Gracie in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is latestImage Credit: Retrieved from http://animalcrossing.wikia.com/wiki/Gracie

Gracie is a recurring giraffe character in the Animal Crossing series that works as a high end fashion designer. Starting in the original Animal Crossing, Gracie is named “Grace” in the Japanese version and is also identified as male by the official Japanese website for Animal Crossing: City Folk. Gracie’s Japanese profile further notes “Oh, and just so you know, Grace is a he!” in the description. However, in the English localization of the game, similar to Blanca and Saharah, Gracie is a female character with no mention of male pronouns or a more masculine name. As Brian Ashcraft notes in this Kotaku article however, Saharah has always been changed to female in Western localizations. Some fans have read this to mean that she is either a transgender woman in non-Japanese titles or a very feminine gay man in the Japanese release.

LGBTQ References in this game series:

Animal Crossing (2001): Blanca, Gracie, Julia, Saharah

Animal Crossing: Wild World (2005): Mentions of Same-Sex Relationships, Opposite-Gender Haircuts

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2012): Crossdressing and Gender Expression, Isabelle, Villager Flirting

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020): CJ and Flick, Mentions and Queer Readings, Removal of Gender Choice

Citations:

  1. Various. (n.d.). Gracie (character page). Animal Crossing Wiki. Retrieved from http://animalcrossing.wikia.com/wiki/Gracie
  2. Various. (n.d). Gracie (Character Trope Summary). TV Tropes Wiki. Retrieved from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/AnimalCrossing
  3. Brian Ashcraft. (2013, June 24). Animal Crossing Characters Changed Sex for Western Release? [Update]. Kotaku. Retrieved from http://kotaku.com/animal-crossing-characters-changed-sex-for-western-rele-554496463
  4. Various. (n.d.). Animal Crossing: City Folk Characters. Nintendo Japan. Retrieved from https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/ruuj/character/village_visitor.html
  5. Clyde Mandelin. (2013, June 22). Sex Changes In Animal Crossing?. Legends of Localization. Retrieved from http://legendsoflocalization.com/sex-changes-in-animal-crossing/
  6. Various. (2013, July 2). Wait…Saharah is a girl?!. Animal Crossing Community Forum. Retrieved from http://www.animalcrossingcommunity.com/Topic/5824072/1/Wait_Saharah_is_a_GIRL_?Archived=True