Viewer Gender Confusion / Anime & Manga

---

Viewer Gender Confusion in Anime & Manga.

---

• Ai Ore! Love Me! lives off this trope. The main girls are all bifauxnen, while the main boy looks like a girl. This causes confusion in-universe and out-of-universe.
• In Assassination Classroom, it can be hard to tell if Nagisa Shiota is a boy or a girl as that person has Girlish Pigtails, a slim build and is voiced by a woman. Unlike some other works, it's established early on that Nagisa is a boy but it's Lampshaded in universe that even his own classmates were not 100% sure until they saw him in a swimsuit. This is deconstructed when it's revealed that his mother is a Control Freak who wanted a daughter instead, forced him to adopt a more feminine appearance to invoke this.
• Because of the art-style and body structure, most characters in Attack on Titan are hard to tell which gender they are at first glance:
  • The most notable offenders are Hanji and Nanaba, both officially women (Hanji only in adaptations, in the manga it is not elaborated on) with strong features, but the author has said that people can interpret them however they like.
  • Ymir and Armin also have this problem, though the anime made Ymir more feminine-looking. In one arc, it was made a plot point in Armin's case, with his resemblance to Krista / Historia being exploited to trick an enemy faction into going after him instead of her.
  • The Smiling Titan looks very androgynous, as it has a slender body, large eyelashes, and rosy cheeks. Still, like every Titan except the Female Titan (who is female), it's meant to resemble a male human. Though it turns out to have formerly been a human woman anyway.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts's Hideyoshi Kinoshita. It's basically the point of the character. It's gotten to the point that both the fanbase and the characters in-universe have come to consider Hideyoshi to be their own gender (the hot springs the group visits has its own special bath specifically for Hideyoshi). Also worth mentioning is that they can emulate anyone's voice.
• Beyblade:
  • Bakuten Shoot Beyblade gives us four. First, there's Oliver with his feminine features, girly voice, pink beyblade, and unicorn bit-beast. Then there's Stuart, who looks like the single female member of the Shell Killers, but is a boy like the others. He wears a cropped shirt, has a beauty mark, has long eyelashes, and wears his hair in an effeminate bob. Denny also gets a helping of the expectation that there ought to be at least one girl, but looks the part even without further context due to his voluminous, braided hair. Lastly, the manga has Hikaru, who wears a crop top, has a high ponytail, and just enough fruitiness to him for the reader to be surprised by the fact he's a boy.

• Beyblade: Shogun Steel has Kira Hayama. It would a long list to name all the feminine qualities to his appearance, so lets keep it to the most notable one. He wears a skintight top that is open on the front except for one point low on his chest. The exact curvature makes it look like he has breasts, which only upon further inspection it's clear he hasn't.

• It's surprisingly common to mistake Ciel from Black Butler for a girl. It doesn't help that one of the most well-known scenes involves him in a dress and that he's only 13.
• Hansel and Gretel in Black Lagoon. By the end of their story arc, it's still not very clear if they were brother and sister, sisters, or brothers.
• Bleach:
  • Although Luppi Antenor was clearly male to a lot of the fanbase and very into Rangiku's sexy body, he caused a lot of confusion with parts of the fandom who felt he was looking and acting mostly like a woman. The anime helped that portion of the fanbase by giving him a very masculine voice.
  • Some people have mistaken Wonderweiss Margera for female.
  • Berenice Gabrielli, a quincy killed by Kenpachi Zaraki. The fandom cannot agree whether the character was male or female, and Kenpachi's comments about this quincy are gender-ambiguous in the native Japanese, leading to translators and English-speaking fans to debate the subject. The flashback images of the face offer very few clues, as the character is either female or bishounen and could go either way. The feminine name also offers no clues as Kubo has given quite a few of his male characters feminine names, including the main character. When Viz translated the text for the official English release, they made the character male.
  • Another Stern Ritter, Äs Nödt, also caused much confusion since appearing in the manga. This is thanks to having big girly eyes, a hairdo resembling Godiva Hair, a concealed lower face region, and a big figure-hiding cloak. The character has been pretty much confirmed male, however.
• The Swedish manga Bleckmossen Boyz features a character named only as "Alex", whose deliberately unspecified gender and androgynous looks become a Running Gag. One of the characters eventually goes so far as to look up his/her full first name, but finds it to be "Alexis", a unisex name.
• While revealed by p. 8 in volume 1 of the manga, Nakahara Tatsuki from Boku No Tsukuru Sekai, a very convincing Wholesome Crossdresser and Magical Projectionist teacher, is revealed to be a man from his son Ritsuki when he calls Tatsuki "Dad."
• The Firey in Cardcaptor Sakura, with roughly equal amounts of evidence for both male (flat chest) and female (all the other elemental/humanoid Cards in the manga are female).
• Eisuke of Case Closed. Inspector Sato can sometimes look more masculine than him.
• Chi from Chi's Sweet Home is a molly but most people (especially those who have not seen the series) think she's a tom cat. She doesn't have any traditional Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and her tabby breed is frequently used more for males.
• Considering the abundance of white-blonde Action Girls in Claymore, it's likely that most fans assumed that Isley was yet another one until he took off his shirt. Of course, you can hardly blame them — does this◊ look like a man's face to you?
• V.V. of Code Geass. A young boy, voiced by an actual young boy (for once), whose blond hair (longer than his body) and androgynous name throws many a viewer off.
• Cowboy Bebop: Ed is so tomboyish she easily passes as a boy. The fact that the Hungarian dub gave her a BOY's voice helps create confusion. The crew apparently didn't even realize it until Faye shouted it out at the end of the episode she's introduced in. Heck, Ed's own father forgets that she's a girl. Confusion over her gender is also partially responsible for the Trope Namer of Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer.
• Jin Kazama from DAYS is a rather androgynous looking Long-Haired Pretty Boy that many initially mistook him for the sole girl on the football team.
• Death Note:
  • Manga readers often presumed Mello female by his tight pants and haircut. To combat this, the anime gave him an uber-masculine voice — but then gave Near a female voice actor. In his first appearance, Mello wears what appears to be a dress, tall boots, and a fur-lined coat◊ longer than the "dress" (in actuality his vest blending in with the shadows of his pants). He's also got some very distinct hips in some shots, and at least one manga cover even made him look like a flat-chested girl. One moment in the anime also gave him some rather unfortunate shading on his vest, making him look like he had small breasts.
  • Even worse than that is Rem, Misa's shinigami. Sure, shinigami only have Purely Aesthetic Gender, but it's still a bit of a brainbreaker to realize Rem is a female. It doesn't help that her voice is extremely hoarse.
• Delicious in Dungeon: Elves and, to a lesser extent, half-foots are extremely androgynous, frequently making it difficult to tell whether a character of either race is male or female unless explicitly said so. Notably, none of the characters in the story have any trouble telling them apart, it's only the readers that might be confused.
