Anime & Video Games with "Fanservice" - question

[Kamaduck]

Yes, I know you aren’t arguing for a relaxing of standards.

What would be an standard in top of those?

Neither of these cards. If I were the artist, I wouldn’t have drawn these. In the first case, not only the skin shown and the pose, but the absurd breast detailed armor. Also. Why the exposed thighs? Why the metallic or chainmail shorts?

The second, shows elements of absurd breastplate too, and that plant-based ourtfit could also cover the back and more parts of the thigh. It could say is based on ease of movement in the jungle, but you don’t need mini shorts and a exposed back for that.

I think these cards shows the attitude prevailing in some western comic books too about having fanservice as a fundamental element in character design and illustration.

With some productions, the artists tend to develop stories in enviroments that could “justify” these, while they could also tell a good story in other places, but prefer to not, for the sake of having fanservice opportunities.

I probably wouldn’t have drawn either were I the artist, but I’m more willing to excuse the second one. The first one makes its priorities obvious. The second one doesn’t have anything wrong with it other than the exposed skin- it makes no attempt to highlight body parts unnecessarily. The pose, expression, and camera angles are all pretty neutral, and the clothing isn’t much different than what you’d see at the beach.

An example of something that doesn’t have excessive skin showing, but is still unacceptable or at least not preferable IMO, would be something like this.

It’s not something I would expect to tempt most guys, and there’s no real problem with skin (tight clothing, maybe). But instead of making a pose that makes sense as a fighting stance, they’re both doing some kind of weird thing that doesn’t make sense and is most probably because the artist (knowingly or not) prioritized attractiveness over who the characters were and what they were doing.

It’s a rather mild example, but I didn’t want to link to anything too questionable. Of course, we’re not really in the realm of deliberate fanservice anymore, but I think it’s still something to keep in mind when creating things.

So in answer to your question, my third standard is using body stance and language (and camera angles, and expression, and clothing) to communicate things about the characters, rather than casting aside reason and logic to display a character’s body.

 

[CesarAugustus]

I probably wouldn’t have drawn either were I the artist, but I’m more willing to excuse the second one. The first one makes its priorities obvious. The second one doesn’t have anything wrong with it other than the exposed skin- it makes no attempt to highlight body parts unnecessarily. The pose, expression, and camera angles are all pretty neutral, and the clothing isn’t much different than what you’d see at the beach.

An example of something that doesn’t have excessive skin showing, but is still unacceptable or at least not preferable IMO, would be something like this.

It’s not something I would expect to tempt most guys, and there’s no real problem with skin (tight clothing, maybe). But instead of making a pose that makes sense as a fighting stance, they’re both doing some kind of weird thing that doesn’t make sense and is most probably because the artist (knowingly or not) prioritized attractiveness over who the characters were and what they were doing.

It’s a rather mild example, but I didn’t want to link to anything too questionable. Of course, we’re not really in the realm of deliberate fanservice anymore, but I think it’s still something to keep in mind when creating things.

So in answer to your question, my third standard is using body stance and language (and camera angles, and expression, and clothing) to communicate things about the characters, rather than casting aside reason and logic to display a character’s body.

Ah, yes, yes. The poses, expression and camera angles. That is a problem too. A good standard to have in mind too.