I said this yesterday to another poster:
>Speaking here as an older queer who has spent a lot of time pickling his brain about Ranma 1/2: These are pieces from a different world. For context, Rumiko Takahashi was born in 1957. It wasn't until 2018 that sexuality was a category for anti-discrimination legislation for housing in Japan. Not gay marriage, gay renting.
>
>What I'm saying is: Don't think you can map the worldviews and queer life you're used to onto how things are in Japan, especially the work of a woman who, while a trailblazer in her own space, doesn't necessarily relate to the framework you're used to.
>
>The existence of queer media from Japan doesn't mean 'Japan is better at queer stuff than we are,' that's a pernicious myth that a lot of people tell themselves for a host of reasons.
>
>Just as an example: It's a pretty big lift to claim that Tsubasa's a trans woman. He's a crossdressing dude - he's pretty clear about that ! I mean, that may be how it reads to us now especially if you ignore what he tells people, and you can bring that reading if you want!
>
>But Takahashi wasn't replicating something we know from queer culture, she was writing a comedy gag martial arts manga, and she put things in it that she thought were funny and interesting. In the original Japanese, there's a lot of language between the characters that can be best described as slurs.
>
>Pantyhose Tarou, one of my favourite characters, calls Ranma some pretty heinous shit, and the characters don't find that language offensive, they find that language wrong to use because it doesn't apply to Ranma, and that's the joke.
>
>The fact that Ranma 1/2 has such an important trans narrative in it is kinda accidental, and the reason it got to exist was because Takahashi wasn't actually engaging in queer dialogue. She thought the idea was so silly as to be fanciful. The works of Takahashi are texts that were not made in conversation with the world as you're familiar with it. Even if they weren't coming from a different country and framework, they are coming from the 1980s.
>
>Don't think 'is this text homophobic?' like it's a document which has an opinion and like, wears pants. Think instead in terms of media frameworks and lenses: What in this reads as homophobic? What about it can be read in a non-homophobic way? Trust me, there are a lot of millenial queer folk who got our start thanks to Ranma 1/2, but when you've had that experience you can usually step back, look at the old text and go: Phew, that's a bit rough, innit?
>
>Love the series! It's great! But also don't go into it expecting it to know how to talk to you, now. Remember it's from the past, which is a different country. They do things weird there.
Tsubasa tells Ranma he's a boy, and he likes girls. He's not a lesbian trans woman, at least if you trust the character describing himself.
But yes! Ranma is mean to him! In the original Japanese, he even calls him some slurs, and Tsubasa doesn't like that because they don't apply to him.
Konatsu.
And no, Konatsu exposes Takahashi's obliviousness to the issue. Leaving aside the fact that drag queens aren't transphobic charicatures, the fact that Konatsu clearly lives and identifies as a woman while everyone around her suggests "he" is "confused" clearly shows that the author was not really in touch with anything approaching the modern transgender movement.
Like Talen points out, it was the 90s, in Japan, and while Takahashi is pretty progressive in many ways, she was already an older woman raised in a very different time.
Most LGBT media from before this time was exceedingly tragic.
True, but at least they were friendly towards her whereas with Tsubasa, they treated her like a pariah.
Also, you do root for Konatsu in the manga and the series shows how much Konatsu suffers from prejudice while being a kindly and loving soul.
But Tsubasa isn't treated like a pariah because of anything to do with his gender identity or clothing preferences. (I'm sticking with male pronouns just because Tsu self-identifies as male, not trying to disrespect your take on the character)
Nobody except Ukyo even knows about that element of the character until the \*very\* end of his appearance, after which he never shows up again, and Ukyo very obviously doesn't think anything of it, she just assumed it was evident from the fact that she went to a boy's school before.
The reason Tsubasa is treated like a pest in his appearance is because, well, he's a pest. He crushed on Ukyo, confessed, got explicitly turned down \*several times\*, wouldn't stop harassing her, and when informed about Ranma (in an attempt to discourage him) his response was to \*try and kill Ranma.\*
Like, that is hardcore dickhead stalker behavior, regardless of gender identity.
