@DoubleWizard:
I'll be very honest here, it's hard to read this and some of your previous message without it coming off like you're saying Yamato is a girl/Oda is treating Yamato like a girl, so I'll be blunt and ask: what do you think Oda intends for Yamato's character? Do you believe he's meant to be a trans man, or a butch/gender non-conforming woman?
Okay, I'll start by being clear in no uncertain terms.
My opinion is Yamato is clearly trans.
Everything in the story screams it, that is the text. Not subtext, but the text.
That is my opinion. No caveats, no exception, no, "but maybe". That is my opinion.
What I am saying after that, is what I think about Oda and HIS take on it is. And also, that whatever Oda's opinion actually is, remembering that it has to be filtered through a comic book for 12 year old boys.
These are two separate things. I understand where the confusion might lie if I don't cleanly separate these two thoughts.
[hide]I think the way Oda is handling it makes it more of a mixed bag. I think, Oda's intent is to write a trans character, but his execution is going to lean more towards non-conforming woman… for a variety of reasons.
Regardless of what his actual intent is, what's ending up on the page may not be quite there.
I think Oda is a straight man in his 40's, that lives in very culturally and slightly sexist Japan. That leads to all sorts of weird biases and the discussions on his sexism in the story are endless.
He probably also does not have a best friend who is trans as I do, so the overall subject may be something he only really knows third hand, or from television. He might not actually know anyone with the experience, but I have no way of knowing so I can't even guess.
But Japan IS different from other countries, so social stuff is... different. Not worse or better but... different.
In terms of the story, he is having his cake and eating it too, like I said.
He's interested in the concept of a trans character but maybe not super heavily informed in it. Hence the inclusion of at least two trans characters in this arc, one a man that feels like a woman, and one a woman that feels like a man. Plus some others before that are in the range of crossdresser or gender bending but not necessarily trans, including Kiku's brother, also in this arc.
Oda's been to okama bars, and yes obviously likes Rocky Horror, and he's put it into the story, so he has interest but no way of knowing how far that actually goes..
Some of that is also to address Wano's culture in general, but he hasn't super heavy focused on that.
And as noted he explicitly commented on being surprised by Rose of Versailles, he thought that was an interesting development and reveal.
So character that is legit trans, wants to be a man... but also looks like a sexy girl with lots of side boob.
At the end of the day it is a comic aimed at 12 year old boys and Oda's probably never going to do a deep dive on the issue any further than he already has outside of whatever we get in Yamato's likely flashback.
The surface social issues are probably as deep as he's going to go with it, he's not going to deal with feeling inadequate n their body, it's just not that kind of story.
Similarly whenever a female reader writes in and goes "you said something that makes it sound like girls can't do a thing" and his response is along the lines of "Of course a girl can have a manly adventure! It's all in your heart!" so that's confusing.
He puts in stuff like "I am Oden so..." and "Kaidou's daughter" to make it easier to process and start sliding in as a joke before it sets in that its an actual long term emotional thing for the character.
There are different levels of trans identity, it's not a one-size-fits-all thing, and there are some folks that feel they're the wrong gender but aren't particularly uncomfortable with the body they have... but it's hard to say if Oda's thought about, or understand it, that deeply?
I mostly think Oda thought it would be interesting to have a character that's conflicted. I think Oda thought it would be interesting to mention Kaidou's son for a couple months and then have a surprise reveal. I think Oda thought it would be interesting to have a character with a viewpoint and personality Oda hasn't done before. Those were his concerns first and foremost.
And maybe to also adress the Kuina issue that goes back decades about how a person born female in Wano (which is specifically called out for being outdated in gender biases) can still have the strengths and freedoms of any man.
Yamato identifies as a man. If Ivanokov shows up he'll switch. In the meantime, he's not ashamed of his body or it being weak (as Kuina did) so if there's sideboob, oh well.
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We still need to see what happens when other characters take baths, how he interacts with Sanji, how he interacts with Nami and Robin, etc. to get a really clear idea of how exactly Oda's going to handle it or how far he's actually going to take it. It's been too much of a combat zone to really get that nuance and see exactly how Oda is ultimately going to roll with it all.