性転換[seitenkan]
Gender-bending School Days
As it is, this merely means gender-bending. In real life, someone who really wants to change the sex undergoes a surgery. No no no, that’s not what I am going to tell. Okay, if you happen to be a big doujin fan, or a doujin artist, you would be definitely sure of this. Yes, switch your favorite characters’ gender and let them make love, so you can create 性転換[seitenkan] or gender-bending.
Basically, this method used to be popular among BL fangirls who don’t want to see a favorite character having a sex with a girl (but die to see his own nudity!). Using this method, seme can be an uke, and there’s other way around. But after all, it’s 夢オチ[yumeochi]…Ugh, this is too typical. Having said that, this seriously requires viewers’ understanding. Sheer fans would hate it, so that this genre might be cliquished. Even if you come across such a blog or video, a note says in advance for sure.
Meanwhile, this method is used to make a joke. For example, such a bishoujo gets a muscular body (but her face still remains)! Or else, Jojo (Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure) or Kenshiro (The Fist of the Northern Star) has a ribbon in his hair or wears over knee socks (yes, zettai ryouiki for sure!).
However 2006 onwards, there has been a lot of decent gender-bending fanarts. They just enjoy gender-bending, so it’s not even necessarily yaoi. It’s more of a parody, yes, here’s the most famous parody series, 性転換エヴァンゲリオン[Gender-bending Evangelion] which all the characters are gender-benders. I must say this genre has been in the mainstream.
Needless to say, this is definitely popular among cosplayers. Well, a better saying is crossdressing though. The intersting thind is that there are a lot of cosplayers who even do Suzumiya Haruhiko series[gender-bending Suzumiya Haruhi]. So girls can cosplay Kyonko or Itsuko, and guys can do Haruhiko or Yuuki. Either way, I won’t do this though.
Ruki said,
August 31, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Kyonko, haha.
It’s funny now that you bring this topic up, recently I picked up a manga series by one of my fav mangaka, Blue drop: We are angels. At first I thought it was going to be like the first series and the anime but it turns out to be 性転換.
Neohybrid_kai said,
September 1, 2008 at 12:15 am
So that’s the word, yeah the Kyonko phenomenon is really a blast back then, I guess I’ll stick on with the original, seitenkan is not my thing..
..uh but come to think of it, I once saw a Touhou gender bending where all the characters turns into bishounen and I like it, lol. Maybe it depends on how hardcore your fan level because I’m not into Touhou much
bangin said,
September 1, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Ruki: Recently, this has been quite remarkable, so you can always find such a gender-bending characters on the net. It usually saying like ｘｘを美少年にしてみました or ｘｘを美少女にしてみました or so-and-so became bishounen/bishoujo. There might be another story if they use 性転換.
Neohybrid_kai: I am a Haruhi fan, but I don’t dislike Haruhiko series, nor like it. It seems to be weird to me. ;^^
But this is too decent to be just a joke. Among doujin artists, this is a crucial genre for sure…
Becca said,
September 2, 2008 at 12:23 am
Oh! So this is what it’s called! I remember seeing the Haruhiko videos up on NicoNico Douga a while ago. (And there was an Evangelion 性転換 too, but I can’t find it anymore) I agree, they’re kind of strange. I think I like comedy seitenkan more than serious seitenkan…
Recently, I think BL fangirls tend to draw male–>female gender-bending more. (They always put the, um, female version in maid costume…) I’ve never seen any female—>male 801 doujinshi, but that sounds even weirder. Oh well, everyone has different likes/dislikes.
。。。しかし腐女子の力が強いですね。（笑）
bangin said,
September 3, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I think I have seen the similar thing, メイドはじめました which all the bishounens dress up as a maid. I could have introduced one more term 女体化[jotaika] which means to turn a man into a woman, uh biologically.
I guess 性転換 doujinshi can be seen on 2nd day at Comic Market rather than any other days. ^^
Jordonon said,
September 13, 2008 at 1:27 am
Is the “No no no” a reference to this? http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/307724
bangin said,
September 14, 2008 at 7:46 am
No no no! Just a coincidence! lol