Thread:Rigigerald/@comment-10733658-20141110193421

Hey, since Old Mcdonald said to avoid spamming his Wall I figured I might chat with you here. (Also, where it is hopefully safe from the flame wars on the Mutsuki page. Oh, lord.)

Like I said, I get what you mean about wondering whether there's more to the story. Initially, I fully expected exactly what you described and we would have another example of a girl in a manga series passing as a dude for personal reasons. I considered it very possible, since it is very common as a character type.

But the flashback scene really cements things. Ishida used phrasing and ideas that are very heavily discussed by real world people that are Trans. So that sounds to me like he actually did some homework, in accurately writing those ideas through Tooru. Since we are told explicitly that Tooru has felt that way for a very long time (he's in Junior High, so between the age of 10 and 14) and that he doesn't understand the reason for his feelings towards being a girl.

Those are very typical experiences for young people, as they begin to realize they are Trans and begin expressing it. ("I am not comfortable as this, I don't know why"). Since Tooru doesn't know why he feels that what, it discounts it simply being a matter of a girl deciding to live as a boy because of insecurity, issues with a brother, or the like. And while we don't know all the details, the Request was Tooru asking to live as a man. Hence, the explaining the situation and reasons to the CCG dudes.

Now, of course Ishida loves to hurt our souls so there may be more later on. But right now, everything we have been given in establishing Tooru as a character is masculine language choices from all involved (Tooru, Sasaki) and a scene of Tooru expressing Trans-typical feelings. So I think accepting what is given to us for now is better than more mental gymnastics of how Ishida is plotting to destroy us -- that's what Haise Sasaki was created to do, after all. 