Who, or what, is Toadette?
On our Now Playing livestream earlier this week, fellow GameSpot Editor Peter Brown and I tackled one of the unsolved mysteries of the Mario Universe: What is up with the Toads? Do they have a gender? How does the race survive?
During an interview last week discussing upcoming puzzle platformer Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, producer Koichi Hayashida offered some illumination on differentiating between male and female Toads. Toadette is the most visible female Toad, so would that make her akin to Smurfette in being the only prominant female of her kind? There are other female Toads, as seen in the Super Mario Super Show cartoon and games like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
As it were, Nintendo never really settled on a specific gender for the Toads, according to Hayashida. Toads are a genderless race that take on gendered characteristics. He also clarified that Toad and Toadette are not romantically involved.
“This is maybe a little bit of a strange story, but we never really went out of our way to decide on the sex of these characters, even though they have somewhat gendered appearances,” Hayashida said. “But I think what I can say is that Toadette and Toad are not siblings -- perhaps it would be more accurate to say they are adventure pals. And that’s certainly true here [in Captain Toad].”
So if a Toad -- a sentient anthropomorphic toadstool mushroom – eats one of Mario World’s popular and versatile mushrooms to become bigger or gain an extra life... is it cannibalism? While Toads may be mushroom-like, it’s unclear just how closely related to mushrooms they are.
Hayashida clarified that Toads are not mushrooms at all, but the resemblance and nomenclature is too uncanny not to wonder. “This particular riddle might stay unsolved,” Hayashida said. “That’s one of the great mysteries of the Mario universe.”
We didn’t get into the specifics of Toad reproduction, but that’s a topic for another day.
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Discussion
Lies. All lies.
Email blast from Nintendo today:
"CAPTAIN TOAD NEEDS YOU! Join him and Toadette on a very big adventure in many small places."
I would take the canon from the TV show, when in one of the episodes, the mushroom on Toad's head it's just a hat...
bunchanumbers, where are you?!?!?!!
such misogyny, riot nerf plz
Why is sexuality an issue in games? How does this affect gameplay. Constant with this force feeding us this propaganda bs,
Who cares? It doesn't matter whatsoever.
Mushrooms reproduce by sporulation. Toad generally looks happy because he is constantly releasing his seed into the air around him. Even his friend Mario's inhaled some. Just wait until we meet Toad's zombie making friend Cordy, he's a real fun guy.
Mushrooms can reproduce asexually.
In other news, Mario and Peach are also genderless
Toads are weird
All things considering, is this article sexist?
I mean I had no concerns until a moment ago, now I wonder more about this mushroom creature.
Dude just always used to be right there, now I wonder if there was friction?
Actually, the species is known as "Mushroom Retainer." Not "Toads."
Toad is one specific Mushroom Retainer, who first appeared in SMB2. The ones in SMB1 were not known as "Toad" until SMB2, where people retroactively referred to him as Toad in that game.
Toadette is also another specific Mushroom Retainer. It's also possible "she" is just Toad in drag.
Now, you might say "well Nintendo ret-conned it so they're now known as Toads and no longer use the term Mushroom Retainer." If that's the case, you have to also change Birdo from being a transvestite to being a girl. Because Birdo was changed to being an actual female since Super Mario RPG and Mario Kart Double Dash. But websites love to point out that Birdo is transgendered, so you can't have it both ways. Either all of the 80s Nintendo mythology applies or none of it does.
He’s lying and I can prove it. Here in Japan, Toad is called “Kinopio” and Toadette is called “Kinipiko”. The last part “ko” is only used for girls in Japan, for example Ayako, Sachiko, Mariko, Moeko, Hiroko, etc.
So that’s some major bullshit. Good try Hayashida, but no.
Did my detective work and can confirm!!! I went on the Japanese wikipedia of Paper Mario, which was the first appearance of Toadette AKA Kinopiko and it states: キノピコ: ハテナ虫のアシスタントである女性のキノピオ。 (Kinopiko: The assistant of Hatena Mushi, a female Kinopio).
My theory of why they are claiming the Toads are genderless are because they are scared that because Toad IS a boy, less girls will want the game and could have a big impact on sales. Also, there is no mention of this in gaming news here in male-dominated Japan, so it seems this is geared to the west where women actually have a say.
SO…Toad is a boy and Toadette is a girl.
If you have ever played mario RPG legend of the seven stars, you would already know that there are male and female toads. You even see whole families in that game.
in other words, the toads swing in whichever direction they feel like? ballsy move for nintendo to indirectly admit that they are bi. wait until the church groups get word of this :D
If Nintendo really wanted to be bold, they'd reveal the secret of Birdo genders.
BS... the pink mushroom lady with the pink mushroom hat is obviously a dude.
