#trans chihiro

[clarinettispaghetti]

Chihiro chillin'

[supersillycheeze]

If they ever met they would be very close friends!!

I was too lazy to draw pixals samurai x outfit

The girls who love technology

[00waffles]

[grapemoon]

You know, I'm a little surprised there isn't more people headcanoning Chihiro as trans masc. Their backstory is about being forced into the persona of a girl because of being bullied for not being "boy enough". They died right after they declared that they're tired of acting feminine, and wanted to become stronger and assert themself. Like, I completely understand why people headcanon them as trans fem! Hell, I like it just as much as the next guy! But tbh I thought of trans masc Chihiro Well before I even considered them being trans fem, and I'm shocked by the lack of it in fandom

[danggirlronpa]

On Transfem Chihiro

Over the years running this blog, one of the most consistent asks I've received is regarding whether or not my inclusion of Chihiro as a girl is correct or not. I've been told that it's deeply meaningful for some people. I've been told that I'm an idiot and it's the biggest problem with my blog by others. So now, as I'm finally building out an FAQ, it seems like a good time to lay out my reasons for including Chihiro on this blog and how it personally connects to me.

Chihiro gender discourse has been around since Trigger Happy Havoc was initially released and translated. There's nothing I can say about this that hasn't already been said somewhere; as such, I ask everyone to have patience as I say things that have probably been said by 50 other people before. I know. They're right. Good for them.

However, I will not be fielding conversations about this. I am not setting out to argue with people; I am explaining the reasoning behind a blog policy. (This will also briefly discuss transmasc Chihiro headcanons, for purposes of thoroughness.)

This post will consist of three lists: a list of reasons why people generally headcanon Chihiro as trans; a list of reasons why they specifically headcanon Chihiro as transfem vs transmasc; and a brief refutation of popular reasons why people insist trans Chihiro is a bad headcanon.

For our purposes, I will be using they/them for Chihiro throughout this post; this is not in any way a commentary on which Chihiro pronouns are 'correct' or better, but a gender neutral convenience. Apologies for the really long paragraphs. I just like hearing myself talk.

Reasons People Headcanon Chihiro as Trans

Chihiro presents as one gender, but is "secretly" another. This is fairly obvious, and also the crux of the whole thing. Anything from here has a certain degree of reading between the lines, but this is explicitly canon. Where the discourse stems from is the reason Chihiro presents as a different gender, but it is an inarguable fact that they do present as a different gender - and obviously, that lends itself to a trans interpretation.

The secondhand retelling of Chihiro's story. Chihiro's portrayal as 'a boy who adopts girly traits' is never once stated from Chihiro's own mouth. The primary account of it comes from Monokuma, who is perhaps one of the least reliable narrators in Danganronpa, and who in the very same scene presents Mondo's survivors guilt as Mondo "murdering his brother," and should obviously be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. The only time when we see Chihiro come firsthand is in the School Mode alternate universe - in which the exact conversation is not explicitly lain out, but instead brushed over by Makoto's summary (after Chihiro briefly explains that their body is different from how they've been presenting). As such, the "canon" of Chihiro's gender is in fact very fluid, and as it's so deeply connected to gender and presenting differently from their assigned gender, there is an obvious thread to trans identities. The only definitive knowledge is that Chihiro has, when alive, gone by she/her and presented as a girl.

Real-world transphobic connections to Chihiro's death. The "trans panic" defense is a legal strategy that attempts to excuse murder of trans people under the justification that the murderer was shocked and/or disturbed by the victim's gender; in most famous examples, the assaulter is described as 'blacking out' and doing it in a 'fit of rage.' This has an obvious connection to the way Mondo reacts when Chihiro tells him about their secret, as he says he "felt something break", and who explicitly states he blacked out before murdering Chihiro and came to with them on the floor, covered in blood. In addition, historical trans people have often only been outed after death, and have then posthumously been treated differently from their actual gender despite living as that gender all of their lives. This is similar to the invasive way that Kyoko reveals Chihiro's secret after their death, and the way that the entire cast immediately starts treating them as a boy.(Disclaimer: this is not an argument that any THH characters are transphobic; rather, it is an argument that real world transphobia was used by the THH writers to emphasize Chihiro's gender.)

Gender roles. This is briefly addressed before, but Chihiro's preoccupation is never presented as being with 'boys vs girls' (except by Monokuma, who, again, Grain Of Salt); it is presented as being 'strong vs weak.' Chihiro never says 'I want to be strong like a man,' just 'I want to get stronger.' There is an argument to be made that Chihiro's internalized toxic masculinity plays a part in their inability to recognize they identify as a girl because they are a girl, rather than out of 'weakness'; there is an argument that Chihiro's desire to become strong actually plays into internalized masculinity in that they conflate 'I'm actually a trans boy' and 'boys are stronger than girls.' Either way, there is no reading of Chihiro's perspective on gendered strength that is truly disconnected from transness.

