Are you a girl or a boy?

[Alexander]

Have you ever seen a character in an anime or manga who's gender isn't what it seemed or you're completely shocked to find out that he is a she or she is a he? Or that they're character is almost the completely opposite from what their respected gender is?

A few examples from myself include:

Kino from Kino's Travels



Gender: Girl.

Momiji Sohma from Fruits Basket



Gender: Boy

I've always wondered why this is. I have noticed that it's very prominent in quite a few anime and manga, but why so? I would almost say that these sorts of characters have an almost androgynous atmosphere around them. Does it have to do with Japanese culture? Or how gender roles are far more loose then what's considered normal in America?

Questions questions questions...

Anyways, DISCUSS!

[Eaglestrike]

Maybe because there's less peer pressure in manga and anime.

[Fish and Chips]

Waver Velvet (Fate/Zero) - Not true Manga (technically, it's a light novel), but the illustrations provide a certain visual cues. Regardless, Waver is male. And apparantly has a promising future ahead of him as a student of magic. It's those bangs of his, I'm telling you.

Envy (FullMetal Alchemist) - A still argue Envy has a decidedly femine choice of body. But the point is moot, as Envy is in fact actually male in the Anime, and is in fact actually something quite different in the Manga.

Akari (Samurai Deeper Kyo) - ...Yeaaaaaah, about this...

[Bobtheduck]

The main character from Escaflowne... I thought it was a guy...

I don't dig short haired girls in General...

This isn't anime, but Bridgette on Guilty Gear is the most disturbing Gender Bender of all time for me...

And, actually, crossdressing Hibiki on Strawberry Eggs doesn't disturb me... I actually think the purpose was noble and while he may be too convincing as a girl, in context it all worked...

[Tancos]

I once put together a "boy or girl?" anime quiz. The average score was two right out of fourteen.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Momiji Sohma disgusts me. XD Not only does he look like a girl, he dresses like a girl and sounds like a girl. I find that going overboard. I mean, I'm fine with a lot of others. It's just Momiji alone that bothers me.

[Sheol777]

Yeah this seems to be an anime standard. CowBoy Bebop addressed it kinda turing it on its head (literally) with Ed. Watanabe is sorta known for ironic commentary.


......"Ed" is a girl.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I was watching Hellsing over my brother's shoulder, and saw Sir Somebody-or-Other (Alucard's master person), who has every appearance of a bishonen, if you ask me (even sounds like one!). I said, "Who's he?" and my brother turned around and said, "Dude, that's a GIRL." And I found out he was right. I was so CERTAIN it was a bishonen!

[Ashley]

I know of at least one instance where this was done for plot reasons: Arina Tanemura's Gentleman's Alliance Cross had a character who was cross-dressing. The advantage is that you can draw them EXACTLY the way you would a girl, and then slap down a shocker because unlike real life, anatomy doesn't necessarily give it away at first glance.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Somebody once asked me if I was a boy or a girl... :#(

[termyt]

I think the reasons are 1) people like to look at cute things and many manga-ka play to this, and 2) the nature of animation.

Our brains are trained to makes sense of the world around us using incomplete data. We wouldn’t survive for very long if our eyes had to get a perfectly clear image of the car or rhino or lion coming straight at us before we recognized that we are in danger. So our brain fills in missing data so we can react to a situation in time for it to make a difference.

Of course filling in the pieces is subject to error. Any many of the examples – especially in Tanko’s quiz – are specifically intended to deceive us. A feat that can be difficult in real life, but very simple in animation.

That said, look again at the picture of Momiji Sohma in the first post. He’s definitely not masculine, and the shirt has more of an appearance of a blouse than a shirt a male would wear (in our culture), he still possesses a masculine face. The chin is square and pointed instead of soft and rounded. That’s a good visual clue.

[Fish and Chips]

I was watching Hellsing over my brother's shoulder, and saw Sir Somebody-or-Other (Alucard's master person), who has every appearance of a bishonen, if you ask me (even sounds like one!). I said, "Who's he?" and my brother turned around and said, "Dude, that's a GIRL." And I found out he was right. I was so CERTAIN it was a bishonen!

