Transgendered Characterizations in early 21st Century Japanese ACG

This is but a fraction of what's to come.

Looking at the huge image above, one can only be amazed at the extensiveness of gender-bender works in Japanese ACG (animation, comic, games). And that’s only MTF characters in the list there. A list of FTM characters found in other works are just as extensive.

If one googles for English essays or blog posts regarding this subject, no doubt the first returns will return a slew of results discussing the subject of “traps” and “reverse-traps”, yet few discuss beyond the current response of the North American context of to whether accept it or not, and how some fans hope to continue seeing it or hope that their souls may forever burn in hell for “being gay for Bridget/Jun/*insert character here*”.

So how does one begin to tackle such a difficult subject? While I am no professional historian for anime (or an otaku who is really that deep into the swamp), I will do my best in creating a narrative by tracing a geneology in this subject. Forgive my ignorance if FTM characters are somewhat less mentioned in this article, and any corrections or addenda upon my fellow readers is appreciated.

To my observations, I can divide this subgenre into three periods of development until this day: Gender-bender slapstick dominant themes on primarily paper media in the late 20th century; fetishization of transgendered/gender-errant looking characterizations in experimental game grounds around 2002 entering more general categories in a Moé context; and gender-bending as a developed subculture of Moé and proper facing up to trans issues in reality from 2006 to the present of 2008.

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“The male principle is clear and the female principle is unclear.
The male principle moves and the female principle is silent.
From the source to its ends, all things came into being.”

- Qingjing Jing (Daoist Text) [trans. link]

Mint na Bokura, by Yoshizumi Wataru

20th Century Origins of Trans-issues and Characters in Japanese ACG

For as long as the notion of sex and gender existed, there is an equally ancient underlying notion of a potential of breaking such a definition. In terms of literature and social practices, we are aware of many instances of cross-gender impersonations in history, some of which cited into our popular media. In the 1970′s to 90′s, the majority of graphic depictions came in form of manga, with some of the earliest ones in the late 70′s (e.g. Rose of Versailles, Claudine…!) – and slowly evolved from historical-fantasy genres into ‘everyday life’ settings (e.g. Ppoi!, Mint na Bokura). It is important to also notice that the idea of gender-bending or cross-gender impersonations as a serious theme is limited at this stage in shoujo manga, or manga directed at a young female readership, often intentionally and distinctly separate in subject from the male counterpart shounen/seinen manga, in which gender-bending is often used in slapstick humor, and seldom used as the main theme at all (e.g. F.Compo, Kochikame).

In computer and video games, the rise of the romance (jun’ai) genre began with Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial for the Sega Systems in 1991, while the adult game market has been in constant existance. The earliest cross-gender Japanese video game in history can be traced to 1985, with TOKYO Nanpa-street for the ENIX platform. Along with the release of Windows 95 and 16-bit colour, these fields converged onto the PC, making adaptations and new products on the more flexible and personal platform. Beginning in the late 1990′s, gender-bender games with adult themes began to take shape and form its niche. While XChange by CROWD in 1997 is perhaps the earliest Japanese work widely known to the English market today due to its translation and remarketing in North America, the earliest works depicting a feminine-looking male character involved in a sexualized situation with the male protagonist will either fall to if～イフ (ACTIVE, 1993) or Sotsugyou Ryokou (JANIS, 1996).[1] It is also important to note that these games, made previous to 1996, are primarily using gender-bending as a subplot to initiate attention and discussion. [ibid.]

Nega*Poji ~Don't call me Brother!~, by ACTIVE 2001.

The New Milennium – 2000 to 2003

With the continual introduction of new Windows platforms and rapidly increasing performance of PC machines, as well as the boom of the Internet enterprise, Japanese ACG media rapidly took to the computer in all its aspects – anime shows began to be processed by computers, manga drawn and coloured by image editing software, and most of all: a paradigm shift in the Japanese 18x games industry all jumping ship towards the PC platform, and the beginnings of de-emphasizing sexual activities in its works in favour of ‘presenting sexualities’ (or as Au-Yeung puts it, a new three-way struggle between nuki (“to strip”, sex and fetishes), naki (“to cry”, emotive plotlines), and Moé (no good translation, perhaps “to archetypically idolize”?).) [ibid. 1]

The first work in the milennium to ‘seriously’ challenge the topic of trans issues is a 18x computer game by software maker ACTIVE, titled Nega*Poji ~Oniichan to Yobanaide!!~ in 2001 [2]. The story brings out the protagonist, HIROBA Mahiru, was a much-loved friend and friendly classmate, until she was ‘exposed’ and ‘questioned’ in the changeroom one day in senior high school. This was something that her family, friends, or even Mahiru herself, did not realize until that day, and from then on shockwaves of events unfold, bringing a positive youth to the path of being bullied, ostracized, and finally death[3]. This is a fine example of the synthesis of ‘sex and sexuality’ in media innovation at the time, combining the “nuki, naki, moé” elements into one narrative (with naki, or the emotionally provocative tragic element in lead). Due to the heavy nature of this work, subsequent similar works are seldom seen in the PC games field, and return to its inceptional place of manga.

