When People Discover Things Like the Possibility of a Transgender Character in Pokemon X/Y, I have to Wonder How They Notice it.

Is this blog too long? Here it is in a nutshell: Can we please stop the transphobic comments and the racist comments towards Japan? Let’s just go back to demanding Pokemon Bank because it’s been two weeks since it was meant to be released and I’m dying over here. We can't just "please understand" for much longer, Nintendo. Your fans are becoming very impatient.

I came across an article on this a couple days ago but I’ve been so busy with work and birthdays that I haven’t really had any time to sit down… At least not when I’m awake. I’ve been sleeping a lot these last few days, I apparently didn’t even hear my alarm go off this morning I was so tired. Good thing it was just for my medication and nothing too big.

Anyway~ The actual subject, yeah? The article I read a few days ago was discussing the possibility of Pokemon X/Y having a transgender character in the Battle Maison. I say possibility because it’s just a theory. In the English version, the text the character says is so subtle that it could mean something completely different. However, in the Japanese version, it’s a lot more convincing.

In the English version, you can encounter a woman in the Battle Maison that says Yes, a mere half a year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn’t you say? Now, looking at the English text only, it simply seems like a feminine woman is saying she used to be into karate. Except when you think about the fact that Black Belt is capitalized as if it were a name and then you remember that Black Belt is a trainer class... A trainer class exclusive to males. When this was first brought up, a lot of people called sexism on the fanbase but it’s really not sexism. If you look at the Japanese text, you’ll see why Western fans are a bit perplexed by this woman.

In the Japanese text, her dialogue changes a bit. Instead, the woman will say (a rough translation here) I was a Karate King just half a year ago; the power of medical science is amazing, wouldn’t you say?! It’s a small change in wording but could be a big change in meaning. The words you use can easily change the meaning of a sentence. Whether or not the character is transgender will probably always remain nothing more than a theory, Nintendo will never confirm it themselves. But it's a fairly convincing theory, I think. Some people are putting way too much thought into it.

This isn’t the first time Nintendo has done something like this. And by this, I mean done something ‘controversial’ in a subtle way so people won’t notice. Since we’re discussing Pokemon, let’s stick with that. Let’s think back to Black 2/White 2. In the English version during your final encounter with Ghetsis, he claims that he is going to freeze you. Let’s be real, that’s not what he’s trying to do. The Japanese text makes it a bit more clear what Ghetsis wants to do, but it’s still hidden. Let me tell you what he wants to do: Ghetsis is not trying to freeze you; he is trying to murder you. He is trying to impale you with his ice spears.

But if Nintendo has made it obvious that Ghetsis wanted to kill you then the games would have had a higher rating in Western countries. Speaking as an American, I can tell you that many people probably would have indeed freaked out because OH MY GOD! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! And all that good stuff. So instead of saying it outright, they went about it subtly. Children who play the game will not understand it but many adults will. Children will take the text for what it appears to be but adults can see the underlying meaning of it.

There was also the moment where a Team Plasma Grunts tells you that N is "smitten" with your character regardless of whether they're male or female. But this could be brushed off as it's a Japanese game and certain words in Japanese have a less strong meaning than in English, and smitten may be one of those words. But still.

In other words, Nintendo is damn good at getting away with controversial things in their games.

There is also the possibility of Pokemon X/Y having a gay couple in one of the restaurants. I don’t know how true that is, I have my skepticism even with the dialogue but people do sound convincing. In one of the restaurants, you can talk to two men sitting at a table. One of them will say something about how it’s not wrong for two men to have a simple dinner together. The other one also says something regarding gender but I’m not sure. The point people have made is that if the two are not on a date, why would they mention gender so often? There is the possibility that it’s simply referencing the way we, as a society, think that two men can’t go to dinner together as just friends like two women can. Either way, it’s a pretty good reference by Nintendo.

My point here is that this is not the first time Nintendo has done something like this and it will not be the last. Subtly adding in controversial things is sort of their thing, they do it fairly often. Sometimes, they’re even obvious about it like in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. In ACNL, you can cross-dress. When you do, the Able Sisters’ dialogue might be iffy but your villagers are not. Your villagers will be very accepting of you cross-dressing; they have no problem with it. When this was first revealed, so many Western fans demanded that Nintendo take it out but they didn’t. They held strong and I’m proud of them for it.

On that note, can I take a quick moment here to complain though about how we can't cross-dress in Pokemon X/Y? The males have some super awesome clothes that I'd love to wear~ It's weird to me. They let us cross-dress in ACNL but won't let is in X/Y.... Why? I don't understand you sometimes, Nintendo.

If this is truly a nod to their transgender fans then I am quite happy and proud of Nintendo. With transphobia still running so rampant all over the world, it’s nice to see such a popular company taking a stand, even if they did censor the English version. Unfortunately, most references to transgender people in the media are used as a joke. So it’s very nice to see a company so big in the media giving transgender people a very respectful reference.

Now the part I find funny about this situation (and why I’m even talking about it) is the people who continue to claim that Japan is overly conservative. It’s quite common for people to think this, it’s a popular stereotype. A lot of people seem to think that Japan is this ultra conservative country. The funny part is that while Japan is conservative, Western countries are more conservative. The very countries that mock Japan for their problems have even bigger problems themselves.

While Japan does still have problems with trying to impose sexist gender roles onto their citizens, it’s becoming lesser. As the younger generation grows up and takes control, Japan is becoming more progressive. But a thing about Japan is that gender identity has never been too big of a deal. In fact, cross-dressing for males is very common in Japan. It’s a bit iffier with women of course; Japan does have a massive problem with being patriarchal and sexist towards women. But as far as males go, cross-dressing isn’t too big of a deal so, assumingly, neither would transgenderism.

It’s the same with homosexuality. They're more accepting towards homosexuality than people think. Here’s a fun fact about Japan and same-sex marriage: it’s half legal. In Japan two citizens of the same sex cannot get married. However, a citizen and a foreigner of the same sex can. So same-sex marriage is legal in Japan as long as one person is a foreigner and one is a citizen. Japan is closer to full marriage equality than America is.

Moving away from marriage, speaking from my experience, I have met very few young people in Japan who are homophobic. Most, from my experience, just don’t care. I can use SCANDAL as an example for this. People tend to find out very quickly that I may kind of sort of be in absolute love with Haruna. It doesn’t take people long to make the connection, but most of the Japanese fans I’ve spoken to don’t care. I’ve had a few people tell me it’s a bit uncomfortable because they’re not used to it, and that’s fair, but I’ve never encountered full out homophobia from a Japanese fan. In fact, many of the male fans are happy to engage me in these conversations about how attractive the girls are.

Even going away from SCANDAL, I’ve seen very little homophobia from the younger generation in Japan. ‘Course there’s a lot of it among the older generations but that is to be expected.

The entire point here is that Japan is a lot more accepting towards gender and sexuality issues than people give them credit for. Japan has come a long way from the ultra-conservative and conformative society it used to be. The younger generations have changed Japan for the better and they’ll continue to change it.

The other point here is how sneaky Nintendo is.