Talk:Inio Asano

Link to Yomiuri Shimbun went K-Boom

As expected the link to Yomiuri Shimbun went BOOM thus i'm dropping a mention to the article in the Comics Journal column Journalista asserting that the Yomiuri Shimbun on Inio Asano article existed. That here. --KrebMarkt 13:31, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Transsexual issues

The anonmyous IP User:183.90.103.155, apparently has strong feelings on Asano's recent identification as a male-to-female transsexual. In an edit summary, they call earlier edits a "Gross misinterpretation of his interview with BREAK MAX magazine", but even in reverting the usage of feminine pronouns they leave in the line "Asano reveals his [sic] desire to undergo a sex change." So please, anonymous user who can't even be bothered to register an account, go ahead and tell us what's such a misinterpretation. Keep in mind that women have been known to use masculine first-person pronouns in Japanese, and that Asano came out as an adult -- broken-in speech patterns are often difficult for anyone to willingly change. Nongendered (talk) 05:54, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

As our anonymous friend refuses to elaborate further, I've taken this to the BLP noticeboard. Nongendered (talk) 11:27, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

I don't like spamming the talk page, but I only just now thought to fact-check the anon's statement that "Asano clearly identifies himself with a male version of 'I' (俺）on his personal twitter page", and found that Asano actually uses 僕 on Twitter, which is often associated with men but can also be used by masculine women. Can we please use the correct facts from here on in? (^◡^❀ฺ) Nongendered (talk) 11:43, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

I was the anonymous user. I gave the reason 'gross misinterpretation' because he said in that interview that he wishes to undergo a sex change, and he did not explicitly said he is a male-to-female transgender. If not, please provide a citation of him coming out as a transgender. As for him having a wife which I have also cited, he twitted that he hopes his followers doesn't tell the content of the interview to his wife, as he would get into trouble with her. Isn't it fair to say that he was at that moment, still a male, after the interview? Wouldn't it be a great disrespect for him if a Wikipedia article on him has been misleading readers about his sexuality for the past six months? I highly suggest that the article be reverted back to my edit until a citation on him actually coming out is provided. Sinistralogy (talk) 14:16, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but women can also have wives. Just putting that out there. But combined with Asano saying that "wearing women's clothing alone isn't enough", and that Asano is considering writing manga with transgender themes, it seems like a pretty clear statement? "I want a sex change" is not a thing that cisgender people generally go around saying a whole lot. Occam's Razor. Nongendered (talk) 19:44, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

We are talking about a manga author here, whose work relies on inspiration and experience. If he wants to work on transgender issues for his next manga, he will have to gain some knowledge of a transgender, with being a transgender itself an obvious choice, but it does not mean that he is a transgender now. Also, he just briefly said in the interview that he was disappointed that female clothings doesn't suit him well(he is a skinny guy to being with), with no implication of him being a transgender. Women can have wives, but it's not legal in Japan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sinistralogy (talk • contribs) 00:08, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

"It's not legal in Japan", I hope you realize I wasn't implying Asano is legally female because obviously I wasn't. And no, being transgender (which is an adjective, not a noun) is not a choice, it's a state of being. Since you seem to have read the interview, could you by chance provide the actual text? Nongendered (talk) 00:15, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying the meaning of transgender. My apologies as I was confusing transgender and transsexual. This brings to the point where Asano did not explicitly identify himself as a female(or a male-to-female transgender), therefore male pronouns should be used. I am just translating this article cited in the disputed line to the best of my limited knowledge of Japanese. In the Japanese wikipedia of his article, there is no mention of the BREAK MAX interview. Even though that article is written in a gender-neutral form, the general public knows him as a male manga author. So why is this article not consistent with the Japanese article? Sinistralogy (talk) 10:05, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Since I do not edit the Japanese Wikipedia, maybe you should ask them? Once again, if you have the text of the article itself instead of just an online report of it, could you provide that? Nongendered (talk) 00:43, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of that magazine. The best way to resolve this is for someone fluent in written Japanese to ask Asano on his twitter page about his gender identity. Sinistralogy (talk) 01:01, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

I am the translator of Asano's Nijigahara Holograph. My publisher, Fantagraphics Books, was concerned about how to reference Asano in promotional materials, and asked me to confirm with Asano directly. I did, and wrote about it here and here. As you are no doubt aware, the most important thing in gendering someone is respecting that person's wishes. When you don't know that person's wishes and can't find out, you make a best guess based on how that person presents. Even if we did not know Asano's wishes (which we do now), based on his presentation alone (including his use of the very masculine first-person pronoun "ore") it would be reasonable to assume that he wants to be identified as "he/him," at least for the moment. But now that we know Asano's wishes, it is simply unacceptable to insist on gendering him in a way that contradicts those wishes. No more justification is needed beyond that. Because my involvement in the issue means that it could be seen as a violation of NPV if I edited the article myself, I am writing this here on the talk page to provide information that the current editors do not seem to have. Matt Thorn (talk) 01:49, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Oh, wow. I'm looking through this article's history and it is surreal. A brief English language article based on a brief Japanese article that is a roughshod gloss of a very long Japanese article THAT NOT ONE OF THE EDITORS HERE HAS ACTUALLY READ becomes the basis for changing Asano's gender to her/she on this Wikipedia page. And when Asano himself, through his publisher, explicitly says that he prefers him/her, that crucial bit of information is negated BECAUSE IT WAS ANNOUNCED ON A PERSONAL BLOG. No matter that it is the personal blog of ASANO'S TRANSLATOR. Whoever it is who insists on gendering Asano female here: you are ignoring the stated preference of the individual. YOU ARE MISGENDERING. Matt Thorn (talk) 15:51, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi Matt Thorn. Can you provide any other source beside your own blog where Asano-san specifies a preferred pronoun or identity? Not to be rude, but we cannot simply take an individual's word that they are an official translator or representative of someone. We need to be able to verify claims with reliable sources. I can read Japanese decently (and can use Rikai-chan for kanji I don't know), so a Japanese newspaper article would work, or something similar. If Asano-san has a verified Twitter account (with that little blue check mark) that would work too. I would very much like to use to correct pronouns for Asano-san and any additional information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your efforts in correcting this. EvergreenFir (talk) 00:00, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

