About

Bowser^[1], sometimes known as King Koopa or King Bowser (Japanese: 大魔王クッパ,  Daimaō Kuppa, which translates into “Great Demon King Koopa'' or “Great Sorcerer King Koopa,” the latter based on the manual of Super Mario Bros) is a fictional video game character from the Super Mario Series. He is a large, powerful, fire-breathing Koopa who leads the Koopa Troop. Bowser is a recurring main antagonist in the Super Mario franchise, created by Shigeru Myamoto^[2].

History

Bowser was first introduced in Super Mario Bros. In 1985 as a recurring boss at the end of the fourth level of each of the 8 worlds. Which is discovered in the first seven worlds to be decoyed standard enemies. . Bowser’s japanese name ( クッパ, Kuppa), is based off the Korean dish, gukbap, in Japanese^[4]. Bowser’s original design was a homage to the Ox-king from the Toei Animation film ‘Alakazam the Great’. When Nintendo designer, Takashi Tezuka mentioned that the ox design was more reminiscent of a turtle, Shigeru Miyamoto took Takashi’s advice and redesigned Bowser’s appearance more closely to Koopa Troopas ^[3].

After Bowser’s introduction in SMB, he became a recurring boss throughout the Super Mario franchise. Ranging from being a boss/final boss both 2D & 3D platforms, RPGs (Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi), side character spinoffs (Yoshi series and Super Princess Peach ), an antagonistic obstacle towards the players in Mario Party series, to being a playable character in Super Mario Kart, various sport spinoffs (Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Strikers, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games), Super Smash Bros, to even played in a supporting role in Super Mario RPG, Super Paper Mario, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and as the main protagonist in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story.

Bowser’s personality of a typical villain from the start of the Super Mario Series. Throughout the years, Bowser has developed several aspects of his characteristic from many installments, especially within the RPG spinoffs. From being dim-witted, comic-relief in Mario Party; To malicious and intimidating presences in Super Mario Galaxy; To even showing humility and (in a rare cases) shows sympathy around Mario and his partners in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. But above all of Bowser’s interpretations, his second most defining trait is his fatherly relationship towards his son Bowser Jr^[5]. 

Bowser has also been used as an expy for a boss in several other videogame franchises^[7]. Examples include Ganon in The Legend of Zelda series; King K. Rool in Donkey Kong series; and King DeDeDe in Kirby series.

Reception

Bowser’s first starring game, ‘Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story’ had a positive reception. The original Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story has a Medicritic score of both 90 in critic reviews and 8.8 in user score ^[8]. In addition to being ranked at the top of the must play Nintendo DS games of all time ^[9]. 

Fandom

Bowser’s popularity has grown largely in both the online community and gaming community due to his  unique design and various forms; his boisterous, comedic villain archetype throughout the years; in addition to being an endearing parent figure towards Bowser Jr. On art sharing websites, there were over 140,000 instances of fan art in DeviantArt^[10], over 37,000 in FurAffinity^[11], and over 3,000 in Pixiv^[12] with tag Bowser/クッパ for the latter. In addition, Bowser has garnered a large following in both the LGBT and furry community^[13].

Related Memes

So long, gay Bowser

“So Long, Gay Bowser” is a misheard line in Super Mario 64 were many people mistook one of Mario’s voiceline “So long, King Bowser” to “So long, gay Bowser.” Leading to various Photoshop images, GIFs, and videos involving Bowser being thrown  and exploitable for other things along with the misinterpret line.

Bowser Communism

“Bowser Communism” is a term that was popularized by the collaborative let’s play group, TheRunawayGuys during Mario Party. One of the outcomes during Bowser Space is called ‘Bowser Revolution’ where all the players’ coins are taken and disrupted evenly. ProtonJon mentions the correlation of Bowser Revolution to Communism, and has become a running gag throughout the series and TGR community^[6].

Bowser Block

Bowser Block is an exploitable meme involving Bowser covering Bowser Jr. from a scene that deem inappropriate to children during Nintendo’s Switch Parental Control video during  January 12th, 2017. On January 13th, an anonymous user on 4Chan’s videogame image board /v/ posted a 2 panel image template, leading to many photoshop images and videos filling in the first panel.

Fury Bowser

Fury Bowser is a newly altered form of bowser that’s introduced in the Nintendo’s “Bigger Badder Bowser” trailer for ‘Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury’ on January 12th, 2021. Fury Bowser’s intense, kaiju-esque appearance have garnered many jokes and fanart by users on social media in addition to the premise share similarities towards Pokemon Sword & Shields Dynamaxing.

Doug Bowser

Doug Bowser is a businessman who's been hired to be the newly recent president of Nintendo of America on April 15th, 2019. After the former president Reggie Fils-Aime  announced his retirement on February 21st, 2019. Due to his last name being associated with a well known Nintendo villain, the Internet have quickly created jokes, memes, and fanart revolving around Bowser running Nintendo and its business plans. 

Jack Black as Bowser

The casting of Jack Black as Bowser during the September 23rd, 2021, Nintendo Direct while Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled the voice cast of the Untitled Super Mario Bros. Film by Lumination. The reveal has led to several fanarts and videos of Bowser being portrayed as Jack Black’s ~contribute works such as Brutal Legends and Tenacious D, and associate memes such as Octagon.

Bowser Day/Bowser Night

“Bowser Day” and “Bowser Night” is a fan-created annual holiday to pay tribute to Bowser on the August 4th (based on the world on 8-4 in the Super Mario Bros. where the player encounter the real Bowser at the final level of the game), Originally made by a furaffinity user, Dragonnis on July 12, 2012^[14].By the following years, many users contribute by creating fanart along with the hashtag #BowserDay. Later, a new tag #BowserNight was made alongside #BowserDay to separate nsfw content from search results on twitter.

Bowsette

Bowsette, also known as Koopa Hime (クッパ姫) in Japanese, is an anthropomorphised genderbent version of Bowser caused by the effects of a Super Crown power up from Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. First instance of the design originated from a four panel Super Mario Odyssey webcomic by a twitter user ayyk92, aka Haniwa, on September 19th, 2018. The comic has inspired many edits, fanart, videos, and mods.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References