Fun Fact: The creators have actually confirmed before that Link was designed so that if you're a guy, you'd think they're a guy, but if you were a girl, you'd think they're a tomboyish girl. P.S. I forgot to mention that Link isn't even a gender specific name, anyone could be named Link, and it would make perfect sense.
"Link isn't even a gender specific name, anyone could be named Link" which is exactly why I'll always be a little salty about 'Linkle' but I guess they couldn't have two characters named Link...
hell,link's name wasn't even supposed to be so much a name as it was a reference to how in the original concept he was going to be a *LINK* between the past and the future.
Fun fact: not all languages have gender built in, say Hungarian has no gendered pronouns, the whole situation with pronouns and gender in English is frankly hilarious from a Hungarian perspective.
@@haIIoweenn And German and French and Swedish and Italian. A masculine-feminine-neuter or masculine-feminine gender system for all general things is an aspect of almost all European languages. English has largely deprecated this, with the only remaining remnant being gendered second-person personal pronouns. A different common gender system is animate-inanimate. Not in Europe of course. Things which move are fit differently into sentences than those which do not move. Yes, this is called grammatical gender. Yes, you are correct in observing that it has nothing to do with psychological or societal gender. This is because the word "gender" originally means "kind", "caste", or "class". It only gained the commonly recognised modern meaning after John Money started using it incorrectly.
When I saw Ouran Host Club for the first time, and Haruhi said that she didn't really care about gender, I nodded like, yeah, that's universal. Little did I know
I actually talked to Caitlin Glass about this and her thoughts on it. She wasn’t too bothered by the whole Haruhi possibly being genderfluid. That was a pleasant conversation 😊
I just love haruhi ohshc response when asked straight out if she’s a girl. ‘I mean biologically I am.’ If that doesn’t scream gender indifference i dont know what does.
i wouldn't say he does DRAG (a primary aspect of drag is the use of exaggeration and ranka is just a normal,business-casual gal) but he DOES crossdress professionally so everything still holds up.
"Just a simple list?" You just broke down the entire concept of gender nonconformity, the various forms it can take, the differences between pronouns and LGBT terminology between English and Japanese, and pointed out that gender nonconforming characters have been not only present but popular and acclaimed in Japanese animation and video games for longer than some of your audience has been ALIVE, all in twenty minutes--this is far, far more than "just a simple list" and I love it.
Yes, but it's in a format that people who haven't got much of a knowledge base on this stuff can keep up with. [I know a bit more than the average Joe/Jo, but not that much more.]
@@nirgunawish First off, go look at some pictures from the late '60s. Second, for just one example, I've been watching a UA-cam show called "WTFIWWY?" since like 2010 and the guy host has had butt-length hair (same as me) the whole time. And since he's 6'0" and I'm 5'1", I'm assuming the distance from HIS scalp to his butt is even longer. Hair as a gender construct has absolutely NO basis in science (and quite often long-haired guys have _nicer_ hair than me, a girl, without using fancy products on it at all). And flipping your hair out of your face or tossing it over your shoulder aren't girl gestures, they're _long-haired people_ gestures. If more dudes started growing their hair out like in the '60s and '70s, it would start becoming more normalised again, it would be less weird, more guys might try it, and the world would again see that it's just. freaking. hair. (also I think a lot of guys look way BETTER with longer hair, but that's just me. If you're worried about being seen as too girly, then also grow a beard. That'd be hippie too.) TL;DR: You want proof that your "science" here is bullsh*t? Try growing your OWN hair, and see where it finally stops. Go on. It's free! All you need is time. :)
Bless you for addressing both the "non-human non-binary" trope and the "androgyny does not equal non-binary" thing. Both of those have been points of personal frustration for me for YEARS.
@@idekatthispoint a yes, I too love guns, humanity’s worst invention, and the laws (and lack thereof) that allow thousands of people to die every year 🙃
@@caseys2698 It also protects people. According to official statistics 300 000 crimes in america where done in a year with guns and 500 000 to 3 000 000 were prevented.
@@LanieMae Problem: how do you do that exactly? There are always people that can make guns themselves and with no supervision beyond "duck you we take that" are gonna go full automatic. There are also outside forces that like to take the void in the market, aka the heavily refulated gun market turns into the mexican drug, which btw is currently exporting to european countries. And yes germany proves that you can trick european governments to let you sell weapons. Also trying to take it away from average people is also going to be hard: authoritarian regime always take away guns from their civilians, you know how paranoid americans are against social programms!? Edit: Also going against the symptoms instead against the actual problem is incredible ineffective.
When I was younger I was obsessed with Ranma and I never knew what the big deal was when he complained about his curse. I noticed that as the episodes went on he cared less and less about undoing the curse and it was so cool to see their character development. And now that I'm older I realize why I loved that anime so much and why Ranma's situation felt so real, so important and now that I realize that I'm genderdfluid i know why I felt so connected to his journey as a character
Fun Fact: In the Manga, Kurapika's gender wasn't exactly specified. There's even official Manga art of them wearing a nonbinary necklace, and they wear a binder!
Weird, but period. Im a transwoman and being able to make my own clothes on the fly, out of myself, or being able to have a big white Federkleid whenever its conveniant would be sick as hell.
I thank you for seperating "non conforming" from "nonbinary" I'm a nonconforming cis man. I love to be beautiful, and I love wearing whatever clothes I want, and gender roles are stupid. But I definitely feel like the he/him pronouns I was given at birth were more or less correct and don't feel the need to change them. I'm a man, but I like being soft femme most of the time in aesthetics ❤️
Right, there’s something about growing up as a black woman im so attached to that no matter what I feel like, labels like woman and she/her fits me best at the moment. but presenting something like haruhi does is what I really like to look like. I like this 4 way intersection between gnc and non binary because there’s a place for everyone and no one is a misfit
Growing up female/black and having female issues i definitely identify with female struggle stuff then male. But i am genderfluid and gender non conforming. I usually prefer he him as a basic since most ppl around me dont get it. My preferred name and then just dress how i want. I wear mostly female styff snd still live female clothes cuz DAMMIT THEYRE PRETTY AND IM LWZY putting on a dress is way simpler and finding tops and pants tht dont make my sensitive skin crawl are annoying. I also like showing skin. Sometimes im in a bralette and oants and boots and other times im in a t shirt and hoodie and other times my pjs. I wanna get a more extensive collection of clothes and wigs and makeup eventually to fully be able to shapesh8ft but for now im fluid/non conforming/shapshifter... and lazy lol. I legit had someone yesterday tell me. Well u dont dress like a guy. Aha Ahahahahaaha! News flash i dont have to!! ^-^ and im becoming more and more comfy with thtm especially with Loki as the fluid icon i look up to :3 AND THE FACT HES ANNOUNCED (subtly but stil!) AS HIS GENDER BEING FLUID IN THE TV SERIES MAKES ME SO GODDAMN HAPPY so happy i damn near cried. Also i bet u and everyone in this ebtire comment section are AWESOME and i wish i could meet u ^-^
@@ThePorpoisepower literally the last chapter There are some arcs which look at this as well such as ranma being separated into female and male halves from a curse that only works if ranma ever considers staying female
I find it funny and interesting the Link is one of the few characters that has NB, MtF, and FtM headcanons applied to them, and they’re all potentially valid.
One of my favorite characters from The Owl House is Raine Whispers, who is introduced in season 2 as the Head Witch of the Bard Coven. In the episode they're introduced in, it is also revealed that they have put together a rebel group of fellow bards to overthrow the emperor. So, yeah, they're awesome, and every character in the show refers to them by they/them pronouns. Their voice actors (both for the present timeline and the flashback episode) are nonbinary as well, and we love to see it. The character is also as human as the majority of the main cast is (which is technically not human but functionally human but with magic). They also cannot shapeshift and are not a trickster which is refreshing to see. I love shapeshifting tricksters as much as the next guy, but I do like seeing enby representation that is not just shapeshifting tricksters.
The fact that all other witches on the show use either she/her or he/him pronouns also cements the idea that Raine's gender comes from their individual identity and not from their species/race
I physically screamed at Haruhi and Crona. They were two characters that I identified with most growing up through middle school and high-school. I'm demi so romantic attraction and secual attraction are a hard thing for me to grasp but I felt seen in both of them with not really having strong feelings about ones gender and how that can complicate relationships with friends and just how people see you as a person.
Ooh the only time in my life when I identified with a character was with Crona! And you know what? I was actually happy watching dub when they referred to them as "he". Because every Russian sub/fan dub was like "oh, this person is wearing a dress, they're definitely a 'she'!" 💦
As good as this list is, I feel like it would be remiss to bring up Team Rocket without giving a special shout-out to Meowth and his original voice actress, the late great Maddie Blaustein-especially considering that it was Meowth’s origin story where he learned how to walk and talk like a human that actually inspired her to come out as a trans woman!
wow, that's so cool! ive always prefered the Norwegian dub over the English one, but having a character actually voiced by a trans woman is super cool!
Haruhi was just so relatable because she has her own personality whereas in other shoujo mangas they always make the main character so stereotypically feminine that they’re just a walking caricature instead of a person a character that exist. Also I think you should have mentioned that Haruhi is just disguising as a guy to pay her debt, at home she wears « girly » clothes and shit. But there is another character in ohshc that could fit this video: Haruhi’s father he dresses like a woman but still calls himself a man
Might I also suggest Saiki K. as non-confirming/agender, due to them LITERALLY SHAPESHIFTING INTO A GIRL IN MULTIPLE EPISODES and also their general "I dont give a fuck just leave me alone please" attitude. Like I dont think Saiki ever gave so much as a single fuck to their gender. Might just be projecting though, as the Series is something I hold very dear due to me identifying a lot with saiki (Mostly the "leave me alone I just want some peace and quiet to read a nice book and eat Coffee Jelly is that really to much to ask?" way, not so much the "Vast psychic powers that bend reality to my Will")
“People tend to mix up androgyny with being synonymous with being non binary” GOD SOMEONE SAID IT. I have a wide range in fashion taste. Some days I feel like dressing hyper feminine, other days I feel more comfortable dressing hyper masculine and I have very short hair. But despite tending to look androgynous all the time I identify as a women with she/her pronouns. However, people noticeably assume my gender identity and sexuality more when I dress masculine. To the point that they will misgender on accident in an attempt to guess my identity based on my androgynous appearance alone. I resonate with characters like Pidge from Voltron because she has a more masculine appearance, but uses feminine pronouns. Many people in that fandom at the time argued she should have been non-binary for having to disguise as a man in the beginning of the show, and dresses masculine, but she always uses she/her pronouns and even had a moment where she was happy because a friend of hers validated her gender (Shiro referring to her with her preferred pronouns early on) I know Voltron isn’t really a show that’s discussed anymore but I always loved Pidge because she was the type of character that validated me as a women who wanted to still be seen as a women despite sometimes wanting to look androgynous or masculine.
It bothers me when people take any androgynous character and say mmmm must be non binary. It shows that they view gender as being very rigid and anything that deviates from the norm must be an other. Girl with short hair? Impossible! It also feeds into the “non binary people are just androgynous lesbians” stereotype, which is...very false.
I dont know if Im a GNC woman, but I relate with tomboyish characters such as Pidge and feel more confortable wearing somewhat of a male sense of fashion on a daily bases, but still enjoy the more ''feminine'' clothes too. Maybe I just dont mind it that much about how im presenting.
I can respect if a woman is more or less like a tomboy than having zero feminine traits or being trans and stuff, so I think I can actually sort of guess this to, the stereotyping on the whole men and women thing alone sometimes in some of my favorite anime/games without even necessarily being Anti-LGBT can be really frustrating at times. :p So a girl may be a little boyish but still mostly sees herself as a woman, or a guy may be a little feminine but mostly still sees himself as a man, especially if their like the bishonen prince type, I can respect that. ^^; Hell, I wonder if I actually relate to characters like Ayame from Fruits Basket or Kuranosuke from Princess Jellyfish more than I think I do, ha ha. XD
In the french translation of Soul Eater, Crona is referred with "il" (masculine pronoun) when they appear, but I noticed the main characters changed to "elle" (feminine pronoun) later when Crona becomes their friend, so I thought Crona was trans and the main characters learned to call them by their prefered pronoun.
@@zoer7706 I know that editors for the English translation was getting frustrated with no clear answer on Chrona's gender, so they went with "she" - Chrona is a little different in the manga anyway, so that made some sense, but the anime went with "he." I loved the voice actor he had, and very much consider him gnc, leaning towards being enby, I just use "he" because that's what I'm used to hearing.
@@StellarMariposa You remember right. The anime had to come up with Chrona's gender sooner as there was no indication from the author as to how to refer to Chrona, so at least the English Dub went with "he," while a fed up manga editor went with "she." I still don't remember if the author officially answered either way rather than just going with it.
Something really interesting about Ranma is that at the very end of the manga (spoilers) He says that maybe his ability "wasn't a curse after-all", and that he totally forgot about turning himself back into a permanent guy during the final battle because saving Akane was all that mattered. In an interview, Takahashi also said that she wasn't comfortable writing a male protagonist, so she made Ranma "half-girl" which seems to imply that he isn't just a cis guy who changes form. The Tendo family also makes the same case to Akane when she says she hates men because that would make Ranma an OK fiance for her. Then there's the little details of Ranma becoming comfortable in his female form instead of trying change back right away like in the beginning of the story. Finally in the 2nd movie, Akane tells Ranma while he was seeking a cure that she "likes him the way he is" All of this always made me assume that Ranma is some form of non-binary or genderfluid, and that his curse helped him accept/realize this after being under all of that macho pressure from his dad as a kid.
That's really cool! I never got around to finishing Ranma, and the antics grate on me, but I was always curious about Ranma's development and how he saw himself in either form, and from what I remembered, much of it had to do with being flustered at the situation (the antics made it embarrassing and he wasn't always in control of what form he was in, then), than particular discomfort in a female form. I also liked how he wasn't really concerned with "acting like a girl," and just concerned with acting like himself - it was everyone else who tended to make it weird. I found it refreshing with the amundant female characters who have to have so much of themselves scream "I'm a girl acting girly," you know?
@@justanawkwardnerd Ranma 1/2 has a character band that sang songs from the point of view of various cast members. Ranma's female VA sang a song from Ranma's POV called Yume no Balloon (Dream Balloons) which is about Ranma just... enjoying being a female for a day. I think Ranma could probably enjoy his curse a lot more if his life wasn't a manga with an author who places hot and cold water around every corner and who also gave him the most complicated love dodecahedron ever put to page. Whenever Ranma chooses to be a girl, he has a great time. It's being forced to change at inconvenient times he hates. XD
@@seqka711 Aww! That's adorable! (about the song) I wanna look that up now. (Also some of the pressure on Ranma to "BE A MAN" was from his _mother_ , and that whole thing that if he hadn't grown up manly enough she would instantly murder him and commit seppuku, and literally _carried a sword around with her everywhere she went_ . Yikes...)
@@seqka711 God, I missed when anime would do that - having the voice actor sing songs as if they were the character. That shit was GREAT! I really love that, and another issue I had with Ranma was honestly the love... situations, and how messy and drawn out it tended to be for drama's sake. I don't like that kind of thing. I always figured Ranma would be a great guy to be with if everyone would just calm down and try to act with some sense and respect with each other. I might just get back into watching Ranma for his sake, and to get some resolution on what actually happens in the story. Thank you for this!
@@justanawkwardnerd Don't bother watching the anime again, just read the manga. The character development is much better, and if the drama gets too eye-roll inducing you can just read faster LMAO. Plus the manga actually has an ending, which is nice.
