Kirby
ari webb-bryant에 의해Kirby is the titular main protagonist of Nintendo's Kirby series of video games. He made his debut appearance in 1992, starring in Kirby's Dream Land. The series has been running for three decades, and over thirty titles have been released under Kirby's name, most of which are developed by HAL Laboratory, Inc. or published using the HAL name for co-developing studios.
In addition to his video game appearances, Kirby has been featured in his own anime series–Kirby: Right Back at Ya!–many manga publications in several countries, comics in numerous countries, and even an educational video co-starring Mario. The Kirby series is frequently merchandised by Nintendo, although most of its products are only released in Japan.
Kirby lives in his dome-shaped home in Dream Land, a country on his home planet, Planet Popstar.[1] His adventures take him throughout Dream Land and occasionally into local star systems for various reasons, and he has saved his homeland, and even the universe, many times
Kirby is a small pink spherical creature with two stubby arms, two red feet and two oval-shaped eyes with black pupils (with a faint shade of blue at the bottom starting with Kirby Super Star, which was brightened in later appearances, later gaining a greenish fade since Kirby and the Forgotten Land). Kirby's cheek-blushes weren't introduced until his second game, Kirby's Adventure, where they appeared as two black whisker lines in artwork. In subsequent games until Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, they were depicted as three red diagonal lines in artwork, although they were usually always solid red ovals in-game (except Kirby's Dream Land 2, where they were missing from his sprite).
Kirby's body is soft and flexible,[1][8] allowing him to flatten himself or expand like a balloon. Officially he is 20 centimeters (8 inches) tall,[1][8] but the Super Smash Bros. games depict his height as about three feet when compared to the other characters, and when compared to Adeleine, a human from Kirby's own series, he is about half the size of her. His weight is not known,[1] although several parts of the anime and the Super Smash Bros. series suggest that he is light enough to be easily carried.
Kirby has no form of skeletal structure nor does he have teeth.[9] The latter is confirmed in the anime episode A Dental Dilemma, where Hardy couldn't find Kirby's teeth to clean. His appearance has changed subtly over the years, his arms and body becoming more rounded and his facial features more defined with larger eyes. The new design has been used in all subsequent games.
With regards to Kirby's appearance on the box art of games and certain artwork, there is a phenomenon fans refer to along the lines of the "angry Kirby" look.[10] For some undisclosed reason, although likely attributed to cultural differences and atmosphere at that time, Nintendo of America decided to depict Kirby's eyes as significantly sharper-looking than his usually benign expression on the North American box art of several games, starting from Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, and including (in chronological order) Kirby Air Ride, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Kirby: Canvas Curse, up to Kirby: Squeak Squad. Kirby Super Star Ultra and Kirby's Epic Yarn are exempt from this phenomenon, although the trend continues into Kirby Mass Attack and Kirby's Return to Dream Land. The same thing happened for the promotional material for Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
However, even the Japanese boxart for Kirby: Triple Deluxe, as well as Kirby: Planet Robobot, feature a distinctly angry looking Kirby.
Kirby's age has never been confirmed by Japanese sources.[8][11] In Japanese, Kirby is introduced as 「若者」 (wakamono), which means a young person.[8][12][13][14][15] In the anime, where he more or less acts like a little child, Kirby's peers Tiff and Tuff sometimes call him a "baby" (in the Japanese dub, Meta Knight also implies this when he tells Tiff that he was born 200 years too early). Along with his high-pitched voice and "poyo language", it's implied that Kirby is at least young.
According to 20th Anniversary: Kirby of the Stars Dream Land Encyclopedia (20th Anniversary 星のカービィ プププ大全 20th Anniversary Hoshi no Kābī Pupupu Taizen), Kirby's gender is "unknown".[8] Other Japanese sources also do not confirm Kirby's gender.
In the English instruction booklet for Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby was introduced as a "spry little boy", while in the Japanese version he was referred as 「若者」 (wakamono),[12] which translates to a more general "youth". Kirby uses 「ぼく」(boku), a masculine first-person pronoun, in the Japanese instruction booklet for Kirby's Dream Land[12] and on the Japanese Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards website.[16] Kirby is directly referred to with masculine pronouns in official localizations. Also in Japanese, there are instances where Kirby is referred to with 「かれ」(kare), which is a masculine pronoun, such as the Pause Screen description of the Mike ability in Kirby Super Star[17] and the instruction of The Arena in Kirby: Planet Robobot.[18]
On the Japanese Super Smash Bros. developer's site, Masahiro Sakurai once teased a player surprised to know that Samus is a female character that Kirby (and Pikachu) might actually be female as well, but jokingly left the idea as a mystery instead of outright confirming it,[19] and he stated that he thought of Kirby's profile with the gender listed as "unknown".[20] Makiko Ohmoto has also stated that Kirby's gender is unknown.[21]
On the official Twitter account, Kirby dressed up as an Empress doll in Hinamatsuri art in 2017,[22] and he appears together with female characters in Valentine's Day artwork in 2018[23] and male characters in White Day artwork in 2019.[24]
Kirby may be attracted to female characters based on the hint of romance between Kirby and Ribbon in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards where Ribbon gives Kirby a kiss on the cheek in the good ending, making both of them blush in embarrassment. In one strip of the Yonkoma manga series, Kirby announces to Ribbon that he has a girlfriend; he describes her to Ribbon and then Ribbon asks Adeleine to draw a portrait, and to Ribbon's shock, the portrait is of ChuChu.
