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i like to imagine akari got to wear the uniform he wanted after the end of the manga. (who is this? pokemon history under the cut!)

for those of you who don’t know, this is akari from the manga ‘how i became a pokemon card (1999)’! (bulbapedia link)

he is a trans boy, and to my knowledge is the only canon trans boy in all of the pokemon franchise among the small handful of canon trans characters.

this manga never got an official localization, so how some chose to translate the matter of akari using different pronouns differs from translation to translation. the sentiment stays the same though - akari is a boy, though he was born a girl.

this and the tension it causes with his mother is the main focus of this chapter of the manga. i would even say the subject of dysphoria is communicated pretty decently for how old the manga is, though usually through the metaphor of pokemon!

though the ending for the chapter is kind of ambiguous, so i wouldn’t call it a perfect representation, its still pretty cool to see a canon trans character in a manga thats almost as old as i am. thank you if you read this far, and please give this manga a read!