winstein

https://www3.wipo.int/branddb/en/showData.jsp?ID=EMTM.018178032
Thought this might intrest you

It doesn't really matter to most people regarding cartoons, but it amazes me if a cartoon character is drawn with 5 fingers, rather than the de-facto standard 4 fingers that a lot of famous ones do. Note that this excludes cartoons drawn in realistic style since having five-fingered hands are a pre-requisite. I am talking about the ones where the characters have a more abstract cartoonish design.

What I am saying is: when I see a new character that is cartoonish by design, I would take the time to see how many fingers they have.

There are some cartoon characters that I didn't know are five-fingered from the beginning, such as Popeye and the Peanuts kids (and Snoopy). The images below should give you a clear indication that even old characters are not necessarily four-fingered folks, unlike Mickey, Elmer Fudd and Felix.


To a lesser extent, there's Sonic since his very design is clearly designed after old characters like Mickey and Felix (though, his DiC cartoons gave him four fingers). And then there's obviously Mario, who has five-fingered hands for most of his history. Amazingly, the DiC Mario cartoons rendered him with five fingers when it was the norm to draw characters with four (not all original human characters were drawn that way, I must add).

I know of the negative connotations in Japan in regards to four fingers, which might be why if they were to get around the problem of showing less fingers, they do it in a more abstract manner: joint fingers. (Note: Doraemon's human cast have five-fingered hands)



Even Pokemon's designs are not exempt to this. The first time I have noticed the more abstract hand design is Gothitelle, a Generation 5 Pokemon, whereas it's not uncommon for Gen 1 Pokemon with hands to have five fingers. You should see the difference between Geodude and its Alolan counterpart for the change in design philosophy:



And that's it for another of my crazy observation of the day.

Thank you for reading.

It's fascinating when something received love for a different reason than intended. For example, Super Paper Mario is typically advertised for the ability to flip between 2D and 3D, but it turned out that fans took to this game (or got repulsed from it) for an entirely different reason: the story. Sometimes I wonder if this game would have been successful if the marketing of this game hinges on the story rather than the gameplay twist.

Geno is a similar case: he is from Super Mario RPG and his role is basically one-and-done (come alive from a doll and ascended from it in the same game), but he's far more known in Smash for the fans who wanted him, instead of among the Mario fans, where he's pretty insignificant, especially compared to other Mario RPG characters.

Basically my point is that in life, what people love about something is not necessarily what the creators expected.

Thank you for reading.

The phenomenon where the same character with different designs are treated as different entities are intriguing, especially in an official setting since this idea is quite popular with fans. The fact that it's already commonly done officially, under the guise of multiple universes makes the idea an expectation, such as the various comic book superheroes, many long-running video game characters (including Sonic and Mega Man) and quite a number of cartoon characters.

The first time I really noticed this was in Sonic Generations, because it was basically the pivotal point where "Classic" Sonic is treated as its own entity while "Modern" Sonic is treated as another, despite the fact that that game treated it as a meeting between past and present self. Another thing that cemented my fascination further is how there was one user poll (which I can't find anymore, so I can't link it) that treated Eggman of Sonic (2006) as a different Eggman. I wouldn't be surprised if fans felt similarly: Sonic and his animal friends may be treated as the same characters as in Sonic Adventure due to the similar designs, but Eggman is quite different from Sonic Adventure that people treated it as a different Eggman, even though the game presumably doesn't make a case for distinguishing both designs. So really, in terms of overall character, do any of you feel similarly: [1] Sonic (modern) = Sonic (2006) [2] Eggman (modern) ≠ Eggman (2006)?

Thank you for reading.

Personally, I found body fusion in which the individual characters are fused but retained their characteristics to be a creepy idea. I don't mean like when they fuse into a new character, like how Yu-Gi-Oh handled fusions, or something like Steven Universe's fusion dances (which by the way was surprisingly not creepy until they showed the ugly side of it). I mean something like this:



In case you don't know about the Spongebob one, that one is due to the teleporter mishap by Sandy, where Spongebob was teleported between Squidward's arm, and bringing Spongebob back to her caused Squidward to be teleported, resulting in the fusion you see above. The episode did have a worse fusion later on that I suggest saving your eyes from seeing, unless you are that curious.

You might not know the picture on the left, but it's from Donald's Quack Pack, which have the Duck triplets (Huey, Dewey and Louie) being teenagers. Anyway, that image is from the episode "Pardon My Molecules", where there is a machine that fuses two things and it was used to fuse a washing machine and a television earlier. Huey and Dewey ended up in the machine to hide from their pursuers (Louie hid behind the fused appliance) and an unknowing and unintentional action by their pursuer fused them to the side. The same episode also has a fusion that I found equally creepy: one character's face fused with an abstract painting, giving him a very odd look that I can't imagine how it would look in real life.



Perhaps the reason I find these types of fusion to be horrifying is perhaps stemmed from the fear that something similar would happen to me. I know it's mostly fantasy, but when something like that happened, I imagine that it's very difficult to reverse. I imagine this is something people don't find horrifying, but it certainly did it for me, but I got over it unless a new idea comes up, like how in Adventure Time, there was a story explaining Magic Man's mayhem where he fused the limbs (both arms and legs) of the people in Mars (I don't believe the scene was depicted as a present event or a flashback, but that would have been a nightmare to see).

Thank you for reading.

Apparently in Japan, Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics is known as "Caveman Combat 3: The Protagonists Are Joe & Mac Again". Note that the Japanese Caveman Combat indeed doesn't have Joe and Mac in the second game. That subtitle is funny in a way that pointing out the obvious is funny.

That's like calling Super Mario Bros. 3 "Super Mario Bros 3: The Antagonist is Bowser Again" (obviously US-centric since SMB2 is a different game).

Thank you for reading.

Christmas is so ubiquitous as a holiday that it's very difficult to think of a show or series that does not celebrate it. The famous characters like Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and even NiGHTs have some form of Christmas special that any famous show will inevitably have a Christmas thing going on, even if the characters aren't necessarily Christians. This goes beyond the West from what I have seen, for some Japanese stories celebrate Christmas too, like Doraemon. For bonus points, it involves Santa Claus in some form.

By comparison, if the characters celebrates Hanukkah, you can tell what the characters' background is, because you can tell they are Jewish. Rugrats is one example of the characters being Jewish, but perhaps a series that I didn't know have Jewish characters is Baby Blues, where the main family practise Jewish traditions on that day.

It would be fascination to know a work that doesn't celebrate Christmas even when presented the opportunity, meaning that it either doesn't:
1) Take place before Christmas is made
2) Takes place in a limited time frame outside the Christmas period (example: a story that takes place entirely on Labour Day)

It sounded like I am complaining about something that happens all around the world, but I need to point out that I am merely making an observation on something, because it's very easy to assume that traditions are the norm that we didn't really give much thought about it.

Thank you for reading.

Pac-Man sure have met a lot of unorthodox characters, huh? I guess that's part of the charm.

Pac-Man Arcade Golf: human golfers


Pac-Man Party: a yeti, a cat and a robot with an eyeball


Pac Land: Fairies


Pac-Man World 3: a strange person with a big head and a small body


Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures: A ghost witch and her gum monster