#genderfluid naoto

[soloragoldsun]

Winter Kannao Headcanon: When Kanji makes sweaters, he only uses the softest yarn. I'm talking good fleece/alpaca! He eventually gets confident enough to wear them when hanging out with his friends. Naoto can't get enough of the texture and will sometimes stim with the end of Kanji's sleeve without realizing it, then get flustered and apologetic when they realize what they were doing.

This, of course, leads to Kanji making his partner a bunch of winter wear out of the good yarn, starting with a scarf. Naoto will often rub their cheek against it when no one is looking.

Also, Naoto will shyly ask to cuddle when alone with Kanji when he's wearing one of those sweaters.

May or may not be planning a fanfic of this!!!

[in-jail-out-soon7]

"If I could change anything. I would've let myself fall in love with you."

In which instead of Takemitchy, it's you that has the ability to time travel. Allowing you to change the past and present. After traveling back to the present and attending the funeral of Takashi Mitsuya, you arrive back home to find a letter. An invitation to the Philippines.

Manjiro Sano x GN!Reader

Warnings: Tokyo Revengers spoilers, slowburn, mentions of death, cursing, guns, violence, blood & mentions of broken bones.

A/N: Hope this does well because I want to make it a series😭

With a flash of colour, every vein and artery seemed to buzz alongside every organ as you switched to your future body.

Blinking you steadied yourself in your new body. Taking a deep breath, a young woman with pale pink hair stood before you.

"Thank you for coming," she spoke softly. You hummed quietly in confusion. "Please wait in this line."

She gestured to the growing line forming behind her. "Oh.. Alright." The woman smiled and took her place behind a stand to check guests in.

Examining your surroundings you grasped at your clothes. You were dressed neatly in black formal mourning attire. Around you people spoke quietly to one another, comforting each other. An uneasy feeling settled in your chest as you took your place in line like you were instructed to.

At the front of the line, the lady from before alongside another who looked around the same age just with pale blonde hair greeted you. After giving them your last name the woman with blonde hair ushered you inside. "You can go inside," her voice shook and she pinched her nose but it did no good at preventing her tears.

You thanked them and made your way towards the entry of the building. Behind you the pink haired lady encouraged her friend. "Keep it together Mana."

"I'm sorry, Luna."

Trying not to trip over your own feet you turned on your heel quickly to examine the two girls. No, they weren't friends. They were sisters.

They ushered another guest into the funeral. The blonde woman, Mana, sobbed out her next words. "Thank you for attending my brother's funeral."

You chest tightened and you gasped, turning back around to rush into the building. Music played down the long hallway. The walls blurred together has you tried to find the correct room. Your ankles wobbled and knocked into each other, leaning on the wall for support you decided to search your person before moving forward.

Your fingers gripped around the familiar shape of your cellphone. Bringing the screen to life you tapped aggressively at the keyboard having to redo your password twice before opening the web. Searching for recent stories regarding any gang violence.

After searching endlessly you sat on the floor of the hallway your back hurting from being pressed against the textured wall for so long.

Takashi Mitsuya, a Toman Officer, had been strangled to death in an attack. Hinata Tachibana, your long time best friend had died once again in a car accident. Her boyfriend and in this timeline fiance, Takemitchi Hanagaki, who was also a Toman Officer had also died in the same accident.

The phone slipped from your sweaty palms onto the deep red carpet underneath you. The ringing in your ears drowned out the disgusting noises that came from your throat as you desperately tried not to throw up.

Passerbys stared and man approached you his comforts and concerns falling on deaf ears. Picking your phone up off the floor you braced your body on the wall before sliding up it with shaky legs.

It was Mitsuya's funeral. You had remembered meeting his little sisters, Luna and Mana, in the past at the New Year's festival.

When you gained enough strength in your legs you ran back down the way you came. Ignoring any looks thrown your way. Slipping through the big double doors you tried your best to stay out of everyone's way as you left the property.

You couldn't stay and sit through this service. You needed to find Naoto and figure out what the hell was happening.

After running aimlessly through the streets, muscle memory took you back to your old apartment. Heavy breaths left you as you sat in front of the front door with your back pressed against the hard material. Coughing and gagging on nothing.

You don't know why you had come back here. In other timelines you had been in nice preppy pent houses due to your connection to Toman, though you have never been an official member of the gang. According to Mikey you were just his guest he let sit in on meetings.

..

Where was Mikey?

A deep voice rang out from besides you. "Good, I knew you were back."

Lifting your gaze from the concrete floor your eyes fall over a tall, slim man with short black hair. He was dressed neatly in a tie, button down and black trousers, like he always was. It was Naoto.

Blinking you stood up clumsily. "Naoto?"

"My memories were over written, so I knew you had come back," he explained.

"Yeah, sure, but what the hell is happening?" Your fist clenched, nails digging into your palm. "Why is everyone dead?" You pressed. You had begun working with Naoto after Hinata's original death, when you had discovered your power of time traveling after dying to a division of Toman that had broken into your apartment and attacked you with a bat.

Meeting Naoto in the past, believing your life was just flashing before your eyes you admitted everything that would happen twelve years in the future. And with that knowledge he had managed to stop the Toman division from killing you again in exchange that you help save his sister.

Being an old friend of her's, a close one at that, made you a target in every timeline due to a plan still unknown to you. The first timeline where you managed to save Hinata and got to see her in the future, Takemitchi had reached out as well to speak with his ex-girlfriend. Ever since then Takemitchi has died alongside her in every future.

Naoto's gaze fell, his brow furrowed. "I'll explain inside." You hummed confused. He gestured to the apartment door. "Oh, yeah, you live here again. You probably have your keys on you."

