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I don’t remember where I read this statement, but someone on the internet said
that if an anime or web-novel character refers to themself `ボク` in katakana
they are probably a boyish girl. I should say that I'm steel at the beginning
of my journey in Japanese language and surely missing a lot of nuances.

So I recently started reading my first web-novel (悪役令嬢の兄に転生しました) and I’m
really confused with gender of one character named Tirunoa. They are a magic
teacher that refers to themself `ボク` and almost every sentence end with `ね～`.
And because of `ね～` it seems more like childish than boyish.

> 「ボクとカイン様の仲だもの。さて、今日から君も魔法やるんだよね。張り切ってやってこーね！」

>
> 「イル君！イル君！イル君は初期の初期からね！ボクねぇ～、このねぇ～、魔法出来ない子が出来るようになる瞬間！ってのを見るのが大好きでねぇ～。魔法の家庭教師もっとやりたいんだけどねぇ～。面接で落ちちゃうんだよねぇ～。また新しい子教えられるの嬉しいなぁ～。カイン様は優秀過ぎてもうつまんないんだよねぇ～。カイン様もねぇ、最初に魔法使えた瞬間はねぇ、飛び跳ねて喜んで可愛かったんだけどねぇ。もう、勝手に本読んで勝手に使えるようになっちゃうしねぇ。つまんないねぇ。さっ！じゃあまずは自分の魔力を感じるところから始めよっか！手ぇ握ろっ！ね！」

Later it is said that they grabbed their 12 years old disciple, lifted him up
and spun around.

>
> 部屋に入れてもらい、紳士の礼を取ろうとしたカインにティルノーアは飛びついて頭をなでくりまわしてきた。その後、腰を掴まれて持ち上げられるとぐるぐると回転させた後にソファに落っことされた。

I doubt that as a woman they can lift 12 years old boy. At the same time, it
would be no surprise if they actually can just because it’s a Japanese web-
novel. Can someone tell me what I'm missing to understand their gender? What
should I pay attention to?

UPD. I found manga and exactly chapter with this teacher but somehow it
confused me even more than web-novel. [![Teacher
Tirunoa](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xgjSn.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xgjSn.jpg)
CC BY-SA 4.0
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2022-11-30T02:34:01.533
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question
katakana sentence-final-particles pronouns
A bit confused with ボク and too many ね～
I know nothing about this novel, but judging from this quote alone, I got the
impression that this person is more likely to be a chatty man who speaks in an
eccentric (childish, frivolous but friendly) manner. But it's not odd at all
if this person is a chatty woman. ボク written in katakana might serve as a weak
hint that the use of this personal pronoun is not very traditional, but it
doesn't immediately mean the user is a boyish girl. Very few teachers speak
like this, and that alone can be an enough reason to katakanize 僕.

**EDIT:** The author of this novel [found _**this**_
question](https://twitter.com/Uchikawa_hiroko/status/1597600967721357314)!
According to the author, ティルノーア is officially male, but looks like there are
his fans who did not know his gender :)

[![Twitter
screenshot](https://i.stack.imgur.com/96XoD.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/96XoD.jpg)
CC BY-SA 4.0
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answer