Transgender Anime And Manga

[Guest Rika-chama]

I thought it would be nice to talk about some of the transgender themes found in anime and manga and what series have these themes. I've ran across a few and so I thought I'd like to share them with you. All the links go to wikipedia

Trassexual

Claudine-About a girl who believes she is a man and will be a man someday. A one volume manga with a very sad ending

Kashimashi-A rather feminine boy named Hazumu who one day gets killed by a crashing alien spaceship. The aliens revive him but somehow he is turned into a girl. Now Hazumu is caught in a love triangle with her two girl-friends.

Cheeky Angel-A boy wishes to be "a man among men" but is instead turned into "a woman among women"

Crossdressing

Ybisaki Milk Tea-Centers around a boy whose hobby is cross-dressing and the lives of those around him who he affects whether he is dressed up or not. (I haven't actually read this)

Girl Got Game-A girl who's father is obsessed with basketball forces her to pretend to be a boy and join the boy's basketball team.

I My Me! Strawberry Eggs-A male teacher is forced to crossdress as a woman to get the teaching job he wants at an all girls school

Intersex

IS-Different stories about intersex people

After School Nightmare-About a boy who is neither male nor female who is forced to enter a worl of dreams at his school.

Hmm that's all I'm gonna put for now but there are a few more I know of

[Guest Toph]

Here are some i've watched/read

- Ranma 1/2 [Anime] (Guy fell in spring which was cursed and now every time he is splashed with cold water he turns into a girl) its quite funny

- The Day of Revolution [Manga] About a guy who finds out he is genetically female http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_Revolution

[Guest Michelle M]

You forgot the best and original... Ranma!

lol I don't know if it counts, but there's Birdy the Mighty. A female space bounty hunter is forced to share the body of a teenage earth boy. So they change appearance between Birdy and Stomu depending on who's person life needs to be lived at that point, while the other person hides in the mind of the body. They get into arguments with theirself a lot. It's kind of cheesy but I liked it.

[Guest Toph]

Yeah, birdy the mighty is going to be remade into an anime series with 13 episodes, with different voice actors than the ova's, in summer 2008, and is going to be called birdy the mighty decode, i watched the original and it was pretty good.

[Guest Rika-chama]

I can't believe I forgot Ranma *smacks himself in the head*

Anyways I forgot to mention my favorite anime ever Revolutionary Girl Utena about a girl who meets a prince in her childhood and she wants to become a prince herself. It isn't so much about transgender as it is about gender roles. In fact I would say gender rolse is what this show is mainly about

[Guest Michelle M]

Oh wow. That's great news. I always loved Birdy, especially her double colored hair. I can't wait for the 2008 ones. Thanks for letting me know.

[Guest st.john]

thanks guys for posting this thread. when it comes to western comics, i'm a total raving fanboy, and as an aspiring writer, have reccently been putting some serious thought into creating & trying to publish (self-publish if necessary) a series based around a transgendered or bigendered superhero. while there is plenty of manga out there, it seems to be a theme that is relatively ignored in western comic books. but your list has hopefully given me some great reference materials to look through for some inspiration. cheers!

[Guest Jason]

There's this one anime that came out a few years ago, called Simoun. It's a sci-fi style of story, with a really beautiful plot. Anyway, in the world it takes place in, everyone is born female and once they reach a certain age, they are able to choose whether they wish to remain female or become a male. There is a group of warrior-priest(esses) that can only play that role if they have not undergone the gender-deciding ceremony. Anyway there is a lot to it, gender and sexuality issues as well as your typical sci-fi political drama.

[Guest st.john]

oh, holy ****!!! just remembered (thanks to the title of a completely unrelated post) that the was one transgender character that i am aware of in western comics.

in Marvel's "Defenders" series, many years back, there was a character known as Cloud, who shifted between being male & female as he/she saw fit. If I recall correctly, Cloud had no true gender, and was just some kind of sentient ... well ... cloud. But he/she alternated between genders to suit whatever the current situation seemed to call for.

I do remember the character was romantically linked to Iceman (of X-Men fame) for a while, until he found himself unable to accept Cloud's male side. Really need to find & re-read that story arc again as a refresher.

Apologies for the obsessive fanboy moment. You may now return to your regularly scheduled discussions.

