Forum - View topicTrans and Gender Non-Conforming Anime Characters.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Yamada and the Seven Witches
If a show could explore what would happen if you could exchange bodies with your classmates and just have fun doing it, this is it. Maybe that doesn't really relate much with being transgender but if you've ever been curious what it's like in the body of the opposite sex this show does it in a way that's cute and sincere. Most of what the characters probably do to satisfy their natural teen curiosities is done offscreen, or its really left to your own imagination (come on you know you'd do it). Onscreen the body switching is done for practical purposes like getting out of class, avoiding bathing and things like chores. And the 2 main characters and users of this ability (a boy and girl) seem to be more relaxed about it like the novelty wore off and its just a normal part of life. Actually, that sense of embarrassment you'd expect is oddly never an issue for anyone in the first place. Overall their attitude about the body switching ability does remain at odds up until they stop using it. The boy saw it as more of a routine annoyance that he has to become female, but never really hesitated to help her out by switching. The girl seems to enjoy it more and is usually the one asking to borrow his body. Because of her interest in him but immature socializing ability, she sees becoming him as a catalyst to them growing closer emotionally and physically even though she can literally touch him intimately as much as she wants without him knowing. But again, that's the offscreen, leave to your imagination stuff with this show. Oh and did I forget to mention, in order to switch they have to spoiler[kiss]? |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Please correct me if I am wrong, but is there not a character in Cowboy Bebop that Faye sort of falls for and thinks he's male and turns out they are not? Maybe I just dreamed it. Have not see it for years and years. (Ok googled, not quite as I remember, as the character has developped breasts as a result of a drug).
The only one I could think of that people have not mentioned is a silly comedy I My Me Strawberry Eggs, where the main character dresses up as a female to get a job teaching, and then one of his female students start to fall for him thinking he is a woman. I would nto call it deep exploration of gender issues though. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Sorry can't comment much about Cowboy Bebop, very little about it was memorable for me. But I really think Edward is worth mentioning as a gender non-conforming character. Despite her crazy personality, she's seemingly flown under everyone's radar when it came to unconventional gender expression of the time. Or maybe it was because of being such an eccentric character.
Strawberry Eggs, however, was much more memorable for me. I would not place our protagonist as either trans or gender non-conforming, as he simply used his crossdressing as a means to get hired as a teacher. But this sets up an interesting dynamic with the character mentioned. I think it's better to say she falls for him despite thinking he is a woman. She hasn't been attracted to any women before and the fact that her crush is a teacher (an adult) it adds to her conflicting and confusing feelings. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15502 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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With Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop, I seem to recall something from a few years ago that pointed towards as language of gender has evolved since the show, that she/they would probably fit under non-binary. There was something about Ed being written to transcend gender, and aspects like Ed's general androgyny and a masculine chosen name.
My other memory of some gender aspect in Cowboy Bebop was I think something about a character getting a medical condition that affected their sex. I also seem to recall that some aspect was revisited in Carole and Tuesday with something called Martian Androgyny syndrome. What it did with Dahlia as someone suffering from it, I think there are mixed opinions, while someone like Desmond as an androgynous character was maybe received more positively. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15502 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I seem to remember characters commenting on Ed's ridiculously long name and Ed saying they chose the name themselves. And their father, I don't quite remember whether Ed's father recognised the name, but he might have said something about not remembering if his child was a boy or girl, or most real anything else. Regardless of the fact, Edward does not conform to the gender that would have been assigned to her/them. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I think we're talking about the same character- Gren, who after being subjected to some kind of treatment developped breasts. |
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Alestal
 Posts: 605 Location: Dallas, Texas |
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I agree that the show was ahead of it's time. As were the other works that I mentioned. It's been an interesting couple of decades for the queer community! Life imitates art and I strongly believe that the media helps shape our cultures. |
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 607 |
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Stories like this are, in fact, totally gender essentialist. They imply that even if someone is fully passing as the opposite gender, there's an immutable maleness (in this case) or femaleness (in the case of HanaKimi, Persona 4, and so on) that a person can never fully conceal. The person who falls for them usually has some kind of gay panic over their attraction, but in the end their heterosexuality is reaffirmed. I've seen it over and over and it's exhausting. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15502 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Yeah, there is a certain level of denying things like transgenderism when people can clock them, like that part in Maria Holic where the main character gets hives from touching the titular Maria like they do with men. There is always the possibility of maybe something rare where maybe a character was just presenting as their assigned gender but another character could see them for what they are, as much as that also probably runs the risk of some homophobia. Or what I consider a popular consensus with fans towards Disney's animated Mulan, where people take Li Shang as attracted to both Ping and Mulan. I guess that sets aside the never been attracted to someone of a certain gender thing. Not that anime has great track records. It especially annoys me when a show might reveal a character's sex as 'opposite' of their presented gender, and then without really unpacking things it just has to throw that character into things like fanservice of their assigned gender. I have been a bit vocal over my distaste in how things were handled in the second season of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, where a character was found out to have a female sex and then just started being called a girl and soon afterwards has their costume changed to a miniskirt without their input. The season also had a villainous character that apparently is transgender in the sense of feeling like a woman despite their body, but the show doesn't really portray them as anything but a effeminate man who is supposed to be uncomfortable for that reason. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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It's a pretty old anime though, I mean, in 2001 the level of awareness of transgender issues in mainstream was much, much lower, and even in 2021 it is still a pretty polarising issue. You don't have m(any) anime that deal with the topic like Wandering Son has. I kind of get that it may be a bit tedious to see the same pattern (Am I homosexual? Oh no, I may be homosexual! Phew, I am not homosexual) done over and over, but after having taught teenage kids for more than a decade, I can tell you that it is pretty close to real life. Sexuality if confusing for many, it's not always so straight forward as to know exactly who you are. For the female student who never thought of liking another woman, it's not unnatural to feel confused that she all of a sudden did. The issue is that there are not many titles that deal with the issue from the other hand, where people realise they are not heterosexual. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 653 |
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Please re-read what you quoted. It literally explains why Hibiki being cis is why it applies. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15502 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Maybe I am not reading things correctly, but I think that there is a general annoyance at characters not having an interest in the opposite sex until that person actually isn't the opposite sex (and still cis). I would say that there are connected tropes that are bit too prevalent in anime and fiction in general, where you have something like a character's sexuality changing on a dime when they do a gender swap, where there is the heteronormative expectation of attraction to gender/sex. You get some very gender essentialist stuff.
And sort of an inversion where there is not an attraction to the opposite sex, until they meet a person who has traits similar to the opposite gender. Which is where you get cases like the princely female character or girly boy. An example of the later I can think of is Totsuka from SNAFU, where Hachiman has no real interest in boys until a particular boy who is coded very femininely that he practically finds it hard not to flirt with. I would say that these tropes kind of have a common fetish element to them. Neither of these kind of groups are really good for an advancing thought of gender and sexuality, but especially with older stuff they were all we had, and if we are lucky may have been made in some aspect by a queer person who might have been trying to push things in a good direction, while now might be seen as some element of queer baiting. What worked before in the past where someone in a dress suddenly going "I'm a boy", to be some part of a joke of just crossdressing (often out of their control), doesn't work so well now. Although at the same time room should also be kept for gender non-conforming. |
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