If you’ve been following me for any decent amount of time, you probably know that I am not a fan (heh) of fanservice. Its presence is anime and manga is almost always my least favorite part of whatever work it’s in, and it often actively destroys my ability to enjoy an otherwise entertaining show. I can count on one hand the number of anime where I didn’t mind the fanservice, and in none of those cases was it actually positive, just neutral. And when it’s done especially poorly? Hoooooo boy, does it suck.
The thing is, I’m far from a prude or puritan. I’m not immune to the power of oversized anime tiddies. Hell, I probably read/watch more hentai than is healthy. Sex appeal on its own is just that, sex appeal. The problem is the specific ways that sex appeal is used and tropefied in anime. It’s voyeuristic, exploitative, unnecessary, disrespectful to characters and audience alike, and tonally dissonant with the story going on around it. And that’s even before you get to the really problematic shit. Sex and eroticism has its place in anime and media at large, but the way that anime uses it rarely ever rises above the level of gross, leering schlock.
Why bring all this up now?
Because I just figured out the one story I know where the fanservice is actually good.
Mage and Demon Queen is an immensely horny series. The female characters are all smokin’ hot babes with various degrees of revealing outfits (and heck, even the men are pretty studly). There are frequent sensual moments and erotic fantasies portrayed in glistening detail. Bawdy jokes and boob references are a regular occurrence. Hell, attraction to the female form is arguably the central driving force of the damn premise! This Webtoon is as lustful for sexy women as any bargain-big isekai harem, maybe even moreso. And yet, instead of feeling gross and off-putting, the fanservice actually adds to my enjoyment of the series.
Yes, it’s respectful and non-exploitative and treats its characters with respect and gives them sexual agency and all that good stuff, but that just explains why the sexy bits don’t make it worse. What makes this fanservice good, actually, is that it feels like an integral part of the characters, their personalities, and how they relate to each other. Mal and Vel’s romance, and plenty of other characters’ subplots, wouldn’t work nearly as well if it wasn’t so sensual, so intimate, so earnestly willing to depict physical attraction, all its beauty and hilarity in equal measure. It makes you laugh at their bawdiness, suck in breath at their tenderness, get wrapped up in the emotions surrounding every touch and caress and makeout session. The fanservice doesn’t just respect the characters, it makes them better, more developed characters. And it makes their stories better and more developed in turn.
(Probably has something to do with the fact it’s made by an actual sapphic lady and not a weird thirty-year-old man trying to appeal to thirteen-year-old boys’ libidos idk)
In other words, I now have yet another reason to demand you all read Mage and Demon Queen. Not only is it a fantastic fantasy comedy/drama with genuine worldbuilding and stakes amidst its adorable romantic shenanigans, it’s the rare anime-adjacent story that actually makes being sexy work in its favor instead of coming off as creepy. It just doesn’t miss, y’all.
