times where too much fan service messed up a otherwise great anime

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The Soul Eater manga got me a little sour. I'm not prudish, but out of nowhere, this pervy humour comes up and sometimes goes too far. When I'm following a fun story with awesome fights and badass ridiculous fun characters, I'm not in the mood for tentacle porn, sexual assault with rape-y vibes and pedophilia, let alone characters getting naked while some dude sprays blood from his nose. And you see all of this in the first issue alone, some of it multiple times.

It's so out of place, it's getting so old and sometimes creepy. It adds nothing whatsoever, and it's distracting and embarassing attempts at humour. The anime toned it down significantly, and I think it's stronger for it.

My memory's a bit blurry, what was the fanservice in Soul Eater again? Or are you specifically talking about the manga when it continues beyond where the anime ended (I'm aware the anime skews the ending, haven't read the manga).

If memory serves me, pretty much any scene with Blair in it could be described as fan service. With multiple naked bath scenes, the "fight" with the Mizune sisters' combined form where they grope each other, forcibly shoving her ridiculously sized boobs in Soul's face or vice versa, and just generally wearing little and/or tight clothing. Is Soul Eater as bad as other anime? No, but there's still some fan service in there and what fan service there is generally doesn't get in the way too much, for me at least.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Freezing would have been great without any fan service. When two girls fight, the first thing to get ripped is their top. So their massive boobs can jiggle about as they fight. Watching it censored is like staring into the sun. Has a great story with some really interesting characters. Then their tits pop out and I lose interest.

Sekirei was already a pretty bad anime, but the insane fan-service only made it worse. All of the girls are of course rocking triple G cups and if they have any thing below a C their flat chested. And the first thing ripped in combat is their tops so their balloons can jiggle about as they fight. The manga improved greatly when they realized the fan-service was ruining it.

My pick for this thread goes to Queen's blade. I didn't even make it through the first season because the fan service took too much away from the story itself. I couldn't really take this show seriously. If I want to see T & A that badly, I've got PLENTY of hentai for that fix.

It's a bit silly to criticize anime that have fanservice as their primary reason for existing (i.e. their first priority) for having too much fanservice. They are hands-down fanservice first and whatever plot/characters they had was arbitrarily stapled on, ranging from vaguely interesting ideas to flat/cliche ones.

Freezing, Seikon no Qwaser, Highschool DxD, Sekirei, Ikkitousen, Rosario+Vampire, Kampfer, etc all fall into that category IMO. Queens Blade (and spin-offs) is BLATANTLY from that category, it's not even worth mentioning in this thread.

Y'know, stuff that isn't technically hentai but borders on the edge and after watching 1-2 episodes you know exactly what it's trying to do and who it's targeting. Hell, the entire Harem genre could be filed under fanservice-driven anime.

While you CAN criticize them for being "ruined by fanservice", it's like ordering a Lobster Bisque and then complaining that the lobster ruined the dish. You kinda knew exactly what you were getting when the show started, usually even before that.

Meanwhile there are anime like HSoTD, which make you think it's about zombie survival, but then misleads you into something that is completely drowned with in-your-face fanservice. That is when the "ruined by fanservice" card can be played.

Here's a helpful link: http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Fanservice-in-Anime

If memory serves me, pretty much any scene with Blair in it could be described as fan service. With multiple naked bath scenes, the "fight" with the Mizune sisters' combined form where they grope each other, forcibly shoving her ridiculously sized boobs in Soul's face or vice versa, and just generally wearing little and/or tight clothing. Is Soul Eater as bad as other anime? No, but there's still some fan service in there and what fan service there is generally doesn't get in the way too much, for me at least.

