It's all kind of tricky, because Japanese doesn't have gendered third-person pronouns like most European languages (though, oddly enough, it has gendered first-person pronouns). As far as original intent goes, I'm really not sure how to interpret the self-insert nature of the PC and the target audience on the Japanese side, though the fact that there wasn't — to my knowledge — outcry about the English translation firmly using she/her or revealing Yu for the anime leads me to believe that female was at least non-controversial there. (It seems likely that Nijigasaki High is an all-girls school just like Otonokizaka and Uranohoshi, but I'm not sure that's outright stated anywhere.)
At any rate, Ayumu is, in nearly all media, pretty fixated on "her childhood friend"; in the game, this includes elements of jealousy and even mild stalker-like behavior on her part, and can be hard to read as anything but romantic interest, to the point that other characters notice — Mari chides Yu for not keeping Ayumu informed when Mari was dragging her around in her bond episodes, and You's bond eps feature shopping and tourism dates that Ayumu semi-crashes.
(I think the only bit where this focus isn't central to Ayumu is the early 4-koma, which is pretty bizzare on the whole and features an Ayumu who is spiteful and vicious towards Ai and Rina, until she's exorcised by Nozomi — probably; the appearance is obviously her, but she's only described as "a passing shrine maiden". Then everybody goes to Mars.)
Later edit: All the chapters have been great, but I'm actually crying at Rina's. Rina has come to mean a lot to me over the time I've been playing the game and watching/reading the other materials — in terms of disability and mental health representation, as a great proponent of adaptive technology, and as a sweet, lovable character in her own right. It's a far cry from the "gimmick" we thought we were getting.
last edited at May 23, 2021 7:55AM
