the “real” chihiro was an ai and alter ego was the real one
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read Discworld
also im with geyde on p4, I don’t see any way in which you can conclude that Naoto was meant to be, or represent being, or comment on the experience of being FtM trans instead of being commentary on sexism in the Japanese labor force
yeah sure, to ybw’s point, you don’t really see Naoto get to experience this firsthand - but she’s one of the characters not native to Inaba and you never meet any of her co-workers in game so like also how could you unless they decided to extend the game length with a bunch of flashbacks to characters that literally don’t matter to the plot at all
the worst thing she’s guilty of is having her story told not shown 
i think the story development still makes sense if theyre transmasc (from what I know, again I know literally nothing about p4 besides that character and their arc and development)
From one to many. From many to some. Or maybe, to one.
(Bad) Coding
int[] visits = new int[playerList.Length];
for (int p = 0; p < playerList.Length; p++) { visits[p] = 0; }
for (int counter = 0; counter < 10; counter++)
{
string input = Console.ReadLine();
int[] targets = input.Split(';').Select(n => Convert.ToInt32(n)).ToArray();
for (int e = 0; e < targets.Length; e++)
{
visits[targets[e] - 1]++;
float odds = Convert.ToSingle(counter) * (1f / visits[targets[e] - 1]) * (1f / targets.Length);
bool result = action(targets[e], odds);
if (result) { counter = 0; }
}
}
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naoto makes far more sense if he’s a man. and i say this as The Transfem Readings Woman
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like this has nothing to do with their in-universe coercively assigned gender at birth, and everything to do with the fact that their entire narrative is about struggling with the toxic expectations of coercively assigned femininity, and how that relates to labour in particular. also the character was written as a man and became a woman at the last second
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in persona 4 platinum, which i will be directing, if you make Naoto wear the dress then when he transitions later in the narrative it locks you out of finishing his social link
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besides, if there’s any transfeminine character in Persona 4 it’s very blatantly Teddie
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this is not a good thing!
characters gain transfemine-coded traits in Persona very often, given the series’ themes, but those themes are also almost always paired with what I can loosely describe as the series worst excesses in terms of characterisation.
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fortunately. we have Aigis.
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just to make this utterly clear: i think Persona 3, 4 and 5 are all three of them homophobic and transphobic games, in smaller or greater amounts for each. but also each of them has multiple heavily trans-coded characters i actually like
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Yusuke and Kanji may be homophobic stereotypes but they’re written just humanisingly enough for me to enjoy them.
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while the story development can work, the reading of transmasc does struggle when having to face that a key point of the narrative with naoto is
p4
dealing with misogyny both external and internalized, feeling that ‘it would be much easier [to do the thing I care about that being detective work] if I was taken seriously’
the external challenge to being taken seriously being that naoto is young. the suggestion is that people are looking for reasons not to take naoto seriously
so naoto has to be perfect
naoto, in s-link, gets very frustrated at not being able to solve the case. I take this as perfectionism coming from that need to be perfect in the workforce.
I think this makes a lot of sense from a “woman in stem” position. Countless stories basically sync up with the experience as I’m laying out here.
up to this point I think transmasc naoto makes a lot of sense; it’s good even. The angle of people not seeing Naoto as a ‘real man’.
the problem with the characterization, I find, is when you get to the internalized part.
Naoto, at some level (since shadows are influenced by the public consciousness to a degree), craves being taken seriously by the people around them
their shadow self is a mad scientist with a labcoat too big for them, decked out in basically action figure ray gun and jetpack. The shadow self is repeatedly shown to be childish both in dialogue and in character design.
Shadow naoto sees the easy route to being taken seriously in this male dominated workforce as…‘just be a man it’s easy i’ll just do it with my science powers >:)’
Dealing with this want of being taken seriously is an important part of naoto’s characterization in main story.
This is further backed up by the naoto social link being about Naoto reconfirming that they actually like detective work.
I find this works well from a cis woman or trans femme reading because the struggle to being taken seriously reads very strongly as internalized misogyny. ‘Just become a man, men are taken seriously’ is the easy way out that naoto sees…but sacrificing their internal identity to get external respect in a male dominated field reads strongly for woman!naoto.
Now, I acknowledge that a good writer acknowledges that the problem isn’t just solved by being a man. Trans masc naoto can work. I think it would require an extension on the content we see in p4 for it to be good.
disclaimer: I do see mainline modern persona, especially 4-5, as being written by an asshole conservative. The removal of gay yosuke, the gross scene in the original p3 and p5, p4 golden kanji camp scene (holy shit this was terrible), and other examples contribute to this. The stories tackle progressive themes in a ghoulishly conservative way. For p4 especially (the game about seeing the truth even if you don’t like it), I hate this handling of things. Gay yosuke is a very natural read of the character. Kanji is my favorite character and the fact that the game (Rise especially) repeatedly mocks him feels terrible. The naoto romance is a serious disservice to this character who clearly does not actively like outwardly presenting femme.
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thats why i’m porud to announce that i will be making persona 6
every single playable character will be transgender. you have to be transgender to get a Persona
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you can basically tl;dr as
the internal conflict is about internalized misogyny; not a conflict over perceived identity
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for the first time since persona 3 portable you can choose what gender you play as. the game immediately tells you No and gives you a deliberately worse-looking version of the male protagonist if you picked female, and vice-versa
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p4 golden kanji camp scene is my personal 9/11
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