Right now, I’m playing Miitopia. It’s cute, fun, and silly. The game also has one pun I can totally get behind.
The above enemy character is called “Shiritori” (シリトリ) and appears in the middle of the game.
That’s right, it’s a bird (a turkey?) with a butt face. In Mittopia, an evil baddies keeps taking people’s faces and sticking them on enemies you must fight to free their faces.
So, here, you must battle to releases these faces from a fowl. But now you might be asking, where’s the pun?
For this character called “Shiritori,” we have a butt or “尻” (shiri) and a “tori” (鳥) or “bird.”
But shiritori (しりとり) is also the name of a famous Japanese children’s word chain game, which loosely translates as “taking the rear.” Yes, “shiri” here still refers to butt, and but “tori” refers to “taking” as in “toru” (取る), meaning “to take.”
Here’s how you play: First, someone says, “Shiritori,” and then the next person must say a word that starts with “ri” (り). Like, “ringo” (りんご or apple) for example. Then, the next person must say a word that starts with “go” (ご), such as “gorira” (ゴリラ or “gorilla”). The next person must say a word that starts with “ra” and so on. If you accidentally say a word that ends with “n” (ん), you lose!
And so, we have Shiritori, a bird enemy with a face on its butt. This Miitopia pun amused my 8 year-old. Me, too.
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