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"Like my mother said: when all else fails, lift up your dress." — Niamh, I'd Do Anything
"Why is everyone naked?!"
Gratuitous display of female characters in skimpy clothing, or none at all, under the assumption that it will attract or "reward" male viewers. (There is occasionally fanservice for female viewers, but it's not nearly as common.) This is not just a fan term, but one used during the production of, and even in the dialogue of, various shows. For example, the end-of-episode previews during the early part of Neon Genesis Evangelion frequently promise "more fanservice" (although it never seems to deliver quite as much as it promises).
While the specific term "fanservice" arose from the Anime community, the concept of adding a little titillation to a work is far, far older (at least as old as the Roman Empire, making this Older Than Dirt). When nudity or sexual content is an expected part of a work, it's not Fanservice; it's only when the nudity or sex is thrown in "just because" that Fanservice becomes a part of the narrative. For example, nudity in a pornographic movie would not qualify, while Sharon Stone's infamous "beaver shot" in Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct would. Real Fanservice is seldom explicit or graphic — that is the territory of pornography. Instead it is primarily there to "add a little extra" by teasing and titillating the (usually male) audience.
" Fan Service" is sometimes used in a more general way, to mean adding things to a show that don't need to be there, but nonetheless please the viewers. When this is something non-sexual, like needlessly flashy attacks in a Humongous Mecha show, it's Pandering To The Base. Sexy fanservice is considered the default form, because it is everywhere, and it's easy to add to any kind of show.
Some shows may have designated fanservice characters; characters who, even if they are main characters and/or otherwise complex (as in, they have a role beyond fanservice), can always be found in a fanservice situation. Some shows, especially American shows, have characters for both male and female fanservice. Exactly how much fanservice makes its way into a series can depend on what channel a show is broadcast, but with the advent of series on DVD, this can be subverted with liberal application of Censor Steam. More literally, fanservice also consists of things designed to please longtime dedicated fans: Shout Outs, Omake, in-jokes, etc. Moe is also a kind of fanservice.
While some fanservice can increase the appeal of a show, too much fanservice can become very distracting and in some cases, put viewers off completely, especially if the fanservice is directed towards women, as men are often made uncomfortable by exhibits of sexuality not intended solely and completely for the Male Gaze.
Very hard to subvert or even lampshade hang — the former is usually disturbing and the latter is well, just Fan Service with a joke attached. You might as well have the person wearing nothing but a lampshade.
See also Schoolgirl Lesbians, Yaoi Guys, Shallow Love Interest, Theiss Titillation Theory (for some of the basic principle behind fanservice) and Turn On Tropes.
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Examples
Anime and Manga
Card Games
Comics
- Adam Warren's Empowered is a comic that's open about its fanservicing. The main character is a neurotic and well-endowed superheroine with an alien supersuit that grants her generic energy blast and super-strength powers. Shame those powers go away the minute her extremely fragile supersuit gets torn...
- Given that Empowered was created after Adam Warren was commissioned to create a series of BDSM pin-up drawings about a superheroine-in-distress — an idea that he took and ran with — this isn't surprising in the least.
- And let's not forget Adam's American versions of The Dirty Pair and Bubblegum Crisis which, while not necessarily received favorably by all fans of the classic titles, are absolutely dripping with fanservice (even where the originals might not necessarily have been).
- Fred Perry, artist of Gold Digger, is well known for giving a generous dose of cheesecake alongside the plot and action, most notiably in the well-endowed title Diggers sisters. He doesn't leave his female readers out either, with a good amount of beefcake included.
- In the DC Universe, the perpetual fanservers are Starfire, Lady Phantom, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia, Harley Quinn and Fire.
- Wearing a bathing suit to fight crime, Wonder Woman has been one of DC Comic's favorite fanservers since the golden age. First by appearing in bondage in several covers, then by dropping the mini-skirt, and then by exposing Linda Carter in cleavage. In ''Wonder Woman'' #300
 ◊, her outfit burns and she has to take it off in front of Superman, who then covers her with his cape before they make out. In Identity Crisis, Green Arrow points that no man can avoid looking at her rack.
- Starfire, due to her culture (and clothes), is one of the most consistent providers of fanservice. For starters, as Green Arrow observes, nobody can avoid looking at her cleavage and her golden skin. In Coutdown, bathes nude in a lake in front of Animal man; in Countdown to Adventure #1, in front of his wife and kids, she mentions to Animal man that, as he knows, she sleeps in the nude; and finally, issue #1 of the current Titans series features Starfire sunbathing in the nude◊, thinking how much she hates having to wear clothes all the time when in public, with the end of the scene showing the character in a particularly egregious cheesecake pose◊ in front of Animal man's kid.
- The "Gotham Girls" increase this tendency as time passes. Since the late 90's Poison Ivy has been shown wearing nothing but some leaves in key places every now and then and Talia's rags are becoming as odd as little. In the Catwoman: When in Rome limited series, the title character gets nude almost every issue. First bathing and kicking the Riddler out of her hotel room, then in bed, getting awakened by the Blonde and falling into a river in Venice, and then sunbathing topless to tease the Blonde. In her early career both Catwoman and Batgirl went to a nudist club and had a catfight in their birthday suits in order to fulfill their respective missions. A few years ago, Catwoman exchanged her purple outfit for a spy-like, black leather one with a front zipper... which didn't stay closed for long. Barbara Gordon is often shown bending over and displaying her cleavage; according to recent Birds of Prey issues, she has "cyber-done it" with Ted Kord and is known as "the Batgirl with the red hair and the big breasts".
- Phantom Lady's costume's sole purpose is to focus male attention into her large breasts exposed through plunging cleavage. Her story with the goodgirlart began in the late 40s with her new cleavage and bigger curves designed by Matt Baker for issue #13. Issue #17 caught the attention of infamous Dr. Frederic Wertham and the cover was exposed in Seduction of the Innocent. After some time of keeping the appearances, she recovered her cleavage, now bigger than ever.
