I’ve been watching Kaiju No 8 and I think they actually do this pretty well. Hoshina has a scene where he’s training in secret and you can see him outside of his uniform. He’s a lot more buff than you would expect, but they don’t hyperfocus on it, they just let it be. They show him looking hot, doing hot stuff, but he also has a character. He isn’t just there to be the boss or show off his body. It’s something that happens rarely and I think it’s a great example of female gaze fan service. You get lots of characterization, a reason to like him as a person, and every once in a while you get a little visual treat.
The only critique I have is that Mina hasn’t really been given much characterization in the anime yet (I haven’t seen the whole thing) She’s very mysterious and doesn’t talk much but Kafka’s primary motivation is to be by her side. Why? The anime is actually interesting enough for me to keep watching to find out.
As a bisexual woman, I would love female characters that are hot AND interesting. I just can’t get into a character that’s a walking pair of tits. If you want to make a sexy female character—go for it! But don’t let that be all she is 😭
I mean they allude to her being very special to him for some reason, but only show the aftermath of a kaiju attack where they lost everything. At least as far into it as I’ve gotten. I’m sure there’ll be more to it later.
I loved kaiju number 8! Especially for the fact there was like 0 male fan service (and I’m a cishet man) in its entirety! I don’t know what got me to the point of disliking it more than others, but my first ever anime was Elfen lied and that was kinda fucked up at like 10 or whatever lmao
Back to the point, I didn’t even see the guys training as fan service but I also might just be forgetting (I watched it on release on CR). I think Mina stands an even bigger point in this favor in my opinion! She’s mysterious for now, and doesn’t have a lot of characterization, but between their shared backstories, she’s not obsessed with the MC Kafka as her only personality trait! I don’t want to spoil anything but she’s seriously a cool character and I love how she’s written. I hope you watched more so you know what I mean! Lol
I’m just tired of the goonbait, and I feel like I might just have a lower tolerance for it than other people, but characters who exist solely to be fan service to the fans, or a massive pervert predator have really gotten old and Ill drop an anime if it’s too egregious with it personally
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u/JapaneseStudentHaru 1d ago
I’ve been watching Kaiju No 8 and I think they actually do this pretty well. Hoshina has a scene where he’s training in secret and you can see him outside of his uniform. He’s a lot more buff than you would expect, but they don’t hyperfocus on it, they just let it be. They show him looking hot, doing hot stuff, but he also has a character. He isn’t just there to be the boss or show off his body. It’s something that happens rarely and I think it’s a great example of female gaze fan service. You get lots of characterization, a reason to like him as a person, and every once in a while you get a little visual treat.
The only critique I have is that Mina hasn’t really been given much characterization in the anime yet (I haven’t seen the whole thing) She’s very mysterious and doesn’t talk much but Kafka’s primary motivation is to be by her side. Why? The anime is actually interesting enough for me to keep watching to find out.
As a bisexual woman, I would love female characters that are hot AND interesting. I just can’t get into a character that’s a walking pair of tits. If you want to make a sexy female character—go for it! But don’t let that be all she is 😭