Ado Artwork ofAdo fromKirby's Dream Land 3. Details First game Kirby's Dream Land 3 (1997) Latest game Kirby: Triple Deluxe (2014,keychain) Similar to Adeleine

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This article is about the character from Kirby's Dream Land 3. For a similar character who appears in other games and might possibly be Ado herself, seeAdeleine.

Ado is theboss ofCloudy Park inKirby's Dream Land 3. She is a human girl who came toPop Star in order to practice painting;^[1] she is able to paint creatures that subsequently come to life and jump off the canvas. However, Ado became possessed byDark Matter when it invaded Pop Star, thus forcing her to fightKirby and hisAnimal Friends. Once defeated, she is freed from Dark Matter's influence.

Ado bears a strong resemblance toAdeleine, both in appearance and mannerisms, but whether or not they are the same character isleft ambiguous.

Game appearances[edit]

Kirby's Dream Land 3[edit]

Ado is the boss ofCloudy Park inKirby's Dream Land 3. Her battle consists of two distinct phases, though the second phase is little more than a short addendum to the main fight in the first one.

Phase 1[edit]

Using her giant canvas, she paints enemies that battleKirby for her. She summonsIce Dragon,Sweet Stuff,Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright, andKracko, all of which are bosses inKirby's Dream Land 2, but with significantly lesshealth, weaker attacks, and mostly different attack patterns. Kirby can use hisinhale to swallow their projectiles and spit them back at the paintings, or attack them withcopy abilities. The Ice Dragon painting can be destroyed in threeStar Bullets' worth ofdamage. The Sweet Stuff painting can withstand 4 star bullets' worth of damage. The Mr. Shine & Mr. Bright paintings can withstand damage equal to 6 star bullets' worth in total (3 per painting). The Kracko painting can withstand damage equal to 8 star bullets' worth.

• 
  Ice Dragon painting.
• 
  Sweet Stuff painting.
• 
  Mr. Shine painting.
• 
  Mr. Bright painting.
• 
  Kracko painting.

Phase 2[edit]

After Ado runs out of paintings to send toward Kirby, she gets fed up and charges at him with her paintbrush. She can only take a single hit, and even aSlide orAir Bullet will do her in. Ado will also be taken out even if she manages to hit Kirby. When defeated, she tumbles off to the right.

Aftermath[edit]

After Kirby uses theHeart Stars to purge the area ofDark Matter's influence, he can come back to see Ado, who will be much friendlier. She will paint a number of different things at random, then erase them. These paintings include:

• A diamond ring
• A slice of a cake
• A pinkGame Boy

Ado also appears in thestaff credits, where she is seen drawing in a sketchpad as other characters watch her — it is implied she is the artist of the drawings seen within the credits. At the very end, she pops up to paint "END" in the corner of the screen. She can be refought as the fourth opponent ofBoss Butch.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe[edit]

While not mentioned by name inKirby: Triple Deluxe, Ado is depicted in twokeychains: "Sweet Stuff Drawing" and "Boss Butch" (which depicts her along with the rest of the regularKirby's Dream Land 3 bosses).

Relation to Adeleine[edit]

After the release ofKirby 64: The Crystal Shards, there was confusion about Ado's relationship toAdeleine, a similar character who appears in said game. Official material from the time of this game's release suggests they were likely originally meant to be the same character. In particular, the May 2000 edition of the Nintendo Dream magazine (called "64DREAM" back then) claimed that Adeleine had appeared inKirby's Dream Land 3 as well.^[3] In Japanese, Adeleine is spelled "Adorēnu" (アドレーヌ), so "Ado" can be interpreted as simply a shortened version of her full name. Both characters are shown in supplementary material to call other characters by the same nicknames, such as "Kir-kun" for Kirby and "Dede no Dan'na" ("Mr. Dede") forKing Dedede.^[4]

However, most later material has avoided stating anything definitive about the relationship between Ado and Adeleine. The book20th Anniversary Kirby Pupupu Encyclopedia, published byShogakukan in 2012, addresses the many similarities of the characters and suggests that Ado could be a nickname for Adeleine, but ultimately states that it isunknown if they are the same person or not.^[2][5] TheKirby Illustrated Character Encyclopedia, published byKadokawa in 2019, contains a similar statement; in particular, the section referring to them is titled「よく にた べつ人じん？」("Different people who look alike?"). TheKirby Character Encyclopedia, published by Kadokawa in 2022, lists Ado and Adeleine separately and does not list Adeleine as having appeared inKirby's Dream Land 3.

