Do you think that the LN is hinting that Banba could like Lin in a romantic way (or Lin like Banba), or is it just somewhat queer-baiting? What is your feeling on this?
Whether you think Lin and Banba may have or develop romantic feelings is up to you. When I initially read the novels, I didn’t ship it. I could see it as a ship, but it wasn’t until I saw them illustrated together in scenes that I started to like it. There’s plenty to like about them as a potential romantic couple, a platonic relationship, or just as friends. Whether Lin wore a skirt or pants doesn’t change the dynamic that they have.
Now below has not much correlation to your original question. But I have to bring this up.
As such I don’t see it as queer baiting. And please here me out in full. To me, if someone automatically thinks there’s the possibility of queer baiting for a character that isn’t queer and never intended to be queer nor treated that way just because a dude is wearing a skirt, then I recommend some self reflection because to me that’s just saying “a guy likes wearing skirts? He must be queer in some way. There’s no way a completely male character can like anything feminine without being queer.”
Sorry if I sound rude when I say it like that. Naturally I get the concern over it for proper representation (even though from what I’ve seen from the author she just treats the characters as normal people). But honestly, think of how improper that would sound in the reverse like this and not even look at the individual himself beyond his skirt. Seeing how the author just treats it as “Lin just likes it” and it not being really highlighted as anything else I just don’t see it. Lin to me is portrayed as someone defying gender norms. He directly says in the first light novel, “I always thought this. Even though women can wear pants, why can’t men wear skirts?” Lin just explains that he likes it, or the narration just says he is a guy who wears women’s clothes. And that’s it. Nothing more and nothing less.
Before I continue on, I will admit that the anime adaption is definitely enjoying the “oh, you thought this was a girl? Nope, that’s a dude” thing a little too much. I still don’t know what to think of the anime team portraying Lin or even Martinez yet for that matter as they just seem to hint that he’s homosexual with that ED and not flat out say it like in the original LN and manga adaptation.
When Banba first met Lin, he noticed his voice was lower than he expected, but he still thought Lin was a woman. Lin, without trying, gets mistaken for a woman repeatedly throughout all the novels. That isn’t to say Kaji is doing Lin injustice. As a character he is acting him out very well. But I don’t know who decided to have Lin have a much deeper voice than his original LN character. Kaji can do voices in a higher register. And they changed scenes around just for it. Like Yamato (the pickpocket) calling Lin a he-she. That never happened in the original light novel. Lin is supposed to wear a suit when visiting Zhang in the office, so Yamato never even sees Lin in his usual getup.
I know some really like Lin’s deep voice, but in truth that’s not the voice he is supposed to have based off the LN and they changed scenes and character interactions because of that.And I’m not sure how the anime will continue portraying Lin, so criticism on their part is plausible. So bare in mind that just because Lin is shown one way in the anime does not mean he’s exactly this way in the original work. That’s all I’m asking out of this. So here are my thoughts from someone who has read the light novels.
In comparison to Zhang, Banba does respect Lin’s feelings and choices for why he dresses in woman’s clothes. He never once brings up or ridicules Lin’s dress code, nor does he ever make a mention of him dressing otherwise or forcing him to wear anything Lin doesn’t approve of. When they have Lin go undercover, he has Lin be a hostess or secretary even when it’s not necessary, and I’d like to think it’s because he knows Lin wouldn’t be comfortable in other ways (and sometimes Lin will propose that himself). And trust me, if you’re doubting the hostess Lin and secretary Lin as just fanservice, no, actually seeing it executed never felt out of place or forceful. And even if you’re nitpicky they are very minor scenes and just two out of 8 novels, and they still had a purpose in the narrative. It could have been much worse if it was just for some queer yaoi fanservice.
It’s not explored in the anime (as of yet hopefully), but Lin started dressing up in skirts and dresses to imagine what his sister could look like over the years. He was separated from her since he was 9. He also liked looking pretty to remind himself how much better his life is now since he grew up poor. The only time in the novels where the characters talk about Lin’s crossdressing is between Enokida and Martinez in the beginning of the second light novel, when they question why he still does it even after his sister died, which is when Enokida brings up he might feel closer to his sister this way, while Martinez thinks he just likes it. At that time, you can assume it’s both, though Lin may have a part of him that is continuing it out of mourning and coping rather than longing like before. But at the end of volume 3 Lin decides to continue wearing women’s clothes not for mourning his sister anymore or to use it as a coping crutch and determines he simply likes it. He stopped crossdressing for a few months to arrive at that conclusion. So he resumes crossdressing for no one but himself. That’s just how it is and will always be from that point onward. It was a really nice way of saying Lin moved on from what happened to his family and is looking towards finding his own happiness now.
The one thing I always loved about this series is how seriously the author takes her characters. You have Martinez the homosexual, Jiro the okama, and Lin the crossdresser, and yet all of them felt like they were treated as normal. There was one scene with Jiro specifically that shocked me for how realistic it felt.
Jiro mentioned in an internal dialogue that he dresses and talks more masculine when visiting Misaki’s school because he doesn’t want her to be bullied for having an okama as her parent. And Misaki takes notice and calls him out on it. In that same volume before that scene, Misaki writes a paper for school, “My father’s name is Jiro. My father is my dad and my mom. So that’s why I call him Jiro-chan.”
You can recognize Jiro is an okama from his speech pattern, but the only time his lifestyle as one is brought up are these two moments. And neither of them are for saying “here’s an okama character, look how eccentric and funny he is!” No, it is to cement how human he is. And Misaki accepting him for who he is and being frustrated that Jiro would hide his true self for her sake really left an impact on me.
Sure you know Lin is a crossdresser, Jiro is an okama, and Martinez is homosexual, but those are not the sole traits that defines them. The author only goes as far as how these characters would behave to match such a lifestyle and how they would interact with the people around them but focuses more on the main parts of their character as well. And even if something a bit stereotypical is brought up, the narration or character interactions clearly show the series is self aware. And I think that’s really important.
