Animal Crossing Fart jokes remain lost in translation as Kapp’n returns in New Horizons


Kapp'n Animal Crossing New Horizons
Image: Nintendo Life

Christmas, or rather, Friday, November 5, came early yesterday when the long-awaited update to version 2.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was surprisingly released more than a day ahead of schedule.

While much of the initial excitement around the supposed last major free content update centered around the return of Brewster and his coffee, much of the post-Direct excitement centered around the return of Kapp’n and his ship. Well, at least in this writer’s house.

And so we were glad to see the same old Kapp’n again yesterday after such a long absence, but we were also delighted to notice some small changes, which inspired us to share a couple of fun facts and fan theories about our personal favorite. NPC from the Japanese side of the Animal Crossing fandom, or, should we say, Dōbutsu no Mori fandom. That’s right, we’ve played over 500 hours (and counting) of both Tobi-Mori (Animal Crossing: New Leaf) and Atsu-Mori (ACNH) so you don’t have to!

Although you will, of course.

Kapp'n lounging in a boat from our dock as if he was the one waiting for us to introduce ourselves.
Kapp’n lounging in a boat from our dock as if he was the one waiting for us to introduce ourselves. (Image: Nintendo Life / Andrew J. Rue)

Fun fact: It’s a kappa!

Unless you have a more than passing familiarity with Japanese culture, you may be forgiven for mistaking Kapp’n for a sea turtle when in fact it is a kappa, a sometimes mischievous and sometimes malevolent creature from Japanese folklore.

Physically, kappa They are often depicted as tiny, half-reptilian, half-human creatures with turtle shells on their backs and Friar Tuck-like bald spots on the top of their heads. In fact, if you doubt us about Kapp’n and his relatives on Tortimer Island, the bald spots you can invariably find on the top of their heads are a clear indication. Called Sara (literally “plates” or “plates”), these bald spots are actually concave and contain small pools of water that are said to be the source of a kappasupernatural power.

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Kappa They are also said to frequent the streams and ponds (and even the baths) of Japan, where they harmlessly joke or brutally attack their hapless victims. Possibly, the legends about kappa could have served to scare children from playing near dangerous waters, but maybe other aspects of their mythology it is better to leave them unexplained. More relevant to Kapp’n, however, kappa They are reportedly fond of cucumbers and are apparently associated with flatulence, which would largely explain why Kapp’n sings so often about cucumbers and breaks the wind mid-tune in Dōbutsu no Mori.

And as you may have already noticed, the name Kapp’n itself is a play on words. kappa. Well, the same goes for his original Japanese nickname, Kappei.

Kappei (Kapp'n) apologizing not so politely for breaking the wind in Tobi-Mori (ACNL)
Kappei (Kapp’n) apologizing not so politely for breaking the wind in Tobi-Mori (ACNL) (Image: Andrew J. Rue)

Fan Theory: He’s a crooner and a jerk!

Many Dōbutsu no Mori fans have drawn comparisons between Kappei and at least two celebrities, leading to speculation that his character was inspired by one, the other, or perhaps a combination of both.

First, some have noted similarities between the sea huts that Kappei sings and the songs that Yūzō Kayama sang, especially his smash hit “Kimi to Itsumademo”(Unofficially,“ Forever with You, ”above). Yūzō Kayama is a celebrated musician and actor whose dual career in music and film was roughly analogous to Elvis Presley’s, and while our family swears that his songs were the inspiration behind Kappei’s sea shacks, we’ll let his ears judge that. .

Second, others have noted similarities between Kappei in both dialect and name and a Aomori-Television personality known professionally as Ina Kappei. Springfield’s crib choice Captain McCallister when locating Kappei for the West was an inspiration, but in his native Japan, he speaks less like a seafaring pirate and more like a redneck. In fact, Ina Kappei’s stage name itself is a play on inakappei, an insult that can be translated as jerk or jerk.

