On VAing Meowth, Maddie Blaustein: "Though she had been living as a woman before landing the job on Pokemon, she hid her identity from her employers at first. "Seriously, I was living a female-to-male transsexual experience because I would be strapping down my tits with Ace bandages, making sure there was no makeup." That is, until voicing one particular episode, in which her character, a cat, reminisces on its struggles with learning to speak and read "human." "'Go West, Young Meowth' touched me so deeply, I had a meltdown during that episode. In the middle of the session I'm going, 'I can't work, you have to listen, I'm a woman!' and I just laid it out there. I thought it was going to be a big moment, and they were, like, 'Duh.'" -Pokemon's Cool Kitty, The Advocoate, Nov 7, 2006
I absolutely adore Maddie Blaustein. I'm still regularly quite sad she died so young. The fact that she regularly voiced both men and women for the rest of her career is part of what inspired me to retain my full range after voice training, myself. IIRC it was the time I learned she was the first voice actress for Yugi's Grandpa of all characters, though she sadly died quite early-on in the dubbing of that show so it was only for a few episodes.
James in my headcanon is bigender like me, comfortable with his assigned gender and not transitioning, but presents himself as a woman when he feels like it, and also is mentally both woman and man.
@@TopOfAllWorldsReally it depends. Some bigender people will identify as gender-fluid some not. I don’t identify as such because my genders aren’t fluid. Think of Bigender as having ‘solid’ genders and with Gender-fluid having fluid genders that change. Obviously this is not exhaustive of all gender-fluid/bigender people but it’s a simple explanation.
I have a SUPER deep cut for you that you missed in your research. There is a Pokémon manga called "How I Became a Pokémon Card" (ポケモンカードになったワケ), and each chapter had its own little self contained story line and came with a copy of an official Pokémon TCG card illustrated by the author of the manga, Kagemaru Himeno. This series is from all the way back in 1999 to 2001, and in 2001, the last chapter, chapter 38 came out and was about a boy named Akari, who we find out right away is a trans boy from him being forced to wear a girl's school uniform and getting into a heated argument with his less than accepting mother over whether or not he has to wear it and also explicitly over his use of the Japanese hypermasculine pronoun オレ "ore" for himself rather than the more neutral to feminine わたし "watashi". The way it's written makes it pretty clear that Akari identifies as a boy and will continue to do so. Because Akari receives a Pikachu for his birthday in this chapter, the manga here came with a print of the iconic Birthday Pikachu card as well. There's also much to be said about other characters like Bugsy and the official manga's Yellow, both of whom people often confuse their genders. In the case of Yellow, it is so on purpose as she disguises herself as a boy. And also, I'm not sure how relevant you would consider this, but when you brought up Team Rocket immediately, I thought for sure you would have at least mentioned Meowth's longtime voice actress, Maddie Blaustein, who was a trans woman. Sadly she's passed away, but she remains an icon for many of us Pokémon lovers who are trans.
akari was my first thought !! also the beauty in xy who said she used to be a black belt, a man only trainer class (i havent finished th vid if they mention Oops skcnskcnskxn)
Oh lol i made a comment (and a tweet) telling her about Akari too, thought i was the only one given how obscure he is. Didn't even know about the Pokemon Card manga before learning about him (think it was by searching transgender on bulbapedia or something)
Lol I love that you remember this❤ There's so many obscure pieces of media from my childhood that are etched in my memory purely for having some degree of gender-bending😆
I think an honorable mention is warranted for Meowth and the impact he had on his voice actress, the late and great Maddie Blaustein. In the episode Go West, Young Meowth, we are shown his backstory: he learned to walk and talk like a human to impress a female Meowth he had a crush on, who had previously dismissed him because she was classist trash. And then she rejected him again, asserting that his newfound skills made him a freak. The themes of not fitting in, personal transformation and being perceived as a freak, yet preservering and finding happiness independently of what judgy people think, really struck a chord with the at the time closeted Blaustein, inspiring her to come out and transition.
that episode always makes me fucking cry omg 😭 Meowth was my favorite character as a kid, to find out as an adult he was voiced by a queer woman means a lot to me... also you calling meowsy classist trash made me burst out in laughter, like it's 100% true but it's just funny to hear it said lmao
upon terastelizing her sylveon penny says "Shine bright like the starry sky and become who you really want to be" which has gotta be one of the most transgender things every said by a pokemon character
Transphobes: "Sylveon isn't trans" Sylveon: *appears encased in a wall of blue crystal and then bursts out from within it in an explosion of pink light*
Yeah James has crosdressed a couple times, but the real trans icons are Gen 3 Marill and Sylveon. (In gen 3 Azurill had a different gender ratio to Marill and Azumarill, meaning essentially that 25 percent of all Azurill essentially transition upon evolving in Gen 3)
@@SophSophSoph298if you're talking about the Pikachu with a heart taped to its tail I think that's actually Ash's Pikachu, I can't be 100% on that since I've never seen the episode, but that's what I've seen people say
To be fair though, it could simply mean that one gender of Azurill is simply more likely to evolve while the other is more likely to stagnate or refuse evolution.
