Something has awakened.

The power of yuri compels you! The power of yuri compels you!

From post #3031317:

macrawr said:

Is it gay for a boy who has turned into a girl to love a reverse trap?

Is it bad that I'm now starting to wonder if that question should've been posed the other-way around?

asilentharmony said:

Is it bad that I'm now starting to wonder if that question should've been posed the other-way around?

Nope. I was thinking of asking the exact same thing myself.

asilentharmony said:

From post #3031317:

Is it bad that I'm now starting to wonder if that question should've been posed the other-way around?

In Momiji's case, it's definitely gay, since she is gender-coherent as a girl and has every reason to believe that Mahiro is entirely girl.

The real question is, is this pedophilia (or hebephilia, or whatever) or not?
Chronologically, Mahiro is older enough than Momiji that it would normally be creepy.
Physically, they're the same age.
Mentally, that's where the confusion comes in, because this comic feels like it's been trying to make you question if Mahiro's mental age matches their chronological age, their physical age, or if it's somewhere in-between (which is one of the things I really like about this comic).
Ultimately, the mental age is the real deciding factor in whether or not a hypothetical relationship between them would be inappropriate, since that's what makes pedophilia wrong (chronological age is only relevant because it affects physical and mental age, and while physical age makes pedophilia weird, I don't see any ethical problems with being attracted to that body type, just with actually preying on minors and doing things that encourage predatory behavior in other adults).
I definitely ship it, but only because I interpret Mahiro as gradually regressing in mental age (as time goes on, they definitely start to behave more and more like a middle school girl and less and less like an adult man).

AntagonistChan said:

A bunch of important stuff

Was it ever stated how old Mahiro was before he turned into a girl? I mean we get to see a little of him in post #2834640 and it seemed like he has finished school but that's not saying much.

AntagonistChan said:
Age stuff

I honestly take it that sense Mahiro was a Hikikimori, he was mentally not an adult anyway. All he did was play games and read manga. Even if they were lewed. I'd honestly peg him at a mental age of Pre-teen who just discovered his first playboy since he still doesn't like the idea of trying to get a job.

About that, didn't the chapter where Mahiro temporarily lost his/her memories answer that one? Remove the memories, and she acts like a girl her age or even younger. I think it's been established that The Mind Is The Plaything Of The Body is in full effect.

Unbreakable said:

Was it ever stated how old Mahiro was before he turned into a girl? I mean we get to see a little of him in post #2834640 and it seemed like he has finished school but that's not saying much.

Certainly old enough that Mihari was creeped out when she first noticed a spark between them.

Garrus said:

About that, didn't the chapter where Mahiro temporarily lost his/her memories answer that one? Remove the memories, and she acts like a girl her age or even younger. I think it's been established that The Mind Is The Plaything Of The Body is in full effect.

That's true, but memories are still a part of someone's personality. Nature vs nurture and all that.

AntagonistChan said:

Certainly old enough that Mihari was creeped out when she first noticed a spark between them.

Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot about that one.

AntagonistChan said:

That's true, but memories are still a part of someone's personality. Nature vs nurture and all that.

True enough, but the memories are "software" that's running on different "hardware", so to speak. The more time passes and new "software" is written on the new "hardware", the greater the impact it is having on his/her behavior and actions. I think I said something to this effect before, but Mahiro seems to be aging mentally in reverse as he "grows into" the new body in order to match it. That his sister would traditionally be expected to be the older sibling since she is by far more accomplished and competent than he is almost certainly doesn't help.

Interesting discussion going on; wish I knew more psychology to dig into it as well. Best I can do is look back at moments that point one way or another. For instance, we have explicit confirmation that Mahiro's trauma regarding porn is still very much in effect. In fact, for me the author took it a step further by confirming that it's all porn and not just slave-related, rape, or other extreme genres like I originally thought. Even if that trauma turns out to be the only lingering result of that episode, we've still had Mahiro slowly adopting habits like fixing their own hair or making cute noises when being hugged; that latter of which might also an after-effect of the amnesia episode but we have no explicit confirmation on that. All of these habits are confirmed to be something picked up post-transformation for one reason or another.

This proves that Mahiro's personality (and possibly their mental age as well?) have definitely shown signs of shifting towards that of a young girl and not a grown adult man. The question is how much has it shifted, how fast is it shifting, and what triggers these changes- big events like the amnesia chapter or is it something gradual in the background?

Honestly there are many reasons why I enjoy this series so much, and Mahiro's personality is one of the biggest ones. At times they act like the usual "boy in a girls body" main character, but other times almost fits more as an example of the 3rd Law of Gender Bending (such as the aforementioned "Mind is a Plaything" trope). The constant subversion of tropes back and forth is a refreshing breath of air for this genre.