Who's the first cross dresser in anime history?


Thanks to the improvement of tolerance in the society, there are more and more
people cross dressing, say, Rei Dunois. In anime, cross dressing is also not
that rare. In _Nanana's Buried Treasure_ , Daruku appears as a maid in a
costume but turns out to be a boy. In _Blend S_ , Hideri is also a boy in a
maid costume.

  * Daruku [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xo4sD.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xo4sD.png)
  * Hideri [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ONvfh.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ONvfh.jpg)

So, it's not shocking to see a cross dresser in an anime now. But who's the
first cross dresser in anime history?




[Princess Knight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Knight) could be the
first. It is animated in 1967, and the original manga dates to 1953. From the
article:

> Princess Knight is the story of Sapphire who must pretend to be a male
> prince so she can inherit the throne of Silverland as women are not eligible
> to do so.

Since the author Osamu Tezuka is usually considered the/a founder of Japanese
animation, it should be among the first cross-dressers at least.

