Japanese Ness vs. American Ness 

I think it also has something to do with changing Ness's age from 12 to 13 and the American "redesign" wanted to reflect that. You know, a boy entering puberty.

Ness being chubbier could also help him relate to Porky at the beginning of the game.

Here’s the real question: Why were Jeff and Poos American clay models stay unchanged unlike Ness and Paula

us ness looks like he’d call you a slur

The idea that you mentioned of the Japanese design of Ness representing his design in the beginning of the game and the American design representing him towards the end of the game is my new headcanon now. Love this.

As someone who is much more familiar with Ness’s Japanese model, it’s so weird to look at the American model because, in my mind, it’s wildly different than the one I’m used to. I do enjoy it’s whole aggressive 90s charm, but the redesign makes him look too much like Ninten for my taste. I wish whoever was translating Ness’s design for a Western audience had just kept the original Japanese model from the get-go. I feel that Ness’s whole “American boy from the lens of someone who is not American” aesthetic oozes more charm than “American boy made by average Americans”. That all aside, awesome video!! I just discovered your channel and really like it. :)

My guess as to why it was changed to EarthBound is because it could be seen as a similar title to Mother, being Mother Earth.

this video is giving me Cybershell American vs Japanese Sonic vibes

This guy is the Cybershell of Mother/Earthbound content

*Fun Fact:* From Smash 64 to Smash Brawl, Ness' designs was actually a mix of his Japanese and American designs put into 1. He had the more short chubby statured body structure of his Japanese design mixed with his American design color scheme which his blues where replaced with more of a violet color. Smash 4 and Ultimate made his appearance more 1:1 with just his Japanese design by making his color scheme contain light blue instead of a more violet color of his American design. Smash Melee even has an alternate trophy that gives Ness his more Japanese design with his bright blue color scheme: *Main Ness Smash Melee Trophy:* oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/super-smash-bros-melee/e/ee/Ness_trophy.jpg *Alternate Ness Smash Melee Trophy:* gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/screen/full/1/9/8/1474198.jpg

Hey MonkeyNess, are you familiar with the EarthBound Handbook by Fangamer? They use a handmade Ness model based on the Japanese clay figure and take some amazing photographs with it, recreating all of the "Your Sanctuary" locations! The book takes the official Nintendo guide's charm and expands on it tenfold, from mock-up Mr. Saturm movie posters to retro-styled advertisements for restaurants & stores from the game. Having just watched your Player's Guide video too, I think this would be a fun one for you to explore; there's so much love and detail in every page!

i never actually thought about how it's implied ness is thinner and taller by the end of the game. it obviously isn't the intent, but it's definitely a cool headcanon to consider US ness as a "post-game" ness.

Honestly American Paula always confused me more than American Ness. Like they straight-up just removed her bow even though she's very clearly still wearing it in-game. (Although, I guess you never see Ness with a flipped hat and they still did that for some reason.) Unless the models were prevalent in marketing it just seems kind of pointless.

I like to think that ness does that pose because he saw the starman jr doing a similar one, and he wants to look strong and intimidating like it

ive always seen ness as that one kid who everyone talks about as being cool and chill but when you actually get to know him you realize hes kinda weird and goofy. not in a bad way, it suits him well and hes still a good friend but it isnt what you were expecting yknow? if anything too that vibe adds to his relatability, im sure plenty of people know at least 1 person like that

Its gonna be so cool when your channel becomes huge and I can say that I have been here since 1k. Keep up the great content!

IMO Ness looks like he's about to do some dance with these arms

Wasn't expecting a body positivity speech in my EarthBound video. It was nice And we all know "Bad Boy Ness" is Ninten's son and "Chubby Ness" isn't. Obviously Mother 2 and EarthBound exist in a multiverse

I'm glad to see your channel is starting to gain traction! Your subscribers are going up significantly!

I like American ness design more then the official design.

American Ness for the win because I love a good neck

Almost at 2k subs! Keep it up!

0:53 if ness wasn't wearing converse, he'd be the worst character in video game history.

Thanks to Smash Bros., I feel the chubby Japanese version is far more well known these days. I feel the only people who even remember the American redesign are older fans who had the Player's Guide.

American Ness looks so much cooler, even though I still love the original Ness design. I feel like Ness would start to look more like his American version by the end of the game, since the game dialogue already throws hints like Ness getting taller/thinner (i.e losing his babyish features and going through puberty) and even Jeff is told that he's gotten taller.

