• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mario isn't Italian anymore

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Thread title scared me there OP. I thought this was going to be an article about someone complaining about Italian stereotypes and Nintendo sacking Charles Martinet. If they ever to that PC then the franchise will be ruined. Still, how is a Mario a Japanese name? I get that Uemura may have worked on a Mario or two; but, they have him an Italian name. If they wanted Mario or Luigi Japanese...there are much more fitting names like Matsao or Michio. Luigi could easily be Leiji.
🤔
 

Fuz

Banned
Bullshit, he was based on some italian guy that worked at Nintendo at the times.


Is this some kind of weird move to get ahead of the curve for when Twittiots start going after Mario for being a racist caricature?
Exactly this.
 
Last edited:

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Here's the thing. We italians don't care and we actually find those funny.

But we have a spine, a sense of humour and we are actually adults, and not easily offended crybabies.
I'm fluent in Spanish and understand most Italian (love Italian cinema). I don't quite hear the accents that are portrayed by Americans. I've hear the American Italian accent as far back as the Three Stooges. Cool that most in Europe don't find things like that offensive. I figure, if someone complains...it will be someone in the States.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fuz

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Nope.

He doesn’t even have the authority for that.

sometime there are even cases where the direction of a character isn’t in the hands of its creator anymore.
Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best." - Edward Abbey

The other day I had a thought.

There is no general consensus in the world of science as to why we think, though it is considered to be an essential component to humanity. Since there is no true reason as to why thought occurs, I have no choice but to believe I was touched by some divine being; that I, and I alone, was the chosen bearer of this burdensome thought.

And that thought was: how old is Mario from the Mario Bros. games?

For the entirety of my life, up until this very moment, something had kept me from asking this question. I can't explain why it suddenly came to me. It was as if my brain was subconsciously protecting me from the true answer.

I did a quick Google search to quell my curiosity and discovered something horrifying. Something no man was meant to see.

Mario from the Super Mario games, according to official Nintendo canon, is 26 years old.

I had defied God and this was my punishment.

I did some digging to confirm this horrendous fact and found this article from The Independent that made me audibly gasp at my desk. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and for all intents and purposes, God of Nintendo, said this about his most famous creation: “Aside from the fact that he’s about 24-25 years old, we didn’t define anything else.”

I was taken aback. Not only is Mario even younger than 26, it's the only thing about him that is actually set in stone.

We don't need to get into why Mario is not 26, do we? The man is not 26. I am 26. Mario is my father's age at the very youngest. This is obvious. In the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! he was portrayed by a 56-year-old man. It is unrealistic — nay, it is irresponsible to lead us to believe that Mario is 26.

Something is terribly wrong. It was incredibly obvious to me now that Shigeru Miyamoto had gone mad with power. His God complex knows no bounds and the only thing I knew for certain was that he must be stopped.

I did more digging on some of the other characters in the Mario universe. A decision I would soon come to regret.
"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." - Aung San Suu Kyi

I simply could not believe my eyes.

Why has nobody stood up to Mr. Miyamoto? This tyrant? This authoritarian who rules Nintendo with an iron fist? How did this responsibility fall to me? Will nobody else stand in his way?

I am here to put a stop to this. I am officially in charge here since nobody else seems to be. I am taking the reins. I will be your champion.

Hear my Decree:

Mario is hereby 45 years old. This is now official canon. Luigi is 43. The mushroom on Toad's head is part of his head and he doesn't have hair underneath it. Please respect this as official Mario lore.

I have willed it, and so it shall come to pass. The days of Young Mario are behind us.
 
Last edited:

JLB

Banned
He is japanese, but for some reason looks and talks like an italian. By american society standards, this is racist right?
 

Fuz

Banned
I'm fluent in Spanish and understand most Italian (love Italian cinema). I don't quite hear the accents that are portrayed by Americans. I've hear the American Italian accent as far back as the Three Stooges. Cool that most in Europe don't find things like that offensive. I figure, if someone complains...it will be someone in the States.
Oh no, the accents are wrong. Maybe they're based on american-italian, I dunno. Definitely don't sound italian, though.
Still, we don't care and we actually laugh at them.


