Kirby


 *  “ It's time to draw Kirby!
 * Get some paper and a pen ready!
 * Now, let's go!
 * 🎵 First you draw a circle, 🎵
 * 🎵 Then you dot the eyes, 🎵
 * 🎵 Add a great big smile, 🎵
 * (Then add the arms and feet!)
 * 🎵 And presto, it's Kirby! 🎵
 * Did you draw me well? ” 

― Kirby, Kirby Drama CD)

Kirby (カービィ, Kābī in Japan) is the titular character and main protagonist of the Kirby series. He was created by Masahiro Sakurai and he made his debut appearance in Kirby's Dream Land, which was first released on April 27th, 1992 in Japan. Naturally, this marks April 27th as Kirby's birthday.

Kirby lives in a dome-shaped house somewhere in Dream Land (presumably in Green Greens), but where he lived prior to when he took back the food and Sparkling Stars from King Dedede in the first game remains a mystery. All we know is that he came to Dream Land on a Spring Breeze and that he has been helping the citizens of Dream Land and protecting his home planet Popstar ever since. Kirby has also managed to save the universe on numerous occasions, making him quite the powerhouse despite his undeniably cute appearance and youthful demeanor.

Concept and creation
Kirby was created by Masahiro Sakurai as the player character of the 1992 game Kirby's Dream Land (1992). The character's design was intended to serve as placeholder graphics for the game's original protagonist in early development and thus was given a simplistic ball-like appearance. Sakurai switched to the placeholder design for the final character design when he believed that it served the character better. The character was known as Popopo (ポポポ) during development until the name "Kirby" was chosen from a draft list of potential names. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that "Kirby" was chosen in honor of American lawyer John Kirby, who defended Nintendo in the Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. case in 1984 and that the harsh-sounding name contrasted amusingly with the character's cute appearance.

Kirby appears white in Kirby's Dream Land (1992) due to the grayscale palette of the Game Boy system. Sakurai intended the character to be pink, though Miyamoto had originally thought the character to be yellow. Kirby does appear white in the game's North American promotional materials and artwork to reflect the character's in-game appearance. Miyamoto's color choice was repurposed for the second player character in Kirby's Dream Course (1994), and since Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) has been the default color for a second player Kirby in the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series.

In North America, Kirby consistently appears in artwork with a more striking, bolder expression than in Japan, where his expression is more relaxed. Nintendo has said that the more battle-ready appearance appeals to a wider audience in North America.

Characteristics
Kirby has a pink, spherical, body with small stubby arms and large red feet (not shoes).[10] His eyes are a distinctive oval shape and are white (eye shine) at the top, black in the center and dark blue on the bottom (all black in early games) with rosy cheek-blushes near his eyes. His body is soft and flexible, allowing him to stretch or flatten and adopt different shapes, open his mouth very wide to inhale foes, or inflate himself with air and fly. He is 20 cm (about 8 in) tall. Originally in Kirby's Dream Course (1994) and recurring in several games starting with Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002), different colored Kirbys appear as other players in multi-player games. In the case of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (2004), they are the result of Kirby being divided into four by Dark Meta Knight.[13]

Personality
Kirby hails from the distant Planet Popstar, where he lives in a dome-shaped house in the country of Dream Land. He has a positive attitude, and frequently helps to save Dream Land through the use of his unique powers. His age is never directly stated, although he is referred to as a "little boy" in the English manual for Kirby's Dream Land (1992), described as a baby with a projected 200 years until adulthood in the anime, and was referred to as being a "jolly fellow" in Kirby Super Star.

Kirby is cheerful and innocent. He eagerly assists those in need of help and readily attempts to befriends others upon first meeting them, a naïvety that may leave Kirby to be taken by surprise or betrayed. He is often depicted with a voracious appetite. The games (first stated in the English manual for Kirby's Dream Land 2 (1995)) describes his favorite food as Maxim Tomatoes, a healing item in the franchise that restores all health in most games. Some games such as Kirby: Squeak Squad (2006) and Kirby's Dream Buffet (2022) have shown Kirby to have a strong fondness of strawberries and strawberry shortcake. In the anime, his favorite food is instead stated to be watermelons. His other hobbies include singing (although he is tone-deaf), fishing, napping, and drawing (done in a very childlike style). Kirby is mildly entomophobic, as he does not like caterpillars.

