#non-binary melk is also a vibe

[bonesdontmelt]

The conclusion of the Melk arc is so good in the manga though, just because of the words Komatsu uses.

In the anime he says "Melk should feel comfortable being a woman" or something and I'm like sure yeah but not what I wanna hear

In the manga he says "Melk can be a woman if she wants" and the wording of that is just so powerful to me?

Like he's acknowledging that she was assigned female at birth but that's not why she's a woman. He's saying he sees that the reason she was presenting herself as a man was because she felt societally pressured into being a man, not because she wanted to be one. He's not doing Ye Olde Sexism (a horribly common trope) of realizing a woman has been pretending to be a guy or even just dressing in non-feminine ways and being like FREE YOURSELF FROM YOUR SHACKLES even if they're clearly more comfortable that way. Nor is he treating being masc-presenting as any sort of problem, he doesn't want her to change, he just wants her to be comfortable and if this is comfortable then that's cool.

And in fact after that Melk doesn't change at all. She tells people she's a woman, if it comes up, but she continues to bind and dress masculine and doesn't feel pressured to pass either way. Melk is a woman because she wants to be, and neither her presentation or her assigned sex actually have anything to do with it.