Conclusion: There are many reasons that Chihiro can be interpreted as a trans character which do not contradict canon, and, in fact, it is an extremely likely reading of the character for people who are closely connected to transness in the real world.

So, Transfem or Transmasc?

The reason people often headcanon Chihiro as transfem (AKA a trans woman, or MTF in old-timey terms) is because this aligns most closely with Chihiro's actual presentation in the games. Chihiro goes by she/her when they are alive; they are visibly feminine, including in ways that only possibly be intentionally done to emphasize their femininity, such as posture; it is indicated several times that they have a flat chest and a penis. Additionally, a very large number of trans women really enjoy computer coding, which was definitely not intended but does lend itself to the interpretation.

The reason people often headcanon Chihiro as transmasc (AKA a trans man, or FTM in old-timey terms) is because of the way others treat Chihiro in the games. It can be difficult and even triggering for people to see Chihiro's friends, including ostensibly good people, actively calling a trans girl "he/him" and a "boy"; as such, the easiest way to remove this issue is by interpreting Chihiro, not as a trans girl who comes out as having been a trans the whole time, but as a trans boy who still isn't out to their friends (and potentially hasn't even realized they're trans yet themselves).

These interpretations are both perfectly valid. Neither of them are actively transphobic. They conflict with each other solely in that it isn't possible for both to be canon at the same time. However, many people who believe strongly in one side can feel uncomfortable or even be directly triggered by the other, due to the perception of "misgendering" a comfort character and the feeling that their own interpretation of the character is being disrespected. As such, it is perfectly normal to see both sides avoiding each other.

This blog puts forth the perspective of transfem Chihiro because it is what the blog owner most closely identifies with, and it is more popular in the fandom. This is not a commentary on transmasc Chihiro headcanons! If transfem Chihiro bothers anyone, this blog is carefully tagged, and will happily add more tags at request. However, I will not be fielding discussions about it.

Common Arguments Against

Now, if you've kept up so far, you may still have some common arguments to bring up. Here's some responses to save you from heading into my inbox!

Actually, Chihiro is a commentary on a specific gendered trope in Japanese media!: This is like saying that because drag queens exist in the USA, headcanoning any American character as transgender is disrespectful to them. Japan has a number of trans people who face discrimination every day in a country that has no anti-LGBT discrimination laws and has had regular reports from the Human Rights Watch over the years that are increasingly worrying. My gender and sexuality studies have largely been Western, and I do not claim to have thorough knowledge of Japanese relations to gender; however, acting as though Japanese people cannot be trans is both racist and reductive.

But Chihiro says "I'm a boy!": The context in which Chihiro says "I'm actually a boy" is, 100% of the time, with no exceptions, when they are coming out as trans. For a transmasc reading, this is fairly obviously connected; for the more popular transfem reading, as a teenager in Japan, Chihiro likely does not have in depth knowledge of transness or LGBT terminology. It is very likely Chihiro has no words to describe their experience except "I'm a boy, but I want to be a girl" or "I want to be a boy but I'm not." This is a well-documented phenomenon among real world trans youth, too - people often use language that people in the community consider offensive simply because they have no other words to describe their experience. That does not make the experience less valid.

But the Danganronpa writers have said Chihiro's a boy!: 1. Look up 'Death of the Author.' 2. The writers also have not said that Kyoko and Makoto are dating, but this is near universally agreed on amongst friends as the most 'canonical' interpretation. That's what headcanons are.

I just don't like it! It just makes me mad!: You're transphobic. Consider why it bothers you so much that people want a character to be trans. Is there a valid logical reason? If not, why is this your instinct? Is it a good instinct? Is it possible you are hurting people around you by blindly acting on it?

In Conclusion

This is my official, catch-all, "Chihiro is on this blog and you can't do anything about it" post. My current policy is that every time I receive in ask against trans Chihiro in my inbox, I add a post that is specifically about Chihiro being trans to the queue. I will keep doing that. And I will @ you. With a smiley face. I will not respond in any other way. ✌️

[77ngiez-archive]

this is what kodaka stole from us </3 (design by @stargloom)

[jadeofblades]

@dr-rarepair-week-blog Day 3: Shopping

Taking your gf out to get her some new clothes and seeing her in a cute dress <333333 no he/him 😐

[crayonverse]

Sapphic Chitoko textposts

[v-4-l-0-n]

Broke: Chihiro is a cis man

Woke: Chihiro is a trans woman because of the context in-game and her backstory, as well as unfortunately being based on transmisogynistic stereotypes

Bespoke: Chihiro is a trans woman because she’s a programmer

[hecku-luna]

So I'm just gonna come out and say it.

