"Innocent counterparts" to fanservice.

I'm not sure how to put this. I tried to articulate this idea in another thread, but this seems to have yielded some misunderstandings. So I'll try again.

So, we know how fanservice is meant to appeal to sexual instincts of viewers, and there's some controversy as to the level of bias towards fanservice for males, reasons for this bias, etc...

But perhaps there is a more "innocent counterpart" that is meant to appeal to romantic ideas, whether directly (ie. the "good guy gets the girl" ending) or indirectly. (Ie. This MLP:FIM scene, with a boy adored by several girls, albeit in a non-romantic way, but nonetheless you can tell that to the boy, that the adoration is from girls means so much to him!)

I see moments like the latter as indications of trying to appeal to guys in a way vaguely similar to fanservice, yet so very different in being a more sentimental appeal, non-sexual, etc...

What would be a good phrase for such "innocent counterparts" to fanservice? I figure the similarity is probably too vague for such a comparison to be ideal, but I am not sure how else to put it.

edited 8th Nov '11 6:54:40 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

Not that I want to continue to delay the answer you are looking for, but shouldnt this go into "Trope Talk"?

Not really, because I think the real-world context of this might be worth discussing as well.

Wish-Fulfillment is probably what you're looking for.

That's a little better, but it still seems a little too broad.

Interestingly enough, it has things like Chick Magnet as subtropes, which I suppose addresses the kind of thing I was talking about as far as the more directly romantic ideas go.

Firstly, I don't necessarily agree with the notion that all fan-service is sexual in nature, but whatever.

What I do think fan-service often is, is that it's gratuitous and loosely (if at all) connected to the plot. So a romantic subplot is just that, a romantic subplot. While the Beach Episode, so ubiquitous in anime, that doesn't move the plot forward but shows us the female cast in various poses and bathing-suits is fan-service.

So then, anything that is gratuitous, not connected to the plot yet not fan service (and thus, doesn't actually need to be there) is called "filler" or "padding".

For some people, the following are forms of non sexual but appealing fanservice:

• Shipping
• Finding a pair of characters to be their One True Pairing
• Moe: in some series, the viewer/player is expected to feel like a parent toward the characters. This is perhaps the least sexual form of moe.

In works with Boys' Love and Girls' Love, the fictional characters have sexual feelings toward each other. But unless I'm seriously mistaken, there is not often an audience stand-in or author avatar character. The audience is not encouraged to imagine they are one of the fictional characters.

Purely non-sexual fanservice is things such as in-jokes and obscure references.

Pavlovian Entertainment

http://assessingtheanime.blogspot.com/2011/01/pavlovian-entertainment-what-is.html

@OP: Moe in some forms is just what you're talking about. Think shows like Chis Sweet Home, Touhou (when you are not blasting at each other with thousands of bullets), elements of When They Cry (especially Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni), Potemayo and others. Rarely if ever are there sexual undertones (or overtones) to those. (Most if not all of the sexual stuff belonging to fans by way of Rule 34.)

edited 9th Nov '11 8:58:35 PM by MajorTom