It's Kirby Time
It's Kirby Time is a series of picture books revolving around characters and settings from the Kirby series, produced by Shogakukan Inc. in collaboration with Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. These books are currently only available in Japanese, though adaptations of them have been released in video form in English and other languages via Nintendo's YouTube channels. There are ten books in total, and each of them tells a short and simple story, typically revolving around Kirby, his friends, and other inhabitants of Dream Land. The books are officially marketed toward adults, though their brevity and simple language make them suitable for children as well. All of these books are written by Asami Taniguchi, though the illustrators differ from volume to volume.
List of books[edit]
The following is a full list of each book in It's Kirby Time in chronological order. English names of volumes are taken from Nintendo's localization where possible. Exceptions will be noted as such in their entries:
| List of books | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Cover | Title | Publication date | Illustrator | Description | Notes |
1
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|
Sweet Dreams, Kirby | December 6th, 2019 | Rurutea | In this story, Kirby is napping in his house, and is unable to join his friends in various activities due to being too sleepy. | |
2
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The Gift of a Star | December 6th, 2019 | Rurutea | In this story, Kirby and company are decorating a tree for Christmas, but are missing a star to put on top. Kirby finds a shooting star and tries to bring it back, but fumbles and smashes it to pieces by accident. He and his friends then work to put it back together again, piece-by-piece. | |
3
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Take Courage | March 27th, 2020 | Hyogonosuke | In this story, Kirby searches far and wide for a special fruit that is said to instill courage in whoever eats it; called the "heart fruit". Kirby eventually finds it after much hardship, but takes it home instead of eating it right away. On his way back, he sees a Waddle Dee fearing crossing a narrow log bridge, and decides to give the fruit to him instead. | |
4
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Kirby's Tiny World | September 4th, 2020 | Hyogonosuke | In this story, Kirby and friends engage in a bunch of various fun activities around Dream Land in a single day, with no worries whatsoever. | |
5
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Thank You | November 27th, 2020 | Rurutea | In this story, Kirby and company share with their friends what they are thankful for. | |
6
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A Hug from Kirby | April 16th, 2021 | Caho | In this story, Kirby finds Adeleine, who has fallen in love and is trying to find the source of a long red thread. Adeleine asks Kirby if he knows what love is, so Kirby tries to find out by hugging various Dream Landers and noting what it feels like. | |
7
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Together with Kirby | January 21st, 2022 | Karameru | In this story, Kirby finds one day that a sprout has grown out the top of his head. While his friends find it strange, Kirby enjoys it, and treats it like a friend. Eventually, it blooms into a flower, and later wilts, causing Kirby and company to wonder what to do. The next day, the flower reveals itself as a dandelion, as it has turned to its seeding stage, and all the seeds disperse, thanking Kirby for keeping them company. | |
8
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|
カービィのお誕生日 Kirby's Birthday |
April 25th, 2022 | Caho | In this story, Kirby celebrates many parties for his birthday. | This book hasn't been officially adapted into English, and was made to celebrate Kirby's 30th Anniversary. |
9
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カービィのひとり時間 Kirby's Alone Time |
September 2nd, 2022 | Hyogonosuke | In this story, Kirby and Meta Knight spend some alone time, contrasting the different things they do. | This book hasn't been officially adapted into English. |
10
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おかえりカービィ Welcome Home Kirby |
July 21st, 2023 | Karameru | In this story, Kirby travels through many planets in outer space to find "a place that makes one's heart feel at home". | This book hasn't been officially adapted into English. |
Video adaptations[edit]
Starting in April 2022, Nintendo began publishing video adaptations of the It's Kirby Time novels onto its various YouTube channels, starting with the original Japanese, and then localizing them into various languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. So far, the first seven books have received video adaptations, though the adaptations are not in the same order as the books themselves. The Japanese adaptations are narrated by Makiko Ohmoto, while the others remain uncredited. These adaptations were supervised by WARPSTAR, Inc., the same company that supervised the creation of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.
The following are each of the American English adaptations in order of release:
| List of video adaptations | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Video | Release date | |||
| Kirby's Tiny World |
|
April 8th, 2022 | |||
| Take Courage |
|
April 28th, 2022 | |||
| Sweet Dreams, Kirby |
|
July 22nd, 2022 | |||
| Together with Kirby |
|
November 2nd, 2022 | |||
| The Gift of a Star |
|
December 16th, 2022 | |||
| A Hug from Kirby |
|
February 14th, 2023 | |||
| Thank You |
|
March 23rd, 2023 | |||
The Gift of a Star had previously received a Japanese video adaptation in January 2020 for Shogakukan's CIAO YouTube channel, but this version is no longer available (except through a Wayback Machine snapshot). The 2020 version also featured Makiko Ohmoto's voice (although a different recording of it) and was also supervised by WARPSTAR, Inc.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | いつでもカービィ Itsudemo Kabyi |
Kirby Anytime |
| Chinese | 跟卡比在一起 gēn kǎ bǐ zài yī qǐ |
Together with Kirby |
| Dutch | Tijd voor Kirby | Time for Kirby |
| French | Les Histoires de Kirby | Kirby's Tales |
| German | Kirby-Geschichten | Kirby Stories |
| Italian | Storie di Kirby | Kirby's stories |
| Korean | 언제나 커비와 eonjena keobiwa |
Always with Kirby |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Contos do Kirby | Kirby's Tales |
| European Portuguese | Os contos do Kirby | Kirby's tales |
| Spanish | Los cuentos de Kirby | Kirby's Tales |
External links[edit]
- Main website for It's Kirby Time (JP)
- Main page for video recitations (JP)
- Playlist of the video recitations (American languages)
- Playlist of the video recitations (British English)
- Playlist of the video recitations (JP)
- Playlist of the video recitations (European Portuguese)
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