When one thinks of video game protagonists, the most iconic faces that come to mind are typically male. Mario, Link, and Sonic are a few big names that most people, even those that aren't familiar with video games, would immediately recognize. They're so iconic that replacing them with a new face would likely cause an outrage of unimaginable proportions within the gaming community.

Nowadays, video game protagonists have become much more diverse, as more and more female protagonists have started to rise in prominence. In fact, most video games these days allow players to choose between a male or a female protagonist. But for those games that get adapted into an anime, that diversity is still severely lacking.

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When an anime adapts a video game with a male and female protagonist, the main question that needs to be answered is whether it will choose to focus on the male one, the female one, or on rare occasions, both. Typically, the first option is chosen. There are a few reasons why this is usually the case, but the most common one is because of the target demographic.

Games like Fate Grand Order were written with a male audience in mind despite there being an option to play as a girl. This is most evident in the game's writing. Numerous female characters will throw themselves at the protagonist's feet, regardless of gender, but the male characters will rarely ever show the same level of affection. Even characters that are known to be womanizers will still treat the protagonist the same way they would treat other male characters, even if the player is female.

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Granblue Fantasy Versus cast of Characters.

So predictably, the two existing anime adaptations of the popular mobile game chose to focus on the male protagonist, although the female protagonist does make an appearance in the more gag-focused spin-off, Carnival Phantasm. Interestingly, the female protagonist is objectively more popular than her male counterpart, receiving more figures and merchandise made in her likeness. But evidently, that popularity isn't enough for her to appear in any mainline anime adaptations of the games.

Granblue Fantasy is in a similar situation, but the female protagonist doesn't just get shafted by the anime adaptation. She's gotten shafted by the recent fighter spin-off as well. Granblue Fantasy Versus has Djeeta appear as paid DLC, whereas her male counterpart, Gran, is available from the get-go within the base game. As with Fate Grand Order, female characters are also more likely to show an interest in the protagonist compared to male ones.

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For the Persona 3 films and Pokemon Origins, the decision to focus on the male protagonist is much more understandable. Unlike Fate Grand Order and Granblue Fantasy, the female protagonists from those games were not added until much later for the respective games' remakes. As such, it makes sense that those anime adaptations would want to focus on the original hero the story was written for. Especially if they want to appeal more to the fans that played the original iteration of those games.

The Pokemon anime is a very interesting case. While Ash's design and backstory take inspiration from Red, the protagonist of Pokemon Red and Blue, he's treated as an entirely separate character. So in that sense, while the anime does follow a male protagonist, it's not the one that exists in the games the show is based on. In fact, none of the mainline games' male protagonists have ever made an appearance in the anime outside of quick, voiceless cameos.

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Anime Ash and his Pokemon

The anime does, however, frequently feature the female protagonists who serve as secondary protagonists to Ash. While they never take the role of the primary protagonist, they still play a big role in the story and have a lot of focus placed on them. It's strange that his companions are only ever the canon female protagonist for that region, with the male protagonists rarely, if ever, appearing at all, instead replaced with a different character entirely.

One could argue that having two dual male protagonists may risk taking the spotlight away from Ash, but the latest iteration of the anime sees Ash partnering up with another male trainer named Gou. He acts as a co-protagonist to Ash and his story arcs are treated with the same level of importance as Ash's. So this once again begs the question as to why the anime is so averse to including the male protagonists from the games.

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Maybe it's due to fears that the male protagonists may prove to be more popular than Ash, maybe it's because much of their story arcs and personalities would ultimately prove to be too similar to Ash's, or it could be that someone on the production team just really doesn't like them. Either way, the chances of a male protagonist from the games ever making an appearance in the anime are very low, but it isn't impossible.

Many fans never expected Ash to ever make an appearance in the trainer-focused mobile game Pokemon Masters, which follows canon lore from the games rather than the anime. But lo and behold, he made an appearance as an NPC in a recent event just last month, so perhaps certain things aren't as impossible as many fans think. Still, the chances of seeing any male protagonists take center stage in an animated adaptation are more likely to occur in a spin-off series like Pokemon Origins rather than the show proper.

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Leo and Corrin from the Fire Emblem Fates Manga

This phenomenon isn't limited to just anime adaptations, it extends to manga and novel adaptations as well. Even Twisted Wonderland, a mobile game that's known to cater to a female demographic, has featured a male protagonist in place of the player character for both the manga and novel adaptations. But, bigger franchises that have had multiple manga adaptations allow for more opportunities to allow for both the male and female protagonists to shine, particularly those that have multiple routes, like Fire Emblem Fates.

Whether later animated adaptations will choose to continue this trend or finally break it remains to be seen. There are still many games that have yet to be adapted, so here's hoping more anime productions will be willing to give a female protagonist the spotlight for a change.