Hm. I admittedly have not watched any anime in a long time. (I stick to manga now because I can blow through most series in a day, whereas anime is a lot of filler).
That being said... from a purely "gender neutral" standpoint...
I dunno, Fairy Tail is typical shounen fair, but I think it probably has the most consistently useful females of any of the shounen series I've read. Of course the main character (a guy) still gets all the "boss" fights.
I'm gonna jump out on a limb and say Claymore? Although every single fighter is female (all but two?), the series is done in such a way that they're not sexualized (or really attractive at all, honestly), and come off as more gender neutral than anything. If the "sexploitation" is why you're trying to avoid a "female focused" story, anyway.
That being said... from a purely "gender neutral" standpoint...
I dunno, Fairy Tail is typical shounen fair, but I think it probably has the most consistently useful females of any of the shounen series I've read. Of course the main character (a guy) still gets all the "boss" fights.
I'm gonna jump out on a limb and say Claymore? Although every single fighter is female (all but two?), the series is done in such a way that they're not sexualized (or really attractive at all, honestly), and come off as more gender neutral than anything. If the "sexploitation" is why you're trying to avoid a "female focused" story, anyway.
