Kitano herself says that Eru is cheating on the girls, Eru accepts it with a “So what about it?” attitude but then Girly immediately tells Eru that he's awesome and Kitano it the one who is painted as closed-minded (and that's exactly why she panics and wants to use the makeup).

I agree but the upshot of this, if anything, is the manga is asserting that dressing as a girl to pick up girls is totally cool and fine. Which I guess you could argue is lesbophobic (though it's not clear the girls Eru is picking up are lesbians), but it's not transmisogynistic.

Most people will not see “dressing as a girl” and think of lesbians, that has never been the caricature for lesbians, most are cis, by default they dress as girls (and the predatory lesbian always use a cis woman sometimes masculine but this depend of the country) that has always be the caricature for trans women, the “dress as a girl to pick up girls” also fit the stereotype that trans women dress like that to deceive. If this fit a phobic, it is transphobic not lesbophobic. (This is not me saying the work is this or that btw)

I don't care about some hypothetical transphobic audience member who reads the manga. Such hypothetical readers are totally irrelevant to me and my enjoyment of the manga.

What I mean with “most readers are not trans women and do not care about transmisogyny” is not that one needs to care about transphobic people to enjoy something, if it was for that no one would be able to like anything. The point is that for some this is a reminder on how most view trans fems (most will laugh and don’t see anything bad, even people who are not transphobic) that is why I think SillieHonka comment was like that (though as I said in my response to Zecs, I don’t see she calling anyone transphobic) she was hurt made a angry comment and that’s it. For very specific and personal reasons I hate generalization and “if the shoe fits” but I don’t see any other reason why everyone replied instead of ignoring her. I did that but now I am also here so I am not one to talk lol

Basically what I mean is, everyone will have very different opinions, having arguments is normal, but 4 or 5 posters keep responding to her saying the same thing and like, I think is better to not do that and keep talking about the manga

last edited at Jul 1, 2026 5:00PM

Most people will not see “dressing as a girl” and think of lesbians, that has never been the caricature for lesbians, most are cis, by default they dress as girls (and the predatory lesbian always use a cis woman sometimes masculine but this depend of the country) that has always be the caricature for trans women, the “dress as a girl to pick up girls” also fit the stereotype that trans women dress like that to deceive. If this fit a phobic, it is transphobic not lesbophobic. (This is not me saying the work is this or that btw)

You're not understanding my point. I'll try to be clearer. The character, Eru, is (or at least self-defines as) a boy who dresses as a girl to pick up girls. "Guy who pretends to be a woman to pick up women" is , indeed, a common transmisogynistic stereotype. However, Eru's crossdressing is not presented in a negative light; if anything, the manga is suggesting that Eru dressing up as a girl to pick up girls is basically fine, and the character is largely framed as sympathetic. Hence, it's not transphobic, precisely because Eru is portrayed positively.

Now, you could argue it's lesbophobic, because the manga is sort of tacitly endorsing a boy pretending to be a girl to pick up girls. However, I think that's pretty ambiguous. If I were to really offer an interpretation, it's notable that Eru has a lot more success getting girls' numbers as a girl than as a guy; normally it would be the reverse, since of course there's far more straight women than lesbians. It seems reasonable to conclude that the real reason is that Eru feels much more comfortable/self-confident as a girl, and it's that charisma that is endearing them to women. Honestly, I suspect the vast majority of girls who gave Eru their number aren't even looking for a date, just a friend, hence why Eru also states they have yet to actually go on a date.

In conclusion, Eru's character is pretty weird and ambiguous and it's unclear what, if any, larger upshot there is to all this. I think it's fair to criticize the manga for not having a clear vision as to what it's doing with its characters. I don't think it's fair to call the manga nothing but nonstop transphobia.

What I mean with “most readers are not trans women and do not care about transmisogyny” is not that one needs to care about transphobic people to enjoy something, if it was for that no one would be able to like anything. The point is that for some this is a reminder on how most view trans fems (most will laugh and don’t see anything bad, even people who are not transphobic) that is why I think SillieHonka comment was like that (though as I said in my response to Zecs, I don’t see she calling anyone transphobic) she was hurt made a angry comment and that’s it. For very specific and personal reasons I hate generalization and “if the shoe fits” but I don’t see any other reason why everyone replied instead of ignoring her. I did that but now I am also here so I am not one to talk lol

Basically what I mean is, everyone will have very different opinions, having arguments is normal, but 4 or 5 posters keep responding to her saying the same thing and like, I think is better to not do that and keep talking about the manga

I'm not going to speculate as to SillieHonoka's motives. I don't think she's a bad person or anything. I just strongly disagree with both her position and the way she argued her position. I think it's fine to express strong disagreements and that is, in fact, what discussion forums are for. I posted because I hadn't seen anyone else make the points I wanted to make.

I do strongly disagree with this view that nuance means being wishy-washy and permissive. You can be nuanced and take a strong stance. In fact, I'd argue excessive "nuance", is actually a position lacking in nuance ironically. Verges on, "there's always a middle" centrism

You're not understanding my point. I'll try to be clearer.irl

Thank you! I understand what you mean now but I think both are equally posible readings (lesbophobic and/or transphobic)

And yes, as I said before I myself don’t have any strong opinion yet about the manga, aside from the fact that Eru reasons are boring lol I think the author didn’t think things through.
Like for example, after reading the chapter where Eru says she crossdress to pick up girls my only reaction was “Oh so that was his reason”. So I was quite confused by the comments saying he was an asshole. In japan is not strange to ask for numbers in a not “hit on you” way, I don’t think the girls are lesbians either, if picking up women as a lesbian was that easy in Japan, you wouldn’t have that many gay people using dating app, blind dates or bars (because that is the only way to meet others like you in most countries who are not open at-all about minority stuff)

And yes obviously the forum is to have arguments, my point was exactly that SillieHonka opinion is that is transphobic, disagreeing with her is ok (though I feel some responses were “The manga is not transphobic” but like, that is her opinion, you can not change it the same way she can not make others see the manga as transphobic) but this discussion turned very off-topic which the forum doesn’t allow, that is what I mean with my comment, let’s leave it at that and let’s talk about the manga!

And about KawaiiSuika, I am sorry I don’t understand if you mean me, others, or the whole discussion (tbh I also quite don’t understand what you mean or in what context) so I can’t reply, I am sorry.

I will leave this at that as I don’t want to go Off-topic too (I already did, sorry for that too)

last edited at Jul 1, 2026 8:10PM

Nah kawaiisuika is talking about me and others who said similiar stuff to me. It's whatever i ain't centrist whatsoever i just feel like every single reply is saying similiar things, none of us are bigots here and i don't think we've strayed outside of the topic really. The manga isn't transmysoginistic as of yet there's not much evidence towards that we'll see later that's all I've been saying but i dunno why i keep being misconstrued. Now not to be biased but i agree with everything cogito said, the manga doesn't seem to portray any of them in negative light really so again let's see how it goes. Once we're halfway through and there's more red flags then we can shit on it as much as we want lol. So yeah chill, you guys are all pretty smart folks here, it's cool

last edited at Jul 2, 2026 7:22AM

i'm crying that's such a stupid reason