Well hello everyone, my name is Trist, and I am one of NY Geekcast’s new bloggers. I thought I would start off my geeky writing career with some gender confused anime.
I originally started to watch Naruto because my usual sitcoms were on summer hiatus, and I was looking for a new anime to watch. I remembered that an annoying kid in my high-school classical mythology class was obsessed with it, to the point of wearing the ninja head band and maybe buying one of those dagger things. (After I graduated, I heard that this kid might have had Asperger’s, and a few opening episodes of Naruto totally explained his obsession.) Anyway, I quickly learned that ninjas were awesome people to be feared, and that Naruto himself was an annoying blonde boy.
Enter Haku, the pseudo-gay ninja. Here I am, kicking back with a beer and Hulu after a hard day’s work standing around at the ballet (just go with it) and this androgynous guy in a mysterious ninja-girl outfit appears to throw me a major plot-shuriken. I would like to say off the top that some Google-research shows that his sexuality and gender is a huge otaku debate, which will not take place here, but personally I believe him to be a nice gay man. He likes to walk around in comfy kimonos, possibly taking delight in his gender confusion, and experiments with gothic outfits at the age of 9. And has a wicked cool ninja attack with ice mirrors.
SPOILER ALERT: Once Haku appeared on the scene, I was very happy, but at the same time awaited his death with every continuing episode (nice gay men tend to die quickly, and unhappily). The only question was how and why. In the great-animated-drama that simmers in the back of my head, I had a gay homme-fetale character who would romantically throw himself in front of the bullet intended for the evil bad guy, with whom he was hopelessly and piteously in love. THIS IS EXACTLY what happened to Haku. Sigh.
I tracked down the one other Naruto fan I apparently know, a Ms. Sarah E Clementine, and asked her what she thought of the character. Instead of getting some rant about gender issues, she summed up his character nicely in a way that transcends sexuality: “his entire existence was wrapped up in protecting Zabuza [the bad guy] and being his weapon, because it was the first time he’d felt useful.” This makes Haku a great romantic character and proves to me that he has depth and can go on being a silly girl boy twink lesbian bishonen for all I care.
Welcome, Trist! I don’t know much about anime (my knowledge is limited to a few Miyazaki films, Akira, and bits and pieces of Cowboy Bebop). However, I get the sense in general that Japanese cartoons have a tendency to blur the gender lines relatively frequently without making a big deal about it. I’m reminded of how Birdo from Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally a male dressed as a female — a plot tidbit that we lost in the U.S., but which (I’m assuming) no one blinked twice at in Japan.
Also, I had to look up the word “bishonen.”