Houshou Marine

Houshou Marine (宝鐘マリン) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, debuting as part of its third generation of VTubers under the name of "hololive Fantasy" (ホロライブファンタジー) alongside Usada Pekora, Uruha Rushia, Shiranui Flare and Shirogane Noel. She is currently the most subscribed active VTuber in Japan, with over 2 million subscribers on YouTube.

Profile
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Personality
Marine is a bold, fast-talking girl who often throws caution to the wind, making obscene jokes and playfully mocking both her higher-ups and her viewers. Marine describes her way of approaching people is through to talk to them so she may get in their circle, as described when talking about the differences between herself and Nakiri Ayame.

She often struggles to keep her lewdness in check, with her openly lusting after fictional female characters, reading BL and claiming to be a former shotacon (despite still showing some attraction in fiction). This has lead her to describe herself as extremely horny, with the phrase "I'm Hornyyyy!~♪" being a fan favorite since her 3D stream with Kiryu Coco. At times she even tries charming and seducing her way out of sticky situations, which has backfired on her at times.

Though she claims to be 17 years old, her self-described "auntie" voice, lack of physical stamina, and extensive knowledge of 2000-2010 Internet culture indicate that she is almost certainly older than she claims she is. This is supported by other hololive members' habits of teasing her about her age. Her age has become a recurring joke on her channel; for example, on 30 July 2020 (Marine's birthday), she claimed to be turning 17 again for a "second season," to which Himemori Luna states, via a drawing, that she is 27.

Yet in spite of the antics Marine is popular for, Marine typically shows herself to be cultured with the variety topics she brings up in her streams, ranging from popular to niche, and regularly talks about the happenings behind the scenes at hololive on her own accord. She is also extremely sensitive to her surroundings especially when it comes to social environment, as she was able to instinctively pick up Usada Pekora's discomfort with others in her space and even spoke up about how she managed to avoid trouble in a previous office job such as avoiding getting yelled at by her ex-boss. As such she is marked as having "the highest stats" in social insight out of every idol in hololive by her fans.

She greets her viewers with "Ahoy!", a typical pirate greeting and says farewell with "Shukkō"「出航」(sailing, departure).

Appearance
Marine cosplays as a pirate. She has crimson red hair, tied into twintails with laced ribbons, topped with a removable pirate hat. She has heterochromia, with her left iris being golden, and her right iris is red.

Background
Marine was first introduced in a tweet on 13 June 2019, alongside the other members of the third generation. Of the five members only Marine, Noel and Flare were open for audition.

On 1 August, through a press release, her name and social media accounts, were officially announced alongside Shirogane Noel and Shiranui Flare, also making her first tweet on the same day. Her Twitter account and YouTube channel were created on 22 July 2019.

She debuted with her introduction stream on 11 August.

2020
On 1 January, she announced on Twitter that she would get her second 2D costume, that was revealed the next day on 2 January, being her new year kimono costume.

On 19 January, hololive's Twitter account published a tweet mentioning that Houshou Marine, Hoshimachi Suisei and Shiranui Flare would participate in a stream previous to hololive's 1st fes. Nonstop Story. The next day, in this stream it was revealed that the three of them would get their 3D model debut in said event, but that they would have a YouTube debut later. In Marine's case, her stream was scheduled for February.

On 24 January, she appeared in her 3D model for the first time at hololive's 1st fes. Nonstop Story with both her standard and idol outfits.

On 11 February, she teased a special announcement during her stream, this was revealed to be the date of her 3D model debut for YouTube programed for 15 February.

On 15 February, she appeared in her 3D model for the first time in YouTube during a stream.

On 13 March, she announced on her Twitter account the demonetization of her channel, apparently for sexual content. She also stated that for the last 4 months every video had the yellow monetization symbol, which means monetization coming for advertisement on her channel was already limited.

On 27 March, she announced at the end of an Animal Crossing New Horizons stream the remonetization of her channel which was later also announced on Twitter. Later that day, she held a remonetization stream.

On 5 August, Marine reached 500,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, making her the 6th hololive member to reach this milestone and the second of her generation.

On 16 October, hololive's Twitter account announced that Marine, Shirogane Noel, Murasaki Shion and Yuzuki Choco would get new 2D costumes.