  • The Canaries seem at first glance like an Amazon Brigade, but two of its members are men. This isn't helped by their uniforms having skirts/kilts. In the case of one, it's not too bad since he's always shirtless, but the captain of the squad could not be explicitly confirmed as male for several chapters after his introduction (interestingly, when he's turned human/tall-man, he becomes a very rugged and muscular hunk, suggesting he is actually very manly for an elf). In a supplementary gender-bent illustration of the entire squad, the characters looked identical to how they normally do, with the only real difference being which characters have a slightly protruding chest. The author even apologized to the reader for how pointless the exercise was.
  • The gender of the Lunatic Magician was extremely uncertain for a while due to his long hair, skirt-like outfit, and being very short and slender. This isn't helped by earlier volume translations assuming he was female and using she/her pronouns.
  • Mickbell, the half-foot from Kabru's party, was initially assumed to be female, even by the official English translation at first, until the author eventually clarified that he is a male. In a gender-bent illustration of the entire party, Mickbell is the only one who looks exactly the same.
• Powerpuff Girls Z's version of Snake. It doesn't help that the English dub of the series actually did turn him into a girl.
• D.Gray-Man has a lot of Pretty Boys, some of whom reach this level of girliness. Kanda, for example, is easily mistaken for female at first glance due to the long hair, and he's got nothing on the (male) Creepy Twins Jasdero and Devit; both are rather ambiguous-looking, and in combo, well◊... The author actually had to clarify their gender through the Fourth-Wall Mail Slot.
• Ageha from Di[e]ce is another offender, wearing hotpants, mid-thigh-length stockings, a fitted jacket and a scarf which has a kinda flowery design on it. He also seems to have cat eyes and little pointy teeth, amping up the cuteness factor. Additionally, he is seen posing in a quite female or girly way, although the characters in the manga seem to recognize him as a boy immediately.
• Digimon: This is a problem for any digimon who doesn't have any overt secondary sex characteristics, including the very young (like Poromon or Calumon) or ones who look very different in certain evolutions. Usually, voices or Tertiary Sexual Characteristics make it clear once more forms are shown.
  • Digimon Adventure has Garudamon who has been suspected to be male despite the other forms being obviously female, just because of the body shape (more anthropomorphic than others, long blonde hair).
  • Hawkmon from Digimon Adventure 02 mainly because he's partnered with a girl and all the other children get Digimon who are their own gender. Miyako/Yolei seems to be the only Digidestined to have a Digimon who isn't the same gender as her.
  • Digimon Adventure tri. has Meicoomon, a cat Digimon who doesn't behave that much feminine in comparison to the other three female Digimon (Piyomon, Palmon and Tailmon) and doesn't look obvious enough. Her nickname "Mei-chan" was the first hint, but for some people it's not enough. The biggest giveaway in Determination was Leomon's crush on her. By the time Meicrackmon: Vicious Mode was introduced, it's clear that Meicoomon was female from the start.
  • Cutemon is Digimon Fusion's character of questionable gender: it's pink, wears floral-printed headphones, and has a high-pitched voice. And it's...a boy. His use of boku gave him away.
• Kaia the leader of the space pirates from the sixth episode of Dirty Pair, he looks very feminine with his long braided hair, eyelashes, and pink jumpsuit, it's not until he starts talking with a fairly deep voice that you realize his gender.
• Frieza/Freezer from Dragon Ball Z — in Japanese, he is using fairly feminine language. In order to try to approximate this in English, where words are the same regardless of the gender of the speaker, they had him voiced like an elderly woman, which made him come across as a hermaphrodite. It didn't help that he had purple lips that looked like he was wearing lipstick, either, or that his final form had no genitalia. His other forms, however, did have a black speedo. In Dragon Ball Z Kai and subsequent appearances, however, he was voiced by Chris Ayres, who makes him sound more aristocratic, masculine and closer to his Japanese VA.
• The Headless Rider in Durarara!! is ambiguous for the first two episodes, as she's only shown from angles that mostly hide her feminine curves, and is referred as male by the people who talk of her as an urban legend. Then it turns out that she was the female narrator all along.
• Homi Nandie from Element Hunters is mistaken for female by some fans.
• Some reviewers think that Mai and Mami from Explorer Woman Ray look almost like young boys, despite being teenage girls (and visibly so on closer inspection) who happen to have Boyish Short Hair and to be a little over-eager for adventure (and treasure).
• Fairy Tail: It's not 100% apparent whether Midnight is a tomboyish woman or a somewhat feminine man. The only time anyone referred to him/her with pronouns they used female ones ('her', 'daughter', etc.) but that's obviously not complete proof... and in fact, eventually switched to using male pronouns. This is a translation confusion. Midnight refers to himself using a pronoun only used by men and boys, and the times that the translator has used him and daughter were actually gender-neutral phrases like person and father and child.
  • His being a man is more obvious in the anime due to a male voice.
• Bedivere in the anime of Fate/stay night. The guy's just as feminine as Saber and has Mamiko Noto's voice. What are we supposed to think?
  • It gets worse in Fate/Grand Order. At least he started out◊ with a slightly deeper jaw and broader chin. Now he's been given the "Saberface" treatment. (He does get his voice actor changed to Mamoru Miyano for F/GO, though.)
  • Bedivere is nothing compared to Astolfo. Long, pink hair, dresses in women's clothing, has a very feminine voice, and he deliberately acts ambiguous about his actual gender just to screw with people.
• Ladios Sopp in The Five Star Stories, with his shy and soft-spoken demeanor, effeminate voice, baggy yellow clothes, big dewy eyes, and long braided hair is constantly mistaken for a woman. In fact, one character, Voards Viewlards, eventually learns the truth and still flirts with him! It doesn't help that Sopp is the alter-ego of the king of the A.K.D., who is named after the ur-goddess of Japan, and frequently played by a female Body Double while the king is off playing as Sopp!
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Envy counts in the manga version of the story. He's stated in an omake as having no true gender, which means that it may or may not be a canon statement.
  • Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) is of similar circumstances to Envy. He's young, has long hair, has a voice actress, and the fact that he's lived in an isolated island cause confusion as to his gender.
  • Den, Winry's dog, is female but is constantly seen as a male thanks to her unisex name and the fact dogs that look like her are typically male in fiction.
• Fushigi Yuugi's victim is not Nuriko, as his real gender is revealed two episodes after his introduction. It's poor Chiriko who suffers from this, of all people.
• Gad Guard: Takumi has long blonde styled hair and appears to be romantically linking up with Hajiki in his first few episodes. However, switching to the English-language dub leaves the viewer in little doubt as to his gender as the voice sounds masculine (despite being voiced by a female in the English dub).