- For comical purposes, Fire, from the team "formerly known as the Justice League", has been in the awkward situations of having to take off all of her clothes in front of her teammates. She doesn’t seem to mind that Elongated man sees her full frontal.
- A short and loose skirt makes Supergirl a Ms. Fanservice by definition, and a crop top only makes things better. The current version of this character makes a hell of an entrance by causing havoc nude in the pages of Batman / Superman. The Earth-2 Superman's tomboyish cousin Power girl has a great deal of her life revolving around the fact that her breasts are huge and that, thanks to her "chest window" (originaly a cleavage), no man ever looks at her eyes. Since her creation, these characteristics have been progressively more exploited by the artists, to the point that in recent years the character has been addressing the issue in various stories.
- One particular example of note, Power Girl has been noted to state her fanservicing of the villains makes her job a lot easier, and it was planned that way.
- Rose Wilson aka Ravager from the current Teen Titan's run is better covered in her fighting costume than she ever is in civilian dress. Since becoming Ravager her casual dress has gone from previously average to perhaps unnecessarily revealing — short shorts and midriff revealing tops are now her standard (and she makes it look damn good).
- Arkhampedia has an entire page devoted to collecting fanservice in comics here.
- Marvel's fanservers include Spiderman's jackpot, Mary Jane Watson, Psylocke with her thong, and Black Cat and the White Queen with their trademark cleavages. During the 1990s Marvel Comics put out a series of "Swimsuit specials", which were basically an extremely flimsy excuse for equal-opportunity fanservice. Among other things, these provided what may be the first ever mainstream. full-frontal superhero nude◊, as well as some genuine nightmare fuel◊. They at least showed off guys nearly as much as women.
- Notably averted in Spider-Girl, where May was initally draw with short, boy-cut hair, and wasn't very attractive. Since that time, May's grown her hair out a little, but what little fanservice there is is positively tame by most comic book standards.
- Emma Frost is walking, talking fanservice. Or possibly she's meant to be staff-service...
- Antarctic Press, an independent comic publisher notable for titles such as Ninja High School and Gold Digger, and the short-lived Image Comics have also experimented with the "Swimsuit special" format.
- Fanservice is the meat and potatoes of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose. Practically every woman is back-ache-inducingly overendowed. Most monsters, be they demons or ragdolls or gingerbread cookies or shark-mermaids, are female and yes, the previous rule applies. The heroine, Tarot, often wears a stripperiffic outfit laughably referred to as "her armor", while her nemesis and sister, Raven, wears only spiked panties and interesting tattoos, and the other monster-girls usually wear even less. Tarot's kinda sorta boyfriend Jon provides a bit of beefcake, but he's in minority and also the Butt Monkey. Casual sex is so casual that two people might indulge in it as an alternate to saying hello, and often it's completely glossed over since it's "the norm" for witches or something. The comic can actually be fairly entertaining if you treat it as a mindless and somewhat perverted action comic (and a bit of Guilty Pleasure), but it seems, sadly, that the producers take their work seriously and intend for it to teach about the truths of witchcraft. One issue is nothing but narrative correcting various misconceptions about witchcraft, pointing out specifically that yes, witches do hold their rites naked, don't assume otherwise. (Possibly they're just pretending to be serious.)
- Pretty much every female character in Larry Elmore's Snarf Quest seems to exist primarily to fulfill this trope.
- There's a scene towards the beginning of Night Of The Living Dead: New York featuring a busty redheaded callgirl servicing a client which is possibly the most graphic and blatant example of this trope to yet appear in comic books (and considering the amount of fanservice that's appeared in comic books, that's saying quite a lot). Put simply, the artist spared no level of detail in depicting her genitalia, but apparently couldn't remember whether she actually brought any clothes with her (and, in some panels, where she was even sitting in the car). Although to be fair, it's contrasted with an equally blatant example of Fan Disservice later in the book (which, not uncoincidentally, has something to do with the whole Zombie Apocalypse alluded to in the title).
Films
- Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit certainly fits here. She was originally designed as a parody of the "Film Noir Broad".
- In the Aeon Flux movie, Aeon spends her off hours wearing very little, even considering that it's supposed to be the future.
- One could argue the recent movie 300 consists of nearly all passive fanservice, considering that both male and female Greek characters wear very little. This wouldn't be so egregious, except that historically, part of what made a Greek hoplite an effective warrior was his panoply, usually consisting of a hoplon shield, bronze helmet, bronze cuirass and a bronze greave on the most exposed leg. However, the Spartan soldiers spend the entire movie wearing essentially leather speedos and red velvet cloaks, and are very muscular, fit men. It's one of the few examples of a movie with more fanservice of male characters than of female characters. Note that this fanservice is actually toned down compared to the comic it was based on, which was itself toned down from most historical artistic representations of the Battle of Thermopylae (and warfare in antiquity in general), which generally portray everyone on both sides as stark naked with the exception of their weapons and (sometimes) footwear, making this Older Than Feudalism. The only historical problem, of course, is that the Spartans were not dressed for work, as real, historical Spartans, male and female, only walked around naked in cloaks when not actually on a battlefield. In Plato's works, Socrates is fond of mocking Spartans for this pretension of simplicity as well as himself implying it was done for Fanservice.
- The suiting-up sequence in Batman Returns ends with a lingering shot of the hero's rubber-clad buttocks. It's maybe two or three seconds long. Extraordinary.
- A more blatant example was Alicia Silverstone's suiting up scene in Batman and Robin. There were male cheers in the audience during that scene.
- This editor is rather surprised that Maurice Binder's (and his successor, Daniel Kleinman's) title sequences for the James Bond films haven't been mentioned. Casino Royale was an exception to the rule. He didn't actually do From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, the former of which is definitely in that vein (titles projected on a belly dancer).
