I was reading about Dungeon Meshi and Kuro, the “kobold”.
Kobolds are usually depicted as canine humanoids in Japanese media compared to the more reptilian humanoids that kobolds are depicted as in western media[4] such as Dungeons and Dragons. The reason for this is credited as either a mistranslation of the first Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual[5] or because of the lack of reference art in said Monster Manual, but a picture of a jackalwere being present on the opposite page[6], which was then used as reference art for the anime, The Record of the Lodoss War. That anime is credited for solidifying the trope of canine kobolds in Japanese media.
From https://delicious-in-dungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Kobolds#cite_note-5
And the supporting youtube video https://m.youtube.com/shorts/rUntTZ6spOc
Bonus fact: piglike orcs.
It’s not a mistranslation that caused it, kobolds were both described and illustrated as doglike until 3rd Edition where with no explanation they simply changed it and decided they were lizard like/draconic.
I do think the new version of kobolds is an interesting creature, but truthfully they should’ve just come up with a new name for this new creature instead of just completely changing the kobold.
Found a really good source including a picture of the first edition. It looks like that they were mentioned indeed in the 2nd edition to be more dog like in a sense of voice “yappin like a dog” and smelling like damp dog. Their visuals however were not really dog like. So I assume it was maybe both a mistranlation and an over interpretation of some texts from 2nd edition or just pure free choice from the author of this anime. https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2022/01/dd-monster-spotlight-kobolds.html
Their visuals however were not really dog like.
The kobold in the 1st edition illustration in the article you linked has a distinctly dog-like muzzle. Other related media, such as Stone Soup, also depict or describe them as “dog-like”.
I guess with some imagination you could say the muzzle does indeed look dog like but the rest? I mean even if you morph some reptiles into humans you’d get such kind of muzzle. It’s not really that “distict” imo, but I get why some would say otherwise.
“Kobolds were first described as hairless humanoids with small horns by Gygax in the Monster Manual (1977)”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)?wprov=sfla1
Fahhhhk, thank you.
I swear I remembered dog people from 2nd edition and was super confused when I started playing DDO and they were some kind of dragonkin. Then people who started with 3rd were telling me kobolds had always been lizards.
Somewhere my old 2nd edition books are still around in a box, but damned if I know where.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/コボルト seems to have a bit of a different approach stating that D&D 3rd ed. changed them to be more reptilian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold actually seems to corroborate this. I played D&D since the end of the 1st ed. days and I think of them as kinda dog-like heads that were also scaly. I have a 2nd ed. Monstrous Manual, but it’s on the other side of the world at the moment so I can’t check.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold
https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold_(Creature)
I’m not buying the OP here.
My only real experience with them is from Pool of Radiance, the first “gold box” CRPG. They were pretty dog-like in that.
I hate to ask: can you update the fandom with your research?
https://delicious-in-dungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Kobolds
I don’t know enough about this topic and Im really enjoying learning all of this!
Anyone with an original copy of the western version should be able to easily confirm this, no?
Hm. The source for this is a vtubers YouTube short?
They were more doglike in 1e and 2e of D&D, so I don’t think it’s a mistranslation
Where I live (a German speaking country) a kobold is more like a small humanoid being, more like a gnome
Pretty sure they are germanic in origin, but I would have to double check.
Originally, in the middle ages miners experienced toxic gasses and other weird effects while mining iron, such as ore exploding when smelting. They attributed some of the problems to mischievous creatures they would call Kobolds hiding in the mines.
It was eventually discovered that these problems were caused by another whole element creating impurities in the ore, when separated and identified, it came to be known as Cobalt.
