[ SECRET POST #4597 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4597 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 14 secrets from Secret Submission Post #658.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

Spoilers for Dororo anime

I think we should focus less on if the anime has anything significant to say about whether Dororo identifies as a boy or a girl, and more on the anime suggesting it doesn't matter. Hyakkimaru having no perception of gender either way (like calling his adoptive father his "mama") because he just sees souls, not bodies, is the coolest and only statement on gender the anime makes.

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

What's this anime about? (My brain read it as Durara at first.) And is it on Crunchy?

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

It's on Amazon Prime! (Included in Prime membership). It takes place in feudal Japan plus demons. The premise is, one feudal lord makes a deal with demons to grant his land prosperity, but sacrifices his infant son in the process. A bunch of demons therefore ate the baby's body parts but one failed to get him, so there's this infant without limbs, eyes, nose, even skin. Luckily the kid is saved by someone who gives him prosthetic parts, and tied with the kid's now supernatural abilities (including to see the spirit energy of everything around him) he becomes pretty strong. As a teen, he ends up going on a quest to kill demons and regain his body parts one by one, and meets a little kid named Dororo along the way.

It's very good. It's a 2019 anime, so brand new, but it was based off a famous manga from the 1960s. It is pretty violent and can be a bit exposition heavy at times, but I think the dynamic between the two main characters definitely carries the show. Definitely has a lot of heartfelt moments.

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

It's also kind of dumb to suggest she self-identifies as a boy when actually, it's only because her parents raised her as a boy since birth and that was mostly for security more than anything.

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I'm skeptical, too. It may not have been explicitly stated, but it's probably easier for her to run around feudal Japan presenting as a boy. A lot of the episodes demonstrate women being pushed around by men, and Dororo wants nothing if not to be free spirited. Plus, she seems to present female in the last seconds of the show... That being said, I'm not mad if people want to interpret the character as trans or something, I just am not sure the intent was there on the part of the creators.

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently she states "I'm a boy" in older adaptions a few times but what are people expecting of a child who has been told by everyone around her since birth that she is a boy and not a girl?
In the end, in addition to the security a male identity lends, it's yet another (if not as abusive as it could be) example of characters whose parents/caretakers basically force them into presenting as the opposite gender being taken as a totally obvious trans characters and I always think that's kinda iffy.

Re: Secrets you're too lazy to make

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that's a good point, too. Dororo probably grew up literally thinking she was a boy because her parents raised her that way. Which no gender advocate would or should assume means Dororo ergo is a boy. She does give visual and verbal tells (blushing and stammering) whenever her sex is revealed, and seems self-aware that she is at least biologically female. But you also see moments like Dororo being shocked at Mio prostituting herself to get by, that other lady being forced into marriage with a demon, etc. - and you get the sense that Dororo is also aware that women have it rough.

I mean, who knows. Maybe her parents themselves talked to her about maintaining the male appearance for safety. There's just a lot of blank spaces and room for interpretation on it. It just seems like the 2019 anime has a different conclusion - when Dororo uses her money to create a society run by the people without samurai, or whatever, she is finally free to present female, and that's what we see at the end.

But alternatively, if you want to think Dororo is trans or genderqueer or something, I don't think the 2019 anime is explicit enough in denying that, either. I don't think it offers a definite conclusion on it at all, beyond that to Hyakkimaru, there's no sense of difference between men and women so it isn't an issue either way.