The concept of gender swapping popular anime and game characters has been around forever, but the infamous practice has recently surged with new life again. The Genderbending of Haruhi Suzumiya – Need I say more? I’ll admit that the revised Kyon-ko is surprisingly cute though. So what’s the appeal in reversing character genders anyway? One can only guess, but let’s explore the options.

Curiosity gets the best of people. Curious artists out there want to see their favorite characters as the other gender. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s more common to see males become females rather than the other way around. I suppose the mindset goes along the lines of, “I sure do like Mario/Terry Bogard/Lelouch/Kyon/etc. Too bad he’s not a girl… Wait a minute – I’ve got an idea! Now I can have the best of both worlds. Fufufu. Now I have girl versions of Mario/Terry Bogard/Lelouch/Kyon~”

It’s less common to see females become males, because it’s not as appealing. The big deciding factor would probably be if the “conversion” creates hilarious situations in character interactions. In the case of the Haruhi role reversals, it’s funny so we see this rarer occurence happen. We’ll get to that point next.

Perhaps gender swapping owes its popularity to seeing characters violate their normal gender role expectations. This works particularly well when applied to the Haruhi-Mikuru relationship. When they become male characters, Haruhi’s rampant Mikuru molestation takes on a new (and disturbing) light. If you listen closely, you can hear the squeals of yaoi fangirls somewhere in the world. Additionally, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya borders on psuedo-harem. When the genders are reversed, Kyon-ko suddenly has a reverse harem at her fingertips.

This is all just speculation. After all, every person thinks differently, you know. Just remember that much like Rule 34 and bad fanfiction, nothing in this world is sacred. As long as fans get crazy ideas in their heads, expect gender swapping to stick around.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Anime, Articles, Otaku.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.