Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!
You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!
It appears that you are using ad block :'(
Hey, we get it. However this website is run by and for the community... and it needs ads in order to keep running.
Please disable your adblock on Smashboards, or go premium to hide all advertisements and this notice. Alternatively, this ad may have just failed to load. Woops!
No, nothing like that. Are you perhaps thinking of the Rainman from the December Bright card?
The person on the cards is Ono no Michikaze, commonly called Rainman in hanafuda contexts. The card depicts a legend about the poet:
Wikipedia said:
As the story goes, one day when Michikaze was feeling inadequate about his calligraphy he took a walk outside in the rain. Seeing a frog trying to jump on a willow branch, again and again missing its mark, he thought to himself "Stupid frog! No matter how many times you try you will never be able to reach the willow". Upon thinking this, the willow curved in a big breeze allowing the frog to jump onto the willow. Michikaze then realized "I myself am the stupid one. The frog created this chance with his determination. Up until now I haven't been as diligent as this frog".
Very strongly agree that he's not happening, even if there is an extra character. My theory about historical characters was effectively proven incorrect by Sakurai's Piranha Plant comments. The only chance he has is if Sakurai considers "surprise character" to be a more general category that includes historical characters like Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt; retro characters like Ice Climbers, Pit, and Little Mac, and simply unexpected picks like Snake, Wii Fit Trainer, and Piranha Plant. However, I think that the implication of his comments about Piranha Plant imply that he views Piranha Plant as the same type of character as the characters I identified as "historical."
So, I was watching Arlo's video speculating on the final Smash Bros character and someone commented something kinda funny.
Eye Master 3.14 said:
Insane idea: The Napoleon from the Nintendo Hanfuda Cards. He would use moves based on lesser known but still wellish known pieces of Nintendo history, such as the Ultra Hand as a grab. I don't have a ton of ideas for this, but people have discussed the idea before and I think it's a funny idea.
That’s fantastic. Though I’d have to say if Nintendo were to add a hanafuda based character maybe the Joker jester would be better than the historical self appointed Emperor of France haha
That’s fantastic. Though I’d have to say if Nintendo were to add a hanafuda based character maybe the Joker jester would be better than the historical self appointed Emperor of France haha
As the creator of the threads for this character, the Joker, and the Tengu, believe me when I say that Napoleon has, by far, the most historical importance to Nintendo.
(Note that even the sign on their building featured the Napoleon trademark at one time.)
The daitoryo line of hanafuda was introduced at or nearly at Nintendo's inception, and remained Nintendo's sole hanafuda product for at least a decade. Even once the Tengu line was introduced, it was treated as the more affordable alternative to the daitoryo deck, which Nintendo put its reputation behind as the highest possible quality. It's worth noting that the tengu was already the mascot of Oishi Tengudo, a rival hanafuda company also based in Kyoto. (Well, a tengu mask, but still.) It's really quite possible that treating the Tengu as inferior in quality to the daitoryo line of hanafuda was a slight against Oishi Tengudo, though that's speculation on my part.
If Nintendo is going to add a hanafuda character to represent their history, they will use the Napoleon figure that was their former mascot for longer than Mario has been in their modern history.
On the other hand, it's unquestionably the case that Nintendo wouldn't have become the entertainment giant that they became had they not branched into the world of western playing cards in 1902. By 1953, Nintendo had become the predominant manufacturer of playing cards in Japan due to their Nintendo All-Plastic line. This success was enough to earn them partnerships with massive brands like Disney by 1959, further cementing their place as Japan's playing card giant. This would seem to be a great point in the Joker's favor.
However, the Joker character on their cards has never had any relation whatsoever to hanafuda. In the singular instance when Nintendo produced dual-purpose Trump/Hanafuda playing cards, they used the Napoleon branding and character.
Trust me, I get the Napoleon thing being a little weird, but it's the branding that Nintendo has embraced since their inception, and one which they've continued to be comfortable with even in the modern day, as evidenced by Mario being depicted wearing Napoeon's clothes in one of the two Mario Hanafuda decks they've put out.
Yeah, honestly, I think that us westerners are the only ones who are weirded out by the Napoleon thing. Nintendo has really leaned into it historically, and I doubt that the average Japanese person cares one way or the other about Napoleon as a historical figure.
I'd liken it to the way we perceive a person like Sun Yat-sen over here; a historically important figure in fairly modern history from a country far from our own. The average person will like, kinda know from their history class in high school who he is or what he did, but maybe not from the name alone. The average person may only be able to give a vague description of him.
That's an assumption on my part, but it makes sense that the average Japanese person didn't have strong feelings about Napoleon in 1889 especially.
What I find really interesting is how Napoleon is seen both as a hero and a villain historically - depending on perspective. He was a champion of the lay people as he was not born into royalty. But monarchies saw him as a faux king due to his pedestrian heritage and uprising. That’s where the short rumors came from - monarchies mocking him as “less of a man” despite him not actually being short. It seems the Nintendo Napoleon sees him as the heroic defender. Which is cool.
What I find really interesting is how Napoleon is seen both as a hero and a villain historically - depending on perspective. He was a champion of the lay people as he was not born into royalty. But monarchies saw him as a faux king due to his pedestrian heritage and uprising. That’s where the short rumors came from - monarchies mocking him as “less of a man” despite him not actually being short. It seems the Nintendo Napoleon sees him as the heroic defender. Which is cool.
I mean, Napoleon as a historical figure was a complicated guy. He wanted to become the next Julius Caesar and rule by military might (bad), but also has been credited with championing "equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on" (Andrew Roberts) by historians (good). He's been described as one of the most celebrated and controversial figures in human history for a reason.
If I had to guess, I would assume that Fusajiro Yamauchi viewed Napoleon in a positive light, but even he called the cards featuring Napoleon the "president" line despite Napoleon never having been a president, so it's not like that perspective was necessarily grounded in historical authenticity.
Very well said. Perhaps the romanticized version of the man is the character’s inspiration. The man who escaped prison and rallied the forces sent to arrest him to aid him in his recapture of his crown
Very well said. Perhaps the romanticized version of the man is the character’s inspiration. The man who escaped prison and rallied the forces sent to arrest him to aid him in his recapture of his crown
Absolutely. I think one of the mistakes we make in understanding the choice of Napoleon by Nintendo is seeing him as a historical figure rather than an exaggerated ideal of a man. Even Napoleon's portraits are wildly varying because he wished to be seen as more attractive than he really was. In that sense, the "Napoleon" of Nintendo's daitoryo deck isn't really the man Napoleon Bonaparte at all, but rather the image of him that he wished to be remembered as.
This whole idea is absolutely ridiculous but I love it. I know a few people have said this already, but I'd be down for Napoleon being the main character and the Tengu being an alt, just like Olimar and Alph.
This whole idea is absolutely ridiculous but I love it. I know a few people have said this already, but I'd be down for Napoleon being the main character and the Tengu being an alt, just like Olimar and Alph.
