Big Man

"Ay! (Make money! Get fish quick!) Ay! (Big Man in the house!)"

- Big Man introducing himself in Return of the Mammalians

Big Man, alias Ian BGM, is a character in and one of the three members of the band Deep Cut, alongside Shiver and Frye, with whom he co-hosts both Anarchy Splatcast, the news show of Splatsville, and Splatfests. He is also the fourth reachable boss of Return of the Mammalians. His signature colors are gray and red.

His voice actor is currently unknown.

Appearance
Big Man is a large dark-gray manta ray, with white dotted markings along his belly and on both sides of his pectoral fins, as well as a perpetual sheen. He stands upright on his pelvic fins as if they were feet, and his eyes are closer to his mouth along the bottom of his body, giving him an anthropomorphic appearance.

Where a regular manta ray's eyes and cephalic fins would be, Big Man wears a white headpiece. With a similar to shape to a hammerhead shark's head, it appears to be carved out of bleached driftwood, with red swirls and a stylized "M" painted on the front. On either end of the headpiece are two gold circles, and a red rope is looped around both sides before draping around Big Man's head, both front and back. On the front the rope passes between his eyes and nose as if to hold it in place.

This particular fashion of hat-securing bears a strong resemblance to classical Japanese bandit characters, such as Kabuki character Nezumi Kozō, a famous thief that wears a hokkamuri headscarf tied under his nose. The hokkamuri is also commonly worn by performers during certain Japanese festivals, such as the Awa Dance Festival. This could be referencing the fact that Big Man is both a Splatfest host and bandit.

In Alterna, he wears a beige mask, which strongly resembles an onryō mask but with fish inspiration instead of a humanoid one. Unlike his fellow idols, it only covers his eyes and rests atop the string of his hat.

During Splatfests, Big Man's sheen is tinted his team's color, giving him a slight glow.

Personality and traits
Big Man is the most laid-back member of Deep Cut. While Shiver and Frye can get excited when it comes to things they care about, Big Man avoids getting worked up, often mediating the other two and bringing them back down to earth. In this way, he often acts as the voice of reason for Deep Cut, reminding Frye that it is a good idea to paint turf during Turf Wars instead of just splatting enemies, and pointing out that it is ridiculous that Shiver is still so hung up on a past Turf War loss. He is the most easily influenced out of the trio and does not like to resort to violence, although he is not above making his own threats. Big Man also loves fun and having a good time. He often speaks in puns and is the first to suggest all the good attributes of something.

This laid-back disposition does not mean he is lazy, however. Big Man is the primary lyricist and producer of Deep Cut and is a noted hard worker, having put Anarchy Rainbow through seven separate iterations over six weeks before finalizing it. He also looks up to and actively tries to learn from older musicians like Front Roe, C-Side, and a DJ from Inkopolis.

Alias
The song Liquid Sunshine credits "Squid Sisters feat. Ian BGM" as the creator, with Ian BGM actually being Big Man using an alias. Hints at Ian BGM's identity include the Twitter announcement of the song describing Ian BGM as "an enigmatic Splatlandian singer", the song's official music video showing his lyrics in gray (with Callie's and Marie's in magenta and green, respectively), Ian BGM's voice in the song matching Big Man's voice (with him also saying "Ay!" at one point), and the name "Ian BGM" being an anagram of "Big Man", which is the case in all other languages as well.

In the Deep Cut song Big Betrayal, released several months after Liquid Sunshine, Shiver and Frye, having discovered Big Man's secret identity as Ian BGM, berate him for collaborating with the Squid Sisters without their involvement. In the song's official music video, Frye is seen holding a photo of the Squid Sisters alongside Big Man assuming his Ian BGM identity, showing him wearing a King Flip Mesh and Retro BluFocals rather than his usual headgear.

Early life
Big Man was born into the Manta Clan, well-known for representing the Splatlands. He met Shiver and Frye through their familial ties, but remained acquaintances with them. By middle school, he had taken an interest in music, becoming skilled at the piano. This skill brought Shiver and Frye knocking on his classroom door when they decided they wanted accompaniment for their singing. This led to the formation of Deep Cut as it is known today.

After this, an older classmate asked the trio to make a cheering song for a school competition. Big Man and Frye agreed, but Shiver demanded 30,000G payment, which led to the creation of Hide and Sleek, Deep Cut's very first song. A local bowling alley commissioned a song for a commercial, to which Shiver hiked their price up to 300,000G, and what resulted was their second song, Smeared Canvas, with Big Man's lyrics being inspired by losing in the last round of bowling. The success of the commercial, and the song along with it, made Deep Cut relatively well known in the Splatlands.

A few years later, Deep Cut were made the hosts of the Anarchy Splatcast.

Big Man is also the head of the Manda Ryuu, one of the oldest dance schools in the Splatlands, and is currently the head of the Manta Clan.

