Highlights

• Shonen anime with predominantly female casts offer diverse and action-packed stories, appealing to a wider audience, including female fans.
• Female-centric series like Galaxy Angel showcase the strength and friendship of exclusively female protagonists in comedic space adventures.
• Shows like Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh highlight the daily lives of high school girls, with male characters in supporting roles to add humor.

While shonen animes target a male audience and feature male protagonists, there are some that feature a predominantly female cast. And guess what? They’re not always fanservice fuel or part of the harem genre. Some of these series are just as action-packed as their male-centric counterparts, while others are more laid-back entries in the ‘cute girls doing cute things’ genre.

Making the cast of a shonen anime mostly female allows for more diverse representation of girls and women in a genre that has long been criticized for portraying them as mere satellite characters. These series also tend to attract female fans for obvious reasons, bringing the world of shonen to a wider audience.

7 Negima! Master Negi Magi

MyAnimeList Score: 6.94

Negima! Master Negi Magi follows a 10-year-old magician named Negi Springfield. Having just graduated from a magic academy, he becomes an English teacher at an all-girls school in order to obtain his full magic license. Throughout the series, Negi bonds with his students and helps them discover their own special abilities.

The large female cast is a given, as the series is set in an all-girls high school. Negi's class alone has 31 students, each with distinct personalities and skills, all playing important roles in the story.

6 Galaxy Angel

MyAnimeList Score: 7.12

• Release date: April 7, 2001
• Studio: Hospice
• The Creator: Broccoli
• Number of episodes: 126
• Genre(s): Comedy, Science Fiction, Mecha

Galaxy Angel follows an all-female galactic peacekeeping force called the Angel Brigade. Tasked with various missions, from planetary exploration to combating threats to peace. Their primary mission is to search for 'Lost Technology', mysterious artifacts with unique powers scattered throughout the galaxy.

The main focus of the series revolves around the comedic interactions and adventures of the members of the Angel Brigade. The franchise began as a more serious dating simulation/strategy video game with a male protagonist named Takuto Meyers, which was adapted from the anime.

5 Symphogear

MyAnimeList Score: 7.05

Magical girl anime always feature predominantly female casts, and Symphogear is no exception. It revolves around a group of girls who use an advanced armor called 'Symphogear' to fight alien creatures known as 'Noise' using the power of music.

While there are supporting male characters in the series, the protagonists are all female and there is a strong focus on their friendships. The anime showcases their strengths, struggles, and growth as they face formidable adversaries, all in a world that blends the magical girl, idol, and mecha genres.

4 Gunslinger Girl

MyAnimeList Score: 7.40

• Release date: October 8, 2003
• Studio: Hospice
• The Creator:Yu Aida
• Number of episodes: 13
• Genre(s): Action, Drama, Science Fiction

Gunslinger Girl follows the exploits of an Italian organization called the Social Welfare Agency, which claims to rescue girls from trauma. In reality, it is just a front, and the agency brainwashes and cyber-washes these girls into carrying out missions on behalf of the government.

The main cast of Gunslinger Girl are all girls and the men in the series mainly serve as coaches and trainers for them. The anime explores the girls' relationships, experiences, and traumas, making it a show with a strong female presence.

3 Lucky star

MyAnimeList Score: 7.75

Lucky star is a classic anime that revolves around four high school girls – the geeky Konata Izumi, the studious Kagami Hiiragi, her sister Tsukasa, and the intelligent Miyuki Takara – and their interactions and conversations. The series does not have an overarching plot, but rather focuses on their daily lives, exploring otaku culture through their perspective.

There are a few male characters in the series; however, they mostly exist in supporting roles and don't get as much screen time as the female characters. This is to be expected because Lucky Star is a well-known entry in the 'cute girls doing cute things' genre.

2 Aria, the Animation

MyAnimeList Score: 7.69

• Release date: October 5, 2005
• Studio: Hal Film Maker
• The Creator: Kozue Amano
• Number of episodes: 13
• Genre(s): Slice of Life, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Set in the Venice-inspired city of Neo Venezia on the planet Aqua, Aria, the Animation tells the story of a young girl named Akari Mizunashi, who leaves Earth to become an 'Ondine' – a gondolier who guides tourists through the canals of Neo Venezia.

It might be easy to mistake Aria for a shojo series, since all of the main characters (including Akari and the Undines), their mentors, and other important figures are women, and the story has a relaxing and heartwarming atmosphere. After being renamed, the manga was serialized in a shonen magazine called Comic Blade.

1 Azumanga Daioh

MyAnimeList Score: 8.03

Azumanga Daioh follows the surreal everyday lives of six high school girls, child prodigy Chiyo, headstrong Osaka, introverted Sakaki, temperamental Yomi, energetic Tomo, and sporty Kagura. Like a series of slice-of-life scenes, Azumanga Daioh focuses on the absurdly humorous interactions of the six girls and their teachers, Yukari and Minamo.

The two teachers are the only male characters to play a significant role in the series. The female characters drive most of the plot and comedic elements, while the male characters serve as additional sources of humor.