A few things come to mind when I think of iconic Super Mario villain Bowser: Mr. steal-your-girl; a roided-up turtle that just discovered Hot Topic; Great dad. Now I can add Korean rice and soup delicacy gukbap to that list.
Bowser was named after this spicy Korean rice and soup dish
Now the whole ‘fire-breathing’ thing makes sense
Now the whole ‘fire-breathing’ thing makes sense
Fantendo / Naver
According to this 2000 Famitsu interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, Bowser was given the Japanese name Daimaō Kuppa — Kuppa being the Japanese name for gukbap, a Korean dish. See the resemblance?
The things you learn. (The Korean word is “gukbap” but Japanese romanize it as “ku-ppa”). pic.twitter.com/n1yZpcESFC
— Emily Koh (@meltingnoise) January 14, 2017
The two other runner-up contenders for names were yukke and bibinba, the Japanese names for Korean dishes yukhoe and bibimbap. Take a look at the images below and see if you agree with Miyamoto’s final decision. If you’ve never tried these dishes, go ahead and give them a try, if only for the sweet satisfaction of imagining you’re eating a pulverized Bowser! (Was that too much? Sorry.)
While we’re on the topic of video game characters looking like food, check out the excellent tumblr Food that looks like Zelda characters. I can’t believe I never saw the connection between Link and slightly toasted white bread!
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