@ecoonrad4753 I remember that episode. The gang is sneaking into an all Girl's club so everyone's dressing up including Ash's Pikachu- hence the heart shaped taped tail.
my personal interpretation of penny leans more towards someone non-binary. they're also heavily autistic-coded (eevees being their special interest and focus) and i love them for it. that being said...i've yet to ever see a cis person cosplay them lmao
penny is so precious and i 110% believe they’re gender-queer. i wish i could cosplay as them so that proves your point of no cis people cosplaying them lol
I love how Meowth's second voice actress Maddie Blaustein (episodes 32-416) was trans and intersex and was inspired to come out by Go West, Young Meowth, the episode where Meowth learns how to talk.
Slight correction: She was inspired to come out to her 4Kids colleagues from "Go West, Young Meowth" she had been out to her friends, and several of her voice actor friends, for several years before starting voice acting. She was famous for working at Milestone Comics before becoming a voice actor, and she made a whole comic series about a trans woman, called Deathwish.
Smol baby egg me: "oh neat, I can be a girl in Pokémon Crystal! Gwen is a nice name" 15 years later cracked egg me: "oh neat, I can be a girl irl now! Gwen is a nice name"
Something fun with team rocket is that they aren't really villains, at least Jessie and James aren't - they try to be, but they are too kind. They are stuck because they think they need Team Rocket to be anything ,but they don't realise that that group treats them as badly as their families did. They work best when they aren't trying to be evil like when they help Ash sneak into Erica's gym, and when they are fighting with Misty over Togepi - they fail to get Pikachu miserably because they fight for the wrong reasons, but when Meowth is fighting for Togepi it's because he's become attached - he's fighting for his child, which is why when they get into a tournament he ACTUALLY BEATS Brock's Onyx. This is shown because they and Ash's team are the only people shown to treat Meowth like what he is- a person who deserves respect. He's not Jessie and James' pet or Pokemon, he's a member of their team and has just as much say. It doesn't matter to either team that he's too human to be accepted by other Pokemon, and too Pokemon to be respected by humans. Even their motto betrays their true nature, because its' NOT Team Rocket's real motto, its supposedly a corruption. We don't hear the real one until Cassidy and Butch's rendition in their debut. Prepare for Trouble, And Make that Double. To Infect the world with Devastation, To blight all peoples in every nation To denounce the goodness of truth and love, To extend our wrath to the stars above. Cassidy, Butch, Team Rocket Circling Earth all Day and Night, Surrender now or you'll surely lose the fight. Jessie and James want love and respect, they want to unite people under their banner and be accepted by society and extend their reach and finally achieve their goals. Team rocket just care about money about power. The funny thing is, Ash is stuck in the same way - he clearly doesn't have the mentality to be a successful trainer by the metrics of the world he lives in, he's again too kind. He can't keep hold of his team because he keeps letting them go off to live their lives, completely gives up trying to control Pikachu and accepts that CHarizard will never truly be controllable by him (but loves him all the same and puts his life on the line for him multiple times so earns some respect from him) and he loses his first big tournament. He only gets badges because he wins hearts and minds, consistently losing fights because he's not a fighter, but the world wants him to be one. Both him, Jessie and James would be far happier saying "Fuck the system that we are trying to play within, let's play our own game" and just doing as they please without worrying about impressing others or what other people want, but they can't break out of that mold because they've lived their whole lives trapped by it and cannot see beyond the false horizon.
This is why I loved the ending of the gen 7 anime. (Spoilers for that and Battle Frontier/Orange Islands below :) ) Jessie/James/Meowth found closure with their forest friends/home and found value in their own work outside of Team Rocket in their malasada shop, with a whole arc about rejecting the orders of headquarters and embracing their best selves. Ash had a stable family home to protect with two loving godparents (most importantly a father figure that is present and supportive of his interests), friends that mutually value each other for who they all are and their achievements, and a mother who cares so much. He finds his own way to becoming a champion instead of it being enforced by a system that he didn't function well in (the gym system). It's also important to note that Ash completes the Battle Frontier farther back in time which is an incredible feat of strength, and most of that is done through creative thinking and outside of the box strategy that he excels at. Orange Islands is another place he takes a win over the league, which follows a very similar creative focused format to Alola's island trials. How I see it at least, he's not meant to be a battler, but rather a hero or someone who has the creative and empathetic approaches needed to stop forces that would bring destruction to the world. That's how I justify the movies at least, there's a lot of justification that goes on when you're so into a franchise that decanonicalizes and recanonicalizes things at seemingly random intervals.
