Forum - View topicTrans and Gender Non-Conforming Anime Characters.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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This has been a topic I have been kind of thinking about for a while, if only that I would kind of like to have a place to pop into every so often to add in another such character. To get basic definitions, a trans (transgender) character is one who identifies as a gender differently to the one they would have been assigned from birth, which it feels like we have been getting better examples of recently. Although, I don’t think representation in much mainstream, let alone especially Japan, is always the best. You have a lot of characters who get labels like “otokonoko” in Japanese, and worse ones in English, which essentially make characters that are recognised by their birth sex as gender, with I don’t think the option would be open to identify as transgender. This is why I want to open this up to Gender Non-Conforming characters also.
To start off with I think that I will kind of cheat, by mentioning three of the big confirmed transgender characters in recent years, and I might make another post afterwards for some gender non-conforming characters. Of course, this is all going to be spoilers, so don’t get upset over revealing a plot from something you have not seen. There is Lily Hoshikawa from Zombieland Saga, Yuu Asuka from Stars Align, and Kaoru Kurita from Wonder Egg Priority. Lily Hoshikawa from Zombieland Saga created a big stir in her related episode, which at first was meant to be just a reveal of how she was when she was alive (currently being a zombie idol), and what her relationship with her father was like. Before we see how she died, which was from a heart attack of apparently growing facial hair, it was then that we got it spelled out that the masculine name her father was saying was her deadname, implying that she was assigned male at birth, and was happy that she did not have to go through the wrong puberty. Her story is kind of sad, it is not entirely great to have a trans character to have literally died from dysphoria, but it was kind of great, that her sex did not define her before this, and after talking back the surprise of other characters from less accepting times, she gets accepted as the same Lily they knew till then. The climax of the story was not even about her father, who was accepting enough to let her wear feminine clothes when alive, but about their special bond, how Lily still wanted to make him feel proud and is sad that there is this distance now. Yuu Asuka of Stars Align is an interesting character. They were first introduced by hinting towards them having same sex attraction to a boy, being teased by other boys, before the main character, Maki, popped in to help and accept them, inviting to be a part of their club. I would think it important to note that I kind of picked some elements gender played in the show even early with Maki, who defies gender expectations of things such as wearing a cap when told only the girls did, and some other things, such as being much more at home with domestic work like cooking than a female character. The relevant reveal happens at a point in the story where they need to have a girl spy on an opponent, which being out of the question for Kanako falls onto Yuu and Maki to dress up as such, during which Yuu opens up to Maki. Yuu mentions that they have not felt entirely comfortable in the gender of male, and after doing research into LGBT stuff they are still not entirely sure what they are, but currently thinking of something akin to non-binary. Maki is very accepting of Yuu, deciding to call them that name instead of Yuuta, and he mentions himself being close to a trans man (who had appeared before a little), and also that he has questions elements himself. Yuu and Maki dress up as girls, but against the common trend the show never makes this a joke at their expense, they even get complements. It was a really good element of an adolescent being able to question their gender and identity. Although, things did not end well with Stars Align, what was meant to be a 24 episode series was cut in half, this meant character arcs ended at some of them still at their most difficult, there is a lot of parental abuse in this series. Yuu’s ended at their mother finding out that they had dressed up as a girl, and her desperately saying that they are a boy, and probably more undue pressure on them. Kaoru only appears in one episode of Wonder Egg Priority, and it is in relation to one of the main characters, Momoe/Momo/Momotaro , who could be mentioned as gender non-conforming. Momoe's general story is that is a girl, who was assigned female at birth, but a lot of other girls keep confessing to her, saying that they don't mind that she is a girl, but she seems uncomfortable in this, because she is seemingly neither a lesbian and finds it ignores her actual gender. Some of this looks like a dangerous rope to walk, like why Momoe presents masculinely when she wants to be recognised as her cis-gender, like it might make a mockery of an actual trans person. This was until after she panicked a boy who asked her out, said boy thinking she was a boy, that the next person she was to save started hitting on her out of the gate, being that these were generally girls, Momoe is more annoyed, until Kaoru says that despite what is on the outside, inside he is a boy. Kaoru’s identity could possibly have been guessed, since he is super draped in the trans colours, with further imagery of pink, blue and white around him. Questions are still open for why he is even there if only girls were supposed to pop up, but you could hand wave it by the ones who select him not being entirely respectful. Being that these characters were meant to have tragic lives that led to them committing suicide, Kaoru’s is especially cruel. He had opened up about his issues to a teacher, and said teacher raped and got him pregnant. It is a visceral moment of explanation, of the idea of someone who was trusted to then violate not only their body, but their very identity, and although said about the “baby”, he could not stand. The episode has the representation of the teach continue to call him pretty, invalidating his identity, until he and Momoe boldly stand by their gender. It is great that despite all the hard themes, there is a lot of support for Kaoru’s gender, so much so that Momoe reacts quite differently to him kissing her than any of the girls that tried the same. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am now going to mention three characters who don’t really get any confirmation of being something like trans, they are more likely to say they identify by their birth sex, but through their own acts or others may get perceived as another. These will be Hideyoshi Kinoshita from Baka to Test, Yuu Kashima from Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, and Hideri Kanzaki from Blend-S.
