Today I realized that anime is slowly becoming more and more based on fanservice. Like, seriously. When I was younger, there were “normal” anime and hentai anime. They were very distinct and very few anime in the “normal” category had gratuitous fanservice.

Since around 2006/2007 I’ve seen a new breed of anime crop up, which I now call “Hentease” anime, since it’s basically a show with a decent plot that gets slathered in fanservice until it’s borderline hentai ((see: Haganai, High School of the Dead, Mayo Chiki, Monster Musume, a hell of a lot of recent anime)).

Save for a few shows, I can’t think of anything that’s come out in the past three years that I’ve seen that wasn’t hentease anime. Not to say you can’t find non-fanservice anime anymore… it’s just weird how prominent fanservice and sexualized shenanigans have become, like they take front seat next to the actual plot nowadays. O.o

I don’t really know how I feel about “hentease” anime since I certainly love a lot of series that are that sort of show. I mean, Haganai is one of my favorites and it couldn’t be more gratuitous in its fanservice and sexualized content (without actually being hentai). I don’t think it makes or breaks a show, but it’s just…. jarring? Yeah, jarring.

Anywho, that’s just an observation I’ve become more aware of lately.