Wow, I had never thought about how Casidy and Butch's motto was probably more officially sanctioned. Due to the familiarity with Jessie and James' one, kid me thought Casidy and Butch's was the corruption to make it more violent. Then I never really re-assessed that belief. Of course there's still not necessarily one single corporate motto (unless it's come up in later generations, I fell off the anime during part of the Johto stuff tbh), maybe some others don't say anything. But they were Giovanni's star agents so I can't imagine they'd be doing unsanctioned stuff. (Assuming I'm even thinking of the folks you're mentioning. But I definitely remember them having a more-competent Rocket team-rival quite early on, with a slightly different motto and hair!)
I find it fascinating that Jessie/James modify the actual motto to their own purpose as well as tell more about themselves as people. They declare to protect the world from devastation, to unite the peoples of their nation. Implying that they have genuine desire to protect their own *and* the world. They denounce the evils of truth and love, implying they have been hurt by the "truths" and "love" of other people and see it as evil, and by declaring to extend to reach the stars above, they seek their own path towards this lofty goal. The blasting off at the speed of light implies the determination at which they get their goal. They demand their opponent to surrender and threaten with a fight instead of implying they'll already lose. They acknowledge they will come to blows and are willing to go that far without being so pigheaded to think they've already won. That they recite it repeatedly to get themselves in this headspace as a reminder just tells of their determination like no other.
15:35 but I do, about Sylveon and how it evolves, specifically: Sylveon is one of the most stereotypically girly Pokemon they ever designed, but statistically 87,5 % of them are male, because Eevee is, too (for some reason). It originally evolves when it has high affection (the Japanese term being more akin to "closeness", apparently) and knows a fairy type move. Which is usually baby-doll-eyes (the only fairy-type move that Eevee learns via level up), a move that is cute but useless (Growl with +1 priority). So if a (usually male) Eevee feels really comfortable around you and you let it "express its girly side" (I found no better way to put it), it will turn into a walking trans flag. This has to be a metaphor of some kind.
I’m pretty sure eevees and other starter Pokémon are 80% male is to make it harder to egg breed.. which is STUPID, BECAUSE ITS NOT THAT HARD TO GET A DITTO WHY CAN YOU NOT JUST GIVE ME MY FEMALE MACHO CAT
Should have mentioned the actually cannon gay characters in gen 9. If you actually take Hassel's classes, it becomes EXTREMELY clear, that he left his family to be able to be openly gay, and to be with Brassius.
15:26 since you’re using the clip of Penny terastalizing her Sylveon, there’s something I wanted to point out. before she terastalizes her Sylveon, she mentions something about “being who you truly want to be,” which absolutely gave me that queer vibe of being who you want to be. Though, I did find it ironic that she says that, and proceeds to terastalize her Sylveon into the same type as it was before.
my head canon for why Brendan/May are in the back of a moving-truck despite it being unsafe is because they asked to do it, and Norman was doing that Dad thing of "lmao sure"
Honestly, never thought about it that way, but yeah, reminds me one time my father didn't mind putting me in the trunk of the car while going for a small ride.
“I wanna make sure the boxes don’t fall over! I’m helping!” “Haha sure kiddo, have fun.” (I am going to laugh so hard if that kid comes out all bruised yelling “I saved the boxes!!”)
A side note about Japan and queerness: I wrote a thesis about the history of homosexuality in Japan in uni, so I feel qualified to comment on it. Gay and trans identities were absolutely not invented in English speaking countries in the 20th century, they are the ones who invented homophobia. Japan in the middle ages and up until the end of the 19th century was extremely gay and had a very open gay culture, bisexuality was considered the norm. The samurai, who were the ruling class were extremely gay and Buddhism didn't have any history of homophobia, so both the dominant religion and the political elites were not homophobic and were encouraging same sex relationships among men. Japan not being super queer is a fairly recent (20th century) development. The terms that were used back then to describe queerness were also different and it is not useful to try and describe these identities with modern terms, but if you look at old primary sources, then there was probably a lot of conflating of what we would today call trans and gay. Japan is not a pure desexualized heterosexual place from a shoujo manga. If anyone wants to read more, I would recommend the book "Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan" by Gary P. Leupp. (there are also a bunch of other good sources, but this is the one I would recommend first). So yeah, don't let the weebs tell you you are pushing an LGBT agenda on Japan, the period of Japanese history in which homosexuality and transness were considered normal is way longer than the non gay period.
Shudō wasn't so much about gayness, but rather pederasty. Samurai would enter a relationship with an adolescent, but the sex would end when the apprentice comes of age.
Huh, I was playing Ghost of Tsushima a bit back, and one of the side characters is bisexual. Given my experience with current Japanese media, I found it bit odd that a queer character existed at all, but this helps put it into context.
well, it would explain my immediate liking to her, I can sense trans people but instead of hate it gives me the intense urge to be friends (source: 75% of my close circle of friends are trans, including myself)
another thing about penny is the scene (one that always gets me teary eyed and emotional) when team star finally gets to meet her in person, having only known her as cassiopeia and never having actually seen her before. the whole team says goodbye to cassiopeia, and hello to penny, finally seeing her for her true self and it's so fucking sweet and feels like she finally got to come out to her best friends and they all accept her with open arms
I'd just like to mention that Rika was trending on Japanese twitter because she scored #1 in a poll asking women who their favourite fictional character crush was.
I love Eri so much. She could be a stereotypical musclehead type (because she's fighting-type specialist and she's obviously a strong character) BUT the game stresses that she's actually top of her class (when she was going) AND considered beautiful and the class queen. She excels in so many facets of her life. ScarVio characters are also queer af and i love that i can look super cute with all the options that are usually "girl" character options but the game will still call me he/him. That's the reason why I usually choose female protags even tho I'd prefer to be referred to in-game as a guy, because female protags are usually a lot cuter
Waaaait also you cannot say Meowth isn't gay/bi when he got an episode banned for being too horny on main for Giovanni and having a fantasy sequence where their boss gets covered in honey and licked down while wearing speedos. Meowth has even canonically been attracted to a guy when he had the hots for a Purrloin. Just because they pulled the tired 'wait he's a guy?' trope doesn't mean the attraction wasn't there. Also seriously those Boss fantasies. Why does no one talk about the Boss fantasies.
Another character I'd like to mention is Gou from Pokemon Journeys. As you said, even though we have tons of other canon rep, i think its important that we also have someone like him who was even given the importance of Ash's only companion in Journeys and is shown to be more queer coded than almost any other Ash has made friends with in all his years of travelling. So much so that in interviews leading up to show where his character design was revealed, it was stressed how androgynous he was. I think its wonderful that they made him like this while giving him such a pivotal role, all the while he is one of the only characters to date who has caught so many pokemon and is the first male character to, arguably, canonically have a crush on another as its heavily implied he likes Ash. I think it's steps like this and scarlet and violet that proves a lot of creators in pokemon have some great intentions for the queer community
Im so happy you made a video on Pokemon, I've been going thru some of your video essays lately. My profile picture and name is based on a personal favorite transmasc/nonbinary coded character of mine, Yellow from the Pokemon Adventure manga (which came out in 1997 at the same time as the games so, just another rebuttal against those weaboos). What I love about how Yellow was written is that even at the "big reveal", they didn't say "I'm a girl" but they actively wished to avoid the subject of their gender. No matter of Yellow's identity or presentation in future chapters, their major arc was spent super gender ambiguous & queer coded. It just felt super validating going back to it with a trans reading.
@@Hauntaku I realize that and how that is also validating for others. I guess I shouldve clarified this was just my own reading and observation on the character in the chapters they showed up in for the first 3-4 volumes.
I'm so glad you mention them!! One point I'd like to bring up is that the reason Yellow presents androgynously is because Green (or Blue depending on translation) told them to hide their gender when dealing with the antagonists of the plot but even long after that is resolved (the gold silver chapters) Yellow still goes on presenting the same way which I think really adds onto everything else in making Yellow read like a trans character!
It's interesting that you mentioned blanche - in a recent event (likme within the last couple weeks) in GO, we had some dialogue confirming Rhi as non-binary as well, with them also exclusively referred to with they/them
I was more shocked than I should've been that Blanche is enby, I had no idea, I've been playing for years now and chose their team- two ish years later I realize I'm a trans girl lol. I chose it then because I was a kinda edgy, emotionally alienated teen "guy" and liked the aesthetic of ice and stuff, (and might have been bc that coat is so damn gender) but now I guess I have a better idea why I still like them. From the little I've seen (I've only really played Go and Violet) Pokemon go has the easiest treatment for binary trans people, like literally just a button to swap, but really does enbies (and a lot of other people, too) dirty, all they can do is like get a weird hat or something since there's only two haircuts and genders in the character creator
YES SOMEONE IS FINALLY TALKING ABOUT THE DELIGHTFUL QUEER CODING IN SCARLET/VIOLET! Another fantastic commentary video ❤️ I also love that you mentioned the various queer coded villains. This now explains why HIM in PPG and The Red Guy in Cow and chicken were depicted that way
By that logic literally every Butterfree in that scene would be male because gender differences didn't exist yet. Same for any Pokemon that gained a physical gender difference. That episode where Pikachu meets a community of Pikachus in a forest and Ash considers leaving him with his own kind? A male only Pikachu tribe I guess because none had the female tails. And how was Butterfree going to make babies with the other Butterfree?
