Just look at animemes banning the use of tr*p. Of course not every anime is misogynist but... there’s kinda a lot. And I think there’s a lot of blatant misogyny that is definitely noticed, and people who watch those scenes know it’s bad, but if you keep watching that shit over and over, even if you know it’s bad, it just get burned into your brain. But more importantly, a lot of anime just treats women as a whole differently than the male characters. Their drawn slightly differently, they act slightly differently, and they continue to be treated as objects, albeit in more subtle ways. On their own or in a bubble these grievances wouldn’t be a big deal, but it does add up. Idk, shit just sucks and it makes it hard to get into shows I would really like otherwise...
I recently started watching anime and I haven’t really found one yet that has good female characters (although I really haven’t watched many yet).
The ones that don’t sexualize the characters like FMA and Deathnote still don’t give the women a lot of agency and they’re always serving the men.
Code Geass had at least one female character I liked but sexualized her and the others a lot.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a satire of magical girl anime so it does trod in some of the tropes, but by the end I think the female characters have agency and real relationships with each other. But it still ultimately feels like men writing women.
I think Erased was also okay about this. It was a male-centered story but there were significant female characters and I don’t remember any of them being sexualized. Not sure if it passes the Bechedel test though.
Overlord was the worst one for me that I’ve seen and I couldn’t finish it.
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Death Note is one of the worst anime out there when it comes to the representation of women imo. The main antagonist/protagonist constantly remarks on how easily fooled and overly emotional women are. And the show does it's darndest to try and prove him right, even the female god of death gets done in because of it. The sexism gets a lot more obvious when it comes to their follow up work, Bakuman, though. Death Note just keeps getting worse whenever I return to it.
Ugh, I love the conflict between Light and L, but I can't stand Misa's terrible characterization (or lack thereof, I should say). Her entire role in the story is to be Light's goth slave gf and give him access to a second death note. I wasn't even radicalized when I first watched it and it bothered me even back then.
Eh his teenager coworkers boobs are sometimes a bit... center of frame
Pretty sure his mom has convos with other women about shit unrelated to any males in the plot, least not directly. Granted their all short.
Have you ever tried Twelve Kingdoms? It's a little old now I guess, but so good. The protagonist is a high school girl and the the whole first season's focus is her character arc and her struggle with the pressures of society. While being sent to a magical world, fighting monsters, and hanging out with a talking mouse scholar ofc. The second season adds two more female protagonists. It's very introspective and character focused for a portal fantasy lol. The light novels it's based on were written by a woman, which helps.
I haven’t seen that one yet but I’ll have to check it out.
I found when I was trying to find an anime with a female protagonist that usually they were even worse so I kind of gave up.
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Huh. I had it recommenced to me, watched one episode, but got annoyed by that girl character that speaks exclusively in baby talk. Maybe I should give it another try.
Suzuha is best girl and no I will not be taking questions.
Try Masaaki Yuasa - the best animation (not just "anime") director hands down with an absolutely unique vision every single time. He has plenty of interesting and well written female characters. In fact in many of his works it's the male characters who are often the immature idiots instead. The late Satoshi Kon a close second. Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda as well.
Serial Experiments Lane also features a female protagonist who explores her own psyche as she descends into madness.
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Check out series that are tagged with Josei or Shoujo for shows that are more geared towards women/written by women.
Also, I'll throw in a rec for Usagi Drop - Adorable show that explores the challenges of being a mother in modern society. I'd argue this one (and its controversial source material) is actually feminist in nature in that the women in the series are allowed to make choices that go against societal expectations of them.
I have watched many anime with great female characters, but like western media, there is likely to be something that could be improved to portray the women better. Still, I think I can recommend something worth watching if there's a genre or specific kind of show/movie you want to watch?
I did like most of the anime I watched, just sometimes need to take breaks from male-focused media.
My favorites of the things I watched were FMA (both original and Brotherhood) and Code Geass.