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Is Anime Becoming More About the 'Fan Service' than the Story and Artwork?

Now a days the new anime that come out either depict two of the following: 1) Action w/ a romantic interest who barely has any clothes on or 2) A romantic interest who’s over-sexualized. Most of the time it’s a combination of both.

The question now becomes, does the over service of ‘fan service’ take away from the anime itself (artwork, story line, and character development)? Or does it bring to the table something that we have yet to notice? (This I doubt, but just to cover the basis and everyone’s views).

Examples of these would be: Free!, Food Wars, Keijo!, and Okusama ga Seitokaichou! !.

  • I think the question you need to address here is the time frame. Anime is becoming more fan-service oriented compared to... when? Fanservice has been a massive presence in anime, especially that oriented towards the Otaku crowd, for well over two decades now. Even widely regarded and relatively ancient anime series like Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) included lots of tongue-in-cheek fanservice, even advising fans to come back next episode for "more fanservice!~~" I think a great watch for researching this piece would be the 1991 anime mockumentary "Otaku no Video," which takes a comedic look at the original generation of anime nerds... as well as the origins of fanservice. You could possibly contrast the contemporary shows you mentioned with older material: Did older series have as much fan service? Did they integrate it better? What makes it seem like fanservice is always increasing in anime? Are the *premises* for these shows getting more fanservicey? (I do have to say, I couldn't imagine Keijo! coming out 10 years ago, ahhahah~) – PeterThelonious 7 years ago
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  • Fanservice has always been present like PeterThelonious said. I don't think fanservice takes away from the plot as long as it's not the central focus. There's plenty of anime that incorporates fanservice but also has good storylines. Another example would be Code Geass – seouljustice 7 years ago
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  • While an interesting topic for discussion consider looking at it from a cultural perspective. Japan does not have she same Judaeo-Christian outlook on the human body especially breasts as can be seen in many of their gag gifts, video games, and Anime itself. They merely see the human body as that, the human body that's nothing to be ashamed of. So maybe try looking at this from a different cultural perspective and see if that helps or not. Hope the advice helps! – GingerSavvy 7 years ago
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  • While an interesting topic for discussion consider looking at it from a cultural perspective. Japan does not have she same Judaeo-Christian outlook on the human body especially breasts as can be seen in many of their gag gifts, video games, and Anime itself. They merely see the human body as that, the human body that's nothing to be ashamed of. So maybe try looking at this from a different cultural perspective and see if that helps or not. Hope the advice helps! - GingerSavvy – GingerSavvy 7 years ago
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