Our member articowl is wondering if you have a preferred gender of the protagonist. I'm actually surprised that we never asked this question before

You can submit poll ideas here https://www.mangaupdates.com/topic/kilkdnn/site-manga-poll-suggestions

Previous Poll Results:

Question: How did you spend the holidays mostly?

Choices:

• Just life as normal... - votes: 994 (45.2%)
• Traveling alone - votes: 20 (0.9%)
• Vacationing abroad with others - votes: 29 (1.3%)
• Visiting friends and family - votes: 658 (29.9%)
• Home alone - votes: 395 (17.9%)
• Other - votes: 105 (4.8%)

There were 2201 total votes. The poll ended: January 4, 2025

Now that the holidays are over, life must go on...

A just ruler amongst tyrants

As long as protagonist is well written I don't care about their gender. I'd like to see more female MC in action manga.

Female, operating on the logic that if the protagonist is female, there's more likely to be female characters who have agency, aren't just there as love interests or the weaker sidekick of a man, are well-developed characters, etc.

So I guess it's less 'I prefer a female protagonist' and more 'a female protagonist is a green flag for the overall representation of women in this story'. I enjoy many stories with male protagonists.

Quote from hkanz

Female, operating on the logic that if the protagonist is female, there's more likely to be female characters who have agency, aren't just there as love interests or the weaker sidekick of a man, are well-developed characters, etc.

So I guess it's less 'I prefer a female protagonist' and more 'a female protagonist is a green flag for the overall representation of women in this story'. I enjoy many stories with male protagonists.

My thoughts exactly. Like I'm happy in theory to have protagonists of any gender (in fact I'd love to see some enby ones), but I strongly gravitate towards series with female protagonists because it means the story has a greater likelihood of treating women as people, not accessories.

I prefer male protagonist, as I'm already used to reading stories with male MCs… I do enjoy reading stories with female protagonists however. But I need it to be well-written and have a balanced point of view.

Examples of that would be: Whale Star: The Gyeongseong Mermaid, Iseop's Romance, and Couple Breaker

Cute is justice.

The early bird may have caught the early worm, but the late worm survived!!

I read both in probably equal measure, but I wouldn't say "Don't care" is the correct wording for that.

The protagonist must fit the story. Some genres and themes work better with a male protagonist, and some are better with a female protagonist. There are some that can work with either, as long as it's well written. Or even both - if the author is good at writing multiple protagonists that are equally interesting. (Not that many can.)

"Multiple protagonists" is generally something I avoid for this reason. While some authors are good at it, many authors don't put equal skill and effort into all protagonists, so when perspective changes for a few chapters, it feels like the quality drops and becomes a chore to read.

Ultimately, I want what's the best fit for the story. The author should pick what they're good at writing a story for. I generally wouldn't avoid a story over the protagonist's gender if all other criteria point to something I'd likely enjoy, but I might stop reading if it feels awkward or boring.

Maybe that's what the whole gender-bender craze is all about: the premise allows the author to be lazy as it offers a default excuse for the character acting either way or even being an awkward fit into the chosen gender role. Of course the good GB authors know how to exploit this for more entertainment rather than just throwing it in because they can and don't feel like choosing.