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In Gintama episode 349, Agomi mentioned that the gate "she" is guarding is called "Morocco Gate"?

What is the joke here? What "Morocco Gate" is supposed to mean?

絢瀬絵里
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1 Answers1

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I don't know for certain, but my best guess is that it's a reference to a Japanese actress called Maki Carrousel, who got a gender reassignment operation in Morocco in 1972. Back then, gender re-assignment surgery wasn't legal in Japan, so people wishing to have it performed had to travel abroad, and the most common location for it as first was Morocco. In fact, it wasn't for another 3 decades that Maki Carrousel had her official documents labeled as female.

I would suppose this gave the public perception of a connection between going to Morocco and changing one's gender. Put the fact that just prior to this line, Gintoki was just chasing his own testicle and runs into Agomi, the joke (while obscure to us that don't live in Japan) writes itself.

(I found a pretty decent paper that goes into more detail on the history of transgenderism in Japan here for further reading, it's possible I've overlooked some more important details)

Gorp
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    I kind of believe this is the correct reference since I found a similar statement on [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gintama/comments/8dvkrh/spoilers_episode_349_i_didnt_get_the_joke/). – Aki Tanaka May 17 '18 at 13:16