On 18 October Marine debuted her third 2D costume during a stream, named by her artist as "Captain Marine- Gothic Fashion." She has longer twintails decorated by black ribbons, and she wears a dark blue hat with red roses. Her new costume maintain her classic color scheme as she wears a red dress with a black corset. Marine uses a black ribbon with anchors and a blue jewel in the center. Her dress is decorated with various hearts like the one present in her eye patch. She has a golden pocket watch. In addition to this, she also revealed that her base 2D model got updated to the 2.0 version, among her updates her face can turn better in different angles and her handkerchief was given movement.

On 27 December, she reached 900,000 subscribers on YouTube.

2021
On 18 January, she reached 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube, making her the 6th hololive member to reach that milestone and the 5th member of the Japanese branch to do so, She is also the second member of the third generation to reach it.

On 8 July, Marine's channel was terminated without warning, however it was later restored the same day.

On 18 July, Marine announced during a short stream that she would go on a hiatus from streaming to heal her throat. Despite this, she continued her streaming activities as normal, though she had to speak less in an effort to recover her throat's condition.

On 28 July, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that Marine would receive her fourth 2D costume.

On 29 July, Marine debuted her fourth 2D costume during a stream, Marine received a ponytail and straight hairstyles. Her clothes include a black and white cap decorated with heart-shaped shades, with a golden anchor connecting the lenses. Marine wears heart shaped golden earrings both of which are decorated with a small jewel that oppose Marine's eye colors (her right earring has a red jewel while her left earring has a golden jewel) and a golden necklace. Her clothes consist of a black hoodie decorated with white anchors on the sleeves and some pins. The hoodie's zipper is a golden shaped anchor that mostly covers her red bikini. Marine also wears white shorts with black decorations. In this costume, she can remove the hat and open the hoodie's zipper to reveal more of her cleavage and make the golden string of her bikini visible. Marine can also remove her shorts to show the lower half of her bikini. She also has the option to cover her bikini with a white cropped shirt with a black line along the waist hem and neckline with a black eyepatch-wearing skull design on the left breast while indoors.

It is worth noting that this outfit design dates back to 9 July 2020 first seen as an official art from Marine's designer Akasa Ai, this design was also previously used in Marine's dakimakura from her 1,000,000 subscribers merchandize celebration.

On 31 July, she reached 1,500,000 subsribers on YouTube during a stream. This makes her the 6th member of hololive to achieve this milestone, as well as the 4th member of the Japanese branch. She is also the second member of hololive's third gen to achieve it.

On 14 September, during a Super Mario Party collab stream hosted by Gawr Gura, it was announced that Marine, Minato Aqua, Gura and Ninomae Ina'nis would form a new unit "UMISEA," in which all four members sharing the theme of ocean. Several videos and streams featuring the unit is set to release throughout mid-September.

On 21 September, Marine announced on her Twitter account that she would go on a hiatus from streaming for a month due to the worsening of her throat's condition that make her vocal cords bleeding internally.

On 30 October, Marine returned her activities with a talking stream.

2022
On 19 March, Marine debuted a new original song "Marine Set Sail!!" during "hololive 3rd fes. Link Your Wish" day 1.

On 11 April, COVER Corp. announced that Marine was tested positive for COVID-19, thus her streaming activities were put on a temporary hiatus. She returned to streaming on 24 April.

On 30 July, during Marine's birthday live, she debuted a new 3D costume named "Captain Marine 3D Misoji Edition" by her illustrator. In this costume Marine has a new hairstyle using loose hair with a bun on her left side and a ponytail on the right, the inner side of her hair and one of her locks are pinkish gray instead of her usual red. Marine wears a black hat similar to a drummer hat with a golden anchor decoration on the front and other ornaments. Marine wears a shoulderless black bodysuit that goes from her neck to her legs, on top of it she wears a bunny girl suit. Her outfit is complemented with a white collar that is decorated like in her original costume with a gold and blue jewel and a red ribbon, however the jewel is diamond shaped instead of oval. Under her chest Marine wears a black and white piece of cloth similar to a corset that falls from the sides and the back. Similar to her original outfit Marine still wears a pirate jacket falling from her shoulders however the design is different. She uses black gloves and high boots with a red edge.

