Gender-Equal Ensemble

Four Kid Detectives.

A Gender-Equal Ensemble is an ensemble, team, band, family, or another group of main characters, consisting of at least four members, that has the exact same number of one gender as it does any other. This is normally done either for reasons of advancing gender equality, attempting to appeal equally to both male and female demographics, or for reasons of balance and symmetry.

In a Family Tropes, this will often take the form of having a father, a mother, a son, and a daughter, so that each standard role in a Nuclear Family has a representative. If the characters are not related to each other, it can sometimes make it easier for each character to have a potential love interest.

Compare Two Guys and a Girl, Two Girls and a Guy, Two Girls to a Team (when combined with a Four-Temperament Ensemble), Four-Girl Ensemble, and Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio (an androgynous character rounds out the gender ratio in an odd-numbered group). Contrast with The Smurfette Principle, The One Guy, Chromosome Casting, Affirmative Action Girl, and Improbably Female Cast.

---

Examples

Advertising

• For the Otter Pops, with the addition of the Tropical characters, the group has an equal five male and five female characters. The two scrapped characters also feature an even number, with one scrapped male and one scrapped female character.

Anime & Manga

• Bakugan used to have this, with three girls and three boys in the first season. Since then, it's been hit by The Smurfette Principle hard.
• In Delicious in Dungeon, the original Team Touden was this with three women (Falin, Marcille, and Namari) and three men (Laios, Shuro, and Chilchuck) before Falin is eaten by the Red Dragon in the first chapter and the party breaks up.
• Fairy Tail has that during the Grand Magic Festival with both Fairy Tail teams. Both teams together have (including reserve members) six guys and six girls, both having three guys and three girls each.
• The main characters◊ of Sayuri Tatsuyama's manga series Happy Happy Clover has two females (Clover and Mallow) and two males (Kale and Shallot) who are all Clover's friends.
• The Classics Club from Hyouka is composed of two boys (Houtarou Oreki and Satoshi Fukube) and two girls (Eru Chitanda and Mayaka Ibara), who serve as the main characters. Although they gain a girl fifth member in their second year, she doesn't stay in the group for very long and eventually quits the club, bringing them back down to their original four members.
• Inuyasha: Kagome the high schoolgirl, Inuyasha the male half-Youkai dog guy, Shippo the Kitsune boy, Miroku the perverted Buddhist priest, Sango the fighter/exorcist/priestess and her she-Nekomata Kirara.
• During the first term in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, the student council had two boys and two girls (there were two others, but neither of them were ever seen and their genders are unknown). The gender ratio would be skewed in favor of women after Shirogane's reelection when he appointed Miko to be the auditing officer.
• Kekkaishi has an almost gender-equal character design for the two families Sumimura and Yukimura. On the Sumimuras' side, there are Yoshimura, his grandfather Shigemori, his mother Sumiko, his older brother Masamori, his younger brother Toshimori, his House Husband father Shuuji, his he-ghost dog Madarao, and his he-Nekomata Shimano. On the Yukimuras' side, there are Tokine, her grandmother Tokiko, her father Tokio, her Housewife mother Shizue, her he-ghost dog Hakubi, and her she-nekomata Mikeno (mike as in mikeneko "calico cat", and calico cats are almost always female, not to mention she has prominent eyelashes).
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing has a primary cast of seven men (Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Wu Fei Chang, Milliardo Peacecraft/Zechs Marquise, and Treize Khushrenada), and seven women (Relena Darlian/Peacecraft, Hilde Schbeiker, Catherine Bloom, Dorothy Catalonia, Sally Po, Lucrezia Noin, and Lady Une).
• Pokémon Horizons: The Series: The Rising Volt Tacklers, with the addition of protagonists Liko and Roy to their ranks, have four guys (Friede, Murdock, Ludlow, and Roy) and four girls (Liko, Orla, Mollie, and Dot).
• For most of Pokémon: The Series's history, the anime had an uneven cast favoring boys (Ash himself, one or two male companions plus one female companion). This changed starting with X and Y:
  • For the X and Y saga, there were two boys (Ash and Clemont) and two girls (Serena and Bonnie) as the traveling group in the Kalos region.
  • In Sun and Moon, Ash's class is evenly split between three boys (Ash, Kiawe, and Sophocles) and three girls (Lana, Mallow, and Lillie).
• Princess Tutu has two guys (Fakir and Mytho) and two girls (Duck/Tutu and Rue/Kraehe). Bonus points for having one boy and one girl each as the protagonists/antagonists at any given time.
• Ranma ½: Ranma (male), Akane (female), Shampoo (female), Mousse (male), Ryouga (male), Ukyou (female).
• Of the eight main characters of Revolutionary Girl Utena, four are female (Utena Tenjou, Anthy Himemiya, Juri Arisugawa, and Nanami Kiryuu) and four are male (Akio Ohtori, Touga Kiryuu, Kyouichi Saionji, and Miki Kaoru).
• The main cast of Sand Chronicles comprises two girls (protagonist Ann and her best friend Shiika) and two boys (love interest Daigo and Shiika's brother Fuji).
• In the Splatoon manga, each team consists of two girls and two boys.
• Tsuki Ni Kakureta Taiyo has its four main characters, with two boys, Soleil and Eto, and two girls, Lune and Nuage.
• The four main heroes in Trigun are two guys, Vash and Wolfwood, and two girls, Milly and Meryl. Wolfwood is replaced with Livio later on in the manga.
• The main casts of Your Lie in April are two boys^note Kousei and Watari and two girls.^note Kaori and Tsubaki Even if you add The Rivals of main character,^note Takeshi and Emi this trope still applies.
• The party of main characters in Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead consists of Akira and Kencho, two guys, and Shizuka and Beatrix, two girls. Akira and Kencho are both ecstatic to be traveling with two pretty girls while Shizuka rolls her eyes at their antics. Beatrix is also happy to experience Japan with them, even if it's not in the manner she imagined it would be in.

Asian Animation

• Fruity Robo: The Fruity Agents comprises 3 male and 3 female in total, and they respectively become a couple.

Board Games

• Clue - Three men (Green, Mustard, and Plum) and three women (White, Peacock, and Scarlet).
• The mages in Res Arcana - five men (Scholar, Duelist, Healer, Alchemist, Artificer) and five women (Witch, Necromancer, Seer, Transmuter, Druid). The Expansion Packs add two more mages of each gender: Lux et Tenebrae adds the Bard and the Diviner (male), and the Beastmaster and the Demonologist (female). Perlae Imperii adds the Infuser and the Seafarer (male) and the Illusionist and the Dragon Tamer (female). Moreover, the Alternative Mage Packs feature Gender Flip sets of mages, which are also balanced.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics: The main cast consists of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica, with Reggie as the occasional fifth member.
• The Beano: In the modern issues, there is the Blam Fam, who all consist of (if you don't count Gnasher or Paul the Potato) Dennis (boy), JJ (girl), Rubi (girl), and Pieface (boy).
• Batman: The initial team roster in Detective Comics (Rebirth) has three males (Batman, Red Robin, Clayface) and three females (Batwoman, Spoiler, Orphan).
• The Defenders: For a long time during the 1970s, the (core) Defenders consisted of Nighthawk, the Hulk, the Valkyrie, and Hellcat.
• Doom Patrol: in Grant Morrison's arc, we have an odd variation of this trope; the core of the group is formed by Cliff Steele, Crazy Jane and Rebis, a hermaphrodite derived by the fusion of the pilot Larry Trainor, the scientist Eleanor Poole and the mysterious Negative Spirit.
• Fantastic Four: The Fantastic Four during the time after the first Secret War when the Thing stayed behind on Battleworld: Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, the Invisible Woman, and the She-Hulk.
  • In the Marvel Mangaverse, the Human Torch is female making the team fit this trope.
• Monica's Gang: Two boys (Jimmy Five and Smudge) and two girls (Monica and Maggy).
• Power Pack: The main team consists of four siblings, two male (Alex/Gee and Jack/Mass-Master) and two female (Julie/Lightspeed and Katie/Energizer). They've had two male Sixth Rangers (Franklin Richards and Kofi Whitemane), but both were only temporary additions.
• Teen Titans: After the team expanded from seven to eight and before the departure of two members, the New Teen Titans had four males (Robin, Kid Flash, Changeling, and Cyborg) and four females (Wonder Girl, Raven, Starfire, and Terra).
• The Sandman (1989): The Endless includes three male (Dream, Destruction, Destiny), three female (Death, Delirium, Despair), and Desire, who has never been satisfied with one of anything.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): The series started with a gender unequal cast due to the source material, but has been introducing original male and female major characters with alternating appearances and remaining more or less equal. As of the end of its fifth year, with the exception of the villainous Surge and Kit, all female characters have been heroes, and all male characters have been villains. These characters are:
  • Female: Tangle the Lemur, Jewel the Beetle, Whisper the Wolf, Belle the Tinkerer (robot lion), Lanolin the Sheep, and Surge the Tenrec
  • Male: Doctor Starline (platypus), Rough and Tumble the Skunk Brothers, Mimic the Octopus, Clutch the Opossom, and Kit the Fennec.
• X-Men:
  • In the 1980s, quite a few of the X-Men and spin-off teams written by Chris Claremont were either this or, if the team had an odd number of members, would have a slight female majority. Examples would e. g. be the X-Men team shortly after Cyclops' wedding (Storm, Shadowcat, Rogue and Rachel Summers, Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler, supplemented by either guest-star Cyclops or Professor X). Around the same time the New Mutants consisted of four girls (Dani Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Magik and Magma), three boys (Cannonball, Sunspot, and Cypher) and an asexually reproducing alien generally referred to in the masculine (Warlock); the team was jointly led by Dani Moonstar and Cannonball.
  • Generation X in their original set-up: three boys (Synch, Skin, Chamber), three girls (Jubilee, M, Husk), and one teacher of either gender (Emma Frost, Sean Cassidy).
• Wonder Woman Vol. 1: By the end of the series, Diana's American friend, coworker, and support group consisted of Diana, Etta, and Lauren Haley and Steve, Darnell, and Howard Huckaby.
• Young Justice: By the fourth issue, was a team of three boys (Robin, Superboy & Impulse) and three girls (Wonder Girl, Secret & Arrowette), though while this dynamic changed over time with the addition of new members and others retiring from heroics.

Comic Strips

• Mafalda started with two girls (Mafalda and Susanita) and two boys (Felipe and Manolito), and ended with three each (adding Libertad and Miguelito).