TheKirby Art & Style Collection, published by Kadokawa in 2017, also includes a piece of concept art that appears to have been sent to manga artists afterKirby's Dream Land 3's release. In the artwork, two designs for Ado are shown, with one resembling her in-game sprite and the other resembling Adeleine, along with guidelines that indicate artists should draw her in the latter design rather than the former.^[5] Because of this, many manga appearances of Ado resemble Adeleine, and some treat the two as a single character. Early concept art forKirby 64: The Crystal Shards also shows Adeleine resembling this design, with a cross-shaped button on her smock rather than a circular one. However, a caption below the artwork states that it only concerns Ado, and though it notes that "there's a strong resemblance between Ado and Adeleine", it does not elaborate on their relationship.^[4]

Notably, both Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of Russia have stated that Adeleine appeared inKirby's Dream Land 3 in the description of the trailer for Adeleine & Ribbon's appearance inKirby Star Allies on YouTube, as well as on the official European websites.^[6] However, this detail is absent in all other languages, including the original Japanese description and the localized description by Nintendo of America. InKirby Star Allies itself, Adeleine has a move known as Ado's Painter ("Ado Painter" in Japanese), allowing her to paint some of the same bosses as Ado could inKirby's Dream Land 3, though whether this reference to Ado is meant to hint at her being the same character as Adeleine is unclear.

While they are not necessarily considered official statements, internal filenames may shed some light on how Adeleine and Ado are treated amongHAL Laboratory staff. In the internal data ofKirby Fighters Deluxe,Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe,Team Kirby Clash Deluxe,Kirby's Blowout Blast, andSuper Kirby Clash, a recurring arrangement of "Art Attack", Adeleine's introduction cutscene music fromKirby 64: The Crystal Shards, contains the stringN64_Ado orN64_Ado_for_Lime_DL; furthermore, Adeleine's texture files fromKirby Star Allies andSuper Kirby Clash are denoted asAdo, despite the model folder itself being namedAdeleine. Notably, Adeleine is the onlyDream Friend whose files inKirby Star Allies use shorthand, and the vast majority of modern filenames adhere to official transliterations over literal romanizations.

The Adeleine Peachcolor inKirby's Dream Buffet is named アドペールオレンジ (Ado Pale Orange) in Japanese. Many of the color names inKirby's Dream Buffet use abbreviated names, such asMeta Navy (メタネイビー) andZan Lightning (パルルゴールドスパークParuru Gold Spark), but this specific connection is unique to Ado and Adeleine. Furthermore, while the colors andcostumes are unlocked in roughly chronological order of the characters' first appearances, Adeleine's costume and color are unlocked betweenMarx andGooey (whereKirby's Dream Land 3 would be placed) rather than betweenChuChu andDaroach (whereKirby 64: The Crystal Shards would be placed).

Ado is rarely depicted or mentioned in supplementary material since Adeleine's debut, and in particular,Kirby JP Twitter posts consistently do not mention Ado in text or depict her in artwork; for example, in Adeleine'sDedede Directory post in 2020, King Dedede's introductory statement translates to "It's 'Adeleine', with her trademark red beret!", but does not mention or allude to Ado orKirby's Dream Land 3. Furthermore, Ado is the onlyKirby's Dream Land 3 boss that did not get a Dedede Directory post.

• 
  An excerpt from theKirby Illustrated Character Encyclopedia that contains a similar statement to the 20th Anniversary artbook
• 
  Adeleine's "Dedede Directory" image. Text in the post mentions the red beret being her trademark and does not acknowledge Ado.

Trivia[edit]

• Ado's name might come from Ado Mizumori, a famous Japanese illustrator. Mizumori is often credited as "Ado-chan", which is used as aCPU nickname inKirby's Dream Buffet.
• The way Ado tumbles upon defeat is similar to theKeKe enemy from thesame game.
• Ado's battle is similar to that of bothAdeleine inKirby 64: The Crystal Shards and theHolo Defense API fromKirby: Planet Robobot.
• Ado's appearance in her official artwork noticeably differs from her design shown in larger artwork in-game, such as the credits illustrations. In her official artwork, she is squat with thin, cartoon-like limbs and eyes similar to Kirby's, while her in-game artwork shows her with more realistic proportions and anime-like eyes with white sclerae. The artist appears to have used her simplified sprite for reference, and given the excerpt fromArt & Style Collection seen above, it is likely that the in-game artwork is what she is intended to look like.

Names in other languages[edit]

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Sprite fromKirby's Dream Land 3
• 
  Concept art forKirby's Dream Land 3
• 
  "Sweet Stuff Drawing"Keychain fromKirby: Triple Deluxe
• 
  Artwork of the back of a manga fromKirby's Dream Land 3

References

• Bosses in Kirby's Dream Land 3
• Non-playable characters

• Articles which list Japanese names