Ah yes of course, Blair! Can't believe I forgot about her. It was a bit of a turn-off when they had the bath scene (and Soul landing in her boobs) in the very FIRST EPISODE. I was like "oh come on, really?". I can probably hint at the reason why they did that...a cheap tactic to boost views. Sigh.
Blair fanservice could've waited till at least 3-4 episodes in or something.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I really disagree with everyone saying High School of the Dead. In my opinion it carries the spirit of a sleazy zombie exploitation flick and that's where its appeal comes from. If it tried to be some sort of deep, meaningful story about humanities survival in a zombie apocalypse the fan service would put me off but it really isn't. It's simple b-movie style full of gore, tits, swearing and corny jokes. Whenever you get bored of the violence you get some naked skin, when you get bored of the naked skin you get some violence and when it seems like that is all there is to it it finds some way to combine them. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

 

[snappydog]

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai sounded interesting enough, being about the world of female pro wrestling - which is a genuinely interesting subject - and should have had great potential for interesting, well-done fights with lots of cool but not physically impossible moves.
Unfortunately, pretty much the first third (if I remember correctly, only watched it the once and promptly forgot about it) had little in the way of actual fights and more of just the main character giving off weird pseudo-sexual squeaks of pain before giving up.
I can't even remember if it got any better, all I can hear in my head when I think about that show is 'GIVE UP'. You'll know what I mean if you watched it.

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

I just thought of another anime that has fan service that seems out of place.. Bleach.. in one of the anime exclusive episodes ,the gang all go to the beach and besides just having the girls in bikini's the whole episdoe, it also has the large breasted character Rangiku trying to get the equally large breasted girl Orihime to gather up water for sand castles by pushing their large breasts together to make and I directly quote "boobie Buckets" .. also some of the female characters get molested by a watermelon creatures that have tentacles at the end and the tentacles are pretty much trying to rape them.. why is this in the episode? in fact why is this episode in the anime at all? I know swimsuit/beach episodes seem mandatory for most anime/manga but the boobie buckets and watermelon creatures with tentacles that try to rape some of the females have no purpose here

Technically that episode is is based off a extra manga chapter where they did have a sand castle building competition, but the tentacle rapey scene was added in.

I never liked fanservice, especially when they go fuckin' crazy with it. Filling a whole show with various panty shots, 'accidental boob grabs, or any other situational shenanigans. It's extra creepy when the characters are underage.

the underage nudity is exactly why Hagani anime is ruined for me.. too many times where underaged girls are naked in it.. and for no reason at all..

 

[Username Redacted]

Seikon No Qwazer comes to mind. If I said "Hey, you wanna watch a show where people fight using elements? No, no fire, water and the like. I mean iron, copper, chlorine, and such."
You'd probably say "Hell yeah. That's a unique thing I have never seen in any other anime."
But the show ruined itself with the fanservice.

I'm not sure how you can be upset at Seikon no Qwaser. Every single description I read of the series prior to watching it mentions breast milk in some capacity; i.e. I knew I was in for an ecchi series before I began watching it. As the series went along I actually found it endearing how it tried to take itself seriously. The culmination of that being the pseudo-cliffhanger at the end of the second season. This was amusing because those making the show seemed to not realize the fact that the series was lucky as hell to even get a second season and that aiming for a third was probably a bit too ambitious.

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai sounded interesting enough, being about the world of female pro wrestling - which is a genuinely interesting subject - and should have had great potential for interesting, well-done fights with lots of cool but not physically impossible moves.
Unfortunately, pretty much the first third (if I remember correctly, only watched it the once and promptly forgot about it) had little in the way of actual fights and more of just the main character giving off weird pseudo-sexual squeaks of pain before giving up.
I can't even remember if it got any better, all I can hear in my head when I think about that show is 'GIVE UP'. You'll know what I mean if you watched it.

Again given the subject matter I expected a decent amount of fanservce from this series and depending on how it was done it could have been reasonably well integrated into the show. What actually lead me to stop watching this dross was the fact that by around the third episode it had become painfully apparent that those writing this show had never actually watched pro-wrestling. Ever. I'm sorry wrestling anime but when your writing is eclipsed quality-wise by what the WWE puts out and your attempts at animated wrestling demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of the subject I'm going to peace out.