Abilities
Kirby's main ability, Copy, consists of inhaling enemies and objects and spitting them out with incredible force. Both his mouth and body expand to allow him to inhale things much larger than himself. However, there is a limit to what he can inhale; excessively large or heavy foes like bosses can resist Kirby's inhale. Against these opponents Kirby must find smaller characters to use as ammo or intercept his opponent's attacks and send them back at them. Kirby Super Star (1996) greatly expanded on the concept of Copy Abilities from Kirby's Adventure (1993). Originally Kirby just obtained one move from a Copy Ability which replaced his Inhale but Kirby Super Star introduced multiple fighting techniques for each ability with their own controls. Additionally while Kirby's Adventure didn't have Kirby's appearance drastically change when he had a Copy Ability, aside from his color changing to orange or snow white, or wielding a weapon for abilities like Sword or Hammer. Kirby Super Star gave each Copy Ability its own costume, such as a fiery crown for Fire Kirby or a floppy green cap that resembles Link's for Sword Kirby. Near the end of games, Kirby may access a "Last Battle Ability", wherein Kirby utilizes a special often magical weapon to defeat the final boss (ex. the Star Rod in Kirby's Adventure (1993), Ribbon's Crystal in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000), Landia in Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011)).

In Kirby Super Star (1996), Kirby can sacrifice his current Copy Ability to create a 'Helper', an allied version of the enemy Kirby typically gets that ability from. The new Helper could be controlled by the game or a second player. This feature has not yet been included in later Kirby games, although it was included in Kirby Super Star's remake, Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008) and was intended to return in the cancelled GameCube Kirby game which would have had Kirby able to make up to four helpers at once. Kirby Star Allies (2018) has a similar mechanic where after being struck by a pink heart that fell from the sky, Kirby becomes able to create small pink hearts known as Friend Hearts which allow him to make friends with an enemy. This also causes the befriended enemy to change colors, presumably to aid the player in distinguishing enemies from friends. The maximum amount of friends Kirby can make is about three. To make another friend, Kirby will have to chose to "un-friend" one of his allies, which will make it disappear in replacement for the new ally.

Following the introduction of Copy in Kirby's Adventure (1993), the Kirby games have introduced over sixty Copy Abilities (the largest roster of which was in Star Allies, at 28). The series has regularly included new game mechanics unique to titles that alter, differ from, or outright replace Kirby's ability to copy enemies:

In both Kirby: Canvas Curse (2005) and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (2015), Kirby is a continuously rolling ball that can be directed on strokes of paint/ropes of clay drawn with the stylus of the Nintendo DS/Wii U respectively.
 * In Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000), the "Power Combo" allows Kirby to hold two Copy Abilities at once, mixing identical ones for a stronger version or combining different ones for a whole new ability (ex. Spark and Cutter abilities combine to create a double-sided lightsaber.)
 * In Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010), Kirby is turned into an outline of yarn, leaving his hollow body unable to inhale. Instead Kirby is able to use a "yarn-whip" to unravel enemies or transform into simple objects, requiring "Metamortex Patches" to become more complex "Metamortex Transformations". Similar transformations with clay are also seen in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. In the rerelease Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (2019), Kirby may use Ravel Abilities: power ups that recreate Copy Abilities using craft materials.
 * In Kirby Mass Attack (2011), Kirby is cursed into being unable to inhale or copy enemies and can exist as up to ten small, weaker versions of himself. Directed or thrown using the Nintendo DS' stylus, the Kirbys defeat enemies by ganging up and pummeling them.
 * In Kirby's Return to Dream Land (2011), Kirby can use much more powerful, albeit temporary, versions of Copy Abilities by inhaling and swallowing special kinds of enemies surrounded with a multicolored aura; these abilities are known as Super Abilities. One example is the Grand Hammer, which grants Kirby the usage of a much larger version of the hammer granted by the normal Hammer ability which can produce shockwaves.
 * In Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016), Kirby steals "Robobot Armor": a mech suit from an invading robot army. The Robobot Armor works in conjunction with Kirby's Copy ability, (ex. wielding buzzsaws when ridden by Cutter Kirby), as well as providing tools to surpass unique obstacles.
 * In Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022), Kirby gains a new ability: his extremely elastic skin allows him to inhale large objects and take on their shape; this ability is referred to as "Mouthful Mode". During this state, Kirby is able to control whatever he inhaled as if he was the object himself; for example, when Kirby inhales a car, he is able to make it drive around, or in the case of a light bulb, make it turn on and off at will. In addition, Kirby's copy abilities are able to be upgraded to be made more powerful. For example, once fully upgraded, Kirby's fire ability becomes Dragon Fire, which allowed him to shoot further and glide briefly in mid-air.
 * In the Super Smash Bros. series, Kirby's Copy works distinctly different from how it does in the Kirby series with a unique arsenal of Copy Abilities. Without an ability, Kirby can use attacks from different abilities (ex. Cutter's Final Cutter, Hammer's Hammer Flip, Stone's Stone Change). Kirby obtains an ability by inhaling another member of the roster, acquiring an ability themed around the character and possessing some of the fighter's move set. Unlike enemies in the Kirby game, fighters swallowed by Kirby do not disappear, instead reappearing outside Kirby. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008), Kirby's Final Smash is his Cook ability from Kirby Super Star (1996)/Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008), which cooks opponents, items and more. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), Kirby's Final Smash is an Ultra Sword attack from Return to Dream Land (2011).

