(T/F): “Fanservice ruins anime”

The only anime with 'sexual' type of fanservice that I am able to watch without cringing is the already mentioned Kill la Kill. It's so overblown and purposefully hyperbolized (and affects pretty much every character at one point or the other) that after the shock of the first few episodes it very quickly devolves into something completely non-sexual. Like a literal nudist beach (ironically) - if everyone is butt naked, does it even still count?

(Excluding the whole Ragyo and her daughters bs, of course, but like I'm pretty sure that's meant to be revolting and it suceeds. Also ignoring 99% of fanart 'cause that's just rule 34 to the max.)

I used to be a pretty big Fairy Tail fan in high school, and if you watched Fairy Tail - you know it's the textbook example of the classic anime fanservice, what with Natsu constantly falling face first into Lucy's boobs or Erza's ARMORS being skimpy as a swimming suit. As a teenager I sort of tolerated it - the plot and the characters mattered more to me than an occassional cringe, but when I watched one of the newer FT movies as an adult... That particular movie was drawn in a way that made me feel like they're literally two pixels away from exposing literal ladybits and I could NOT ignore that for the sake of the plot or nostalgia. Meh.

Btw speaking of non-fanservicy anime, not sure if anyone mentioned it already, I'd say Black Lagoon counts (as long as you don't look at some of the additional manga promo art). Like, sure, there are quite some sexual topics, the women are hot and there is an occassional angle in the heat of a battlescene, but idk. To me it feels less like a "Whoops, te-hee, panty shot!" fanservice and more like, uh, adult women characters just having three-dimensional bodies, you know. They are criminal mercs, it's an adult story. But if Revy wears short ass shorts then it just feels like, you know, duh, they are in a freaking tropical seaside city, it's gotta be hot. And the whole time she spends in a skirt in that one arc she wears black leggins(?) underneath, so if the hem flips once 'cause she's doing crazy jumps while shooting people dead it doesn't feel like a typical anime skirt lift shot. Etc etc. Heck, even their characters in literal maid outfits are 1. proper scary and 2. have long skirts and properly covered up chests. Also the underage one wears shorts underneath, as she should.

Man, I love Black Lagoon, I wish more animes gave their women such badass agency with full respect.

All the other types of fanservice btw I think I fully support as long as it's not purposefully OOC. In case of said Kill la Kill I would honestly count the (SPOILER) whole switching goku uniforms plot twist as a fanservice, not the nudity. 'Cause that was definitely a lot of fanart coming through there, and if I remember correctly Trigger did literally admit to listening to the fanbase. And Black Lagoon had OVAs bringing all the classic tropes to life (school AU, genderbent AU, age-regression AU, magical girl AU...) officially. Like, this type of fanservice, when executed well, I don't mind at all.

The unnecessary panty shots and overly jiggly boobs for no other reason than 'ehehe sexy' are giving me allergies by now tho. Don't even get me started on the underage-ness of it all.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of non-objectifying sex appeal, but when minors are lewded or sexual assault is done as a joke (looking at you, My Hero Academia) it's just gross.
Or when it's pointlessly put in. Like "She's running away from a serial killer, but there MUST be a shit of her breasts bouncing!"

Guys, can we stop and recognize that anime =/= shonen. Shonen is a single genre IN anime. Yes, it's often loaded with a bunch of cringe fanservice. It's made for dumb teen boys. It's frequently just dumb and sexist nonsense. But there is a vast variety of different genres of anime and it's disingenuous to only bring up shonen. That's like saying tv shows are all boring and dramatic because, you know, soap operas exist.

You have to understand fanservice is done as a way to change the pace of the story into something completely different.

Another thing to notice is that anime's target audience is the people from Japan not foreigners.

Here are the facts 33% of Japans population watches anime.

62% of male highschool students watch anime in Japan (study done in December 2022)
Only 48% of female highschool students watch anime in Japan.

Another important detail you should know is that:
The legal age for consent in Japan is 13.
It is a law that has existed for years.

You will not see it happen in real life and that's the reason they haven't changed the law.
At the same time even if you don't see it happen in real life it is still legal and that's why you see so many japanese anime/manga do what they do with fanservice. Hope that this data helps clarify why anime is the way it is @DokiDokiTsuna.

The reality is anime is not a media created with foreigners in mind. Their target audience has always been their locals.

Fanservice is so rampant with anime that it's in my freakin Mahjong experience. Like I enjoy online mahjong because during the pandemic I learned how to play. I play a version called Mahjong soul, which is currently the best way to actually play the game with real people and get into Mahjong.

However, it's got these little anime characters you can buy, as it is free to play, and they are drawn very, very well, and most of them are very good...but some are VERY HORNY. If the wrong person Ron's I get this jump scare of jangling boobies every damn time. Some of girls just have their entire ass hanging out of their dress, and it's like, well that's the price to pay mahjong.

