What do you think of Fanservice and Why?

MadassAlex

Aaaaand we're still on Namek.

glennmagusharvey

Did you know that healthy grass is wet but water is actually very slightly blue?

Vorpy

Fan service never has detracted from the story in any way unless the story ends up not being finished DUE to the fan service. This can only occur if the series quit airing because there was so much fanservice it was discontinued/cancelled, or the story part was written out of the work because people were more interested in the fanservice than the story to begin with. That is the only time I can declare that Fanservice can detract from a story to me.

So if I see lingerie shots, tits, titillation and hotness, and the story continues, I go along with it. People are allowing the story to progress WHILE being sexually attractive in some manner. Regardless if the sex scene was un-needed, or the lingerie scene was un-needed, or the sweaty breathing moments had nothing to do with the story, it's nice to have them there anyway.

Generally I am not a neuter or a prude when it comes to enjoyment, although I know a lot of people who are, always going "durr hurr I don't like feeling like a pervert for watching this" and similar things, just like the people who are afraid of looking girly for watching PPG or MLP. Unless I am watching porn, I don't care if there is hot lesbian make-out sessions through out the work. I watched the trailer, I read the reviews, I looked at the ratings (Rated M for Sexual Themes between same-gendered characters? Welp okay I know what I'm getting).

The only time fan service does annoy me though, is when I don't find it attractive. If a character I do not like is shaking their ass in front of the camera or getting hot nasty sex, I wait patiently for the next segment to begin. If the entire segment is about this character I do not like getting all of the titillating moments, I lose interest in it. Otherwise, if it's characters I do find attractive, fuck yeah, more power to me. I don't feel perverted, uncomfortable or violated for watching it. I should know what I am getting into when it comes to this sort of thing, and if I don't like it I don't have to watch it. I don't feel the need to cry out "it's ruining the story" when the story and the fanservice can run along different tracks without directly interfering with each other, and the only moments people have pointed out to me where fanservice allegedly ruined a part of a work's story are moments where a watcher would be invoked to feel perverted about watching it, and that's about it.

DYRE

If the fanservice is really unimportant to the plot, then I don't see why you shouldn't skip it.

Because there are more important elements than the plot?  Depending on the work, fanservice may very well be such an element.

Though, yeah, I guess if you don't like it, then there's no particular reason to watch it if it isn't also doing something other than be fanservice.

Also, I like fanservice because... idunnolol.

Vorpy

^

I like fanservice because it allows me to see the sexual side of my favorite characters without having to imagine it.

MillerCross

@DYRE: Sorry, I meant "Couldn't"

MadassAlex

Fanservice doesn't have to literally break a production to work to its detriment, though; it can take time away from developments that, while explained, might've benefited from more time. Or it could break character.

Malkavian

Madass: Pretty much my opinion,  though I generally expect fanservice from  certain things like Bayonetta and  Catherine as they work with the themes of the story.

Hatter:

Counterclock

If a character is sexual in nature, then having that character be fan service can be naturally intergrated.

A striper character with fanservice is a reasonable end.

But if Fanservice is included despite, or even actively detracting from the character, that's when it becomes a problem.

Malkavian

Eh, I think it can be amusing to see a character be a fanservice character in spite of wanting to be seen as pure and innocent.

MillerCross

I think her point is more like when a character, like say, an asexual kinda character is brought and made into fanservice, it kinda doesn't work out.

Malkavian

Ah okay. Even, in that case, though, I think it can work. Look at Revy. I think fanservice really needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis and generalizations are hard to pin down.

Counterclock

Generalizations are hard to pin-down sometimes.

Just look at this imaginary Chart I made.

Fanservice as a device to "flesh out(hehehe)" a character?

Fanservice as a device to show a character's situation?

Or Fanservice completely out of nowhere for the sake of Fanservice?

Malkavian

Fortunately, you're not hard to pin down, Counterclock! >=D

The_Edge

Tasteful fanservice is great every once in a while. However, I am more interested in fanservice relating to my BDSM fetish.

glennmagusharvey

> Eh, I think it can be amusing to see a character be a fanservice character in spite of wanting to be seen as pure and innocent.

That's only if you want the feel of the show or the moment to be amusing.

Given that I rarely watch comedy (including but not limited to animé comedy), I rarely desire this.

Vorpy

Fan service is generally okay at any time depending on the context of the character and situation, and is generally never detrimental to the story unless you personally make it so.

The fan service always has to be in the same mood as the show. If it's a bit of a sad show, then don't make the stripping scene happy and random and omg, but make it very silent and forlorn, if it's an action show, make clothing damage. If it's a horror show, have the fan service be interrupted by monsters or murderers and what not.

MillerCross

Fan service is generally okay at any time depending on the context of the character and situation, and is generally never detrimental to the story unless you personally make it so. 

Depends on what the fanservice constitutes. If the fanservice is, say, a stop in the plot in a two hour movie, that has nothing to do with anything except being a moment made exactly to titillate, then yeah, detrimental. Specially as movies work within a relatively small time frame.

Vorpy

....then that's your fault for being uninterested.

MillerCross

Yeah, um, no. 

Vorpy

Um, yes.

Radd

No, it's their fault for being uninteresting.

Vorpy

No, it's the viewers fault for complaining about fanservice instead of watching the movie for the "plot".

MillerCross

Yup, definetly no. 

Vorpy

but...but...

i want to be right....

MillerCross

Agree with me, and you'll definetly be right.

AnneBeeche

Actually, I think there does come a point where fan service does start to take away from the story. That is, there is so much of it that it gets annoying.

An example of this is Ken-Ichi, an anime that my boyfriend got into not too long ago, which is an interesting idea, but it is so thickly littered with boobs and jokes about boobs to the point where it crosses the line and I just think it's annoying and immature. It's an anime that's supposed to be about a kid learning martial arts and a bunch of people with Norse gods' names, but it's pretty clear that all they really expect the audience to care about is boobs.

Crimson

^And the fact that the author seemingly learned how to draw women from Rob Liefeld didn't help either.

AnneBeeche

The women weren't glaringly bad, but yeah, the art isn't fantastic.

DYRE

Eh.  Fanservice can harm shows sometimes, I guess.

On the other hand, fanservice can significantly improve some other shows.

It's not like fanservice is inherently a bad thing, even in large quantities, it's just that it should probably be designed to not conflict with the rest of the work.  Of course, that sentence applies to any other element of a work of fiction too.