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alt title(s): Onsen Episode The cast finds a reason to spend an episode at an onsen, or hot spring — a popular type of Japanese resort/attraction similar to communal bathing. Naturally this provides an excusable opportunity for Fan Service if a show is so inclined, although some shows aimed at younger kids will use toweled characters. Some series' that aren't geared towards younger viewers will broadcast with towels, but remove them from the DVD version, as an incentive to buy the DVDs.
In milder situations, this is merely equivalent to a bath scene where the episode slows down so the characters can relax and think about the events of the day. Often a trip to an onsen will lead to characters accidentally seeing each-other in the nude. Or intentionally seeing each other in the nude. Or falling onto each other in the nude... whatever they want, really, as long as someone ends up naked.
Occasionally, there may be a little ping-pong playing afterwards.
The low-budget version of this is the sento episode, where the characters go to the public bath house together. Usually, it's because there's a plumbing or other utility failure at home.
Cousin to the Beach Episode.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- Ranma ½ has both variations; the bathhouse more often than the springs (the bath seemed to break every other week and this was sometimes just used to start the story). This Troper's favorite gag is that one time when the hot spring is large and circular, with a rock outcropping providing a wall through the middle, separating it into men's and women's sides. The men try to peek around one end, and the women try to peek around the other end. They don't see anything, so they dismiss the sounds they heard as delusions.
- Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki visits a hot springs resort in one of the early episodes. Ryoko liked it so much she built an onsen of her own; most of the subsequent episodes have at least one scene therein.
- Love Hina is set in a girls' dormitory that used to be a hot springs resort; the girls living there use the spring, and the entire show can be considered a single continuous Hot Springs Episode (except, of course, for its several Beach Episodes).
- Early on, Mahou Sensei Negima involves quite a bit of action in the pool-sized bath, although not that kind of action. It dies down after the authorial feint runs its course and the genre shifts from Love Hina Spiritual Successor to Dragon Ball Spiritual Successor, the "it" dying down here referring to use of naked ladies in the bath, not that shriveling up. Get your mind out of the gutter.
- Outlaw Star Episode 23, "Hot Springs Planet Tenrei" (as might be suspected from the title) dropped its Hot Springs Episode dead smack dab in the middle of the series' climactic plot Arc. This episode was dropped from the dubbed airing in the U.S. simply because of how much nudity would have to be edited out of it. However, unlike typical fanservice episodes, there is a significant plot point in this one that may lead to confusion in following episodes, as Gene obtains four exceedingly rare caster shells; that's why he really went there in the first place.
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu. Episode 9, alternatively titled "The Hot Springs Episode", is a direct parody of the hot springs cliché (among others), and features three male characters trying to infiltrate a women's bath, fully protected by a steel wall between the male and female sides to prevent peeking, sentry guns and mines. Oh, and
SEED PANTIES Mode, we can't forget about that.
- There was also a bit of one in the original FMP in the bath on the TdD.
- The Fumoffu onsen episode was given a shout out in a manga, (this troper curses himself for not remembering which) when, in an onsen episode, several male charecters attempt to peek at the females and one of them states, "At least there aren't any metal walls, sentry guns, or mines to prevent us from peeking."
- Gundam: 08th MS Team has a fairly contrived hot springs scene where the lead couple have to survive in a snowfield, and the hero creates an improvised hot spring to keep them warm by melting and heating the snow with his heavily-damaged robot's beam saber. It's even more contrived in Gundam SEED Destiny, where two of the female leads discuss things in an onsen on board a battleship.
- Fruits Basket has an episode where Kyo, Tohru, Momiji and Yuki visit the hot springs resort owned by the Sohma family. Not as much fanservice for guys, but a fair amount for the female audience.
- The closing credits of Grenadier.
- ...and the first episode of Grenadier...and the second...and the fourth (both sento sequences)...and the eighth...the lady loved hot baths.
