#weapons mistress

[sougu]

~ Kung Fu - The First Female Emei Grandmaster in the World: Tenten ☆

[kvohru]

happy birthday to my beautiful weapon princess

[theshinobiway]

do you see tenten as ace?

Discussing Tenten’s Sexuality

As a personal policy, I abstain from concretely assigning sexual preferences to any fictional character unless it’s clearly stated by the author or discussed within the text.

Instead, let’s take a look at what content there is within the Narutoverse that addresses how Tenten experiences attraction and her thoughts on romance.

Tenten as a Lesbian:

In Japanese anime, WLW and lesbians have a specific coding: It’s either stated/shown that they’re gay, or they’re considered ‘not.’ When you look at characters such as Michiru/Haruko from Sailor Moon, Ymir/Christa from AOT, or Chizuru from Bleach, it’s very clear to the audience that they’re lesbians. Sailor Moon declares Michi/Haru a couple, Ymir/Christa was confirmed by the author, and Chizuru is open about her orientation.

Now, I consider Chizuru a terrible representation for Lesbians–she’s written to be predatory and sexually harasses another female character (Orihime) for fanservice. While this trope needs to die, it’s par for course with shounen anime–an anime genre that caters mostly to Japanese men. Naruto does this with Naruto’s girl-on-girl sexy-no-jutsu. Kishi is not exempt from utilizing this troupe. Sadly, almost any WLW indicators within shounen will be written out as fanservice for the audience–just as Kishi does.

Ymir/Christa from AOT are the exceptions to this rule, but they were confirmed outside-of-text. In comparison, Kishi has neither confirmed her sexuality nor given Tenten a female partner (…or any partner.)

Shounen anime, as a general rule, will not waste time with implicature about certain characters unless it’s directly tied to the plot. This means that because romance is not the focus of an anime such as Naruto, preferences, sexualities, and pairings will be made clear to the audience.

In addition, Tenten has shown (brief) attraction to men early in her appearances in Naruto chapters 35 and 65.

While it is indeed the experience of many young WLW to “perform” heteronormativity, I don’t credit Kishi enough to assume he has that intricate of a vision for Tenten–or, more importantly, that he understands enough about WLW experience to write it. He merely understands that WLW exist for fanservice.

**It is important to note that Tenten only comments on Sasuke/Kakashi’s appearances, not on her romantic desire in them. I’ll revisit this later.**

To summarize, Tenten is not coded as a lesbian and shows an interest in men. It’s also highly unlikely Kishi ever wrote her with the intent to be one.

Tenten as Ace/Asexual/Aromantic:

This is where it gets interesting. For what little representation there is of true LGBTQA+ in anime (and not as stereotypes), asexuality is only represented as the “absence of..” romance. This is because Japan does not have a formal (or favorable) view of Aro/Ace as an orientation.

There’s a gender-based stereotype on the sexuality within Japan that only applies towards men. Japanese men will be referred to as Soshoku danshi, or “herbivore men” if they are disinterested in romance and marriage. As you can imagine, it’s not a particularly nice stereotype either, often used in conjunction with the equally unpleasant term, NEET. For women, there exists a partner term: Nikushoku joshi, or “carnivorous women.” This refers to romantically aggressive women and is seen as an unflattering quality. Women do not have an equivalent term for “herbivore” to my present knowledge.

Aro/Ace has also never been explicitly stated in any anime/manga I’ve encountered. It’s not a heavily researched topic in Japan, and the absence of attraction is usually seen as the result of a personal “defect”. For more detailed information on Aromanticism and asexuality in Japan, I recommend this essay.

Now back to Tenten: Yes, she’s shown interest in the appearance of men. This is very different from Sakura/Ino/Hinata/Karin…and every other depiction of a crush in the Naruto anime. Post-Chapter 65, Tenten was never portrayed in any sort of romantic light. The next mention of Tenten’s romantic preferences finally came from Konoha Hiden. I’ve mentioned Hiden here, but here’s some further explanation:

Konoha Hiden: Chapter 2

“Ever since last night, for some reason or another, thoughts like that kept circling around her head. Something was nagging at her. What was bothering her? The truth was, she already knew the answer.

