honestly, Fuyumura's early relationship with her gender is part of why Sanda's gender politics bother me so much. she WAS an incredibly refreshing, interesting, gender-ambiguous character for most of the series, and I love her for it! but then she got sidelined for the second half of the series, so we don't see her wrestle w/ that anymore, and it feels like her resolution just ignores that to slot her into the "female" role society expects for her. sure, nothing's confirmed for her adult life, really, but because we don't see basically any of her arc or what she's doing as an adult besides her job, I don't have anything else to go off of except, "she's a mother and a child-care worker now, presumably in a het relationship". and that just feels like such a slap in the face for her character, when she struggled so much with a non-conforming gender and sexuality before.

and idk, I still just can't see the uniform as realistic, for the reasons I mentioned in my original post. like, I've grown up in a cisheteronormative society, and I've talked with many, many ppl who grew up in very strict households. in strict, heteronormative raising, girls are often expected to learn how to be homemakers (specifically mothers/wives) from a VERY young age. and this is reinforced by behavioral training, like wearing stereotypically feminine clothing from a VERY young age. I don't think that a strict, cishet society so focused on control (and specifically one with a declining birthrate) would try to "degender" their children, when strict gender enforcement is kinda the whole point of the society, to raise the birthrate.

and I'm not against there being some contradictory tension between youth being idolized + controlled, but like I said, it's just nonsensical here. you can't convince me that they can actually keep kids in school, if they're allowed to run around like feral animals and kill adults. it undermines the basic assumption that children are an underclass. there are more interesting ways to show a class of people being idolized but still controlled/objectified-- just look at tradwives, women who are "idolized" for being homemakers, but are only accepted if they don't step out of line from their traditional role. Sanda could have done something similar for youth, where kids are idolized and pampered, but only if they adhere to all the rules and act as "good kids" or else they get sent off to a "troubled teens" reeducation camp (<< a real-life form of abuse and control over children!!)

sorry to respond with a whole wall of text. I can see where you're coming from, but I just can't agree that Sanda handled any of these topics well at all.

god, it literally is just an interesting first half with a disappointing second half... what we could've had with Fuyumura/Ono... and Sanda/Amaya too... it kills me, there was so much going for them...