Toei Sparks Debate After Calling Yamato “He” in One Piece Post

A new controversy — tied to an old debate — resurfaced online after Toei Animation’s official English account referred to One Piece’s Yamato as “he” in a post, sparking widespread criticism.

On Yamato’s birthday, the Toei Animation English account tweeted:

“Every repost will honor Yamato’s free spirit on his birthday.”

Shortly after, the tweet was edited to remove the male pronoun, now reading:

“Every repost will honor Yamato’s free spirit today.”

The original post quickly ignited heated arguments in the comments.

• “Explain, shouldn’t it be HER birthday?”
• “Why did you just edit out the mistake instead of fixing it?”
• “She. Get it right next time.”
• “Yamato is a woman. Edit it correctly.”
• “You removed the mistake instead of correcting it? Yamato is a woman.”
• “Toei, she’s a woman. You know that — it’s not that hard.”
• “I saw what you did, jerk.”
• “Whoever runs this account, screw you. Yamato is a woman and nothing will change that.”

I don’t watch One Piece, but from what many people are saying, Yamato admires a hero named Oden so much that she tries to imitate him completely — even his gender.

This reminds me of the controversy surrounding Naoto from Persona 4. For those who haven’t played it, much of the game leads you to believe Naoto is a boy, only to reveal later that she is, in fact, a girl.

Here’s the context — and spoiler warning for Persona 4: Naoto admires detectives from a young age. In her mind, the “ideal detective” is always male, dressed in the classic hat and trench coat. So she adopts that image, presenting herself as male because, to her, that’s what a detective should look like.

It’s not that Naoto wants to be a man for its own sake; rather, she associates the detective role with masculinity. By the game’s epilogue, she begins dressing more femininely after accepting herself and resolving her inner conflicts.