Fan service
Encyclopedia
, fanservice, or , is a term originating from anime and manga fandom for material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want". Fan service usually refers to "gratuitous titillation", but can also refer to intertextual references to other series.
shows, sexual elements, long fight scenes or violence, all can be considered fan service as they are specifically aimed to please the fans of any given show. Christian McCrea feels that Gainax
is particularly good at addressing otaku
through fan service by adding many "meta
-references" and by showing "violence and hyperphysical activity". Japanese baseball
teams provide fan service events during baseball games such as dance shows, singing the team song or a performance by the team mascot.
The typical, but not only, variety of fan service in anime or manga is racy or sexual
or erotic content, such as nudity
, other forms of eye candy, for example, sexy maid costumes. Fan service is especially common in shonen manga (aimed at boys). In shonen manga, pin-up girl
style images are common "in varying states of undress", often using an "accidental exposure" excuse to show a favourite female character, or an upskirt
"glimpse of a character's panties". Series aimed at an older audience include more explicit fan service. Jiggling breasts, known as the "Gainax bounce", are an example of fan service, created as a way to make a scene of the Daicon IV opening video a bit more "H
". The "bounce" was taken up by other animators, including the creators of the hentai
series Cream Lemon
. Shower
scenes are very common in movies
and in anime of the 1980s and 1990s, while many more recent TV series
use trips to onsen
(Japan
ese hot spring
s) or trips to tropical
locales (or in some cases a swimming pool), in order to showcase the characters in bathing suits. Series aimed at males can also include fan service for females, as an attempt to court a wider audience.
Keith Russell defines fan service as "the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gesture
s common in Manga and Anime. These gestures include such things as panty shots
, leg spreads and glimpses of breast". Russell regards fan service as being an aesthetic of the transient "glimpse", which he contrasts with the gaze
, as it takes the mind unaware and open to "libidinous possibility" without mediation. He considers the fan service object
to be reassuring in its unrealistic nature and to be confirming the "freedom of desire".
Shoujo manga, aimed at female readers, also includes fan service, such as showing male characters "half-naked and in enticing poses". Robin Brenner notes that in the US comics culture, fan service aimed at females is rare, and also that in Japan, series can be famous for their fan service content. Chris Beveridge explains this mindset with Agent Aika
- "There's some sort of plot in there, but that's not the reason you're watching it. ... we're watching this for the sheer amount of fanservice." Male homoeroticism
, such as accidental kisses, is a common feature of fan service for females, and has been described as "easier to get away with" in terms of censorship than fan service for males. In the Boys Love genre, fan service is "artwork or scenes" in products that "depict canonical characters in a homosocial
/ homoerotic context". Shoujo manga series may eroticise its female leads as well for crossover appeal, as fan service aimed at a potential male audience.
Brenner notes that fan service can be offputting to teen readers, as in a male reading shoujo manga or a female reading shonen manga, and that in general fan service is more criticised when it features a female character. She cites Tenjo Tenge as an example of a fan service-laden series.
Intertextual references are intended to be seen and understood by the fans, as a way for the creators of the show to acknowledge the fans, and as a way for more knowledgeable fans to impress others. Intertextual fan service is now being inserted into media aimed at younger children as well - this can be seen in Shrek
s upside-down kiss scene, which is a reference to an upside-down kiss scene in Spider-Man
.
shows, fan service became more risqué. By the 1980s full frontal nudity and shower scenes became standard content for fan service. Because of this, Anno Hideaki who had promised Neon Genesis Evangelion
would give "every episode...something for the fans to drool over" later began removing the fan service imagery in later episodes; in addition those later episodes that did contain fan service elements juxtaposed them with imagery of the character in some kind of emotional trauma. Since then, fan service rarely contains full nudity. Excessive content is now usually considered gratuitous regardless of its justification in relation to the narrative in which it takes place.
joked that manga Negima!, which contained fan service, should be rated as "for immature readers 16+" rather than for "mature readers 16+".
