Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia Is Fun Even Without Context

There are a surprising number of official hololive Vtuber manga series out there! Magical Girl Holowitches and HoloX Meeting are among them. The thing about some of those, however, is that context can matter. It helps if you have an idea who the Vtubers behind the characters are, especially in the case of the one based on Secret Society holoX. Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia, which Square Enix released outside Japan, is different. While it does help if you know who folks like Fubuki Shirakami, Mio Ookami, and Ayame Nakiri are, the way it’s handled and execution means it works just as well if you’re totally unfamiliar and looking for a series that almost has a Touhou type of vibe and involves kami protecting a country.

Editor’s Note: There will be some mild spoilers for the first volume of the Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia Hololive Vtubers manga below.

Yamato is a land in which kami and humans live in a symbiotic relationship. The humans generate and help maintain aura. Kami need that energy in order to grow and develop their strength. They, in turn, use their powers to protect the humans who live alongside them. For example, they might use their abilities to remove Stigma, negative aura, from humans to protect them from corruption and transformation. However, while there are kami who are benevolent and air the community, yokai that absorbed aura will use it maliciously and cause corruption and dissent, feeding off of the chaos. Fubuki and Mio are two such kami, and Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia follows as we watch them use their abilities to assist in daily incidents in town as well as take part in a kidnapping case with malevolent yokai behind it.

One reason Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia works so well even if you have no idea who the Hololive Vtubers Fubuki and Mio are is that the series is more loosely based on the concept of who they are, rather than the actual individuals. The Holoearth Chronicles series is a spin-off and alternate reality. There may be some personality traits reflected here and the character designs match, but this is an entirely original story that also happens to involve “them.” It’s the same reason why the game Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth, which is based on the same premise and scenario, would work for anyone. 

Another reason is that the Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia manga is fantastic at establishing Fubuki and Mio as original characters. While the first few pages do start in medias res, with Fubuki and Mio in the midst of fighting the oni Ayame, it immediately goes into a short tale establishing who Fubuki is as a character. It shows how she’s a Kami, that her role is to defend Yamato, specifically the town right near her shrine, and that she will remove negative Stigmas from people that could make them behave hurtfully or even turn into monsters. At the same time, it shows she’s a down-to-earth gamer who is quite casual, to the point where she might forget her very necessary sword at Mio’s place or prefer instant udon to the fresh, homemade kind. 

The premise also means that the Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia is more about building up these two characters, their friendships, and their abilities as they take on situations to help the people of Yamato. While there may be references to the activities and lore for the Hololive Vtubers in the manga, such as Fubuki’s Oruyanke mascot appearing or her being mistaken for a cat rather than a fox, this is completely self-contained. We miss nothing if we don’t watch them. This is all about the personal development of these two characters based on the performers. And, frankly, the development of them is quite good. Especially Mio, her backstory, and her powers once her and Fubuki head off on a mission to save some missing children. 

I also mentioned it felt Touhou Project like earlier, and I feel like that’s another reason it works. Shrine maidens who are young women with supernatural powers dealing with yokai? A setting inspired by a more historic type period in Japan? While this is a Hololive Vtuber manga, it can offer more of a supernatural monster-of-the-week, incident-resolving atmosphere to it.

The Hololive Vtuber vibes are strong in Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia, yes, but the manga is also super accessible. The characters and story are handled in such a way that you don’t need any experience with the performers to enjoy it. It can help with some inside jokes and references. But it’s a really well-handled, stand-alone project.

Volume 1 of Holoearth Chronicles Side:E Yamato Phantasia is available now, and Square Enix will release the second volume of the manga inspired by Hololive Vtubers Fubuki Shirakami, Mio Ookami, and Ayame Nakiri on December 2, 2025. 

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