• Tomokane from GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class is Hot-Blooded and refers to herself as ore, not to say she never wears her bolo tie to school. Even she still wears a dress, viewers need to consciously remind temselves of her gender. Lampshaded in the character sketches that said she's often confused as a boy when she's not wearing her school uniform.
• Gamaran has Ranmaru Itou, a male samurai who looks very feminine.
• The anime series of Gantz has the shorter of the bum-hunters (Hajime Moroto, which isn't much help for most English speakers, and you don't find out his name until after his partner in crime spills the beans anyway), whose elfin features, just-under-shoulder-length haircut, and bulky coat makes his gender ambiguous at best until the larger bum-hunter is talking about him to someone else and uses the male pronoun (this doesn't occur until several episodes after the characters first show up).
  Kurono: He's my age?
  Typical viewer: He's a he?
• Get Backers:
  • At first glance, Kazuki, with his long flowing hair, long lashes and slim frame, would mislead anyone into thinking he was a girl. It didn't help that he was portrayed wearing female clothes in various points of the manga and anime, and he's grouped with the girls in one of the ending clips and some of the official artwork (apparently, the writers were in on the joke). He is also a victim of Tokyopop's She's a Man in Japan translation.
    • It's quite justified in the manga: his martial arts style requires flexibility, which is trained by having him spend his early years wearing female clothing, and learning feminine skills.
  • Kazuki has a female counterpart, Ren; she appears at first glance to be male, to the extent that the other characters don't realize she's female until she points it out (read: yells it) in passing. Her personality doesn't help much, either... nor does her previously freaking out after realizing that the person she kissed to deliver a medicine was male (said person being... Kazuki, naturally).
  Shido: That's a girl? (muttering) I suppose if Kazuki can be a guy...
• An interesting case comes from Girls Saurus. That cute girl getting molested by men on the train and is saved by the main characters? Yeah, that's a guy. But wait, he's got breasts and is wearing a skirt!... Not really: turns out that he's so feminine that the main characters (and, indeed, everyone who meets him, man and woman alike) hallucinate that he's built and dressed like a girl.
• Speculation on the Youtube comment boards for Glass Fleet continued to wonder why androgynous Michel was referred to as a boy but obviously sounded like a woman. Once that was cleared up, the fans turned to poor Ralph, a child repeatedly referred to as a boy, with a boy's name, but with very feminine mannerisms and an obsessive crush on an older man.
• Seguchi Touma of Gravitation is feminine enough to pass for a woman for several episodes — even though he was always referred to as male in the subtitles and he had been revealed to be married to Yuki's sister!
• Gunslinger Girl features several boyish looking cyborgs however all cyborgs are canonically girls. Rico has short hair, dresses in unisex (or masculine) clothes, and has a boys name. It was intentional on her handlers part to make her seem androgynous.
• Kuu and Kana from Haibane Renmei, helped by the latter's Wrench Wench status. Even the manager of the cafe where Kuu works thinks she's a boy.
• Hellsing:
  • A number of those who saw the first Hellsing anime expressed annoyance that the titular Sir Integra was such an embarrassingly pretty Bifauxnen. This is somewhat excusable, what with the translations referring to her as "Sir", presumably due to a misunderstanding of British titles. A woman given the honor of joining a knightly order is referred to with the honorific "Lady" or "Dame" (depending on the order and rank).
  • Warrant Officer Shroedinger looks very much like Seras Victoria but with cat ears.
• Heroman gives us Joey, the main character. His design is androgynous at best and his personality, body language, and especially his voice are much closer to a tomboyish girl than a teenage male. It's enough to make you wonder. It doesn't help that his name can be a girl's name too, although more rarely. Joey is androgynous all around. Thick shoulder-length blonde hair, girly voice, short, thin, even a little curvy... Yeah, few people probably knew he was a guy when they saw him for the first time.
• In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, a number of readers weren't sure whether Rosie was a Pretty Boy or a Bifauxnen, given his Gender-Blender Name, effeminate-looking braid, and his armor covering any secondary sexual characteristics. Clothing Damage eventually proved once and for all that Rosie was a man.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Hong Kong. A normal and quiet Chinese boy or a very convincing Bifauxnen? The kid was eventually confirmed by Word of God to be male, but new fans still get confused...
  • Even China himself. Non-fans who know of the series' existence — or even occasionally some unknowing fans — call him a girl. Considering his long black/brown hair, his slim figure and small shoulders (at least in the webcomic), him being the second shortest of the main eight characters, his unisex human name, and his female seiyu, it's not that difficult to fall prey to Viewer Gender Confusion when concerning him. And when Chinese state run television unknowingly used a piece of Russia x China fanart, they apparently mistook China as Russia's apparent wife.
  • New Zealand is a source of this. Are they a cute short-haired girl or a simply effeminate looking boy in the vein of Poland and China? Eventually they were shown to be male.
  • Lithuania and Poland (the latter being a Wholesome Crossdresser) will often be mistaken for girls by new fans/people who don't know the series. An amusing comment on the PolandxLithuania group on Deviantart remarks on this:
  Person 1: Are they lesbians?
  Person 2: They are two boys.
  Person 1: *mind fucked* o.o
  • In universe example in the English dub.
  Soldier on seeing Holy Roman Empire's picture of young Italy: Oh ho! Is this the painting of your little girlfriend, or boyfriend, or gender-neutral chibi-thing?
  • Kugelmugel: a braids-wearing, art obsessed effeminate boy. Was even referred to as "she" in the Tokyopop translation.
• Oyashiro-Sama from Higurashi: When They Cry is used extremely mysteriously throught the series, and then the big twist comes that Oyashiro is actually a completely innocent girl. Deliberate trick on the viewer.
• Fujiwara no Sai from Hikaru no Go. It's not so difficult to see what his gender is if one has a passing knowledge of Heian court dress, but the western audience is left wholly at sea.
• Hunter × Hunter:
  • Kurapika. His gender is hidden for a large part of the manga and he is so perfectly androgynous that it's difficult to make up one's mind. It's easier when he takes off his tabard, which looks kind of like a dress and blocks the view of his chest.
  • Neferpitou has no confirmed gender but translations insist on using arbitrary gendered pronouns, adding to the confusion.
  • Kalluto is one of Killua's siblings. He looks like a kimono wearing girl.
  • Alluka is perfectly feminine looking however there's confusion whether she's male or female. The reader was led to believe Killua only had brothers until her introduction. Killua refers to her as female however the rest of her family calls her "it". It's largely assumed she is transgender.
• Many characters from Inazuma Eleven but Kirino Ranmaru◊ from Go stands out. He has long, pink hair which he wears in pigtails, but is nevertheless a boy. It also doesn't help that his keshin is Brynhildr, and his mixi-max is was with Joan Of Arc, both of them being female figures of mythology and history, respectively.
