Viewer Gender Confusion/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions
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* Ed from ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' is just so tomboyish she easily passes as a boy. The fact that the Mexican dub gave her an androgynous voice doesn't help. The crew apparently didn't even realize it until Faye shouted it out at the end of the episode she's introduced in.
* ''[[Death Note]]'':
** Manga readers often presumed Mello female by his tight pants and haircut. To combat this, the anime gave him an uber-masculine
** Even worse than that is Rem, Misa's shinigami. Sure, shinigami only have [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]], but it's still a bit of a brainbreaker to realize Rem is a female. It doesn't help that her voice is extremely hoarse.
* ''[[Digimon]]'': This is a problem for any digimon who doesn't have any overt secondary sex characteristics, including the very young (like Poromon or Calumon) or ones who look very different in certain evolutions. Usually, voices or [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]] make it clear once more forms are shown.
** ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' has Garudamon who has been suspected to be male despite the other forms being obviously female, just because of the body shape (more anthropomorphic the others, long blonde hair).
** [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Cutemon]] is ''[[Digimon Xros Wars|Xros Wars's]]'' character of questionable gender: it's pink, wears floral-printed headphones, and has a high-pitched voice. And it's...a boy. His use of ''[[Japanese Pronouns|boku]]'' gave him away.
* Frieza/Freezer from ''[[Dragonball Z]]''
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'':
** Envy counts in the manga version of the story. He's stated in an omake as having no true gender, which means that it may or may not be a canon statement.
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** Kazuki has a female counterpart, Ren; she appears at first glance to be male, to the extent that ''the other characters'' don't realize she's female until she points it out (read: yells it) in passing. Her personality doesn't help much, either... nor does her previously freaking out after realizing that the person she kissed to deliver a medicine was male (said person being... [[Viewer Gender Confusion|Kazuki]], naturally).
{{quote|'''Shido:''' That's a girl? (muttering) I suppose if Kazuki can be a guy...}}
* Seguchi Touma of ''[[Gravitation]]'' is feminine enough to pass for a woman for several
* A number of those who saw the first ''[[Hellsing]]'' anime expressed annoyance that the titular [[Bifauxnen|Sir Integra]] was such an embarrassingly pretty [[Bishonen]]. This is somewhat excusable, what with the author referring to her as "Sir", presumably due to a misunderstanding of British titles. A woman given the honor of joining a knightly order is referred to with the honorific "Lady" or "Dame" (depending on the order and rank). It was explained somewhere that it is some sort of a legal
* Fujiwara no Sai from ''[[Hikaru no Go]]''. It's not so difficult to see what his gender is if one has a passing knowledge of Heian court dress, but the western audience is left wholly at sea.
* ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'':
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* In the manga of ''[[Paradise Kiss]]'', Yukari IDs Isabella as a cross dresser virtually as soon as she meets her. However in the anime this doesn't happen, and no-one makes ''any'' reference to the fact that she's actually a biological man until episode 10. Consequently, watching the anime first means there isn't even have a ''clue'' that anything is amiss until that point- given how fruity most of the characters were, there didn't seem to be anything odder than usual about her, especially as she's voiced by a woman in both languages.
* In ''[[Ranma ½]]'' you have Konatsu the "Genius Kuoichi", a crossdresser who managed to trick Ukyo and the rest of the cast into thinking he's female until his clothes get blown off.
* Kenshin from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]''. He has long red hair, a slim build and a rather feminine face. The author, in fact, stated that he gave Kenshin his X-shaped scar to make him look more masculine. Not surprising, as his [[Real Life]] counterpart, Kawakami Gensai, was said to be of a small stature, slim build and unusually pretty... for the deadliest assassin on the Loyalists' side. Both he and Kenshin had their fair share of being mistaken for a
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'':
** Zirconia is a decrepit old woman who's initially only seen in shadow, so by the time she was given [[The Reveal]] she had already been dubbed as an old man.