 

[snappydog]

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai sounded interesting enough, being about the world of female pro wrestling - which is a genuinely interesting subject - and should have had great potential for interesting, well-done fights with lots of cool but not physically impossible moves.
Unfortunately, pretty much the first third (if I remember correctly, only watched it the once and promptly forgot about it) had little in the way of actual fights and more of just the main character giving off weird pseudo-sexual squeaks of pain before giving up.
I can't even remember if it got any better, all I can hear in my head when I think about that show is 'GIVE UP'. You'll know what I mean if you watched it.

Again given the subject matter I expected a decent amount of fanservce from this series and depending on how it was done it could have been reasonably well integrated into the show. What actually lead me to stop watching this dross was the fact that by around the third episode it had become painfully apparent that those writing this show had never actually watched pro-wrestling. Ever. I'm sorry wrestling anime but when your writing is eclipsed quality-wise by what the WWE puts out and your attempts at animated wrestling demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of the subject I'm going to peace out.

I think that's what got my goat more than anything else: just the fact that I had absolutely expected, even hoped for, a pretty hefty chunk of fanservice, because I am that sort of terribly perverted male human person, but the wrestling presented in the show was absolutely not well done at all. I had kind of hoped it would at least touch on whether kayfabe existed or not, although I can't complain too much if they just wanna say 'in our world, all pro-wrestling is shoot', but they really just didn't bother with the wrestling part. And that was what it was meant to be about, and that even more than the fanservice is what I wanted to watch it for.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Again given the subject matter I expected a decent amount of fanservce from this series and depending on how it was done it could have been reasonably well integrated into the show. What actually lead me to stop watching this dross was the fact that by around the third episode it had become painfully apparent that those writing this show had never actually watched pro-wrestling. Ever. I'm sorry wrestling anime but when your writing is eclipsed quality-wise by what the WWE puts out and your attempts at animated wrestling demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of the subject I'm going to peace out.

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai sounded interesting enough, being about the world of female pro wrestling - which is a genuinely interesting subject - and should have had great potential for interesting, well-done fights with lots of cool but not physically impossible moves.
Unfortunately, pretty much the first third (if I remember correctly, only watched it the once and promptly forgot about it) had little in the way of actual fights and more of just the main character giving off weird pseudo-sexual squeaks of pain before giving up.
I can't even remember if it got any better, all I can hear in my head when I think about that show is 'GIVE UP'. You'll know what I mean if you watched it.

Pretty much in the first 20 seconds of the first episode we hear squeals of pain with crotch shots, with girls wearing skimpy outfits that look more like sexy bikinis than wrestling attire. The camera angles and whole "tone" of it immediately made it 100% obvious that this anime was going to have fanservice at it's core, geared towards those who have a fetish for hearing squeals of pain during wrestling.

Not sure what "potential" you guys saw in it to be honest : /

 

[Scars Unseen]

The Monogatari series(and particularly Nisemonogatari). The series is great, with a lot of comedy, word play, drama and some very memorable action scenes, but I have some problems recommending it to my friends because of the constant fan service(I'd say it probably has more than High School of the Dead) and some sexually comedic scenes that may go a bit too far for some people's tastes.

 

[snappydog]

Pretty much in the first 20 seconds of the first episode we hear squeals of pain with crotch shots, with girls wearing skimpy outfits that look more like sexy bikinis than wrestling attire. The camera angles and whole "tone" of it immediately made it 100% obvious that this anime was going to have fanservice at it's core, geared towards those who have a fetish for hearing squeals of pain during wrestling.