What is surreal to me is how quickly the pronouns on this page were changed to feminine based on such slim evidence. The Google machine will show dozens of pages identifying Matt Thorn as the translator of Asano's Nijigahara Holograph. If you assume that I am not the real Matt Thorn, then you must also assume that I have hijacked Matt Thorn's blog, or that I have been successfully masquerading as Matt Thorn since 1996, and the real Matt Thorn has either not noticed or is for some reason powerless to stop me. Regardless, I have just asked Asano flat out on Twitter, so unless he ignores my question, we should have an answer eventually. It is also possible that he will find this whole situation delightful and choose to not clarify at all. If you've read his Twitter account or the interview that started this whole thing, you will know that that is a very real possibility. His Twitter account, but the way, is @asano_inio. Mine is @matt_a_thorn_en.Matt Thorn (talk) 08:13, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Okay. Here's your unshakable source. On Twitter, I described the situation to Asano and asked he whether he preferred "she/her" or "he/him." His response is here, in plain, unambiguous Japanese. Here is my translation of his response: "Thank you for the report! I had heard a bit about it, but had no idea it had become such an issue. In my case, please use 'he/him'!" If you don't trust my translation, ask someone else who reads Japanese. If this article continues to misgender Asano now, after he has made such a clear statement, then you really have to wonder about the Neutral Point of View of the editors. I am not saying that Asano is a cis gendered male. I'm not a cis gendered male. But we all have our reasons for presenting the way we do and preferring the pronouns we do, and someone who refuses to respect that can hardly be called an ally of trans* folks. I've said all I'm going to say on the topic.Matt Thorn (talk) 05:19, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

No, wait. Now I've said all I'm going to say.Matt Thorn (talk) 07:02, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you providing all that info. As Kim mentions below, the mistake was done in good faith. Is everything in the article correct now? EvergreenFir (talk) 22:38, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

I'm willing to bet this was due to a good faith misreading of the Chelsea Manning debates. Glad it's sorted :-) . --Kim Bruning (talk) 22:28, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Ah, jumping the gun/ misapplication of MOS:IDENTITY, if you want to be really precise. They hadn't changed their pronoun themselves (yet?), so folks jumped the gun a little too jumpily. Take care with that! --Kim Bruning (talk) 22:37, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Transsexual issues, again

The madness ends here. Anyone who can read Japanese can should be able to work out that Asano does not ACTUALLY want a sex change. I know Anime News Network or whatever told you he did, but the whole thing is a misunderstanding. It's just silly. Can we please get rid of that line from his wiki and stop confusing people? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drerp (talk • contribs) 23:04, 12 July 2014 (UTC)

Drerp - Provide some Japanese language sources that are reliable (e.g., Asahi Shinbun) and I can verify your claim. We must report what reliable sources say, not what is "true".

The "story" didn't get picked up by anything so authoritative as a Japanese newspaper because people knew not to take it seriously, so I can only submit the original interview itself (1, 2, 3, 4), which, as Matt Thorn has already noted, ran in a tabloid magazine. Just for a start, let's note how Asano's assertions that he wishes he were a girl are repeatedly punctuated by "(あっさりと)", and followed by belly laughter from the interviewer. Here's an example:

Interviewer: So your wife said you're not allowed to cheat on her with another woman, but it's a different story if it's with a man.

Asano: Right. So I started to seriously consider swinging that way. (deadpan)

Interviewer: Bahahaha!

etc.--Drerp (talk) 07:16, 13 July 2014 (UTC)

Also note how the other language wiki pages don't mention anything about it -- it's just us. Can we take it down yet? I don't think anyone who's actually read the interview can possibly think it's something he seriously plans on doing. He was saying it for laughs.--118.153.122.10 (talk) 23:06, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Haven't had a chance to look/listen yet, but will remove from page for now. EvergreenFir (talk) Please {{re}} 02:12, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Herbivore Men

Asano might be responsible for popularizing the image of herbivore men in Japan according to this paper because he drew the cover for Masahiro Morioka's book on the topic: "This illustration would, in fact, end up largely determining the image of herbivore men going forward. When images of herbivore men appear in magazines and on television, they are always extremely slender young men wearing black-rimmed glasses and striped shirts." However a more independent/reliable source confirming this might be needed since this is the author himself speaking about his book. Opencooper (talk) 19:08, 31 July 2015 (UTC)