You can’t discuss Alexis without discussing Atticus Rhodes (Fubuki Tenjoin in the Japanese version), her older brother who disappears before the events of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Alexis spends half the first season in search of her missing brother, taking an active role in unraveling the mystery around Duel Academy’s abandoned dorm building. The combined efforts of Alexis, Zane Tuesdale, and Jaden Yuki discover Atticus under the control of the evil entity Nightshroud.
Once recovered from possession and amnesia, starting from episode 41, Atticus’s true personality released from Nightshroud comes to light: a hopeless romantic, who can also be serious when the situation calls for it. His playful attitude and bishounen (“pretty boy”) good looks capture the hearts of countless female classmates–even Fonda Fontaine, the head professor of the Obelisk Blue girls. Whereas Alexis brushes off attention from “the opposite sex” and puts relatively minimal effort into her appearance, Atticus cultivates attention from girls by putting his charms, looks, and skills on display.
Atticus and his colleague Zane Truesdale both have bishounen character designs, defined by their “tall and slender body, angular features, and flowing locks.” Their aesthetic differs greatly from the stout and round, not to mention more “cartoonish,” bodies and faces of students like Chumley Huffington or Zane’s younger brother Syrus. Even compared to similarly stylized characters like Jaden or Chazz Princeton; their double eyelids, thick lower eyelashes, and long hair set Atticus and Zane (especially in his “Hell Kaiser” era) apart.
Most importantly, the number of girls with crushes on them indicate their conventional handsomeness within the series. While Crowler’s feminine traits mark him as abnormal and “unattractive,” Atticus and Zane’s androgyny informs their “beauty” by adhering to an archetype with mass appeal. While Atticus relishes in the attention from the women of GX, Zane takes no interest. Although Western audiences often interpret the “soft masculinity” of bishounen in East Asia as feminine and thus transgressive, the Japanese mainstream actually accepts the aesthetic as masculine. While US society considers vanity in men a sign of gender variance or queerness, the same doesn’t necessarily apply in Japanese popular culture. Atticus’s investment in his image feeds into a heteronormative dynamic with his fangirls, in alignment with social norms. Atticus doesn’t reciprocate any of the crushes with a formal partnership, in accordance with idol culture that allows his fans to have equal emotional and physical proximity to him. GX instead focuses on his relationship with his sister or his homosocial bonds with Zane, Chazz, and Yusuke Fujiwara. Chazz admires him as a “chick magnet” in English or “love wizard” in Japanese, wanting to be as successful as Atticus in heterosexual courtship toward Alexis.
Atticus often neglects to wear his Duel Academy uniform, opting instead for tropical shirts or colorful suits that reflect his happy-go-lucky personality. He can also be found surfing, jet skiing, or playing guitar when not dueling. Other characters often comment on the contrast between his expertise as a duelist and his ditzy personality, but this difference from the norm of a composed manly duelist does not necessarily make him gender non-conforming. When dueling with high stakes, such as against Zane in hopes of turning him away from darkness in episode 89 or against Fujiwara for the sake of the world in episodes 173 and 174, his disposition becomes much more serious. In both duels, he opts for Nightshroud’s Red Eyes Black Dragon deck that harks back to Yu-Gi-Oh’s Joey Wheeler, another responsible older brother and Red Eyes player, instead of his personal stage-themed deck.
The GX writers play up his flamboyance for comedic purposes, and lean into his serious side for insightful duel commentary or when his connection to Nightshroud becomes relevant. They similarly use the role of Duel Academy headmaster for hijinks when occupied by the effeminate Dr. Crowler, but for exposition and critical plot lines with the manly Sheppard. For Atticus, the interplay comes across as somewhat calculated on his part. After his loss against Zane in episode 89, he solemnly thinks to himself about Zane’s predicament but keeps his findings to himself and cheerfully congratulates him out loud. With that said, other scenes depict him as oblivious due to his fixation on love; such as when he interprets brainwashed Manjome (Chazz)’s duel against Asuka (Alexis) to indoctrinate her into the Society of Light cult as a romantic gesture in the Japanese version of episode 70.
Being flamboyant and possessing “soft masculinity” doesn’t make him insusceptible to enforcing gender roles, as he attempts to steer his sister toward stereotypical and heteronormative girlhood. Atticus takes photos of Alexis in her Harpie Lady costume against her wishes (to provide her fanclub in the Japanese version) in episode 42, and encourages Chazz’s romantic pursuit of Alexis despite knowing his sister’s disinterest in romance. Even though Zane also prioritizes dueling over romance, Atticus puts no such pressures on his best friend to find love, because his behavior doesn’t drastically go against gender norms for a man. In the Japanese version of episode 47, he encourages Asuka (Alexis) to “put her true, womanly feelings on the line” by accepting Manjome (Chazz)’s challenge for a date with her. Atticus expectantly calls to her throughout the duel to return the romantic gestures, while the other male spectators shake their heads at Chazz’s misguided attempts.
Atticus’s misconception of his sister cannot be chalked up to their years apart, as he continues to make prejudiced assumptions about her throughout the series. Enforcing gender roles on his sister comes to a head in episode 60, in which he insists Alexis should alter her dueling career. Crowler wants her to combine dueling and singing in Obelisk’s new idol program, and Atticus leans heavily into the idol aspect. In the Japanese version, he imparts that she become an idol and marry into a rich celebrity’s family, as he believes it’s the only way for a woman to climb the social ladder. Specifically, “to be a bride is the ultimate goal, of which every star idol dreams!” which lumps all women in the entertainment industry into one heteronormative narrative that does not apply to men. The English dub mitigates his paternalistic and misogynistic motivation by simply wanting to become a pop duo together, grounded in mistakenly “wanting the best” for his sister. At best, he projects his own idol aspirations onto her. At worst, he believes a woman in a structural heteropatriarchy like professional dueling must be feminine and dependent on men in heterosexual marriage.
In the Japanese version of episode 60, Fubuki relents and admits he wanted Asuka to “go back to being an ordinary girl,” highlighting how her behavior goes against gender norms, though he doesn’t name how specifically. His problem apparently lies in her playing Duel Monsters competitively rather than casually, considering other episodes depict her with an interest in the game before her time at Duel Academy. A flashback in episode 41 depicts young Atticus giving her advice on deck building, and 94 shows them playing a friendly match as children.
His read of the situation doesn’t align with Alexis’s truth of having always taken the game seriously. In that episode 41 flashback, she hopes to win against him. In a flashback to elementary school in episode 15, Alexis chooses a game of Duel Monsters to win back the stolen possessions of her classmates from a gambler, showing her confidence as a player. Alexis stays at Duel Academy even after recovering her brother and solving the mystery of his disappearance to further her education. Unlike how Blair enrolls specifically to confess her love to Zane, Alexis does not enroll only to find Atticus. At the end of the day, he respects her for rescuing him and cares for her, but unfortunately goes about it by imposing gender norms.
Next time, we’ll examine another character who looks at Alexis through a heteronormative lens.
Coherent Cats 
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