...Yikes! I could barely make it through the first half of that interview, it sounded so much like a boys locker room....
That said, their comments in the interview lean heavily toward "just crossdressing." (As that's the only word I saw them use.) They do mention of a pair of characters from an 80's gag manga as inspiration for Okino and Hijiyama (at a guess) and mentioning "writing a story of friendship that resembles love."
Kamitani also says that the crossdressing in the prologue was something Okino "had to do / had no choice in / was a necessity" and there were no specific plans on continuing with it or not, but Okino became a surprisingly popular character following the prologue.
Following that, he mentions that he had some concerns about whether he could write a "BL (boy's love) or bromance story" until recalling another favorite 80's manga of his. The interview makes note that said manga is a "slapstick love(?) comedy."
...So, judging by that (and with no knowledge of the two manga he name drops, "Totemo Hijikata-kun" and "Stop!! Hibari-kun!" it's...not looking good...
Well, that was depressing. I don't know how much more I want to go into my personal feelings on this revelation though for the people who may still get something positive out of a death-of-the-author English localized version of Okino.
I've not heard of
Totemo Hijikata-kun, but I have watched the anime version of
Stop!! Hibari-kun!, and Hibari is definitely not "just crossdressing", so there's that at least. It's an early-80s manga, so of course no one uses words like trans, but I doubt there's anyone in this thread who would read Hibari as anything but a trans girl. It's pretty blatant, at least to my (cis) eyes, even amidst the slew of gay panic "gags" and the like. It's not a shining example of representation, not even close, but Hibari is considered historically relevant as an early LGBT manga for a reason.
They state that this Okino character was initially conceived as simply using feminine clothes as a disguise, but later in development (after their popularity in the prologue demo) their character setting shifted to an actual crossdresser. It reads to me like
Hijikata-kun was the inspiration for the initial concept, while
Hibari-kun influence took over as the full story was being conceived, so take of that what you will I guess.
Still, they talk about this as BL multiple times, so it's pretty clear that the devs see Okino as a boy regardless of their inspiration.
And yeah, the overall tone of the article is exactly as you say. The creators seem to have intentionally put themselves in the minds of horny teenagers while making the game, thinking back to their own time as high schoolers in the 80s. If the game ends up having positive representation, it does seem like it was probably an unintentional coincidence and/or a shift of focus during localization.
kotaku.com
docs.google.com
