Note #1: The information in this post should be obvious to readers of the Tower of God webtoon, but this article is meant for anime-only fans who have less context.
Note #2: This article contains spoilers for Tower of God season 2 episode 4
Greetings. I only have a short anime rant today. Although the point is brief, I still think it warrants an explanation post. Tower of God: Return of the Prince (AKA Tower of God Season 2) began airing a few weeks ago in July 2024. So far, it’s not astounding by any measure, but it’s fairly entertaining. A certain supporting character caught my attention in this new season: a youngster by the name of Nia Nya. There was some confusion about this kid’s gender. That’s what we’re covering today.
Despite his gentle voice and slightly feminine appearance, Nia is almost certainly a boy. He uses the word “boku” to refer to himself. This pronoun can be used by tomboys, but is mainly and traditionally used by males. The fandom wiki also identifies Nia as a boy. I have not read the webtoon source material for Tower of God, but those who have done so made it clear in discussion posts that Nia is a male child. So why did many anime-only fans mistake Nia for a girl? I wasn’t sure myself. Is it just his cute, pale appearance?
It turns out there’s a little more explanation than that. The confusion about Nia’s sex/gender came from the fact that Ja Wangnan – a central character in season 2 – mistakenly believed Nia to be a girl. From the time they met, Wangnan had the wrong impression. Now, in the webtoon, there is a scene where Wangnan and Nia go to take a bath. This is when Wangnan discovers the truth. However, the anime graciously opted out of any scenes with a child character in the nude. I’m glad about that, but it also means we don’t know if Wangnan in the anime ever learned of his mistake.
Does that matter? At the end of the day, I don’t think so. Whether Wangnan knew Nia’s gender or not, he would have still tried to protect the child. He’s a good person like that. Besides, the two of them had genuinely bonded. Remember: the point of Nia is to be a cute and pitiable character. You’re meant to think his death is extremely tragic. You’re meant to be angry at the injustice of a child being beaten to death. As that’s the only purpose this character serves, the gender doesn’t matter.
I looked into this matter because I was curious whether Nia was some flavor of genderqueer. While that’s not completely out of the question, it doesn’t seem likely based on all the cues from this series and its characters. I’m slightly disappointed, but again, it doesn’t matter. I liked Nia and I’m sad that he died – that’s all that matters in the end. Yet still, in case anyone wanted clarification about the character, I figured this post could serve as a useful explanation.
~Thank you for reading~
Anime Rants 