She's a female. She's considered female by Japanese players. But apparently the English version is trying to pass her off as non binary. And they are taking advantage of the lack of pronouns in the Japanese language from what i heard. This is a few comments i read about it
Yes. Technically in the Japanese version she's never addressed in a gendered way. But in reality nobody really is addressed that way in the game and Japanese itself hardly has gendered addresses, since pronouns don't exist. As another user here posted (Okabe__Rintarou) the entire script of the game only uses 彼女 (girl) four or five times in the entire story so the point is moot. In Japan you just wouldn't address her as "she" or "woman", you'd simply use her name. In addition, other characters use the suffix -chan when speaking to her. "chan" isn't woman exclusive but it's very feminine. You'd only use it for guys when he's a lot younger than you. My Japanese friends obviously recognise her as a girl, while somebody online are a bit puzzled, but the majority still sees her as a woman
Another comment:
The thing is, in Japanese they are super rarely using she/he etc to describe other people. It's evident if you search for 彼女 in game files. It's used only 4 or 5 times in entire script. This is how this language works. If you translate a foreign work that is so linguistically different, you have to take other facts into account, not just one particular dialogue. Following this pattern, Eunie should be nonbinary too because no one calls her "she".You have to take other factors into account, put them together and unambiguously deduce what is what. Yuzuriha(Juniper's Japanese name) is a girl's name. I have never encountered that any character in an anime, manga, Japanese game or TV series is a boy and named Yuzuriha. The suffix chan is mainly used for girls. Possibly as an irony towards a boy if you are close to someone. Yuzuriha uses "watashi." Not even "boku" like other heroines with similar characters. "watashi" is used exclusively by women (and people from abroad) All Japanese posts on pixiv/2chan if they use any gender in relation to her, they call her a girl.The aforementioned one of the major portals on the subject (Dengeki online, owned by Kadokawa) also used kanojo. She even look like a girl. Look at her eyes and compare them with other girls in this game
I also read some other comment about a person telling their Japanese friends about it and apparently the Japanese friends are pretty shocked at the English version. Yet articles and woketards in the West consider it a "fact' that she's non binary and there's been EXTREMELY obnoxious articles on The Gamer insulting anyone that complains about the narrative they try to push and essentially saying "its just a fact that Juniper is non binary and they've already won the future of gaming"
Every single day shit shit is pushing me more to learn Japanese to enjoy the experience as it was intended. I'm not yet good but I feel like this is a worthwhile hobby with how """"translators"""" just keep destroying games.
its unfortunate because in the West a lot of people dont know and the localizers are lying and giving shit to both the JP and EN sides. There's a lot of games that got their translations butchered more than we know.
And as a side note, apparently localization teams have been harassing Japanese studios . Localizers rightfully get shit for censoring things so things like Nintendo of America sending woke teams to keep an eye on Japanese studios for "western sensitivities" has been happening, which is why FE Three houses and Xenoblade 3 seem self censored and have the least sexualized designs compared to the previous games.
Well nintendont has been total shit for the past decade, so that's hardly surprising by this point. Shigiru is the biggest failure in that company, the sooner he dies the better they will be and hopefully grow up and start making what gamers want.
Nuclear take right here
This is probably the most consooomer post I'll ever make...
I dislike Shigiru for killing genuine sequels against the dev team's wishes and forcing games in various series to reinvent themselves or create a whole new (ne'er requested) genre for the sake of not producing the same game twice.
Can't just take our money and let us enjoy intellectual properties as they grow, no sir, we have killed it, but worry not loyal fan! For now, you can play this other, core-unrelated game. We will go ahead and plaster its namesake's face over its own to try and help you feel more comfortable though, arent we kind?
In some cases if you want a loyal sequel experience you will have to enter into some new, separate copycat franchise and begin digesting entirely different plots, themes, characters, art, etc. These copycats exist solely because of people with Shigiru-sized heads up their Shigiru-sized assholes.
I'll never forgive him- there is a hole in Nintendo's library starting in the Gamecube era where there should be epic n64 sequels that take advantage of the new hardware, but instead there are gimmick games wearing the dead face-skin of beloved franchise properties like some kind of playerbase hunting disguise.
