Proof of Identity

Captain Rainbow was released for the Wii last week in Japan. The story revolves around a young man named Nick who has lost his popularity and goes to Minmin Island (where all your dreams come true TM) to gain it back. He also has the ability to transform in to Captain Rainbow and fight with a yo-yo.

But this post is about Birdo. Birdo is a character from the Nintendo universe (one of many) who is included in the game. In this context, Birdo has come to Minmin Island so she can be popular with the boys.

Some Americans don't actually know this, but Birdo (who originally appeared in Doki-Doki Panic! and what became Super Mario Bros. 2 in America) is male. I believe the American instruction manuals for games with Birdo tend to try to avoid the whole gender identity issue by making Birdo female, but Birdo is a male character who identifies as female.

In Captain Rainbow, Birdo is imprisoned (see above) for using the woman's restroom. You, as Nick, have to find evidence to prove that Birdo is female so that she will be let free. (After this, I think she declares Nick her boyfriend or something.)

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Birdo, to me, is female regardless of her actual biological sex if only because she believes she is female (she calls herself "atashi", the girly form of "I"). There is a distinction between biological sex and gender identity. So on the one hand I am happy that I get to help out Birdo in the game from being wrongfully detained. On the other hand I am slightly unhappy that I have to have tangible proof outside of Birdo herself to prove that she's female. This dismisses Birdo the "person" entirely and tries to find some "objective" proof of womanhood- and I ask you: what, essentially, proves womanhood? In the game video I saw it was "onna no akashi" which is "proof of woman" loosely, so it's not that the game gives any particular piece of proof, but just proof in some unspecified form. But still, the principal of having to find evidence for this propagates a notion that gender identity has to be proven through biological sex or through external means and it is not up to the person themselves what gender they identify as.

I'll probably be returning to Captain Rainbow in the future here to look at some other characters in the game and also just because I think the whole thing is really fun looking despite what issues I may bring up with it.