I'm so happy they gave Corona they/them pronouns in the new translation. When I was younger I really latched on to them because of their look and then eventually found out their gender was unlisted on purpose and I didn't really understand it at the time but I knew I wanted to be like them. This was before I came out as agender or before I had ever heard the phrase GNC so it's kind of super validating
Sailor Uranus was my bigender awakening. Also thank you for specifying that nonbinary don't have to be androgynous, that made me feel so secure in my own identity, since I mostly present as feminine since that's really what I've been doing all my life and more or less repressed that aspect of myself as a kid. Like Tsukimi is literally me.
Same. I have long hair and love cute skirts and blouses, but I'm he/they and get incredibly uncomfortable with feminine language used towards me. I feel pressed to be more androgynous or masc just so I'm not misgendered as often.
I just started watching but I'd love to tack on Kino from Kino's Journey as a practically canon non-binary character. They never refer to themself with gendered language, use 'boku' for themself despite being assigned female at birth, and present very androgynously to the point people have referred to them as both a boy and a girl in separate occasions (though Kino rejects both gendered options, just stating "I'm Kino"). Another thing to note is that Kino is not their birthname, rather it's a name they took on from somebody else, and I remember in the novels Kino showing distaste for their birthname and it is left unknown. Even a lot of their backstory feels very layered in non-binary metaphor. Sadly a lot of localization doesn't really respect this aspect of their character and more recent works seem to try and emphasize their assigned gender and makes them act/appear more feminine and aligning them more with simply being a masculine girl, which is really frustrating. Ahhh sorry for the ramble LOL I just needed to talk about Kino because I rarely see a non-binary (perhaps even transmasc) human character like them. Even if being non-binary isn't an INTEGRAL part of Kino's story, it's just something nice and subtle but still very much There and not something you could just ignore unless you were doing some real mental gymnastics haha. Anyway back to watching for me!
I loved Kino when it came. It is still today one of my favourite animes. I remember that in the episode where we learn about Kinos younger days, they mention something like their name rhymes with a certain flower but it has a different and not so good meaning. They never say the name of Kinonor the flower, but the episode had light pink or reddish flowers in it (peach blossoms,sakuras ? Idk. Maybe even made up.)
@Erwin Lii I personally see them as such! I always appreciate gender-ambiguous-but-doesn't-really-care type characters a lot, it's free real estate for my enby ass LOL
@Jordan Rodrigues thank you for the explanation, yes I remember now the episode was really about that other girl. But please please...share your answer with me, i wanna know.
@Yandere Dev That's true. Just thought it was worth mentioning because 1.) outside of anime, girls dont typically use boku unless they want to come off a certain way and I thought this translated into why some afab characters would use boku (tho i also acknowledge it's a case by case thing) and, 2.) I remember a scene where Kino was going between watashi and boku by themself to see which one they liked more and decided boku was more fitting, so I thought it applied to my original comment
It’s nice to have a simple discussion about gender in anime without weebs losing their shit. I like this part of the anime community that I’ve stumbled into, I hope it keeps growing
Right? I've been an anime fan for 7 years now, I think, and at 19 (almost 20), I still see so many crazy fans who lose their shit if you even hint at this type of discussion. As if it's a taboo to discuss gender and now it's not all black n white. And how it's cool how we have these characters
I have to be sincere, I think in a general sense, women/non binary/queer fans are very open to these discussions, but most of the anime channels are own by cis straight man, so and that's the kind of audience they have, so they are less open to talk about those themes without losing their shit. I have seen two channels, one own by a bi man and the other by a trans woman, and they are as cozy as this one regarding sexuality and gender.
As for my suggestions, Saiki in Saiki K. Says in one later chapter that he was born as a women but felt not right with it and changed himself to a man. This is for many in the Fandom pretty much seen as him being trans and transitioning early, and I'd like to share this thought much more! As for a currently airing one, in Visual Prison Eve looks and is being addressed in the subs at least as they. I'd have to listen to the way they adress Eve more to confirm it's in Japanese the same, but for me they are a non-binary. I loved your video, and you just explained everything perfectly!
@@StarlitLilies youre welcome! It just made me like Saiki so much more, even tho the aroace part has never been confirmed, it´s just something ive seen almost everyone agrees on and thats pretty neat!
Fun fact: Snufkin from moomins is explicitly not mentioned as any gender in the original books, and never referred to with any gendered pronouns. This is also true for a lot of other characters (I’d list Themis I knew the English names)
i showed this to my friends in hope that they would understand how gender identity is represented in eastern and western animation + media. They really liked it and said they had a better grasp on how gender should be represented. i think you did a really good job at explaining how characters don't have to have a gender or can have gender fluidity and still make the character engaging enough to fall in love with. As the only non binary/gender non conforming in my friend group it made me happy that i could show them my views about gender's role in society through a mutual interest (anime + animation). creating videos like this can really help cis people understand that gender doesn't have to be showed or can be showed in different ways and a person/character can still have other interests. (i really hope this made sense, im not great at getting my point across - hence why i showed my friends this vid. THANK YOU
I recently realized that I am genderfluid, and I was watching the first season of Pokémon cus at the time I haven't watched it , and when I saw Jessie and James, I actually felt somewhat happy.
IM GENDERFLUID TO!!! Seeung ur comment i think i knw why i lov3d James so much and jessie to! Also in the new loki tv show. Its a super subtle thing but he had a sheet abt himself when he was captured and processed and stuff (cant say more then tht) And next to Gender it said: Fluid Qnd i cant tell u how hype i was. I was screaming and squealing for days. And told everyone at work. I welcome u to genderfluid and hope ur living a great life
oh,jessie and james just don't give a fuck and it's fantastic.XD granted,(out of universe) they obviously crossdres just because it's funny but that doesn't change the fact that they not only do it but do it so damn well.
I really enjoyed this video as a whole, and agree with many of the complimentary comments, but there was one offhand comment you made that deeply bothered me. You mentioned Kurapika, that he wears the traditional robes of his people that are “basically a dress”. This does not make him gender non conforming, nor should it even be mentioned in that direction. Many cultures have quite differing gender presentations, particularly traditionally, and we should not look at someone falling into their traditional gender presentation as gender non conforming. Indigenous men are not gender non conforming when they wear their hair long, as is traditional. Men in classical East Asian dramas, such as The Untamed as a popular one, are not gender non conforming for having long hair or wearing robes. Kurapika is not gender non conforming for wearing the traditional clothing of his people. Western gender roles have been enforced all over the globe because of imperialism, colonialism, etc., and calling characters gender non conforming because they are wearing traditional clothing is only enforcing that. I really liked the video overall, but that comment really bothered me.
princess jellyfish is such a comfort show for me love to here people give the show love because it’s such an interesting and relatable take on femininity
It's one of the shows that helped me crack my egg as a trans woman. Even if the character isn't technically trans, it still helped me grapple with gender expression and conformity in a very formative way!
I'm a trans woman and I am not immune to BotW Link gender envy ✨I was waiting the WHOLE VIDEO for Link to show up, YES!! So glad you saved 'em for the end! I read the whole sequence in BotW dealing with the Gerudo as a metaphor for being trans/gnc within a society of strict gender conformity, and the closeted feeling of dressing up as you're expected and hoping you're not "found out?" tbh Zelda is also huge gender envy for me, especially BotW's "nerdy STEM student" take and Twilight Princess's "emo" Zelda ✨💙🏳⚧✨ Important note as a long time Nintendo fan: Nintendo hasn't always had the best relationship with gender and queer representation (Twilight Princess has a gay couple who are presented as creepy clowns, for example...) but for the last 8 years or so, their creative staff is younger and more inclusive and it really shows in their most recent games; most notably... 🐙🦑 *SPLATOON* 🐙🦑 which not only allows for HELLA gender non-conformity in your player character, but also has MANY canonically LGBTQ characters front and center; and also has storylines that tackle racism, fascism, and hypercapitalism head-on. Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion goes even deeper as you can read some private chat room messages between Pearl and Marina where they share memories of growing up and how they met, and they're just so effortlessly and unforcedly gay 🏳🌈I might be in my late 30s but I would die for these squid and octopus children and I'm pretty excited to see how Splatoon 3 develops things.
I love this video!!!! Also we need to talk about Edward Elrics trans/nonbinary/gender nonconforming vibes because they are coming from somewhere and I still don't understand why the fma fandom as a collective got that but I am determined to figure it out. Is it the hair!? The leather pants!? WHAT IS IT EDWARD???? WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR VIBES ELRIC???!!!!
The one thing Boruto did right is having Orochimaru come out as genderfluid. Naruto teased it, only of you watch subbed and are aware of Japanese pronouns, but in Boruto they went all out, specifically having Orochimaru self-identify as sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes neither.
@Erwin Lii He isn't really redeemed. Man still says he has plans to steal an Uchiha's body somewhere down (future generations) the line saying he's given up on Sasuke's body... for now. He lives in a secluded base under Leaf shinobi's constant watch unable to leave without permission. I'm fairly certain he would be dead if he wasn't such a vast source of knowledge. Plus do you know how many times they tried to kill this man just for him to resurrect? It's honestly too much of a risk to try and kill him cause he'll probably come back and fuck shit up. Not redeemed, too much of a hassle and risk to kill, plus he's a benefit if they need him for something.
Honestly, that's not something to be celebrated. He is acting weird around children and drags them into his weird cult. He's basically an anti-LGBT caricature
im suprised not to see at least one jojo character on here, a lot of the characters are gnc as hell. kars is about the manliest yet feminine character I know. and not nessecarily androgynous where it's this thin, non muscular, short haired person who looks like they could be either male or female. kars is very obviously masculine, but he's also very feminine and then there's the majority of part 5 characters who all look androgynous as hell. one of the characters was literally based off the "dude looks like a lady" song. there's also 2 gay couples in part 5, arguably 3. a lot of the characters in jojo as a whole are just androgynous to varying degrees, mostly because the creator really likes fashion. also about half the make characters wear lipstick
As a JoJo fan (at least of the anime....I need to catch up with the manga tbh), THANK YOU. One of my personal favorite androgynous designs in JoJo is Anasui's.
one of my favorite lines from the Eyes of Heaven game that I've seen is before Anasui and Ermes fight, when Ermes says "man, this dude looks like a lady" and Anasui's immediate next line is "man, this lady looks like a dude" also 8:25 made me think of jojo because the first two examples shown for androgyny are influences for the designs of the main protagonist and main villain of part 4
1. It’s criminal you didn’t mention Kurama 2. Look at Level E for some transman rep. Some of the plot revolves around a transman that is chosen by aliens to reproduce and destroy the world. However since his biology doesn’t work for this purpose they change him biologically. (basically perfect gender affirming surgery). This takes time to be fully in affect and in the meantime we need a solution to prevent the world from ending. But instead of forcibly changing the transman’s biology back to “female” they come up with a different solution. Essentially giving trans people the right to exist and not have to sacrifice themsleves or their identity for the fate of the world.
18:30 this is such an interesting discussion. in brazil we have the term "travesti" to describe a person that was born with masciline genitalia, but likes to be presented with feminine aspects, but doesn't identify as a woman or a man, while using "she" as pronoun. it is historically considered a latin-american identity, so it's interesting to see parallels in other cultures
@@menendez6218 Both yours and OPs comment are true in Spanish-speaking countries as well Outside of bigotry, I choke it up to lack of knowledge and understanding. Travesti is basically our word for drag queens, besides gay, lesbian and bisexual the average person in a Hispanic country is clueless and even somewhat apprehensive about queerness
For a gender non-conforming character that wasn’t mentioned in the video, I’d like to mention Najimi Osana from the Netflix show “Komi can’t communicate”! Their gender is never revealed and the answer is continuously tip toed around in the show. They also switch wearing masculine and feminine clothes and are referred to by they/them across the english dub.
yes!!! and actually in the official brazilian portuguese subtitles they also are refered by gender the neutral pronouns ile/dile even tho those technically don't exist in portuguese officially, so in brazil najimi uses neopronouns which is a cool fun fact
thank you for bringing up the fact that being androgynous/gender nonconforming is not the same as being nonbinary. both are completely different but people keep mixing up the two or think they're the same.
I'm honestly impressed with how the dub for Land of the Lustrous managed to never use a gendered term. It took a bit for me to even notice, but I really appreciate the effort put into the script.
I think one of my first exposures to a gender non-conforming character was Nagihiko/Nadeshiko from Shugo Chara. Considering that the plot of the show was about magically turning into the version of yourself you wanted to be, the fact that this character ended up accepting both their male and female personas was really revolutionary to me. I also love that you mentioned Kanamori from the lesser known Heaven's Design Team! I would also add Opera from Welcome to Demon School Iruma Kun, who the creator refuses to give a gender and uses they/them pronouns.
I started watching My Hero Academia just because my brother told me about Magne (mtf), Tiger (ftm), and Thirteen (gnc). It still makes us both so happy seeing them on page and screen to this day (RIP Big Sis Magne). Same goes for Ouran because of the Fujiokas. Fantasy Knockout already has 2 gnc people as far as I've gotten (the MC whose name I can't remember and Lucius), and I'm barely through the first few episodes. I'm glad things are getting better lately, even if Knockout only has 2 because one is in a Hedwig situation.
I love Haruhi because people assume theyre a guy and they just go "yeah sure, why not." And the only time they actively oppose a gender is when people try to force not just the female gender but also female stereotypes and roles onto them. They also regularly flirt and have romantic interactions with both male and female characters. They're so nonbinary and I love them.
@hotaru I don't _quite_ get the feel that it's something he'd just do on his own, but I also don't see it taking much coaxing from the right person, like Winry, Nina, or a potential daughter or niece. And yeah, he would absolutely raise hell with anyone who tried to give him a hard time about it.
As a trans man: YES it is so frustrating, it gets tiring PD. A recent one with strong gender nonconformity is Pretty Boy Detective Club it's REALLY FUN and dramatic and suprised me with having depth, closest I'll get to a magical boy anime
The most we get in the way of magical boys is nekomimi, which are often.... uhhhhh.... young... to sat the least. And they're almost always cis male, occasionally gay. If you can assign such a thing to a child.
I think Osana Najimi from Komi can't communicate is also worth mentioning. There are only 2 episodes of the anime out yet but I already absolutely ADORE them and their personality.
Kris and Frisk from Undertale and Deltarune helped me discover my gender identity. They helped me realize that I wasn't a girl, and that I felt more comfortable using they/them. I liked having the characters refer to me, the player, as they/them. Napstablook and Mad Mew Mew are some of my favorite characters as well. :)
by "okama" I immediately had to think of One Piece's Emporio Ivankov and the Kamabakka Kingdom, basically an entire island full of queer and nonbinary people who do refer to themselves as okama (not the weirdest island seen in OP, thb), and while they certainly are presented very over-the-top campy and their queerness is used as the butt of jokes here and there, they aren't really presented as "lesser" and, to me at least, very sympathetic (though some other characters, mostly antagonists, show dislike for their queerness) at several instances they show that they believe that everyone should be true to themselves, act and present themselves any way they want and that it's okay whether they be cis, trans, fluid or anything and they show great support for everyone who's questioning (like, Ivankov literally has magic hormone powers and can admister a sort of instant-HRT to anyone, changing the sex of himself and others on several occasions, and if I remember correctly he says at some point that he thinks people should be able to try it out to see what's right for them or sth along those lines)
I love when characters look at gender and just go "por que no los dos" and massively succeed at everything. Its so powerful and cool and sexy and cool and powerful and
I have a problem of not fully understanding everything transgender, gender fluid, non binary etc ... I have friends who are. I try fully grasp the idea of gender identity to understand my friends and i guess my self. Your video did help clear up some of the fog of war in my brain about the subject. Thanks. I always enjoy your videos.
tbh the most important part is just respecting what the person wants to be called and avoiding the biological gunk. just like, if someone asks to be called by a different name or pronoun, you try to use that until they tell you otherwise
@@firelance00 me doin ur mom is a fact 🥴 in all seriousness, i think the point went over your head. just respect people’s identities and don’t be a dick about it. people who hang onto biology are kinda jerks when it’s used against people. reinstating it inherently is patronizing, many people find it uncomfortable- as i do myself- and have to deal with that garbage in their life. people spewing shit like they own your body and don’t care what you have to say about it. so… be mindful next time.