- The Bond films are chock full of it. Anya Amasova in the shower in The Spy Who Loved Me, the common pool scenes. In fairness, we ought to mention Daniel Craig in his swimming trunks in Casino Royale and Sean Connery in general.
- Aversion: Red Eye, despite giving a fairly manufactured reason for Rachel McAdams to go into the bathroom to change her shirt, does not point the camera any lower than her armpits. The real purpose of the scene isn't to show off her feminine attributes (although that would be a fairly noble endeavor, this being Rachel McAdams), but to expose the large scar on her shoulder. It's plot-relevant.
- Consider that every single Terminator movie opens up with a large, muscular man wearing no clothing popping up in the middle of nowhere, and the later installments include female Terminators as well.
- In a semi-rare male example, High School Musical 3: Senior Year was slated to have a scene featuring Zac Efron's character in a shower — but, unfortunately for the film's target audience, Disney chickened out.
- HSM 3 is sill very fanservisey. The Cat Girls and Sharpey's outfit during "I Want it All" come to mind.
- Back in the days before the Internet, many a B Movie, expecially those produced by Roger Corman, would include a topless scene in order to entice male viewers to the theater. Another B-movie producer once famously described female nudity as "the cheapest special effect".
- We haven't even mentioned Barbarella. Aside from inspiring the name for a band with videos laden with the stuff (DuranDuran), the opening sequence involves a twenty-something Jane Fonda. Taking it all off.
- Wild Things is notable for going a bit further with the male fanservice than the female one. Female nudity is limited to toplessness (and then only two characters) and a girl-on-girl kiss, while we get a brief shot of a penis in a shower scene.
- In Christophe Gan's adaptation of Crying Freeman, Marc Dacascos' character often fights half naked, with a notable scene in which he kills some henchmen wearing only a jockstrap.
- In the original manga the character sometimes fights naked, though his crotch is always hidden in shadows.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 subject Future War has an infamous attempt at this, as in the final fight scene a headbutt to the hero's chest somehow knocks his shirt off, which was tucked in and fully buttoned a half-second before. The guy playing the hero was also the fight choreographer, by the way.
- In the live-action X-Men movies, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants diva Mystique is essentially portrayed as a blue, redheaded lizard (whose makeup consists of little more than contact lenses, blue body paint and a handful of strategically-placed plastic scales), in all probability the most blatant example of fanservice permissible in a PG or PG-13 movie. Ironically, in the comic she is portrayed as a much more conventionally alluring (though still blue-skinned in her natural form) individual, and typically wears a costume (admittedly suggestive) instead of running around naked.
- Ehem, yeah, but then, as a shapeshifter, those are not really her real clothes... she shapeshifts parts of her body to look like clothes, So Yeah...
- Two gratuitous hard-body-in-the-shower shots, one for the guys and one for the ladies? Dr. Calvin giving Spooner's cybernetic physique a leisurely grope? You'll find them in I, Robot. Heck, there's even a wet-fur scene for the cats!
- Top Gun has several scenes of men in semi-undress. In particular, there is a volleyball game sequence in which the men fairly compete to strut their physiques.
- Japanese horror film Eko eko azaraku contains a lengthy lesbian love scene that some viewers might argue was not entirely essential to the plot.
- May also exist in the source material, but for an excellent example of fanservice please see Tank Girl. All OF it.
- Fanservice, thy names are Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom!! *swoons*
- Clerks 2. Jason Mewes with chapstick. Sadly ruined by the cut to him in the Buffalo Bill pose complete with tuck, but damn it was good while it lasted.
- John Abraham. Just ... John Abraham
Live Action TV
- The very common shots of scantily clad women in The Teaser for CSI Miami. Or for that matter, the entire wardrobes of Calleigh and Natalia.
- Hey, the girls get fanservice too, in the very easy on the eye form of Eric Delko, sometimes shirtless.
- Chuck — Sarah is constantly fighting in skimpier and skimpier outfits. One episode even had a punk kid take a picture of her as she was fighting, then boast how he was going to put it up on the internet.
- Sexy ex-spy Roan Montgomery from the Chuck episode "Chuck vs the Seduction" was an obvious fan service nod to John Larroquette fans who were dissatisfied with his character Carl Sack from Boston Legal.
- Star Trek has had a number of incidents in the last few years to qualify as fanservice, most notably in the last two series.
- Voyager's Seven Of Nine was pretty much solely created for this purpose, to bring in a younger demographic of male viewers. The skintight spandex helped.
- Enterprise had a number of obligatory "decon gel" scenes where characters rubbed glistening gels all over each other, as well as a scene where Vulcan T'Pol undresses in front of engineer Trip, giving fans a revealing look at her backside and blatantly perky (erect?) nipples.
- Don't forget the original. They gave their women (particularly any Girl Of The Week) some of the most◊ outrageous◊ outfits◊ ever◊ seen◊ on television◊. And no woman could be onscreen without accompanying romantic music and soft-focused close-ups. It being the '60s, the original's fanservice was somehow both more tasteful and more blatant than in latter-day incarnations.
- Las Vegas, of course; it's the show's raison d'être. Mostly women but occasionally men as well.
- Be it snake massages, body sushi, or toxic waste jacuzzis, Ripley's Believe Or Not managed to find some excuse to feature bikini-wearing girls at the very end of each episode.
- The Terminator Spin Off The Sarah Connor Chronicles features several scenes where Cameron Phillips, the female bodyguard Terminator, is running around either naked or wearing very little clothing, usually due to time travel or not being aware that she's supposed to be wearing clothes.
- The episode "Self Made Man" even includes a gratuitious five-second long shot of Summer Glau's perfectly rounded rear as she slowly walks across a room. No one is complaining.
