Misused: Ms Fanservice

The only thing i disagree with on 146 is the Theiss Tittilation Theory bit.

It will be misread as "girl wears skimpy clothing" just like now.

Ms. Fanservice is a character who is often subject to Fanservice situations. The camera loves her, giving her plenty of Male Gaze; Her movements get the Gaussian Girl treatment and zoomed into; Time seems to slow so the audience can see her graceful movements; She often gets Bathing Beauty scenes; even her Sexy Walk gets her a Panty Shot.

In other words, her assets are often the Spotlight-Stealing Squad.

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?

This has got to be the most frustrating trope in the world. >_< Please feel free to copy and paste this and edit away.

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A female character who provides a significant amount of Fanservice, generally for males. Such a character will be provocatively dressed, or clothed in a fashion that accentuates her female anatomy in a pointedly sexual way. Creators achieve this through the revealing of cleavage, midriff, shoulders or legs, to shots of her curves, hips or derriere.

Dressing sexily is not all there is to it, however. Other factors are often at play, including the Theiss Titillation Theory, namely that there is an anticipation for the clothing to slip in all the convenient places. Underboobs, Sideboob, Vapor Ware, etc. are used in this way. In addition, this character may be in certain poses that accentuate their lady bits and femininity, such as the Boobs-and-Butt Pose and Leg Cling. They will also be subjected to a Panty Shot or similar camerawork.

There are several ways that Ms. Fanservice is depicted in media, though by no means is this list an exhaustive one:

• A Fanservice Extra provides eye candy, but never appeared before the moment of such eye candy and never appears again. Compare Best Known for the Fanservice.
• An Innocent Fanservice Girl has no qualms about strutting her stuff in front of others; she doesn't see a problem in it. This can range from flat-out nudity to posing in skimpy outfits when asked.
• A Reluctant Fanservice Girl prefers to dress modestly, but the universe conspires to subject her into providing fanservice anyway, which she takes issue with.
• A Shameless Fanservice Girl doesn't care if you're uncomfortable with her lack of clothes or penchant for skimpy outfits. She'll bare her figure anyway.
• The Accidental Fanservice Girl: This girl is technically modest, but suffers from obliviousness or lack of concentration which leads them to unwittingly provide copious fan service. She is unaware that she's doing something inappropiate or tantalizing — not because she doesn't understand the problem, but because she's genuinely not aware of what she's doing.

Either way, the camera seems to have the hots for her, and the viewing audience is expected to feel the same way.

For the Spear Counterpart, see Mr. Fanservice. If she also sleeps with many other characters, she Really Gets Around. Subjected to multiple Double Standard tropes, especially if she actually gets a nice dose of Character Development or is shown to have Hidden Depths aside from her hot looks; unfortunately, the fandom may refuse to see them.

Compare Hello Nurse, and contrast the Token Wholesome. See also Memetic Sex God.

edited 15th May '14 1:17:49 PM by Lakija

It is what it is.

So... Where does the Oblivious Fanservice Girl concept stand with respect to this new tweaked definition? Can it overlap?

And of course, the ever-dreaded question: Who's going to take it to YKTTW? (I have a bad history of seeing most YKTTWs that I start stagnate for no apparent reason, often despite early promising feedback.)

edited 15th May '14 12:56:52 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I was idly still editing that post. Sorry! ^^; Please keep an eye on 152

edited 15th May '14 1:18:34 PM by Lakija

It is what it is.

I have a question: What do we put in the description to curb "girl wears sexy clothing" usage? Not all the time a scantily clad girl or someone with a Theiss Titillation Theory clothes gets Fanservice moments.

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?

Why is Theiss Titillation Theory in this? That's an audience reaction.

more questions. Pardon the contrived progression. We're looking at the situation itself here anyway:

Picture this situation. It features this lovely lady here, let's call her Barbie. The Protagonist is Bob. It is an Episode of "Beach".

So the setting here is in the beach. Barbie is wearing her bikini and goes out of her room to go sunbathing. She meets Bob and guy invites her for a drink in the nearby open bar. they talk a bit. There is no gratuitious Male Gaze anytime in the scene. She acts normal without being flirty. Bob acts normally without getting flustered from her appearance too. He doesn't seem to notice her boobs or ass at all and looks at her straight in the face. After finishing their drinks, they give each other their numbers and part ways. Barbie proceeding to go sunbathing(We don't get to see her sunbathing though.) and Bob going back to his cabin. Barbie appears later in the episode a bit red and covered up with a Sarong worn like a dress.

