Trope Workshop:Clownfish Ritual

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The Clownfish Ritual trope is a narrative device used in supernatural gender bender stories, particularly those involving male-to-female transformation. Though it's not uncommong for the trope to also touch the harem genre, as Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite. The name is a reference to clownfish behavior, where they essentially jump the gender barrier. If the dominant female dies, the dominant male will undergo sex change to fill the vaccuum, while one of the juveniles are promoted into becoming the dominant male. The fish all start their lives as males.

Following this, the Clownfish Ritual trope refers a single-gender race, where everyone is born into a neutral or undetermined gender state, before they eventually decide on a biological gender often through a rite of passage into adulthood. This sometimes involves a Transformation Sequence. In most cases, the character will decide to jump the gender barrier for their love interest. Other rites of passage common in Coming of Age stories may be involved, such as changing your name or stamping your v-card.

Before their ultimate transformation, they are often depicted as genderflipping, without no genitals, or as hermaphrodites or intersex. They often sport an androgynous beauty, which may confuse other characters and lead to a Gender Reveal. Expect Lady Looks Like a Dude and Dude Looks Like a Lady, or something in between. The confusing state of the character's sex may lead to some Gender Vocabulary Slip bloopers on the creator's or translators' part. After the ritual, there may be no real significant changes in the character other than their genitals.

Not to be confused with the nyotaika genre, where the character genderswaps from male to female. See also Shapeshifter Mode Lock and Sex Shifter. Not to be confused with Hermaphrodite either, where the character is intersex from birth. Compare with No Biological Sex.

Examples of Clownfish Ritual include:

Anime and Manga

• Daughter of the Elemental King: Joel McAlpine mistakenly believes that Haein is a Theordo, a race that can decide on their biological gender once they reach a certain threshold. However, she is in fact simply genderless.
• Family Compo: Shion used to switch between being male and female indiscriminately, but eventually decided to stick to being female-presenting upon reaching her teens. It's unclear if her biological gender is male or female, or even both.
• Four Knights of the Apocalypse: It is revealed that some members of the Fairy Clan are born neither male nor female, and only develop their sex when they fall in love with someone opposite to that sex. This applies to Nasiens, who presents himself as a boy but hides that "he" is neither sex, as revealed in the same chapter where he discovers he's a fairy and not a human.
• Kanojo ni naru hi: Mamiya turns into a girl due to a feminization epidemic. As a result of treatment, he becomes a cocoon, which might turn him back into a guy.[5] He comes out a woman.
• Magnolia: Prince Ayato is neither male nor female, but once he turns 16, he must choose a biological gender.
• My Childhood Friend Changes Daily: The protagonist's childhood friend can change sex at will. Once he turns 15, he will lose this ability and has to choose which gender he wants to stay as.
• UQ Holder!: The yatagarasu tribe of demihumans have no physical sex until the age of sixteen. Kuromaru is a member of this tribe, and though his gender identity is a bit uncertain, he definitely presents himself as male.

Literature

• Wraeththu: The Wraeththu appear male—and, in some cases, start out male—but are hermaphroditic.