I am INCREDIBLY proud of some sects of DR Tumblr for being on the side of trans Chihiro! And if you try to say she's male-leaning in the slightest, I'm just gonna block ya on sight without even giving you the satisfaction of an argument! o7

[yourfavusescontradictorylabels]

chihiro from danganronpa is a transfem non binary genderfluid pan lesbian femme lesbian

Chihiro from Danganronpa is a transfem, nonbinary, genderfluid, pan lesbian, femme lesbian!

[supersillycheeze]

[danganfan42069]

Why i hc Chihiro as transfem (but also think that nb and transmasc hcs are pretty neat too!)

A few warnings first, since you're here to read it I recommend reading these paragraphs extra to avoid stress for you and me :)

To be honest I'm not posting my opinion with the intention of changing someone's opinion or starting some kind of debate, I just want to express my opinion and that's all. It's like a public diary, it's one of the definitions of a blog after all ^_^

This isn't exactly a theory or an attempt to change anyone's mind and I know that none of this is canon and most likely not intended as I see it. I'm just want to talk in more detail about my headcanons and my lines of thoughts on them.

I already made a post with a carrd and article about transfem Chihiro and I also made a post about what I disagree with, now I would like to make a post that would be the parts that I agree with carrd and more other opinions of mine about it. (I will mostly use she/her for Chihiro since I hc her as transfem)

I see a lot of people talking that they think Chapter 2 had great critics about gender stereotypes and... I have to disagree.

In my interpretation I understood that Chihiro thinks that feminine = weakness, fragile lack of strength and that's it. And then she wants to become strong by running away from everything feminine.

This thought was never refuted and it was never explicitly established that women can also be strong, we have Sakura but she is seen as an exception and still doubted that she is a (cis) woman.

About this part, it seems to me that the writers simply have this transphobic mindset and see trans people as insecure with their own gender (this art could explain it in better words) or think that trans people are lying to everyone about their gender (when in reality is opposite, we feel like we are lying when we are in the closet and saying we identify with agab)

Just like I said before, it feels like the transphobic mindset where trans people are lying and insecure and being "just a phase"

And Mondo is a great ally (yes he killed her but it wasn't out of transphobia but an attack of anger and stress) and tried his best to keep Chihiro's secret

One thing I see a lot is people saying that hc Chihiro as transfem is erasing her entire backstory but it's important to remember that her backstory is completely fictional and nothing like this has ever happened in real life. Chihiro doesn't exist, but the people (mostly trans) who relate to her (the transcoded part of the character, I mean) exist.

This is why many people "reclaim" or hc Chihiro as transfem, transmasc and/or nonbinary. Chihiro is a very transcoded character, whether intentionally or not.

Despite not having Chihiro's hc be non-binary or transmasc, I understand where they're coming from. I can only remember the song Am I a Girl by Poppy for the non-binary headcanon. And for transmasc it's a cool interpretation too (still has the problem but feminine=weak but I'm sure whoever has this hc re-imagines that part in a non-sexist way) where Chihiro kinda comes out of the closet in chapter 2 to Mondo and wants to be himself. As I said before, Chihiro is a very trans coded character, like it or not, then every interpretation that trans people have about this character is valid. People can relate to this in a lot of very different ways and that's ok.

To me, anything is more interesting and makes more sense than a cis man in the closet. This is too nonsense to me. I know there are many things in the game that are also nonsense but I have my personal limits like everyone else (Ps: Not saying that whoever has the hc of Chihiro being a cis man is invalid because this is canon lol, its just not my cup of tea)

In summary, I have this headcanon of her being transfem because from the beginning she is presented as a woman and in all the merchs she continues to be treated as such, so that's what makes the most sense to me. Maybe if it was established that feminine doesn't equal weakness, maybe she would stay the same. And just look at the picture of her with her dad! He supports her unconditionally! It's a very beautiful thing to see and makes me happy.

I like to look at this scene as if someone were misgendering her, she wouldn't mind.

Edit: I found an excellent post that makes some great points too, here are some highlights:

[catboymoments]

That one post that’s like “Danganronpa is so crazy because a male character will look directly into the camera and say “I am a transgender woman” and go back to what they were doing like nothing happened and it’s never brought up again”

[chagrin-roses]

I think it’s only up in the air in (very vocal) parts of the fandom, not in the actual text. Like Chihiro’s kids, who he was said to have programmed before his memory was wiped, like well into attending Hope’s Peak, all called him Dad/father, and were programmed to, so I’d say that’s heavy in-favour of saying how Chihiro wanted to be seen. Plus that fan-art of Chihiro with a moustache is adorable (have you seen it?).

