Am I the only one who thinks the Mario series...

[cheat-master30]

if classed as under any nationality/culture is more Italian than anything?

I mean, in terms for it being like the Japanese culture (nothing against it, but the Mario series hardly exemplifies it), you've got maybe one thing.

But think about it... many of the Mario characters seem to be Italian, with Italian names, the language is used in places like Isle Delfino and they speak Italian. Which is quite interesting, because it seems to be the one series I've seen with barely any real connection to the culture the creators lived in. Rare for example, their games always felt somewhat British in tone with the humour and such, and many other games feel either American or Japanese or whatever through things like cultural values, but the Mario series is pretty much completely unlike any world culture if anything.

[PDoogan]

I only noticed that in Super Mario Sunshine.

The games do do a good job of not coming off as too Japanese though. Not just in the localization, but the environment itself.

[EpicGyllynn]

I like it how each different par of the World draws from different real-world Cultures, as opposed to just Japanese. Really, the only Asian influence I can recall is Chai Plains(I know it's Kingdom, but I organize each nation based on regions).

[Vent]

Miyamoto was influenced by Americana when he created Mario back in '81. I imagined anyone who's ever worked with Mario has kept his global appeal in mind when doing so.

The culture of Mario's world has analogs to many real-world cultures depending on which land he's visiting. The Mushroom Kingdom itself has always reminded me of the UK, what with it still having a royal family despite being governed by a chancellor/prime minister.

[shadowgoomba]

Goomba is an Italian slang word for friend.
That's all I got.

[Sarisa]

The Mushroom world has never felt particularly Italian to me. Mario has become pseudo-Italian but he's the only one.

Honestly, the Mushroom Kingdom doesn't feel like anything RL, except drawing from the generic Euro-fantasy tradition. The Mushroom Kingdom's government is ill-defined (it's not even crystal-clear that Peach rules the kingdom - still waiting on those lines!) and it jumped from 1930s technology in PM1 to 1950s technology in SMS to 2000s technology in PM2, not counting super-tech directly from E. Gadd and Bowser's magitech. There is a shift going on from generic Euro-fantasy to generic modernity to generic science-fantasy, but I don't see any national characteristics.

I think a lot of the Italianization of Mario came from NoA, since their audience would recognize "Mario" as an Italian name. In Japan the name probably parses as "European" and the enemy names are derived from Japanese onomatopoeia and East Asian culture.

[Koopalmier]

1930s technology in PM ?

When will anyone notice that Toad Town is a mere town ? It's even classified as a village in France. A village obviously lacks technology. And you go through even smaller villages through the game. I think the Mushroom Earth (hmm... We should give it a name we'd all agree with, "Earth" would make confusion with our planet and "Mushroom World" already means something else) has the same technology level as our planet, with some places still being behind, and video games being a new industry. What is funny, though, is that the WarioWare series feels much more like a Japanese product than the Mario series.

Personally, I never saw the Marioverse as being much Italian. As sarisa said, only the Mario bros. and the Wario... err... duo are Italian(-ish). And Isle Delfino. Everything else never reminded me of Italia.

[Artemendo]

Ha, "Italia", I make that mistake, too. Can't always remember it's "Italy". It makes no sense! Why the random analogy to place names that end in "y"? And the adjective suggest "Italia", too.

[Sarisa]

Aug 25, 2010 1:32:27 GMT -5 Artemendo said:

Ha, "Italia", I make that mistake, too. Can't always remember it's "Italy". It makes no sense! Why the random analogy to place names that end in "y"? And the adjective suggest "Italia", too.

Actually, there is a reason. "Italy" the place name has been in English long enough that it went through the ia>ie>y spelling shift, like "Germany". Even the cities have English names.
Countries east of Italy haven't had their names used in English for as long so they retain the full -ia ending.

In PM, I thought Mario had electric lights and such (which spread to the rural US in the 1930s), and a Boo has a record player (invented late 19th century, but disks became the dominant medium in the 1920s), but I didn't see any TVs or other signs of higher tech. And if you believe that Princess Peach rules the Mushroom Kingdom, that makes Toad Town her capital city! Capitals might be small, but they're rarely backward compared to the rest of the country.

[Koopalmier]

Peach does rule the MK. It's not shown in-game because, well, in-game, she's either being kidnapped, either she's doing sports with Mario and co. In Paper Mario she complains about how much hard work it is to rule the kingdom.

Mario and Luigi have "old" stuff in their house because they're quite far of Toad Town. They can't have much more technology than a countryman. As for the record player in the Boo Mansion, well, the mansion itself is old. TVs aren't seen because they had to make the houses as small and blank as possible: thus, they are reduced to a single room, and almost nothing's inside. I doubt someone invented the concept of TV between Paper Mario and Luigi's Mansion (which are surely not separated by years).

[Sarisa]

Do you know where the lines are? I know it's common wisdom, but it's been shockingly hard to prove that Peach rules her kingdom with modern, in-game sources. If she is a society lady the MK makes more sense.

[Vent]

If anything, I'd say Peach is just a figurehead and the Chancellor/Cabinet Minister does the real governing.

[EpicGyllynn]

I think her father probably runs the Government, but seeing as we've never seen her father In-game... I don't know... Maybe he's MIA... And how come her Grandma is a Toad? Maybe Toadsworth is her Grandpa?! What is Toadsworth relation to the Chancellor? Was Peach's mother, or father a Human? I mean, one of them HAS to be a Human, because Toads can't have Human children... So she must be Half-Toad! I'm asking too many questions...

[Sarisa]

In Japanese, like most Asian languages, kinship terms are a normal mode of address towards seniors. Peach could call an old Toad woman "obaa-san" and not actually mean that they are related. And SMRPG's translation was oddly literal.

[EpicGyllynn]

Huh, thats interesting, I never knew that! Thanks for the Fun facts Sarisa.

[Clive Koopa]

The Mario Universe, like the Pokemon Universe are both in a different complex universe of their own with their own laws of nature and physics. They also have a diverse set of cultures and characters.

[Koopalmier]

Actually, the POKéMON universe has a definite culture considering it happens on different regions of Earth.

And about the different laws of nature and physics: that's exactly what we're ignoring here, except for magic.

[EpicGyllynn]

...POKéMON doesn't happen on Earth. POKéMON's regions are all based on the real world, and Kanto is even named after a real Region in Japan, but the similarities end there. In the POKéMON world, the Regions look geographically different from their real world counterparts... Also, Unova Region is based on USA instead of Japan, a series' first!

[Koopalmier]

Unova is based on New York City.
And Kanto isn't the only region to be "based" on the real world. Every main series region is "based" on a Japanese region, except for Isshu (I put 'based' between brackets because it IS the region).
They're NOT geographically different from their real-world counterpart. They are slighty changed to make it look better.
And the anime has already proved it's Earth.

[EpicGyllynn]

...Like that Anime has any bearing on canon whatsoever? I think not. Unova is based on Continental United States, with it's main city being based on Lower Manhattan, and I said that all Regions were based on Regions of Japan, but have different names(with the exception of Kanto), and geographically look different. Here is a Map of the the Pokemon World(Excluding Unova):


Now here's a Map of the real Kanto Region: