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This has been a debate amongst Super Mario fans for as long as I can remember: that thing on the top of Toad’s head, is it a hat or is it part of his head? And if it’s part of his head then what’s inside? Does he have a comically large brain or is it just an extension of his skull that does nothing other than cushion his tiny pea-sized brain inside?
Well, the producer of Super Mario Odyssey, Yoshiaki Koizumi, recently sat down to answer this question so fans could finally stop debating over Toad’s anatomy. He also answered a question about why Mario has nipples but no belly button, another hotly debated anatomical topic in the Mario world:
There you have it. That thing on top of Toad is his head. He doesn’t go so far as saying what’s inside of the floppy top but he has settled the debate once and for all by at least telling us that it is Toad’s head and not a hat.
The other questions in this interview seem to pry more into the game itself, Super Mario Odyssey, and he’s definitely more guarded with his answers. Yoshiaki seems to be toeing the line of not wanting to give too much away.
You can read more about this interview over on Polygon if you want to head deeper down the rabbit hole.