A list of characters that who appear in the film Ne Zha.

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Main Characters

Ne Zha

Voice by (Mandarin): Lü Yanting, Joseph (adolescent)
Voiced by (English): Jordan Cole, Griffin Puatu (adolescent)

The son of Li Jing and Lady Jin who not only has great demonic powers, but is also fated to die on his third birthday.

Adaptational Jerkass: He's is depicted as much more of a misfit than in the myth, as the film studies the possible difficulties raising a superhuman child could present.
Adaptation Origin Connection: In this story, Ne Zha and Ao Bing were technically Split at Birth, as they both have their powers originating from splitting the Chaos Pearl. In the original myth, they had no particular connection.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original myth, Ne Zha and Ao Bing were mortal foes that fought each other without remorse. In this adaptation, they start off as friends until they discover their destiny of fighting each other and only become temporary enemies. In the end, their spirits come at peace where they are friends once again.
Adaptational Ugliness: Ne Zha is usually depicted as a pretty youth who can get easily mistaken for a girl. In the movie's adaptation, his child form looks are pretty downgraded to give him more of an immature and demonic appearance.
Affectionate Nickname: His parents refer to him as "Zha".
Anti-Anti-Christ: Due to his love for his parents, their love for him, and his friendship with Ao Bing, he eventually rejects his demonic nature and refuses to be the destroyer he was fated to be.
Ambiguous Gender: Some people mistake Ne Zha for a girl because of the way he wears his hair, but he is a boy.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Ne Zha despite clashing with Ao Bing and beating him in their fight decides to spare him, calling him his only friend. He also is fond of a little girl who he saves as she's not scared of him since she saw him fight off the demon.
Berserk Button: Calling him a demon is a surefire way for him to lose his temper and beat you up.
Character Tic: He often has his hands pushed into his pants.
Character Title: The movie is named after him.
Combat Pragmatist: Given he's an unruly child, he's not above playing dirty, wether that's using a disguise spell to trick his opponents, using a petrified Ao Bing as a weapon, head-butting his opponents and even gets in a few butt stabs.
Create Your Own Villain: The constant fear, scorn and hatred he receives from the villagers are the primary motivations driving him into lashing out against and attacking them, turning him into the same destructive hellion they thought he was.
Curb-Stomp Battle: He can easily beat up a pack of people without breaking a sweat, it's only until he meets Ao Bing does he finally meet someone who can go toe-to-toe with him.
Destructive Savior: Deconstructed. During his training in Taiyi's painting, he routinely flunks his demon-fighting tests as he winds up grievously injuring the people he tries to rescue and destroying the town he tries to save. Ne Zha tries to wave off his failures by virtue of the fact that all the damage he caused were to illusions, but his first attempt at demon-slaying in the real world results in a lot of collateral damage.
Elemental Personalities: His magic mostly manifests in the form of fire and flames, and he himself is aggressive, short-tempered, and impulsive.
Empty Eyes: He gets this as a teen when he loses full control of his powers.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite his overall rude attitude towards others, Ne Zha does love his mother and feels bad when he accidentally hurts her.
Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Even for a kid he has a lot of eyeshadow to show he's not the most morally good protagonist.
Facial Markings: He has a red marking on his forehead to show he inherited the demon pearl.
Foil: He's one to Ao Bing. In terms of height, color, temperament and the power, he couldn't be a bigger contrast to Ao Bing who is the exact opposite to him. Yet while Ao Bing seems resigned to his fate as well as Ne Zha's, the child refuses to have his own story already be plotted out and instead choses to chart his own path and chose how he wants others to see him.
Friendless Background: Given his demon powers and temper, nobody in the town dares approach him, and those who do go out of their way to insult and bully him however they can.
Heroic Sacrifice: To protect the village and repay his parents, Ne Zha willingly sacrifices his life to do so, and with the help of Ao Bing the two of them barely manage to stop the Heavenly Lightning strike.
Jerkass Has a Point: He's been scorned and hated as a demon every since he was a baby, so why should he feel grateful for helping out the villagers of his town when they'll just blame him for everything or refuse to see a better side to him?