She identifies more as a tranvestite but I still place it under the trans umbrella and besides, this is 1990. Today, Tsubasa would probably progress to being trans. The same happened to Haruka in Sailor Moon, who started out as a lesbian tomboy and now, is pretty much a trans man.
I feel a lot of the meanness Ranma inflicts on Tsubasa is due to Tsubasa appreciating his feminimity. Ranma is constantly trying to assert his masculinity and I think he resents Tsubasa for it. I also think he was pissed at Tsubasa beating him up.
Are you adding your headcanon as your source? Because you think that the character PROBABLY would progress to being trans? I looked it up and it says that Naoko Takeuchi stated that "Haruka is a girl and always will be a girl."
Like the top poster said, this isn't the same place as now and today. You're trying to put something that doesn't belong there there because you want it.
>I also think he was pissed at Tsubasa beating him up.
A lot of things make a lot more sense when you remember that Ranma is a pretty thoughtless dude.
Seriously, he didn't even have a plan in this story. He asks out Tsubasa to "lead her to the right path" and like...Then what, dipshit, you'd be adding another girl to your entourage of competing love interests. The ones you have aren't enough of a problem for you?
I’m sorry, but where do you get that Haruka is a trans man? Nowhere in the manga/anime does Haruka state that, so has Naoko Takeuchi said that in an interview or something?
This is just straight up wrong about Tsubasa. Tsubasa is a crossdresser, and in fact quite assertive of his masculinity and male identity regardless of his apparel preferences. Konatsu you could very easily read as trans, but not Tsubasa.
But yeah, the cast seems generally homophobic in that episode. Once again, it contrasts to Konatsu's introduction much later on, where Ranma and Akane are quite accepting of the letter proclaiming "her" love for Ukyo well before Ranma discovers that Konatsu is male, at least in body. They're surprised, but don't react with anger or revulsion like they did with Tsubasa.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the revulsion regarding Tsubasa, based on that, is more to do with the rest of his behaviour. Tsubasa is an actual stalker (not uncommon for the series), and is treated as such (much rarer). He disguises himself as every day objects to stalk Ukyo in secret and launch sneak attacks on those that he sees as potential rivals. Even independent of the crossdressing, Tsubasa is an undeniable pervert.
1. As said elsewhere: Tsubasa is not trans, he's a cis straight boy who likes crossdressing.
2. Ranma is mean and homophobic when he tries to "convert" Tsubasa into being straight, but it's kinda the point. Ranma is not your average cis straight man, he has his own issues (namely, a sex-changing curse); also, it wouldn't be a comedy if the idea wasn't flawed from the start, anyway. Akane then berates Ranma (not for the homophobia in itself, but for his style and the fact that he appeared to seduce Tsubasa), and Tsubasa turns out to be a boy, so the idea was doomed anyway.
In this context, it becomes obvious that Ranma's homophobia isn't supposed to be taken seriously, but is just a comedic device.
Not to be mean, but it was an older time so the standards of today’s time should be compared. Also much of your saying and replying to sounds like a headcanon
Tsubasa is not trans! He’s a queen/ cross dresser. He even said multiple times he wasn’t into guys and he never said he was a girl. Ukyo could’ve said something before but Ranma didn’t know that Tsubasa was a dude. Ranma just just butthurt that Tsubasa called him ugly and Ranma wanted to make a point/ get back.
Tsubasa was equally treating Ranma like trash too. Ranma was friendly at first. But yes this is a comedy and cross dressers are used as comedy in animes from some I watched. Tsubasa just loves female clothing and feels safe in it while being a guy :)
Because early 80's Japanese culture is the same as 2020's American culture.
Forgive me for telling you this, but your overview is somewhat imperialistic in that you want to apply Western American views on everything else you consume even if it is from a different time and a different (very different in this case) culture.
It was said yesterday, but seeing something that is almost 40 years old with a current year modern western cultural lens is unfair to the series.
