Eriko also becomes a mother to Mikage, which underscores Yoshimoto’s view that family is not bound up with biology. Suffering, therefore, is both insightful and necessary and it cannot be eradicated but must be embraced. For example, Eriko urges Mikage to see that a person cannot really understand joy without experiencing suffering. Yoshimoto also voices the guiding philosophies of the plot through Eriko. Yoshimoto leverages Eriko’s character to emphasize that transgender womanhood is just as valid as cisgender womanhood, in particular through descriptions of Eriko’s feminine beauty and through Eriko’s own assertions about identifying as a woman. Eriko is an empowered transgender woman who runs a nightclub, raises her son Yuichi, and takes on a motherly role with Mikage after Mikage’s grandmother dies.
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