This is a request but also partially me venting lol. It feels like every shounen series out there does it at least a little? It's somewhat disturbing to me how ingrained it is. It's especially bad when the female characters in question are underage (ex: Yaoyorozu in BnHA - I'm sorry, I like the series but the way Horikoshi treats his female characters is gross). But I'll cut to the chase...

If I had to break down what I want:
- No fanservice (Is this asking for too much? Maybe... I'll accept it if it's not too ridiculous and it's not sexualizing underage girls)
- More than one female character, all with different motivations and personalities etc. (bonus if they get to interact with each other meaningfully)
- The female characters exist for reasons other than being the love interest of the male character/s
- An interesting plot - though I guess this is secondary to my request

As of now, the only good example I can think of is Fullmetal Alchemist though I'm sure (I hope) that there's plenty more out there.

I think you might enjoy Miao Shou Xian Dan and Knight Run. They're not exactly shouen and are web comics but they're pretty good in my opinion. I also advise you to look into American comics, you can find them for free online if you know where to look...

I have this same problem haha. I'd recommend Kekkaishi, Helck, Bonnouji, Ties of Compassion, My Next Door Neighbor is a Dragon, The Chronicle of Myojin.

Seconding Knight Run, Kekkaishi, and Helck. Bonnouji is also a good manga, but it's a romance seinen, not an action/adventure shounen.

Also...
Hitoribocchi no Chikyuu Shinryaku
Kimetsu no Yaiba
The Law of Ueki
The Promised Neverland
World Trigger

Maybe
Birdmen
Jigokuraku (Kaku Yuuji)
Watashi no Ookami-san/Dear

I generally like Shirodaira Kyou's female characters too (Spiral - Suiri no Kizuna, Vampire Juujikai, Zetsuen no Tempest, Kyokou Suiri), though his genres tend to be more action/mystery than action/adventure.

There's not that many, unfortunately. Besides seconding Kekkaishi (I only remember one tame scene like that in more than 300 chapters), I'll put out there Pandora Hearts (if anything, the male characters are the fanservice), Variante (which I don't remember particularly well, but it should fit), Double Arts, and Coppelion. The last one has the occasional panty shot, but it's balanced by the fact that its protagonists are 3 girls who act like a male action hero would.

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My current top 3:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Pandora Hearts
3-gatsu no Lion

seconding Birdmen and The Promised Neverland, although the second doesn't have that many female characters.

Hoshi no Samidare has some annoying panty shots (mainly in the beginning), but besides that, the female characters are great and important to the plot. Sengoku Youko, from the same author, is even better in that aspect, iirc.

How about Noragami while there is SOME fanservice is quite tastefully done, and all of the it's characters, both male and female, are well rounded. Probably helps that it's written by two women. Now's the perfect time to start as it's a monthly series that's just coming back from hiatus.

Oh for what it's worth I want to point out that while there is romance what the main female lead represents to the male lead is something MORE important than that. She is his Safe Space. What that means will become will become more important once you start gradually learning about the male leads past and will help re-contextualize a LOT of his early actions. I'd say more but I don't want to spoil this MAGNIFICENT series for you.

Oh on more then one female character? By the end of Volume 3 we have been introduceed to THREE female charcters all of whom will go one to play a major role in the story. Hiyori (the female lead), Kofuku, and Bishamon. Speaking of Bishamon the second arc of the manga deals with her backstory and both explaining the source of and resolving the conflict between her and the male lead Yato. Does this grab your interest?

Last edited by animalia at 4:18 pm, May 27 2018

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Here are some series w/ interesting female characters with minimal to no objectification! Hope you find something you like from this list~

Shounen:
seconding Kyokou Suiri, although the female protagonist is romantically obsessed w/ the male protagonist. She does serve a huge plot purpose though, and often acts separately from him on her own missions/battles.

Blood+ - I highly recommend the anime, since I remember there was very little objectification with strong female characters. Not many female characters, but the protagonist and antagonist are both female.

Seirei no Moribito

Kekkai Sensen - I recommend the anime for this one also, since I don't think the scanlations for this series is as far as the anime.

Seinen (thought I'd add these in just in case):
Asahinagu

Shiori Experience - Jimi na Watashi to Hen na Oji-san - not action/adventure, but there is an amazing cast of characters + exciting plot with a non-objectified female protagonist! She also interacts with a number of other dynamic, multidimensional female characters~

Golden Kamui - not a large cast of main female characters, but they get close to 0 objectification & it's mostly the male characters who are objectified hoho

Tongari Boushi no Atelier - action/adventure coming-of-age story of girls becoming witches. ZERO objectification with stunning art.

Umi no Cradle

Mother Sarah

Shuto Heru

Teppu

Attack on Titan is the first shounen series I think of in its treatment of female characters.

*Multiple important female characters
*Women treated as people, not objectified
*3D maneuver gear negates physical differences which allows women to be as effective titan-killers as men
*Virtually no fanservice
*Passes the Bechdel Test

Well... yeah... I mean, you're reading something that's specifically targeted at teenage boys, right? Not everybody is as enlightened as you are and, well, sex sells (very, very well) to the vast majority of that audience.

I'd suggest looking to some of the more "classic" titles (though that's by far not going to eliminate that sort of thing, male dominance is just ingrained in humanity as a whole for the most part).......I'd suggest Angel Densetsu, Ashita no Joe, Kaibutsu Oujo.........and yeah, a second on Pandora Hearts, though I don't know that it meets your other requirements.

Yeah, there's a reason I don't read a lot of shounen, your gripe is only part of it........just a suggestion, but I'd think you'd do well by distancing yourself from the demographic (there really isn't much that's very good in it) and concentrate more on seinen works