Fan Works

• Better Bones AU: The forget-me-nots include three female members (Bluestar, Lizardstripe and Ashfoot) and three male members (Oakheart, Deadfoot, and Barley Sr.)
• Between Minds, a Half-Life/Portal fanfic, seems to be going toward a main group of two girls (Alyx and Sam) and two guys (Barney and Marcus). The next chapter is stated to have Gordon and Chell, who will likely be another balanced group.
• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: Teams RNJR and JSMN are both comprised of two men (Ragna and Jaune Arc for RNJR, Jin Kisaragi and Kagura Mutsuki for JSMN) and two women (Ruby Rose and Noel Vermillion for RNJR, Mai Natsume and Ciel Soliel for JSMN).
• Christian Weston Chandler in Survivor: Kujira-Jima zigzags this. There are ten players of each gender, but only one of the three tribes is split evenly due to two women not being assigned to one at the start of the game.
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, the Red Lotus Quarto has two females (Chloe and Amelia) and two males (Atticus and Lexi) with the latter two also denizens. In Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria, with Chloe and Atticus gone, it stays the same with Hazel and Goh replacing them.
• The Total Drama fic Total Drama Avengeance: Old Losers vs New Losers invokes this with the starting cast, which consists of eleven males and eleven females. The main reason Chris chose Beth and Bridgette to compete despite Beth being a former finalist and Bridgette competing in the first three seasons despite only making it to the top ten once was to have an equal cast.
• True Potential focuses on Team 3, which is made up of two guys (Naruto and Shikamaru) and two girls (Hinata and their sensei Anko).
  • After the Time Skip, there's Team 9, which is also made up of two girls (Hanabi and Katsumi) and two guys (Kanji and their sensei Naruto).
• A Typical Pokemon Journey features four Pokémon trainers by the name of Ned, Chris, Jake, and Lucy. And yes, Chris is female.

Films — Animation

• Arlo the Alligator Boy has the gang of misfits, consisting of three males (Arlo, Tony and Marcellus), and three females (Bertie, Furlecia and Alia).
• The Incredibles has two males (Mr. Incredible and Dash) and two females (Elastigirl and Violet). Technically, Jack-Jack unbalances this but he's not in most of the movie so it counts. If you include non-primary characters you have: Jack-Jack, Frozone, and Syndrome as well as Edna, Mirage, and Kari.
• Inside Out has six main characters that exist in Riley's mind — Joy, Sadness, and Disgust are female, while Fear, Anger, and Bing Bong are male.
• The Seventh Brother, there are three brother rabbits (Tasli/Theo/J.C., Málé/Maxie/Marty, and Pufi/Püffer/Cody) and three sister rabbits (Karotta/Joanna, Okoska/Julchen/Rebecca, and Musz-Musz/Coco/Mimi).
• In Wreck-It Ralph, the group of main heroes consists of a girl (Vanellope), a woman (Sgt. Calhoun), and two men (Ralph and Felix). The group is split through much of the movie, resulting in two dynamics developing: Ralph and Vanellope form a non-biological brother-and-sister relationship and Felix and Calhoun fall in love.

Films — Live-Action

• Cloverfield: Three boys (Rob, Jason, and Hud) and three girls (Beth, Lily, and Marlena).
• Clue: Four men (Wadsworth and blackmailed men Colonel Mustard, Mr. Green, and Professor Plum) and four women (Yvette and blackmailed women Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Peacock).
• In Disney's Descendants, the main four Villain Kids (nicknamed the Core Four) consist of two girls (Mal, daughter of Maleficent, and Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen) and two boys (Jay, son of Jafar, and Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil).
• Eternals: The team of ten Eternals consists of five women (Ajak, Sersi, Sprite, Thena, and Makkari) and five men (Ikaris, Gilgamesh, Druig, Phastos, and Kingo).
• The core group in Fantastic Beasts consists of two men, Newt and Jacob, and two women, Tina and Queenie.
• Liberal Arts has six primary characters consisting of three males (Jesse Fisher, Prof. Peter Hoberg, and Dean) and three females (Zibby, Prof. Judith Fairfield, and Ana), plus two recurring characters of each gender (the male Nat and the female Vanessa).
• Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight: The group consists of three boys (Julek, Daniel, and Bartek) and three girls (Zosia, Aniela, and Ms. Iza).
• In Santa Hunters, there is Alex and his younger sister Elizabeth along with their cousins Zoey and her brother Richard.
• Terror Birds: Three boys (Justin, Brett, and Trent) and three girls (Maddy, Taylor, Paige).
• Your Friends & Neighbors: Three men (Jerry, Barry, and Cary) and three women (Terri, Cheri, and Mary). There are effectively no other characters.
• Zombieland: Two men (Columbus and Tallahassee), a woman (Wichita), and a young girl (Little Rock).

Literature

• Enid Blyton - Her works often consist of a gender-balanced group of children, sometimes supplemented by a pet.
  • The Famous Five - Not counting the dog, the titular ensemble consists of two boys (Julian and Dick) and two girls (Georgina and Anne)
  • The Adventure Series - Two boys (Phillip and Jack) and two girls (Dinah and Lucy-Ann)
  • The Secret Series - Two boys (Jack and Mike) and two girls (Peggy and Nora)
  • The Far Away Tree - The second book has two boys and two girls.
  • The Adventurous Four- Two boys (Tom and Andy) and twin sisters (Jill and Mary)
  • Six Cousin Series - Three boys (Jack, Cyril, and Roderick) and three girls (Jane, Susan, and Melisande)
• The Berenstain Bears: For the longest time, The Bear family consisted of Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. This balance was undone with the introduction of Honey Bear in 2000.
• Can't forget the mystery-solving siblings from The Boxcar Children. There's Violet and Jessie, and then there's Henry and Benny.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: All of the books feature this with their main child protagonists except The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which has Two Guys and a Girl).
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has two boys (Peter and Edmund) and two girls (Susan and Lucy)
  • Prince Caspian has the same two boys and two girls, although that one also has Caspian as the protagonist of the B plot, so it blurs the line. (Played straight if you consider "children from England" a separate category.)
  • The Silver Chair and The Last Battle have one boy and one girl from England, though they're accompanied by various Narnians (human and otherwise) on their missions.
  • The Horse and His Boy has one male human and one female human and one male horse and one female horse.
  • All told, there is an equal number of male and female Friends of Narnia, though by The Last Battle Susan's status is in question.
• The first few of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera books have a gender-equal number of point-of-view characters. They start with Amara and Isana (female) and Tavi and Fidelias (male). The balance is preserved in the third book when Fidelias disappears and is replaced by Ehren but is ultimately upset in the fourth book when Fidelias returns.
• Dead City: The main team consists of two boys (Grayson and Alex) and two girls (Molly and Natalie).
• Also from Jim Butcher, the The Dresden Files book Changes has the initial group that goes off Storming the Castle at the climax: four men (Harry, Thomas, Sanya, Martin), four women (Murphy, Molly, Susan, Lea), and a dog (Mouse).
• Societally enforced for families in The Giver, since feelings are suppressed and spouses and children assigned by the community leaders. All married couples are one male, one female, and each family is assigned one boy and one girl child (not at the same time, so there will be times for each family when they skew one way or the other, but it ultimately balances out this way).
• Harry Potter:
  • Although most of the series stars the central trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, we do get a temporary Gender Equal Ensemble when they're joined by Ginny, Luna, and Neville for the climax of Order of the Phoenix.
  • Also the founders of Hogwarts consisted of two wizards (Gryffindor and Slytherin) and two witches (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff) whilst the modern-day heads of houses are Professors McGonagall and Sprout (female) and Snape and Flitwick (male).
  • Every year at Hogwarts, four boys and four girls become prefects, a boy and girl from each house. In Harry's year, the prefects are Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Ernie Macmillan, and Anthony Goldstein (male), and Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Hannah Abbott, and Padma Patil (female).
• The Homework Machine: The "D-Squad" (named such since their surnames all start with D) consist of Brenton Damagatchi and Sam "Snik" Dawkins (male) and Judy Douglas and Kelsey Donnelly (female).
• The Hunger Games. Each Games starts out with twelve male and twelve female tributes, with the exception of the Fiftieth Games which featured twenty-four males and twenty-four females. Due to the nature of the Games, the gender ratio often shifts as players are eliminated. For example, while the final eight in the Seventy-fourth Games fit this trope, their counterparts from the Seventy-fifth Games consist of five males and three females, though two of the males in the latter are killed shortly after, leaving a gender-equal group of six to be rescued from the arena.
  • This trope is also in play for the main characters while they are being prepared for the Games. Katniss and Peeta share a male mentor, Haymitch, and a female escort, Effie, and Katniss has a male stylist, Cinna, while Peeta has a female stylist, Portia.
• The eight travelers on the peach in James and the Giant Peach: James, the Grasshopper, the Centipede, and the Earthworm (male), and the Spider, the Ladybug, the Glowworm, and the Silkworm (female).
• Max & the Midknights: The titular Midknights are made up of Max, Millie (girls), Simon, and Kevyn (boys).
• The Mediochre Q Seth Series, if you only count the main four: Mediochre and Joseph are male, Dhampinella and Charlotte are female. If you include fringe members of the group who join them occasionally on adventures, it still sort of works in the first book, because you can interpret Danny as being balanced out by Desra, the female mouse. Otherwise, it tends to fall apart quickly once you start including Rowan, Melz or Queen MAB.
• Monster of the Month Club: The twelve monsters, when brought together. The six from odd-numbered months are all male and the six from even-numbered months are all female.
• The titular group in The Mysterious Benedict Society consists of two boys (Reynie and Sticky) and two girls (Kate and Constance). Even their adult friends count—Rhonda and Number Two, Mr. Benedict and Milligan.
• The Night Garden: The main kids the book focuses on are Franny, Winifred, Wilfred, and Zebediah.
• Pride Wars: Leo's quadron has two males (Leo and Stick), and two females (Zoya and Anjali).
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: The Sword Roses consist of three boys, Oliver, Pete,^note technically a Sex Shifter, but has a masculine gender identity and Guy, and three girls, Nanao, Michela, and Katie.
• The Roman Mysteries - The four Kid Detectives that make up the main characters include two girls (Flavia and Nubia) and two boys (Jonathan and Lupus).
• The main characters in Seekers consist of two males (Toklo and Ujurak) and two females (Kallik and Lusa).
• Count Olaf's team of henchpeople in A Series of Unfortunate Events consists of two men, two women, and one person of indeterminate gender.
• So This is Ever After: Aerk's party has three men (himself, Matt, Rion) and three women (Bethany, Sionna, Lila) as members.
• The Stormlight Archive: The ten Heralds of the Almighty, divine warriors sent to lead humanity against the Voidbringers, are split evenly at five male and five female.
• In Thebe and the Angry Red Eye, the seven-member crew of Hildebrand One comes close, being comprised of four males (Captain Hawthorne, Thomas, Carl, Jenare) and three females (Mallory, Dr. Slawvitz, Tout).
• The Underland Chronicles: At the end of the third book, a group of eight defends the starshade from the cutters. It consists of four males (Gregor, Hamnet, Ripred, Temp) and four females (Luxa, Frill, Nike, Lapblood).
• Underworlds: The main cast of kid heroes consist of two boys (Owen and Jon) and two girls (Dana and Sydney).
• Voices in the Park has six characters and an even gender split; three male characters (Charles, the man, and Albert), and three female characters (Smudge, the woman, and Victoria).
• Warrior Cats:
  • The second story arc has three she-cats (Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, and Feathertail) traveling with three toms (Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, and Stormfur).
  • The fourth story arc put two toms (Lionblaze and Jayfeather) and two she-cats (Dovewing and Ivypool) at the forefront of the fight against the Dark Forest. Additionally, virtually all of the chapters are from the point of view of one of these four. The first book of this arc is about several cats setting out on a journey to retrieve the lake's water. The cats chosen for this are four females (Dovepaw, Whitetail, Sedgewhisker, and Petalfur) and four males (Lionblaze, Tigerheart, Toadfoot, and Rippletail).
  • Supplementary material and the fifth arc reveal that the very first Clan leaders (excluding the forgotten SkyClan) were two females (Shadow and Wind) and two males (Thunder and River).