Kirby is largely innocent and has a cheerful demeanor and positive attitude.[1] He likes to help other people so much that he sometimes goes out of his way to do it; in the Dyna Blade sub-game of Kirby Super Star Ultra, he feeds Dyna Blade's chicks on his own (though expresses annoyance at Dyna Blade's chicks' constant noise-making before dragging them off to Whispy Woods to be fed by the constant dropped apples from the tree's branches) and teaches them how to fly. He has been shown to have a sense of justice, and won't spare someone who is a danger to those around him, as evidenced by his battles against final bosses. Throughout the many dangers he is put through, he is notably brave, maintaining a neutral expression almost constantly. This is especially evident in the Subspace Emissary. In the anime, he doesn't harbor dislike for anybody, in particular, not even King Dedede or Escargoon who mostly cause trouble for himself, and mostly greets everyone he meets.
While he is brave and has a sense of justice, Kirby is quick to suspect King Dedede as the culprit for mischief, such as at the beginning of Kirby: Squeak Squad, going as far as to break into his castle and fight him. In fact, Kirby has demonstrated a consistent impulsive streak throughout the series and can be as quick to start fights as he is to pass them by, fighting Dedede, Meta Knight and Dyna Blade on impulse. He also willingly responded to Dedede's call for a rematch and attacked Shadow Kirby without thinking. This recklessness can often lead him into trouble or cause him to create trouble (such as when he accidentally released Nightmare). However, in recent games, he seemingly no longer does impulsive acts having learned from his mistakes.
Kirby gets serious before entering the final fight.
Kirby gets serious before entering the final fight.
Kirby is shown to care deeply about those close to him. In Kirby: Triple Deluxe, he chases after Taranza, who had kidnapped King Dedede. After Kirby defeats Queen Sectonia the first time and Dedede regained consciousness from being mind-controlled, Kirby holds his hands and jumps and cheers, overjoyed to see that his arch-rival is okay. Kirby is known to be very forgiving as well, having become friends with nearly every antagonist in recent games. He even teams up with Marx and Dark Meta Knight in Kirby Star Allies, despite them not having made up for their past actions.
In his own universe, Kirby is very popular for his heroic acts. In fact, he is so famous, that in the Japanese versions of the games, he is known by the title of 星のカービィ (Hoshi no Kābī, meaning "Kirby of the Stars"), which is usually localized as just "Kirby"; however, in Snake's Codecs with Otacon it is localized as "Kirby from Dream Land", and in Kirby Super Star Ultra it is localized as "Kirby, our Super Star" (星のカービィ is preceded by ぼくらの, which means "our"). Kirby's fame has been spread around the universe, and even to other dimensions, as evidenced with Magolor, who said that he knew about Kirby long before they met, despite living in Another Dimension. Others also learn of Kirby by his fame after meeting him. In the Japanese version of Kirby: Planet Robobot, Susie uses his title to refer to Kirby when he takes off to fight Star Dream, despite him not having told her his name or title. In Heroes in Another Dimension, Zan Partizanne shouts his name, also despite Kirby not previously telling her it. In spite of his fame, Kirby never lets any of it get to his head, and still remains kind and helpful.
In the games themselves, regardless of region, Kirby retains his innocent and cheery personality, promotional materials such as advertisements and box art tends to be tweaked if not changed outright when released internationally due to cultural differences between Japan and overseas countries, in particular America, due to strong, tough characters being popular in the West.[25] Regarding advertisements, the American versions of various TV advertisements generally depict Kirby in a tough manner, such as literally chewing a human into a spitwad for Kirby's Dream Land,[26] doing various action movie roles for Kirby's Adventure,[27] and having him and his friends being in a motorcycle gang and picking a fight with another motorcycle gang in Kirby's Dream Land 2.[28]
Likewise, with magazine ads, the advertising for Kirby's Dream Course and, to a lesser extent Kirby's Avalanche, depicted Kirby as a good kid who became a hardened criminal, including mug shots indicative of a police lineup, and an ad treating Kirby as the "face of terror" in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.[29] Only two exceptions to this are known to exist: The first was with Kirby's Block Ball, which depicts Kirby demolishing people inside via the Japanese ad, while the American version was comparatively softer. The second was for the Japanese promotional material for Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, which depicted Kirby with a slightly serious, yet still mostly aloof, attitude. For the box art, with the exception of Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Kirby: Planet Robobot (which depicts Kirby having a determined expression regardless of the box version), Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble, and to a certain extent Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U (which depicts Kirby being in a relaxed and cheery disposition regardless of the version), and to a certain extent the English cover of Kirby Mass Attack (which depicts half of the mass of Kirbys on the cover as content, and the other half as angry), the various game covers starting with Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land has the Japanese version depicting Kirby in a cheery manner while the American version depicts Kirby in a more serious and angry manner. This was even noted in the May 2011 issue for Nintendo Power's coverage on Kirby, where it mentions that for box arts, he resorts to his "angry eyes".