Not sure what "potential" you guys saw in it to be honest : /

Yeah, it was a shame - I had hoped the fanservice wouldn't be such a big part of it, as the plot sounded vaguely interesting and I'm a big fan of pro wrestling in general, but it became apparent pretty quickly that it wasn't gonna be what I'd hoped (perhaps it's not quite right for this thread, as the topic does specify an 'otherwise great' anime, which SdITN! was definitively not, but it was the first thing that came to mind that nobody else had mentioned). I guess any 'potential' was based on hopes before I'd actually watched any of it; I stuck with it out of pure boredom and lack of other things to do that day, but I do wish I could find a manga/ anime about pro wrestling that I could actually enjoy. Any suggestions?

 

[Coakle]

I really hate how Lucy in Fairy Tail is introduced to us tits-first. She's otherwise a great character as far as I'm concerned, but the very first time we SEE her it's a close-up shot of her boobs bouncing up and down. It really grated with me the first time I saw it, and it took me a while to finally admit I liked the character. And there really isn't that much fan service of her during the show to be honest, at least not as much as there could be.

What episode are you on? I enjoy Fairytail plenty, but the show isn't coy about its fanservice. Lucy, by virtue of being part of the main gang, gets the most attention. I mean, she's not special in that regard and her character is a lot more than just eye-candy. Is it Lucy's self-awareness that prevents it from grating? The show's tone?

 

[Lilani]

I really hate how Lucy in Fairy Tail is introduced to us tits-first. She's otherwise a great character as far as I'm concerned, but the very first time we SEE her it's a close-up shot of her boobs bouncing up and down. It really grated with me the first time I saw it, and it took me a while to finally admit I liked the character. And there really isn't that much fan service of her during the show to be honest, at least not as much as there could be.

What episode are you on? I enjoy Fairytail plenty, but the show isn't coy about its fanservice. Lucy, by virtue of being part of the main gang, gets the most attention. I mean, she's not special in that regard and her character is a lot more than just eye-candy. Is it Lucy's self-awareness that prevents it from grating? The show's tone?

I've seen the first season but it was a while back so I may just not remember all the fanservice. I think you may be right, her character prevents it from being grating. But the fact that they started with fanservice first rather than a great character moment first really earned a lot of negative points from me at the beginning. About the only reason I went on to the second episode was because the music and the mechanics of Natsu's powers interested me (having fire powers and actually EATING fire for more power...that's really neat!)

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Haven't seen it yet but this is how I feel about Kill la Kill for the most part.
It's an anime made by the guys who made Gurren Lagann and apparently goes even more over the top. I should love it. But whenever I see a screenshot of it there's surprisingly buxom 14 year old girls in straps that only start covering their shoulders and lower legs. Apparently it's supposed to be a parody or ironic or something but creepy lecherous staring stays creepy and lecherous even if we say it's only there to be funny.

Ah, so you're one of those people who has completely ignored the fact that there is just as much male fanservice (if not more) in Kill La Kill as female.
Actually it can't even be called "fanservice" in Kill La Kill because in the later episodes literally everyone (male and female) stops wearing clothes, being nude almost becomes the standard.

Without it Kill La Kill simply wouldn't be Kill La Kill lol.

I haven't been ignoring things, I'm just going off of the most common things I've seen in screenshots and gifs. It's doubly hard to find a way to agree with you when google image searching "kill la kill" brings up four lines of stuff like this:

Spoiler: NSFW I guess

before you reach any reasonably similar amount of male nudity.

Also I'd say it could definetly be called fanservice once everyone starts getting naked. It just stops being "fanservice parts" and becomes "fanservice the anime".

But I do want to make the point that I'm not saying that it's bad. I haven't watched an episode of the show. But when one of your selling points is "everyone is naked guys!!!!! XDXD so craaaazy XD" I'm not... entirely convinced into watching it.

Kill la Kill is an odd show; parts of its narrative and plot seem to have elements of sexual revolution and acceptance of body while other parts refer to State Shinto and the WWII experience(note: look up Charles Dunbar for more). All I can say is that the fanservice can be a bit much for some, I almost didn't watch it because of it, but the fanservice doesn't diminish the fantastic action, memorable characters, and surprising amount of serious dialogue.

