In the history of Nintendo’s mascot, Mario has usually been depicted as the lovable plumber, right? Wrong. In some screenshots that have appeared on Twitter, Mario has a very different persona in some vintage manga shots that should be marked NSFW.
The source of these tainted images comes from the Super Mario 64 manga from 1996 and certainly shines a weird light on the once innocent handyman. The color images show Mario clad in makeup and donning a pair of bunny ears whilst standing provocatively in a corset with fishnet stockings. The manga then proceeds to emphasize Mario’s rather large, um, bulge that Koopa gawks over much to Mario’s embarrassment. This horrifying image of the plumber dressed like a Playboy bunny has seemed to open the minds of gamers who thought they had the plumber's character sussed out.
Mario fans who responded to the screenshots on Twitter noted how the manga’s seem to have a small obsession with undressing him and prominently featuring his noticeably large ‘package’. A few fans were interested in learning more of the origins of these illustrative choices while others claimed that they had now gone blind and would never be able to erase these images from their minds. Fans continued to note that Mario and his grand bulge were certainly canon, however they couldn’t remember any Playboy bunny suit appearing in the video game series.
Kodansha was the Japanese publishing company behind the accompanying manga's released with the Super Mario game series that show some obvious differences. Despite the manga illustrating some disturbing visuals of Mario along the way, the manga series also had various other differences to the video game series. Aside from featuring more dialogue with some new characters along the way, the Mario manga’s also depict Luigi as evil, illustrates power-ups differently and completely changes the ending.
The iconic platformer Super Mario 64 was the first game in the series to feature 3D gameplay and was released in 1996 on the Nintendo 64. It’s pegged as one of the greatest video games of all time with fans and critics praising its visuals, gameplay, music and more. With the game gaining instant popularity and standing as a beacon for other games to follow, it’s no surprise that other mediums were released based on its success.
Source: _kairy_draws_/Twitter