Species
Although never explored in great detail in the series, Kirby is not the only member of his kind. Along with the different colored Kirbys in many games' multiplayers, similar looking characters are seen in the ending of Kirby's Dream Land (1992), and its remake Spring Breeze in Kirby Super Star (1996). Meta Knight and Galacta Knight, both of whom bear a close resemblance to Kirby without their masks, are often hinted to be of the same species as Kirby. In general, members of the species all look similar, but sometimes have different colored skin, eyes, and feet. The second player character of Kirby's Dream Course (1994) is a yellow Kirby named Keeby with the same abilities as Kirby in the game. While it is not confirmed that the second player Kirby from Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (2002) onward is Keeby, Kirby's Dream Buffet (2022) names the yellow color customization "Keeby Yellow". The second player character of Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010), Prince Fluff, is a Kirby-like character from a planet made of sewing material. Unlike Kirby, Prince Fluff cannot inhale or copy enemies (which Kirby has also lost the ability to do after being turned into yarn) or use Ravel Abilities (equivalent to Copy Abilities added in Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn (2019)).

Later Kirby games have hinted on a much more drastic possibility of what life-form Kirby truly is. In Kirby Star Allies (2018), it is suggested repeatedly through pause-screen descriptions and visual references that Kirby is a positive reincarnation of a powerful entity known as Void; the true main antagonist of Kirby Star Allies and the overarching antagonist of the Kirby series, who is implied to have created Zero; the true main antagonist from Kirby's Dream Land 3 (1997) and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000), and by extension, the Dark Matter race; reoccurring antagonists in the Kirby series. This further suggests a connection between Kirby's species and Dark Matter.

No official term exists for them other than Kirby's species. They are commonly referred to as 'Kirbys' and is the name of both the species and character. As a name, however, 'Kirby' refers to only one character. In the English manual of Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (2004), the term 'Kirbys' is used at points, to illustrate the feature of having four differently colored versions of Kirby active in the game simultaneously, although in this situation the four "Kirbys" are four pieces of Kirby rather than four individual Kirby-like beings. Another common term is 'Dream Landers', a term used in the instruction manual for Kirby's Adventure (1992). This term, however, also refers to anyone who lives in Dream Land, including characters like King Dedede. The biography of Kirby in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) says Kirby is a citizen of Dream Land. Sometimes the term 'puff' or 'puffball' is used in official materials to refer to Kirby's round shape, though this does not necessarily indicate the name of his species.

Gender
While the English manual for Kirby's Dream Land (1992) refers to Kirby as a "little boy", the Japanese Kirby encyclopedia Hoshi no Kābī Pupupu Taizen: 20th Anniversary (星のカービィプププ大全 : 20th Anniversary) lists Kirby's gender as "unknown". Kirby's creator, Masahiro Sakurai, wrote Kirby's profile which also lists the character's gender as "unknown" and once jokingly stated that Kirby may actually be female. Likewise, Kirby's voice actress, Makiko Ohmoto, stated that Kirby's gender is unknown and explained that she performs the character just as "Kirby" without caring about the character's gender, rather than as a man or a woman.

