Yes, but according to the designer note in the bottom left corner, she was originally supposed to be a 'pretty-boy', but they made him too pretty, so they just changed him to a girl. Thank god they did.
If Naoto was supposed to be a "pretty-boy," how do you guys think the whole interaction with Kanji would've been like? Maybe Kanji got the wrong idea and was turned down when they rescued Naoto... But then, what about the other times when Kanji still looks romantically interested in Naoto?
I'll just think they didn't have any of that set in stone yet |D
hmm... the original design for naoto still looks like a guy to me. but again the little adjustment (im guessing in the facial structure) makes a large difference.
Originally they told me to draw a "short pretty-boy", so when I started out I drew one that looked like a girl. Thanks to that, when Naoto was changed to be a girl, I only had to adjust a little, and design-wise there weren't many problems.