Some of those must be spoilers bc I haven’t gotten to any of that (the kid stuff)

But yeah, I mean it’s made explicitly clear Chihiro only did what they did to suppress their inferiority complex but it made it worse. I can see people being very vocal about Chihiro being a trans girl as a valid point. Explicitly lgbt+ characters (especially ones that aren’t there just for cash grabs, clout, badly written) are hard to find especially in video games.

I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s Chihiro discourse when it’s never said anything about Chihiro’s actual desire to be a woman, it was more a mask to avoid being called a “weak boy” and all that stuff. Tbh I don’t care what ppl hc Chihiro as.

Also I haven’t seen the chihiro mustache fanart 👀

[shsl-hubris-guy]

got a totally random rush of Emotions about Chihiro's gender so hi let's talk about how the entire account of Chihiro 'totally being a cis dude guys' is told by Monokuma, the guy that later goes on to fake a suicide note and falsify an entire class trial just to be pissy. Ah yes top 10 most reliable narrators ever of all time, yes, yes, very convincing

Not to mention in the exact same fucking motive he's very obviously purposefully warping the truth and lying to the cast's faces?? Within the 'embarrassing memories' motive Mondo's is a warped version of the truth. "Mondo killed his own brother" but he didn't, and just about everyone is able to grasp that one. He indirectly led to the accident, but Daiya made his own choices. So wouldn't the same logic apply to Chihiro's motive? "He dresses like a girl but actually is a boy" sounds like you're actively warping her own life experience to send her into Despair.... which is Monokuma's primary character motive.... crazy how that works........

And now, a compilation of every line Chihiro delivers in her own backstory, without the narrative padding from Monokuma explaining to you why this is totally her hating being a woman and wanting to be a man

"Now nobody will be able to say anything about 'even though you're a boy'..."

"I'm... weak... Weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak...!"

"Now's my chance..."

"I'm going to get stronger... and accept who I am..."

"Strong enough so that when someone says 'even though you're a boy' it'll be okay. I'll get better!"

"Maybe talking to Mondo about it will help give me some courage..."

So yeah, once you pull out the unreliable narrator. You get like, 6 lines total. 1/3 of which specify that she IS AFRAID of people saying "even though you're a boy". Now, call me crazy, but if we're genuinely arguing that Chihiro is a cisgendered man, why the hell would she say the equivalent of "I need to accept being a boy. Gee, I sure hope no one calls me a boy while I do so!" That's. That's inherently contradictory. More than anything, looking at Chihiro's lines as the most reliable source of Chihiro's thoughts about herself, it starts to look less and less like a man who wants to rise above being gnc and be a true manly man, and more like someone who's about to get fucking outed and mocked by Monokuma and trying to do damage control, steeling herself to be called a man and strengthening her mind and body to prepare for said outing.

Earlier in chapter 2, Chihiro is already thinking of starting to try working out, but is too afraid to enter the lockers because she's well-aware she can only enter the boys' locker rooms. The inference that Makoto comes to is that Chihiro is an individual trapped in a killing game that couldn't defend herself verbally in the library the morning prior, and is visibly the physically weakest in the class. Ergo, perhaps she wants to be able to defend herself better? Well, neither of those facts that lead to said inference magically change after the discovery of her dick, so perchance, the reason she wanted to get stronger was still so she could defend herself both verbally and physically?? The ONLY reason you'd have to come to the conclusion she wants to reconnect with her assigned sex is because she is being actively threatened into it by Monokuma's motive, or if you take Monokuma's story at his word, that he'd speak respectfully of the dead. Just like he did with every other character in that game, right?

Also, it's worth noting that in the actual conversation-turned-spiral between Chihiro and Mondo before Chihiro's death, neither Chihiro nor Mondo actually talk about Chihiro's gender, only her strength and desire to destroy her weakness. Yes, Mondo is using he/him in the voiceover, but the entire class is atp, and again. Using that as genuine evidence falls flat because we see in that very same scene that Mondo WAS NOT completely present for that conversation. He saw Chihiro's willpower and spiraled, conflating Chihiro with his brother and lashing out in a ptsd-induced blackout.

Also also, if you're gonna argue Chihiro has no reason to need to get physically stronger unless it's to be more masculine, A) Sakura exists in the same game, and B) please god look up any statistics on the amount of violence trans teens receive. That alone is a perfectly reasonable justification for a trans woman to want to be able to defend herself, especially when locked in a place where you cannot escape your potential aggressors.

TLDR Chihiro is legitimately more believable as a trans woman, and every intervention attempting to explain otherwise comes from a character defined by his love of twisting the truth for the sake of causing suffering. Hi hello does anyone hear me