@@Poedoco People who are identifying you with your biological pronouns is not inherently patronizing you nor being prejudice to you in anyway (unless if they know and truly want to get under your skin then yeah I agree those people are dicks). Sure, you have the right to have a different identity from that of your biological one. However do we have to conform and cater to it? No, we don't have to. But is it disrespectful? No, we aren't. To say we are jerks for stating basic facts (again it isn't disrespectful) is not helping why we should have to cater and agree with you guys (and no I'm not transphobic and other -phobics you (may or may not) think I am. I too believe people are free to explore and express themselves freely (sexuality and identity)). But you know what else is disrespectful and uncomfortable? Being stalked and harassed in college for not sharing the same ideals and beliefs as others because thats what i had to deal with for years.
My Joyfriend was showing me Owl House last month, and the stupid amount of joy I felt when I saw Eda and Raine being a couple was just....god. Woman x Enby was a slice of representation I didn't know I needed until I saw it I have a family member or two who...don't really see my relationship as legitimate since my partner is non-binary, so that episode was just a rush of euphoria for me
My joyfriend is the cutest thing and I am going to start using that for my characters with enby partners because joyfriend is so much better than partner. And yes Owl House's Eda and Raine pairing also made me so incredibly happy as it did with most likely everyone that saw it.
Can i just say, Joyfriend is adorable and i love that!!! Also, that rep in the Owl House is so important and i love their dynamic together. I would love to see more in other stories (mainly animated tho but that's just me)
I love that apparently the Flaming Moltres gag was a hit in English. In Spanish (where voice actors really took liberties for comedy) he says "el guajolotote Macías!", kind of roughly translated as "the big turkey Macias!" just a gag on how wrestlers/superheros introduce themselves facetiously, and it was glorious and still a meme today lol
The video game thing reminds me of ASL, where the sign for ‘Boy’ is a hand motion meant to signify the brim of a cap, while the sign for ‘Girl’ uses a motion meant to show the ribbon of a bonnet. And in FSL, the sign for ‘Man’ resembles a mustache while ‘Woman’ resembles a person breast feeding.
Just gonna point out that the vessels from Hollow Knight are confirmed to have no gender, both with the pronouns used to refer to them, but also because the one sibling they have who *isn't* a vessel is distinctly referred to as "the gendered child." Ghost, Hollow, and their thousands of siblings are enby babies, and I adore all of them. Also, Eden from the Binding of Isaac is also confirmed by Edmund McMillen to be gender nonconforming. In his own words: "Eden isnt a man, nor are they a woman.. they just are." And it also ties into the gameplay, since Eden starts with randomly generated stats and items every run, they also are given a random hairstyle--which can either be masculine, feminine, or androgynous. And I love it.
K1-B0 from danganronpa could also be another example. It was actually talked about in the game a bit but everyone just refers him as a he bc of his voice and overall appearance
@@EeveeDropk-k-s-k That's true, I suppose genderless characters who prefer certain pronouns would also apply. Like many of the Legendary Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeon series. Azelf, Uxie, Manaphy, Jirachi, non-shiny Celebi, Dialga, Darkrai -- he/him Mesprit, shiny Celebi -- she/her
I highly recommend Astra: Lost in Space for another wonderful GNC character to add to your list. They are one of my favorite characters period and the English dub did so much to add even more depth to their character.
They're even voiced by a Non Binary Actor, Ciarán Strange, in the Dub! Which means there are TWO NB Actors in that dub since Josh Grelle - who voiced Kuranosuke in Princess Jellyfish - came out as NB last year ^___^
One of my favorite gender-nonconforming characters is Emporio Ivankov from One Piece. Now the series has a lot of weird/insensitive jokes about genderqueer characters, but everything about Ivankov is so cool. He has the ability to control hormones and can use them on anyone he touches, which is like every queer person's wet dream. He was even made the King/Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom, where a majority of the world's Okama (yes this word is used a lot in the series for queer characters) live safely from the oppression of the World Government and other bigots. Ivankov literally uses his own Pride and hormones to fight an evil government with other Gay Anarchists. Hello, based department.
I swear Kirby helped me through a lot when it comes to me and my identity... including my intense dysphoria. (I'm agender) Kirby makes me so goddamn happy he helps me when it comes to dysphoria and my identity I wish to be just like him
"Of course we can't forget Howl Penndragon I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful Jenkis, Disaster Wizard Extrordinare" I was dying laughing right there lol.
For gender nonconforming characters might I recommend Gowther from the anime Seven Deadly Sins. He's a doll given the face of his creator's girlfriend but assigned male by said creator. He likes to dress in gender ambiguous and feminine clothes. He's one of my favorite characters of all time and I wish I had his gender.
watching this while drawing my enby character who literally said "fuck this gender shit" became a god and made their own whole civilization and language without the concept of gender
Kino from Kino's Journey is notable to me as a character with a deliberately ambiguous gender who has verbally denied being gender as either male or female, they only wanna be referred to as Kino, there gender was originally planned to be just a surprise but the author choose to leave it ambiguous for the reader's interpretation
Further with Zelda, there is a Sheikah stone that mentions as a child that Zelda has a secret tomboy side that few people know about. Even before having the idea of concepts like trans and non-binary, I sort of always head cannoned that the male side portrayed as Sheik always existed in Zelda and the Sheikah transformation was a way they could channel. Before understanding myself, I think that I just understood Zelda from OoT as genderfluid, and perhaps usually stuck only presenting one side publicly due to expectations. Also, Tetra from WW as evidence that without the expectations of a princess, they could naturally be pretty androgynous.
One pair I didn't see you mention that I love are the two trans women from Granblue Fantasy! There are two canon trans women in the game- Ladiva, and Cagliostro. Cagliostro was born male, but used alchemy to create a new "cuter" female body for herself, while Ladiva hasn't transitioned- she's from a race of bull people called Draphs who have extreme sexual dimorphism, so the women are all short and curby while the men are huge beefcakes. and Ladiva definitely fits into the latter body type and even has a beard, but uses female pronouns and everyone refers to her as a woman. They also aren't villains or made into the butt of jokes! In all of Ladiva's story events I've seen, everyone just comments on how sweet and warm and caring she is, and Cagliostro is known as a genius. The two of them both even made it into the roster on the GBF fighting game, despite the HUGE cast of options to choose from! I really appreciated how Granblue handled it by depicting both of these characters so that neither of their experiences felt tokenized, and greatly appreciated their inclusion and how kind all the other characters are to them :)
Is Nadeshiko/Nagihiko not mentioned at all here? I would've thought they'd show up at some point. In Shugo Chara, a character named Nadeshiko is introduced, who is admired by the protagonist for how feminine and beautiful she is. She's an extremely talented traditional dancer on top of that. When she moves away to travel abroad, she's gone for a while until coming back as Nagihiko. It's explained to us that Nagihiko had identified as Nadeshiko for a long while in order to better fit into the genre of dance she's talented at. He later develops a passion for more relaxed, hiphop type dancing, and it's explained that neither Nadeshiko nor Nagihiko are fake, that they identify differently as they feel is right to them. This is shown in the fact that they get two Shugo Charas (small guardian spirits that embody one's ideal self) for their more feminine and masculine presentations. Using varied types of dancing AND a unique magical system as a way to explore their genderfluidity and self-expression is SUCH a unique way of tying a genderfluid character into a story. Shugo Chara's biggest theme as a WHOLE is self-identity and exploration, and Nadeshiko/Nagihiko is one of the most obvious examples of the theme as a result. I never see enough people talk about them, even though they might be my favorite Shugo Chara character!
I'm surprised you didn't mention Haruhi's father from Ouran Highschool Host Club so I'll mention them here. From what I remember Haruhi's biological father (as in the person providing the sperm, rather than the egg or carrying the child to term.) Is portrayed as a man who dresses as a woman a majority of the time, and uses she/her pronouns, yet still uses the title Dad. Additionally, we're told that he's been doing this for a very long time including during his marriage to Haruhi's mother, and that she didn't care, and loved 'him' anyway. Which technically, means that Haruhi's mom was heteroflexible at least, and with two icons like that for parents, is it really any wonder that they turned out a gnc legend? (/hj) but more important to me was my reaction to seeing this character because looking back I didn't have any strong feelings. If I was really the person my parents were trying to raise me to be I should have been angry and disgusted but I didn't care. It didn't bother me. So what, Haruhi's dad dresses like a mom? That's silly, and kinda neat. It seems like he cares abt Haruhi, though, in his own way. Can we get back to the romance now? And I think having a character like that, that I could accept so casually, set me up to be accepting of more in the future, including my own relationship with gender, and the changing genders of those around me. Tl;dr, did Haruhi's dad make me queer? No, but she certainly helped.
@@AndSoWeLaughed It’s debatable. Because we never see them outside of drag and well, the boys call them a “tranny.” Which yeah, is pretty bad but it came out before the slur was a well-known issue. Personally, I think they’re on the trans spectrum.
I've always felt uncomfortable wearing dresses/skirts or wearing a lot of makeup and preferred having a more masculine/androgynous style, but I'm certain I'm cis (feel comfortable with my gender and pronouns). Because of this I've hesitated to change my style because I thought for the longest time you could only dress androgynous if you identified as nonbinary/trans and I didn’t want to step on anyone's toes. This video really helped me understand the difference between gender representation and gender identity!
i think a lot of people can relate to that, trans or cis. im transmasc and when i came out, i thought id have to wear androgynous/masc-leaning clothes all the time in order to be valid. i like dresses and skirts, though, and eventually realised that "hey, gender presentation != gender identity applies to me, too!" so i started dressing fem whenever i thought my dysphoria could handle it. if you wanna dress in more androgynous clothes while also being comfortable in your gender, go for it! gender is something that we can play with and shape to our own preferences. do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.
there is no such thing as cis. in third worlds women are punished for not following feminine code of conduct. its conditioned. so saying that there are women who align 100% with femininity rules is mental
If you want a really really adorable "they/them" character in media, may I suggest the adorable indie game "OneShot"? It came out before Undertale did, and features an adorable little child character called "Niko" (who is also a neko, but that is not the point of the name lol). They are... feminine, but childish and kinda tomboyish? Not even specifically androgynous, just "either/neither".
@Skye Farnan Neko is also used as a colloquial abbreviation for "nekomimi", literally translated to "cat ears" but colloquially translated to "cat person"! That is the sense in which I meant it. ^^
They are but a sweet innocent child. Their gender is indiscernible from their mannerisms or appearance. So in total, their gender is: Unknown. Unspecified. N/A. Perhaps that is an uncomfortable thought for you if you're incapable of handling people without categorising them. Poor you.
@@andrasfogarasi5014 Not sure why the sarcastic spite. Niko is specifically not referred to as male or female, including in third person. You may say this is due to them being a child, but the point remains. Whether they are simply androgynous, nb, indeterminable, or some other thing - it is entirely possible to read them as nb if desired, which was mentioned many times in this video. But perhaps it is an uncomfortable action for you to read the words people say, and/or respond without assuming nonsense. Poor you.
Oh my! I think I watched Markiplier play that completely forgot about it, I dont really remember the story but I think is has something to do with lighting up the city and we had a partner to help us out I think? And thats about it, so I guess I could qualify for a blind play thru. It was very wholesome but at the time horror was such a big thing to young me so wasn't really looking for that, no wonder I forgot about it but I should really go back to that! It was so cute!
Surprised Stars Align didn’t get brought up here. Has a wonderful character who actually comes out as non-binary in the show. The show is very serious, as lots of people like to call it trauma tennis but it’s still a really good show with serious issues that’s really good at tone. Now if only we got the second half
Fun fact! In the German translation of the Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous (known as Land der Juwelen in German) manga the gems use the German equivalent of xe/xim pronouns, which I think is cool as hell
This person is not wrong when they say that Jessie and James are legends. One of the things I love in the original Pokémon series was when they came on screen is their outfits!!❤
When I first started watching Ouran Highschool Host Club I connected with Haruhi almost immediately. Like her I couldn't care less what people perceived me as gender-wise. I still identify as a girl and use my agab pronouns but gender meant little to me. I figured out that I'm Cassgender and am very happy with my identity.💜
Y'all need to know about Cybersix, a genetically engineered supersolidier that presents female when she is a superhero, but as male when in his civilian secret identity. The animation is incredible, and the story is about her fighting against the evil organization that created him, against the 'monsters' created like she was. Him being a 'failed' experiment by her rejecting becoming a weapon. But is that something he can even reject? Assigned Weapon At Birth.
@@beeblybob5832 Cybersix is brilliant because it solves the love triangle issue by having said triangle be just two people. The love interest for Cybersix is bi and in love with both identities, and none of them are aware of any of this.
@@LaZodiac that's exactly the way I saw it! One of the reasons why I love the show so much- extremely validating for me personally :D. The focus on Cybersix's human identity rather than gender identity, with it (as least from what I remember) being treated as a normal part of her character, and there's no denying the chemistry that Lucas has with Cybersix, either way she presents himself. It's just... *chef's kiss* Love this show.
I wish you talked about Najimi, from Komi-san can't communicate. They're the most popular person in school and everyone likes them, and nobody cares about "what" they are, just their pesonality (Aside from Tadano in the start, because Najimi had presented as a man before to him). May not be the best example, but I think they're pretty cool.
This was just wholesome to see, characters who don’t identify to a specific gender being treated as normal. No matter how small the representation is, it brings closer and closer to a better future where people accept eachother for who they are
I present another canonically non-gendered character: Hange Zoe. Only ever referred to by they/them pronouns, presents and sounds androgynous, and the author has specifically avoided talking about gender. People in the fanbase (of the anime specifically) tend to refer to them as a woman purely because the voice actor (i think) is a woman. However the character is given a much more androgynous and low voice (speaking from the chest as a man stereotypically would but with a vocal range in between the normal woman or man's). Are they intersex? Are they non-binary? Do they not give a fuck about gender? Who knows! All i know is that i love them and that they're my favourite character from AoT.
As a lady flirting with gender-nonconformism, this was a lovely watch. Also this is the first video of yours I've seen and holy stromboli your voice is so soothing-
I'd really appreciate the take of someone who's more knowledgeable (both in the GNC stuff and Japanese) on the GNC characters introduced in the Wano arc of One Piece. The fandom has been impossible to deal with regarding them and I just don't know how much of it is cultural differences, language barriers, mixed messages from Oda, or just bigotted fans.
I'm one fan of One Piece who absolutely LOVE all the GNC and trans or ambiguous characters, but I'm pretty much not in contact with the fandom as a whole, maybe for the better apparently : ( One thing I can say is, with One Piece's incredible popularity, and how important it is to JUMP sales, it's possible there is immense pressure on Oda from publishers and editors to keep the messages mixed so as not to alienate bigoted fans and reduce the fanbase. It's just a personal theory, I have no particular confirmation, but it's very plausible. Japan is also very traditional, especially on gender roles, so LGBT+ advocacy has never been very outspoken there.
