It was never meant to be interpreted as him being gay or bi, it was just meant to be a comical misinterpretation that led him to get more insecure about it. It was like, here's a man finding a woman attractive, yet because the woman is pretending to be a man, he's getting worried - it's an old joke, I remember it also being in Blackadder, amongst other things.
Him finding Naoto attractive is still straight, just like if Yousuke found Kanji in drag attractive it would still be gay, even though Kanji was dressed like a woman. It's kind of ironic that the whole point of Kanji's arc was "just because you like sewing and cute things, it doesn't mean you're gay" and yet some fans took it as "he's gay".
Teclo said: It was never meant to be interpreted as him being gay or bi, it was just meant to be a comical misinterpretation that led him to get more insecure about it. It was like, here's a man finding a woman attractive, yet because the woman is pretending to be a man, he's getting worried - it's an old joke, I remember it also being in Blackadder, amongst other things.
Him finding Naoto attractive is still straight, just like if Yousuke found Kanji in drag attractive it would still be gay, even though Kanji was dressed like a woman. It's kind of ironic that the whole point of Kanji's arc was "just because you like sewing and cute things, it doesn't mean you're gay" and yet some fans took it as "he's gay".
These guys (formerly on The Escapist) really know their facts and present it in a very frank and respectful way. You should check them out, they cover a lot of heady topics in video games.
That episode was pretty good, though I'm not sure about their "He's really gay, but Atlus America tried to make it vague" thing. But other than that nit-pick, yeah.
Of course, even if including that in a game is a sort of minor social step forward for Japan, most of the Japanese responses to him I see tend to be of the "lol he's gay" sort.
Of course, most of these responses I read about are from the bowels of the Internet and, regardless of your nationality, we all know the great, forward-thinking, and tolerant people you find in such places.