God this channel is TOO underrated

I think the name Earthbound was meant to convey the game's contemporary setting? Or something? Idunno, it sounds cool.

Ness is still canonically taller than Mario I guess

2:27 DAMNIT HOW'D YOU KNOW I WAS ALWAYS DOING THAT SHIT IN ELEMENTARY

i will never understand why people hate this specific design, but i can understand that it takes off Itoi original ideia and kinda changes Ness as a character, even if in game his sprite stay the same lol, i personally love how cool Ness looks, like, it's not super over 90s cool thing like the American Sonic design, Ness just looks older and more "brave", i really like that, shame that the fandom sometimes just hate it.

I always just though Ness had his hands on his hips

I like both designs.

3:44 not my last name being Ness

I've been Ness for halloween practically every year since I was 13... '_'

How'd they manage to change it? Was it through Photoshop? For some reason, I can't imagine that being done so well in the 90s. I was genuinely convinced that they made a new model by hand.

3:52 Ik this is super nitpicky but Ness is an *anagram* of SNES, not an acronym. An anagram is a word made from rearranged letters, an acronym is a word where each letter is short for another word (SNES is an acronym for Super Nintendo Entertainment System)

It’s me Ness

One thing you forgot to mention is that the American Ness stinks.

Great video!

Why isn’t the title “JapaNess vs. American Ness”

didnt know they had beef

og ness looks (thwomp urgh sound effect)

I like both designs. The Japanese is definitely more "early game" chubby Ness, and the US one is definitely cooler looking. When I draw Ness I generally combine the designs. With that said, if the US version was try to give Ness some 90s attitude, I personally find that funny because while he isn't a 'wimp' like Lucas, he never really seemed too "attitudey". He always seemed a little more dorky or oblivious when I played. Just my personal take.

I have never seen that model of Ness before, where did it came from?

Ness' pose only works if you have bony hips like me and you rest your hands on those pot handles just under your waist

4:52 this

"Mothearthbound"

Japanese ness' build kinda reminds me of Babe Ruth

how come nobody calls the series Motherbound?

I never thought the original Ness looked fat. He just looks like a kid to me, his clothes are baggy and his body is mostly concealed, Apple Kid is the real fat boy lol. Ness's look allows people, thin and fat, to see themselves in him. No hate to american Ness either, he's cool too, it's fun to think maybe he's end game Ness like you said.

6:20 i think ness and paula are more marketable in a cynical 90s buisness man sort of way. like theyre the main boy and girl, and marketers were really adimant on gender rolls at the time. have the main girl look pretty so the girls will wanna play it, and have the main boy be cool so the boys'll wanna play it. idk could be wrong, but its what i assumed.

1:57 Do you realise this graph is more depressing than anything

Listen, i love these videos but the THX theme killed me. I have a *huge* fear of that sound. I got jumpscared by it- I'm sorry for making it seem like hate-- it isn't just know i have a fear of loud sounds so like- yeah 😔

Ness is not abstract that's a real name!! Mitchel & Ness is a baseball cap brand!

Ness is an actual Given and Sirname so its perfectly passable.

Wait... ninten and ana got together gave birth to ness ness and Paula got together than.. gave birth to lucas

Giygas is pronounced like "Geek-gas".

Always preferred the American version, but at the same time.. I’m american lol so..

Is it weird that I like Ness's american design way more lol

3:21 ninten

Philipino Ness (P Ness)

Honestly it allways puzzled me as to why they opted to call the games Mother in the first place. I mean it does make some loose sense in the original because the twist in that game is that Giegue was raised by humans although not exclus6a mother and while Lucas's mom doesn't have much to do in mother 3 at least her death is one of the reasons the plot begins in the first place but mother 2 has no reason to be called mother. Ness's mom contributes almost nothing to the plot and she's really only useful as hospital at the very start of the game your sister is more helpful hell you never get to see what Ness's dad even looks like but at least he contributes to party

Japanese Ness is waaay better imo.

I sneezed 😨😳😭😭😢😳😰

UN DER RA TED

hello

Is it weird that I like American Ness waay more than Japanese Ness?

baggy shorts

2:30 Holy SHIT YOU’RE WHITE?!?!?!?!

Ness: "I like baggy shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!"

I like both the designs but I feel the Japanese model is way more iconic. And that’s definitely due to smash brothers. And I also think the concept of Ness starting as this chubby kid is a very cute and good concept.

