Follow TV Tropes

Following

Foreign Fanservice

Go To

When the narrative sexualizes a character from a different culture than the main setting. This trope isn't for characters who just happen to be foreigners, but for characters whose origins are played up as part of their sexuality. This can mean fetishizing cultural practices such as language and customs, stereotypical ethnic features, or simply the fact that the character comes from somewhere foreign. Additionally, this trope can be applied to a single character or as a trait shared by their entire culture — all that matters is that it's applied to characters who would be considered foreign by the main characters or target audience.

Historically, pretty much every culture had a taboo against marrying outsiders, which created both a fear of foreigners "stealing" their people and a forbidden fruit allure. Both of these concepts underpin the appeal of the Foreign Fanservice character, who is interestingly exotic and tends to be more sexual than the native cast members.

There are as many variations on this trope as there are cultures on the planet, but this happens to certain cultures often enough for them to be considered tropes in their own right. As such, this is a Super-Trope to:

Related to Foreign Culture Fetish, where the culture itself is the object of admiration, and Race Fetish, which emphasizes physical differences rather than cultural ones. Green-Skinned Space Babe is the Speculative Fiction analog of this.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Do You Like Big Girls?: Julia MacKenzie is an American exchange student who happens to be one of the bustiest girls on the volleyball team.
  • Haré+Guu: Weda could be one, since in the school class Haré goes to (in "The City", where she was born) hangs an American flag (although it's also possible, that it's the room of the English class) and everyone has names common in Anglophone countries. The village also seems to be outside of Japan, since they called some Japanese dude Guu swallowed into one of her "stomachs" foreign. Weda is Ambiguously Brown and very carefree about her body, as she is frequently scantily clad, with her default outfit being a leopard skin tube top.
  • Im: Great Priest Imhotep: Imhotep is a frequently-naked Egyptian boy surrounded by mostly Japanese characters in a Japanese setting.
  • The Laughing Salesman: Exploited. The real reason why Chiko Shimai wanted to travel across the world is to find a boyfriend and she wants to exploit her foreign background to get their attention.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: It's implied that Andrew Waltfeld found his girlfriend Aisha locally during his service in the Middle East. Her outfit is pretty much a modernized Bedlah Babe, and casting a non-native Japanese speakernote  helps push this trope even more.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena's Akio Ohtori is an extremely attractive, heavily implied to be Indian Ambiguously Brown man who, during the anime's course, has seduced a damn lot of people including but not limited to: the heroine, the heroine's best friend, the student council head, the student council head's best friend/pawn/rival/gay love interest (it's complicated), and his fiancee's mother. Please note that not all of aforementioned encounters are female and that the vast majority of them are underage.

    Fan Fiction 
  • Blood and Revolution: Seri is from Thailand, like all of the naga, and every other one of Aoshi’s thoughts is how attractive they are (and they're described with things like golden skin, long dark hair, muscles, golden-dusted scales, and lots of gold jewelry).
  • Hecksing Ulumate Crconikals: Kamina is the only definite Japanese character in Hecksing (although the name "Kaitana" raises some brows, and since Kamina works with Spartains here it's hard to really tell what he counts as), and he's outright stated by Cortana to be the fanservice.
  • Ranma Club: When the busty, sexy Winx girls attend Furinkan, they pass themselves off as exchange students from different countries. They even get their own individual fan clubs.
    Bloom as an American
    Stella as an Italian
    Flora as a Brazilian
    Musa as a Japanese born American
    Tecna as a British
    Layla as a Kenyan

    Film — Live-Action 
  • G.B.F.: Everyone thinks the British Christian is very attractive.
  • Live and Let Die: Ms. Caruso is Italian and obviously a very attractive woman. Bond sleeps with her right in the opening, and she spends most of her screentime wearing only a bedsheet.
  • Not Another Teen Movie: Areola, the Non-Specifically Foreign Foreign Exchange Student who's always naked. Lampshaded, of course.
    "I am here to be object of lust for poor nerds who can't get American pussy!"
  • Pitch Perfect: Luke, the film's resident Mr. Fanservice from the UK. His abs earned him a Female Gaze from Beca, as well as the female and gay audience.
  • Skyfall: Severine is a sexy woman of unclear foreign ancestry. Apparently in-universe as well, where her foreign nature is used as a compliment.
  • xXx: As Xander infiltrates a group of Eastern European criminals, we're treated to numerous attractive girls in nightclubs and swimming pools, the Russian spy Yelena, the Czech special agent Xander looks at through his X-Ray binoculars...

