A long time ago, I have been against fanservice in Anime as myself and some people perceive this as a bad thing for Anime. However, I have seen the light after watching and reviewing a lot of shows. Now, I want to share my reason fanservice and ecchi is not necessarily a bad thing as some people make it out to be.
Fanservice is something that is thrown in the story to reward the viewers, mostly sexual in nature (although it can be pandering as well). However, this aspect of Anime has been a very controversial issue as there is a belief that panty shots and nudity doesn’t add anything constructive to the story. However, this is not necessarily true as fanservice and ecchi can be used as comedy or part of character development. Let’s take one of the episodes of Ore no Imouto as an example. In Episode 4 of the first season, Kyousuke tried to stop Kirino from opening a package in front of her friends and he accidentally fell on her, thus groping her breasts. While this scene caused uproar when it aired back in 2011, it serves as character development for Ayase who eventually finds out about Kirino’s otaku interests, causing her to stop being friends temporarily.
On the other hand, I think one reason western fans tend to dislike fanservice is for the fact that West especially the United States tends to be more conservative. Because of that, some western fans typically disapprove sexual content or nudity. I think it comes down to different cultural values as in Japan, nudity is accepted and their pop culture is focused more on cuteness compared to the West where violence is more acceptable.
Just like the moe debate, I felt that the fanservice is in a similar position as both focuses more on fantasy and escapist aspect. As mentioned in my previous editorial regarding the portrayal of males and females in video games, I mentioned that gamers don’t necessarily want to play an ugly woman or a weak man in a video game, but would rather play an attractive/pretty/cute women or a handsome/strong-looking men. The same holds true in Anime. While some people might not like how women are portrayed in media, like I mentioned before, both genders are going to be portrayed stereotypically. Even so, it’s still considered a work of art. For instance, in one comments on a video game blog I read recently, someone criticized that the characters in Hyperdimension Neptunia are over sexualized without realizing the general appeal of cute girls being personified from video game consoles and having tons of references to video game and anime pop culture. I think people tend to judge fanservice and ecchi shows by their book covers rather than it’s overall experience because intellectual value is preferred over sexual desires.
In a post Froggy-kun from “Fantastic Memes” wrote a few months back, he analyzed fanservice and ecchi as an art form. When I first read it, I realize that I overlooked another reason western fans looks down at these types of shows. He mentions that fans that desire to watch anime for it’s intellectual value rather than the fanservice suppressed their sexual desires and view this kind of humor as a “low art.” I think this is probably the reason why people feel this way is because the conservative views on sexuality in the West cause people to look down at these stuff even though the human mind is attracted to sexual appeal. If people take these shows with an open-minded approach, perhaps there is something that makes fanservice and ecchi something enjoyable without letting controversy ruin that feeling.
As a whole, I think fanservice can be enjoyable when it’s well executed. While people are going to have varying opinions about the subject, I don’t think panty shots and girls in swimsuits are going to ruin the story. The story’s execution matters more rather than the approach the director/author takes. I admit that I had mixed feelings for the first season of Dog Days as it has a good amount of fanservce. Eventually, I enjoyed this show as they used it to make the comedy and characters more enjoyable. Still, I think that fanservice and ecchi can serve as something extra that has the potential to make a show more enjoyable. Still, there are only a few shows where I find fanservice like Yosuga no Sora and Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai become uncomfortable, I generally don’t find it as an issue. At the end of the day, I think people need to have an open mind and not let social norms ruin it since it’s a work of fiction and that not all fanservice/ecchi shows are necessarily bad, but there are some that possibly of being good.
With that, what are your views on fanservice? Do you think that fanservice can be enjoyable if we look past social norms or have an open mind?
When it comes to anime women, it’s all about appearance (She has to AT LEAST look like a she’s legal and not a toddler or kid). That will determine whether the proportion of their melons fit their body measurements, otherwise, the fanservice will be ruined because a woman has large breasts but she doesn’t look like she’s worthy of being busty.
In short, fanservice quality does matter. As for whether fanservice hinders stories…no it doesn’t.
Now for the ultra rare reverse fanservice, abs or pretty faces FTW! Then again…even if it’s for comedic purposes, more anime chubby boys would be appreciated.
I agree that quality of the fanservice matters as I have seen some throw it for the sake of having it rather than fitting it to the overall story. I think this is a problem with few of the shows like Nogizaka Haruka’s Secret which throw panty shots at every scene where it becomes distracting. But still, I think fanservice is done properly when it’s enjoyable and it fits with the overall story without just having it there for the sake of having it. At the end of the day, it’s quality over quantity kind of thing.
I am no American nor Conservatist, and I enjoy ecchi fanservice on a personal level. Or at least, when it is done correctly, or with some actual efforts, like with the Monogatari series or Mysterious Girlfriend X.
But on a critical level, it is indeed problematic. You explain that ecchi can serve the story instead of getting in its way, but I fail to see how the only example you provided makes sense. The fact that Ayase sees Kyousuke in a questionable position with Kirino doesn’t affect her because she understands immediately that it is an accident, and I don’t think this event is ever brought up again. Ayase stop being friend with Kirino because of her hobby. And she is disgusted by Kyousuke because he pretends to have incestuous feelings for Kirino (and the otaku hobby to be a symptom of this). The ecchi incident had no impact on those developments, and they would have happen the same way without it.
I do think that ecchi can be used for character development, but only in the very specific case of series already oriented around ecchi and which treat sexuality as an actual theme, like Mysterious Girlfriend X (as a sidenote, it doesn’t prevent it from also having a lot of gratuitous fanservice). Any series like Oreimo that has no need for erotism in order to tell its story can be rightfully questioned for adding ecchi.
You also say that ecchi can be examined as art, but even among ecchi animes, very few of them regard erotism as such. Heck, most of them even makes fun of erotism themselves, with things like really really enormous boobs, or extremely cliché characters tropes. The two animes I mentioned at the beginning of my comment are the only two I would dare to say could qualify to your argument. The idea is again too specific to be an apology for the general use of ecchi in animes. It doesn’t correspond to it.
The general use of ecchi is not about art or character development, it is about making dicks hard in order to sell more. It is about making the anime into a toned down form of porn (and I do like porn, but in my porn). It takes resources for itself that could be use to things more relevant, and it can even screw the others more relevant elements. For what do people remember Yoko Littner character? For her boobs, and maybe her few battle scenes to be fair, but I doubt they think a lot about that half-episode of character development that was centered on her life as a teacher (and if they do, they are probably fapping because of teacher fetish). It is not an extra, it influences the whole series presentation and its messages.
Again, I like ecchi, but I don’t think there is a point in trying to make an apology for it when it is used gratuitously (which is the vast majority of cases). There are a few interesting exceptions, but its general use is problematic without a doubt.
I admit that I haven’t watched many ecchi shows so my examples are limited, but of course ecchi shows are meant to be sexually simulating and satirize it. However, I don’t think shows necessarily need to go far to use it to develop a story as there are other ways it can be done. This can also explain why sex scenes are removed when visual novels get adapted as most of these sex scenes don’t serve a big purpose, although some adaptations will still have fanservice since a good amount are comedies or romantic comedies. Even so, I don’t think ecchi is meant to be that serious to begin with, but still, it shouldn’t be used as a scapegoat for why Anime is getting worse since it obviously takes a different approach in story telling and that these stories tend to be more character driven rather than a plot.
Overlord-G brings up a good point. Fanservice does need to work on its own right too, not just from the perspective of how it slots into the story. Unless it’s tasteful and *actually* titillating then it feels jarring. For example, I know some people who did not like the fanservice in High School DxD because they did not feel the proportions of the female characters’, er, bust, did not fit them. The same thing goes for Queen’s Blade, a show which also builds itself around fanservice. You can not have a problem with fanservice but still not like that show. You can in fact criticise an ecchi show for how well it creates its particular aesthetic, which to me sounds like a more valid line of criticism than simply disregarding it for its genre.
I think this is the case as these type of shows usually exaggerates the proportion of female characters, even if it doesn’t fit them. I think this problem can lie with quantity over quality as creators and directors think that females with a big bust is popular. Perhaps if the creators take the time to make it fit right with the overall appearance, perhaps there will be a more positive response. Aside from that, I still think one can criticize ecchi’s aesthetic as it’s mostly a visual thing rather than affecting the story just like Fanservice. Ecchi shows can have good or entertaining stories, but I think the appearance of the characters are going to play a big role. Besides, it’s very unlikely to see a character like these in real life because it’s a fantasy. But at the end of the day, it’s mostly a quality issue as creators think that slapping big breasts on female characters can generate more sales.
