Hey there to anyone who finds this and bothers to read!
This is my first and likely last blog post, at least for a good while, I don't really often do this sort of thing, but thanks to encouragement from many different friends I decided to give it a try.
It was a great challenge and if anything, could serve as a learning experience for the future.
There were a few more things I would've liked to have touched upon, another character flaw or two, and specific dialect used by the character, but with concise and digestible being my overall goal for this essay, it became increasingly clear to me that I couldn't really achieve this without derailing for so long that the overall point might have become lost.
I felt it was at least worth mentioning that more could have been said.
With that out of the way, whether you enjoy this or not I really do appreciate your time!
Super Bomberman R came out way back in 2017 as a launch title for Nintendo Switch, as a big Bomberman fan I couldn't have been more excited and for a short period, I was!
The game's release revived my long dormant passion for a series I thought had been gone forever, but in revisiting those older entries I grew up with and even some I missed, I started becoming more critical of Super Bomberman R, to the point in which nowadays I see it as a mediocre game that only sold as well as it did purely because it was a launch title.
While at points you can see glimpses of passion from the devteam, the execution is very uninspired and doesn't much reflect this, but that's not what I'm here to write about, only related.
They are there, and always have been, but this element is rarely ever discussed to the degree it is in other franchises with similar mascot style casts.
Super Bomberman R attempted to reboot the series with the 8 player palettes found in the original battle games, this time acting as the core ensemble, they've all been given slightly unique designs and mannerisms, playing out a bit like a team you'd find in maybe an old sentai or a Saturday AM cartoon, with each having a personality and/or comedic element to call their own, all intended to help them stand apart from one another.
You've got as follows:
White: The oldest and the most responsible, diligent and always in the pursuit of justice, but his family does not seem to share his reverence for this, thus he ends up as a bit of a butt-monkey in the wake of their antics.
Black: Vain and a bit of a narcissist, uses this as a means to justify his slacking.
Red: Raring to go and very trigger happy.
Blast first, talk never, similar to White but without the rationale, in other words an impulsive idiot.
Blue: He likes to sleep above all else, he's lazy and can sleep anywhere, anytime, and is always willing. Interestingly enough he's actually an intellectual, but this is only ever brought up and touched upon in a single cutscene.
Green: A mischievous and manipulative child who deceives his family and opponents with cute looks and mannerisms to get what he wants.
Yellow: Another kid among the group, Yellow is an airhead, well meaning but seemingly lost in his own version of the world, with no signs of situational awareness.
Aqua: A polite and shy young girl who hates conflict and violence.
Typically she would like to avoid hostile situations at all costs, however when something manages to upset her she becomes the most bloodthirsty and dangerous among the whole family.
They're all fine enough for the simple story the game tells, but I don't really think they do much to keep anyone invested or passionate about them particularly, they're very much exactly as they seem on the surface, and at their worst, kind of annoying even, well all of them except the 8th member I didn't mention until now, and who all this buildup was for actually, Super Bomberman R's wonderful, happy accident, Pink Bomber.
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| Request Art by Shion Bluu (汐ン) colors by Eviflare |
Now on the surface you wouldn't think twice about her, I didn't initially, she seems cute, her antenna is a heart, her belt buckle is a heart, she's pink, she's a girl, seen it all before, and here's the thing among the small fan community for this particular iteration of Bomberman, she's often somewhere on the lower end of popularity polls, and in some cases even criticized for being the one with no "personality" or just that her trope is "girl."
Pink is a vivacious and extroverted individual who also happens to be a bit of a busybody and charitable to a fault, she does whatever she can to help others out, regardless of whether or not they need or want it.
She is overtly feminine, she keeps informed about recent trends, has a fondness for heart shaped items and accessories (hence her antenna) and displays an interest in fashion to a light degree.
She dislikes monsters (though what that entails is currently unknown) and last but not least her hobbies include song and dance.
While her siblings seem and act averse to helping White save the universe and more or less don't listen to him, Pink seems to have the most respect for him.
When shoved into their spaceship at the beginning of the game, she doesn't say anything rebellious, nor does she actively try to escape unlike the others, she simply expresses concern over not having packed lunches beforehand.
This is meant to be comedic yes, but it doesn't really depict her as being opposed to helping out.
Her heart is in the right place, she just has a questionable sense of priority, which is actually a consistent quirk as it reappears in the post game world and is something that plays to her appeal, giving her a bit of extra nuance rather than simply defining her entirely.
She is actually very attentive and keen eyed to the point of noticing things even White doesn't, like Yellow going missing during the second planet, which in turn might stem from that she actively expresses love and care for her family throughout this game in numerous instances.
In the Japanese version of the game she is the only one within the family to use affectionate nicknames or terms, at least for her younger siblings referring to Aqua (Mizubon) as "Mi-chan", Yellow (Kiroibon) as "Ki-kun", and Blue (Aobon) as "Ao-chan", whereas any other character mentioning another's name simply says it as is.