Also, Kill La Kill's team is the same one behind Gurren Lagoon which has everyone's favorite big chested 14 year old

Spoiler: Yoko Litter

http://forum.unity3d.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20693&d=1305766458

In other words, if you hate Gurren Lagoon, you will hate Kill la Kill

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

It didn't kill the movie or anything, but one scene in Evangelion 2.22 has Asuka (14 year old girl by the way) wearing a ridiculous test plugsuit that was mostly transparent for no reason. It was supposed to be a character building moment since she was talking to Misato on the phone about character relevant stuff, but the outfit was too ridiculous to take the scene seriously.

Don't really watch a whole lot of anime with fanservice in it (save the obvious example in my avatar) so I can't think of many examples. Episode 6 of Gurren Lagann sucked hard for it, I guess.

Haven't seen it yet but this is how I feel about Kill la Kill for the most part.
It's an anime made by the guys who made Gurren Lagann and apparently goes even more over the top. I should love it. But whenever I see a screenshot of it there's surprisingly buxom 14 year old girls in straps that only start covering their shoulders and lower legs. Apparently it's supposed to be a parody or ironic or something but creepy lecherous staring stays creepy and lecherous even if we say it's only there to be funny.

Blah blah blah sexuality is a major theme blah blah blah equal opportunity fanservice blah blah blah female puberty metaphors blah blah blah goes beyond irony or parody blah blah blah critique on shame culture blah blah blah Zak doesn't feel like writing a pretentious 2deep4u essay on Kill la Kill today.

Though I'll point out that Ryuuko and Satsuki are 17 and 18 respectively, which makes them legal age of consent pretty much everywhere in the world except a few states in the US and their voice and form definetly puts them far past puberty, so not too skeevy/pedo on that front. Nonon though... yeah, kinda. She's a 3rd year student which would make her 17/18 as well but she doesn't look the part. Most of her uniforms are modest though, final Goku uniform aside.

Captcha: slender man is slender.

Agreed on the whole "tired of the essay" part. We already have an actual anthropology professor analyze the show for god's sake here [http://www.studyofanime.com/2014/04/inspirations-kill-la-kill-and.html], but I suppose that a show that has people talking this much is worth something in the long run.

Back to the topic of fanservice, I've had a very odd relationship with it. At first, I was like any other teenage guy, obsessing over breasts,ass and the like without any consideration of character. After that, I tried to destroy all sense of sexual desire in me(leading to depression) and now I'm trying to find a way to like fanservice while still being more analytical with characters. One example was my experience with "My Mental Choices are Interfering with My School Romantic Comedy" or "Noucome". The show has a lot of funny moments, a protagonist that actually isn't a douche, and some heartwarming moments, but the fanservice just kept making me smack my head and going "what the earth" (the censoring didn't help, it made situations seem worse than there were) and I can't come to a conclusion about it.

In the end though, as long as the anime industry continues to cater to otaku and NEET instead of trying to make actual art, fanservice will continue to invade and ruin shows

 

[Roofstone]

I was gonna say Fairy Tail. But it has always had fanservice, since episode 1, and every episode after that. It also never really bothered me since it is awesome fanservice.

So I will have to second the beach episode of bleach, which is sad. Cause except for the fanservice I actually quite like that episode, it is funny and shows a peaceful and humorous side to the characters.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

All of them?

Ooh! You stole my idea, you clever, clever boy!

Seriously, the whole concept of fan service tends to piss me off lately. "We can't make an engaging, interesting story that speaks to our viewers and makes them want to follow on, so here's so pointless upskirt shots!"