Original Ness: Okay American Localization Ness: *Something cool and edgy that all the 90's kid would relate to*

The shoes are because kids in the early 90s were freaking obsessed with shoes. It was a whole thing, and a lot of companies tried to capitalize on it with weird gimmicks. Remember like LA Lights, or the shoes with that squishy goo in them? And when characters had distinctive shoes, like Sonic and Tails, they would talk about it a lot. NoA was probably trying to tap into that here.

Only Monkey The Ness could make a "JP Ness V.S US Ness" video. While it's ultimately more like a funny fact than something to seriously debate over, I feel like I get what US Ness was going for, I like how he looks but for me he's still no more than an extension of the Ness we know. Both are Ness, I like Ness.

I'm always skeptical about newer MOTHER-tubers. Sometimes it feels like the series has been deconstructed and analyzed to death. I've watched a handful of your videos and your insights feel fresh and new, like you is contributing new perspectives to the discourse. Good job. Thanks for doing this.

I mean, every single game except EarthBound is Unplayable. Why? Beacause the protagonists don't have baggy shorts. Does Mario have baggy shorts? I don't think so

(0:15) The American localization name for MOTHER 2 comes from the name of the cancelled localization of MOTHER 1. After MOTHER 1 released in Japan in 1989 with huge success, Nintendo decided to localize the game for the western audience. Phil Sandhop the man who previously worked on Final Fantasy's US Localization helped worked on MOTHER 1's as well. Phil knew no American would buy a game called "MOTHER" as the name sounded too girly and cheesy, so they decided to rename the game something that sounds more mature and masculine. They came up with name "EARTH BOUND" (2 separate words) as there is an Earth in MOTHER's logo and you are literally bounded to earth in game, so put 2 and 2 together then *BOOM!* You get the name "EARTH BOUND" Unfortunately, even though MOTHER 1 was already completely translated into English and ready for a June 16th, 1991 American release, the localization got canned as the SNES was already out at the time and Nintendo of America didn't want to spend loads of money trying to market a 8 bit game in the 16 bit era of gaming, not to mention at the time JRPGs didn't sell that well in America to begin with so why bother marketing a game that will probably only sell decently at best in the US.

cool. however, consider the third option. p ness

Appreciate little bros like you still talking about this game. I tried getting my 10 year old (he is 14 now) we got past Belch factory and he just couldn’t do it anymore. I wanted to ground him but I just finished the game myself with the wife watching and asking me wtf am I playing

this is probably the most baggy shorts video

3:19 why did this make me laugh i genuinely wanna see what the hell MatPat has to say about Ninten just to laugh about it anyway yeah american ness imo is alright, but i think ill always have a place for japanese ness in my heart, even if he looks a little awkward

i hope someday they make a 3d version of the mother games using the claymation style

I personally love the eyebrows, something about them scream 90s tude

To tell you the truth of it all... None of the 2 designs are good. They aren't TEDDY.

You’re like the Cybershell of Earthbound! Love the commentary and the occasional sarcastic remark, always lookin forward to new content❤️

I love ur vids pls keep going

Man, congrats on the 1k subscribers, i've been watching you since that "Earthbound is cancelled" video. Keep up!

MonkeyNess I really like your videos. They are always entertaining and I’m glad there’s still a thriving RU-vid community for EarthBound. Keep up the good work!

Baby-shaped Ness will forever be the better Ness

Both are great, Japanese Ness is iconic and what I think of generally when I think of just Ness but American Ness is so tied to Earthbound itself in my eyes, he’s the Ness I picture when thinking of Earthbound specifically.

2000 subs :D

For those of us that played Earthbound when it was new, American Ness is our Ness.

I'm not sure how Poo is a passable name... I know there's the name Pooh, but the extra "H" gives it a different impression.

his north american artwork not as bad as it looks, but it does look fine to me, it's just not how ness is known to look like.

You sound exactly like cybershell

Japanese Ness: Nice young boy American Ness: Young strapping Lad

I thought Ness WAS a teen, though...(technically in the American version, he's thirteen, which is in the range of teen ages)

the title is inspired by Cybershell?

I like the chubby ness hhhhh It gives him more Character

WOW! im only now realizing you upload DAILY!!? DAILY EARTHBOUND IS A DREAM TO ME THANK YOU FOR EXISTING!!