Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25951143-20150101110046/@comment-26871067-20160930220223

I intend to, at some point in the future, compile all uses of gendered terminology regarding Alluka. But first I just want to say this, as someone who can actually read Japanese at an okay-ish (I would not go so far as to say I'm fluent, but I have assisted in translations in other threads) level:

Many things cited in this page are a result of a misunderstanding of how Japanese works as a language, on both sides of the debate.

To quickly summarize, almost every use of a character using "he" or "she" to refer to Alluka or Nanika is inserted, as subject is usually implied in Japanese. From Wikipedia's article on Japanese pronouns (you can check the source if you don't consider Wikipedia to be a sufficient one):

"Pronouns are used less frequently in the Japanese language than in many other languages, [5]  mainly because there is  no grammatical requirement to include the subject in a sentence. That means that pronouns can seldom be translated from English to Japanese on a one-to-one basis."

In Japanese, the most important indicator of a character/person's gender is their first person pronoun. In English, there is only one, unisex pronoun. In Japanese, there are several, with varying degrees of gendering.

Alluka's personal pronoun, as stated multiple times, is the exclusively-feminine "atashi (あたし)" Here (1) are (2)  some (3) links (4)  talking about "atashi". Note how every single one of them notes that it's a feminine pronoun. I won't pretend that there aren't sources that state atashi to be "mostly" used by girls, with the implication being that some boys may use the pronoun, but the overwhelming sentiment that it is a pronoun for girls remains. Wikipedia itself states that the pronoun is almost exclusively female, but there are no sources for use as a male pronoun. I do know that atashi is an archaic (as in, over 200 years of linguistic drift) pronoun that in historical pieces may be used by men. HxH is not a historical piece, so I feel this detail may be safely discarded.

I also know that atashi is the pronoun of choice for depictions of transgender women ( Miyuki from Yu Yu Hakusho, who is explicitly a transgender woman, uses atashi as her personal pronoun. Togashi has a precedent.)  There is considerable overlap between depictions of transgender women and gay men, in that for an extensive amount of time (and this sentiment still sticks around, though Togashi himself indicates he doesn't buy into it with his two precedent transgender characters), the two were considered to be the same.

Please also note the person (who states he's living in Japan) in the last link specifically speaking about transgender women, and the repeated sentiment that if a "man" was using atashi (the language used is a little problematic, but I feel the message is sound and clear nonetheless), it is because they wish to be considered feminine or a girl.

My statement here is that there is no conclusion to be reached from debating over Alluka's personal pronoun, other than that it indicates a desire to be viewed as feminine. We do not know the reasoning behind Alluka wanting to be viewed as feminine, though I would argue until the cows come home that this, combined with Killua's statements and the use of the modified spelling of kyodai, is meant to be indicative of gender.

''' Whether or not Alluka's use of atashi is truly an indication of gender, I believe it is undeniably an indication of a desire or expectation to be viewed as feminine. '''

I personally consider this to be enough to use feminine pronouns on her page - Alluka is using a feminine pronoun in Japanese, so my thought is that we should be using feminine pronouns in English. This does not need to be a conclusive statement of gender, rather a reflection of the source material.

I understand that this is not a consensus agreement.

So again, in a later post, I'll be compiling significant usage of actual gendered terminology.