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What if in an alternate timeline, humans always give birth to a litter of two kids: 1 of each gender?

Most characters in anime have no siblings, or just one. Most of the time, it's a younger sister, but sometimes it's a younger brother or an older sister. I don't think I've ever watched an anime where the main character had an older brother though.

I remember really liking the sibling relationship that Carmen and Juni have in Spy Kids. They felt like real siblings to me that genuinely came to work together for each other.

You didn't mention any nonbinary kid characters

Pretty sure Mabel and Dipper Pines are based on the creator and his sister. Many creators create characters based on people they know! Duh!

Surprised you didn't bring up Maya and Miguel. They had a pretty good dynamic probably more so than most siblings mentioned here

I just want to say that I appreciate hearing "sex" and not "gender" in this context!

2:42 Stewie Griffin will not be ignored

I don't think 5:56 counts as an example. It's a retelling of a Biblical Legend, so it can't follow modern storytelling trends. Regardless, great video.

I forgot about 321 penguins

investing a sub don't let me down

Good video

321 penguins mentioned

Appeal to a wider demographic and creates a long list of relatable conflicts to build story line on.

You certainly put a lot of thoughts in my head here, and two distinctly come to mind. 1: its very likely that this alleged trend of same sex siblings getting along while different sex siblings not doing so is probably a deeply rooted, subconscious trend in the writters' minds that the same sex are more likely to get along because there will be more shared common interests as opposed the other, because our society is still somewhat ingrained in the idea of "boy interests" vs "girl interests", like how boys are expected to not like certain shows because "its a girl show". Not sure why friend groups wouldn't follow this trend, like you said the need for representation probably comes first. 2: when you pointed out not looking if anime follows this trend or not, I had to pause the video and reflect for myself, and I realized something: far too many anime protagonists are either literal orphans, or otherwise significantly more detached from their family than protagonists of western media (which might say something about the type of people that prefer anime but I'm not touching that here). Either way, they are most often only-childs, or have siblings as nothing more than background characters. The focus is instead generally on their friends, often ones they make on screen rather than already having them prior to the pilot.

I'm so glad bro put Film theory gag in there made my day XD

The ones I initially thought of off the top of my head that didn't follow this were: Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, My Brother and Me, Rugrats, and The Venture Bros. But when you brought up co-staring siblings near the end it eliminated all of them except Rugrats. Even then Dill was a newborn, albeit in a show about the adventures of babies.

5:56 I don’t think that film would count as following this trend given the fact that it’s a faithful adaptation of the story of Moses from The Old Testimon and was originally written around the 5th century.

What's the show at 4:08?

The Triplets were all girls

Buster Baxter and Sue Ellen also maybe Fern from Arthur the tv series. Angelica Pickles from Rugarts. Nemo in Finding Nemo. Riley in the first movie Inside Out. Russel from Up. Melody Ariel the Little mermaid’s daughter. Hiccup in how to train your dragon. Pebbles from the Flintstones. Moana from Moana. Mulan from Mulan. Repunzual from Tangled. Jasmine from Aladdin. Timmy Turner from Fairly Odd Parents. Caroline from Caroline. Simba from Lion King. Tiana from Princess and the Frog. Prince Charming in Shrek 2 or something like that. Dora the Explorer from Dora. (At least for a while before the twins came) Diego from Go Diego Go. Charlotte from Princess and the Frog. Emily Elizabeth from Clifford. Ash from Pokemon.

0:52 fancy nancy has a younger sister btw; shes just tomboyish (i did mistake her for a guy at the beginning too)

The biggest issue his video has going on is the generalization, for making, I imagine, accessibility better for those like me who haven't seen a major chunk of these talked-about/misinterpreted shows by Matt.

Full house

great video! i hope to see more. but if not, i'm glad i saw this one.

Perhaps it is not just the role that determines the sex, but the sex that determines the role. I say this because in Black Widow, Black Panther, and Thor, the characters were adapted from comic books, and so their gender was known before their role was written.

Dat E&H music...

Marketability is probably part of it, as others have said. Knowing artists though, I bet it also has to do with readability. They want the characters to be obviously distinct and not overlap too much in what archetype they embody. If you make a character the opposite sex, it immediately changes their visual identity and their archetype, making them more distinct at a glance. Look at Phineas and Ferb for example. They’re two same gender siblings of the same age and similar interests. The show takes pains to make sure they’re distinct. Tall and short, triangle and rectangle, green and orange, talkative and quiet, British and American. Boy and girl is an obvious and quick way to distinguish characters and evoke different tropes.

This seems to focus on cartoons, whereas the title indicates any show. Any notes on parent laws? I have one that’s driven me crazy for years. Children, even boys, are never taller than their parents, even at 18. Maybe I think about this especially since while my dad was tall (generally tall family) and my mom was short (generally short family), I was tall. I was almost full height by high school, and much taller already than my mom, as a girl! Yet alL these teens in shows are still no taller than their shorter mothers. I think they need to emphasize the authority position?

Edna and Harvey ost jumpscare

I like the opposite sex ones better they're just more interesting

i noticed older sisters are often redheads and they tend to lack the male protagonists powers

Back in 2013 I made countryball memes. And my girl fans wanted me to add girls to them. I ignored them of course. At the time I thought gender doesn't matter but clearly does. Girls like watching girl characters in stuff they enjoy. I have another example back in 2010, discussing about videogames a girl from my class asked if there was any girl in DotA. I was puzzled by this too. Now I get it. Specially in kids, they want a kid character of the same gender. Every kid who starts playing Brawl stars wants Leon, the cool kid who turns invisible.

I love the music pick!!! from Edna & Harvey: The Breakout!

i like you

This background music reminds me of Spy Fox xD

Kate has a good relationship with all the pets

based music coice

Not one law was established in this video

Wait until you review the number of cartoons/TV shows where the dad is depicted as a clumsy and/or dumb doofus, and the mum is the only real adult in the family.

Great video, I just wish there were more! I wanted to hear about conflict between age groups and possible perceived or real sexual tension between siblings like in Even Steven’s, but maybe that’s just me.

a lot of these comments are acting like you didn't already state that "it could be because they want both genders represented, and adding a sibling is an easy way to do that." i must admit that that was my first thought too, but your point about the trend disappearing once the sibling is no longer treated as an "obstacle" is very potent. there's for sure something subconscious at play. great vid, even if you never upload again i'm subscribing anyway. i liked this video a lot. also i gotta admit, i laughed when you showed moses and rameses. not sure how much choice the writers had in the genders there 💀 (also i'm assuming you didn't include them in the spreadsheet lineup, cuz they're from a movie not a show, correct?)

only critque i have is the music kinda drowns out you voice, its too loud

We have an outlier in Dinosaur Train. Buddy is adopted, but born the same day as his triplet siblings (one boy, two girls). According to the theme song he is the youngest of them. They are an ensemble of main characters though. (I'm trying to remember if I've seen an episode that not all the siblings are in that Buddy is one of the absent ones.)

Holy crap! You blew up!

It is also because a nuclear family, the ideal family that maintains population rather than contributing to overpopulation is defined as a mother, father, son, and daughter. There is a son to replace the father and a daughter to replace the mother.

6:20 Holy crap, 321 Penguins mentioned in current year

321 Penguins ♥️

I think the reason for the preference towards younger siblings is probably due not wanting to upstage the main character. There is the trope of the "cooler older sibling" and probably not wanting to disturb this natural hierarchy since it's easy to see which sibling sits where in the cast

Tim Allen shows. Last Man Standing he had 3 daughters. Home Improvement he had 3 sons.