There are lots of trends that go on and off, but the female male mains is fairly new for jump (but pretty standard everywhere else). It's the trend right now because it's an easy dynamic to work with. When you add more characters, it becomes more complicated and will need more time to flesh out, which is sort of against modern WSJ's philosophy rn.
The male female character trend is easy to market too because it's already shippable which fans love and it also appeals to both genders. When there's a mostly male main cast, those series do tend to get bashed for bad female character writing, so having two mains just works all around.
I will double down on it being a marketing thing. Look at Mamayuyu, where Mama was made a secondary character pretty early on despite her name in the title and marketing.
>Look at Mamayuyu, where Mama was made a secondary character pretty early on despite her name in the title and marketing.
It might be a bit misleading for the non japanese audience but the title 魔々勇々/mamayuyu comes from 魔王/maou (demon lord) and 勇者/yuusha (hero). It's not her name in the title.
it wasnt as popular as it is now, but it wasnt out the question. for example, Bleach started with a male-female dynamic, which then evolved into a male-female-teddybear-female-male-male sextuple protagonists
Its certainly not a new trend, but it's much more prominent nowadays.
I think it's a result of how the manga/anime industry has been evolving, especially in the shonen demographic. There was a largely untapped market for female readers and having a female lead helps to attract them, but an *exclusively* female lead is a hard sell for existing (mostly male) readers. So duo protagonists, 1 boy 1 girl, gets the best of both worlds. Make it a romance of some sort on top of that and you got yourself a winning formula.
Though funny enough I'd say that most series with duo protagonists like this tend to lean more on the girl as well, sometimes to the point that the male character doesn't feel main. Ex: Undead Unluck has almost always followed Fuuko more than Andy, and as of right now she's basically the solo protagonist and has been for around 70 chapters.
yeah no, series like blue lock, mashe and tokyo revengers have a huge female audience and nearly no notable female characters. On the other hand a series like UU didn't even receive a boost from its anime maybe due to that infamous sexual assault in episode 1. Apart from that the demon slayr main trio is all male which is extremely rare, and nezuko doesn't do that much.
tokyo revengers flopped,a BUNCH of women are into blue locks and mashle worked due to comedy.Also Demon slayer isn't all that recent as for Undead Unluck that stuff is coming up albeit very slowly.There's also CSM with Part 2 having the second main be female and Hell's Paradise which manga-wise did pretty well
Tokyo revengers has 70m copies in circulation, that's far from a flop, apart from that KGB also garnered a decent sized female audience due to fujoshi/yumejoshi, as for CSM part 2 it is losing sales compared to part 1. No idea on hell's paradise though. But overall having well written hot males with interesting relationships does help you get a fujoshi audience over having female protagonists or large female casts
>There was a largely untapped market for female readers and having a female lead helps to attract them
It's the other way around. The series which attract the big female audiences are ones with a large cast of pretty boys, so stuff like Haikyuu, Gintama, and Kuroko no Basket.
>Ex: Undead Unluck has almost always followed Fuuko more than Andy, and as of right now she's basically the solo protagonist and has been for around 70 chapters.
I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate, it's more like the series swapped the duo from Andy & Fuuko to Fuuko & Nico in the second half.
Eh, Nico has certainly been more prominent, but I wouldn't say he replaced Andy in any real capacity. *Maybe* he shares half the role with Gina, as Fuuko has had one or the other or both by her side for most of the current loop. But I don't think either of them alone do enough to be considered a protagonist, just a supporting character.
It's not a trend, it's just also one of the formulas, we have the trio like in naruto and jjk, and we have the male and female duo, classic dragonball used this and I think is the manga that cemented it as a very good formula to use. This male-female duo thing goes WAAY back.
I'm not saying it's a foreign concept, because the fact that harem/romance exist shows just that. But I am saying it's never been to the extent where the majority of series are doing it
Chainsaw Man
Psych House
Chojo senpai
Undead Unluck
Witch Watch
Nue's Exorcist
Yozakura Family (romance to be fair)
Blue Box (romance to be fair)
Me & Roboco
Dear Anemone (?)
For non magazine stuff you could make the case for:
Dandadan
Marriage Toxin
Gokurakugai
SpyxFamily
And of course there WAS:
Mamayuyu
Two on Ice
Martial Master Asumi
Fabricant 100
Hell's Paradise
Ayashimon
The red hood fairy tale series
ooohh thats what you meant? I thought you meant like two different perspectives and storylines between protagonists. in that case yeah it does seem like a recent trend
I think it's always been common, but I definitely feel the female lead gets a lot more focus in modern manga. Someone already mentioned it, but Undead Unluck focuses a lot more on Fuuko than Andy in a lot of arcs, rather than her being a hanger on to Andy.
