What made Ashley so popular anyway?

CM30

CM30

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Well, any ideas?

What made a character introduced only in WarioWare Touched into arguably the most popular character in the franchise, with the exception of Wario himself?

Do people online just seem to be drawn to this sort of character for some reason? What do you think?
 
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CM30 said:
the most character in the franchise
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Heh. I can tell you had trouble thinking of an adjective, and forgot to get back around to it.

Anyway, it's probably in large part because of her aesthetic; Kyon is one very notable example of this. She also has a few personality traits (that we mostly hear about rather than actually seeing; not a very dialogue-heavy series, unfortunately) that might appeal to people, notably her desire for friends and rather tsundere-ish attitude. Not the most fleshed out character, but the basis for a decent character is there, I suppose.
 
-she's cute, but like, in a way that doesn,t threaten boy's budding masculinity

-popular theme song

-she was introduced in the best-selling WW (and 2nd best-selling Wario game overal after the original wario land)

-even before the current promotion of her character, she had the most exposure out of WW's cast because of smash bros. and (in Japan) band brothers

also a common statement when I feed japanese sites posts and miiverse comments to google translate is that Japanese fans find her "unique among Nintendo's character", or a "type of character Nintendo doesn't do often". they don't really elaborate what they mean by that (and the google translate eloquence muddle things up further), but it's something to keep in mind, I suppose.
 
Glowsquid said:
"unique among Nintendo's character", or a "type of character Nintendo doesn't do often".
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Kyon has also said this multiple times. I take it as most Nintendo series have unique looking characters that buck most trends. Ashley is unique in that she's not unique(if that makes sense) when comparing her design as well as her type of character to most other characters in Wario games as well as other Nintendo franchises. She's more of a combination of common archetypes that are particularly popular in Japan. Seemingly evil goth-ish loli who secretly wants friends. Rather ripe for popularity even if she is not very well developed just like most of the other characters.
 
Her personality and design appeal to the gothic crowd, it's funny and refreshing to have a Mario/Wario character who's usually sullen and not a villain, and like it or not, there are probably a lot of guys who find her attractive.

(Fun fact: The Wario cartoon I'm making opens with Wario and Mona reading fan mail and Wario getting frustrated that all the questions are about Ashley.)
 
Glowsquid said:
-even before the current promotion of her character, she had the most exposure out of WW's cast because of smash bros. and (in Japan) band brothers
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And yet Kat & Ana made it as ATs in Brawl first. (And still are in Smash 4)
But yes, Ashley's song did play the biggest part in it.

BigMagma said:
She's more of a combination of common archetypes that are particularly popular in Japan. Seemingly evil goth-ish loli who secretly wants friends. Rather ripe for popularity even if she is not very well developed just like most of the other characters.
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Yeah, it's more like that. She's like Geno, if anything.

Me, I'm just not getting what the hype with her is all about. WarioWare was never a character-driven series, which is why this is surprising.
I mean, the WW games themselves aren't even doing anything to elevate her above the other characters. In fact, they're doing just the opposite:
Wb79cN.gif





After all, it's a series full of stuff like this we're talking about here:
WWIMM_GoldDigger.PNG


Though don't get me wrong, I do like Ashley. But only when she's on equal terms with the other WW characters (which she normally is in the games themselves), not as the overexposed character that she is now.
(If she starts haphazardly appearing on the boxart of the next game, then we've got a problem)
 
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Well, a lot of people (including myself) think she has this charm to her, she has a design Nintendo doesn't really do, she's also cute. Has a personality people can relate to, even if it isn't developed into her character well, but what would you expect from a game that is heavily driven on mini-games? Nowhere to really fit anything for her.

So, what happens when a character gets noticed? Nintendo will notice, maybe give her more spotlight time, more people see Ashley, Nintendo put's Ashley in the spotlight, more people know of Ashley because of this, Nintendo put's Ashley out even more, now way more people know of Ashley.

Her design got her noticed mainly. I can speak for them, as when I first saw Ashley, it was when I was looking for Mario characters to trace, I seen this girl with large hair, for a second I didn't bat another eye, but the more I looked at the image the more I found her cool, so I saved the picture. I like Ashley because I found her design cool, same with probably everyone else.

Went for the looks, stayed for the personality. (For me at least. Let's say Ashley was a nice person who did magic for people, I most likely wouldn't like her as much.)
 
It's important to note that Ashley being overwhelmingly more popular then everyone else is only a Japan thing, some evidence for that has been pointed out here :
http://warioforums.com/index.php?threads/whos-actually-the-most-popular-warioware-character.1202/

Sure, she is still popular, but not to a overwhelming degree and it could even be argued that 9-Volt beats her in that regard, which is supported by the fact that a good number of Ashley-only merch (cleaning cloths, badges and the second 3DS theme in Europes's case ) never made it outside of Japan (as of now, anyway).

The fact that the tropes that she embodys are particulary huge in Japan is also notable, which makes it easy to slap her mug on something and expect even people that have no idea what WarioWare is to buy it, similary to how people buy easy to market stuff like Hello Kitty merch, despite not knowing where that thing even came from.