I think it's safe to assume that "Toad" has always been a guy and "Toadette" has always been a girl (pretty sure it's been confirmed in several Mario games that use "him" or "her" to describe them), but for the other toads it could vary. Like in Paper Mario, some of the male-like toads could have actually been females, but probably/usually not since there are also toads that look like females.
They're cartoon characters, they don't have to be based in real life science even a little bit or have any kind of explanation whatsoever. All of this is pointless.
In the words of Futurama: "that only raises further questions!"
"We didn’t get into the specifics of Toad reproduction, but that’s a topic for another day."
*anxiously anticipates another day*
LIES
Creepy
Bunchanumbers knows all answers!
This is one of those issues that never needed an explanation for.
Umm I'm not comfortable with this discussion.
Are they shrooms? Pseudo-shrooms? Wearing shroom hats? "That's one of the great mysteries of the Mario universe"
It's stuff like this that makes me love Nintendo. That's almost as good as Iwata's quote about Splatoon from the last Nintendo Direct: "Squid vs. Octopus: nature's epic battle for supremacy"
I wish I could unread an article.
If they have no gender why do one wear red and the other kind wear pink
sounds like just a PR move for the LGBT people
@Janpieterzun What propaganda? That there are such a thing as different sexes? I for one always wanted to know what the hell Toad was.
This isn't even an issue on sexuality....but on gender. Might wanna tune down with the un-righteous anti-pc behavior, dude.
@Elranzer Actually, a "retainer" is a job title, not a race. The people of the Mushroom Kingdom were turned into various objects by King Koopa, and only a few of Princess Toadstool's retainers (servants) were spared (the ones that tell Mario that the princess is in another castle).
@yoko0721 the suffix -ette in English means something is feminine. I don't think that your argument is strong enough; they're just taking on gender roles.
@Xristophoros SWINGERS LOL
@paramite12 It's just for fun.
@gamer20482 The article clearly states, "They choose their own gender characteristics". Do you not read?
@gamer20482 Errr... Because color has no impact on gender? Pink does not equal feminine.
@dundundonee The general consensus is that pink is a feminine color. Stop trying to make everything neutral....
@dundundone @gamer20482 It's only a coincidence that the pink toad has pigtails and is named Toadette.
@Hells_rebelion @dundundone Uhm no, it really isn't. Go back about a 100 years and pink was a super manly color. It was considered a strong and vibrant red while blue was soft and girly. It didn't become feminine until the nazis started using the pink triangles for homosexuals in the concentration camps... Then all of a sudden pink wasn't manly anymore.
So no, pink is not feminine because colors have no gender. Stop gendering things that need no gender.
@elheber @dundundone @gamer20482
The 80's called. when pink was a "male" color.
http://theredlist.com/media/database/films/tv-series/police-and-crime/1980/miami-vice/012-miami-vice-theredlist.jpg
@dundundone ummm 100 years? umm You could have said the 80's xD. Pink was really a "male" color during the best decade ever....
@dundundone I don't think pink being considered feminine is necessarily wrong. Pink isn't bad and feminine isn't bad.
@elheber @dundundone Of course neither pink nor feminine are bad things. The only thing I object to is equalling pink with feminine. Colors don't need genders.
@dundundone What if you want it to? What if a group of people decided to take identify a particular rainbow of colors to their group? It would seem rather wrong for the breast cancer ribbon to be purposefully chosen to be pink.
@elheber @dundundone That doesn't really have anything to do with gender though, that's just branding.
@dundundone So, again, it was just a coincidence that the breast cancer ribbon is pink. Ok. No, no, you don't have to explain yourself; I get it.
Maybe it's a cultural difference between you and me. Spanish was my first language, so I find nothing wrong in attributing gender to things that don't actually have it (i.e. tree is masculine, mountain is feminine). I think skirts in my modern American culture are feminine, you see it as just fabric that has no gender. Fine. But please don't correct me when I assume a dress is being gifted to a woman just because it's a dress. Or that the only pink toad is feminine.
Congratulations on achieving a higher, more sophisticated and progressive view of the world. But please don't look down on me for thinking differences in gender are natural and fair to distinguish.
@elheber If you want to assume things that might not be true, that's on you. I personally like to see things for what they actually are, rather than what I think they should be.
@dundundone Are they true? When I'm assuming I admit I'm assuming. I don't have to be right 100% of the time; I just have to be right when it matters. I'm fine with assuming Toadette is feminine based her unique color and ponytails because there's no harm if I'm wrong. There's no amount of grievances from you that will change the benefits of presumptions.
If a room is pink, my guess is it's a girl's room.
@elheber If you think there's no harm, you're wrong. But I'm not going to get into a feminist argument with you, because I know there's no point. So let's just agree to disagree.
@dundundone I'm interested in having that conversation. Admittedly, the comment section of a gaming news article isn't the best platform so I can understand why it'd be mostly fruitless. After all, there's only two people reading our comments. But thank you, dundundone.