- Patlabor had one sento episode. Which was a subversion in several ways. Firstly, it followed the male members into the bath, to locate a mad-bomber with "three moles in the left armpit". Fanservice was not a major point (though ye olde black dots got a workout), the guys never even tried to sneak a peek at the ladies' side. Ironic since the bomber was a woman.
- A later Patlabor OAV "Versus" could be considered a Hot Springs Episode. Although it would be better called a Ryokan (Inn) episode. The characters are only seen coming back from the springs and the whole episode is about a contest/rivalry between Kanuka Clancy (back off the bus, on vacation) and her replacement Takeo Kumagami. Which starts with trivia questions, escalates through drunken tongue-twisters, and ends up with seeing who can throw Ohta out a window better. The only character we see in a spring is Captain Gotoh (oh, and Ohta, but he’s wearing a robe).
- The Patlabor manga has several instances where characters are taking a bath or a shower. One has Asuma and Ohta naked except for towels covering their you-know-whats. That is, until one takes offence at what the other says, and they start to fight. Then the towels are replaced by steam...
- Popotan has an episode where the characters visit not just one, but almost every single onsen in Japan.
- Possibly the only time this has ever happened without any intended fanservice is on Yu-Gi-Oh GX, when Judai/Jaden and allies visited the school's onsen.
- The Wallflower had an episode set in a hot spring, which featured a murder mystery, and Sunako generally creeping out everyone staying at their hotel.
- Somewhat subverted on Read or Die: The TV. They all go to the hot springs, but none of the main characters remove so much as their jackets. The one 'guest star' who does take off her clothes ends up brutally murdered. In the spring. And then her bodyguard activates an ancient device that destroys the springs entirely in a massive explosion. Hmm. Maybe more than 'somewhat' subverted.
- Hana Yori Dango has a couple of episodes that take place at an onsen, where Tsukushi passes out in the onsen and has to be rescued by Rui.
- The Rurouni Kenshin anime has not one, but two onsen episodes. Both involving characters accidentally seeing each other naked.
- Even Neon Genesis Evangelion had one settled right after a mission. It featured Shinji bathing with Pen-Pen at one side, and Asuka and Misato bathing and talking at the other. Incidentally, it seems that every bath scene ends up with Pen-Pen seeing a bit more of Shinji than he probably would have wanted.
- This scene also manages to be a Crowning Moment Of Funny in an otherwise soul-suckingly depressing series.
- ... And it still manages to flesh out a character's tragic backstory.
- Naruto has had a few hot springs episodes, mostly played up for comic value.
- In one episode, Naruto and friends use the hot springs as an excuse to see Kakashi's real face, only to find that he bathes with his mask on.
- In another, the cast stops by a resort on the way back from a long plot arc. Lovable Sex Maniac Jiraiya immediately heads for the springs to take advantage of all the Fanservice. The females, in a moment of clarity decide to spend their time in the casino rather than the water. While the plot unfolds we are treated to repeated cutaways of Jiraiya sharing the water with monkeys, Sumo Wrestlers, and elderly old women. By the time the young women show up, Jiraiya has been in the hot water so long he's passed out from Heatstroke.
- The post-Time Skip series Shippuuden continues in the same vein. When the new team stays at the onsen, the bathing scenes are just... bathing scenes, though we do see Naruto briefly considering peeking on Sakura. Then he's told what happened when Jiraiya tried it on Tsunade... and Sakura's her apprentice, with temper and strength to match. He decides he likes his ribs and internal organs where they are.
- In one of the post-episode vignettes, Naruto takes the Sand siblings on a tour of Konoha, including the hot springs which the Sand doesn't have. Sand ninja fan service. Yay. :3
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has a hilarious episode in which the gang decides to detox at a hot springs facility. Fanservice is mocked, the class of highly problematic students actually turns normal... leading Itoshiki to re-tox them with highly caloric food.
- For bonus points, count how many times Kagero Usui can be seen on the girls side, mostly unnoticed by even the viewers. At one point, there are several Kagero Usuis all over the fence.