Trans'～僕とあたしの境界線～

Trans’ ~Boku to Atashi no Kyoukaisen (Trans’ ~The Boundary between (masc.) I and (fem.) Me), an elaborate non-18x Flash game made by Catear in 2002 is also worth mentioning, despite its limited niche. The statistics-based game gives the player a ‘first-hand’ experience of crossing the gender lines in various degrees, from crossdressing and going to stardom, occasionally pursue as a fetish, or seek HRT through official or underground means. While the script may be biased towards some directions, it is a good example of the views to LGBTQ society in Japan, and perhaps an experience to living a life as a ‘genderqueer’ person in such context. The sequel to this game (2005) is slightly different in context, and contains 18x adult content.

Also in this year, Guilty Gear XX was released, and the character Bridget was first introduced. The fandom of Bridget slowly evolved over the years through Japanese forum activities, which eventually found its way to its American parallels. To both the Japanese and American Internet phenomena, Bridget can be considered the first gender-bender character to be made popular by character setting – and helped form the beginnings of the archetypal-preferent culture in Japanese ACG, otherwise known as Moé.

Formation of the Moé Culture and the Trans Characters Niche, 2003-2006

In the post-Internet 1.0 bubble years, Japanese Moé culture flourished with maturing works and large corporate investments to support software teams. The paradigm of Japanese 2D characters became increasingly fine-edged, with airbrushed complexions and even larger, sharper eyes and juvenile features.

At the same time, it boomed to an international phenomenon via the advent of generally accessible Internet p2p sharing protocols.

During this period, jun’ai (“pure-love”) romance Visual Novels – text and dialogue-intensive adventure games with multiple choice selections – began to find its way to an international audience, while the local Japanese developers took to developing Moé as the primary marketing element. This resulted in multiple niches of fetishization, from glasses to hair colour to personality, and of course sexual and gender identity. Yaru-ge (18x games that focus on the aspect of sexual intercourse or the direct pursuit thereof) notwithstanding, the act of crossdressing a male character and making him feel ashamed

was developed into a cliché for earning popularity with certain audience groups. ALcot‘s Clover Heart’s (2003) to 13cm‘s Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi (2006) are but a few examples of this ‘occasional’ fetishization.

Miyanokouji Mizuho, from "Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru", CARAMEL-BOX.

But certain games have experimented further into this field of gender-bending, such as CARAMEL-BOX‘s Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru (Jan. 2005, “OtoBoku“) and Windmill‘s Happiness! (Oct. 2005). These two games’ gender-bending/trans(?) characters have created such an impact on the Internet that the term Nisemusume (Nise=fake, counterfeit; Musume=girl) was coined, and the year 2005 was named “Mizuho Year”, after the protagonist in OtoBoku.

Watarase Jun, from "Happiness!", Windmill.

Despite the similarities that both are “guys in dresses”, the context between these two are quite different – Mizuho from Otoboku was semi-forced into an all-girls Christian [4] senior high school by his grandfather’s will, but performs outstandingly as a role model to other girls; while Jun from Happiness! dresses as a female willingly, in hopes of getting recognition by the protagonist (controlling player), Yuuma. To be politically correct, Jun is the only character who would classify fully as a ‘transgendered’ person, but Mizuho is to be by no means discredited for his (her?) outer presentation during the year she was in the academy. However, the critical key is that Mizuho ultimately does self-identify as male, while Jun does otherwise. Nonetheless, both are praised and supported by a fellowship of fans and, ironically, place the two characters side-by-side in one archetypal classification.

Osaragi Hazumu, "Kasimasi", a novella by Akahori Satoru.

The two games’ characters were brought to even greater public awareness and popularity when Chiba Television aired the two animated adaptations in October 2006. Coupled with TV Tokyo’s airing of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl at the beginning of the year, fans have declared a second year full of gender-bending title highlights (some have called it “the year of Jun”, but it did not catch on). There can be some debate whether Kashimashi can be called “gender-bending” at all, as the (former) male protagonist OSARAGI Hazumu was “physically rebuilt with a genetically female body” by alien technology, and her (former) male identity becomes little more than an occasional mention in the subsequent story of her entering a romantic triangle with two other female characters. Aside from this debate, the anime series is also well-received among fans and American publishers as a fair work of yuri.

