Kodomomuke is easily my least favorite anime demographic because it's mostly just manga for preschoolers but some series do look like they wouldn't be entirely out of place in a shonen magazine if they were a little bit less kid-friendly. Those are the most direct equivalent to saturday morning cartoons, although the protagonists/deuteragonists still seem to be mostly little kids (like Chris from Sonic X). I tend to enjoy them more.
Do you know any other series that are similar to this or should I just entirely stop caring about kodomomuke entirely?