'Pokemon X And Y' News: Transgender Character A Possibility

Kotaku and many other gaming websites are reporting that “Pokemon X, Y” may feature a transgender character. The information comes from translated Japanese text that reads differently from the English version of the game. While the English version reads, “"Yes, a mere half year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn't you say?” The original Japanese text read, "Only half a year ago, I was a Karate King. The power of medical science is amazing, isn't it?"

You’re probably wondering how this means a specific toon is transgender, right? Well according to Kotaku “Karate King” can be translated to “ruler” or “monarch” but does not necessarily identify as male. For the English game’s purposes it was changed to “Black Belt.” But as Breathe Cast points out, the remark made by the character is indeed random and kind of out of the blue. As Twitter user @SenseiHanzo points out, the character's remark also appears to parody another non-playable Pokémon character in the game.

"The power of science is amazing!" A blogger on Legends of Localization wrote, “It appears this female Pokémon NPC was indeed originally a male who underwent a gender reassignment via medical science. This was purposely made a little less clear in the English release, but it wasn't written out of the script entirely." Whether this is a rumor or accurate it is nice to see that the Pokemon company would be so progressive in adding a transgender character to their game.

It was recently announced that “Pokemon X, Y” would get its own cartoon anime series in English which is set to premiere January 18. This latest version is the fifth rendition of the popular anime cartoon since it debuted back in the late 90’s. The series will be based around Ash and his sidekick Pikachu. The two will explore the Kalos region while trying to avoid the bad guy trio, Team Rocket. To see the character in questions check out the pictures via Kotaku here.