I am so tired of all these mangas/manhwas which describe their female MCs as 'real powerful' but at the end of the day has to rely on the help of male leads around her. Do you know a manga where a female MC can REALLY stand with her own two feet without needing bishies in shining armor to save her from distress!?

Chang Ge Xing is the first one that comes to mind. Unfortunately, it's been on hiatus ever since the author has been in a battle with her former publisher for the rights to the work. I still think it's very much worth reading though.

Also, Kubera. It's a slow build, and the MC does rely on her female companion in the beginning, but she's never the damsel in distress.

*Edit: realized, you posted this in Shoujo/Josei, so here's another recommendation that's specifically Josei: Real Clothes.

Last edited by jj11103 at 10:04 pm, Sep 12 2019

Murciélago
Cutey Honey
Shiroi Majo
Uchi no Musume ni Te o Dasu na! - Oyako Heroine Funtousu
Murder Princess
1/2 Prince
Noir (Anime)
Metal Fighter Miku (Anime)
Bayonetta (Anime/Game)

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Change 123 is a really good one with a strong female lead. While there is a male love interest, he only "comes to her rescue" physically once(he gets help from their friends to do it) and emotionally twice (so that she doesn't kill someone because of her overwhelming strength/rage mode). Other than that 9 times out of 10 she's the one saving him. Its a pretty good action/romance manga that I'd highly recommend.

Too soon to tell were it's gonna end up but so far the female lead in Saigo ni Hitotsu Dake Onegaishite mo Yoroshii Deshou ka is awesome...

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~4400 manga completed
~1700 ongoing...

Light and Shadow (Ryu Hyang) 😀

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this girl isn't just cute. beta male is wooed by his cool gf. there's not a lot of plot (it's mostly episodic with some progression of plot/relationship). it's extra wholesome too.

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Gokusen is about a teacher who's in the Yakuza. She deals with basically every fighting situation head on, though she does sometimes have backup (which mostly defer to her anyway).

Kimi wa Pet is about a strong woman. In fact, her problem is that her defenses are so strong that she is incapable of letting anyone in. The manga is mostly about her learning to let people in.

The Kidnapping of Minja Jo's Boyfriend is about a delinquent girl who accidentally ends up kidnapping an attractive guy who ends up falling in love with her.

The rest of these are mostly shounen

Yandere Kanojo (and the online version, which you should probably read at the same time) are about a bad-girl who's in love with a boring guy and their crazy bunch of friends. Typically in a scenario she's the one doing the fighting.

Angel Densetsu's leading heroine doesn't show up until the second volume, but she is also very strong and fights her own battles.

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!'s Tomo is still significantly stronger than Kubota, even up until the end.

Spirit Circle's plot generally features the two protagonists fighting each other across space, time, and the cycle of reincarnations, and their matchups are usually a toss-up.

The Villainess' Slow Prison Life Began With Her Broken Engagement also looks promising...

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~4400 manga completed
~1700 ongoing...

Battle Angel Alita and Azumi are quite good if you like old school manga

Aoharu x Kikanjuu | Action, Comedy, Romance, Shounen
Hotaru is pretty badass. She's the one who saves her friends most part of the time. One of my all-time favorite heroines. Cool strong girl. 😉

Claymore | Action, Fantasy, Mystery, Shounen, Supernatural
In this world women are powerful. No need of any knight saving them, they're not damsels in distress.

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ᵂᵃʳᵘᶦ ᴷᵒᵗᵒ ˢʰᶦᵗᵃᶦ ᴳᵘᶦᵈᵉ | ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃˡ ᶦⁿᶠᵒ | ᵂᵃʳᵘᶦⁿᵉˢˢ

Zero Game fits (I think?) but in the beginning the FL was pretty weak so she needed help. Although as the story goes on, it's actually her helping the guy soo.. she's pretty cool

Slayers.

I mean, Lina has a mercenary named Gourry, but he's more backup/bumbling idiot sidekick. Pretty sure she had to rescue him a few times.

Lina is the most powerful sorceress, capable of repeatedly accidentally destroying entire cities. Dragons pee themselves at the very mention of her name.
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Dragon Half.

Would you believe that there is an ecchi shounen series where the female mc is the strongest badass on earth & her love interest is a useless moron? Mink defeats every man who dares challenge her in combat.
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Gokusen.

Yamaguchi is a badass yakuza heiress working at a school for juvenile delinquents. She frequently has to rescue her male students & gets into a lot of fights.
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Gunsmith Cats.
Sabor Marionette.
Dirty Pair.
Project A-Ko.
Bubblegum Crisis.
Magic Knight Rayearth.
Gunm.
Anything by Go Nagai with a female protagonist.
Kill la Kill.
Juubei-Chan.
Kino no Tabi.

It's really weird how all the biggest female badasses are from the 80s & 90s Shounen series. What the heck happened in the 2000s😕? & shoujo manga is even worse at portraying women as dainty, useless, overemotional babies who only think about romance.


Last edited by likalaruku1 at 7:25 pm, Sep 28 2019

What do you mean by "what happened"? 8/10 pages of search results for "Action" manga with a "Male Demographic with Female Lead" tag are all series started in the last two decades. In fact, majority of the series listed in this thread started within the past 10 years.


You're surprised that a genre that is aimed at school-age girls primarily has female characters that act like school-age girls?

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