I agree especially with historical stories. The are mainly boy mc’s in idol or celebrity stories like this one: https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/superstar_from_age_0/
Just wanted to share this story, if you were interested in reading something.
True that. In isekai, the childcare trope is usually girls, especially for manhwa. So far the childcare isekai tropes I found are manga, and only 2 are truly in the childcare section.
IKR?? Stories with a male mc that are focused on family are so rare for some reason. I have a list of what I gathered over the years if you want https://www.mangago.me/home/mangalist/2654897/
Thank you! Honestly more than I expected but because of how many ccs stories with girl mc's there are, there really is so little stories with male mc's in them. Like normalize father's loving son's the same way they love their daughters. even the side/supporting brothers in other ccs stories, they literally get treated like some stranger the dad has to live with instead of the child the "love of their life" gave birth to.
Had a convo online with this to someone and what do they say? "Well [their example story] wouldn't fit with a male mc because then it would look weird and gay"????
Thank you, I'll try checking it lol I have too many lists rn
What do they even mean 'it would look gay' LMAOOO
For real though, even among the few family-focused stories with a male mc it's more often than not centered around a mother figure rather than a father. Father-son stories are the rarest (mother-daughter stories are also rarer than father-daughter but are still much more than the father-son ones). It's probably because the target audience for these stories are mainly women and therefore female mcs are more appreciated due to self-insert, but still, shouldn't there be some variety once in a while? And come on, there MUST be a small male audience wanting to read this kind of stories as well, surely we aren't the only ones with daddy issues hahahah.
You're right, it's even rare for fathers in these stories to appreciate their sons instead of only loving the main character, sons deserve love too!! (also in all these cases I can't help but wonder whether these fathers would love the main character the same if they were a boy like the other sons)
It’s not that it’s for self insert but rather this genre in general is usually targeted towards women….that doesn’t automatically mean it’s for self-insert like I for one enjoy women being in the spotlight as the main character lol
While I do agree that boys should have childcare stories too, I think it would be difficult considering the rampant misogynism in kr, ergo, if a boy isn’t aura farming or powermaxxing as a child, it might not be profitable to invest in because powermaxxing is a fave for the male audience especially when a lot seem to think that showing emotions anything other than anger is horrible…and while women would surely love a boy mc for childcare, a novel should exist first (also isnt ir crazy that most of these manhwas are adaptations rather than a manhwa original/manhwa only story lol just a random thought)
There’s def a lot of problems esp w intersectionality (just the culture in kr alone is a huge factor) but considering gakuen babysitters is such a hit maybe we can just expect it more to happen in the jp side….
Ikr, I also sometimes wonder that in some stories. Like its so easy to replace this stories mc with a little boy (cause it wouldn't change much of what they think of her rn) but then other stories it's like so hard to imagine because of what the dad's says/does. Stories like 'ill be the matriarch in this life' I could absolutely see the dad still loving the mc if they were a boy because that's just the dad's character. But stories where the dad/brothers are obsessed with the mc? You could easily ask "would you love me if I was a worm" that would be an immediate yes, but "would you love the mc if they weren't a girl and were a son? Or would you abandon them like your other son's that are no different from orphans" More than anything, stories where you'd ask that question would (for me) be the one's where the dad loves mc cause they look and act like their dead wife. especially when they have a son that looks and started out also identical to the wife just boy version. (Started out: like little guy wanted to be close to daddy but grew cold later on.)