Raising a brow you began checking your person until you struck up a silver ring of keys. "Oh." You unlocked the door, pushing it open. It smelt vaguely of cleaner and bleach. You two made your way inside.

..

Naoto explained everything. How all main Toman members: Draken, Mitsuya, Hakkai, Chifuyu and Takemitchi have all been killed. Even Kisaki and Kazutora were found dead.

Your drummed your fingers on the wooden table in your room as you listened to Naoto. "But, how?" You interrupt him, not wanting to hear anymore. "I did what I was supposed to." Glaring at him you thought back to the your last travel to the past.

You were right, you did everything you had planned on doing. You avoided Taiju being killed thanks to Takemitchi and after the news of the Christmas showdown came out Mikey kicked Kisaki out of Toman. Though you weren't there to see it Chifuyu and Takemitchi, the only two who knew you could time travel, reported to you about the latest Toman meeting that resulted in Kisaki's dismissal. Mikey didn't allow you at that meeting, he claimed it was punishment for tampering in a fight and risking getting hurt. As if the ear full he gave you wasn't enough.

"What about Mikey?" You asked suddenly.

Naoto sighed. "We don't know." He dug around in his coat, pulling out a piece of paper. "Currently, the suspect for all the murders," he unfolds the paper. Mikey.. But his hair was longer and black. The photo had been taken at an angle that you could see a dragon tattoo, identical to Draken's, snaked across his neck. "Is Manjiro Sano."

Your nails scratched against the table as they found their place against your palm in a fist. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would Mikey do that?"

Naoto sat the paper on the table. "We don't know, but I want to hear Mikey's side of the story." He finally took a seat across from you. "I wouldn't be surprised if he went looking for you."

A bit taken back you raise a brow. "Why? I was never apart of Toman."

He rested his chin in his open palm. "Yeah, but you two had some kind of relationship right?"

Your face flushed. "Not like that." Before you could defend yourself further you caught glimpse of a photo on the table. You slid it off the wooden surface and examined it. It was the photo Takemitchi had made you, Mikey, Draken, Chifuyu, Mitsuya and Hakkai take before you returned to the future. Everyone's laughter frozen as Takemitchi tried to get in frame before the timer ended. You couldn't help but notice how Mikey's eyes were focused on you.

Naoto stretched over the table to look at the photo in your hand. "Where'd you get that photo?"

You looked back up at him and shrugged, tracing your eyes back to the place you had found the photo. "Right here," an open envelope sat next to where the photo had been laying. "Oh, hey."

Naoto picks up the envelope before you could. Studying the paper and stamps he concludes,"This is from outside of Japan. The Philippines." He takes the letter out and unfolds it gently, reading it.

Pushing yourself up with your hands, you try to catch a glimpse of the letter. "What does it say? Who's it from?"

He turns the letter towards you, offering it to you. "No name."

There wasn't much written on the page.

"Meet me on January 20th, at that place I told you about."

Staring at the words you reread them over and over trying to figure out who could've sent the letter.

"Any idea who sent this to you?"

"No, I don't think so.." You turned back to the photo. Tracing over the face of all your friends that were now dead. Then you landed on Mikey.

..

"Just get on it, I swear you won't fall (Y/N)." Mikey laughed as he tried to get you to sit properly on the bike him and Draken had been working on. Draken had gone inside for a bottle of water, leaving you two alone.

With your legs spread around the bike you gripped Mikey's shoulders, refusing to sit down fully. "No- I don't know how to balance myself without sitting behind someone!"

Pulling your hands off of him, he placed them on the motorcycle's handles. He gripped your wrist firm enough to keep you in place but not enough to hurt you. He laughs again when you whine. "I won't let you fall, just sit."

Grumbling you fully sat down in the seat. He didn't let your wrists go. "What's this bike for anyways?" You ask.

"We're fixing it up for Takemitchy," he explained, his grip loosening.

"Really? You're giving him a bike? He'll crash it in seconds." Mikey rolled his eyes and smirked. "Where'd you even find parts for this?"

Mikey's smirk softened to a smile. His hands weren't even holding yours anymore, just softly resting on top your own on the handles. "My older brother found this engine and mine sometime when he traveled around for parts. He only had enough parts to reconstruct my bike, so this one's just been sitting around." He explained. "He found em in some old shitty town somewhere in the Philippines."

You had been so engrossed in the story at the time that you hadn't even noticed Mikey had kicked up the bike stand and you were balancing on your own.

..

Looking up at Naoto who seemed concerned at your spacing out, you turned the group photo towards him. Your finger over Mikey's face. "It's from Mikey."

..

Naoto arranged the trip to the Philippines, making sure you arrived with enough time to find the place Mikey had been talking about.

When the 20th of January arrived you and Naoto traveled to the old ruin. The old concrete building so turn apart you couldn't even tell what it was originally supposed to be.

You wiped sweat away from your brow caused by the beaming sun. Naoto turned to you. "It'll be easier if we split up." He spoke.

Shaking your head you glared at him. "Hell no, that's how people die," you argued.

He rolled his eyes. "We'll cover more ground that way." Slipping his coat off, he folded it in half then laid it over one shoulder. He waves you off. "Yell if something happens."

Grumbling, you watch as he walks off to the ruin. When he was out of sight you went inside yourself.

You could really tell how broken down the building was from the inside. Destroyed walls and caved ceilings. You took a set of stairs up a level. With Every step you kicked up dirt and dust. You waved a hand out in front of you to prevent any of the dibre from getting in your eyes when you noticed something on your thumb.

