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Animal X is a lengthy series of yaoi manga by mangaka Sugimoto Ami.

Yuuji Ayukawa is a meek 27-year-old man who has never been in control of his own life. From his fiancée lecturing him about his shyness and sensitivity to his position as glorified guinea pig at Endou Chemical, Yuuji is the quintessential Extreme Doormat.

One evening, he comes home to find that he has left a window in his room open. A wild young man who has just escaped government custody leaps out from beneath his bed and threatens to kill him. Yuuji's roommate, another in the long line of bullies Yuuji apologetically endures, bursts in...and is promptly decapitated by a fifteen-foot-tall T-rex. It turns out that Minato is a 17-year-old dinosauroid, part of a species that has long lived apart but parallel with humans, and he is capable of transforming into a reptilian killing machine under stress. Something has attracted him to Yuuji's room: Yuuji "smells like kin" and Minato is immediately overcome by an overwhelming desire to mate. From there, the story becomes the tale of various Ancient Conspiracies, corrupt researchers and executives, and Yuuji and Minato's evolving relationship.

And then Yuuji gets pregnant.

It is probably one of the least sensational uses of Gender Bending and Mpreg since The Left Hand of Darkness.

Currently has three series, Aragami no Ichizoku , Daichi no Okite, and Genshi Sairai, the last of which is incomplete and on hiatus.

Not to be confused with the Discovery Channel series about cryptozoological animals.


Provides Examples Of:

