Aqua (KonoSuba)

About

Aqua is a character of Japanese light novel series and anime KonoSuba. A water goddess, Aqua accompanies protagonist of the series Kazuma Satou in his journeys, assisting him in his quests. Following the release of the anime series, Aqua grew to become a popular waifu and a meme subject in the anime community, with the premise of the memes often being that the character is deemed completely useless.

Origin

On December 20th, 2012, Japanese writer Natsume Akatsuki published the first chapter of his web novel series KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World!.^[1] The chapter introduced character Aqua, a water goddess, who welcomes the protagonist of the series Satou Kazuma into the afterlife and later accompanies him on his journeys. On October 1st, the first chapter of KonoSuba light novel, written by Akatsuki and Illustrated by Kurone Mishima, was published (cover shown below, left). On September 9th, 2014, the first issue of the manga adaptation of the series was released (page shown below, right).

“Satou Kazuma-san, welcome to the after-life. Unfortunately, you have died. It might be short, but your life is over.”
Someone suddenly spoke to me in a pure white room. The sudden turn of events confused me. In the room was a set of office desk and chair, and the one who announced that my life was over sat in that chair.
If there was a goddess, she must be it.

On January 14th, 2016, the first episode This Self Proclaimed Goddess and Reincarnation in Another World! of season one of the anime adaptation of the series premiered. In the episode, the character is introduced.

Spread

Following the run of season one and season two of the anime series in 2016 and 2017, Aqua acquired some solid popularity as a waifu in the anime community, and also became a popular subject of memes (see below).

Related Memes

Aqua Crying

Several screenshots of Aqua crying, and particularly two close-ups of her screaming in episode 16 (below, on the left), and pouting in episode 17 (below, on the right), have been used in memes.

Various Examples

Aqua's Purification

Aqua's Purification refers to an exploitable image macro where Aqua tries to use her purification spell as frantically as possible; it has been used as a reaction image to situations deemed impure. There also exists a popular edited version, with Aqua shouting "Yurification!" instead, used in situations where some see Yuri implications.

Aqua Is Useless

Due to her idiocy often ruining her party's plans and causing problems, Aqua is often called "useless" or "worthless" by Kazuma. This echoed in many online memes mocking her.

Various Examples

External References