I Just Want to Have Friends: Despite his jerkass attitude, beneath it all Ne Zha is just a child who has been treated terribly by others simply because of his demonic strength and temper that he's been ostracized and bullied since the day he was born. This not only hardened him to a harsh reality, but also left him despondent on having any hope that people will ever see him differently than a child who brings forth destruction. Lady Yin rightfully points out that Ne Zha doesn't truly hate the people of his town, but just the fact that they don't ever try to see him as another person. Ao Bing and the little girl he saves shows that he just craves the love and affection from others aside from his parents to see him as he is. But since he's only seen as a demon, he might as well show the others what kind of a demon he can be.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may take glee in the chaos he causes and how much he terrifies people, but he does what he can to protect others so they can see he's not as bad as they make him out to be.
Lonely Rich Kid: He has loving parents, but spends most of his time cooped up in the family estate (and eventually, Taiyi's painting) due to them being constantly called away by their duties, his not being allowed to leave the palace, and the villagers avoiding him when he sneaks out.
Made of Evil: Ne Zha is essentially a collection of demonic magic incarnated as a human being. His real personality is more mischievous than sincerely evil, though.
Magical Barefooter: Ne Zha is shoeless for the entire movie, maybe due to him being a demon with near godlike powers there is no need for any
Magical Floating Shawl: In his fully unleashed demon-god form, Ne Zha gains a red sash-like raiment that floats around his shoulders, emphasizing his divine nature.
Mercury's Wings: Nezha's Fire-Wheels which grants him the powers of flight as he stood on them gives off this effect.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: During the climax of the film, he gains two extra pairs of arms, making him resemble an asura.
No Body Left Behind: After he and Ao Bing stop the heavenly lightning, their bodies have disintegrated, but their spirits remain.
Older Alter Ego: When his full power is unleashed, he goes from looking like a child to looking like a young adult.
Parting-Words Regret: He tells his father before he accepts his destiny to the Heavenly Lightning that the only regret he has was that they never got to play shuttle-lock together.
Playing with Fire: He can conjure and control fire, and all of his weapons are fire-based.
Power Floats: When he's in his adolescent form, he floats a few inches off the ground when at rest.
Power Limiter: The gold ring that hangs around his neck is to keep his demon powers in check. Once it comes off, he turns into a thin teen who attacks everything with a berserk like rage.
The Prankster: He enjoys pulling pranks on others, and even does this to his opponents.
Restraining Bolt: Subverted. The collar Taiyi manages to get around Ne Zha's neck can barely hold back his power, and he's still strong enough to shatter the face of a mountain with a kick. Just before the climax, Shen tells him the magic words to remove it, which Ne Zha initially revels in, but ultimately alters so that his Superpowered Evil Side is kept in check while allowing him access to his full suite of powers.
Screw Destiny: Ne Zha's entire character arc for the movie where he choses to not be the demon everyone says he was born to become and instead someone who protects others and makes his own path.
Shapeshifting: He learns this spell from Taiyi and is able to shift his own form as well as the forms of other things.
Stronger Than They Look: He has the body of a child but can easily lift a house up with his bare hands.
Troll: He takes glee in terrorizing the town folk and others around him. Although there are hints that it only brings him momentary joy as what he truly craves is a genuine connection to others and not be seen as a monster.
Unstoppable Rage: In his adolescent form.
Warrior Poet: When bored or feeling particularly lonely, he whittles the hours away by composing rather depressing poetry.
Would Hit a Girl: He's not above hitting girls, as he even punched a woman who hit him with a paddle. To be fair, even the kids were the ones who would start the fights and were usually the one who outright bullied Ne Zha and even planned on causing him serious harm. The one child he doesn't outright hurt is the little girl because she was being kidnapped and was the only one who wasn't afraid of Ne Zha after he saved her.
Your Days Are Numbered: He's fated to die three years after his birth.
Younger Than They Look: Despite looking like a child, Ne Zha acts and seems way older than that.

Ao Bing

Voiced by (Mandarin): Han Mo
Voiced by (English): Aleks Le

The Dragon King's third son who is sent out to be taught by Shen in hopes that the other dragons would finally be able to ascend.

