Misused: Ms Fanservice

Harribel wears skimpy clothes, but the plot and the camera largely ignore this. She just wears skimpy clothes because that's how media seems to think women dress for some reason. Her arc as a character isn't about her providing fan service.

Her character provides fanservice for the majority of her existence. In fact, for her entire existence, she provides fanservice.

Thing is that the Bleach girls, and hell, most modern-day female anime/manga characters are more than just their looks.

edited 18th May '14 3:18:23 PM by Serocco

But she doesn't spend more time providing fanservice without advancing the plot at all as she does advancing the plot. The fact that she's more than her appearance alone is what makes her not Ms. Fanservice.

edited 18th May '14 3:19:00 PM by shimaspawn

What plot did Harribel advance beyond fighting somebody, getting backstabbed by her boss, and serving as a trophy for Yhwach? Really, there's not much plot to be had with her (or any of the villains, really).

Also, I find that a bit insulting to Rangiku, though, because that implies her only job is to provide fanservice.

edited 18th May '14 3:22:12 PM by Serocco

It's not her only job, but it is her primary role in the series. This is an insulting trope, yes, and labelling characters is an insult to their inclusion in the plot. It means that they are just in the series to be eye candy.

By labelling a character Ms. Fanservice, you're basically saying, the narrative would be completely the same without you. You just provide some tits to stare at.

edited 18th May '14 3:41:56 PM by shimaspawn

That sounds more like Fanservice Extra, not Ms. Fanservice.

Ms. Fanservice (and Mr. Fanservice for that matter) is about one character providing fanservice for the majority of their time on screen relative to other characters. It's like "Hey, the narrative is the same with or without you being skimpy, yet it just so happens that you're skimpy here."

edited 18th May '14 4:23:37 PM by Serocco

Yeah, we have Fanservice Extra for that, when their existence is literally based on eye candy. Ms. Fanservice and Mr. Fanservice are the ones who provide eye candy for most of their time while still being more than just the sum of their abs or boobs.

No, Fanservice Extra is an extra who just shows up now and then. Ms. Fanservice is ostensibly a major character who is around a lot but still doesn't do much other than be there and look pretty. They often take the form of the girl friend, or the love interest. They may have minor character arcs, but by and large, they're rather flat for the amount of screen time they have because most of it is focused on their assets more than their contributions to moving the plot along.

We might need an intermediate trope here. Because currently, there's nothing preventing a Ms. Fanservice from being a main character. Fanservice Extra is character that rarely appears more than once, and usually doesn't even have a name. I guess we could make a Pure Eye Candy trope or something to balance it out.

Being a main character doesn't stop a character from being there primarily for fanservice. Being a main character doesn't mean a character isn't shallow.

Providing a lot of fanservice does not automatically mean the character is shallow, nor does it mean Ms. Fanservice has to be a shallow, Flat Character type of trope. Hence why we're reworking it now.

edited 18th May '14 5:49:16 PM by Serocco

And why is it that the Ms. Fanservice is the shallow one? Is Mr. Fanservice not shallow as well based on that interpretation?

edited 18th May '14 5:37:54 PM by Sledgesaul

Mr. Fanservice is just as shallow. Just as harmful a stereotype. Yes, you can provide a lot of fanservice without being shallow, but providing lots of fanservice it doesn't make it your archetype. Your primary purpose and place in the show.

That's what separates Ms. Fanservice and Mr. Fanservice from a well rounded chick who just happens to wander around in a bikini.

edited 18th May '14 5:56:16 PM by shimaspawn

Then we can make Ms. Fanservice and Mr. Fanservice be the latter. The wrong way to go about it so to have a character basically be a Living Prop that happens to provide a lot of eye candy, because that diminishes whatever role they should have in the story and boils it down to looking pretty. The right way to go about it is to have the eye candy magnet provide fanservice while still being relevant to the plot and being a character in their own right. We can put that in big bold letters in the front page of the new guidelines for this trope.

Besides, that's not really why this was even launched. We were trying to determine what constitutes as fanservice relative to other characters.

edited 18th May '14 5:59:13 PM by Serocco

Only There For The Eye Candy is an appropriate Sub-Trope, if we ever come to that.

I remember when Mr. Fanservice was Estrogen Bridage Bait, where one of the qualifications involved having a Dark and Troubled Past, then that was axed.

edited 18th May '14 6:06:58 PM by Sledgesaul

Just because a trope is negative, doesn't mean it doesn't exit. While you're talking about how a show should use these characters, that doesn't mean it's how they are using the characters.

Fanservice compared to other characters is hard to quantify and really depends on personal taste. Fanservice over plot on the other hand, is far more objective.

edited 18th May '14 6:05:53 PM by shimaspawn

Except the objectivity is destroyed when we include characters who are more than their appearance, because that means we're implicitly saying that their worth is rooted only in their eye candy.

I find it hard to believe Harribel doesn't qualify for it either. There really is no point to her skimpy outfits other than the eye candy factor. She had several shots of her chest and derrière, including

edited 18th May '14 6:15:29 PM by Sledgesaul

I haven't seen all of Bleach. What I remember of her was that she got about as much lingering and plot shit as all the other bad guys. I could be remembering it wrong. I admit that. Bleach is long as fuck and sort of blurs together in my brain.

Even if we just boil it down to "This is a Flat Character who exists solely for eye candy," the very fact that we're including Rangiku in it should mean the objectivity is skewed because she doesn't fit that narrow interpretation.

I haven't seen all of Bleach. She may well be deeper than what episode's I've seen. I've just caught random eps on Adult Swim.

Then you don't have a leg to stand on including her as Ms. Fanservice if we're gonna have it as a Sub-Trope to Flat Character.

All you need to do is check out her character trope list on the Gotei 13 Squads 8-13 page to know she's not as flat as you assume. Or just watch this if you want a visualization.

edited 18th May '14 6:38:02 PM by Serocco

We're close to two hundred posts and we still don't have a consensus on wether we have a consensus on what consensus we want for this trope.

Can we seriously stop obsessing over specific Bleach examples then? That's the problem of trying to make it about a specific series instead of about the trope in general. People don't have the same views as you or don't know it as intensely as you do.

Then let's focus on what this trope is supposed to be about.

I say we file a lawsuit against this trope.

Maybe we should... consider cutting it? No... nah.

In real life, what is considered a Fanservice Girl anyway? If a girl wears provocative clothes, acts conspicuously so as to draw attention or looks pointedly distinct from the other girls around her, holds her posture in such a way as to exaggerate her lady parts... is she a Ms. Fanservice?

Perhaps examining how this occurs in life can help us to pinpoint a working definition.

What are the UNIVERSAL TRUTHS about a Ms. Fanservice?

My sister gave this definition without knowing what we're all talking about:

"She's a character created specifically to be an or the object of sexual desire by the audience, and can serve any reason in the plot."

edited 18th May '14 7:26:31 PM by Lakija