A very cute and lighthearted Console Wars
Console Waifu is a series of web comics created and written by Merryweatherey and illustrated by Princess Hinghoi
, in which various video game consoles and handheld devices during the 8th to 9th generation of the Console Wars are portrayed as cute anime girls. It basically serves as a Spin-Off to Merry's other webcomic, I Made A Comic About Internet Explorer with video game consoles.
The comics can be viewed on Merryweatherey's Twitter or Youtube account (with Japanese and later English fan-dubbing), as well as on Webtoon under the Meme Girls banner.
Console Waifu provides examples of:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Nintendo Switch is the most friendly girl in the cast, but Xbox learned the hard way not to mock her appearance, like wearing fake hair, because Switch would pull said fake hair out... and then bash the hell out of Xbox with it.
- When Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X decide to face off using Stands representing their (previous generations) major exclusives, Xbox has one and Playstation has two. Switch, who just wants everyone to get along, has three stands/exclusives modeled after the Pillar Men.note
- Breast Expansion: Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X have much larger chests than their previous generation forms.
- Butt-Monkey: Stadia, owing to Google's generally disastrous promotion of the console. Despite her bombastic boasts, she's constantly lagging and endlessly mocked by her compatriots. Though it ends up being Played for Drama: eventually, she's seen curled up alone and crying in a dark area because no one wanted to play with her.
- Cheerful Child: Switch is practically a perpetually cheery kid who cares more about having fun and overall an innocent girl with no mean bones in her body, sporting Girlish Pigtails. Her 'bullying' against Stadia was merely ignoring her, and eventually she comforted her when Stadia was at her lowest.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Switch and Playstation comparing their strengths causes PC to show up and tell them to quiet down. It plays out like a busy parent telling their children to stop making so much noise.
- Friendly Rival: Switch and Playstation both compete to convince players one of them is the better console, but in contrast to Xbox's rivalry with Playstation the two are civil. Playstation even lets Switch play Persona 5note because she couldn't say no to her cuteness, and Switch's joy puts a smile on Playstation's face.
- HA HA HA—No: In "Borrowing Pokémon," PlayStation asks Nintendo if she can lend Pokémon for one game, saying the graphics upgrade will be noticable. Nintendo laughs before saying "Never."
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Xbox tries to even the odds with Playstation having more Stands than her by using Microsoft's credit card to buy Bethesda so she can have more console exclusives. This leads to PC showing up and she is pissed at Xbox for stealing her credit card again. Cue Xbox getting beat up.
- Idiot Hair: Stadia has a hair swirl in shape of her symbol as drawn by Google. And she's kind of a boastful idiot.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: iPhone and Android try to goad Switch into joining them in their money-grubbing practices. And her simple answer, with all her smiley default face is "No."
- Jerkass: iPhone and Android will waste no time insulting others for not sinking enough money into their games and generally act like gold-digging bullies.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Switch likes to keep things simple for the sake of Rule of Fun and not bother with things like realism or making profits, and she gives off the air of being an airhead. She's also easily the kindest, friendliest console in the comic.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Xbox belittles Switch as an inferior console and says her pigtails are fake. Switch in response removes them and bludgeons Xbox with them.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to I Made A Comic About Internet Explorer, the console world seems more flighty and kind, like a Slice of Life anime. To wit:
- Stadia lacks Chrome's gigantic, murderous malice and is more of a Boisterous Weakling.
- The closest to a Hate Sink in the comic are iPhone and Android, but they're not quite this trope because they limit themselves to badmouthing others and are easily cowed by PC.
- There are no such things as brutal battles and murders like what Chrome initiated. There are no equivalents of World Wide Web or Morris Worm within the console-verse so there's no risk of it being destroyed.
- The users that these consoles try to please rarely just badmouthed the consoles for not living up to their expectations and for the most part, the consoles were not that affected with the insults (unlike Internet Explorer and Bing, who got their self-esteem crushed because of it). One user did appear on-screen and insulted Playstation for having to plug into a TV to play, only mildly annoying Playstation at best and she quickly won him over by offering what he wanted (5 Star waifu from Gacha roll)... in 8K HD detail provided only by TV, which pissed the hell outta Android and iPhone.
- And even compared to real-life issues, it's much more lighter and softer. Despite the moral drama or bad decisions that Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft made in real life that occasionally alienated the playerbase, they never affected the personality of their consoles, which continued to be lighthearted.
- Meido: Playstation dresses as a dark-colored, cool gothic maid. This aesthetic is later dropped when she becomes Playstation 5 to match the previously-evolved Xbox Series X.
- Moe Anthropomorphism: Merryweather is at it again, this time with video game consoles.
- Noodle Incident: Before PC beats Xbox for using her credit card, she states that Xbox has actually stolen her credit card before.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: When compared to their sisters from the same creator, the products of Microsoft and Google can look very contrasting:
- Internet Explorer is a Nice Girl that got abused a lot for her inefficiency before her comeback, and generally, her misfortunes were played for drama and sympathy. Xbox on the other hand, is at least more efficient, but she can be savage and is more willing to participate in Trash Talk, despite not being malevolent, and whenever she faces misfortune, it's for laughs.
- Stadia is a Boisterous Weakling and idiotic, but generally harmless. Chrome is a Faux Affably Evil Alpha Bitch who is cold, calculating and extremely homicidal.
- Spin-Offspring: Can be interpreted as such, considering that both Microsoft and Google have their share of video game console development, being Xbox and Stadia. They're close enough to be the sisters of Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
- The Rival: Xbox and Playstation view each other as one, expressing it in their own manners, about who's the top console of the era. Meanwhile, Switch doesn't really pay attention to those rivalry despite being a very strong contender. Steam Deck also tries to get on the rivalry with Switch more properly, and Switch ignores her too.
- The Stoic: Playstation is usually to the point and wastes little words, in addition to having very limited expressions. She occasionally uses only a single word to describe a situation, serving as a Foil to the more expressive Switch.
- Team Mom: PC is basically the one multi-functional mother that everyone looks up to and does not like it when she sees others being mean.
- Those Two Girls: iPhone and Android are never seen apart from each other.
- Why Won't You Die?: Nokia and her ever-present, ever-free Snake continue to have presence, despite both iPhone and Android wishing that she'd just drop down and die.