"Meowth...I guess" D-do the youths not know about Maddie Blaustein anymore? Also she shipped Pikachu/Meowth so for the English dub canon, that's good enough for me. I say it tounge in cheek but I am quite saddened to see her influence on the character and the formation of the dub overlooked, since she also wrote a few of the English scripts including ones centred on Meowth. I'm unsourced at the moment but on top of Meowth influencing her coming out in the work place, and I swear I heard it reported that she wrote the english script for Fly Me To The Moon in reflection of her own journey as an intersex transwoman.
it's ABSOLUTELY already being talked about in the comments section but hey, fodder for the algorithm - meowth's original english dub voice actress, maddie blaustein, was a trans woman herself! so really what i'm trying to say is that team rocket really is just........... thoroughly queer. LOVE that for them honestly
I will never understand how some people can deny queerness using JAPAN of all places. Like, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain Japan has been far more accepting of gender-nonconformism for much longer than the west. Or at least their media has.
I have a very trans theory about the pokemon Hatterene. First of all, she is pastel blue, pastel pink and white. That's the most obvious part. Second of all, at first glance, she looks like a tall, curvy woman, then you realise that what looks like her body is actually just her hair. Then if you look really closely, you see she's actually a tiny little alien-looking thing who make herself look taller, more feminine and more aesthetic. I just like to think that she decided that a tiny little alien wasn't who she wanted to be. And she decided to wear the trans colours because she's proud af idk if any of that makes any sense lmao
I'm a MASSIVE lifelong Pokemon fan. Life, huge, i'm autistic and it's my special interest. I'm non-binary, bisexual, and i'm disabled in multiple ways. Specifically, i'm a wheelchair user. And ngl a few months back after climbing the mountain of stairs to Uva Academy, I realised I'd never seen a single wheelchair user in Pokemon. I could be wrong but I strongly suspect if they do exist they're probably elderly. But it made me v sad to think that this franchise that i'd given my life to, in this idealised world they invented, basically erased disabled people from existence.
I've always been really disappointed that TPC hasn't actively dived into the way Pokémon themselves could assist humans with disabilities. There's a lot of really good fan content about it and it's lovely.
You're totally right. Pryce, Blaine, Magnolia and Opal use canes and Pryce in the manga is in a wheelchair. Wally has some sort of chronic illness, probably asthma. That's all for canon. I would really recommend the youtuber Oakwyrm (disabled trans topics) and his video Detective Pikachu vs. Disability. Mostly because the comments have SO MANY disability-inclusive ideas for pokemon. Pokemon like Machamp could help with mobility. Ridable pokemon would be nice for wheelchair users. Service dog pokemon! Grass types and pokemon like Chansey could help heal people or soothe pain. Psychic and ghost types would be great for mental health support. Magnemite or Klink could power wheelchairs. Pokemon in general could be used as therapy animals. A wheelchair user could have a magnezone saddle that could hover and go up stairs! I know the reason is having to create new models or "pokemon has healing powers", but disabled people deserve to exist in media. Pokemon has SO MUCH potential for disability stories. Guess we just have to make them ourselves.
@@Shinntokuyeah the closest i can think of is that strong pokémon like machamp are known to carry their trainers when they get older. it is sad that pokémon doesn’t have much representation but it doesn’t surprise me cause i have never seen any good representation for people with physical disabilities in any media
There’s is actually a NPC in USUM that can be found in Hau’oli Cemetery at night. It’s a disabled woman who has a Machamp that carries her. So yeah, Machamp are canonically being used to help disabled people.
one of my biggest frustrations with the anime (they might have changed this in recent series I don't know) is that even when Team Rocket has done nothing wrong, or has even joined a competition completely legitimately (Like Jessie doing coordination in Hoenn) they are still punished for "being the bad guys". I love it when Jessie and James get to win at things they are genuinly good at by virtue of their skill at doing them, it just doesn't happen very often, if at all.
