What's fanservice?

[Sayianianian]

Hahaha! Nice...

Eiken is an OVA but i only have part 1... I dunno if theres even a part 2 anywhere...

[mrmacdude]

What exactly does the term mean? Does anyone have an example i could download. People say "Oh, that is just fan service, you shouldnt watch it."


So... what is fan service and why is so bad?

[Aqualung]

Fan service is nudity, or close to it, including boobs bursting out of tops, and panty shots. Nothing wrong with fan service, I quite like it.

Aqualung

[Sakaki]

It's what Misato always promised at the end of the early Evangelion episodes...but never really delivered.

[Alfzilla]

Originally Posted by Sakaki

It's what Misato always promised at the end of the early Evangelion episodes...but never really delivered.

Sure she did just never on a extreme level.

[Muir Woods]

Originally Posted by mrmacdude

What exactly does the term mean? Does anyone have an example i could download. People say "Oh, that is just fan service, you shouldnt watch it."


So... what is fan service and why is so bad?

Aqualung's pretty much got the prevalent definition for it. It's called "fanservice", because some fans like to see those kind of stuff. When those stuff are shown those fans will be happy to see it, hence "fanservice". But is fanservice=ecchi...up to you to decide. For related topic, read this lengthy thread.

[babbito2k]

Originally Posted by Sakaki

It's what Misato always promised at the end of the early Evangelion episodes...but never really delivered.

You're just jaded from watching this Visigothic 21st-century stuff. Evangelion had plenty of tiny scenes, all of which were well-known.

And Evangelion was a much more ambitious show than some of this dizzy stuff they crank out now, which is why a lot of people get annoyed about fanservice - a show which lays it on thick tends to have nothing else going for it.

[Sakaki]

Originally Posted by babbito2k

You're just jaded from watching this Visigothic 21st-century stuff. Evangelion had plenty of tiny scenes, all of which were well-known.

And Evangelion was a much more ambitious show than some of this dizzy stuff they crank out now, which is why a lot of people get annoyed about fanservice - a show which lays it on thick tends to have nothing else going for it.

I know, I was just attempting a joke on what was obviously a joke line on the show.

[ginko51]

I know it might sound a little stupid question but what's this "fanservice" I keep hearing about concering some anime?

Merchandising?

[TronDD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanservice

[NoSanninWa]

My initial impulse was to ignore, merge or else lock this thread to leave that wikipedia reference as the final word. Then on second thought, I realized that there was actually a relevant and (I can only hope) interesting discussion to be had here.

The most commonly accepted definition of fanservice is panty shots and boob jiggles. In short, by this definition, fanservice is a sexual animation irrelevant to the story. But this is not the only definition.

Other people insist that fanservice is any special addition that the fans might enjoy such as cameos, in-jokes, homages or even realistic weaponry.

There are even people who are willing to extend this definition to the limit that it is anything at all enjoyed by fans, like fights or bike races. Of course once you extend it to this limit I believe that the term looses all meaning entirely since if a show doesn't have anything enjoyable, it is simply bad.

Personally, I am a purist. I believe that the word fanservice is purely a sexual term. The more that you extend the meaning, the more that it gradually ceases to be useful for conveying useful information. If someone says that a show has lots of fanservice, I want to know what he is referring to. If the term only means sexual content, then I can understand him. How am I to draw meaningful information from that statement if he could mean that the guns are realistically drawn or that crowd scenes contain characters from 80s anime? If the word is such an encompassing term, then it is better not to use it at all.

[Daniel E.]

Every time I heard the word "Fanservice" I keep remembering this show in particular.

[C.A.]

Fan service in very simple terms = eye candy

[NoSanninWa]

You see! You think of Agent Aika because you know only a single meaning for the word fanservice. That makes communication happen.

I have to wonder what the speaker means when he says it and consequently communication fails.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

*snip*

I agree the term fanservice shouldn't be all inclusive. After all, if you follow that line of thinking, you eventually get to the point where the mere existance of a show is fanservice in itself.

That said, I also don't think fanservice should be limited to sexual things like panty shots or bouncing breasts. Something like a character who isn't introduced until volume 8 of the manga appearing in a crowd during episode one of the anime are clearly done just for the fans. Stuff like that should be considered fanservice, even though they aren't sexual.

Of course, this means we need a place to draw the line on what is and isn't fanservice.I would say references to the series in question, or other series from the same company should be considered fanservice, but anything outside shouldn't. After all, there are already perfectly acceptable terms for those, homage and parody.

[C.A.]

Fan service reminds me of Dokuro-chan, He is My Master, Amaenaideyo and SRW lol, maybe that's because I've never watched Agent Aika

[raphaël]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

My initial impulse was to ignore, merge or else lock this thread to leave that wikipedia reference as the final word. Then on second thought, I realized that there was actually a relevant and (I can only hope) interesting discussion to be had here.

My god, NSW, you're the (wo)man. lol
But i don't agree with you when you say fanservice musn't have a larger meaning to it.
For instance, do you think I'm wrong to consider fillers as fanservice? Because I do, actually, in a way...


ps : CA. I liked dokuro-chan. I hate Amaenaide.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Something like a character who isn't introduced until volume 8 of the manga appearing in a crowd during episode one of the anime are clearly done just for the fans. Stuff like that should be considered fanservice, even though they aren't sexual.

I think panty shots or bouncing breasts are more easy to spot that a char in a crowd.

Cameos, in-jokes, homages, etc aren't that much noticable by the common viewer.

I think its same proccess that ppl associated the expression "hentai-game" to the ero-games. If you ask several ppl that watch anime they will all say fanservice are panty shots or bouncing breasts.

[andromeda0201]

Well its definitely not limited to panty shots or bouncing breasts,

Female oriented fanservice would be showing very handsome guys half naked...

I even consider yuri and yaoi as fanservice to those who love it or cute girls suddenly dressing up as cats or maids which have no relevance to the story

And as someone mentioned above, the appearance of an important character in the middle of a story can be considered that as well, e.g. Kira in GSD, that can be said to be done for fans

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by raphaël

ps : CA. I liked dokuro-chan. I hate Amaenaide.

Dokuro-chan is insanely hilarious lol, most probably because its so much comedy packed densely into 8, 10 minute episodes, or better said 4 episodes. Fan service + gore is a really explosive mix lol

I said fan service = eye candy, basically because its mostly presented as visual enjoyment. Sexual images are the most common type of fan service. Another type of fan service include characters performing extremely cool moves, characters beating the crap out of the opponent without breaking a sweat, this is fan service as well.