G-ddammit G.U.
2024-09-08
I'm really disappointed in .hack//G.U.'s handling of Hiiragi, a trans character in the game. She's introduced in an interesting way, shown overhearing a plot of Lord Sakaki (an antagonist! ooo!) and expressing disappointment. In the arena where you fight her team, the announcer misgenders her, to which she shouts, "I'll kick your fucking ass!" and the announcer corrects himself.
I was going to base my judgement on how Haseo referred to her after the match, but the following cutscene of Sakaki and another character (whose name slips my mind, oops) soured the entire thing. The announcer's introduction was bad enough, but the cutscene was transmisogynistic and nailed the coffin of disappointment. Haseo also misgendered her, but honestly sometimes he's so socially dense that I wouldn't put it past him to just have no idea, especially since he's not disrespectful of her presentation, at least not from what I remember, and I've been paying close attention.
Part of why this disappointed me is because I remember the Signs anime handled Tsukasa's gender and the queer relationship between him and Subaru with a lot of love. One of the many reasons I hold this series so close to my heart. I had a silly hope Hiiragi would be handled more respectfully, but it was like, the mid-00's. Game was released the same year as Kingdom Hearts 2, which was notorious for an inappropriate game model for one of the female characters. What did I expect, I guess?
I expected better, actually. The game handles so many other themes incredibly delicately, like the adultification of children, corporation's culpabilities behind harm their products cause, global warfare, and others, and surprisingly so since the setting is an MMORPG. KH2 similarly handled themes of loss, death, and facing your shadow with care, too. They already had plenty of the edgy elements that were so latched on to at the time. And damn, is Haseo's character design kickass.
But Signs came out in 2002 and managed to be respectful at a time my parents didn't know how to explain to me that my childhood friend had two moms. So I don't know what the .hack team was thinking with Hiiragi.
I will hold on to my belief that if someone sat Haseo down and told him Hiiragi's a girl and her pronouns, he'd be totally chill with it. I used to roleplay as him. I know these things LOL. He hasn't shown any kind of prejudices like that, not that I can remember. Even as Sora, he's a dumb ten year old, but while everyone thinks he's collecting only women's member addresses, it's later shown that he collects the addresses of people he finds "interesting" and kinda, uh, proceeds to harass them, I guess? This kid is like, very autistic. No wonder I related to him so much growing up. And the build up to the reveal Sora not being some creepy man but an awkward, blunt kid was absolutely excellent. On my rewatch, I've been paying close attention to how much they reveal about Sora, and damn do they drag out the truth, and the clues the writers leave are delectable. My particular tell is the Player Killer Sora saying, every time he jumps, "Yoink! Doink! Doink!" More on that later, maybe. And yes, the fact that there's a Sora in .hack and Kingdom Hearts is confusing. It stresses me out too, don't worry.
But yeah. For shame, .hack//G.U. writers. I'm Team Hiiragi this time, and we're gonna kick y'all's fucking asses as friends! Because that's a theme for this game, even with someone as standoffish and sometimes cruel as Haseo. Delectable. For shame. Trans rights; we are beautiful and we are Macabre Dancers and Wavemasters.
Tunes while writing: