Togashi's Trans Characters

alright fellas you saw the title of this video you probably know what's coming so I'm just gonna say it yuu-yuu hakusho is transphobic or is it the short answer is yes but maybe not how you'd immediately think the long answer [Music] so Yoshihiro Togashi she has a thing for exploring gender in his manga that was this true in the 90s as it is with his current series and I think the fact that he even included a scene like this in his first shown in action manga is somewhat commendable the ogre triad is complete fodder a trio that gets merely a chapter to leave an impression yet Takashi put some of that valuable time towards gender identity a decision which may have given people a new perspective on the matter he's certainly not the first jump author to do this stop he Barry had already finished serialization close to a decade prior for instance but more creators depicting more diverse lifestyles even in minor ways opens the door for further discussion and reflection something which applies to problematic material as well maybe it's easier to say this in hindsight knowing that toga she gets better about integrating atypical genders but I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt here and say that this scene is just messy and over-ambitious a pile of yikes for sure but a well-meaning pile of yikes to start the fight attempts to tackle far more than a table when Kuwabara states that he won't hit a woman Meucci asserts that she is just as deadly a fighter as they are and that Kuwabara z' attitude is discriminatory in other words if a woman is threatening to harm or even kill a man it is foolish for that man to treat her differently than he would a male fighter before even introducing the concept of gender divergence toga she immediately frames the action through a feminist lens and in doing so he creates the first problem this fight does not last long enough to take a satisfying nuanced look at the subjects it tries to address if this were merely a matter of misogyny perhaps the moment wouldn't be so infamous it might seem weird for the villains ideology to be correct in a situation where they are neither the point of view character nor the victor but if we're talking strictly about me Yuki's feminist comments that's how it plays out she mocks Kuwabara for his false chivalry and in response Yusuke fights her without prejudice Meucci isn't just an innocent bystander she's actively siding with the people holding you kena hostage she's not the enemy because she's a woman she's the enemy because she's a bad person and any false conflation zuv that meaning women are bad as a whole can be thrown out when you consider her allies are all men Yusuke is the kind of character who gains a better understanding of himself through combat with others so to validate certain facets of his foes perspective wouldn't be out of the ordinary furthermore he is never regarded as the story's moral compass his willingness to grope a woman mid-battle something he doubles down on after the fact he's not respected by his peers nor is his smoking habit his decision to cut classes or any of his other rebellious traits Yusuke is a delinquent and as such he does not abide by the conventions of society in some ways this allows him to challenge corrupt systems as an outsider but in others it makes him an ignorant oath so to circle back to the transphobia I feel it's important to point out that the dub butchers it in a way that doesn't improve things at all you still get the whole missus is a mr. line and whatnot but we're in the sub Miyuki responds with in the dub she says why can't you treat me as an equal these translations have completely different implications and coupled with the following it's obvious that the Funimation team either wasn't interested or wasn't able to carry the original message overseas in the sub use gays reply is but in the dub its I'm fighting you because you won't let us save that girl it's got nothing to do with anything except for me kicking your ass for the record this isn't a dig at Funimation there could be any number of reasons why the line was changed especially considering the dubbing process wasn't as streamlined in the early 2000s however context is crucial for this scene and if the script is different so is the resulting discussion the Dublin's heavier on the general discrimination point but in a way that keeps things vague it's got nothing to do with anything as if to say we're not here to debate your gender we're just here to save our friend of course it's silly to say the details aren't important immediately after asserting that Miyuki is male you don't get to miss gender someone just because they're a bad person but even if I slightly prefer the sub specificity the house was already on fire an extra drop of gasoline barely matters based on what I could find the term ex gender only started appearing notably in Japan in the late 1990s which could possibly explain why the language present in YuYu Hakusho so strictly enforces a gender binary if he premise of assist guy telling a trans person how to express their identity aside use Ches response to not do things half-assed actually acknowledges the possibility that one can quote unquote change their gender so in that regard it may have been progressive for its time the problem is that it takes a strictly trans medical list approach which discredits the notion of non-binary genders entirely in short this means regardless of me Yuki's appearance if she hasn't had the surgery to make her body that of a woman's she's still a man Yusuke challenges her conviction as one doesn't a shown in action manga and to that end i can understand the more progressive interpretation if Miyuki wants to be a woman she should theoretically have no qualms of her physical transition but since she only did things halfway it implies that she should self reflect and come to a clearer idea of what she wants to be if her will was pure she would have gone all the way or found purpose as a man that said a few years in trance paces has taught me that the transition process isn't remotely that simple and to paint the struggle as all or nothing is ignorant not only of other identities but it's ignorant of the process itself the androgynous characters toga she has an affinity for making are indicative of the fact that gendered expressions can be fluid and open to interpretation Kurama isn't a girl just for having long hair so why would Miyuki be a boy just for having and I'm using the Dubs language