These last few months I've been reading a bit of Japanese material to discover about the Koopalings and how they were and currently are portrayed in Japan (yes, that was the initial purpose), when doing this, however, I noticed two aspects that might be relevant for quite a few pages on the wiki or simply when editing:
1) REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
Recently, a few pages of the 1993 Nintendo Character Manual of NOA were revealed, Mario's bio was this one:
So, there's no doubt that Mario was born in Brooklyn.
But if we looked at the 1994 Perfect Edition of the Great Mario Character Encyclopedia, a book published by Shogakukan and written in collaboration with NCL (Nintendo in Japan), we would have seen a different origin:
Last time I checked, Brooklyn is not in Italy, the country of origin of Mario stated in this book.
Now, this is at best trivia or subsection worthy, however it shows an important aspect: Regional differences.
Essentially, the portrayal of a character (in the sense of depiction) might change depending on the country.
are there other examples of this? There are, let's deal with two specific cases first:
when the Koopalings were introduced as Bowser's minions in the Japanese New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Ludwig's bio briefly indicated them as 「仲間」, comrades. This was hardly relevant, however, when Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam was released, in the dialogue between Koopalings we couldn't find any indication in the Japanese version that they were siblings. Eventually, in the Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Larry explicitly mentioned his comrades again, showing that this is pretty much the term currently used in Japan to define the relationship among the "current story" Koopalings. But if we look at the North American or even European material, we find said indications, as an example the North American site of New Super Mario Bros. U, Larry's trophy in Super Smash bros. for Wii U, actually even a line in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, added ad hoc in the UK English translation.
So, essentially, in the "current story" the Koopalings aren't really stated to be siblings in Japan, but rather comrades, while in the West they still are considered siblings.
Another case which might be relevant because of what happened recently is Mario no longer being a plumber, something we found out a year ago. Well after that site was put up, TOKYOPOP decided to translate the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. in German. However, when they presented the book, they explicitly called Mario Der italienische Klempner, i.e. The Italian plumber. At this point we should seriously consider whether Mario no longer being a plumber is a depiction valid worldwide or just yet another portrayal exclusive for Japan.
These, however, are really corner cases, other cases might actually be more relevant for the wiki, and have to do with
2) THE NEED TO EAVALUATE THE IDENTITY OF CHARACTERS BEARING THE NAME OF A SPECIES
It's no surpise that many wiki articles deal with characters bearing the name of a species: Draggadon is one of the most recent case, but much more known are surely Toad and Yoshi, especially since they are featured on so much material. However, when the Wii U version of Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was released, two lines in it caught my attention:
Toads come in all sorts of colors, but share the same name. In general, they're rather serious little dudes, and also unfailingly polite.
There are lots of varieties and colors of Yoshis, but they're all still just called "Yoshi." It's not really a name like how "Mario" is. If you're even in doubt, you can tell a Yoshi by their kind heart, fast feet, and huge appetite!
You can clearly see, especially for the second line, how the name of Yoshi and Toad are indeed not personal names, but rather the name of their species. To add fuel to the fire, there was also this line from the Super Mario Pia's box about Toad:
また、キノじいやキノピオ隊長など固有の名前をもつものもいる。
What this line's stress is that indeed, among the Toads, there are some who have their own name, Toadsworth and Captain Toad being used as example.
What Nintendo is pretty much clearly stating now is that when characters have the same name as their species, these names aren't personal names.
But there might be something deeper about this: Captain Toad and Toadsworth not only have a personal name, they also have their own appearance that sets them apart from the other Toads, while the character we refer to as Toad has an appearance that doesn't distinguish him from the other Toads: how many times did we see Toads with red cap and blue jacket in Paper Mario: Color Splash?
The issue I'm seeing is that ultimately neither the appearance nor the name suggest that there are recurring characters bearing the species' name. When I was asked to look into the bios of Toad in the Super Mario Pia and Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., we rather ended up with bios that might have been of the species, rather than of a single character.
