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 :)
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 :)