- Sukisho the last episode. Taking into consideration that it is more or less filler it is not surprising that fanservice should abound.
- Gakuen Heaven also has one of these episode.
- This Ugly Yet Beautiful World had a hot springs scene where ALL of the series' female characters participated. Granted, nudity in This Ugly Yet Beautiful World is more plentiful than Ho Yay in Revolutionary Girl Utena, but the hot springs scene shows almost full nudity for all the characters, including the one nude shot of the female preteen character. Then the very next episode was a Beach Episode...
- Ai Yori Aoshi did this twice.
- The sixth episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann had the main characters directed to a hot spring by an old man. Kamina and Simon needed the concept explained to them, as both had grown up underground. The spring turned out to be not only a trap set by the Beastmen, but a Ganmen in disguise. Also, there was a wardrobe malfunction. Followed by an explosion.
- Get Backers has two. One involves Ban and Ginji mistaking Kazuki for a girl at a distance and trying to peep on him, Juubei and Kazuki cranking up the Ho Yay, and Everythings Better With Monkeys. The other involves Shido proving that his girlfriend Madoka has him whipped, Ban and Ginji being very intimidated by the size of Shido's... um... and Everythings Better With Monkeys. Again.
- "Like a horse...!" (Sound of horse neighing)
- El Cazador de la Bruja has the main characters visit a hot spring in the middle of a Mexican desert. Lampshaded by having the characters actually say that it's common in Japan, and then by having one woman go in without a swimsuit on the grounds that that's how they do it in Japan.
- The titular ship and setting of Martian Successor Nadesico had a simulated hot spring on board as a sauna area. Naturally, in one episode, local pervert Uribatake and his all-male engineering crew just happen to be searching for a Jovian infiltrator when most of the female cast is using the facilty. The hot springs room gets checked out quite thoroughly.
- The cast goes to a Hot Springs or Public Bath together once per season in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The Fan Service oriented first season had this occur in the anime itself. The later two seasons regulated these episodes to the Sound Stages.
- This troper remembers a Hot Spring in an Episode of Voltron (or was it Macross?).
- Saber Marionette J had a Hot Springs episode, giving a chance for gay Hanagata to rub up on Otaru wearing nothing but a very small towel.
- The third OVA for Blue Seed Beyond was a long contrived Hot Springs episode where the team had to stay in the onsen itself or else a bomb would detonate and kill them all. Of note, the main plot was already resolved in the second OVA, so this was apparently nothing more than an excuse for having female characters wear swimsuits (with Kusanagi in a speedo as a bonus).
- Kogoro Mouri's Crowning Moment Of Awesome happens in the Hot Springs episodes (a two-parter) of Detective Conan This time, both the victim *and* the murderer were dear friends of Kogoro, so he goes into a full Its Personal mode and we get to see that with a bit of nudging from Conan (who wanted to solve it at first but was moved by the other's utter determination to find the culprit and traitor), Kogoro *can* solve cases by himself.
- Let's not forget the memorable scene where Ran and a rather shaken Conan return from the springs after they bathe together. Kogoro notices that Conan is unusually quiet, so when Ran tells him what they've been doing, he wonders out loud if he's dumbstruck after seeing Ran naked, and Conan has an epic Nose Bleed at what the suggestion reminded him of.
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro has an onsen episode in which Yako does not even get to enjoy the hot springs because one of Neuro's devilish creatures was set loose on the water.
- One Piece had a brief one at the end of Arabasta arc, although the fanservice there is strictly for females. In an amusing spoof, when Nami catches the guys peeking on her and Vivi, she gets rid of them by flashing them, causing them to pass out and fall back on their own side. She dubs this technique the "Happiness Punch" or "Paradise Punch", depending on the version.
- There's a scene in a similar vein to a hot springs scene much later in the Amazon Lily arc where Luffy gets cleansed after being set on fire by the natives of the island. Despite this being Lady Land, only Marguerite, Luffy's eventual arc friend, is missing any clothing (Granted, the Amazons tend to wear little to begin with.), for no apparent reason other than law of fanservice and virtue of not being a Gonk.
