I didn't see a topic for this, but if there is one, moderators please delete or merge as appropriate

Has this ever happened to anyone here?

You're bored and looking for maybe a new anime to watch, and you here of a series that has great ideas and really intrigues you, you 'acquire' a copy of the first episode and you find out that while the series does has a good and interesting storyline, it seems much more interested in showing you massive boobs and the panties of little girls?

Now I wanna say here and now that I'm no prude, nor am I homosexual, but to me fanservice in alot of shows seems really, really annoying and distrcting to me. It's almost like some shows aren't confident enough in the strength of their material or animation and decide the best way to attract viewers is to show off as much of the female (or male in some cases) body as they can get away with... and then in some cases even more.

I understand when shows with weaker plots, usually ones about one guy whose inexplicably a girl magnet for some arbitrary reason, load up with tons and tons of fanservice, but why do shows with good and interesting and new ideas do it? I suppose part of it is down to culture, as cliche and boring an argument as that is, but there's got to be more to it than that surely?

I'm not saying fanservice makes a manga or anime instantly awful, Gurren Lagaan and Soul Eater for example contain quite a bit of fanservice but are both still awesome shows, but I am saying that it can put me off slightly. More than a few anime have been discarded by me at the first sign of a character archtype I refer to as 'Madam Melons'. You know the character, the woman who turns up, is probably slightly older than all the other female cast and is very, very well endowed and this comes up nearly every time they are on screen. Minute she turns up, I switch off, unless the series has really, really enthralled me I lose interest.

So I guess what I'm asking is how to people feel about this? I'm sure there's good arguments both for and against fanservice and I'm curious to here how people feel? Has anyone else switched off a series because they found the fanservice annoying?

Also, on the flip side (sort of) does anyone know a series they feel is often much maligned as 'perverted fanservie fests' when in fact the series is actually really, really good?

mmm been a girl I can't really empathise with how the male audiance to whom most of it is aimed, feel on the subject, but to me its very irritating! As you say I particually hate it in shows with good plots and female characters who are overally and un-naturally big breasted, often end up to be the victims of my hatred *cough* orahime+every other girl bar rukia in bleach *cough* I think its un-nesscary and I have no desire to watch those parts, usually only putting up with it if the plot is good enough to keep my attention or if the fanservice is in there for a plot giving reason, which in most cases its not, but it can happen i guess. I mean I love romantic stuff, but I enjoy tasteful romance whereas fanservice tends to be jeuvenile and explicit, of course though neally all proper fanservice is for guys, maybe I'd think differently for male characters but I havnt really seen anything more than male characters changing tops or something which is pretty insignificant compared to what they make the female characters XD

I was gonna post here but I accidentally erased the text I'd written ;_; maybe I'll be back later...

Will have to settle with this for now..



I think a fair comparison to the 'bouncy' fanservice we guys are treated wíth would be to have one or several male characters constantly being really eager to show their big, shiny washboards to everyone as soon as the oppurtunity arises, more than on occasion in really awkward places, like in the middle of a fight or a serious/tender moment of character development. That would make it a little hard to take the scene serious, yes? XD Kinda like Armstrong in FMA, only not done purposely humorous, but instead trying to be sexy.

We get that, but with boobs.

You know, Forsaken Love it's interesting you bring up male fanservice, because it's a rather strange area. I mean guys with their tops off just never strikes me as fanservice. Probably because I'm a bloke and therefore not supposed to think it's fanservice but yeah I suppose on reflection maybe male fanservice could be just as common as female fan service.

Allow me elaborate

Guys show off their washboard abs in both animes aimed towards girls and guys, in the former to appeal to the girls, in the latter to show how manly they are but if you were to take female fan service. Well you'd never get massive balloon boobs in say... Fruits Basket or shameless panty shots in Ouran High Host Club. Wonder why this is? Maybe one form of fanservice is considered more taboo than the other?

Interesting

Well I don't think ridicilously huge balloon breasts is something that would come off as particularly 'feminine' to a woman. It's just a distorted male ideal, and it wouldn't provide anything in a shoujo manga.

*nod* huge balloon breasts look un-natural and weird and im probably one of many girls who actually find big breasted damsels in distress annoying and in a way insulting to the female gender *COUGH* orahime *COUGH* XD so yeh in a shoujo they provide no purpose, I think male fanservice is for the most part definatly more subtle than the female fanservice, I don't really notice it XD

*hi chouchou! *wave**

I don't know if it's more subtle, I just think attitudes towards it are different. Take say Fairy Tail, that series has ridiculous amount of male fanservice and it's not even subtle about it, but no one cares or notices because it's a guy whose half naked all the time, yet the female fanservice instantly hits the eye like a dart.

Maybe it's because when female fanservice happens, it's nearly always in a way that portrays the woman in a submissive position? instantly it makes us feel uncomfortable?

Balloon Boobs confuse the hell out of me personally, their too big for you to even get near enough to the poor girl to do anything, why the hell are they considered 'ideal'?

yah guess you have a point, fairy tail annoys the hell out of me XD but now you mention it, thats true, buuut guys in real life probably walk around with out a top on a lot more often than a girl would dress up all fanserivcy XD and also the male body looks more biologicaly correct XD whereas ballon boobs look exagerated, so in that respect it seems more subtle

That's a very good point, but even if it was over exaggerated male fanservice, you'd basically just have like... Superman and other things that are soooo common and respected in some ways no one would care.