Stoping momentarily, you brought your hand up to your face. A long white line snaked up the bottom of your thumb. A scar. You don't remember having it before your last trip to the past, you must've gotten it sometime during the Christmas brawl.

The clutter of metal pulled you from your thoughts. Rounding a corner you arrived in a doorway. In the room, mountains of old junk and metal covered nearly the whole floor making it hard to maneuver through the scrap. Anywhere you placed a hand for support something would fall and scrap against something else.

You finally arrived at a clearing in the middle of all the junk. Quietly cursing as you tried to soothe any cuts and scratches you had just gained.

"(Y/N)."

Looking up to find where the voice came from, in front of you on top of a large pile of scraps and metal. A man stood amongst it. His hair was short and black, the under shaved. Black eyes stared into your own.

"Mikey?" You called up to the man as you took a step forward. It seemed stupid to ask, who else would be here?

He sat down on top the pile and crossed his legs over one another. Propping an elbow on his knee, he rested his chin in his hand before he spoke. "I hope you've been well."

"Yeah.. I have," you've met multiple people from the past in the present from different timelines. But meeting Mikey in the present just felt.. different. It made your face warm.

Mikey smiled. "You brought someone with you."

Nodding, you chuckled nervously. "Naoto, from back then. We've been working together for while now."

He hummed, never breaking eye contact. "He your boyfriend?"

You blinked and waved your arms in front of your face. "What? No, he's like a million years younger than me!"

Mikey laughed softly. "That right?" You nodded and crossed your arms, glaring up at him. "Well, I think you look good for a million." A soft gasp left your lips, the comment catching you off guard. Mikey stands. "Truth is, I asked you to come all the way here to ask you a favor." He stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Couldn't have mentioned it in your letter?" You tease.

He shakes his head and smirks, ignoring your comment. "When I first got here, I immediately thought of my brother," he started. "Y'know I fought an awful lot of guys when I was younger, made a lot of friends too." His gaze slips to you for a moment before turning away. "Lots of laughs and tears. Then it occured to me that that's how Toman really got started. They're all really good memories."

Mikey turns away, his back facing you. Just like back then, you were always so interested when Mikey spoke. You don't know why, but you always just yearned for him to speak more. About anything.

"When me and you cut ties. Toman changed." He turned back towards you. Confused, you raised a brow at Mikey beckoning for him to continue. "(Y/N)."

He spoke your name softly.

"What was it that made you think I was going to accept your confession that day?"

Your mouth dried up and you sucked in a breath. You didn't know how to respond, these weren't events you were there for. But then again, you confessed to him?

Accepting you weren't going to respond he continued, looking off to the side. "I stopped talking to you and pushed you away. But I realised I couldn't keep it together on my own. Not even Takemitchy could keep me in line. I spun out of control and lost myself."

You shifted from one foot to the other nervously. "What do you mean? What happened?"

Mikey breathed deeply and his brow furrowed. "When Toman changed, I went looking for you. I had realised how much I messed up by cutting you off, but Kenny and Mitsuya stopped me. They didn't want me dragging you back into the mess I had just made of Toman, they protected you. They did the same thing when Takemitchy left the gang."

You take a step forward. "Takemitchy left?"

He nods. "Yeah. And those two did everything in their power to keep you guys away." Mikey frowns. "They really were great guys."

Fidgeting with your fingers you chuckle softly. "Yeah," you swallow and fight back the urge to ask the most obvious question. What happened to them?

"They were my best friends." Mikey pauses and looks at you. You take a step back as he breaths his next words. "But, I killed them both." The same feeling from Mitsuya's funeral bloomed through your chest. It burned all the way up to your throat and you coughed, choking on air. Mikey continued. "The problem was when Toman changed. All those guys, every last one of them. I killed them all."

He looked back at you. You caught your breath and glared at him. "I don't get it- why the fuck would you do that?!" You exclaimed, flaring your arms around.

"Tch." Mikey dug around in his pocket. "This is why I called you here, (Y/N)." Mikey threw whatever he pulled out of his pocket towards you. It cluttered at your feet. "I need you to end this. To end it all."

Your gaze fell to the floor beneath you. A gun laid at your feet. You covered your mouth with a hand, pulling at your lips as anxiety spread through your entire body, your whole body shaking with nerves.

"Pick up the gun, (Y/N)."

An unexpected sob breaks from your throat, your nose hot as you stared at the gun. Mikey made his way down towards you. You didn't lift your gaze until he was directly in front of you. It was all too much. The smell of dust, must, the gun at your feet it was all just too much.

"This is the place I want it to come to an end," Mikey smiled and stepped closer to you. "The end of my dream."

Your removed the hand from your mouth and gasped painfully. Gripping at your clothes you kicked the gun away and glared at Mikey, your vision clouded. "What- I'm not- I'm not going to kill you!" You struggled to get the words out. "Why did you kill all those people, Mikey!?" He returned your glare, glancing back behind you where the gun had been kicked off to. "Answer me!"

Mikey took a step back and tilted his head towards the caved in ceiling. Through the hole you could see a bird fly overhead. "Turns out, it's not easy to achieve a dream. I set out to make a whole new era for delinquents, Toman was supposed to be the vehicle to achieving that dream." He looked back at you. "But then the whole thing went to shit."

You swallowed and watched Mikey closely.

"The first time I killed someone," his eyes hooded and he smiled smugly. "I didn't even feel a thing. Then I realized something, pretty much any problem anyone has can be solved by just killing someone." He smiles, his teeth showing. They had yellowed over time. "So, now I just kill anyone standing in my way."

Without thinking you swung towards Mikey, your hand in a fist. Mikey catches your wrist, pulling you towards him. His grip was almost unbearably tight, you winced. "What the hell are you saying!? There's no way you actually mean all of that! I'll never believe you do!"

