•u•
holds out my hand. lets give kohaku testosterone. TOGETHER!!!
(for anyone who doesn’t know, this ask was in reference to my tags on this lovely kohaku redesign)
i wanted to say yes absolutely let’s give kohaku testosterone together but as usual i started having too many fucking thoughts and it spiraled into whatever tf this post is
you know those memes that are like "day 1 of liking a character" and it’s like a normal fanart of The Character then "day 564 of liking a character" and then it's a fanart that has some elements of the original but by this point is just so different that it might as well be their oc now, well i think my journey of liking kohaku was kind of the reverse of that LMAO
upon first being introduced to her i think i had the average reaction that a viewer like me would have to a character like her. why doesn't she have any muscle? why doesn't she wear pants?
and the real-life reasons for this are pretty obvious, much like any other shonen jump manga, dr stone does have a layer of misogyny baked into it, kohaku isn’t buff because “buff girls aren't feminine and are therefore unattractive”. nikki is the only female character to have jokes made about her appearance and she also happens to be drawn prominently buff
i do not recall if maya has ever had her appearance insulted but she does have jokes made about being a bad singer which could also be seen as making fun of her inability to perform femininity. and boichi is a horny guy who likes ass and that's why he draws kohaku and the other girls Like That, these are all things that i am always aware of when interacting with dr stone
the more years i spent with the series the more i ended up thinking of what the in-universe reasons for these things could be. why doesn't kohaku wear pants? why does she so consistently choose not to wear pants no matter how many opportunities she has for it? why does she, even while traveling through the fucking amazon, still stubbornly not wear pants? she's in the goddamn rocket with zero gravity and still does not wear pants. the only time when they finally managed to get her into them was in the astronaut suit where it was actually just necessary for her survival to wear pants. i am always reminded of the conclusion i eventually reached on this post
it's been 3 years now since i've been on T and working a physical job, but despite everything i never really gain any muscle, at least not so far, which results in the funny effect of me having a lot more upper body strength than my noodle arms would have people believe, and i have developed a fondness for calling this "kohaku syndrome" LMAODJDNFGL
if i exist as a person who hates dresses then is it all that unbelievable that a person who hates pants could exist? and there are genuinely people who have an insane level of strength that just Does Not really Show on them physically. basically, i can understand why she is written and drawn the way she is when taking the creators into account, but i also do not find it preposterous that a person like her could genuinely exist
that all being said there was actually ONE (1) merch art where they allowed her to wear pants and of course she looked amazing
an aspect of kohaku’s character that i really kind of love IS actually her relationship with femininity. she is typically portrayed as a tomboyish character, but when the situation calls for it, she is not at all personally uncomfortable with performing femininity. when she has to wear girlier clothes in the treasure island arc, the only complaint she has with her first outfit is that it’s hard to move around in, and so instead she is given a different cute dress that she has no complaints with! she expresses genuine interest in senku’s “beauty science”, and in the poker chapter she even puts on another fancy dress and wears it around like she thinks it’s the coolest thing ever!
these are all things that i love about kohaku, i think she is a character who is very comfortable with both her feminine and masculine sides. personally i actually kinda see her as nonbinary in that way. i know i am the one who made the “testosterone would have saved him” joke but really i just be saying things sometimes. would i like to see a reinterpretation of kohaku as a transgender man? ABSOLUTELY. i love seeing different people's redesigns of kohaku, but that is because i just love fandom creativity, not because i think she needs to be “fixed” in any way. well basically THIS IS MY NUANCE SHIRT I ❤️ NUANCE
anyway i kinda shit a lot on inagaki in this post so i do wanna give credit where it's due, he’s got all his faults but i do not think he is completely horrible about writing his female characters. where other shonen jump series would just casually forget their female characters as the story goes on, kohaku is consistently kept a relevant and important party member throughout the entire manga to the point that she is sent to the fucking MOON with senku, which i honestly think i huge and i will never not appreciate it. (granted, she does not actually Do all that much on the moon, but tbh neither does stanley. i would chalk this up to the drst climax just not being all that bombastic more than anything else)
nikki, despite being called ugly by the narrative, is still consistently portrayed as a strong and reliable character who is an important member of the kingdom of science and worthy of the viewer's respect
the only female character who i feel inagaki actually does not respect is luna, which i talked about a bit already in this post (you could add charlotte to the list too but it's hard to get mad about a character who is barely present)
i ended up kinda using your ask as a jumping off point to talk about whateverthefuck so my apologies, here have an old kohaku doodle that quite i liked HAHAH
^the 2 far ends of the kohaku spectrum
i want to end this rant by saying that these are all thoughts on a female character from the perspective of a transgender man and i know actual women and girls will have their own opinions on how well she was handled, so if anyone wants to add their own thoughts to this post you can feel free to do so of course
