The Paddler

The Paddlers (ピンポン人^?, Pinpon Hito) are blue, box-headed humanoid figures resembling the Space Dancers who first appear in Rhythm Rally in Rhythm Heaven and Rhythm Heaven Megamix.

Story

These strange beings live on planet Ping-Pong^[1], and on a diet of table tennis. If they stop playing, they grow weak and sickly. Some have successfully weaned themselves off table tennis by substituting paddle ball. In rare cases, some of them turn into dancers^[1].

They are also described as being Racing Fans, appearing in Freeze Frame. A pair of Paddlers can also be spotted in the crowd in Battle of the Bands. The image of a Paddler can be seen occasionally in Cheer Readers 2.

Throughout Rhythm Heaven, the Paddlers play table tennis is a variety of locations, such as a featureless white plain, a tropical island (where their color changes to orange), and outer space on a UFO. In Rhythm Heaven Megamix, they play in a cardboard room, on a giant flower, a giant cake and a barbershop (where their color changes to red). In Cosmic Rhythm Rally, they take on the appearance of the Cosmo Dancers.

In Rhythm Tengoku Gold Comic 05 彼らのダンスがすごい理由の巻 (Why Their Dance is Amazing by Maki), a trio of Paddlers are shown trying to do the Space Dance, but always coming up short. Suddenly, what appears to be Space Gramps in Paddler attire comes in to suggest they play table tennis to get back in the groove. They find this method to work, and continue their dancing, albeit as Space Dancers.

Appearances

Gallery

Artwork from Rhythm Heaven
Sprite from Rhythm Heaven
Artwork for Rhythm Rally from Rhythm Heaven Megamix
Artwork for Rhythm Rally 2 from Rhythm Heaven Megamix
Artwork for Cosmic Rhythm Rally from Rhythm Heaven Megamix

Trivia

The presence of Paddlers who look like the Cosmo Dancers in Cosmic Rhythm Rally implies that both Space Dancers and Cosmo Dancers come from different looking Paddlers.

In Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ピンポン人	Ping-pong Guy
English^NOA	The Paddler Paddler
English^NOE	The Paddler Paddlers
French	Le fou du rebond Les fous du rebond	The rebound madman The rebound madmen
Spanish	El de la paleta	The one with the paddle
German	Tischtennis-Champ Tischtennis-Champs	Table Tennis Champ Table Tennis Champs
Italian	Paoletto Tirosvelto Tennistavolisti	Paul Quickthrow Table tennis players
Korean	랠리인	Rally Guy

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "ピンポンをしていないと元気がなくなってしまいます。まれに、ダンサーに転身する種族もいるようです。" (People who live on the planet Ping Pong. If they don't play ping pong, they lose their energy. In rare cases, some of them seem to turn into dancers.) ~ プロフィール１ (Profiles 1), Rhythm Tengoku Gold

[Gold-1] 1.0 ^1.1 "ピンポンをしていないと元気がなくなってしまいます。まれに、ダンサーに転身する種族もいるようです。" (People who live on the planet Ping Pong. If they don't play ping pong, they lose their energy. In rare cases, some of them seem to turn into dancers.) ~ プロフィール１ (Profiles 1), Rhythm Tengoku Gold

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