Types
Long full shots of robots in mechaMecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
shows, sexual elements, long fight scenes or violence, all can be considered fan service as they are specifically aimed to please the fans of any given show. Christian McCrea feels that Gainax
Gainax
is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as Gunbuster, The Wings of Honneamise, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which have gone on to critical acclaim and commercial success, as well as for their association with...
is particularly good at addressing otaku
Otaku
is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...
through fan service by adding many "meta
Meta
Meta- , is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter....
-references" and by showing "violence and hyperphysical activity". Japanese baseball
Baseball in Japan
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. It was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, who taught at the Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. Baseball has been a popular sport ever since...
teams provide fan service events during baseball games such as dance shows, singing the team song or a performance by the team mascot.
The typical, but not only, variety of fan service in anime or manga is racy or sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
or erotic content, such as nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
, other forms of eye candy, for example, sexy maid costumes. Fan service is especially common in shonen manga (aimed at boys). In shonen manga, pin-up girl
Pin-up girl
A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...
style images are common "in varying states of undress", often using an "accidental exposure" excuse to show a favourite female character, or an upskirt
Upskirt
Upskirt refers to the practice of making unauthorized photographs under a female's skirt, capturing an image of her crotch area and underwear. The term "upskirt" can also refer to a video, illustration or photograph which incorporates the upskirt image. The term is also sometimes used to refer...
"glimpse of a character's panties". Series aimed at an older audience include more explicit fan service. Jiggling breasts, known as the "Gainax bounce", are an example of fan service, created as a way to make a scene of the Daicon IV opening video a bit more "H
Ecchi
is an often used slang term in the Japanese language for erotic fantasy and sexual innuendoes. As an adjective it is used with the meaning of "dirty", "naughty", "frivolous"; as a verb , with the meaning to do something dirty, naughty, frivolous or to sleep together; or as a noun, to describe...
". The "bounce" was taken up by other animators, including the creators of the hentai
Hentai
is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly those of Japanese origin such as anime, manga, and computer games. The word hentai is a kanji compound of 変 and 態...
series Cream Lemon
Cream Lemon
is an erotic anime series with some in-depth storylines and classic artwork. The first Cream Lemon OVA was released in 1984, though Cream Lemon was not the first hentai OVA...
. Shower
Shower
A shower is an area in which one bathes underneath a spray of water.- History :...
scenes are very common in movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and in anime of the 1980s and 1990s, while many more recent TV series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
use trips to onsen
Onsen
An is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth...
(Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
s) or trips to tropical
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
locales (or in some cases a swimming pool), in order to showcase the characters in bathing suits. Series aimed at males can also include fan service for females, as an attempt to court a wider audience.
Keith Russell defines fan service as "the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gesture
Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...
s common in Manga and Anime. These gestures include such things as panty shots
Panchira
is an expression used by Japanese women to warn each other that their underwear is visible; the term carries risqué connotations similar to the phrase "your slip is showing" in English usage. The word is a portmanteau of and chira, the Japanese sound symbolism representing a glance or glimpse...
, leg spreads and glimpses of breast". Russell regards fan service as being an aesthetic of the transient "glimpse", which he contrasts with the gaze
Gaze
Gaze is a psychoanalytical term brought into popular usage by Jacques Lacan to describe the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed. The psychological effect, Lacan argues, is that the subject loses some sense of autonomy upon realizing that he or she is a visible object...
, as it takes the mind unaware and open to "libidinous possibility" without mediation. He considers the fan service object
Object (philosophy)
An object in philosophy is a technical term often used in contrast to the term subject. Consciousness is a state of cognition that includes the subject, which can never be doubted as only it can be the one who doubts, and some object or objects that may or may not have real existence without...
to be reassuring in its unrealistic nature and to be confirming the "freedom of desire".
Shoujo manga, aimed at female readers, also includes fan service, such as showing male characters "half-naked and in enticing poses". Robin Brenner notes that in the US comics culture, fan service aimed at females is rare, and also that in Japan, series can be famous for their fan service content. Chris Beveridge explains this mindset with Agent Aika
Agent Aika
Agent Aika, known in Japan as simply , is an adventure anime OVA series. Aika Sumeragi is a Japanese woman who works as a salvager for hire, but gets caught up in a plot for world domination...
