Yukinobu Tatsu’s beloved Shonen Jump+ manga, Dandadan, gained massive popularity after the anime adaptation debuted in Fall 2024. The series released its second season in Summer 2025, which is still ongoing. As Dandadan’s popularity continues to rise, fans fall more and more in love with the characters, especially the main duo. Momo Ayase and Okarun have been the central part of the series, and their bond is unbreakable. The series has intense action while also subtly exploring the romantic tension between the duo. However, while the main duo ended up being loved among fans, Tatsu initially only wanted to create Momo as the protagonist.
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Dandadanverse on X recently shared Tatsu’s interview about the series before the debut of Season 1 from Switch magazine Volume 42. The creator confessed, “I had always wanted to draw a boys’ manga with a girl as the main character, but it kept failing in serialization meetings, so I thought it would be better to have a boy next to her.” Tatsu only managed to debut Dandadan after creating Okarun, which further highlights how the publishers are often adamant about a boy taking a central stage in shonen manga. Even though times are changing, not many shonen manga still have female characters or even a female cast just as good as the male cast.
Shonen Jump Manga Is Still Male-Centric Despite the Growing Audience Over the Years
The shonen demographic is targeted towards a young male audience. However, with the ever-growing increase in the popularity of the anime and manga industry, the true meaning behind the demographic holds little value. Shonen series are often most popular, and fans from all age groups, regardless of gender, are interested in those shows. They also like to watch a variety of action shows, including those centered around female characters. However, action series such as Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Claymore with a female protagonist are still very rare in the industry.
Shueisha also has incredible series with female leads such as Akane-Banashi and Ruri Dragon, but they are not action-driven like Dandadan. Dandadan’s origin story is a reminder that, despite the story having basically everything a reader could ask for, a female lead will still come off as “unappealing” to many. It highlights just how narrow the perceived audience expectations still are. There’s this assumption that the readers, mainly boys, wouldn’t be interested in following a story from a girl’s point of view, or that such a story wouldn’t sell. During the same interview, Tatsu also lamented how he perceived that, in his eyes, there had supposedly never been a boy’s manga with a girl as the main character and how he always wanted to draw one in his series.
However, shonen publishers are accepting series with female leads, even if the change has been pretty slow over the years. What makes Dandadan’s success even more noteworthy is that it didn’t debut in Weekly Shonen Jump, but rather on Shonen Jump+, which has recently become a haven for more experimental and diverse stories. These stories don’t necessarily fit into the traditional mold of the flagship magazine, such as Look Back, Kaiju No. 8, and Spy x Family, all of which offer better representation of female characters or unique storytelling structures.
H/T: @Dandadanverse on X
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Image Courtesy of Ufotable