@@demdem7946 The difficulty is that Oda seems to disagree. Like, in the manga itself, it's absurdly clear that Yamato is a trans man (characters that reject him identifying as Oden still use he/him being the biggest and most obvious point there), but his intro title card was "Daughter of Kaido" and his vivre card lists him as female. It's a mix of a lot of fans being transphobic and of the author completely mixing messages
Most One Piece fans respect trans characters and Kiku is a very explicit and clear cut case of someone who was a woman at heart and most people call Okiku her. Yamato's case is more complicated b/c they are trying to assume the identity of Oden Kozuki rather than assuming the identity of Yamato as a man. It's not as clear cut as Kiku's line of phrasing which people believe to be part of Yamato's character arc dealing with their father being Kaido.
I'll say this till the day i die: we deserve a Soul Eater Brotherhood. The manga has so much to animate and the story has been great so far! Plus we can have more Crona content to bless our hearts (btw now we have a new member to the gender nonconforming team, Yuka from Blue Period! They are such a good and complex character and they deserve the whole world)
Until I read this comment I never really thought of Link that way and now I don't want to think of them in any other way. It just fits them so perfectly on several layers!
Great list! Now I really wanna watch Ramna 1/2 again. I was too young when I first watched it. It might be a fun time. I think my favorite one is Link. Also, it's weird being in my late 20s starting now to question my gender, but I guess we learn new things every day. I don't feel like a woman and never did, so I don't think I'm trans, but lately, I've been questioning if I really wanna just fit in as a man, so might be enby, or just a non-conforming man. I love your videos, so keep up with your good work!
This was a great video! Small critique: 7:37 “Biological gender” isn’t a thing, since gender is a social construct. Biological sex is more accurate because sex is associated with your reproductive systems (such as being assigned female a birth) which then leads to gender assignment
As a 15 year old enby, I really needed this. Both as fun way of furthering my own understanding of my identity and they nuance of identity in general. And to gush over characters who embrace gender as the amorphous blob it is. Truly makes me hope for a day in which western culture acknowledges people as people instead entries to a wiki article.
You should check out Pripara and Kamen Rider Zero-One then. Pripara has a couple of gender non-conforming characters. Leona and Hibiki were two sides of the same coins: Hibiki actually was antagonistic towards the main team because they had had a rough experience with friendship in the past, seeing as how ppl only liked them for their money. Zero-One had a redeemed villain who was also played by a non-binary actor. Even had a comadarie with the secondary of the season to the point of giving up their power because they trusted the secondary Rider so much.
Wanted to mention, I agree Naoto seems like someone hesitated to make a true trans masc character with Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4, but I always got the sense it was more a statement against gender disparity. Naoto felt unseen, unheard, and unrespected as a woman, so she used the mantle of a man to trick the people who were keeping her down, and prove she was as talented and skilled, if not moreso, than her male contemporaries. Kind of inversed with Chihiro Fujisaki from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, who felt victimized and targeted by toxic masculinity, and crossdressed as a girl to avoid notice. I realize this may not be as relevant in this video, but it's a thought. Some people revel in defying the binary, or moving freely between it, where others don't put much stock in their position on it, and freely discard their gender identity, or presentation to fulfill their needs. I am saying most of this off the top of my head, so apologies if any comes off as rash, just thoughts.
mine is: Crona Ed from Bebop Envy from FMAB Dororo Hange Zoe from AoT Nagisa from Assassination Classroom Haruhi from Ouran Griffith from berserk Other's worth mentioning: Neferpitou from hxh Rimuru from Reincarnated as a Slime Juuzou from tokyo ghoul Kishu / Dren from Mew mew power Stevonnie from Steven universe
Have you ever watched Gintama? Because I'd like to know what someone who is actually GNC thinks of Yagyu Kyubei. I think they're neat, but I also haven't watched that show in years, and when I did, I was 11 so my concept of lgbtq+ was just "Gay bad. Don't do" lmao.
Griffith, Nagisa, and Dororo aren't really genderfluid/nonconforming. Griffith by a few characters might be confused to be female but the story makes it clear that he's a man and his appearance is more represented as angelic/a pretty boy. The one thing I can say for Griffith and his sexuality is that he is probably asexual. Nagisa finds it annoying when people mistake him for a girl and normally he doesn't dress up as one. The times where he did were to trick people and were played for laughs also considering his backstory him looking like a girl isn't something he choose on his own. Similar to Nagisa, Dororo was raised to appear as the opposite gender though it was sorta forced on her to do so for her own safety. Dororo out of the three is the only one that maybe could be considered genderfluid as it's never flat out said what preferred gender she is but there are things in the story that point to her being considered a girl who pretends to be a boy. Usually when a gender ambiguous character in most stories is outed the story starts to view them differently in a sorta "fake"/questioning way and this is what happens to Dororo. The finally scene of the anime shows a quick look at her when she's older and it seems she dresses more feminine, but she is gender nonconforming more so than the other two.
@@mascotwithadinosaur9353 Eyyyyy same. Seeing Gin and some of the other characters be so nonchalant about presenting femininely was a huge thing for me (kinda like Jessie and James)
I love this video. I wish I could present as masculine , but I have a hard enough time getting people to realize that I'm not wearing feminine clothing. Seeing the breakdown you laid out, and getting the sense that I shouldn't have to intentionally try to dress as nonbinary to be respected as nonbinary helps and also makes me want to cry. I wish I could also dress in feminine things and not have people default to " I'm glad you're getting over that tomboy phase". Anyways. Thank you for making these videos xD. I feel less alone even as I always seem to come away questioning things about myself.
I loved this top 10 video because you discussed context and nuance before going into the actual list. There ought to be more videos with similar format!
Grell was my first realization that "oh shit, I can be myself and not have to give two shits what others think." As absolutely morally questionably as Grell is, she makes for quite the inspiration for a lil gender non-comforming fella like me.
@@mysmallnoman bitch,he puts on fake eyelashes,wears madam red's woman's coat and fawns over sebastian in a VERY feminine way. he may or may not actually be trans (since it's never been officially confirmed) but he sure as hell ain't cis either and is about the closest a victorian can get to whatever he DOES identify as.
@@JT5555 ok I'll agree that he's gay, tho him fawning over Sebastian in a feminine way doesn't make him trans lol, many gay people/Characters like to act very feminine even IRL He's not trans dude
CRONA AND HARUHI APPRECIATION? ACKNOWLEDGING JESSIE AND JAMES FOR THE CULTURE?!! I will literally unsubscribe just so I can subscribe again to show you how much I love you, Nora.
I’d love to give a special shout out to Pisces Aphrodite from Saint Seiya for being absolutely gorgeous and the morally grey hero we deserve. As while introduced as one of the antagonists of the Sanctuary arc, Aphrodite is generally a heroic character, including being the biggest factor in defeating Loki in the Soul of Gold spinoff. And various other spin offs have also depicted them in very lovely dresses and fashionable blouses, pants, and heels. According to one interview with the creator, he even based Aphrodite off of a drag queen he knew. Also I hc Aphrodite as genderfluid, and basically being beautiful regardless of current identity or presentation.
Saint Seiya is full of wonderful gnc characters, I'm so glad you mentioned it. Shun in particular means the world to me personally, esp since his personal character arc is about how he doesn't have to compromise his more "feminine" traits (like gentleness and pacifism) in order to be seen as a valid man (and I read him as gnc transmasc in this context too hehe). The ways Shun and Aphrodite both subvert expectations in similar yet distinct ways is sooo satisfying to dissect Also BIG yes to genderfluid Aphrodite!!!
I would like to thank you for including the Amazon Trio, The Starlights, Haruka, Ranma and Wandering Son. Wandering Son doesn’t get enough attention. This video made me happy as a non-binary he/they human. Thank you again.
Have you read Yuhki Kamatami's work? Especially "Our Dreams at Dusk" that has (at least) several gay men, a trans man, lesbians, amab gender questioning person, a nonbinary aroace character and generally speaks about being queer in modern day Japan. Oh, and the author is nonbinary themself, and I think ace? Even their earlier works, like my beloved Nabari no Ou (manga version), touch on the subject on sex and gender (and other types of queerness) on the side and honestly gave me the first gender relatable media characters I had experienced, haha. Also, gorgeous art from ~midway through Nabari no ou forwards when they really found their style.
The reason for Sheik’s masculine disguise was that Zelda thought becoming masculine presenting would make Ganon not even consider Sheik is Zelda. Sheik is totally a magical physical change but you can disagree if you want
Yeah, Nintendo saying "it's just a disguise" like sure, whatever Nintendo. It's a "disguise" that magically makes her hair shorter and eyes a different colour, and she takes it off using the Triforce, but whatever, "it's a disguise" sure.
Me who recently started seeing myself as GNC: wow this is a new development for me Me in the past: always had favouritism towards GNC characters in animation and would play pretend as male characters despite not identifying as one
19:54 Actually if we want to nitpick here, I know this is the case in the dub but I'm not sure how the original Japanese fairs, but in the movie Pokemon 2000 Meowth says to the two of them "who needs the opposite sex when you have eachother" so if we take that at face value that means that they have the same AGAB, so at the very least one of them is canonically trans.
one gnc character i really like is garry from ib. garry uses "atashi" to refer to himself in japanese and uses a lot of feminine speech patterns in both japanese and english, however he is still explicitly referred to as a man in both languages. also, kouri (the game's creator) stated in a comment on a drawing he made of garry in a kimono that garry "wants to cross the barriers of gender". so basically, garry is gnc as hell.
Fun Fact: The creators have actually confirmed before that Link was designed so that if you're a guy, you'd think they're a guy, but if you were a girl, you'd think they're a tomboyish girl.
P.S. I forgot to mention that Link isn't even a gender specific name, anyone could be named Link, and it would make perfect sense.
"Link isn't even a gender specific name, anyone could be named Link" which is exactly why I'll always be a little salty about 'Linkle' but I guess they couldn't have two characters named Link...
they definitely couldve had a character named kiln though
@@mmtruooao8377 True.
hell,link's name wasn't even supposed to be so much a name as it was a reference to how in the original concept he was going to be a *LINK* between the past and the future.
Yes, but Linkle is specifically female and I prefer her over Link although she only shows up in Hyrule warriors.
Fun fact: not all languages have gender built in, say Hungarian has no gendered pronouns, the whole situation with pronouns and gender in English is frankly hilarious from a Hungarian perspective.
Same in Filipino languages lmao
the complete opposite from spanish, where every single thing has a gender for some reason lol
while romance languages are the complete opposite. it's even more hilarious cuz they gendered everything.
@@haIIoweenn And German and French and Swedish and Italian. A masculine-feminine-neuter or masculine-feminine gender system for all general things is an aspect of almost all European languages. English has largely deprecated this, with the only remaining remnant being gendered second-person personal pronouns.
A different common gender system is animate-inanimate. Not in Europe of course. Things which move are fit differently into sentences than those which do not move. Yes, this is called grammatical gender. Yes, you are correct in observing that it has nothing to do with psychological or societal gender. This is because the word "gender" originally means "kind", "caste", or "class". It only gained the commonly recognised modern meaning after John Money started using it incorrectly.
Meanwhile me and the boys arguing over the gender of nutella
When I saw Ouran Host Club for the first time, and Haruhi said that she didn't really care about gender, I nodded like, yeah, that's universal. Little did I know
Headcanon them as cassgender
Same 💀
I actually talked to Caitlin Glass about this and her thoughts on it. She wasn’t too bothered by the whole Haruhi possibly being genderfluid. That was a pleasant conversation 😊
SAME
Gender apathetic. Just literally doesn't care in the slightest. :)
I just love haruhi ohshc response when asked straight out if she’s a girl. ‘I mean biologically I am.’ If that doesn’t scream gender indifference i dont know what does.
LITERALLY-
I'm just surprised they never mentioned gren from cowboy bebop.
This why Haruhi is one of favorite characters
@@icravedeath.1200Gren was on that picture of a lot of characters when they essentially said "if i didn't mention your favorite im sorry" :]
@@jadedfire4351 oh okay
"Ah yes, the two genders: hats and bows." 😂
Incredible, awesome video as always.
Based Croagunt pfp
@@hellsbells-b9r yesss
Haruhi's dad also explitly does drag and is veary sportive of Haruhi, 10 out of 10 best anime dad
i wouldn't say he does DRAG (a primary aspect of drag is the use of exaggeration and ranka is just a normal,business-casual gal) but he DOES crossdress professionally so everything still holds up.
@@JT5555 wait what!
Nah Endevor's the best dad....
also the fact that hes bisexual and had a wife who accepted him, such a rare thing to see as representation I feel
@@punkithecat yes.
"Just a simple list?" You just broke down the entire concept of gender nonconformity, the various forms it can take, the differences between pronouns and LGBT terminology between English and Japanese, and pointed out that gender nonconforming characters have been not only present but popular and acclaimed in Japanese animation and video games for longer than some of your audience has been ALIVE, all in twenty minutes--this is far, far more than "just a simple list" and I love it.
It's insane in the best way possible
Yes, but it's in a format that people who haven't got much of a knowledge base on this stuff can keep up with.
[I know a bit more than the average Joe/Jo, but not that much more.]
@@nirgunawish were you dropped as a newborn
@@nirgunawish no one is trying to relive rapunzel. Jesus is female confirmed.
@@nirgunawish First off, go look at some pictures from the late '60s. Second, for just one example, I've been watching a UA-cam show called "WTFIWWY?" since like 2010 and the guy host has had butt-length hair (same as me) the whole time. And since he's 6'0" and I'm 5'1", I'm assuming the distance from HIS scalp to his butt is even longer.
Hair as a gender construct has absolutely NO basis in science (and quite often long-haired guys have _nicer_ hair than me, a girl, without using fancy products on it at all). And flipping your hair out of your face or tossing it over your shoulder aren't girl gestures, they're _long-haired people_ gestures. If more dudes started growing their hair out like in the '60s and '70s, it would start becoming more normalised again, it would be less weird, more guys might try it, and the world would again see that it's just. freaking. hair.
(also I think a lot of guys look way BETTER with longer hair, but that's just me. If you're worried about being seen as too girly, then also grow a beard. That'd be hippie too.)
TL;DR: You want proof that your "science" here is bullsh*t? Try growing your OWN hair, and see where it finally stops. Go on. It's free! All you need is time. :)
Bless you for addressing both the "non-human non-binary" trope and the "androgyny does not equal non-binary" thing. Both of those have been points of personal frustration for me for YEARS.
As second amendment loving true American I agree.
@@idekatthispoint a yes, I too love guns, humanity’s worst invention, and the laws (and lack thereof) that allow thousands of people to die every year 🙃
@@caseys2698 It also protects people. According to official statistics 300 000 crimes in america where done in a year with guns and 500 000 to 3 000 000 were prevented.
@@legendaresn6983 the best way to stop gun violence is to get rid of guns
@@LanieMae Problem: how do you do that exactly? There are always people that can make guns themselves and with no supervision beyond "duck you we take that" are gonna go full automatic. There are also outside forces that like to take the void in the market, aka the heavily refulated gun market turns into the mexican drug, which btw is currently exporting to european countries. And yes germany proves that you can trick european governments to let you sell weapons. Also trying to take it away from average people is also going to be hard: authoritarian regime always take away guns from their civilians, you know how paranoid americans are against social programms!?
Edit: Also going against the symptoms instead against the actual problem is incredible ineffective.
