Shounen Anime and Mangas, Why female characters are sidelined?

 Shounen Anime: Why do my most female characters in Shounen Anime suck?

Shounen Anime and Manga belongs to a Genre marketed for Little boys and Teenage boys.

Many publishers assume the fans to resonate more with the boy lead. Male writers don’t have Many publishers believe that fans will identify more with the boy lead. Male authors have a poor track record for writing female characters. Female characters got frequently sidelined in Battle Shounen. It can be intentional or not, but Men write most Battle Shounen.

Battle shounen with female Authors gave the girl characters more agency and deeper storylines. Inuyasha, Demon Slayer and Fullmetal Alchemist are some excellent examples.

Most Shounens follow this pattern: a male lead, his frenemy rival, and the female lead. The Female leads are usually the tertiary character in most shounen.

She can be a love interest, The brains or a support fighting character but will never win a fight.

The Publishers assume Younger Boys are still insecure about their masculinity, so they are hesitant to watch a female lead and support or play a videogame with a female lead. But You will notice in Battle Seinen Anime and Manga, Female characters even become the main lead.

The first season of My Hero Academia got applauded for its diverse female cast, only for them to be underdeveloped in later seasons.
Ochako Uraraka was initially the third lead, and she is also Midoriya’s love interest. But unfortunately, she was demoted in the following seasons when Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugou rose to prominence.

Yu Yu Hakusho had a lot of Useless female characters, but at least one of the strongest fighters is Genkai. Genkai is not the typical Shounen girl because she is an older woman. However, girls do watch Battle Shounen but they are unhappy with the representation.

Precure is a Magical Girl franchise, but the characters fight like Shounen characters do hand to hand combat. It became a hit in Japan, proving there is an action Market for girls.

Not all female characters have to be a fighter to be helpful, Bulma from Dragon Ball is not a fighter, but she is more relevant than some fighters in Dragon Ball because she is the scientist who is the brains of the operation.

Seinen Battle Anime is marketed to Adult men hence the number of female lead characters.

Unlike boys, Men are slightly more secure of their sexuality and gender identity. So in Seinen Anime like Kill La Kill and Blue Lagoon, Female characters are more nuanced.

There is a glimmer of Hope though we now have titles like Jujutsu Kaisen, where the females are competent despite not being the lead character. In addition, we have Stone Ocean on Netflix, which is the first Jojo Anime with a female main character. In Black Clover, Noelle gets to beat a Boss villain. Finally, in Demon Slayer, some of the most powerful characters in the series are women, and their stories are not as one dimensional as the ones we saw in Naruto or Bleach.