.[20]
She admits she is a hikkikomori, but doesn't mind it and only wishes she could be better at socializing.
Her representative emote is an anchor due to her marine theme and anchors on her dress.
A term, or a pun, based on a combination the word "cap", as in the hat, and the Japanese term "Inkya", similar to the English term "Introvert".
Coined by her chat as Aqua has said she always wears a cap when going outside to help her avoid eye contact with other people and to hide her face. Other Hololive members would often remark on it with phrases like "Oh Aqua is wearing a cap again". Eventually she started to get worried people notice she only wears the same cap every time and bought more different ones, but then others started to comment on that "Oh its a different cap then usual". When she didn't wear one her Manager became worried and asked her "You're not wearing a cap today are you ok?" [21]
From her first debut video, Aqua looks like a pure and innocent maid who likes to play video games. As time went on, she evolved from a pure and innocent maid to a giant airhead who somehow always ended up in an embarrassing situations (sometimes deliberately). Despite that, she makes no attempt to avoid any actions that may ending up humiliating her because of her masochistic tendencies. She even dedicated one stream for other Hololive members to bully her[22]. She is also childish and likes to throw tantrums by smacking her table and screaming when things don't go as she initially planned. One of her catchphrases (which she shares with another 2nd generation member, Murasaki Shion) is "NEEEEEE".
Although her initial image may paint her as childish and a crybaby, Aqua is extremely resilient and will stop at nothing to reach her goal, especially in gaming. She often does very long endurance streams to complete the challenges she places on herself. She is also shown to be very mechanically skilled in a competitive games[23] being one of the best Smash and Apex player in Hololive. As evidence of this she was able to clear Jump King[24] which is widely considered to be an obnoxiously challenging platformer[25]. Her reason for becoming so good at gaming was because she thought that there was nothing that made her stand out from the rest and as such she wanted to keep practicing to get better at it so that people watching her streams would be able to enjoy them.[26]
According to other VTubers and Hololive members, Aqua is kind but very shy and introverted while off-camera. One events that exhibits this is the time she and her Vtuber friends Takamiya Rion & Lize Helestia were going to USJ(Universal Studio Japan). The three of them were on the same train heading towards USJ when her friends contacted Aqua asking where she was, she replied stating "I'm sitting across from you in the same train car" which surprised them. [27]
In a stream Takamiya Rion was talking about having nobody to watch the Sword Art Online movie with and her chat suggested inviting Aqua, as they are both big fans of the franchise, and Rion said that Aqua becomes very nervous and wont talk at all when meeting with her in real life. [28]
During her debut stream in 2018 she had 1500 viewers, but afterwards she would only get around 300 when she streamed. She was worried about what she did to lose so many people and thought "What can I do to get lot of people to watch". When thinking back on the old Aqua, she felt as though she didn't think things through, and focused on herself, not noticing what else was going on around her. She has since changed and says she now pays attention to what other members are doing etc. When asked what she would say to her old self, she said that people around her are a lot kinder then she thinks. Back then she thought everyone was scary, other members, management, and she did everything alone since she didn't want to deal with them, but she has become comfortable with them now. [29]
Aqua is close friends with Murasaki Shion and they often tease or play pranks on each other on stream or in games. The entire hololive 2nd Generation had a Discord call together before her debut and she thought Shion didn't like her, but after working together a while they started to become friends. When Shion was feeling down, Aqua wanted to help her and even though Shion said she was fine and would turn her down, Aqua would persist and stay by her, which may have been a big turning point in their friendship. Once when shopping together, Aqua went to buy a new purse and Shion decided to get one as well, buying a matching one with Aqua, after which they have both bought many matching items and clothing. [30]
Jan. 19 Achieved a 250,000 YouTube subscriber milestone.[44]
Jan. 24 Participated in Hololive's first live, "Nonstop Story", and received her 3D idol outfit.