- "Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep" has a very blatant piece of fanservice involving Cameron in slight, bright red bra and panties. Except Cameron isn't real, and is instead just part of a dream Sarah is having.
- Arguably, Firefly may have had some fanservice, mostly surrounding Inara's outfits and profession, as well as the psychotic seductress Saffron. And don't forget that the introduction to River involves her appearing naked in a box. (River is played by Summer Glau, the previously mentioned Cameron Phillips).
- No mays or arguability here: Inara, spongebath. End of discussion.
- And Kaylee with the strawberry in the same episode as both of the above.
- There was also a mild form of for-the-fangirls fanservice in the final episode, where the pretty-boy (and surprisingly well-toned) Simon appears shirtless for a while. Writer Joss Whedon even acknowledges in the commentary that the female fans of the series would be rather happy about this scene.
- This was tame compared to the unaired episode "Trash" which stripped Mal naked and plays Peek A Boo with his crotch for the final few scenes, though his ass is on full display.
- Doctor Who has this as a Parental Bonus; although it usually skirts around nudity (but Harkness' bare back has appeared in the new series), even as far back as the 1970s series creators went quity skimpy on the girls' skirts. (And it goes without saying that most companions are female for one reason).
- Third Doctor companion Jo Grant, self-declared Ditz, often has knee-level boots and quite short skirts.
- Journey's End, the season 4 finale, has a naked Ten — well, a clone of Ten. Sadly, we do not get a backside shot.
- If that's what you want, get watching Casanova.
- There hasn't yet, since the revival, been any Lingerie Scene with a female companion. Russell T Davies vetoed one with Freema Agyeman on grounds of inappropriateness.
- There was Timey Slimey Martha in series 3, wearing only goo...
- Jenny. Although that's more tight than revealing.
- Nyssa's stripping down to her underwear near the end of "Terminus" (her farewell episode) was a deliberate fanservice act on the part of Sarah Sutton, who played her (a kind of "thank you" for all the fan mail, apparently...).
- In season 2 of Heroes, Peter Petrelli loses his shirt at least once in almost every episode that he appears in. Sylar also has a rather contrived shirtless scene near the end of the season, but female fans were still pleased.
- Season 3 also has a shot of naked Mohinder sliding all wet and glistening out of a cocoon with a full backside view.
- There's also women. Elle, played by Kristen Bell, spent an entire episode without wearing pants. We catch a glimpse of Maya's boob in season three. Plus, everybody seems to be related to a hot blonde.
- Let's add Nathan Petrelli, turning up to a diner after a flight wearing a pair of pyjama pants. Only.
- Smallville seems to be going very heavy in this direction. Look at the facts: both Ma and Pa Kent have left the show, and Pete Ross left a long time ago. Two of the replacements, Lois Lane and Kara, are often in swimwear, belly shirts or otherwise very revealing clothing. Lois also guested in an episode where she went undercover as a stripper.
- There is plenty of male fan-service on show too — Clark, Lex, Davis, Oliver Queen, Arthur Curry (prime example of the trope), etc.
- The Supernatural boys are well-known for packing on the layers so you can imagine the joy when "In My Time of Dying" came along and Dean spent the entire episode in a nicely-fitting white t-shirt and blue scrub pants.
- Sam's sex scene from "Heart" was all about this trope. But with the abs and the muscles and the hot explicitness of the entire thing, we're seriously not complaining.
- And the bondage fans had a field day with "Hunted" — or more likely to be named the episode where Dean is the distressed damsel for the evening and spends most of his time bound and gagged.
- The two Sexy Pans up Dean's legs in "Phantom Traveller" (naked and sleeping) and in "Born Under A Bad Sign" (clothed and unconscious) and the camera lovingly caressing his arse in both instances were only there to please his millions of fangirls/fanboys.
- While admittedly filled with awesome moments, "Born Under A Bad Sign" didn't do all that much to further the plot. But you know it was all worth it when you see Jared Padalecki proving that evil is very, very, very sexy.
- Does no one remember "Hell House"? Hello, Sam in nothing but a towel! The fangirls had a field day with that one.
- Battlestar Galactica (the new one), has a wonderful scene where Dr. Baltar is in the Cylon ship, he and the Cylon he's walking with walk past a "Boomer" Cylon (played by the ever beautiful Grace Park) doing Tai-chi naked in the hallway for no reason or explanation. But the reality is probably that it was a great way to have Grace Park doing Tai-chi naked in a hallway, and there is nothing wrong with this.
- Brainiac Science Abuse does this rather often. Not counting the Brainiac Babes, there's several other examples out there, such as the Double Entendre-laden "Professor Myang Lee" (Rachel Grant) things involving the dropping of fruit into swimming pools by said bikini-clad "Professor" and to top it all off, they once did an experiment on the heart rate changes induced by having topless women present.
- Dirty Sexy Money appears to be solely built on this trope. Most of the female characters seem to appear wandering around in underwear or bikinis for no adequately explained reason. For maximum Fan Service points though, note that Patrick Darling's Transsexual love interest (played by a real-life transgender actress) is not the recipient of this kind of treatment, and is usually shot in a generally unflattering way.
- House has Dr. Lisa Cuddy, who often wears low-cut tops (which are commented on by House in his usual manner). However, the episode "House's Head" went beyond that when House, who needed to remember something he saw in a bus crash, went into a sensory deprivation tank and had a hallucination of the bus with Cuddy there. In a schoolgirl outfit. Stripping. To be fair, this was in House's mind and she was doing a differential diagnosis while stripping.
- And for the girls and the gay men: In the Season Three premiere, House had a Creek Moment while he was being drenched by a university fountain. Nice.
- "Painless" went all-out in the House-fanservice: he's in the bath twice — although the first time is arguably Fan Disservice, depending on what you think of his scar and his being in more pain than usual — and in the middle of the show, his ceiling bursts with water, leaving him completely soaked through. Fun times.
