Description
Bowsette, or Koopa-hime, or Princess Koopa'), is a fan-made, moe anthropomorphized version of the Mario franchise character Bowser, in which he is transformed to resemble the character Princess Peach using a power-up. The character was created on September 19, 2018 by a Malaysian artist named Ayyk92 as part of a comic strip which he posted online. Bowsette quickly rose in popularity internationally, with related hashtags in English and Japanese trending on Twitter. Bowsette is typically portrayed as a light-skinned blonde woman with horns, fangs, a spiked collar with matching armbands, and a black strapless dress. Several professional Japanese artists contributed their own renditions of the character. A convention themed around Bowsette was planned for October of the same year.
Journalists took notice of the trend and were surprised by its longevity, attributing it to various aspects such as the character's appearance and appeal, or the possible desire by fans to shock Nintendo's social media handlers. While some noted much of the art that spawned from it was solely pornographic, others were quick to emphasize that some had a wholesome tone instead. Bowsette's rapid popularity led to other fan-made characters in a similar vein in a short timespan, each based on an existing Nintendo character. In Japan, concerns were raised about the legality of fan-made characters under Japan's copyright law.
Next up, Boo