Escapism play a big part too. A lot of people watched anime to relieve stress, in some cases, they treated it as an escapism. A beautiful world and an unique setting is especially attractive, but being able to sexualize pretty girls is just as good as any escapism.
Ecchi and fanservice is definitely controversial, but in the end, I see no problems in it however in how it is used in context – whether it is blended as part of the story or how it becomes an art (Nise would be a good example for the latter).
I agree that escapism plays a big part as fanservice ecchi shows tend to have really attractive girls that are very attractive. At the same time, it’s controversial from a western perspective not because of cultural differences. Still, I don’t really have a problem with it now, but it really depends how it’s blended with the overall story.
Frankly, I even sort of resent the term ‘fanservice’ in itself, since it buys into the stereotype that sex scenes are there as some sort of cheap and dirty way to get more viewer attention because that’s what they inherently are — i.e., there is no other way to view a woman’s naked body in a sexy pose in an animē than as a ‘cheap and dirty way to get more viewer attention’. That, to me, flows from the Western (actually more American) view of sexuality as something inherently dirty or inferior, so that doing something specifically to excite sexually must be a cheap way to get attention (and thus money), not a way of playing with those human feelings. The comparison to the moe debate is quite apt, and, even though I won’t pursue it in this comment, I can see how it can be a critique of the whole criticism of sex-in-animē-as-cheap-and-dirty that the very term ‘fanservice’ encapsulates.
Personally, I have always had my own reactions to pornography, hentai, and ‘fanservice’ animē. As a man, I have always been stimulated by the idea of women — their bodies, their smells, their attitudes, their smiles, their hair, their personality, their thoughts… the whole shebang. I think I’ve always been able to appreciate both the whole set, and the individual components; this is not different from looking at a picture as a whole, and then zooming in on some element of it that is particularly noteworthy.
I therefore resent the interpretation of ‘male viewers’ as inherently ‘objectifying’ the women they see naked in porn, erotica, hentai, or ‘fanservice’ — because it is, frankly, an oversimplification of something that is much more complicated. Even many men buy into that and describe their own reactions to porn as “very simple”, when in fact a longer conversation with these men soon makes it apparent that things are not as simple as they think.
Speaking only for myself, one element that was very often present in my reaction to naked women in art was, well, thankfulness: I was thankful for those ladies for awakening my sexual, lustful feelings and helping me carry them to fruition. Many of them looked like people I would like to talk to, and I was happy to see many a porn star start their own blog. Juding by the answers of other viewers, this feeling of ‘awe’ and ‘thankfulness’ at what they were doing is not rare; but I have yet to see a single analysis of the ‘male gaze’ and of ‘objectification’ that takes it into account.
Like all elements in a work of art, sex and sexiness can be used well, or badly. Just like cute children, wise old men, intelligent animals, danger situations, tears, comedic scenes, and so many other elements, sex can be well used and it can also be poorly used. The reason why it is so often poorly used, besides Sturgeron’s famous claim (‘90% of everything is worthless!’), is that we are, both as consumers and as producers of art, still hung up with a number of bad associations (‘sex is dirty’, ‘sex is inferior’, ‘sex is animalistic and thus reflects our worst nature’, etc.) that simply don’t let the potential in it be fully explored. Just as initially authors didn’t seem to know how to handle women as strong and complex protagonists (the models in previous art were not many, so creating these characters often felt like building ‘men with boobs’), but now have gotten better at it, I imagine that sexy titillating scenes are still being conceived and executed well below their potential level simply because we don’t know how to do them differently yet, we don’t know how to use their full potential to make something attractive and compelling as well as sexy as hell. The layering is still very simple because we simply don’t have many models, many examples of more deeply and complexly interesting titillating scenes to follow.
It will come with time, I hope; as we realize that sex is, well, simply one of the good things in life. Maybe then the ‘titillating scenes’ in animē will stop being about accidental perviness and men becoming embarrassed by them, or about women lashing out in violence at the accidental perv… perhaps we’ll see scenes in which the participants are more willing participants who are using the tropes of titillation, both straight and ironically, to produce a more engaging, satisfying whole, one that brings smiles and warm-hearted feelings to mind (and maybe even thought-provoking ideas to the brain?) just as much as physical arousal and its aftermath… I remember the Kill La Kill episode that focused on accepting one’s naked body as a proto-example of that.