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** It's even worse with Pisces Aphrodite (also given a female voice in the French Dub). Even knowing that female saints are supposed to be masked, and thus he has to be male... he's girlier than Shun, wears lipstick and fights with roses... and seriously, [[Gender Blender Name|he's called "Aphrodite"!]] Saga even describes him as "[[Meaningful Name|the warrior of beauty]]".
** Aries Mu, possessor of a very pretty face and long, shiny pink hair, also got a female voice in the French dub.
** Aquarius Camus
** The queen of this trope is Lacerta Misty. Big poofy blonde hair, wears pink, wears pink "lipstick" and says "alrighty"? It took until he was completely naked for most of the viewers to realise his
* The [[Boys Love|BL]] light novel and anime series ''[[Sukisho]]'' has [[Team Mom]] Nanami. Everything about him is completely feminine and he even goes by a female name. His clothing when outside or at work are rather ambiguous, but at home he's usually seen wearing an apron or bunny slippers. The only hint on his male gender ever are the pronouns in the subtitles and in one episodes even the subtitle refer to him as female.
* [[Gender Bender|It was pretty much inevitable]] in ''[[Simoun]]''. Not helping was the fact that the most prominent breasts in the series are also possessed by the most prominent male character.
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** In the Adventures manga, Gold ends up mistaking Bugsy for a girl on first sight, and even ''flirts with him''.
*** In reverse is Anabel, who looks like a little boy despite being a girl.
** Another Bugsy incident happened in [http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9619/p044yn9.jpg another manga], ''[[Pokémon Golden Boys|Golden Boys]]''. Their Gold had mistaken Bugsy for a girl but it was a much milder example and was dropped instantly. It doesn't help that he's a [[Bishonen]]
** Mew. Oh, [[Unusual Euphemism|dear, sweet, Arceus]], Mew. It's pink, cute, fluffy, has a high-pitched voice, and in the original games it gave birth to Mewtwo ([[Gameplay and Story Segregation|Even though Mewtwo is otherwise said to be an artificially-created "clone" of Mew]]). It must be a girl, right? Nope, Mew's genderless... an "It".
*** It's kind of mind blowing that Mew's cutesy realistic kitten sounds are done by a grown man: Koichi Yamadera a.k.a. Spike Spiegel.
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*** It also doesn't help that Tate actually can ''easily'' be used for a feminine name.
*** The main confusion comes from the fact that he looks [[Half-Identical Twins|almost exactly like his sister]].
** Ash's Pikachu gets this ''a lot''. It's male, but wasn't confirmed this until the infamous Diamond & Pearl episode with [[
* Bedivere in the anime of ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. The guy's just as feminine as Saber and has [[Mamiko Noto]]'s voice. What are we supposed to think?
* The Firey in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', with roughly equal amounts of evidence for both male (flat chest) and female (all the other elemental/humanoid in the manga Cards are female).
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* An interesting case comes from ''[[Girls Saurus]]''. [http://www.mangareader.net/435-27840-7/girls-saurus-dx/chapter-28.html That cute girl] getting [[The Chikan|molested by men on the train]] and is saved by the main characters? Yeah, [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|that's a guy]]. But wait, he's got breasts and is wearing a skirt!... Not really: turns out that he's so feminine that the main characters (and, indeed, ''everyone who meets him, man and woman alike'') hallucinate that he's built and dressed like a girl. No, [http://www.mangareader.net/435-27840-31/girls-saurus-dx/chapter-28.html seriously].
* Hong Kong from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'': a normal and quiet [[Chinese People|Chinese boy]] or a ''very'' convincing [[Bifauxnen]]? The kid was recently confirmed by [[Word of God]] to be male, but new fans still get confused...
** Even China himself. Non-fans who know of the series'
*** Well, considering his long black/brown hair, his slim figure and small shoulders (at least in the webcomic), him being the second shortest of the main eight characters, his unisex human name, ''and'' [[Yuki Kaida|his female seiyu]], it's not that difficult to fall prey to Viewer Gender Confusion when concerning him.