  • A few players/viewers have been confused about Kazemaru◊ and Miyasaka's◊ gender upon first playing the game or watching the anime. Sure, the player will figure out Kazemaru's a guy after hearing his voice, but Miyasaka looks and sounds so girly in the anime that one has to constantly remind themselves that he's male. Probably justified in that they're young and might not have hit puberty yet, but still, Miyasaka had this problem so much, that the English dub of the anime actually gender-swapped him into a female.
• Inuyasha:
  • Jakotsu of the Band of Seven is a prime example of this, confusion deriving from him being a cross-dressing homosexual coupled with the fact that his voice in both languages is provided by a woman. Apparently creator Rumiko Takahashi originally intended for him to be female, but opted for making him gay instead, as she wasn't keen on the idea of having Inuyasha fight a human woman.
  • Shippo, the fox demon of Inu-Yasha's group is often mistaken for a girl due to having female voice actors and wearing a bow in his hair.
  • There was also a filler in which a sibling of an early set of antagonists, the Thunder Brothers, challenged Shippo to a fight for revenge against "his" Brothers. Both actually sound feminine but they're young kids and the practice of hiring women to voice kids is very common practice. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the younger "Brother" was actually a "sister"!
  • Sesshomaru, in the early chapters of the manga, tripped up many people until Inuyasha explicitly referred to him as "Brother".
• In the hentai series Jiburiru: The Devil Angel and its sequel Jiburiru: The Second Coming, the main antagonist, Asmodeus, is a demon-child with the goal that all demons in hentai seem to have: Tentacle rape the heroine into submission. However, the fact that they are voiced by a woman, have a voice that could be scratchy feminine or unchanged masculine, appears to be of an age right around puberty, semi-short hair, and partially revealing clothes do not help at all in deciphering whether they are a boy or girl. Finally it is revealed they are actually a hermaphrodite, when he/she has sex with the main character. (Did we mention they also have a smiley face on their penis?)
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Hermes from Part 6 is really masculine. If not for text and the fact she's in a female prison and some of the insinuative events at her first appearance (and other times), one would have sworn she was a he.
  • Also Narancia from Part 5, but in reverse as thinking 'he' was a 'she'. His attire and having female voice actors in the games doesn't help. Less so in the anime, which makes him look slightly more masculine and gives him a male voice actor. It's worth noting his stand is Aerosmith.
  • Buccelatti is another one from Part 5 — his pageboy haircut and fabulous outfit being mostly to blame. The anime makes him look significantly more masculine and gives him a baritone voice.
• K has Kuroh Yatogami, who looks a lot like the aforementioned Yu Kanda, and the occasional Ship Tease he gets with Shiro doesn't help.
  • Some people have mistaken Misaki Yata for a girl as well, due to his slim figure and having a name usually reserved for girls.
• Karakuridouji Ultimo loves this trope. The confusion ranges from just some ridiculously Pretty Boy to the outright cruel. Take at look at Service.
  • Service was so much Viewer Gender Confusion that the author gave him a Shirtless Scene. To say the least, the fandom freaked out.
• Kaze to Ki no Uta:
  • Arion Rosemariné has confused some scanlators. He dresses entirely in Gorgeous Period Dress, has long blond Ojou Ringlets, and is voiced by a woman in the OVA. The only way many people have realized his actual gender is through the fact that he lives at an all-boys boarding school. In any case, his gender is proved once and for all when it's revealed that Auguste raped him, and Auguste only goes for pretty boys.
  • Liliath Florian manages to be an even easier to get confused about. This minor character has flowers in his hair, is very effeminate both in appearance and personality, and seems to be flat-out referred to as a girl by other characters... and yet he goes to the very same all-boys school.
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!:
  • When the trailers released, quite a few fans mistook Asakusa to be a boy due to her Tomboyish Voice and androgynous appearance. According to an interview with animator Mari Motohashi, the three main characters are animated with a "gender neutral" feel in mind and the staff was instructed to avoid making the characters' poses and expressions "girlish," so this isn't too surprising.
  • Doumeki takes this even further with her even more androgynous appearance, clothing, and voice, making her an easy candidate to be mistaken for a boy. However, this is mitigated by her almost always being seen in a female school uniform following her debut appearance.
• Kill la Kill:
  • Iori is a slender, long haired blond boy who's a part of the Sewing Club.
  • Not everyone realized Mataro was a boy until he's clearly shown naked and is referred to as Mako's brother. He strongly resembles his mother and sister, is prepubescent, and dresses like a tomboy. Many thought he was a Butch Lesbian.
• Osamu Tezuka:
  • Kimba the White Lion: Due to Tezuka's art style which averts Tertiary Sexual Characteristics (even male characters have eyelashes), and due to the Cross-Dressing Voices, people who have no knowledge of the series watching the 90s dub for the first time and caught certain filler episodes have thought that the title character is female.
  • The title character Unico from the late 70s manga series of the same name, is easily mistaken as a female. This might be due to the character having short pink hair (or red in some artwork), being a baby unicorn, and voiced by women in both dubs and every animated appearance (except for Unico Black Cloud And White Feather where he was voiced by Hiroya Oka, who was a young boy). Not helping is that some of Tezuka's illustrations and artwork of Unico shows him wearing yellow or pink eyeshadow◊, long eyelashes◊, and sometimes wearing a bow around his horn◊ (which Unico actually enjoys). His design in the upcoming manga Unico: Awakening (a re-imagining of Unico) by Gurihiru and Samual Sattin decided to give him a more androgynous design.
  • Another character from Unico is Piro/Marusu a young sphinx. Despite his feminine mane/hair style and appearance, Piro was is actually a boy as seen in the original manga. However in Unico in the Island of Magic, the character's gender is never mentioned or brought up in all versions of the film leaving viewers to mistaken him as a girl.
• Kino from Kino's Journey causes this trope. It's not helped by a certain tendency to use both male and female pronouns on and off. Thankfully, the real gender is a plot point, and a good bit of the character's development and relationship with the audience is developed around the confusion... even if most viewers get it wrong the first time. The English translation of the first novel moves The Reveal chapter to the start of the book to avoid having to dance around pronouns, while the English dub of the anime gives Kino something of an androgynous voice, so you're not sure if she's a boy or a girl for several episodes until a gender pronoun is used.
• In the Koudelka manga, the little boy turns out to be a little girl whom her mother, a prostitute, disguised as a boy to save her from being used as a prostitute in turn.
• Kurau from Kurau Phantom Memory. Even though she has an alternate persona in Christmas, who is obviously female, her ambiguous clothing, hairstyle and seiyuu cause some confusion. It gets better with age, though.
• There is some disagreement about the gender of Pierre◊ in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, which may well be the goal of the author of the original light novels. Pierre's real name, Akeru, is a typical girl's name, although there are no truly fixed rules for that in Japan. Also, Pierre has long braided hair and female mannerims, but in the world of manga and anime (and outside of it) that doesn't have to mean much. Pierre furthermore uses the gender-neutral "watakushi" for "I", which complicates matters even more.