Hideyoshi and Baka to Test may be bit of complicated examples, and not just that one could read some kind of homophobic elements that although it includes a lesbian and gay character, who are kind of shown to be possessive and creepy. The interesting inverse of Hideyoshi is that is very vocal about his gender, being cis, but the world itself is out to give portray a different gender, often ending up in feminine clothes. He is actually the main sex symbol of the anime, with all the presumably straight boys fawning over him, even against his identical twin sister. Lifeguards call him out for being indecent by being topless. A kicker lands in this comedy series where apparently there suddenly appears to be Hideyoshi only changing rooms and baths, the joke being that it is suddenly decided that he is a third gender. Kashima of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is not alone in gender elements, it is kind of a running joke that the titular character bases his manga with standard manga characters off of people he knows in real life, that are gender flipped, and I am a big fan of the show in general. Kashima in particular is Nozaki’s inspiration of a standard shoujo prince character who is popular with all the ladies and would tempt the heroine, her instead being a goofball who indeed has all the girls after her attention, and likes said attention. Kashima is just great, being known as a general disturbance by swooning all the girls, who she calls princess just because she can’t remember their names, and getting kicked around by her senpai who he recognises how handsome she is and playing the princely part. It is rather ambiguous what she likes out of the attention from all the girls, since the implication is that she likes her male senpai, which has a particular funny series of events one time where she mistakenly believes he wants to wear women’s clothing. And the third character, Hideri from Blend-S, there is probably a good deal of thoughts on them, regarding the OP that spread a meme has Hideri defined as “Surprise”, hinting them crossdressing as opposed to their feminine appearance. The show kind of likes to throw shade on Hideri being a boy despite appearances, but they are generally portrayed as cute, with I honestly find them being the most fun of the cast. Hideri also kind of falls into the side of a character I might have suspicions of whether they might identify as female (trans) if it was more known in Japan to be a thing. There is a certain kind of confusing part of the show when out clothes shopping Hideri needs to use the toilet and runs to the ladies room before being stopped by their co-worker, after which Hideri goes to the mens room only for a bunch of confused men to leave thinking they were in the wrong one. It is a scene that starts off invalidating before possibly giving a more valid reasoning for transgender use of bathrooms. Also want to note that there is also a part in the OP which has every character being in a way shown multi-faced for putting on their work character, with the exception of Hideri who is just idol all the time, which at least in my mind runs some counter to just being a gender non-conforming character. I know characters like Hideri are connected to parts of a toxic side of especially English anime community, but I can’t help but love the type of character, or general characters that kind of mix it up with gender elements. A general draw that I felt to them was something I kind of realised as evidence to my own gender identity as non-binary, with an attachment for elements of androgyny. You also have other characters like Haruhi, Hastur and Ferris. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Gender nonconforming characters are super abundant in anime, like you have crossdressing
even in pokemon. I guess the most deep exploration of trans issues in anime that I know is Wandering Son. Also, Gonna be the Twin-Tail!! explores explicitly the concept of fetishist gender bending, which is related to gender dysphoria in some cases. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I think that I always had some interesting reactions to some of the crossdressing elements in Pokemon, from Team Rocket that could go both ways at times, to the Ashley thing when Ash needed to sneak into the Caledon gym. I was making my way through some Sword and Shield episode a couple months ago and I was surprised Ashley made a surprise return when the kids needed to put on uniforms to work at a Pokemon centre, at least for a moment Ash was dressed in it with a wig. Talking about Pokemon, I also feel it okay to mention that the Pokemon X and Y games included a character with strong implications of trans, even if rather brief.