On 1 August, Marine reached 2,000,000 YouTube subscribers. This makes her the third hololive member to reach this milestone and the first of the Japanese branch to do so.

On 9 August, as part of the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Marine debuted her 3D swimsuit in a stream held on hololive's official fanclub page in a segment alongside Aki Rosenthal, Shirogane Noel and Yuzuki Choco. Unlike the original swimsuits from 2019 that had individual designs, these swimsuits are meant to be matching outfits similar to the 3D idol costumes. The swimsuits come in two types one with thin straps for the top and a diagonal cut mini skirt and the other one has ruffled straps in the top and an even mini skirt. Both version are white with various patterns including hololive's and Holoearth's logos, hearts and sparks. The swimsuits are personalized by including different colors to match each talent. Additionally they have the option to wear a hoodie.

On 19 August, continuing the "hololive Summer 2022" event, Marine debuted her 3D yukata. Like other 3D costumes the yukatas have a variety of styles that hololive members can choose from, in fact Marine was the first to show the ability to switch yukatas. The yukatas come in various colors and patterns including fireworks, flowers and goldfish.

On 3 November, during her third anniversary song festival, Marine debuted a new hairstyle for her "Captain Marine 3D Misoji Edition" costume using her hair with a long ponytail.

2023
On 14 February, to celebrate Valentine's Day alongside the other third gen members, Marine debuted a new hairstyle for her third 2D costume using short haircut.

On 19 March, Marine debuted her new 3D idol costume during hololive 4th fes. "Our Bright Parade" DAY2.

On 25 March, Marine announced on her Twitter account that she would get her fifth 2D costume.

On 31 March, Marine debuted her fifth 2D costume. Marine uses a short haircut, that can be complemented with a dark blue beret with golden ornaments. Marine describes her outfit as that of a company's president. She wears a sleeveless white blouse with a dark blue outline, that can be unbuttoned in different ways. If the blouse is unbuttoned in the middle a small portion of her breasts can be seen, if unbuttoned at the top and middle Marine instead uses a black see through body suit showing more cleavage and a black bra. Marine has a red nametag with her picture in it. She uses a below the chest skirt with six golden buttons and a belt. Marine wears black see through pantyhose and black heels. She can also use a big dark blue jacket with a fluffy white collar and cuffs and various decorative elements in white including hearts near the cuffs and dark brown straps to keep it in place.

On 8 July, during a stream unveiling the full image of the music project "Blue Journey," she debuted a new 3D costume as a member of this project alongside Shirogane Noel, Sakura Miko, Yukihana Lamy and Hakui Koyori. She uses a blue beret with a plaid pattern. The costume has a white blouse with detached sleeves, a blue ribbon in the chest decorated with light blue jewel and a blue belt below the chest. The blouse lower edge is asymmetrical and divided in three, the front has planks and it is the longest, then the right side is longer that the left side. She uses a long blue skirt with a plaid pattern and the inner section is light blue. On the back the costume is decorated with a see through ribbon.

