Bowser

## Bowser formerly King Koopa

Bowser returns as the main villain in this game. Touching a Wonder Flower turned him into Castle Bowser by combining him with his Koopa Clown Car and Prince Florian's castle.

***“Hear this! I will kidnap Peach OVER and OVER until I pull it off! And no one can stop me! Losing is not an option! And neither is giving up!”***

***—Bowser, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team***

The above text is from the Super Mario Wiki and is available under a Creative Commons license. Attribution must be provided through a list of authors or a link back to the original article. Source: https://www.mariowiki.com/BowserBowser, sometimes known as King Koopa or King Bowser, is the main antagonist of the Super Mario franchise. He is a large, powerful, fire-breathing Koopa who leads the Koopa Troop, an evil kingdom of turtle-like creatures, and has been the arch-nemesis of Mario since his debut in Super Mario Bros. He has repeatedly kidnapped or attempted to kidnap Princess Peach with the ultimate goal of defeating Mario and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom.

## Creation

Bowser was created by Shigeru Miyamoto as the villain of Super Mario Bros. In concept art, he tentatively had the name 「ボス クリーパー」 (Bosu Kurīpā, Boss Creeper), based on Shellcreeper.[2] Miyamoto stated that they considered naming him either kuppa (국밥) (soup with rice), yukke (육회) (raw meat marinated with raw egg), or bibinba (비빔밥) (mixed rice), which are all Korean dishes as they are known in Japanese. In the end, "Kuppa" was chosen.[3] Miyamoto mistakenly thought kuppa was grilled meat, or bulgolgi (불고기), and that made it sound powerful and cool, but later learned that it was a rice soup.[4] For the later North American release of the game, which also introduced the anglicized spelling Koopa, the character was named "Bowser".

The earliest known design for what would become Bowser depicted him as resembling an upright Koopa Troopa with spines on his back, and fangs.[5] During the development of Super Mario Bros., Miyamoto considered asking a manga artist or illustrator to do the art for the game. However, time was running short, so he drew the game's original box art himself. This artwork included a depiction of Bowser that is significantly different than later designs, the most obvious anomalies being his gray-blue skin and lack of horns. For the character's appearance, Miyamoto drew inspiration from an anime film adaptation of the Chinese novel Journey to the West, renamed Alakazam the Great during the film's American localization. He liked the film's main antagonist Gyū-Maō (lit. "Ox Demon King," King Gruesome in the dub), so he loosely based Bowser on an ox as a homage.[6]

Yoichi Kotabe, an animation artist, later joined Nintendo and was asked to do new illustrations for the Super Mario franchise. His only reference was the package illustration for Super Mario Bros., so Kotabe asked Miyamoto many questions on how to draw the characters. However, designing Bowser caused problems, since Miyamoto had not drawn him often. He brought up that he liked the Ox King from the film, and this was how he imagined Bowser, but Kotabe thought Bowser's original design looked like a hippo[7] and Nintendo designer Takashi Tezuka pointed out that Bowser should be a turtle. Through their discussions, Bowser's appearance gradually came together. Since he was in the same turtle family as the Koopa Troopas, they partly based Bowser's new appearance on them. Finally, the new design was created, and Miyamoto congratulated himself by saying "Wow, I can really make Bowser look cool now!"[6]

For Bowser's finalized design, Yoichi Kotabe took inspiration from the Chinese softshell turtle, which he knew to be a particularly aggressive species of turtles, fitting of Bowser's fearsome nature.[7]

## History

As he is the main antagonist of the franchise, Bowser's appearances spans decades of Super Mario-related media, including television series and publications. Chronologically, his first appearance is in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island as a baby, where he kidnaps the infant Luigi, along with his bringer. This baby version of Bowser has encountered his older self in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. In his major appearances, he frequently kidnaps Princess Peach, with one instance even forcing her to marry him. However, in the sports and racing games, he is a playable character who is shown siding with the Super Mario allies. He has also played a part in the Mario Party series as a host of the Bowser Spaces, and as an antagonist.