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I wouldn't really call a show with excessive fan service softcore porn. Both "excessive" and "softcore" are just too broad to be able to really fit anything in. For instance, Mahoromatic and Usagi-chan de Cue!! have abnormally high amounts of fan service, but does that make them softcore porn? Ranma 1/2 has complete nudity with the exception of adult genitals, as well as Happosai in a bathing suit. Is Ranma 1/2 softcore porn? Definitely not.
However, "excessive" is just too broad a term. Does something need to have nudity, or at least revealed breasts, to be included in "excessive"? Does that mean that Eiken isn't excessive? Even if it isn't excessive, it's one of the few anime series that I would classify as softcore porn. The reason I count it as softcore porn is because Eiken completely revolves around fan service. There are no parts to the story that aren't affected by it.
So in the end, how do we judge whether or not a show has an excessive amount of fan service? If you've read any of the threads about Midori no Hibi, for instance, people complain about the high levels of fan service simply because it shows nipples. However, to me that's not really fan service at all (I'll explain why later). To me, it's the anime that relies on keeping everything exposed that is more heavy on the fan service. Having a nipple exposed in, say, a bath scene, is more realistic than having it completely obscured by regular bath water. Yes, showing the entire torso is sometimes completely unnecessary, and when it is unnecessary is when it becomes fan service.
Then again, there are shows that rely on upper torso nudity that I wouldn't classify as fan service. Hanaukyo Maid Tai, for example, has three maid characters that run around Taro all the time while undressed. However, there isn't any sort of jiggling all over the place. For that same reason, I don't think Midori no Hibi has much fan service at all. Yes, it shows exposed breasts, but really, what's the big deal? Ranma 1/2 has much more nudity than Midori no Hibi, and I definitely wouldn't call that fan service (with the exception of the second movie, of course). In other words, shows that show nipples simply because nipples are a part of the human anatomy are NOT examples of fan service, no matter how much people want to make them out to be.
For me, there are really only three levels of fan service. The first level is a rare one. It looks like a perfectly normal series with only an occasional moment of fan service, but those moments of fan service are huge. Series such as El Hazard: The Alternative World that are normal throughout the series then have a giant mass of fan service in the end that would fall into this level. The second level includes anime series such as Divergence EVE, Popotan, and Mahoromatic. These are two series that feature nudity and partial nudity simply as a filler for the actual story. The third level is, in my opinion, what I would classify as softcore porn. Series like Eiken, Mouse, and Golden Boy are what I would put in here. They are series that cannot survive without fan service, have no story other than things that revolve around fan service, and require no brain power to watch. They're series that exist only to stimulate men in an erotic way (with an almost possible exception to Golden Boy).
In summary, "excessive" is just too broad a term to use in this argument. You need to draw the line somewhere.
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