Strong female lead?

[Altimit]

Can anyone suggest some good (preferably recent/ongoing) animes with a strong female lead?

Ones I've seen and liked are:
Kino's Journey
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex
Claymore (so far)

[Neaco]

Try Fate/Stay night and Shakugan No Shana, both are recent.

Shana has season two starting next month as well.

[jedinat]

Juuni Kokuki - a few years old... but very very good. the female lead realistically progresses from weak and immature to strong and competent

Seirei no Moribito - ongoing fantasy anime with a strong spear wielding (female) protagonist
I really loved it at first... but I dunno, I guess it's a bit too plot focused for me. I prefer character driven stories (like Juuni Kokuki)

[mdauben]

Here are a few that have not been mentioned yet.

• Black Lagoon - Action/adventure with a strong, gun-weilding lead female.
• Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars - Scifi epic with a strong-willed princess.
• Ergo Proxy - Dark scifi/mystery with a dogged female detective.
• Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran - Period action series about a wandering female samurai.
• Murder Princess - Fantasy story about a princess and a female bounty hunter who magically switch bodies.
• The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye - Scifi story about a female adventurer for hire and her sentient tank in a post-apocolyptic world.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

[andromeda0201]

I second Juuni Kokki, Seirei, Black Lagoon and Crest/Banner of the stars

also try:
Chrno Crusade - Rosette is a nun....with a gun

Full metal Panic - Chidori is a girl assigned to be protected but shes pretty much strong-willed

Scrapped Princess - A princess told that her existance will end the world but she has a very positive and carefree nature

Saiunkoku Monogatari - Shuurei is strong in the sense that she believes she can make it as an officer, to be in par with the male rulers

[Leedizzle]

Inukami has a pretty strong female lead.

[SeijiSensei]

How old do they need to be? There's a lot of anime with strong female leads who are about twelve years old. I'd put Noein, Angelic Layer, CardCaptor Sakura, and Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu in that list for starters. Many of Miyazaki's movies have female leads in this age group as well.

Nina Fortner in Monster isn't the lead, but she is the heroine, and one of the best in anime.

From my sig, you'll see that I'd also endorse Junni Kokki, Seirei no Moribito, and Saiunkoku Monogatari. Hiroko in Hataraki Man is another strong woman though not in the Claymore sense; much of the show concerns the difficulties talented women face in the Japanese workplace.

[Matrim]

By strong do you mean mentally strong or skilled in fights? If both try:

Black Lagoon
Noir
Madlax
The Third

If fighting skills are not so important, I'd recommend also Hataraki Man.