Adaptational Heroism: In the original myth, he was simply an arrogant dragon prince who fought Ne Zha and was slain by him. Here, he's also given a more heroic role where he opposes his father's ways and befriends Ne Zha.
Adaptation Origin Connection: In this story, Ne Zha and Ao Bing were technically Split at Birth, as they both have their powers originating from splitting the Chaos Pearl. In the original myth, they had no particular connection.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the original myth, Ne Zha and Ao Bing were mortal foes that fought each other without remorse. In this adaptation, they start off as friends until they discover their destiny of fighting each other and only become temporary enemies. In the end, their spirits come at peace where they are friends once again.
Create Your Own Villain: He sincerely wanted to be a hero and help people, but the immediate hatred he receives from the villagers after they learn that he's a dragon is ultimately what drives him to attack them.
Curb-Stomp Battle: He can easily beat up other demons and easily incapacitate Ne Zha's parents who are incredibly fighters in their own right. It's only until he meets Ne Zha does he find someone who is his match in terms of power.
Dual Wielding: His primary weapons are a pair of maces made from ice through which he can channel his powers.
Elemental Personalities: His magic focuses on creating and manipulating ice, and he's focused, deliberate, and restrained in his actions.
Facial Markings: He has a blue insignia on his forehead showing that he inherited the light pearl.
Foil: To Ne Zha. He's calm and graceful whereas Ne Zha is wild and temperamental. Yet unlike Ne Zha who attempts to change how people see him, Ao Bing seems resigned to his role as well as resigned to the fact that he will never be accepted by humans as they just view him as another monster they cannot trust.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: He summons two iced chuí that he uses in a fight.
Heroic Sacrifice: He assists Ne Zha in stopping the heavenly lightning striking them down which in the end disintegrates his mortal form, but his spirit still lives on.
Horned Humanoid: He looks almost completely human except for a pair of small blue horns, which is why he tries to wear a cloak when he knows he'll be around humans.
An Ice Person: He can create and manipulate ice, such as by rapidly freezing vast stretches of sea water or encasing his foes in ice.
In the Hood: In his first appearance he wears a white cloak, justified as he's trying to hide his dragon identity from the humans, and wears it again to stop Ne Zha's rage but is then forcibly outed.
I Owe You My Life: After Ne Zha saves him from his petrification, he declares to the other that he owes him a debt. He brings this up multiple times after he finds out that Ne Zha was the one who inherited the demon pearl's powers and feels conflicted.
Leave No Survivors: When he's revealed as a dragon to the humans as well as the other half of the pearl, they conclude that the dragons were the ones who stole it and obviously couldn't be trusted. This leads Ao Bing to call forth a huge wall of ice that he holds over the town in an attempt to crush them all and leave no witnesses to his goal to ascend to heaven and pin the blame on Ne Zha.
Light Is Good: He wears light colored robes and is fairly a benevolent person.
Lonely Rich Kid: He's allowed to travel the world, but it's all in service of training his powers, he's forbidden from interacting with other people too much to hide how he's a dragon in disguise, and his father is very distant and cold to him.
Meaningful Name: His name roughly translates to "blue ice", and his main powers is being able to manipulate ice and his main color palette is blue.
No Body Left Behind: His mortal form is destroyed after he helps Ne Zha destroy the heavenly lightning, however his spirit does remain.
Only Friend: He doesn't have a lot of friends due to his isolated upbringing and identity as a dragon, but come the finale of the film he considers Ne Zha his only friend and willingly sacrifices himself alongside Ne Zha to attempt to stop the Heavenly Lightning.
Stealth Hi/Bye: He appears and disappears suddenly, which Ne Zha even lampshades.
Younger Than They Look: He's actually younger than Ne Zha, but looks to be in his late teens despite the film taking place over three years.

Humans

Lady Yin

Voiced by (Mandarin): Lü Qi
Voiced by (English): Stephanie Sheh

Ne Zha's mother who despite his demonic powers and attitude still loves him dearly and swears to do whatever she can to give him anything that is close to a normal childhood.

