So, it seems most people focused on wrong part of the story.
Sure Risa is basically saying "You look/act like a boy so I can't see you as a girl unless you act/dress like one", but given her age and the way we are taught to think about gender in our society I can totally understand her. No one will be perfectly aware of all those complicated issues (and honestly, how many of you were aware of it before you become a adult?) from the start and there is personal perception needed to be take into account. Everyone has different tolerance and acceptance for different stuff. To Risa there were 2 ways to dress and act, so for her if Yuuko wanted to be seen as a girl, that was what she first thought about.
Anyway, I didn't have too much issues with the final confrontation. To me it was 2 teenagers doing dumb stuff. Yuuko is at fault for going along with Risa's assumption and trying to look/act like a boy for her and Risa is at fault for assuming Yuuko liked to dress/act like a boy so she unwittingly pressured her to do so. Sure, Risa's words are messy and can seems off, but it was spurt of the moment speech where she was trying to clumsy get her feelings across, so I don't blame her for messing one of two things up in it. If anything Yuuko could just dump her regardless and be done with her, but she choose to apologize instead.
About that, I think she was more apologizing that she assumed that her acting/looking like a boy was what Risa wanted so instead of telling her faster, she just kept on doing it in order to bring them closer, but instead drift them more apart. So she probably saw true feelings in Risa's speech and realized she was at fault too. And even if Risa's putting unwittingly blame on Yuuko was bad after all, it ended well for them so who cares. And I can't blame Risa for her to want to see Yuuko acting/dressing more like a girl than boy, because seriously, that is how majority of world works and we are still far away for changing the norms and teaching children from young about those issues (and it can just be what is normal for author of the story as well, considering they are japanese).
To me the biggest issue of this story is inconsistency of Risa's feelings towards Yuuko as well as her personality. She is spoiled and selfish. She didn't get to same school as her boyfriend so she broke up with him cos she can't stand long distance relationship? The hell? Not to mention she said she still loved him. And first thing she does in new school is starting to date Yuuko, because she is lonely? And reason why she picked Yuuko is really unclear. It is suggested she wanted a stand in for a boyfriend so she picked the girl that didn't look like girl at all to fill that role. And then she falls in love with said girl because she is a girl and Risa doesn't want to see her as a boy? Wtf? Where that came from? It feels like entire part where she realizes Yuuko is actually a girl, but is looking/acting too much like a boy so Risa is confused, is missing. She never addresses that she first picked Yuuko because she was a stand in for a guy and then she fallen for true her. She just suddenly is truly in love with Yuuko when Yuuko gets mad, even though we never saw anything indicating she doesn't like/is conflicted about Yuuko looking/acting like a boy. Her only reason she can't love her as a girl is because Yuuko looks to manly. Wasn't that the reason she picked her in the first place? Cos she likes boys so she wanted someone who looked like one? And again, she didn't stop loving her previous boyfriend so if Yuuko had acted/looked like a boy entire time, there was no reason for Risa to suddenly fall in love with her as a girl. Entire being lesbian/bisexual didn't make sense for Risa. We never saw the transition from "I want new boyfriend to fill the void" to "I realized my new boyfriend is actually a girl and I want to see her that way". It feels like middle part of the story is missing. That is why despite not having much issues with their final confrontation, I can't really get behind Risa's feelings, because I'm not convinced if they are actually true in the first place.
last edited at Apr 17, 2016 10:35PM