[Guest dolly]

batlevixen portrays female high school students as reincarnated warriors and warlords from the three kingdoms era of china. almost all if not all the reincarnatons in it are trangenderd in the ettingof the book-all the main girls especially as they were originally men in their own time period and owns chi does not in hat conceptto female.

battleclub (done by the guy who does battevixens)featues the wrestling team captain as a beautiful busty hermaphrodite.

vampire doll guilt no zan's main character is a resurrected vampire lord who is brought back in the body of a female wax doll and is basically forcedto be her ressurrectors maid or else end up back inside the cross he was sealed in to begin with but he changes forms to male after hes drunk blood but only for a short time. at firs he oesnt like bing in a girls body (oh! an his powers chnge as a girl too.) but as the story progresses h grows acustomed to his surrundings and used to bein girl.

notto mention the ultimate vision series in comparison to regular marvel vision.

in the regular marvel universe,vision is a male but in the ultimate universe vision is female and more like the silver surfer.

an then there's dears where they had very neutral gendered male dears that noone knew was male and noone really explained if they were male or not but was hinted at.

[Guest Ryles_D]

Does .hack//sign count because the main character's a girl with a boy character?

In Petshop of Horrors one of the stories was about a (cross-dresser? Transsexual?) guy that dressed and acted as a women when he went out. And this isn't the same, but there's a later one where a girl completely reinvents herself as the woman of her dreams, and does such a good job that (despite being famous) no one knows who she was before.

There've been a whole bunch of girl dressed as a boy comics, too.

Ok, into my area of expertise: Webcomics. And, as a warning, I don't keep trackof ratings. No idea which are appropriate and which aren't so browse with caution.

5ideways features an MtF and what happens when the world breaks.

Exiern has a man who (to his great displeasure) is turned into a woman and his trying to get used to being treated like a girl.

too Much Information has either an MtF and FtM or two cross-dressers or a mix. Can't remember.

El Goonish Shive Not quite... but it features a gun that can change your physical sex and appearance, so lots of gender swapping.

[Guest Rika-chama]

Ok, into my area of expertise: Webcomics. And, as a warning, I don't keep trackof ratings. No idea which are appropriate and which aren't so browse with caution.

Don't forget Misfile about an angel who messes things up in heaven and turns this boy into a girl and turns this girl two years younger. A lot of the comic is about the FtM character and how he feels in this predicament.

[Guest Sakura_Stingray]

their iss another anime called princess princess....three boys in an elite all boy school are forced to dress as girls to be the schoo mascot by the president of the studdent councel, the pros to them doin this is free food tickets, ungodly fame in school(basicly treated as girls) and gets paid 1,000 yen for each photo of them in sales o.O

[Guest Sakura_Stingray]

sorry for double posting but their is also one episode for each slayer seasons in which goury is forced to cross dress as a girl.....but in season two all the male characters are crossdressed XD they are funny episodes

[Guest SilverArrow]

Delving a little over into the gaming side and you get Bridget from Guilty Gear. He has a twin brother, and in his village twins born of the same gender's a bad omen so his parents raised him as a girl. In fact, I'll be cosplaying as him at the next Anime North convention in Toronto

[Guest Keiichi-kun]

There's this one anime that came out a few years ago, called Simoun. It's a sci-fi style of story, with a really beautiful plot. Anyway, in the world it takes place in, everyone is born female and once they reach a certain age, they are able to choose whether they wish to remain female or become a male. There is a group of warrior-priest(esses) that can only play that role if they have not undergone the gender-deciding ceremony. Anyway there is a lot to it, gender and sexuality issues as well as your typical sci-fi political drama.

I started watching Simoun and noticed that there is a lot of gender stuff in it. In the second episode one of the girls has a hard time deciding whether to be a man or stay a girl. When it is time to change she still doesn't know so she is just turned into a man. The main character Aer says she's staying a priestess because she doesn't want to make that decision yet. So far Simoun has been a really good show

[Guest Keiichi-kun]

I forgot all about this thread bt I have discovered 3 new transgender anime. One is Rose of Versailles and the main character is a woman who was raised as a man. The other is Oniisama e which so far the only gender stuff I've noticed is that two of the girls look very bishounen *swoons* These are both by the same person who write Claudine which is about a FtM. None of these are released in english though so have fun finding it online. Another one I just finished is Le Chevalier D'Eon. D'Eon the main character is the vessal for his dead sisters soul and near the end he's constantly switching between him and his sister. There's also a few times he puts on his sisters dress and pretends to be her. Must say the main character is a very effeminate man.

[Guest Jack Solomon]

I know of a lot of gender ambiguous characters in manga and anime, but specifically transgendered transsexual characters seem less common. Anyway, I have a few titles to add, with mainly gender-ambiguous or transgender themes:

Basara - set in post-apolocalyptic Japan, the main character is Sarasa, a girl whose twin brother, Tatara, is prophesied to be the "child of destiny". When Tatara is killed, Sarasa takes on his identity and duty.

Angel Sanctuary - this series plays with gender roles a lot and has several very gender ambiguous (as well as a few definately transgender) type characters -

Arachne - a demon born male, passes/lives as a woman for all other intents and purposes.

