Jujutsu Kaisen is The Gold Standard for Female Shounen characters

Female anime fans have often complained of bland, fanservice-focused female characters in Shounen anime for a long time. This ends with Jujutsu Kaisen's vast array of excellent girl sorcerers.

Look up any Shounen anime in the past two decades. The girls are either the annoying villains, useless damsels in distress, or simply the main character's love interest.

Unsurprising, given that Shounen anime has been gatekept from female fans.

The Problem With Girls in other Shounen Series

Sakura (Naruto) is weak, Orihime (Bleach) is little more than a beautiful love interest, and most female audiences complain about inadequate representation in My Hero Academia.

In a late-2014 interview alongside Kosuke Yahagi for 'Weekly Shonen Jump', Naruto writer Kishimoto admitted "I’m no good with female characters".

What Jujutsu Kaisen does different

Jujutsu Kaisen changes all that.

All female characters, from Maki to Nobara to Miwa, are extremely well-written and fleshed out. None of them have a personality being someone's "waifu". They are their person, with their strengths, flaws, and preferences.

Maki

Maki is an underdog much in the same strain as Naruto or Asta(Black Clover). Another similarity Maki shares with Asta is her lack of magical powers, instead, she is blessed with supernatural strength.

Maki is one of the best-written characters in Jujutsu Kaisen, with her unique motivation of taking over the Zenin Clan.

Despite having been rejected by her clan- she doesn't harbor any malicious ill-will against them and seems to still care about defending their honor.

Nobara

Nobara is probably one of the simpler characters, but one who shouldn't be taken lightly.

Slightly obsessed with her appearance, aesthetics, shopping, and other traditionally feminine hobbies, she comes off as a bit rude and cold in her debut.

However, when forced into dangerous situations repeatedly with Megumi and Itadori, she quickly becomes a strong partner, who isn't afraid to rely upon or be relied upon.

While these two stand out the most among the female cast in the anime, the rest are nothing to sneeze at either.

Mai's rivalry with Maki drives the viewer to see how it ends (and is reminiscent of Dazai and Chuuya from Bungou Stray Dogs).

Other Shounen anime could do a lot better job with their female characters by taking a leaf out of Jujutsu Kaisen's book.