{"id":64628,"date":"2026-04-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64628"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:59:40","slug":"japan-gets-its-first-ancient-roman-vtuber-as-author-of-legendary-thermae-romae-series-announces-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japan-gets-its-first-ancient-roman-vtuber-as-author-of-legendary-thermae-romae-series-announces-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan gets its first \u201cancient Roman\u00a0VTuber\u201d as\u00a0author of legendary\u00a0Thermae Romae\u00a0series\u00a0announces debut\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mari Yamazaki,\u00a0creator\u00a0of the\u00a0historical\u00a0time travel\u00a0hot spring\u00a0comedy manga\u00a0Thermae Romae, recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/THERMARI1\/status\/2039481748342587434?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a>\u00a0her\u00a0new\u00a0<strong>Thermae Minerva<\/strong>\u00a0VTuber\u00a0project, which will be featured on her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@Sei-Gradi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SeiGradi\u00a0YouTube\u00a0channel<\/a>. Yamazaki herself will be hosting under the persona of\u00a0the\u00a0ancient Roman\u00a0Minerva Cacumen Montis, as she\u00a0explores\u00a0a variety of topics,\u00a0which include\u00a0ancient\u00a0Rome,\u00a0modern Italy, the country\u2019s food culture, and,\u00a0of course, hot springs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u3010\u81ea\u5df1\u7d39\u4ecb\u3011\u521d\u3081\u307e\u3057\u3066\u3001\u30c6\u30eb\u30de\u30a8\u30fb\u30df\u30cd\u30eb\u30f4\u30a1\u3078\u3088\u3046\u3053\u305d\u3002\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLpb-Zm-aO8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The first Thermae Minerva video delves into Minerva\u2019s backstory (she used to live in Pompeii&nbsp;between&nbsp;1160&nbsp;and&nbsp;1161 but&nbsp;relocated&nbsp;to Rome after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius), the&nbsp;ancient Roman wax tablet, and the origins of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Thermae Romae&nbsp;manga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yamazaki found a love and appreciation for&nbsp;Italy&nbsp;and its culture&nbsp;after&nbsp;living there for many years and&nbsp;studying&nbsp;history and oil painting at the Florence&nbsp;National Academy of Fine Arts. She then returned&nbsp;to Japan to focus on creating manga.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1401\" height=\"781\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1401px) 100vw, 1401px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-03_135806744.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-03_135806744.png 1401w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-03_135806744-380x212.png 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-03_135806744-768x428.png 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Her hit manga,&nbsp;Thermae Romae, follows an ancient&nbsp;Roman architect named Lucius as he finds himself&nbsp;routinely being&nbsp;transported&nbsp;between his time and&nbsp;modern Japan via hidden tunnels&nbsp;in&nbsp;bathhouses he visits. Inspired by his experiences in the foreign country, Lucius incorporates what he learns&nbsp;into his craft&nbsp;and his own bathhouse, the Roma Thermae.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As she is still new to the&nbsp;whole&nbsp;VTuber&nbsp;thing, Yamazaki says her&nbsp;initial&nbsp;focus will be on uploading videos&nbsp;rather than streaming.&nbsp;She did, however, say that several collaborations with other&nbsp;VTubers, such as&nbsp;hololive\u2019s&nbsp;Raden&nbsp;Juufuutei, are already in the works.&nbsp;For those who were wondering, Minerva\u2019s&nbsp;VTuber&nbsp;design was created by Live2D creator&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TakeshitaFungi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Takeshita&nbsp;Fungi<\/a>&nbsp;(who handled the designs\/rigging for Japanese&nbsp;VTubers&nbsp;like&nbsp;Kamito,&nbsp;VOICE-ORE\u2019s Uto&nbsp;Amatsuka, and&nbsp;Parallel Artist Project\u2019s Shino&nbsp;Yakushino) and 2D illustrator&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shibaction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yoho<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-vtuber-offers-girlfriend-experience-plan-to-fans-willing-to-pay-over-600-usd-a-month-including-one-on-one-calls-and-private-gaming-sessions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Japanese VTuber offers \u201cgirlfriend experience plan\u201d to fans willing to pay over $600 USD a month, including one-on-one calls and private gaming sessions<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-vtuber-who-plays-games-with-her-feet-develops-specialized-gaming-foot-muscle-after-5-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Japanese VTuber who plays games with her feet develops specialized gaming foot muscle after 5 years<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mari Yamazaki,\u00a0creator\u00a0of the\u00a0historical\u00a0time travel\u00a0comedy manga\u00a0Thermae Romae, recently\u00a0announced\u00a0her\u00a0new\u00a0Thermae Minerva\u00a0VTuber\u00a0project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":64633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-64628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japan gets its first \u201cancient Roman\u00a0VTuber\u201d as\u00a0author of legendary\u00a0Thermae Romae\u00a0series\u00a0announces debut\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mari Yamazaki,\u00a0creator\u00a0of the\u00a0historical\u00a0time travel\u00a0comedy manga\u00a0Thermae Romae, recently\u00a0announced\u00a0her\u00a0new\u00a0Thermae Minerva\u00a0VTuber\u00a0project.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japan-gets-its-first-ancient-roman-vtuber-as-author-of-legendary-thermae-romae-series-announces-debut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan gets its first \u201cancient Roman\u00a0VTuber\u201d as\u00a0author of legendary\u00a0Thermae Romae\u00a0series\u00a0announces debut\u00a0 - 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