Mario Kirby Meisaku Video



Mario Kirby Meisaku Video (マリオ・カービィ 名作ビデオ, lit. "Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video") is a Japan-only educational video starring Mario and Kirby in their own separate adventures. Its purpose is to teach Japanese children kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese writing alongside the two syllabic kana scripts, which are learned by children first, followed by the kanji). The film begins with two short stories featuring Mario and Kirby respectively, with still pictures on the left and kanji transcriptions on the right. It then goes over the kanji learned and has advertisements for a Doraemon drawing kit and Yoshi camera, totaling a run time of 20 minutes.

Due to its obscurity, copies of the film can be extremely hard to find, especially outside of Japan. It was released for VHS in 1995 by HAL Laboratory, Inc. The video is narrated by Mayumi Tanaka, who also voices the characters. It is also worth noting that this is the first time Kirby was given a voice.

Mario segment
The video's Mario segment shows that the treasure of a certain school has been pilfered by the "mysterious thief W". Princess Peach informs Mario of this, and he responds by searching out this mysterious thief, soon identified as Wario. After a run-in with various enemies and crashing his Kart into a lake, Mario locates the perpetrator. He grabs a Carrot and becomes Bunny Mario (from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins), who beats Wario in his plane, recovering the lost treasure (which is revealed to be a box full of comic books) and saving the day.

Kirby segment
The Kirby segment shows Kirby finding a lost puppy whose mother has disappeared. Kirby soon concludes that the mother is in the castle of his rival, King Dedede, and sets off to find the dog's parent. However, as it turns out, King Dedede was simply helping by putting a bandage on the mother's hurt paw. Kirby sighs and they all have a big feast together in celebration of the mother's return.