Why are there so few main girl characters who are the star (no pun) of their own show? With shit like Frozen and MLP taking off like candy, I would think more networks would invest in girl shows.
Even girls aren't interested in seeing female protagonists unless they're cool as fuck. I haven't seen svfe but she looks like a corny bitch.
>>83279168
It's pretty hard to write a good female character that's also realistic because girls in real life are incredibly boring. Thus any attempt will look artificial or forced.
>>83279168
Because every time the MC is female, somebody somewhere at some point gets Offended over something.
>>83279206
I think shes pretty cool. A bit goofy at times but I think she can be cool
>>83279168
I went to a panel at a small con a while back and the creators/writers of Kim Possible were there and they answered this question.
Executives don't think they can sell toys to boys with female leads in action roles, they also don't think girls are interested in action shows. Every example of these shows existing and being well received, Kim Possible and PPG, are anomalies that can't be used as a standard.
>>83279232
This desu. Even women know that women are terrible people.
>>83279295
But it's not even limited to action shows. There are very few comedies with main girl leads as well.
>>83279266
This, this and again this.
>>83279286
Seems like she's just Mabel 2.0. Nobody you'd like enough to self-insert as.
>>83279232
Cartoon characters are hardly realistic though. Spongebob, Gumball, Dipper, Wander Rick/Morty. Unless you meant writers are afraid to have a main girl lead because they're mostly men and they don't want to "mess it up" or something.
>>83279329
I think the problem is again the execs who want to sell toys, and if those toys aren't pretty dolls then they pretty much throw the female demographic out the window.
Thinking back on it, there were quite a few shows back in the early 00's that stared females. Juniper Lee, Teenage Robot, the one with the redheaded space adventurer, the one Amy Pohler did the VA work for.
>>83279462
The 00's in general tried to really push the action genre, I feel like. All you listed plus Avatar, Teen Titans, Ben 10, Jackie Chan Adventures, Xiaolin Showdown.
Looking back now, I regret taking all those action shows for granted. I would have enjoyed them more if I knew the only action shows we would have now would be low-tier Marvel-toons that try to imitate the films.
>>83279537
What I find strange is that they didn't take the plunge with female driven action stuff, given that there were at least two anime that were exploding that were just that, Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon. I suppose they did try with Winx Club and Witch but its weird how it just never caught on over here.
>>83279649
I think that goes back to the whole "Pokemon killed Saturday Morning Cartoons" deal where execs probably didn't give a shit it was girl action shows that were huge in the ratings as much as it being an anime where all they had to do is dub over and pay for airing rights and save a shit ton of money in the process.
>>83279168
DESU I can sort of understand when cape movies don't have female headliners. They actually gave it a shot pretty early with Catwoman, Aeon Flux, and Elektra and then just learned all the wrong lessons from being burned by those movies.
As far as I can tell TV doesn't have similar high profile flops. Plus the lower budgets and number of shows mean TV can ostensibly better afford risk than film. Plus there are plenty of good examples of animated female characters pulling their weight narratively on TV.
That said, part of it might also be that female-oriented shows lean towards ensemble casts rather than single protagonists for whatever reason. And, as others mentioned, there's the toy thing.
>>83279168
Star vs
Legend of Korra
Miraculous Ladybug & Cat Noir
Littlest Pet Shop
Lolirock
Gravity Falls (partially)
Several others, like Winx and W.I.T.C.H., which I don't follow so I don't know how popular they are.
The problem, I think, are the executives running these companies. "Common knowledge" is that girls only watch girl-shows and only buy girl-toys while boys only watch boy-shows and only buy boy-toys, and so they mostly just okay designs which meet those assumptions. So you get "girl cartoons" like Monster High and "boy cartoons" which have male MCs, for the most part.
I think the problem with your assumption isn't that there are no female protagonists, but that they are mostly restricted to these stereotypical girl-cartoons... or foreign markets. France certainly doesn't seem shy about throwing females in as main characters, and Japan isn't exactly shy about tossing action into their girl-aimed audiences. It's mostly just the assumptions of a small group of guys in America, who are mostly ignoring the demographics as long as they're still selling their Barbie-knockoffs.
Shitty live action disney sitcoms are more profitable in that demographic
