Lubba’s gender references differed between the original regional releases of Super Mario Galaxy 2: some versions used masculine references, while others used feminine ones. The Japanese game text generally avoided gendered wording. The Nintendo Switch version, released on October 2, 2025, is reported to refer to Lubba as female across regions, making that the clearest answer in the newer edition—not a fact every original version stated the same way.
Who is Lubba?
Lubba is a large purple Luma who leads the Lumas and captains Starship Mario. Nintendo’s official Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 page describes her as “Captain and navigator of Mario’s ship.” That page confirms her role, but does not itself specify her gender.
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How the original Wii versions differed
According to Super Mario Wiki’s account of the character’s references, the UK English Wii manual and the French and Italian localizations referred to Lubba as male. The German and Spanish versions used feminine references instead. Those are differences among particular language versions and sources; they should not be flattened into a claim that all original releases called Lubba a boy or a girl.
The Japanese game text generally avoided pronouns or equivalent gendered terms, so it does not establish that the original Japanese game explicitly identified Lubba as female. “Dodgy localization” is a catchy description of the mismatch, but the available evidence documents the inconsistent results, not why translators made those choices.
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What Japanese sources suggest—and what they do not prove
There are feminine-coded clues outside the main Japanese game text. Super Mario Wiki reports that a Japanese Super Smash Bros. for Wii U trophy description compared Lubba’s direct way of speaking to that of an older woman. It also cites a May 27, 2010 interview with Super Mario Galaxy 2 producer Yoshiaki Koizumi in the guidebook Tokoton Tanoshimu Super Mario Galaxy 2 no Hon.
The wiki’s translation of the interview has Koizumi say he designed Lubba as a guide through the story, but that she became “an aunt-like character who occasionally goes on useless tangents.” When the interviewer reacts to “Aunt-like?!”, Koizumi reportedly jokes, “Oh, scratch that, I don’t know [Lubba’s] gender.” This is a translation presented by the wiki, not a verified official English transcript. The anecdote captures the character’s ambiguity; it is not evidence that the Japanese game text itself consistently calls Lubba a woman.
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What changes in the Switch version?
The Switch collection, listed by Nintendo with an October 2, 2025 release date, offers a more consistent presentation. Super Mario Wiki reports that the Switch version refers to Lubba as female across regions. Nintendo’s product page confirms that the collection includes additional storybook chapters, while the wiki identifies the added material as covering Lubba’s backstory. The official page confirms the chapters’ presence but does not directly state Lubba’s gender.
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This distinction matters when comparing versions: the Wii-era evidence includes language-specific references in manuals and localizations, Japanese game text that generally sidestepped gender, and separate trophy and interview material. The Switch-era statement concerns references in the later game edition across regions.
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Why a player might be surprised
One GameFAQs discussion collecting Lubba’s special dialogue includes the post, “I just found out she was a girl?!” It is one player’s reaction, not evidence that fans broadly or only recently discovered Lubba’s gender; the thread author also notes that some collected dialogue had not been personally verified.
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