Viewer Gender Confusion/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* 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.

** 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 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.

** At first glance, Kazuki, with his long flowing hair, long lashes and slim frame, would mislead anyone into thinking he was a girl. It didn't help that he was portrayed wearing female clothes in various points of the manga and anime, and he's grouped with the girls in one of the ending clips and some of the official artwork (apparently, the writers were in on the joke). He is also a victim of Tokyopop's [[She's a Man In Japan]] translation.

** 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).

* 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.

** Kurapika. His gender is hidden for a large part of the manga and he is so perfectly androgynous that it's difficult to make up one's mind.

** A lot of fans were confused in regards to Neferpitou in the manga, what with his incredibly effeminate appearance and mannerisms.

** Shippo, the fox demon of Inu-Yasha's group is often mistaken for a girl due to having female voice actors and wearing a bow in his hair.

** Arion Rosemariné is bad enough to have confused some ''scanlators''. He dresses entirely in [[Gorgeous Period Dress]], has long blond ''[[Princess Curls]]'', and is voiced by [[Yoshiko Sakakibara|a woman]] in the OVA. The only way many people have realized his actual gender is through the fact that he lives at an all-boys boarding school. In any case, his gender is proved once and for all when {{spoiler|it's revealed that Auguste raped him, and Auguste only goes for pretty boys.}}

** Liliath Florian manages to be an even ''worse'' offender. This minor character has [[Flower in Her Hair|flowers in his hair]], is very effeminate both in appearance and personality, and seems to be flat-out referred to as a girl by other characters... and yet he goes to the very same all-boys school.

* In the ''[[Shadow Hearts|Koudelka]]'' manga, {{spoiler|the little boy turns out to be a little girl whom her mother, a prostitute, disguised as a boy to save her from being used as a prostitute in turn.}}

* ''[[Naruto]]'' has a few:

** Gaara's uncle Yashamaru looks exactly like his sister. Even though the "-maru" indicates a male, some translations referred to him as a female.

** Sai's midriff exposing top and slim build, along with his [[Emotionless Girl]] status cast some doubts about his gender at first.

** Taken to its extreme with the seven-tails host, who is only seen on the splash page of one chapter and an artbook where ''[[Word of God|the author himself]]'' stated [[Shrug of God|he was unsure of his/her]] gender.

* 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.

* ''[[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.

** Andromeda Shun has a feminine voice in the Japanese dub, wears pink armor, has a slight figure, and is prettier than most of the female cast. In fact, ''most'' of ''[[Saint Seiya]]'''s [[Bishonen]] are prettier than most of its female cast, and have fooled many unwary viewers. It confused even the French dubbers who had a female voice actress dub Shun's lines in the first few eps, until Ikki calls Shun explicitly his "brother". And later, there is this episode stating that female Saints wear masks, but the confusion's still there.

** 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]]".

* [[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.

*** ''[[They Call Me Mister Tibbs|Doctor]]'' Crowler. His voice in the original is very clealry male, but the dub does add quite a bit of confusion to the issue. The purple lipstick doesn't help. The dub even lampshades it from time to time.

*** Even worse is Yubel. You're pretty much guaranteed to guess the wrong gender. {{spoiler|Because "she" and "he" are both used in reference ''and'' Yubel is technically a hermaphrodite at this point. Even the original Yubel is very androgynous, though not to the same cheater level as most of the series.}}

*** Jeager is short with a slim build, a feminine high-pitched voice, lipstick and pointy ears. He's supposed top be a clown, but his gender is not very clear.

*** Luciano is even more confusing. If he wasn't wearing a male uniform, the long red plait and girly voice could fool anyone. It certainly doesn't help those who play the ''World Championship Series'' games that, in the 2011 title, Luciano's hairstyle and outfit are only available for female characters.

* Epsilon from Urasawa's ''[[Pluto]]''. What makes it even more difficult is that he's based on the [[Astro Boy]] character Neptune (who is male), but shares the name and character traits (such as being a [[Technical Pacifist]]) of a female character from the same series. It doesn't help that the fan translation has referred to him as "she" once or twice...

** This spawned a bit of a [[Memetic Mutation]] in Japan, as many artists gleefully went right to work in creating pictures of Tieria as a girl... While only having to slightly change some visual details (and in a few cases, giving "her" a somewhat [[Genki Girl]] personality).

