Chocobo (character)

Chocobo, also known as Chocobot, is a playable character in Final Fantasy Adventure and its direct remake Adventures of Mana and a recurring character in the Mana series.

Final Fantasy Adventure & Adventures of Mana
Following a lead from a boy in Menos, Sumo decides to investigate a strange speckled egg in the forests north of town. The egg spontaneously hatches, and the chick within it immediately imprints Sumo as its mother, which leaves the young knight perplexed. He nonetheless allows the bird to follow him, for it is already grown enough to ride and will carry him on its back if spoken to.

The pair crosses the Palmy Desert in order to visit Jadd, where Sumo must liberate the city from the evil Davias, who holds sway over Lester and Amanda. When he is vanquished, Lester is released from Davias' curse and offers to dispel the toxin barring the path to Crooked Boulder. Chocobo, however, cannot make the climb and must be left at the Hidden Waterfall, where Sumo continues on. After storming Glaive Castle and defeating Dark Lord at its summit, Julius knocks the hero back to the surface before taking Fuji with himself.

Chocobo picks up its fallen master somewhere in the Crystal Desert, but the strain upon it soon overwhelms the bird and it fractures its legs. Fortunately, the pair has collapsed near Ish, where each is taken to a house to recover. Whilst Sumo is sulking in the presence of a wounded Bogard after failing to protect Fuji, an eccentric man known simply as the Professor takes an interest in Chocobo and mechanizes its legs to act as pontoons. Sumo picks it up after snapping out of his funk; and to his astonishment, it can run faster and glide over open water when launched from piers. From this point forward, "Chocobot" assists Sumo in his search for a means to confront and conquer Julius once and for all. The two are separated several times by inhospitable terrain, with Chocobo last seen at the base of the Dime Tower.

As Sumo returns to the surface after Julius' defeat, he visits the Menos area on his last trip around the world, where Chocobo has found a mate. Sumo is now the last of the Gemma Knights and must return to the Mana Tree to keep it, and the world, safe from all harm as its seedling matures.

Echoes of Mana
The yellow fowl makes a cameo appearance in Season 2 Chapter 1 Bladeberry: Knight in Training.

Behind the scenes
Chocobos have long been a staple of the Final Fantasy series from their debut in Final Fantasy II and continuing into the present day. Along with the moogle, chocobos were conceived by Kōichi Ishii alongside numerous other creatures. The birds are most commonly used as rapid transport, though in the Mana series, they have largely been replaced by cannon travel for the same purpose. Very rarely, however, the chocobo is cast as a hostile creature.

Around the time of its creation, the Morinaga snack food company in Japan marketed a malted-milk confection dubbed ChocoBall, The mascot for the treat was a small yellow bird, Kyoro-chan, who utters the call, "Kue". This was likely the inspiration for chocobos and their customary cry of "kweh!".

Kue is a blunt way of saying "eat" in Japanese. As an imperative, it can be translated as "Let's scarf 'em down!"

The chocobo is identified as male in Final Fantasy Adventure, but as female in Adventures of Mana. Currently, there exists no concrete rationale for the gender swap, although one possible explanation relates to the use of different scripts and different pronouns within each script; the Japanese language is well known for its use of fluid pronouns.