Female characters versus male characters

Lately I’ve been thinking of making a new list of my top 10 anime characters, since the one I wrote two years ago is a bit outdated. Along those lines, I once again realized that, for whatever reason, at least 80% of my top 10 characters are female. This in turn got me thinking – how many of my other fellow fans have a preference for just one gender of characters, and can we provide reasons for our preference?

What originally got me interested in making a new top 10 character list is Lloyd over at Polychromium recently completing his list. One thing he said in particular was quite interesting:

“I’ve always wondered why in the anime world, there seems to be a more diverse selection of stereotypes for female characters, whereas for male characters, the choice is much more limited. The population of male casts, especially male leads, is also plagued by a very aggressive virus that leads to awful symptoms like, lack of personality, lack of initiative and even lack of presence despite being the male-lead.”

In terms of otaku-aimed series, especially those in the slice-of-life genre, I would have to agree with him. For most series with a male lead in an otherwise female-dominating cast, no matter the genre, I usually find the male lead dull and uninteresting. He’s either just an extremely plain, hapless guy who goes along with whatever ill treatment befalls him with little to no proactive action, or he’s an insufferably nice guy with a bleeding heart who just has to help everyone no matter the abuse. And even if he doesn’t fall exactly into one of these categories, and on rare occasion if he is given some sort of backstory, personality-wise he’s more often than not terribly boring and forgettable. Thankfully there are plenty of exceptions – Kyon (Haruhi), Keima (The World God Only Knows), and Ryuji (Toradora!) to name a few – who are very memorable and interesting male leads in series with mostly female characters. But for the most part, I feel that the gripe fans have about boring, cliche male protagonists in your average anime is well founded.

As for why male leads are so dull in these kinds of shows, the answer is pretty obvious. This type of anime is aimed at male otaku who are interested in seeing (hot/moe/maiwaifu) female characters above all else. By giving the male protagonist a “default” or “neutral” personality, it’s easier for the male otaku to insert themselves into the character’s situation of being with the female characters they love. Since the female characters are what they’re mostly interested in anyway, creators of the anime don’t need to focus on giving the male lead notable qualities to begin with.

But! Right now I’m just talking about male characters in female-dominant shows. What I find so interesting is how this situation changes when we look at anime with a mostly male cast, especially shonen and mecha series. For these genres, it’s practically the opposite – the male characters are the most proactive in the story and the most well developed characters, and they also have the most diverse personalities. The female characters can still be well developed, but for the most part they rarely reach the level of dynamics that the male characters do and are often lacking in the personality department. Besides shonen and mecha, reverse harem shojo series can suffer from this as well, often having bland Mary Sue-esque female leads. Of course, there are again plenty of exceptions; the girls in the big “shonen trio” – Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece – have great personalities and are well written, and Tohru (Fruits Basket) and Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) are very memorable shojo leads. But it’s usually the case that when one gender of character dominates, the other gender is bland in comparison.

So now, why do anime with mostly male characters end up having uninteresting female characters? It again stems from the wish fulfilling desires of the target audience. Most anime is aimed at a male audience to begin with. However, the male audience that watches mecha and shonen shows is not looking for the same appeal as the aforementioned slice-of-life and akiba-kei anime with large female casts. Their fulfillment instead comes from the intense action and cool mecha that these shows provide. Long-running shonen series are targeted at young male audiences who prefer to see boy characters in action and aren’t yet “interested” in girls. For these reasons, female characters in male dominant shows are not given as much attention as the testosterone-driven action and super-powered battles that the shows provide.

Going back to my own favorite characters, since I’m not a big fan of mecha or reverse harem anime and favor slice-of-life, I’m mostly exposed to anime that favors female characters. So that could be one of the reasons why most of my favorites are female. Another reason is that I simply find most male anime characters, even in shonen series, to just not have stereotypes that appeal to me. Male characters are either too arrogant/yakuza-ish for my taste, too cold and distant, or again just plain bland. Or maybe I just prefer the cute, emotional side of anime rather than the dark, action-packed side, and female characters encompass this sentiment better.

It’s funny that even though the majority of anime is aimed at a young male audience, there seems to be two different appeals being catered to – one emphasizing the appealing traits of female characters and the other emphasizing the masculine action and mecha battles. And how both male and female characters are portrayed depends on which appeal the show is going for. Naturally there are plenty of anime that have great male and female characters and plenty of anime that have an equal number of male and female characters. But for your average “mainstreamed” anime, one or the other seems to dominate. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just another way anime reaches out to its different audiences.

