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In the Visual Novel Amaranto, one of the members of Triad is Troy. I'm playing the English patch of it now, and they refer to Troy as a "she". When they say Troy's name, it does sound exactly like they've translated it. However I'm confused about whether this is a translation error or not.

Points that indicate that Troy could be a girl

  • All characters that are in the story or mentioned but two are girls (the two guys being a nameless vagrant that Mio was about to kill and the strawberry-loving owner of the cafe Yuuki's group hangs out in).

  • It's noted that Queen hates men, even going so far as to kill most of them off when she takes over a Sect, and since the Triad are like her elite guard, she would have nothing but girls in it.

  • The twins joke about how Troy only has eyes for "Senpai" which refers to Ria, since all the relationships shown/possible are Shoujo Ai (female × female). So, this would be the same with Troy and Ria.

Points that indicate that Troy could be a boy

  • Troy is a guy's name at least in English (in Japanese, it's pronounced as to-ro-i / トロイ) however in the game it seemed to be pronounced as to-ro-i-a / トロイア so the English name may be a mistranslation.

  • Troy's appearance:

Troy by himself Triad

  • Troy sounds like a boy (but that could mean little)

So I am wondering, is Troy a girl, or is Troy actually a boy (and the translation is wrong)?

Memor-X
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1 Answers1

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This is Troy's profile from the official site's character introduction.

Troy's profile

Although Troy's appearance is like a boy, Troy is a she. From the last paragraph of Troy's description:

口数が少なく、常に行動を共にする双子も
彼女のことはよく知らない。

Does not talk much, and even the twins whom Troy usually act together with
do not know much about her.

While VNDB claims that she is also a transgender, I don't have any proof to support or counter it. However, from the sample dialog on the image,

「そんなの、ボクには関係ない。
  君たちの好きにすればいいだろ」

she refers to herself as ボク (boku) which defines her personality as a bokukko (Warning: TV Tropes link)

A Bokukko is, literally, a girl who uses the first-person Japanese Pronoun boku, primarily used by boys and young men. [...]

Most bokukko are tomboys, but not all; sometimes it just indicates that the user is a Plucky Girl or unaware of social norms. [...] Although none of this has to be reflected in her appearance, bokukko are usually either flat-chested or extremely well-endowed.

This speech pattern can also be used to keep a character's gender obscured—is she a boyish girl, or a girlish boy?

Last but not least, Kisaki Kotori ― the voice-actor herself ― listed her role on her official site as female for Troy.

トロイア役 (Troy) ♀


Regarding the name トロイア (toroia) as Troy, most possibly it refers to Troy, a city used as the setting of the famous Trojan War. Japanese Wikipedia lists トロイア (toroia), トロイ (toroi) and トロイアー (toroia-) as the possible pronunciations.

Aki Tanaka
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