Ah yes, "Sir" Integra Wingate Fairbrooks Hellsing.

[mitsuki lover]

Even Ed's father in Bebop didn't know if he had a son or daugther!Personally I think the guy was away far too long.

I think though the reason for having a character look and even dress up like a member of the opposite sex sometimes is to have that moment in the series when the truth is finally revealed and(especially in the case of girls)they are forced to
dress and act according to their true sex.
Outside of anime one famous illustration of this is in Frank L. Baum's Oz novel:
The Wonderful Land of OZ.In it for the first several chapters it appears that the
boy 'Pip' is actually male but half way through it is revealed that 'he' is in reality
Princess Ozma and that the Wizard had a Witch do a gender switch spell on her
when she was newly born so that she would be safe until she became of age,and
then they did a reverse gender switch to have Ozma become a girl again.
But before it happened there's this whole dialogue about 'Pip' asking Glinda if
'he' could become a boy again if 'he' didn't like being a girl and she tells him no
because 'he' was born female and that's 'his' real sex.

And speaking of gender benders,I suppose this doesn't count such things as
Ranma 1/2 and Cheeky Angel where the protagonist is either a)half one sex and half the other or b)got turned into a member of the opposite sex by a prankster
demon.

[AsianBlossom]

O.O This is just one weird thread. I have actually read in a manga book (Manga Madness: Over 40 Basic Lessons for Drawing Japanese Comics by David Okum) that this whole androgynous character thing stems back to Japanese plays where the characters were played by women instead of men.

[Debitt]

I think it's largely a cultural thing. Japan has a tradition of putting gender ambiguity into their art from as far back as the early Tokugawa era, when kabuki was turned into an all-male artform like AsianBlossom mentioned. Even today, there's kabuki (all male theater) and Takarazuka (all female theater) alongside the obvious androgyny in anime/manga. It's a particular aesthetic that is embraced, and I don't think there's much else to it.

At any rate, it's not something I find 'right' or 'wrong' necessarily, and pass judgment on the character/mangaka on a case by case basis. Or I suppose I'm less likely to flip about ambiguity since people frequently mistake me for a boy.

EDIT: And I wouldn't be too worried about Momiji. Obviously the kid turned out okay in the end.

[Fiore teh Duck]

for some reason, I never seem to have problems with genders in anime....on and btw, Kino's Journey ROCKS.

[jon_jinn]

i, too, was convinced that Ed was a guy. her name was the biggest reason why. i still find it hard to believe that she is a girl...

[Puguni]

I once put together a "boy or girl?" anime quiz. The average score was two right out of fourteen.

I got SIX right. Mostly because I knew some of the anime that the pictures were from. :p

[christianfriend]

I got 8! Some of those are crazy...woo..I had a hard time with that quiz. But it was fun/freaky! ^.^

[USSRGirl]

The more anime you see, the more you get immune to girly looking guys. My dad thought Zidane from FF9 was a girl for two whole years. >.<;; I have a poster of him in my room and one day he's like "oh you still have that poster of her, huh?" XDDD I get a lotta jokes about sissy anime boys around here. *sigh* I'll just have to up my anime brainwashing torture.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

On the flip side of all this, think of the uber-muscular action dudes and overly-endowed women that anime has produced. There's plenty of times when character's gender is VERY obvious, too.

for some reason, I never seem to have problems with genders in anime....on and btw, Kino's Journey ROCKS.

Right on.

[ashfire]

I was watching Hellsing over my brother's shoulder, and saw Sir Somebody-or-Other (Alucard's master person), who has every appearance of a bishonen, if you ask me (even sounds like one!). I said, "Who's he?" and my brother turned around and said, "Dude, that's a GIRL." And I found out he was right. I was so CERTAIN it was a bishonen!

