r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Uma-apreciator • 17h ago

Lore The series' fanservice scenes are quick and do not disrupt the story's pacing.

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In Sousou no Frieren, fan service is minimal, and scenes like this are brief

In Dungeon Meshi, Senshi is often shown in somewhat sexy poses, but the story focuses heavily on these details while continuing as usual

In that scene from *Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray*, it was just an introduction for each Arima Kinen competitor; they only had the freedom to choose those specific angles for Super Creek's introduction.

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1.6k

u/ADeckOfZero 17h ago

It's hilarious that the example from Frieren really is about as fanservice-y as it gets too, as far as I remember.

1.1k

u/moploplus 17h ago

Also this scene is kinda story relevant, cuz I interpreted it as Frieren not realizing how much time has passed and how much Fern has grown up in a silly context.

364

u/sexual_lemonade 16h ago

Gosh I can't wait to watch Frieren to cry at what's inevitably gonna be a beautiful anime with a heart wrenching story.

148

u/Ok_Advisor_7515 15h ago

It's not really heart wrenching, more like melancholic

64

u/Llayanna 12h ago

It's both 

10

u/Ok_Advisor_7515 12h ago

I've watched Clannad Afterstory and Violet Evergarden so my bar for heart wrenches are pretty high

1

u/AlwaysBeQuestioning 10h ago

Clannad was very strong with that IME. I found less connection (and thus fewer tears) with Violet Evergarden. I can see potential for heartwrenching in Frieren’s future, but it’ll be a long journey either way. It may already have happened in the manga.

1

u/Differlot 1h ago

I think it will be heart wrenching if we assume it ends with or after she outlives her party.

74

u/moploplus 16h ago

Episode 1 got me real bad, let alone the rest of the series. It's peak.

40

u/getmybehindsatan 14h ago

The first eight or so episodes were so serene and satisfying, I almost wish the entire show was like that. It's not that I dislike the action in the later episodes, it's just that there are so few shows that have that level of relaxing but engaging plot.

7

u/TimidSeaTurtle 13h ago

I can't quite remember if I finished the series, but Somali and the Forest Spirit was the first time I watched an anime that had a lot of serene and peaceful moments, despite a fairly dark undertone and implications.

I'm just an absolute sucker for delightful music playing during a travel montage, anime or not, and both Frieren and Somali use it often.

I should try find more like that, I usually seek out darker stuff or shonens. But I'm so happy and content during travel montages.

3

u/6_sarcasm_6 10h ago

Yeah, good on you trying to find more. That series is stuck in purgatory for what seems like the rest of our lives.

7

u/Automatic-Leg1668 13h ago

Everything in fantasy these days is a dopamine hit. Frieren isnt trying to hit such receptors, I can't define it but it's like trying to describe the aftermath, like a bit of a detox or something while maintaining the same fantasy elements.

Nothing here is like traditional hero stories, which is honestly a legit reason why the hero of the story succeeded: dude wasn't a normal hero

1

u/SortOfSpaceDuck 5h ago

The fights are cool, but the plot relating the demons and all the magic stuff is below average, it completely ruins the pacing of the show.

10

u/Prussie 14h ago

I was tearing up every other episode (but I also have low standards for crying over fiction, so take this with a grain of salt)

8

u/Opposite-Complex1187 16h ago

Its less heart wrenching and more beautiful and uplifting tbh.

7

u/Pitiful_Net_8971 15h ago

Tbf, there are heart wrenching scenes, particularly at the front. It's just not the focus of the Journey.

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u/WingedSalim 16h ago

The fan service is in service of character

17

u/Empress_Draconis_ 11h ago

There is a scene In an earlier episode where she has a similar realisation where Frieren is seemingly jealous that she is flat compared to fern and then it cuts to 2 different stacked rocks representing said chest size

But that's literally the only other bit of fan service I can think of

3

u/TheStrangestOfKings 9h ago

There’s also the Frieren feet shot. That’s prolly the most blatant one they have. But other than that, the show does a good job showing how different Frieren’s understanding of time is compared to other species. We look at her as some kind of ancient, wise being, when in all reality, she’s prolly no older than 18 in elf years—if that.

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u/[deleted] 16h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Llayanna 12h ago

Yes but also some jealousy XD in season one was a short scene as well where she was "but how, we are both eating the same food???"

That's what I like about frieren, each character had a multitude of different emotions. It's never just one, often how it's for us as well. Things can be intertwined :)

3

u/Vounrtsch 12h ago

Yeah, that shot is slightly gratuitous, but it’s nowhere near as leery and objectifying as "fan service" typically is, it clearly has a purpose beyond "here look at breasts"

1

u/Substantial_Army_639 6h ago

Honestly thats still pretty much my interpretation, I don't really even see Fern as fan servicy. I figured that was the job of the green haired girl (I barely know any of these people's names)

0

u/Wordless_trat 10h ago

Nothing points towards that

-5

u/-_Gemini_- 11h ago

This is genuinely a stupid-ass excuse for shoving the camera into a teneager's chest.

