I don’t speak Japanese, but as I understand Kirby is officially a being of unknown gender with gender-neutral pronouns, which was misgender in English localization.
I just looked into it and it seems Kirby uses the first-person pronoun 僕 (boku), and is referred to in the third person as 彼 (kare) both of which have masculine connotations. It’s true that neither is exclusively masculine, but the Japanese language in general is a lot less concerned with gender than European languages.
That said, official art has depicted Kirby participating in traditionally gendered activities for both men and women, so there is definitely at least some intentional ambiguity.
Before posting, I’ve checked in 20 anniversary materials, that 性別:不明, which according to translator means “gender:unknown”, but I guess it’s more complicated with translating between different cultures. Thanks for the info :)
Well I always liked that kirby didn’t fit the norm as a kid, not a lot of male characters feel the same kirby and know nintendo isn’t know for being full of big buff edgy dudes but still it’s nice to have a soft pink male hero
I don’t speak Japanese, but as I understand Kirby is officially a being of unknown gender with gender-neutral pronouns, which was misgender in English localization.
I just looked into it and it seems Kirby uses the first-person pronoun 僕 (boku), and is referred to in the third person as 彼 (kare) both of which have masculine connotations. It’s true that neither is exclusively masculine, but the Japanese language in general is a lot less concerned with gender than European languages.
That said, official art has depicted Kirby participating in traditionally gendered activities for both men and women, so there is definitely at least some intentional ambiguity.
Before posting, I’ve checked in 20 anniversary materials, that 性別:不明, which according to translator means “gender:unknown”, but I guess it’s more complicated with translating between different cultures. Thanks for the info :)
Eh I’ll always know kirby as male essentially but you might as well toss spongebob in there too for sponge gender
You’ve been given new information but your response is that it doesn’t fit your preconceptions so you’re going to dismiss it?
It’s certainly true that in Japanese, Kirby is presented in a very gender-unspecified manner - which is a language trick English couldn’t emulate.
Well I always liked that kirby didn’t fit the norm as a kid, not a lot of male characters feel the same kirby and know nintendo isn’t know for being full of big buff edgy dudes but still it’s nice to have a soft pink male hero
Dude it’s a fictional character. People can believe Kirby is whatever they want.