Last night I started rewatching an anime called “Soul Eater”. When I first watched the show in Middle School I easily fell in love with it and binge-watched the show over the course of 3 weeks. I found the show interesting with its storyline and also loved the two main characters, Maka and Soul. I just started rewatching the show last night and the way that I’m only less than 10 episodes in and the amount of fan service is actually ridiculous. I know you guys probably know what I mean by “fan service” but it’s basically the “material in a work of fiction or in a fictional series that is intentionally added to please the audience, often sexual in nature, such as nudity.” Fan-service in anime is really common and I feel as though it’s especially common in anime’s that are action based like Fire Force, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Seven Deadly Sins, etc. I think the reason why most action-based anime have a lot of fan service is because the majority of viewers are male.
But basically, when I started watching the show last night already in the first episode when Maka and Soul go to the house of a witch to kill her. When they arrive at the witch’s house, Soul ends end barging in from the window and ends up falling into the bathtub where the witch is naked. Then in the second episode, where we see a girl Tsubaki, who is 17 years old, literally shown naked with a towel that is barely covering her body. I think the third episode was honestly the worst cause it had a scene with these two sisters named Patty and Liz, one being 12 years old and the other 16 years old. In the scene, the sisters are tied up by bandages in a sexual way making the scene very disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. All of these scenes were disturbing to watch because the female characters are also being objectified and treated as subjects for both the male characters and the audience to gaze at. All these scenes are very unnecessary and shouldn’t have been included, but because there is a predominantly male audience the creatures left that by objectifying it would grab their attention.
Overall, I think there is a major problem with the over-sexualization and objectification of women in anime. It may be getting better with recent anime shows that have been coming out, but I’m not sure since I don’t really watch anime as often as I used to. Also, I think for ‘Soul Eater’ as the show continues on the fan service does die down and the story begins to focus more on its characters. I still find the show just as interesting as when I first watched it. I just found all the fan service at the beginning of the show to be disturbing and unnecessary.
Also, for those who haven’t watched anime yet I highly recommend Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood *◡*
Unruly Bodies 
Ok first i wanna say that I too watched soul eater back when I was like 14/15 in my weeb im so quirky phase 😭 and I LOVE that anime so much oh my gosh everything from the theme, aesthetic, outfits even the theme song I love so much and I could rewatch it over and over and I’ve recommend it to people because its just that good. But you are absolutely right about how creepy these anime creators are. It’s actually one of the reasons why I stopped being into anime so much because of how pedophilic it is. They will have obviously minor characters acting like adult film stars. Especially Liz and patty like it’s obvious they’re kids because all the weapon masters are kids like they’re literally at an “academy” and the adults around them refer to them as young lady and such so their weapons are kids as well. Just Liz and Patty’s outfits alone are pedophilic and then to add on top of that they have scenes where they moan and squeak while they’re wet from or sweaty its so cringe and instantly makes you uncomfortable and skip ahead. But its also kind of informative or eye opening in a way because it makes people aware of how Japanese culture/men are. Like the reason its so normalized to have girls so sexualized with big ole busty glistening defying the laws of gravity boobs is because the oversexualization of girls/pedophilic in real life japan like Japan went from 13 to 16 for the age of consent. THIRTEEN.
Also yes full metal alchemist is sooo good too😭
I completely agree with the fact that women in anime are over sexualized and are often objectified. This can be frustrating because many studios would rather focus on the “fan service” and objectifying women than showing more character development or personality. Soul eater is also nostalgic for me but I also agree that there was too much objectification that kind of ruined it for me. As a kid watching soul eater I was kind of shocked at all the oversexualization and I felt weird about my own body. I feel like the overrepresentation of “ideal” bodies creates more harmful stereotypes and diminishes self expression. I agree that fan service is a major problem in anime, it adds absolutely nothing and it is only for the viewer’s physical pleasure. I feel like I should not have to go out of my way to look for anime that does not overly sexualize their characters.
I did not know that was what fan service meant. I had figured it was extra attachments related to bits fans liked, off story or background. I feel your anxiety and don’t know how the artists manage to do sexualisation without it being part of them even more than the reader. Often there is a reason or angle but only if a few did it would that operate as such. When thousands do it seems a big failing.
I am sooo glad someone is talking about this. So much of anime is sexualized – even when it’s not supposed to be sexualized – in order to cater to their male audience. In my opinion, it takes away from the actual plot of the show and gives people a reason to normalize a pornographic culture (which is incredibly different from an erotic culture), where women are objects being put on display in a show for a male viewer to gaze upon. But, apparently, when the same actions are flipped and anime boys are sexualized (which also is totally not okay), it’s cringe or looked down upon. I don’t understand why it can’t be looked down upon for both parties, and I totally sympathize with you on your frustration!!
Although I have yet to watch soul eater the over sexualization of anime characters is something I wished was talked about more as many shows tend to have bits where a male character is over sexual or always trying to get with many of the female characters which is seen again and again in My hero Academia and can also be applied to shows like HunterxHunter. Something I’ve always questioned was if theses tropes were for an western audience to enjoy or a eastern audience to enjoy and if so why are theses common practices in this media outlet ?
First to start off I love soul eater it has such a cute and campy style and one of the few action amines I’ve watched with a good female lead. But I whole heartedly agree with the oversexualization sentiment and I believe it goes deeper then that. Not only is there a huge oversexualization aspect that have a bad problem especially in shouenens of writing one dimensional female characters and it makes me so sad because I see the potential in them but the author is simply to lazy and small minded to make them rise anything other then support character/ love interest (cough cough Hinata, Naruto cough).