The Wii sealed the deal. I haven't bought anything from Nintendo since Super Paper Mario. I dodn't even have a Wii anymore, it wasn't what I wanted (a vehicle for Nintendo franchises to escape technical limitations of the gamecube). I didn't buy a Wii U and have only emulated Switch games here and there as they seem to produce actual franchise installments for it sometimes like Smash Ultimate, Zelda BOTW, and one but not both of the new Pokemon games.
Those would be enough to get old me to buy a Switch but I am bitter both about Shigiru killing some of my favorite series such as Mario RPG and Star Fox in the GC Wii era, and Im bitter about being a human target for corporate exploitation in any case.
Don't let the Nintendo fags hear your disgust for nintendont and shigiru, they will whine and piss themselves.
I'm more concerned with being identified as a nintendo fan myself lol.
Oh, I USED to be. Growing up with that shithole company and its shithole president. I was on the Nintendo side of the bit wars and loved everything up until the Wii, where that jap retard at the helm reveals how much of a twat he is. Instantly I went from being a dedicated Nintendo fan to hating Nintendo as much as EA and Epig. I still have all my consoles going back to the NES, including all the cart games. But fuck nintendont now and fuck shigiru even more.
Good post, but I think "watashi is exclusively used by women" is a bit of an oversimplification.
You are correct that many English-speaking students of the language learn it early and use it too much, because it usually isn't emphasized enough that it's often most polite not to refer to yourself with any word at all if context makes it clear that you're the subject of the sentence.
(Example: you make a surprise visit to a friend's house but find a message taped to the door - "Gone fishin'" No pronoun needed to understand who went fishing)
Assuming you need it, watashi is the default for everyone in polite contexts like introductions, professional interviews, etc...but again you'd only use it in certain situations like replying to "what about you?" or "what do you think?" questions.
(And in those situations even people of superior station would most likely address you as [family name]-san rather than anata (you) or anything like that.)
The "lack of pronouns in Japanese" is a real thing like you heard, but rather than delving into that, I'll just refer everyone to chapter 1 of Jay Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese.
Bit of an effort post, but I'm a very committed weeb when it comes to wokie junk infecting my precious Japanese media. So I'd rather everyone here be as informed as possible.
I mean, there's also the "Boku" girls, you can't just infer from someone's way of saying I what their sex is.
Oh for sure, and I do love me a tomboy waifu. And there's many an anime where the tomboy even refers to herself as ore or kono ore-sama, etc...right to a teacher's face...great fun, love to see it - but that'll land you in hot water IRL, heh.
My anti-wokie point was that watashi isn't inherently feminine (more feminine than boku? Sure.)
Imagine an up-and-coming dude with a deep voice in a three-piece suit going to some fancy corporate interview with a whole board of big-shots. In that situation, if he refers to himself as watashi, it's definitely more about humility and respect than anything else.
OP's original statement about it opens the door for wokies to claim that he's 0bviously n0n-b1n4ry since he used "feminine" watashi, which is exactly the kind of thing we can all agree is bullshit. Odds are he'll switch right back to boku with his friends at the izakaya after the interview is done.
Bottom line: your average degenerate Discord troon projecting their mental disfunction and political biases onto Japanese media, culture and language doesn't actually know anything.
Oh, I am aware. I am trying to learn some Japanese(semi-successfully) and already learned a bit about their personal pronouns, someone said Watashi's like the swiss army knife, if you are unsure just use watashi.
I like that analogy - especially because in many situations you don't need a knife (or a corkscrew or a nail-file, etc...) at all.
By which I mean - starting too many of your sentences with watashi wa is the classic noob move. Just the verb (politely conjugated according to the context) is very often a complete sentence.
Best of luck in your efforts. 頑張ってね～
I've also heard it makes you sound "too important", so, don't just use it everywhere unless you wanna look like the nail that sticks out..This is actually what I love about the language, it being context sensitive, having less words as compared to English.
Just say it in an obnoxiously western accent, and you'll be golden. You'll be the Japanese equivalent of the person saying "many helloings to all, I am the doing of my introductions presently now".
Localizers must be destroyed. I'm hoping more games get fan patches to fix translation bullshit like SRW30 did.
Is this the one who's english VA is some sort of tranny or genderless blob? Some tweeters alleged that is the reason for the "localization".
yeah i did hear about that voice actor who claims she's non binary and wanted to project herself on the character