You can't watch anime without seeing fanservice. Everyone has seen fanservice at some point in their life. There's no escaping it... You could innocently be watching your anime, then BAM! It hits you without warning.
Fanservice is as it sounds: a service to the fans. For some, fan service is welcomed and to others, it's a sorry excuse for a suck-ish plot. I've become accustomed to a little fanservice in anime and can stand many things as long as it's plot relevant. On the other hand, many anime are laden with so much fanservice it turns off at least 40% of it's potential audience, including me.
Fanservice involves skimpy clothing, fetish elements, panty flashes and anything else they can sneak in there without showing too much. Fanservice is a staple of ecchi anime, but it leaks into normal genre of anime very often.
The most common type of fan service is the beach episode. Nearly all anime have one, even if it has nothing to do with the actual plot.
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| According to Bleach, tentacle monsters kidnap girls there. |
In other anime, bras do not exist and boobs have a mind of their own. This is the reason I couldn't watch Highschool of the Dead.
Other examples of fan service aren't so extreme. Maids, schoolgirl uniform, nurse outfits, school swimsuits, striped panties... the list goes on.