Mikey mutters something and gripped you harder.

"You're still the same guy from back then, the same guy who helped me balance on a motorcycle for the first time!" With your free hand you gripped his shirt.

"Stop it, (Y/N)."

You shook him slightly. "You're still the same guy I fell in love with 12 years ago-"

Gripping your wrist, Mikey swings you into a nearby pillar. Your grit your teeth as your back collides with the pillar. Mikey makes his way towards you. Grasping at your clothes he pulls you up and pushes you against the pillar, he pulls another gun from his pocket and places it against your cheek. Hard.

"What the hell are you trying to achieve here!?" He hisses. Reaching your arms out you hold onto his shoulders for support. Tears finally slipping down your face as you gasp for air. There's no way one of your ribs weren't broken. He presses the barrel of the gun harder against you, pushing your face into the stone pillar. You grip his shoulders harder.

Painful whines and whimpers fall from your lips. "Mikey.. It hurts.." His eyes widen but he doesn't change his position.

He stretches out a leg, the gun you kicked away had been around the place he had thrown you. He kicks the gun at you. "Pick it up." Your lips quiver and you managed the best shake of your head that you can. "(Y/N)."

He changes the position of the gun, moving it from your cheek to inbetween your eyes. "Either you kill me," he spoke. You took a hand off one of his shoulders to grip his wrist holding the gun. "Or I kill you."

You choke out your words offering Mikey a small smile. "I could never kill you, Mikey."

He glares at you pressing the gun harder against your head. "There's no going back to the past."

A gunshot rings out. Your eyes widen expecting it to be you, instead Mikey falls. Blood spattering on your face and his gun falling to the ground. You drop to your knees, holding your side, cradling a for sure broken rib. A voice calls out.

"Are you alright?!" Sucking in painful wheezes of breaths you find Naoto at your side with a gun drawn. To your other side Mikey laid in a puddle of blood, coughing.

You move as fast as you can to his side. Naoto's protests falling on deaf ears as you pull Mikey's head into your lap. You repeat his name desperately like prayer. His dark hair matted with blood from the wound on the side of his head and his pale skin stained.

He grunts and grasps your upper arm weakly. "Naoto Tachibana, is that you?" He coughs, blood trailing down his chin. "Thank you. For shooting, because (Y/N) wasn't gonna do it." He smiles softly and looks at you. "Finally, it's over. My life has been nothing but.. suffering."

A tear drips off your nose and onto Mikey's neck. "Shut up, I can fix this, Mikey." You search around for anything to help even though you knew there was nothing.

"I didn't want to reject you that day," tears flowed down Mikey's cheeks. "I just didn't want you to end up.. Like my brother or Baji." A sob breaks from your throat as you watch him.

"What could've I done to get you accept?" You choke. "See I can fix it- just tell me what I could of done differently!"

Mikey shakes his head as much as his body would allow. "It makes me happy to know you still like me." He grunts and twists in your lap. "(Y/N)." You squeeze your eyes shut as you try to push down the ugly sounds threatening to fall from your lips.

"If I could change anything. I would've let myself fall in love with you."

"Mikey, stop it."

The hand that was softly grasping at you falls limp as Mikey stills. The only thing moving being stray tears falling down his cheeks.

You grit your teeth.

"Mikey- Mikey, I said stop it!"

He doesn't respond.

[onlylowercase]

Do you by any chance like transmasc Naoto?

Yeah!

[bucket-man-official]

Fuck y'all, Genderfluid Naoto.

[luuxxart]

hello i am so sorry if this comes off as weird but oh my god. i love your style and the way u draw people so fluidly if that makes sense?? esp the way u draw akechi he is so fucked up i love it ;;;;;;; and thank u for making both him and naoto trans in ur student council comic i adore ur design for all ur chars :)

AJSJDKKDKDKD THANK YOU SO MUCH OMG??????💖💖💖💖💖💖 I Feel like my action scenes have actually been really stiff but this is really encouraging to hear and I’m defo working on it ! :3

but hell yeah man!!! This comic is EXTREMELY TRANS🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ and LIKE I can’t not headcanon Akechi as trans have you seen his summer fit LIKE

ANYWAY confirming these guys as trans y’all are not hittin’ ‘em w the Cis beam on my watch but anyone and everyone in my comic can absolutely be trans it is up to ye‼️‼️

💙💖🤍💖💙

[genderfluidswagnesscontest]

Naoto Shirogane vs. Odo (Round 1 -A)

And before you vote, let's learn about our competitors!

Naoto Shirogane

disguised herself as a man in order to be taken seriously in the male-dominated field of detective work

referred to with both masculine and feminine pronouns and Japanese suffixes

becomes more comfortable with femininity later in life

come on just look at her though

Odo

literally a gender-fluid and turns into a liquid every 16 hours

obligatory shapeshifting abilities

states that he canonically has no gender

“offers to act as a character’s symbolic mother in a mother-daughter event”

come on just look at him though

[meiko333]

Naoto Icons

Like and/or reblog if you save/use

[nenilein]

Hello! Apologies for sending an ask out of the blue but considering your familiarity with localisation differences in persona 4/golden, I was wondering if anything comes to your mind regarding this aspect and how the game depicts queerness and queer themes? Thank you!

Heya! Don't worry, I was thinking people would probably ask stuff like this. After all, I already replied to somebody's tags asking this same thing previously, but I know not many people saw that, so let me use the chance to go into more detail:

Unfortunately, Persona 4's treatment of queer themes is not a result of the translation. The only things that were down to translation choices were small things, such as which pronouns are used in which situation (because Japanese does not at all have the same concept of third person pronouns as English, and the way first person classifiers that mean "I" work is very complex and a lot more vibes-based than actually tied to gender.)

