I bet this oh-so brave "fanartist" pees themself in fear at the idea of talking to people and that's why they draw characters being oh so aggressive and "outspoken".
:autism: insider fan knowledge: Grell is male, but a lot of chapters/scenes in the manga indicate that Grell is trans. The creator hasn't said anything about it though as far as I know.
Didn't Yana Toboso write an in-character Q&A section from Grell where she pretty much states Grell is trans, though? And in my experience, the major part of the fans who insist that Grell is a guy are rabid yaoi fangirls who cling to Sebastian/Grell being hawt yaoiz and therefore ignore all the hints at Grell's trans sexuality or try to shove it under the bed so they won't "lose" their precious m/m...
Didn't Yana Toboso write an in-character Q&A section from Grell where she pretty much states Grell is trans, though? And in my experience, the major part of the fans who insist that Grell is a guy are rabid yaoi fangirls who cling to Sebastian/Grell being hawt yaoiz and therefore ignore all the hints at Grell's trans sexuality or try to shove it under the bed so they won't "lose" their precious m/m...
:autism: insider fan knowledge: Grell is male, but a lot of chapters/scenes in the manga indicate that Grell is trans. The creator hasn't said anything about it though as far as I know.
Ciel: Born female who found an even more pretentious term to call themself than demiboy. Doesn't get a tingle in their mostly boy-pussy and has an immature view of romantic relationships since they only like them in theory.
Sebastian: Calls themselves a "fancier" version of agender, but still claims their term is different.
Alois: Realizing that they're too good to be called a bisexual, they went for pan. Claims they're outside gender sterotypes, but still favor feminity and probably wears really visible make up that doesn't look good on them.
Claude: Born female and despite stealling Sebbastian's gender term, they want to be masculine. If the pole fits the hole, they will fuck it.
Grell: Born male, but favors being a girl and also thinks they're too good to be bi.
Will: Gets no tingles in his deformed genitals, but would date either gender.
Undertaker: Born male, but claims to have no gender. Hopefully is not connected to the beloved professional wrestler.
Ronald: A guy who thinks he's a tomboyish lesbian.
Lau: They have no idea what gender they are because they don't understand it, but will pork either gender.
Finnian: Born female and probably looks and dresses like the host of Queer Kids Stuff.
Mey Rin: Another trany who has a slower sex drive and probably has fear of persuing romantic relationships like the big kids.
Didn't Yana Toboso write an in-character Q&A section from Grell where she pretty much states Grell is trans, though? And in my experience, the major part of the fans who insist that Grell is a guy are rabid yaoi fangirls who cling to Sebastian/Grell being hawt yaoiz and therefore ignore all the hints at Grell's trans sexuality or try to shove it under the bed so they won't "lose" their precious m/m...
Correct me if I'm wrong (going off years-old memory here), but Yana and Grell has referred to himself as "okama" in the past, and that was what was interpreted to mean Grell is trans. Okama can refer to themselves in female pronouns in the same way drag queens do.
Fuck it though, I sound like I'm pushing for man!Grell when I don't even like Kuoshitsuji so I'll stop. It's just, if people want representation so much why aren't they creaming themselves over something like Wandering Son?
Oh, an addendum to my post about westaboos: I've seen some well-meaning Asian country-based artists on Tumblr get absolutely blasted to hell and back for not making black characters, well, black enough.
Case in point: there was this one South Korean artist I used to follow, and she did a bunch of Avengers stuff. People started asking her why she wouldn't ever draw Rhodey or Falcon. The couple of times she did actually draw Falcon, he wasn't dark enough for Tumblr's liking, and she got absolutely incinerated for it. Never mind that she barely knew English, mind you. Eventually, she stopped drawing Marvel/MCU stuff (presumably because she didn't want to bother with all that BS again, and I don't blame her) and moved on to Voltron Legendary Defender.
There was this Japanese guy on Deviantart a while back who got sent death threats from not drawing Garnet from Steven Universe "black enough". The poor dude didn't even speak English, and hadn't set foot in the United States in his life. How the fuck is he supposed to understand the racial intricacies of the United States? There are actually a lot of Japanese artists that draw Mammies simply because they don't know any better and are copying old American art; be happy the dude didn't go to the opposite extreme and make Garnet an offensive stereotype.
Correct me if I'm wrong (going off years-old memory here), but Yana and Grell has referred to himself as "okama" in the past, and that was what was interpreted to mean Grell is trans. Okama can refer to themselves in female pronouns in the same way drag queens do.
Fuck it though, I sound like I'm pushing for man!Grell when I don't even like Kuoshitsuji so I'll stop. It's just, if people want representation so much why aren't they creaming themselves over something like Wandering Son?
I've never seen the show- I've only watched one of the OVAs, but my impression of Grell was that he was a really flamboyant gay man. Okama does not mean 'trans', it's a derogatory term for really femme gay guys. It's the Japanese equivalent to "fruitcake" or "fairy"- the former of which Grell actually calls himself in the English dub.
Believe it or not, Japan is actually more accepting towards trans people, non-binary people, cross-dressers, etc, than it is of gay people. It's also much more socially conservative than the United States. Remember how in the 70s in the States, people would mix being gay and being trans together? That's pretty much what a lot of mainstream Japanese media does now, because wacky, androgynous gays are more palatable to the lowest common denominator than the hyper-masculine archetypes actual Japanese gay men prefer.
This is the case even outside of the context of LGBT characters. All-Might of BNHA, for instance, was not a popular design among Horikoshi's colleagues. He commented that they wanted to make the master hero character more of a mysterious pretty boy, rather than the super butch, happy-go-lucky father figure common in American comic books.
To answer your question, it's because Tumblr users are mostly teenagers who gravitate towards whatever's popular. It's a lot less work for them to just slap their indentity onto something mainstream than it is to go out of their way to find media that actually suits their sensibilities. It's why Tumblrinas cling to things like Steven Universe and Voltron while also making endless "(show)-critical" blogs and callout posts- they don't want to get into an obscure thing without a fandom, because fandoms are their only social outlets.
I love it when SJWs drive actual POC artists off the site if they happen to just not agree with their policies. I guess you only count as an POC artist if you live in America/Europe or believe all the victim mentality.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT NOW I REALISED WHY THE NAME UMBRONY WAS SO FAMILIAR TO ME.
I remembered he/she/whatever were in the Darkiplier fandom way back when. (Insert pronouns here) followed me and it was exciting at the time cause you know, they were a popular blog and that. To be honest, they have gone downhill since then...
The Broadway musical is definitely to blame for the sudden surge of fanart. It features a somewhat diverse cast (Sandy and Pearl are black; most of the designs in what you posted are based on the costumes and actors from the musical) so Tumblr of course picked it up. It doesn't seem like an especially bad musical but Tumblr likes to take things that extra mile.
The Broadway musical is definitely to blame for the sudden surge of fanart. It features a somewhat diverse cast (Sandy and Pearl are black; most of the designs in what you posted are based on the costumes and actors from the musical) so Tumblr of course picked it up. It doesn't seem like an especially bad musical but Tumblr likes to take things that extra mile.
