Attack on Titan: What Is Hange’s Gender? Is Zoë a Boy or a Girl?
Regarding supporting characters, Attack on Titan‘s Hange Zoë is one of the more interesting ones. Although Hange was a civilian and had no special powers like Eren or some other major characters, the story we’ve seen related to the character is absolutely amazing, which is why its ending was so heartbreaking for us. In this article, we are going to Hange’s story in Attack on Titan and try to answer one of the most important questions related to the character: What is Hange Zoë’s gender?
What is Hange Zoë’s gender?
Hange Zoë is an elite member of the army. They have conducted research and experiments on Titans, creatures for which they felt a real obsession. Therefore, they became very interested in Eren Yeager due to his power as a Titan Shifter. Hange proves to be an energetic and emotional person. They are fascinated with the Titans and do not hide their excitement at meeting these impending creatures.
When fighting with them, they act strangely and erratically: they assure the Titans that they will kill them painlessly and that they have nothing to fear. As a contradiction, Hange actually hates them. The main reason for this was that they forced humanity to live in confinement.
But they tried to see the creatures from another perspective. They wanted to know and understand them. When Annie Leonhart kills the Titans she was experimenting on, they are very upset at losing them and hate inflicting pain on them during the experiments. However, when the situation called for appropriate behavior, Hange was a serious and ruthless person who knew their abilities.
Later, Hange became a commander because of their intelligence. Hange appeared as a group member assigned to monitor Eren Yeager before the military trial. They are also present with the rest of the Survey Corps during the interrogation, where Levi brutally beats Eren in front of everyone. After the young man is accepted into the corps, Hange investigates Eren’s ability to become a Titan. Acquiring the hidden technology from the military police, the Survey Corps developed a weapon called the Thunder Spear, which is effective against the Armored Titan.
In the mission to recapture Wall Maria, Hange received injuries from the Colossal Titan’s explosion but helped defeat the battleship and became a commander after Erwin Smith’s death on the mission. Also, Hange lost their left eye in the battle and has been wearing an eyepatch ever since. Four years later, Hange heads to Marley with the Survey Corps to arrest Eren after attacking the country. Later, when Eren decides to implement the Rumbling plan, Hange understands that it is necessary to protect Paradis Island, although they feel anguish because of the desire to prevent the genocide of humans outside the walls.
Finally, they allow him to start his plan but later decide to stop him with the rest of the corps. After that, they sacrifice themselves to buy time so the squad can repair the seaplane and escape. After appointing Armin as the 15th Commander of the Survey Corps, they single-handedly fought a large number of Colossus Titans, burning to death after a gas tank exploded in the heat emanating from the Titans. They then wake up and are reunited with Erwin and the rest of the fallen soldiers.
We now know Hange’s story, from which you were able to infer just how important they are for the story. This is why the question of Hange’s gender has been such a hot topic, and because of the ambiguity of Hange’s gender, we have consistently used the pronoun ‘they’ to refer to Hange. But there is a reason for that, and let us briefly check the official Q&A from Kodansha’s Tumblr, which is related to the issue:
Anonymous asked: Hello, I wanted to ask you guys a question about Attack on Titan… Did you confirm the characters’ genders with Isayama? For example, did you confirm with him that Hange is a woman? Or was it assumed? And do you usually confirm this kind of stuff with the authors? (sorry if someone has already asked this)
Isayama has confirmed that… we’re not allowed to confirm Hange’s gender. He has instructed us to avoid gendered pronouns when referring to Hange, or at least to use he AND she with equal frequency. (Source)
Anonymous asked: You publish “Attack on Titan”, right? A friend told me there are two canon agender characters in it. I think Nanaba and Hanji their names. I was told the creator stated they are fully agender, that they don’t identify as male or female, like me. I’m kind of unsure about this information though. Agender is non-binary, which isn’t a Japanese thing (as I’ve been told by my Japanese friends). Are these two really 100% agender, where that creator person said they don’t identify as male or female?
I’ve said everything I intend to say on Hange (the short version: Hange’s gender is open to whatever interpretation you care to have), but editorial in Japan recently told us that Nanaba is female. Our upcoming reprint of Vol. 9 will remove a reference to her as “Mr. Nanaba.” (Krista must have just been mistaken. Embarrassing for her, but I think Nanaba handled it with grace.) (Source)
As you can see, Hange’s gender is unknown. Hajime Isayama has stated that he is more inclined to call her female but that Hange could also be a man, so he never specified it and forbade foreign publishers to disclose Hange’s gender openly. On the other hand, Hange is undoubtedly female in the anime and has been voiced by a female actress and played by a female actress in the live-action versions.