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Team is initially composed of the male Phil Coulson, Grant Ward, and Leo Fitz, and the female Skye/Daisy Johnson, Melinda May, and Jemma Simmons. It's also distributed so that there is at least one male and one female for both brains (Fitz, Johnson, and Simmons) and brawn (Coulson, Ward, and May). While the team gains and loses members from there, it still mostly manages to stick to this.
• A.N.T. Farm: The show has three girls (Chyna, Olive, and Lexi) and three boys (Fletcher, Cameron, and Angus). Subverted in that Cameron and Angus were never in the main cast at the same time.
• Austin & Ally: Dez and Austin match with Trish and Ally.
• Barney & Friends usually has two boys and two girls per episode amongst the kid cast, although Baby Bop has always been the sole female dinosaur.
  • Its predecessor, Barney and the Backyard Gang, also has three boys (Michael, Derek (Jason in the first three videos) and Adam (Jeffrey in the Campfire Sing Along video)) and three girls (Amy, Tina, and Luci).
• Bella and the Bulldogs in its first season had Bella, Sophie, and Pepper on the girls' side and Troy, Sawyer, and Newt on the boys' side. This is thrown off-kilter in the second season when Ace joins the main cast.
• The Beverly Hillbillies: The titular family has two males (Jed and Jethro) and two females (Granny and Elly). Additional regular characters include two males (Milburn and Sonny Drysdale) and two females (Margaret Drysdale and Jane Hathaway).
• Beverly Hills, 90210: The first four seasons have eight main characters, four males (Brandon, Steve, Dylan, and David) and four females (Brenda, Kelly, Andrea, and Donna).
• The Big Garage: The main characters of this show are four taxi cabs, and this group consists of two males (London and Yorkie) and two females (Zigzag and Mimi).
• Bizaardvark does so with its third season, with Frankie, Paige, and Amelia for the girls, and Bernie, Zane, and Rodney for the boys.
• Bonekickers: The team has two men (Ben, Dolly) and two women (Magwilde, Vic).
• The Brady Bunch: Not counting the housekeeper, the titular family consists of one father with three boys and one mother with three daughters.
• The Brittas Empire becomes this in its last series, having a main cast consisting of 4 females (Carole, Julie, Linda and Helen) and 4 males (the titular Gordon Brittas, Tim, Gavin, and Colin). Beforehand though, the show was a Downplayed example of this, having a slightly dominant female cast of 5 girls and 4 boys.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Zig-zagged due to all the cast changes. Played straight during season 2 and the beginning of season 5 (up until Riley left, at which point the show returned to being predominantly female). Season 4 can also count; while only Buffy and Willow were listed in the main credits, the other four starring roles being male, Anya and Tara appeared in so many episodes and were so closely tied to the core cast of Scoobies that counting them balances things out. For a while in season 9, after Giles' death, it was the core three plus Spike, Andrew, and Dawn.
• For Bunk'd, it changed depending on the season when looking at Grizzly (boys') and Woodchuck (girls') cabins.
  • First season had Xander, Ravi, and Jorge compared to Lou, Emma, Zuri, and Tiffany.
  • Second season added Griff to the boys, though he was only a recurring character.
  • Third season had Ravi, Matteo, and Finn compared to Lou, Emma, Zuri, and Destiny.
  • Fourth season had Noah, Matteo, and Finn compared to Ava, Destiny, and Gwen with Lou taking over the owner's cabin.
• The main cast members of the first three seasons of Castle consisted of four men (the titular protagonist, Ryan, Esposito, and Captain Montgomery) and four women (Beckett, Lanie, Alexis, and Martha).
• Coupling: Three boys (Steve, Patrick, and Jeff) and three girls (Sally, Susan, and Jane). This was enough to get it described constantly as the Transatlantic Equivalent of Friends, though that's a gross oversimplification.
• Criminal Minds: Comes close to until season 12, when for the first time, there are four guys and four girls in the main cast.
• CSI: Excluding the detectives, the Lab Rats and The Coroner, the main CSIs team are initially made up of three guys (Gil Grissom, Warrick Brown, and Nick Stokes) and two girls (Catherine Willows and Sara Silder). Later, former Lab Rat Greg Sanders got promoted to join the team, the scale skewed to the male side. However, Warrick died, Grissom left the team and got replaced by Ray Langston who didn't stay very long and got replaced by D.B. Russell, and then Catherine got a job offer at the FBI and got replaced by Russell's former co-worker Julie "Finn" Finlay. Then, Conrad Ecklie's daughter, Morgan, joins the team which makes it more gender-equal with three guys (D.B., Nick, and Greg) and three girls (Sara, Finn, and Morgan).
• Dawson's Creek: Played straight throughout the show. The first season has only two boys (Dawson and Pacey) and two girls (Joey and Jen). In season 2 the Mcphee siblings (a boy and a girl) also join the main cast. Andie, the female Mcphee, left the series midway through the fourth season, but she was more or less replaced by Audrey in season 5 and 6.
• Doctor Who: When there are four people in the TARDIS (something that's usually avoided because of how hard it is for the writers to find something for all those characters to do) the numbers tend to fall out like this:
  • First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan
  • First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki
  • Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric
  • (Briefly) Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough
  • Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River
  • Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Yasmin, and Ryan.
• Dog with a Blog: Avery, Chloe, and Ellen on the female side, and Tyler, Bennett, and Stan on the male side.
• For the People: Jill, Sandra, Allison, Kate, and Tina for women; Roger, Leonard, Seth, Jay, and Judge Byrne for the men. Though it is played with in that the defense side has only one male regular (Jay) and the prosecution side has only one female regular (Kate).
• The Fresh Beat Band's Marina, Kiki, Twist, and Shout.
• Friends: Three men (Ross, Chandler, and Joey) and three women (Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe). Two-thirds of the group pair off into couples by the end of the series.
• Game Shakers does so with the child cast, with Babe and Kenzie balancing out with Triple G and Hudson, although it's subverted when Double G is counted and even more off-balanced if his assistants Bunny and Ruthless are as well.
• Ghostwriter: Unless you count Ghostwriter himself (male), there are four founding members of the Ghostwriter Team, two girls and two boys. For the majority of the series, it's three girls and three boys. Casey's addition late in the series upsets the balance, but she's not always with the team.
• Girl Meets World was this in season 1 by a technicality. Riley, Maya, and Topanga are balanced by Lucas, Cory, and Auggie, since Farkle was not officially part of the main cast in season 1, even though he was never really considered anything less than a lead. This is played more straight with the four main teen characters (Riley/Maya vs. Lucas/Farkle).
• Glee: Though the group's composition is constantly in flux (often as a plot point), the titular Glee club spends most of its time in an even 6/6 split between the boys and girls for season 1 and hovers around that number for most of season 2 as well.
• Good Luck Charlie: Prior to the introduction of Toby midway through the show's third season, the Duncan family consisted of three males (Bob, PJ, and Gabe) and three females (Amy, Teddy, and Charlie).
• The Good Place's main cast consists of three guys (Michael, Chidi, and Jason) and three girls (Eleanor, Tahani, and Janet). However, Michael and Janet aren't human - Michael is a celestial architect inhabiting the constructed form of a male human, and Janet is a celestial database who presents as female but reminds people consistently that her nature and gender can't be accurately described by terms like "robot" and "girl".
• The Haunted Hathaways: The human Hathaways (Taylor, Frankie, and Michelle) are all female and the ghost Prestons (Miles, Louie, and Ray) are all male.
• Happy Endings: Three boys (Dave, Max, Brad), three girls (Jane, Alex, Penny).
• Henry Danger, like Game Shakers does so with its child cast, with Henry and Jasper complementing Charlotte and Piper, but it is subverted when the adults, Ray and Schwoz, are counted.
• Heroes Reborn: after the previous series has the main cast mostly consisting of men all four seasons, this miniseries has the main cast consisting of five men (Noah Bennet, Tommy Clark, Luke Collins, Quentin Frady, and Carlos Gutierrez) and five women (Joanne Collins, Emily Duval, Malina Bennet, Erica Kravid, and Miko Otomo).
• How I Met Your Mother: Throughout its first eight seasons has had three men (Ted, Marshall, and Barney), and only two women (Robin and Lily). However, as of the ninth and final season, it becomes gender-equal when Cristin Milioti joins the main cast as the finally revealed mother.
• iCarly: Sam and Carly are the women, Spencer and Freddie are the men, thrown off-balance when Gibby joins the main cast.
• In The InBESTigators, the eponymous team is made up of two boys (Ezra and Kyle) and two girls (Maudie and Ava).
• Jessie consists of three girls (Jessie, Emma, and Zuri) and three guys (Ravi, Luke, and Bertram).
• Johnson and Friends: From Season 3 onwards, the main cast consists of three boys (Johnson, Diesel, and Alfred) and three girls (McDuff, Squeaky, and Victoria).
• Knight Squad:
  • The Phoenix Squad consists of Ciara, Prudence, Warwick, and Arc.
  • The Kracken Squad also has two males (extras) and two females - Sage and Prudence.
• Legend of the Seeker: In Season 2, Cara joins the group. She is the second woman, with Kahlan. On the male side, there is Richard and Zedd. Even when Richard is temporarily away, they add another man who is the new Seeker.
• Legends of Tomorrow started out with a predominately male cast (only two of the original nine Legends were women), but by Seasons 4 and 5, the main cast had become evenly split between genders ... most of the time. Occasionally the gender balance would get thrown off, one way or the other, as new characters were added and old characters left.
• Liv and Maddie has the two title characters and Karen on the female side, and Joey, Parker, and Pete on the male side. Subverted in the final season when Pete is replaced by Ruby.
• Magic Mountain consists of two males (Dragon and Lion) and two females (Panda and Tortoise):
• Merlin: The four main characters are two boys (Arthur and Merlin) and two girls (Guinevere and Morgana). May not count for some considering the boys dominate most of the screentime, to the point where the girls are sometimes completely absent for certain episodes.
• Mimpi Metropolitan initially consist of three males (Bambang, Alan, and Prima) and three females (Melani, Pipin, and Mami Bibir). It changes after the male Juna joins the main characters.
• The Monster Warriors consist of two boys (Luke and Antonio) and two girls (Tabby and Vanka).
• My Mad Fat Diary: The pub gang has 3 girls and 3 boys.
• The Nanny: The Sheffield household has three males (Maxwell and Brighton Sheffield, Niles the butler) and three females (Fran Fine, Maggie, and Gracie Sheffield).
• Zig-Zagged on Odd Squad due to characters swapping out between seasons:
  • Season 1 played the trope straight, with two boys (Otto and Oscar) and two girls (Olive and Oprah).
  • The first few episodes of Season 2 continued playing it straight, with Otto and Olive being replaced by Otis and Olympia. After Oscar was replaced with Oona, however, Otis became The One Guy.
  • Season 3 went back to playing it straight, with two girls (Opal and Orla) and two boys (Omar and Oswald). Albeit adding Oprah would tip the scale in favor of the girls.
• Orphan Black is an interesting example, as the main cast in Season 2 is made up of three women (Tatiana Maslany, Maria Doyle Kennedy, and Evelyne Brochu) and three men (Jordan Gavaris, Dylan Bruce, and Kevin Hanchard), but the actual show is predominantly female, as Tatiana Maslany plays five main characters.
• Our Miss Brooks: The six major characters are equally balanced by gender. Three girls: Constance (Connie) Brooks, Margaret Davis and Harriet Conklin. Three boys: Phillip Boynton, Osgood Conklin, and Walter Denton.
• Though there are seven rangers in Power Rangers Cosmic Fury plus an Honorary True Companion, they never all fight together. For much of the series, there are three girls (Amelia, Izzy, and Fern) and three guys (alternating between Javi, Aiyon, Zayto, Billy, and Olly).
• The Puzzle Place: Three girls (Julie, Kiki, and Jody) and three boys (Ben, Leon, and Skye). Even if you include Sizzle and Nuzzle and the Piece Police, it still counts. They did add a fourth boy (Kyle) near the end of the series, though.
• Reservation Dogs: Following Daniel's death a year prior to the events of the show, the Rez Dogs friend group consists of two boys (Bear and Cheese) and two girls (Elora and Willie Jack).
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: Up until the story "The Nightmare Man" at the beginning of series 4, the team consisted of two boys (Luke and Clyde), and two girls (Maria or Rani, and Sarah Jane).
• Saved by the Bell: Zack, Slater, and Screech complement Kelly, Jessie, and Lisa. The entire main cast is thrown off balance due to Max (in Season 1) & Mr. Belding but is balanced out in the last season with Tori.
• Sense8: The titular sensate cluster who are the main characters of the show: four women (Sun, Kala, Riley, and Nomi ^note  who is trans ), four men (Will, Wolfgang, Capheus, Lito).
• From 2014 onwards, the main cast of Silent Witness consists of this: two women (Nikki and Clarissa) and two men (Thomas and Jack). Previous seasons utilized Two Guys and a Girl (Leo and Harry with Sam or Nikki); the first three seasons focused solely on a woman (Sam).
• Skins:
  • The third generation consists of four girls (Franky, Mini, Liv, and Grace) and four guys (Rich, Nick, Alo, and Matty) during season 5. It doesn't stick for season 6, though, in which Alex joins the main cast, but since Matty is absent for the whole season except the premiere and the finale it may count as well.
  • The first generation had more guys on the first season, but the inclusion of "Sketch" in the second evened the things into this trope: 5 guys (Tony, Sid, Chris, Anwar, and Maxxie) and 5 girls (Michelle, Cassie, Effy, Jal, and Sketch). The second generation, however, was predominantly-female, with 4 guys (Freddie, Thomas, Cook, and JJ) and 5 girls (Pandora, Effy, Katie, Emily, and Naomi).
• Sonny with a Chance: The show has three girls (Sonny, Tawni, and Zora) and three boys (Nico, Grady, and Chad).
• Step by Step: The Foster-Lambert blended family has the parents (Frank and Carol), three boys (J.T., Mark, and Brendan), and three girls (Dana, Karen, and Al). Downplayed because Frank's nephew Cody also joins the main cast in season 2 (though he doesn't live in their house but in his van).
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: The main cast has three males (Zack, Cody, and Mr. Moseby) and three females (London, Maddie, and Carey). On Deck averted this, as there were only two girls (London and Bailey) and never less than three guys (Zack, Cody, and Moseby, plus Marcus in Season 2 and Woody if you count him as a lead).
• Suits: The show has a gender-equal ensemble. The 6 main characters are all equal gender-wise, Harvey Specter, Mike Ross, and Louis Litt for the boys, and Rachel Zane, Donna Paulsen, and Jessica Pearson for the girls.
• The main cast members of the first season of Supergirl (2015) consisted of three women (the titular protagonist, her Cool Big Sis Alex, and her boss and mentor Cat Grant) and three men (James Olsen, Winn Schott, and J'onn Jonzz).
• Survivor contestants consist of sixteen to twenty people with equal gender ratio. So far, there were only two instances of gender imbalance in the game's history. Both times due to contestants backing down for health reasons, and in both times the contestants were female.
• Teletubbies: There are two boys (Tinky-Winky and Dipsy) and two girls (Laa-Laa and Po), along with a vacuum cleaner, Noo-Noo.
• The Thundermans has three females (Phoebe, Nora, and Barb) and three males (Max, Billy, and Hank). This was thrown off balance when Chloe joined the main cast in Season 3, but is re-balanced when you count Dr. Colosso. Even beforehand Colosso was arguably balanced out by Cherry, but this no longer fits with Chloe.
• Trapped usually had three girls and three boys competing in each episode, but series 3, episode 10 averts this with four boys and two girls competing instead.
• Victorious: The main group consists of three girls (Tori, Jade, and Cat) and three boys (Andre, Beck, and Robbie), but it's ultimately thrown off when Trina is counted, though re-stabilized if Sinjin is counted.
• White Collar: During season 3 the main cast consisted of three men (Neal, Peter, and Mozzie) and three women (Elizabeth, Diana, and Sara). However, the fourth season breaks this by having Clinton Jones join the main cast and have Sara Demoted to Extra.
• Will & Grace: The main cast has two men (Will and Jack) and two women (Grace and Karen).
• Willow: The party that goes after Airk has three men and three women (Willow, Graydon, Boorman vs Kit, Jade, Dove).
• Wizards of Waverly Place: Alex, Harper, and Teresa for the females; Justin, Max, and Jerry for the males.
• Zoey 101: Played straight in the first two seasons, with four girls (Zoey, Dana, Nicole, and Quinn) and four boys (Chase, Michael, Logan, and Dustin), with Lola replacing Dana in season 2. The trope still somewhat applies in seasons 3 and 4, with only three girls (after Nicole left the show) and three boys (Dustin, while still being part of the main cast, was pretty much Demoted to Extra).

