i wrote up a whole thing and then the site refreshed… anyway i’ll try again even though it might be a bit more condensed

my thoughts largely center on how their parents treat them and subsequently how they grew up + their relationship with each other… ena is very prominently a doted-on firstborn daughter and impacted shinei’s life enough to make him question his existence as a father vs a painter. dedicated a painting to her. cared in his fucked up deadbeat dad way by trying to dissuade her from her dreams because he knew exactly how difficult it was and thought she wouldn’t be able to handle it.* shinonome mom looks after her too, recording clips of airi on tv to show ena in middle school as a way to cheer her up… the shinonome parents are far more heavily involved in her life and her story revolves around them much more in turn.

*akito ends up emulating this behavior with kohane in main story.

aaaaand then akito is there. it’s quite obvious he’s not nearly as connected to his family in fact id be surprised if they knew anything about what he’s currently up to and that probably is partially because of his position as a son. like ena would not be allowed to wander around vivid street at the ripe age of 12 (assuming there is this prevailing image of the street being dangerous—see kohane in nocturne, touya in general) he is essentially left to his own devices but has to step in between shinei and ena. in middle school he had to grow into this brotherly role very quickly, to the point that it seems like he’s the older brother (natsu mizuki ss1, iirc) if not simply the more responsible one, though there was a point in time that he nearly gave up on her—airi is the one who imparts that sense of responsibility onto him and sends him down this path. ALSO leads to his complex relationship with father figures (he hardly addresses his father like a proper son, and is much more attached to ken-san) and he’s extremely conscious of his masculinity/appearing strong.

it’s like. complex gender norms things from how they were raised and interact with each other… where more than anything i can’t really see their narratives staying intact if you flipped their genders because of how tied their characters are to it. and particularly with mizuki i don’t really think trans hcs for ena work either (though i’m not against them! but it wouldn’t really make sense with mizuki’s arc)

just kind of me yapping but hope this helps… lots of interesting gender things in the shinonome household. tenmas are like this too