| Not counting 4 minute episodes and extra seasons, there's only about 14 or 15 on my list that have clearly defined female leads. And I've got to say, except for maybe net-juu no susume (which wasn't even that horrible), there's nothing out of that 14 that I really hated. I know this is a really broad generalization from a small sample size, but I think there's a reason for this (at least for me personally). A lot of the anime I hate are because of a bland, unlikeable male protagonist that I could not sympathize with at all (despite being a young male myself). That is not to say that if that boring character were to suddenly swap genders, I would enjoy the show better. Just that building creative characters also seem to have an impact on not going with the same type of character all the time. I started to realize after watching Chihayafuru, that if the main protagonist had been Taichi or even Arata instead, I probably would not have enjoyed it as much because both of those don't really stand out on their own. Of course, it could also be that most mainstream, average anime take a formulaic approach and go with what's familiar to them (a male protagonist), while more adventurous, unique shows are more evenly split on the genders of their protagonists—in other words, correlation does not equal causation. For those who've watched more shows (or anyone that cares), what do you think? Edit: I just realized that this may also be affected by the anime I choose to watch. |
Appleseed4kJul 15, 2019 8:57 PM
If you're reading this, You must be really bored. |
Appleseed4k said: I'm sure this is not news, but pretty much every medium of telling a story are dominated by male protagonists—and anime are no exception. Not counting 4 minute episodes and extra seasons, there's only about 14 or 15 on my list of over 100 (realistically about 80-90 unique ones) that have clearly defined female leads. And I've got to say, except for maybe net-juu no susume (which wasn't even that horrible), there's nothing out of that 14 that I really hated. I know this is a really broad generalization from a small sample size, but I think there's a reason for this (at least for me personally). A lot of the anime I hate are because of a bland, unlikeable male protagonist that I could not sympathize with at all (despite being a young male myself). I started to realize after watching Chihayafuru, that if the main protagonist had been Taichi or even Arata instead, I probably would not have enjoyed it as much because both of those don't really stand out on their own. Of course, it could also be that most mainstream, average anime take a formulaic approach and go with what's familiar to them (a male protagonist), while more adventurous, unique shows are more evenly split on the genders of their protagonists—in other words, correlation does not equal causation. For those who've watched more shows (or anyone that cares), what do you think? I'm confused I would say the majority of anime, especially action anime have male leads- but there's globs of anime with relevant female leads. Pretty much all shoujo have a female lead, a lot of jousei, shows like Chihayafuru All the CGDCT anime - K-on, Aria, etc List goes on. If you're looking for SHOUNEN with female leads- well that's inherently going to be rarer since that demographic is specifically targeting 14-18 year old boys. Even in that there is exceptions like Kill la Kill and Claymore. |
 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
| nah. the protagonist's gender has never remotely affected my enjoyment of an anime - if a male character is poorly written, making him a woman won't help. i do think that authors often struggle to write convincing characters of the gender opposite their own though, which is why romantic interest characters in fiction often feel so fake. is this a bait? Edit: you mentioned "bland male protagonists" and i figure you're referring to the standard lead of a harem or isekai show that's meant to be uninteresting as hell to allow the viewer to project themselves onto the character. those are a special case, and i don't think they should be used as a generalization for all male anime protagonists, as there are plenty of excellent and well developed male protags that add lots to their respective shows. |
TurnchJul 15, 2019 8:39 PM
| I think its a 55/45 spread of male MCs and Female MCs just that Ones with Male MCs become popular because they are most of the time action heavy. If you are looking for stuff like that in Shonen or Seinen you are not gonna find it. Its targeted at Males hence why most of the times they have Male MCs. There are always exception like Act Age which serializes In Shonen Jump right now but that's what it is, An exception. If you want good anime or manga with female leads look for Josei or Shoujo stuff. The demographic its for most of the time dictates the gender of the mc. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of a show though. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| *Looks at Symphogear franchise* I was too lazy to read all of your post, I'm just here to stan Symphogear and how good of a protag Hibiki is compared to many Male ones, punches a lot more ass and is much cuter than them kek. |
  Ascended Taste I only came back to this site for the forum sets and to promote my RYM list... Anilist ftw still :dab: |
Aidoru-Ojisan said: *Looks at Symphogear franchise* I was too lazy to read all of your post, I'm just here to stan Symphogear and how good of a protag Hibiki is compared to many Male ones, punches a lot more ass and is much cuter than them kek. You'd make good friends with my guy @kieranshikari |
If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
