gender questions...

[libraire.livejournal.com]

Okay, I got severily consfused.

While reading the manga, I assumed Yashamaru was a woman. But while watching the anime, I got confused as the voice could be both male and female. I watched the episode and read those chapters a few times, trying to see if Yashamaru is ever refered to as a "she" or a "he", but found nothing.

The next character I'm confused about is Deidara. I was sure he was male(especially with the numerous fangirls he has), until I saw people refering to him as a she- I looked it up, but I get different answers on different sites. :O

If anyone can clear this up for me, I'll appreciate it. XD Manga has a knack with making genders hard to differenciate. :P

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/____ero__sennin/]

My understanding is that Deidara primarily uses a male version of the "I" pronoun (boku), marking him as, likely, male. And I believe that Yashamaru, too, is Gaara's uncle, meant to look like his mother for symbolic reasons.

And, hey, Haku turned out to be a guy, so it's not that big a stretch.

[libraire.livejournal.com]

Ah, I hadn't thought of looking up what version of the "I" was used. Thanks :D

And yeah, it's not the first time gender misunderstandings happen in Naruto. :P

[http://users.livejournal.com/____ero__sennin/]

Ah, do not thank me, for I lied and said "boku" instead of "ore". *shame*

[snm-queen.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru is Gaara's uncle and his mother's twin. That's why he looks alike.

Deidara is a man. Last I rememeber reading, he used the "ore" form of I (not boku or watashi, which can be used by both sexes) and that definitely marked him as male; no woman would use ore unless she wants to be known as macho and tom-boys use boku.

[thomasvye.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru is a man, Gaara's maternal uncle.

Deidara is a man, un. ^_^

[secludedly.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru's a male.

Deidara's a female, no matter what anyone says. Deidara was called 'she' multiple times for a REASON.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____ero__sennin/]

Actually, given the fact that there is no gender-specific pronoun equal to she (or he, for that matter) in Japanese, no, 'she' wasn't.

[cthulhu-cult.livejournal.com]

Kare is a pronoun used to refer to males.
Kanojo is a pronoun used to refer to females.

They're just not as common as a name or "ano hito", because Japanese is a ridiculously indirect language.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____ero__sennin/]

I was thinking more along the lines of a general lack of gender-specifism in Japanse grammar, but of course, there is an exception to the rule (or several) to cut me down. And that's mistake number two. This is just not my day. I should probably bow out before I hurt myself.

[secludedly.livejournal.com]

[cthulhu-cult.livejournal.com]

There was no pronoun there in the original, that was inserted by the translator (NJT, in this case) so that it'd make sense in English. Nobody knew Deidara's gender back then.

[deidarachan.livejournal.com]

I believe that was just an assumption on the translator's part. :X

[hakudoushi.livejournal.com]

I gotta know...have you ever seen 135, the episode in which Deidara speaks?

Because I think that might clear up any misconceptions about his sex. XD His voice isn't even gender-neutral, like Yashamaru's!

[cthulhu-cult.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru is a male. He's in the second databook, but his gender's not mentioned. But he's definitely Gaara's uncle.

Deidara uses "oira", a male pronoun, and the anime gave him a male voice.
There's still a huge amount of "Deidara Is Female" fans out there though.
Deidara has yet to get a databook entry.

[seki-yumizu.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru is Gaara's uncle ^^;
The seiyuu for his character is a guy.
(I should know cos I absolutely love that seiyuu)
It should be mentioned that he is Gaara's mother's younger brother somewhere...

Deidara is male from his speech pattern and stuff...
I believe he's male
even though everyone assumed he's female when he first appeared.
But i think there's a picture somewhere of him unbuttoning part of his cloak and no boobs XD

[deidarachan.livejournal.com]

Yashamaru's name ends with "-maru", which is only used in male names.

That's what clued me off with him, though before realizing that I was pretty confused.

I'm pretty sure Deidara is male. His face isn't really that feminine, and he talks like a guy. And in the sexist world of Naruto, females never beat males in battle. The only exception is with Sasori, and it took TWO chicks to kill him.

Also, I'm assuming anjimito is correct about their data book claim.

[deidarachan.livejournal.com]

Oooh... cthulhu_cult said they were wrong.

Oh well! General signs and opinions seem to state that both are male.

[libraire.livejournal.com]

I'll go with that. XD Thank you! I didn't know the "-maru" thing, I was wondering why so many characters's names ended with that.

[domlandbubbles.livejournal.com]

The argument I thought was cute was "Naruto would never punch a girl in the face."

[seki-yumizu.livejournal.com]

but Kyuubi would I guess XD

[andrew-jp.livejournal.com]

Good rule of thumb, if there are doubts about a character's gender in Naruto, it's probably male. It's held true for Haku, Deidara, Sai...was Orochimaru's gender ever disputed? I wasn't around that far back, but given his speech patterns I think there would have been some controversy over that, as well. Anyway, pretty guys are way more common than masculine girls.

[rainbowlasers.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem in the manga with Yashamaru, but he is obviously male.

Same with Deidara, for we see a nice little panel with a CLEAR LACK OF BOOBIES. the only way to differentiate guys and girls in Naruto is clearly the chest area.

[libraire.livejournal.com]

Girls in Naruto tend to have prominent chest. XD Unless they're under 15. Which is understandable, I would be freaked out to see a 12 year old Sakura with boobs bigger than Tsunade's o_o

[rainbowlasers.livejournal.com]

Thank you for hurting my brain forever with the mental image of Sakura with bigger boobs then Tsunade.