• Kira from Legend of Himiko can definitely throw off viewers. The fact that her/his higher-ups call her/him "Lady Kira" assure us that Kira is female, but her voice does sound like that of a boy who sounds like a girl.
• Several characters from the Loveless manga. Yayoi, Kio, and both halves of "Zero" who have longer hair in feminine styles, feminine body structures, and most often baggy/feminine looking clothes. And no voice actors to seek guidance from. At least in the anime, Yayoi, Kio and Youji are all voiced by blokes, and even Natsuo's seiyuu is best known for voicing young boys. The real prize for this trope should go to Yurio, who appears quite late in the manga, has a very girly hairstyle (bobbed with long curls underneath), has the kanji for "man" in his/her name, and generally gives people a headache as to what his/her actual gender is.
• The Big Bad of Macross 7, Lord Geppelnitch, looks and sounds so completely feminine that most were convinced that the title "Lord" was a mistranslation. Several times the character is identified as male, but it isn't conclusively proven until the final episodes, where he appears without a shirt and the lack of breasts makes it clear. One fansubbing group felt the need to insert a note in the early episodes stating "No, really, that's a guy!" to pre-empt the confusion.
• In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, thanks to her deep voice, baggy clothes, and boyish looks, a lot of people mistook Otto to be The One Guy amongst the Numbers Cyborgs. It wasn't until Jail revealed that all of his cyborgs are pregnant with a perfect clone of him did those people realize that, yes, she's a female too.
• Nachos from Magical Meow Meow Taruto is actually a boy, but it's very hard to tell until his gender is actually stated because he has long hair in braids and looks more feminine than his sister, Chips. Their gender-neutral names don't help, either.
• Magical × Miracle inspires a lot of this. For starters, the main character Merleawe is a girl who looks exactly like (and must pretend to be) the male Master Wizard, who went missing. In the bonus art, it's really hard to tell which is which. In addition, several fans have expressed confusion at Yue's gender. He's actually a man, but between the long hair, the Qipao, and the Gender-Blender Name, things can get confusing. It gets more confusing when, in book 2, a female character who closely resembles him (both in looks and Sugar-and-Ice Personality) was introduced in Glenn's flashback. Perhaps Lampshading that, later in the book, General Lenolora makes fun of him for looking like a girl.
• Ryo Kuromatsu from the manga The Magic Touch is a girl but she looks remarkably like a boy and is rarely seen in her school uniform. When first encountered in the manga, her gender is not specified, save for one character calling her "she" in order to surprise Amane Mihime, and the reader who didn't catch the gender drop.
• In A^note "Once" and "Twice" are written with a strikethrough Many Times-in-a-Lifetime Encounter, the protagonist, who has short hair and Bifauxnen appearance, keeps running into a woman working at various businesses, all of which close soon after the protagonist encounters the woman. One might assume that the protagonist is a man despite the Yuri Genre tag, but the protagonist is a woman, since she wears a skirt with her school uniform and complains about wearing high heels.
• Hana from Michiko & Hatchin; she even gets mistaken for a boy in a few episodes. She's young (ten years old), dresses in a boyish manner, has short hair, and her voice isn't all that feminine. The series takes place in South America, so Japanese Pronouns can't help either in-series.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
  • Tieria Erde. Likely the first response of most viewers the first time he speaks (in a rather masculine voice) is "That was a guy?!" This spawned a bit of a Memetic Mutation in Japan, as many artists gleefully went right to work in creating pictures of Tieria as a girl... While only having to slightly change some visual details (and in a few cases, giving "her" a somewhat Genki Girl personality).
  • As if Tieria wasn't bad enough, season two brings a new character named Regene Regetta, who looks almost exactly like Tieria (curly hair aside) and has a very feminine voice (and up until his character design was released shortly before the season started, there was rampant confusion and speculation over his gender. Then again, his aforementioned girly voice is provided by Romi Park, of all people).
    • This was most likely a shout out to Gundam's original Wholesome Crossdresser, Loran Cehack of ∀ Gundam — Park voiced him too in her first major seiyuu role.
  • ALL Innovators are basically this. Just try to guess the genders of Revive Revival or (really worst offender here) Hilling Care. Hilling was wearing a tuxedo in Ribbons' party and looks rather boyish, but still uses pronouns and speech patterns that are distinctively feminine. Word of God is that only some of them, specifically the ones meant to live among humaity, have genders and the rest are genderless.
• Mr. X from Midnight Horror School is supposed to be non-binary, but has the male honorific Mr. This caused confusion both in and out of universe.
• For people who have not seen the anime Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit from the start, it may be a surprise that Chagum is a boy because of his very youthful looks and him wearing a small ponytail.
• Naruto has a few:
  • The first example would have to be Haku. In their first interaction, Naruto thought he was a girl until Haku stated that he was a guy and even then commented that "he's even prettier than Sakura-chan!" To add on more gender confusion, Haku is voiced by a woman in every language except the Hungarian redub!
  • Gaara's uncle Yashamaru looks exactly like his sister. Even though the "-maru" indicates a male, some translations referred to him as a female.
  • For that matter, had Sasuke not mentioned that it was a "man" that he vowed to kill or had he not been introduced as Sasuke's "brother", many a fan would've assumed Itachi was a girl at first glance. The luxuriously thick eyelashes, long hair, and short and slim build (when seen next to Kisame) didn't help. In a flashback to the night of the Kyuubi attack, the only feature distinguishing him from his mother's established appearance was the facial lines he inherited from his father.
  • Deidara's gender was ambiguous at first, as the long blond hair and slim build suggested a female. It doesn't help that he looks like Ino's older sister.
  • Sai's midriff exposing top and slim build, along with his Emotionless Girl status cast some doubts about his gender at first.
  • Taken to its extreme with the seven-tails host, who is only seen on the splash page of one chapter and an artbook where the author himself stated he was unsure of his/her gender. He eventually settled on female.
  • Kurenai's daughter Mirai in chapter 700 caused this reaction with a lot of fans.
  • Inojin, Ino's and Sai's child, is male but has soft features and a ponytail. He gets his androgyny from his dad.
  • Shikadai looks like a young version of his father however inherited his mothers big feminine eyes and long eyelashes.
• Yoshiyuki Sadamoto admitted straight out in an Omake to an early volume of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga that Shinji's design is basically Nadia's with a different haircut. So this is understandable. Not to mention that his Japanese voice belonged to a lady who is very well-known for her deep voice. Case in point, she's also well-known as Sailor Uranus, who has her own entry. It happens a lot in the Alternate Continuity Gakuen Datenroku ("Records of Heaven's Descent"), where Shinji is at his most androgynous and really looks like Maya and where it's sometimes necessary to have a close look to realize that the cute short-haired girl is actually him. It does not help that any genderswap art of the cast just switches Shinji's and Maya's uniforms.