When I was younger I was obsessed with Ranma and I never knew what the big deal was when he complained about his curse. I noticed that as the episodes went on he cared less and less about undoing the curse and it was so cool to see their character development. And now that I'm older I realize why I loved that anime so much and why Ranma's situation felt so real, so important and now that I realize that I'm genderdfluid i know why I felt so connected to his journey as a character
samee
Fun Fact: In the Manga, Kurapika's gender wasn't exactly specified. There's even official Manga art of them wearing a nonbinary necklace, and they wear a binder!
Couldn’t find any confirmation on anything you said, unfortunately :c would you happen to have a source?
@@aleisshiki3649I believe it is misinformation 😊
Can confirm, being a shape-shifting alien is the ultimate transition goal
Weird, but period.
Im a transwoman and being able to make my own clothes on the fly, out of myself, or being able to have a big white Federkleid whenever its conveniant would be sick as hell.
Shape Japer real
lmao it's been two years and I'm a trans woman now
@@cinder6775 congrats!
I thank you for seperating "non conforming" from "nonbinary"
I'm a nonconforming cis man. I love to be beautiful, and I love wearing whatever clothes I want, and gender roles are stupid. But I definitely feel like the he/him pronouns I was given at birth were more or less correct and don't feel the need to change them. I'm a man, but I like being soft femme most of the time in aesthetics ❤️
Right, there’s something about growing up as a black woman im so attached to that no matter what I feel like, labels like woman and she/her fits me best at the moment. but presenting something like haruhi does is what I really like to look like. I like this 4 way intersection between gnc and non binary because there’s a place for everyone and no one is a misfit
RIGHT it irked me when people always interpret gnc cis people as trans. it always felt like gender stereotyping to me.
We love lads like you in this household. You can be as beautiful as you want and still be a man😤👍🏼❤️
Growing up female/black and having female issues i definitely identify with female struggle stuff then male.
But i am genderfluid and gender non conforming. I usually prefer he him as a basic since most ppl around me dont get it. My preferred name and then just dress how i want. I wear mostly female styff snd still live female clothes cuz DAMMIT THEYRE PRETTY AND IM LWZY putting on a dress is way simpler and finding tops and pants tht dont make my sensitive skin crawl are annoying.
I also like showing skin. Sometimes im in a bralette and oants and boots and other times im in a t shirt and hoodie and other times my pjs.
I wanna get a more extensive collection of clothes and wigs and makeup eventually to fully be able to shapesh8ft but for now im fluid/non conforming/shapshifter... and lazy lol. I legit had someone yesterday tell me. Well u dont dress like a guy.
Aha
Ahahahahaaha! News flash i dont have to!! ^-^ and im becoming more and more comfy with thtm especially with Loki as the fluid icon i look up to :3 AND THE FACT HES ANNOUNCED (subtly but stil!) AS HIS GENDER BEING FLUID IN THE TV SERIES MAKES ME SO GODDAMN HAPPY so happy i damn near cried.
Also i bet u and everyone in this ebtire comment section are AWESOME and i wish i could meet u ^-^
Dont dunk on people who actually are conforming tho
Fun note:
Ranma fully accepts the female part of themselves, basically the ending is accepting being gender fluid and then getting married
Didn't the author also talk about wanting Ranma to be trans, but there being some difficulties with publishing?
@@cyryl3827 oh that's very sad but hey, HEADCANON CONFIRMED BY CANON!!
What volume/episode does THAT happen in?
@@ThePorpoisepower literally the last chapter
There are some arcs which look at this as well such as ranma being separated into female and male halves from a curse that only works if ranma ever considers staying female
@@cyryl3827 wth are you talking about? It's for entertainment, you can read the interviews in the manga. She needed a funny plot line and that's it
I find it funny and interesting the Link is one of the few characters that has NB, MtF, and FtM headcanons applied to them, and they’re all potentially valid.
And by design no less
Yeah idk what to tell you, Link is Gender(tm). XD
One of my favorite characters from The Owl House is Raine Whispers, who is introduced in season 2 as the Head Witch of the Bard Coven. In the episode they're introduced in, it is also revealed that they have put together a rebel group of fellow bards to overthrow the emperor.
So, yeah, they're awesome, and every character in the show refers to them by they/them pronouns. Their voice actors (both for the present timeline and the flashback episode) are nonbinary as well, and we love to see it.
The character is also as human as the majority of the main cast is (which is technically not human but functionally human but with magic). They also cannot shapeshift and are not a trickster which is refreshing to see. I love shapeshifting tricksters as much as the next guy, but I do like seeing enby representation that is not just shapeshifting tricksters.
There’s one from Craig of the Creek.
Their name is Angel and is a Babysitter who sits younger siblings.
The fact that all other witches on the show use either she/her or he/him pronouns also cements the idea that Raine's gender comes from their individual identity and not from their species/race
This is a tiny detail but I also love the gender-neutral use of "witch" in that show. No more pointlessly dividing magicdoers by gender!
I always loved how even villains respect Raine’s pronouns
@@vortech0581Also, Craig of The Creek has a kid called "Merkid", and a kid called Pullstring, they are both enby
I physically screamed at Haruhi and Crona. They were two characters that I identified with most growing up through middle school and high-school. I'm demi so romantic attraction and secual attraction are a hard thing for me to grasp but I felt seen in both of them with not really having strong feelings about ones gender and how that can complicate relationships with friends and just how people see you as a person.
Nah you just get 0 action 😂
I relate to that on a spiritual level
Same! I remember being so mesmerized by them at a young age, and not knowing why ahahah
Ooh the only time in my life when I identified with a character was with Crona! And you know what? I was actually happy watching dub when they referred to them as "he". Because every Russian sub/fan dub was like "oh, this person is wearing a dress, they're definitely a 'she'!" 💦
@@cali_3870 literally shut up.. why are you here..
"I think that costume came right out of his closet."
Okay, WHY AM I JUST NOW BEING MADE AWARE OF THIS LEGENDARY LINE!?
He's a "flaming" moltres
I wonder if James has an Articuno costume and Zapdos costume too. Ooh! A Lugia costume and Ho-Oh costume would be AWESOME!
Absolutely hate myself for asking, but does that make James a potential furry?
@@EditDeath It's certainly a possibility, but given his line of work, it seems more likely that he owned it for professional purposes.
@@coyoteseattle Fair, though that doesn't explain Jessie's apparent disgust
As good as this list is, I feel like it would be remiss to bring up Team Rocket without giving a special shout-out to Meowth and his original voice actress, the late great Maddie Blaustein-especially considering that it was Meowth’s origin story where he learned how to walk and talk like a human that actually inspired her to come out as a trans woman!
Wait, it did?! That's amazing!!! 😍
That's awesome!
What!? Now way! That's awesome! Also Go West Young Meowth is my favorite episode of the OG Pokemon series. Now I have one more reason to love it!
What!? Now way! That's awesome! Also Go West Young Meowth is my favorite episode of the OG Pokemon series. Now I have one more reason to love it!
wow, that's so cool! ive always prefered the Norwegian dub over the English one, but having a character actually voiced by a trans woman is super cool!
Haruhi was just so relatable because she has her own personality whereas in other shoujo mangas they always make the main character so stereotypically feminine that they’re just a walking caricature instead of a person a character that exist. Also I think you should have mentioned that Haruhi is just disguising as a guy to pay her debt, at home she wears « girly » clothes and shit. But there is another character in ohshc that could fit this video: Haruhi’s father he dresses like a woman but still calls himself a man
Haruhi's father is just such a fucking legend
@@galenibble he's so iconic tbh 😭
Might I also suggest Saiki K. as non-confirming/agender, due to them LITERALLY SHAPESHIFTING INTO A GIRL IN MULTIPLE EPISODES and also their general "I dont give a fuck just leave me alone please" attitude. Like I dont think Saiki ever gave so much as a single fuck to their gender. Might just be projecting though, as the Series is something I hold very dear due to me identifying a lot with saiki (Mostly the "leave me alone I just want some peace and quiet to read a nice book and eat Coffee Jelly is that really to much to ask?" way, not so much the "Vast psychic powers that bend reality to my Will")
Let's not forget that he's canonly a trans ftm person (born girl but a few sec after being born he straight up changed his gender lol)
Love Saiki, They gave me so many vibes as an aromantic person, Saiki is Aro/Ace icon and I love them.
just a- everything
Saiki is very aroace agender, and I love it
saiki changed his gender in the womb to a boy and says he’s definitely a boy😭i need this as an ftm who loves saiki k
“People tend to mix up androgyny with being synonymous with being non binary” GOD SOMEONE SAID IT. I have a wide range in fashion taste. Some days I feel like dressing hyper feminine, other days I feel more comfortable dressing hyper masculine and I have very short hair. But despite tending to look androgynous all the time I identify as a women with she/her pronouns. However, people noticeably assume my gender identity and sexuality more when I dress masculine. To the point that they will misgender on accident in an attempt to guess my identity based on my androgynous appearance alone. I resonate with characters like Pidge from Voltron because she has a more masculine appearance, but uses feminine pronouns. Many people in that fandom at the time argued she should have been non-binary for having to disguise as a man in the beginning of the show, and dresses masculine, but she always uses she/her pronouns and even had a moment where she was happy because a friend of hers validated her gender (Shiro referring to her with her preferred pronouns early on) I know Voltron isn’t really a show that’s discussed anymore but I always loved Pidge because she was the type of character that validated me as a women who wanted to still be seen as a women despite sometimes wanting to look androgynous or masculine.
Same, I sit in the exact same boat as you. Just a very GNC woman that also likes hyper feminin fashion
It bothers me when people take any androgynous character and say mmmm must be non binary. It shows that they view gender as being very rigid and anything that deviates from the norm must be an other. Girl with short hair? Impossible! It also feeds into the “non binary people are just androgynous lesbians” stereotype, which is...very false.
I dont know if Im a GNC woman, but I relate with tomboyish characters such as Pidge and feel more confortable wearing somewhat of a male sense of fashion on a daily bases, but still enjoy the more ''feminine'' clothes too. Maybe I just dont mind it that much about how im presenting.
@@IceFireofVoid omg thank you! that bothers me too
I can respect if a woman is more or less like a tomboy than having zero feminine traits or being trans and stuff, so I think I can actually sort of guess this to, the stereotyping on the whole men and women thing alone sometimes in some of my favorite anime/games without even necessarily being Anti-LGBT can be really frustrating at times. :p
So a girl may be a little boyish but still mostly sees herself as a woman, or a guy may be a little feminine but mostly still sees himself as a man, especially if their like the bishonen prince type, I can respect that. ^^;
Hell, I wonder if I actually relate to characters like Ayame from Fruits Basket or Kuranosuke from Princess Jellyfish more than I think I do, ha ha. XD
In the french translation of Soul Eater, Crona is referred with "il" (masculine pronoun) when they appear, but I noticed the main characters changed to "elle" (feminine pronoun) later when Crona becomes their friend, so I thought Crona was trans and the main characters learned to call them by their prefered pronoun.
I don't know about the anime but in the manga they use "elle" all along
@@zoer7706 I know that editors for the English translation was getting frustrated with no clear answer on Chrona's gender, so they went with "she" - Chrona is a little different in the manga anyway, so that made some sense, but the anime went with "he." I loved the voice actor he had, and very much consider him gnc, leaning towards being enby, I just use "he" because that's what I'm used to hearing.
If I remember correctly, crona was referred to as a girl in the manga and a boy in the anime.
@@StellarMariposa You remember right. The anime had to come up with Chrona's gender sooner as there was no indication from the author as to how to refer to Chrona, so at least the English Dub went with "he," while a fed up manga editor went with "she." I still don't remember if the author officially answered either way rather than just going with it.
Something really interesting about Ranma is that at the very end of the manga (spoilers)
He says that maybe his ability "wasn't a curse after-all", and that he totally forgot about turning himself back into a permanent guy during the final battle because saving Akane was all that mattered. In an interview, Takahashi also said that she wasn't comfortable writing a male protagonist, so she made Ranma "half-girl" which seems to imply that he isn't just a cis guy who changes form. The Tendo family also makes the same case to Akane when she says she hates men because that would make Ranma an OK fiance for her. Then there's the little details of Ranma becoming comfortable in his female form instead of trying change back right away like in the beginning of the story. Finally in the 2nd movie, Akane tells Ranma while he was seeking a cure that she "likes him the way he is" All of this always made me assume that Ranma is some form of non-binary or genderfluid, and that his curse helped him accept/realize this after being under all of that macho pressure from his dad as a kid.
That's really cool! I never got around to finishing Ranma, and the antics grate on me, but I was always curious about Ranma's development and how he saw himself in either form, and from what I remembered, much of it had to do with being flustered at the situation (the antics made it embarrassing and he wasn't always in control of what form he was in, then), than particular discomfort in a female form. I also liked how he wasn't really concerned with "acting like a girl," and just concerned with acting like himself - it was everyone else who tended to make it weird. I found it refreshing with the amundant female characters who have to have so much of themselves scream "I'm a girl acting girly," you know?
@@justanawkwardnerd Ranma 1/2 has a character band that sang songs from the point of view of various cast members. Ranma's female VA sang a song from Ranma's POV called Yume no Balloon (Dream Balloons) which is about Ranma just... enjoying being a female for a day.
I think Ranma could probably enjoy his curse a lot more if his life wasn't a manga with an author who places hot and cold water around every corner and who also gave him the most complicated love dodecahedron ever put to page. Whenever Ranma chooses to be a girl, he has a great time. It's being forced to change at inconvenient times he hates. XD
@@seqka711 Aww! That's adorable! (about the song) I wanna look that up now.
(Also some of the pressure on Ranma to "BE A MAN" was from his _mother_ , and that whole thing that if he hadn't grown up manly enough she would instantly murder him and commit seppuku, and literally _carried a sword around with her everywhere she went_ . Yikes...)
@@seqka711 God, I missed when anime would do that - having the voice actor sing songs as if they were the character. That shit was GREAT!
I really love that, and another issue I had with Ranma was honestly the love... situations, and how messy and drawn out it tended to be for drama's sake. I don't like that kind of thing.
I always figured Ranma would be a great guy to be with if everyone would just calm down and try to act with some sense and respect with each other. I might just get back into watching Ranma for his sake, and to get some resolution on what actually happens in the story.
Thank you for this!
@@justanawkwardnerd Don't bother watching the anime again, just read the manga. The character development is much better, and if the drama gets too eye-roll inducing you can just read faster LMAO. Plus the manga actually has an ending, which is nice.
I'm so happy they gave Corona they/them pronouns in the new translation. When I was younger I really latched on to them because of their look and then eventually found out their gender was unlisted on purpose and I didn't really understand it at the time but I knew I wanted to be like them. This was before I came out as agender or before I had ever heard the phrase GNC so it's kind of super validating
Sailor Uranus was my bigender awakening.
Also thank you for specifying that nonbinary don't have to be androgynous, that made me feel so secure in my own identity, since I mostly present as feminine since that's really what I've been doing all my life and more or less repressed that aspect of myself as a kid.
Like Tsukimi is literally me.
same, I like "feminine" fashion and make up, but it isn't feminine for me, it's just pretty
Same. I have long hair and love cute skirts and blouses, but I'm he/they and get incredibly uncomfortable with feminine language used towards me. I feel pressed to be more androgynous or masc just so I'm not misgendered as often.