Second situation, same location (different side), same episode (second half). But this time, this here Nunnaly(note the fairly conservative outfit) is the star and Alex is The Protagonist.

Nunnally is walking by on the beach. When suddenly she was attacked by a flock of seagulls. She receives Clothing Damage from it, but Beauty Is Never Tarnished so it's okay. Alex sees her and gets a Wolf Whistle from the Hello Nurse moment and immediately approaches her to help. He invites her to his cabin so she can get a change of clothes and she reluctantly agrees (not that she has a choice since her church is pretty far and she doesn't have money). Inside, she get's quite a bit Male Gaze as she goes to get changed with Alex's clothes behind his room's frosted windows. Noticing she smells like birds. she decides to take a shower first and we get treated to a Bathing Beauty scene. etc. etc.

Cutting the second one off because it's getting too long.

Anyway, given the situations. Which of the two is the Ms. Fanservice? The Stripperific Barbie or Sister Nunnally?

edited 15th May '14 3:22:31 PM by ShanghaiSlave

Is dast der Zerstorer? Odar die Schopfer?

I didn't know that trope couldn't be used in that way. Sorry. This is a problem with this trope as much as it's a problem with the works in question. There are virtually a fuckton of ways that works provide fan service for male audiences. Because Barbie is at the beach, her outfit is justified. No special attention is paid to her. But give her huge tits and there you go. Ms. Fanservice.

The nun scenario is ridiculously convenient, and thus is gratuitous fan service. I'm not arguing your point; it is true. But Stripperific outfits are most often used where they don't make much sense. Both of them count. Which is why this trope is so so so broad.

So really, to be a Ms.Fanservice, you have to be sexier, relatively speaking, than anything else on screen. Distractingly sexy with little or weak justification. Either through action or clothes or both. And the camera plays this up, not all the time, but often.

And that, my friends, is why this trope is so difficult to describe.

edited 16th May '14 12:54:22 AM by Lakija

It is what it is.

And just because one character is Ms. Fanservice, that doesn't exclude other characters from having moments of fanservice dedicated to them. That also doesn't mean other characters aren't as attractive either.

For example, in the Beach Episode for Bleach, every single girl has a swimsuit and nearly all of 'em have really sexy bodies to accentuate it, but other than that random watermelon creature, not much of it was "gratuitous" per se.

The nuance to it, I think, is the main issue. I mean, you can have fanservice without being Ms. Fanservice, ala Shes Got Legs for ladies who don't wear pants and get shots of their legs a lot, but nothing else. You can wear skin-tight clothes that accentuate your hips and boobs (or abs, as seen with Mugetsu Ichigo), yet that rarely gets considered fanservice for some odd reason (from the examples I've seen, at least).

The current guidelines (and the edited description by Lakija) were supposed to present something akin to "Hey, show some skin and have Male Gaze or Female Gaze, and you're Ms. Fanservice or Mr. Fanservice." That's probably too broad, but it can be regulated so that it avoids such broadness - hence "guidelines."

Alternatively.... we can redefine Fanservice in its entirety.

edited 16th May '14 7:53:50 AM by Serocco

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.

Whoa! Something you said just clicked in my brain.

Ms. Fanservice herself is a character who exists in the show to provide fan service on a "daily basis" although there can be other fan service around as well. Kinda like what I imagine Orihime (sp?) from Bleach provides.

A woman should be able to wear what she wants in a work without it being Fanservice, which is what I think Shanghai Slave was getting at. It's when the camera is focusing on her in suggestive ways, and then the Jiggle Physics, or also the poses, or the activities that call attention to her lady bits, that she starts becoming a Ms. Fanservice. Hmm.

If every woman, or most women in the work, provide fan service, ex. Dead or Alive, then it's like a whole cast of Ms. Fanservice.

Dude, I would have totally written a research paper on this if I had the room to take Feminine Ethics... We should write an analysis page for this trope.

It is what it is.

Yeah, Orihime has quite the figure, but she mostly wears skin-tight clothes and the most she tends to show are her legs. Also in a bikini during a Beach Episode. Yet she's not as overtly sexual as, say, Rangiku or Haineko.

Doesn't mean Orihime isn't attractive or that she isn't fanservicey. Well... there are the shots of her chest that the anime likes, but nevertheless. :P

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.

I'd peg Rangiku Matsumoto as the real Ms. Fanservice of Bleach, actually. Orihime is definitely designed to be Fanservicey, and has a similar effect in-universe, but as depicted in the manga and anime by the author/studio, she's doesn't quality for Ms. Fanservice IMHO.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

But what meaning does "daily basis" have for one-shot works like movies?

