RD 3-7 "Cat Fight"

In which Kyza asks to be called glamorous. (I'm not making this up.)

For those of you unfamiliar with my translation posts, I put a % if the line and that above it are merged. Otherwise you can assume the translation matches up line for line.

Also, some of the wording comes off as a bit awkward in English. I prioritize accuracy in these translations, since I figure that's what people are looking for. If the words I've chosen don't carry a vibe well, I note it.

( Cut for length )

Kyza's Sexual/Gender Identity

raphiael mentioned that someone said Kyza is canonically trans, to which I was like "wtf, since when?" Since they provided a source, I decided to check it out myself.

Long story short: It's true. It's all true.

Here's a picture of Kyza's entry in the 20th Anniversary Art Book.

Transcription:
キサ
体は男、心は女？

普段は模範的な兵士なのだが、
興奮するとなぜかオカマ口調にな
る。リィレとは、隊長であるライ
を巡ってライバル関係にあり（も
ちろんライにその気はない）。


Here's a fairly literal translation I drew up. I'm using "he" here, but I need to note that there are no gender-specific pronouns used in the Japanese -- I'm using this as a syntactic demand of English only. Also I tried to preserve what goes in what line, but a few things are shifted around because, again, the grammar is fundamentally very different.

Kyza (kisa)
Male body, female heart?

Although usually an exemplary soldier,
when excited, for some reason his speech becomes that of an okama.*
With Lyre, in regards to Commander Ranulf,
he is in a rivalry.
(Of course, Ranulf is not gay.)
EDIT 6/15/14: Revisiting this, I'm less sure of this line. The dictionary I used indicated that "sono ki" is a euphemism that means homosexual, but now that I have more experience with the language I think it may be indicating his general disinterest in their tiff over him.

*okama: This is a general Japanese cultural term, and to my understanding it can mean anything from an effeminate gay dude to a crossdresser to a transwoman. In my limited understanding, I'd compare its scope with drag queen.
EDIT 6/28/14: ... But as an often-derogatory word that some queen people choose to reclaim, it may be more similar to fag in that sense.

Feel free to get a second opinion on this. I'm 100% confident in the factual aspects of my transcription/translation.

With regard to Kyza's feminine speech... here are some examples from 3-7 "Catfight".

[キサ]
いいえ、是非
あたしに！▼

Kyza uses atashi! (A rather cutesy and definitely feminine word for "I", usually reserved for the likes of Mia and Mist.)

[キサ]
あ、あんた…
人が気にしてることをよくも……▼
ライ隊長！
こんな貧相な猫娘には
不相応な代物だと思うわ！▼
知的で戦闘力に優れるあたしにこそ
相応しいものですよね！？▼

Pure level of emotionality aside, it's worth noting that Kyza's sentence endings are also very feminine -- in particular, the use of wa is considered exclusively feminine.

But before you start celebrating about Tellius being progressive and all that, I feel the need to point out a few things:

- I'm not intimate enough with Japanese culture or LGBT movements to say, but the use of okama definitely strikes me as a non-progressive term.

- Lololol romantic Ike/Ranulf is officially not canon SOREN FOREVER. I mean, uh, look, one of those rare words of god on sexuality!

- Devdan's (and Danved's,, if we're keeping track) speech is equally feminine, if not moreso. In the Japanese version, his quirk was sounding like a coy woman. It somehow got translated to sounding mentally impaired. I'm pretty sure it was meant to be played for laughs.

- I'm not convinced Kyza wasn't meant to be played for laughs. I think you're looking at a gag character more than a flagbearer of trans characters in mainstream media.

- And for that matter, joke character or not, let's not forget he wasn't allowed in our mainstream media. Given that the translators were comfortable with the only black character in PoR talking in third person, and nuking the romantic aspect between Ike and Soren in FE9, I somewhat doubt that their motivation was sensitivity regarding gay stereotypes.



Also I think I owe measuringlife an apology about this subject.

You were right all along, man. You were right about fabulous Kyza.

I'm going to wake up from this dream any minute now.

EDIT: I translated Cat Fight, for those of you who are more excited by Japanese Kyza than Ike/Soren. :P