Anime
Anime is the Japanese name for animated movies (i.e. cartoons), which in Japan cover a much wider range of subject matter than in the United States. Genres of anime include shōjo (for girls), shōnen (for boys), ero, a.k.a. hentai in the U.S. ("perverted" pornography), and mecha (science fiction featuring giant robots). There are numerous subdivisions of the major genres, for example, mahō shōjo ("magical girl" movies) and shōjo-ai or yuri (lesbian "girl-love" stories).
SFF Anime Featuring Female Protagonists
Bubblegum Crisis (futuristic female soldiers)
Ghost in the Shell (1995) by Mamoru Oshii (Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg soldier)
Haibane Renmei (a community of winged girls who have awakened in a strange world and are uncovering its secrets)
Kurau Phantom Memory (a young woman becomes host to alien energies and tries to live her own life)
Niea_7 (a young woman with a female alien living in her closet)
Project A-Ko (Eiko/A-Ko, a superpowered teenager, her mecha-building rival Biko/B-Ko, and her friend Shiiko/C-Ko)
Revolutionary Girl Utena (Utena Tenjou, a cross-dressing student duellist)
Sailor Moon (a team of "magical girls" protect the solar system from evil)
Serial Experiments Lain (a young woman involved in a surreal online world)
Vandread directed by Takeshi Mori. 2 seasons of 13 episodes each (2000 & 2001) - gender wars
Vision of Escaflowne (a young woman is transported to a fantasy world; hailed as one of the first anime series that crosses the lines between the shojo and shonen genres)
Most movies by Hayao Miyazaki, including:
- My Neighbor Totoro (Satsuki and Mei, two young sisters)
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Nausicaä, princess of an endangered community)
- Kiki's Delivery Service (Kiki, a witch in training)
- Princess Mononoke (San, a "wolf girl" fighting to preserve the forest)
- Spirited Away (Chihiro/Sen, a young girl trapped in the spirit world)
- Howl's Moving Castle (Sophie, a girl turned into a feisty old woman by a spell)