Afloo said: I think its a 55/45 spread of male MCs and Female MCs just that Ones with Male MCs become popular because they are most of the time action heavy. If you are looking for stuff like that in Shonen or Seinen you are not gonna find it. Its targeted at Males hence why most of the times they have Male MCs. There are always exception like Act Age which serializes In Shonen Jump right now but that's what it is, An exception. If you want good anime or manga with female leads look for Josei or Shoujo stuff. The demographic its for most of the time dictates the gender of the mc. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of a show though. I actually don't watch based shonen/seinen/josei/shoujo. I watch more of slice of life and drama, which isn't necessarily target towards a specific demographic. I'm not sure what you mean. |
If you're reading this, You must be really bored. |
| That's interesting. Chihayafuru is one of my favorite anime, and Taichi is definitely one of the most interesting characters in anime, period. There's a whole bunch of subtext showing his conflicted emotions for Chihaya, while at the same time he's clearly grown attached to Karuta and still considers Arata a friend. If anything, Chihaya is in many ways the typical protagonist, whether male or female, stubborn, airheaded, goes off on instinct, is all about nakama, and is overly emotional. When you put it that way, Chihaya has a lot in common with tons of shounen leads like Naruto, Midoriya, Gon, Satoru (Erased) etc. In fact, if you take out all that psychological subtext behind the scenes, Taichi would be like the typical sidekick, cold, calculative, brooding, has a better handle of what's going on, keeps the protagonist focused, etc. He would be the analog to Sasuke, Killua, Kenya (Erased), etc. Having a female lead doesn't escape this. |
| My subjective reviews: katsureview.wordpress.com THE CHAT CLUB. |
| Despite how I may appear, not necessarily, but it is nice to see a series with strong independent women who don't need no men. |
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Appleseed4k said: Afloo said: I think its a 55/45 spread of male MCs and Female MCs just that Ones with Male MCs become popular because they are most of the time action heavy. If you are looking for stuff like that in Shonen or Seinen you are not gonna find it. Its targeted at Males hence why most of the times they have Male MCs. There are always exception like Act Age which serializes In Shonen Jump right now but that's what it is, An exception. If you want good anime or manga with female leads look for Josei or Shoujo stuff. The demographic its for most of the time dictates the gender of the mc. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of a show though. I actually don't watch based shonen/seinen/josei/shoujo. I watch more of slice of life and drama, which isn't necessarily target towards a specific demographic. Even then I think it still affects it. For example a Romance Shonen will probably be Echii or Will be Narrated in the Guy's perspective while a Shojo romance will be more Romantic or more Ideal and Narrated in the Girl's perspective. There are always Exceptions though. This is a bit of a Over-generalization. |
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I mean that your post implies that the gender of a lead character could have a direct relationship with a show's quality, which is kinda provocative. |
Johan said: Appleseed4k said: I'm sure this is not news, but pretty much every medium of telling a story are dominated by male protagonists—and anime are no exception. Not counting 4 minute episodes and extra seasons, there's only about 14 or 15 on my list of over 100 (realistically about 80-90 unique ones) that have clearly defined female leads. And I've got to say, except for maybe net-juu no susume (which wasn't even that horrible), there's nothing out of that 14 that I really hated. I know this is a really broad generalization from a small sample size, but I think there's a reason for this (at least for me personally). A lot of the anime I hate are because of a bland, unlikeable male protagonist that I could not sympathize with at all (despite being a young male myself). I started to realize after watching Chihayafuru, that if the main protagonist had been Taichi or even Arata instead, I probably would not have enjoyed it as much because both of those don't really stand out on their own. Of course, it could also be that most mainstream, average anime take a formulaic approach and go with what's familiar to them (a male protagonist), while more adventurous, unique shows are more evenly split on the genders of their protagonists—in other words, correlation does not equal causation. For those who've watched more shows (or anyone that cares), what do you think? I'm confused I would say the majority of anime, especially action anime have male leads- but there's globs of anime with relevant female leads. Pretty much all shoujo have a female lead, a lot of jousei, shows like Chihayafuru All the CGDCT anime - K-on, Aria, etc List goes on. If you're looking for SHOUNEN with female leads- well that's inherently going to be rarer since that demographic is specifically targeting 14-18 year old boys. Even in that there is exceptions like Kill la Kill and Claymore. I would have to disagree. I don't think having male leads is a bad thing, I honestly don't care. well-written stories can work with any gender. but shoujo only has about 600 entries compared to other genres. |
If you're reading this, You must be really bored. |
Afloo said: Appleseed4k said: I actually don't watch based shonen/seinen/josei/shoujo. I watch more of slice of life and drama, which isn't necessarily target towards a specific demographic. Even then I think it still affects it. For example a Romance Shonen will probably be Echii or Will be Narrated in the Guy's perspective while a Shojo romance will be more Romantic or more Ideal and Narrated in the Girl's perspective. There are always Exceptions though. This is a bit of a Over-generalization. I'm pretty sure if you flip to any random page on MAL to remove preferences, you'd find a disparity. But I'll probably change my original post to make it not the main focus. Dolabella said: I mean that your post implies that the gender of a lead character could have a direct relationship with a show's quality, which is kinda provocative. Oh, I see. Sorry if I appear that way. I just wanted to point out a trend of poorly written male protagonists vs female protagonists, and I might change the title. |