Action Mom: It takes a lot to be a mother of a demon child and run a clan as the leader while her husband is away.
Adaptational Badass: In the movie she's a bit more proactive with her actively looking after her son and even taking over her husband's duties as a sect leader while he's away. She's even shown to be able to hold her own in a fight.
Badass Normal: She's just a normal human but is willing to raise her son Ne Zha and even plays shuttle-lock with him which leads to her being imbedded into the wall due to his monstrous strength.
Battle Couple: She and Li Jing fight side by side when going against Ao Bing.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She gets a small scar on her face from protecting a newborn Ne Zha from Taiyi, but it doesn't affect her looks.
Broken Tears: At the finale of the movie after Ne Zha sees how much his parents sacrificed for him, he ties them up, bows respectfully and flies up into the sky to meet his fate. Lady Yin cries heavily throughout the entire exchange, begging her son not to go, and after he and Ao Bing's mortal bodies disintegrate from the heavenly lightning, she continues to cry for her son.
Happily Married: She clearly loves her husband and the two even fight side by side.
Ignorance Is Bliss: She believes this for Ne Zha. She doesn't want her child to live in fear of the fact he's going to die extremely young, so tries to give him anything close to a normal childhood and treat him like any other kid.
It Runs in the Family: Surprisingly, Ne Zha actually gets a lot of his personality from his mother, who acts standoffish and arrogant like her son when she was heavily pregnant. Granted, she was pregnant for three years, so her short temper arguably does make sense.
Longest Pregnancy Ever: At the start of the film, she's heavily pregnant... for what has apparently been three years.
Li Jing: Dear, you should worship too.
Lady Yin: Why didn't I think of that? I've only been pregnant for three years!
Mama Bear: She's adamant about protecting her son, and will gladly fight anyone who tries to think otherwise.
Outliving One's Offspring: While his mortal body was destroyed and his spirit lives on, Lady Yin is still essentially outliving her son.
Purple Is Powerful: She wears purple robes throughout the movie and is not a woman to trifle with.
Say My Name: After Ne Zha ties his parents up so they can't stop him from accepting his fate, she cries for her son as floats up into the sky as she struggles against the red ribbon binding her.

Li Jing

Voiced by (Mandarin): Chen Hao

Ne Zha's father and the general in charge of guarding Chentang Pass, who decides to travel to the heavens in order to plead for his son's life to be spared from his fate.

Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original myth, Li Jing and Ne Zha became bitter enemies and tried to kill each other on a number of occasions. In this version of the story, he actually cares for his son and even attempts to find a way to lift the curse on him, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own life to save his son's.
Badass Normal: He's just a normal human who traveled to the heavens in order to undo the curse on his son, and is even able to barely hold down Ne Zha's spear when in his teenage form.
Battle Couple: With his wife when the two fight together against Ao Bing.
Happily Married: He clearly loves his wife as shown at the start of the movie where he does his best to look out for her as she's heavily pregnant.
Papa Bear: Li Jing, a normal man who travels all to the heavens just to plead for them to spare his son's life, as he was only a child. He then finds a spell that would switch Nezha's fate with a relative and he immediately accepts it saying he would gladly exchange his life for his son's.
Outliving One's Offspring: While Ne Zha's mortal body was destroyed but his spirit lives on, Li Jing still essentially outlives his son.
Say My Name: He cries for his son along with his wife as struggles against his bindings when Ne Zha accepts his fate and thanks his parents for looking out for him all this time.
Take Me Instead: How he tries to plead to the heavens so his son could live a longer life. The talisman he receives plays a bit into this trope, until Ne Zha finds out about and rips it apart as he accepts his fate towards the end of the film.

Heavenly Beings

Taiyi Zhenren

Voiced by (Mandarin): Zhang Jiaming
Voiced by (English): Mike Pollock

An immortal being whose job it is to look after the pearls, and when that goes wrong he attempts to become Ne Zha's teacher so he can learn to control his powers better.

