My Favorite Transgender Cop

I've had the pleasure over the years of meeting now Lieutenant Stephan Thorne of the San Francisco Police Department (congrats Stephan on the promotion) and hanging out with TOPS founder Tony Barreto-Neto during the 2000 IFGE convention in Washington DC.

But my favorite transgender police officer is Sgt. Aoi Futaba of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Aoi was a former star high school basketball player in Japan with many female fans and after joining the force worked on the vice squad.

She crossdressed as part of an operation to catch a serial rapist, and after the case was successfully concluded she realized her body may be male, but her spirit was female and continued to dress as a woman full time.

She transferred from Vice to the Traffic Division soon afterward and ends up at Bokuto Station. After a rocky beginning, Aoi's new coworkers at Bokuto Precinct fully accept her, even with the knowledge that she wasn't always female.

By the way, did I mention that Sgt. Aoi Futaba is an anime character?

Some of you may have figured out either by the photos or the initial paragraph I wrote that I'm talking about the anime series You're Under Arrest. While the show is focused on the exploits on and off duty of Sgt. Miyuki Kobayakawa and Sgt. Natsumi Tsujimoto who are this anime police show's Cagney and Lacey clones, Aoi is the far more fascinating character on it.

Miyuki correctly observes during their initial meeting that Aoi is more feminine than any genetic woman in Bokuto Station by saying to her after she explained her emotions and thoughts leading to her transition, "You're the daughter my mom always wanted." During the first and second season her observation proves to be right on target.

You have the embarrassing situations centered on Aoi's pre-op status in various episodes, but over time she not only proves to be a valued officer at Bokuto Station, she simply becomes 'one of the girls.' Even Yoriko Nikaido, the nosy Bokuto station dispatcher and scheming gossip who had a major problem with her at first using the women's locker room eventually warms to Aoi and becomes her patrol partner.

It's interesting to note that Aoi realistically mirrors many of the emotions, concerns and problems that many transgender people face. She faced the bathroom issue in the very first episode that chronicles her character's initial arrival at Bokuto Station.

There were two episodes in which she faced the 'When Do I Tell Him' dating dilemma. She had to decide when to disclose to a handsome and famous actor she was attracted to and who showed romantic interest in her that she was a transwoman. The other episode chronicling Aoi's dating dilemma focused on her anguish about meeting a man she'd become romantically involved with via the Internet and revealing her secret.

There was also the You're Under Arrest-Full Throttle episode in the third season in which her old superior in the vice department Udamura Kumanosuke felt responsible for her transition because of those crossdressing missions and showed up at Bokuto station with the announced intention of turning Aoi back into a man. After the failure of the remasculinization plan, his wife pointed out after meeting Aoi that she was always female and that was her natural predestined path to travel.

Even one of her female fans in the first episode who'd developed a crush on the pre-transition Aoi in high school and treasured the pair of old basketball shoes she was given by Aoi eventually realized the same thing.

So yes, she's my favorite transgender police officer, at least in the anime world.

As for my favorite transgender police officer in the real world, I'm pleading the fifth on that.

You're Under Arrest

I'm not a big anime fan, but I've gotten hooked on this particular anime series thanks to Dawn.

It's called You're Under Arrest and ran for two seasons on TV in Japan. The show centers on Miyuki Kobayakawa and Natsumi Tsujimoto. They are roommates, friends and partners who are Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department officers. They are stationed at the fictional Bokuto Station in the Sumida Ward of Tokyo.




Miyuki is a computer whiz who is shy, polite, punctual, proficient at her job and not as physically strong as her best friend. They are traits not shared by her partner Natsumi. She's tough, brash, a slacker, loves to excessively eat and drink and is chronically tardy. But despite that she's an excellent officer. She and Miyuki make an unbeatable team that has garnered a reputation around Bokuto Station for solving many cases.

The show focuses on their lives on and off duty and includes some of the other officers at Bokuto Station. There's the whiny Yoriko Nikato, the dispatcher and station gossip. She's a klutzy bumbler who gets her fellow officers in awkward situations, but her lucky streak gets them out of the trouble she inadvertently creates. When she was at the police academy she managed to graduate at the top of her training class and earn the ire of rich witch Chie Sagamiono in the process.

There's the 'White Hawk', handsome motorcycle cop Ken Nakajima. He's an expert rider who is good enough to where he could have had a pro racing career, but loves his job. He also likes Miyuki, but just like her is too shy to express his feelings to her. They actually made progress towards kindling a relationship at the end of Season 1

There's Strikeman, the local costumed vigilante that fancies himself as a superhero. He's the bane of drunks, peeping toms, perverts, parking violators and people who are disrespectful to seniors. They usually find themselves at the other end of one of his fastball pitches

He's an annoyance to not only the citizens of the Bokuto precinct, but the officers of Bokuto Station as well. Strikeman refers to Natsumi as 'Home Run Girl' due to her ability to whack Strikeman's pitches into orbit.

The character I really love is Aoi Futaba. Prior to joining the police force he was an accomplished high school basketball player. After becoming a police officer Aoi was assigned to the vice unit. In order to crack a case involving a serial rapist, Aoi crossdressed as part of the investigation and assimilated into womanhood so thoroughly that Yoriko said about her in one episode, "she's more woman than we are".

Yes, peeps Aoi is transgender.

Aoi's arrival at the station was initially met with resistance, with Yoriko being the most vocal about it, but over time the Bokoto officers accepted her as part of the family, began using the correct pronouns to address her and she became one of the girls. Yoriko overcame her initial resistance to her and became Aoi's patrol partner when she transferred to street duty.

She basically says that her spirit is female, and she's more girly-girl than many of the female officers she works with. There are numerous episodes where Aoi ends up in situations in which her gender issues rear their head at inopportune times. A famous actor fell for her in one episode, and despite the fact she was falling for him, had to reluctantly tell him that she's still pre-op.

There was another episode when she was on Christmas vacation with her fellow Bokuto officers and a local mountain kid invaded her room while she was asleep. He tried to force himself on her and ended up with a surprise when he grabbed between her legs.

He also earned a beat down from Natsumi as well.

I found You're Under Arrest fascinating. I love the characters, it's beautifully drawn and illustrated and for the most part does an excellent job in depicting the day to day realities of police work.

Strikeman is a trip as well. ;)