Tattle Log
Besides the Tattle that can be read in battle, there is also a Tattle Log that records information about each Tattled enemy and boss. The text of the Tattle Log is always different, and usually less colorful, than what Goombella says in her dialogue. This is the description in Vivian’s Tattle Log entry, with some added punctuation for clarity: 「カゲ三人組の 一人で マジョリンの妹…もとい 弟。オトコのコだけど その かわいさに みんな メロメロかもね」A translation will inevitably have some awkward pronoun reference, but since this character has only ever been referred to in English as she/her and since the Japanese text uses no pronouns, I will still use she/her: “One of the Shadow Trio, Beldam’s little sister… rather, brother. She is a boy but so cute that anyone might fall head-over-heels in love with her.”
Vivian is yet again identified as a cute boy who looks like a girl. The bit about Vivian being cute enough that anyone can fall in love with her uses the word メロメロ, which I rendered as “head-over-heels in love.” This alludes to the ability メロメロキッス “Head-Over-Heels Kiss” or, as the Super Mario Wiki renders it, “Heart-Melting Kiss,” which the English release calls Infatuate. Perhaps this bewitching cuteness accounts for Goombella’s reaction.
Another point of contention is that the word “boy” in this description, and in other menu text about Vivian, is オトコのコ otokonoko. Because it is written not in kanji but in phonetic katakana, this word has two possible meanings. The one probably intended here is 男の子, which means “boy.” The other, however, is also relevant in this context: 男の娘, literally something like “male girl.” The word 男の娘 became popular in manga culture in the early 2000s (and remains so). In the mainstream sex-gender taxonomy, an 男の娘 would usually be an effeminate crossdressing cisgender man. The word “femboy” originated in English-language manga discussion online in the 2000s to describe otokonoko characters and has an identical, or near-identical, meaning. I do not believe that “otokonoko” or “femboy” are usually regarded as pejorative, though on occasion I have observed some people consider them so. While these terms would be misgendering if used for a trans woman, I have noticed a small number of trans women online (two total) refer to themselves as “femboys,” as well as some nonbinary people. But I have observed effeminate cisgender men use the term “femboy” for themselves much more frequently. And I have seen such terms applied more often to fictional characters in anime and manga than real people. The use of “otokonoko” to describe Vivian in the original Paper Mario RPG is the most commonly cited evidence that the character is not transgender.
The equivalent English text in the 2004 release reads, “One of the Shadow Sirens and Beldam’s youngest sister. She’s so cute, she’s able to infatuate anyone.” There is no allusion to Vivian being anything but a girl. The reference to her メロメロキッス is preserved, however, since this kiss is called Infatuate in the English release.
In the fan patch, Griscuit did not change the Tattle Log text from the 2004 release.
The Switch remake removes any reference to Vivian’s gender from the Tattle Log:「カゲ三人組の 末っ子。 その かわいさに みんな メロメロかもね」“Youngest sibling of the Shadow Trio. She is so cute that anyone might fall head-over-heels in love with her.” The reference to her Infatuate ability remains intact. But there is literally no reference to her gender in the text because she is called a “sibling” rather than a “sister.”
In the 2024 English script, the Tattle Log entry is almost identical to the 2004 script, simply updated to reflect the new localization: “The youngest of the Three Shadows. She’s so cute, she’s able to infatuate anyone.”