Of the cast and crew only the writer Pudding Watanabe is gay. She played an important role in introducing the director and main characters to the situation of lesbians in Japan.
The director, Uchida, lived in Brazil as a child. The title "Topless" comes from his experience of often going to the beach with his mother, where she (and all the other women) took her top off. It is meant as an invitation to lesbians to breathe more freely, which is more or less also the attitude of the main character.