I have mixed emotions about the trans person take since it's never really said that the male mage wants to be a girl or doesn't want to be a man. It just says that he lacks emotions related to love. I think he just just reborn as a woman. Which I feel like is a separate thing out of his control. And when he becomes a girl it doesn't seem like it's a pro or con thing. It's just a thing. But thats my opinion. I don't remember their names so that's why I'm being vague sorry :')
you said it really well. i was having a hard time trying to pinpoint exactly why the main characters felt SO damn stiff
1. This is a story of a transperson. But not just any transperson but an incompetent one that the author thought was apt for some reason.
2. The story began with pursuit of power by a male mage. Ending up in a female body who seems to enjoy playing the damsel-in-distress with their own male prince charming!
3. The word "transcendent" will keep coming up in almost all the chapters & that the mc is also one. But again, she plays damsel-in-distress adored by all men she meets.
4. Her relationship with the prince: "Lust in diguise" They share no deep connection with each other except his admiration for her beauty & her sociopathy. Her admiration of his transcendence is the other side. That's it!
5. The female mc is supposedly a great archmage but can't for her life cast a single spell to track her aunt, kill the villians without creating that whole unnecessary arc of the "aunt Celine rescue"!
6. The female mc's obsession with being a "normal girl". This is something the author doesn't deal with. What is a normal girl? Why the obsession? And quite frankly, im 100% sure that the author will not address it. Why? Because this manga is probably printed in SE Asia & most likely her publishers & majority of her readers there will have to deal with transphobia if she does.
Most likely, readers will be given an explanation alongside her sociopathy to tone down the trans-theme. This is my prediction!