I just started watching but I'd love to tack on Kino from Kino's Journey as a practically canon non-binary character. They never refer to themself with gendered language, use 'boku' for themself despite being assigned female at birth, and present very androgynously to the point people have referred to them as both a boy and a girl in separate occasions (though Kino rejects both gendered options, just stating "I'm Kino"). Another thing to note is that Kino is not their birthname, rather it's a name they took on from somebody else, and I remember in the novels Kino showing distaste for their birthname and it is left unknown. Even a lot of their backstory feels very layered in non-binary metaphor. Sadly a lot of localization doesn't really respect this aspect of their character and more recent works seem to try and emphasize their assigned gender and makes them act/appear more feminine and aligning them more with simply being a masculine girl, which is really frustrating. Ahhh sorry for the ramble LOL I just needed to talk about Kino because I rarely see a non-binary (perhaps even transmasc) human character like them. Even if being non-binary isn't an INTEGRAL part of Kino's story, it's just something nice and subtle but still very much There and not something you could just ignore unless you were doing some real mental gymnastics haha. Anyway back to watching for me!
I loved Kino when it came. It is still today one of my favourite animes.
I remember that in the episode where we learn about Kinos younger days, they mention something like their name rhymes with a certain flower but it has a different and not so good meaning.
They never say the name of Kinonor the flower, but the episode had light pink or reddish flowers in it (peach blossoms,sakuras ? Idk. Maybe even made up.)
@Erwin Lii I personally see them as such! I always appreciate gender-ambiguous-but-doesn't-really-care type characters a lot, it's free real estate for my enby ass LOL
@@kaririyon
Everybody is a Woman.
@Jordan Rodrigues thank you for the explanation, yes I remember now the episode was really about that other girl.
But please please...share your answer with me, i wanna know.
@Yandere Dev That's true. Just thought it was worth mentioning because 1.) outside of anime, girls dont typically use boku unless they want to come off a certain way and I thought this translated into why some afab characters would use boku (tho i also acknowledge it's a case by case thing) and, 2.) I remember a scene where Kino was going between watashi and boku by themself to see which one they liked more and decided boku was more fitting, so I thought it applied to my original comment
It’s nice to have a simple discussion about gender in anime without weebs losing their shit. I like this part of the anime community that I’ve stumbled into, I hope it keeps growing
I know right!
Right? I've been an anime fan for 7 years now, I think, and at 19 (almost 20), I still see so many crazy fans who lose their shit if you even hint at this type of discussion. As if it's a taboo to discuss gender and now it's not all black n white. And how it's cool how we have these characters
I have to be sincere, I think in a general sense, women/non binary/queer fans are very open to these discussions, but most of the anime channels are own by cis straight man, so and that's the kind of audience they have, so they are less open to talk about those themes without losing their shit.
I have seen two channels, one own by a bi man and the other by a trans woman, and they are as cozy as this one regarding sexuality and gender.
@@Cloverfr you make a great point, you're absolutely right. Those types of audiences have a scary hive mind.
Sorry that we don’t want identity politics on our shows and movies
As for my suggestions, Saiki in Saiki K. Says in one later chapter that he was born as a women but felt not right with it and changed himself to a man. This is for many in the Fandom pretty much seen as him being trans and transitioning early, and I'd like to share this thought much more!
As for a currently airing one, in Visual Prison Eve looks and is being addressed in the subs at least as they. I'd have to listen to the way they adress Eve more to confirm it's in Japanese the same, but for me they are a non-binary.
I loved your video, and you just explained everything perfectly!
WHAAATT!! Did not know that!
And that's on top of him being most probably aro/ace
@@StarlitLilies youre welcome! It just made me like Saiki so much more, even tho the aroace part has never been confirmed, it´s just something ive seen almost everyone agrees on and thats pretty neat!
Fun fact: Snufkin from moomins is explicitly not mentioned as any gender in the original books, and never referred to with any gendered pronouns.
This is also true for a lot of other characters (I’d list Themis I knew the English names)
The moomin books were originally written in Swedish, and snufkin was referred to with male pronouns in those.
i showed this to my friends in hope that they would understand how gender identity is represented in eastern and western animation + media. They really liked it and said they had a better grasp on how gender should be represented. i think you did a really good job at explaining how characters don't have to have a gender or can have gender fluidity and still make the character engaging enough to fall in love with. As the only non binary/gender non conforming in my friend group it made me happy that i could show them my views about gender's role in society through a mutual interest (anime + animation). creating videos like this can really help cis people understand that gender doesn't have to be showed or can be showed in different ways and a person/character can still have other interests. (i really hope this made sense, im not great at getting my point across - hence why i showed my friends this vid. THANK YOU
Stop forcing your views on people
I recently realized that I am genderfluid, and I was watching the first season of Pokémon cus at the time I haven't watched it , and when I saw Jessie and James, I actually felt somewhat happy.
As a fan of Poémon i'm happy for you
Ok
IM GENDERFLUID TO!!! Seeung ur comment i think i knw why i lov3d James so much and jessie to!
Also in the new loki tv show. Its a super subtle thing but he had a sheet abt himself when he was captured and processed and stuff (cant say more then tht)
And next to Gender it said: Fluid
Qnd i cant tell u how hype i was. I was screaming and squealing for days. And told everyone at work.
I welcome u to genderfluid and hope ur living a great life
Sorry it wouldnt let me edit the other comment and i spelled something wrong so reposted it
oh,jessie and james just don't give a fuck and it's fantastic.XD granted,(out of universe) they obviously crossdres just because it's funny but that doesn't change the fact that they not only do it but do it so damn well.
I really enjoyed this video as a whole, and agree with many of the complimentary comments, but there was one offhand comment you made that deeply bothered me. You mentioned Kurapika, that he wears the traditional robes of his people that are “basically a dress”.
This does not make him gender non conforming, nor should it even be mentioned in that direction. Many cultures have quite differing gender presentations, particularly traditionally, and we should not look at someone falling into their traditional gender presentation as gender non conforming. Indigenous men are not gender non conforming when they wear their hair long, as is traditional. Men in classical East Asian dramas, such as The Untamed as a popular one, are not gender non conforming for having long hair or wearing robes. Kurapika is not gender non conforming for wearing the traditional clothing of his people.
Western gender roles have been enforced all over the globe because of imperialism, colonialism, etc., and calling characters gender non conforming because they are wearing traditional clothing is only enforcing that. I really liked the video overall, but that comment really bothered me.
Yeah, it kinda bothered me too
homegirl had a white woman moment lmaoo!
Same here. It's clear that he's wearing traditional clothing and only dresses femininely when he must
princess jellyfish is such a comfort show for me love to here people give the show love because it’s such an interesting and relatable take on femininity
It's one of the shows that helped me crack my egg as a trans woman. Even if the character isn't technically trans, it still helped me grapple with gender expression and conformity in a very formative way!
I'm a trans woman and I am not immune to BotW Link gender envy ✨I was waiting the WHOLE VIDEO for Link to show up, YES!! So glad you saved 'em for the end!
I read the whole sequence in BotW dealing with the Gerudo as a metaphor for being trans/gnc within a society of strict gender conformity, and the closeted feeling of dressing up as you're expected and hoping you're not "found out?"
tbh Zelda is also huge gender envy for me, especially BotW's "nerdy STEM student" take and Twilight Princess's "emo" Zelda ✨💙🏳⚧✨
Important note as a long time Nintendo fan: Nintendo hasn't always had the best relationship with gender and queer representation (Twilight Princess has a gay couple who are presented as creepy clowns, for example...) but for the last 8 years or so, their creative staff is younger and more inclusive and it really shows in their most recent games; most notably...
🐙🦑 *SPLATOON* 🐙🦑
which not only allows for HELLA gender non-conformity in your player character, but also has MANY canonically LGBTQ characters front and center; and also has storylines that tackle racism, fascism, and hypercapitalism head-on.
Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion goes even deeper as you can read some private chat room messages between Pearl and Marina where they share memories of growing up and how they met, and they're just so effortlessly and unforcedly gay 🏳🌈I might be in my late 30s but I would die for these squid and octopus children and I'm pretty excited to see how Splatoon 3 develops things.
Trans men 🤝 trans women 🤝 non-binary peeps - seeing themselves in Link
I love this video!!!!
Also we need to talk about Edward Elrics trans/nonbinary/gender nonconforming vibes because they are coming from somewhere and I still don't understand why the fma fandom as a collective got that but I am determined to figure it out. Is it the hair!? The leather pants!? WHAT IS IT EDWARD???? WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR VIBES ELRIC???!!!!
Honestly Edward's hair is a goal of mine, I've always preferred longer hair but never really let it past my shoulders until recently
MOOD
i saw the head canon somewhere that he was a trans man and i love it
ed as trans dude goals is so valid dear god
he has the height tbh
The one thing Boruto did right is having Orochimaru come out as genderfluid. Naruto teased it, only of you watch subbed and are aware of Japanese pronouns, but in Boruto they went all out, specifically having Orochimaru self-identify as sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes neither.
woah dude I had no clue! as much as I dislike Boruto... They did something right 😅
@Erwin Lii He isn't really redeemed. Man still says he has plans to steal an Uchiha's body somewhere down (future generations) the line saying he's given up on Sasuke's body... for now. He lives in a secluded base under Leaf shinobi's constant watch unable to leave without permission. I'm fairly certain he would be dead if he wasn't such a vast source of knowledge. Plus do you know how many times they tried to kill this man just for him to resurrect? It's honestly too much of a risk to try and kill him cause he'll probably come back and fuck shit up. Not redeemed, too much of a hassle and risk to kill, plus he's a benefit if they need him for something.
I don't know if it counts because he was just stealing a strong body and didn't give a crap if it was male or female.
But he was born as a male and he loves to steal bodies so....
Honestly, that's not something to be celebrated. He is acting weird around children and drags them into his weird cult. He's basically an anti-LGBT caricature
im suprised not to see at least one jojo character on here, a lot of the characters are gnc as hell. kars is about the manliest yet feminine character I know. and not nessecarily androgynous where it's this thin, non muscular, short haired person who looks like they could be either male or female. kars is very obviously masculine, but he's also very feminine
and then there's the majority of part 5 characters who all look androgynous as hell. one of the characters was literally based off the "dude looks like a lady" song. there's also 2 gay couples in part 5, arguably 3. a lot of the characters in jojo as a whole are just androgynous to varying degrees, mostly because the creator really likes fashion. also about half the make characters wear lipstick
As a JoJo fan (at least of the anime....I need to catch up with the manga tbh), THANK YOU. One of my personal favorite androgynous designs in JoJo is Anasui's.
@@HystericalDark anasui is suuuch an interesting example
Narancia is my nonbinary trans daughter
one of my favorite lines from the Eyes of Heaven game that I've seen is before Anasui and Ermes fight, when Ermes says "man, this dude looks like a lady" and Anasui's immediate next line is "man, this lady looks like a dude"
also 8:25 made me think of jojo because the first two examples shown for androgyny are influences for the designs of the main protagonist and main villain of part 4
Jjba characters exist in a universe where everybody is a hairless voguing gender fuck and I live for it
1. It’s criminal you didn’t mention Kurama
2. Look at Level E for some transman rep. Some of the plot revolves around a transman that is chosen by aliens to reproduce and destroy the world. However since his biology doesn’t work for this purpose they change him biologically. (basically perfect gender affirming surgery). This takes time to be fully in affect and in the meantime we need a solution to prevent the world from ending. But instead of forcibly changing the transman’s biology back to “female” they come up with a different solution. Essentially giving trans people the right to exist and not have to sacrifice themsleves or their identity for the fate of the world.
Heck yeah!
damn i wish i could get super-transitioned by aliens destroy the world
@@mmtruooao8377 (shakes head sadly) Don't we all, buddy. Don't we all.
But seriously Level E sounds kinda amazing. I want to look it up now. :)
I totally just rewatched that recently!!! Level E is a great but weird show :)
Kurama who? :? You mean Yu Yu Hakusho? :p Yeah, he's awesome.
18:30 this is such an interesting discussion. in brazil we have the term "travesti" to describe a person that was born with masciline genitalia, but likes to be presented with feminine aspects, but doesn't identify as a woman or a man, while using "she" as pronoun. it is historically considered a latin-american identity, so it's interesting to see parallels in other cultures
Interesing, In french "travasti" used to be used for cross dressing men but is now a slur used against trans women.
@@menendez6218 Both yours and OPs comment are true in Spanish-speaking countries as well
Outside of bigotry, I choke it up to lack of knowledge and understanding. Travesti is basically our word for drag queens, besides gay, lesbian and bisexual the average person in a Hispanic country is clueless and even somewhat apprehensive about queerness
adoro ver brasileiros em vídeos gringos, amei o comentário!
That’s me :) it’s very nice there’s a word for that.
For a gender non-conforming character that wasn’t mentioned in the video, I’d like to mention Najimi Osana from the Netflix show “Komi can’t communicate”! Their gender is never revealed and the answer is continuously tip toed around in the show. They also switch wearing masculine and feminine clothes and are referred to by they/them across the english dub.
yes!!! and actually in the official brazilian portuguese subtitles they also are refered by gender the neutral pronouns ile/dile even tho those technically don't exist in portuguese officially, so in brazil najimi uses neopronouns which is a cool fun fact
I ALMOST CRIED WHEN TADANO CALLED THEM THEY!!!!! MY ENBY HEART!
I LOVE THEMM
thank you for bringing up the fact that being androgynous/gender nonconforming is not the same as being nonbinary. both are completely different but people keep mixing up the two or think they're the same.
I'm honestly impressed with how the dub for Land of the Lustrous managed to never use a gendered term. It took a bit for me to even notice, but I really appreciate the effort put into the script.
I think one of my first exposures to a gender non-conforming character was Nagihiko/Nadeshiko from Shugo Chara. Considering that the plot of the show was about magically turning into the version of yourself you wanted to be, the fact that this character ended up accepting both their male and female personas was really revolutionary to me.
I also love that you mentioned Kanamori from the lesser known Heaven's Design Team! I would also add Opera from Welcome to Demon School Iruma Kun, who the creator refuses to give a gender and uses they/them pronouns.
Yes, Shugo Chara ❤️
I LOVE OPERA SO MUCH THEY’RE THE BEST
A character for discovery AND one of my first childhood crushes!!
I thought of Nadeshiko/Nagihiko too! Glad to see they're appreciated!
Yo I’ve never seen almost anyone who’s heard of Shugo Chara! It’s one of the reasons I realized I was trans!
I started watching My Hero Academia just because my brother told me about Magne (mtf), Tiger (ftm), and Thirteen (gnc). It still makes us both so happy seeing them on page and screen to this day (RIP Big Sis Magne). Same goes for Ouran because of the Fujiokas. Fantasy Knockout already has 2 gnc people as far as I've gotten (the MC whose name I can't remember and Lucius), and I'm barely through the first few episodes. I'm glad things are getting better lately, even if Knockout only has 2 because one is in a Hedwig situation.
Is your life that bad?
I love Haruhi because people assume theyre a guy and they just go "yeah sure, why not." And the only time they actively oppose a gender is when people try to force not just the female gender but also female stereotypes and roles onto them. They also regularly flirt and have romantic interactions with both male and female characters. They're so nonbinary and I love them.
Edward Elric being put in the "feel gnc but can't quite explain why" is such a mood
im very confused on that one
im not against it, just confused. can someone please list possible reasons why ed gives gnc energy?
@hotaru I don't _quite_ get the feel that it's something he'd just do on his own, but I also don't see it taking much coaxing from the right person, like Winry, Nina, or a potential daughter or niece.
And yeah, he would absolutely raise hell with anyone who tried to give him a hard time about it.
He did say that it matters more about a person's merit than their outside appearance...