- One of the earlier episodes of Green Green has the school (which has just become co-ed) opening a hot spring, and focuses mainly on the boys trying to peek on the girls, ending with the boys all breaking the fence and spilling right on top of the nude girls, and later the main character searching underwater with one of his love interests for a key, to decide whether or not the guys get access to the springs. The springs appeared at times in later episodes.
- Also of note is that Green Green is entirely a fanservice anime, meaning it shows the girls completely nude in the springs, especially in the final episode.
- Iono the Fanatics has the cast spending approximately half of the huge first chapter in a hot spring.
- A good third of pretty much all yaoi manga in existence will somehow have something to do with owning an onsen, taking a trip to an onsen, having sex in an onsen...
- Another awkward Eri/Harima moment
 courtesy of School Rumble.
- The Suzaku & Seiryu seishi go to an onsen in the Fushigi Yugi DVD Omake.
- Gravion, naturally, has a Hot Springs Resort episode, and naturally (being Gravion), it still ends with a Giant Robot battle.
- Played for laughs and lampshaded in the same chapter in Ai Kora when Hachibe invites all the girls along with him to an onsen he "won" tickets for (he really worked at a bunch of several part time jobs to earn the money to buy them, unsurprisingly.) simply so he can talk to Sakurako and figure out his feelings for her and vice versa, and also to peek at the girls of course.
- Invoked in Darker than Black by the Cosplay Otaku Girl as a part of Private Defective activity.
- Despite the mockery, they apparently couldn't help themselves; there's an omake-style chapter in the second manga (set during the first season, though) where Kiko gets her wish. Kirihara's there too, making the fact that it's pretty much just an excuse for fanservice even more blatant. Oh, and November 11 gets nekkid again.
- Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou pulls this in one episode. Turns out that Natsume was invited along specifically because there was a Book of Friends bound Youkai loose in the resort.
- Episode 19 of The Galaxy Railways has the members of Sirius, Spica, and Vega platoons vacationing at a Hot Springs ouned by Captain Murase's parents.
- In Detective School Q, two multiple murders happen in hot springs.
- Parodied in Candy Boy:
- Episode 5 of Saki has the characters going to one for their Mahjong training camp.
- Shakugan No Shana had the Hot Springs OVA. There was also a pool episode, but I think it doesn't count (tough that one has high doses of fanservice).
- Pokemon Special had two incidents involving hot springs. One in the G/S/C arc was used by Sabrina and, later, Red. This was not due to fanservice; they were both frostbitten by Lorelei in the previous arc and needed to recover.
- And then there's the Lavaridge gym battle between Sapphire and Flannery — yes, a gym battle in a hot spring. Sapphire wanted to do it right then and there, however; Flannery and Mack used their strongest fire powers to slow down Mt. Chimney's complete death after Team Aqua killed the volcano, and it was now or never for the hot springs.
- In Axis Powers Hetalia, Japan has a small hot spring in his Big Fancy House. Both in the manga and the anime, England gets to enjoy the warm water — and befriend some spirits, like a kappa and a zashiki warashi. Who have to leave the house since Japan can't see them anymore.
- In the manga... how does North Italy find out that Japan's a lightweight in his pants? When they both take a bath in the same spring.
- There's a short "chibi" anime special for Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 that takes place at a hot spring.
- Sky Girls has one episode take place at a hot spring. In a subversion of the usual "guys try to peek on the girls" scenario, Otoha accidentally knocks down the partition between the two sides and hilarity ensues.
Films
- In the 1954 film The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Harry Brubaker (William Holden), an American fighter pilot stationed in Japan goes to a public bath with his wife Nancy (Grace Kelly) and their kids. No nudity, though, since it was 1954.
Literature
- A rare Western example: I, Jedi has a scene where Luke and his inaugural class go swimming in a grotto. Corran also discovers that Halcyons have to obey the laws of thermodynamics, as he absorbs the heat and then redirects it into psychokinesis.
