Black-and-white four-panel manga of Luigi meeting and hugging Princess Boo

Princess Boo

2018fan art / character genderbendclassic

Published September 23, 2026

Princess Boo, also known as Booette, Boosette or Princess King Boo, is a fan-drawn genderbend of Nintendo's ghost enemy King Boo wearing the Super Crown. The character broke out on Japanese and Western Twitter on September 24, 2018, riding the Bowsette Super Crown wave and racking up hundreds of thousands of likes on individual fan posts within a single day.

nintendo memes fan art memes mario gender discourse memes japanese internet memes

Overview

Princess Boo, also known as Princess King Boo, Booette, Boosette or PeachyBoo, is a fan-drawn genderbend of Nintendo's ghost enemy King Boo wearing the Super Crown1. The character sits alongside Bowsette in a wider burst of Super Crown fan art that hit Japanese and Western social media in late September 20182. Artists typically draw her as a pale girl in a spiky crown, keeping King Boo's fangs or ghost tail as a visual tie back to the original enemy sprite2.

The format leans hard on Luigi's Mansion imagery since King Boo is the final boss of that series, and many pieces show Luigi being chased or spooked by his newly-humanized rival2. Naming split by region: eastern fans mostly went with キングテレサ姫 (Princess King Boo), while western fans used Booette and Boosette in the same pattern as Bowsette2. A chubbier variant called PeachyBoo picked up a parallel following under its own name.

Origin & Background

Platform
Japanese Twitter (source) / Reddit and Tumblr (viral spread)
Date
2018

The character grew out of the Super Crown item Nintendo revealed during a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2018 promoting New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe2. The crown turned Toadette into a Princess Peach lookalike named Peachette, and six days later Twitter artist @ayyk92 posted a comic imagining Bowser using the same item, kicking off the Bowsette wave2. That comic pushed fans to try the Super Crown on other Nintendo characters, and King Boo was one of the earliest targets.

On September 24, 2018 the Japanese hashtag キングテレサ姫 started trending on Twitter, and user sameduma uploaded a gif of Luigi being chased by the crowned character1. Nintendo developed King Boo as a game character but the meme edits were made by individual fan artists across Twitter and Tumblr, so the meme itself has no single creator2.

How It Spread

Later on September 24, 2018, Twitter user @ninouchiirazu posted a Luigi's Mansion take that pulled in around 24,000 retweets and 80,000 likes, becoming one of the day's most-shared pieces2. Artist Sofraaaaa's drawing hit roughly 117,000 likes and mashiron1020's version reached about 70,000, making September 24 the character's breakout day2.

Western fans built out matching English names within hours, and two subreddits launched the same day: /r/Booette, which passed 7,900 subscribers, and /r/Boosette, which reached about 2,200 subscribers2. Tumblr artist Rakkuguy drew a Luigi-and-King-Boo remix of ayyk92's original Bowsette comic on September 24, and a recolor of it collected over 21,000 notes in four days, far outpacing the original post's 4,500 notes over a similar span2.

An adjacent variant called PeachyBoo, coined by Twitter artist MikeLLunsford on September 23, 2018, ran with a rounder design and gained its own following alongside the Booette and Boosette naming2. Fan cosplay of the character followed shortly after the initial Twitter surge, keeping the design in circulation through Halloween 2018 costumes2.

Timeline

2018-09-13

Nintendo Direct reveals the Super Crown item for New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, showing Toadette turn into Peachette.

2018-09-19

Twitter artist @ayyk92 posts the Bowsette Super Crown comic, kicking off wider fan art edits of Nintendo characters.

2018-09-23

Twitter artist MikeLLunsford coins the PeachyBoo variant, a chubbier Super Crown boo design.

2018-09-24

Japanese hashtag キングテレサ姫 spreads on Twitter; sameduma posts the Luigi chase gif and @ninouchiirazu's fan art hits ~24k RTs and ~80k likes.

2018-09-24

Subreddits /r/Booette and /r/Boosette launch, and Tumblr artist Rakkuguy posts a Luigi-and-King-Boo Super Crown transformation comic.

How to Use This Meme

Fan artists typically redraw King Boo as a pale, purple-tongued girl in a spiky crown, often keeping fangs, a ghost tail or the tongue-out sprite pose to signal the original character. Common conventions pair her with Luigi (referencing his role as her main antagonist across Luigi's Mansion) or slot her into ayyk92-style Super Crown transformation comics next to Bowsette.

Frequently Asked Questions