*** Hell, a prime example of [[Viewer Gender Confusion]] in regards to China can be found on this very wiki; hetalia WMG.
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* Souji Okita from ''[[Peacemaker Kurogane]]'' has confused many, many people.
* Ranewater Calder from ''[[Zombie Powder]]''. It didn't help that he's the leader of a gang called the "Ash Daughter Gang", and it certainly didn't help that he was drawn as being much prettier and feminine than pretty much all the women in the series.
* Considering the abundance of white-blonde [[Action Girl
* Midriff-exposing, bangle-wearing Toboe from ''Wolf's Rain'' apparently caused ''author'' gender
* There is some disagreement about the gender of [[
* Canute from ''[[Vinland Saga]]'' amongst both the fandom and in-canon is confused for a girl when he first appears. He's male though, most certainly.
* Quite a few people mistake Fai from ''[[Tsubasa Chronicle]]'' and his "poofy Toma Seguchi coat" for a girl. Even though he is most definitely male, no matter how good he'd look in a dress.
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** Hermes from Part 6 is really masculine. If not for text and the fact she's in a female prison and some of the insinuative events at her first appearance (and other times), one would have sworn she was a he.
** Also Narancia from Part 5, but in reverse as thinking 'he' was a 'she'. His attire and Japanese game's voice actor doesn't help.
* Husky, the fish-boy from ''[[
** He even has to ''drop his pants'' at one point to convince Nana he wasn't a girl, since she refused to believe anything he said to the contrary.
* Yuki Kaori has been guilty of making her characters (of either sex) look more like the other's gender thanks to her love of androgyny. She mentioned once about the character Rociel from ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' that she got letters early on asking if he were male or female. Her response was something like "Well, I did say he was Katan's father..."
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** In addition, anyone who missed Wonderweiss Margera's "birth" scene could be forgiven for thinking him a young girl, since he does look very feminine and almost never speaks.
** It also initially occured with Yoruichi, while she was still in her cat form. It wasn't helped by the fact that the anime gave her a masculine voice. Then she revealed her [[Ms. Fanservice|true form]] and there's no longer any doubt.
*** It was implyied in the manga however that she
* [[Ill Girl]] Kayoko Nagato in ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' has a name that isn't very girly, an androgynous voice, and a ''very'' short haircut (her dinosaur tooth necklace doesn't help). The only telltales was her pink backpack and Doremi using -chan when referring to her.
* Several characters from the ''[[Loveless]]'' manga. Yayoi, Kio, and both halves of "Zero" who have longer hair in feminine styles, feminine body structures, and most often baggy/feminine looking clothes. And no voice actors to seek guidance from.
** At least in the anime, Yayoi, Kio and Youji are all voiced by blokes, and even [[Mitsuki Saiga|Natsuo's seiyuu]] is best known for [[Cross-Dressing Voices|voicing young boys]]. The ''real'' prize for this trope should go to Yurio, who appears quite late in the manga, has a very girly hairstyle (bobbed with long curls underneath), has the kanji for "man" in his/her name, and generally gives people a headache as to what his/her actual gender is.
* Nachos from ''[[Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto]]'' is actually a boy, but it's very hard to tell until his gender is actually stated because he has long hair in braids and looks more feminine than his sister, Chips. Their gender-neutral names don't help, either.
* Shigeru Kanmuri from ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]'', especially when he [[
** Even the artist admits that up-close, he looks exactly like Tsukino.
* Kanon from ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''. He's even harder to differentiate than usual because not only does he look feminine, his ''voice'' sounds feminine too. (Hint: Jessica calls him "Kanon-[[Japanese Honorifics|kun]]".)
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** Well, [[Word of God]] says that Grelle was born male, but is a Male-To-Female transsexual. So yeah...
* Haihane of the disciplinary squad in ''[[Sekirei]]'' looks like an androgynous man until she loses her jacket (revealing [[Hidden Buxom|she's female]]).
