And now the truth can be told!

Those of you who have been following the firestorm Rah’ra has caused in these here parts may have been wondering what I might have to say about these matters. Well, here they are. (This seems an appropriate time, too, to remind everyone that all opinions published are those of the individual writers and not of Anime Diet itself, its affiliates, derivatives, spin offs, and holding companies. :))

With that out of the way, I will say this: porn is in the use as much as it is in the content. Which means that in many, perhaps the majority of cases, Rah’ra is correct, even if his case is overstated as a principle and that not every instance of fan service should be treated exactly the same as a hardcore, NC-17 movie.

This article is long, like my gender article, and I think we want to start wrapping it up now, so you may skip and not feel guilty if it’s tl;dr. We’ll be back to our usual stuff soon. :)

The central question at hand is whether all sexually explicit material is pornography (as suggested by a literal reading of the dictionary definition), and particularly the kind of material that you see in anime and is called “fan service.”

What we anime fans call “fan service” is simply a synonym for what in Western media is referred to as “cheesecake” or “T&A.” In other words, it’s hardly unique to anime and manga; it appears in all kinds of Western media too. Most people make a distinction between the kind of T&A shown in, say, a Bond film and what they would commonly call pornography; many people will watch an R-rated movie which even has nudity and simulated sex but not watch an NC-17 rated “adult” film. One is called “suggestive,” and the other “explicit.” Some R-rated movies definitely come very close to crossing the line, enough that many people do deem it pornographic, but the point is that most of society does see a line between one and the other.

Rah’ra collapses this distinction, which is what is so controversial: and not without some good reason. Whether it be the famous shot of Mrs. Robinson’s leg in The Graduate or the various kinds of semi-clothed situations harem romances traffic in (especially, say, in Kanokon or Sekirei), it is true that these are mainly different from “outright porn” in degree, not in kind. The techniques, framing, and presentation are often derived from full-blown pornography, the only difference being the lack of nipples or convenient pieces of clothing or fog. Maxim rather than Penthouse, if you will, or even something milder. The degree of difference can be great, and I’m going to argue that this makes a difference, but it is on the same continuum.

And I think it’s undeniable that even this mild, sub-softcore material is in fact used as pornography by a substantial part of the viewing audience. If that weren’t true, there wouldn’t be so many fapping jokes (and the knowing laughter that follows) when it comes to shows like Strike Witches. Pornography is not just about the content, though that’s an indispensable part of it; it’s also about the use. And it’s usually fairly obvious when a show is using panty shots or boob groping in order to get a rise out of the audience–you can literally feel the camera contorting to unnatural angles to get a certain shot. Something need not even be “explicit” or commonly seen as “porn” to be a turn-on for some people; my youth pastor, for instance, made a special effort to avoid the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated because for him, it functioned as a pornographic temptation.

In short, a lot of fan service is porn for many people, because porn need not only mean hardcore porn where we see, as they say, “everything.” Practically anything that is fetishized–underwear, boobs, heck, cat ears–can function as it when it becomes a real source of sexual gratification.

Clearly, many readers are taking for granted that this is not a good thing, or else this debate would not have generated so much heat and even offense. While some are comfortable admitting to liking porn, many are not, and many people who watch lots of anime (like myself) might even believe that watching outright pornography is wrong/sinful (like myself). A nerve got touched real hard for people who believe the latter, because if he’s right in the way he stated it, then pretty much the majority of a given person’s anime diet, especially if one is watching recent shows of certain genres, is the same as watching lots of NC-17 movies. That is the impression given by using the word “pornography” to describe all fanservice. I’ll go further; if what Rah’ra says is true, it pretty much means I will have to stop watching the vast majority of the shows I watch and review, since many of them contain some level of sexual fanservice (though my tastes are such that I almost always dislike shows that have lots of it or where it’s the main point). Rah’ra is also, in my judgment, correct in pointing out that many fans have become desensitized to fan service in a way that an outside, more mainstream audience is not–particularly when it comes in animated form. I often only become acutely aware of certain forms of mild fan service only in the presence of those who are not all that familiar with it–say some of the brief cheesecake shots in early episodes of Evangelion.

I admit this has happened to me, and I don’t really regard this as a good thing. Part of the concern is that we ought to be sensitive to others’ sensibilities if we are trying to introduce friends and family to anime (which may not necessarily be our goal; let’s assume it is, though). I think this is what Rah’ra is getting at when he talks about “mainstream acceptance”; not that it should become more “American” but that it ought to take this into account. Plus, speaking of my own tastes, the prevalence of the harem, fan-service heavy “romantic comedy” in fandom (at least in the blogosphere and in Japan) is not the direction I want anime to go in. I want more Honey and Clovers and Kaibas and Planetes and movies like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. That movie, Byousoku 5cm, and many Studio Ghibli films are my typical “anime to show others who aren’t fans” shows. If there could be more well-written, moving, and original material like that, without the fan service crutch, no one would be happier than me.