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. xueqir says:

    for me personally, almost any favorite character that I would name from any anime that I’ve seen would be male…I guess I don’t really look at anime on such a deep-analysis level since I enjoy anime, but don’t really consider myself an Otaku.
    I’ve noticed in recent years that the male characters I loved had a common thread: they were cool and strong but underneath all the action, they are kind and considerate…protective of the ones they care about.

    I guess my favorite anime characters were my anime crushes. >_< Like Sesshomaru or Itachi and even Byakuya. My first anime crush was Trunks from DBZ hahaa, I remember thinking him to be so cool when he killed Freeza with his sword during his first appearance in the series.

    Back when one was much younger…nowadays, I definitely watch more slice of life series. I absolutely loved Misaka from Railgun. :)

    • Yumeka says:

      I also like the archetype of cool, action hero guys who are actually kind and selfless underneath all the brawn. But often it’s the case that their personalities are too aggressive, violent, and arrogant for my tastes even if they really are “good” deep down.

      I never watched DBZ when I was younger because I didn’t have cable TV, but I liked Trunks too just from watching the show a little bit and seeing pictures XD

  2. ojisan says:

    Your basic premise is truest when in closest proximity to conventional harem anime, and if you walk directly away from CHA your geiger counter will click ever more slowly. I’m rewatching “Master Keaton” this week, and it’s rare that there’s a shallow, stereotypical character at all if he/she has more than three lines. But in general, you’re all too right.
    Finding the exceptions is a fun game. For instance, Kekkaishi is a straight-up well-written shounen fight show, but has a memorable female supporting lead – it’s not packed with rockin’ women or anything, but the gender relations seem less fraught than is usual for the genre.
    And there’s something creepily fascinating in the no-guy shows – like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star, in which males seem to have been decimated by a ray from space – a male teacher here, a father there, otherwise zip. It narrows the scope of action for attention to the fine details of a schoolgirl’s day, I guess –

    • Yumeka says:

      Heh, I was almost going to mention the “no guy” anime like K-ON and Lucky Star. Those shows have simply taken what I said to the extreme of making male characters so unimportant that they’re not even present! I wonder if it’s better to have no male characters at all as opposed to having ones that are very dull and frustrating.

      I admire anime that are able to have great characters in both genders. But ultimately I care the most about whether I like the story and the characters, regardless of gender.

  3. Myna says:

    Each genre has its own stereotypes. Harem just seems to be especially prone to them; boring male lead, a tsundere, a quiet, shy girl, etc. (Baka Raptor made a post on that.) Shoujo has an oblivious Mary-Sue protagonist, a sexy male love interest, an awkward boy who has a crush on the Sue, etc. Shounen’s got the (obnoxious) noble protagonist, a badass mentor or two, and a female love interest whose chest is either really big or completely flat.

    Other common archetypes/roles include the kawaii imouto, the (mysterious) the eccentric teacher, and the deceased mother. Interestingly enough, these all apply to females.

    While I do enjoy slice of life shows (that have substance), though I tend to favor anime with fantasy or supernatural elements to them; like Evangelion, Mushishi, Fullmetal Alchemist, etc. I also love darker action/mystery series as well, such as Monster and Black Lagoon. All the ones I’ve mentioned have a central male protagonist (though that’s arguable for Black Lagoon since it focuses on Rock and Revy equally).

    My top 10 characters on MAL profile, four are females and six are males. I think I generally prefer male characters because I believe the stereotypes for females are much more prominent and worn out. Particularly tsunderes and plucky girls. Anime needs more yanderes, dammit.

    This year has been a great year for male protagonists. Wild Tiger, Okumura Rin, Daiikichi, Nezumi, Sion, and Okarin are pretty fantastic guys. I can’t say the same for the girls, seeing as the only memorable female leads I can think of are Makise Kurisu, Rin and Homura. Blood-C isn’t helping that either.

    Though in retrospect, I think just about every character can be stereotyped in some way or another.

    • Yumeka says:

      I think the fact that there are more female character archetypes in anime is precisely why otaku in general, myself included, tend to find them more interesting. I don’t like ones that are blatant cliches of course, but the more archetypes you have that already have their own fan following, the more diverse types of characters you can create by adding to and tweaking those archetypes without making them too far removed from the fandom…if that makes any sense. Making a character very well written and developed is great, but if the character lacks a personality that’s appealing to the general audience, they could still be easily forgettable (this doesn’t apply to everyone of course ^^a) For example, I think Ginko from Mushishi is a well written character but as far as personality – nothing really stands out about him to me. It’s more like the atmosphere of his job and the show itself carry him more than he himself does.