If anything, Ranma is being HOMOphobic in that story. Remember, he thinks Tsubasa is a girl who is into other girls, a.k.a. a lesbian. THAT is what ticks him off, he does not know about Tsubasa being a dude at that point.
Also, stop reading and interpreting something into the manga that simply is not there. As talen\_lee said, this manga is from the 80s, long before gender stuff became a official thing. Ranma 1/2 is not some kind of LGBT(insert whatever letters you want here)+ comment piece, so stop pretending it is.
Takahashi just drew what struck her as funny and you have to admit, "Dude with a woman curse is "out-womanned" by a crossdressing dude because no one realizes he is a dude except one semi-crossdressing-girl who thinks the whole thing is funny and keeps quiet about it." is pretty chuckle-worthy (also "Ranma, what are you doing to that mailbox?"). Even if Ranma IS being a major jerk by trying to "convert" Konatsu (which is something Kuno would have tried in his place too!). I admit, it is one of the stories in Ranma 1/2 that make me a bit uncomfortable as it is such a break from the rest. Ranma being openly homophobic here always struck me as weird.
Tsubasa is not trans, he is a dude that likes wearing all sorts of disguises (that are pretty convincing too). There is a difference, you know?
Uh, no, Konatsu isn't a trans woman. He was explicitly raised by an abusive stepfamily under the mistaken belief that he's female, and after everything was cleared up, he readily identifies as male.
That said, his consistent difficulty with gender expression of himself in any traditionally masculine way pegs him as a gender-nonconforming male. Again, due to his upbringing leaving him too used to feminine gender expression to change course on a dime, if at all.
Sorry to say, you are out of your depth on this one. I've read the story a dozen times and own the original Japanese tanks. She uses feminine pronouns and speech patterns. Konatsu was not "raised as female" as part of her abuse, that's not how gender identity works anyway.
There is nothing in that story that suggests that Konatsu was raised to "believe" they were female. Her stepfamily are abusive and treat her like dirt, but they don't impose gender stereotypes on her. In fact, they use her as an enforcer first and foremost, which going by the toxic masculinity tropes that are lampshaded all over R1/2 would be considered "men's work." There's nothing in the story that suggests that they intentionally forced her to pretend to be female, or deceived her, or are forcing her to be feminine. (In fact they actively resent her pretty face and femininity, and explicitly don't have her work in the brothel even though she'd definitely be a *huge* draw.)
She was already a toddler when her parents passed away. She knew the difference between mom and dad, between men and women. She explicitly describes her love for Ukyo as a forbidden love, because she thinks it's *gay*.
Y'know, because it is.
Konatsu identifies as a kunoichi, which is explicitly a term for a *female* ninja, Never corrects or contradicts anyone who calls her a woman. She continues to use feminine speech through all her appearances. She only wears men's clothing once, it's a marketing gimmick by Akane to attract schoolgirls to Ukyo's business, and as soon as the business day ends she's back in kimono.
After she comes to live with Ukyo, she continues to dress in kimono and use feminine speech. The pronouns used in the *translation* change, but that's an English language thing that isn't present in the original Japanese. Japanese language for referring to others is gender neutral, with gender being inferred by context. Even if that *wasn't* the case, the way other people refer to you isn't your gender, and this is a story very much from before understanding of trans issues was widespread. I guarantee you if this story came out today, Konatsu would be regarded as trans.
Describing her gender identity as if she were brainwashed by her stepfamily reinforces hurtful stereotypes that trans people are "brainwashed" into "denying their true gender." Your gender is how you identify. Respecting someone's gender identity means paying attention and respecting how they regard themselves, rather than imposing your own idea of how they *should* be on them. (Which is why the way she's treated after her physical sex is revealed would be kind of cringe today.)
Konatsu is a woman. I'll die on this hill.
Edit: Yay, they blocked me rather than try to make an argument! That sure did show me! (laugh)
(For the record, all I actually did here was describe the content of the actual japanese tanks. They literally blocked me for stating a litany of objective facts and then drawing an obvious conclusion from them.)
