Unfortunately, execs like to listen to those conventional wisdoms they were forced to memorize, and will never deviate from said wisdom and reject anything that refutes that as a fluke.Dark Duel wrote:You can say that again. I can think of an example - albeit on this side of the pond - in which studio execs were very reluctant to move forward with (and actually suspended production of) an animated series because its protagonist was a girl, due to so-called conventional wisdom that said "girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won't watch shows about girls".Vent Noir wrote:Well, they started making bishonen protagonists to draw in the female audience, right? I think male viewers would probably be more suppourtive of a female lead than many studio execs give them credit for.
Well, they were wrong, and male test audiences reacted very favorably to the character, who not only is a girl, but does not fall into most of the typical stereotypes generally associated with female characters in animated works. (I refer, for the curious, to The Legend of Korra)
In the interest of objectivity I will point out that during test screenings, the protagonist's gender didn't actually matter to the aforementioned audience - they just said she was awesome. Which she was.
So as long as the character is well-developed and not too stereotyped, I don't see a problem with a female lead in Gundam. In fact, I would love to see that.
And as for the other side of the pond. Heh. I could start laughing. Because it won't be happening no matter how hard we all wish.