Feb. 06 Achieved a 300,000 YouTube subscriber milestone.[45]
Apr. 08 Achieved a 400,000 YouTube subscriber milestone.[46]
Apr. 30 Live2D model was updated to "Ver.2.1".[47]
May 30 Achieved a 500,000 YouTube subscriber milestone.[48] She is the 2nd VTuber endorsed by Hololive that has reached this milestone after Shirakami Fubuki.
Aug. 05 Achieved a 600,000 YouTube subscriber milestone on a Karaoke stream.[49]
On August 6, 2024, she announced her graduation from hololive Production on stream.[60] A press release was later released by Cover Corporation on their official website.[61]
Following her final stream on August 28, 2024, she graduated from Hololive.[62]
Fans usually spammed なるはや待機 (naruhaya taiki) before Aqua starts her stream.
Her fanbase is called 'Aqua Crew' while fans call her AMT (Aqua Maji Tenshi).
Before she starts her games she usually says "game no sekai ni link start", a reference to the popular light novel and anime Sword Art Online.
Because of her tendency to play games alone, fans often call her Sololive.
She often makes random noises like "ora", "rua", "nya" when focused or frustrated.
One of her nicknames in games is AQUKIN, a reference to the popular Japanese Youtuber HIKAKIN[64]. Apparently she is a huge fan of HIKAKIN and parodied him on an 2020 April Fool's stream[65]
Aqua always add ちゃん！to viewer's names when reading super chat, because according to her, all of her fan is high school girls (JK). And fan spam ちゃん！on stream chat when she read super chat.
Common Kaomoji: (^)o(^), ( ･᷄ᯅ･᷅ )？, (⨝◍>⏑<◍) (Super Chat Reading)
Meaqua. A pairing between Minato Aqua and Kagura Mea, an independent Virtual YouTuber who is really close with her.
CAMP. Group consisted of Kiryu Coco, Minato Aqua, Houshou Marine, and Usada Pekora. They're most known to be the original ARK addict who clocked an impressive amount of play time at that time.
Aquamarine. A pairing between Minato Aqua and Houshou Marine. This pairing went for a collab multiple times during Hololive Ark boom in the early 2020. Over time, the pair developed a mother-daughter like relation ship.
As her 1 million subscriber reward, Aqua produced her own visual novel/dating sim titled Aquarium. The game is developed by veteran Visual Novel developer Entergram and features Aqua herself as the main heroine. The game also features Shirakami Fubuki as the main character's sister and Houshou Marine as Aqua's senpai maid. The game was originally released for PS4 and Switch on October 27, 2022. A Windows port with English translation was released as a limited physical merch on the Hololive Official Shop[66] while the digital version was released on Steam on October 25, 2023.[67]
According to Yuzuki Choco[68], before the 3rd Generation of talents was introduced, you didn't know who else was debuting in your generation until the day of debut. Starting at Gen 3, talents would know and hang out with each other before debut.
Aqua adopted an (imaginary) cat which she named NEKO[69]. This is also the name of the cat on her casual outfit.
She later adopted a real kitten is called Komugi.
Aqua has a 2nd mascot name USAGI as part of her new room design.[70]
She uses a ton of exclamation marks (!!!) and question marks (???) whenever she tweet. Sometimes she uses it when creating a title for her stream as well.
She is a leader of her own Minecraft group called "Hololive Resistance" with Natsuiro Matsuri as a sole member. According to Aqua, the reason of the name "Hololive Resistance" is because it sounded cool.
After the move to the new Hololive Mincraft Server, "Hololive Resistance" was rebranded as "Akukin Kensetsu"(Akukin Construction) with Aqua as the CEO, while Mio and Marine are her assistant.
This group would also later went bankrupt, with CEO Aqua subsequently conveniently have amnesia of about the group existence.[71]
Aqua has a tendency to do dogeza as an apologies to pretty much everything.[72]
Fans often call her "Onion" due to her hatless head being identical to that of a red onion.
Her dream is to have a live concert at the Budokan
She used to drink 5 cans of Redbull a day
Shares the same Illustrator with the following VTubers:
Is one of the Hololive Production VTubers with a verified YouTube channel. Other verified members can be found here.
