There's a certain twisted bit sneakiness to this too. Because female characters in anime have long been a thing, and this wouldn't normally seem like something out of the norm.
Except because it's being pushed and funded by a Western company, you know this isn't a natural creative choice but instead yet another DEI-type of motivation.
And also straight. It looks like the veteran war hero he fell in love with is still a woman (blue armour in the trailer), so it's going to be dyke love now too.
Yeah because characters that were ALWAYS female from the source material in Japanese media can easily be badass (PLENTY in FMA Brotherhood, Major from Ghost in the Shell, Roberta from Black Lagoon etc)
However switching genders in adaptations, I can't think of a time it HASN'T been a symptom of a bigger ideology over writing issue.
There's a certain twisted bit sneakiness to this too. Because female characters in anime have long been a thing, and this wouldn't normally seem like something out of the norm.
Except because it's being pushed and funded by a Western company, you know this isn't a natural creative choice but instead yet another DEI-type of motivation.
I can confirm the protagonist was male in the original light novel, too.
And also straight. It looks like the veteran war hero he fell in love with is still a woman (blue armour in the trailer), so it's going to be dyke love now too.
Yeah because characters that were ALWAYS female from the source material in Japanese media can easily be badass (PLENTY in FMA Brotherhood, Major from Ghost in the Shell, Roberta from Black Lagoon etc)
However switching genders in adaptations, I can't think of a time it HASN'T been a symptom of a bigger ideology over writing issue.