Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
Do you know why I object to fanservice in action scenes? The main reason is indeed that I find that these two "tastes" (erotic arousal, and thrilling combat) clash nastily for me when they're mixed together. But a very important secondary reason is that I do think that you hurt the image of an "Action Girl", and risk having her come across as a sexist caricature, if her action scenes are fanservice-loaded.
Remember that what makes an "Action Girl" stand out from "the Damsel in Distress" is that the Action Girl is not "just a pretty face". But if you take the Action Girl, and emphasize her sex appeal even when she's doing things that shows that she's not just a pretty face, then that just inherently undermines any perception of her being more than just a pretty face.
Why? Because it shows that even as she is being more than just physically attractive, what is the camera choosing to focus on? If it's choosing to focus on her sex appeal even when she's in action, then the production is basically saying that her sex appeal trumps everything else about her, which does come dangerously close to saying "Yeah, she's just a pretty face".
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I think, if you take this too far the other way, it's just as bad, because then you're just saying that a capable female action hero can't have her femininity emphasized when she's in combat. Which means that, basically, whenever someone turns into "action hero mode", it's like they're automatically male. Now, I'm not saying that this excuses gratuitous fanservice by any means, but by the same token I think a female action hero actually has a lot of sexual appeal
when they're in combat. So if you try to deny their sexuality during the action scenes, but choose to emphasize it every other time... it seems odd -- almost like your female character has a split personality or something. I don't really see how that's any more empowering, really. I think the point is that a female character can be both a "pretty face" and a formidable character/contender/opponent at the same time; no odd dichotomy involved. But this basically depends on being a fully-fleshed out character throughout the story, and not just given "perceived depth of character" by inserting random action scenes. In that case, it wouldn't actually be the fanservice that's out of character, but the perception of empowerment.
(That said, I recognize that the mixture of fanservice with other elements in anime is something that a lot of people have a lot of different opinions on. There are some combinations that just bother some people for various reasons, whereas they may be fine with others.)