Digimon and the Gender Thing
I had this conversation one time too many, like, in real life, because this strange thing is happening where somehow everyone is watching the current Digimon season, so, let me - as someone who was a fan of this series basically since it started - regale you with the weird thing that Digimon had going on since forever.
Now, first, here is the thing: I grew up in Germany. I watched Adventure and 02 in German, with the German dub being based on the Japanese version, not the US one, and then from Tamers onwards watched it in Japanese.
Which from the beginning already made a fun thing with the entire gender thing. Becuase in Germany, Digimon came out after Pokémon, and as Pokémon were generally neutral, as long as they had not a specific name, they were "it/its" in gender. The German dub of Digimon looked at that, nodded, and just went with "it/its" for ALL Digimon.
I started with Tamers to actually watch just the Japanese OV and learn Japanese over it. And Gender in Japanese is obviously a... complicated thing, because in many cases, yes, they tried to keep the Digimon neutral, but at the same time, most version of "me" and "you" in Japanese have a gendered implication. Y'all probably have heard the gist of it. "(w)atashi" is generally a bit more feminine, "boku" is the child "I", and "ore" the more masculine version. Sure, this is not always a given, and there is a bunch other forms, and all that, but saying it is not gendered would be wrong.
Digimon as a franchise in Japan in the 90s was somewhat uninterested in the concept of sex or gender, because everything around it was also uninterested in it. Like sure, there were some pieces of media in Japan screaming their complicated feelings of gender out in the world (I see you there, Yuu Watase, Kaori Yuuki and CLAMP), but a lot of it was just: "Hmm, cool shit doing cool stuff and also sexy girls/women". I mean, heck, Digimon predates the term waifu. Waifumons were a thing from the beginning, but... Digimon had not much of a thought about their sex or gender. (Believe me, as a gender confused 10yo I had so, so many thoughts on this. Like, what would it mean for a Digimon to look like Angewomon and be or be not gendered?)
But Tamers, of course, also incidentally was the series that actually then had thoughts about it. Thoughts that clearly originated with the more scifi affection of the series. Tamers looked at the Digimon, at how they were made from data, and the conclusion was the logical conclusion: "Digimon would not have sex, and if there is no sex, why would they have a concept of gender?"
For those, who do not know exactly what I reference. Towards the end of Tamers, during the D-Reaper arc, when Ruki's mother and grandmother get to know Renamon, Ruki's mother asks: "Say Renamon, are you a boy or a girl?" To which Renamon says: "Digimon are made of data. We have no gender." And Ruki's mom goes: "Hmm, you seem like a girl Digimon to me."
And that was pretty much all Digimon for the time had to say on the topic.
Frontier went to this and just... never engaged. Do in Frontier's world Digimon have a sex or gender? Eh, who knows. But there sure are boy-coded Digimon lusting over girl-coded Digimon, who are sexualized at several points.
Savers feels like it is more on the level of Tamers, but never fully commits to say anything about it.
And ironically, with all its fault, Xros Wars had something to say about this, which to me is still one of the craziest points. Because Xros Wars does go heavy, HEAVY into the Waifumon thing. But then it also has a handful of instances of Digimon with humanoid gendered bodies being voiced by VAs of another gender, and using language associated with the other gender. Heck, even outside of the humanoid gendered Digimon. Cutemon - the pink little bunny cutsie thingie - is very much a boy. Explicitly. In text.
Appmon, while absolutely going into queer text, was never interested much in the gender of the monsters, and Ghost Game used gender in so much in referencing it when it was related to the ghost story any given episode was referencing.
Buuuuut... during this time, there also was the gaming side of things. And, no matter how much the games during this time had a lot of sexy girls going on... Habu was also very very galaxybrained on this specific topic. Habu so clearly arrived at: "Okay, the people who are into Digimon are the autistic queer furries" and just rolled with it. Which is why, strangely enough, there is a lot of this gendered subtext happening throughout all of his games. We have several stories in those games about Digimon intermingling with the human understanding of gender, assuming a gender, and interacting with it. Some gleefully so, and some reluctantly. But it is a theme that is happening here.
Beatbreak of course in Japanese tries to make a point of having the Digimon be degendered so much more than previous seasons did. As much as language allows the Digimon do not use gendered language. If they use any pronouns (be it the ones for first person, second person, or third person) the writers tend to use the most gender neutral version.
And in general it seems that this is where the franchise as a whole - in a society that is now talking about gender and gendered bodies - seems to have arrived at. And frankly, even outside the main canon's approach of "Digimon are created by data and not by reproduction" it kinda feels like necessary, given that Digimon have the evolution that goes into every way direction. Angemon can become Angewomon, and then become Seraphimon. Devimon can become Lady Devimon and then turn into Beelzebumon. Andromon can evolve into Rosemon. And that is without going into all the non-humanoid things. A Digimon can be a dinosaur, become a flower, become a sexy lady, and then turn into a really big bird. That is just a viable evolution path. And within the meta lore, this same Digimon then can devolve back, and the next time around be a flower, that turns into a robot, that turns into a vampire, that turns into a skeleton. Based on the data available to it. Based on how well you raised it. Based on how they might be feeling that day. You know, "I am feeling really sexy feminine fairy, but like in a male way, because fuck gender norms, today". And, well... I do kinda think that is beautiful.
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