(Honestly never seen or openly looked for Mother daughter cc stories, I'm more of a daddy issues guy myself lol I'm that small male audience lmao)
NO BUT ALSO I just remembered that one story scene where the son was literally trying to be so sweet to his dad but the dad didn't care, ONLY FOR THE DAD TO FIND AND START CARING FOR THE MC, DIDN'T EVEN START OPENING UP TO THE SON! No apology to the son for being cold or nothing (would be so pissed if that was me ngl like ik it isn't the mc's fault but I would be so mad and confused if I was the kid. then grow up remember that, realize why then be like "....oh")
Yesss in most of these stories the sons started out being the typical sweet loving children trying to gain their father's love, only to be neglected because the father is an emotionally constipated manchild. Then enters the (often scheming, because they usually regressed or transmigrated and are actually the father's age) FL, whose only difference compared to the sons is that she's a girl, and the father is somehow totally smitten (and continues neglecting the sons, apart from some rare cases where he starts regretting). I would PAY to read a gender-bent version of these stories just to see whether the father would act the same and find her just as lovely (cause come on, the sons were just as cute) and how the dynamic with the brothers would change. I feel like there would be more resentment towards the MC from the brothers if the MC were a boy, because if they're all boys then why MC and not them? Basically, it often seems like the father loves the FL just because she's a girl and she's cute (and as you said, sometimes it's because she most closely resembles the mother. MY GOD HOW I HATE THAT 'you look/act so much like your (dead) mother' TROPE UGHHH). I've read at least a hundred father-daughter stories and I can only think of AT MOST five such stories where the father didn't discriminate between FL and her brothers. This story is probably the best example together with the sweet father from The White Tiger Clan's Baby Cotton Ball.
Anyway, see?? I found the small male audience, they have no excuses lmao
Just to be clear I also enjoy women being in the spot light in stories, especially since in many stories I read I absolutely stay for the ride when the mc's are such girl bosses. This is just something I want to see more.. (just to make it clear for any future repliers, tho I think I won't get anymore since it's been a while already; and that's usually when people start burying comments with new ones lol)
Honestly feels kinda sad that that's just become the norm, how any emotion other than anger is horrible. Hopefully one day a manwha targeted for men; the author can make it a norm for the mc not to lead with anger. Like in a way that it isn't as obvious so that it's just slowly infecting the readers lol. But also like the story doesn't have to be targeted for guys? I mean BL is usually more loved by Yaoi girls so is it really hard to believe girls wouldn't love to read an adorable little boy getting some love. But yeah I understand what you mean.
(Also yeah I can see why it's mostly adaptation, like you said profit; so when you're an artist picking between a novel that's already well known and has a fan base vs a original story that you don't know if people would like? It's honestly easy to see why more novels are adopted into manwha)
(Also kinda random and slightly unrelated but I personally love reading manwha more because it's colored and sometimes its hard for me to read some manga paneling, ofc I fight through that when I really love the story lol)
You're right, most stories with a male lead have a mc with the same personality that is either totally insufferable/arrogant or with no emotions nor ties with any other character because all they think about is getting stronger/revenge (apart from stories that are clearly targeted more towards women, as seen by the almost all-male cast and prevalence of bromance). None of these personalities would fit the the typical childcare manhwa/novel, which means that authors probably don't dare to try it and just take the easy routes. I honestly don't believe that the majority of Korea's male readers prefer those main characters rather than those that have basic emotions and form bonds (romantic or not) with other characters, if they say so they must be lying because of toxic masculinity come onnn
Anyway yes, most are adaptations, the originals are much fewer lmao, it's pretty funny. The first thing I do when I find an interesting manhwa to read is to literally search for the original korean novel (for spoilers or to read the novel in parallel) because I'm too impatient to wait for the manhwa's continuation
you're last bit: yes lmao
Honestly it doesn't even need to be targeted for male audiences, like any girl who reads ccs for the adorable kids! Why wouldn't they love to see an adorable little boy being cuddled???? And it's not even hard to think of how a boy ccs mc would be like since this story itself is already a good example! Like I said earlier, mc could literally be a boy and nothing much would change on how her family loves her. Like maybe make him a bit more mischievous if they really want a clear line but all I'm saying is baby boys can be sweet and caring too if that's how they're raised. Grown men who are sweet and caring literally exist in rl and they can still live up to that 'man standard'!
No cause yk the dad's that said those would NEVER have loved any of their children including mc if they didn't look/acted like their mom, even if mc was a girl. Would have been treated like her brothers, if they had any TT
how those 'i was originally supposed to be a villain in this story' type mc were made lol
Ngl I'm kinda disappointed mc isn't actually a boy I rarely see child care stories where the mc is a little boy since it's mostly little girls..