Video Games
- One of the inns in Tales of Symphonia is also a hot spring, and going there with Zelos in the party after a certain plot event results in a cutscene where Zelos tries to spy on the female party members while they're bathing. Lloyd shows up and chastises him, but the ladies hear him and Zelos runs off, leaving Lloyd to take the blame. The game even gives Lloyd the title of "Peeping Tom".
- The same kind of situation happens in Dawn of the New World if the party goes to the hot spring at one point and have the ladies go in. Zelos tries to spy on the females (while Emil and Lloyd give him crap for it), and Lloyd gets blamed again as he's the only one didn't run. When the males take their turn, Marta tricked everyone but Emil into not coming in so she could spend time with him. When Emil finds out he ends ups calling everyone else attention. Naturally, everyone but Lloyd decide that Emil must have planned this even though both claim otherwise (and them all knowing how openly affectionate Marta is towards Emil), and Emil also gets the title "Peeping Tom".
- The original bathing scenes in Tales Of Phantasia had peeping on both sides: Chester on the male side, and Arche on the female. Chester also gained the title of Muscleman, Mint the title "Boin~chan". Tales Of Eternia had no wall-watching, although Reid did have to smuggle Chat into the men's dressing room to get one of her skills, which leads to a rather unfortunate scene between her and Keele. Also on a seperate occasion, Meredy decided to bath near the man's side instead, and Hilarity Ensues.
- They're at it again in Tales of Vesperia. There are three different scenes. To get the first two, you need to pay 300,000 gald for the first and 600,000 gald for the second. During the first two Raven keeps trying to peak at the woman's side of the spring, with little success. The third visit is free, During the third, the party winds up working there and at the end they all get costume titles.
- Riviera The Promised Land and Yggdra Union, two Gameboy Advance games developed by Sting, both feature a hidden "hot springs scene" where the games' female characters appear naked. Bafflingly, the American version of Yggdra Union's hot springs scene actually shows MORE than the Japanese version.
- One of the jokes about Riviera is that the only way to tell gender for some NPCs is whether or not they appear in the bathing scenes; they are female if they appear in one, and every female appears in one.
- Lunar: The Silver Star featured a spring, but only the males were allowed to use it. The Play Station remake added a girls' only spring, providing the expected Fan Service.
- This is also a bit of a Guide Dang It since you (naturally) need to bring soap. It's only available for a very short time at the very beginning of the game. Long before there is any hint either spring exists.
- The sequel Eternal Blue features baths instead. The clueless Lucia somes into the male bath as well, much to Hiro's surprise - and Ruby's chagrin.
- Part of the Mt. Gagazet sequence in Final Fantasy X-2.
- Later on, as the Gullwings install cameras all over Spira, they get to watch nearly the entire cast of NP Cs show up at the hot springs at various times. Subverted as all the NP Cs keep all their clothes on (most probably due to budgeting). The PC sequence does provide briefer outfits for the three girls, although in Rikku's case it can be argued she ends up wearing more than she usually does.
- Shin Megami Tensei Persona3 and Persona4. The former also involves a Stealth Based Mission.
- Averted in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where there are two hot springs, but there is not much focus on them other than for healing.
Webcomics
- In one El Goonish Shive strip, the characters recapping the plot to each other is covered up by scenes from the "Lucky Bunny Bounty Show" — both of which involve the male character accidentally walking in on the female character in an onsen.
- In the creators' commentary for A Miracle of Science, a Hot Springs Strip was repeatedly referenced, originally in an April Fools joke.
- Not Quite Daily Comic has a fanserving Onsen arc that ends in a dramatic battle.
- Red String, which faithfully uses all the tropes of shojo manga, features an entire chapter about the cast spending a few days at an onsen. One of the male characters sees more of the anatomy of three Hot Shounen Moms than he intended to.
- The Heroes of Middlecenter.
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