I also have to question how she is ''unique'' in comparison to other Nintendo characters, given that most of her supposed personality traits are hardly (if ever) touched upon and she never did anything oustanding that would make her stand out, unlike someone like Wario, I'd even say that 9-Volt is more unique, due to his very meta nature of being a Nintendo character, that is a Nintendo fanboy and even then I still wouldn't approve of him being put above the other characters, they are best served when they are all together on the same level as far as I'm concerned.
 
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warelander said:
It's important to note that Ashley being overwhelmingly more popular then everyone else is only a Japan thing, some evidence for that has been pointed out here :
http://warioforums.com/index.php?threads/whos-actually-the-most-popular-warioware-character.1202/

Sure, she is still popular, but not to a overwhelming degree and it could even be argued that 9-Volt beats her in that regard, which is supported by the fact that a good number of Ashley-only merch (cleaning cloths, badges and the second 3DS theme in Europes's case ) never made it outside of Japan (as of now, anyway).

The fact that the tropes that she embodys are particulary huge in Japan is also notable, which makes it easy to slap her mug on something and expect even people that have no idea what WarioWare is to buy it, similary to how people buy easy to market stuff like Hello Kitty merch, despite not knowing where that thing even came from.

I also have to question how she is ''unique'' in comparison to other Nintendo characters, given that most of her supposed personality traits are hardly (if ever) touched upon and she never did anything oustanding that would make her stand out, unlike someone like Wario, I'd even say that 9-Volt is more unique, due to his very meta nature of being a Nintendo character, that is a Nintendo fanboy and even then I still wouldn't approve of him being put above the other characters, they are best served when they are all together on the same level as far as I'm concerned.
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I'd say unique in terms of being a very conventional character (especially in looks) for a Nintendo character, since as I mentioned before a lot of Nintendo's other series have unorthodox characters and character designs and styles (Pikmin,Animal Crossing, etc). Ashley could very easily be placed in some other random Japanese series and not be out of place. Not so with most other characters.
 
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warelander said:
It's important to note that Ashley being overwhelmingly more popular then everyone else is only a Japan thing, some evidence for that has been pointed out here :
http://warioforums.com/index.php?threads/whos-actually-the-most-popular-warioware-character.1202/
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Yeah, I've already had that figured out for a while. And honestly, I can't say I blame them at all. It IS a common thing with them all around.

Any support you see for her coming from the west are merely bandwagon-type pocket groups of, you know, weebs.

Sure, she is still popular, but not to a overwhelming degree and it could even be argued that 9-Volt beats her in that regard, which is supported by the fact that a good number of Ashley-only merch (cleaning cloths, badges and the second 3DS theme in Europes's case ) never made it outside of Japan (as of now, anyway).
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Having the Gamer stage in Smash did help a bit, no? And those holiday badges (always with Nikki in them too) aren't going anywhere else at this rate.

I also have to question how she is ''unique'' in comparison to other Nintendo characters, given that most of her supposed personality traits are hardly (if ever) touched upon and she never did anything oustanding that would make her stand out, unlike someone like Wario, I'd even say that 9-Volt is more unique, due to his very meta nature of being a Nintendo character, that is a Nintendo fanboy and even then I still wouldn't approve of him being put above the other characters, they are best served when they are all together on the same level as far as I'm concerned.
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And again, that takes me back to how I mentioned that in the WW games themselves, Ashley still isn't getting any preferential treatment over the others. Do we see Wario praising her for being "amazing and unique" and giving her a promotion? Is she "star-launching" all the other characters left and right? Does she get her own "Ashley-themed" set of microgames? (Like how Wario's often revolve around himself) No, of course not.

But hey, it could be worse: The new Wario stage in Smash could have been Ashley (Game & Wario minigame) instead of Gamer. And I much prefer fighting while hiding from mom over fighting on giant desserts.
 
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I wonder, if 9-volt is the popular one (in the west.) Why hasn't Nintendo given him any special treatment? I haven't heard anything new of him for awhile now, besides showing up on Badge Arcade that one time.

Let me name a few things I know.

  • He has a stage in Smash Bros.
  • ...a song from his gamer thing is in his smash bros stage
  • appeared as a Badge a few times, none of them being new artwork I suppose.
That's the stuff I know, but I don't keep up with 9-volt whatsoever.
 
Well, do NoA and NoE actually do anything? Besides localization.

They can barely produce any content themselves.
 
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Might not even be popularity that is the determining factor that Nintendo is going off of to treat Ashley the way they do. It might just be marketability. Popularity and marketability are usually intertwined but are not always the same.
 
Kyon said:
I haven't heard anything new of him for awhile now, besides showing up on Badge Arcade that one time.
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Rhythmware_9volt.jpeg

And it's still relevant too, since Rhythm Heaven Megamix is getting it's western release this year.

Outside of that :

- Mona and 9-Volt were the only Ware exclusive charas to get two stickers in Brawl, rather then just one, like everyone else.

-9-Volt is the only character besides Wario, to physically appear in both versions of Do It Yourself.

-It's his game that got to be a stage in Smash 4.

Neither of these examples are particulary huge (except maybe DIY), but they can be seen as an acknowledgement of 9-Volt and his stages being popular and as BooDestroyer and King Hehehe already pointed out, it's Nintendo of Japan that's calling the shots, so japanese sensibilitys are more likely to be appeased.
 
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