Dream Tropes Wiki/American Kirby is Hardcore

When a Japanese game is released Stateside, there's a tendency to make the box art, or even the character models, a little more hardcore. Maybe it's as simple as adding Angry Eyebrows, or maybe the character's model is completely redone. This is often done to characters who were originally intended to be cute. Sometimes this trope goes the other way, too: an American character may be made cuter for the Japanese release.

This has to do with Values Dissonance. Japanese culture, in general, is very accepting of cuteness anyplace, and will take it in stride. American culture, to the contrary, is very accepting of manliness. In a hard contrast to the Japanese, Americans often view cuteness as a sign of childishness and immaturity, and thus has a strong aversion to it in any media that's not explicitly kid-oriented. This attitude goes so far as to color American perceptions of Japanese culture; some historians have occasionally (and controversially) attempted to link kawaisa to the national humiliation endured by Japan in World War II and the nation's resulting 180° turn from a warrior culture to a pacifistic one. And speaking of color: in modern Japan, pink is a value-neutral color. There are even pink gas stations. In the US, bright pink tends to be associated with young or adolescent girls, so expect a toning-down of any ostentatiously pink cover images (and gas stations).

And in an extra bonus, if ever the game is brought out to Europe, expect the artwork cover to be more artistic than usual regardless of whether or not the buyer can make sense of the artwork.

This trope is one reason why GameFAQs has a separate tag for box shots, since sometimes it just happens that the box art of the games differs.

A subtrope of Cultural Translation and related to Darker and Edgier. It's also not always a bad thing, mind you; if the game itself isn't particularly cutesy, then giving it cute box art is just weird. It can also mean that a game with cute art direction may hide a heart of blackened steel underneath that gamers might miss out on. On the other hand, if you're thinking about buying a game whose main character is an adorable pink puffball surrounded by sparkles and rainbows, then whether or not he's smiling on the cover honestly shouldn't be a deal-breaker (though it's perfectly normal if you're wondering why he isn't smiling).

Note: Weblinks Are Not Examples! Please include a description of the cover art in your examples.

## Video Games

* *The Drillimation Series* in its fare share of games often uses this trope for the international box arts. Up until *Mr. Driller Drill Spirits*, all box art in all regions were deemed happy and care free.
	+ *Touhou Project*, on the other hand, started to do this beginning with *Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil*. The international box art for the home console port of that game show a menacing Flandre Scarlet. All future games do this for whatever character they select as the mascot.
* This trope is generally subverted in Kuboia. Since Kuboian boxarts usually borrow the Japanese boxart, Kirby is seen smiling or neutral. This may be due to how Kuboia generally has the tendency to treat Kirby as if he is for younger audiences.