You see it, right? The image above is promotional material provided by Kadokawa, the publishers of the Made In Abyss manga, for a film concert series to be held at Nakano ZERO in Tokyo on February 8, 2026.
See what’s special about it? If you’ve been following Made In Abyss, particularly the development of the character Nanachi, you probably do. Putting Nanachi in a dress officially reveals Nanachi as female.
Since Nanachi was revealed, the author Akihito Tsukushi deliberately made her gender ambiguous. Even the Japanese pronoun that she used, oira, doesn’t strictly determine the gender of the user. Even foreign language translations went with gender non-specific pronouns when Nanachi was referred to by other characters, which goes to show how far the author, publishers, and localizers went to ensure that Nanachi’s gender remained a secret.
The only exception was the French translation, due to the rules involving gender being strict. For example, when asking for the time in French, one asks “Quelle huerre et il?” Which means, “What time is he?” In the French translation, Nanachi is female, because for her to have been non-gender-specific would have been unacceptable. The French take their language seriously.
Because Nanachi’s gender was unknown, fans have asked Tsukushi about Nanachi’s gender. His answer left it undecided, and invited fans to use their imagination. Meaning, Nanachi’s gender could be whatever the reader decided.
As for me, for a long while, I’ve suspected that Nanachi is male. This seemed evident to me in Nanachi’s psychology, in that he seemed more inclined towards problem solving (which tends to be a masculine psychological trait) and less towards relationship building (which tends to be feminine), and because Nanachi seemed less hesitant to push boundaries, particularly with Reg, whom Nanachi initially regarded as a pushover. There’s also the more boy-like appearance of Nanachi in human form, as compared to the obviously feminine appearance of Mitty as a human.
However, it seems at this point that we could say with certainty that Nanachi is female. If doubt were to be thrown onto this, it would be by saying that the image in question was produced and distributed without consulting Akihito Tsukushi, and may have used Nanachi’s character in a manner that goes against his wishes. But even if this is the case, it’s still likely that Kadokawa, the distributor of the image, has some insight into the character which was provided by the author, but was to be kept confidential. And if that’s how it was, the cat’s out of the bag. Or the bunny, in this case.
However, it seems more likely that Tsukushi did authorize this use of the character Nanachi, especially considering that he didn’t seem to object to it in the days since.
In fact, here he is on X, calling the concert’s content “awesome”:
So, it would seem he doesn’t object at all, though he took note of it. Though, he was the same guy who put another character in a girl’s outfit, and let readers come to their own conclusions. So, maybe this isn’t a strong indication of Nanachi’s gender, after all?
So, short of the author expressly saying it, it would seem like Nanachi is female. Does this change the way you view the character? Or does it confirm what you’ve suspected?
Magnetricity 