      Male characters have their own list of archetypes too, but as you say, there seems to be less of them because anime is more often aimed at male audiences who prefer a variety of female character archetypes.

      And it sounds like you have a good mix of male and female amongst your favorite characters even if males outnumber by a bit =)

  4. Inushinde says:

    Women are characterized more diversely for the same reason that the men aren’t in most slice of life/harem shows with average male leads. Unfortunately, this doesn’t create a very strong show at all. Still, male leads do have the capacity to be great, as you mentioned with Kyon.
    I prefer female characters, simply because they’re characterized more. While a few make the list because they strike a chord with me, rather than have an electric personality (Akari from ARIA), most that I like are assertive without falling into the tsundere trap, or take a central role that isn’t just “Make the main character look good with your presence.”

    Nrgh, I hope that made sense, I’m surprisingly tired. x.x

    • Yumeka says:

      Don’t worry, your comment makes sense ;)

      I tend to like female characters because I also feel that they’re characterized better, at least in most anime I watch. Or even if both genders are equally well written, usually the personalities of the females are more to my liking.

      Having a distasteful male lead can certainly put a damper on the show. But if the rest of the characters and story are strong enough, I think they can make up for it. Just depends on the anime.

  5. f0calizer says:

    I’ve stopped keeping top ten lists of things because they don’t really matter to me as a fan. The one thing I will say in response to your post is it reminds me how the various Macross series have always spent time developing both male and female characters. I think that’s what makes the franchise stand out from other big mecha series. I know you’ve seen Macross Frontier, so you might understand what I’m talking about. Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka, of course, hog the limelight, but even Michel and Klan and various other secondary characters get decent screentime and development.

    • Yumeka says:

      Heh, I just love categorizing my fandom as much as I can, even though I agree it’s kind of meaningless XD

      It’s been a while since I watched Macross F, but I do remember Alto and Michel being pretty memorable male characters. It’s good to hear that the rest of the Macross series have good characters from both genders too~

  6. Frootytooty says:

    Personally I found Tohru to be one of those “bleeding-heart-must-help-everyone” cliche lead characters. But anyway… I agree with the rest of your post. The focus of harem shows is the female characters and, less importantly, the way the male lead interacts with them, so it’s no surprise that the male lead barely gets any time to develop. Besides, if the male lead was too different from the average male, it not only makes it hard for the viewer to relate to him but also may make it unrealistic or unbelievable when all the girls eventually fall for him.

    And on the other end of the spectrum – shoujo isn’t much better. I used to read a lot of shoujo manga when I was about 13 or 14 and I can safely say now that I can predict the personality type of any shoujo lead character: perky, cute (even if they try to pass her off as ‘ugly’ or ‘scary’, this quality is guaranteed) and with a heart of gold. But to be honest I never really cared about the lead girl; I was only reading to see the hot guys… so yeah, it really is a matter of catering to the audience. XD

    Now that I watch a variety of anime (and stay away from overused cliches) though, I’m happy to say that I see a much bigger range of characters and personalities!

    • Yumeka says:

      The reason Tohru stands out to me is because the way she goes about her “must help everyone” bit is just so “soft,” gentle, and beautiful, as opposed to most male leads that do it with lots of shouting and angst. I don’t know, just something so touching about the unique way she helps each character. But yeah, just my opinion.

      Coincidentally, I used to read a lot of shojo manga when I was around that age too. And now that I think about it, a lot of the main female protagonists were very Mary Sue-ish, usually insufferably kind, naive, polite love-struck girls. If written well however, I could grow to like them very much despite the cliches (like Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura) but usually they’re one of the reasons I don’t like straight-out shojo series that much.

  7. Lloyd says:

    I somehow managed to make an almost crafted 50/50 spread of male and female characters in my list. That ratio is probably going to favor males in the future as I watch more shows. That’s because I tend to favor male characters, because good male characters are rare, they tend to stand out way more. There are a lot of decent female characters out there, but because there are so many, they just don’t stand out that much for me.

    I usually don’t watch mecha or shounen shows, because of the genre alone. So my perspective is only half of yours.