Acrofatic: He can move pretty rapidly and precisely for a guy his size.
Adaptation Decay: He's a fairly wise and impressive taoist in the original myth, but in the movie he's also a fat drunkard who tends to be the butt end of every joke when he isn't fighting.
Bag of Holding: His pants, referred to as "Treasure Pants" by Ne Zha (at least in the English dub), contain a pocket space where he can store a considerable amount of sizable objects.
Big Fun: He's an overweight alcoholic Taoist immortal who takes it upon himself to teach Ne Zha how to use his demonic powers for good by trapping him in a painting and using a magic paintbrush to rearrange their environment.
Brought Down to Normal: After saving Ne Zha and Ao Bing's spirits with the container used for the pearls and being struck by the heavenly lightning, he apparently lost his immortality and "centuries of cultivation".
Butt-Monkey: He's the only who's dealt the most pain for physical comedy of the bunch.
Children Raise You: Taiyi begins the story as a vain, gluttonous lush, but training and raising Ne Zha (who he originally wanted to slay from the get-go) gradually causes him to drop many of his vices.
Groin Attack: He threatens this against Ne Zha with a giant pair of scissors (and not much warning) when the boy tries to urinate in the Painted World.
Secret-Keeper: He promises to keep Li Jing's plan of switching his fate with Nezha's through a talisman. He asks Taiyi keep it a secret from his son and his wife.
Toilet Humor: A lot of the humor from his part involves his messy eating habits and sundry bodily functions.
Trouser Space: He keeps loads of weapons and items down in his pants.
You Are Fat: A big joke for him, with the head-servant even asking if the flying artifact takes the form of whoever the owner is, why did his ride look like a pig. He glares at him for the implication.

Shen Gongbao

Voiced by (Mandarin): Yang Wei

A disciple alongside Taiyi who feels he was shafted by his mastered who gave everything else to Taiyi and thus steals the pearl for the dragons instead.

Adaptational Badass: In the novel, Shen Gongbao was a resourceful but still unimportant follower of Yuanshi Tianzun's Chan sect who relied on lies and deceit and in the end was no match for the Twelve Immortals. Here he's good enough to be considered a possible member of said cadre and fights head on with a lightning-enchanted whip.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: His bitter rivalry with Taiyi Zhenren, whom he blames for losing his chance at godhood. In the original novel, the two characters don't even interact with each other.
Cat Folk: When revealing to Ao Bing that he was originally a leopard spirit, he briefly turns into a humanoid leopard.
Character Tic: He has a rather noticeable stutter.
Dark Is Evil: He wears dark robes and is arguably the closest thing the movie has to an actual villain.
Humanity Ensues: Late into the film, he reveals that he was a leopard sprirt that took on human form — which he assumes is why Yuanshi Tianzun doesn't value him as much as Taiyi Zhenren.
Evil Gloating: He does like to monologue on, which gets played for laugh twice. The first time with Nezha beating him up^note, and Ao Bing leaving while he's mid-monologue and doesn't realize his disciple had left.
Godhood Seeker: He wants to discredit and/or kill Taiyi so as to take his place as the twelfth god of the pantheon that Yuanshi Tianzun is establishing.
Lean and Mean: Contrasting the chubby Taiyi Zhenren, Shen Gongbao is very thin, strict and cold.
Lightning Lash: His sword can transform into a segmented, electrified whip that electrocutes those it ensnares.
Motor Mouth: He can go on talking for days that even the dragons make note of with Ao Bing's father telling him to just nod next time.
Running Gag: Ne Zha mistakenly mishears his name as Gonggong since he was trying to correct the kid. Ne Zha then refers to him as Shen Gonggong for the rest of the movie while he angrily yells his name is Shen Gongbao.
Shout-Out: Possibly to Hoshin Engi, another media based on Fengshen Yanyi where the same character (under the Japanese name of Shin Kohyo) wields a lightning-enchanted whip as his weapon.
Speech Impediment: He apparently speaks with a stutter, which is more noticeable in the English dub.

Yuanshi Tianzun

One of the highest-ranking gods in Taoism, and the master of Taiyi Zhenren and Shen Gongbao.

Big Good: As the ruler of the Celestial Realm, he is responsible for maintaining peace and order in Heaven and on Earth.
Grandpa God: He sits on a lotus flower made of clouds, wears a white-and-gold robe and sports a long, flowing grey beard and hair.
Small Role, Big Impact: He's the one who separates the pearls at the beginning of the film, and entrusts them to Taiyi Zhenren. He's only in the movie for one scene and doesn't show up again, which gets lampsahded later on as him being busy attending to other heavenly matters.
Top God: He is one of the first gods in Taoism, and his power is demonstrated when he nonchalantly defeats the Chaos Pearl by trapping it in the eight-way trigram Crucible — splitting it into the Chaos Pearl and Demon Orb. In Ne Zha, he and the other two top gods of Taoism compile the Investiture of the Gods — a dossier of the gods and Immortals worthy of deification — for the purpose of creating the Celestial Bureaucracy.