Is very odd when you look at it

yah *nod nod* but what about...*shudder* yaoi XD surely thats just female fanservice really and yuri is supposedly orrientated towards guys, and well theres plenty of yaoi in the world both fanmade and canon XD

I also feel male fanservice is more subtle for some reason (haven't read Fairy Tale, it's the same creator as One Piece if I'm correct?). Maybe because we, both guys and girls, are used to watching shirtless dudes, without making a big deal out of it? And abs are physiacally less noticable than boobs XD Especially those balloon thinngys that's been on discussion here. But maybe thats it, we've been used to it, and hence we don't notice it as much.

*Hi FS, *waves back :3**

I think you might be onto something there with the fact abs are less physically noticeable than boobs and what not. I think it's also because the idea of 'men as sex objects' is a fairly new one in comparison to 'women as sex objects'. Hence why few men cry fowl over male fanservice while female fanservice can really put people off.


Off topic: Fairy Tail is by the same artist as Rave Master, but one does get teh feeling if Eiichiro Oda looked over his shoulder day he's find Hiro Mashima hovering over him with a sketchbook.

I have a few issues with fanservice.

- It oversexualizes series that really shouldn't be. It is, indeed, a distraction, and can detract from what would otherwise be good series. It also gives the moral guardians more reasons to hate on a series, and anime in general-- particularly annoying when, say, it's an anime adaptation of a manga that didn't have much fanservice.

- It's demeaning. It's treating people like sex objects-- mostly women, but often men. Not only does it send bad messages of what one should expect of a gender, but it often goes against the character's actual personality.

- It's not usually realistic human behavior. People usually react badly, to, say, unexpectedly losing their clothes. Sure, some guys do seem to have an aversion to shirts, but they're not as common as they are in anime. Most women who act in ways that produce real-life fanservice are viewed negatively. Nudity taboos exist, and most of the population have them. In terms of relationships as fanservice, so many fictional relationships are nothing like actual ones would work; they're just used as excuses to be extremely, unrealistically cute or sexy.

- It's not even physically realistic. There's been discussion of "balloon boobs." As a female, I have full awareness of how much having a chest that big would suck. As in, back pain. Also with the bouncing, and the fact that it seems like half of anime women (the insanely endowed ones, mind) don't wear bras. Pain. Pain and suffering. The laws of physics, they exist. Actually, general fanservice relating to boobs. Girls don't usually grope each other, guys, even if you think it's hot. And having someone run face-first into your chest would hurt. Apparently anime women's breasts really are balloons; light enough to not cause any problems, and lacking in nerve endings.


I also have a particular issue with scenes in which a character is, say, shirtless or whatever for a dire, important reason being played for fanservice. This can be an adaptation thing. For example, when reading the FMA manga at the part when Roy showed up with his shirt open because he had just cauterized his stab wounds had me going "(incoherent worried cursing) crap ambulance AMBULANCE!" but in the Brotherhood episode where that happened, it seemed like Bones was trying to convey "awesomeness/determination/etc oh and Roy's hot." What. It annoys me to no end when a scene is obviously no time to be thinking about physical attractiveness, and yet the animators seem to be doing so anyway.

I can kinda see what you mean but I wouldn't have ever described that scene as fanservicey, even in Brotherhood, but I can see how you got there. I would kike to point out that the animators probably had no say in making that scene more fanservicey, and if I'd have to hazard a guess I'd say they probably no interest in doing so. The reality is that they were probably told by the director to do that, and why would he do that? Oh I'm gonna hazard a guess and say the director had been on deviantart once and while, typed in Roy Mustang, saw what came up and was like 'that's what the fans want' see also, why Ed looks slightly more femine.

I think that also might be alot of why fanservice gets used - there is obviously an audience for it and people that want it, which is a shame but the way the world goes haha

Well yeah, a lot of it is audience issues in that regard (must. not. bark at people.), but that's a whole other story...

The other thing that bothers me is that a lot of the time it seems like when advertising a series, publishers think all we want is fanservice (rather than oh say, a series with compelling plot etc) and so ads end up having far more to do with "here's all the females/males (depending on target audience) of the show wearing about half the necessary amount of clothing" than "here's what the show's about." Bit insulting to the intelligence, really.

I agree with most of what Katya Martin has said so far. My original post (that, unfortuantely, didn't make it) included a lot of the same points.

What annoys me mostly with fanservice is that it is, indeed, an insult to you as a viewer. It is like the producers already got you down for being one of those one track minded, easily sold over people who will watch a show as long as it's sexy enough. It feels like they're treating you like an idiot, when they throw boobs at you in every other scene. As if you wont appreciate the story unless it's full of unmotivated sex.

Which brings me to the second point: As already said, fanservice is almost always completely unrealistic in terms of real life behaviour, and it is just as often irrelevant to the plot. It's there just for the sake of being there, to appeal the viewer (which ironically enough often results in the opposite effect).

The typical fanservicey chars that are there only to provide skin are very annoying. But it's even more frustrating when a developed and otherwise likeable, credible and fairly realistic character falls victim to fanservice. It just makes you lose respect for the character in question, or more so for the producing studio. Not to mention that the scene at hand - and very likely everything else with the show too - gets that much harder to take seriously.

(Edit: I know this didn't really contribute to the discussion, but I just felt that I had to get it out of me.)