Wonder Son is an anime that is a lot about trans issues, I was actually too scared to watch it when it first came out, and enjoyed it when I was more comfortable. I do know that some people have a problem with one character that might have been a trans boy, towards the end somewhat decided that they might not have actually been trans.
Do have to look at the elements of gender bending or literal gender fluid characters, also in the likes of Kampfer. Or at least sex fluid. I do think there is a missing opportunity for the idea of differentiating sex from gender in these regards, in contrast to someone who's gender might stay the same to contrast with someone who is genderfluid. It is perhaps a blind spot of myself that perhaps the character is made as something fetishistic, but I have connected with these genderbending characters in a way not intended. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3879 |
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The rarest thing I know of that's related to this subject in anime are characters that are intersex. The only character that I can think of that's intersex is Luca Esposito from Astra Lost in Space.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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^ Knights of Sidonia has a character that says they're 'the third sex', apparently can choose between male and female at some point in their lives (I wouldn't know the full details because I only watched the beginning of it).
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Beltane70
Posts: 3879 |
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I was thinking of mentioning that, but in Knights of Sidonia, I believe they were purposely engineered as genderless. As you, said, though, they can eventually choose to be male or female which, apparently is triggered when they fall in love with someone. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I would say that intersex characters are related. With Luca, even though I think Luca said they identify more as a boy, after they reveal their biological situation, Luca kind of takes on a more androgynous role, especially considering the post time skip.
Another intersex character is Crimvael from Interspecies Reviewers, who I currently use an avatar of in another forum I frequent. The show is very sex heavy, and I will stand by it actually being on the more healthy sex positive end, which makes the note that Crim is of both and neither sex relevant. Crim calls themselves a male (identify as such), but it is also evident that they kind did that to not what they thought get harassed, otherwise being quite androgynous, they barely change when going to a gender/sex swap brothel that turn them into girls, altering the just men more. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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One of the characters I had been meaning to mention in starting this thread was Akira from the as of recent Kemono Jihen. Akira looks especially feminine, that he gets a response from the main character who is especially dense by many things that he is a pretty girl, before Akira shoots back that they are a boy. Akira acts especially feminine too, apparently spending a good deal of their money on their I would say androgynous wardrobe, presenting rather cutely in their expressions and social media. They are another character that I would say at least gender non-conforming, but also wonder if it would be known for identities outside of biological sex, Akira would be more comfortable as such.
Another androgynous, and often pointed at non-binary Kino from Kino's Journey. My understanding is that Kino dresses slightly on the more masculine side, a contrast to how they were younger that confirms their sex is female, but in general I think Kino gets referred to as gender neutral, or possibly both genders at different times. I have seen other places where people say their gender does not matter as just some insert character early on, but after finding out what they were assigned female might mean they refer to Kino as such. |
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Beltane70
Posts: 3879 |
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I can't believe that I forgot Crimvael, who was my favorite character from Interspecies Reviewers! |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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Check out They Were Eleven by Moto Hagio both manga and anime versions.
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Yousintor
 Posts: 4 |
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Aoi Hyoudou - "Maid Sama!"
Inugami - "Gugure! Kokkuri-san" Nathan Seymour - "Tiger & Bunny" Last edited by Yousintor on Sat Apr 17, 2021 2:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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A series that I have had a lot of thoughts about in regards to this topic is Fruits Basket, and seeing as its final season of its reboot series, I thought I should bring it up. The specific characters I think worth mentioning are Ritsu Sohma, Ayama Sohma, Momiji Sohma, and Akito Sohma. They all give me some levels of thoughts in terms of gender.