Still, here’s where I have some beef with our provocative editorialist:

• I really do think there is a legitimate distinction to be made between fanservice and “genuine porn.” This distinction is, admittedly, subjective to a large extent. It is mainly based on the line one wants to draw as to what is “acceptable” as far as sexual material in entertainment is and what is not. At the risk of appearing unholy or too tolerant for a future minister, I draw it at the commonly held one–the depiction of actual intercourse with details and/or large amounts of gratuitous nudity, kind of like Kanokon. I generally let it go if it’s present to some degree but not overtaking the main point of the story: in short, a little or some won’t completely undo it for me.
• I admit that this is motivated in part because I want to continue watching certain shows and not rule them out completely simply because of the presence of some kinds of fan service. I don’t think this necessarily cancels out every other virtue of the show. Selfish? Probably. I like my Haruhi and its originality just like Rah’ra, and my Welcome to the NHK! I find Zero no Tsukaima (season 1 at least) funny–and there’s a reason I Iabeled it a guilty pleasure. But in general, one or even two scenes with a commander in a bra won’t ruin the entire thing and make me unable to take it seriously, at least not by itself. (If it’s a huge pattern, though…and even in ZnT, the fan service often serves the clear purpose of advancing the comedy. Sex can be funny business!)
• There are plenty of examples in western media where one might judge that certain scenes are unnecessary and a detriment to the story. I felt that way about Shakespeare in Love, an otherwise charming and clever, literate film. Some movies don’t need as much violence as they portray to get their point across. But that doesn’t mean it must all thrown out instantly. In anime, a great example is the 1980s movie, The Wings of Honneamise. It is a fine work of sci-fi worldbuilding, about an alternative space program and the hopes and dreams of a lowly pilot who wants to become the first astronaut. There is an astounding amount of detail and intelligence in the writing, and the animation holds up even today. And yet there is a scene that seems to jump out of nowhere with some nudity, with an attempted rape actually, that is jarring and really inappropriate. Is that a demerit against the film? Yes; it turned me off. Badly even. Does it completely ruin everything about it? For me, no. I would note it in any review and speak my piece accordingly, as I did recently with regard to Nogizaki Haruka, but I think it would be unfair to judge the entire thing through that lens. Admittedly, with some shows, this gets quite hard; one must wade through 4-5 episodes of fan service to get to the really good parts of Mai Hime for instance (and if you read my review of the same, you’ll know that I made a strong personal connection with my situation at the time). I guess one question where we may have to agree to disagree is whether it is, in general, worth it to continue with a given show or movie to get to the “good stuff.” A typical strategy seems to start with fan service and then start sneaking in the real story. Sometimes it’s not always an escape hatch from good characterization and plot, as alleged. It may actually be the hook that precedes the line and sinker.
• The additional point that might be raised there is that, while maybe as an otaku I can overlook or forgive it, those who aren’t will have a harder time doing so. I can see this as legitimate in a way, though a huge part of the problem, at least in America, is simply the culture is still shocked that this kind of material is present in animated form. There is still the very strong idea that “cartoons are for kids.” Perhaps this is why for those who aren’t used to it, fan service/T&A seems so much more shocking in animated form than when it’s done in live action shows like Sex and the City or Gossip Girl. It seems that much more “pornographic.” I suspect that making anime “mainstream” in the sense that Rah’ra wants, where ordinary joes will treat anime with exactly the same consideration as the latest Michael Bay or Spielburg flick, is doomed to failure so long as that attitude remains in place. The foreignness doesn’t just come from the Japanese settings and character names and even cultural attitudes (shy, passive, wimpy guys just never get made into protagonists much here in America). It is foreign to many people that you can even tell a serious, non-satirical story in animated form, or have “adult” elements in much greater anatomical detail than the Family Guys and South Parks (the latter is as crude as many anime I’ve seen, and often just as violent. Those are the exceptions that prove the rule, incidentally). Before any mainstreaming happens, that very tall hurdle must be overcome, and getting rid of fan service by itself won’t make it happen. Though I think it would help.

At the end of the day, fan service is simply another example of “sex sells,” something that most modern westernized popular media–including anime–indulges in. I definitely wish there were less of it, and I consider it a demerit in most shows I watch. Does anime do too much of it? Probably, especially in otaku pandering type work. Is it porn in exactly the same way or as undeniably so as a hardcore movie? While there are real similarities, I think the answer is no. I do have certain lines I try not to cross in my own life, regardless of how great reviews are (I draw the line at Kanokon for instance, which received quite a few good reviews across the blogosphere) but there are plenty of shows out there whose genuine virtues as stories and art are not necessarily wholly ruined. Of course if the issue is more about “mainstreaming,” then I think the solution is to highlight the fact that not all anime has or needs fan service, and that there is always some great material out there that does have good storytelling without much, if any, resort to fan service. The 1 AM harem shows were meant for a small audience even in Japan, and need not necessarily be the only or the main public face of anime to the world.

Whew. That’s enough. I have some job-hunting and self-retraining to do. That’s my piece on the subject, and if you want something more philosophical on the subject, read my gender article. I’ll say no more.

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