* Junior in ''[[
* Dilandaeu in ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' has the voice and features of a girl, but everybody referred to him as a man, so that settled that. {{spoiler|[[Double Subversion|The finale throws everybody for one hell of a loop.]]}}
* ''[[Karakuridouji Ultimo]]'' loves this trope. The confusion ranges from just some ridiculously pretty [[Bishonen]] to the outright ''cruel''. Take at look at [http://www.mangareader.net/770-42633-11/ultimo/chapter-11.html Service.]
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* Rei of ''[[Saint Beast]]''. Especially when the viewer doesn't know the show belongs to the [[Boys Love|BL]] genre.
* Plenty of people have mistaken Asuka from ''[[Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh]]'' for a girl due to his effeminate appearance and teeny-tiny shorts, even on this very wiki. His name doesn't help, as it's the name of a female pilot in [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|another, more well-known series]]; and that his voices in both Japanese and English versions are pretty androgynous. Not that his [[Fan Yay|fanboys]] care...
* While revealed by p.
* Norio Koga in ''[[Narutaru]]''. Apparently, some readers have gone through the entire manga without realising that the character is (biologically) male. It doesn't help that his hair is nicer than most girls, and that he's lusted after by both male and female fans.
* While not the most common, Chopper from ''[[One Piece]]'' in a few cases, being the [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]] with a female VA and pink as his main color. On the Drum Island arc commentary, some of the dubbers at Funimation admitted they weren't sure of his gender until hearing his scream about being a man.
* Eisuke of ''[[Detective Conan]]''. Inspector Sato can sometimes look more masculine than [[Cute Clumsy Girl|him]].
* Raenef and Erutis of ''[[Demon Diary]]'' look like a girl and a guy, respectively. But, of course, it's actually the other way around. Raenef falls victim (rather literally, actually) to [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]] at one point, and Erutis [[Rage Against the Author|rants at the artist]] for making her look so boyish that the readers get confused.
* ''[[D Gray]]-Man'' has some a ''lot'' of [[Bishonen]], some of whom reach this level of girliness. Kanda, for example, is easily mistaken for female at first glance due to the [[Badass Long Hair|long hair]], and he's got nothing on the (male) [[Creepy Twins]] Jasdero and Devit; both are rather ambiguous-looking, and [[Fusion Dance|in combo]], [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hIfZla1VWGI/SeRr54VRdVI/AAAAAAAACT4/rvpsGZt4Eek/s400/jasdebi7.jpg well]{{Dead link}}... The author actually had to clarify their gender through the [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]].
* ''[[Baka Test]]'''s Hideyoshi Kinoshita. It's basically the point of the character. It's gotten to the point that the fanbase has considered Hideyoshi to have be its own gender. Also to mention is that he can emulate anyone's voice.
* ''[[Heroman]]'' gives us Joey, the main character. While his name is obviously masculine, his design is androgynous at best and his personality, body language, and ''especially'' [[Cross-Dressing Voices|his voice]] are much closer to a tomboyish girl than a teenage male. It's enough to make you wonder.
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** Thick shoulder-length blonde hair, girly voice, short, thin, even a little curvy... Yeah, I doubt there's anyone who knew he was a guy when they saw him for the first time.
* ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]'''s version of Snake.
* Risky from ''[[
** Please note this only applies to the anime adaption, as manga!Risky was [[Fan Service Pack|quite clearly a female]].
* Huang Chaun from ''[[Riki-Oh]]'' is a very effeminate man with a slender build, lipstick, long eyelashes, and long painted finger nails, but he has a rather masculine voice in the anime.
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* Takumi in ''[[Gad Guard]]''. He has long blonde hair styled into a [[Hime Cut]] and appears to be romantically linking up with Hajiki in his first few episodes. However, switching to the English-language dub leaves the viewer in little doubt as to his gender as the voice sounds masculine (despite being voiced by a female in the English dub).
* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'': Due to Tezuka's art style which averts [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]] (even male characters have eyelashes), and due to the [[Cross-Dressing Voices]], people who have no knowledge of the series watching the 90s dub for the first time and caught certain filler episodes have thought that the title character is ''female''.