- Speaking of Hugh Laurie and water-related fanservice, Jeeves And Wooster sure likes to show Bertie in the bathtub a lot...
- How To Look Good Naked is a show where women are helped to feel more confident about their bodies and have their outfits improved by fashion expert Gok Wan. They get naked. In public. Then again, the audiences are women and Gok Wan is gay, but there's no such restrictions on the viewing public...
- The second page quote is from Niamh Perry (aka Goth Nancy), from I'd Do Anything. During a comedy "mission", her joke fell flatter than a hedgehog after a steamrollering. She made said comment, lifted up her dress Can-Can style and left the stage.
- Lost takes any excuse to remove the shirts of its male characters, especially Sawyer. A swim he takes in the fourth season finale apparently knocks his shirt right off.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer features some spectacular fanservice for ladies by stripping down the mad sexy Spike. Actor James Marsters commented that his costume for season six was "pretty much a sock."
- That's all we've got? Oh, come on. For starters, two words: leather pants. This (male) troper spent half of season two wondering why all the girls seemed so obsessed with this apparently mundane article of clothing. Then Faith turned up in season three, and it all made sense.
- Go Fish. Xander in a speedo. The other characters were pleasantly surprised. The viewers who remembered his underwear scene in the first season were just... uh... pleasant.
- Angel arrived in season three naked, then spent the next half-dozen episodes shirtless. Eventually he started wearing vests.
- The guys got a little fanservice two, notably "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," which features Buffy in a raincoat and nothing else, and Willow in a long shirt and nothing else.
- And two scenes of women bathing: Faith-in-Buffy in Who Are You?, and Glory in Tough Love.
- Two words: Vamp Willow
- Criminal Minds offers all kinds of very good fanservice — there's Derek Morgan with the occasional prancing about shirtless, a parade of in-jokes and meta ("I never have any normal fans," complains fan-favorite Spencer Reid), and now introducing adorable, fluffy love interests for fans' favorite characters appears to be a trend.
- The Japanese drama Yukan Club, which features the male leads crossdressing in two separate episodes (with one of the occasions being wedding gowns).
- Executive Meddling in the second season tried to turn Mork And Mindy into a Jiggle Show. They wanted the not very well endowed Pam Dawber to wear padded bras, which she vehemently refused (and Robin Williams defended her). So instead they brought in guest stars like Raquel Welch and The Denver Broncos Cheerleaders, resulting in two of the most Fanservice- and Fetish Fuel-laden episodes ever.
- Of course, some women might say someone else was already providing the Fanservice.
- The peak of Law And Order Special Victims Unit fanservice: Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson groping each other in their underwear. It Makes Sense In Context.
- I want to know what episode this was.
- Legend Of The Seeker has many of these, for both the men and women. Richard is frequently shown doing something that just must be done shirtless, and Kahlan's shirt are cut to just the right depth, sometimes giving a very nice... bounce.
- While The L Word has more than its share of sex and nudity, none of it can match the blatant, shameless fanservice that is the episode "Lesbians Gone Wild!" Turkish oil wrestling, people.
- The X-Files had two major forms of fanservice: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. The Pilot involves Agent Scully stripping to nothing but her bra and underwear, whereupon Mulder runs his fingers over, and stares very, very intently at, her lower back. While the power is out and he's holding a candle. Did I mention that this is Gillian Anderson?
- Kyra Sedgwick dressed in nothing but a towel. Twice. Once might be unintentional; twice is not.
- In the short-lived TV series Profit, Adrian Pasdar (Heroes' Nathan Petrelli, mentioned earlier) gets naked or is seen in a towel in every. single. episode. Woof.
- Getting Rachael Stirling to smooch with her female co-star in Boy Meets Girl is partly justified since it's a Freaky Friday plot and she's playing the male character, but here the suddenly lesbian friend comes on to her for an in-universe Yuri Fanboy moment.
- Face it, Joss Whedon is absolutely famous for this. It took all of about four episodes for Dollhouse get its own Fetish Fuel page.
- Early in the second episode of Fortysomething, Paul runs out of the house to chase after Estelle's car in nothing but a towel. Then the neighbor's dog runs up to him. And runs off. With the towel. Leaving us with a view of Hugh Laurie, in the middle of the street, completely naked. Made doubly awkward (for him) by the fact that he was also that episode's director.
- The season 8 finale of American Idol is a clinic in fanservice. So far we've had Zettai Ryouiki done right from Alexis Grace (and done wrong by Megan Joy Corkrey), and not only did they bring back the infamous "Bikini Girl" Katrina Darrell (who apparently got implants since being eliminated from the show during Hollywood week), but judge Kara DioGuardi came on stage and performed with her — revealing a bikini of her own at the end of the number.
- Season one of Primeval had the excuse (and we use the word in the most ridiculous way possible) of Abby walking around wearing only her underwear because she had to turn the thermostat up to keep her pet lizard warm. Helen Cutter had the slightly better excuse that she usually time travelled to eras which had a hotter climate, and Jenny Lewis just liked looking like a tart.
- Animal Planet's Animal Cops Miami features many, many gratuitous shots of thickly populated Miami beaches, though it may just be to provide viewers with a nice break from stories and graphic images of abused animals.
Music
- Britney Spears' entire career is built on it. "Well, sweetie, daddy's horny, so let's buy you another concert tape!"
- Mariah Carey.
- Kylie Minogue.
- Madonna — one should not wear a see-through top at fifty.
- I can't believe no one's brought up the entirety of J-Rock. Most notably, the onstage stunts by Dir En Grey and Gackt's downright infamous Vanilla live. Honestly, though, it's what the whole genre is practically built on!
Musicals
- The various outfit changes of Herbert from Tanz Der Vampire. He's easily the most popular character with the fangirls, so the natural progression went from a feminine but still clearly vampire-ish ruffly shirt and leather pants to... well, in some productions he's wearing a black, fishnet poet shirt and a thong. Not counting the source material, in which we see him in a rather lovely leg baring nightshirt. Somehow, someone grabbed onto that and turned it up to eleven.