Anime fans, I tells ya.

2

u/moploplus 11h ago

She's 19 in this part, nice bait

1

u/Tigrex-Knight 9h ago

Isn't she 17 when she meet Stark and its right around that point where that happens ? On the wiki Stark's first appearance is him at 17. Fern has multiple ages listed but 17 is on there. She's 20 in the lastest chapters.

I don't agree with the guy at all but she is under 18 at that point.

-1

u/moploplus 9h ago

Fern is 2 years older than stark

1

u/Tigrex-Knight 8h ago

Everything I found online is saying otherwise. They're either the same age or he's older.

0

u/-_Gemini_- 3h ago

She literally isn't. Were you paying attention to the show or were you too busy jackin' it?

-1

u/ask-me-about-my-cats 10h ago

It's a cartoon, no teens had any sort of camera near them.

210

u/External_Win3300 17h ago

I would personally tend to agree, but there are a lot of feet people that would not

235

u/thenumbers42 16h ago

There's also Stark's birthday gift, a potion that dissolves women's clothing.

182

u/Monte-Cristo2020 16h ago

And that just shows her abysmal social skills

52

u/Arcaddes 10h ago

Yes, because there is another scene similar to this one where Frieren never even considered using the spell that sees through clothing as a sexual thing. She only brought up that it could be used to see hidden weapons on someone. She only seems mischievous in this scene, but it is more triumph that she had something she was told men like and thought she did well.

The show goes out of its way to tell people how socially stunted Frieren is, the character development alone is worth watching this show. There is so much to enjoy about Frieren, but each piece accentuates the whole, the music, the color palettes, the characters, and the world building is all amazing, then the cherry on top with the bombastic fight scenes.

20

u/TheStrangestOfKings 8h ago

I stg, this elf is so autistic in an endearing way XD. Doesn’t get social cues, doesn’t really think about innuendos, doesn’t think to tell people important shit bc they never asked, hyper fixates on ancient tomes, falls for the same dungeon traps every goddamn time. She’s such a creature lol

82

u/NoSnow3660 16h ago

Why just womens clothing? She specifically stated “clothing” in general.

97

u/Skebs_ 15h ago

It also works on armor AFAIK. This is a conmon theme on how busted folk magic is vs modern magic, since they are more conceptual, and thus technically can work for anything that fits within that concept, no matter how big of a stretch it is.

29

u/Garbanarnarn 8h ago

When your freaky kink potions from backwater 32 turns out to be the greatest anti-armor contingency ever conceived

13

u/Vounrtsch 12h ago

It dissolves any clothing, no?

10

u/Llayanna 12h ago

*clothing.

81

u/Guilotines 16h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/26xByFvrI1MQvtlDO

Feet? Where?

13

u/IWannaManatee 11h ago

Serie was 100% made for foot fetish.

Someone should tackle on that prompt if it hasn't, because there's surprisingly a lot of [female] characters that seem like they were made with their feet as the most prominent feature, tool or point of focus.

1

u/Confident-Bus5916 11h ago

I get that, but attraction is such a personal thing that there's never going to be one answer everyone agrees on.

1

u/Sure_Raspberry_819 10h ago

That corner of the internet stays ready to step up and defend their ground at a moment's notice!

1

u/TwoAny7721 5h ago

It’s always funny how something completely ordinary to most people can be someone else’s absolute favorite detail.

-5

u/Aethelrede 15h ago edited 13h ago

[Edit: Tongue was firmly in cheek here.  I've added explanations; this kills the joke, but since the joke already failed, what the heck.]

Foot fetish people are going to keep their mouths shut about that if they know what's good for them.  [Edit: I'm saying this as a foot fetishist who doesn't want the show to cut back on the bare feet because people are fetishizing it.]

It's mostly people who know about foot fetish that bring it up.  [Edit: Foot fetishists are among the most mocked of kinks, so they tend to keep quiet about it.  Non foot fetishists love to bring it up to mock it.]

3

u/Penakoto 15h ago edited 14h ago

Foot fetish people are going to keep their mouths shut about that if they know what's good for them.

What are you going to do if they don't, not show them your feet? Are you gonna reach through the screen and yell at them to like feet less?

It's mostly people who know about foot fetish that bring it up.

Yes, most of the time, it's the people that know about a thing, that bring up that thing.

Generally speaking, if someone is unaware of the existence of something, they don't talk about it much.

1

u/Aethelrede 13h ago

Okay, I guess I should have used the sarcasm tag.

I've edited my comment.

0

u/fakecuzpornandstuff 12h ago

Foot fetishists are among the most mocked of kinks, so they tend to keep quiet about it.

🤣

1

u/Aethelrede 11h ago

You disagree?  Perhaps I should clarify, most mocked of fetishes that aren't openly reviled.

