Anime Singularities: Fanservice

If the nape of the neck scores higher with you than cleavage, your weaboo stats are high indeed.

As mentioned previously, today’s entry will be about my favourite use of fanservice in anime. Without beating around the bush, we will talking about Hyouka’s Chitanda Eru.

Eru is the very opposite of a fanservice-magnet character. Always prim and proper, you will be hard-pressed to find her involved in any morally ambiguous situation. For her, even something as trivial as being seen alone with a boy at the wrong place and time is troubling – it might mean unsavoury rumours being spread. Mind you, this attitude is not the effect of some haughty blonde tsundere ojou-sama mindset. Eru is an ojou-sama all right, but in terms of proper conduct she is much harder on herself than on anyone else.

This means that Eru fanservice, in the usual sense, is scarce. Aside from one swimming pool episode, there is little chance to see her revealing any more skin than is appropriate by the highest social standards. The thing is, sensuality itself is something subjective, and it comes into existence through the eyes of the beholder. Come in our perspective character – Oreki Houtarou.

Is this one real or all in Houtarou’s head? Mystery fanservice for a mystery series.

Much to his chagrin, Houtarou is strongly attracted to Eru. His eyes wander and add a lens of sensuality to what would otherwise be neutral scenes. One time, the combination of a hot bath and Houtarou’s too-vivid imagination (itself an example of tasteful and delicious fanservice) has him end up in something of a daze. Moments later, Houtarou is more troubled than excited when the object of his fantasies comes to check in on him.

What follows is quite the spectacle. Coloured by the lingering remains of Houtarou’s fantasy, everything about Eru seems to radiate sensuality. But it is much more than the light bath robe Eru is clad in. It is in in the dampness of her hair. It is in the warmth of the bath still lending a rosy shine to her skin. It is in the fragrance and the proximity as she leans down to check on Houtarou’s well-being. The fanservice first becomes fanservice when we see what Houtarou sees and how he sees it.

May I have a Chitanda check up on me if I overheat?

Like other fanservice scenes often do, this one also doubles as a comedy scene, offering a humorous take on a character’s embarrassment. But unlike the typical “lucky-sukebe” scene, where a protagonist gets to see or touch the heroine(s) because of random factors beyond his control, there is nothing actually untoward taking place in this scene. The protagonist here is trapped not by happenstance, but by his own psyche, and thus there is no easy escape, no resolution through getting slapped by the heroine. Try though he might, Houtarou cannot stop thinking about Eru, and Eru is similarly focused on Houtarou’s well-being, and yet the two could not be more out of synch. And so the conversation drags on, much to Houtarou’s increasing distress.

“Somebody get me out of here…”

Run of the mill fanservice targets the viewer directly, while the characters are an aside. Here, we unavoidably notice a degree of disconnect between what we as viewers think and Houtarou’s feelings. As mere onlookers, we can enjoy Eru’s beauty, the cuteness of young love and the low-key hilarity of the misunderstandings. For Houtarou, the situation is much more complicated. He cannot reasonably deny his own attraction to Chitanda Eru, and that is a major problem for him. His life would be that much simpler, that much easier if he could only be rid of this feeling. But Eru has ensnared him as early as during their first meeting, and it is a sweet, sweet poison she infused him with. Houtarou’s struggle between the temptations of romance and the burdens of commitment is a major theme of Hyouka, and something this scene further builds upon.

This is one scene which can be called fanservice, and yet is filled with artistic pride. It proves that well-used fanservice can hold significance within a story, and thus makes it impossible to decry all fanservice as bad by default. At the same time, it does raise the bar for other such scenes.

If you are doing fanservice, you better do it right.

Read Full Post »