“Marriage, huh…well it’s a nice thing…” Tenten exhaled, leaning against one of the stakes. Her hands silently played with one of the kunai she’d collected.

This was what had been bothering her. Naruto and Hinata were getting married. It was a happy occasion. Tenten herself had always been getting caught up in thinking about shuriken or kunai or flying guillotines, so she’d never had a boyfriend. She lived her life without any thoughts for romance or femininity.

Hearing about someone close to her getting married suddenly made one disturbing thought fly into Tenten’s mind and refuse to leave: Was it really okay for her to be like this?

From morning until night, it was always Ninja Weaponry, Ninja Weaponry, Ninja Weaponry… Was it really okay for a young woman to be like that?”

The text explicitly discusses Tenten’s thoughts on romance. She’s disinterested in relationships and instead wants to pursue her interest in weaponry. Tenten is also deeply concerned with others’ perceptions of her. 

To be clear: when Tenten says “…to be like this?” She is not talking about her interest in weapons. Tenten is discussing her lack of interest in romance. This phrase is juxtaposed against her comments about marriage, not weapons.

This all falls heavily in line with the would-be Japanese depiction of “Aromantic.” Tenten knows that she prefers weapons over boys and never had “any thoughts for romance or femininity.” She also knows this is out of the norm (especially for women), and is concerned as to how people might view her–which is exactly the Japanese attitude towards aromanticism. 

My reservations about labeling characters aside, there’s probably a solid argument that can be made for Tenten as an aromantic character. She seems to have a preference for men, though she is completely disinterested in a relationship. I do not believe Kishimoto would use the term “aromantic.” to describe her due to different cultural understandings.

And as for me, I don’t mind however someone defines her sexuality, so long as--if they're making claims about Tenten's canon--they keep her in character. And for Tenten, part of being in-character means being single. The female characters of Naruto were strongly defined by romance–whether we like it or not. Tenten is the glaring exception insofar as her explicit “absence of..” romance/attraction. Ignoring this essential fact about Tenten is the same as ignoring Hinata’s crush on Naruto, or Sakura/Karin’s crushes on Sasuke. You can change a personality in fandom, but you can’t use [the changed personality] to say what canonically “is” or “isn’t” true about the character.

[Edit] Interpreting her scenes with her teammates as romantic at all is flat-out false and bad analysis. I want people to stop portraying their shipping desires as "analysis" of this series. All female characters with romantic interests had their interests explicitly made. Shounen–a genre that caters towards men–does NOT cut corners with portraying romantic attraction BECAUSE it is NOT the focus. They WILL NOT waste time with implicature. Kishimoto was never adverse to denoting which female character liked whom. All of the girls' crushes were obvious. The fact that Konoha Hiden was published was, in fact, Kishimoto's final say on the matter: Tenten was never a romantic character. She never held feelings for her teammates. This book was published with this EXPLICITLY said because, again, Kishimoto does not write romance. He says they either like or do not like each other and moves on. Why in the WORLD would he allude to some "great, hidden romance" of Tenten? He would–did not. He is NOT that kind of writer.

Fanon does what it wants, but that goes without saying.

When I write Tenten for Reader-Insert, I fully acknowledge that I have to make her OOC for it. She’s also the most difficult to write for because of this. I use the collective experiences of real-life friends who are aromantic and in a relationship to form her “romantic” side.

Thanks as always for contributing to the blog!

[l0vewillsurelybringmepain]

I don't think I ever posted these here ?? A couple of tenten pics that a took a while ago, I have more if anyone wants to see them 🤷🏽‍♀️

[blondthndrninja]

I feel like Tenten does this a lot

[ninjaellis]

Couple of TenTen doodles. Tried to be a bit more cartoonier with the one on the right. Also  I really like drawing her in that training outfit apparently. @_@