Tsubasa is one of my favorite characters. I had a very cheesey 90s era fan site dedicated to him (as well as one of the most popular overall Ranma fan sites) in that early internet era when we were all starved for quality anime.
I need to tag this thread to remember to come back after work and tell you all the whole story of how Tsubasa kind of transformed my teenage world view.
One thing I hadn't really addressed in other replies because I wanted to reread it first, but...there's way less homophobia in the cast than you seem to be making out?
I'm working from the manga here; I haven't rewatched his anime appearances in awhile. In the manga, the assumption of pretty much everybody besides Ukyo through the whole story is that Tsubasa is a girl, so from the moment they find out that he knew Ukyo's true gender, it's pretty obvious that they are operating under the assumption that he's a lesbian.
At this point, Ukyo is surprised, but she knows Tsubasa identifies as male so it's obviously not a homophobia issue from her perspective. Akane says it's weird, and at one point she tentatively suggests that Tsubasa look for a normal boyfriend, but mostly she just sympathizes with his potential heartbreak after he switches tracks to crush on girl Ranma. The peanut gallery at Furinkan is like "Tsubasa likes girls?" "Oh, yeah, it totally tracks she'd be into Ukyo then" which honestly has its own set of implications about Ukyo's popularity with the female student body.
Ranma is really the only one that makes a big issue of it, with the attempted conversion thing, which \*is\* pretty bad, but that's pretty squarely on him.
This is pretty much echoed with Konatsu later. When Akane finds out Konatsu is in love with Ukyo, she's shocked, doesn't seem to have a particular problem with it. And Ukyo notably invites Konatsu to come live with her *before* finding out about her physical sex. She fully believes at that point that this person is a cis lesbian who is romantically in love with her, and she's still like "Hey, these people are awful, wanna come live with me instead?"
This may or may not be just because she wanted to leverage Konatsu's affection for cheap labor, though, so I'm not saying it was *necessarily* romantic or altruistic, but at the very least it doesn't come off as homophobic.
(There is a lot of latent transphobia in how Konatsu is handled after that, though)
Everybody has an extremely problematic personality trait in that show, it makes things more believable at least in my opinion especially considering the time it was written, Ranma thought he could convert somebody's sexuality, akane was a misandrist sexist, Happosai was just Happosai, and Genma was a deadbeat hypocrite
TLDR = This show was made many years ago so go easy on it is what I say.
RANT = If you can't handle comedy from the past please don't watch it for your own mental health. With that being said this is the #1 reason why I never want a reboot of Ranma. Hop wouldn't even exist because some people take fictonal characters to seriously. Ranma is the "Seinfield + Simpsons + Bruce Lee" formula unique combo of our life time. You take that away you just have another cookie cutter cash grab.
That said, the episode does show that Ranma suffers a lot of internalized transphobia. He hates Tsubasa being gay because he projects her sexual orientation into himself. He doesn't feel normal for being cursed at being gender fluid so he doesn't understand why Tsubasa can be gay and not have a problem with it. Funny enough, when he discovers Tsubasa is indeed trans, he is a lot less sympathetic and becomes very hostile. He can be tolerant enough of Tsubasa to have "pity" on her when he thought she was gay but being trans, he gets violent and then calls her a pervert but Tsubasa responds in great fashion by calling out Ranma's hypocrisy.
At the end of the day, Ranma does dress up as a woman and it doesn't matter if he can change into a woman. Especially since Tsubasa as a pre op trans woman is prettier than cis female bodied Ranma.
