Initial Research 3

Grell Sutcliff

I looked into the character of Grell Sutcliffe in Kuroshitsuji (black butler) as I really like the manga and anime series. Grell is confirmed by Yana Toboso ( mangaka) as being a pre-op trans woman, and this factors into a large part of their story line as their opening into the series is when they make friends with another character Madam Red. At first it is because Grell admires the way in which Madam murders her victims as there is usually a lot of blood and Grell really likes the colour red. In the manga when Grell asks why Madam kills her victims and it is revealed that it is due to the fact that they can have children when she can't, Grell sympathises with her as they too cant carry children, and this forms part of the bond between the two. This is left out of the storyline in the anime, and it is just shown that Grell likes the madam and agrees to kill her due to the killing alone.
One thing that is confusing for a while was Grell's gender identity, as until Yana wrote Grell's confessional, it was very unclear, and it is still a big topic of discussion in the fan base as to how exactly to refer to them. Most of the other characters in the series refer to them using he/him pronouns and titles, whereas Grell refers to themselves using feminine titles and corrects the others quite a few times when they refer to them as a he, usually quite violently. This causes some issues with representation as it is not clear what exactly Grell is representing. They're incredibly flamboyant and flirt with every male character at some point, but this could be Grell being portrayed as the stereotypical flamboyant gay man, and the other characters  call them gay at times. It still doesn't seem completely clear on what Grell is supposed to represent, but they are still a great character none the less.

Grell and Madam Red official art from Yana Toboso's Art Book

 


Grell Sutcliff cover art