Pink also fondly reminisces about a lost family member (I'll get to this) upon sight of a nostalgic location from the past, and she steps up for and defends Black Bomber who has a nervous breakdown during a strangely sensual encounter with Karaoke/Sexy Bomber, and is actually shocked when she discovers their true identity after the battle, which further motivates her for the rest of the journey, a rare excerpt of character development in a game with largely static characterizations.
Pink prides herself in being the cool "big sis" of the family and as such, tries to set good examples for them (not without fault), even serving as a bit of a mentor figure for Aqua in particular.
However, unlike Aqua, coincidentally enough, Pink doesn't mind fighting at all, even finding enjoyment taking part in it.
While she still seems disinterested in training much like everyone aside from White, she does seem to share his fondness for battling, especially if it's all in good sport.
She's confident in her ability and treats battles like a bit of a show performance, encouraging opponents to make battles lively, speaking during them as if she were in front of a live audience, and while genuinely a kind spirit, some of Pink's win quotes show she can have a bit of snark if not a blunt honesty that could be interpreted as harsh, and unlike Pretty Bomber or Sexy Bomber, none of hers make a point out of being a woman, her charm or appearance, or singing, nor do they even allude to these things.
Fairly unkempt of someone whose personality is apparently just "girl", I would say.
Pink's design is so simple yet actually very unique within the franchise and in a brilliant move it actually establishes a customization feature from SBR as canon to the mythos.
Pink's antenna is actually the same as everyone else's, or at least it was prior to the events of the story mode, in the opening cutscene she calls it a "hairclip", silly, comedic wording aside, it's actually a hat/accessory the same items you can equip any character with upon character selection, only hers is unique to her design serving as her default, but nonetheless it's an awesome way to link an optional feature and the lore together.
In an interesting and cohesive move, she actually wears the same belt as Aqua Bomber and Pretty Bomber, white with a heart shaped buckle, but unlike those two she wears hers loosely, a bit like a sash, giving her a "cooler" look befitting of her frankly tomboyish attitude by comparison.
She also does not wear a skirt or dress, nor does she have eyelashes, this seems silly to point out, but going over the abundance of female character designs across this franchise, you might be shocked to learn how uncommon this is.
Things like hearts are still weaved somewhere into her design yes, but unlike other characters, these things are informed by the character's actual preferences and characterization and she has no other traditional "girl signals" for lack of a better term outside of them.
Pink's sailor fuku top is unique among the cast and gives her a fun torso design and combined with the loose belt, she has a great balance between cute and cool here, I love it!
The overall design isn't noisy in the slightest, just as simple as Bomberman's, but unique to her all the same.
It also avoids so many previous trappings that I don't necessarily despise per say, but arguably feel tired at this point.
Speaking of previous trappings, I couldn't let this go if I didn't mention series icon, Pretty Bomber, or at least address Pink Bomber's blatant similarities to the character(s) who go by that name.
Pretty Bomber having once been localized as "Cute Pink" in the overseas releases of various Bomberman Land games, is also in ways a female counterpart to Bomberman with a pink prime color and a heart motif somewhere in the design, and as one might be able to guess, these two characters get mixed up a ton.
Now on the surface, or from the perspective of an outsider looking in, I would not even blame you for getting them mixed up or even thinking they're the same person or one character.
There were theories before SBR released in which people believed the character of Pretty Bomber whom throughout the series has been depicted in many different roles and alignments, was essentially split into a good half and an evil half for this iteration, the good half being that of Pink Bomber, and the evil half being Sexy Bomber.
Honestly this sounds fairly feasible, or at least like a few things mentioned here, at surface level it does.
Then the game released and a twist reveal happens in the story mode in which *spoilers* (I don't think anyone cares) we learn Sexy Bomber is just a brainwashed Pretty Bomber who is also now in this iteration, the family's long lost sister, thought to be scrapped before at least Pink's creation.
This is a super weird twist, it not only creates plot holes, but adds even weirder connotations to earlier events, honestly only makes the distinction between Pink and Pretty Bomber all the more confusing, and it's just a very odd move to make for a legacy character who has been used as an on again, off again, love interest for the hero more than once in the past.
I don't like it but I digress.
Moving on, with Pretty Bomber as a character her own in SBR, the above theory is now invalid, but even if it wasn't would we really be able to say she's some Pretty Bomber counterpart in any way?
No version of Pretty Bomber truly acts like or resembles her.
The Land Counterpart while not evil, is known for being fairly self centered and mean-spirited, the Jetters Counterpart was more a cameo than anything, and also depicted as a prim girl with a fanclub, and lastly, the classic Pretty Bomber is mostly a villainess who uses her sweet appearance and demeanor to get adversaries to lower their guard, so she can go in for the kill.
There are also several different versions of a Pink Bomber character prior to this one, most notably the Bakugaiden anime character, I haven't seen that show but from what I know of the character, spoiled rich and easily love stricken doesn't line up with the subject character of this essay.