But for the most part, everything is pretty much the same. Kanji's reaction to Chie mumbling about something being "off" about how he interacted with Naoto that first time, the tent scene, Yosuke's extreme insecurity in his own sexuality in addition to everyone else's... I think maybe the only thing that's a biiit better in Japanese is that Teddie is kiiinda genderfluid in Japanese, with the artbook outright stating that he doesn't necessarily consider himself "male" when he's in his bear form, unless it's necessary for a joke.

A lot of this can be traced to the really odd relationship the game's director, Katsura Hashino, has to queer themes. In interviews about Catherine Fullbody (a game which infamously has a rather weirdly handled gay romance route which, however, is notably also the only romance route in the game that cannot possibly result in a bad ending), he talks about how he's always admired queer people for being "strong" and wanted to write queer stories, but couldn't really do it until Fullbody because Atlus higher ups were afraid of backlash from the fans.

Traces of this are actually seen in Persona 4 Vanilla's data, where remnants of a surprisingly well done romance route for YOSUKE, of all people, are still present. That route made it far enough into development to have voiced lines in both, English and Japanese. However, it was dummied out in the final game and its script content was removed. Yosuke STILL has the "girlfriend flag" in the code that all the female romance options also have, but in the finished game it only checks whether you can hug him during his social link or not. Everything else was dummied out. You can still find the voice files on the cutting room floor if you want:

And yes, the "I like you" line is unambiguously romantic in Japanese. His wording is very hard to misinterpret.

However, in the finished game and the rest of the franchise Yosuke's bisexuality was reduced to an in-joke of the developers. It's most poignant in Persona Q (the first one), where if you get the "marriage" scene with Yosuke in the second dungeon, his reactions differ WILDLY depending on which Protagonist you are playing as, far more than other male characters. With Makoto Yuki he acts nonchallant and deadpan about it. With Yu Narukami he acts like a blushy Tsundere and panics constantly. So, yeah.

Okay, so, if the director had interest in writing queer stories since before Persona 4, why is Persona 4 the way it is then?

Well, because - and there's no way around it - he sucks at it.

Katsura Hashino has to be one of the clumsiest "gay activists" I've ever seen in my whole darn life. He finds queer people "cool", but seemingly never had any queer writers or sensitivity readers on his teams and it's caused enormous blunders in how these themes have been handled. For example, when after Persona 3 it was pointed out to him that the writing of the female characters in interaction with the male characters was bad, he immediately hired more female writers and gave them free reign for how to handle the female characters from then on out. But apparently the same thing never happened with his mishandling of queer themes. He wants Catherine's Erica and Rin to be empowering figures for trans women and gay men, but makes a lot of blunders in how he has other characters interact with them to the point it buries his good intentions. Erica's boyfriend having gay panic upon realizing she's trans is treated as "funny and cute", even by Erica herself. Rin technically being a monogender alien really undermines his story of becoming more secure in his sexuality. It goes on and on like that.

The intention with Naoto's story was to point out the extreme sexism in Japanese society and how it forces female nerds to find alternate modes of self-expression, but the clumsy choice of including surgery themes in Naoto's dungeon completely buried that for especially western queer audiences. Most people don't even remember Naoto's dungeon was outright modeled after a Kamen Rider villain hideout. They completely shot themselves in the foot with this one. Additionally, the way Naoto is handled AFTER the dungeon makes her (I'm using that pronoun because she calls herself a "woman" in Japanese in the game) seem more like someone who's on the verge of discovering they are X-gender (the japanese word for "nonbinary") than a repressed girl. Like, right down to how she has Rise help her experiment with clothes in the canonical drama CDs only to realize she really is uncomfortable with skirts and go for an androgynous but less restrictive look going forward. The way she dresses in the Golden epilogue and P4D is pretty X-gender core if you ask me. If they had leaned into that they could have genuinely have had something AMAZING, while also presenting the themes of sexism they wanted to explore, but the lack of queer sensitivity readers kind of ruined it.

Same for Kanji. The way they write him makes it seem like he's bisexual or pansexual, rather than straight, but they kinda shove that part of him aside after his dungeon is done, leaving his actual orientation up in the air and wasting a really good chance for representation. NOW, given what happened to Yosuke's social link, it's quite possible the original intent WAS to explore this more and it got cut, but as it stands, we'll never know. The huge problem of the internalized toxic stereotypes his Shadow presented never being reflected on and put into their right context in the rest of the game, when his social link could've given a great opportunity for that is also a huge shame.

All of this happened because of Atlus being unwilling to let their writers go all out with queer themes in fears of alienating a cishet audience AND because Hashino never sat his writing team down with any actual queer writers to sort this shit out and learn how to get across what the team was ACTUALLY trying to say. Now, given, Persona 4 was far from the only Japanese media property with that exact issue at the time, but it hurts especially much in its case because of the game's themes of exploring the truth to its logical conclusion, as well as psychology. These are issues that a remake REALLY would do well to address and correct. I feel like they actually will HAVE to do that, because sensitivity readers have become the NORM in handling these themes now in Japanese media, rather than the exception. You can thank trail blazing mainstream works like Zombie Land Saga for that.

All in all, Persona 4's handling of queer themes is an exercise in frustration that I hope is corrected soon.

[ultimateotaku666]

Persona 3, 4, & 5 Protag sexuality headcanons

Disclaimer: I am not going to include the first three Persona games as I have no way to play and figure them out, but maybe I'll find a way.

