Lingling Mei, “Mining & Curses: A History and New Directions”, Cambridge, 1999, p. 29), it is possible to trace the development of the “fierce-looking, dragon-looking, wily-looking” character from the very first stages of the game. For example, “He’s got a real big head!” could have come into the game after his initial appearance which was originally drawn by the original game’s director, Kiyota Mouri. While the original “big head, big mouth, big eyes” character had a more elaborate design, their development as the game progressed brought about some of the design ideas which later formed the basis of the original character designs. In terms of the character’s name, an abbreviation of “Li”, this could be translated as “lightning”, “man”, “man of light, light”, “sun”. This character became a well-known symbol of Japanese pop-culture and was in fact an “aegis of destruction”, since he symbolized Japan’s self-proclaimed “national pride”. It’s also believed by some that he represented a Japanese emperor who had disappeared during the Meiji Restoration in 1868. “Lightning” was also known as a character of the Japanese military military forces to distinguish his strength from other soldiers. He also was a symbol of courage and independence and was seen as a symbol of national unity. At the very first stage, this character had two eyebrows, but the eyebrows with the “fierce-looking, dragon-looking, wily-looking” design were added in the later stages of development. As a result, with his more detailed design, he became more and more popular since he could represent an ideal of heroism and valour. The character also was seen as representing Japan’s pride, and was also seen to symbolize the strength of the Japanese nation, or “man pride”. He also became popular for an unknown reason.

Miyamoto originally planned to have him appear both in the Japanese version of Smash Bros. Melee and the Smash Bros. Wii U version of the game, but this was never done.

The name “Miyamoto’s Lightning Spear” refers to his ability to generate electricity out of the air similar to his lightning bolt attacks, which was later turned into the Thunder Spear, a unique and powerful finisher version of his signature attack. In Smash Bros. Brawl, this is translated as “Lightning Attack”, but