- "There's some sort of plot in there, but that's not the reason you're watching it. ... we're watching this for the sheer amount of fanservice." Male homoeroticism
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
, such as accidental kisses, is a common feature of fan service for females, and has been described as "easier to get away with" in terms of censorship than fan service for males. In the Boys Love genre, fan service is "artwork or scenes" in products that "depict canonical characters in a homosocial
Homosocial
In sociology, homosociality describes same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others. The opposite of homosocial is heterosocial, preferring non-sexual relations with the opposite sex...
/ homoerotic context". Shoujo manga series may eroticise its female leads as well for crossover appeal, as fan service aimed at a potential male audience.
Brenner notes that fan service can be offputting to teen readers, as in a male reading shoujo manga or a female reading shonen manga, and that in general fan service is more criticised when it features a female character. She cites Tenjo Tenge as an example of a fan service-laden series.
Intertextual references are intended to be seen and understood by the fans, as a way for the creators of the show to acknowledge the fans, and as a way for more knowledgeable fans to impress others. Intertextual fan service is now being inserted into media aimed at younger children as well - this can be seen in Shrek
Shrek
Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!...
s upside-down kiss scene, which is a reference to an upside-down kiss scene in Spider-Man
Spider-Man (film)
Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film, the first in the Spider-Man film series based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp...
.
History
Keith Russell regards the beginning of fan service as taking place in a permissive context, when "kids were just doing kids stuff", which he believes allowed authors some latitude in regards to their subject matter. Beginning in the 1970s with Cutey Honey, and continuing later with other magical girlMagical girl
belong to a sub-genre of Japanese fantasy anime and manga. Magical girl stories feature young girls with superhuman abilities, forced to fight evil and to protect the Earth. They often possess a secret identity, although the name can just refer to young girls who follow a plotline involving magic...
shows, fan service became more risqué. By the 1980s full frontal nudity and shower scenes became standard content for fan service. Because of this, Anno Hideaki who had promised Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion
, commonly referred to as Evangelion, is a commercially and critically successful Japanese anime series that began airing in October 1995. The series was highly influential, and launched the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. It garnered several major animation awards...
would give "every episode...something for the fans to drool over" later began removing the fan service imagery in later episodes; in addition those later episodes that did contain fan service elements juxtaposed them with imagery of the character in some kind of emotional trauma. Since then, fan service rarely contains full nudity. Excessive content is now usually considered gratuitous regardless of its justification in relation to the narrative in which it takes place.
In translation
When anime and manga are translated into English by U.S. companies, the original work is often edited to remove some of the fan service to make it more appropriate for U.S. audiences. Mike Tatsugawa explained this change as a result of a difference between cultural values of Japan and the U.S. In fact, some anime seem to feature little else other than fan service as their selling point. However, some believe that the prevalence of fan service indicates a lack of maturity within the fandom; an editor of Del Rey MangaDel Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
joked that manga Negima!, which contained fan service, should be rated as "for immature readers 16+" rather than for "mature readers 16+".
See also
- Bad Girl ArtBad girl artBad girl art is a superheroines art form genre coined after the analogy of good girl art which also includes strong female characters in comic books...
- BeefcakeBeefcakeBeefcake is a term denoting the use of nude or semi-nude male bodies. It can refer to a genre or a person. It often is used to denote male sexual attractiveness stemming from physical build but the definition has expanded to include anyone interested in physical fitness, bodybuilding and weight...
- BishōjoBishojois a Japanese term used to refer to young and pretty girls, usually below university age. Bishōjo is not listed as a word in the prominent Japanese dictionary Kōjien...
- BishōnenBishonenis a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth ". The equivalent English concept is a "pretty boy".The term describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man whose beauty transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation...
- Cameo appearanceCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
- Easter egg (media)Easter egg (media)Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
- Good Girl ArtGood girl artGood girl art is found in drawings or paintings which feature a strong emphasis on attractive women no matter what the subject or situation. GGA was most commonly featured in comic books, pulp magazines and crime fiction...
- HomageHomageHomage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
- In-jokeIn-jokeAn in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
- ScopophiliaScopophiliaScopophilia or scoptophilia, from Greek "love of looking", is deriving pleasure from looking. As an expression of sexuality, it refers to sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects: erotic photographs, pornography, naked bodies, etc....
- T & A