I'm looking for a strong female lead with a male lead who is weaker than the female lead, however that male lead must be one of those "I must protect her because I'M A BURLY MANLY MAN" males and that annoying male lead must at some point in the story one way or another come to accept the female lead can take care of herself better than he can take care of himself.

if that male lead doesn't have to be an idiot:
Yumekui Merry he knows he is weaker, but doesn't want to pull her leg (manga reference intended^^), so he aims to become stronger

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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

Saver
Otome Youkai Zakuro

You mean something like Olivier and Alex from FMA?

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"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"

Lorska, as for Yumekui Merry that is what made me make this request, the male lead is annoying as crap even though it's clear the female lead is stronger he still tries to protect her and is a weakling. I am quite positive he will become stronger than the female lead in the future and will then be able to protect her... I do not want that to happen. I want the male lead to ALWAYS be weaker than the female lead, and to eventually come to actually understand there is nothing they can do to protect that female lead in every situation, she has to always be the better one. That doesn't mean he can't be able to help her by dunno like, casting Cure 2 on her or something, but he can't just Level Up! all the way past her.

Yes EternalNightmare, like that.

France16748, I'll look into those, thank you.

first time I heard Yumeji is annoying... imo one of the best seinen protagonists I've found so far...
And no he doesn't try to protect her, he knows he isn't able to, so he just tries to help her

Chou Dokyuu Shoujo 4946
Hekikai no AiON


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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

i guess Yanki-kun to Megane-chan and Superior kinda fits.

I'd suggest Cheeky Angel, but it does take about 16 volumes for what your talking about to happen.

The male lead has way more physical strength than the female lead, although she can fight more effectively and has an insane amount of will power. He keeps trying to save her but she can generally save herself before he eve gets there.

Claymore perhaps...
the male lead started from a crybaby in the start, not exist in later arcs and suddenly become a mad swordsman in the current arc...
He knows ( and all the reader knows) that he isn't even close in term of strength to the female lead...
He is still looking for her anyway...

Zero In - should fit well
Otome Youkai Zakuro - or try the anime. The ending of the anime isn't great, but the translation of the manga is going rather slow and not many chapters are out.

Sekirei - Minato knows his place, he is weak, so he lets his girls do the fighting rather than try to do stuff on his own. With that he puts Fate/Stay Night's Shirou and Kurenai's Shinkurou to shame. Sure they're strong, but they almost never ask for help, they try to do things on their own, fail and then get saved by someone else and they repeat the same mistake over and over again. This manga in infamous for excessive ecchi, but the story is there and it's actually ok.

zippy ziggy