Shows with female leads that were/are successful to both genders.

Anyone mentioned Escaflowne yet? I haven't seen it but that definatly had cross demographic apeal and it would be difficult to argue that Hitomi wasn't the main character.
 
I believe I read that a long time ago. The opening of the first episode featured Caleb as to make a more interesting first impression on the boy audience more than just a new girl arriving at her school. One could also say Caleb was made a central character as well to balance it out (since he's fairly minor and shows up for only a few issues in the comic) and have a male presence on the show.

In general, I think it's also important to consider who the show is targeted at and why is has cross appeal. A show with girls as the main character and aimed at girls, but has crossover appeal to guys can be treated differently than a show aimed at guys with girls as the lead. I think it also bares mentioning that if guys only like it for the 'hot girls' then.. well.. should we really count that as accepting them as leading roles for their merits? The easiest way to get a guy watching a girl-lead show is fanservice, but I wouldn't consider that the same as liking it for the writing or characters.
 
It doesn't work that way. Plus, guys do enjoy movies like Snow White and The Little Mermaid. So, again, why is it that movies with female leads (and themes) do well, but TV shows don't?
 
No, it hasn't been said yet, but i loved that show and use to watch it religiously, i don't remember it being very popular though.
 
I am basing this solely on personal experience, but back in my kindergarden years, i enjoyed the Care Bears and My Little Pony cartoons as much as my sister did, and most of my male friends watched them as well. So i suspect that those shows might actually have been pretty popular among boys in general. Probably since the storylines in both those shows were very similar to those in typical action-cartoons for boys (namely, of the old "good guys vs bad guys" kind).

Not that i can imagine that alot of males over the age of 7 or so watched them, but there probably weren't even that many girls over that age who watched them either...
 
Animated movies probably have a much larger adult audience than animated TV shows do. And kids probably use gender as a basis for what they watch more often than adults do. Thus it's easier for animated movies to be successful with a female lead.


That's my guess.
 
W.C.Reaf said:
Jem from all the way back in the 80s. I never really watched it and I'm not sure how popular it was, but I've heard it mentioned a few times in recent years so it must've at least been popular enough for people to remember it.
I remember a qoute from Christy Marx, the head writer and story editor for Jem, who stated that she always tried to make sure that even though the series was primarily targeted towrads girls she tried to make it so that the show was exciting and action packed enough so that boys would enjoy it also.


Would the Tenchi series count? I mean even though the title character is male most of the action and stories are driven bythe female characters.
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I don't buy it. I'd think adults use gender as a basis more. You could argue that when you list an average boy's watch-list, it would feature predominantly male leads, but of course, they don't really have a very big choice, now do they?
I think that sexism is something that you get as you age as a result of this lack of choice along with many other factors, not something that you are inherently born with.
 
I'm surprised nobody mentioned She-Ra. That was easily a uni-sex cartoon. I liked it almost as much as He-Man.

Others would include Daria, Gem, and Penelope Pitstop.
 
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