Others

Dragon King

Ao Bing's father and the "ruler" of the Dragon Palace, actually a prison for primordial monsters.

Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed. He's still a villain first and foremost, but unlike his mythical inspiration — Ao Guang the dragon king, who was simply drunk of power and an arrogant tyrant just because — he's given a fairly sympathetic reason for his actions. Becomes Adaptational Villainy compared to the novel, where Ao Guang isn't evil to begin with.
Cain and Abel: The film's mid-credits scene reveals that he has a sister who was among the monsters imprisoned beneath the lava of the Dragon Palace.
Godhood Seeker: He bargained with the Heavens seeking to become a deity and elevate dragons from being looked down upon as monsters. Having been denied this, he and the other dragons have placed their hopes in Ao Bing.
Misplaced Retribution: In the film's Sequel Hook, after learning that Ao Bing has died — though Shen Gongbao presumably didn't tell him the truth of how or why, the Dragon King furiously vows to make the people of Chentang Pass pay in blood.
Our Dragons Are Different: He's a pretty standard Chinese dragon, with the exception of not being a god and being unable to take on human form. The character he is loosely based on, Áo Guāng, was the arrogant, proud, and easily-enraged god of the East Sea.
Papa Wolf: He gets enraged when Shen Gongbao reports that Ao Bing died and swears vengeance on the humans for taking away his son.
Wardens Are Evil: The Dragon King feels he and his brethren were screwed over by the gods — having been made both wardens and prisoners of a Hellhole Prison for Eldritch Abominations and other primordial monsters — and allies with Shen Gongbao in a bid to escape by elevating his son to the rank of godhood.

Water Demon

A water demon that Nezha and Ao Bing fight.

Adaptational Badass: Yes, really. The novel Yaksha ^note also known as Li Gen was a though warrior chosen by the Heavens, but aside axemanship lacks interesting powers. The movie's Yaksha, while goofier, can turn himself into water, shoot petrifying bubbles and can give both Nezha and Ao Bing an hard time.
Breath Weapon: He can expel bubbles of saliva from his mouth that petrify whatever they touch, and only his snot can cure it.
Butt-Monkey: He gets quite a few amusing injuries from Ne Zha during their first fight. This even comes to play towards the end of the film when he's "captured" to prove Nezha's innocence, but doesn't appear for the rest of the film besides the post credit scene.
Elemental Shapeshifting: He can transform into water at will, which he uses to sneak out of the ocean onto land and to evade Ne Zha's attacks.
Our Demons Are Different: The English localization calls him a demon, but in Chinese he's a yaksha, a type of potentially dangerous but not inherently so nature spirits.
Taken for Granite: He can blow streams of bubbles that petrify any flesh they pop against.
To Serve Man: He happily devours a small child while Nezha and Ao Bing fight with each other, leading to them begrudgingly allying to save her.
You Didn't Ask: After Ne Zha chokes down his snot, the only antidote to his petrification attack, he asks how he's supposed to use it on Ao Bing and the little girl, since their mouths are already petrified. The water demon cheerfully explains that it can just be applied to the skin, and when a disgusted Ne Zha asks why he didn't mention that earlier he says that Ne Zha didn't ask. The next shot shows him with a noticeable black eye.

The Chaos Orb

A fusion of divine and demonic magic that threatened to destroy the world before it was split into the Divine Pearl and the Demon Pill.

Multi-Armed and Dangerous: In their initial battle, after Taiyi freezes their hands together, the Chaos Pearl overwhelms him by growing four more arms and beating the tar out of him with only one pair.
Omnicidal Maniac: The Chaos Pearl's first act as a sentient being is to attempt to devour the sun.
Oxymoronic Being: It's a fusion of heavenly and demonic magic, and manifests as a being of fire contained within a shell of ice.

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