Appleseed4kJul 15, 2019 9:21 PM
If you're reading this, You must be really bored. |
Afloo said: Appleseed4k said: I actually don't watch based shonen/seinen/josei/shoujo. I watch more of slice of life and drama, which isn't necessarily target towards a specific demographic. Even then I think it still affects it. For example a Romance Shonen will probably be Echii or Will be Narrated in the Guy's perspective while a Shojo romance will be more Romantic or more Ideal and Narrated in the Girl's perspective. There are always Exceptions though. This is a bit of a Over-generalization. Basically Afloo is winning the thread. Got all his points right. |
If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
| I guess it depends on the genre in question. For romance, a lot of my favorite series' have main female leads, hell my favorite romance has a female lead. Other genres like action for instance, more often than not the female leads either turn out to be annoying like Saya from Blood-C, or just boring like Marlya from Fairy Gone. There are some exceptions like Angelina from Cross Ange For most common ones aka SoL's, again the case of being annoying comes back, like with Hitomi from Iroduku or Naho from Orange. Probably one of the reasons why I don't really like CGDCT anime, and general all-female casts (all males isn't that great either but at least more bearable). Ofc there are exceptions like Maika from Blend S or Kyouko from Skip Beat. I mean, it's not like dense harem male MC's are any better, but I'd rather have boring than annoying imo |
Short_CircutJul 15, 2019 9:31 PM
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
Appleseed4k said: This is definitely affected by the choice of anime series.Edit: I just realized that this may also be affected by the anime I choose to watch. There are some genres that are more common with female leads, and some genres that are more common with male leads. The most obvious of these are harem vs. reverse harem, obviously, but there are others too. And so one's impression of which is better is likely to be influenced by this. I do personally have somewhat of a preference for series with female leads, though I also prefer mixed-gender casts rather than all-female casts. |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
| I have never once thought "This anime is better than another because of the main character's gender". There are tons of bad female leads, and good female leads, just like there's good and bad male leads. People just give bad female leads less shit because, let's face it, people will forgive a bad character much more easily if they find them cute. |
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| A good male protag vs a good female protag - I'll take either any day; no preferences A bad male protag vs a bad female protag - Depends on the waifu potential. Kappa |
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| I think, personally, that I would say yes to this. Maybe it's because I am a female myself and I can relate to a female main character more (usually), or maybe it's just because I like women and find them more physically appealing - those factors could contribute to my bias. But I am always a little more excited to see an anime with a female main character than the other way around. I even added a tag for it in my anime list, just so I could keep track of which ones have a female lead. However, that does not mean that all anime with female protagonists are good, or that all anime with male protagonists are comparatively worse. My favourite anime is Erased, which has a male protagonist. And the worst "anime" (OVA) I've ever watched - Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan - has a female protagonist. I would just say that usually I get more invested in shows with a heroine, at least from the start. I do hope to see more of them in the coming years! ♥ |
| rule 63 exist for a reason but kidding aside ye it seems somehow more tolerable to watch a damsel in distress than a pathetic male character but that maybe because of nature (male brain bias) and nurture (especially this one living in a conservative country) factors that i have |
| Protags gender doesn’t really matter to me, as long as they are written well and it fits. |
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| The next jojo protagonist after part 5 will be a female and she's one of the best female protagonist in shonen in my opinion so I don't think gender has anything to to do with this, she was written well and was badass too but just because she was a female doesn't mean its objectively better. |
Ri22rkJul 16, 2019 12:09 AM
| I think it is only because many mediocre or at least mainstream animes had male as main lead, and there are a lot of of mainstream animes.. I bet if they adapt as many shoujo mangas with female MC as they adapt shounen mangas with male MC then the percentage will be even, because I am sure that average shoujo mangas are not better than average shounen mangas.. |
"The Slave is the have-not, the oppressed one with nothing to spare. But because the Slave is in that despairing situation, having nothing, it can kill the Emperor !" |
| and also there is overabundance of male MC anyway so balancing the ratio to female MC is not that bad #Equality #FeminismMatters lol although this fandom and its consumers are still male dominated |
| No, I don't. I think it depends on the individual characters personality and gender has nothing to do with it. |