Another disclaimer: I sadly won't include the FeMC, as I haven't played P3 Portable. But I got it recently, and I shall repost once I finish!

Makoto Yuki:

HeteroAce. I know it seems like a cop-out, but I think it fits him well. He probably never thought about romance and didn't think he would ever fall in love. Then he meets the girl of his dreams (me and my fiancé say Fuuka) and he finally understands.

Another idea is AroAce, it's more an idea.

Yu Narukami:

Polysexual and possibly Polyamorus. Persona protags are lady killers, but it doesn't mean that they can't also be different. Narukami is no exception. He gives off Polysexual vibes. You have many female options, so there's one. Yosuke was supposed to be a romance option (we were robbed!!), so already makes sense. And I headcanon Naoto being Non-binary or Genderfluid, so check on that! As for the Polyamory, depending on who you romance, you could be a throuple (We imagine Narukami, Naoto, and Kanji. It would be sweet).

Akira Kurusu:

Pansexual. I know we have many female options, but four of them are adults. And I know Japan is different, but its still strange. But that's a rant for later! And let me say we all know that if we had male options, people would have Ryuji and Yusuke as their partner. Plus, Akira seems like he doesn't discriminate (like I said, he dates adults), and he values their emotions and love.

These are just headcanons, so if you don't agree, that's perfectly fine! Everyone has an opinion, and they can be beautiful (not all and you know who you are 🫵😡)

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk!

[hopeymchope]

Genderfluid Naoto headcanon

Hear me out:

At the end of Persona 4 Golden, Naoto is shown wearing obvious feminine attire, having seemingly embraced her identity as a woman.

However! The chronological next installment in the story of the Investigation Team is Persona 4 Arena. And she's back in her male-passing detective outfit for that game as well as its "Ultimax" follow-up/conclusion.

But THEN! By the time of Persona 4 Dancing All Night, her new outfit is somewhere in-between those two extremes.

(ETA: Per

In Conclusion: I understand and accept that, canonically, Naoto accepts the she/her pronouns by the end of Persona 4. But it sure seems like she opts to present as genderflui/d. So maybe she's cool with some "they/them" in there, too? Eh? EH?

[symphonic-scream]

Okay. Another in a long line of aus that have been coming from my mind lately

P4 but it's P5

Aka, the P4 Tokyo au

Gonna lay it out, but if you just wanna know everyone's roles scroll to the end for the list of the arcana :)

Alright. Let's do this

So, Yu Narukami was walking home one night when he hears a woman scream. He runs over to help and sees a man trying to assault her so he steps in. The man, drunk, falls over and gets hurt. The blame is placed on Yu, who is arrested and found guilty

Now, his parents don't want to deal with him, sending him to live with his cop uncle in Tokyo. Dojima isn't too happy about it, and to keep Nanako safe, he has Yu live in the old Yongen police station, now a storage building. It's dusty and old, but Yu thinks he can clean it up a bit

He's at a new school. Everyone seems to hate him. He spots a boy on the way to school, watches a teacher berate the kid before he pedals his bike faster. It's raining. The water from his tires flies up dousing Yu and a girl chasing after him

She's Chie Satonaka, formally a part of the martial arts club at Shujin, kicked out due to the extreme number of demerits she's earned. All from the same teacher that yelled at that boy

The boy being Yosuke Hanamura, who transferred last year. Kids being blamed for his father's business taking over a whole slew of smaller businesses in another area of Tokyo, just another big supermarket. But then as well, a certain teacher keeps spreading rumors about him and his family's business. It isn't helping

Anyways. Yu and Chie stumble into the Metaverse, find the shadow of King Moron, and a little bear named Teddie. Then they're back in the real world and shit and blah blah

We know the story by now. The third joins the team, they steal the treasure, etc

In the real world, Teddie is one of those Teddie bear dogs. The tiny ones. I think that's funny

Anyways. They save the day and things move forward. They are the Phantom Thieves. They're going to keep stealing treasures and saving people

On to arc two! After the teacher thing, Chie gets approached by a girl in a kimono, as they're walking through Shibuya. A local group was doing advertisement for a special like traditional style decoration event at an inn. And. One of the young designers wants to use Chie for inspiration

After. Having her soul bared to her. Uhm. Yeah.

Anyways there's a senior designer there that keeps trying to convince everyone the inn is haunted or something. He's an asshole. Wants to ruin the inn so he can buy it to be his personal mansion

Anyways Chie nearly has to get nude but before that they convince Yukiko Amagi to join them and defeat the designer

So. There's that

Anyways next arc!

So. Dojima is still a cop. He's on the case of a large crime group in the city, with another detective Adachi, and. A teenager.

A first year at Yu's school. Pretty much a kid. The cops aren't happy they brought the "genius Detective Prince" in cause they couldn't end it soon enough, but. The whole unit is sick of this kid on day one. Doesn't talk to them. Stands there. Uses big words.

The kid doesn't have friends at school. But, they get closer than anyone else does. Aka, they find both the Phantom Thieves and the crime ring. At the same time.

Naoto Shirogane is looked down on for being a kid but also was never allowed to be a kid. Lonely as fuck. Pressured into throwing themself at the crime boss with no backup

The team finds them insufferable at first. Until they're in the palace and Naoto breaks. And then gains their persona

(Genderfluid Naoto here. Some days he, some they, some she.)

So we've got a "criminal", the reason everyone's parents are broke, Shujin's most violent second year, an interior designer, and a young detective. Oh and Teddie

It's. Going great for them

And it lasts a while until, they get a strange request. An anonymous online fan wants their heart stolen. They're worried they'll resort to extremes soon, and don't want to wish that grief on their loved ones. It's, a lot,

And. They investigate enough to find out the request came from within the Dojima house

Former idol Risette has been living with them since she was attacked, assaulted. She doesn't go out, has a fear of being around crowds and, shit like that. She blames herself, she's read too many online comments. She was asking for it, and all. And she feels, gross. So, they go to steal her heart

And she joins the group! As their Navi! Fun!

