A giant robot is introduced and the director spends an entire minute panning over all of the weaponry. The tendency of certain animation studios to fill their shows with references to their previous works. A character in a reboot of a classic franchise that's a literal clone of the fan favorite. Though the term "fanservice" is typically associated with l-lewd cliches like panty shots, beach episodes, and absurdly revealing and impractical outfits, "servicing the fans" is far from limited to the realm of the sexual. By examining how various types of non-sexual fanservice are employed in anime and manga, perhaps we can consider the practice of fanservice from a different perspective and address the subject of pandering without being clouded by the stigma of the erotic.
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NavyCherubFeb 7, 2014 2:16 PM
| Mmm. I like to talk about things like this all the time with my siblings whenever I bring something like this up with other sources. I'd be there, watching some stupid, unnamed series called My Little Pony and I'd see all of these "references" the fandom had made famous online and had been translated into the show by the writers. Fan service is exactly as it is: fan service. It's the act of those involved in a story to peek out a branch and allow the viewer to grab a hold for either a split second or an agonizing twenty minutes (or so on). While, in anime, this just so happens to be filtered through breasts, melons, and balloons, they could also choose (oh, they could) to show that they pay attention to the viewer in other ways. One of my favorite types of fan service is not having any fan service at all. But that's just me. This brings up a question; is showing no fan service, fan service? Perhaps. If those who are fans of a particular series complain of the suggestive nature, those who wish to adapt it could tone down the lewdness in order to appease a certain ratio of viewers. To what degree is fan service? Is it as small as a reference to other media? Or as big as the knockers on the female love interest? How can we fully measure what could or could not be considered fan service when considering the possibilities? A show about otaku culture? Fan service? More slice of lives? Fan service? The next episode of Kill la Kill paying homage to Gurren Lagann? Fan service? Playing anime at a more convenient time for viewers?!?! Fan service?!?! I wonder if showing the same main character in every shounen and harem anime over and over and over again is fan service.... |
\_/ O \_/ / \ \ / /¯\ O /¯\ |
| When it comes to non-sexual fanservice, the best possible example I can think of would be Toei's Precure All-Stars movies. To give some brief background, the movies are crossovers encompassing characters from all previous installments up to the franchise's current iteration (since the sixth Precure season, Toei has been releasing them on a yearly basis). What this means is that fans get to see their favourite Cures in action, beating up baddies and unleashing their finishers alongside many of the other heroines (accompanied by some amazing animation). As such, the movies are a nice reward for longtime fans or those who have watched multiple seasons, since they'll be more familiar with the characters, and will be able to pick up on the multitude of cameos, inside jokes and references Toei has carefully slipped in. For audiences who have only seen a couple seasons or aren't into Precure, the All-Stars movies have less value, as part of their appeal is seeing your favourite Cures interacting with each other. It's essentially fanfiction, and a huge service to longtime fans, making it my go-to example for this topic. |
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| A more current example would be Space Dandy. It's a show specifically influenced by one of the most (if not the most) popular Cowboy Bebop episode, Mushroom Samba. Cowboy Bebop also blew up in the Western Hemisphere, and Space Dandy is the first anime to be simultaneously aired in the US and Japan. Everything about it is blatantly catering to western audiences and Bebop fans. Does that make it bad? Is this a negative? If it is, is it a negative for every show that panders in this way, or just Space Dandy's instance? Ultimately, there are lines to be crossed, whether the fan service is sexual or otherwise. It's just up to the individual person to draw their lines. I think Space Dandy is a gift from a higher power. Others disagree- some for the exact reason of its fan service. I tend to be a big fan of non-sexual fan service though, and not everybody is. I have some of my own exceptions. Mecha, or other technological creations in general. I dislike most mecha anime because they spend so much time giving a shit about the inanimate objects. That really bothers me because it detracts from character development, storyline, and other important factors. A non-mecha example of this would be my dislike of Spirited Away. It's complete Ghibli fanservice, and that really bothers me, because the story and characters suffer for a visual feast of Miyazaki's imagination. Which is fine and dandy (but not the dandiest), but I lose a lot of interest for it. |
 Vengeance of everyone's grudge. "I didn't add it to my list so I forgot I was watching that." - lpf |
| I either have a boner or laugh my ass out whenever I see good or bad literary references respectively. Yeah, p. much. By the way, Gunbuster and Diebuster are not shoujo. The former is though a mecha parody of such shows. |
| I work in VNs. Sometimes, they have h-scenes and I go "waai~". I also like to not write at Oppai is Justice, a blog with great urls. |
| It's not necessarily bad to pander to fans, but this can sometimes indadvertedly cause detriment in a narrative. The Evangelion rebuilds are particularly guilty of pandering to fans (i.e. Rei standing up for herself in the well known elevator scene). Some may think something such as this is a welcome change, but any symbolism/meaning (in a case such as this) could be lost entirely by catering to fans. But then there comes the question; does pandering even change the outcome of a show significantly? Personally, I believe creators should follow what they believe would be best for a story, rather than giving people 'instant' gratificaction from meaningless fan service. In some cases it is even unclear if pandering was truly a factor in the end result (i.e. Clannad: After Story), or if it the show would have really been changed without it. I believe it's usually better to experiment/progress within a creation rather than contribute to any sort of stagnation. As I mentioned, with the Evangelion Rebuilds, there is often pandering to fans, but a separate series can still become its own entity rather than the same thing as its predecessor. After all, it is pointless to simply rehash a story that has already been done. Addressing that no fan service (of a sexual nature) is fan service in of itself, I would personally say that it depends on the show. How about a show that touts itself as 'mature', mostly appealing to older audiences; this show uses no sexual fan service of any kind, possibly because it is 'too good' for something such as that. I personally think that a show such as this would warrant this claim. An example (that might not directly use this as an 'advantage') is Fate/Zero. I don't know if the creators themselves had this idea in mind when the story was adapted, but I do know many of the fans consider the show mature because there is no sexual fan service -- this, I personally believe, is fan service for these people. Although, there are many stories that don't require sexual fan service of any kind in order to progress. There's a thin line when describing this, but it usually depends on the audience and their values. Really, fan service takes on many forms, mostly dependent on what the viewer themselves find of worth. As a result of this, I think that fan service can be created from a product that never truly had 'servicing the fans' in mind from the get-go. |
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