What is interesting is where did Sir Integra Fairbrooks Hellsing change her ways of dressing?
If you seen the episode where her father is in charge of the Hellsing Corp.
and his brother murders him to take over. She is dressed prim and proper in skirts and ribbons at 14 years of age. She ends up the heir of the corp after Alucard kills the uncle and his hench man when they planned to kill Integra to get control of Hellsing Corp.
So when did she change her style of dress and attitude?

[Alexander]

On the flip side of all this, think of the uber-muscular action dudes and overly-endowed women that anime has produced. There's plenty of times when character's gender is VERY obvious, too.



Right on.

You both are perfect of course right now. *makes note to make Kino no tabi topic*

AsianBlossem and Kokoro, YOU'RE BOTH INCREDIBLE!

That could very well be it. Why didn't I think of that? I suppose it's like how any culture would be with certain things or aspects.

And that is another thing to consider Blitzkrieg... It can get a bit disgusting sometimes with both respective genders. Perhaps that's another culture aspect...

[AsianBlossom]

Thanks, and you're welcome.

[Fish and Chips]

What is interesting is where did Sir Integra Fairbrooks Hellsing change her ways of dressing?
If you seen the episode where her father is in charge of the Hellsing Corp.
and his brother murders him to take over. She is dressed prim and proper in skirts and ribbons at 14 years of age. She ends up the heir of the corp after Alucard kills the uncle and his hench man when they planned to kill Integra to get control of Hellsing Corp.
So when did she change her style of dress and attitude?

Actually, Integra was already the heir of the Hellsing Organization. Her uncle wanted to have her assassinated because he was insulted that his brother (Integra's father) would promote some young girl over him to take authority for the family. If you've seen the Lion King, think Scar. Except Simba didn't have a pet vampire to call on.

Anyway, her mood switch was unfortunately manditory given her position at such a young age. She was a 14 year old girl. Grown politicians and officers aren't going to listen or respect to some child, and vampires certainly aren't going to fear you. She needed a mannerism shift to command and maintain control of the situation; it was a man's job, so she needed a man's persona. Still proud of her English heritage though.

[Smile:)]

Yesterday my older brothger came to fix my comupter and I had a fruits basket walpaper up(It had Hatori, Aya, and shigure), he was looking at it and ponted to Aya and said "She look evil!!" When I told him it was a guy he said "Oh....Well hes a very pertty guy".
I don't know why other animes have characters that are hard to tell what gender they are, but I did read that Natsuki Takaya(Maker of fruits basket) likes drawing characters that you can't tell what gender they are.
And even tho this is going to sound weird: bishonen are cuter when they look a little girly

[Mave]

I probably had 2 out of 14 in that quiz. Gah. Momiji dresses too feminine-like but his face still looks like a young boy to me.

I wish they were really female…….
Aoi Futaba (You’re Under Arrest) – I almost flipped when I found out the truth. Come on, there is absolutely NOT physical hint that this character is male in any way. What a waste.

Kazuki Fuuchouin (GetBackers) – ok, Kazuki had an hourglass figure (slim waist + big hips) and wore this off-shoulders shirt in the first manga appearance. I thought, “Woohoo, big kickass lady boss! Yahoo!â€

[Debitt]

AsianBlossem and Kokoro, YOU'RE BOTH INCREDIBLE!

That could very well be it. Why didn't I think of that? I suppose it's like how any culture would be with certain things or aspects.

I hand you an incredible trophy as well for considering the cultural aspect of things. I think it's rather sad when people don't at least stop to think "Well hey, maybe this is because they *GASP* don't see things the way we do in Western culture!"

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I wish this character didn't exist.
Bridget of Guilty Gear takes the cake though. I refuse to acknowledge his true gender. Especially after seeing pictures of him as "male fanservice" (aka fanservicing him as a girl). It's.....just wrong. I love pretty bishonen but this character isn't bishonen by my standards. He's a girl!

Oh snap, I forgot about Bridget! I take Momiji back XD Bridget can take his place.

[ashfire]

I just remember this one. Project A-ka. All the aliens sneaking around look like tough males but are females. Including one of A-ka's classmates looks like a strong male but is female.