Music

• ABBA, whose name was based around the fact they had two girls beginning with A and two men beginning with B.
• A-Teens, once began as an ABBA tribute group, also had two girls and two men.
• The B-52s, after Ricky Wilson died.
• Ace of Base (when both Linn and Jenny, in the bulk of their time, or Clara and Julia, afterward, were present)
• Caramell, a Swedish Dance music group that consists of female singers Katia Löfgren and Malin Sundström, and male producers Jorge Vasconcelo and Juha Myllylä. All four band members appear in the performances.
• Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose was a band consisting of two male members and two female members.
• Ladytron, in what's turned out to be a Long Runner Lineup
• The Mamas & the Papas consisted of two men and two women.
• My Bloody Valentine, another Long Runner Lineup (vocalist/guitarist Kevin Shields, vocalist/guitarist Bilinda Butcher, bassist Debbie Googe, drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig), which has actually been the official lineup on every record that hasn't undergone Canon Discontinuity. ^note Shields played most of the bass and guitar parts on Loveless and a few other records, but Googe and Butcher were still credited for their instruments. Butcher didn't actually mind this since she feels Shields is a better guitarist, and she still gets plenty of presence on the records through her vocals.
• Skillet
• Throbbing Gristle, the era after Genesis P-Orridge's sex-change surgery and before Peter Christopherson's death.
• little xs for eyes, with three female musicians who also sing together, and three men, one of whom sings on a few songs as well.
• Kagerou Project tells the story of some children with eye powers. Their cast is composed of a balanced male-female cast.
• Disacode from 2010 to 2013: Female members Akira (vocalist) and Marcy (drummer) and male members Shun (bassist) and Daichi (guitarist). After Daichi left, the Visual Kei band became a Two Girls and a Guy Rock Trio with Shun being The One Guy.
• Downplayed with "Les Ogres de Barback". It's a french band of four siblings (two men : Sam and Fred, and two women: Mathilde and Alice Burguière) but Léo, their brother born after the beginning of the band, accompanies them from time to time, (for example he was on stage for the 10th anniversary of the band)
• Veruca Salt consists of two women and two men.
• These are pretty rare in metal, but there are a few examples:
  • Oakland-based Death Metal band Extremity: bassist Erika Osterhout, drummer Aesop Dekker, guitarist/vocalist Marissa Martinez (credited as Marissa Martinez-Hoadley in this band), and guitarist/vocalist Shelby Lermo. Despite his Gender-Blender Name, Lermo is male, and for bonus points, Martinez is transgender.
  • Another of Martinez' bands, the San Jose-based death/grind act Cretin, was an example until the departure of drummer Col Jones in 2015; the lineup was Martinez, Jones, Matt Widener, and Elizabeth Schall from 2013 to 2015. The band is now a rare inversion of The Smurfette Principle instead. That said, according to Metal Archives, they are still this trope when performing live, with Matt Harvey providing additional guitars (it's not clear what they do about drums), but he's not considered an official member.
  • San Francisco-based Doom Metal band The Gault: guitarist John Gossard, bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath, drummer Sarah Weiner, and vocalist Ed Kunakemakorn.
  • Arlington Heights, IL/Portland, OR-based black/death metal band Ævangelist, which is a somewhat complicated case. Metal Archives lists Matron Thorn as male and Ascaris as female, but both members' gender expression comes across as non-binary (Ascaris is also transgender, according to her page on Metal Archives). Judging from interviews, this is entirely deliberate on their part; they've said they try to attack listeners' preconceptions as much as possible in as many fashions as possible, and subverting traditional gender stereotypes is one way they do this, though their actual gender identities also do seem to be at least somewhat non-binary.

Pinball

• Heist!: Maggie's team consists of three men and three women.

Podcasts

• Occurs in the Cool Kids Table game Creepy Town. Between all the victims created there are six boys and six girls.

Pro Wrestling

• Thanks in large part to the Women's Evolution where the women are seen as legitimate wrestlers and not as eye candy as they were in the past, the WWE has become this, particularly on NXT and to a lesser extent on WWE Raw where there as just as plenty of women's matches as there are men's matches.

Puppet Shows

• The main cast of Donkey Hodie is comprised of girls Donkey Hodie and Duck Duck and boys Purple Panda and Bob Dog.
• The Pajanimals are the boys Apollo and Squacky and the girls Cowbella and Sweetpea Sue.
• Teletubbies has always had this. Two boys (Tinky Winky and Dipsy), and two girls (Laa-Laa and Po)
  • Remains this way in the reboot with the addition of 4 boys (Daa-Daa, Ba, Ru Ru, Duggle Dee) and 4 girls (Mi-Mi, Ping, Nin, Umby Pumby).

Tabletop Games

• The titular team in Crimestrikers, more or less. The book has entries for ten women, eight men, and a male-identifying robot. Add the team medic, who doesn't get his own entry, and the ratio becomes 10/10.