Although Kashimashi began in 2004 in manga serializations, it was not as widely known until the animation was broadcasted in 2006. Similarly for Otoboku and Happiness!, one can also see the increasingly fixed process chain in Japan taking shape: Light novels or games get adapted into manga, and eventually broadcasted anime series and into various commercial products. Meanwhile, an increasingly knowledgeable fanbase began searching for similar works not yet fully evolved on that ‘chain’ that have equal potential. Here are a few examples:

"Yubisaki Milk Tea", by Miyano Tomochika

- Yubisaki Milk Tea, by MIYANO Tomochika,
- IS ~Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei, by ROKUHANA Chiyo,
- Nicoichi, by KINDAICHI Renjuurou, and
- Hourou Musuko, by SHIMURA Takako. [5]

Aside from Yubisaki Milk Tea, which abruptly stopped after Chapter 74 (due to conflicts between the publisher and the author), all of these works began serializations during this period, and are still ongoing as of the end of 2008. A significant difference in the subject matter of these works is that they face the issue of trans and intersexuality in a direct fashion, without making it a banal, slapstick humour. Not only is the truthful depiction of transgenderism difficult to the characters, but takes a toll to the mind of the writer as well.

Contemporary Industry Standards and Outlook, 2006-2008

Ever since Happiness!, the role of the transperson in ACG portrayal becomes increasingly accepted. In stark contrast to Nega*Poji, where Mahiru was ‘discovered’ and ostracized, Happiness! provided the first significant example of a self-admitted transperson (“everybody in town knows about it”), but not a single trace of discrimination was held against Jun. While society in real life has not changed greatly over the short period of five years, the environment found in popular consumer fiction and the society of the two-dimensional world has changed greatly in this respect. In another or more limited perspective, it can also be interpreted as a sign of the viewing audience simply showing an increasing acceptance to this ‘archetype’, with less and less of a hyperbolic excuse (such as magic and supernatural events) needed to cushion the issue.

However, while new works continue to seek to increase its market share by increasing or primarily involving trans or gender-bender characters into their works, the Japanese market showed signs of saturation and dismissal of newer works to be cliché. The initial fan response found in 2005 and 2006 to a similar Visual Novel-based anime H2O: Footprints in the Sand was received with much less vocality, and few popular discussion was given to newer game works that touched on trans subjects, such as AXL‘s Koisuru Otome to Shuugo no Tate -The Shield of AIGIS- (or KoiTate in short), Akatsuki Works’ Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu (RuiTomo), LittlePrincess‘ FuruFuru*FullMoon et cetera.

In terms of light novels and manga, the flurry of new works are beyond count, but the amount of works that face trans issues are few, aside from the several ongoing series previously mentioned. One manga worth mention is Half & Half, by NAHA Mao (serialized in Dessert Comics, Kodansha 2008). This work presents through the eyes of the female protagonist, explore the social and romantic life and difficulties of a pre-op transperson in a Japanese rural setting.

The current Japanese creative industry shows a high degree of maturity in utilizing the various aspects of trans/LGBTQ issues, and displays a high degree of transparency in the delivering of sensitive topics with much consideration. Due to market demand and supply saturation, it is difficult to pinpoint which direction it will go in terms of development of the next fad or trend, but the long-standing tradition among Japanese writers, comic artists, and animators’ spirit to deliver transparent messages in expressive literary and visual works will no doubt be of benefit to advancing the understanding of society to readers worldwide.

Satsuki Shizuka
2008.11.17

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Endnotes:

[1] AU YEUNG Yu Leung. 女裝美少年ACG考 (上)：起源篇 http://www.cuhkacs.org/~benng/Bo-Blog/read.php?23
Further reading: (ibid.) 日本の美少女ゲームの文化消費研究―香港をレファレンスとして― (Tokyo Univ. MA: Humanities Dept., Dec. 2005) Abstract: http://hk.geocities.com/apricotbo/

[2] “ねが☆ぽじ ～お兄ちゃんと呼ばないでっ！！”, ACTIVE, 2001.

[3] AU YEUNG Yu Leung. 女裝美少年ACG考 (下)：近況篇 http://www.cuhkacs.org/~benng/Bo-Blog/read.php?22

[4] The game gives an explanation that due to the ambiguity of Japan’s attitude towards religion, it is not absolutely certain whether the school was distinctly Catholic or Protestant.

[5] SATSUKI Shizuka. Trans/Intersex Manga: A brief introduction http://pitcher.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/transintersex-manga/