Omega Deuse posted:
People keep calling the hinted relationship between Naru and Shiba yaoi, but I don't think that's correct. When Ookuma asks them if they're a man, they very explicit say their sex is male. Now, that could just be an artifact of the translation, but it seems like a very specific and unusual wording. They also always appear in very feminine clothes and act in a more traditionally feminine way.
My guess is that Naru is actually trans. or at least somewhere on that end of the spectrum, in contrast to Mizuki who just prefers more masculine cloths both still thinks of themselves as a woman and who gets surprised when people mistake them for male.
Or Naru could be a cisgender male who is simply gender-variant, i.e. diverges in his behavior and/or gender expression from the norms for masculinity and femininity (which is not limited to transgender people) by having a decided preference for adopting a very feminine appearance while not putting much thought into what label he should identify with, and he's acknowledging the fact that he's diverging from gender norms.
For your information, the Japanese line that Naru said is "まぁ 性別上は". Japanese doesn't actually differentiate between "gender" and "sex" in its native vocabulary, using 性別 for both (although it seems to primarily mean biological sex); the only available alternative for when distinction is necessary is ジェンダー, a transliteration of English "gender".