>>1010
I owe you a response since I share some of your feelings, and I wish I were in the position to help people like yourself. If I could I would give all people the chance to live in the Tokyo area doing nothing but reading manga, exploring, experiencing culture, and thinking about life for a year. If I am too old and it is too late for me to obtain lasting bliss, then I wish instead for others like me to have the opportunities to have the freedom which I long for. And if escapism is the only way that some people will be free from time to time, then I'll do what I can to make or distribute tg fantasies.

But I hate my country more than I hate my body. Though I won't get the pleasures of being a girl, when I was in Japan I discovered that I liked the outdoors, and being a tall gaijin guy meant that the scarier Japanese would leave me alone and not ask many questions when I walked around by myself at night all by myself. I wouldn't mind dying a neckbeard if I could just live in Japan for the rest of my life, exploring the outdoors and seeing everything I can with the sense of security only men can appreciate.

Your Name is touches many people because it is so easy to relate to on different levels for many different people. For me, I had to blink back the tears in the theatre, not so much because of the tg themes or the romance, but because it was a visceral reminder of how much I love Japan and miss the scenery there.

I have been desperate to get away from my country my whole life, and when I graduated from my university, I went backpacking and soul searching in Japan for a long while, and I saw several photogenic villages that looked a lot like Itomori. When I came home from the theater images flashed in my memory of what I had seen in real life and I ended up crying because I can't experience more of that right now.

I camped behind shrines in small towns, I camped on hills overlooking Enoshima; I hitchhiked through far away from the tourist areas; while in the metropolitan areas I slept in Akihabara, and at train stations in Tokyo because I wanted to see more of the world as it really is. I stood in a blizzard of sakura petals, and in a sea of umbrellas with puddles reflecting the neon lights like in a scene from Blade Runner. I saw islands like in Barakamon, I saw lots of the coastline while cycling over and through mountains, I took trains everywhere I could too. I took mental snapshots of quaint, old, and mysterious objects everywhere, and of all the faces and fashions that were alien to my homeland. I paid special attention to the well-dressed and dolled-up cute girls and their schoolgirl uniforms, and to the cute maids who called me Oniisama, and to the cute kids with smiles that can melt your heart as you share their happiness at a glance. Most people that I met were very friendly and helpful to me, especially in the small towns, and I was never bored when I was in Japan. If I got bored I would pull out a Japanese dictionary and try to learn some kanji from what was around me.

I blinked back tears when I saw the Tokyo time-lapse scene, because I felt so stuck in my backward locale. There are few engaging intellectual conversations to be had here. People here want to make more money and own more things. They have no noble purpose, they just want more money so they can buy more things for themselves and their family. The rest of the world can rot and they won't lift a finger to help even if it wouldn't cost them anything. They also are not trying to solve any enigmas, or reading many good books, for they care not for broadening their minds. They don't appreciate life much because they seek not to experience more art or beautiful scenery, with an acute awareness of the passage of time. At 15 minutes in when Mitsuha screamed that she hates her hometown and wants out, that could have been my voice.