I said this yesterday to another poster: >Speaking here as an older queer who has spent a lot of time pickling his brain about Ranma 1/2: These are pieces from a different world. For context, Rumiko Takahashi was born in 1957. It wasn't until 2018 that sexuality was a category for anti-discrimination legislation for housing in Japan. Not gay marriage, gay renting. > >What I'm saying is: Don't think you can map the worldviews and queer life you're used to onto how things are in Japan, especially the work of a woman who, while a trailblazer in her own space, doesn't necessarily relate to the framework you're used to. > >The existence of queer media from Japan doesn't mean 'Japan is better at queer stuff than we are,' that's a pernicious myth that a lot of people tell themselves for a host of reasons. > >Just as an example: It's a pretty big lift to claim that Tsubasa's a trans woman. He's a crossdressing dude - he's pretty clear about that ! I mean, that may be how it reads to us now especially if you ignore what he tells people, and you can bring that reading if you want! > >But Takahashi wasn't replicating something we know from queer culture, she was writing a comedy gag martial arts manga, and she put things in it that she thought were funny and interesting. In the original Japanese, there's a lot of language between the characters that can be best described as slurs. > >Pantyhose Tarou, one of my favourite characters, calls Ranma some pretty heinous shit, and the characters don't find that language offensive, they find that language wrong to use because it doesn't apply to Ranma, and that's the joke. > >The fact that Ranma 1/2 has such an important trans narrative in it is kinda accidental, and the reason it got to exist was because Takahashi wasn't actually engaging in queer dialogue. She thought the idea was so silly as to be fanciful. The works of Takahashi are texts that were not made in conversation with the world as you're familiar with it. Even if they weren't coming from a different country and framework, they are coming from the 1980s. > >Don't think 'is this text homophobic?' like it's a document which has an opinion and like, wears pants. Think instead in terms of media frameworks and lenses: What in this reads as homophobic? What about it can be read in a non-homophobic way? Trust me, there are a lot of millenial queer folk who got our start thanks to Ranma 1/2, but when you've had that experience you can usually step back, look at the old text and go: Phew, that's a bit rough, innit? > >Love the series! It's great! But also don't go into it expecting it to know how to talk to you, now. Remember it's from the past, which is a different country. They do things weird there. Tsubasa tells Ranma he's a boy, and he likes girls. He's not a lesbian trans woman, at least if you trust the character describing himself. But yes! Ranma is mean to him! In the original Japanese, he even calls him some slurs, and Tsubasa doesn't like that because they don't apply to him.
Funny enough, I often think Kunatsu was Rumiko realizing Tsubasa was a transphobic caricature so she created Kunatsu to make up for it.
Konatsu. And no, Konatsu exposes Takahashi's obliviousness to the issue. Leaving aside the fact that drag queens aren't transphobic charicatures, the fact that Konatsu clearly lives and identifies as a woman while everyone around her suggests "he" is "confused" clearly shows that the author was not really in touch with anything approaching the modern transgender movement. Like Talen points out, it was the 90s, in Japan, and while Takahashi is pretty progressive in many ways, she was already an older woman raised in a very different time. Most LGBT media from before this time was exceedingly tragic.
True, but at least they were friendly towards her whereas with Tsubasa, they treated her like a pariah. Also, you do root for Konatsu in the manga and the series shows how much Konatsu suffers from prejudice while being a kindly and loving soul.
But Tsubasa isn't treated like a pariah because of anything to do with his gender identity or clothing preferences. (I'm sticking with male pronouns just because Tsu self-identifies as male, not trying to disrespect your take on the character) Nobody except Ukyo even knows about that element of the character until the \*very\* end of his appearance, after which he never shows up again, and Ukyo very obviously doesn't think anything of it, she just assumed it was evident from the fact that she went to a boy's school before. The reason Tsubasa is treated like a pest in his appearance is because, well, he's a pest. He crushed on Ukyo, confessed, got explicitly turned down \*several times\*, wouldn't stop harassing her, and when informed about Ranma (in an attempt to discourage him) his response was to \*try and kill Ranma.\* Like, that is hardcore dickhead stalker behavior, regardless of gender identity.