But here comes the importance of what is said in each region. Let's look at what NOA states about Toad on Play Nintendo:
In a kingdom full of Toads, there is only one Toadand hell point you to the right castle. Hes small in stature under that polka dot cap, but he has a huge heart and extremely speedy feet!
let's laso see what the producer of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker says when replying to comments made by North American Miiverse users:
By the way, Captain Toad is actually not the same Toad as the Toad whos playable in games like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Warios Woods, but if youre a fan of all Toads, I recommend playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, NES Remix 2, or even the NES Remix PACK!
Of course, we can still argue that in Japan the only Toad is the one of Wario's Woods and Super Mario Bros. 2 - a possibility we can verify since I transcribed the part about the Toad in Wario's Woods in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. - this would leave out all the other games, though, and would also make the bio of Play Nintendo sound a little silly: why talking about a character last seen about 20 years ago? In short: according to NOA there is surely a "Toad" character, but if we look at Japanese material, things are murkier and we often end up with bios of the Toads as a whole.
But there is an even more important and explicit case: Kamek!
If we look at the Japanese introduction of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, we see that Kamek's name is just 「カメック」, that of the Magikoopa in Super Mario World. Unsurprisingly, his appearance is also that of the typical Magikoopa, yet when the English translation was made, his name was left untranslated and we ended up with Kamek, a character with his own name, even though his Japanese name has always been the species name, Magikoopa! You should not be surpised at this point if, when you look for Kamek in the Super Mario Pia, they explicitly point you to the Magikoopas featured in SMW, as even the image is from that game. What is interesting, though, is that at some point at NOE they realized that Kamek was yet another character bearing the species name, and started calling the Magikoopas Kameks in Super Mario 3D World. This is so far the most important case of regional differences, as we have just seen the value of personal names versus names of groups or species in the Mario universe. Kamek is a personal name exclusively in North America.
So, in short, I think we should do two things:
1) when we add information coming from NOE and especially NCL in the wiki, we should always keep in mind that there might be some differences between the various portrayals and therefore word accordingly if no confirmation coming from NOA can be found
2) we should do a thorough investigation on the characters who bear the species' name, as there are now hints that these might not necessarily be recurring characters, but rather just generic members of their species, keeping in mind the regional differences in said evaluation.
What do you think about these aspects?
1) REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
Recently, a few pages of the 1993 Nintendo Character Manual of NOA were revealed, Mario's bio was this one:
So, there's no doubt that Mario was born in Brooklyn.
But if we looked at the 1994 Perfect Edition of the Great Mario Character Encyclopedia, a book published by Shogakukan and written in collaboration with NCL (Nintendo in Japan), we would have seen a different origin:
Last time I checked, Brooklyn is not in Italy, the country of origin of Mario stated in this book.
Now, this is at best trivia or subsection worthy, however it shows an important aspect: Regional differences.
Essentially, the portrayal of a character (in the sense of depiction) might change depending on the country.
are there other examples of this? There are, let's deal with two specific cases first:
when the Koopalings were introduced as Bowser's minions in the Japanese New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Ludwig's bio briefly indicated them as 「仲間」, comrades. This was hardly relevant, however, when Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam was released, in the dialogue between Koopalings we couldn't find any indication in the Japanese version that they were siblings. Eventually, in the Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Larry explicitly mentioned his comrades again, showing that this is pretty much the term currently used in Japan to define the relationship among the "current story" Koopalings. But if we look at the North American or even European material, we find said indications, as an example the North American site of New Super Mario Bros. U, Larry's trophy in Super Smash bros. for Wii U, actually even a line in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, added ad hoc in the UK English translation.
So, essentially, in the "current story" the Koopalings aren't really stated to be siblings in Japan, but rather comrades, while in the West they still are considered siblings.
Another case which might be relevant because of what happened recently is Mario no longer being a plumber, something we found out a year ago. Well after that site was put up, TOKYOPOP decided to translate the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. in German. However, when they presented the book, they explicitly called Mario Der italienische Klempner, i.e. The Italian plumber. At this point we should seriously consider whether Mario no longer being a plumber is a depiction valid worldwide or just yet another portrayal exclusive for Japan.
