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Anime from the 90’s/early 2000’s always have a super unique charm to them, it’s unfortunate that so many are riddled with homophobic and transphobic “jokes”.
Like I’m watching Lovely Complex where there’s a trans girl named Seiko. She (I’m assuming her pronouns because she refers to herself as a woman, not that the other characters use she/her) wears feminine clothing/skirts/dresses, wears the girls uniform, presents as a woman in
every possible regard, even says something along the lines of “I was born a woman with the wrong parts” and “I have the heart of a woman”, and is actually a very well-written trans character, but that doesn’t stop other characters from deadnaming her, saying things like
“Oh, but you’re actually a boy, right?”, using he/him pronouns, and constantly making a joke out of her crush on a boy and the way she presents herself. And it’s so sad because they could have made a really amazing trans character and solid representation but she was still a joke
And you can always argue that it was a different time (although time doesn’t excuse it and in this case it came out in 2007, not that long ago) or that it’s different in Japan but it’s still just...sad and uncomfortable to watch. Luckily Lovely Complex is one of the better ones,
a lot of times characters and the author really respect Seiko! From what I’ve seen so far (I’m only about halfway through the anime and haven’t read the manga) Seiko has never been forced into the school’s male uniform nor into presenting as a guy at all. This is actually really
surprising since anime usually drive the *shock* that it’s “actually a boy!” by showing them in stereotypical male fashion. But so far I’ve only ever seen Seiko present how she wants to—as a woman—and it’s super refreshing to see. There’s also plenty of times (although just as
often as she is misgendered or made into a joke by them) where other characters actually really support Seiko’s identity. The main character has told her something along the lines of “I knew you’d understand the heart of a true woman!” and, again, Seiko basically wears whatever
she wants with typically minimal, if any, response from other characters (aside from when the cast first find out she’s amab, which was very uncomfortable to watch as one particular character—the guy she has a crush on—treated her with absolute disgust). Anyways I started half of
this thread like a month and a half ago but I was cleaning up my drafts and decided to finish and post it so some of the information is a lil spotty since I’m relying on my memory and not as I’m actually watching the show agajdkls