You know? I have that feeling about the Asakura brothers, they're so chill that I think they wouldn't care
Like he did some gender exploring and came away deciding he was a cis guy but with INTENT this time
As a trans man: YES it is so frustrating, it gets tiring
PD. A recent one with strong gender nonconformity is Pretty Boy Detective Club it's REALLY FUN and dramatic and suprised me with having depth, closest I'll get to a magical boy anime
We need more magical boys. 😭
The most we get in the way of magical boys is nekomimi, which are often.... uhhhhh.... young... to sat the least. And they're almost always cis male, occasionally gay. If you can assign such a thing to a child.
@@HiddenThicket Kids can be gay, friend.
@@finngswan3732 Maybe
@@HiddenThicket There is no maybe. Kids can be insterested in others, straight or not.
I think Osana Najimi from Komi can't communicate is also worth mentioning. There are only 2 episodes of the anime out yet but I already absolutely ADORE them and their personality.
OMG I WAS JUST ABOUT TO MENTION THAT
I love them already. Just a chaotic troll who identifies as whichever gender is A) most convenient or B) funniest in the moment.
@@theuserofthissite Osana is the quintessential "My gender is they/them unless it would be hilarious to gender me otherwise" character.
Najimi's gender is Najimi
Najimi's gender is wacky hijinks, after which hilarity ensues.
Kris and Frisk from Undertale and Deltarune helped me discover my gender identity. They helped me realize that I wasn't a girl, and that I felt more comfortable using they/them. I liked having the characters refer to me, the player, as they/them. Napstablook and Mad Mew Mew are some of my favorite characters as well. :)
by "okama" I immediately had to think of One Piece's Emporio Ivankov and the Kamabakka Kingdom, basically an entire island full of queer and nonbinary people who do refer to themselves as okama (not the weirdest island seen in OP, thb), and while they certainly are presented very over-the-top campy and their queerness is used as the butt of jokes here and there, they aren't really presented as "lesser" and, to me at least, very sympathetic (though some other characters, mostly antagonists, show dislike for their queerness)
at several instances they show that they believe that everyone should be true to themselves, act and present themselves any way they want and that it's okay whether they be cis, trans, fluid or anything and they show great support for everyone who's questioning (like, Ivankov literally has magic hormone powers and can admister a sort of instant-HRT to anyone, changing the sex of himself and others on several occasions, and if I remember correctly he says at some point that he thinks people should be able to try it out to see what's right for them or sth along those lines)
Just commented this :)
I also love bon-chan and how both characters supported luffy
I love when characters look at gender and just go "por que no los dos" and massively succeed at everything. Its so powerful and cool and sexy and cool and powerful and
yeah especially the
I wanna be that way tbh it just sounds so cool
I have a problem of not fully understanding everything transgender, gender fluid, non binary etc ... I have friends who are.
I try fully grasp the idea of gender identity to understand my friends and i guess my self.
Your video did help clear up some of the fog of war in my brain about the subject.
Thanks. I always enjoy your videos.
tbh the most important part is just respecting what the person wants to be called and avoiding the biological gunk. just like, if someone asks to be called by a different name or pronoun, you try to use that until they tell you otherwise
@@mmtruooao8377 you can’t ignore biology. Even if you disagree with it it’s a fact.
@@firelance00 me doin ur mom is a fact 🥴
in all seriousness, i think the point went over your head. just respect people’s identities and don’t be a dick about it. people who hang onto biology are kinda jerks when it’s used against people. reinstating it inherently is patronizing, many people find it uncomfortable- as i do myself- and have to deal with that garbage in their life. people spewing shit like they own your body and don’t care what you have to say about it. so… be mindful next time.
@@Poedoco People who are identifying you with your biological pronouns is not inherently patronizing you nor being prejudice to you in anyway (unless if they know and truly want to get under your skin then yeah I agree those people are dicks). Sure, you have the right to have a different identity from that of your biological one. However do we have to conform and cater to it? No, we don't have to. But is it disrespectful? No, we aren't. To say we are jerks for stating basic facts (again it isn't disrespectful) is not helping why we should have to cater and agree with you guys (and no I'm not transphobic and other -phobics you (may or may not) think I am. I too believe people are free to explore and express themselves freely (sexuality and identity)). But you know what else is disrespectful and uncomfortable? Being stalked and harassed in college for not sharing the same ideals and beliefs as others because thats what i had to deal with for years.
@@firelance00 like it's not okay to get stalked, but it is also not okay to, and yes, it is disrespectful, disrespect someone's pronouns.
My Joyfriend was showing me Owl House last month, and the stupid amount of joy I felt when I saw Eda and Raine being a couple was just....god. Woman x Enby was a slice of representation I didn't know I needed until I saw it
I have a family member or two who...don't really see my relationship as legitimate since my partner is non-binary, so that episode was just a rush of euphoria for me
May I ask what Joyfriend means?
@@wajmgirl non-binary partner :D
@@wajmgirl cmon it's pretty obvious being only one letter different from boyfriend within a story about NB/gal representation
But yeah just saying :)
My joyfriend is the cutest thing and I am going to start using that for my characters with enby partners because joyfriend is so much better than partner. And yes Owl House's Eda and Raine pairing also made me so incredibly happy as it did with most likely everyone that saw it.
Can i just say, Joyfriend is adorable and i love that!!! Also, that rep in the Owl House is so important and i love their dynamic together. I would love to see more in other stories (mainly animated tho but that's just me)
I love that apparently the Flaming Moltres gag was a hit in English. In Spanish (where voice actors really took liberties for comedy) he says "el guajolotote Macías!", kind of roughly translated as "the big turkey Macias!" just a gag on how wrestlers/superheros introduce themselves facetiously, and it was glorious and still a meme today lol
The video game thing reminds me of ASL, where the sign for ‘Boy’ is a hand motion meant to signify the brim of a cap, while the sign for ‘Girl’ uses a motion meant to show the ribbon of a bonnet.
And in FSL, the sign for ‘Man’ resembles a mustache while ‘Woman’ resembles a person breast feeding.
Just gonna point out that the vessels from Hollow Knight are confirmed to have no gender, both with the pronouns used to refer to them, but also because the one sibling they have who *isn't* a vessel is distinctly referred to as "the gendered child." Ghost, Hollow, and their thousands of siblings are enby babies, and I adore all of them.
Also, Eden from the Binding of Isaac is also confirmed by Edmund McMillen to be gender nonconforming. In his own words: "Eden isnt a man, nor are they a woman.. they just are." And it also ties into the gameplay, since Eden starts with randomly generated stats and items every run, they also are given a random hairstyle--which can either be masculine, feminine, or androgynous. And I love it.
thats pretty cool! tho i wouldn't hold your breath, Nora is a f u jõ$hï and has drawn borderline nsfw of under aged BNM HA characters.
@@dolphi6271 I'm sorry, but I'm confused as to what that has to do with my comment.
K1-B0 from danganronpa could also be another example. It was actually talked about in the game a bit but everyone just refers him as a he bc of his voice and overall appearance
@@EeveeDropk-k-s-k That's true, I suppose genderless characters who prefer certain pronouns would also apply. Like many of the Legendary Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeon series.
Azelf, Uxie, Manaphy, Jirachi, non-shiny Celebi, Dialga, Darkrai -- he/him
Mesprit, shiny Celebi -- she/her
@@shukuchishikeishuu9540 yeah something like that
I highly recommend Astra: Lost in Space for another wonderful GNC character to add to your list. They are one of my favorite characters period and the English dub did so much to add even more depth to their character.
They're even voiced by a Non Binary Actor, Ciarán Strange, in the Dub! Which means there are TWO NB Actors in that dub since Josh Grelle - who voiced Kuranosuke in Princess Jellyfish - came out as NB last year ^___^
@@Mooncalfproductions Yes there are and it's fantastic
I love them!!!! astra is so awesome
One of my favorite gender-nonconforming characters is Emporio Ivankov from One Piece. Now the series has a lot of weird/insensitive jokes about genderqueer characters, but everything about Ivankov is so cool. He has the ability to control hormones and can use them on anyone he touches, which is like every queer person's wet dream. He was even made the King/Queen of Kamabakka Kingdom, where a majority of the world's Okama (yes this word is used a lot in the series for queer characters) live safely from the oppression of the World Government and other bigots. Ivankov literally uses his own Pride and hormones to fight an evil government with other Gay Anarchists. Hello, based department.
Yes, but if only one is going to make the list, it has to be Bon-chan, IMO.
I swear Kirby helped me through a lot when it comes to me and my identity... including my intense dysphoria. (I'm agender)
Kirby makes me so goddamn happy he helps me when it comes to dysphoria and my identity I wish to be just like him
"Of course we can't forget Howl Penndragon I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful Jenkis, Disaster Wizard Extrordinare"
I was dying laughing right there lol.
For gender nonconforming characters might I recommend Gowther from the anime Seven Deadly Sins. He's a doll given the face of his creator's girlfriend but assigned male by said creator. He likes to dress in gender ambiguous and feminine clothes. He's one of my favorite characters of all time and I wish I had his gender.
Gowther wearing the tavern uniform gives me LIFE
watching this while drawing my enby character who literally said "fuck this gender shit" became a god and made their own whole civilization and language without the concept of gender
Based
Goals
Love that for them
Omg, I have the same thing.
YEAHH RULE THE WORLD YOU ABSOLUTE ROYAL 🤩
Kino from Kino's Journey is notable to me as a character with a deliberately ambiguous gender who has verbally denied being gender as either male or female, they only wanna be referred to as Kino, there gender was originally planned to be just a surprise but the author choose to leave it ambiguous for the reader's interpretation
@Mauricio Aguilera Kino's biological sex is clearly stated to be female, Kino's gender is never outright confirmed to be male or female
Further with Zelda, there is a Sheikah stone that mentions as a child that Zelda has a secret tomboy side that few people know about. Even before having the idea of concepts like trans and non-binary, I sort of always head cannoned that the male side portrayed as Sheik always existed in Zelda and the Sheikah transformation was a way they could channel.
Before understanding myself, I think that I just understood Zelda from OoT as genderfluid, and perhaps usually stuck only presenting one side publicly due to expectations. Also, Tetra from WW as evidence that without the expectations of a princess, they could naturally be pretty androgynous.
One pair I didn't see you mention that I love are the two trans women from Granblue Fantasy! There are two canon trans women in the game- Ladiva, and Cagliostro. Cagliostro was born male, but used alchemy to create a new "cuter" female body for herself, while Ladiva hasn't transitioned- she's from a race of bull people called Draphs who have extreme sexual dimorphism, so the women are all short and curby while the men are huge beefcakes. and Ladiva definitely fits into the latter body type and even has a beard, but uses female pronouns and everyone refers to her as a woman. They also aren't villains or made into the butt of jokes! In all of Ladiva's story events I've seen, everyone just comments on how sweet and warm and caring she is, and Cagliostro is known as a genius. The two of them both even made it into the roster on the GBF fighting game, despite the HUGE cast of options to choose from! I really appreciated how Granblue handled it by depicting both of these characters so that neither of their experiences felt tokenized, and greatly appreciated their inclusion and how kind all the other characters are to them :)
Is Nadeshiko/Nagihiko not mentioned at all here? I would've thought they'd show up at some point.
In Shugo Chara, a character named Nadeshiko is introduced, who is admired by the protagonist for how feminine and beautiful she is. She's an extremely talented traditional dancer on top of that. When she moves away to travel abroad, she's gone for a while until coming back as Nagihiko. It's explained to us that Nagihiko had identified as Nadeshiko for a long while in order to better fit into the genre of dance she's talented at. He later develops a passion for more relaxed, hiphop type dancing, and it's explained that neither Nadeshiko nor Nagihiko are fake, that they identify differently as they feel is right to them. This is shown in the fact that they get two Shugo Charas (small guardian spirits that embody one's ideal self) for their more feminine and masculine presentations.
Using varied types of dancing AND a unique magical system as a way to explore their genderfluidity and self-expression is SUCH a unique way of tying a genderfluid character into a story. Shugo Chara's biggest theme as a WHOLE is self-identity and exploration, and Nadeshiko/Nagihiko is one of the most obvious examples of the theme as a result.
I never see enough people talk about them, even though they might be my favorite Shugo Chara character!
I'm surprised you didn't mention Haruhi's father from Ouran Highschool Host Club so I'll mention them here. From what I remember Haruhi's biological father (as in the person providing the sperm, rather than the egg or carrying the child to term.) Is portrayed as a man who dresses as a woman a majority of the time, and uses she/her pronouns, yet still uses the title Dad. Additionally, we're told that he's been doing this for a very long time including during his marriage to Haruhi's mother, and that she didn't care, and loved 'him' anyway. Which technically, means that Haruhi's mom was heteroflexible at least, and with two icons like that for parents, is it really any wonder that they turned out a gnc legend? (/hj) but more important to me was my reaction to seeing this character because looking back I didn't have any strong feelings. If I was really the person my parents were trying to raise me to be I should have been angry and disgusted but I didn't care. It didn't bother me. So what, Haruhi's dad dresses like a mom? That's silly, and kinda neat. It seems like he cares abt Haruhi, though, in his own way. Can we get back to the romance now? And I think having a character like that, that I could accept so casually, set me up to be accepting of more in the future, including my own relationship with gender, and the changing genders of those around me. Tl;dr, did Haruhi's dad make me queer? No, but she certainly helped.
He’s a drag queen.
@@AndSoWeLaughed It’s debatable. Because we never see them outside of drag and well, the boys call them a “tranny.” Which yeah, is pretty bad but it came out before the slur was a well-known issue. Personally, I think they’re on the trans spectrum.
Thank you educated us how babies are made😒
I've always felt uncomfortable wearing dresses/skirts or wearing a lot of makeup and preferred having a more masculine/androgynous style, but I'm certain I'm cis (feel comfortable with my gender and pronouns). Because of this I've hesitated to change my style because I thought for the longest time you could only dress androgynous if you identified as nonbinary/trans and I didn’t want to step on anyone's toes. This video really helped me understand the difference between gender representation and gender identity!
i think a lot of people can relate to that, trans or cis. im transmasc and when i came out, i thought id have to wear androgynous/masc-leaning clothes all the time in order to be valid. i like dresses and skirts, though, and eventually realised that "hey, gender presentation != gender identity applies to me, too!" so i started dressing fem whenever i thought my dysphoria could handle it. if you wanna dress in more androgynous clothes while also being comfortable in your gender, go for it! gender is something that we can play with and shape to our own preferences. do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.
@@toothfairy10133 Thank you for the reply!
I can relate. I absolutely despise my body hair so much i always shave it off.
there is no such thing as cis. in third worlds women are punished for not following feminine code of conduct. its conditioned. so saying that there are women who align 100% with femininity rules is mental
Lake from infinity train has been one of my favorite NB/GNC characters in recent years! Their story reminds me of my own nonbinary experience.
Jessie & James are indeed icons and we love them for it.
If you want a really really adorable "they/them" character in media, may I suggest the adorable indie game "OneShot"? It came out before Undertale did, and features an adorable little child character called "Niko" (who is also a neko, but that is not the point of the name lol). They are... feminine, but childish and kinda tomboyish? Not even specifically androgynous, just "either/neither".
@Skye Farnan Neko is also used as a colloquial abbreviation for "nekomimi", literally translated to "cat ears" but colloquially translated to "cat person"! That is the sense in which I meant it. ^^
They are but a sweet innocent child. Their gender is indiscernible from their mannerisms or appearance. So in total, their gender is: Unknown. Unspecified. N/A. Perhaps that is an uncomfortable thought for you if you're incapable of handling people without categorising them. Poor you.
@@andrasfogarasi5014 Not sure why the sarcastic spite. Niko is specifically not referred to as male or female, including in third person. You may say this is due to them being a child, but the point remains. Whether they are simply androgynous, nb, indeterminable, or some other thing - it is entirely possible to read them as nb if desired, which was mentioned many times in this video.