  • Action Girl: Despite the plot revolving around the lack of women, we get a couple in Linea and Yury.
  • All-Loving Hero: Deconstructed with Yuiji. Although he wins over people threatening to eat him through kindness, the emotional cost of being so forgiving puts him working alongside his own rapists. Although he gains more allies this way, there's still danger in trusting people who previously saw him as breeding stock, which backfires when Shirakawa rapes him. Furthermore, Yuiji later reveals that he's so forgiving because he's been through so much awful shit that he no longer has it in him to hate everyone who wronged him, making him a Broken Bird more than a straight example of this trope.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Minato loses an arm and an eye during the fight with Maya.
  • Artificial Limbs: Minato gets one after losing an arm, and the technology comes up later when helping an injured dinosauroid boy.
  • Arranged Marriage: Yuuji and Kyouko (though it ultimately doesn't happen).
  • Badass Bookworm: Yuiji shows in-depth knowledge of medicine, archeology, politics, has a little education in Chinese, and is very badass. Often, his major contributions to the plot are directly because of his education.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Inverted with the zombie marines. The black guy is the ONLY survivor.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Seems to be the case with dinosauroids (both male and female), at least where gender politics is concerned.
  • Body Horror:
    • Yuuji takes manifesting female reproductive organs pretty well, but is scared of the idea of carrying a child to term.
    • Later, he becomes detached and apathetic about his body as a coping mechanism for traumatic experiences. It's metaphysical Body Horror.
    • Zombie Marines, anyone? Especially since they're intelligent, and slowly dying?
    • The female dinosauroid infant that Maya holds briefly. One cyclops-eye, no limbs, and protrusions that look suspiciously like tentacles. It's implied the girl died shortly after birth because of her deformities.
  • Break the Cutie: Between Morning Sickness, anemia, constant Even The Guys Want To Violently Violate Him, having to bear the child of the man who raped him (twice, after his gang rape by Shen and the other men of his village is revealed to have resulted in a pregnancy), and both him and his family being pawns/targets in half a dozen gambits, Yuuji cannot catch a break.
    • He crosses the Despair Event Horizon when he finds out what happened to his first child: she was subjected to vivisection, died, and then her remains were kept on ice in a research facility. After that, Yuuji is quietly broken and makes remarks that show that he's reached a point where he doesn't much care if he lives or dies. He eventually comes out of his depressed state, but is left deeply traumatized by the whole thing.
  • Child by Rape: Yuuji's first child was this. And so is his third, yet unborn child of still uncertain paternity.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Maya may be unable to fulfill the duty her society so desperately needs, but she has the largest dinosauroid form we've seen yet, is nigh-unbeatable in battle, and Multi-Armed and Dangerous.
  • Cute Little Fangs: Minato. And how!
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Turns out Maya is this, due to her inability to have children she doesn't know why she's alive and has become Ax-Crazy to give herself some way to be useful.
  • Deus Angst Machina: By the tenth or fifteenth volume you'd be forgiven for thinking that the entire world has it in for Yuuji and Minato.
  • Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Averted. Even when former rapists are Easily Forgiven due to being powerful allies, it's made clear that Minato never forgives them, and implied that Yuiji's "forgiveness" (if he gives it) is a sign/symptom of his despair.
  • Dying Race: Minato's.
  • Fantastic Racism: Dinosauroids vs humans. One of the reasons Yuiji is so often sexually assaulted is because as a human, many dinosauroids see him as a target of scorn and an outlet for their hatred.
    • Much of the third manga is about how humans are paranoid about dinosauroids due to a virus that makes them extremely aggressive. Meanwhile, the dinosauroids are getting angry at the humans for not doing anything to help them deal with the virus and for shunning them for facing an epidemic.
  • Gender Rarity Value: The dinosauroids obviously. The general attitude towards dinosauroid women seems to differ depending on the group. Minato's village seems to expect all women to be child-bearers, yet describe this as an honor and seem to respect the female post-menopausal dinosauroid. Shirakawa tries to be a Dogged Nice Guy and earn Yuiji's trust, once they're engaged. The group at the scientists compound are apparently Type 2, as they see themselves as "entitled" to any females of their kind, but ultimately turn out to be an example of Type 1 when they follow the orders of the psychic female and her clones, describing her as an object of worship. Shen's village treats Yuiji well at first, then it becomes clear they're losing patience and expected "her" to be polyandrous all along.
  • Hermaphrodite: Yuuji. "It feels like you're equipped for both."
  • Hate Plague: A dinosauroid-only disease couples itself with this in the later stages, and the rampaging dinosauroids infected with it leads to hostility from humans and further tensions between the two species. Because the disease is ultimately lethal, both dinosauroids and humans see themselves as the victims in the resulting political conflict.
  • Iconic Outfit: Maya is always wearing a poncho to hide her deformities.
  • Jumping the Gender Barrier: Yuuji and Minato are a good match, but Yuuji doesn't fall for Minato until after his transformation. He wonders if part of his heart has "become female too". See also The Mind Is The Play Thing Of The Body.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: While Yuiji is very fertile, so far we've had two female dinosauroids (four if you count the mutated infant girl and her mother who we saw only briefly) both of whom are very interested in preserving the future of their race but are unable to have children.
  • Love Redeems: No, it doesn't, Shirakawa.
    • Yuiji accidentally pulls this off repeatedly, turning several enemies into allies when they fall in love with him.
  • Mars Needs Women: Or, well, secret race of dinosaur people needs hermaphroditic hybrid.
  • Mate or Die: Minato is hellbent on propagating his Dying Race.
  • The Mind Is The Plaything Of The Body: Yuuji eventually makes references to thoughts that he, at least, identifies as coming from his male or female halves.
  • Mister Seahorse: Yuuji (for a total of three times now).
  • Must Not Die a Virgin: One dinosauroid in a Chinese village asks Yuiji to sleep with his dying brother so he won't die "without knowing a woman's touch." Yuiji instead uses his medical knowledge to help save the brother's life, and is promptly propositioned by the first guy.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robots: Police officers revived to hunt rogue dinosauroids. A (technically) zombie SWAT team. Yes. Even here, however, the series never breaks from its serious, thoughtful tone.
  • The Nose Knows: Dinosauroids all have this ability in order to detect others of their kind. It's why Yuiji is so attractive to them, as the experiments done on him make him smell like a dinosauroid female, and why nobody is ever interested in Maya for very long.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted, naturally. Yuuji is...fully functional.
  • Pregnant Badass: A rare male example. Whether it's hormones or his newfound relationship with Minato, Yuuji becomes much more courageous, to the point of fully intending to take on a T-rex with nothing but a chainsaw.
  • Sex for Solace: Yuiji begins instigating sex with Minato on a regular basis when they're living in Shen's village, and the dialogue he has when propositioning him implies this trope.
  • Shown Their Work: Drumheller is a real town in Alberta, Canada, that claims to be 'The Dinosaur Capital of the World'. Even the landscapes are fairly accurate.
  • The Medic: Yuiji. It comes in handy less often, due to Minato's Healing Factor, but he does sometimes win people over by taking care of their sick and injured. The most important time his medical knowledge comes into play is when he invents an antivirus for a dinosauroid plague using his daughters antibodies, because this action kicks off the plot of Genshi Sairai.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Yuiji, after getting pregnant, and Linea, after uncovering her Die or Fly powers.
  • Uncanny Valley Girl: Maya, apparently even more so to other dinosauroids because of her "unnatural" smell.
  • Women Are Delicate: Averted yet discussed. So far several characters have talked about how women are weak and submissive, especially when comparing Yuiji to a woman for his Extreme Doormat personality. However, thus far almost every named female character to appear is a badass in some way, including:
  • Women Are Wiser: Male characters are far more likely to react with emotion and passion when in difficult situations, whereas female characters will keep a calm head.
    • Female villains like Dr. Gwen, Maya, and K=01 almost qualify as The Sociopath, they monitor their emotions so well.
    • Downplayed when Yurya gets yelled at by one of her Love Interests. She gets upset and seeks comfort (and does go sleep with the wrong guy), but her reaction isn't as severe as the man who broke down yelling at her in the first place.
  • Worthy Opponent: Maya considers Minato as this.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Not even a full chapter after rescuing Yui from her captors, Minato and Yuuji are told that 10 dinosauroid prisoners will be killed if they don't give her back. Minato grudgingly agrees that it's for the greater good, Yuuji adamantly refuses. He gets overruled.
  • You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: The dinosauroids turn into... well...dinosaurs when stressed or angry, and not the sissy herbivore kind.
  • Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Minato shows a few signs of this. Due to growing up in a culture where women are expected to have as many kids as possible, he didn't seem to understand why Yuiji would be upset about being pushed into sex immediately after meeting him. Fortunately, he has enough intuition not to push and to wait until Yuiji consents.

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