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Yūzō Kayama (left) appears on television with Ina Kappei (right) around the 1980s - holy cow, what nonsense!
Yūzō Kayama (left) appears on television with Ina Kappei (right) around the 1980s – holy cow, what nonsense! (Image: Source)

Fun fact: It has a new flag!

At Tobi-Mori (ACNL), the Kappei flag sported a white ship’s rudder over a simple checkered pattern in blue and red, a symbol as appropriate as any for our beloved boatman. In Atsu-Mori (ACNH), however, Kappei now sports a new flag on his ship.

At first glance, it appears as if Kappei’s new red and white flag represents a mountain with the sun. No doubt, the flag is sure to remind even some Western players of Hokusai’s history. Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, especially considering that your most famous print can be donated to the museum within the game.

However, if you have studied even a little Japanese, you will instantly recognize the new Kappei flag not only as a volcanic mountain that resembles Mount Fuji, but also as a clever interpretation of a phonetic letter from one of the two syllabaries used in Japanese writing. system, that is, the letter hiragana upon. Because the hiragana letter upon, could you reasonably ask? Well, because Kappei spells his name in hiragana, which finally brings us to our own personal fan theory….

Kappei (Kapp'n) wears a new flag in Atsu-Mori (ACNH) that represents the pe in Kappei disguised as a mountain with the sun.
Kappei (Kapp’n) wears a new flag in Atsu-Mori (ACNH) that represents the pe in Kappei disguised as a mountain with the sun. (Image: Andrew J. Rue)

Fan Theory: Kapp’n is an elaborate fart joke.

Like most of the characters in Dōbutsu no Mori, Kappei’s name is something of a pun, and it works on more than one level. At the first level, as we mentioned earlier, Kappei is a combination of kappa and the ending of the masculine name -hei or -pei (as in the common names Kōhei or Junpei), giving us Kappei. At the second level, as we also mentioned earlier, Kappei could be a tribute to Ina Kappei considering the dialect and the name that they both share. At the third level, Kappei could also be a subtle fart joke. Try and get naked with us for a spell.

sounds reasonable that the same phonological process that transforms boo within wood could also transform Hey within pei, making Kappei work as a combination of kappa and a wet poot

When processed as sound effects in sleeve, the more forceful boo or the softest (and possibly wettest) wood They are the preferred onomatopoeia to convey flatulence to the reader. These may appear arbitrarily elongated (as in buuuuuu) or in staccato bursts (as in puppy), and written in hiragana or tell to emphasize. And the creativity of Japanese artists does not end there. For example, a quiet hiss can be captured with suu or combined with wood, giving us such colorful interpretations as pusuuuu. Although it is true that we trust our memory, we could swear that we have seen at least one sound captured as Hey. As amateur linguists, it seems reasonable to us that the same phonological process that transforms boo within wood could also transform Hey within pei, making Kappei also work as a combination of kappa and a wet poot.

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A Yoshitoshi print depicting a fisherman resorting to chemical warfare when defending himself from a kappa attack.
An impression of Yoshitoshi portraying a fisherman who resorts to chemical warfare when defending himself from a kappa attack.

If it looks like we are getting here, consider the facts that he is a word for a bottom burp in the
dictionary and hardly is the jargon of sleepwalking flatulence. Perhaps less ubiquitous in colloquial speech than onara, he appears in common expressions like the demo nai, which idiomatically translates to “trivial” but literally translates to “not even a fart.” Or consider the related expression, kappa not him, which is idiomatically translated as “doddle”, but literally translates as “a kappa‘s fart “- wait, a kappaFart…?!

With all due respect to Yūzō Kayama and Ina Kappei, it would seem that the expression kappa not him—In addition to the strong and innumerable associations between kappa and all the eschatological to begin with, provided a third source of inspiration for the character Kappei.

So next time you see Kapp’n and his new flag on New Horizons, well … you can’t stop reading this article right now, right?


Feel free to share your love, fun facts, and fan theories about Kapp’n below.




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