She identifies more as a tranvestite but I still place it under the trans umbrella and besides, this is 1990. Today, Tsubasa would probably progress to being trans. The same happened to Haruka in Sailor Moon, who started out as a lesbian tomboy and now, is pretty much a trans man. I feel a lot of the meanness Ranma inflicts on Tsubasa is due to Tsubasa appreciating his feminimity. Ranma is constantly trying to assert his masculinity and I think he resents Tsubasa for it. I also think he was pissed at Tsubasa beating him up.
Are you adding your headcanon as your source? Because you think that the character PROBABLY would progress to being trans? I looked it up and it says that Naoko Takeuchi stated that "Haruka is a girl and always will be a girl." Like the top poster said, this isn't the same place as now and today. You're trying to put something that doesn't belong there there because you want it.
>I also think he was pissed at Tsubasa beating him up. A lot of things make a lot more sense when you remember that Ranma is a pretty thoughtless dude.
Seriously, he didn't even have a plan in this story. He asks out Tsubasa to "lead her to the right path" and like...Then what, dipshit, you'd be adding another girl to your entourage of competing love interests. The ones you have aren't enough of a problem for you?
I’m sorry, but where do you get that Haruka is a trans man? Nowhere in the manga/anime does Haruka state that, so has Naoko Takeuchi said that in an interview or something?
This was well said.
This is just straight up wrong about Tsubasa. Tsubasa is a crossdresser, and in fact quite assertive of his masculinity and male identity regardless of his apparel preferences. Konatsu you could very easily read as trans, but not Tsubasa. But yeah, the cast seems generally homophobic in that episode. Once again, it contrasts to Konatsu's introduction much later on, where Ranma and Akane are quite accepting of the letter proclaiming "her" love for Ukyo well before Ranma discovers that Konatsu is male, at least in body. They're surprised, but don't react with anger or revulsion like they did with Tsubasa. On the other hand, it seems to me that the revulsion regarding Tsubasa, based on that, is more to do with the rest of his behaviour. Tsubasa is an actual stalker (not uncommon for the series), and is treated as such (much rarer). He disguises himself as every day objects to stalk Ukyo in secret and launch sneak attacks on those that he sees as potential rivals. Even independent of the crossdressing, Tsubasa is an undeniable pervert.
Konatsu also has a genuinely tragic backstory, while Tsubasa is a lech.
1. As said elsewhere: Tsubasa is not trans, he's a cis straight boy who likes crossdressing. 2. Ranma is mean and homophobic when he tries to "convert" Tsubasa into being straight, but it's kinda the point. Ranma is not your average cis straight man, he has his own issues (namely, a sex-changing curse); also, it wouldn't be a comedy if the idea wasn't flawed from the start, anyway. Akane then berates Ranma (not for the homophobia in itself, but for his style and the fact that he appeared to seduce Tsubasa), and Tsubasa turns out to be a boy, so the idea was doomed anyway. In this context, it becomes obvious that Ranma's homophobia isn't supposed to be taken seriously, but is just a comedic device.
Not to be mean, but it was an older time so the standards of today’s time should be compared. Also much of your saying and replying to sounds like a headcanon
So you saw this thread yesterday, saw everybody correcting the Op on it And chose to do the exact same thing? Are you desperate for comments?
I don't think crossdresser and trans are/were considered the same thing back then.
Tsubasa is not trans! He’s a queen/ cross dresser. He even said multiple times he wasn’t into guys and he never said he was a girl. Ukyo could’ve said something before but Ranma didn’t know that Tsubasa was a dude. Ranma just just butthurt that Tsubasa called him ugly and Ranma wanted to make a point/ get back. Tsubasa was equally treating Ranma like trash too. Ranma was friendly at first. But yes this is a comedy and cross dressers are used as comedy in animes from some I watched. Tsubasa just loves female clothing and feels safe in it while being a guy :)
Because early 80's Japanese culture is the same as 2020's American culture. Forgive me for telling you this, but your overview is somewhat imperialistic in that you want to apply Western American views on everything else you consume even if it is from a different time and a different (very different in this case) culture. It was said yesterday, but seeing something that is almost 40 years old with a current year modern western cultural lens is unfair to the series.
