One thing many cartoonists enjoy doing is tossing unexpected twists into their comics. Sometimes these twists are spur-of-the-moment affairs that happen when cartoonists have a sudden spurt of inspiration. Sometimes they’re vindictive switch-and-baits meant to prove fans wrong when someone makes too accurate a speculation on where the story will go. And sometimes they’re planned out from the very beginning. Footloose just recently pulled off a twist that no one saw coming, and while in looking back I can see one or two small hints that verify the twist wasn’t made out of the blue, I do have to wonder at the lack of clues as to An’s little secret.

That being, An’s a girl. That’s right, the person that Keti, our main protagonist, has been crushing over for several chapters now, the person who has in many ways been the focus of a lot of attention from both protagonists and antagonists, has been playing a reversed Crying Game. As for why she’s been using magic to hide her gender… well, the teacher for the School of Indiscriminate Whacking with Oversized Weaponry is a testosterone-laden troglodyte who in all likelihood would have refused to teach a girl how to fight. There are a number of reasons as to why An would hide her gender. The only question is: did Alice Nuttell and Emily Brady do too good a job in hiding this little secret?

While it would have been nice to have a few more hints to work off of (outside of the fact An was remarkably neutral in expressing interest in Keti – even now I’m unsure as to if An is attracted to Keti or not, her gender notwithstanding), I can understand why we had no real hints. An was doing everything in her power to hide the fact she was a girl. Considering the comic focused on Keti as the protagonist, we had few chances to see what made An tick. For the reader to get tossed a bone over An’s gender would be poor writing, taking into account that An was doing everything in her power to keep this secret, even from those she considered close friends. And while it might have been nice to have a few more hints as to An’s secret, it’s how An’s friends react to this secret (especially Keti, who’d developed a rather impressive crush on An) that has me eagerly waiting the next few updates.