Adventure Shows for Girls

JGray

I'd like to take a moment to think about animated adventure shows that had female protagonists. For a while, it seemed like girl power was a major force but I've noticed that, in recent years, female characters have fallen to the back again. So, I thought I'd celebrate some of the great animated adventure shows with female leads from the past.

Kim Possible: Maybe the very best of them. A world trotting teen who could do anything. In a twist on a familiar trope, the girl is the hero while the boy is the bumbling sidekick.

My Life as a Teenage Robot: XJ9 (aka Jenny) is trying to be a normal teen while at the same time she's a robot built to save the world from... pretty much everything.

The Powerpuff Girls: One of the foundation blocks of modern girl power, the Powerpuff Girls are made from sugar... spice... everything nice... and CHEMICAL X!

She-Ra: Princess of Power: During the 80s, the toy companies saw great success with product/show combos such as He-Man and Transformers, so they tried to duplicate that success shows and toy lines targeted to girls. She-Ra was He-Man's sister. In some ways, she's the mother of the modern animated female.

Jem and the Holograms: Like She-Ra, Jem was as much a toy commercial as a show. It is classic, bad 80s glam rock but the theme song gets stuck in your head like nothing's business. Find the cover by Freezepop sometime. It is fab!

Recent shows seem to be returning to the two boys for every one girl formula. Young Justice has four male heroes (Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, and Kid Flash) and two female heroes (Miss Martian and Artemis). Zevo-3 has two boys, one girl. And the new power rangers? Three boys, two girls with the girls being pink and yellow. Once again, the red ranger's a white guy.

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Ayshara
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Guest post by "Ayshara"

Quote from JGray:

Ayshara - Indeed, Power Rangers is limited by the show it takes footage from. Still, there's no reason the red ranger can't be someone of color. It has been done in the past (Mystic Force).

If you think MF is good, try the original flavor here: http://tvnihon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=19

Submitted March 10, 2011 at 9:42PM

JSmith
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Guest post by "JSmith"
I don't like how every movie nowadays is trying to make the woman in a "male" job seem such a surprise, like its some kind of big for a woman nowadays to be a soldier in the field, leading a squad.

That is why I like the stuff from Japan. Even if the main character is male, the female characters seem to fit right into the roll of the cool ass kicker and no one is questioning that.

Submitted March 11, 2011 at 12:48AM

TC
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Guest post by "TC"
Well, you can't completely blame power rangers for their format...except in the case of the original MMPR. There's usually two females if there's a 5 group (except in MMPR, the original Japanese yellow was a guy named, well, Boy). It's very rare that there's an abundance of female Power Rangers, unless you count the whole thing where they went through, what, two yellows and three pinks in a matter of two years?

Shows based on comic books have no excuse, though.

90s X-men had 4 (Rogue, Storm, Jean and Jubilee--though the kid almost doesn't count), but that has been--to my knowledge--the only time there was a roughly even ratio of male-to-female heroes.

Submitted March 11, 2011 at 11:21PM

TC
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Guest post by "TC"

Quote from Guest:

Guest post by "Ayshara"

Quote from JGray:

Ayshara - Indeed, Power Rangers is limited by the show it takes footage from. Still, there's no reason the red ranger can't be someone of color. It has been done in the past (Mystic Force).

If you think MF is good, try the original flavor here: http://tvnihon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=19

Honestly, when you compare the formats in terms of story quality, nothing compares to MagiRanger because of the family-oriented theme. I was highly upset when I found out what they did to Mystic Force. Confused

Submitted March 11, 2011 at 11:27PM

JGray

Quote from Guest:

Shows based on comic books have no excuse, though.

90s X-men had 4 (Rogue, Storm, Jean and Jubilee--though the kid almost doesn't count), but that has been--to my knowledge--the only time there was a roughly even ratio of male-to-female heroes.

JLU had a lot of stand-out female characters: Vixen, Black Canary, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman. Though the ratio wasn't very close. X-Men Evolution had Storm, Jean, Rogue, and Kitty. Later they added Jubilee, Wanda, Magma, Boom Boom, X-23, and a few others.

I probably should have included the Spider-Woman cartoon from the 60s to the list. I totally forgot about that.

Submitted March 12, 2011 at 8:33AM

Ayshara
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Guest post by "Ayshara"

Quote from Guest:

Guest post by "TC"]
Honestly, when you compare the formats in terms of story quality, nothing compares to MagiRanger because of the family-oriented theme. I was highly upset when I found out what they did to Mystic Force. Confused

PR Samurai is even worse when compared to Shinkenger. *shudder*

Submitted March 12, 2011 at 10:36PM

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