• Nurse Angel Ririka SOS:
  • Dewey is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy, likes brightly colored clothing, and doesn't have a particularly masculine voice. He's prettier than even Nozomu.
  • Zaida is an adult, unlike Dewey, but still counts. He dresses flamboyantly, has long eyelashes, and wears his hair long. In fact most of the antagonists have long hair, and the ones that don't are still pretty.
• Delicate and Sickly Kayoko Nagato in Ojamajo Doremi has a name that isn't very girly, an androgynous voice, and a very short haircut (her dinosaur tooth necklace doesn't help). The only telltales were her pink backpack and Doremi using -chan when referring to her.
• One Piece:
  • While not the most common, Chopper in a few cases, being the Ridiculously Cute Critter with a female VA and pink as his main color. On the Drum Island arc commentary, some of the dubbers at Funimation admitted they weren't sure of his gender until hearing his scream about being a man.
  • Dellinger, though flat-chested, acts flamboyantly, has rather shapely legs, and wears high heels. On Oda's SBS Volume 76, a writer congratulated Oda for finally including a flat-chested female to his cast, but Oda corrected him and said that Dellinger is male. His Justification is that Dellinger was raised from birth by Giolla, another member of the Donquixote Pirates, who brought him up with her own feminine tastes.
  • Since the release of Chapter 1085, people have debated whether Crocodile's Seraphim is a boy or a girl since they found the character in question to be pretty for a clone of Crocodile, causing the "Crocodile used to be a woman" fan theory to resurface.
• Patlabor: Protagonist Noa Izumi can easily pass off for a young male while in uniform. Heck, even out of uniform; her Boyish Short Hair and general tomboyish mannerisms and choice of clothing certainly don't help either. It's rather convenient that the very first episode has her introduced wearing a skirt-and-heels female police uniform, probably to make it clear from the get-go.
• Jun from Persona -trinity soul- is very easily mistaken for a flat-chested girl. Slightly justified in that his twin sister died in a car crash and donated part of her brain and organs to him, resulting in a shared Persona.
• Ana Gram from Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God is apparently a dude despite looking, dressing and sounding like a girl. Apparently confirmed after taking his ^{shirt off} you only see his back. Despite this, he gets to share a room with the other girls and go on "girls only" dates, with his comments of "But I'm a boy" getting mostly ignored.
• Goh of Pokémon Journeys: The Series has a feminine voice (courtesy of Daiki Yamashita), prominent eyelashes, red highlights that look like hairclips, and clothes that look more on the tomboyish side of androgyny. Before official press releases confirmed he was a boy, fans were certain Goh was Ash's first butch female companion.
• Epsilon from Urasawa's Pluto. What makes it even more difficult is that he's based on the Astro Boy character Neptune (who is male), but shares the name and character traits (such as being a Technical Pacifist) of a female character from the same series. It doesn't help that the fan translation has referred to him as "she" once or twice...
• The titular Popee the Performer is often mistaken for a girl or non-binary person by unfamiliar viewers due to his somewhat androgynous appearance, his outfit being pink and red, and his name being similar to the usually feminine Poppy. The show having (almost) no voice acting certainly doesn't help clear anything up. Hilariously, Popee has a Distaff Counterpart named Eepop who uses the exact same model but recolored.
• In Ranma ½ you have Konatsu the "Genius Kuoichi", a crossdresser who managed to trick Ukyo and the rest of the cast into thinking he's female until his clothes get blown off.
• After Art Evolution, Reborn! (2004) has suddenly started getting a bunch of them. Chief offenders include the Acrobaleno Viper from the Varia and Kikyo and Daisy of the Real Furneral Wreathes. Only in the latest chapter has the translator been certain that Kikyo is male and no one can is yet certain if Daisy is this or a Bifauxnen.
  • It's now been confirmed that Daisy is a boy.
• Richard in Requiem of the Rose King is confused as female by some fans. Biologically speaking, he is intersex, but Richard considers himself male and refers to himself with male pronouns.
• Huang Chaun from Riki-Oh is a very effeminate man with a slender build, lipstick, long eyelashes, and long painted finger nails, but he has a rather masculine voice in the anime. In the live-action adaptation, they went further and had him played by an actual woman and voice-dubbed by a man.
• Risky from Risky☆Safety is androgynous, a voice that sounds like it either belongs to a tough girl or a young boy, and... ah, it's just hard to tell. The Japanese version never explicitly came out and said anything until about two-thirds of the way through, and even the dub got confused, referring to the revealed-female Risky as male, calling her "him", "he", and having a minor character refer to her as "Mister Shinigami." She also refers to herself as "ore was" in Japanese, adding to the confusion. Please note this only applies to the anime adaption, as Risky in the manga is quite clearly a female.
• Junior in R.O.D the TV. Letting down his long, flowing hair, after being introduced in boy's clothes has a tendency to cement the confusion,and don't forget Maggie who even does not wear a dress to a party or ball.
• Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin. He has long red hair, a slim build and a rather feminine face. The author, in fact, stated that he gave Kenshin his X-shaped scar to make him look more masculine. Not surprising, as his Real Life counterpart, Kawakami Gensai, was said to be of a small stature, slim build and unusually pretty... for the deadliest assassin on the Loyalists' side. Both he and Kenshin had their fair share of being mistaken for a woman — and the latter in-story too.
• In The '90s anime of Sailor Moon:
  • Zirconia is a decrepit old woman who's initially only seen in shadow, so by the time she was given The Reveal she had already been dubbed as an old man.
  • Sailor Uranus has occasionally run into this in some adaptations; while she has even occasionally portrayed as female only while transformed, many adaptations find hiding her gender too difficult or ingenuine to bother with. In Sailor Moon Crystal, Michiru (Sailor Neptune) explicitly says that Haruka (Sailor Uranus) is "both a man and a woman", though whether that's supposed to mean she's genderfluid or that she physically becomes male when not Sailor Uranus is unclear.
  • Fisheye is an even worse case, being a Wholesome Crossdresser. Even some dubs that didn't have much problem with crossdressing and homosexuality to begin with managed to get his gender wrong.
  • Happens with Zoisite as well, thanks to Canada and several other countries dubbing him as a woman.
• Rei of Saint Beast. Especially when the viewer doesn't know the show belongs to the BL genre.
• Saint Seiya:
  • Andromeda Shun has a feminine voice in the Japanese dub, wears pink armor, has a slight figure, and is prettier than most of the female cast. In fact, most of the Cast Full of Pretty Boys in the series are prettier than most of its female characters and have fooled many unwary viewers. It confused even the French dubbers who had a female voice actress dub Shun's lines in the first few eps, until Ikki calls Shun explicitly his "brother". And later, there is this episode stating that female Saints wear masks, but the confusion's still there. To make matters even more confusing, there was an adaptation where Shun was a girl — Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac. She also happened to be renamed "Shaun" and given Boyish Short Hair, which threw people in for a loop in the opposite direction.