Shout out to some of the Pokémon themselves being queer, not just the humans Most legendary Pokémon are canonically genderless Ditto can breed with any Pokémon capable of reproducing, even some of the genderless ones. I see that as all Ditto being canonically pansexual. Some female Azuril will become male when evolving into Marill, due to a programming oversight. Accidental trans rep is still better than none, especially since this has been the case since Gen 3 and was never patched or modified in recent games
if it hasn’t been said by someone already, black belts are referred to as Karate Kings in the original japanese version and there’s also a female variant of black belts, so if they really didn’t intend for her to be trans (which i highly doubt) she could’ve just been that
It's funny how James doing drag kinda starts out plausible with like the girls pokémon gym and the salon and Ash doing it too and then he gets really into it
When I went to gay camp, we had a workshop of sorts on queer coding lead by one of my favorite counselors. I went to it because I freaking love queer culture/history. And what the counselor told us that I have taken to heart is effectively: yes, cannon rep is important, and it is something we should strive for, but even if an creator actively denied it, if the queer community or any aspect of it claims a character for themself, then that head cannon of that character (especially if it's widespread) is still representation. And in many cases, not just pertaining the the queer community, sometimes that representation can actually be better then the cannon "representation."
I think it's beautiful that team rocket were the first ones to teach ash how to cross dress and he just kept on doing it. my wonderful daughter ashley was last seen in series 7 pokemon sun and moon (the BEST series of the anime) and she will be dearly missed 😔
I'm still mid video, but I wanted to say that as a kid I always thought Tracy was cool and "like me"- I had only ever known Tracy as a girls name but he wasn't- like how my name was very feminine and yet I felt so so connected to this boy who "had a girls name"(tiny wee queer child) and of course Jessie and James always dressing up masc and femme both of them Edit to add: my bb gnc/nb/trans self loved Tracy so much genuinely his season is my favourite (and Tracy is STILL a favourite character of mine between that and the artist part even tho he gets like no love) This video is also one of my favorites thank you for doing a pokemon episode!!!! (Also unrelated to pokemon but related to trans/queer media from japan the manga series "Wandering Son" straight up follows two main characters who are growing up and dealing with gender identity. In english it isnt fully stated but i think thats a translation thing. Its basically a tansgirl and her transboy/nb masc friend helping eachother through school and growing up trans. Also some other nb/queer characters too. It was a super important find to me in hs)
@@gameyfirebro9645yessss! Jessie and James are c l a s s i c Their outfits were always just so naturally THEM regardless of presentation. I totally agree James was much more into it/embodying the energy of enjoying trying different things
I also strongly recommend wandering son! It's so good. Been years since I've seen it, so my adhd has made me forget the majority of the show, but I know it was good!
Traceyyyy! He was a favorite character of mine because he was an artist and drawn as being wider than the other kids. He also has a cute Marrill and a badass Scyther, a feminine and masculine set of Pokemon, which also caught my attention as a kid. Trans icon, truly.
I would love to see a deep dive into South Parks transphobia, though I wouldn't want to subject you to the shows crude and horrible writing lol. But if you've already watched it, I think a video showcasing it's sense of humor that punches down and how it hides behind "making fun of everyone" as an excuse for it's bigotry would be amazing
There is another character in Pokemon Go that was recently confirmed to use they/them pronouns: Rhi. They are a member of the Ultra Recon Squad, like in Ultra Sun/Moon, and they first appeared in the game a year ago when the Ultra Beasts were introduced. Willow called Rhi "them" in the recent Cosmog quest.
Your example using Jesse and James in epsiode 28 made me immediately think, "Wait that's not a trans thing that's clearly just an Utena reference," and then I realized what I was saying.
I was honestly SHOCKED by how on point that Utena reference was. Like, James' dress is red and everything. But then again, Utena was very recent when the first season of the anime was made, so I guess it isn't that surprising.
ALSO shoutout to mallow in the sun and moon anime who I feel is possibly the closest the show has come to intentionally writing a gay character into the main cast of kids (like, whatever she and Lillie have going on...that utena reference? they knew what they were doing)
I can't believe I missed that Blanche is they/them! They always gave me pleasant NB vibes (like myself) and I generally called them they, but I didn't expect it to be canon! I always learn a bit more from this series than I expect to. Thanks, Lily, for going the extra mile with the research. And saving me from having to experience HP directly. And maybe inspiring me to dye my hair purple again because you pull it off well!
I always love how you take something I love and have me leaving your videos thinking more about something I care about. I really respect the hell out of you and your work.
In the games Pokémon X and Y, there’s a Beauty (all female trainer class) who explicitly says she was a Black Belt (all male trainer class) six months ago, and that medical advancements are amazing.
