Hello everyone,
Here we are for our usual daily post. This time I want to talk about something I thought this morning after reading GloTheLegend's response (on his blog that you can find in my blogroll) to my "High school of the dead" review/bashing post of a couple of days ago.
As probably all of you already know, the actual anime industry is filled with series that in a way or another deliver us a content filled with the so-called "fanservice". (this phenomenon is escalating in volume in the latest years to be honest)
We generally generally refer to it as in scenes/shots focused on the heroines/hero body (depending if you're male or female) without much relation to the real plot of the series (that is if the series do have a plot at all), but done for attracting your average anime watcher.
Even if some purist tries to avoid these series, in the end most of us end up watching some fanservice in one way or another as at least 90% of the series that air have some kind of fanservice filled in it like for example the continue legs shots in "Denpa Onna To Seishun Otoko", most of the jokes in "Softenni", etc...
I started thinking about what is making us decide what's good and what's bad fanservice as, for example, I love Softenni and hate High school of the Dead, but both of them sports an incredible quantity of fanservice.
Going a little back in time and thinking about all the fanservice series I watched (and you can be sure I have watched a very big number of them) and what I thought about them I noticed a particular pattern that may well explain what is happening probably in most of us.
I divided the fanservice series into three main categories that we'll explain in detail to understand my idea.
Plot with fanservice that is the series that use fanservice (even heavy in some cases) as an additional value over an already solid plot. (e.g. Ano Hana, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, To Aru Majutsu no Index)
Pure fanservice with comedic approach to its exposition that is a series that use fanservice as the base for reaching its fans, but the presence of the fanservice is always part of a joke or comedic situation one of the protagonists found himself into. (e.g. To Love Ru, Softenni, Kamen No Maid Guy)
Pure fanservice with an "it's normal for us" approach that is series that use fanservice as the base for reaching its fans and the presence of the fanservice is related as "normal" by most of the cast like if it was a society rule. (e.g. High school of the Dead, Queen's Blade, Seikon no Qwaser)
After this separation it is easy for me to understand which series I like and why. I basically hate only the third type of series, the one lacking solid story and sporting fanservice like it's something complete normal and coherent to the society rules.
I'm sure there has to be a rule in the "high school of the dead" world where bullets can't kill living girls, but can only pass through the rack of each one of them before attacking the designed target.
Why? That's open to discussion as I'm not really sure of the reason and it'll probably change between each one of us.
And you? What genre of fanservice you can bear? Think about it the next time you watch a series involving fanservice.
Regards,
feal87