Portrayal of Gender and Alternative Sexuality in Anime

This a brief survey of cross gendering and alternate sexuality in anime shows.

Disclaimer

I don't claim to be an expert on this topic. I don't claim to be an expert on Japanese history. I read widely and try to keep an open mind. This is not a research paper and there are no citations. I have not gone back and re-checked every source. Quote me at your own risk.

Historical Notes

My guess is that a lot of Japanese cultural tropes in this area originated during the Shogunate era. On the one hand you had the nobles of the Emperor's court where the men were supposed to be "more beautiful than any woman" epitomising the bishonen (lit. beautiful boy) ideal. On the other hand you have the ideal family of one female and two male children. There was even a saying "One to keep, one to sell, and one spare". The upshot of this was there was a shortage of women especially in the Samurai classes. At times the Samurai in Edo were marrying courtesans and various Shoguns issued edicts forbidding this practice. Courtesans at least had the training to be able to pass as a woman of high rank. In a time when high ranking Samurai were often deeply in debt to the merchant class the dowry of a suitable Samurai class wife ("one to sell" remember) may have been prohibitive. Lacking a affordable woman of sufficient refinement it seems that a suitably pretty boy might be an acceptable addition to the retinue.

As with Elisabethan England, male actors played all the female roles in the theatre of this period and many became famous for their female impersonations. There was a flourishing wood-block print industry serving to promote the actors as well as a thriving trade in erotica prints.

Many of these cultural tropes persisted through the Meiji restoration up until the allied occupation after WW2 when the US government of occupation tried to stamp out "immoral" displays. One story is that a prohibition of the depiction of nipples and pubic hair was written into the constitution. The erotica artists promptly ceased depicting these items in their works. This can clearly be seen in some anime through to the ninetys where nude women were frequently depicted without nipples or pubic hair.

In the Japanese language there are many words forming gender specific vocabularies. Use of the "wrong" vocabulary is a form of cross gendering. But see the comments about taboo breaking humour below. It appears that the nobles of the emperors court also used the politest possible forms of address (the feminine forms) as a matter of course.

Genre and Sexuality

Shonen (boys) anime often treats gender and sexuality issues as sources of humour. Sometimes a cross dresser is substituted when the author wants to have a "female" molested. Bishonen are occasionally encountered and male characters sometimes play at homosexual relationships. Lesbian characters are rather more common but seem to be mostly a device for making crude passes at female characters. Given the high frequency and heavy handed use of embarrassment humour and taboo breaking humour in this genre I am immediately suspicious that all forms of alternative sexuality are intended to be comic relief.

Shoujo (girls) anime is a lot more focussed on relationships. Characters who are of ambiguous gender, cross gendered, or those that practice alterative sexualities are fairly common. They may be major or peripheral characters.

Hentai (X rated sometimes called Ecchi) anime can have anything. I like plot and storyline in my anime so I don't normally watch this genre.

The little amount of sports anime that I have seen doesn't seem to go in for this type of material.

There are a few cross genre shows and some of the female writers will introduce shoujoesque characters into whatever they are doing.

Shows

Here there be spoilers!

3 x 3 Eyes

The lead male character, Yakumo, starts both the anime and manga working as a hostess in a transvestite bar. The bar owner is a middle aged transvestite known as Mama (this would be a usual title for a female bar owner). Mama is portrayed seriously and appears a number of times during the series to provide sensible advice and make astute observations about human nature.

The Hakkenden

This is an adaption of an early 19th Century Classic Japanese novel that is set in the mid 15th Century. When we first meet Shino he is dressed in womans clothing. A bandit, who is about to get into more trouble than he can survive, observes that Any family that dresses their son in girls clothing to avoid the wrath of the gods are fools. Later we meet Keno an actor with a distinctly feminine appearance. At one point Keno masquerades as a young woman in order to kill the lord that murdered his father.

Earthian

Chihaya is an androgynous looking angel. His mission partner, Kagetsuya, is a more masculine appearing angel and also his lover. This show has an interesting story line but suffers because the anime consists of one episode from near the beginning, one episode from near the middle and two episodes from near the end of the long running manga series with minimal bridging.

They Were Eleven

Ten strangers, all nominally young males of assorted humanoform species, are on a space survival test. Arriving at the location of the test they discover that there are eleven participants. Two of the participants are intersex children of (different) species that do not determine final gender until full adulthood. One of these is decidedly feminine the other isn't. Nothing serious here, just a convenient plot device and an excuse for a little romance.

The Five Star Stories

Ameratsu is the androgynous appearing emperor of a sizable chunk of the Joker star cluster. His alter ego, Ladios Sopp, is a toned down version who attracts proposals from various males who should know better. In the manga you discover that Ameratsu (and therefore Ladios) is a serial hermaphrodite created by fusing one female and four male embryos. Historically, Ameratsu is the patron goddess of Japan from whom all the emperors are descended.

Ranma ½

It is useful to know that the Japanese term for ½ is literally "one part of two". Ranma is a teenage martial artist who fell into a cursed pool. The curse causes him to change into a girl when he is doused with cold water. A subsequent dousing with hot water will restore the male form. The author is well known for her romantic comedies and this is no exception.

You're Under Arrest

One of the minor characters in this traffic police comedy is a transvestite. The son of a high status family, he spent time posing as a woman to trap a molester and liked it so much that he continued the role. The character is of course much more refined and feminine than the fairly rough policewomen he works with. There is a furore for all of thirty seconds at the end of the episode he appears about which locker room he should use. The script writers use him when they want to show how un-feminine the policewomen are, need a female to be molested, or need someone to scream and faint.