Are they providing fan service during 90% of their screen time, even when it isn't really appropriate and has nothing to do with the plot? If so, they're Ms. Fanservice.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Ok. You mean like Quiet from MGS5◊?

She's a sniper on the battlefield, by the way. No snipers I've ever seen look like that, even in Metal Gear. As soon as something isn't realistic, it's Stripperific for ladies. But we all know Kojima has a track record for just being a dude that likes sexy women... specially of the youngish variety by his own admission. (btw: Kojima says she dresses this way because she was raped. Uh...huh. For the record, no one I know that was raped dresses like that...)

edited 17th May '14 5:03:11 PM by Lakija

It is what it is.

Most of the Bleach girls fit that, really. Haineko, Kukaku, Candice, Harribel, Nelliel, and Yoruichi immediately come to mind.

edited 18th May '14 10:00:33 AM by Serocco

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.

It can't just be their outfit. It has to also be how the camera treats them. Does it linger on their assets? Do the seem to spend a lot of time bouncing. Do we get a close up on their chest during a big fight? Do their breasts get more air time than any contributions they make to the plot?

edited 18th May '14 10:45:08 AM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

It does, for each, yeah.

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.

Though not all the time. Unless you count something like Rangiku Matsumoto always wearing her Shinigami outfit so that it reveals Absolute Cleavage like so◊. Or the fact that when she's in "disguise" as a high school student, she always dresses herself like this◊ (Nevermind that she does not look like a highschool-aged girl at all! Oriana Thomson has nothing on her!). Or that she does not shy away from attempting I Have Boobs, You Must Obey! on stubborn men to get her way. Or annoying her commanding officer with bad jokes about her breast size ("You scared me so much, my breasts almost popped out of my uniform!" is just he most sensible of those jokes). Or that the resident Lovable Sex Maniac-trapped-in-a-lion-doll keeps trying to smother himself in her breasts whenever he sees her (and those of other big-busted girls, incidentally).

edited 18th May '14 1:08:33 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Yeah, of the Bleach crew she's probably the best fit for this trope. Other characters get fanservice, but she never seems to stop.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Just for clarification, does being a Shameless Fanservice Girl (which is listed in the proposed description as a way to protray a Ms. Fanservice) automatically make a character a Ms. Fanservice? Because Yoruichi Shihouin, also from Bleach, is definitely a Shameless Fanservice Girl^Elaboration At least once she shared a hot-spring bath with the Chaste Hero (or is he a Celibate Hero?) main character against his protests (he was relaxing in the middle of a Training from Hell session), and once she noticed that he was blushing with embarrassment at her nudity, she kept teasing him about his prudishness. And she previously had stood in front of him stark naked after transforming from her cat form into her human form for the first time, and was completely nonchalant about the whole nudity thing while his mind was struggling to both 1) compute that his male-voiced cat mentor is actually a voluptuous, definitely feminine-voiced woman, and 2) compose a proper response to her state of nakedness.

edited 18th May '14 2:55:21 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

What about Harribel and Nelliel?

edited 18th May '14 3:04:56 PM by Serocco

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.

<raises hand, then pauses and lowers it> Actually, I'm kinda wondering myself. They seem rather borderline to me at best, though; not enough focus on the fanservice of the level required for the trope, IMO.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

No, just being a Shameless Fanservice Girl does not make you Ms. Fanservice. They're different tropes for a reason. One can be shameless without existing for the most part only to provide fanservice.

Also, Nelliel spends most of her time as a small child. Calling her Ms. Fanservice is creepy.

edited 18th May '14 3:07:23 PM by shimaspawn

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

As an adult, Nelliel spends most of her screen time with that as her outfit. Notice how I called her Nelliel, and not just Nel.

With Harribel, well, she never seems to go by life◊ without a skimpy outfit either◊.

Actually, provided a completely different take that may help us out here. Ms. Fanservice is the Most Triumphant Example of an eye candy magnet, although I still think there can be more than one. Shameless Fanservice Girl, Reluctant Fanservice Girl, and Innocent Fanservice Girl (or Oblivious Fanservice Girl) can apply to other characters who are used as fanservice, but go about it in different ways and aren't the Most Triumphant Example.

We should point out how this does not mean there aren't other characters who are as attractive or provide fanservice. It's just that Ms. Fanservice (and Mr. Fanservice) goes about the majority of their existence providing fanservice.

edited 18th May '14 3:15:03 PM by Serocco

In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.