Actually false, the truth is vivian was never a man even in he japanese version (in english she is a woman and there is no doubt about it) in japan beldam was simply insulting vivian when she called her “a man” and the tattle log is goombellas take on the enemy so thats why she says in japanese “thats vivian, the youngest sister… Er, brother” because she heard beldam call vivian a man and didnt know she was just insulting vivian and the game continued this humor of vivians sex by saying in character description “vivian looks like a girl but really is a boy” that or its marios take on it. Either way japan is far stricter on the whole transexual and gay/lesbian characters but they are known to make humor out of insults especially aimed at ones sex. The japanese understood this humor and therefore they didnt raise an issue but the translation (rough translation) caused an uproar here since we dont understand their humor and ours is different. Besides at the end of ttyd in japanese goombella refers to vivian as a girl and vivian even kisses mario. The reason they didnt keep this humor in the English translation was because they feared it would be taken out of context and they were right, just look at the controversy the japanese translations have caused. Italy didnt really want to pick a side so they decided to make it so she is female but used to be male since transgender is accepted in Italy but not in japan or here. Another fact is the japanese version of super paper mario vivians catch card even refers to her as female so vivian is 100% female in both japan and US and was never a male and thats a fact.