First, Ritsu Sohma. Ritsu is AMAB, but presents femininely, one would think that Ritsu should be a pretty likely case to say is a transwoman. But my understanding of the story in what is given the audience is a bit too backwards, apparently Ritsu dresses as a woman because it calms them down, and would actually would wish to dress masculinely. To me, the plot sounds like it is a missunderstanding of a a transwoman as she might describe gender dysphoria, but through an author who does not quite understand. I can't quite say if it is really a thing that people would be dressing as the gender opposite of what they are assigned, but really deep down want to present as their assigned gender, it feels backwards. My thoughts on Ayame Sohma in regards to this are a bit more vague. He is rather flamboyant, which might really be nothing, but my reactions to his character is maybe some level of gender nonconforming, or at least something queer. But I don't know how much is just an aesthetic put onto this character. Momiji Sohma is actually one I find most interesting on this topic. Perhaps Momiji is made as some sort of shota look, but my general thoughts is that they kind of come across as non-binary. Momiji wears has some feminine presentation, but does not come across as trying to say they are girl, but still distancing themselves from being a boy too, which what makes me keep thinking of them as some level of non-binary. I am sure there is probably some bit about just saying he likes some frilly things, and that should not make him a different gender, which I agree on principle, but my own experience of gender gives me pause. And lastly, Akito Sohma. This is all spoilers stuff, at least what I have seen via the anime, and it seems quite relevant going into this last season, Akito has apparently been presented as a man, but the "shocking" reveal finishing off the previous season was that Akito is actually a woman. The reason the show seems to give was that Akito was forced to be raised as a boy, but apparently the reveal of their true sex even without this information was meant to have us rethink what we knew of the character. It was honestly confusing to me how this was meant to be a surprise that Akito was AFAB, and what that should mean for their character, like the series kind of automatically thought that it meant we should start referring to them as a woman, kind of in a way that erases trans men. I suspect that the series is just going to say in the end Akito is a woman, which even in a sense would make them a sort of trans narrative, since they were forced into the gender identity of male, but probably would rather be female. But a sort of narrative of some sort of reverse trans character, just feels kind of off. Maybe these are not popular opinions, but these character elements that presumably part of the manga from 20 to 15 years ago, just feel kind of outdated and misinformed. Like someone had an idea of people who present in way different from the gender they would have been assigned at birth, and kind of cobbled them together in this way. I can fully admit to maybe pushing my own idea of things like gender, and it is not like I am going to go around and say that everyone including the author is incorrect, that the characters are actually trans. But they have been reactions I had to watching them, and that maybe some of this stuff is not entirely the best. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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It has been a while since I saw this series, but I think that I can see this was a crossdressing character, something like a character around those times would be ambiguous about whether they are a crossdresser or would logically probably be trans.
I think something liked about Inugami, was a part of their was that they are explicitly genderfluid, and in different scenes would occasionally just switch genders. The series also included the titular Kokkuri, who often came across a bit like a housewife, there even included a gender bending plot, where he was starting to get a bit comfortable as a woman.
I have not seen this series, but my understanding is that they are canonically non-binary.
Have not seen this one either, but it seems that the character is explicitely a trans character, so cool.
And again one I have not seen, but I think most of what I have heard is that the character is a crossdresser. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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I could add some references to other examples of characters of interest. However I really just want to make a comment how anime certainly gives us lots of characters all over the gender spectrum, but in general does little to portray them with realism that helps viewers understand what it means to BE trans and gender non-conforming. It's like non-traditional gender expression is played up occasionally simply as a way to attract a more diverse audience. Or like what was mentioned about otokonoko, to satisfy the crowd that need their daily dose of cute boys in skirts.
So far Dusky Predator has presented us with a really thorough list of examples from recent series with great insight into how each character navigates their own exploration of gender identity. Perhaps the way trans characters are represented in anime is maturing and we'll see more main characters who "happen to be" trans but that detail is not just used for gags, a plot device nor the central aspect of the story. |
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