I'm no prude. I love me some sex, nudity, scantily clothing, or titilation in programming. But it needs to serve a narrative purpose. BBC's ROME is a perfect example: the show is absolutely dripping with sex and nudity, but in every case it's artfully-framed in a way that shows something about the world of Rome without telling it. HBO's Game of Thrones is like the opposite case, all that sexposition is an outright insult to the viewers. "We know you're dumb children who don't have the attention span to follow some basic exposition, so we'll put a guy in a whorehouse while he's telling his back story so that if you're bored you can always watch some skin slapping." Because god forbid you frame your storytelling to show us the story rather than have characters tell it to us.

Anime tends to fail pretty hard at the whole "show don't tell" thing as it is, so when anime gets into fanservice it's especially annoying. That's half the reason I got out of anime actually- the only good director willing to treat his audiences like intelligent adults [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Kon] died of pancreatic cancer.

I'm starting to feel for your position, Anime is continually appealing to the otaku and NEET in the most base fashion possible and as a result, less artistic anime are being made. I like sex as well, hell Yoko and Kallen are some of my favorite female characters because they have kickass moments while having decent personalities; however, I find the lack of shows like Ghost in the Shell and Psycho Pass discouraging.

If there is any consolation, Kill la Kill does try to use fanservice in a way that works within a narrative of rebellion and sexual liberation, among other things [http://www.studyofanime.com/2014/04/inspirations-kill-la-kill-and.html]

 

[BarelyAudible]

This is less about the show itself, but how Funimation handled the marketing.

Negima! (comic) could be pretty damn racy, but the first series toned down the cheesecake fan service. If the comic was 7.5/10 on the almost-pornometer, the first series droped down to a 5.75/10. The second series dropped further, to about the same as any cartoon meant to sell robots or trading cards.

Funimation focused their marketing on the DTV Spring Break Special, which ranks about an 8.25. A sensual voice in the ads invited us to "Get to know your student body".

Funimation ran the "hey-check-out-this-almost-porn" ads to represent the franchise, not the one or two things that were almost porn.

 

[Username Redacted]

Again given the subject matter I expected a decent amount of fanservce from this series and depending on how it was done it could have been reasonably well integrated into the show. What actually lead me to stop watching this dross was the fact that by around the third episode it had become painfully apparent that those writing this show had never actually watched pro-wrestling. Ever. I'm sorry wrestling anime but when your writing is eclipsed quality-wise by what the WWE puts out and your attempts at animated wrestling demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge of the subject I'm going to peace out.

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai sounded interesting enough, being about the world of female pro wrestling - which is a genuinely interesting subject - and should have had great potential for interesting, well-done fights with lots of cool but not physically impossible moves.
Unfortunately, pretty much the first third (if I remember correctly, only watched it the once and promptly forgot about it) had little in the way of actual fights and more of just the main character giving off weird pseudo-sexual squeaks of pain before giving up.
I can't even remember if it got any better, all I can hear in my head when I think about that show is 'GIVE UP'. You'll know what I mean if you watched it.

Pretty much in the first 20 seconds of the first episode we hear squeals of pain with crotch shots, with girls wearing skimpy outfits that look more like sexy bikinis than wrestling attire. The camera angles and whole "tone" of it immediately made it 100% obvious that this anime was going to have fanservice at it's core, geared towards those who have a fetish for hearing squeals of pain during wrestling.

Not sure what "potential" you guys saw in it to be honest : /

I wasn't expecting anything resembling "potential". I was hoping that the wrestling aspects would actually resembling pro-wrestling as opposed to some sort of retarded hybrid between pro-wrestling and MMA.

 

[Drummodino]

No Game No Life. This only recently started airing, and the basic premise sounds really interesting - a brother and sister who are godlike at gaming are sucked into a world where everything is decided by games. But my word, the amount of tits flopping around and creepy perving is ridiculous. Early in the first episode there is an upskirt shot of an 11 year old with obvious camel toe - no, just no.

I watched the second episode hoping it would get better, because I really did think the story had potential and the main guy was a cool character when he wasn't acting like a perv... But it got worse. So I won't be continuing with this one.