** Not to mention the first drama CD, which contained Tieria posing undercover as a schoolgirl, complete with falsetto and demure speech. Fan response was predictable.

** Even worse, episode 8 of the second season has Tieria {{spoiler|responding to an invitation by the Innovators' leader and resident [[Big Bad]] Ribbons Almack by attending his party... as a woman. A very, very busty woman. In a backless dress. An extremely convincing pair of fake breasts indeed, otherwise the directors have been trolling a vast majority of the fanbase for a while now with the enigmatic comments about Tieria's gender.}}

*** The producers may have been playing with this since the beginning. Note that the show's first ending theme's title, "Wana" translates roughly as "The Trap".

*** The playful toying extends to the dub where Johan apparently thinks that Tieria would make a pretty hot girl.

**** Micheal says that actually, the direct quote is "That's too bad. If he were a girl he'd be kind of hot." Apparently many Japanese 'artists' thought the same.

** ''ALL'' Innovators are basically this. Just try to guess the genders of Revive Revival or (really worst offender here) Hilling Care. Hilling was wearing a tuxedo in Ribbons' party and looks rather boyish, but still [[Pronoun Trouble|uses pronouns]] and speech patterns that are distinctively feminine.

*** [[Word of God]] is that Innovades are technically sexless but still resembling one gender or the other, and always come in matched pairs like Tieria and Regene. The sole exception is Anew Returner, Lockon/Lyle's [[Love Interest]], who is apparently unique in being the only confirmed female Innovade.

* Kurau from ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]''. Even though she has an alternate persona in Christmas, who is obviously female, her ambiguous clothing, hairstyle and seiyuu cause some confusion. It gets better with age, though.

** [http://www.bulbagarden.net/~dogasu/comparisons/chronicles/ep002.html This site] has the quotation in question, and the webmaster points out that "men" is commonly used as a gender-neutral term. So the jury's still out on this one.

** Shaymin in ''Giratina and the Sky Warrior''. Cute little flower hedgehog... forme change to kickass doggy-reindeer thing. Coincidentially, its dub VA is well known for voicing Tails in the more recent ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games and ''[[Sonic X]]''.

** 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.

** 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.

*** This can apply for pretty much '''any'' Legendary Pokémon that doesn't already have a definite gender. For example, the Brazillian dub of ''Jirachi: The Wishmaker'' calls Jirachi a female and the English dub calls it a male.

*** 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]].

* Kuu and Kana from ''[[Haibane Renmei]]'', helped by the latter's [[Wrench Wench]] status. Even the manager of the cafe where Kuu works thinks she's a boy.

* Ladios Sopp in ''The Five Star Stories'', with his shy and soft-spoken demeanor, effeminate voice, baggy yellow clothes, big dewy eyes, and long braided hair is constantly mistaken for a woman. In fact, one character, Voards Viewlards, eventually learns the truth and still flirts with him! It doesn't help that Sopp is the alter-ego of the king of the A.K.D., who is named after the ur-goddess of Japan, and frequently played by a female Body Double while the king is off playing as Sopp!

* Many first time viewers of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' think cutesy, shiny-eyed Private Tamama is a girl. Oh how wrong they are...

* 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].

*** 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.

** The newest character New Zealand is currently a source of this. Are they a cute short-haired girl or a simply effeminate looking boy in the vein of Poland and China? Time will tell...

** Lithuania and Poland (the latter being a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]) will often be mistaken for girls by new fans/people who don't know the series. An amusing comment on the [http://lietpol-club.deviantart.com/ PolandxLithuania group on Deviantart] remarks on this:

'''Person 1:''' *mind fucked* o.o }}

** In universe example in the English dub.

* 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.

* 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* Speculation on the Youtube comment boards for ''[[Glass Fleet]]'' continued to wonder why androgynous Michel was referred to as a boy but obviously sounded like a woman. Once that was cleared up, the fans turned to poor ''Ralph'', a child repeatedly referred to as a boy, with a boy's name, but with very feminine mannerisms and an obsessive crush on an older man.

* After [[Art Evolution]], ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' has suddenly started getting a bunch of them. Chief offenders include the [[Enfante Terrible|Acrobaleno]] Viper from the Varia and Kikyo and Daisy of the {{spoiler|Real Furneral Wreathes}}. Only in the latest chapter has the translator been certain that Kikyo is male and no one can is yet certain if Daisy is this or a [[Bifauxnen]].