Discography

 * ''Main page: Houshou Marine/Discography

Events

 * On 28 January 2020, it was announced on Dengekionline that she would made an appearance in the game Neptunia Virtual Stars as one of the VTuber guest characters alongside Tokino Sora, Roboco, Sakura Miko, Shirakami Fubuki, Minato Aqua, Yuzuki Choco, Inugami Korone and Shirogane Noel.
 * On 10 June 2020, hololive's Twitter account announced that she and Shirakami Fubuki would appear as commanders in World of Warships, she was available from 11 June to 30 June.
 * On 17 February 2021, Rakugaki Kingdom's Twitter account announced that Marine alongside Fubuki, Shion, Okayu and Korone would appear in the mobile RPG game by mid March.
 * On 2 July 2021, hololive's Twitter account announced that Marine would appear in a collaborative promotion campaign for the movie Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, along with Sakura Miko, Uruha Rushia, Shirogane Noel, Minato Aqua, A-chan and a secret person as guests. Initially, the project was scheduled to released on 3 July, however, it has since been postponed indefinitely.
 * On 13 August 2021, hololive's Twitter account announced that 12 members including Marine (representing the Chiba Lotte Marines) would participate in a collaboration with the six professional Japanese baseball teams from the Pacific League, each team represented by two hololive members. The collaboration include promotional merchandise that could be brought, including hats, posters, keychains, among others, also a promotional match between ORIX Buffaloes vs SoftHawk HAWKS scheduled for 3 October 2021 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka stadium called "hololive day."
 * On 7 October 2021, Don Quijote's Twitter account announced that Noel and Mel were selected as "Don Quijote" and would appear in life sized stand-by panels across stores. In addition to them, Marine and Shion were also announced to appear in special merchandize (acrylic stands and badges) with new artwork and special in-store broadcasts. Other hololive members were also announced to appear in the collaboration as plushies known as "Mochiduru." The collaboration was available from 23 October, the same day that Noel, Mel, Marine and Shion debuted a cover of Don Quijote's theme song "Miracle Shopping" on hololive's channel.
 * On 26 January 2022, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that the members of hololive Fantasy would appear in a collaboration with Raku Spa featuring artworks of them in yukatas and towels. These illustrations would be included in different merchandize including tapestries, acrylic stands, Mochi Kororin plushies, bath salts, towels, badges among others. The service also included food and drinks inspired by them. The merchandize would be available from 27 January to 28 February 2022.
 * On 20 September 2022, hololive's Japanese Twitter account announced that she alongside Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, Inugami Korone, Nekomata Okayu, Usada Pekora Moona Hoshinova, Ayunda Risu, Watson Amelia and Gawr Gura's hats and outfits would appear on the game "Among Us" and can be obtained purchasing the hololive production Cosmicube. The Cosmicube would be available until 20 December 2022.
 * On 10 November 2022, hololive's Twitter account announced a collaboration between hololive and Post Office Product Sales Service Co., Ltd. featured Usada Pekora, Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel, Houshou Marine, Tokoyami Towa, Takanashi Kiara, Moona Hoshinova, and Shishiro Botan in new year's postcards and some merchandise including: clear files, tapestries, standees, face towels, jigsaw puzzle, T-shirts, and happi. The merchandise would be available to order starting from 14 November 2022.
 * On 21 November 2022, ANIPLUS shop announced on Twitter that they would be collaborating with hololive Fantasy in a cafe at "AGF Korea 2022," which would be held from 3-4 December 2022.
 * On 25 November 2022, hololive's Twitter account announced the second collaboration with TOKYO SKYTREE Town (R) featuring Houshou Marine, Minato Aqua, Yukihana Lamy, Shirakami Fubuki, Tsunomaki Watame, and Shirogane Noel in limited edition merchandise, cafe, games, and other activities. The event would be held from 16 December 2022 to 9 January 2023.
 * On 3 April 2023, Valkyrie Connect's Twitter account announced that she would appear in the game as part of a second collaboration with hololive.

Fans

 * Her fanbase is called "Houshou no Ichimi"「宝鐘の一味」. Marine also sometimes calls her non-Japanese fans "overseas sexy guys/girls."

Relationships

 * Notable units and groups Marine is part of:
 * "hololive Fantasy," alongside Usada Pekora, Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel, and Uruha Rushia.
 * "Onee-san Gumi," 「お姉さん組」, alongside Shiranui Flare and Shirogane Noel.
 * "BABACORN," alongside Shirakami Fubuki.
 * "AKUKIN Kensetsu," [AKUKIN建設], alongside Minato Aqua, Ookami Mio, Aki Rosenthal, Airani Iofifteen, Yozora Mel, Murasaki Shion, Momosuzu Nene, Yukihana Lamy, Gawr Gura. This unit is named after their Minecraft company.
 * "UMISEA," alongside Minato Aqua, Ninomae Ina'nis, Gawr Gura, and Sakamata Chloe.
 * "SSS" (Sexy Sensitive Senshi), alongside Yuzuki Choco and Takane Lui.

Name

 * Marine's surname name「宝鐘」can be broken down as thus.
 * The first kanji 「宝」 can be read as Hou/Takara and means "treasure."
 * The second 「鐘」 can be read as Shou/Kane and means "bell" or "chime."

