Anyone else hear that ominous bell tolling? No? Just me?

For Bowser Day 2025, I took a different approach and included a background in my 2025 drawing, unlike previous Bowser Day illustrations, which have a plain white background.

In this illustration with a cityscape background, Bowser looks completely shocked, as if he hears the ominous bells of doom tolling, which is quite unusual for a character like Bowser, who spends his life attempting to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnap their Princess.

This artwork for Bowser Day 2025 is inspired by Mizuki Akiyama's "What Has Been Lost" 4-star card from the "Where Does the Path of Thorns Lead To" event from Project SEKAI (Colorful Stage).

Seeing Mafuyu take the first step forward, Mizuki feels a strong desire to "move forward" as well. Before the cultural festival, Mizuki decides to tell Ena what they have not been able to say until now, but...

When the "Path of Thorns" event was announced back in October 2024, I considered drawing Bowser in the style of the "What Has Been Lost" card. However, I then decided that I would save that idea for Bowser Day 2025 instead.

Below are other variants of the Bowser Day 2025 artwork:

When drawing that Bowser fanart, I actually felt like I was making a crossover of a Nintendo franchise with a SEGA franchise (yes, ColorfulStage was made by SEGA, in partnership with Colorful Palette and Crypton Future Media) - which kind of makes sense, as Nintendo and SEGA used to work on a Mario & Sonic crossover series. SEGA's mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog was also featured in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series, starting with Brawl. The relationship between Nintendo and SEGA went really well ever since ending the console wars of the 90s, a rivalry that lasted a decade.

Also, "Anyone else hear that ominous bell tolling" is an Internet meme that originated from a 2023 Twitter post, which would then be popularized by the "Path of Thorns" event one year later.