Deep Cut (すりみ連合, Surimi Rengō^?, lit. Minced-fish Union) is an Idol Trio that appears in Splatoon 3 as the hosts of the Anarchy Splatcast and Splatfests, succeeding the Squid Sisters from Splatoon and Off the Hook from Splatoon 2. They were first mentioned in a Splatoon 3 Direct on August 10, 2022.

The trio consists of an Inkling, an Octoling, and a Manta Ray, Frye (Laura Yokozawa), Shiver (Anna Sato), and Big Man.

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.

Appearance

Frye

Frye

Frye is an Inkling with dark brown skin. She has golden eyes with orange pupils in the shape of a cross, similar to Callie, Marie, and Pearl. Furthermore, she has an eyelash on both of her eyes. Her finger and toes have a vibrant purple tint at the tips. Her hair is made up of yellow tentacles with a lock on the left side, close to her left eye. A small lock is further down her right side. Frye has yellow, triangular eyebrows. She has rather long pointed ears, the left ear having three piercings with eel tooth earrings. Her outfit consists of a sleeveless bright yellow turtleneck crop top under a small yellow transparent shawl hanging over her shoulders, white baggy pants with holes on the left side that have purple trims, and white toeless socks.

In Alterna, she is also shown wearing a tan and white eel mask, with possible inspiration taken from Japanese tanuki masks.

Shiver

Shiver

Shiver is an Octoling with pale skin, thin light-red colored lips, red eyes with light red pupils in the shape of an infinity symbol, similar to the design of Marina's eyes and pupils, two eyelashes on each side without the mask-like black marking other Octolings feature, red eye makeup under her eyes, and red tinted fingers. She has the same teeth and ears as playable Octolings, ears of which are tinted red at the ends with three piercings with shark tooth earrings, and blue-purple tentacles with darker tips and that flips at the ends which obscures the left eye and matching triangular eyebrows. She wears a sarashi under a transparent purple shawl, black leggings with cuts at the sides, and black thong shoes with red wedge soles. When performing, she uses a folding fan that sports her family crest on it.

In Alterna, she is also shown wearing a shark mask, which takes inspiration from Japanese kitsune masks with its characteristic red and white design.

Big Man

Big Man

Big Man is a mostly dark gray manta ray with light gray on his wings, face, stomach and tail. He also has a splat pattern on his wings. He appears to be standing on his cephalic fins like a pair of legs and feet, giving him an anthropomorphic look. His eyes are large with crescent moon pupils, and his mouth resembles that of a cat's, like Judd's, except he appears to be smiling. He also appears to wear what appears to be a bone with red paint and string on his head where a real-life manta ray's eye would be the string going between his eyes and mouth.

In Alterna, he was also shown wearing a beige mask, which partially resembles an oni 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.

Personality and traits

Frye

Frye is generally peppy and expressive and loves to dance; Shiver states that she breaks into dancing spells randomly all the time. She also has very exaggerated body language when talking and is very excitable, as well as is very enthusiastic about multiple things, from battle stages to the idea of dancing.

However, she does enjoy banditing and states that other than her day job of news-hosting it is what she enjoys most, and while telling Callie, Marie, and Agent 3 this grows annoyed when they are not scared (however her banditing is to steal treasure and give to the less fortunate, rather than taking all of it for herself). She seems to enjoy having the spotlight as well, and jokingly states that she wants to steal the spotlight from Callie and Marie in hero mode.

Shiver

Shiver is very mysterious and is described as 'cold-blooded', mainly appearing to be chill and nonchalant but a ruthless fighter who tends to break out in an evil laugh. She is very skilled with a fan and was able to quickly transition a shark mask into a fan. Shiver enjoys teasing her fellow newscasters, especially Big Man, and can sometimes be snobby.

While in Alterna, she sheds her calm and collects exterior while fighting Agent 3, though, and gets visibly annoyed with her pet shark Master Mega, Agent 3 themself, and taunts Agent 3 with her tongue sticking out. However, she, along with Frye and Big Man, does care for other people and even attempted to steal treasure from Callie, Marie, and Agent 3 so she could give it to the less fortunate.

Big Man

Big Man is the group's music producer. He introduces himself he does so in a jovial manner, using slang, fish puns, and talking about making money.

He is the happiest of the group and almost always is smiling and appears to be the nicest as he gladly holds up the television for Shiver and Frye during the news.

Even when he wants treasure to give to the less fortunate and believes he must fight for it, he doesn't want to actually fight and does so begrudgingly.

Additionally, when playing TableTurf Battle against him, he shows this same reluctance when he's chosen to play against, yet when he loses, he promises to the player that he'll eventually beat them.

Even during the Deep Cut boss fight rematch, he is at first excited that Agent 3 returned to see him, but his happiness immediately is crushed when he finds out it's only for a rematch. Again, he states he doesn't want to fight them, but if he loses, his friends will yell at him.

Regardless, he is very enthusiastic about his friends' success and agrees with them a lot and seems to let them overshadow him. He does not have many lines and does not dance as well as his friends during the Splatfest song, but is simply happy to be there, showing how optimistic and kind he is.

Location

Deep Cut's studio is located to the left of the Battle Tower in Splatsville. Three jellyfish can be seen working as their crew for Anarchy Splatcast, with one serving as director with sitting in a director's chair holding a program, and two others as support with one holding cue cards and another a boom microphone, both wearing headsets to communicate with each other. During Splatfests, while Deep Cut is out performing on their floats and mainstage, their jellyfish crew in the studio will be rocking out to the music themselves until it is over and Deep Cut return to the studio for their normal activities. However, during Big Runs, Deep Cut's crew will not be in the studio with them, possibly taking cover in an emergency shelter due to the Salmonid threat to Splatsville.

Music

Frye, Shiver, and Big Man's songs are a mix of the Inkling language, Octarian language, and Manta Ray language.

Names in other languages

Trivia

• The group's Japanese name comes from surimi, a paste made from minced meat, particularly fish. It is also a play on words based on the number three, which can be said as surī (from the English word) and mi in Japanese.
• Like with the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook, if the player looks into Deep Cut's Studio and wait a few seconds, the three will stop chatting and wave to the player.
  • Interestingly, if the player attempts this before beating the Story Mode, the idols will react cool, as though greeting an average fan. If the player attempts this after completing the Story Mode, Deep Cut will have a much more excited reaction. It's maybe because they know the player as New Agent 3.
• Deep Cut is the first Idol Trio in the Splatoon series.
  • Additionally in story mode, the trio are the first group that act as antagonists instead of allies to the player, although they later reformed themselves near the end of story mode.
• In The Art of Splatoon 3, an early concept design of Shiver was noted as being 24 years old while Frye was noted as 22 years old in her early concept art.

Gallery

Official Deep Cut art

Deep Cut as seen in Alterna.

Ditto, but close-up.

Deep Cut’s logo.

Deep Cut’s text logo.

Deep Cut as seen in the City.

Deep Cut as seen in the final Crater cutscene.

Deep cut as seen in the manga

Deep cut doing a pose while cheering for Agent 3

Deep cut in the Grand Festival Promo.

Deep Cut promo for the Grand Festival.

Deep Cut performing during the Grand Festival.

Grand Festival concepts.

Deep Cut celebratory Photo

Another one

Deep Cut performing during the Grand Festival

Ditto but in their Grand Festival outfits