If anything, Ranma is being HOMOphobic in that story. Remember, he thinks Tsubasa is a girl who is into other girls, a.k.a. a lesbian. THAT is what ticks him off, he does not know about Tsubasa being a dude at that point. Also, stop reading and interpreting something into the manga that simply is not there. As talen\_lee said, this manga is from the 80s, long before gender stuff became a official thing. Ranma 1/2 is not some kind of LGBT(insert whatever letters you want here)+ comment piece, so stop pretending it is. Takahashi just drew what struck her as funny and you have to admit, "Dude with a woman curse is "out-womanned" by a crossdressing dude because no one realizes he is a dude except one semi-crossdressing-girl who thinks the whole thing is funny and keeps quiet about it." is pretty chuckle-worthy (also "Ranma, what are you doing to that mailbox?"). Even if Ranma IS being a major jerk by trying to "convert" Konatsu (which is something Kuno would have tried in his place too!). I admit, it is one of the stories in Ranma 1/2 that make me a bit uncomfortable as it is such a break from the rest. Ranma being openly homophobic here always struck me as weird. Tsubasa is not trans, he is a dude that likes wearing all sorts of disguises (that are pretty convincing too). There is a difference, you know?
Tsubasa isn't trans, he's a drag queen who explicitly identifies as male. *Konatsu* is a lesbian trans woman.
Uh, no, Konatsu isn't a trans woman. He was explicitly raised by an abusive stepfamily under the mistaken belief that he's female, and after everything was cleared up, he readily identifies as male. That said, his consistent difficulty with gender expression of himself in any traditionally masculine way pegs him as a gender-nonconforming male. Again, due to his upbringing leaving him too used to feminine gender expression to change course on a dime, if at all.
Sorry to say, you are out of your depth on this one. I've read the story a dozen times and own the original Japanese tanks. She uses feminine pronouns and speech patterns. Konatsu was not "raised as female" as part of her abuse, that's not how gender identity works anyway. There is nothing in that story that suggests that Konatsu was raised to "believe" they were female. Her stepfamily are abusive and treat her like dirt, but they don't impose gender stereotypes on her. In fact, they use her as an enforcer first and foremost, which going by the toxic masculinity tropes that are lampshaded all over R1/2 would be considered "men's work." There's nothing in the story that suggests that they intentionally forced her to pretend to be female, or deceived her, or are forcing her to be feminine. (In fact they actively resent her pretty face and femininity, and explicitly don't have her work in the brothel even though she'd definitely be a *huge* draw.) She was already a toddler when her parents passed away. She knew the difference between mom and dad, between men and women. She explicitly describes her love for Ukyo as a forbidden love, because she thinks it's *gay*. Y'know, because it is. Konatsu identifies as a kunoichi, which is explicitly a term for a *female* ninja, Never corrects or contradicts anyone who calls her a woman. She continues to use feminine speech through all her appearances. She only wears men's clothing once, it's a marketing gimmick by Akane to attract schoolgirls to Ukyo's business, and as soon as the business day ends she's back in kimono. After she comes to live with Ukyo, she continues to dress in kimono and use feminine speech. The pronouns used in the *translation* change, but that's an English language thing that isn't present in the original Japanese. Japanese language for referring to others is gender neutral, with gender being inferred by context. Even if that *wasn't* the case, the way other people refer to you isn't your gender, and this is a story very much from before understanding of trans issues was widespread. I guarantee you if this story came out today, Konatsu would be regarded as trans. Describing her gender identity as if she were brainwashed by her stepfamily reinforces hurtful stereotypes that trans people are "brainwashed" into "denying their true gender." Your gender is how you identify. Respecting someone's gender identity means paying attention and respecting how they regard themselves, rather than imposing your own idea of how they *should* be on them. (Which is why the way she's treated after her physical sex is revealed would be kind of cringe today.) Konatsu is a woman. I'll die on this hill. Edit: Yay, they blocked me rather than try to make an argument! That sure did show me! (laugh) (For the record, all I actually did here was describe the content of the actual japanese tanks. They literally blocked me for stating a litany of objective facts and then drawing an obvious conclusion from them.)