Fushigi Yugi

From the hero's side there is Nuriko, one of the royal concubines, who is a transvestite. Nuriko is sad to have never been chosen to serve the emporer. The role is occasionally played for laughs such as when the old witch of the holy mountain offers to cure him of his "affliction". Otherwise the character is practical, competent, sympathetic, and all round likeable. At one point Nuriko stuns his fellow heros by dressing in mans clothing. He then points out that he will be escorting the priestess alone and he does not think that the sight of two women will deter any bandits. Nuriko is also the first of the good guys to get the chop when things get seriously nasty. Hmmm, I noticed that when I wrote this this I have kept referring to Nuriko as "he".

Orphen

Orphen and his two youngish companions visit the City of Canals to meet his ex school friend Stephanie. She gets to shock the companions with some innuendo laden reminiscences until Orphen points out that Stephanie was male in those days which causes even more shock. Apparently there was a serious magical accident and Stephanie elected to be reconstructed as a female. She then retired to a distant city to start a new life. By the end of the series you see her marrying a local lad.

Rurouni Kenshin (TV series)

Kenshin is a wandering swordsman ten years after the Meiji restoration (the timeline overlaps that of The Last Samurai ). Kenshin is a heterosexual male but almost everything else he does is gender bending. He is small, soft spoken, extremely polite, and does all kinds of unmanly chores such as cooking, laundry and looking after small children. To reinforce this his voice is provided by a female voice actor. He contrasts with Kaoru, the young lady he lodges with, who is quite plain spoken, doesn't do cooking, and works as a kendo tutor while trying to maintain her family's sword school.

During the Kyoto Insurrection story arc we meet Kamatari a cross dressing martial artist who is in love with the leader of the insurrection (fat chance of success there). During the showdown Kamatari comes in for some name calling from the younger members of the good guys. During his fight with Kaoru and Misato, Kaoru observes I'm a lot like you really. Once I take off my hair ribbon and pick up my weapon, gender doesn't matter.

Fruits Basket

The Sohma clan have been cursed since ancient times. Those members of the clan who bear the curse full strength change into animals from the Chinese zodiac when they are under stress or being embraced by members of the opposite sex. Tohru Honda is an orphan and is discovered camping on one of the Sohma estates (her grandfathers house is being renovated and it's a long story). For various reasons the clan members living there adopt her as a housekeeper rather than calling the clan doctor to have her memory wiped. As she gets deeper and deeper entangled into clan affairs she meets a lot of offbeat characters including:

Momiji who is small for his age and likes to cross dress. He gets away with it because he looks about 11 (he's 14) and strangers think he is cute. He does like girls though and takes advantage of the fact that Tohru knows the family secret and won't freak out when he changes into a rabbit.

Ayame who is only describable as waaaay out thereeee. He is also a cross dresser and runs a fetishists clothing store ( Tohru: How nice, a uniform shop ). I'm not sure what Ayame's proclivities are. I'm tempted to say he's one of a kind. He changes into a snake in case you were wondering.

Escaflowne (TV series)

This show is a sort of shonen / shoujo blend and partially because of that it did relatively better outside of Japan than within. It also exists as a shoujo manga, a shonen manga, and a film all with differing story lines and character personalities. The TV series has a couple of bishonen men, most notably the knight Alan Schezar. Also up there in the pretty face stakes is Dilandau, a homicidal sociopath and leader of a crack assault squad for the Zaibach empire. As the show goes along you learn that Dilandau has an interesting past. He is the experimental product of a battery of mind and body altering treatments concocted by the Zaibach scientist / magicians. And the kidnap victim who was at the wrong place and time and became the raw material for this experiment was Alan Schezar's younger sister.

Kai Doh Maru

Set sometime in the Heian period (8th through 12th Centuries AD). Kintoki is the daughter of a high ranking family. When her family is destroyed by treachery she is hidden and raised as a boy. I can't say that there are any real gender issues here except that it is one of the few instances of a woman cross dressing to a male role with a historical basis that I have in my collection. Of course having been raised as a male she has the wrong behaviour patterns and vocabulary to fit into polite society.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV Series)

As a young girl Utena was depressed over her parents death but she was comforted by a passing prince who gave her a ring and a promise to bring her to him some day. Utena was so impressed by this that she vowed to become a prince herself. Years later she has entered the exclusive (and strange) Ohtori Academy. Utena is constantly described as dressing in mens cloths but in truth her hot pants and jacket uniform are not particularly like either the male or female uniforms. Once at the academy she is drawn into the duelling game practiced by the members of the student council. Letters are received by the council members from the mysterious "End of the World" instructing them to fight duels. The winner of the duel gets to command the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemia, and in theory the best duelist will gain the power to revolutionize the world. Initially Utena gets involved when she sees Anthy being mistreated and finds that the Prince's ring is also the passport to the duelling game. As the series progresses it is strongly implied that a lot of people are sleeping together. The more interesting combinations are Utena and Anthy, Anthy and her brother, and the brother with two of the bishonen student councillors (Touga and Saionji). The story gets an * for surrealism.

The Weathering Continent

A beautifully animated fantasy where the party contains an androgynous (but probably male) magic user and a female fighter cross dressed as a male (makes sense I guess).

Not a huge amount of shoujo manga makes it into Anime and even less is translated to English. However the English translations of shoujo manga have skyrocketed in recent years. These stories are the place where the bulk of the alternative /ambiguous gender and sexuality material resides. Apart from hentai material the manga do not usually contain explicit material.

All the above examples are drawn from our joint anime collection. The majority portray the people as just people. Mostly you don't know why they are like they are because it isn't relevant to the story. I can't actually think of any examples of a character being seriously persecuted on the basis of "deviant" gender or sexuality but I'm sure they are there. Perhaps not realistic but at least not reinforcing traditional prejudices.

Finally don't confuse literary conventions with social norms. That goes double where taboo breaking humour may be involved.