Then the second years go to Hawaii, leaving only Naoto and Rise behind in Tokyo, and when they return? They have another palace!

This one idk but Kanji joins the team here. It's Kanji he's gay and likes manly things like sewing.

Anyways after that it's, another Palace that's honestly not chosen cause idk who'd be the Judgement (Margaret?? Maybe) and Adachi joins the team and then betrays them and then they're after the prime guy and then God

But yeah. Thief Team

Fool - Yu

Chariot - Chie

Lovers - Yosuke

Magician - Teddie

Emperor - Yukiko

Priestess - Naoto

Hermit - Rise

Empress - Kanji

And yeah. I've got some ideas for it and all but. Yeah. Ask me about it

[soloragoldsun]

Uuuuggghghhh. I just watched the Naoto romance to get more of an idea of how they're like when in a relationship. On one hand, he's sweet as hell and all of her dialogue where she talks about their feelings is just awesome!

On the other, I hate, Hate, HATE that you basically have to pick the dialogue options that involve changing Naoto in order to romance him!

Everything from the "I'm glad you're a girl" bit, to telling them to speak in a higher pitch, to saying that you want to "change" her in the Valentine's scene... BLEH!

Yu in my fics would never! Also, Kanji would never! No one would ever!!! Naoto is awesome just the way they are, dangit, and that applies to everyone of every gender identity, regardless of how they present!!!!

Atlus, once again, you are incorrect.

[swordsfaires]

lightning straight to my heart

rating: T

pairing: Kanji Tatsumi/Naoto Shirogane

characters: Kanji Tatsumi, Naoto Shirogane, Rise Kujikawa, Ryotaro Dojima

tags: Love Confessions, Fluff, Awkward Romance, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Idiots in Love, Gender Identity, Gender Issues, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Shirogane Naoto, Pansexual Character, Pansexual Tatsumi Kanji, He/Him and She/Her and They/Them Pronouns for Shirogane Naoto, Declarations Of Love, First Kiss, Dorks in Love, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Friends to Lovers, Teen Romance

Naoto is about to leave for a months-long internship in Tokyo. Kanji has something to tell them before they go.

—

Naoto studied him out of the corner of their eye, noting how tense his shoulders were and how he began to chew on his lip. “Is that really what you wanted to talk about? Everyone leaving Inaba?”

Kanji stopped walking, and Naoto slowed to a stop next to him.

“You don’t miss anything, do ya? Though I guess that’s on me for askin’ to talk in private.” His laugh was nervous, and he started fiddling with one of the bracelets he was wearing. He blurted out, “I…I need to tell you something, and I’m hoping it doesn’t change anything between us. Will you hear me out?”

Naoto frowned, immediately concerned. “Certainly. Whatever it is, I promise it won’t.” She wagered there were few things Kanji could tell her that would change her opinion of him.

There were a long few moments of silence where Kanji simply nodded in response and cleared his throat, sounding as though he was working himself up to something.

[mimis9thcircle]

dumb idea + some dumb hcs to go with it

post canon persona au but it follows the characters who work in law enforcement (katsuya, akihiko, chie, naoto) and its one of those really dumb 90s sitcoms where instead of them solving/fighting actual crimes its just them doing wacky hijinks and accidentally committing the crimes. (this takes place in that one au from my ask blog lol).

Headcanons for this bc why not.

Ages

Katsuya: 50

Akihiko: 32

Chie: 29

Naoto: 28

.

Katsuya:

-The mom of the group, is the oldest and helped mostly everyone get their jobs.

-The police chief with a lot of experience and burnout.

-Has had Akihiko arrest Tatsuya at one point for speeding (it's ok they still have a healthy sibling relationship).

-The character that can be logical and reasonable but stopped caring 3 seasons ago.

Akihiko: -Barely 32, yet has had more midlife crises than the average accountant.

-Stopped shaving consistently after 23 and as such has a lot of stubble.

-He cuts his own hair because he doesn't trust anyone with his hair (Naoto, Shinji, and Ken beg him to go to a barber).

-Probably shows off his scars to random people who ask about his pre-police career.

-Gets paired up with Chie a lot and drives the car when this happens.

-Kotone sometimes makes food for him because he will blow up his kitchen if he tries to cook.

-Katsuya introduced him to Ulala and they are besties.

-The older brother of the group that gets involved in the hijinks.

-Misses his husband very much (the akimina tease is strong).

.

Chie: -She and Yukiko are failwife #1 and failwife #2 respectively.

-Katsuya probably got her the job and taught her stuff so she sees him like a dad.

-The reason why she doesn't drive the cop car is because she will crash into something if she tries.

-Unarmed and very dangerous.

-Did I mention she never skips leg day?

-Got a wolfcut because she wanted to try wavy hair and it stuck.

-The wild child of the little sitcom group, starts most of the episodes plots.

-Also met Ulala and really admires her and Maya.

-Yu probably wonders how she even got the job sometimes.

-Rise sometimes asks her to go to concerts as a bodyguard.

.

Naoto (I like genderfluid Naoto because I project I'm sorry</3) :

-The one character tired of everyone's shit.

-Kanji worries for her sanity sometimes, and ykw he's completely valid for worrying about his husband.

-Probably gets along with Katsuya the best, and they probably vent to each other about their jobs.

