12 / 13
May 2020

So, I was reading this thread

And noticed the discussion about how a lot of non-binary characters are non-human and how people might not see that are actual representation (and since the only threads on this are pretty old I figured I'd not just restart them). So, let's find some specifically human non-binary characters (and please remember we're talking specifically canonically non-binary).

Bungou Stray Dogs gives us 2. Firstly Q, confirmed very early on to not be any specified gender and refered to exclusively as them.

Secondly Gin, is played for laughs a little more than Q being played straight, first presented to us as this hardass assassin (admittedly the anime makes them more femine than the manga) referred to as male by other characters, who assume as much as the audience does when first introduced to them.


Until the reveal further on that they are in fact one of our main character's little sister and que several minor freak outs in universe.

However, it's important to note that, regardless of in universe confusion, official material always has and continues to refer to Gin as they/them, even since the reveal. In the official game both are featured in both male and female character categories too.

So, what series, big and small, can you recommend that give us human non-binary representation?

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I don't think I've seen many anime/manga characters that specifically refer to themselves as non-binary. Mostly, they refer to themselves as being gender ambiguous or not caring about gender. I wouldn't necessarily call that NB since I don't like to slap labels on things that aren't confirmed.

But this character does specifically come out as being NB (also, this anime is pretty cool and omg it needs season 2 :cry_02: )

The article here also uses the "they" pronoun, but there's nothing in the show yet that says which they or he prefers (since Japanese doesn't really have pronouns and NB people don't necessarily have to use a they pronoun.).

There is a character in Dr Stone who is gender ambiguous. In that they don't care about gender and never say specifically either way. They have not been labeled as NB.

Ginseng comes to mind! Indivisible is a very... divisive game (heh) but Ginseng is introduced early on and the game never really stops you to clarify that the pronoun is they, the cast just uses they from the start. Their parents are also pretty gender non-conforming and their sidequest is a huge story about something entirely unrelated with gender, so it's pretty nice to see that one of the most proeminent characters in the game getting such good treatment and never having a Very Special Episode that doesn't match up with their personality.
Also, Ginseng stayed in my party for most of the game. That spicy neutral move with almost 10 hits per attack, hmmm.

This is something that makes finding non-binary character in anime quite tricky, especially when you add in the different cultural norms (gestures at the arguments over Grell from Black Butler). You often have to go on what the creators and supplementary material says, and even then you have to be wary of bias translations. It is a minefield but we're going with what few examples for can find. Luckily in a more international world and laxer restrictions on series creators are finding more ways to confirm these things.

Loki is genderfluid nonbinary in Marvel and The Adjudicator is as well (John Wick). Er... I think a lot of the Stephen Universe characters are as well?

There is actually a human non-binary case in Steven Universe

Sadie`s partner in steven universe future, Shep

I know anime is a bit ambiguous about whether characters are humans or monsters, but heck...
5
Orochimaru from BORUTO
-Orochimaru muses about taking on different bodies, both male and female and states that they don't really care about gender.

3
Crona from Soul Eater
-Sort of lost in translation. The character is referred to with gender neutrals.

Not human but...
4
Sweet Tooth from Moshi Monster
-The canon mentions something about not liking when they are asked about their gender

Chara, Frisk and Kris are kinda maybe non binary? I think they're canonically suppose to be just a player self insert.


Also I don't know why people don't like non-human NB/lgbt characters, it's kinda nice to have a race of creatures that are alien to us (which a lot of lgbt folks feel) and don't have to have the baggage and stress of coming out or having people accept you. You can be a weird slime creature from planet jsgdvjhsd and live out your life how you want which is an entire lgbt genre in of itself. Edit: Also I forgot media has been saturated by strict gender roles for non-human things for years, something like mushrooms have thousands of genders no one really acknowledged.

Nanachi from Made in Abyss is an unspecified gender. They do end up turning non-human later, but this is their human look.
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Kino from Kino's Journey does not have a specified gender. Their pronouns change depending on the translator.

There's actually a full list of non-binary characters nominated in the Reddit r/anime Best Non-binary Character Competition. The character requirements were limited by what the rules state as non-binary (eg. NOT ALLOWED: characters that unintentionally look contrary to the norms of their gender, but are not actually non-binary or characters that are not transgender out of believe, but dress in a different gender for a rational purpose, e.g. acceptance in society and access to certain groups that would not be possible with their given gender)
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/8b1yd4/best_nonbinary_character_nominations_day_1/21

oh that’s a bigggg mood, people always make ace characters like . robots or aliens. because obviously if you’re not sexually attracted to anyone you’re emotionless; right?

i was gonna talk about crona from soul eater & haruhi from ouran but like, i wouldn’t want anyone giving me “ace rep” that’s just sexuality-ambigous so i feel like that’d be super unfair.
truth is aside from like, steven universe (and even then it’s only Sort of human), we’re just not there yet.

at least we’ll always have our own comics


Human nonbinary characters in fiction who are something I very much enjoy. Non-human nonbinary characters are perfectly OK, but there's always that small amount of "not counting" that prevents it from being quite as cool to see, say, a robot that goes by it/its, or some alien race of androgynous characters (and I would argue the second one doesn't count at all).