Theatre

• Godspell is originally scripted to have this (five boys and five girls), but due to the show's flexibility, it can vary wildly.
• On the Town - Three boys (Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie) and three girls (Ivy, Hildy, and Claire).
• Jason Robert Brown seems to enjoy this trope. Songs for a New World has a cast of two men and two women, spread evenly amongst the four major Voice Types, while The Last Five Years has a man and woman as its cast. 13 breaks the mold, though it's sort of required to due to its Arc Number.
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a drama involving an old married couple (George and Martha) and a younger one (Nick and Honey).
  • The same works for other plays that feature two married couples, such as God of Carnage or The Bald Soprano (though the second one has two more characters, they are a maid and a fireman, so the trope is still played straight).
  • Ghost Quartet is performed by two men and two women. Deconstructed in that each performer plays many different characters, meaning that there end up being more female characters than male, but reconstructed in that it is revealed at the end that all of the characters played by each performer are really just one character reincarnated.

Toys

• The Lottie dolls franchise has two girls, Lottie and Mia, and two boys, Finn and Sammi.
• Out of the main characters, Zhu Zhu Pets has four guys (Mr. Squiggles, Chunk, Scoodles and Winkie) and four girls (Pipsqueak, Num Nums, Jilly and Nugget). However Patches is sometimes added as a 5th main female character. In the books Rocky is the 5th main male.