Kurai - a demon born female and a princess of Gehenna, passes in the human world as a young boy.

Katan - gender neutral, he is a grigori - a type of servant angel that is gender neutral.

Setsuna Mudo - male reincarnation of the female angel Alexiel. I don't know if he counts though, because he is a very separate person from Alexiel (although Alexiel will sometimes channel through him).

Alexiel - she is another very unconventionally gendered character, with a more masculine-oriented role in the story and a strong-willed, gender fluid personality that does not really come across as female or male (but is more leaning towards masculine in some ways).

Rosiel - vain male angel (and brother to Alexiel) who is fairly gender ambiguous as well as androgynous in appearance.

--------

Cross-dressing Themes-

There's numerous manga and animes I know of which show characters cross-dressing in one or more episodes. One such title is Sukisho! which is a soft BL/Shounen-ai title. Within the first few episodes you have one of the main characters in a dress for pretty much the whole episode.

Kyo Kara Myaoh is a BL/shounen-ai themed anime which features several crossdressing episodes, including flashbacks from the main character's childhood where he would be dressed up by his mother as a girl. There are also several side characters who have cross-dressing or gender bending moments.

Kill Me, Kiss Me: in the first book cousins switch genders and schools to see how it is for the opposite gender. Girl pretends to be a guy. Haven't read it so I don't know much else info.

----------

Characters that seem like they could be transgender but where it's really left up to interpretation:

Count D from the manga Petshop of Horrors. This character really makes you wonder. I'd at least consider him gender ambiguous. Could be interpreted as a more female person in a male body.

Sir Integra Hellsing from the anime/manga series Helsing. Female knight and Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization, she is very androgynous in appearance and could be interpreted as a transgender/masculine-oriented person by her character. She is very bishounen and my favorite character from the series.

-------------

I'll add more soon.

Solomon

[Guest babyboy]

OMG CRYYYYYYYYYYY

that was soooooooo sad i watched the first episode

[Guest Keiichi-kun]

Kyo Kara Myaoh is a BL/shounen-ai themed anime which features several crossdressing episodes, including flashbacks from the main character's childhood where he would be dressed up by his mother as a girl. There are also several side characters who have cross-dressing or gender bending moments.

I love KKM although I would hardly call it shounen-ai. The only couple isn't even a couple but yeah I forgot about all the crossdressing in it

[Guest StrandedOutThere]

I feel like such an anime-poser. I love all things Japanese, but I hadn't heard of most of those. I've read several of the Ranma manga, but that's it. Wow, you guys have given me a lot of stuff to check out!

[Guest Jack Solomon]

I love KKM although I would hardly call it shounen-ai. The only couple isn't even a couple but yeah I forgot about all the crossdressing in it

Yeah, sadly the series is left more ambiguous than anything else (meaning any sort-of shounen-ai bits are used for humorous moments/effect, and the only sort-of couple isn't a couple, like you mentioned!), which is why I called it shounen-ai themed but it's not really BL/shounen-ai. I just wasn't sure how to quickly describe it. Nice to see someone else who loves KKM, my father is a big fan of that series as well.

Solomon

[Guest babyboy]

KASHIMASHI=SAD

[Guest Conrí]

Wish (manga) The angels and devils are genderless

Vampire Game (manga) One of the main characters, Duzell is a vampire king that was reincarnated into a cat like creature, however he can change into the form of anyone he draws blood from, which most of the time is into Ishtar, the princess, and besides impersonating her, while they are out adventuring she tends to introduce him as her sister (when he is in her form).

Neighborhood Earth Defense Force (anime) Two of the characters were turned into robots, and at the end they get changed back to human by getting into some tubes, one for the boy and another for the girl, however they get into the wrong ones, thus getting a sex change.

Your Under Arrest (manga and anime) One of the characters, Aoi Futaba, was part of a police unit where Aoi had to go undercover as a woman, and became more comfortable being a woman. She has remained being a woman after being transfered to the traffic unit.

[Guest Keiichi-kun]

Yeah, sadly the series is left more ambiguous than anything else (meaning any sort-of shounen-ai bits are used for humorous moments/effect, and the only sort-of couple isn't a couple, like you mentioned!), which is why I called it shounen-ai themed but it's not really BL/shounen-ai. I just wasn't sure how to quickly describe it. Nice to see someone else who loves KKM, my father is a big fan of that series as well.

Solomon

I'm okay with all the shounen-ai being gags since I much rather prefer shoujo-ai anyways

Also I haven't read much of it but the Mai-Otome (the manga only) has the main character, a boy, who pretends he is the princess.