Meanwhile the men are drawn just so boring and normal ass. Completely covered except like one swimsuit guy. It's just so clear that they had a Preference, haha.

But have there been times where the load screens in Mahjong soul were so awkward I could not recommend it to my friends so we could play online? yes. I have actually never recommended this game to people I know because they would judge me, and honestly, they would be justified in doing so.

Everyone already gave points on the types of fanservice, how some cross the line and some do it right, but on a pratical sense - it's true because it DESTROYS the ability to recommend anime to casual watchers who aren't into it.

Wow, my friend is telling me Cool Anime is well made and isn't fanservicey? Time to watch it - ah there it is, the shots just stop on titties. My friend watches weird shit (not judging them at least now) so that is actually on the low end for them, high end for me.

This also happens with western media, especially the stuff that just likes to put CW-worthy stuff on the first five minutes of a show, but it feels easier to tell when a writer is feeling edgy, while in anime this can prop up after a whole episode of normal.

Why would it come out as harsh? Facts are facts.
Each culture is different.
We don't always see eye to eye. Understanding their history helps to understand why their culture is the way it is. If you want to change something you first have to understand the reasons behind it.

There is a famous saying, "those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

I.... think you need to read a wider range of manga on LGBTQ+ themes and research more into this stuff before making a bunch of claims like this?

Like... have you read things like "X-Gender", a manga about the struggles of a nonbinary person in Japan? Or "My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness"? Like, manga by LGBTQ+ people about the real problems with how Japanese society kind of tries to sweep nonconformism under the rug and then be all like "We're Japan! We don't do that here!"

You can't just read a yuri series about cute schoolgirls having a chaste little heartwarming relationship between two femme-presenting teenage cis girls and say "That's what ALL LGBTQ+ media should be like!" just because you're more comfortable with depictions of queer identities and relationships that don't show the harder side of how society treats anyone who doesn't conform to established social and gender norms, or present relationships that might make you really think and reframe how you think about gender and sexuality.

I have a degree in Japanese, and people would ask for years "why didn't you go to live and work in Japan?" and it's precisely because of that thing of "We all agree to do things like this!" that outsiders who don't know the country well take to mean that everyone happily conforms, when it's actually more like nonconformity is stamped out, not violently, but simply by being made very difficult. Homosexuality is mostly tolerated in Japan so long as it stays in "allowed places", so schoolgirl romances = okay, but like bleaching your hair, it stops being okay as soon as you leave university, when you're expected to conform with black hair and getting married into a heterosexual relationship. Cross-dressing is allowed if it's at a cross-dressing bar or Takarazuka performance, but just being trans isn't tolerated. Trans people have to get themselves certified mentally ill and then sterilised!!! That's not okay!

There are people who protest this, but they just don't have the same about of social power as the LGBTQ+ movement has managed to gain in some other countries, because it's so hard to get into a position to have your voice heard in Japan while being nonconformist.

There's a good overview of how bad it is, and on the actual ongoing debate around it here:

But...this wasn't even what I was talking about. I LIVE in a Asian country I know how it's like here I said there's not much LGBT movement in Japan, because it's NOT a part of their culture (exactly as you said), and despite that, they're doing way better than the west in their media. Though I haven't read "X-Gender" yet, I have read "My Lesbian Experience"
When did I say "All LGBT media should be like that?" I just recommended the novel to LGBT writers because it's great character study, and idk if you've read the Ada&Shima novels but the sides you are talking about ARE there, specially in volumes that go beyond the anime series, although the series is mostly focused on the relationship aspects rather than the social norms and acceptance. Anyway, I never said that's what ALL lgbt media should be. Why do u change my words and make me your enemy? Obviously not ALL LGBT media should be like that...and not ALL stories should be like that because it's just the same story over and over again.
And no. I still DO say Japan is not as involved in LGBT as much the west, and yet, the west SUCKS. Western people made superman gay, and the story of that comic is crap to say the least. The west is obsessed with spreading representations in their TV even with trash plot that doesn't even make sense instead of making a GOOD STORY with actual humans; tho there are exceptions like The Boys, but American modern TV has been really crap lately, while manga creators make good stories even with their society's limitations regarding the LGBT, as you mentioned above. Adachi and Shimamura was just one example of the good novels I read out of many, the author also did bloom into you, and there are a lot of manga that have LGBT characters that are HUMANS instead of mere REPRESENTATION.

isn't that just SOME parts of japan? Because as far as I know people are getting more accepting over there as time passes. My country's a bit better than japan, meaning that people ACCEPT the LGBT even tho the gov and religion are against it. Actually, my mom loves trans people and finds them cute and kind and she doesnt even know what LGBT is, so it's not as bad as japan here because people are quite open to such things.