Things you might not know about The Legend of Zelda...

[ccovell]

Hi, I read an old interview with Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka (aka Ten Ten) in an old Famicom Magazine, and they discussed a couple very interesting things about Zelda. It's not very well-known in English, but the Japanese page for Zelda on Wikipedia confirms it:

The Like-Like is so named after a pun of a Japanese proverb, which goes "Tade kuu mushi mo sukizuki" (lit: even bugs (or worms) that eat leaves have their own preference) ie: "There's no accounting for taste." Tezuka changed "tade" (leaf) to "tate" (shield), making "Tate kuu mushi mo sukizuki" (even bugs that eat shields have their own preference) and referenced this proverb verrry obliquely with "Like-Like" (the "suki-zuki") part of the saying.

The Gibdo mummies are named after the German/Dutch word for plaster cast/bandage "Gips", often pronounced in Japanese as "Gibusu" or "Gipusu".

Zol and Gel are two words in chemistry to represent suspensions (sol) and emulsions (gel), but Zelda uses their German pronunciations again.

The Ghini ghosts are patterned after the design for Obake no Q-Taro, especially the design seen in the prototype Zelda FDS version:

http://bmf.rustedlogic.net/misc/zeldaproto1.png

http://thecartdriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Obake+no+Q-Taro.jpg

[Eternal Champion]

Very interesting; I love linguistic tidbits like this - thank you for sharing. I will share it with a friend who speaks Japanese.

[Aussie2B]

Interesting stuff! I find that Nintendo games in general, at least back in those days, often have interesting stories behind the naming of things (like the story behind the Japanese name for the Boo enemy). And of course when Nintendo of America would rename stuff, they often had funny and clever inspirations too (like the names of all the Koopa kids).