[Yukin]

I think that he's a guy that acts like a gal....(coz of his
outfits and acting....)

[Omega]

Ok...I dunno whether he/she was supposed to be a man or a woman originally. All I know is what I seen. I believe Kuja was a man, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is what they intended. Sephiroth has long fricken hair, so what? He is definitely not a woman, and neither is Kuja, the villains they never make you wonder about, you know whether it's a male or female.

[Andromeda]

Yeah as far as the US version is concerned Kuja is a guy, though he did make me wonder at times. And it was said before, Queen Brahme makes a joke that he is a girly man or something to that affect. Probably because localization knew that he is confusing gender wise. Or maybe it is a joke from Japan and they are poking fun at themselves if they used feminine pronouns when talking about him, it all could be part of the joke. But I have played FFIX enough times to know that in the FMVs he does not have any breasts that are decernable, so if they wanted him to be a woman, he is lacking estrogen, and a lot of it.

Aside from the lack of breasts though, he has a figure and a pretty good outfit to be passible for a woman. If you saw him walking down the street you would probably double take thinking it is girl, but something is missing. Heck if you following behind him you would not even know he was a guy probably.

And considering the gender neutral nature of the Gnomes to begin with, it is no surprise that Kuja looks somewhere between a man and woman. Another thing to wonder about it, does the soul affect physical appearance. It is hard to say, and probably highly doubtful, but in Trance the soul is probably a strong reflection. And Kuja stole Brahme soul I think, so when we went Trance the feminine appearance did come out more. That might be a hint to his feminine appearance during Trance.

I wonder maybe his is a hermaphodite, just lacking the breasts for some reason like not enough estrogen. It would be a little odd, but it might be a theory. *shrugs*

But also, Sephiroth has more hair than Kuja, but Sephiroth also needs longer hair so something can compete for length next to his Musamune, a 6 foot Katana yeesh. And then there was Seymour, not nearly as feminine, but he was working it at times, the soft voice did not work in his favor. Recent villains seem to have a feminine side to them, though Sephiroth is about the furtherest from being a woman, he is all guy, just really long hair.

Square just seems to enjoy their female looking villains. Though shouldn't have much trouble with that in FFXII, people say Vaan is, but I do not really think so. But anyway, it is a Japanese thing probably, look at some of those Dynasty Warriors games, I have seen pictures of guys in there that are far more questionable than Kuja.

too bad IX didn't yet have voice actors, so if he had had a male voice, hardly anyone would have ever shown doubt about his gender.

[RagnaToad]

He's definitely a man though he seems kinda like a genome having troubles with his gender. I think they just made him that way to enhance the contrast between his appearance and his actual power.

His androgyny makes him more sinister than he'd be if he had like a beard and whatnot.

I think i am in favour of the whole sexless idea. As he was artificially created it is distinctly possible that he is totally androgynous. It would suit his/her personality well i feel. maybe the references to kuja as a brother by zidane just stem from his maleocentric womanising causing sexual bias as opposed to hard evidence. no pun intended.

[Sevion]

this is a stupid question but wat are these genomes i completed forgot wtf they were..?

[BrownMagic]

The deeper we probe into this one the more we seem to uncover huh, let's not forget FFV's favourite crossdressing Pirate Faris. Maybe square is just continuing a recurring thing.

Genomes are empty shells created by Garland to recieve the souls from the other world, kind of like the way that Vivi is but with a possibilty of recieving a souls so to speak should Terra become the dominant planet. if i'm wrong let me know.

BTW - Maleocentric, nice one 19th, not an easy word to pull off. Loving the extensive vocabulary on this thread.

Thankyou thankyou i do try. To make i final statement, i feel that if kuja has a gender, it is probably(in my not so humble opinion) male. An effeminate man is much more in line with the whole ff theme than a very manly woman. I myself often become very confused by my own gender. maybe if i get better know i should open a thread on that topic!! ^_^

[gfmaster9999]

Okay.... kuja Is definatley a man in the american verson but I don't realy know much about the japinese version so I cant say much on that topic... But I can say that Kuja very possiby might be Gay of Bisexual.... Either way When I first saw him In an FMV I thought he was a Woman.

It's a tough one, but i agree with the said statement above that he was considered genderless. At one time clones were considered to have no gender, but were made to look like both sides.

[Maridia]

I believe that Kuja is defenitely a guy. i mean he looks femenine, but just has qualities that seem like a male. plus whenever I hear Kuja get mentioned I hear how HE looks very awkward, but he is infact a guy.

[bent chocobo]

i think kujas the wierdest loking villain in all the final fantasy games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...then you haven't seen Seymour yet XD

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by Bronwyn

I've had a few people tell me that they've played the Japanese version of FF9, and that the pronoun used for Kuja is actually feminine. Plus, there's the appearance of Kuja; very feminine looking, has curvacious(sp?) hips, and wears make up.

Thats friggin' bullshit. Kuja is a guy in the Japanese version too. I'm 99% sure. You'r friends are probably saying stuff they don't know.

[Iudicium]

He is- I mean she is a chick, if in the Japanese version Kuja is female then the first version is what Kuja really is and look how Kuja dresses.

[Deicide]

-->>>This post contains heavy spoilers. Read at own risk.<<<--

Firstly to put the genome based theories to rest, I beleive it is stated in the game that the genomes are intended to serve as vessels for the Terran souls once the native Gaian souls have been completely destroyed, my memory on this is a little rusty, but I'm pretty sure it was at least implied that the genomes had gender since, well, they would be expected to be functioning in all capacities for there hosts.. Added to this there is the fact Mikoto is very positivly identified as a female, if the male identification of Kuja was merely a mistake on Zidanes part why not also make that assumption about his 'sister'? Also, since I know its coming, bare in mind that Kuja was not supposed to have a soul, he is a mistake, just one that Garland decided to put to use.

However, this being said, I actually do subscribe to the theory Kuja was originally female, to me it just seems a heck of a lot more likely, both from the various name reports and just from the way s/he acts. After all to this day the main complaints about FFVIII remain aimed firmly at the sudden and, as far as many are concerned, ill thought out shift in the magic system as well as the characters who are apparently rather hard to symaphise with. As for the 'gay' cloths excuse? We know that, if it was a male, then 'he' was not gay since there is a lot of obvious hitting on Garnet in earlier parts of the story.

In fact, I beleive that such segmants are one of the main reasons why 'his' gender was altered. Think about it, could have been pretty awkard for a large part of the Western audiances at the time had Kuja and Garnet both been female. It would have been a heck of a lot easier to just cast her as male and let people assume 'hes' a little.. Odd.

:..2-2-7..:

[Anomaly]

Well they did say that Genomes have sexual identities. I think its Vivi that actually asks the question at one point and they say yes 'if we weren't male and female would would not be able to adeqately adapt'. Which is true...the process of sex exercised by most higher creatures in biology serves the function of weeding out bad mutations and preserving strong ones through natural selection.

As to the subject itself, I'm not sure Kuja has a gender at all. Oh yes, he was made male for the West, but I don't know about the East. It could be he is a Genome that was made without a gender and thus why he is somewhat of a failure. (though granted a failure with the highest power capacity of the Genomes until Zidane and Mikoto)

At the end of the day, you can't peak into the thong of this videogame character so I don't see why it should matter. Not like he sexed anyone up or anything

...we should email the question to Square-enix, so it will FINALLY be answered for good.

[Anomaly]

Originally Posted by Thaliel

...we should email the question to Square-enix, so it will FINALLY be answered for good.

If you think they'll give you an answer somehow I doubt they'd give you a straight one.