Super Official Anime Discussion Thread

[Super_Boom]

pokoko said:

Not at all.  I think it has more to do with the main female often being a standardized girl that's built to appeal to the most people, which, unfortunately, sometimes translates into a 'safe' choice with fewer quirks that catch my interest.  The female lead just doesn't seem to align very often with what I prefer, especially if they're the clingy type.

I can see where you're coming from...though for me, it's kind of the opposite. The main girl is usually the character that gets the most character exposition, and tends to be a lot more fleshed out in general due to the needs of the plot. That's important for me, because I can't root for a character simply due to superficial qualities like appearance or personality. The main character might not have 'quirks', but they usually tend to get a lot more character development over time, which is something I require when deciding on my favorite characters.

There are definitely a lot of exceptions of course, and I'm sure I can think of several times where I preferred a side character over the main one. Diane in Seven Deadly Sins is a recent example that comes to mind...though I liked her character a lot more for the same reasons above. I definitely consider those examples to be the exception rather than the rule though.

I guess in short, you can say I root for the more "human" characters, and that typically seems to be found in the lead characters in my personal experience.