I love my robot kids

Ok I said this earlier but saying Osamu Tezuka of all people is a transphobe is THE dumbest, coldest take. Not only did the man constantly try and fight for the better treatment of marginalized people, but there’s so many more examples in the 700 mangas he wrote in his lifetime. I’ve only seen two examples, the first being the Dororo ending and the second being Kei Kisaragi from Black Jack. 

First, let’s start with Dororo. While this example is actually in my opinion one of the worst examples of Tezuka’s trans writing, the manga itself was actually cancelled and therefore incredibly rushed. Looking at the plot itself- do you really think Hyakkimaru was meant to abandon Dororo despite both saying they enjoyed traveling with each other just a few chapters ago? This certainly doesn’t justify the ending itself but there’s a ton of other sub-plots that end up being unfinished and the ending in general is just… bad. I can’t help but have the feeling there would’ve been a far more developed plot if the manga gotten to reach its full length.

On Kei Kisaragi- I’ve heard one person saying since Tezuka was a doctor he’d know removing the ovaries doesn’t made a man, but that WAS actually the medical misunderstanding at the time. In fact, the “logic” is explained within the chapter.

But besides the medical misconception? Kisaragi is a decently written trans man. It’s clear Kisaragi isn’t completely torn up about the “transition”, and he’s still got a character outside just being trans. 

Now! To some more direct and better examples

The one that’s most striking to me is a scene from Astro Boy, in which a robot is pointing out problems in the robot code. One of the things he points out being wrong is robots not being able to change their gender:

There’s literally no other way to interpret this. Robots in Astro Boy clearly stand for marginalized groups, and this part isn’t played for any kind of joke and the robot criticizing the law isn’t shown in a negative light for this.

Princess Knight is a HUGE example of Tezuka playing with gender roles and expectations- the main plot is that a princess is born with both a boy and girl heart, and in order to not let the main villain take over the kingdom, Sapphire is instead raised as a prince and constantly yearns to live as a girl. It’s easily a typical trans story, along with challenging gender roles and leading to more androgynous heroes in future works.

Metropolis! Not the silent film, the manga based on the poster of the short film. Mitchy is literally described as a genderless being and often switches between genders throughout the story.