here the family jewels beyond that people can't just change genders overnight much to the chagrin of binary trans people so the enforcement of such a strict mentality is unfair hormone therapy takes time to have visible effects surgery is expensive there are any number of barriers that could leave trans people in a state of so-called half a surrey regardless of their conviction and while I get the feeling you you hakusho simply reflects a lack of knowledge as opposed to act of hostility against other identities that doesn't make it any less of a blight on the viewing experience one line I really don't understand is this qualifier that Yusuke would have held back if his opponent were actually a woman because it only serves to undercut the feminist angle it's not a specific translation thing either I checked multiple sources and it's present in all of them if he only gave it his all because she was actually a man why make the dialogue so multifaceted was all the feminist boastings supposed to be Miyuki overcompensating for her identity I can't say for certain but the signs are pointing me in the direction of this saying it chief to offer an alternative when bleach has men and women fighting each other there's little debate over semantics it just happens there are specific cases where the sexist commentary is more explicit but Kubo otherwise avoids splitting hairs over the degree to which it's okay for men to fight back against women by calling direct attention to the matter with me Yuki Takashi opens the conversation but then seems to just conclude with a shrug which isn't the end of the world or anything it's just frustrating I'm still inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt though because there are nuances inherent to the Japanese language that might just not translate perhaps he used such strict binary framing to make his ideas crystal clear in a time where the concept of a gender spectrum was foreign by deliberately avoiding more neutral descriptors he makes it impossible to ignore Mew keys identity so even if the execution might not have been perfect I can at least respect that Takashi's next trans character is similarly complicated but the end result is more positive Level II concerns itself primarily with outsider narratives and because of its episodic structure the wide range of concepts involved can be explored with care not as an afterthought where YuYu Hakusho speeds through Miyuki and mere pages Level II dedicates two whole chapters to its identity conflict and this room to breathe allows for a much more respectable depiction of not just trans issues but of homophobia as well much like in his prior work toga she tackles two different gender related matters at once and while that might sound concerning at first given everything I just talked about I think he pulls it off rather well this time the mock Bach tribe is introduced as a heteronormative matriarchy where a single queen continues the species by mating with an individual of another species the caveat is that her mates race will always lose their ability to reproduce and therefore go extinct within a few generations so when the Queen arrives on earth she's seen as a threat to humanity despite resistance from her so-called bodyguards she mutually falls for a random passerby but plot twist plot twist this boyish looking stranger has a girl's name it turns out our mistress that's because Kyoko Mike ISA is an assigned female at Birth trans man but more on that later following this realization craft and the others assume that they've succeeded in saving the human race two girls can't reproduce so the characters are incompatible they assume but that's not the end of the tale the mock baka tribe has the technology to genetically alter a person's sex so they decide to turn the mildly masculine Makita into a real man mr. you might be raising an eyebrow if you're not familiar with Level II and admittedly I was unsure of how to interpret this on my initial reading the translation I was using had some confusing language I thought this might be some kind of lesbian eraser but the anime offers some extra material that clarifies the matter so let's backtrack a bit Kyoko is effectively a dead name for Maquis ax he prefers to be called Maquis ax he uses Otto to refer to himself as opposed to the more gender-neutral beaucoup or watashi and in general he doesn't see himself as a woman this is true in the manga as well but it's worth noting that the manga was published monthly between 1995 and 1996 while the anime adaptation aired in winter 2011 not only would the language and culture surrounding trans people have changed in some capacity but Level II existing between the SI realizations of Takashi's to hit action titles undoubtedly played a role in his writing process I bashed YuYu Hakusho for how hyper specific the language was perhaps toga she felt similarly and opted instead to focus on broader experiences with Level II when maquis is friend rejects him in the hotel he initially laments that he might have come on too strong but then corrects himself that his love isn't a matter of time that friend Seesmic ISA as a girl and as such she doesn't see maquis as a love interest this is reinforced by a flashback of countless rejections he had to face on the basis of the gender people perceived him to be and in that regard we witness casual homophobia on top of transphobia from meek ESA's perspective there's nothing wrong with being straight of course but to imply that is normal and that homosexuality makes someone a freak or pervert is bigotry it is a microaggression that serves to alienate the other side of a spectrum Mik ISA may not identify as a girl and as such he's technically not even gay but he nevertheless has to struggle against a mentality rooted in homophobia that conflict is inherently tied to his gender expression as it is his peers in abilities to see him as a man that enables such false assumptions so with that in mind the mock box changing his sex can only be seen as a net gain it gets forced onto him but it's clear that he already wanted to live as a man symbolically the process is basically a stand-in for HRT and other medical procedures as it allows his body to gradually transition to something more masculine there's some scientific talk about male and female brains in there that rubs me the wrong way personally as I've often seen that kind of rhetoric used as bad faith justifications for how certain people aren't actually trans not to mention that it ignores gender is a social construct entirely but it's a minor gripe that doesn't really undo any of the points I've promoted this leads to the plots resolution which could have very easily dropped the ball entirely to save the human race Crafton the gang attempt to revert maquis is sex back to female but Baca og and his infinite wisdom concoct a solution that not only allows me Kisa to remain a man but also prevents the Mokpo Queen from exterminating the Earthlings in other words it's not the end of the world allowing queer people to express their identities won't corrupt your children it won't destroy humanity it's not a virus or a plague it's perfectly normal being gay is normal being trans is normal people have many different quirks that make them unique but just because something is unfamiliar doesn't mean it's dangerous we can all coexist lastly I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all the ways Hunter hunter plays with gender could a pika follows in kurama's footsteps as the boy so beautiful you could mistake him for a girl a detail took out she calls attention to at least twice never Peto is referred to with gender-neutral terms though depending on the translation you'll find them referenced as either he or she unfortunate in the greater context of gender ambiguity and divergence being erased in translation but as an isolated case in this particular series not a huge deal Carlito is a bit of an unknown currently being biologically male yet sporting a more feminine appearance so while they could turn out to be a trans girl a non-conforming boy something in between or something totally different they nonetheless serve as another example of tokachi challenging gendered expectations with his characters individually these might not be that significant but collectively they showcased oh gosh she's progression on the topic of gender and nowhere is that more apparent than in the case of a Luca and nanika much of their dynamic has been discussed elsewhere so I won't rehash the same points verbatim but to offer my two cents I appreciate the way in which their characters comment directly on trans issues while still existing in the same world as the androgynous question marks does gender really matter for someone like Peto or could a pica or collet oh not really at least not in the sense that they must be pigeonholed into binary roles but gender not mattering to those characters doesn't mean that it's irrelevant to every character there's a difference between saying gender is socially arbitrary let's reconsider what it means and weaponizing that very arbitrariness as an excuse to reinforce a biased status quo that oppresses people who aren't cisgender if someone insists on calling a Luca a boy they are incorrect it turns out watch Amber's video if you haven't already while nanika is her own entity her thematic roles a stand-in for gender identity carries just as much weight as the more general transphobia Holika faces through the constant mislabeling and imprisonment nanika is a being whose power gets sought after and exploited by selfish terrible people family included they don't view her as a person they view her ability as a vehicle for their own desires and that's all that matters to them it's never stated whether anyone has gone so far as to deceive or physically harm her for the sake of a wish but it's not much of a stretch to draw comparisons to the ways in which vulnerable trans people are sometimes groomed and abused by fake allies these predators don't respect their victims identity or humanity they see it as a tool for their own sick pleasures and they act on that desire by dangling a carrot of value over their preys head for a Luca and nanika this would be something innocent like friendship and attention but in worst case scenarios trans people have had their finances place of residence held their very lives threatened if they chose not to comply and because they'd have no other options no family or friends to fall back on due simply to their personhood they'd have no choice but to stay in that hostile environment that's why it is paramount no matter what that someone be willing to stand by and stand up for people like a Luca nanika ad even just one person to an empty room and suddenly you're not alone anymore in Hunter hunter ki Lua is that person no matter the pressure he faces from the outside no matter the threat posed to his own livelihood key Lua refuses to abandon a Lucca he accepts her as his sister he asserts to others that a Lucca is a girl and even though he initially tries to dismiss nanika based on his own notion of what would be best for a Lucca he comes to understand that rejecting a pivotal aspect of a Lucas being would be the same as rejecting a Lucca entirely his status as her older brother does not give him the right to dictate the path of life she walks because to do that would essentially be the same as letting the zoldak c-can't roll her toga she gets all of this across without needing to mention a term like transgender and related to that he gets it across without needing to justify the point with some kind of medical diagnosis no one needs to know if a Lucca has the body of a woman it doesn't matter she is a Lucca nanika is core to who she is and that's enough if I had to boil this video down to a central thesis it would be that representation can take many forms it can be problematic it can be woke it can be plot relevant it can be a background detail so long as there is enough variety to go around I think it all has a place each story has its own ideas and aesthetics and while it's important to keep a broader social context in mind it's also important to engage with a story on its own merits to avoid generalizing a complex issue it would have been easy for me to spin a false narrative about how toga she used to be a trans Fobo now he isn't but it's not that simple the demonstrable truth is that toga she does care about the nuances of gender identity even back in YuYu Hakusho because if he didn't he wouldn't have continued to explore it in his manga as a results he went from creating a one-note character that made people uncomfortable to creating a multifaceted adorable ray of sunshine that resonated with his audience and if that doesn't reflect some kind of personal growth on his part it at least highlights his progress as a storyteller [Music] you

Channel: Mathwiz

Views: 288,547

Keywords: Mathwiz, Togashi, Characters, Alluka, Miyuki, Mikihisa

Id: 9w6fvtgxpGs

Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2020