She is a big fan of Sword Art Online and its main character Kirito.
She owns a black (Kirito's signature color) water dispenser that she named Kirito.
Her idolization of Kirito has resulted in a friendly rivalry with her Nijisanji counterpart Takamiya Rion who had called each other "delusional" over the specific way they idolize Kirito (Aqua is a fan of Kirito the character and wants to become Kirito while Rion is a fan of Kirito's voice actor and wants to become Kirito's girlfriend).[73]
Aqua has a scent fetish and claimed that she could identify any holomem by smell.[74]
During the VSaikyou Tournament, Aqua's earned the nickname Mad Dog due to her reckless and aggressive play style that force her team leader Towa to rein in several time.[75]
According to Watame, Aqua's Mad Dog play style extends outside of Apex Legend to even board game.[76]
Aqua is one of the few HoloPro members that achieved Apex Legend's Master rank while playing solo.[77]
Aqua frequently use the name Akukin as a nickname. It's a reference to popular Japanese Youtuber HikakinTV.[78]
Two of the most notable usage of Akukin is Akukin Construction, her short-lived Minecraft group and Akukin/Aqukin-Master her most common game handle.
In Streat Fighter 6, Aqua's goes by the handle AkuKen-master because Ken was her main and the character she used to grind her Master rank challenge.
According to Aqua, Aqutan is Aqua's little sister. She occasionally appears whenever Aqua feels like doing a loli voice. Her first appearance was at Fubuki's channel in April 13 2020[79]. Aqutan is an extremely innocent child but share a resemblance to her big sister when it comes to gaming skill as she's good enough to speedrun Sekiro in under 80 minutes[80]
#Aquairo Palette • For The Win • Kaisou Ressha • Aqutan no koto sukisugi☆song • Stay Blue • Let Me Be Your Saioshi • Girl Loved by Aim • Princess Carry • Strategic Love • Kizuna to Kiseki • #Kimi-iro Princess
Membership Perks
Aqutan and Fubuki-chan(by Gaou)
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Major Artwork
Summer 2019
1st fes. Nonstop Story
hololive 2nd Live
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
Azur Lane Collaboration Outfit
Azur Lane Collaboration Outfit
By Gaou
By Gaou
Christmas 2019
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
Animedia September 2020
By Gaou
By Gaou
By Gaou
From hololive VTuber Official Fanbook "SUMMER SCENES"
Birthday 2018
Birthday 2019
Birthday 2020
600k Subscribers &
With Manjigumi
With Mel and Rushia
By Gaou
Valentine's Day 2023
Poster art for Aquarium maid Aqua (by Hanekoto)
Aquarium PC Poster/Boxart (by Hanekoto)
Aquarium Super Expo 2024 Promotion (by Hanekoto)
By Houshou Marine
With Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame
Loading Screen Art![[Super Rare] Submarine From Azur Lane (by Gaou)](//static.wikitide.net/hololivewiki/thumb/5/58/Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.jpg/160px-Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.jpg)
[Super Rare] Submarine![[Super Rare] Submarine (Transparent) From Azur Lane (by Gaou)](//static.wikitide.net/hololivewiki/thumb/9/99/Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.png/130px-Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.png)
[Super Rare] Submarine (Transparent)
Marine Maid
Marine Maid (Transparent)
From Dawn of the Breakers
Swimsuit Skin
Minato Aqua in Midari Ikishima's costume
From Ark Order
From Ark Order
From VVVtune
From LAWSON
Fansa Cover Art From BanG Dream!
Collab Gacha Card From BanG Dream!
Collab Gacha Card Trained From BanG Dream!
Aqua's collaboration poster with Sword Art Online: Last Recollection
Aqua's CG from Sword Art Online: Last Recollection
![[Super Rare] Submarine From Azur Lane (by Gaou)](/wiki/File:Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.jpg)
![[Super Rare] Submarine (Transparent) From Azur Lane (by Gaou)](/wiki/File:Minato_Aqua_-_Submarine_Azur_Lane_Illustration.png)
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