#I think it might be the earliest instance of the fluffye ear carbuncle!

[shitpostingkats]

Just here to contribute another franchise that has very similar looking fennec fox like carbuncles! Final Fantasy! (tho the FF ones come in a lot of colors)

There are!

The reason most carbuncles have red forehead gems is because "carbuncle" is an old byname for a red gemstone, from the latin 'carbunculus' meaning 'little coal'. However, garnets and rubies can come in all sorts of colors, so why shouldn't carbuncles?

It is wild to me how, despite being vaguely described in most myths, and even the most popular publication I could find (Jorge Borges' 1957 Book Of Imaginary Beings) describing it as "nobody ever saw it well enough to know whether it was a bird or a mammal, whether it had feathers or fur", most fantasy carbuncles seem to fall into one of three categories.

The Fennec Fox

(Final Fantasy, 1992. Cardcaptor Sakura, 1998. Pokemon, 1999. Yugioh, 2007. Elona, 2007.)

Interestingly, a lot of "classic" carbuncles are green (shiny espeon is the same lime green as the Final Fantasy and Elona carbs). I originally thought espeon's fox/cat looks came from it being partly inspired by the nekomata, but seeing that the earliest FF summon has the big ears, I'm now willing to bet that espeon owes a lot of its heritage to the final fantasy monster. That happened a lot, back in the day. A monster shows up in Final Fantasy, other critter makers treat it as public domain, despite how tenuous the connection to the original folklore monster may be. Kinda funny, because Final Fantasy frequently did the same thing to dungeons and dragons.

The Armored Fella

(Dnd, 1978. Pathfinder, 2010. Never Satisfied, 2015)

A classic lad! The oldest fantasy use of the creature as I can find, all the way back in White Dwarf #8, though it'd see print in the Fiend Folio of 1981. My theory is that dnd took inspiration from the Book of Imaginary Beings, then Final Fantasy went on to keep the name and the gem, but the rest of it is all original creature design. And, I can't really blame the fuzzy friend for sticking in pop culture more than the shelled version, (they probably sell more plushies) but I'm actually a big fan of this og carbuncle species.

The Little Guy

(Madou Monogatari 2, 1990. Magic Knight Rayearth, 1993. Digimon, 2001.)

The mascot type. Thought to be established in 1990 by the Puyo Puyo mascot, most cute little anime friends with a gem on their forehead can trace their ancestry back to the nineties japanese subspecies. Interestingly, two of these are creations of CLAMP, an all female manga artist group. In fact, the mascot of Magic Knight Rayearth actually shares it's name with the pen name of one of the founders, Mokona.