A headcanon I’ve always had is that Liza is trans. This is because her and Tate have that “psychic twins” connection, but that really doesn’t make sense for fraternal twins, or at least not as much as for identical ones. Further, according to Bulbapedia, their names are a pun on “levitate” (as in psychic levitation and the ability of their signature Pokémon), but I mean… Liza/Tate sounds nothing like levitate. But the name Levi would perfectly complete the pun, and so I think that’s her deadname. There is also a line in Masters EX from Tate about how Liza tried to get him to do girly stuff, but he wasn’t interested, and how that made him realize they were different from each other in some ways. This makes way more sense if they are identical twins for whom one is trans and the other is cis (this does happen, by the way, which confirms that transness isn’t purely a genetic trait). I dunno Also my other headcanons are Lillie, Marnie, and Piers. Lillie just gives me the vibe, no other explanation, but Marnie and Piers wear those necklaces which look eerily like the trans symbol. And them being punk just lines up well with the trans experience.
Lillie also gives me trans vibes, and with her mom being so controlling (in Ultra sun/moon she says she's never picked out her own clothes), you could argue that she never got the chance to experiment with her identity and presentation
lillie and gladion, marnie and piers, plus liza and tate all give me "me and my sibling are trans just in different directions" (lillie could also be transmasc same with marnie either way theyre all trans in some way to me)
is it because she has a defined, longer facial shape? it’s a face shape that is rarely used for girl characters in pokémon, so maybe it reminded you of a couple male characters with the same face shape. I’m aware that a face shape doesnt instantly define your agab or anything, but it’s abnormal enough to be intriguing
For me it was because she has so many design vibes in common from Tucker from the frontier brains in gen 3. Kid me just assumed they were the same person. (Rather than probably the more logical idea that they're siblings or that fashion is just popular in kalos lol)
A lot of video games use they/them pronouns for the MC these days and while i appreciate that it's there for those that want them i wish more games would just let you pick your pronouns :/
Like I would never be offended by someone using they/them to refer to me (a cis woman) especially if they don't know me very well so don't want to assume, but like when they use it for the whole game I'm like "you should know my gender by now. I wish you would use my pronouns at least sometimes" yknow? Like after a while if they is not your main preffered pronoun it starts to feel like the characters never really get to know you. Idk I'm sure I'm just overly sentimental about video game characters and immersion in the stories, but I also know it wouldn't be that difficult to just let us pick our pronouns (a simple script function that would be easier to implement if it was considered while the script was being written)
Yes! Crush Crush (a very male gaze coded if I may say cookie clicker idle dating game) literally never mentions genitals in the entirety of the around 80 s/x scenes and that is an ACCOMPLISHMENT
Yeah as a nonbinary person myself I feel a bit happy because it's usually the only way I can get gendered correctly outside of indie dating sims and stuff. But at the same time I feel guilty for the fact I'm only getting my pronouns because everyone else doesn't get a pronoun option, and it was never even intended to be for me it's just lazy writing... At least it's better than much earlier games which would do the same thing but default to calling the protag male even if you picked the girl. It was so weird Dragonball Xenoverse still had that on PS3!
The Pokémon contest scene is full of absolute absurd levels of queerness. Like, please look at Wallace. You can’t look at him and tell me this man isn’t queer coded. Steven too is very gay. They are gay together. Pokémon Masters confirms it. Steven is Wallace’s bimbo boyfriend. Pokémon Masters in general is very gay. Also, all the rivals are gay. Blue Oak? Absolutely gay as hell. Shauna from X/Y?? Bi queen. Similarly gay is Lissa from ORAS. Professor Sycamore is a bicon too. You can’t tell me he didn’t have SOMETHING going on with Lysander. N is another tragically awkward bicon. Hilda from BW has some gay, gay thoughts about Diantha in Pokémon masters, where she’s dressed as a princess and Diantha is dressed as her dashing knight with gorgeous futch styling. Even Pokémon are queer coded. Tell me intellieon isn’t bi coded. It’s shiny is literally bi colors. And it uses finger guns to fight. Not even getting into male gardevoirs. This is just 2 examples. I could go on. For hours. Pokémon is the queerest. This is among many reasons I love it.
One fact I love is that Haruko Ichikawa has done a lot of new Pokémon designs, starting with sun and moon. They’re the creator of houseki no kuni, a story with queer and non-binary themes central to the plot. It’s a great manga, I recommend it.
TRANS QUESTION ABOUT GRUSHA Transmasc headcanon: He got to change his gender marker, but is still working on himself so for now covers his face with a scarf and wears a coat to cover his body. Transfem headcanon: She got eyelashes and eyebrows done, but hides her chin with a scarf. She wears a coat to cover her body. She can't change her gender marker yet so she's "male" I've seen people mention both interpretations. Lots of characters with trans vibes can actually fit both transmascs and transfems. If the colors of the scarf were desaturated it'd be the trans flag haha
@@marseillejoh i dont think you can surgically change eyebrows (i think theres something about threading eyelashes), but eyelashes i think can be enhanced by gluing these false lashes individually onto each eyelash. then again, i dont know much about this sort of thing and the lashes part i saw in this one youtube short so
@@marseillejoh I meant you can go to a hairdresser to shape your eyebrows to look more feminine or masculine. They can change the look of your face to look more feminine It's a bit more difficult to make them masculine. And you can glue fake eyelashes. You don't have to use mascara any more. These are mostly for trans women.
