#this got way too long and now im too tired to proofread it sfgskjgf

[brookstolemybrand]

Firstly: obligatory MelonTeee rec:

But I'm gonna tackle this myself in my own words here too

I think there are some questionable choices as far as it goes for the jokes about the Kamabakka kingdom and it being played for horror and using gross stereotypes for gags (I know it's intended to punish Sanji for his lecherousness but it's just not good)

However

As far as Iva and Bon-chan go, I will defend them WITH MY LIFE

So okay Ivankov IS based on Dr. Frank-N-Furter, yes but was also inspired by the real life actor and drag queen Norio Imamura, who Oda met via Luffy's VA Mayumi Tanaka who was part of the same theatre group. Oda misheard his name and ended up calling him "Iwa-san" by accident, which is the origin of the name. Norio left such an impression on Oda that he decided to write more drag queen characters into One Piece, and made a character based on him the queen of the drag queens.

Apparently when Norio found out about this he auditioned for the role in the anime and got the role! (although he lost that job later and isn't the current VA for Iva anymore)

So Iva has a very specific real world origin, va (yes I'm using neopronouns for Iva because Iva actually also uses neopronouns in Japanese lol*) isn't just a stereotype, va only exists in the first place because Oda was inspired by a real drag queen he met

(* okay Japanese pronouns don't work the same way as English pronouns, in Japanese pronouns are coded based on the gender or social status of the speaker not the person who's being referenced, Iva uses the pronoun "vatashi" instead of the usual "watashi" which is probably mostly a gag about vas name and the stereotypical "Transylvanian" accent referring to Frank-N-Furter, but it also serves to make vas gender coding more ambiguous)

Also Iva is just absolutely iconic and funny, and A REVOLUTIONARY. I can't even imagine the Revolutionary Army without Iva anymore, what an amazing addition

Iva's New Kama Land also introduces the trend of pretty much all the explicitly queer characters in One Piece being rebels or revolutionaries or pirates, which is definitely an interesting theme. The series never really dwelves into the question of homophobia, but there's definitely implications about how many queer people there are in prison and considering the whole totalitarian government thing it kinda adds up. Queerness is constantly associated with resistance to oppression in One Piece

I genuinely think Iva is a loving tribute to drag queens, specifically Norio Imamura, and I promise you if you give van a chance, it'll make sense. Va is a hero and an icon and an inspiration for others to fight for their own freedom, and also absolutely hilarious and va fits perfectly into the tone of One Piece.

Bon Kurei*, AKA Bon-chan, AKA Bentham, was introduced a lot earlier, literally in the 1990's which obviously wasn't a great time for queer representation, lbr. And yeah they're a stereotype in a lot of ways, including literally having the powers to deceive others by taking different forms, etc.

(* the official English translation is Bon Clay but I'm pedantic, the name is a reference to kure AKA the end of the year celebrations (roughly the latter half of December))

But the thing is that while they start out as a villain, technically, the first time the Straw Hats meet Bon Kurei, they immediately become friends, not knowing they're on opposite sides. The actual war drives them apart for obvious reasons, but afterwards Bon Kurei comes to their rescue, helps them escape from the Navy and finally sacrifices themself for the Straw Hats

So they're almost immediately presented as a sympathetic character who just happened to be on the wrong side, and who became a true friend. Very similar to Robin who was also part of Baroque Works and then ended up joining the Straw Hats by the end of the arc

And then Luffy of course meets Bon Kurei again in Impel Down and they help each other out, although Bon Kurei ends up once again sacrificing themself and staying behind, but this time as the new queen of New Kama Land. And they did technically achieve their goal of freeing Iva, with Luffy's help

They do tend to sacrifice themself a lot, but as they say: queer never die <3

I mean you can have a lot of opinions and even criticisms of them, but they're such a beloved character and a true friend of the Straw Hats

And of course these two aren't the only trans characters in One Piece, nor are the Kamabakka girls or the New Kama Landers

In the Wano arc (which was written a lot later than Alabasta and Impel Down) we get Kiku who is just a very beautiful trans woman samurai. Her story is very straightforward and her identity mostly comes up twice: firstly just the reveal that she is a samurai, which is clearly a male profession in Wano, and secondly when she's relieved to get to bathe with the other women instead of her fellow samurai at the end of the arc. Other than that, she's just another one of the Red Scabbards along with the others

Kiku looks and behaves like any other woman, aside from the fact that she's a samurai and uses the speech patterns of a samurai (which Zoro immediately notes as strange and why he's quick to figure out that she is a swordswoman and doesn't have any patience for her pretence of being just an ordinary villager)

And then there's Yamato my beloved <3

Look, I know a LOT OF PEOPLE think Yamato is bad representation because if trans man then why boobs (as if there's a lot of access to top surgery on Onigashima, on which he was imprisoned for pretty much his entire life because of his abusive dad) or because the reason he gave for "deciding" to become a man was because he idolised Oden

But here's the thing: who the fuck cares

Loads of trans men realise they want to be men because they see a particular man who inspires them and go "I want to be him"

And not all trans men can get top surgery. Not all trans men WANT top surgery

It's not even him "presenting" as female, he's wearing masculine clothes, he's just pretty. (It really annoys me when people say he's "not presenting as masculine"; he is! He's just not binding and he just happens to look very conventionally feminine (aside from being absurdly tall like his dad and also half of the Wano characters in general))

I mean if you wanna complain about the sideboob, I'm not gonna argue, but I'm gonna be real: I can deal with the sideboob because I love him so much.