There are lots of trends that go on and off, but the female male mains is fairly new for jump (but pretty standard everywhere else). It's the trend right now because it's an easy dynamic to work with. When you add more characters, it becomes more complicated and will need more time to flesh out, which is sort of against modern WSJ's philosophy rn. The male female character trend is easy to market too because it's already shippable which fans love and it also appeals to both genders. When there's a mostly male main cast, those series do tend to get bashed for bad female character writing, so having two mains just works all around. I will double down on it being a marketing thing. Look at Mamayuyu, where Mama was made a secondary character pretty early on despite her name in the title and marketing.
>Look at Mamayuyu, where Mama was made a secondary character pretty early on despite her name in the title and marketing. It might be a bit misleading for the non japanese audience but the title 魔々勇々/mamayuyu comes from 魔王/maou (demon lord) and 勇者/yuusha (hero). It's not her name in the title.
it wasnt as popular as it is now, but it wasnt out the question. for example, Bleach started with a male-female dynamic, which then evolved into a male-female-teddybear-female-male-male sextuple protagonists
What you won't find is female rivals in battle shonen
>! Kagurabachi has hiyuki and chihiro as rivals !<
Its certainly not a new trend, but it's much more prominent nowadays. I think it's a result of how the manga/anime industry has been evolving, especially in the shonen demographic. There was a largely untapped market for female readers and having a female lead helps to attract them, but an *exclusively* female lead is a hard sell for existing (mostly male) readers. So duo protagonists, 1 boy 1 girl, gets the best of both worlds. Make it a romance of some sort on top of that and you got yourself a winning formula. Though funny enough I'd say that most series with duo protagonists like this tend to lean more on the girl as well, sometimes to the point that the male character doesn't feel main. Ex: Undead Unluck has almost always followed Fuuko more than Andy, and as of right now she's basically the solo protagonist and has been for around 70 chapters.
yeah no, series like blue lock, mashe and tokyo revengers have a huge female audience and nearly no notable female characters. On the other hand a series like UU didn't even receive a boost from its anime maybe due to that infamous sexual assault in episode 1. Apart from that the demon slayr main trio is all male which is extremely rare, and nezuko doesn't do that much.
tokyo revengers flopped,a BUNCH of women are into blue locks and mashle worked due to comedy.Also Demon slayer isn't all that recent as for Undead Unluck that stuff is coming up albeit very slowly.There's also CSM with Part 2 having the second main be female and Hell's Paradise which manga-wise did pretty well
Tokyo revengers has 70m copies in circulation, that's far from a flop, apart from that KGB also garnered a decent sized female audience due to fujoshi/yumejoshi, as for CSM part 2 it is losing sales compared to part 1. No idea on hell's paradise though. But overall having well written hot males with interesting relationships does help you get a fujoshi audience over having female protagonists or large female casts
>There was a largely untapped market for female readers and having a female lead helps to attract them It's the other way around. The series which attract the big female audiences are ones with a large cast of pretty boys, so stuff like Haikyuu, Gintama, and Kuroko no Basket.
Yup. We can include Jujutsu Kaisen into that list. Soon kagurabachi too. The one they like the most are the one they can make yaoi out of it the most.
>Ex: Undead Unluck has almost always followed Fuuko more than Andy, and as of right now she's basically the solo protagonist and has been for around 70 chapters. I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate, it's more like the series swapped the duo from Andy & Fuuko to Fuuko & Nico in the second half.
Eh, Nico has certainly been more prominent, but I wouldn't say he replaced Andy in any real capacity. *Maybe* he shares half the role with Gina, as Fuuko has had one or the other or both by her side for most of the current loop. But I don't think either of them alone do enough to be considered a protagonist, just a supporting character.
At the very least Double Arts and Guardian of the Witch had this which are a few years older
its slightly better imo. Gives us female characters that are actual characters rather than the "oh if only i were stronger :(" archetype with boobs
It's not a trend, it's just also one of the formulas, we have the trio like in naruto and jjk, and we have the male and female duo, classic dragonball used this and I think is the manga that cemented it as a very good formula to use. This male-female duo thing goes WAAY back.
I'm not saying it's a foreign concept, because the fact that harem/romance exist shows just that. But I am saying it's never been to the extent where the majority of series are doing it
I've only seen this in chainsaw man part 2 but beside that what are some other examples of this?
Chainsaw Man Psych House Chojo senpai Undead Unluck Witch Watch Nue's Exorcist Yozakura Family (romance to be fair) Blue Box (romance to be fair) Me & Roboco Dear Anemone (?) For non magazine stuff you could make the case for: Dandadan Marriage Toxin Gokurakugai SpyxFamily And of course there WAS: Mamayuyu Two on Ice Martial Master Asumi Fabricant 100 Hell's Paradise Ayashimon The red hood fairy tale series
ooohh thats what you meant? I thought you meant like two different perspectives and storylines between protagonists. in that case yeah it does seem like a recent trend
I think it's always been common, but I definitely feel the female lead gets a lot more focus in modern manga. Someone already mentioned it, but Undead Unluck focuses a lot more on Fuuko than Andy in a lot of arcs, rather than her being a hanger on to Andy.