Action shonen with female protagonists?

Shit, I misspelled his name.

Also, I did not know that. Again, I don't watch it.

I find it a bit sad that we may have only one answer (Claymore) that unambiguously fits the question...and it does so by having practically the entire cast be female. (Except for Raki, but he's always been more of a side-protagonist/deuteragonist/whatever.)

Edit: oh yes, Kill la Kill. But as mentioned, that has ridiculous fanservice.

edited 23rd Jan '16 11:37:43 PM by ashnazg

Uh I never read it bout what about Medaka Box?

It starts out being not very action, and after that it starts getting debatable whether or not Medaka is the protagonist is the traditional sense. And then it gets meta about that. There's an arc where the villain's plan turns out to be 'have Medaka's childhood friend/love interest usurp the protagonist role from her' and it more or less works.

I only read the Kill la Kill manga, but it seemed to me like it made fun of fanservice rather than play it straight… I mean, that outfit, seriously.

About Fairy Tail… it's debatable, because yeah, there isn't really one protagonist in the series. It's not uncommon to have the first character introduced (who'll serve as a POV character) be a girl, but then it falls into the co-protagonists case at best. It's also the case in B.Ichi.

On FMA: while the main characters are male, the manga and Brotherhood should get point for portraying women as able to be competent in their chosen role.

Case in point: None of female combatant portrayed as less than mildly competent, and the ones who mildly competent arguably because they got caught with the pants open, so to speak. Even (arguably) two biggest Badasses in the series are women. The ones who are not combatant are not treated differently other than facts of life; not everyone can be hardasses monster fighting warrior, some people better off as home caretaker, technician, butcher, teacher, librarian, merchant, etc.

Yes, the fanservice in Kill la Kill was clearly tongue-in-cheek. But it's still so over-the-top that it becomes a little grating.

And I just remembered! Kara No Kyoukai. It's not that heavy on the action, though...however, the few action scenes that do occur were beautifully animated by ufotable. (The Kajiura soundtrack plays a big part, too.)

The original Cutey Honey was Shonen and called a 'superhero' show since Magical Girl Warrior didn't exist yet. The original was actually quite tame on Fanservice.

Cutey Honey Flash and beyond made it more of a Magical Girlfriend series with some accidental pervert moments and fanservicy costumes Honey.

Kill La Kill was actually a reimagine of Cutey Honey.

edited 24th Jan '16 10:13:19 AM by Memers

Claymore and Kill la Kill are the only examples that come to mind.

Fairy Tail doesn't count, because you can't say with a straight face that Lucy is the protagonist. Same with Medaka Box.

I can get why Fairy Tail doesn't count, but why not Medaka Box?

edited 24th Jan '16 8:24:08 AM by Watchtower

Kill La Kill also went whole hog with the fan-service for both genders. When everyone is naked...

Zenkichi takes over as lead sometime in the manga.

No he doesn't.

He is very firmly in a supporting role, leading up to his whole character arc where he realizes he Can't Catch Up and is given the opportunity to take the main role for himself. And that ends with him accepting his role as a support, starting up his and Medaka's transition into a couple. And from that point Medaka maintains a steel grip for the rest of the series.

Ironically, he is the closest to a main character before the Genre Shift, where he's very much the Kyon to Medaka's Haruhi.

Okay, my mistake then.

Technically speaking, isn't Kill la Kill demographic suppose to be Seinen?

Yes it is, it's manga adaptation runs in Young Ace a Seinen mag. Even though the series it was inspired by was Shonen.

Claymore was also mentioned here and that is Seinen as well.

There are quite a few Seinen series with girls as the protagonist though and quite a few of those are actually pretty good.

edited 25th Jan '16 8:47:12 AM by Memers

Claymore ran in Weekly Jump and Jump Square, so it's a shonen demographic.

Someone needs to tell the other wiki that.

So no thoughts on the first two Cutey Honey series?

edited 25th Jan '16 9:37:55 AM by Memers

I'm a little saddened, but not surprised, to see Inuyasha got unmentioned.

In spite of the name, Kagome is arguably the lead character or at the very least is in a co-star role with Inu himself. Neither is more important than the other.

I know you said no co protagonists but Inu is not a romcom. I mean, it has romance and comedy, but an Adam Snndler movie it is not.

Also of the five main characters, 2 are female and one barely even counts as a main character. Sorry Shippo. So two feemle protags, two male. Seems like a good balance.

edited 26th Jan '16 12:30:18 AM by Nikkolas

Yeah kagome is just as important as inuyasha and really the show is tailored for females just as much males.

Exactly. Inuyasha is a very interesting type of battle shounen. It's so different in format and style from most other popular shounen that many people seen to think it's shojo.

Honestly, the character drama and action are equally split so it caters to both boys and girls. That's why Kagome is every bit as important as Inu himself.

edited 26th Jan '16 1:39:05 AM by Nikkolas

Considering Kagome is primarily a Love Interest and does fuck all for 90% of her screentime, she really shouldn't count, imo.

Anyway, Arachnid is a battle shounen with a female lead. and the most prominent guy in the cast is quickly sidelined/killed off for another female deutertagonist/love interest.

edited 26th Jan '16 2:08:36 AM by Rynnec

Yeah lets try a series that has a more balanced gender ratio & dosnt go to the extreme of getting rid of all the guys. I mean a good example is in Nanaoha where both Chrono & Yuuno both kept getting extremely out of focus each season, Yuuno especially.

it's technically a Seinen.

And that spoiler just sounds stupid and pandering, no offense.

...Okay, you know what, maybe we should say "action series, period", since there are so many series that blur the line anyway. Which might include Until Death Do Us Part — though I've only read the early volumes and don't know how much focus Haruka gets later on...