To expand more on my point: I have an OC who's a (biologically) sexless shapeshifter who alternates between male and female bodies. They are always the SAME person, no matter what body they're in, and yet I've caught myself regarding them and their actions differently depending on which body they're using.
Like, I've noticed that I tend to regard the character's actions as more threatening and powerful when they're using their male body. Which makes no goddamn sense, because the setting is a magical matriarchy where men are generally less powerful in magic than women due to biological reasons, they're my character and again, same person no matter which body!
The point is: the patriarchy and sexism is insidious. I'm as feminist as they come and try to watch real hard that I'm not unconsciously replicating sexist biases/stereotypes in my work, and I still got caught on the prongs. Hakuno and Hakunon are not the same character simply because of the way people will perceive things due to overt and unconscious gender biases/stereotypes. And a big part of the reason Hakunon is so popular in the Japanese fandom is because having the character present as female turns a lot of the same tired old tropes on their head.