* Zaji of ''[[Letter Bee]]'' is thought to be either a boyish-looking young woman or a man. It doesn't help that early on in the series, a girl named Nelli who looks a little like Zaji is mistaken for a boy.

* ''Waq Waq'''s Yoki looks like a woman with a feminine face and long hair, and dresses in loose robes, but is referred to as "he".

** Well, she ''does'' wear pants combined with a ''skirt'', but perhaps that's considered men's clothing in Japan.

* Luppi, a minor villain from ''[[Bleach]]''. He [[Sissy Villain|looks and acts very much like a woman]], leading to some deep confusion among readers of the manga. The anime solved this problem by giving him a very masculine voice, making his gender apparent from the moment he opened his mouth.

** 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.

* [[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.

* 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.

** Even the artist admits that up-close, he looks exactly like Tsukino.

** A minor detail, but "[[Japanese Honorifics|kun]]" is gender-neutral, it just tends to be used in regard to males more than females. This does not help.

** {{spoiler|There is a reason for his feminity, namely the fact that he is just a split personality of Yasu/Shannon/Beatrice, plus the fact that with the reveal of Lion, it's confusing of what gender they truly are.}}

** 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]]).

* 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.]

* In ''[[Trigun]]'', when you first see Vash and Knives as children they look very much like girls, but once you hear them speak you realize their gender.

* Rei of ''[[Saint Beast]]''. Especially when the viewer doesn't know the show belongs to the [[Boys Love|BL]] genre.

* 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.

* ''[[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.

** "Obviously masculine"? [http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Joey It can be a girl's name too], although more rarely. Joey is androgynous all around.

** 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.

** 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.

** In the live-action adaptation, they went further and had him played by an actual woman and voice-dubbed by a man.

* Ryo Kuromatsu from the manga ''The Magic Touch'' is a girl but she looks remarkably like a boy and is rarely seen in her school uniform. When first encountered in the manga, her gender is not specified, save for one character calling her "she" in order to surprise Amane Mihime, and the reader who didn't catch the gender drop.

* Hansel and Gretel in ''[[Black Lagoon]]''. By the end of their story arc, it's still not very clear if they were brother and sister, sisters, or brothers.

* 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).

* 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.

** It happens a lot in the Alternate Continuity Gakuen Datenroku ("Records of Heaven's Descent"), where Shinji is at his most androgynous and really looks like Maya and where it's sometimes necessary to have a close look to realize that the cute short-haired girl is actually him.

* [[Magical X Miracle]] inspires a lot of this. For starters, the main character Merleawe is a girl who [[Inexplicably Identical Individuals|looks exactly like]] (and must pretend to be) the male Master Wizard, who went missing. In the bonus art, it's really hard to tell which is which. In addition, several fans have expressed confusion at Yue's gender. He's actually a man, but between the [[Rapunzel Hair]], the [[Qipao]], and the [[Gender Blender Name]], things can get confusing. [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] when, in book 2, a female character who closely resembles him (both in looks and [[Sugar and Ice Personality]]) was introduced in Glenn's flashback. Perhaps Lampshading that, later in the book, General Lenolora [[Dropped a Bridget On Him|makes fun of him]] [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|for looking like a girl]].

** It certainly doesn't help that {{spoiler|Ruka ends up looking exactly the same after hir gender was changed via [[Time Travel|D-Mail]].}}

* Hana from ''[[Michiko To Hana]]''; she even got mistaken for a boy in one episode. She's young (around ten years old), dresses in a boyish manner, and her voice isn't all that feminine. The series takes place in South America, so [[Japanese Pronouns]] can't help either in-series.

* ''[[Beyblade]]'' gives us Oliver (at least in the English dub). With his femimine features, girly voice, pink beyblade, and unicorn bitbeast, many people assumed he was female. Some of them even thought his name was actually Olivia, and was just being mispronounced. Eventually everyone got the hint when he was continually referred to as a 'he'.

** Beyblade's spinoff, ''[[Metal Fight Beyblade]]'', has quite a few guys with questionably feminine appearances. Thankfully, most of them are saved with masculine voices.

* ''[[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.

* [[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.]]

* 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.}}

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Viewer Gender Confusion]]