Is it even possible for a young adult work to be recognized if the cast is not heavily tilted towards female side...

Is it even possible for a young adult work to be recognized if the cast is not heavily tilted towards female side? Sometimes I get the feeling that heroines are actual product sold there, expecially when authors don't care about them enough to make them relevant outside of their arcs.

Top selling novels of 2016 for reference. The ones that are not harems/harem pandering can be counted on one hand.
1 757,412 KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!!
2 489,374 Sword Art Online
3 371,880 The Irregular at Magic High School
4 321,535 Sword Art Online: Progressive
5 308,471 Monogatari Series
6 304,721 No Game, No Life
7 302,013 Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
8 297,459 Bōkyaku Tantei Series (Okitegami Kyōko no Bibōroku)
9 280,586 Kokuhaku Yokō Renshū
10 263,357 Re:Zero
11 238,163 Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle
12 213,521 Overlord
13 210,762 Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
14 178,019 And you thought there is never a girl online?
15 165,442 Haikyu!! Novel Edition!!
16 157,460 KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!! Spinoff
17 155,250 Chivalry of a Failed Knight
18 138,679 Orange Novelization
19 132,196 Regarding Reincarnated to Slime
20 128,460 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index (New Testament: A Certain Magical Index)
21 127,373 Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign Kyūketsuki Miraera no Monogatari
22 123,649 My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
23 120,955 Assassination Classroom Movie Novelization
24 119,692 The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water
25 105,145 Imōto Sae Ireba Ii.
26 104,704 Bungō Stray Dogs Dazai Osamu no Nyūsha Shiken
27 104,267 The Irregular at Magic High School Short Story Collection
28 101,012 Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri Side Story
29 100,077 Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen
30 96,084 Date A Live

>if it triggers me, it must be pandering

>Is it even possible for a young adult work to be recognized if the cast is not heavily tilted towards female side?
Yes.

LN are most exclusively made for straight males
So harems and such will sell the most

Anime and manga to a lesser extent are made for the general audience, so you get more diversity

The problem with these kinds of series are that the male characters are normally awful and don't even feel like characters at all, but self-inserts. As a result, everything else seems very contrived and forced due to the lack of real character relationships. Most harem series are just a mess writing-wise.

Self-insertion is a Western meme.

Why do protagonists all have Japanese names and Japanese hair then?

What does that have to do with what I said?

Why are they self-inserts if self-insertion is just a Western meme?

The idea that they are self-inserts is the meme.

Then why do they all have Japanese names and Japanese hair?

Is Lux Arcadia a jap name? And do japs have white hair?

Again, what does that have to do with what I said?

Why are they self-inserts if the idea that they are self-inserts is a meme?

They aren't self-inserts. It is a meme that they self-inserts. What is so difficult to understand about this?

*that they are

If they aren't self-inserts, then why do they all have Japanese names and Japanese hair?

What the hell does that have to do with self-insertion? Light novels are written in Japan by Japanese people for Japanese people, of course they mostly have Japanese characters.

Your explanation can't work for isekai.

Is this thread a time loop? Did I jump timelines?

Yes it can. Are you mentally ill?

If they're not supposed to be self-inserts, that makes it even worse. That means the writer willingly chose to give them the personality of a brick.

If isekai protagonists aren't self-inserts, then why do they all have Japanese names and Japanese hair? See? You can do nothing now.

I already fucking told you:

Why do they all fall like puppets with their strings cut? Just why?