2026-11-02 16:58 UTC
I don’t speak Japanese, but as I understand Kirby is officially a being of unknown gender with gender-neutral pronouns, which was misgender in English localization.
Replies (2)
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@Kowowow@lemmy.ca 2026-11-02 18:12
Eh I’ll always know kirby as male essentially but you might as well toss spongebob in there too for sponge gender
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@Malgas@beehaw.org 2026-11-02 18:55
I just looked into it and it seems Kirby uses the first-person pronoun 僕 (boku), and is referred to in the third person as 彼 (kare) both of which have masculine connotations. It’s true that neither is exclusively masculine, but the Japanese language in general is a lot less concerned with gender than European languages. That said, official art has depicted Kirby participating in traditionally gendered activities for both men and women, so there is definitely at least some intentional ambiguity.