The Amazing Mansty

I think Hayao Miyazaki is absolutely right when he says that a female lead is 'cooler' than a male one. It really plays into the sexual biases that exist in our culture, but it's just too useful to pass up. For example, if a young man or even a young boy gets severely hurt, loses an arm, has to kill someone, or goes on a crazy adventure, it's really hard to feel feel pity or excitement for him. If he soldiers on in the face of adversity, he's just doing what's expected, and if he's hurt (physically or emotionally) and he shows it, he's just being a wimp. On the other hand, a young girl in the same situations elicits a completely different response. The weaker the hero, the more profound their successes, and the more endearing their failures.Really, it comes down to managing expectations. To borrow an explaination from Cromartie High: Say there are two groups, a groups of lions with one super badass lion who is the strongest of all lions anywhere, and another group of lions with a bunny. Who is more badass? The super strong lion, or the bunny living among the lions? You gotta say it's the bunny. Even if the super badass lion be the toughest lion out there, he's still only on the level of a lion and has nothing to worry about when living among other lions. On the other hand, the bunny has surpassed the level of a bunny, and reached the level of a lion. That's one badass bunny.