    • Yumeka says:

      Most of my favorite male characters come from long-running shonen series – Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and Inuyasha in particular. Like I said in the post, I feel that shonen series give male characters much more interesting personalities and character growth (since these series are so long, the characters develop gradually). But you’re right that good male characters are hard to find in recent years so they stand out very much when they do come around. But for me, when it comes down to choosing between a good male character and an equally good female character, I’ll usually go with the female because, as I said, personality-wise I tend to find them more entertaining and I love “cute,” which female characters give a lot of ;)

  8. hearthesea says:

    It might be because of the type of Anime I watch, but in my personal experience, it’s harder to find good female characters. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ‘harem’ series, so hopefully I’ve managed to avoid most of the dull, uninspired male protagonists out there. I agree that the demographic is definitely an undeniable factor in regard to these issues.

    My favourite Anime/Manga tends to have a good balance of quality between the genders, though — stuff like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Monster, Cowboy Bebop, Blade of the Immortal and Welcome to the N.H.K all seem to feature interesting male and female characters.

    • Yumeka says:

      It sounds like the kind of anime you’ve seen are the more “masculine” kind that tend to focus on male characters and not the female archetypes of harem anime. But if you want to see a better variety of female characters, you could give slice-of-life anime a try (not necessarily harem series).

      • Ice Hizzari says:

        With regards to ‘Classics’ in the slice-of-life department, I would assume that you realise that Lucky Star has been far more influential and recognisable to anime fans than Azumanga Daioh! Of course, now K-On’s popularity cannot be denied, either, and it will doubtless end up as a classic as well. If Haruhi Suzumiya is in your classics list, then Lucky Star definitely should be as well, as it is also a product of Kyoto Animation–and so is K-On! No wonder that all three of these were so popular! As groundbreaking as it might have been, I just don’t think that Azumanga Daioh quite makes the cut–since Lucky Star and K-On are well above it in terms of quality and production values.

    • Ice Hizzari says:

      Wait a minute, though–Neon Genesis Evangelion is a HAREM anime! (You knew that, right???) Sheesh… kids these days, always reading too much into things. Back in my day, we had two frames and enjoyed it!

  9. Mushyrulez says:

    Wow, I was going to talk about something in this comment but after reading more of your post, you’ve covered every point that I might have wanted to talk about! A very thorough post, I must say.

    To your point about the ‘duality’ of shounen shows – indeed, there’s a strange duality for both genders (I’m just assuming there are only two for simplicity’s sake). For the female (I have no experience here!), the two opposing attractions are hot men and cuteness/’girly’ things – love, romance, and the like. For the male, the opposing attractions are hot girls and action/manliness. This feels like stereotyping, but it rings rather true due to hormones and such, especially in the target audience for most animanga – teenagers. Indeed, a recent manhwa had the main character realize exactly this and use it to her advantage – she had to make this boy more happy, and does that by recruiting other boys to make him happier through the action side (e.g., playing sports), and by recruiting other girls to make him happier through the hot girl side (e.g. romance).

    If you keep this duality in mind while watching almost anything, you’ll find it occurs a shocking amount of times.

    • Yumeka says:

      Wow, I actually wrote a post about exactly what you said in terms of the duality that anime has for both genders. It really is an interesting phenomena that we don’t see in other mediums.

  10. As you know, I just can’t seem to get into most series that focus on female characters – especially when the girls are soft-spoken and not assertive and the emphasis is on “cuteness” and it’s a slice of life type show. This season I’ve been able to keep caught up on everything I’m watching (Naruto Shippuuden, Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Steins;Gate, Sacred Seven, No. 6, Nurarihyon, etc.), and the only one I stalled on is Hanasaku Iroha. I finally tried to catch up a little last night, watching about three episodes, and… it’s okay, but it’s just not anything I find compelling.

    My preference is for kick-ass heroines – I loved Noir, for example. I also think I might be more into shojo than I had previously thought, because I really enjoyed Hanasakeru Seishonen, which featured a spunky and likable female protagonist who had to choose between three gorgeous suitors, all of whom were well-drawn and interesting male characters. There was a lot of action and intrigue along the way (no “slice of life” moving-at-the-pace-of-mud story here), and I was really engaged all the way to the end of the series.

    I love active, interesting female characters, but I am also a fujoshi, meaning I am just naturally attracted to male characters as opposed to female characters and yaoi/boy’s love/regular shonen series give me plenty of those, almost more than there’s time in the day to watch. So in the end, I guess it just boils down to the usual thing – personal preference rules for each of us. ;)

    • Yumeka says:

      I could like kick-ass girls too but I usually prefer ones that have both a strong, interesting personality as well as a vulnerable and cute side to them. I’m just mushy like that I suppose ^^a I also rarely like the soft-spoken, submissive archetypes – I guess I tend to go for tsunderes and similar types as long as they’re done right.