Why He's a Star

 * 1) His design is adorable and simple, yet can also be expressive and animated when it needs to be, one famous example would be his shocked face that appears frequently throughout the games. In fact, Kirby's design was originally simply intended to be a placeholder for the original protagonist of Kirby's Dream Land. However, the team behind the game grew attached to the cute design and considered how its simplicity made it easy for kids to draw, so they decided to stick with that placeholder design.
 * 2) As much as people joke and meme on about his character being some "eldritch horror-slaying god", that is not the core of Kirby's character. Despite his powers, Kirby is a young, innocent, heroic, friendly, and jolly fellow, who's heroism drives him to help out anyone in need. Although he's lazy, gluttonous, and prone to being tricked or jumping to conclusions, such as times when he got fooled by Marx and Magolor (Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Return to Dream Land) or the times when he misjudged King Dedede (Kirby's Adventure, Kirby: Squeak Squad), Kirby is still a reliable hero who can overcome any odds to save the day.
 * 3) Kirby's adorable childlike nature makes him fun to watch or read whenever he's getting into some wholesome shenanigans, such as in the cutscenes of his games, in episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, in the It's Kirby Time series of picture books, and in his various manga series like Morestsu Pupupu Hour! and Sparkling★Pupupu World (both of which, and more, are available scanned and fan-translated here).
 * 4) *Another notable, yet extremely obscure, source of Kirby wholesomeness would be the drama CD, Kirby and the Story of the Dream Spring.
 * 5) Although Kirby is certainly young, he still has agency of his own, and doesn't need to be told when to take action (a facet of his character that unfortunately was not adapted for his animated adaptation). Kirby has a series of light novels, and as the current director of the Kirby series, Shinya Kumazaki himself, has said that it has the most accurate characterization of the main cast in his official commentary of Return to Dream Land 's novelization, it shows best how Kirby tackles situations.
 * 6) One of the central themes in the Kirby series, if not, the central theme, would be friendship, and Kirby embodies that theme perfectly. Kirby has formed bonds with so many characters, such as King Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandana Waddle Dee, Rick, Kine, Coo, Ribbon, Adeleine, Prince Fluff, Elline, Elfilin, and so much more. Kirby will risk life and limb for the people he holds dear, like in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, where for the majority of the game, Kirby's entire motivation was to save King Dedede from Taranza, even before he had any knowledge of the People of the Sky's plight, or even their and Queen Sectionia's existence. There's no true main villain in the Kirby series, as almost every antagonist finds themselves redeemed by the end of the same game they debut through Kirby's influence.
 * 7) As a playable video game protagonist, Kirby is incredibly unique. He has many innovative and creative abilities, like the ability to puff himself up and float like a balloon and his trademark ability to inhale and spit out enemies with great force, or swallow them to copy their abilities (in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Kirby is also able to combine two abilities together). He would also gain new powers as the series went by, like the Super Abilities from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the Hypernova inhale from Kirby: Triple Deluxe and the brand-new Mouthful Mode from Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Kirby's abilities make his games very accessible to beginners, so anyone can be introduced to the series.
 * 8) Another often praised aspect of Kirby's character, is the sheer power he wields. It has been stated in in-game flavor text from Kirby: Planet Robobot that Kirby wields nearly infinite power, and most of the final bosses he faces and overcomes in his games are all-powerful deities whose power eclipses that of entire planets, stars, or even entire universes. In Sub-Games meant to test his strength, Kirby has shown to be capable of nearly cracking his own planet in half in Kirby Super Star 's Megaton Punch, and sending an oncoming meteor flying 9999 light years away simply with a baseball bat in Kirby Star Allies ' Star Slam Heroes. Kirby has notable earned titles such as "The Pink Terror" or "The Pink Demon". This cool badass side of the character is perfectly balanced with his cute kiddy wholesome side.
 * 9) His voice actor, Makiko Ohmoto, does a perfect voice for the character. Her performance may go unappreciated since you don't hear much from him outside of "Hi!" and grunts in the games, but even if they aren't saying much, that doesn't make a character's voice any less important. In the Super Smash Bros. series, Kirby will impersonate certain character's whose abilities he's copied, for example: if Kirby has copied Ryu, Kirby will shout "Hadoken!" when using his ability, which is an extremely nice touch. In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby mostly says "Poyo", but in the original Japanese version of the show, Kirby will shout out the names of his attacks.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Kirby has been out-of-character at least twice in his games:
 * 2) *He was very badl y portraye d in Kirby's Avalanche/Kirby's Ghost Trap, becoming a rude, overly sassy and wise-cracking jerk, and in the first game where Kirby is portrayed in a negative light. Although that was a reskin of Puyo Puyo, so chances that it isn't canon are really high.
 * 3) *His portrayal in Kirby Squeak Squad is bad too, where he was totally clueless about the threat and only cared about his strawberry shortcake. Thankfully, it was only temporary and he reverted back to his normal personality in the later games.
 * 4) Ironically enough, he isn't the star of the show in mh:besttvshows:Kirby Right Back at Ya!, being made into a cute marketable baby side character in his own anime, with zero agency and having to be told what to do like a Pokémon, in fact, Ash's Pikachu in the anime actually has more personality than Kirby does in Right Back at Ya!.

