Menu Description
In the character selection menu, every party member has a short bio in authoritative narration, as well as a description of his or her abilities. When Vivian joins Mario’s party, she receives some menu description too. Several versions use this to mention her gender.
The relevant description text in the 2004 Japanese release says this of Vivian: 「オンナのコのようで ホントは オトコのコ」“Looks like a girl but really is a boy.” Note that the term used is, as usual, otokonoko. Whatever we take this to mean, the Japanese description again states that Vivian looks like a girl but is something else.
As usual, the 2004 English release cuts any reference to the topic. The menu description instead gives the understatement, or mischaracterization of how badly Beldam treats her, “Vivian suffers from a bit of an inferiority complex.”
The 2023 fan patch adjusts the menu description to state Vivian is transgender: “Vivian was born male, but she prefers being a girl.” The 2004 Japanese script somewhat confusingly identifies Vivian as a crossdressing boy even as her introductory scene establishes her wanting to be called a woman. Clearly Griscuit falls on the side of considering the character trans.
In the Switch remake, the equivalent Japanese menu text is similar to some of Vivian’s new dialogue and equally as explicit as Griscuit’s script: 「体は オトコのコで ココロは オンナのコ」“Her body is a boy, but her heart is a girl.” Note the recurrence of the concept that she is a girl in her “heart.” The word “transgender” is not used, but this description no doubt depicts her as a trans girl (オンナのコ is “girl,” not “woman”). Describing a trans woman as having the body of a boy but the heart of a girl might be conventional in Japanese pop culture. For instance, in the article “LILY EXPLORES Ten Transgender Manga,” Lily Valeen concludes the survey mentioning, “‘I have the body of a boy, but the heart of a girl’ is still a notably common refrain across all of these stories.” Vivian, then, is in this tradition. Her portrayal follows the common “wrong body” transgender narrative, or perhaps not since the script never implies Vivian is at all unhappy with herself. This still might, however, be a flawed description: if someone is a girl, then her body is, by definition, a girl’s body regardless of that body’s physical features.
The full English menu text in the 2024 remake does not reference Vivian’s gender identity: “Vivian was one of the Three Shadows but now has chosen to leave her two sisters behind.” The Switch Japanese text is not more explicit than the Switch English text that Vivian is trans but does mention this point in more places.