      Hanasakeru Seishonen sounds very similar to Fushigi Yuugi. It sounds like you may like these kind of reverse harem anime with one main heroine surrounded by bishonen. Ouran is also in this category and you’d probably like Fruits Basket too =)

  11. kevo says:

    One’s profile of favorite characters will most likely reflect their exact taste relating to the shounen/moe dichotomy. And yes, most of my favorite characters are girls, cute girls. Call me shallow but it’s the truth — I watch lots of slice of life shows and I like the females. They are fun characters. They have cute features, they can make your heart melt.

    • Yumeka says:

      I like to watch a variety of anime, from otaku-aimed moe shows like Lucky Star and the currently airing Ikoku Meiro, to the long-running shonen series like Naruto and One Piece. But even though I watch many different genres, my favorites tend to be female and from slice-of-life anime. Most of my favorite male characters are from the long shonen series.

      Yeah, it’s hard to justify why we have the tastes in characters that we do, and we shouldn’t have to really. Anime and its characters were made to be enjoyed by fans, whatever their tastes may be ;)

  12. Kal says:

    Yeah, quite true. I imagine that it is to give more attention to specific characters that they want to become the “main” characters. So they make the other characters bland so they stand out better. That could be one reason. Or they do not want to spend money for a good voice actor and writers time to develop some characters, so they come out quite boring :S

    There are a few shows where all characters are strong characters though. Cowboy Bebop, Gundam (00 and SEED at least). Hum… If I had to say it, I prefer a show with many strong characters over shows with a few strong, and other bland characters. (Toradora is a great example). Favorite characters vary as well, can be male or female as long as the characters are well designed (My favorites in Ouran were the twins for example, and the “dog” in Fruits Basket).

    So I guess it varies a lot. What I can say, is that I dislike characters that are designed to be bland in purpose. I really think they add very little to the show. The main protagonist in “Infinite Stratos” (lone guy in an all-girls school), he was portrayed as being completely clueless! That drives me a bid mad. Air, while an interesting show, the secondary girls only received 1 or 2 episodes and never appeared again. It was probably cut short due to it only being 12 episodes, but it’s an injustice to their character and end up taking space in the show since they do not add much more to the plot…

    So female, or male, I do not mind. As long as they fit the story, and act somewhat natural (not too forced), then they will be ok. As long as they are not made bland on purpose, or added as a filler only (look pretty or something), no problem.

  13. skorpigeist says:

    I tend to have more interest in female than male character for the reasons that you described, although the better male characters do tend to stick out more. I also have a soft spot for Tsunderes ( both major variants), and something about the naive and innocent type ( like Mayushii or Nagisa from Clannad).

    I feel like slice of life type shows all suffer from the same inherent problem. That problem is that the daily life of most people is boring and so you have to make the characters lives “exciting.” by doing this you then create a new problem… you get further away from actual slice of life and more into the realm of the absurd or completely fictional (as most people find themselves saying “no one’s life is like that!”)

    As for characters… I feel like we have to take a more “real-life” approach to looking at them. Every character can’t be strong, and there are some people in life (although possibly far deeper than I could imagine) that are “bland” to me. This is because I can’t know every single person in my life, and there are also only people that I know superficially… Also you have to have characters that take up space (yes, filler is a necessary evil), and that you can only focus on so many characters. If every character was strong, the overall show would be boring. “Bland” and “Dynamic” personalities are both required.

    That being said, there is a fine line between tasteful use of blandness, and just lack of character development at all. That line is different for every person, and is another topic all in itself.

    As for good male characters, I think Okabe from Stein’s:Gate is one of the best male characters from this cour I have seen. I have yet to watch a few other shows that might have strong male leads.

  14. Aaron says:

    Personally I prefer female characters to male characters.

    I don’t know why.

    Maybe it’s because IN GENRAL the screen writers of most animes put a little more character development into female characters or male ones?

    Maybe they’re just easy to fall in love with? <3

  15. Kota-kun says:

    “Of course, there are again plenty of exceptions; the girls in the big “shonen trio” – Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece” I beg to differ with Naruto and Bleach. In Naruto it’s practically a meme in the fandom to call out ‘Kishimoto hates women’, due to their lack of actual development. And who could forget ‘Kurosaki-kun!’ repeat ad nauseum. Heroines in these two series (women in One Piece can stand for themselves) are always being saved, always cause drama when there really isn’t a place for it. But that’s my own opinion =D

  16. sheratan says:

    What I find so interesting is how this situation changes when we look at anime with a mostly male cast, especially shonen and mecha series

    hmmm…you forgot yaoi. :s

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