Trivia

 * Kirby was originally named Popopo during the early stages of the development of Kirby's Dream Land, but eventually Nintendo decided to change the name and polled Nintendo Of America for suggestions as they wanted the name to appeal to kids outside of Japan. The name 'Kirby' was partially chosen to honor the late John Kirby, an attorney who defended Nintendo in a certain case against Universal, but it was also chosen because of the trend that cute characters normally have soft-sounding names in Japan, but the name 'Kirby' happened to have  harsh sounds  to it. Needless to say, the juxtaposition of a cute character with a harsh-sounding name felt amusing to some people.
 * In Japan, Dream Land is called Pupupu Land, which is similar to Kirby's original name. Additionally, the Popopo Islands, the main setting of Kirby Mass Attack, were named in reference to Kirby's original name.
 * It's commonly thought among fans that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario, The Legend Of Zelda and many other iconic Nintendo franchises wanted Kirby to be yellow whilst Masahiro Sakurai insisted on him being pink, and that it's due to this confusion that serves as the reason why Kirby is depicted as white on the American box art for Kirby's Dream Land. This is actually incorrect, as Kirby was pink in various bits of concept art for the game, including some that were made back when he was known as Popopo! As for Miyamoto, he was pleasantly surprised to see Kirby as pink and thought it felt fresh considering how characters like Kirby would normally end up being yellow, citing Pac-Man as an example. In a nod to this misinterpretation, games from Kirby's Dream Course onwards would typically feature a yellow Kirby as a second player. The yellow Kirby seen in Kirby's Dream Course is named Keeby by the developers, though it is unknown if any other yellow Kirbys that have appeared since are also Keeby.
 * It is often presumed that only gender-neutral pronouns are used for Kirby in Japanese media and that the idea of him being referred to with he/him pronouns was something invented by the English localization team. However, there are some instances in Japanese media where Kirby is referred to with he/him pronouns, and his overall speaking style often tends to use masculine conventions. That being said, this doesn't necessarily contradict Kirby being a gender-neutral character. More info about this bit of trivia can be found here.
 * In some sources, Kirby is stated to have a fear of caterpillars. However, he is much more fond of butterflies and will try to chase them from time to time, making the former point of information a tiny bit ironic.
 * Due to Kirby not being able to read the letter given to him by King Dedede and Meta Knight at the beginning of Kirby Fighters 2 's story mode, fans jumped to the conclusion that Kirby may be illiterate. While it is a fun headcanon, it is worth noting that the description for Revenge Of The King on the Japanese website for Kirby Super Star Ultra suggests that Kirby can read, as he was able to read the letter from Dedede challenging him. With that in mind, it's likely that Kirby couldn't read the letter in Kirby Fighters 2 because of fancy handwriting.
 * Of course, Kirby has made various cameos outside of his series just like any other popular video game character; he appeared in the intro of the Super NES game Arcana, showed up as the cursor of EarthBound 's debug menu, appeared as an enemy named Anti-Kirby in The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening and appeared on a movie poster in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, among several other cameo appearances.
 * As stated in an obscure interview with Masahiro Sakurai, Kirby doesn't have any bones or teeth. Additionally, he also clarifies that Kirby's feet are (thankfully) not shoes.
 * In Japanese media, Kirby actually has a motto! The motto in question is  tomorrow's wind blows tomorrow , which as a figure of speech is roughly equivalent to the English phrase  tomorrow is a new day  . How fitting for someone as optimistic as Kirby.
 * Kirby temporarily became square-shaped for an April Fools prank in 2019. When the Kirby JP Twitter announced Kirby's return to normal, it was noted that Kirby may have inhaled something strange, and that something could very well have been Qbby, the protagonist of the BOXBOY! series, who makes a tiny cameo in the image accompanying that very tweet and, in a case of the ol' switcheroo, had become round as opposed to square around the same time. Kirby has also been depicted as being cube-shaped elsewhere, most notably upon copying Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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