{"id":1713,"date":"2025-10-15T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:30:24","slug":"project-sekais-nuanced-portrayal-of-the-trans-experience-had-me-in-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/project-sekais-nuanced-portrayal-of-the-trans-experience-had-me-in-tears\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Sekai's nuanced portrayal of the trans experience had me in tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been playing Project Sekai since its initial global release four years ago, and I immediately grew attached to Akiyama Mizuki. Their fashion style is adorable, and they\u2019re part of Nightcord at 25:00 – my favorite music group from the game – but, as a non-binary person, Mizuki\u2019s concerns with identity and belonging have resonated with me from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

Although Kanade has referred to Mizuki using she\/her pronouns in the past, the majority of Project Sekai characters and official media refer to them using they\/them pronouns or just their name. In the game\u2019s four-year history, Sega and Colorful Palette have heavily implied that Mizuki is transfeminine, showing us younger versions of them wearing male school uniforms and shorter hair, along with the cruel things that their classmates say about the cute way they choose to dress. While being pretty easy to put together if you know what you\u2019re looking for, the most recent event, \u201cWhither This Path of Thorns\u201d, or Mizu5 as the fandom calls it, finally blew this beloved character\u2019s story wide open.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of reasons that I think this story is so important. The first is that any trans representation in videogames, especially those made in Japan, where trans acceptance and legal rights are significantly different from those in the UK and US, is vital for helping the wider world to accept our existence. The second is that Mizuki\u2019s story shows another side of the trans experience that people know less about. While a lot of trans media in the West tends to follow a coming-out story, Mizuki\u2019s central anxieties revolve around \u201cstealthing.\u201d Being \u201cstealth\u201d is a trans term for living as your true gender in a group of people without telling them that you are trans.<\/p>\n

Read the full story on Pocket Tactics: Project Sekai's nuanced portrayal of the trans experience had me in tears<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been playing Project Sekai since its initial global release four years ago, and I immediately grew attached to Akiyama Mizuki. Their fashion style is adorable, and they\u2019re part of Nightcord at 25:00 – my favorite music group from the game – but, as a non-binary person, Mizuki\u2019s concerns with identity and belonging have resonated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1714,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions\/1714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belindareedy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}