Splatoon 3
By the time of Splatoon 3, Deep Cut had become relatively well known within the Splatlands for both their music and the Anarchy Splatcast. As part of Deep Cut, Big Man announces Big Runs, reports stage rotations, and hosts Splatfest events, performing his solo song, Anarchy Poisons (Boar Mix), and Anarchy Rainbow for the entire event. They are also the ones who initially report the news of the Great Zapfish's third disappearance.

Return of the Mammalians
Big Man and the rest of Deep Cut are initially hostile to Agent 3 and the New Squidbeak Splatoon, declaring that all treasure in Alterna is theirs to plunder and that they will not let anyone else have it. Later, when the New Squidbeak Splatoon team agrees to give Deep Cut the treasure (after using it to remove Fuzzy Ooze), they explain that their bandit activities were to give back to the people of the Splatlands, and never meant harm to the New Squidbeak Splatoon. They decide to become Marie's employees and the player's allies and help them in defeating Mr. Grizz. Big Man personally gives the player a version of the Hero Headset with a transparent helmet modification, presumably to help Agent 3 survive in outer space.

Boss
Big Man is the fourth boss of the single-player campaign, Return of the Mammalians, and the third Deep Cut boss. His boss kettle is found at the Happiness Research Lab site.

In the manga series
Big Man, along with Shiver and Frye, first appeared in Issue 17 of the CoroCoro manga Splatoon 3: Splatlands, where his co-stars told Team Blue about The Best 8 of Splatsville. His role in the manga is similar to his role in the game.

Trivia

 * The boss battle with Big Man is a reference to the boss battle with Phantamanta in Super Mario Sunshine. Besides having a similar appearance of a splitting sihouette of a manta ray, the color of the ink Big Man leaves is also identical to the electric goop Phantamanta leaves (albeit with Deep Cut's symbol). His title, "The Hype Manta Storm", is also a reference to the name of the mission in which Phantamanta is fought, "The Manta Storm".
 * His titles in the Japanese, French, German, and Italian versions also reference the Super Mario Sunshine mission. The Dutch title is translated directly from the English mission name in Super Mario Sunshine, which does not have an official Dutch translation; likewise, the Korean and Chinese titles are translated from the Japanese title.
 * In the Japanese version, Big Man is the only Deep Cut member to use standard Japanese instead of a regional dialect, using "boku" as a personal pronoun. This is because he speaks a different language than the other members; saying the word "Ay", followed by a translation in brackets.
 * Big Man is both a descendant of the Manta Clan as well as its patriarch, as shown in Sunken Scroll 12. A family tree can be seen on the left side of the scroll, indicating Big Man's lineage.
 * Despite being called a manta ray, Big Man bears far more resemblance to an eagle ray, as Big Man and eagle rays have their mouths on the underside of their bodies, while manta ray mouths are positioned more between the overside and underside. In addition, eagle rays have prominent pelvic fins at the back of their bodies, which Big Man uses as his feet; manta rays' pelvic fins are minuscule compared to those of eagle rays. Big Man's coloring also resembles that of an eagle ray. He also closely resembles other oceanic rays.
 * Big Man contributes to Deep Cut by creating the backing tracks Shiver and Frye sing to, described as being EDM (electronic dance music) based. He also provides vocals in some songs.
 * In the second half of Splatfests, when Deep Cut performs on the combined floats, there is a brief moment where Big Man's dance startles Shiver and Frye, making them build up more distance. This suggests that Big Man either sometimes improvises out of enthusiasm or that Shiver and Frye underestimate his size.
 * Big Man's musical and dancing style appears to have at least some Brazilian inspiration.
 * The European Portuguese translation of Big Man's Nintendo Direct reveal is the only localization where Big Man speaks normally (without any translation brackets).
 * Big Man is a good pianist despite his lack of hands. He is also seen with a Nintendo Switch in the Gear vs. Grub vs. Fun Splatfest art, which indicates that his fins are able to do the same things as hands.
 * Possibly going against this, whenever new weapons are announced in Anarchy Splatcast, Big Man asks whether or not any of the newly-added weapons are fin operated, suggesting he cannot use at least some of the weapons used by Inklings and Octolings.
 * The Art of Splatoon 3 reveals that Big Man is, in fact, dexterous, mentioning his skill in weaponry and musical instruments.
 * Big Man used to find Shiver and Frye intimidating. When they approached him to ask about forming a band he was scared that they wanted to fight him.
 * Big Man is a fan of Front Roe and "this one DJ from Inkopolis". He has learnt a lot from Front Roe in particular.
 * Big Man made the demo of Anarchy Rainbow over the course of six weeks, with the process exhausting him to the point where he became "dried up like an uncooked lasagna noodle" by the end, in part because he refused to let Shiver and Frye provide vocals for it, doing them himself instead.
 * Dialogue from Anarchy Splatcast implies that Big Man has a preference for Sloshers.

Etymology
"Big Man" may refer to his larger size compared to Inklings and Octolings and is also a pun on the word "manta".

"Ian BGM" is an anagram of Big Man (Ian = Big Man and BGM = Big Man). BGM is an abbreviation for "background music", which could allude to the fact that he makes backing tracks.

Speech in other languages
'''Ay! Ay!'''