there's so much to say about this chapter so i'm gonna get a a bit sentimental here bc. augh. i love nao-chan to death. other trans people and me have said this hundreds of times already but her character is truly so wonderful. not only she's a full-fledged character, intricate and complex and human like all the other characters in the manga, she's a character other people look up to. she's a character other people need and seek. and it's not just things like mitsumi asking her for fashion advice, it's also how mika feels safe talking to her. i loved their conversation this chapter so much bc it's a bit different from the previous ones. it's not like the time they talked in the zoo or the elevator by chance, this time mika goes out of her way to speak alone with nao-chan. it's not every day that you see a well written trans character in manga, and there are even less trans characters that are mentors, role models or simply adult figures that kids trust and rely on. but nao-chan is all that. their relationship is so important to me. there's mika who's been bullied and shunned and has rebuilt herself from scratch just so she could fit in and be accepted and loved, but still doesn't feel any different inside. and there's nao-chan who, many years before, different location, different circumstances, has thought the exact same thing. and she can see that same pain in mika, she can see herself in her. mika tells her she felt a bit lonely and she cries for her. when nao-chan tells her she'll definitely find someone who loves her, she's not saying it to make her feel better, she's saying it as fact, bc nao-chan herself has found people who love her. i know their conversation is mainly about romantic love, at least on the surface, but bc it's sukirofa we know that's not all there is to it. by opening up, mika is slowly letting other people love her, letting other people see her. the girls, nao-chan. man, even mukai. she's letting herself love other people too. and if all that wasn't enough to make you bawl your eyes out, the chapter ends with nao-chan calling goro, her boyfriend, and inviting him to her hometown. "i got a bit lost but being with the kids helped turn it around". it's not only nao-chan who's influencing mika, mika is, unknowingly, giving nao-chan a little push as well. takamatsu couldn't have said it better: "I would like to carefully depict a school life where you can't tell who will save whom, who will get noticed and who will be moved into growing". nao-chan is saving mika and mika is saving nao-chan. they, and we, are saving each other all the time. and it makes me even happier to see a trans character, a trans woman, be at the center of this, because trans people have saved me
janainaart
izzy806
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stormborns
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