King Bowser Koopa I of the Koopa Kingdom, Origin — Character Design
So we all know Bowser, King of the Koopa’s as the arch nemesis of Mario and eternal kidnapper of the lovable Princess Peach. But do you know where the idea of Bowser even came from? Well if you were here last time where I discussed where the idea of Peach came from and noticed the surprisingly short explanation then know that the same goes with Bowser, his tale like the kidnapped is just as short.
King Bowser Koopa I, yes that is his full name is also known as Lord Bowser, King Bowser, Master Bowser and King Koopa of the Koopa species and ruler of Bowser’s Kingdom which neighbours the Mushroom Kingdom was originally created Shigeru Miyamoto. To be a replacement for Mario’s original nemesis, Donkey Kong.
The name Bowser was created by Shigeru Miyamoto where consideration was given Kuppa, Yukke or Bibinba which are Korean dishes known in Japanese. He eventually chose Kuppa as the original name. Kuppa though didn’t exactly last very long since soon after the release of Super Mario Bros. for North America the spelling Koopa was made permanent. Later on the name Bowser would also become permanent.
Back to the original design of Bowser. Miyamoto, during the development of Super Mario Bros. wanted an artist to work on the game but the timeline was too short to find anyone so he had to do the box art himself. The Japanese box art is where we are shown his original form as Shigeru intended him to look; an ox based on the animation “Journey to the West” or “Alakazam the Great”, it’s name in North America. This would change when Yoichi Kotabe, an animation artist who worked with TOEI Animation joined Nintendo and began working on illustrations for the Mario series.
Yoichi had questions on how to draw Bowser and the only one he could really ask would be Miyamoto since he was the creator. Unfortunately, Miyamoto didn’t draw Bowser enough which led to problems since he knew he wanted Bowser to be based on the Ox King but not much in way of direction was given. Takashi Tezukav the assistant director for Super Mario Bros. mentioned that Bowser should be a turtle. Since he was of the same turtle family as the Koopa Troopas it made sense that he should be a turtle. So they began work of the new design eventually landing on the final design of Bowser the Koopa King.
That is the creation story of how Shigeru Miyamoto created Bowser and why he looks the way he does today instead of the original ox form he used to have.
If you’re looking for more articles like this check out my publication: @Gaminglinkmedia or @ryanvelasco.
Subscribe to the mailing list so you won’t miss any future articles.
