TW for homophobia everywhere, I am not even joking.

[tinysock]

Persona 4 is an RPG known for, among other things, introducing a gay character and a trans character only to treat them like absolute shit. The anime adaptation is worse.

On Tumblr, a post is made about the week's episode. (Post contains images containing homophobic dialogue.) The poster points out that the scene, though played for laughs, isn't

Comments

[kurenai_tenka]

I always wished the game had been clearer on it actually (though I didn't finish Naoto's S-link so that could clear it up)... I wasn't sure if the conclusion Naoto came to was that he was a guy, or that she had thought that she needed to be to follow her career path.

Did the S-link/Japanese version clear it up?

[balivatn]

I'll agree with that :)

[pig_catapult]

Yup. Pretty much. At least, that's how I use it. *is also a female-assigned-at-birth genderqueer person* I more specifically identify as "agendered" or non-gendered.

If you (or anyone else reading this) are interested, there's a genderqueer comm, too, for sharing one's experiences and sometimes helping each other along on the path of self-discovery and figuring out one's identity (I know it took me a good long while to figure out mine).

[kurenai_tenka]

I'll definitely have a look, thanks! :) Generally speaking I'm happy to identify as female, but with full rejection of any connotation that may come with that... so I probably fit into the 'genderqueer' label even if I'm not currently using it. :)

[danaphilip]

Yeah fffffuck gender.

[dalmasca]

I also viewed her as genderqueer more than trans, although of course, those kinds of words also mean different things depending on who you ask, so.

[buongiornodaisy]

It didn't, but I think the game left things so open-ended on Naoto's side that her gender identity is open for interpretation. Not to the extent that one can say she definitely identifies as trans/genderqueer during the events of the game, but there's enough to suggest that she could in the future.

[kurenai_tenka]

Yeah, that's how I saw it too... at the point the game left it it could go either/any way, and I'd like to think that whether she's 'really' male and female doesn't change anything.

[buongiornodaisy]

Yes. Naoto is still AN ACE JR. DETECTIVE.

Have you read anything about the upcoming Persona 4 fighting game? I joke that I will always be playing as Aigis and Mitsuru, but Naoto comes equipped with the pew pew, too...

[kurenai_tenka]

Exactly! Naoto FTW. :D

And yeaah I've been keeping up with the updates, the gameplay footage is oddly hilarious. XD Kanji/Naoto/Chie for me I think. :D Beating things with tables, yeaaaah (it's like it's own joke weapon).

[msdevin92]

she had thought that she needed to be to follow her career path

That's the vibe I got, honestly. When you get her S-Link to rank 9, she does say that she thought only men could be good detectives, and that she feels able to accept herself as being a woman. The problem is that she was introduced very late in the game, and her S-Link deals with two other issues (being a workaholic and trying to act super-mature all the time).

[kurenai_tenka]

That does sound a lot like that's the case then. At some point I really need to go back and do her S-Link, unfortunately the first time I played through I didn't realise until it was too late how to get her to talk to me/rank up.

[msdevin92]

Yeah, I was late at starting Kanji and Naoto's S-Links, myself.