-A detective but works somewhat closely with everyone, she says she hates it but she loves everyone.

-Went to college for 8+ years and he has burnout.

-Will probably snap, fight, and win if provoked enough.

-Is the one character in the show with logic and reasoning to show how dumb the comedy is.

.

Misc stuff: -Sae and Makoto are the one characters that have 5 minutes of screentime every 3 episodes, but the sfx hype them up like they are gods among man.

-Dojima is the one guy always talked about in the background and shows up for a cameo but has no plot significance.

-Naoto gave Akechi some tips on being a successful detective because he seemed reasonable (oh how wrong he was...).

-Mitsuru tells Katsuya to stop Akihiko from doing anything stupid, yet when she shows up in episodes she ends up doing stupid shit with everyone.

-Adachi is still in jail and he gives Chie and Naoto the worst advice known to man when everything goes to shit.

.

Thats pretty much it, might draw some stuff for it but we'll see... until next time denizens of tumblr love yall <3

[davekat-sucks]

i honestly don’t know if chihiro fans still act like that but I know they did in 2020-2021 and called people transphobic for using he/him on chihiro, but in reality people who see him as a girl are also transphobic, like i seen one person back in 2021 on youtube call someone a fake transgender because they called chihiro a boy and called another person a fake transgender ally and said that the person’s trans friend shouldn’t be friends with them because they also called chihiro a boy, i think people are fine with canon chihiro now even though i still see people put stuff like “chihiro gender discourse dni” on any chihiro post they make with gender headcanons other than trans girl, i seen people headcanon him as non binary and genderfluid and trans male/transmasc too but the trans girl headcanon is more popular than the other gender headcanons, i means im not saying trans headcanons are bad on chihiro, but people need to realize that he is a femboy and im not saying femboys can’t be trans but the creator never said anything about chihiro being trans so that just makes chihiro a cisgender male rather people like it or not

Exactly. I wish people gave that same decency for other characters like Naoto.

[coles-scythe]

Welcome!!

Jay || They/He || Artist || ♤♡ || ASD + ADHD

-> This is my self shipping side blog, where I get to be so normal over fictional people. This is NOT a fandom blog, though fandom blogs are welcome to interact.

-> My main is @jay-sketchin, my art blog! However, I reblog most things to my personal blog @stfu-im-thinking-abt-blorbo. I also run @draw-your-self-ship!!

-> I take art and (MLP) base edit commissions!! See this post from my main for more information!!

-> My hyperfixations change a lot! So please don't follow me expecting a lot of one content or another. Currently I'm super invested in Tekken, Persona (3+4 especially), and rhythm games like BanG Dream, Project SEKAI, Guitar Hero, and Fortnite Festival!

-> My #1 main romantic F/O of all time is Tohru Adachi from Persona 4 and I'm extremely uncomfortable sharing him! Doubles are okay to interact and follow, but please don't reblog any of my posts tagged with "🃏 Jester's Hunger" (my ship tag for him) if we share. Also, as comes with the territory, my entire blog is riddled with spoilers for Persona 4, and all other media I post about. (Current main spoiler warnings are for Persona 3 Reload and Tekken 8)

-> My current main F/O that I'm hyperfixated on is Jin Kazama from Tekken! I'm very uncomfortable sharing him! Doubles are okay to interact and follow, but please do not reblog any of my posts tagged with “💥 Atone For Our Pasts” (my ship tag for him) if we share. I have lots more F/Os, too! Here’s my list for all of them!!

-> I've also got a list of my self inserts here! It's a massive WIP and includes some of my OCs that either appear in multiple of my AUs or are important in at least one AU. Please note that if a character is listed as an OC on this blog, then it is NOT a self insert unless specified otherwise!

-> On that note, this blog WILL include both OC x Canon and Canon x Canon ships that are included in my AUs. For filtering purposes, I will be tagging all Canon x Canon ships with an emoji and their ship name, minus the -shipping suffix in certain names. (E.G. "🌙AraShu" for Shinjiro x Minato in my Persona 3 AU and "⚔️Samurai" for Nya x Pixal in my Ninjago AU, shortened from "Samuraishipping".)

Do NOT Interact:

General DNI criteria (MAP, Zoo, TERF, exclusionist, zionist, bigot, etc.)

Pro shippers, their supporters, neutrals, and toxic anti shippers

Loli/Shotacons and their supporters

NSFW/Kink/Fetish blogs

Adults who self ship with minors

People who self ship with real people (Celebrities, musicians, YouTubers, including YouTuber alter egos and roleplay characters like MCYT creators)

Self shippers who age up/down their F/Os or self inserts are on very thin ice. This will be judged on a case-by-case basis. (General guideline is if you shipped with them while you were a minor and got older, they have a real world birthdate before yours, or if your F/O's source canonically uses timeskips to age the chatacters up, then you'll get a pass.)

Fandom DNI:

I'm fine with fandom blogs following this blog if they come across it, but I still have a few boundaries I'd like to make clear for my own comfort.

YouTuber fandoms (E.G. MCYT, BBS, etc.)

Harry Potter fandom, including those who do not support J.K. Rowling

Hetalia + Countryhumans fandoms

Yandere Simulator fandom, including those who do not support YandereDev

Your Boyfriend Game fandom

Lloyd/Ninja shippers, especially Green//flame (Ninjago)

TDI Reboot cast x any cast prior to 2023 (Total Drama)

Protagonists/Adult Social Links+Confidants, especially Shu//Ada (Persona)

If you engage in a lot of Naoto gender discourse. I use They/He/She pronouns for them and headcanon them as Non Binary/Genderfluid. (Persona)

Some Userbox Stuff About Me, For The Funsies Lol