Video Games

• Arc Rise Fantasia: The final party, after all of Guest Stars are gone, consists of L'Arc, Rastan and Serge for men, and Ryfia, Cecille and Leslie for women.
• The six party members of Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout are evenly split between female (Ryza, Klaudia, Lila) and male (Lent, Tao, Empel).
• Backyard Sports' original roster consisted of 15 boys and 15 girls (including a pair of brothers, a pair of twin sisters, and three brother-sister pairs), plus female play-by-play commentator Sunny Day paired with a different male color commentator for each sport. The pros were all male outside of the basketball and soccer games.
• Both Baten Kaitos games. The first has 3 males and 3 females, while the 2nd has 1 male, 1 female, and 1 Guillo (a Hermaphrodite Perverse Puppet Golem that uses Voice of the Legion, giving "it" both a male and female voice actor). It's eventually revealed Guillo was created from the combined spirits of two people, one male and one female, so even if that is taken into account their team becomes two males and two females.
• Blazblue Cross Tag Battle features a base roster of 20 characters, 10 males and 10 females, though the expanded roster of currently confirmed characters actually features more women than men (DLC characters are in italics): the guys are Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisaragi, Hazama, Azrael, Iron Tager, Jubei, Hakumen, Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Kanji Tatsumi, Hyde, Gordeau, Waldstein and Carmine; the girls are Rachel Alucard, Noel Vermillion, Makoto Nanaya, Nu-13, Es, Platinum the Trinity, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Aegis, Naoto Shirogane, Linne, Orie, Vatista, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long.
• Bomb Club: The titular club is made up of 2 girls (Maggie, Blake) and 2 guys (Jon, Ian).
• While the player characters of the Borderlands series generally consists of three guys and a girl (not counting DLC characters), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! has two females (Athena and Nisha) and two males (Wilhelm and Claptrap). Granted, one of them is a robot but is generally addressed as male. The DLCs add a male and female (Jack Body Double and Aurelia), maintaining the pattern.
• Bravely Default has Tiz and Ringabel for the males and Agnes and Edea for the females. Its sequel, Bravely Second, keeps this up, replacing Ringabel with Yew for the new male and Agnes with Magnolia for the new female while keeping Tiz and Edea from before. Bravely Default II goes for a whole new cast, with Seth and Elvis for the new males and Gloria and Adelle for the new females.
• The complete Player Party in Breath of Death VII consists of 2 guys (Dem and Erik) and 2 girls (Sara and Lita).
• Caveman Warriors: The Player Characters are two guys (Jack and Moe) and two girls (Liliana and Brienne).
• Chaos Rings and Chaos Rings Ω - The Agent summons four or five couples, each of which are a man and a woman.
• Chrono Trigger has Crono, Frog, and Robo for males, and Marle, Lucca, and Ayla for females. This has the potential to be offset by player actions later in the game: depending on whether or not the player revives Crono, whether or not Magus joins the party, and whether or not the player finishes Robo's Side Quest, the player can have anywhere from 1 to 4 male party members.
• The ClueFinders series has two girls (Joni and Leslie) and two boys (Santiago and Owen). Plus a talking, flying (male) computer.
• Crimson Sea has G-squad, which begins with three men and a woman, but which recruits two more women as the story progresses, balancing the numbers.
• The first group of survivors in Dead by Daylight were two guys (Dwight and Jake) to two girls (Claudette and Meg), but has been split into primarily male since. The Legion, who is a gang of teenage killers that plays as The Dividual in-game, has two guys (Frank and Joey) to two girls (Julie and Susie).
• In Dicey Dungeons, the contestants are composed of two boys (Warrior and Thief), two girls (Inventor and Witch), and two nonbinary dice (Robot and Jester).
• The Dragon Age series is big on this:
  • Dragon Age: Origins has four female Companions (Morrigan, Leliana, Wynne, and Shale) and four male (Alistair who is optionally replaced by Teyrn Loghain, Sten, Zevran, and Oghren). And a (male) dog. However, you don't have to recruit all of them, and depending on whether you view the Warden as an ensemble member, the balance can be tipped to either side.
  • Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening has Mhairi/Sigrun/Velanna for the female side and Anders/Oghren/Nathaniel for the males, though Mhairi doesn't survive her Joining at the beginning of the game. Further skewing the balance is the fact that the genderless Spirit of Justice possesses a male corpse. Other standalone DLC campaigns, however, are skewed to the male side heavily, ranging from one to no female companions (though in the one with none, the PC is a girl).
  • Dragon Age II follows the suit with four females (Bethany, Aveline, Merrill, Isabela) and four males (Carver, Varric, Anders, Fenris). However, Bethany and Carver are Mutually Exclusive Party Members and the DLC-only male Companion Sebastian can either restore the gender parity or skew it even further. The same Featureless Protagonist disclaimer applies to the Player Character.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition is the first main game to avert this trope in the Player Party, which has twice as many males (Varric, Cole, Solas, the Iron Bull, Dorian, and Blackwall) as females (Vivienne, Cassandra, and Sera). The balance is slightly improved with the addition of the three Advisers, one male (Cullen) and two female (Leliana and Josephine), to the Inquisition's inner circle, but it's still skewed towards the male side.
• Dragon Quest IV: Possible in the NES version if the Heroine is chosen, with four women and four men. The PS1/DS version averts this by adding a male Sixth Ranger for the additional sixth chapter, Psaro.
• Dungeons of Aether stars four characters: Fleet and Artemis (female) and Slade and Hamir (male).
• The base game of Fallout: New Vegas has three men (Boone, Arcade, and Raul) and three women (Cass, Veronica, and Lily). The DLCs skew it towards the male side with four men (Dog/God, Dean Domino, Follows-Chalk and Joshua Graham) compared to two women (Christine and Waking Cloud).
• Fear & Hunger: Termina has eight potential protagonists. Levi, Daan, O'saa and Marcoh are men, while Marina, Abella, Olivia and Karin are women.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy V starts out this way, with Bartz, Galuf, Reina, and Faris. Then Galuf dies, Krile joins the party and Bartz becomes The One Guy.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake has Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith. Red XIII joins the group at the end as a Guest-Star Party Member.
  • Final Fantasy VIII - The main party consists of three guys (Squall, Zell, Irvine) and three girls (Rinoa, Quistis, Selphie). However, of the assorted Guest Star Party Members, four are male (Seifer, Laguna, Kiros, Ward) and only one is female (Matron).
  • Final Fantasy IX counts only if Quina is considered female, putting her alongside Garnet, Freya, and Eiko opposite Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, and Amarant.
  • Final Fantasy XII - three males (Vaan, Balthier, Basch) and three females (Ashe, Fran, Penelo) make up the main party. All Guest Star Party Members are male this time.
  • Final Fantasy XIII - 3 main females (Vanille, Lightning, and Fang) and 3 main males (Sazh, Snow and Hope).
  • Final Fantasy Type-0 - 7 main females (Rem, Deuce, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven and Queen) and 7 main males (Machina, Ace, Trey, Eight, Nine, Jack, and King).
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Two of the three eponymous houses are this.
  • The Black Eagles have Edelgard, Bernadetta, Dorothea, and Petra for girls and Caspar, Ferdinand, Linhardt, and Hubert for guys.
  • The Golden Deer have Claude, Raphael, Ignatz, and Lorenz for guys and Hilda, Leonie, Lysithea, and Marianne for girls.
  • The DLC character house, the Ashen Wolves, also has two boys, Yuri and Balthus, and two girls, Constance and Hapi.
  • Played With in regards to the Blue Lions. While the house proper has five boys (Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Sylvain, and Ashe) and three girls (Ingrid, Mercedes, and Annette), the route-agnostic characters play it straight, as all three girls can be recruited to the Black Eagles or Golden Deer, but Dimitri and Dedue cannot, leaving Felix, Sylvain, and Ashe.
• Fire Emblem Engage does this with the returning protagonists from the initial reveal, choosing 6 males (Marth, Sigurd, Leif, Roy, Ike, and Byleth) and 6 females (Celica, Lyn, Eirika, Micaiah, Lucina, and Corrin).
• FUSE: The main team Overstrike 9 has two male members and two female members.
• Grandia plays with it, in that while there usually is an equal amount of male and female party members, they won't all be present at the same time due to the story determining who is and isn't in your party, which is limited to four characters at a time.
  • Grandia has four male party members (Justin, Gadwin, Rapp, and Guido) and four female ones (Sue, Feena, Milda, and Liete). The first party of four that you get (Justin, Sue, Feena, and Gadwin) still counts, as does the final party of Justin, Feena, Rapp, and Liete.
  • Grandia II has three males (Ryudo, Roan, and Mareg) and three females (Elena, Millenia, and Tio). For much of the second half of the game, the party consists of Ryudo, Elena, Mareg, and Tio (with Millenia occasionally replacing Elena), fitting the trope, as it does later when Roan, who had left earlier, returns to replace Mareg after he does a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Hoshi wo Miru Hito and its Fan Remakes have four party members: a pair of boys (Minami and Shiba) and a pair of girls (Misa and Aine).
• Both Knights of the Old Republic games, depending on player choices (and ignoring the droids, who all have male personalities):
  • In the first, with a female Player Character, there are four males (Carth, Zaalbar, Canderous, and Jolee) and four females (the Player Character, Mission, Bastila, and Juhani).
  • In the second, if the player character is light sided on Nar Shaddaa (and thus gets Mira instead of Hanharr), the party again has four males (Atton, Bao-Dur, Mandalore, and Disciple or the Exile) and four females (Kreia, Mira, Visas, and Handmaiden or the Exile).
• In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Champions are equally divided by gender with two males (Revali and Daruk) and two females (Mipha and Urbosa). Even with including Link and Zelda, they still qualify.
• In Magna Carta 2, Juto/Crocell/Argo are your male party members, whilst Zephie/Rue/Celestine are your females.
• Mana Series:
  • Of the six heroes in Trials of Mana, three are male (Duran, Hawkeye, and Kevin) and three are female (Angela, Riesz, and Charlotte). The party on any given playthrough, however, consists of only three of them, chosen by the player at the start.
  • Legend of Mana:
    • There are a total of ten recruitable party members, five male (Bud, Larc, Escad, Elazul, and Niccolo) and five female (Lisa, Sierra, Daena, Pearl, and Elle).
    • The four teachers at the Academy of Magic are two males (Mephianse and Nunuzac) and two females (Kathinja and Thesenis).
    • The Faerie storyline centers on a group of four friends (well, mostly friends; it's complicated) who grew up together, two male (Escad and Irwin) and two female (Daena and Matilda).
• Zig-Zagged in the Mass Effect series:
  • Mass Effect had three female squad members (Ashley, Tali, Liara) and three males (Kaidan, Garrus, and Wrex). However, one of each gender become Mutually Exclusive Party Members after a certain mission (Shepard must make a Sadistic Choice between leaving Ashley or Kaidan to die on Virmire).
  • Mass Effect 2 is technically even, but at any given time will lean towards the male side as two of the women are Mutually Exclusive Party Members ( Samara and Morinth), and Legion is genderless. There's also a very brief Guest-Star Party Member, Wilson, who is male.
  • If you have the full party in Mass Effect 3, then you can have Garrus/James/Kaidan as your male squadmates and Liara/Tali/EDI as your female squadmates. There is also a male DLC character called Javik who can tip the balance. However, he can also restore it, depending on how you see it, with males as Garrus/James/Javik and females as Liara/Tali/Ashley, with EDI as genderless.
  • And through it all is Player Character Commander Shepard, whose gender is chosen by the player. Again, depending on whether you consider Shepard a party member, his/her presence can both re-balance or unbalance the ratios—or do both during the same game!, since Plotline Death is a thing that happens in this franchise.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda has three females (Cora, Vetra, and Peebee) and three males (Liam, Drack, and Jaal). As before, you can choose what gender your protagonist is, though their Half Identical Twin brother/sister continues to be a character in the story. This extends to the Tempest's non-combat crew, which is composed of two males (Gil and Kallo), and two females (Suvi and Lexi). This balance is also seen with the original four Pathfinders, which consist of a male human, a male turian, an asari, and a female salarian. Depending on the gender of the protagonist and a certain decision made late in the main story, the gender ratio can be kept equal, the new turian Pathfinder can become The One Guy, or the new asari Pathfinder can become a case of The Smurfette Principle.
• Mortal Kombat X does this with the new generation in story mode, with two males (Kung Jin, Takeda) and two females (Cassie, Jacqui).
• Octopath Traveler has eight protagonists evenly split between male (Cyrus, Olberic, Alfyn, and Therion) and female (Ophilia, Tressa, Primrose, and H'aanit) characters. To take it a step further, there's also an even split among those whose Path Actions are in the Noble (Ophilia, Tressa, Olberic, and Alfyn) or Rogue (Cyrus, Primrose, Therion, and H'aanit) categories.
  • This also applies to its sequel, Octopath Traveler II, having 4 male protagonists (Osvald, Partitio, Temenos, and Hikari) and 4 female protagonists (Ochette, Castti, Throné, and Agnea) each.
• Onmyōji (2016)'s main ensemble has two male members — Seimei and Hiromasa — and two female — Kagura and Yaobikuni — which becomes Two Guys and a Girl when Yaobikuni defects from the group.
• Overwatch has an equal cast of heroes, which may be skewed one way or the other as more are introduced in the future. There are currently fourteen females, fourteen males, and one genderless character to play as.
• Paper Mario:
  • The party in Paper Mario 64 counts if Mario himself isn't included, with four male partners (Goombario, Kooper, Parakarry, and Lakilester) and four female ones (Bombette, Bow, Watt, and Sushie). This may not be obvious to some players, though, due to Watt sometimes being mistakenly referred to as male.
  • The main party in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door consists of four males (Mario, Koops, Yoshi, and Admiral Bobbery) and four females (Goombella, Flurrie, Vivian, and Ms. Mowz). Ms. Mowz is an Optional Party Member, however, and this trope is averted without her.
• Persona:
  • Persona 2: Innocent Sin is an interesting example; your party starts off as two guys (Tatsuya and Eikichi) and three girls (Maya, Lisa, and Yukino), but later becomes three guys and two girls after Yukino leaves and Jun joins.
  • If you select Eriko as your optional party member in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, you'll have three different girls (Maya, Ulala, and Eriko) and three different guys (Katsuya, Baofu, and Tatsuya) in your party over the course of the game.
  • Persona 3 is a strange variation: If you count all versions of the game as one, S.E.E.S.'s combat team includes six males (the male protagonist, Junpei, Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ken, and Koromaru) and six females (Portable's female protagonist, Yukari, Mitsuru, Fuuka, Aigis, and Metis). However, the male and female protagonists are mutually exclusive, and Metis only appears in the FES-exclusive Playable Epilogue.
  • Persona 4 ends up having this. There's Yu, Yosuke, Kanji, and Teddie for the guys, and Chie, Yukiko, Rise, and Naoto for the girls.
  • Persona 5 plays with this. The full crew is five boys (Ren (Joker), Morgana, Ryuji, Yusuke, and Akechi) and four girls (Ann, Makoto, Futaba, and Haru), but Morgana's gender is left ambigious in promotional material to the point where he admits that he isn't sure but refers to himself as male for the sake of convenience. The Royal Updated Re-release adds a new member to the team, Kasumi, which balances out the team's gender ratio if one considers Morgana as male.
    • Persona 5 Strikers further enforces this trope if Morgana and Sophia are counted, resulting in five males (Ren, Morgana, Ryuji, Yusuke, and Zenkichi) and five females (Ann, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, and Sophia).
• Pilotwings 64 has three male pilots (Lark, Goose, Hawk) and three female pilots (Kiwi, Ibis, Robin).
• Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare: The playable Plant characters are two males (Peashooter and Chomper) and two females (Sunflower and Cactus).
• Pokémon:
  • Some games in the series, namely Pokémon Diamond and Pearl and Pokémon X and Y, have an equal number of male and female Gym Leaders. Pokémon Sun and Moon has two male and two female Kahunas.
  • White technically has six male Leaders and four female ones, but three of the guys are joint Leaders of the first Gym and you only face one of them, so gameplay-wise the trope is still played straight. Averted in Black, where Drayden is the Leader of the last Gym instead of Iris, bringing the total to five men vs. three women.
  • With the exceptions of Pokémon Gold and Silver, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and Pokémon Sun and Moon, the Elite Four follow this to a tee.
  • The main casts in both Pokémon Black and White and Pokémon Sun and Moon may become this if the player character is female. This results in two guys (Cheren and N and Gladion and Hau, respectively) and two girls (Hilda and Bianca and Selene and Lillie, respectively). Sword and Sheild also go this route with Gloria and Marnie on the girls side, and Hop and Bede on the boys side.
  • In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet the party that explores Area Zero will be this if the player chooses to play as Florian. If the player chose Juliana instead, then Arven becomes The One Guy alongside Juliana, Nemona, and Penny.
• Red Earth has four playable characters, with Leo and Kenji being men, and Tessa and Mai Ling being women.
• Scarlet Nexus is about as even as it gets. There are Yuito, Luka, Kagero, Gemma and Shiden for men, and Kasane, Hanabi, Tsugumi, Kyoka and Arashi for women. They are supported by Half-Identical Twins Wataru and Haruka. Both routes also have an ally who leaves early on and isn't playable - Nagi and Naomi - a guy and a girl.
• Shadow Hearts: From The New World was going to be this, as the Pirate Girl Anne Lafitte was considered to be the eighth party member.
• Sonic Dream Team's playable cast consists of three boys (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles) and three girls (Amy, Cream and Rouge).
• Star Ocean:
  • Star Ocean: First Departure is weird about it. While the complete lineup of the game is seven men and seven women, you can't get all of them at once due to one of them being a Guest Star, some other being Mutually Exclusive, and two characters even being the same person in different bodies.
    • The core party, with Roddick and Ronyx for guys and Millie and Ilia for girls, is going to be with you in any playthrough.
    • Besides the main four, you have four slots left. Most joining characters can be refused or avoided, so it's up to player to uphold this trope or not.
  • Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has six core party members (Fayt, Cliff and Adray for men and Maria, Sophia and Mirage for women). The last two members can be picked out of Nel, Peppita (female), Roger and Albel (male).
  • Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness has Fidel, Victor and Emmerson for guys and Miki, Fiore and Anne for girls. There's also Relia, but she's not a "true" playable character.
  • Star Ocean: The Divine Force plays with it. Technically, there are ten party members: Raymond, Albaird, Midas, Theo and J.J. for men, and Laeticia, Elena, Nina, Malkya and Marielle for women. However, Theo and J.J. are Mutually Exclusive Party Members, who join depending on the route (J.J. in Raymond's, Theo in Laeticia's), making the party on both routes dominated by women.
• A staple of the Tales Series:
  • Tales of Phantasia has Cress, Chester, and Claus on the male side of the team while Mint, Arche, and Suzu are on the female side, with Suzu being only recruitable in the remakes (and even then, she's optional). Narikiri Dungeon X tipped the balance onto the female side with the inclusion of Rondoline.
  • Tales of Destiny: Stahn/Leon/Woodrow/Johnny/Kongman and Rutee/Mary/Philia/Chelsea/Lilith. (Though Lilith was removed in the North American version)
  • Tales of Eternia: Reid/Keele/Max and Farah/Meredy/Chat. Oh, and Quickie
  • Tales of Destiny 2: Kyle/Loni/Judas and Reala/Nanaly/Harold.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Lloyd/Genis/Zelos (or Kratos if you prefer)/Regal and Colette/Presea/Sheena/Raine
  • At first glance Tales of Rebirth avert this trope with Veigue Eugene/Mao/Tytree for males and Annie/Hilda for females, but there are Claire and Agarte who often tags along with the party and even has their own status screens. Both of them are female.
  • Tales of Legendia: Senel/Moses/Jay/Will and Shirley/Norma/Chloe/Grune.
  • Tales of the Abyss: Luke/Guy/Jade and Tear/Natalia/Anise.
  • Tales of Innocence has Ruca/Spada/Ricardo for males and Illia/Ange/Hermana for females. Updated Re-release adds Kongwai and QQ, but maintains the balance.
  • Tales of Vesperia downplays it, with Yuri/Raven/Karol as the males, Estelle/Judith/Rita as the females, and Team Pet Repede, who is male.
    • As of the Updated Re-release, it's Yuri/Raven/Karol/Flynn for the guys and Estelle/Judith/Rita/Patty for the ladies, plus Repede.
  • Tales of Hearts has Kor/Hisui/Kunzite (male) and Kohaku/Ines/Beryl (female). The Updated Re-release, however, averts the trope by adding Chalcedony and Gall, who are both males.
  • Tales of Graces gives us Asbel/Hubert/Malik on the male side and Sophie/Cheria/Pascal on the female side. f tips the balance, however, and adds Richard.
  • Tales of Xillia has Jude/Alvin/Rowen and Milla/Elize/Leia.
    • Tales of Xillia 2 seemingly averts this by adding the new (male) protagonist, Ludger, plus Gaius and Muzét from the first game, but, given that there are two playable versions of Milla, the trope could still be considered to apply. Alternately, it could be an example if you count Elle, who isn't playable but still tags along with the group story-wise.
  • Tales of Zestiria has Sorey/Mikleo/Zaveid for males and Rose/Lailah/Edna for females. There is also Guest-Star Party Member Alisha (female) and Dezel (male), who maintain the balance in absence of someone above.
  • Tales of Berseria has Velvet/Magilou/Eleanor for females and Laphicet/Rokurou/Eizen for males.
  • Tales of Arise stars Alphen, Law and Dohalim, as well as Shionne, Rinwell and Kisara.
  • Tales series loves this trope so much, that even most obscure Tales of Mobile games follow the trend.
    • Tales of Breaker has Mika/Evelyn/Ruru and Yuteki/Saiber/Berger.
    • Tales of Commons has Alvin/Seiun and Sefina/You.
    • Tales of Wahrheit has Seltz/Blitz and Vila/Ray. It also has sort-of Team Pet Kalulu and Robot Buddy Gamut.
• Tokyo Xanadu, made by the same people as the Trails Series, originally looked to play this trope straight in most of their original advertisements, with a party of 6 consisting of a male and female in each year. Then came the announcement of a 7th main character, and the balance became tipped. As such, there are now 3 males (Kou, Yuuki, and Shio) and 4 females (Asuka, Sora, Mitsuki, and Rion) classified as main characters. However, when one adds in the 5 most prominent supporting characters (Gorou, Ryota, and Jun for the males, Shiori and Towa for the females), the sides even out with 6 members each.
• The Trails Series sometimes does this with its main party, but often skews the balance in favor of the girls:
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter has four female party members (Estelle, Scherazard, Kloe, and Tita) and four male party members (Joshua, Olivier, Agate, and Zin). Through the first four chapters of the game, only Estelle and Joshua are permanent members with the other characters rotating in and out of the remaining two slots, with you always getting one new male and one new female in each chapter (Scherazard and Olivier in Chapter 1, Kloe and Agate in Chapter 2, Tita and Zin in Chapter 3). They even join in alternating order.
    • Second Chapter seems to break this by adding a new male party member (Kevin) to the original eight. However, there are three additional party members that join in the Final Chapter, one male (Mueller) and two female (Josette and Lieutenant Schwarz). There are also two Guest Star Party Members over the course of the game, with Anelace being female and Kurt male. The 3rd, however, tilts the balance in favour of women by bringing back all the main party members from the previous game, including the Eleventh Hour Rangers, promoting Anelace to full party member status, and adding three new characters, two of whom (Ries and Renne) are female and only one of whom (Colonel Richard) is male.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero has 4 consistent party members, 2 male (Lloyd and Randy) and 2 female (Elie and Tio). Even when the sequel, Trails to Azure brings in more, it's a single male and female (Wazy and Noel, respectively).
  • ZigZagged in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel; at first Class VII have 5 males (Rean, Elliot, Machias, Jusis, and Gaius) and 4 females (Alisa, Laura, Emma, and Fie), but Sara, their female instructor, occasionally joins in. Later on, they get 2 more New Transfer Students (the male Crow and the female Mirium). Then at the end of the game, Crow is revealed to be an enemy, meaning that, for Trails Of Cold Steel II, this trope is either played straight or not depending on if you count Sara, as she is technically a semi-permanent party member.
    • The New Class VII in Cold Steel III consists of male teacher Rean, male students Kurt and Ash, and female students Juna, Altina, and Musse. By the end of Cold Steel IV though, the two Class VII's combined makes for 8 males and 9 females, tipping the balance.
  • The main characters of The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie's third route consist of two males (<C> and Swin) and two females (Lapis and Nadia). When it comes to the combined party, things become much less even: in the main story there are 17 male characters^note Lloyd, Randy, Wazy, Lechter, Agate, Machias, Joshua, Rean, Kurt, Ash, Elliot, Jusis, Gaius, Crow, C, Swin, and Arios and 23 female characters^note Elie, Tio, Noel, Rixia, Tita, Alisa, Sharon, Towa, Estelle, Juna, Altina, Musse, Claire, Millium, Emma, Sara, Laura, Fie, Celine, Lapis, Nadia, Renne, and Duvalie. Even with the True Corridor characters added in, only 5 guys^note Olivier, George, Toval, Victor, and McBurn were added, in contrast with the 6 additional girls^note Elise, Aurelia, Angelica, Alfin, Roselia, and Vita. By the end, there are 22 males and 29 females.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is shown to have 8 characters classified as its main cast: 4 males (Van, Aaron, Quatre, and Bergard) and 4 females (Agnes, Feri, Risette, and Judith). Kuro II does away with this by taking Bergard out of the story, while only adds 2 males (Swin and Kincaid) in contrast to the 4 additional females (Elaine, Nadia, Renne, and Shizuna).
• Triangle Strategy: The main cast, Serenoa and his war council, amounts to 4 boys (Serenoa, Roland, Benedict, and Erador) and 4 girls (Frederica, Geela, Anna, and Hughette). This gets unbalanced in every ending path besides Conviction, where one of them leaves your party after Chapter XVII's vote.
• Trick & Treat: The official Steam store image◊, has two guys and two girls on it.
• As of the Exe:Late[st] update, Under Night In-Birth has an evenly split roster with 10 males and females each.
• A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky exhibits this in the final party lineup (Ivy, Lief, Gainer, and Yvette) as well as the Silver Spring city council. However, this is averted with the villains, who are all male.
• The kids you can play as in A Walk in the Woods are two boys and two girls.
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader: The 10 available companions for the Player Party are split evenly between male and female.
• The investigation team in White Noise Online is made up of two boys and two girls.
• Wild ARMs series:
  • While the original Wild ARMs doesn't qualify due to featuring only three people - Rudy and Jack for guys and Cecilia for the girl, its remake Wild ARMs Alter Code: F adds one guy - Zed, and two girls - Jane and Emma.
  • Wild ARMs 2 has three male playable characters (Ashley, Brad, and Tim) and three females (Lilka, Kanon, and Marivel).
  • Wild ARMs 4 has two guys (Jude and Arnaud) and two girls (Yulie and Raquel).
  • Wild ARMs 5 has three male playable characters (Dean, Greg, and Chuck) and three females (Rebecca, Avril, and Carol).
  • Wild ARMs XF: Clarissa and Felius; Levin and Labrynthia; Alexia and Ragnar. Oh, and Tony.
• The team in Yuuyami Doori Tankentai consists of two girls (Kurumi and Sango) and two boys (Nao and Meros).

