Another trans girl here. Definitely not crazy about this story. At some point I think I was just hate reading. The comments weren't much better. Reading the 2014-2015 comments did make me realize how far we've come in regards to trans education. I have zero sympathy for Botan, especially since she equated kashiwa's transition and fear of familial abandonment/violence to botan's wish to have affairs with married men and never have her family ask questions about her personal life. Like uh no sorry bitch, you have no ground to stand on. I don't give a flying fuck that she was saving pennies in a teddy bear. My response to, shockingly, like a third of the characters in this story is that there's no excuse for abuse. Ever.
Kashiwa left out of fear, botan and their father left out of hatred, plain and simple. She can fuck off. And the amount of transphobia in this manga was so triggering. Specific scenes and lines reminded me of things my parents have said, my suicidal ideation, the difficulties of transitioning, and similar experiences my partner has had. I cried like three times and one additional time from the comments.
This series is really rough. Definitely a product of its time and region. Despite those things, certain elements were simply unforgivable. Every piece like this was a stepping stone to more people being educated and other creators avoiding the same mistakes.