But perhaps it is an uncomfortable action for you to read the words people say, and/or respond without assuming nonsense. Poor you.
Oh my! I think I watched Markiplier play that completely forgot about it, I dont really remember the story but I think is has something to do with lighting up the city and we had a partner to help us out I think? And thats about it, so I guess I could qualify for a blind play thru. It was very wholesome but at the time horror was such a big thing to young me so wasn't really looking for that, no wonder I forgot about it but I should really go back to that! It was so cute!
@@nicolelouise7295 Yeah! It's absolutely gorgeous, and it isn't even horror!
Surprised Stars Align didn’t get brought up here. Has a wonderful character who actually comes out as non-binary in the show. The show is very serious, as lots of people like to call it trauma tennis but it’s still a really good show with serious issues that’s really good at tone. Now if only we got the second half
Fun fact! In the German translation of the Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous (known as Land der Juwelen in German) manga the gems use the German equivalent of xe/xim pronouns, which I think is cool as hell
Wait, WHAT!
Moment, was genau für Personalpronomen? Es hat sich ja im Deutschen noch nix genderneutrales durchgesetzt im Allgemeingebrauch, daher das Interesse.
Wait I am literally German and don’t know about genderneutral pronouns in that language
Please tell me I‘m really interested
@@ButtercheeseYay bin genauso verwirrt und interessiert 😅
Haha, all the Germans replying are confused. German is my second language and I don't know what pronoun you are talking about either.
This person is not wrong when they say that Jessie and James are legends. One of the things I love in the original Pokémon series was when they came on screen is their outfits!!❤
When I first started watching Ouran Highschool Host Club I connected with Haruhi almost immediately. Like her I couldn't care less what people perceived me as gender-wise. I still identify as a girl and use my agab pronouns but gender meant little to me. I figured out that I'm Cassgender and am very happy with my identity.💜
omg, I think I might be cassgender..
@@Somerandomsnickersbar Well in that case welcome!
Y'all need to know about Cybersix, a genetically engineered supersolidier that presents female when she is a superhero, but as male when in his civilian secret identity. The animation is incredible, and the story is about her fighting against the evil organization that created him, against the 'monsters' created like she was. Him being a 'failed' experiment by her rejecting becoming a weapon. But is that something he can even reject? Assigned Weapon At Birth.
I love hearing about all the media comments. This one is a pretty interesting concept. I'll be sure to spread the word
YES, EXACTLY, THANK YOU!! I can't tell you how happy I am seeing someone bring up Cybersix out in the wild, especially in this context, holy shit.
@@beeblybob5832 Cybersix is brilliant because it solves the love triangle issue by having said triangle be just two people. The love interest for Cybersix is bi and in love with both identities, and none of them are aware of any of this.
@@LaZodiac that's exactly the way I saw it! One of the reasons why I love the show so much- extremely validating for me personally :D. The focus on Cybersix's human identity rather than gender identity, with it (as least from what I remember) being treated as a normal part of her character, and there's no denying the chemistry that Lucas has with Cybersix, either way she presents himself. It's just... *chef's kiss* Love this show.
The intro is so good!
I wish you talked about Najimi, from Komi-san can't communicate. They're the most popular person in school and everyone likes them, and nobody cares about "what" they are, just their pesonality (Aside from Tadano in the start, because Najimi had presented as a man before to him).
May not be the best example, but I think they're pretty cool.
Najimi is best Najimi.
Najimi is a magnificent troll
im really happy how the mangaka made them popular and social :)
This was just wholesome to see, characters who don’t identify to a specific gender being treated as normal. No matter how small the representation is, it brings closer and closer to a better future where people accept eachother for who they are
I present another canonically non-gendered character: Hange Zoe. Only ever referred to by they/them pronouns, presents and sounds androgynous, and the author has specifically avoided talking about gender. People in the fanbase (of the anime specifically) tend to refer to them as a woman purely because the voice actor (i think) is a woman. However the character is given a much more androgynous and low voice (speaking from the chest as a man stereotypically would but with a vocal range in between the normal woman or man's). Are they intersex? Are they non-binary? Do they not give a fuck about gender? Who knows! All i know is that i love them and that they're my favourite character from AoT.
As a lady flirting with gender-nonconformism, this was a lovely watch. Also this is the first video of yours I've seen and holy stromboli your voice is so soothing-
I'd really appreciate the take of someone who's more knowledgeable (both in the GNC stuff and Japanese) on the GNC characters introduced in the Wano arc of One Piece. The fandom has been impossible to deal with regarding them and I just don't know how much of it is cultural differences, language barriers, mixed messages from Oda, or just bigotted fans.
One piece fans is transphobic asf
Yamato goes by he/him, so that means you should call him that, even though he may not identify as a boy. One piece fans wtf this ain’t that hard
I'm one fan of One Piece who absolutely LOVE all the GNC and trans or ambiguous characters, but I'm pretty much not in contact with the fandom as a whole, maybe for the better apparently : (
One thing I can say is, with One Piece's incredible popularity, and how important it is to JUMP sales, it's possible there is immense pressure on Oda from publishers and editors to keep the messages mixed so as not to alienate bigoted fans and reduce the fanbase. It's just a personal theory, I have no particular confirmation, but it's very plausible. Japan is also very traditional, especially on gender roles, so LGBT+ advocacy has never been very outspoken there.
@@demdem7946 The difficulty is that Oda seems to disagree. Like, in the manga itself, it's absurdly clear that Yamato is a trans man (characters that reject him identifying as Oden still use he/him being the biggest and most obvious point there), but his intro title card was "Daughter of Kaido" and his vivre card lists him as female. It's a mix of a lot of fans being transphobic and of the author completely mixing messages
Most One Piece fans respect trans characters and Kiku is a very explicit and clear cut case of someone who was a woman at heart and most people call Okiku her. Yamato's case is more complicated b/c they are trying to assume the identity of Oden Kozuki rather than assuming the identity of Yamato as a man. It's not as clear cut as Kiku's line of phrasing which people believe to be part of Yamato's character arc dealing with their father being Kaido.
I'll say this till the day i die: we deserve a Soul Eater Brotherhood. The manga has so much to animate and the story has been great so far! Plus we can have more Crona content to bless our hearts (btw now we have a new member to the gender nonconforming team, Yuka from Blue Period! They are such a good and complex character and they deserve the whole world)
link really is the GOAT
Until I read this comment I never really thought of Link that way and now I don't want to think of them in any other way. It just fits them so perfectly on several layers!
Great list! Now I really wanna watch Ramna 1/2 again. I was too young when I first watched it. It might be a fun time. I think my favorite one is Link. Also, it's weird being in my late 20s starting now to question my gender, but I guess we learn new things every day. I don't feel like a woman and never did, so I don't think I'm trans, but lately, I've been questioning if I really wanna just fit in as a man, so might be enby, or just a non-conforming man. I love your videos, so keep up with your good work!
This was a great video! Small critique: 7:37 “Biological gender” isn’t a thing, since gender is a social construct. Biological sex is more accurate because sex is associated with your reproductive systems (such as being assigned female a birth) which then leads to gender assignment
As a 15 year old enby, I really needed this. Both as fun way of furthering my own understanding of my identity and they nuance of identity in general. And to gush over characters who embrace gender as the amorphous blob it is. Truly makes me hope for a day in which western culture acknowledges people as people instead entries to a wiki article.
Same here, I'm 16 and have been questioning my femininity for the past few years
You should check out Pripara and Kamen Rider Zero-One then. Pripara has a couple of gender non-conforming characters. Leona and Hibiki were two sides of the same coins: Hibiki actually was antagonistic towards the main team because they had had a rough experience with friendship in the past, seeing as how ppl only liked them for their money.
Zero-One had a redeemed villain who was also played by a non-binary actor. Even had a comadarie with the secondary of the season to the point of giving up their power because they trusted the secondary Rider so much.
Wanted to mention, I agree Naoto seems like someone hesitated to make a true trans masc character with Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4, but I always got the sense it was more a statement against gender disparity. Naoto felt unseen, unheard, and unrespected as a woman, so she used the mantle of a man to trick the people who were keeping her down, and prove she was as talented and skilled, if not moreso, than her male contemporaries. Kind of inversed with Chihiro Fujisaki from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, who felt victimized and targeted by toxic masculinity, and crossdressed as a girl to avoid notice. I realize this may not be as relevant in this video, but it's a thought. Some people revel in defying the binary, or moving freely between it, where others don't put much stock in their position on it, and freely discard their gender identity, or presentation to fulfill their needs. I am saying most of this off the top of my head, so apologies if any comes off as rash, just thoughts.
mine is:
Crona
Ed from Bebop
Envy from FMAB
Dororo
Hange Zoe from AoT
Nagisa from Assassination Classroom
Haruhi from Ouran
Griffith from berserk
Other's worth mentioning:
Neferpitou from hxh
Rimuru from Reincarnated as a Slime
Juuzou from tokyo ghoul
Kishu / Dren from Mew mew power
Stevonnie from Steven universe
Have you ever watched Gintama? Because I'd like to know what someone who is actually GNC thinks of Yagyu Kyubei. I think they're neat, but I also haven't watched that show in years, and when I did, I was 11 so my concept of lgbtq+ was just "Gay bad. Don't do" lmao.
Griffith, Nagisa, and Dororo aren't really genderfluid/nonconforming. Griffith by a few characters might be confused to be female but the story makes it clear that he's a man and his appearance is more represented as angelic/a pretty boy. The one thing I can say for Griffith and his sexuality is that he is probably asexual. Nagisa finds it annoying when people mistake him for a girl and normally he doesn't dress up as one. The times where he did were to trick people and were played for laughs also considering his backstory him looking like a girl isn't something he choose on his own. Similar to Nagisa, Dororo was raised to appear as the opposite gender though it was sorta forced on her to do so for her own safety. Dororo out of the three is the only one that maybe could be considered genderfluid as it's never flat out said what preferred gender she is but there are things in the story that point to her being considered a girl who pretends to be a boy. Usually when a gender ambiguous character in most stories is outed the story starts to view them differently in a sorta "fake"/questioning way and this is what happens to Dororo. The finally scene of the anime shows a quick look at her when she's older and it seems she dresses more feminine, but she is gender nonconforming more so than the other two.
@@mascotwithadinosaur9353 Eyyyyy same. Seeing Gin and some of the other characters be so nonchalant about presenting femininely was a huge thing for me (kinda like Jessie and James)
I love this video. I wish I could present as masculine , but I have a hard enough time getting people to realize that I'm not wearing feminine clothing. Seeing the breakdown you laid out, and getting the sense that I shouldn't have to intentionally try to dress as nonbinary to be respected as nonbinary helps and also makes me want to cry. I wish I could also dress in feminine things and not have people default to " I'm glad you're getting over that tomboy phase".
Anyways. Thank you for making these videos xD. I feel less alone even as I always seem to come away questioning things about myself.
I loved this top 10 video because you discussed context and nuance before going into the actual list. There ought to be more videos with similar format!
Ok so, Grell from black butler isn’t nonconforming but she is 100% trans queen, just putting that out there
He's not trans
Grell was my first realization that "oh shit, I can be myself and not have to give two shits what others think." As absolutely morally questionably as Grell is, she makes for quite the inspiration for a lil gender non-comforming fella like me.
@@mysmallnoman bitch,he puts on fake eyelashes,wears madam red's woman's coat and fawns over sebastian in a VERY feminine way. he may or may not actually be trans (since it's never been officially confirmed) but he sure as hell ain't cis either and is about the closest a victorian can get to whatever he DOES identify as.
@@JT5555 ok I'll agree that he's gay, tho him fawning over Sebastian in a feminine way doesn't make him trans lol, many gay people/Characters like to act very feminine even IRL
He's not trans dude
@@mysmallnoman Actually she is! This is confirmed by the creator herself and in the manga Grell refers to herself as she/her.
CRONA AND HARUHI APPRECIATION? ACKNOWLEDGING JESSIE AND JAMES FOR THE CULTURE?!!
I will literally unsubscribe just so I can subscribe again to show you how much I love you, Nora.
I’d love to give a special shout out to Pisces Aphrodite from Saint Seiya for being absolutely gorgeous and the morally grey hero we deserve. As while introduced as one of the antagonists of the Sanctuary arc, Aphrodite is generally a heroic character, including being the biggest factor in defeating Loki in the Soul of Gold spinoff. And various other spin offs have also depicted them in very lovely dresses and fashionable blouses, pants, and heels. According to one interview with the creator, he even based Aphrodite off of a drag queen he knew.
Also I hc Aphrodite as genderfluid, and basically being beautiful regardless of current identity or presentation.
Saint Seiya is full of wonderful gnc characters, I'm so glad you mentioned it. Shun in particular means the world to me personally, esp since his personal character arc is about how he doesn't have to compromise his more "feminine" traits (like gentleness and pacifism) in order to be seen as a valid man (and I read him as gnc transmasc in this context too hehe). The ways Shun and Aphrodite both subvert expectations in similar yet distinct ways is sooo satisfying to dissect
Also BIG yes to genderfluid Aphrodite!!!
I really hope this eventually gets a part two, considering Rain Code, a newly released game at this time, has a GNC / enby character, Halara Nightmare
I would like to thank you for including the Amazon Trio, The Starlights, Haruka, Ranma and Wandering Son. Wandering Son doesn’t get enough attention. This video made me happy as a non-binary he/they human. Thank you again.
Have you read Yuhki Kamatami's work? Especially "Our Dreams at Dusk" that has (at least) several gay men, a trans man, lesbians, amab gender questioning person, a nonbinary aroace character and generally speaks about being queer in modern day Japan. Oh, and the author is nonbinary themself, and I think ace? Even their earlier works, like my beloved Nabari no Ou (manga version), touch on the subject on sex and gender (and other types of queerness) on the side and honestly gave me the first gender relatable media characters I had experienced, haha. Also, gorgeous art from ~midway through Nabari no ou forwards when they really found their style.
The reason for Sheik’s masculine disguise was that Zelda thought becoming masculine presenting would make Ganon not even consider Sheik is Zelda. Sheik is totally a magical physical change but you can disagree if you want
Yeah, Nintendo saying "it's just a disguise" like sure, whatever Nintendo. It's a "disguise" that magically makes her hair shorter and eyes a different colour, and she takes it off using the Triforce, but whatever, "it's a disguise" sure.
And is no one gonna talk about those abs, I can think of few ways you could bind and still look so toned, it’s definitely magic
@@nekomancer5118 your phrase is going in my phrase book now. Thank you
@@starblade8719 my pleasure
@@nekomancer5118 an inspiration to us all. Enjoy your week
Me who recently started seeing myself as GNC: wow this is a new development for me
Me in the past: always had favouritism towards GNC characters in animation and would play pretend as male characters despite not identifying as one
Same. In my free time, I love to make male voices or gender less voices. Also love to wear suits or tuxidos while also love dress and skirts.
19:54 Actually if we want to nitpick here, I know this is the case in the dub but I'm not sure how the original Japanese fairs, but in the movie Pokemon 2000 Meowth says to the two of them "who needs the opposite sex when you have eachother" so if we take that at face value that means that they have the same AGAB, so at the very least one of them is canonically trans.
one gnc character i really like is garry from ib. garry uses "atashi" to refer to himself in japanese and uses a lot of feminine speech patterns in both japanese and english, however he is still explicitly referred to as a man in both languages. also, kouri (the game's creator) stated in a comment on a drawing he made of garry in a kimono that garry "wants to cross the barriers of gender". so basically, garry is gnc as hell.