    Literature 
  • Ambergris: The protagonist Finch gets called out by his "girlfriend" Sintra, who's from the Nimblytodd and Dogghe tribes and is actually spying on Finch on their behalf. Sintra mentioned that all it took to win him over was to play up the "exotic tribal girl" role and have a few bouts of sex.
  • Conan — Blood of the Serpent: In Stygia, Valeria gets a lot of attention because as a Northerner, her blonde hair, pale skin, and impressive height all make her exotic. Some comments indicate Stygians in general like getting Northern women, especially as slaves, for their exotic beauty, and imply the reverse is also true, with Northerners buying slaves from Stygia and further south in the Black Kingdoms.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Queen Cersei and her brother Ser Jaime Lannister both note the attractiveness of Taena's "exotic" features. Taena married a Westerosi lord. Originally she is from Myr, one of the Free Cities in Essos, so she looks exotic to Westerosi characters.
      Cersei: (her point of view) The Myrish woman was too beautiful by half; long-legged and full-breasted, with smooth olive skin, ripe lips, huge dark eyes, and thick black hair that always looked as if she'd just come from bed. She even smells of sin, like some exotic lotus.
    • The people of the Free City of Lys, both men and women, are famous for their attractiveness, in part due to their population being mostly sex slaves selectively captured and bred for their looks. Many Targaryen men of the past have taken Lyseni women to be their paramours, or even wives in the case of Larra Rogare, the wife of Viserys II.
  • Earth's Children: Due to coming from so far away, Ayla is perceived as somewhat 'exotic' no matter where she goes, which serves to highlight her attractiveness. She's apparently from Crimea in Eastern Europe, having been found on the Crimean Peninsula as a young child.
  • In Shadow of the Conqueror, many Hamahrans find the Tuerasians particularly appealing, especially given their customs.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Downton Abbey: The downstairs staff of the traditional English grand house are intrigued and beguiled by the exotic, foreign (Turkish) house-guest.
    Anna: I think he's beautiful.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Doreah suggests her exotic appeal is why Drogo chose Daenerys as his wife. Daenerys is a petite, pale-skinned, and silver-haired woman who comes from an ancient family that traces their ancestry to Old Valyria (corresponding to Ancient Rome) and who ruled over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The Dothraki have copper-toned skin, dark eyes, and dark hair.
    • Talisa is from Volantis, one of the Free Cities in Essos. Catelyn even suggests that Robb mostly wants her because she's "exotic", which he doesn't take well. She's a beauty with olive skin and dark hair while Northerners are pale.
    • Shae is a prostitute who has a relationship with Tyrion Lannister. Many people notice that she's a beautiful woman who didn't grow up at court and that she has a foreign accent. Spymaster Varys tries to persuade her to flee Westeros and settle somewhere across the Narrow Sea where she could have a comfortable life as a "mysterious foreign beauty" who will have suitors lining up.
  • Narcos:
    • In season 1, Pablo takes a couple of Brazilian prostitutes into the Colombian jungle with him as a present to "the Cockroach", his original drug manufacturer. Pablo specifically boasts that Brazilian girls have "the best asses". Ironically, Pablo himself is played by a Brazilian actor (Wagner Moura). Also, the Cockroach is a Chilean who fled the Pinochet junta.
    • In season 4, as Felix sets up a relationship with the Cali cartel, his contact advises him to bring along Isabella, stating that the Colombians will be more inclined to hear him out with a piece of Mexican eye candy by his side.
  • On Project Runway, the "Thunder Down Under" dance troupe is a group of extremely muscular men, all from Australia.
  • The Supersizers Eat, "The Supersizers Eat... Ancient Rome": Giles and Sue as Roman patricians have a blond Britannian slave girl serving in the last feast. It's mentioned in the narration that Romans considered Celt slaves an exotic possession and that blond slaves were all the rage.
    Magazines 
  • OUT: The March 1980 issue features many of the Mobile Suit Gundam ladies naked, but Lala (the token Indian character) in particular gets a full frontal nudity shot at the pool, her breasts bared to the viewer.
    Music 
  • Sandy & Junior: In "Galera Unida Jamais Será Vencida", in which Patty's butler Otacílio is sent off to work with her parents in Europe and a governess from Germany is sent in to replace him. The boys all jump to the conclusion that said governess could be a gorgeous buxom blonde, only to be disappointed when she turns out to be an authoritarian Brawn Hilda instead.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • El Pasiero VENENO was pushed as such in Mexico for over half a decade, though no one got to see his Panameño appeal until after Gran Markus Jr. unmasked him.
  • Dominican Trio Los Broncos were pushed as hunks when working face in the Puerto Rican promotion CSP/WWC. Even as a heel, Bronco #1's other Dominican Tag Team Partner, Rico Suave, had a valet named Destiny to fulfill this role. Destiny in fact was only there for that and valeting, leading Suave to search for another woman who could beat up Stacy Colon for him. He couldn't find another Colombian, however, settled on Black Rose. She was still presented as a Dominican, but the woman had danced on PR & El Show on television, had two professional fights as a boxer and was the niece of world bantam weight boxing champion Julian Solis, so it didn't take long for fans to realize she really wasn't. On the other hand, Black Rose went on to bring Red Velvet, a Colombian not adverse to posing for the fans.
  • Los Guapos Internacional of CMLL, Toryumon Mexico and others are a shameless example, especially the rock hard ab displaying Marco Corleone, though smoothed skinned Alex Koslov ain't too bad either(Shocker's not foreign).
  • Shocker may not be foreign but he had two distaff counterparts among the extranjera, La 5000% Guapa Raven Hiroka and Mima Shimoda.
  • After Prince Devitt's New Japan Pro-Wrestling run as the successor Pegasus Kid had run its course, this was the way he was booked. It was successful enough that Zero 1, NOAH, SMASH, All Japan, DDT, K Dojo and Dragon Gate all wanted to book him too.

