Fans Critique

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(*) Tachi and Neko positions

[In Japanese modern culture,] the two participants in an [intimate] relationship are often referred to as Seme (攻め, "top") and Uke (受け, "bottom"). These terms originated in martial arts; seme derives from the ichidan verb "to attack", while uke is taken from the verb "to receive". Although not the same, a [romantic] construct similar to "seme and uke" is the concept of "Tachi and Neko". This archetypal pairing is referenced more often in older [manga] volumes; in modern [manga], this pairing is often seen as already encompassed by seme and uke or simply unnecessary to address. The Tachi (タチ) partner is conceptualized as the member of the relationship who pursues the more passive partner, the latter of whom is referred to as the Neko (ネコ). Seme and Uke are similar but not identical to Tachi and Neko because the former refers primarily to sexual roles, whereas the latter describes personality. Although seme and uke roles are already used in some manga to describe which member of the relationship is more dominant and which member is more passive, there are just as many manga novels which subtly or overtly differentiate between the two [sets of terms, to show the subtle differences that exist in intimacy].

---Taken from Wikipedia (edited for brevity, words in brackets [...] are added for clarity, some bold and italics added )

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Manga Fans Critique of My Girlfriend is a Trans Girl

Sommeguy / 11 days ago

AAAAAAAAAAAAA ACTUAL GOOD NON BINARY REPRESENTATION--HOW HAVE I NOT FOUND THIS UNTIL NOW 🤍

The storytelling was a bit rough, but simply having an accurate portrayal of a bigender character and an agender character that aren't just the archetypal androgynous non-binary characters.

uragaaru / 2 years ago

While I agree some of the plot was a bit convoluted and the themes were a bit ham-handed presented, I liked the characters and their issues well enough (they felt like realistic high school students with some variety of queer angst) and the flashback in particular to Makoto's coming out and the emotional issues that emerged because of it. They were the strongest part of the story (contrast that with the whole romantic triangle stuff with Miki which was pretty damn weak and one-dimensional to make the revelation [of gender] really have a good impact).

Svelandria / 2 years ago

Could have been executed far better, but overall it was good. As someone else mentioned in the comments, could have been worse.

As for the potential message that may have been presented, my thoughts on the matter is: people should mind their own business. If someone wants to dress a certain way, act a certain way, speak a certain way, then so be it. So long as they aren't doing harm to themselves or others. I suppose it's in our nature to instinctively judge other people to determine whether or not that person is a threat or a boon to our lives, but that mentality tends to get way out of hand when it involves people who don't know better or people who are unwilling to try to understand.

In regards to Miki, it was simply her jealousy that prompted her to attack Yuuko. Given that she is (or rather was) friends with Makoto while somewhat aware of Makoto's circumstances, and Makoto's circle of friends seem to at least be aware of and accepting of Makoto (to what extent I'm unsure), then that means Miki wasn't all that ignorant or unwilling to try to understand, she simply didn't like Yuuko. She definitely didn't have a complete understanding, but her dislike of Yuuko made it impossible for her to want to understand. Of course, using Yuuko's circumstances against Yuuko was clearly a bad decision as it was clearly hurting Makoto, but Miki either wasn't thinking clearly due to her emotions or was still willing to take the risk in an attempt to break them up through indirect means. She should have seen the potential outcome from a mile away should her actions backfire, so she knew what she was getting herself into. She dug her own grave.

As for the other two, Makoto definitely should have been more firm with their words sooner. I understand that it isn't easy to explain things when it will end up unraveling the status-quo and risk destroying what friendship one has, but Makoto needed to stop being hesitant and stand up for Yuuko while also properly explaining things, or at least try to explain. As for Yuuko, while lashing out at someone for being ignorant is far from good, Yuuko likely had already been dealing with sh*t and their emotions got the better of them. What they said wasn't wrong, but how they went about saying things could have been better. Miki definitely wasn't making it easy. Overall, they all had problems and all of them went about doing things poorly, some more so than others.

On another note, the "I have an illness called transgender" part pissed me off. I don't blame the author as I'm sure it was intended to be an infuriating scene, but it seems all too easy to assume something [awful] like that actually has happened and probably will happen again to someone in the world. Funny how I was talking about intolerance, yet I want to kick that f*cking teacher off a bridge cause I'm intolerant of how much of a bigot he was.

VawX / 2 years ago

Interesting, I never really understand the whole LGBT thing since there are just so many variations, but this manga can actually convey the story in such a way that most people will sympathize with the main characters even though they're a bit different.

yougogirl / 2 years ago

I'll try to analyze this from an "objective" standpoint. At times, it's pretty hard to tell who's talking about who, especially at the beginning. And for most of the story, it's less about the relationship between the two of them or even actually about exploring their identities so much as just... throwing the concepts out there in hopes that it makes things interesting. For a few pages, it becomes an interesting story about a trans girl... except, they then make the character bigender so it kind of w[affles] its way out of that by making him comfortable with being a boy as well. At the end, when the two are embracing, it gets kinda cute and the "I really feel like a boy" line makes it almost matter that the character is bigender, but... I dunno, man.

The side character [Miki] who was in love with the bigender [Makoto] exists purely to be demonized even though she's basically just having a bad reaction to her worldview being challenged. It's hard for me to see her in as bad a light as the story clearly does, and from an audience perspective, she really should be the perspective character. She has an interesting conflict--a girl who has a rigid understanding of gender, yet falls in love with a [transgender]/bigender boy. She has a deep character flaw in that she can't hold back speaking poorly of people, which could be interesting to watch her work through as she comes to accept a new perspective on gender. Her rejection could serve as a turning point, and even if she ends up never getting her love requited, she'd come away from it a changed and better person.

Overall analysis: The art is appealing, so it definitely has that going for it. I'll definitely be watching this artist to see what they come up with next, even though I thought this one wasn't good. There's a lot of unrealized potential here.

( End fan's critique)