I guess you can just select what you want to watch for each season depending on what you like. For me there are a lots of pointless fan-service & moe anime out there trying lurk viewer attention so I tend to avoid titles like Sora no Otoshimono, Kanokon, To Love-Ru.

Gone are the days that anime have interesting plots.

Very good points. I don’t think anime has changed that drastically either and gems are still being made – you just have to search for them a little harder. If you don’t like the moe/fan-service trend, just ignore those and watch the shows you do like.

Your comparison between Western and American fan-service is excellent. Because Japan is more casual and tongue-in-cheek with sexual innuendo than America, people tend to think anime is perverted because it treats its fan-service scenes lightly as opposed to Americans who treat them seriously and dirty. Like you said, the way anime portrays sexual innuendo makes Americans notice it because its different than what they’re used to. Just a culture clash here.

I think the most noticeable comparison between fanservice in anime and in Western live-action isn’t that there’s more in one or the other, but that you get different types of it. Look at a random cop show from over here, and there’s a good chance that it’ll go around with an absolutely serious air about everything it does, which will inevitably include a visit to a strip club to find evidence, with plenty of shots of strippers to establish what sort of place this is, and a couple of cast members getting some heavy kissing in as part of their ongoing romance. Or something like that, anyway, I don’t watch that type of show regularly, but that’s one of the things I always seem to notice. Anime is more likely to throw in a lot of selective ‘camerawork’, and put the cast in slightly fetishistic costumes occasionally, with more of a playful, tongue-in-cheek air.

If you’re only used to one, then when you see the other, it’s going to stand out more. Because I watch lots of anime and few cop shows, I find those obligatory strip joints jarring, while a panty-shot seems like a perfectly ordinary televisual occurrence. Most people’s experiences are going to condition them to the opposite.

I’m a Haruhiist too, which you can probably tell if you’ve read enough of my blog (I’ve enjoyed many of your Haruhi-related posts by the way). But I’m also a general anime fan and I try to watch as many series as I can handle, usually about 15 to 25 at a time.

I’ve read a couple of Murakami’s books other than Wind-Up Bird and his protagonists are very similar – slightly cynical, passive, disillusioned men reacting to the bizarre situations they’re placed in, very much like the “real life of the supernatural” you described. Kyon kind of reminds me of a “lighter” version of a Murakami protagonist and I can’t help but think that Nagaru Tanigawa got some inspiration from his work. I think the I novel helped influence this type of theme in Japanese literature, and thus in anime.

You’re right, we didn’t have as much access to fan-service shows back in the day, but another big factor is that more anime is being produced per season now than ever before because of advanced technology. So it’s been more of a quality over quantity system in recent years but I agree that it could evolve anytime.

More related to the topic at hand, I believe we’re seeing more and more of the series that come out in Japan every season. In the late 90′s and early 00′s, you got a very slim picking of the series that came out of Japan. There may have been more fanservicey type shows, but they just didn’t get distributed like they are now. Studios will always try to get an audience for their shows, and if there is an oversaturation of fanservice and moe you may see a studio go towards a pure-plot show that has little to none to stand out. Anime, like all arts, is ever evolving into something new. It’s tough to predict what may go on.

You’re absolutely right. Many Americans have a misconception of anime as being only violent and sexual, failing to examine how much sexual humor and situations are in American TV, nor how most anime is actually “clean” of sex. I think because nudity and sexual inneundo aren’t as taboo in Japan, even in family series, coupled with the fact that Americans have trouble grasping the fact that cartoons can be made for a variety of audiences, blows the sexual aspect of anime out of proportion in the West. But you’re right, sex sells in just about all nations.

Yes, both videos are very well made despite being so drastically different =)

Since there isn’t really one particular genre of anime that’s my favorite, I tend to watch a variety of series based on what I’ve heard about them or if their art, story, etc., seems appealing. Actually, most moe/slice-of-life anime is extremely character driven, meaning it’s all about the characters and there’s often little to no ongoing plot – you just watch the characters in their day to day lives and interactions. It boils down to whether you like to watch those characters or not.

For someone like you who only watches one or two series per season and doesn’t care to watch all the “in” shows that everyone’s talking about, I’m sure the moe/fan-service trend in anime won’t effect you. You can continue to find the ones that appeal to your taste while others who like to watch a bunch of shows per season will probably complain. And like me, even if there’s nothing good in the new season, then it’s time to go back and watch old shows on your “Plan to Watch” list ;)

The second one really was beautifully done. I suppose the same could be said for the first one, since it too achieved what I’m sure it was intending to. I don’t watch a huge cross-section of anime series each season; I just cherry-pick what I like, so I can’t say whether anime on the whole is trending towards moe/fanservice or not. I tend not to even notice those series, and just pick the series that appeal to me, which are usually (not always) the more serious story- and character-driven ones.

I would think ultimately that there’s room enough for everything. Plus, if the pendulum swings too far in one direction, it usually swings back at some point.