@@owo4983 some people get laser/electrolysis on their eyebrows, and then have other-shaped eyebrows tattooed on. Sometimes it's referred under the umbrella "permanent makeup" (which can also include tattooing eyeliner, blush, eyeshadow, and a lot more besides), other times just "eyebrow tattoos".
I love the headcannon of Leon being trans. I love it so much that I once started a fancomic idea about Leon growing up and discovering his identity through his own journey to become champion. Never ended up posting any of it, but I really want to finish it one day.
Same, reading fanfiction of trans interpretations of Leon was some of the first fanfic I read (started beginning of 2022) Leon also just gives me a lot of gender envy
I truly don't feel we can entirely blame the weebs for their "pure" japan view, as one of japan's bigger political parties has actively tried to rewrite history to pretend japan is (and has always been) exactly that, pure and perfect. I once spoke with a japanese person who tried to legitimately convince me that there are no actual homeless people in japan. These kinds of people often criticize and heavily shun companies when said companies allow media which disturbs japan's pristine image in other countries. And, unsurprisingly, these kinds of people view most forms of overt queerness as less than pristine. In some ways its also a cultural norm tied to historic xenophobia more so than a political stance. I've heard native japanese people have conversations along the line of "allowing foreigners to experience this media would be like forcing me to show them my diary." Its can definitely be said japan as a society is inherently image conscious, and the unfortunate reality is there are japanese people in power who view queer lives as creating a poor image. These too are some national reasons for an amount of international censorship, and I don't its fair not to mention the part japan itself can play in the common western otaku's misunderstanding of the country's media. Its also important to mention that, obviously, this doesn't speak for the whole of japan, and plenty of people don't agree with these kinds of notions.
Yeah, I honestly was hit hard by this more recently although I had known that Japan was well not the best place to live for several reasons. That was through Japanese True crime as a disturbing amount of True crime and such crimes were affected by the whole image thing. The rigid way Japanese society was and is structured allowed police to just get away with not investigating a murder where 4 people killed a teenage boy while his girlfriend was forced to watch. Even with her eye witness testomony and CCTV. The police used the privacy laws around minors to stop further investigating. If the statue of limitations in Japan was never removed. The case would have been dropped permenantly. The police also was super inconsistebt and hide stuff from the family of the victim and even removed reports on their own website about the case and stopped the mother of the murder boy from posting flyers for a time regarding the case. Some people think the reason this was done is cause one of the murderers was the son of a high ranking officer so didn’t want to spoil the reputation of the family by covering up the crime
I had a trans male Marill in White 2. He started as a female Azuril and evolved into a male Marill. The reason this happened was because Azuril’s gender ratio is 25%M / 75%F while Marill is 50/50. So 1 out of 3 female Azurils would evolve into a male Marill. As of XY, this glitch is no longer available.
u mean to tell me a bunch of bullied queer kids banded together, called themselves STAR, and got in trouble for fighting back? maybe I should pick up scarlet/violet
Nintendo is honestly quit loosey goosey with gender norms. i mean, mario in a wedding dress? or link in traditional gerudo vai clothing? link in a backless dress?!?!
pokemon characters that always struck me as queer: -wallace, genderqueer colors and like, also have you SEEN him?? -steven stone, ace colors, and like so very gay for wallace -jessie and james, obviously -bugsy, huge nonbinary vibes -erika. grass type gym full of women and she gives you the RAINBOW badge?? -maxie and archie, gay as fuck and i don't think i need to say more -grimsley, emo queer icon, also "sometimes a coin lands on its side" is some nonbinary shit -N, concordia, and anthea, who were isolated from humans for being different and instead raised by pokémon, and they don't really associate with humans or society -all of the alien characters in ultra sun/moon -lillie, i can't exactly explain why i get trans girl vibes from her. maybe it's the broken family
I swear I remember an episode that had a trans Pikachu or something. like they had the heart-shaped tail end taped to the end of their tail? then again it's been a long time since I watched any of the anime and I juts may be miss remembering something.
16:58 - I'm glad to hear you discuss this! I consider myself a cisgendered, woman-identifying ally. I like to say I'm "anti-binary", and ask people if they think cooking is masculine or feminine as an example of how silly and pointless it is to restrict nouns, verbs and ideas to these categories. Really been enjoying your content, very thought-provoking and entertaining!
