Minish based from a real tale?

[Onilink89]

now i was watching an anime and the sentence "korobokkuru" came up.
the meaning/explaination in the anime was: little people under leaves from ainu ledgends.

so first thing what came in my mind was minish cap.

so i was curious about it so i tried to search some info on wikipedia.
here is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobokkuru

this is not the first time that real life things from other cultures popped up in zelda games.
but still this is quite suprising.
so what do you guys think about this?

[Kybyrian]

Interesting. It seems that these Korobokkuru you speak of have had some influences on other games. They could have had some sort of influence on The Minish Cap. For sure I don't know. This is pretty interesting though, as I already said. :P

[blackice_cc]

Yeah, very interesting find Oni. It's very possible that the Korobokkuru influenced the Minish. And the Minish even disappear, like the Korobokkuru did, though they come back every century.

[linkman8]

I would say that's pretty interesting, perhaps playing a slight role in the Minish's creation. Perhaps they were influenced by Korobokkuru, but I wonder if Nintendo would admit to it?

[Bluelink6]

^ I doubt it. Or at least say something like no, but that is quite simirlar.

[Petman1325]

Very interesting. Besides, linkman8, Nintendo doesn't really fess up anything; unless it is a press release about a new game or console. They try to tell very little, and tell people at the last second, or make the game/console vaporware (VirtualBoy, anyone)

[kpllk]

Maybe there are more games like the minish cap inspired by that...is that real or is it an old legend or something.
I said pretty much the same thing Kybyrian did.

[Kybyrian]

Like I said, kpllk, there are a few more games inspired by the korobokkuru according to the article that Onilink posted.

[chrisbg99]

They kind of look like Smurfs.

[kpllk]

Kybyrian, I am just wondering, what are those other games. Do you know any of them.

[Kybyrian]

The Square Enix video game Seiken Densetsu 3 has a race of really small creatures called "Korobockles".

The Natsume video game Harvest Moon DS is called Bokujou Monogatari: Colobocle Station in Japan. Like other games in the Harvest Moon series, it features tiny people who help out around the farm (called "harvest sprites" in the English version).

In the video game Ōkami, a tiny people known as "poncles" (from Ainu pon-kur "small person") live underground in the small city of Ponctan (from Ainu pon-kotan "small village"). The city is located in the territory of a tribe known as the "Oina" (a reference to the Ainu people). The territory is "Kamui", which is the Ainu word for god. Issun (named for the Japanese fairy tale character One-inch boy), who travels with the protagonist throughout the game, is one of these poncles.

In Manga:

In the manga Shaman King the koropokkur ("minutians" in the English version) are depicted as a race of tiny spirit creatures which are influential to the background of the teenage Ainu shaman Horohoro. A particular koropokkur—named Kororo (Corey, in English)—accompanies Horohoro as his guardian spirit.

And if you look at the Wikipedia article that Oni posted, you would know this. Also, koropokkur is another name for the Korobokkuru

[kpllk]

I didn't really understand any of that. Most of it was in a different languige I think. Can you reapete it in complete english please.

[Kybyrian]

Erm, those were copied straight from Wikipedia.

But all that it's saying is:

Seiken Densetsu 3 has a bunch of really little people called "Korobockles".

In Harvest Moon there are tiny people who help around the farm called harvest sprites that resemble Korobokkuru.

In the game Ōkami there are little people called poncles resemble Korobokkuru.

In the Manga The Shaman King there are koropokkur, which is another name for the Korobokkuru.

[kpllk]

Oh. Thanks for telling me. Wikipedea should change their languige.

[linkman8]

Oh. Thanks for telling me. Wikipedea should change their languige.
You can change the language on wikipedia for certain articles. Besides, we're talking about Japanese legends, it's not going to be entirely in English.

[kpllk]

Well still, they can make it more than two words english.

I didnt know that that was Japanese.

[xandar]

That's pretty cool that you found that. I actually did relate the little Minish people to the Minutians from Shaman King, 'cause that's one of my favorite mangas. I also noticed some other stuff from different cultures, such as the triforce. The triforce is not always what it's called, and it's not always Power, Courage and Wisdom, but if you look into lots of religions, you will find lots of triplicates. In christianity, you have the trinity, father, son, and holy ghost, or in celtic mythology, there's the triad, which is life, death, and rebirth. Also, Epona takes her name from the celtic horse goddess. It's neat what you find if you look.

[zeldusfanaticus]

okay ths may be completly radom, but the name korobbokuru, the begining is koro. which if you add another k at the end then its korok the little plant things in WW right. its just my right-sided brain making random connections to things. but this could be an actual reference right?

[xandar]

Actually, yeah. In all of the references previously stated, the prefix "Koro" did appear. It could possibly because Koro is Japanese for small or something. Or it could all be coincidence and we could all be looking into this way too much.

[Onilink89]

That's pretty cool that you found that. I actually did relate the little Minish people to the Minutians from Shaman King, 'cause that's one of my favorite mangas. I also noticed some other stuff from different cultures, such as the triforce. The triforce is not always what it's called, and it's not always Power, Courage and Wisdom, but if you look into lots of religions, you will find lots of triplicates. In christianity, you have the trinity, father, son, and holy ghost, or in celtic mythology, there's the triad, which is life, death, and rebirth. Also, Epona takes her name from the celtic horse goddess. It's neat what you find if you look.

yeah thats interesting of zelda. like i said before, its not the first time that you encounter real life things in zelda titles. there are so many things taken of real life and that has been put in the game. symbols, stories, races ect...

now as for the minish, the link i posted deosn 't say anything about TMC at all. but those refrences is only based one the name "Korobokkuru". only the name was used. but the tale and looks does seem to match sorta with the minish.

and kpllk, please read the posts of other people before you start posting. then you would understand it a little more and didn 't have these questions.

[Claire]

That is a very interesting find!

I think that many of the stories, characters, or bosses may have a connection with other folklore, similar to other games may take a mythological creature and twist them into their story. Whether the Picori were 100% influenced by this tale or not, is beyond my awareness, but it still causes you to wonder what other ties they may have with the folklore and traditions, or rather other possible tidbits from the series being in relation to other fairytales. Does this mean maybe the tale of the Picori is the same tale?

[sheik]

Just because there is an anime about little people living in the woods doesn't mean anything. I am not saying that it isn't possible that the minish race was a borrowed idea, but how hard is it for nintendo to say "What haven't we done in zelda yet"? "Let's make a small race of people."

[Zenox]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned, but there was a story about small Elves fixing shoes while the Shoemaker slept, so he thought he was a genious, this was in the game when the Shoemaker of Hyrule Castle town, the Minish fixed the shoes, making him think he has some sort of power, so the Minish very well could be based off of a story of myth of small people.

[Master Kokiri 9]

By george I think you're right! If Capcom fashioned the Minish after the korobokkuru then it wouldn't be the first time a legend of zelda thing was fashioned after mythology/religious tales. Take the great flood of hyrule for instance. It's almost exactly like the religious tale of Noah's Ark. I do think Capcom fashioned the Minish after the korobokkuru. It's just too similar to be coincidence. Just take Zenox's example. They're almost exactly alike. Again it's too similar to be coincidence.

[fredthehylian]

Well, part of that legend is from Japan so it is likely that Nintendo used that for inspiration. Similar to how they named Epona after the Japanese folklore protector.

[Master Kokiri 9]

Well, part of that legend is from Japan so it is likely that Nintendo used that for inspiration. Similar to how they named Epona after the Japanese folklore protector.

Dude Capcom developed Minish Cap. Not Nintendo. Nintnendo just put it on their GBA.