New Media
- The You Tube Poop wiki parodies this with an article called "Boobs". It opens with a picture of some Girls Bravo character Gainaxing (I wouldn't know, I don't watch it). The article contains, as an example, "List of Youtube Poop characters who like boobs" and "List of Youtube Poopers who like boobs". It's quite interesting to see their erm... thoughts on the article.
Sports
- There are many factors people point to when discussing the decline in popularity of Women's Tennis from its Chris Everett/Martina Navratilova-led peak. One is the move away from flash-prone pleated skirts and towards more modest boy-leg style bloomers. What's the point of all those hot Russian teenagers and twenty-somethings if they don't flash the goods with every serve?
Tabletop Games
- The Dungeons & Dragons games have very fanservicey art of about three-quarters of all depictions of females. The art for succubi, nymphs, or dryads in the various Monster Manuals, for example, or most elves being ridiculously well-built considering the game's own literature on the subject saying elven women are usually very slender. In one case, such Fanservice appeared on the cover of a sourcebook, with a female elven druid wrapped up in tentacles.
- The art of Larry Elmore in particular is almost all fanservice
- There's also this◊ infamous Exalted book cover.
- More fanservice from White Wolf, in that for their 2009 April Fools joke, they faked a preview of an upcoming Exalted sourcebook, called "The Book of Swallowed Darkness". This preview was real, but there was no book it would be a part of. Inside of it? 16 pages of pornography. All about Exalted, with sex galore, and abilities to use in the game (also with sexual characteristics).
Video Games
- Lara Croft is the archetypal Third Person Seductress.
- The entire Dead Or Alive series. In particular, the beach volleyball game wouldn't exist in this world if not for pleasing the Spirits of Fanservice.
- To a lesser extent, the Metroid series. Depending on how fast you complete the game, Samus will be shown in nothing more than a bikini. While this served a certain purpose in the first game (which misleads you to think Samus is a male, see Samus Is A Girl), it somewhat borders on fanservice in the later games where it's more obvious that Samus is a female.
- The Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series uses some (partly justified) fanservice when skinny little spirit channeler Maya Fay occasionally transforms into her voluptous sister Mia... while still wearing skinny little Maya's outfit. (And it still covers more than it should.) Phoenix takes advantage of this on occasion; it's amazing how some witnesses respond better to the woman with the impressive bosom than to the porcupine-headed lawyer.
- In later games, when Maya's cousin Pearl, who is eight years old, occasionally summons Mia, this gets downright Stripperiffic.
- This.
- Halo has Cortana. The first game often had cutscenes that would linger behind her for several seconds. Did we mention she's naked, literally all the time?
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation series will occasionally have a scene where the cast goes to the beach or the pool for no other reason than just showing off the females in skimpy outfits.
- The Metal Gear Solid series provides plenty of male fanservice mixed with Ho Yay.
- Of course, it also has plenty of female fanservice. EVA, I'm looking at you.
- Hell, who isn't? For this (female! straight!) troper, it was all about the Boss's big ol' scars, but they're only visible for that one scene. Also, couldn't you have just said they were there and not had to show us?
- The Soul Calibur series rolls in fanservice for both men and women. It ranges from almost subtle (all the girls gained larger... chests in Soul Calibur 4, some more obviously than others) to the annoyingly non-subtle (female created characters in Soul Calibur 4 can't wear special underwear (like leggings or pants under pants) and certain types of shirts (generally the ones that aren't either tight or have absolute cleavage) at the same time, and you have to work towards giving your male characters any underwear that isn't a thong or a loincloth. When combined with easily broken armor (even pants or shirts), this means that your created characters are probably going to be spending a lot of time in stripperville).
- Jill Valentine's appearance in Resident Evil 3 (and subsequently transferred to Resident Evil: Apocalypse) is an oft-cited example. Most female characters in the Resident Evil series are appropriately dressed, and Jill spends the first game wearing a military uniform, but shows up for the third installment wearing a tubetop and miniskirt for no plot-related reason.
- Well, she wasn't on the clock in that one. That was probably just her civilian attire.
- Final Fantasy X-2 has one of the most glaringly obvious examples of deliberate Fan Service at Mount Gagazet. To paraphrase Rikku, "Oh look: inexplicable hot springs at the top of a mountain of snow and cold water! What a great opportunity to wrestle each other in our bikinis and show off for the Hypello." Come on. It only starts to get just a little creepy when you install a hidden security camera at the hot springs and then are required for One Hundred Percent Completion to watch all the important characters bathe.
- Which is why it's doubly hilarious that Rikku's "fanservice" costume is much dowdier than most of her dresspheres (yes I'm looking at you Lady Luck).
- Final Fantasy X gives us Yunalesca, who has what is arguably the most revealing attire in the series — a metal bra that covers about a quarter of her breast skin and a metal thong. We like to pretend that her second and third forms don't exist.
- Lulu lives in a land back tropical like town surrounded by water and she is dressed in this?!◊ Yeah... and don't get me started on her victory pose in battle.
- Ar tonelico is filled with this. The game puts each of the three main females into several costumes, including schoolgirl uniforms, demons, waitress outfits, and bath towels. Not even the Big Bad is safe from this. She's entirely naked and covered only by her hair. And let's not even get into all the innuendo...
- Tekken 2 has an image of the female characters in swimwear printed on the disk. Why? Why not?
- Persona 3 has a "Beach Episode" where the SEES members take a trip to Yakushima. The dudes are wearing trunks (except Akihiko, who is wearing a bikini bottom and a T-shirt) and the ladies are wearing bikinis. Later on, said swimwear (both male and female) can be purchased from... the police officer who runs your weapon and armor store. Somehow. There are also maid outfits and stripperific spandex suits for the three combat girls, gotten from Elizabeth's requests.