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| Classic Pretty deserved better than an offshoot link, sorry I'm biased. |
So where did Pink Bomber come from if none of these characters have anything to do with her conception?
Well this should be more obvious than people seem to have thought back then, but Pink Bomber is simply the classic 7th Player "pink" palette from the old games (Paul, as some friends and I lovingly refer to him as) reimagined as a girl and given a distinct look and actual character.
This lines up with the other sibling members who were also reimagined under the same idea, bits of other versions of these characters were included for their SBR counterparts, Blue borrows his entire schtick from SB4's opening, Aqua borrows the ribbon and shy persona from the Land counterpart, but Pink doesn't really take influence from anything established prior, even if it seemed that way at first glance, and there does actually exist material that suggests the SBR counterpart of Pretty was a late addition and even more a copy of Pink rather than the other way around, but that's merely the short way for me to cover the similarities between these two, while also serving as a way for me to say that's probably best left for another discussion.
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| "Hi guys! It's me, Paul!" |
Kind of bothersome the two characters are essentially forever doomed to get mixed up like this due to some past mistakes and questionable new ones.
It'd be great if Konami made greater efforts to make these characters more visually distinct, I think Pink would do well to be given a minor design update in which her gloves and shoes are blue instead of pink, a nice homage to the classic counterpart's Land and Blast depictions, while also reflecting a bit of her character within her palette, the cool tomboyish part of her, but not just that, doing this would make her palette an arranged version of Bomberman's and a clever opposite to Aqua's, while having something obviously differing from Pretty and also not really looking like too much of a similar color huddled together from a top down perspective.
I tend to go this route myself whenever I get the chance to personally.
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| Bomberman MAX mock up I made |
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| Mock up N64 era character models by my dear friend Pulsie |
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| Actual Dream Team! MAX and Pink Bomber figures made by JosephsJunk |
With all this said I think a big part of why I love this character so much is because I know she's an accident through and through, it's not often you get a character with this much to take away from with so little game appearances, and about less than an hour's worth of dialogue total.
Perhaps it's funny that the only thing I truly value (my opinion of course) in this otherwise unremarkable installment of a 40+ year old franchise is a character that turned out better than the writers/devteam ever intended her to be, and not even just that, but that she's actually become my favorite female character to date in this entire IP, which may sound like it has both positive and negative connotations, it's not meant to, but make what you will of it.
For some reason they gave this character a design that breaks conventions for the series, quirks, hobbies, interests, flaws, and not ones that only exist to serve as some sort of gag or punchline, ones that give her actual dimension, all this and more, in something with a remarkably simplistic and short narrative compared to most anything today.
Interesting to note Pink appears in at least one cutscene in every world, meaning she has the 2nd greatest amount of screentime of any character in the story mode only behind White, do I think all of this was intentional?
Well based on the rest of the bomber siblings and the weak writing as a whole, no not at all, but I also don't really think I'm looking in too deep, maybe moreso than the writers had imagined anyone would, but my point is that everything I went over is just straight up in the game and/or in official bios from Konami.
I'm not ad-libbing or cooking up theories, I'm simply taking into account everything I saw from the character within these games and writing it here.
Funnily enough, I think Konami might've known she had no real gimmick and as a result in SBRO her bio doubled down on her being extremely nosy in an attempt to give her one, although this never shows itself in the game whatsoever.
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| Trying to "fix" her when the real issue is that her family is nowhere near as well rounded as she is. |
It's not that Pink has "no personality" it's the contrary, she's an actual character amid a group of one note tropes.
She can easily stand on her own without the bumbling circus act that SBR aims for with it's cast, I know it's easy to lump her into the background or write her off at first glance but hopefully this odd endeavor of mine makes those of you that took the time to read it, consider giving her a second look, maybe you'll realize that this gal's no dud.
(I couldn't let this finish without at least one bomb joke.)
To those who made it through, thanks for reading!!
As a special thanks, please check out Ragey's Bombastic Bomberman Shrine arguably the most comprehensive source for all things Bomberman currently online as of today!
And also you may like:
- Bomberman Channel - An up and coming and ongoing source for Bomberman related news and discussion, even some great original art to boot!
- Power Bomberman - The biggest Bomberman Battle game ever, and a game I'm proud to have contributed to and made many great friends playing.
- Bomberman Tower - Once again by my dear friend Pulsie! An updated Rogue-Lite take on the game boy classic Pocket Bomberman! With original levels, multiple player characters with unique playstyles and abilities and all new bosses, plus more to come in a future update!
- Lastly check out the various Bomberman related SRB2K contributions by Pulsie, GDRamen and Adri Villa! Pink Bomber hits the track alongside other familiar series faces, and she even has a 3D Model!
Without the support of various individuals related to all of these, I wouldn't have bothered to even write this up.
They all have my deepest gratitude and I don't think anyone gets this franchise quite like they do.
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