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Tekken Naion
Tekken News !
Leo's Gender Debate : Male or Female ?
From the moment Leo was announced, in the earliest of Tekken 6's trailers, fans across the world have been debating Leo's gender. On sight it really is hard to tell, if not possible at all, no matter how many times pro male/female debtors try to convince us. This is why I am eliminating this factor all together, as one person's "male-Leo" is another person's "female-leo" in their eyes.
The way I'm going to put forward my theory, is going to be solely on what Namco have given us, so I'm discounting any theories put by fans which include; Leo attempting to hide her/his true gender by dressing up like the opposite sex. The only thing we know official, story wise, is that Leo had a parent killed by Kazuya and that Leo is out to get revenge on him. Having put that out the way, I am now going to try to convince you , why I believe that Leo is male.
I have personally come to the conclusion by these following "clues", that I found out in the research....
1.
Heihachi Mishima to Leo: "You
lack proper manners boy "
In Scenario Campaign Heihachi Mishima refers to Leo; as a "boy"
, if you
do not believe me then feel free to either click on the image below ,
to
enlarge, or pick heihachi yourself and fight the Leo boss in Scenario
Campaign.
2. Anna Williams to Leo: "I'd love to help
a cute boy like
you"
This is the second time; we have another Tekken character refers to Leo
as a boy. Again
if you do not believe me, then feel free to click on the picture below
to
enlarge, or play as leo in scenario
campaign and fight Anna Williams, as boss.
3. Voice Actor: Is female BUT
voices Ash Ketchum from Pokemon !
Ok
so the argument could be that Leo's voice actor being female (Veronica
Taylor), proves that Leo is female too...right ? Maybe, but if you look
at the
character of Leo, you will notice that Namco, keep reminding us how
young this
guy really is. We have Heihachi Mishima referring to him as a "child"
we have Anna Williams calling him "cute", namco certainly do be
little Leo every so often.
Now if you look at the majority of the young males/boys in anime and
cartoon,
you will find out that they are indeed voiced by females and not males.
A
classic example would be Bart Simpson from the Simpsons. The voice
actor for
Leo has already voiced a young male before, in the popular 90's
cartoon; pokemon,
and so Namco may have found her as the perfect person to voice another
young
male; Leo.
4. Tekken Trend Games: Males out
number Females in the Newcomers
department
A side from Tekken Tag, Tekken 2,3,4,5 have had more male new comers
than female.
Tekken 2:
Females = 2 Angle, Jun Kazama
Males = 6 Jack 2, Lei, Bruce, Baek, Roger, Alex
Tekken 3:
Females = 3 Ling Xiaoyu, Panda, Julia
Males = 7 Jin, Eddy, Hwoarang, Forrest Law, Bryan Fury , Ogre, True
Ogre, I
have excluded King II, Tiger, Kuma II for arguments sake
Tekken 4:
Female: = 1 Christie
Male: = 2 Steve Fox, Marduk
Tekken 5
Female = 1 Asuka
Male = 2 Feng Wei, raven have again excluded Jinpachi
So you see namco have always had the trend of more males than female
new
comers. If we count up the female and male playable new comers,
excluding Leo,
we would have 2 female Alisa and Zafina and 3 male Lars, Miguel and
Bob.
However if you added Leo to the female list, then female new comers
would be
equal to male. But if I were a betting man I would certainly see the
odds of
having 4:2 males as a more realistic ratio, due to the gender historic
trends.
5. Secret Male/Female Poses: Leo Doesn't slap but headbutts, while Wang doesn't think much!
If Wang fights a female, occasionally he would have a special intro
pose
saying: "you're hot..."
This has so far been addressed to every singly female in the game, and
it has
never been reported that it was addressed to Leo before.
Secondly everyone by now must be aware of the secret slap
retaliation females would
respond to after being slapped by Anna Williams. If you pick Anna
Williams ,
and if you slap a female opponent ( back + 2, 2) as long as the other
female is
cpu controlled and the fight does not take place in practice you will
find any
female fighter respond in Anna Williams slap in the exact same way.
This again
excludes Leo had she been a female.
EDIT
I've just now been informed of a male only secret taunt, which Leo also does. If you select Heihachi and you headbutt a male ( forward 1+2 ) the male opponenet would reply with the same headbutt. (Go to 2:30) in the video below.
Leo does the male only taunt, and ignores the female only taunt.
6. Minor Observation:
- Leo was in the male category in the official art book
- Leo was referred to as "his" on namco's official website,
but
then again the very website claimed Asuka and Jin were brother and
sister XD
- No sauciness , Tekken as a series has been getting saucier and
saucier...not
quite DOA material but getting there.
- No female tantrum when Leo loses, I have seen every female so far,
except zafina I
confess, do the unique female tantrum after she loses the first round.
Leo does not
do it either.
Conclusion
I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but I'm sorry
I'm just
going by what Namco has given us. Apart from the voice actor
argument, every
bit of proof I put forward, was namco's official work or word. The only
argument left for Leo being female, is that Harada allegedly referred
to him as
a she in 2007. Other than that, until Tekken 7 comes out, Leo is a male
in my
eyes. From the 1st of February Tekken Nation will put out a poll on
whether you
think Leo is male or female. Make sure that you take part in it :)
AdminDeebo
YOUR SAY !
What do you think of Leo's Gender ? Click here to discuss this issue on our forum.
or
send me a e-mail at admindeebo@tekkennation.com