- Devil May Cry 4 has Gloria. particuarly in the cutscene where she's first introduced. Lady has also undergone an... "upgrade".
- Devil May Cry 3 starts with Dante shirtless and there is an unlockable "costume" to play through the whole game shirtless.
- F-Zero X and F-Zero GX both showed a tiny amount of fanservice by showing a picture of Captain Falcon without his helmet at the end of the Story Mode. Cool, no?
- Mass Effect. The asari strip club, plus the (in)famous sex scene.
- In the first two Art Of Fighting games, if female characters, King and Yuri are beaten with a special move (For example, Ryo's Ko'oh Ken)their shirts will rip off revealing their
boobs bras and cleavage.
- Becomes Fan Disservice for some people if their strategy involves any jumping attacks. Not everyone is turned on by a woman's bloody face, especially if said woman now looks like the precursor to a rape victim. And then again, some are.
- And when you consider that Ryo and Yuri are brother and sister....and that Takuma is Yuri's DAD, the whole thing becomes a whole lot less palatable if you fire it off on Yuri...and you're playing as either Ryo or Takuma.
- In the game Ys VI, beating the game unlocks the Boss Rush. The Boss Rush includes The One Bonus Boss. Beating the boss and getting to a nearly invisbible portal in the corner of the room lands you to the beach, where Olha, the main female character, shows up in a bikini (which is definitely deliberate as her race would not know the concept of bikinis). Higher difficulty level means more artworks of her with said bikini.
- Red Alert 3. I'm not sure what female gamers would have been thinking when they were playing it, but they were probably very bemused at how much it was geared towards men. Each and every woman (which happen to be all the commandos, all the intelligence officers and half the co-commanders) is in a Stripperific costume designed to display as much skin as possible. The Limited Edition even came with the "Girls of Red Alert 3" poster which grouped them all together.
- This female gamer appreciated the game, thank you very much. There's a reason she builds so many Vindicators, and Giles definitely comes off as appealing...
- THE iDOLM@STER is fan service unleaded.
- The Leisure Suit Larry series originally did not have much due to limited graphics, but would every so often have close ups of attractive women. Then as the series went on the and the graphics got better the fanservice became more abundant.
- Tales Of Vesperia has a scene in which one of your party members has to seduce a guard to allow you to sneak past an area he's guarding. The player gets to chose from Judith, Estelle or Karol(!!)...and the character then dresses up in a skimpy outfit to lure the guard away. Judith's outfit is the most blatant—she wears a maid headdress, rabbit ears, and a tiny apron.
- Every non-elderly female character in a Jak And Daxter game who actually gets a name will inevitably wear something ludicrously scanty (OK, except Rayn, but she's still wearing pretty form-fitting clothes). Ashelin, despite being a Badass Normal Action Girl in the Krimzon Guard, doesn't actually wear armour like her troops, instead preferring small amounts of red and blue fabric. Keira and Tess... Yeah.
- To be even more severe, a character model viewer was introduced at the end of Jak III. This permits you to do such things as rotate Tess to face away from you and then simply stare at her backside... Or So I Heard.
- In Samurai Shodown VI, Iroha's special attack involves her getting her opponent behind two shoji doors, stripping naked and then beating up the enemy. Yeah...
- In the terrible, TERRIBLE INXS make my video for the sega cd, a girl at a bar agrees to show up in a "whipped cream bikini" for a poindexter if he makes a good INXS video. as of yet few know if she goes through with it
Web Comics
- This RPG World comic hangs a lampshade on it (note the title of the strip).
- Despite the fact it isn't heavy on this kind of content, El Goonish Shive has been guilty of providing fanservice of female characters (referred to as "cheesecake" within the fandom) from time to time, especially in fillers. This (filler) strip is probably the most blatant example. The main storyline of the comic actually contains very little fanservice, especially when compared to many other webcomics. However, there are a few instances featuring beefcake (the male version) as well. Considering the author is male, this makes a reasonable balance.
- This prolonged transformation sequence is definitely fanservice for EGS's target audience.
- Girl Genius is guilty of many, many gratuitous Agatha-in-her-underwear scenes the comic, as well as selling calendar posters of the popular male and female characters taking baths.
- In keeping with the setting, it is Victorian-era underwear, so a good deal less is revealed than would otherwise be the case.
- Bangladesh Dupree got a nude (if minimally revealing) calendar.
- They also showed they were equal oportunity by having several pages featuring Gil wearing nothing more than a few bandages and a blanket... that is after he was reminded of his au-natural state.
- To be honest, the Foglios do this with pretty much anything they can get their hands on. Louisa Dem Five from Buck Godot Zap Gun For Hire, the "Sex and D&D" Running Gag in What's New With Phil and Dixie, the numerous out-and-out porno comics...
- The Order of the Stick prequel book Origins of the PCs lampshades this (along with just about everything else) with a gratuitious bath scene involving Haley. Aside from the fact that this is fanservice involving stick figures, Haley outright complains that they can't get a good fanservice scene when she is interrupted in mid-bath.
- For a more straight example of the trope from OOTS, Haley's counterpart Sabine is particularly bad at this, one time spending a lengthy battle sequence wearing a schoolgirl costume-despite being a shapeshifter who could change her clothes into something more appropriate with a thought. This is lampshaded by explaining that she's doing it so that her boyfriend Nale will be aroused by the sight of her killing the hero in said outfit.
- And now there's this strip.
- This strip features resident skelly-lover Tsukiko in lingerie.
- While they had their, uh, li'l sticks covered with pixelation, the only two characters to actually be completely naked during the course of the online strip are Elan and Roy — both male. Of course, given that the men in OOTS have rectangular bodies, the effect is significantly diminished.
