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In the anime Hunter x Hunter, Alluka Zoldyck is considered as a girl by Killua, shown when they leave their estate and were accompanied by four butlers. Killua shouted to Gotoh and said that he needs a female butler to join them because Alluka is a girl.

However, I am confused because Milluki address Alluka as a brother, in the episode when he wished to Nanika to kill the tourist photographer. He clearly told the the tourist that he was just taking his brothers for a walk. In addition, the Hunter Wiki acknowledged Alluka as a male.

What is Alluka's actual gender?

Cattua
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maseru
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    Glad I stumbled upon this question because I was bound to ask about this myself. For additional reference, Killua exclusively refers to both Alluka and Nanika as 'she' (I mistakenly thought there was an instance in which Killua refers to Nanika in particular as 'he'.) Also, Alluka appears to identify Nanika as female, referring to her as 'she' (Crunchyroll, ep 146 around 18:50); thus, assuming Alluka and Nanika identify as the same gender, Alluka also self-identifies as female. –  Jan 16 '15 at 07:51

5 Answers5

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Actually, the Hunter x Hunter wiki addresses this, and is quite accurate in its assessment, though the references cite the wrong volumes (but correct chapters).

There is considerable confusion about Alluka's gender. Two of Alluka's brothers, Illumi and Milluki, refer to Alluka as their brother. But Killua, the closest brother of Alluka, specifically states that Alluka is a "girl" and refers to Alluka as his sister multiple times. This inconsistency can be explained by Killua's intimate and understanding bond with Alluka, hence he would know and care that Alluka is mentally female, versus Illumi's cold and dehumanizing attitude towards Alluka. While Alluka is most likely biologically male, Killua's interactions show that Alluka's psyche may be female.

Everyone (except Killua) addresses Alluka by her biological gender, which appears to be male. While she is quite small, she shows no female development.

However, she is very sensitive, gentle, and reserved, and has a very feminine side. Being that Killua is the only one who dares to actually interact with Alluka as a person, he would be the best one to understand that she probably is more feminine inside.

This does seem a bit odd to me; even if someone I knew were closer to "she" in his head, unless they specifically asked, I'd probably still say "he". But perhaps either Alluka did ask this of Killua, or Killua just took it upon himself because he knew Alluka so well.

Unfortunately, since it's never explicitly stated, this is somewhat assumption, but realistically it's the only explanation that makes sense since Killua is the only one to refer to Alluka as female.

Cattua
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  • Wow, i need to count but I'm starting to think that Hunter x Hunter has more genetically male characters who look female than female ones who look female. – kaine Oct 08 '14 at 13:56
  • You're correct at some point @kaine, not to mention how Illumi looks like. haha – maseru Oct 09 '14 at 00:42
  • Has it ever been stated in canon that Alluka is in fact anatomically male, or is it merely Killua's words against the rest of his family's words? Just because the others assume Alluka is biologically male doesn't mean that is true. If it has not been stated as fact in canon (i.e., more concretely than their assessment, which is in competition with Killua's assessment), then Alluka being biologically female (known by Killua, but unknown to everyone else who keep their distance from her) rather than it being about mental gender identity would be another possibility. – seijitsu Oct 16 '14 at 07:13
  • @seijitsu No, it is not explicitly stated. However I disagree for two reasons. One is that everyone except Killua seems to agree on the male thing (there's never any argument or discrepancy). And the other is that I'm pretty sure their mother would have known when she gave birth what the gender was. – Cattua Oct 16 '14 at 14:36
  • I was pretty sure that it was commented in one of the episodes that even though Alluka is considered a sibling of the others, that they don't know where Alluka/Nanika came from, so I took that to mean that Alluka was not necessarily birthed by their mother but perhaps suddenly, mysteriously showed up in the family. – seijitsu Oct 16 '14 at 14:50
  • @seijitsu I'm pretty sure they only said that she "isn't human, but something else," referring to the fact that her nen conceals Nanika. If you could find a source though, that'd be cool. – Cattua Oct 16 '14 at 14:56
  • This is insane ... it's obvious that the Zoldyck family just refer to their kids as sons...either because they don't want daughters, or its just a family thing. Killua, having left the family and his assassins way, just refers to them normally. – Ricky Mason Aug 31 '21 at 03:26
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Alluka is male. He just dresses like a girl.

From Alluka article on Hunter x Hunter Wiki (emphasis mine):

There is conflicting information regarding Alluka's gender.

The official data book lists Alluka's gender as male, and two of Alluka's brothers, Illumi and Milluki, refer to Alluka as their brother.

However, Killua, the person closest to Alluka, specifically states that Alluka is a girl and refers to Alluka as his sister multiple times. While Alluka may have been designated male at birth, Killua's interactions show that Alluka may identify as female.

This inconsistency may be due to Killua's intimate and understanding bond with Alluka, hence he would know and care that Alluka identifies as female, versus Illumi and Milluki's cold and dehumanizing attitude toward Alluka.

In the episode showing Alluka in his childhood, we can see that he used to dress like a boy. He ended up looking like a girl, because he played with doll too much that his parent decided to dress him up like a girl.

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Irfan Syah
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I've always played with two theories:

  1. It could be the case that the family refer to Alluka as male to distance themselves from her, denying the fact that she's female to dehumanize her, or to further disassociate her from the family in some way.

  2. Or it could very well be that, as Alluka's exact origin is unknown, she isn't strictly human and doesn't possess what we would call a conventional gender, but rather, her gender is simply non-existent, like a Nen beast.

Personally, I favor the latter, or a mix of the two. These are all just speculation, of course, but it's interesting to think about nonetheless.

nhahtdh
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Tim
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He is physically a male, and mentally female. It is the reason why Killua referred to him as "she". This is stated in the databooks and also by the canon writers. So in other words, Alluka is transgendered. Though, I believe people have the right to think of him as whatever they like, male or female.

nhahtdh
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Kaori
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Here is my assumption: When Alluka was born, her mother didn't take care of her, she let the butlers to take care of her (like bathing her, etc), and because their mother always thought that all her children must be male, so she thinks that Alluka is male too, especially because she is cold to her and never bathe her, so she doesn't know that Alluka is actually female, and the butlers are too afraid to tell their mother that Alluka is female. While Killua is the one who really cares for her, and knows her the most.

So even thought in the birth-biodata and everywhere, Alluka is stated as a male, but Killua knows the truth, and so the butlers who ever took Alluka to bath also have known that.

It's just my hypothesis after watching the anime. I think if this hypothesis is true, this story will be a very nice scene, because then it will be stated that "Even the writer of the story doesn't know about Alluka's gender, but her brother knows it because of how he always set an eye on her."

Aki Tanaka
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Laura T
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