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa:
  • The first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, starts with eight male and eight female students. However, there are initially thought to be fifteen students, seven male and eight female, which is reversed once Chihiro is posthumously revealed to be male. It becomes equal again when the mastermind is revealed to be one of the students and is female. The game ends with six survivors equally split - three male, three female.
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair starts out with 16 students - eight male, eight female. There are also two mascots: Monokuma (male) and Monomi (female). The game ends with three male and two female survivors. However, since none of the students actually died and Chiaki was an AI, it’s actually eight males and seven females.
  • The Gaiden Game Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls has 8 characters with significant screen time — four of each gender.
  • While this is initially played straight in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, having the same evenly split 16 characters of the other main games (counting the robotic K1-B0 as male), it is ultimately subverted at the end of the game, in which only three characters survive, two female (Maki and Himiko) and one male (Shuichi).
• The Kazama Family in Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! is made up of five girls, four boys, and a robot who is treated like a male. Later, another guy joins the team, making it an actual one of these. Conveniently enough, around this time, the robot gains a female form and freely switches between being male and female from that point forward.
• The team in SC2VN ends up with two guys (Accel and Stunt), two girls (Jett and Reva), and the player character (who can be either).

Web Animation

• Object Shows:
  • Battle for Dream Island: There are 10 males and 10 females in the first season, minus the Announcer, 11 males and females in the second and third seasons, 32 on both sides in the fourth season, and 20 for the fifth. Averted with the introduction of David late into season 1.
  • Obama's Hidden Info Objects: After Paper Baggy's debut, the cast is divided into four females (Chocolate Bar, Paper Baggy, Record Case and Sweater), four males (69, Bobux, DDPFP and Space) and four others (Pan Flag, Street Sign and Wii U are non-binary while 420's has yet to be confirmed)
  • Unconventionally Centered: The nine castmembers' gender is perfectly split between male (? Block, Monitor and Toasty), female (Discord Message, Feathry and Science Book) and other (PC, Beach Ball and Windowy in which the former is genderless while the other two are non-binary).
• BIGTOP BURGER: The staff of the eponymous food truck consists of two men (Tim and Steve) and two women (Penny and Billie).
• RWBY: Team JNPR consists of two male/female pairs (Jaune and Pyrrha and Ren and Nora), balancing each other's strengths and weaknesses and each having romantic elements. Jaune has a natural gift for leadership, but lacks combat skill; Pyrrha is star athlete who excels in combat but is inclined to provide support and takes responsibility for training Jaune. She quickly falls for him, but it takes him longer to realise. Ren is a quiet, serious student with practical ninja-influenced combat techniques while Nora is a fast-talking, high-energy powerhouse; they've been together since a young age and are often mistaken for a romantic couple. Pyrrha's death in Volume 3 leaves the team imbalanced and reeling for many volumes. During Volumes 4-5 they temporarily form Team RNJR with Ruby, who pairs with Jaune as two leaders that support each other's decisions and choices. This trope ends with the reunification of the all-female Team RWBY at the end of Volume 5, after which, the two teams function as a super-team that includes Oscar as Team JNR's adopted, unofficial "fourth".
• The main cast of Subway Surfers: The Animated Series consists of two girls and two boys: Jake, Fresh, Tricky, and Yutani.
• By the end of the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel, the main cast consists of three females (Charlie, Vaggie and Niffty) and three males (Angel Dust, Alastor and Husk). The supporting cast is also rather balanced out, with the female Cherri Bomb and Katie Killjoy and the male Sir Pentious and Tom Trench (unless you include Pentious' minions the Egg Bois, which are all male).
  • Hazbin's sister series Helluva Boss also has a gender-balanced main cast of two males (Blitzo and Moxxie) and two females (Millie and Loona). Subverted when the male Stolas is included, though he's often accompanied by either his ex-wife Stella or his daughter Octavia.
• The main cast of Chikn Nuggit consists of three males (Chikn Nuggit, Sody Pop and Bezel), three females (Cheezborger, Slushi and Cofi), and two agender characters (Iscream and Fwench Fwy)

Webcomics

• The seven sovereigns of Beyond the Canopy consist of three males, three females, and one gender-neutral character.
• #Blessed: The gods consist of three males, three females, and Xatys, who is non-binary.
• Most of Homestuck's sets of characters are gender-equal, with the exceptions of the all-male Midnight Crew and almost all-male Felt.
• The primary quartet of Housepets! consists of Tarot, Grape (Female), Max, and Peanut (Male). They're split in species too, with Tarot and Peanut being dogs and Sabrina and Grape being cats.
• I Fell in Love, so I Tried Livestreaming: The dorm members and main cast consist of three boys and three girls, with the protagonist being one of the boys.
• The main four characters in Monster Pulse. SHELL operates on The Smurfette Principle, however, with only one major female character in the group.
• The Players Guide To SISU - Three female PCs, three male PCs. And on top of that, three female players, three male players.