| My initial response was to say ‘yes’ because I do gravitate to female leads and will (usually) appreciate them more than male ones when they’re well-written. However, while I do love rooting for my ladies, I love well-written characters in general. The gender of the protagonist alone can’t overshadow all the good there is from either side. It really comes down to the writing. The best female leads imo are usually found when it’s another female writing them. Not always of course, but on average, women write women better; fleshed out, having agency. The majority of the works I adore, regardless of the gender of the mc, are written by women. Chihayafuru included. In that regard, it’s much easier for me to say that anime with a female writer are more successful at having better believable mcs, whether guys or girls. |
| Well at least that'd cut away a lot of the generic crap shows admittedly. However, there are also quite a lot of cliché and unispiring shoujo romance shows out there, so it probably balances out a bit In general you're better off looking at other factors if you want to find any worthwhile patterns to make an analysis based of |
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| Gender is irelevant, the character of the mc makes the anime. |
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| Yes Yuri FTW I like anime with girls in them not that big fan of anime boys lol. |
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| code geass LoGH HXH shingeki no kyojin Gintama FMAB the majority of my favorite anime have a male mc and they are all very intersiting. i din't think that there is a female characters e like Light ,lelouche , okabe, reinhard ....,so i prefer male MC. |
| Ideally, I would pick a male main character but it all comes down to enjoying the story and I just you know, see the title and what the general premise would be. I certainly cannot enjoy femdom or reverse harem. There's a prison anime where male gets tortured and that it looks colorful with comedy, but no thank you. It's normal to try to relate to respective gender and I wouldn't want to see a weak male getting pushed around. |
| No, not really. If I had to think about it... plenty of my favorites are either a duel starring situation (like FMP) or it's a tie between how many have a male or female lead (I love Kimagure Orange Road, but I also love Wedding Peach, male lead, and then female lead) I think maybe the more current trend with male characters in general in anime is why you might be feeling burnt out when it comes to them. Too many NEET and otaku guy characters are leading shows and it's become tiresome. :b |
Ericonator said: By definition, everything is retro since by the time you realize something has happened it's already in the past.  |
| I think gender is not the reason to make an anime better. Not always an anime with female protagonist always better than the male protagonist. |
Dolabella said: I do think that authors often struggle to write convincing characters of the gender opposite their own though, which is why romantic interest characters in fiction often feel so fake. Yeah. I find that really annoying too. Overdramatic emotions, "cuteness" from their naivety, etc. But yet again, that's supposed to be fanservice. Unrealistic standards, though. Also, gender never did matter. A female character could be a boy instead of a girl, and they'd still be my favourite, vice versa. It won't change a thing apart from feminists milking feMCs. If you're going to have a woman as the main character, please don't do it to empower rights or whatnot of patheticness. Gender never mattered. The only thing we get from gender is sexual interest, and that's about the only difference. Also apparently stereotypes are common as heck. |
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| I think some shows work better with female leads, but I generally prefer male protagonists and characters in general, but I believe it is pretty normal to prefer the opposite gender. I think a lot of it depends on the story and themes, some stories fit a female protagonist better, some a male one. Stories like Berserk would not work with a female protagonist at all imo, also sports is generally associated with males, so Haikyuu, KnB etc would be boring with females and with all that jumping and bouncing suffer from lots of fanservice. Karuta is a card game after all, even if it looks pretty intense in the anime form. And genres like magical girl shows for obvious reasons must have a female protagonist, unless it's a parody. |
| For me - no. I prefer male protagonists in general, since I'm male and it's a wish-fulfillment power fantasy. In general - yes, unfortunately. In the last decade or so female protagonists and characters in general tend to be much better or at least treated much better by the shows. |
| Their are plenty of good anime with female mc's (Violet Evergarden, Fruits Basket, Kill la Kill, Madoka Magica, Lucky Star, etc), but the same can be said for anime with male mc's. To me, it doesn't really matter whether if an anime with a male mc or an anime with a female mc is better. What matters is how they play themselves out as the mc in their story. Also, I'll just put this here to settle things down. |
| I can't think of a single anime I have seen with a female protagonist, but I also can't think of a reason as to why I would like it less. EDIT: Oh, Kill la Kill of course. Yeah that was just fine, though I will say I preferred Gurren Lagann. Probably nothing to do with the MC's gender though. |
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| Don't think so A character is enjoyable because of its general writing, doesn't matter if it's a woman or a man However I admit I saw more great female MC than males ones, especially thanks to Miyazaki's movies but having a woman as a MC doesn't mean the anime is good |
| The only thing that matters to me is that if they're well written or not, that’s it. Their gender is completely irrelevant to me. |
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