By "the Shonen Curse" I mean how female characters always seem to get screwed over or sidelined or wasted as a character or just not be as common in Japanese media in favor of male characters, especially if it’s geared towards young boys, by the way.

7956033
Well, it is directed at boys. There is something like Shonen for girls, but I forget what it's called. I enjoy Shonen. If you don't, I don't care.

your thinking of seinen.

That curse definitely exists within the Yugioh franchise. You can clearly see it in the 5ds era.

7956033
Yes.

7956046
I thought it was called “shoujo”.

7956033
Shonen is anime/manga directed at boys, so of course the main male character is going to be the primary focus.

7956033 Shonen Jump related manga are oriented for guys, Shojo Beat related are oriented for girls. Not going to lie, as a guy I enjoyed Shojo Beat.

7956033
As others have said, “shonen” refers specifically to anime geared at young boys so it tends to skew heavily toward male protagonists, but there’s plenty of anime out there in pretty much all genres that have female leads or even all-female casts. I was rewatching K-On recently for instance, and I don’t think there’s even a single male character in the entire story. If you’re having trouble finding anime with prominent female characters you probably just need to expand your scope a bit. Anime is a pretty huge industry.