The Yuribou Guide to Fanservice for animators #10 – Settings Part 1

Posted on | September 4, 2007 | 8 Comments |

Following on from the previous section on scenes, it is also important to know your settings in order that you know what fanservice devices will be available to you in each instance. For each animation it is important to choose a major setting in which most of the storyline will be based on (you can choose more than one if the action is to be split between two areas), and then any of the other settings can be used on an episode-by-episode basis.

For example, most fanservice (and indeed, most normal) anime is based in the school settings. This has many advantages, since it is easy to concoct reasons for people to meet each other and there are interactions between characters on a daily basis. Also, since the target audience is usually of school age, it is easier to empathise with the settings, characters and goings on.

Also, since the school is a multi-use institution, many of the other settings such as “changing rooms” and “swimming pool” are attached to the school by default and so storylines may naturally progress between these settings without any clumsy plot devices.

Other major settings include “town” in general (using school as a minor setting), or any other enclosed social space (e.g. spaceship/station, shop, company building, largish house, shrine or small alternative dimension) as this also shares the advantages of the school setting, but potential sterotypy is reduced. (Since “school” is by far the most popular major setting.)

Here I will not be trying to describe all of the possible settings for all scenes ever, but will first outline the possible major settings for the overall animation then go on to describe the specific settings that may give rise to fanservice and the types of fanservice that are usually encountered in such places.

General (Major) Settings

1. School

Description: Any educational institution, including but not exclusive to – primary schools, middle schools, high schools, universities, magic schools, spaceship schools, sports academies, maiden training schools, all-girls yuri-schools and schools for the training of fatally-wounded-girls-turned-cyborg-assassins.
Exclusive subsettings: School trips, sports festivals, cultural festivals, nurse’s office, after school club-rooms, gym-equipment lockers.
Non-exclusive subsettings: Swimming pool, changing rooms, bedrooms (dormrooms), chapels, gardens, dojos, baths/showers.
Comments: Schools are an excellent setting since they boast several exclusive subsettings and many other linked places which can be used without story devices needing to get your characters from place to place. All of the fanservice devices can be used to varying degrees in the school setting. For example, school changing rooms are an excellent place for a Pseudoyuri Breast Comparison, whereas Just down the school path is a classic place for use of an Ecchi na Kaze. A good all rounder.

2. House

Description: A residence of any size, but usually large (e.g. a shrine or a rich person’s house), since it gives characters more room to move around and more scene possibilities.
Exclusive subsettings: Shared shower/bathroom.
Non-exclusive subsettings: Bedroom, garden.
Comments: Using a house as a major setting can be limiting in the long run as the number of characters that can live in a house is limited and the number of linked settings is also small. It is often the case that scenes are split between the House and another major setting (most usually school) in order to improve scene possibilities. The Exclusive fanservice scene that can be done in a house is an accidental walk-in on someone else in the shower (a variant on Accidental Changing Invasion) and the usual result of getting something heavy and sharp edged thrown at their face. For extra fanservice, please refer to the scene in Onegai Twins where Miina somehow ends up between Karen’s legs. Don’t ask me how…

3. Company Building

Description: Since the protagonist works for a living, the anime centres around his/her workplace. Examples that spring to mind include transdimensional police agency and idol/actress management.
Exclusive subsettings: None
Non-exclusive subsettings: None (dependant on occupation)
Comments: Using workplace as a major setting is entirely dependant on the type of work that the main character does as to the available settings and possibilities. Taking the anime “Nurse Witch Komugi-chan” as an example, although the major setting is the agency, most of the scenes stem from her work as an idol and her various jobs such as waitressing, cosplay conventions, Comikets and film/TV; all of which have good fanservice device potential. Failing that, company buildings are often used as a minor setting for certain plot devices to take place.

4. Town/minor alternative dimension/space station etc.

Description: A large, yet hypothetically enclosed social space in which things happen. Superior to school as a major setting, since all other settings can occur within it.
Exclusive subsettings: None
Non-Exclusive subsettings: All.
Comments: This is more of an uber setting in which all other settings can be accessed. The main action may occur in the streets (e.g. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha), yet there are scenes at school, around the shops etc. This also allows any kind of fanservice to occur since there are no limitations to the environment that characters find themselves in. Town based animations are the least formulaic and so need strong storylines to hold them together and stop the viewer getting lost. However, they also offer the most potential both for interesting fanservice and imaginative plotlines.

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Category: Anime, Editorials, Philosophy/Thoughts

Comments

8 Responses to “The Yuribou Guide to Fanservice for animators #10 – Settings Part 1”

Nemo
September 4th, 2007 @ 7:30 pm

House setting pic sauce plz :P
Nemo
September 4th, 2007 @ 7:35 pm

I phail ^_^;
Lovely
September 5th, 2007 @ 2:04 am

the House setting pic….What anime/episode? OwO
Lovely
September 5th, 2007 @ 2:05 am

The house setting pic… What anime/episode?
OwO

I’ve now learned from YuriBou! *knows more*
Nemo
September 5th, 2007 @ 2:05 pm

And knowing is half the battle!
Yuribou
September 5th, 2007 @ 6:50 pm

Its Onegai Twins – Read the blag ^_^ Now I know you only look at the pictures!!
Lovely
September 6th, 2007 @ 12:03 am

Yeah. I am… pervy like that!

Well…actually no! That picture got my interest!
I was reading it ,babe! xD
Nemo
September 6th, 2007 @ 12:22 pm

My excuse is that I wrote the comment about 10 seconds after the page loaded, and in previous experience, you don’t say what the picture is ^_^; (and to have previous experience, I have to read, no?)