  • It's even worse with Pisces Aphrodite (also given a female voice in the French Dub). Even knowing that female saints are supposed to be masked, and thus he has to be male... he's girlier than Shun, wears lipstick and fights with roses... and seriously, he's called "Aphrodite"! Saga even describes him as "the warrior of beauty".
  • Aries Mu, possessor of a very pretty face and long, shiny pink hair, also got a female voice in the French dub.
  • Aquarius Camus was — in the manga — explained to have long red hair, long red fingernails and feminine features because the Aquarius sign represents the myth of Ganymede and has been seen as both male and female. This didn't transfer into the anime, but it left viewers wondering exactly what other excuses Kuruamada had for all this Ho Yay and Viewer Gender Confusion.
  • The queen of this trope is Lacerta Misty. Big poofy blonde hair, wears pink, wears pink "lipstick" and says "alrighty"? It took until he was completely naked for most of the viewers to realise his gender — and even then some didn't believe it. Even when his dub voice is none other than Vic Mignogna.
• Several Saki viewers were quite surprised when Jun shouted "I'm a girl!", partly thanks to her heavy usage of the "ore" pronoun. Guess they just assumed that she was The One Guy in the entire tournament.
• The manga adaptation of Sands of Destruction has such a pretty art style that the male characters all look quite feminine (with perhaps the exception of Agan, who is given a strong enough nose and jawline that he's clearly male). As the artist also employs Adaptational Curves for the female characters, the quickest way to tell if someone is male or female is to look at their chest; this is especially important for characters who are exceptionally polite, such as Kyrie and Kou. The original game and anime didn't have this problem; even soft-faced Kyrie was still clearly a boy, just a gentle one.
• Kougami from School-Live! was thought to be female by many fans until it was revealed he impregnated another character. He looks like a short haired girl, or a preteen boy, but is apparently a college student.
• Haihane of the disciplinary squad in Sekirei looks like an androgynous man until she loses her jacket (revealing she's female).
• Many first time viewers of Sgt. Frog think cutesy, shiny-eyed Private Tamama is a girl, and this isn't helped by his crush on Keroro or the fact that he has multiple female voice actors.
• Norio Koga in Shadow Star. Apparently, some readers have gone through the entire manga without realising that the character is (biologically) male. It doesn't help that his hair is nicer than most girls, and that he's lusted after by both male and female fans.
• It was pretty much inevitable in Simoun. Not helping was the fact that the most prominent breasts in the series are also possessed by the most prominent male character.
• Crona from Soul Eater. Even Word of God refused to confirm her/his gender! In the English dub, Crona is referred to with male pronouns because the dubbers didn't want the dialogue to sound too awkward by avoiding the subject. No one, especially the ones behind the English dub, has a clue behind Crona's gender.
• QT from Space☆Dandy, a robot with a female voice and mannerisms who takes on stereotypical female roles such as cooking and cleaning on Dandy's ship. Nearly everyone was convinced that QT was female. That is, until Dandy and Meow refer to him as a "he." The fact that they only start addressing him as male near the end of the first season didn't help.
• The Boys' Love light novel and anime series Sukisho has Team Mom Nanami. Everything about him is completely feminine and he even goes by a female name. His clothing when outside or at work are rather ambiguous, but at home he's usually seen wearing an apron or bunny slippers. The only hint on his male gender ever are the pronouns in the subtitles and in one episodes even the subtitle refer to him as female.
• Kazuma from Summer Wars has a rather feminine voice and is androgynous enough that a lot of watchers have mistook him for a tomboyish girl.
• Kaoru from ‘’Super Mario Bros.’’ Presents: Mario’s Fire Brigade is a girl but some viewers think she could be a boy because of her gender neutral clothing colors, short hair, and she’s prepubescent.
• Suzy's Zoo: Daisuki! Witzy: The titular Witzy has raised some confusion to those who're not familiar with the Little Suzy's Zoo franchise, especially in the original Japanese dub where the pitch of the voice was high enough to be somewhat ambiguous. The English dub has him with a lower pitched voice, but it still confused some people into thinking he's a tomboy.
• Zaji of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee is thought to be either a boyish-looking young woman or a man. It doesn't help that early on in the series, a girl named Nelli who looks a little like Zaji is mistaken for a boy.
• Leeron from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can easily be mistaken for a woman at first because of his feminine look and crossdressing nature, but it turns out he's actually a homosexual, crossdressing man.
• Suzuya from Tokyo Ghoul dresses in a stereotypically masculine attire however still manages to come off as an androgynous woman. This is justified as he was castrated before he could hit puberty.
• People who never watched Tokyo Mew Mew or who first watch it can mistake Kisshu and Taruto for girls due to their pigtails and midriff-exposing outfits. Not to mention both of them have a long eyelash, which can confuse those who didn't watch the show (instead, those who watched it should know that every male character is drawn with a single eyelash, while female characters have more eyelashes). In fact, Taruto at first confused the dubbers and is referred to as a witch in the first episode, but they later realize he's a boy and is dubbed as one from then on.
• Tower of God could easily have the title Gender Confusion: the Webtoon. OK — the list of named characters that cause hassle is currently this: Yu Hansung (guy... honest, just believe us on this point), Hoh (guy: no, seriously... don't let that hair or those clothes fool you!), Nya Nia (guy: even with that name!), Ran (nope, not a short-haired girl) and now we currently have Quaetro (undecided: as yet... we'll get back to you on that). Add to those the characters who, although you can tell their genders after a couple of glances, are still so painfully pretty they can cause in-world issues: Bam (he can really fool), Khun Aguero (can rock a ponytail), and... pop them in the right clothes, and you'd have problems with Hatz and even Wangnan. Possibly even Lero-Ro. Word of God is a good thing. Oh, and just to underline the point? SIU totally averts the trope with such testosterone-bleeding characters as Urek, Horyang (in his own, Gentle Giant kind of way) and Nobic.
  • There's also handsome-woman Evankhell, who's an especially frustrating case since the first references to her explicitly referred to Evankhell as a he in the translations. Evankhell's sharper jawline and military uniform don't help matters either. Her more feminine features such as her bust and long hair are almost rendered irrelevant too, since so many dudes have worn drapey clothes with a middle band, causing a slightly distended contour to the torso, that the appearance of boobs aren't always a give away sign of being a girl. Also, so many dudes have had long hair at this point that it doesn't matter. (For an example of both problems at play, see the above Yu Hansung and Hoh.)
• In Trigun, when you first see Vash and Knives as children they look very much like girls, but once you hear them speak you realize their gender.
• Quite a few people mistake Fai from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- and his "poofy Toma Seguchi coat" for a girl. Even though he is most definitely male, no matter how good he'd look in a dress.
