Fumihide Aoki, the Japanese video game artist behind the creation of Waluigi, revealed his anime-inspired artwork of the hilariously infamous Super Mario character.
On Instagram, Aoki thanked his followers for helping him reach 1000 subscribers with a comical illustration of Luigi’s arch-rival doing the famous motorcycle pose from Akira. However, instead of a motorcycle, Waluigi is seen riding a caterpillar creature known as a Wiggler from the Super Mario series. Waluigi riding a Wiggler is in fact a somewhat risqué reference to a scandalous social media post made by Nintendo, where the company wanted everyone to celebrate “Wiggler Wednesday” but forgot a very important letter.
In the comment section, a user asked Aoki about the current relationship between Wario and Waluigi. “It seems like the two of them have a relationship like co-workers who only cooperate with each other when their goals are the same,” Aoki said. “When I first designed Waluigi, I intended him to be Wario’s brother, but…” It seems the evil doppelgangers of the Super Mario Bros. were intended to be related, but that might not be the case with the current iteration of the characters. Of course, lore within the Super Mario Bros. universe has never been taken too seriously, as the mother of Bowser Jr. is officially the series creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
Originally created as a rival for Luigi in the 2000 release of Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64, Waluigi has gained a cult following fueled by internet memes celebrating the character’s pitifulness. Being one of the few characters excluded from the Super Smash Bros. series has only made the joke character even more popular, causing everyone to see Waluigi as an underdog. Despite his internet fame, Waluigi is still restricted to the Super Mario spinoff titles.
The Super Mario Bros. franchise has undergone some major changes this year. On top of releasing its first theatrical animated movie, The Super Mario Bros. has radicalized its 2D platforming roots with the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Additionally, longtime Super Mario voice actor Charles Martinet has passed the torch to newcomer Kevin Afghani. Afghani has taken over the roles of Mario and Luigi from Martinet and has also hinted online that he plays Wario in WarioWare: Move It. Currently, there’s no confirmation of whether Afghani will take over Waluigi from Martinet as well.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is now available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: Instagram
