Deep Cut

Deep Cut is a band in. It is a trio composed of an Octoling named Shiver, an Inkling named Frye, and a manta ray named Big Man.

Roles
As Splatsville's idols, Deep Cut fulfill many important roles. They provide updates on maps, stages and modes via their television and radio show Anarchy Splatcast, as well as host and perform during Splatfests, with Shiver, Frye, and Big Man each representing one of the three teams in every festival. These responsibilities are similar to that held by the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook from previous Splatoon games.

Between broadcasts, Deep Cut can be found in their news studio to the left of the Battle Lobby Tower. In addition to their day job as presenters, they secretly work as bandits to steal treasure, sell it, and split it among the poor while keeping a small amount for themselves.

Return of the Mammalians
Deep Cut appears as antagonists in Return of the Mammalians, warning the New Squidbeak Splatoon that Alterna is theirs to plunder, attempting to intimidate them to no avail before disappearing. Frye, Shiver, and Big Man are thus fought as the bosses of the second, fourth, and sixth sites, respectively. Once each member is defeated, they attempt to escape using a smoke bomb, which always malfunctions and results in sending themselves flying away, revealing a piece of "treasure".

Once all three members are defeated and each piece of treasure is collected, the New Squidbeak Splatoon assemble each of the pieces into a lawnmower-like tool, which the Captain uses to cut up the Fuzzy Ooze surrounding the rocket, getting injured in the process. Due to this, Callie and Marie agree to go ahead with Agent 3, but before they can, Deep Cut appears, once again trying to reclaim the treasure, but to their immense shock, Marie hands it over without a fight. Touched by their generosity, and now feeling guilty about fighting Agent 3 to the death, they ask Marie to be their boss, who reluctantly accepts.

Soon after Agent 3 manages to climb the rocket to fight their enemy, Mr. Grizz, shortly after the latter flies away on his rocket, Deep Cut combine each of their respective powers to propel Agent 3 into space (aside from Big Man, who gives Agent 3 a new set of headphones designed for space). During the mid-point of the battle against Mr. Grizz, Agent 3 gets blasted off of the rocket before getting caught by DJ Octavio's mech. Deep Cut and the Squid Sisters watch from the ground, before Callie yells 'we'll hype you up from here' and Deep Cut and the Squid Sisters collaborate to perform the Calamari Inkantation 3MIX as Agent 3 fights Mr. Grizz with DJ Octavio's help.

Quotes
"With that sorted, we'll put our beakers and graph paper away so we can OBSESS over Deep Cut! Shiver the shark tamer, Frye the eel master, and Big Man the dancing manta... WOW. We're already huge fans, and we can't wait to see what they're going to bring to future Splatfests."

- @SplatoonNA on Twitter

"The coolest musical trio in Splatsville. You can catch the latest happenings from Shiver, Frye, and Big Man (AKA Deep Cut). They host the Splatsville News program, “Anarchy Splatcast.” You can tune in to Deep Cut for information on battle stages and news bulletins, or you can just keep them on in the background as you do your thing around Splatsville."

- Play Nintendo

Trivia

 * Deep Cut is the only idol band to be a trio, have a member who is male, to have a member who is a vertebrate and to have a member who is not an Inkling or Octoling.
 * Deep Cut is also the only idol band who is yet to have a song that plays in a credits sequence.
 * According to a Splatoon 3 developer interview, Shiver and Frye do most of the singing while Big Man composes the tracks. The same interview also reveals that each of Deep Cut's members are descendants of families that have overseen Splatsville's traditional festival (the predecessor to Splatfests) for generations.
 * Each member draws inspiration from different cultures, demonstrated both by their designs and their solo songs during the first half of Splatfests; Frye is based on Middle Eastern/Indian culture, Shiver on Japanese culture, and Big Man on Brazilian culture.
 * Deep Cut's logo (top right) is based on its Japanese name, resembling a stylized version of the hiragana "すりみ" ("Surimi"), as well as Japanese Senjafuda.
 * When put into high-contrast mode, Shiver and Frye's colors on the logo are flipped, while Big Man's stays the same.
 * The logo has multiple variants seen in Alterna: a red and blue one that can read as "ふうか" ("Fūka"), a white and green one that can read as "まんた" ("Manta"), and a yellow and green one that can read as "うつほ" ("Utsuho"). These are based on the names of the members of Deep Cut.
 * The circular mon emblem shown at the beginning of Anarchy Splatcast broadcasts consists of three "み" (Japanese hiragana character read as 'mi').
 * Similar to the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook, the voice line used for Deep Cut's catchphrase "Catch ya later!" resembles the trio's Japanese name, "Surimi-rengo".
 * The members of Deep Cut wear different stylized Noh masks as part of their thief personas, consisting of a shark, eel, and manta ray mask for Shiver, Frye, and Big Man respectively. The shark and manta ray masks in particular resemble a kitsune and hannya mask respectively.
 * According to an interview with Deep Cut seen in the 2022 winter Nintendo Magazine, the trio were not close at all during childhood, with Big Man stating that they "knew OF each other", with the members saying hi in passing each time their families got together.
 * In the same interview, it is revealed that the group only started getting closer with one another during middle school, with Frye and Shiver bonding over music and Big Man joining later on.
 * Like the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook, Deep Cut will wave when the player zooms in on them from outside. Their waving animations will change after the player completes the campaign, as if they know the player as Agent 3.
 * This is similar to Off the Hook's waving animations changing when the player is an Octoling in Splatoon 2, as since they recognize them as Agent 8.

Etymology
The term "deep cut” is used to refer to a more obscure song by a well-known musician. Like the Japanese band name, “Cut” in the band's name is also a reference to minced seafood. It may also be because the members take a 'cut' of the pay when they steal.

Names in other languages
Catch ya later!