Toadette

Toadette, known in Japanese as Kinopiko (Japanese: キノピコ), is a character in the Mario franchise, first introduced in 2003's Mario Kart: Double Dash as Toad's racing partner. Originally appearing as mainly a side character playable in many spin-off titles, Toadette has since gone on to appear as a main playable character in many mainline Mario installments such as New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as well as serving as one of the two protagonists in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

In her debut, Toadette was initially voiced by Jen Taylor and has since gone on to be voiced by Samantha Kelly and Laura Stahl respectively. Despite often being seen as the female counterpart to the Toads, neither Toad or Toadette were designed by Nintendo with genders in mind but instead as a genderless race that display gendered characteristics. In her appearance in U Deluxe, Toadette is capable of using a power-up called the Super Crown, which transforms her into a Princess Peach look-alike called Peachette (Japanese: キノピーチ, Hepburn: Kinopīchi) that allows her to improve her jumping abilities.

Toadette received commentary in regards to her gender and the roles she appears in, with some characters describing her as a "Ms. Male Character" and comparing her to the comic strip character Smurfette. Additional commentary was given about her relationship with Toad. Following the reveal of her Peachette form, it became the subject of both critics and fans who tried to understand how the power-up worked and the implications it had within the franchise's lore. Other critics used the Super Crown as an analogy for the transgender community. Peachette's reveal also saw the creation of Bowsette, a fan created character based on the idea of the Mario villain Bowser if he used the Super Crown. The character became widely discussed among journalists and became immensely popular on social media as well as within art and cosplay communities.