neko's thinkbox

I like Ageha-sama nevertheless.

Wow. That poll has been around for over two months, and I never actually got around to evaluate the results, let alone make a new poll… That’s going to change today! …I hope. At least, here’s the results of the poll, and my thoughts on it. Actually, it’s basically only my thoughts on fanservice, duh.

According to these figures, the majority of the voters (22%) do NOT like Fanservice. This result makes me quite happy, I’m glad that there are more people like me who do not like fanservice (at least not in an excessive way). However, the number remains quite small if you count all the other results together: there are far more perverts voters for at least one form of fanservicing. The most prominent being tight clothes and short skirts.

Ikkitousen, a fanservice haven.

I am not saying I hate fanservice at all, nooo… I do occasionally appreciate visual stimuli like pantsu, or partially nude girls, etc etc – I am a guy, after all – but this feature has been used, reused and abused in over 9000 anime series, that it started to creep me out of the whole fanservice concept. You might not adhere to this, but that’s what my past experience with anime has led me to conclude.

Oppai. Boobs. Sure, those girls/women are entitled to have huge milk bags, I mean, not everyone can be flat-chested like Akiha (Tsukihime) or Reimu (Touhou). But to emphasize this particular female feature with wiggly and bouncy movements (heck, look at Lucia from Pangya Season 4), preferably with a huge zoom, lot of cleavage, or lingerie, or bikini… I don’t know, that annoys me more than it actually entertains me. Another side effect, the sheer protuberance of those boobies totally distracts the viewer, who ends up losing track of the story, but keeps watching it because of said special effects. At least it’s not Boin yet…

If there’s one girl who occasionally pops up with a pretty tight top, short skirts (prone to pantyshots), or let’s say, nude body parts, beach episodes with lots of swimsuits (even the notorious sukumizu, school swimsuit)… that’s all cool with me, even if it’s rudimentarily generic. After all, it’s the same in real life: most girls are not plain or prudish. They have something to show! They won’t dress up in a nunlike fashion, especially in summer. That’s to be expected all right.
However, if there is an entire anime filled with very suggestive girls shown from all kinds of angles, acting retarded and/or naive because they are seemingly oblivious to their huge breast size, AND placed in the anime just to attract the lecherous otakus… That’s where my reason kicks in and tells me to close the video. Example: Oh! Great anime such as Tenjo Tenge, Air Gear. Or Ikkitousen. I will not watch those (in my current state of mind, at least.)
This generalization is pretty exaggerated, obviously, not every anime is like these, but that’s what the abuse of fanservice leads me to think about it.

Yotsunoha Poster in Megami Magzine Vol. 95

I have to admit, my opinion quite biased by considering the many softcore posters and screencaps in Megami Magazine, and other promotional pictures on the internet. I often might get the wrong impression about many anime – heck, I still remember lashing out on Simoun being a boobie fest while it actually wasn’t (at least I was told so, haven’t watched it myself yet…) However, the fact that all of those images are officially published often doesn’t leave me a different choice than to believe the suggestions of those images.

Look, if I open this month’s Megami Magazine, there is… Spice and Wolf, KimiAru, Kanokon (what a splendid ASS), Yotsunoha, Koharu Biyori, etc etc. Nice having such hot posters, but would I watch those anime? Most likely, I wouldn’t, because I’m biased. But…
If you happen to be a regular here, you’d have noticed that I do watch and appreciate Spice and Wolf (even though I haven’t blogged about it in months). Because in effect, apart from Horo being nude in the first episode, and perhaps in others as well, it’s not a fanservice anime at all.

The best way to find out if an anime is full of fanservice or not is obviously to watch at least the first episode of it. For most series, I can’t be bothered to do that, because… I procrastinate too much, and I hate being disappointed with anime lately.
So I tried this method on… KimiAru (They Are My Masters). And despite the ludicrous amounts of cleavage and other generic fanservice, I find that show hilarious and entertaining enough to keep me watching.
At this point, I have successfully established a contradiction. “I dislike excessive fanservice, yet I watch and enjoy KimiAru”. Why? …I guess I’ll have to explain it in my KimiAru review once the series finishes.

Moetan screencap

This whole discussion applies to loli as well, if you switch around the extremes. As much as there have been attempts to increase the amount of fanservice in anime, the amount of loli has been increasing as well. A metric loliton of animes contain at least one loli to please the audience – it can’t be just coincidence that there’s always a cute imouto distracting from the many adults in the cast. Said loli is preferable a generic cutie, also known as moe loli, longing for her onii-chan/ojii-chan/sensei, or perhaps an abandoned loli, emololi, gothloli, twin lolis, an entire harem of lolis… and what-not!!! Or, better, we have one of the following two cases: at least one girl looks like 20, but is still a 12yo loli, OR she’s 20 but looks like a 12yo loli. Sigh… I guess that would be stuff to fill another entry with.

Wow. This post actually turned into a personal rant about fanservice and stuff… I could go on and on, there are so many things intentionally put in anime that I totally don’t like, but that would go even further beyond the scope of this evaluation.
I do hope that I made a few things clear in this entry, and that perhaps some might agree or disagree with what I’ve said.

To conclude this post on topic, congrats to the 34 people who voted “all of the above”, you like the whole lineup of fanservice AND no fanservice at all. You couldn’t have given a clearer answer, congrats.
And MOE? Is that considered fanservice? I don’t think so. And if it does, then my last resort would be that I meant the ecchi side of fanservice. If I want something cute I’ll go look into a mirror… not. They all broke already ;_;
“Large bulges in pants”???

Like this? …OF COURSE, it has to be emphasized. ^^

Or did you mean… traps? …Ewww, go away.

And accidents/misunderstandings… I wonder. If entering a room where a girl is changing, then it’s the nudity of the girl, or the lingerie she’s wearing which qualifies as fanservice I guess. Or bumping into a girl on the street, and landing with the face right onto her crotch. Pantyshot, closeup? As such, that option has no value, but there’s only one who added that option anyway ^^

Okay. My next poll will be about whether you spoil yourself on a manga/novel series before watching its anime adaptation or not. Recently, there have been many examples where this applies (ARIA, Claymore, Spice and Wolf, Baccano, etc).