Hikaru Utada, the singer behind the theme songs to the Rebuild of Evangelion anime films, Kingdom Hearts video games, and the To Your Eternity TV anime, revealed on their Instagram live stream on Saturday night that they were non-binary. Utada had previously revealed publicly that they were questioning how to express themselves in an Instagram post on June 18.
You can watch the live stream archive (which also features Evangelion director Hideaki Anno) on the Hikki Staff Instagram account right here. The relevant section starts at 2:04 in the video.
In the stream – prior to Anno coming on – Utada introduces another special guest, their stuffed bear Kuma, explaining "He's a boy, and he is gay." They continued on, "It's the month of June and I'm non-binary, so happy pride month! I got to say it before the end of the month!" The singer then repeats the above in Japanese.
Previous Instagram post (link)
Utada had brought up questions on their genre previously in the month on another Instagram post, saying that they are "sick of being asked if I’m 'Miss or Missus' or choosing between 'Miss/Mrs/Ms' for everyday things" and that they "long for an alternative option, one that anybody of any gender or social standing could use." The image on the post (seen above) suggests the use of "Mys. Utada."
The Japanese press picked up on the story this morning, with The Chunichi Shimbun explaining and transliterating "Mys. Utada" for a Japanese audience. The article said that Utada has seen many positive and sympathetic comments from the Japanese public, with one commenter saying that they "are happy [Utada] can speak out freely." Renato Rivera Rusca, a lecturer at Okayama Prefectural University on Japanese popular culture, tweeted out a clip of a Japanese morning program using the news to introduce LGBT terms to Japanese viewers.
As expected, Monday morning TV picked up the story on Utada Hikaru coming out as non-binary, and used the opportunity to give a crash course on basic LGBTQ terminology. I did not expect "Long Long Man" himself, US-born Ozawa Yukiyoshi not to have heard the term before, however. pic.twitter.com/SFQpRwS5NS
— Renato Rivera Rusca （レナト・リベラ・ルスカ） (@RENATOLOGY) June 28, 2021
Sources: Hikki Staff on Instagram, Hikaru Utada on Instagram, The Chunichi Shimbun, Renato Rivera Rusca on Twitter
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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.
Source: Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!
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