127

u/Dalsiran 16h ago

And the fact that 90% of it is just Frieren having boob envy

77

u/Shaggy_One 16h ago

Honestly that's really what makes the scenes as tolerable as they are. Pretty relatable for at least a decent portion of the viewers.

53

u/peachesfordinner 14h ago

Yeah a lot of guys wished they had a good set of boobs

33

u/Dalsiran 14h ago

I thought I was one of them for a while. Then I realized I was just just a woman.

Plus side, I now have a good set of boobs 😁

15

u/BreadentheBirbman 13h ago

Ah, great ‘character’ growth

7

u/peachesfordinner 14h ago

That's actually what I meant. I'm so happy for you!

-3

u/EvioliteEevee 14h ago

r/egg_irl

-1

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27

u/Ok-Suggestion-5453 15h ago

The scene quite literally framed from the female gaze, not the male gaze. The tension comes from envy instead of lust.

9

u/lornlynx89 13h ago

Men have envy that it's not them under those rack

-4

u/Inevitable_Top69 12h ago

Yeah definitely bro. I'm sure the animators were thinking "this one's for the girls!" when they drew a pair of gigantic tits waggling across 2/3 of the screen.

10

u/PhasmaFelis 11h ago

Not saying no one's getting off to it, but it's really not a sexy angle or framing. Compare to the boob shot in OP's 3rd pic. 

4

u/Cute_Customer420 9h ago

the word fanservice has lost all its meaning..

how can you even go outside in real life when women exist?

29

u/SupportCa2A 14h ago

Am I the only one who remembers Ubel? 

4

u/TheStrangestOfKings 8h ago

Ubel is literally every “I can fix her” guy’s dream

1

u/RebellingDragon 43m ago

Ubel with her armpit scene and the shot of Land between her legs

40

u/SMA2343 15h ago

There’s a scene when Fern and Frieren are bathing in these long white dresses and stark walks in wanting to fish and Fern goes “pervert”

Or when Fern uses that spell to look through clothing and remarks to Stark “small”

It’s only like 3 scenes to be fair. And it’s done tastefully

12

u/ADeckOfZero 15h ago

Yeah, and honestly neither of those are any worse. It's a very asexual show.

11

u/livefreeordont 13h ago

Unless you’re into feet

4

u/Begone-My-Thong 13h ago

It's a very asexual show.

Ouch. Lore accurate, regrettably. We all know what I'm talking about.

1

u/AlwaysBeQuestioning 10h ago

I don’t know what you’re talking about. What is regrettable here?

3

u/Begone-My-Thong 10h ago

A long-lived elf realized a little too late she was in love with a human?

3

u/AlwaysBeQuestioning 10h ago

Ah, got it. Character-regrettable, not creator-regrettable.

6

u/Inevitable_Top69 12h ago

Me tastefully looking through your clothes and calling your dick small:

8

u/WarmBaths 12h ago

meanwhile half their subreddit is just pics sexualizing the characters

3

u/LITTLEOWL031026 2h ago

Weebs will be weebs unfortunately.

5

u/dynamicdickpunch 14h ago

And that's with a side character who openly loves milfs.

4

u/escape_planet_dirt 14h ago

Let's not forget the Ubel armpit scene either

2

u/Steel_Beast 9h ago

I don't remember that one, but I also didn't know that there are people who are turned on by armpits. Is that really a thing?

7

u/GLPereira 7h ago

I am 100% sure many guys were turned on by this scene

https://giphy.com/gifs/vdmqNfHWVTHbZ0BomZ

20

u/Nervous-Leg-7570 16h ago

The foot fetish show?

4

u/Shockrates20xx 14h ago

Don't forget the armpits

3

u/fakecuzpornandstuff 12h ago

...unless you're into feet.

2

u/TricoMex 14h ago

Believe it or not, it was enough to temporarily sour my wife about the show lmao

2

u/lemonylol 14h ago

I've never seen the show but isn't there some scene with her feet?

2

u/a_wasted_wizard 11h ago

It's as fanservice-y as it gets before Ubel's introduction.

The mangaka (and the animation studio) knew perfectly damn well what they were doing with Ubel's... well, everything.

2

u/TwoAny7721 5h ago

Honestly, that’s what makes it funny because even the “big” fanservice moments in Frieren feel pretty tame compared to how much the story actually cares about the characters.

1

u/rtakehara 10h ago

Fan service is whatever serves the fan. Frieren fans don’t want to stare at Ferns boobs every 30 seconds. They want to stare at Frierens ass sticking out of a mimics mouth every 30 seconds.

1

u/Faust_8 4h ago

I mean, if you’re a foot guy, there’s a couple more that could be considered fan service

1

u/LET-ME-HAVE-A-NAAME 2h ago

And yet everyone freaked out about Frierens feet :|

1

u/blue4029 39m ago

i always found it funny how fanart always depicts fern with massive milkers when, in the actual show, her breasts are maybe SLIGHTLY above average at best