Fan Service - Types

Types

Long full shots of robots in mecha shows, sexual elements, long fight scenes and violence can all be considered fan service as they are specifically aimed at pleasing 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 and 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 (Japanese hot springs) 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 women, as an attempt to court a wider audience.

Keith Russell defines fan service as "the random and gratuitous display of a series of anticipated gestures 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 women 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 women, 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.