These, however, are really corner cases, other cases might actually be more relevant for the wiki, and have to do with
2) THE NEED TO EAVALUATE THE IDENTITY OF CHARACTERS BEARING THE NAME OF A SPECIES
It's no surpise that many wiki articles deal with characters bearing the name of a species: Draggadon is one of the most recent case, but much more known are surely Toad and Yoshi, especially since they are featured on so much material. However, when the Wii U version of Mario and Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was released, two lines in it caught my attention:
Toads come in all sorts of colors, but share the same name. In general, they're rather serious little dudes, and also unfailingly polite.
There are lots of varieties and colors of Yoshis, but they're all still just called "Yoshi." It's not really a name like how "Mario" is. If you're even in doubt, you can tell a Yoshi by their kind heart, fast feet, and huge appetite!
You can clearly see, especially for the second line, how the name of Yoshi and Toad are indeed not personal names, but rather the name of their species. To add fuel to the fire, there was also this line from the Super Mario Pia's box about Toad:
また、キノじいやキノピオ隊長など固有の名前をもつものもいる。
What this line's stress is that indeed, among the Toads, there are some who have their own name, Toadsworth and Captain Toad being used as example.
What Nintendo is pretty much clearly stating now is that when characters have the same name as their species, these names aren't personal names.
But there might be something deeper about this: Captain Toad and Toadsworth not only have a personal name, they also have their own appearance that sets them apart from the other Toads, while the character we refer to as Toad has an appearance that doesn't distinguish him from the other Toads: how many times did we see Toads with red cap and blue jacket in Paper Mario: Color Splash?
The issue I'm seeing is that ultimately neither the appearance nor the name suggest that there are recurring characters bearing the species' name. When I was asked to look into the bios of Toad in the Super Mario Pia and Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros., we rather ended up with bios that might have been of the species, rather than of a single character.
But here comes the importance of what is said in each region. Let's look at what NOA states about Toad on Play Nintendo:
In a kingdom full of Toads, there is only one Toadand hell point you to the right castle. Hes small in stature under that polka dot cap, but he has a huge heart and extremely speedy feet!
let's laso see what the producer of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker says when replying to comments made by North American Miiverse users:
By the way, Captain Toad is actually not the same Toad as the Toad whos playable in games like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Warios Woods, but if youre a fan of all Toads, I recommend playing Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, NES Remix 2, or even the NES Remix PACK!
Of course, we can still argue that in Japan the only Toad is the one of Wario's Woods and Super Mario Bros. 2 - a possibility we can verify since I transcribed the part about the Toad in Wario's Woods in the Encyclopedia Super Mario Bros. - this would leave out all the other games, though, and would also make the bio of Play Nintendo sound a little silly: why talking about a character last seen about 20 years ago? In short: according to NOA there is surely a "Toad" character, but if we look at Japanese material, things are murkier and we often end up with bios of the Toads as a whole.
But there is an even more important and explicit case: Kamek!
If we look at the Japanese introduction of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, we see that Kamek's name is just 「カメック」, that of the Magikoopa in Super Mario World. Unsurprisingly, his appearance is also that of the typical Magikoopa, yet when the English translation was made, his name was left untranslated and we ended up with Kamek, a character with his own name, even though his Japanese name has always been the species name, Magikoopa! You should not be surpised at this point if, when you look for Kamek in the Super Mario Pia, they explicitly point you to the Magikoopas featured in SMW, as even the image is from that game. What is interesting, though, is that at some point at NOE they realized that Kamek was yet another character bearing the species name, and started calling the Magikoopas Kameks in Super Mario 3D World. This is so far the most important case of regional differences, as we have just seen the value of personal names versus names of groups or species in the Mario universe. Kamek is a personal name exclusively in North America.
So, in short, I think we should do two things:
1) when we add information coming from NOE and especially NCL in the wiki, we should always keep in mind that there might be some differences between the various portrayals and therefore word accordingly if no confirmation coming from NOA can be found
2) we should do a thorough investigation on the characters who bear the species' name, as there are now hints that these might not necessarily be recurring characters, but rather just generic members of their species, keeping in mind the regional differences in said evaluation.
What do you think about these aspects?