- Don't forget the fanservice threads in the forums! One poster rendered hottie-Paladin Hinjo naked, sitting on the throne with a rose in his mouth and a grin.
- Another Lampshade (especially for the ladies) happens in this Loserz strip.
- If you were not yet convinced that TwoKinds is fanservice, this strip will remove any doubts.
- Misfile has plenty of it. Particularly noteworthy is this sequence which runs for seventeen pages.
- Sluggy Freelance does this from time to time, but it's especially prevalent during the Erica Henderson filler strips.
- Ménage à 3 started as an only slightly fanservice-y comic about a guy and two girls, then got progressively more daring up to the recent female masturbation scene (the comic doesn't show the juiciest anatomic parts... yet).
- Questionable Content had a fanservice-y Christmas strip.
- Let's not forget Axis Powers Hetalia, specifically, Ukraine's huge...tracts of land.
- This page of Jayden and Crusader
- Terinu has it quite often, what with shirtless furries, Gwen in her Exotic Dancer Barbie outfit, to a butt shot of the title character in the shower. Oh, and he was raised in a cabaret staffed entirely by beautiful women.
- Coming Up Violet has had its fanservicy moments too, epitamized with two consectutive strips featuring some of the characters in swimming clothes.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Season three of Avatar The Last Airbender upped the regular kind of fanservice (nicely gender-balanced) to eleven and then lit it on fire. Abundant Shirtless Scenes for all male main characters, plenty of occasions for Katara to "show off" (up to and including nude bathing), a Beach Episode (featuring some very revealing outfits for the three female villains), a mud-wrestling scene, and more Ship Teases than the fanfiction writers can keep up with.
- While most of the Season 3 Fan Service is audacious enough to border on parody, a relatively "normal" example would be the episode "The Southern Raiders", whose major purpose was to give two characters the opportunity to run around cosplaying as Ninjas.
- Almost any interaction between Kim and Shego in the more recent episodes of Kim Possible. This culminated in the Season 4 episode "Stop Team Go", which showcases Kim and Shego as what fans dream of, good friends... and also retained this scene◊. To no surprise, it became one of the series' most popular episodes. Make note that the producers have demonstrated with great regularity they are very aware of, not to mention responsive to, their fervent fan base.
- Also, another episode had them actually fight in a mud bath.
- For that matter, Shego on her own seems to be quite fond of showing off — one piece, always — bathing suits. Of course, being the only recurring female character that's not a minor, someone's mom, or very obese helps.
- In Batman: The Animated Series, Harley and Ivy, in their eponimous episode, spend a considerable deal of time in panties. Harley might owe her popularity to that moment. Bruce Timm, creator of the series, keeping his drawing style, has done hundreds of pin-up pictures of the most popular girls in comics.
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Dark Heart", Wonder Woman puts the Atom between her breast to be able to fight. In "Hunter's Moon" Vixen teases John Stewart with her breast and in "I Am Legion" Hawkgirl mentions to Flash that Fire (who later flirts with him) might have the hots for Ice.
- In the early The Real Ghostbusters episodes, Janine Melnitz has a few comic fanservice moments, like when she wears a tiny bikini at work because of the hot weather (showing both a lack of shiness and taste), when she crosses a crowd and ask a man to "watch the hands!" and when she is shown in the shower.
- In The Venture Bros., Molotov Cocktease is a living fanservise with a massive absoluteclevage that goes below the navel in the front and a butt-clevage in the back. Doctor Girlfriend has several fanservice moments, teasing the Monarch, Phantom Limb and Brock Samson with skanky outfits.
- Probably the only reason Totally Spies! survived as long as it did was all the fanservice and Fetish Fuel.
- Periodically and openly illustrated to be the whole point of Foxxy and Clara on Drawn Together. Well, that and making fun of blacks and Catholics, or at best the stereotypes thereof, or somethin'.
- Every major (and a couple of minor) character on Futurama has appeared totally nude one at least one occasion. However, some of these appearances could be considered Fan Disservice given that this list includes The Professor, Hermes, and, yes, Zoidberg (which in his case also means shell-less).
- Bender's Big Score even came with an ad for a nude beach volleyball poster featuring the show's cast, and they joked on the DVD Commentary that they were going to ramp up the nudity levels.
- Grown-up AndrAIa and Matrix (grown-up Enzo) in ReBoot season 3 and 4. "OK, adult viewers, male and female, we're no longer constrained by ABC's BS&P department — here are your rewards for your support!" Not that Bob, Dot, Mouse, and Ray Tracer don't have their share of fans.
- Code Lyoko has liberal fanservice of both amounts. In terms of the more popular definition, nearly all main characters of both genders have been seen in underwear, towels, and swimsuits, and some have even had shower/bath scenes, ableit with the Censor Steam. A bit unusual... especially for an action show aimed at the 6-12 demographic. Oh, and did we mention that none of it is cut in the English dub?
- King Of The Hill doesn't usually have much fanservice, but one episode does have a prominent (no pun intended) example. In the episode "Peggy Hill: the Decline and Fall", while Nancy and Minh are trying to console Peggy, Nancy's shirt is a bit more open than usual, clearly showing off her breasts for no particular reason. This was probably to give Peggy another reason to be angry at her body cast-having situation, not that the Nancy-loving fanboys are interested in that.
- Not to mention she's been shown in the skimpiest bikini imaginable on at least a couple occasions, and totally nude in one of Hank's Propane fantasies.
- For the many fangirls of Danny Phantom, "Eye for an Eye" created an uproar for showing off naked Vlad and Danny. Season Three also showed a hell of a lot of Danny-in-underwear for the numerous Danny fangirls out there. And for all the boys, we get Sam in a tight, Poison Ivy-ish outfit.
- Storm Hawks — Naked (but concealed) Stork in "Stratosphere", Stork in his underwear in "The Lesson", Aerrow in "Escape".
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