But don't you dare make a Cabonara wrong 'cause we're gonna gut you.
 
Last edited:
6APobb6.png
 

Genx3

Member
I'm fluent in Spanish and understand most Italian (love Italian cinema). I don't quite hear the accents that are portrayed by Americans. I've hear the American Italian accent as far back as the Three Stooges. Cool that most in Europe don't find things like that offensive. I figure, if someone complains...it will be someone in the States.

You don't know what you're talking about.
I live in the states and if you don't have a sense of humor you're not going to be liked much.
People joke around all the time and with far more inappropriate stuff than some accent.
You Europeans on the other hand take everything too seriously.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
You don't know what you're talking about.
I live in the states and if you don't have a sense of humor you're not going to be liked much.
People joke around all the time and with far more inappropriate stuff than some accent.
You Europeans on the other hand take everything too seriously.
I'm actually American. Born in Bloomington, Illinois and migrated legally to Mexico in 2016.

I apologize for not clarifying that post very well. By the States being offended, I was generalizing American media and pop cultural spokespersons (the ones who complain on Twitter that everything is racist, sexist, bigoted). I'm not talking about your everyday working class American.
 

Genx3

Member
I'm actually American. Born in Bloomington, Illinois and migrated legally to Mexico in 2016.

I apologize for not clarifying that post very well. By the States being offended, I was generalizing American media and pop cultural spokespersons (the ones who complain on Twitter that everything is racist, sexist, bigoted). I'm not talking about your everyday working class American.

Oh!
In that case you're 100% correct the Media (and people in the media) love to over react to everything here in the States!

Everyday working Americans, now we can have some fun!
 

Genx3

Member
What does Miyamoto say? He is the creator of Mario and thus the ultimate authority.

Doesn't matter what Miyamoto says now, when Nintendo licensed Mario for TV shows he was a native Brooklyn Italian.
Too late to say he is Japanese now when they used the Italian Plumber stereo type for him.
 

Diddy X

Member
Italian American just like the Pizza restaurants they are bassed on

e4aaf11681045af804ef1ef5c8475a3a77a50cb1_hq.jpg



Pizzas as we know them are an american thing with roots in Italy just the Mario brothers, they are american born (they are very young btw) with italian roots.
 
Last edited:

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Doesn't matter what Miyamoto says now, when Nintendo licensed Mario for TV shows he was a native Brooklyn Italian.
Too late to say he is Japanese now when they used the Italian Plumber stereo type for him.
When Charles Martinet was cast for Mario's voice in the early 90's, that came with Miyamoto's approval. Heard have passed and Miyamoto still compliments Martinet for giving Mario his voice. Japanese artists tend to not be so politically correct, so I doubt they'll ever change the voice. Now, Doki-Doki Panic...that was Japanese (Famicom's original game which was redesigned later to be Super Mario Bros. 2).
 
I always thought of Mario and Luigi as Italian Americans from Brooklyn. I guess when he said things pasta power (in the cartoon), Mama Mia, and It's a-me he was just using common Japanese phrases. Now that I think about it that moustache does look Japanese.
 

Amiga

Member
Mario is Japanese cosplaying as Italian.

full time cosplaying is a thing in Japan. they don't just cosplay as cute-anime girls. it could be anything they are into.
 

SuperGooey

Member
Mario is a mascot. Not a character. It doesn't surprise me that even thought Mario is obviously Italian, Nintendo will deny that to take any possible character away from him.

Ninendo has turned Mario into the most boring mascot possible--even moreso that Mickey Mouse. It's sad.
 
Last edited:

CitizenX

Banned
Mario is Japanese cosplaying as Italian.

full time cosplaying is a thing in Japan. they don't just cosplay as cute-anime girls. it could be anything they are into.

Woa, what a second dressing up in a culture not your own? Isnt that inappropriate to you know who?(Hint: They are the weakest link)

Busting balls no harm or foul intended.
 

Woggleman

Member
Maybe he is Italian but his family moved to Japan when he was very young. They retained their Italian culture but he also soaked up the Japanese culture as well.
 
Top Bottom