Fanservice for women?

[PenDragyn]

Okay... Had to put my two cents into this thread-

Fan-service that I appreciate:

Situational: Moments where the main character and/or love interest end up in a weird situation that is funny/strangely sexy.
-------This includes:
-Having the guy dress up/act completely out of character (Awkward boy having to dress in leather and act tough.)
-Being surprised by something leading to a compromising position/situation... (Walking in to find the tough bad-boy in a strange position underneath the timid one.)
-The guy having a very strange hobby/interest that is completely unexpected (Most common is the tough guy liking kittens... Why not have the tough invincible silent guy has a strange fetish for wearing perfume and taking bubble baths-)

As far as looks go... I'm a sucker for:
-Red/Violet eyes
-Athletic build (Preferred ripped guys, but lean/mean is okay.)
-White/silver hair
-Gothic, Victorian, or Rugged mercenary clothes.

----------------MAIN FAN-SERVICE TO HAVE IN GAMES/NOVELS---------------------------
Let the girl take the lead!!!!!!!!!

-I am always astounded by the stupidity/naivety of main characters in Otome/GxB games. Just once, I want to see a heroine who actually grabs the guy she likes and have her way with him er... take the lead. A girl who isn't so timid that she lets the guy just leave if he doesn't appear to be interested, no matter how much she likes him. I don't mean a girl who is annoying and smothering with her feelings. But a girl that has a little backbone and isn't afraid to express her feelings. AKA: A girl who when shoved against a wall by her love, instead of saying something like 'No we shouldn't', or 'What are you doing?', shoves him back and lays one on him.

Also it would be nice if the main characters could start having more than an elementary school kid's knowledge of how 'adult' relationships work. Again- not necessarily saying I want to see 'it'. Just that the heroine, who is usually in at least high school, shouldn't act so surprised about when the guy goes in for a 'deep' kiss, or 'gasp!' second base. Unless she's been living in a box, she should at least know about that kind of thing, if maybe not be entirely comfortable with it.

Argh. Well that's the end of my rant. Farewell-

[Miyuki]

Personally, it bothers me sometimes when the women are too assertive. I think it's really easy to make the women just seem really pushy.

I agree that women are not as naive as we're often painted to be, but when you have something like Shinjiro's romance route in P3P when she basically has to force herself into his room until he "snaps" I don't think that's really all that attractive either. When I first experienced it in the game I wound up laughing at how ridiculously over the top it was.

So that situation is one where I think it's very easy to make it seem excessive. I think that the girl can take the lead, but I don't want it to be really unrealistic or else it has the same problem that having the guy in control tends to have which is that it doesn't really make any sense and is just like -_- Okay okay can we get to the next scene already?

[Arisu]

It seems like most of the things being brought up in this thread are "turn-ons"/preferences and such, but, in my opinion, fanservice != turn-ons. A visual preference or certain personality/behaviour traits has to do with character design, and not fanservice. I always viewed fan service as something deliberately placed in the game as a tease (like characters almost kissing) or eye candy (showing off skin and/or accenturing certain body parts). It's basically just a treat, like... dessert (fanservice == cake?). Hence, fanservice for women is basically the same as fan service for men, just that it shows off attractive men rather than ladies (providing that the ladies the game is catering for are heterosexual, ofc).

Just my 2 cents :3

And fanservice is not for everyone; I have a friend who actually gets infuriated by it, and rolls his eyes everytime he sees a pair of anime knickers, as he finds fanservice to be an unnecessary element. But that's his opinion. ^^;

[Aleema]

It seems like most of the things being brought up in this thread are "turn-ons"/preferences and such, but, in my opinion, fanservice != turn-ons. A visual preference or certain personality/behaviour traits has to do with character design, and not fanservice.

Yes, that's exactly how I feel - these things that people are listing should NOT make them feel guilty for wanting it. It's okay to have a preference for such-and-such. Actual fanservice is something totally different. I believe it to be occurrences, not traits. General rule of thumb is: if you (the player) are enjoying it, and not the characters, then it's fanservice.

But I think this thread has just generally turned into "what I like in otome games," so whatever! =P

I personally don't like too much fanservice or forced fanservice because it breaks the immersion of the game. Don't get me wrong, I love nice, tantalizing things. But super going out of your way to *wink,wink,nudge,nudge* just flusters me more than anything.

[droopy]

Fanservice for anyone basically is meaning that you get any character into a situation where they are either "showing some skin"/underwear etc or they end up getting in costumes (maid, cat, crossdress, bdsm ... ), at least that's what I thought it means. So it's no difference between genders or sexuality. Maybe you can say that moe / stereotype characters (tsundere, "glasses guy", seme/uke type, little sister...) are also a way of fanservice just by existing.

