>>43045726Despite Pokemon having nearly universal appeal, it's still mainly marketed to boys and made by men.
The male protags are meant to be blank slates for young boys to self-insert as. They don't have to be memorable because you don't remember them as themselves. You remember them as yourself.
The only male protag with any personality is Red, and even then his personality is his lack of personality because he's canonically a mute due to GF leaning into the artistic decision to have him be silent at Mt. Silver.
Just look at their faces. All of them except for Red have the exact same energy. That generic, confident smile and nearly the same stance.
That, and there's less you can do with a male character than a female one. Not just in terms of fashion, which is obvious, but in terms of personality. The girls can be generically confident, but they can also be generically cute, generically ditzy, generically energetic, etc.