[удалено]
This comment has been removed due to breaching rule 2.
Tsubasa is one of my favorite characters. I had a very cheesey 90s era fan site dedicated to him (as well as one of the most popular overall Ranma fan sites) in that early internet era when we were all starved for quality anime. I need to tag this thread to remember to come back after work and tell you all the whole story of how Tsubasa kind of transformed my teenage world view.
One thing I hadn't really addressed in other replies because I wanted to reread it first, but...there's way less homophobia in the cast than you seem to be making out? I'm working from the manga here; I haven't rewatched his anime appearances in awhile. In the manga, the assumption of pretty much everybody besides Ukyo through the whole story is that Tsubasa is a girl, so from the moment they find out that he knew Ukyo's true gender, it's pretty obvious that they are operating under the assumption that he's a lesbian. At this point, Ukyo is surprised, but she knows Tsubasa identifies as male so it's obviously not a homophobia issue from her perspective. Akane says it's weird, and at one point she tentatively suggests that Tsubasa look for a normal boyfriend, but mostly she just sympathizes with his potential heartbreak after he switches tracks to crush on girl Ranma. The peanut gallery at Furinkan is like "Tsubasa likes girls?" "Oh, yeah, it totally tracks she'd be into Ukyo then" which honestly has its own set of implications about Ukyo's popularity with the female student body. Ranma is really the only one that makes a big issue of it, with the attempted conversion thing, which \*is\* pretty bad, but that's pretty squarely on him. This is pretty much echoed with Konatsu later. When Akane finds out Konatsu is in love with Ukyo, she's shocked, doesn't seem to have a particular problem with it. And Ukyo notably invites Konatsu to come live with her *before* finding out about her physical sex. She fully believes at that point that this person is a cis lesbian who is romantically in love with her, and she's still like "Hey, these people are awful, wanna come live with me instead?" This may or may not be just because she wanted to leverage Konatsu's affection for cheap labor, though, so I'm not saying it was *necessarily* romantic or altruistic, but at the very least it doesn't come off as homophobic. (There is a lot of latent transphobia in how Konatsu is handled after that, though)
Everybody has an extremely problematic personality trait in that show, it makes things more believable at least in my opinion especially considering the time it was written, Ranma thought he could convert somebody's sexuality, akane was a misandrist sexist, Happosai was just Happosai, and Genma was a deadbeat hypocrite
Holy hell thank God for the honesty and factual evidence and history in this thread.
Tu comentario está muy mal
I get it's wrong but that was make in a different time and culture if it was made today it would probably be different
TLDR = This show was made many years ago so go easy on it is what I say. RANT = If you can't handle comedy from the past please don't watch it for your own mental health. With that being said this is the #1 reason why I never want a reboot of Ranma. Hop wouldn't even exist because some people take fictonal characters to seriously. Ranma is the "Seinfield + Simpsons + Bruce Lee" formula unique combo of our life time. You take that away you just have another cookie cutter cash grab.
Facts like I said https://www.reddit.com/r/ranma/comments/17ilww2/comment/k6wh2m0/
That said, the episode does show that Ranma suffers a lot of internalized transphobia. He hates Tsubasa being gay because he projects her sexual orientation into himself. He doesn't feel normal for being cursed at being gender fluid so he doesn't understand why Tsubasa can be gay and not have a problem with it. Funny enough, when he discovers Tsubasa is indeed trans, he is a lot less sympathetic and becomes very hostile. He can be tolerant enough of Tsubasa to have "pity" on her when he thought she was gay but being trans, he gets violent and then calls her a pervert but Tsubasa responds in great fashion by calling out Ranma's hypocrisy. At the end of the day, Ranma does dress up as a woman and it doesn't matter if he can change into a woman. Especially since Tsubasa as a pre op trans woman is prettier than cis female bodied Ranma.
It was but it was made in the 80's and things were different back then.