* Tail from ''[[Dorothy of Oz (manhwa)|Dorothy of Oz]]'', a [[Manhwa]] take on ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''. He looks feminine, has feminine eyelashes, and his personality fits [[Genki Girl]]-[[Big Eater]]. Just [http://img25.tx.us.mangafox.com/store/manga/7417/01-001.0/compressed/dchapter_01.page_04-05.jpg look]{{Dead link}} [http://img01.dc.us.mangafox.com/store/manga/7417/01-001.0/compressed/dchapter_01.page_01.jpg at]{{Dead link}} [http://img25.tx.us.mangafox.com/store/manga/7417/01-001.0/compressed/dchapter_01.page_07.jpg him]{{Dead link}}. It doesn't help that he appears to have a [[Sarashi]] affect with his shirt and give him a "boost". Mara also gives some of this, due to her short hair and somewhat gender neutral appearance.
* For people who have not seen ''[[Seirei no Moribito]]'' from the start, it may be a surprise that Chagum is a boy.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': Occasionally happens when Maya is mistaken for Shinji and the other way around. The source of this confusion is that, Word of God, Shinji's character design is actually a female head slapped onto a male body: he's based on Nadia, the main character from Gainax's previous series, "Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water", just with shorter bangs and the jewelry removed. So when people accuse Maya of looking "butch" its actually the other way around: Shinji is based on a girl. Maya is just how Gainax draws generic girls.
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** Beyblade's spinoff, ''[[Metal Fight Beyblade]]'', has quite a few guys with questionably feminine appearances. Thankfully, most of them are saved with masculine voices.
* ''[[Wandering Son]]'' is.. Complicated due to it being about [[Transsexualism|Transsexuality]] and crossdressing. But some characters play this trope straight. Makoto for example is rather feminine looking, round, short, has feminine mannerisms, and typically goes by "Mako-chan".
* ''[[Ai Ore Love Me]]'' lives off this trope. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120512161945/http://sherlockholmes.exteen.com/images/AnimeFv/AiWoUtauYoriOreNiOborero/dfdf.jpg Everyone in the background is a girl, and the one in the front is a boy].
* ''[[Gamaran]]'' has Ranmaru Itou, a male samurai who looks very feminine.
* The main character from [[Chi's Sweet Home]] is female; this trope is easily [[Justified]] since she's a two-to-three-month-old kitten. {{spoiler|The verdict is out on her new kitten pal Cocchi from the manga and OVA though; the Japanese version has him/her refer to him/herself with "[[Japanese Pronouns|ore-sama]]", and the overall interpretation leans toward male}}. But you never know with kittens, even in [[Real Life]] when sometimes you have to check twice.
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* [[Zatch Bell]] has Zophise, who is voiced by a woman in both the Japanese and English versions, has curly hair, and has clothes and a face that inspires resemblance to a [[Creepy Doll|demonic doll]]. Despite all this, [[Word of God|he is confirmed to be male.]]
* In ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'', Chief Dokuro is typically assumed to be male, despite the fact that all New Devils are female. This extends to the anime, where in the dub she has a male voice actor, and in the sub her voice actress uses such a coarse voice that everyone assumes she's male.
* Ana Graham from ''[[Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle]]'' is apparently a dude despite looking, dressing and sounding like one. Apparently confirmed after taking his <ref>
* Jun from ''[[Persona Trinity Soul]]'' is very easily mistaken for a [[Pettanko]] girl. Slightly justified in that {{spoiler|his twin sister died in a car crash and donated part of her brain and organs to him, resulting in a shared Persona.}}
* Tomokane from ''[[GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class]]'' is [[Hot-Blooded]] and refers to herself as [[Ore Anne|ore]], not to say she [[Nonuniform Uniform|never wears her bolo tie to school]]. Even she still wears a dress, viewers need to consciously remind temselves of her gender. [[Lampshade
* Leeron from ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' can easily be mistaken for a woman at first because of his feminine look and crossdressing nature, but it turns out he's actually a homosexual, crossdressing man.
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