• Kanon from Umineko: When They Cry. He's even harder to differentiate than usual because not only does he look feminine, his voice sounds feminine too. There is a reason for his feminity, namely the fact that he is just a Split Personality of Yasu/Shannon/Beatrice, plus the fact that with the reveal of Lion, it's confusing of what gender they truly are.
• Un-Go has the detective's assistant, Inga, who apparently is an energetic young boy, although it's hard to be sure. The main issue being that for yet unknown reasons, possibly provoked by how close the 'truth' is in a case, Inga transforms into a vaguely monstrous (it's somewhat feline, and looks to be bigger than a person should be) female who insists to Yuuki that she be told a single question to solve the case.
• Shinobu from UQ Holder! is probably female but just boyish enough that she could well be a boy with a girly face. Later chapters confirm she's a girl.
• Canute from Vinland Saga amongst both the fandom and in-canon is confused for a girl when he first appears. He's male though, most certainly.
• Dilandaeu in The Vision of Escaflowne has the voice and features of a girl, but everybody referred to him as a man, so that settled that. The finale throws everybody for one hell of a loop.
• In the Warrior Cats manga The Rise of Scourge, it's unclear whether Brick◊ is a tom or she-cat, and it was a point of debate for years: some fans felt the cat looked masculine, while others disagreed and pointed out that Brick had distinctive eyelashes like Scourge's mother and sister. Twelve years later, the novel Graystripe's Vow finally confirmed Brick to be male.
• Midriff-exposing, bangle-wearing Toboe from Wolf's Rain apparently caused author gender confusion — an artist's note accompanying character model sheets in the first manga volume jokingly (?) laments "I thought he was a girl... sniffle".
• In The World God Only Knows, Chief Dokuro is typically assumed to be male, despite the fact that all New Devils are female. This extends to the anime, where in the dub she has a male voice actor, and in the sub her voice actress uses such a coarse voice that everyone assumes she's male.
• Shigeru Kanmuri from Yakitate!! Japan, especially when he wore a girls' sailor uniform. Even the artist admits that up-close, he looks exactly like Tsukino.
• Sesshomaru’s daughter Towa from Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon she looks more like her father than her mother, has short boyish hair, and typically wears a suit and pants rather than dresses or skirts like most of the other female characters.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has one in every adaptation:
  • Bakura from the second anime Yu-Gi-Oh!. officially, he's a male with long, flowing white hair and a voice in the original Japanese that leaves everyone wondering. It doesn't help when you find out that he actually had a female voice actor.
  • Amelda/Alister has a feminine name in the original Japanese. And he looks a lot like a tomboyish girl with a small bust. He seems like an evil version of a Shorttank, except for the fact he's actually male.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX:
    • Doctor Crowler. His voice in the original is very clearly male, but the dub does add quite a bit of confusion to the issue. The purple lipstick doesn't help. The dub even lampshades it from time to time.
    • Even worse is Yubel. You're pretty much guaranteed to guess the wrong gender. Because "she" and "he" are both used in reference and Yubel is technically a hermaphrodite at this point. Even the original Yubel is very androgynous, though not to the same cheater level as most of the series.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has three of these:
    • Rally is supposed to be a boy, but has long red hair, huge round eyes and a voice that could be confused for either gender. His clothes don't help.
    • Jeager is short with a slim build, a feminine high-pitched voice, lipstick and pointy ears. He's supposed to be a clown, but his gender is not very clear.
    • Luciano is even more confusing. If he wasn't wearing a male uniform, the long red plait and girly voice could fool anyone. It certainly doesn't help those who play the World Championship Series games that, in the 2011 title, Luciano's hairstyle and outfit are only available for female characters.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Reira/Riley Akaba is a poster child for this, being a young child with a gender-neutral name in both versions. To further obfuscate the issue, Reira is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns in the original while the dub uses male ones, although he's been interpreted as a girl nonetheless. Turns out there was a good reason for this; Riley later channels the spirit of the female Ray (pulling down their cap and hood to reveal a head of long hair, which could be interpreted as either a visual representation of the possession or a gender reveal) and is later reborn as a girl, so while she's definitely female at the end of the series, endless debates have abounded as to what gender she actually was before then (Yugipedia assumes she was female all along).
  • As Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series said: "There are no women in Yu-Gi-Oh! Only extremely girly men! And I am the girliest of them all!"^note He may very well be: he has shoulder-length hair, a pale-purple crop top with these darling little gold chains across the bust, eye makeup, and massive amounts of jewelry, and his features are generally drawn a bit more delicate than those of most of the other male characters.
  Pegasus: Keep telling yourself that.
• Yuki Kaori has been guilty of making her characters (of either sex) look more like the other's gender thanks to her love of androgyny. She mentioned once about the character Rociel from Angel Sanctuary that she got letters early on asking if he were male or female. Her response was something like "Well, I did say he was Katan's father..."
• Waq Waq's Yoki looks like a woman with a feminine face and long hair, and dresses in loose robes, but is referred to as "he".
• Some people that read YuYu Hakusho may have mistaken Kurama for a girl, due to the hair and the way that his shirt is drawn (with a fold at breast-level), only to be embarrassed when they find out otherwise. They should feel better when they read the story which has him crossdressing to investigate a haunting at a girl's highschool campus, and several people mistaking him for a girl even when dressed normally.
  • In the Philippines, Kurama initially had a distinctly female VA and started out female. Yusuke was surprised to learn he was a guy on their first assignment in the demon world. The explanation given was that he was male in the demon world but female in the human world. However, all later appearances had him strictly male, regardless of which world he was in. The dubbers were apparently also confused as to Genkai's gender as the name they gave her was Jeremiah and her VA was very noticeably male. It wasn't until after she first transformed into her younger self during the Dark Tournament that she was given a female VA.
  • There is also the one shot villian Miyuki a very feminine looking demon dressed in feminine clothes with an equally feminine voice, after knocking him unconscious Yusuke and Kuwabara pull down his pants and are shocked that such a feminine demon is actually male.
  • The Hungarian dub of the anime has a deep but definitely female voice actor for Kurama.
• Zatch Bell! has Zofis, who is voiced by a woman in both the Japanese and English versions, has curly hair, and has clothes and a face that inspires resemblance to a demonic doll. Despite all this, he is confirmed to be male.
• Plenty of people have mistaken Asuka from Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh for a girl due to his effeminate appearance and teeny-tiny shorts, even on this very wiki. His name doesn't help, as it's the name of a female pilot in another, more well-known series; and that his voices in both Japanese and English versions are pretty androgynous. Not that his fanboys care...
• Ranewater Calder from Zombie Powder. It didn't help that he's the leader of a gang called the "Ash Daughter Gang", and it certainly didn't help that he was drawn as being much prettier and feminine than pretty much all the women in the series.

---