Web Original

• The main cast of Reasoning consists of two women in their twenties and two men in their late thirties/early forties. Every other character is a cosmic deity, a monster, or a Red Shirt.
• The Lambsbridge Gang in Twig is made up of three girls (Lillian, Mary, and Helen) and three boys (Jamie, Sylvester, and Gordon).

Web Videos

• In Chronicles of Syntax, the main four Junkyard Dogs are Fenway and Shia (female) and Hemlock and Chell (male).
• The Guild - The Knights of Good consist of three women (Codex, Clara, and Tinkerballa) and three men (Vork, Bladzz, and Zaboo).

Western Animation

• 6teen: Three boys (Jonesy, Jude, and Wyatt) and three girls (Nikki, Jen, and Caitlin).
• Alphablocks: 13 males (D, E, K, M, N, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z) and 13 females (A, B, C, F, G, H, I, J, L, P, Q, R, and S).
• In American Dad!, the Smith family consists of Stan and Steve as the males, and Francine and Hayley as the females, though the non-human members of the family (Roger and Klaus) are both male.
• The main cast of Amphibia consists of two female characters (Anne and Polly) and two male characters (Sprig and Hop Pop).
• Archer has four male main characters (Archer, Cyril, Ray, and Dr. Krieger) and four females (Malory, Lana, Cheryl, and Pam), which can be unbalanced if you count Woodhouse as a main character or not.
• On Arthur, it's usually four boys (Arthur, Buster, Binky, and the Brain) to three girls (D.W., Francine, and Muffy), with Sue Ellen, Fern, and Prunella rotating in the fourth girl slot.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • The original series starts off with Katara being the only girl for two boys (Aang and Sokka), but then Toph joins the team in the second season and balances things out. It unbalances briefly and balances out again when Zuko and then Suki join the group.
  • The Legend of Korra also does this now that Asami is part of the team of Korra (originally the one girl of the Freudian Trio), Mako and Bolin. One could also count Tenzin and Lin and Naga and Pabu without upsetting the balance.
• Blue's Clues has seven major male characters (Steve/Joe [assuming they are counted as one role], Mr. Salt, Cinnamon, Mailbox, Shovel, Slippery Soap, and Periwinkle) and seven major female characters (Blue, Mrs. Pepper, Paprika, Sidetable Drawer, Pail, Tickety Tock, and Magenta). The kids' voices are a mix of both boys and girls. Blue's Room also uses this format, featuring two females (Blue and Fred) to two males (Polka Dots and Roary) and a bunch of side characters.
• Following Teddy being promoted to a main character, the main cast of Bob's Burgers consists of three males (Bob, Gene, and Teddy) and three females (Linda, Tina, and Louise).
• Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese: Boy, Dog, and Mouse are males, while Girl, Cat, and Cheese are females.
• Bubble Guppies, barring the teacher and the dog, has three guys (Gil, Goby, and Nonny) and three girls (Molly, Deema, and Oona). Averted as of the fifth season when a girl guppy, Zooli was introduced.
• Danny Phantom becomes this once Jazz joins Team Phantom, thus becoming the second girl on the team alongside Sam (the only girl beforehand), Tucker, and Danny.
• Dexter's Laboratory - two males (Dexter and Dad) and two females (Dee Dee and Mom).
• Dinosaur Train: The main group of kids has two males, Buddy and Don, and two females, Tiny and Shiny.
• Dora the Explorer has a female lead and a male sidekick, plus a female backpack and male map. Other than that, the cast skews overwhelmingly male, with a male antagonist and a mostly male group of friends.
• Dorg Van Dango: Not counting Token Human Dorg, the gang is evenly split - two male characters (Jet and RD) and two female (Yooki and Patronella).
• Dragon Tales does this with the original six main characters consisting of three males (Max, Ord, and Zak) and three females (Emmy, Cassie, and Wheezie), though this was averted as new characters came into the show.
• Ewoks - most of the episodes in the first season and all of them in the second season feature two boys (Wicket and Teebo) and two girls (Kneesaa and Latara).
• FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: Each season has 6 contestants ("Fetchers") consisting of 3 boys and 3 girls.
• In an episode of Go, Diego, Go!, the bulk of the work is split between Dora, Diego, Backpack, and Rescue Pack. In another episode, they work together to bring a brother and sister pair of Spectacled Bears home. A third episode features Diego, Baby Jaguar, and Rescue Pack, all male, working with the female camera, Click, Diego's sister Alicia, and her female lasso.
• Hero Elementary has two girls (Lucita and Sara) and two boys (Benny and AJ). If you include Mr. Sparks and Fur Blur, it still counts.
• Hoze Houndz: The team is Hozer, Steamer, Squirt (boys), Fontaine, Crystal, and Brooke (girls).
• The first season of Kaeloo started out with Kaeloo as the only girl, but the second season made it so that there are four males (Stumpy, Quack Quack, Mr. Cat and Olaf) and four females (Kaeloo, Pretty, Eugly and Olga^note  Olga is considered a character although she is a Companion Cube )
• Through most episodes of Little Bear, the core group of friends includes three males (Little Bear, Owl and Cat) and three females (Emily, Duck and Hen).
• Let's Go Luna! has four main characters, two of which (Luna the moon and Carmen the butterfly) are female while the other two (Andy the frog and Leo the wombat) are male.
• The Magic School Bus: Ms. Frizzle's class has four boys (Arnold, Ralphie, Carlos, and Tim) and four girls (Phoebe, Dorothy Ann, Keesha, and Wanda), though this is thrown off-balance when Frizzle herself is counted and even more so with the class pet Liz.
• In MeteoHeroes the titular team consists of three girls (Nix, Pluvia and Nubess) and three boys (Thermo, Ventum and Fulmen).
• On The Mighty Ones, Berry and Rocksy are girls while Twig and Leaf are guys.
• Molly of Denali: The students at Qyah Village School — three girls (Molly, Trini, and Vera), and three boys (Tooey, Oscar, and Jake).

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
  • The Pillars of Equestria consist of the males Flash Magnus, Rockhoof, and Starswirl The Bearded, and the females Mistmane, Somnambula, and Meadowbrook.
  • And against Equestria is the Legion of Doom, which consists of the males Grogar and Tirek, and the females Cozy Glow and Chrysalis. Very briefly King Sombra tipped the scales in favor of the Y Chromosome, but he was Killed Off for Real in the Legion's first episode after he decided to go it alone and take on the Mane Six by himself.
  • Nightmare Moon's personal guard in the Bad Future where she rules consists of three stallions and three mares.
• My Time with Jesus: The four main characters consist of two boys (Joseph and Enrique) and two girls (Christine and Eva).
• Similarly, numbers 1 to 10 in Numberblocks consisted of 5 females (One, Three, Five, Six, and Ten) and 5 males (Two, Four, Seven, Eight, and Nine). Numbers 11 to 20 also follow the same tradition, with 5 more females (Eleven, Twelve, Fifteen, Sixteen, and Nineteen) and 5 more males (Thirteen, Fourteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, and Twenty).
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes has a case of this in the backstory with the superhero team P.O.I.N.T. The original team was six people, consisting of three men (Laserblast, Doctor Greyman, and El-Bow) and three women (Foxtail, Silver Spark, and Rippy Roo).
• The Owl House has two female leads (Luz and Eda) and two male sidekicks (King and Hooty, the titular Owl House himself)
• Phantom Investigators - The titular team consists of two girls (Daemona and Kira) and two boys (Jericho and Casey).
• Ready Jet Go!: Barring Sunspot, in Jet's group, there are two males (Jet and Sean), and two females (Sydney and Mindy).
• Rick and Morty: Ever since Space Beth started making regular appearances as part of the main Smith family somewhere around Season 6, the main cast arguably has three guys (Rick, Morty, and Jerry) and three girls (Summer and the two Beths).
• Zig-zagged in Rugrats; the series started out with the babies consisting of three boys (Tommy, Chuckie, and Phil), and two girls (Angelica and Lil). The introduction of Susie in Season 2 brought the group up to three girls. Tommy's younger brother Dil being born in the first movie brought it up to four boys, with Chuckie's stepsister Kimi debuting in the sequel evening it out again with four girls.
• Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Incorporated gang consists of two boys (Fred and Shaggy) and two girls (Daphne and Velma), though there's also one male dog (Scooby-Doo).
• Of the four main characters of Sidekick, Eric and Trevor are male while Vana and Kitty are female.
• The main characters of Star Trek: Prodigy count two males (Dal and Jankom), two females (Gwynn and Rok) and one genderless (Zero). It still works if one includes Murf, who is usually referred to as male, and Hologram Janeway, who is an AI based on Admiral Kathryn Janeway.
• Terra's short tenure in the Teen Titans (2003) caused the team to be this: her, Starfire and Raven on the girl's side, and Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg as the guys.
• The main cast in The Future is Wild is CG and Emily (female) and Luis and Ethan (male)
• The regular contestants of Total Drama are split amongst eleven boys and eleven girls in the first season (plus Chris and Chef). As of Pahkitew Island, there have been 26 male and 26 female contestants on the show at some point in time.
  • The two teams from season two initially consist of three guys and three girls each.
  • In season three, Team Victory is initially made up of three guys and three girls. In contrast, the other teams had The Smurfette Principle and The One Guy, respectively.
  • The Ridonculous Race: excluding the four returning contestants from the original series (Owen, Noah, Leonard, and Geoff), there are 16 male contestants and 16 females introduced in the season. As of The Ridonculous Race, the franchise has 42 males and 42 females as contestants.
  • In Total DramaRama, Chef currently has 6 girls (Beth, Bridgette, Courtney, Gwen, Izzy, and LeShawna) and 6 boys (Cody, Duncan, Harold, Jude, Noah, and Owen) as his students. Even when Sugar and Lightning debut in season 3, the gender ratio is still evened out.
• Transformers: EarthSpark: The Malto kids, Robbie and Thrash (male) and Mo and Twitch (female). Even when three more Terrans join them, this trope is kept since they're a Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio, with Hashtag (female), Jawbreaker (male) and Nightshade (non-binary).
• Wayside: Mrs. Jewls' class overall isn't an example (which slightly skews to the male side), but the main four kids are, with Todd and Myron complementing Dana and Maurecia. The same balance is done with the faculty, with Louis and Principal Kidswatter on one side and Mrs. Jewls and Miss Mush on the other.
• The Weekenders has the main ensemble consist of two boys, Tino and Carver, and two girls, Tish and Lor.
• Word Party - two males (Bailey and Kip) and two females (Lulu and Franny).
• X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution have this if we discount Professor X and consider only the field team: the first show had four females (Jean, Jubilee, Rogue, and Storm) and four males (Cyclops, Wolverine, Beast, and Gambit). Evolution also had four females (Jean, Shadowcat, Rogue, and Storm) and four males (Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Spyke, and Wolverine).
• Young Justice (2010) ends season one with four guys (Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash and Superboy) and four girls (Miss Martian, Artemis, Zatanna and Rocket), thanks to adding several Affirmative Action Girls since its all-male premiere.

Real Life

• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have three sons and three daughters.

---