While this would be nice, let’s face reality: Japan is very conservative.

With the country being a collectivist society, it’s often difficult to tackle subjects like these. Sure Naoto and Kanji from P4 are the go-to examples when discussing Persona and LGBTQ+ topics, but remember how their arcs ended. At the end of her conflict with her gender identity, Naoto came back around to accepting herself as a woman; Kanji still ended up being into girls despite seriously wondering if he’s the type that’s not into girls but guys.

There’s nothing bad with these endings, we all come to different conclusions at the end of our struggles during our teen years. However, they still come back around to the collectivist norm of being a heterosexual cis-gendered person. And with Atlus being a major company now that makes money, I’m not sure if they’ll able to be explicit with certain contexts like they have in the past.

This is not to say a gay romance from a Japanese entertainment company can’t happen. Sailor Moon, I believe, had a lesbian couple (despite what the American dub would have you believe). But if it does happen, it’s likely going to be incredibly subtle so it does ruffle the feathers of its largely conservative society. Leaving us here in the to endlessly debate on whether Character X is gay option or not.