[SPOILER]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Google "fabiniku manga" and check the Reddit post about a massive spoiler in chapter 200.
So I can't open it without an account cuz it's "unreviewed content" but I'm assuming, from what I can read on the preview on Google and by the choice of words in them, that
.
.
.
(vertical elipses for spoiler sake)
.
.
.
Tachibana is a trans woman? Which is actually nicer than what I was expecting this to do considering all the loli vibes (I love being pleasantly surprised).
Still, I don't think Jinguuji were into Tachibana in her male body, and she wasn't into Jinguuji before going to that world.
I'm not questioning their current affection, it's just they don't sell as "soulmates in every reality" for me, like, they are not into every version of each other —
(which is fine I guess? As an aromantic person it makes more sense to me that someone would fall in love with the person no matter how else they looked, but I also love when a story goes like charcater X universe-hops, meets Y iteration of their lover but it's like "you're not them, you are not my Y).
— And that's fine cuz I don't think the story was trying to sell this idea either, but I've seen people saying this more than once and I was like "no, they aren't???"
A bit disappointed by the fake shounen-ai tag, still. She's a woman so this should not have the shounen-ai tag, no matter what her body looked like. I'm always bothered by mistags, and this is no exception, I feel deceived, but at least the story here is fun and I know I probably wouldn't have read without that tag and not knowing she's trans, (I genuinely thought this was going to go just the plain ecchi route and idk, they'd both be girls and reluctant accept the body change because they get to mess with each other as lolis, lol)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
In my opinion, it seems like Jinguuji loves all of Tachibana's traits but he's just not attracted to men, so when she became a woman in body, he slowly had a revelation. I personally knew many men whose personalities were my type but their appearance wasn't, so I couldn't imagine myself with them. Some people are just superficial, and that's ok as long as that's just the ••first•• thing they see in a person, and personality is what they fall in love with afterwards. See it as appearance being the key in the ignition, and personality (+ everything else) being the fuel.
SPOILER FOR THE 200TH CHAPTER:
Yes, Tachibana is a trans woman. She tells Jinguuji "You know, I think that I never really felt like a man", and when they transform back to normal, Jinguuji goes back to being himself, but Tachibana goes back to being a woman. She tells Jinguuji that she can't stand him being with other women and that she wants to be her best friend, and his girlfriend. It's honestly beautiful and made me want to re-read the manga from the beginning and, hell, maybe even buy it.
The shounen-ai tag was assigned way after the manga was posted here, maybe because someone thought they were going to go back to being men and begin a relationship.
Edit: finished reading and jinguuji having no interest in himbo Tachibana is sorta telling.
Og: Tbh, I don't read this as shounen-ai. I mean, jinguuchi does read as a repressed demiaroace, but Tachibana… I mean, yeah Ch. 64 gave us the whole admiration but that felt purely platonic (also 65 is missing. The whole "it's about time that shitty goddess gave me Tachibana back"). In my eyes, the feelings only came about after the gender swap, so… even though I think their feelings rn are real, not just the goddess curse, I don't think it would survival them going back to the real world as two 30 something y/o men…