Yes, the fact that everybody mistakes him for a woman is played of laughs, but at the end of the day everybody does just accept that yeah he's a guy with boobs. People do kinda make fun of him for his insistence that he's Oden but to be fair he is a bit of a weird guy about it. Then again we're talking about One Piece, this is pretty tame all things considered

Honestly though a bigger deal with him is the fact that his dad is Kaidou, who is a big bad villain man so Yamato kinda ends up having to convince every person he meets that he genuinely is on their side and hates his dad. And even now in the most recent chapter we saw him getting some backlash from the people of Wano for being Kaidou's son, so we'll see how that goes

Anyway, Yamato also gets to take a bath with the men like Kiku does with the women, and only the pervert characters are weird about it, everybody else is just like okay cool

He's also very much playing the role of a male character in the story, he's one of the very few fighters strong enough to face Kaidou and still remain in fighting condition afterwards*, he acts as a substitute father figure for Momo, and he becomes the guardian of Wano

(* in fact he's one of only two characters who go fully 1v1 alone against Kaidou if I remember correctly; and you can't even say Kaidou went easy on him because he's his son, since Kaidou has thoroughly demonstrated his willingness to kill Yamato)

Anyway, Yamato is great, he's a delight, I'm so happy to have him. I get feeling conflicted about some aspects of his design (notably the sideboobs) but I also think that any argument claiming that Yamato is bad representation is inevitably just going to insult some trans man who resembles Yamato, because frankly not all real life trans men care that much about passing as cis men either

Bonus round, live action:

Koby is played by a trans actor, Morgan Davies

As for sexuality, well, honestly there isn't a lot of romance in One Piece so mostly sexuality only comes up as gags, and usually it's very hetero, altho there are some exceptions like of course some of the drag queen characters, and like how even all women seem to be into Boa Hancock and Nami has that moment where she blurts out how she would love to have a sexy secretary like Kalifa (honestly Nami feels very lesbian coded to me, but it hasn't been explicitly confirmed so I'll ignore my theories for now)

(Just know that I have a whole collection of lesbian Nami moments because there are a bunch of them, some of them very suggestive like the Kalifa thing but also the Wanda thing (literally wearing each others' clothes, istg) BUT it hasn't been confirmed, it's not explicit)

Luffy is explicitly uninterested in romance or sex, this was confirmed by Oda in SBS and becomes a whole plot point on Amazon Lily since it makes him immune to Hancock. Zoro is definitely uninterested in women, and probably also men, but that latter part hasn't been confirmed. Either way neither of them are straight

I don't think there's any queer romance in One Piece though, even between background characters. At least I can't think of anything. Again, there isn't a lot of straight romance either and when there is, it mostly serves the purpose of "well these characters need to have parents I guess"

I don't expect there to be queer romance in the future either, Oda is a straight man (I'm pretty sure) and he just doesn't seem all that interested in writing romance in the first place

But there definitely are queer characters in One Piece and personally I think they're great. I'm not gonna call them perfect representation but honestly I'd rather have representation that brings me joy

And the queer characters in One Piece definitely do

(For the most part, again I'm not wild about the Kamabakka stuff, at least when it was first introduced. It's gotten less frustrating now that they're just characters in the story instead of gags at Sanji's expense)

Intended for Defend your Blorbo. However, it might fit Fandoms vs Illiteracy too. Do with it what you want, but I have questions for the One Piece. Fandom.

Emporio Ivankov and Bon Clay seem to be celebrated as excellent examples of queer representation in anime. However, at least to me, they both seem like horrible caricatures. Please tell me I'm wrong, and this is just One Piece's unusual art style playing tricks on me. Because One Piece has had so many Characters in the Canon Pride polls, and they all look like caricatures in some way. Now I know it's a Shonen anime that's been on for a long time, so the bar isn't necessarily high for good lgbtq representation, especially when compared to others in the same genre from the same time period. But does One Piece have good lgbtq+ representation and characters, not just queerbaiting like actual canon characters? I specifically named Emporio Ivankov and Bon Clay because they look the worst to me based on character design.

Defend Your Blurbo #18

Please remember this post is about curiosity and genuine fandom discourse. Be kind with your answers because this is not a debate essay, this is a discussion between fans.

Okay, these two characters are going to require some background information to help explain them. Just based on your question, so everyone is on the same page before we start defending blorbos

Here are photos of both male and female versions of Emporio Ivankov since they switch between them. But for more info, Emporio Ivankov ate The Horu Horu no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that grants the user the ability to create a variety of special hormones that can alter the recipient's body in any way the user desires, making the user a Hormone Controlling Human. So they can change their gender and anyone's gender at will. They are a founding member of the Revolutionary Army. Plus, they are also the Queen of an island of canon genderqueer people.

Plus, their design is based on the iconic Tim Curry character Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

This is Bentham, aka Bon Clay. He ate The Mane Mane no Mi, a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit that allows the user to turn themselves into a physical double of anyone they touch, making the user an Imitating Human. So basically, they're a shapeshifter with some limitations. He did start out as a villain, but now he's the queen of the Queer Paradise "Newkama Land" in Impel Down that the prisoners made to hide from the guards. It was initially created and ruled over by Emporio Ivankov until they escaped and returned to their home island.

I know that was a lot of background information, but I thought it was necessary based on the question. Now, any other defense of the characters and other lgbtq+ One Piece characters I will leave to the rest of the One Piece Fandom. So, One Piece fandom, Defend Your Blorbo