Miscellaneous

 * According to Marine's backstory, she loves money, jewels and treasure, and decided to become a VTuber to get money to buy her own ship. As such, she is officially a cosplayer and not a real pirate.
 * Marine watched her first porno when she was only 5 years old while rummaging through her father's movies. She marks this incident as the origin story of the uncontrollable horniness she experiences in the present day.
 * Marine is notably good at drawing as shown by these tweets, where she has drawn Shirakami Fubuki, Minato Aqua, and Natsuiro Matsuri in their swimsuits, just to name a few.
 * Though Marine constantly insists she is 17 years old, she has admitted that when she visited a doctor, she was told her "body age" was 45, which was "a little higher than her actual age," and she expressed genuine shock upon hearing this. She also revealed that her "mental age" during mental training is 72.
 * The physical feats that seem to support her body age include losing her breath after 10 seconds of skating in place and having a grip strength of merely 13 kg. She attributes the latter to inheriting it from her mother, whom she does not talk about often.
 * Like Amane Kanata, Marine has a wide vocal range, with her cover of BLOODY STREAM being sung one octave lower than the original. She once put on a very high-pitched cute voice in a guest appearance with Ryushen, claiming it to be her real voice. Marine also has a very convincing Pikachu impression.
 * Marine's "normal" voice is noted to strongly resemble that of Angie's from Resident Evil Village.
 * Marine's spoken English skills are somewhat poor, but that doesn't stop her from trying. The broken mess that results when she attempts to communicate in English is affectionately referred to by fans as "Maringlish." She has started taking English classes.
 * The hashtag #宝鐘マリン3D (#HoushouMarine3D) became trending number one worldwide on Twitter when Marine debuted her 3D model on YouTube.
 * Marine is a big fan of Touhou Project (a franchise mostly known for its "Bullet-Hell" Windows games), as evident by her game-play of Touhou Spell Bubble and her excited reactions. Additionally, Marine appeared along with Shirakami Fubuki on the 12 April 2020 episode of Super Touhou Station where they were able to personally meet ZUN (Touhou Project's creator and chief artist and programmer), resulting in Marine going into what fans have described as a "fan-girl panic-attack."
 * Following previous point, it's even thought that since her character design is very "Touhou-esque" (way too bizarre or outlandish), Marine's character design was purposely made to be confused as a Touhou character. This image even worsened things making many Touhou fans confused the image with an leaked beta screenshots for Touhou 18 (one year before even announced)
 * That image was for Marine X COOL&Create "#Gensokyo Holoism" CD. This music CD tales Marine's story in Gensokyo, as she ended there by "Truck-kun"'s fault.
 * In one stream, Marine said that she bought Touhou 6 in its release date (during Comiket 62, almost 20 years ago), confirming that she knows Touhou Project even before was mainstream (Touhou 5 and earlier games were not even for Windows-based PCs, and they were released before 1999, and Touhou didn't got worldwide spread until late-2002), it seems that she keeps that CD to this very day.
 * In another stream, she confirmed that, before being VTuber, she made Touhou fanmade doujinshi (is not clear if she made SFW or NSFW manga, but is suspected to be NSFW, and she did not reveal her artist pseudonym).
 * Marine is allergic to cats as mentioned by Aqua.
 * Marine is the eleventh hololive member to join the official Hololive Subreddit as a moderator.

Media

 * Marine Ch. 宝鐘マリン - YouTube channel
 * Houshou Marine's corporate profile on hololive.hololivepro.com
 * @houshoumarine - Twitter account
 * 宝钟玛琳Official - bilibili channel
 * @houshoumarine - Marshmallow account
 * 宝鐘マリン - Pixiv account
 * /u/HoushouMarineLEGIT - Reddit account

Twitter hashtags

 * 宝鐘マリン - General
 * #マリン航海記 - Stream talk
 * #宝鐘の一味 - Fans
 * #マリンのお宝 - Fan art
 * #沈没後悔日記 - Fan art (NSFW)
 * #聞いたよマリン船長 - Commentary on released voice dramas
 * #わかるマリン - Video clips
 * #宝鐘海賊団クソコラ部 - Memes

Further readings

 * 宝鐘マリン - Nicovideo Encyclopedia
 * 宝鐘マリン - Pixiv Encyclopedia
 * 宝鐘マリン - Japanese Wikipedia
 * 宝鐘マリン - unofficial hololive Seesaawiki
 * 宝钟玛琳 - Moegirl Encyclopedia
 * 호쇼 마린 - Namu Wiki
 * Houshou Marine - Hololive Fan Wiki