If any of you have been following anime for..Well,any amount of time,you should know by now that a staple in the whole medium itself in order increase the impact of Harem,and alot of moe anime,is the idea of fan service.

Now then,if any of you are not familiar with any of our Otaku lingo,let me fill you in.Lets see what urban dictionary has to say.Ahem.

"In general, fan service refers to scenes designed to excite or titillate the viewer. This can include scantily-clad outfits, cleavage shots, panty shots, nude scenes (shower scenes especially), etc. Some broader definitions also include things like cool mecha, big explosions, battle scenes, etc. Basically, if it has little plot-redeaming value, but makes the viewer sit up and take notice, it's probably fan service in one form or another."

A.K.A: T and A

Its something that surely anyone watching anime has noticed by now.Now i'm not really someone who gets annoyed much with fanservice.I just accept it as something that comes along with the medium.Although,it does beg the question,what is the point of fan service anyway? Well,the answer to that is so easy that i'm estimating about 85% of anyone reading this has already got the answer.

"SEX SELLS!"

There is no deep symbolic reasoning behind it,it is for no cultural reason,its simple: Humans like sex!

It does not matter if its in films.


Games


Manga


Or even fast food!


Sex makes money,and money makes the world go round.Its just a fact,especially if its aimed at the male audience.Most of the time we just cant help it,we are subconsciously drawn to the stuff,and we can only blame our hormones for that.Having said all this,of course its obvious why fan serivce exist in most anime.So..What's the problem with fan service anyway? You can almost argue that its something extra you get with the show.And of course i like girls,but you want to know why i watch anime?

1.Story
2.Animation
3.Characters
4.World

I want to be so immersed into the story and characters that i completely forget about everything around me.And its kind of hard to do that,if the show is trying to make me amorous at the same time.

There's only so much fan service someone can take before it starts to break immersion.The more obviously placed the fan service is,the greater the chance that it will break your immersion,and throw you off.Which may be my only problem with fan service.Unless you're expecting it anyway.A.K.A

The Ecchi genre


I have no problem with the genre at all,because..Well..It's not bothering me.I'm not forced to watch it.It sort of sits in its own little realm of madness,while i'm sitting comfortably in a lesser realm of madness.The thing i dislike about it though,is that we are seeing much more fanservice in modern day anime.And its also getting more extreme as time goes on.Regardless of what genre of show it is.Its become so out there in anime right now that you don't really notice it much anymore.Or at the very least,we just accepted things as the way they are.

Just look at older Ecchi shows like Love Hina and Negima.Those are rather tame compared to the things we have now.Then look at everything we have at this day and age.We have over glorified crotch shots.Tentacles fetishes.Oh god..The tentacles.And much more.

In One Piece,you can actually see how much the breast sizes have increased over a decade.


And it seems most of the time we just look over it,and accept as part of the craziness of anime.But looking back i have to ask myself,when did all this happen.In my time of watching anime,it wasn't always like this.It seemed to happen around the 2005-2008 period.Just look at things that came out during that time.You had Ikki Tousen,the extreme sexualization of Yoko from Gurren Lagann,and the subtle shots of females from Code Geass R1-R2.

Now please don't misunderstand,the concept of fan service is not a new idea at all.It's been around since we were living in caves.But never before has it been so predominant as its been now.I mean,has anime become so reliant on these things that compaines fear putting out anything that does not have fan service,because they don't think it will sell well? It just seems that fan service has not just become a normality in anime,but it seems to get more and more extreme as time goes on.And the Otaku community just seems to have excepted any kind of fan service that gets thrown at them.

Is a line ever going to be drawn? Or are the handfull of shows that do not have fan service just die out? I want to get more people into anime,but how can i defend the medium against preconceptions like this when regarding fan service in anime,when the pre conceptions are true.And yes,it can be argued that fan service does not actually do anything to increase,or decrease the quality of a story or character,i would be lying if i said i wanted it to go away completely.I mean,there are still great anime that have fan service in them.
(Ahem.)




All i can ask is that the creators maybe tone it down a bit,and have a bit more dignity in there series.As all things need moderation.Who knows,maybe one day fans will get tired of fan service,and demand something else? Or we are already on the point of no return,so we all just get used to it and move on!

So to finish this,i would like to ask you-The Reader a question: What do you think of the state of fan service in anime?

I'm out of stuff to say,see yah next time.*Waves*

I completely agree with most parts of what you said. Things in anime has changed dramatically during the years. There are most I'm not really comfortable watching because it doesn't always make a good impression. Or more like getting out of hand with the appearance wise as you said. Many anime of today are just like that. There are times I even think do the creators of a certain anime see what they produce? And how does it affects all otakus and stuff. Which is why I always stick to watching animes that I am happy with and not any new ones sadly.


I mean yeah I saw that picture of nami from one piece. Back then she was mature of her appearance most of the time. But now.... *shivers* I don't even wanna say but you should understand what I mean. That is what I mostly think on. Do the creators take some consideration for their fanbase otakus or not? I say now anime is mostly aimed at boys....why? Well you explained why. Why most girls uh...watch anime that has boys in it. I'm gonna say this again. I rather watch anime that I enjoy. Even if they are old school I am happy with that. People have their likes and dislikes for anime whether it is good or bad.

Whatever happened to the mature anime that had good impact? I can't really do anything about it because things change. So instead of dwelling on that problem most of the time. I just stay happy with what type of genre of anime I watch.

Well that is some of my thoughts in this problem.

So thats what its called...hahaha. I have slowly gotten into anime over the years and while alot of the anime i have watched i didn't notice alot of fanservice so to speak there are probably quite a few themes out there for that im sure. to say the least though fanservice unless it is a warranted part of the storyline, should not be there. thats like the whole filler thing but, i can rant about that elsewhere. when it comes to any story if anything in part detracts from its theme then it is rendered somewhat questioningly going off point and while its ok i believe to create tangents for viewers go on...i think bleach is known for this....if it just takes away from the story because you feel like you gotta satisfy someones libido because they are watching then i believe your story is not so valid anymore as a form of entertainment. while i can understand a use for fanservice..i see that if it doesnt fit then dont put it in there. have confidence in your story and where it is going. the world is full of billions of people and there is bound to be someone who will appreciate your art for what it is and not what a stereotypical status quo thinks it should be.

Extreme usage of service cuts is really popular right now in Japan and admittedly abroad as well. The amount of fan service starts to dwindle the less mainstream the show is (or tries to be). And in the end, if we're talking about harem shows then it's mainly about fan service. Shows like High School of the Dead and Kill la Kill relish themselves with fan service, even though they could be considered more straightforward shounen than anything else.

I haven't completely confirmed this, but I've got a feeling that serious shows use less fan service and blatant sexualization of female characters these days than they did in the 70s -90s period. I may be wrong about this.

In conclusion I'll say that at the moment we are mostly just riding the moe wave still and waiting for the next movement in the industry, since fan service has gone through the roof in certain shows (even to self-ironical levels).