These days, we’ve been seeing a diverse addition to fighting game rosters. Granblue Fantasy: Versus features Ladiva, a female wrestler who happens to look like a buff male, speaks in a husky voice with a dainty tone, and rocks a sweet moustache and beard combo. And following this weekend, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition saw the debut of Street Fighter IV‘s big boss Seth but in a female android body.

Yes, he’s still voiced by his SFIV counterpart but the latter moves and act as a combination of a “Doll” and Seth’s former employee Juri. Which can be all sorts of Freudian if robots actually have genders.

So that’s two fighting game characters this year featuring crossgender traits. Personally, it’s an interesting approach to brightening up the roster with a diverse-yet-oddball addition. Animation departments from their respective games probably had a ton of fun adding in effeminate touches to how Ladiva and Seth move and duke it out.

This isn’t the first time fighting games have featured characters with atypical gender representation. In fact, this trend has been around for quite a while within versus titles made by Japanese developers.

Here’s a quick lowdown:

King (Art of Fighter & The King of Fighter Series)

Back in the 90s when the internet wasn’t around, many arcade-goers weren’t sure whether the bartender they fought in the first Art of Fighting was a guy or a girl. At least until they KO’ed her with a special move, in which King’s top is torn off to reveal her actual gender.

For the record, SNK has been doing this to her up until KOF ’95.

She instantly became a fan favourite throughout SNK’s fighting game pantheon, standing alongside figurative giants like Yuri Sakazaki and Tits McGee Mai Shiranui.

As the years go by, King’s female traits are more pronounced, especially in the 2000s and in KOF XIII.

Bridget (Guilty Gear Series)

Who knew a little boy dressed up as a nun and wields a yo-yo and demon teddy bear could be quite a looker? Bridget’s got quite a backstory: he was raised as a girl his whole life because his parents didn’t want him sacrificed for some silly backwater England ritual. He is pretty quick in pointing out to people he meets (and beats up) that he’s a boy, as Guilty Gear mainstay Johnny finds out the hard way.

Also, he’s one of those fighting game characters who befriends everyone he dukes it out with. Kinda like Street Fighter‘s Elena, but with a nun outfit and a yo-yo. And a rockin’ theme song.

Leo (Tekken Series)

Leo’s gender in the series is dubbed as ambiguous. In fact, Bandai Namco and Tekken fans have gone out of their way to refer to the character by name instead of “he” or “her”. Based on the character’s fighting style and movement, it’s anyone’s guess.

I'm not sure.. I don't know.
I asked Leo that but Leo kept silent and I was beaten by Leo.

RT@Rayuka is Leo a guy or a girl?

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) August 25, 2017

I won’t be surprised if everyone adopted the “they” suffix for Leo in the eventual sequel. Regardless, this German ass-kicker has fans because of the character’s high-low super-fast Baji Quan fighting style.

Poison (Street Fighter & Final Fight Series)

Ah, Poison. Originally a female, she got a gender swap after numerous people back in the late 80s complained about violence against women in video games, so Capcom then changed her to a “he”. At least, in an unofficial capacity: in Capcom of North America, she’s a transgender while in Capcom of Japan, he “simply tucks her business away in order to look like a girl”.

This also makes a particular Street Fighter x Tekken artwork all the more hilarious. Or tasteless, depending on your side of the spectrum.

Shion (The King of Fighters Series)

The mid-boss of KOF XI is a guy who sounds like a woman and moves and fights with such perennial grace. Androgyny is the name of the game here; originally supposed to be one of Ron’s daughters, the devs decide to go for the ambiguous gender trait to appeal to fans.

I’ll say this: it’s mesmerizing to watch this boss whoop your ass with his staff & rope-dart fighting style.

Ash (The King of Fighters Series)

The main character in the KOF 2003-XIII story arc isn’t exactly everybody’s favourite fighter at the time, probably due to his atypical portrayal as a feminine male. His fighting pose and style goes from slightly serious to more casual and relaxed (read: cocksure), since in part XIII he kinda has all the Sacred Flame MacGuffins to make power plays story-wise.

Around his debut back in 2003, SNK started creating more androgynous characters and prettyboy heroes to balance out the femme fatales in their 3D game roster. Speaking of which…

Jivatma’s Alternate Costume (KOF Series)

Most alternate costumes of characters in fighting games change up their fashion sense. In Jivatma’s case, he transforms from a guy to a girl yet still retain his evil male villain voice.

Basically, this is what happens when you let some guy like Falcoon make gameplay and roster decisions out of his design and art scope.

Know of any fighting game characters with mixed genders and androgynous traits that can initially cause all sorts of confusion from the get-go? Let us know either here or on Facebook.