    Video Games 
  • In the K/DA skins in League of Legends, Kai'Sa's international origins are played up in her profiles and interview, with her taste of international styles contributing a layer of exoticism to K/DA as a whole.
  • Samurai Shodown: Though it is currently unknown where exactly Darli Dagger originates from, she certainly looks the part as a scantily-clad Amazonian Beauty in her capacity as the series’ sole African character.
  • Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2: Jeng Yun Tsai is a tanned, buff, constantly shirtless martial artist from Taiwan in the cast...
  • Street Fighter V: Laura's outfit and demeanor are overtly sexy, and she's definitely not from the developers' native Japan, being Afro-Brazilian.

    Visual Novels 
  • Invoked by Lily in Daughter for Dessert.
    Lily: Is it because I’m a sexy Asian teen?
  • Invoked in Double Homework by Dennis, who characterizes Rachel as “the ethnic girl.”
  • In Melody, the first sexual scene with Xianne takes place in a Japanese-style massage parlor, and this opens up the option to have Xianne give the protagonist the same kinds of massages (plus some extras) at his home.

    Webcomics 
  • Bobbinsverse: Nina is solidly and athletically built, and something of a "sporty Australian" stereotype, but most people agree that she's very attractive (and also interesting when you get to know her).
  • Agent 300 is this to Agent 250 in Niels. It has been pointed out several times in the comic and by the creator that Agent 250 has a Scot fetish, particularly for the Glaswegian accent that 300 only lapses into when drunk. The title character, Niels, has a distinct fetish for black people. Despite being set in America, this counts because he was raised in Denmark, where the black population is very sparse.

    Real Life 


Top