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| The neck is too delicate to be a man |
I knew Soh was a woman immediately in the first cutscene of the demo because of the delicate neck and collarbone area. I quickly checked HD character renders and saw she has a chest.(wonder if it's the armor?)
Yoshiro, in contrast, is flat.
I wonder if this is related to Yoshiro's purity? The more curvy a woman's body, the more sinful she's immediately assumed to be. If we go in the opposite direction, the less fleshy a woman is, the purer she is believed to be.
Kunitsu-Gami has very little dialogue and much story-telling is told through visuals.
On the topic of Soh...Soh is an emanation of some sort related to Yoshiro.
Soh is referred to as 'they', a neutral term used when we don't know the person in question's sex or identity.
It might be how when we create an apparition of ourselves, it cannot have a sex as it has no human/physical body. The idea of the astral body having sexual organs has always amused me.
But with Soh, it could be that the developers wanted to surprise us with a cute girl.
I read up on Okami's history a long time ago. I read that Amaterasu was changed to be male in American releases(I think? I know it was one of the regions.) because they believed female characters wouldn't sell. Or they just called her 'they'. I really can't remember but you can look it up if you like.
Yet in game, she's called 'mother' and one spirit, who can see her true form, calls her a fair maiden. It's amusing...
With Soh, perhaps they also worried no one would want to play as a woman? I know modern day is poisoned with politics and prevents people from enjoying things due to their hyper tribal nature(us vs them, men vs women)
With art, perhaps one can set aside divisive thoughts, if only for a moment, and enjoy things. I don't engage in tribalism anyway so I don't bother with such topics to begin with.
As for Soh, I'm mixed. I like to see it as the more spiritual idea. We don't have a sex once separated from the body. The soul has no sex for it has no 'body'. (As for gender, duality is an illusion, so they say...feminine and masculine exist as one in the same.)
But Soh is given a body by Yoshiro, so I call Soh 'she' since she's also Yoshiro. Another thing I like.
Extra thoughts:
From the Goddess, emerges man and woman, physical representations of feminine and masculine.
The Goddess holds both principles within her. The Goddess, the God, is also the higher self. You.
The myth of the individual...
Hmmmm.....who really knows, anyway? :3
EDIT:
See my latest theory here.
She's the previous Maiden, so she's a woman indeed and we're surprised with a cute girl! (But she might also possibly be Yoshiro...)