Naoto is very complicated to me, I'm at the point where I don't think they meant to write a trans story. it's been explained that the story is about specific issues in Japanese culture (at the time?) of women not being accepted in professional roles like that and feeling the need to reject womanhood outright to be accepted. if the intention was what they said, imo it's a pretty good concept. the problem is they (intentionally or not) stumbled into a trans narrative and now it's so much more messy and difficult to view any other way. I think there was a way to tell the story they wanted to, but through either not knowing how to tell nuanced stories about women or just being way too heavy handed, we have Naoto. what was meant to be a payoff at the end of the story (leaning into femininity some) feels at odds with the story leading up to it

sexism against chie is fucked up for sure. again, l blame so much on Hashino being an awkward weirdo about anything other than stories about guys