Edit: or, I guess also a situation where pretty girls are falling on top of each other and such things (group or pairing fanservice)

[Auro-Cyanide]

And sometimes it's more about self gratification than fan service ;P I know I like drawing my shirtless guys enough to do it just for me (and I even enjoy doing pin-ups of girls sometimes). It's just fun to draw sexy characters sometimes

[Glasskitten]

Hmm, if fanservice refers to the little touches you can add for attraction purposes without affecting the story, the only thing mentioned so far that would fit that definition for me is the Western period clothing, particularly 18th to early 20th century. I don't care one way or the other if an attractive character ends up shirtless, but given a choice, I'd rather see him in ruffled elegance. Squee!
...Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything else that would give a comparable effect.
(I could try to form an exhaustive list things that are personal fan DISservices for me, but that might lead to ramblings no one cares about. How much of my top disservices may I waste threadspace with? ^_^;
The most potentially relevant thing fresh in my mind after reading the whole discussion is that there is a line where an athletic build stops looking healthy and starts to remind me of a scorpion, in which case I'd hope to avoid excessive shirtless (or skintight costume) scenes. But in that case, I would assume all the other readers were enjoying it, so I wouldn't go picketing the artist's house or anything.
The other thing of possible note is that excessively embarrassing the characters, e.g. by forcing them into dresses or walking in on them when they need some privacy, doesn't make me feel warm and SQUEE inside, it makes me feel like an unwitting accessory to the writer's cruelty--almost the soft version of what I assume a normal male would feel if his friend suddenly announced, "Hey, I just slipped your crush a roofie for you!")

[Aleema]

The other thing of possible note is that excessively embarrassing the characters, e.g. by forcing them into dresses or walking in on them when they need some privacy, doesn't make me feel warm and SQUEE inside, it makes me feel like an unwitting accessory to the writer's cruelty--almost the soft version of what I assume a normal male would feel if his friend suddenly announced, "Hey, I just slipped your crush a roofie for you!")

That's an interesting way of putting it. I agree. Forced circumstance will never feel as good as one that was earned.

[Blue Lemma]

Uh oh, Glasskitten is shrinkinggggggggg

Forced circumstance will never feel as good as one that was earned.

But there is the extra moe-factor, depending on how it comes about :-3 (You know, "kyaaa~<3" and all that )

[Aleema]

But there is the extra moe-factor, depending on how it comes about :-3 (You know, "kyaaa~<3" and all that )

The "kyaa~" moments I can think of are rarely forced, for example: A very passionate look, an almost-kiss, an actual kiss, being jealous, passive shirtless-ness (it's not the point of the scene) ... You're right in that it's dependent on how it comes about, but that was my original point: contriving reasons for something to happen will never be as appealing as that something happening for natural reasons. Most everything people have said in this thread that they like aren't unnatural things in the context of story or characters. I personally think that it's because being "served" breaks the immersion of the story, the integrity of the characters, and also there's the fact that women just aren't used to it (yet).

This is all assuming you're not talking about fanservice in general, just in the interest of women. I have no absolute idea on what would get a dude's boinger up. And I probably don't want to know.

[Omnificent]

Uh oh, Glasskitten is shrinkinggggggggg

Forced circumstance will never feel as good as one that was earned.

But there is the extra moe-factor, depending on how it comes about :-3 (You know, "kyaaa~<3" and all that )

If I see another "I 'ACCIDENTALLY' FELL ON TOP OF YOU, CUE SEXUAL TENSION" I will eat a kitten. <_<

I wouldn't mind seeing a character who keeps orchestrating those events on purpose though. Like Keima!

[Aka-kami]

I don't really like ridiculously muscular men. An athletic build is ok (the build that my fellow swimmers have akjsdnkajd <3) and I like them to be around my height o3o;; OK ENOUGH ABOUT MY TASTES IN MEN.

Things that I consider to be fanservice:

- THE GENTLEMAN TYPE. HANDS DOWN. Men like that always make me SWOON.
- Wet shirt scenes. Something about the clothes clinging onto their skin without exposing too much always gets me going D:
- Like many others have said, personality.
- When a proud/sarcastic/assy guy shows a vulnerable side <:'D
- In relation to the above, sleeping face.
- As a good number of fangirls would iterate, MALE ON MALE INTIMACY. Just something fluffy will get me kya-ing so long as the dynamics of the couple are right haha.

As for crossdressing, I never really considered this to be fanservice. It's a good source of humor, but I just can't see a man wearing a skirt moe. Unless the character looks to be female... Then that's just a girl with a penis for me. (Sorry if I sound rather harsh haha)

If I see another "I 'ACCIDENTALLY' FELL ON TOP OF YOU, CUE SEXUAL TENSION" I will eat a kitten. <_<

This. This is gets really annoying.

[papillon]

as for falling on people, as a teenager a friend of mine lost control while rollerskating and flung out her hands to stop herself. Unfortunately, her hands landed squarely in the laps of a couple of guys sitting down.... Or so she said anyway, I wasn't there.

How many "I'M REALLY SORRY I ACCIDENTALLY GRABBED YOUR GROIN!!!" scenes do we see?

[MomoiroGirl]

Lol, I feel like a fail, I've tried both the 'falling into a guy and accidentally grab his junk' AND the 'fall on top of a guy and have him accidentally grab your boob' scenarios WITH MORE LOL XD But yea fanservice:
- Guys in uniforms (mainly butler and mercenary, but also uniforms in general
- Blushing scenes (Well whatever, hard to mention any other fanservice than uniforms XDD)
- As Aka-kami said, the guy's sleeping face XDDD

And then there's the stuff like guys with glasses and such

[Zatch]

I'm not girl but I never turn down people falling on each other, and accidental kissing.. I don't know why but I like guys that wear dress.