Fan service has always been a topic of heated discussions within the anime community, the opinions varying from enthusiastic support to outright disgust. However, even those who find fan service tasteless have to reluctantly accept it as an unavoidable part of the anime culture. While many link fan service with series targeted toward mature audiences, hyper-sexualization of female characters was never exclusive to shows aimed at adults.
Shonen is one of the most fan-service-heavy categories in all anime. The intense focus on the characters’ seductiveness, skimpy outfits, and off-color indecent jokes can be found in the category one expects to see them the least – shows that pose as kid-friendly. Despite their apparent wholesomeness, these series feature a surprising amount of fan service.
10 Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon is a magical girl classic many grew up watching. Unfortunately, it's also how many younger fans first discovered anime’s love for fan service. The designs and outfits of Sailor Guardians leave little to the imagination, with the girls running around in tight tops and mini skirts that accentuate their long legs.
Sneaky occasional nudity and panty shots are also not uncommon in the seemingly kid-friendly shojo series. Yet, the most fan-service-heavy aspect of Sailor Moon is the show’s villains, with most of them being seductive femme fatales. From the gorgeously dangerous DD Girls to the enchanting Queen Beryl, the villainesses of Sailor Moon know how to weaponize their beauty.
9 Naruto
Naturo never shied away from fan service, no matter how many kids enjoyed it. While mild by overall anime standards, the fan service in Naruto is multifaceted, from the Pervy Sage Jiraiya peeping on women while they bathe to Naruto’s Sexy Technique that he used to prank men with a seductive transformation.
The series is pretty comfortable emphasizing the sensuality of its female heroines, with Tsunade’s attractiveness being one of her most notable qualities. Both Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden feature countless scenes that put the allure of its cast front and center, be it for a joke or in earnest seriousness.
8 My Hero Academia
New-gen shonen series are much less interested in fan service than the old guard. Yet, it doesn’t mean this age-old trope has vanished from kid-friendly anime for good. In My Hero Academia, excessive violence is not the only thing that might make it unsuitable for a child, as fan service sneaks its way into the show all the time.
Mostly, it is exclusive to older side characters, like Midnight’s BDSM theme and Mt. Lady’s size-changing ability. However, even the students of the U.A. High School aren’t immune from being exploited for fan service. Momo Yaoyorozu’s heavily sexualized design is the most obvious example.
7 Kaleido Star
Kaleido Star is a kid-friendly cult classic about an aspiring acrobat Sora’s path to stardom. It's a touching coming-of-age drama seemingly suitable for all ages. Yet, mild fan service has made its way even into such an inoffensive show.
On top of a few needlessly intimate bath scenes and countless revealing costumes that emphasize the heroine’s seductiveness, Kaleido Star also features Fool, a perverted spirit of the stage who never gives up on trying to see Sora and her friends naked. The reluctant fan service of the original show escalates unexpectedly in the OVA Kaleido Star: New Wings Extra Stage, which is noticeably more concerned with the heroines’ attractiveness than the show’s plot.
6 Dragon Ball
The Dragon Ball franchise esponsible for raising an entire generation of anime fans. Like many shonen series that started their run in the ‘80s, Dragon Ball isn’t particularly tasteful when it comes to fan service. Most of it is reduced to harmless gags, usually centered around Master Roshi’s sexual advances toward every attractive woman he encounters.
As a result, most prominent female characters, such as Bulma, Launch, and Chi-Chi, find themselves subjected to his raunchy come-ons. Thankfully, as the series moved on to its more action-heavy plots, the humorous fan service subsided, remaining an easy-to-forget gimmick of early Dragon Ball.
5 Pokémon
When discussing anime infamous for its fan service, Pokémon is the least likely show to come up in the conversation. Unfortunately, even kids’ anime with similarly aged protagonists sexualize their female casts. Beach episodes are a staple of fan service tropes and they are present in almost every season of Pokémon, regardless of if it’s necessary for plot progression.
The girls in Pokémon often get suggestive outfit changes, and some of them, like Dawn from Pokémon the Series, have pretty revealing base costume designs. For a kids’ anime, Pokémon is disturbingly infamous for the massive quantity of erotic fan content it inspires, and the show has some indications of where such fan activity might be coming from.
4 Doraemon
Most fans who watched Doraemon wouldn’t remember it featuring any fan service. The questionable scenes were mostly removed, banned, or censored, and the original version of Doraemon features an unexpected amount of sneaky fan service for such a simple and light-hearted anime.
The target of most raunchy jokes in Doraemon is Shizuka, Nobita Nobi's childhood friend. Her love for bathing is consistently exploited to make Nobita walk in on her. These scenes have no purpose outside of putting Shizuka in compromising situations to tell the overly excited Nobita off.
3 Fairy Tail
A middle-ground shonen in all aspects, including the tropes it utilizes, Fairy Tail goes unexpectedly far with its fan service. Compared to other series aimed at young audiences, Fairy Tail seems too preoccupied with including erotic scenes at every opportunity.
The anime’s female cast is put into compromising situations in almost every episode, be it for humor or simply to flaunt the series’ seductive character designs. Lucy, Erza, and every other girl in the show are drawn specifically to accentuate their attractiveness, which allures fans.
2 Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
The martial arts anime Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has every element that might entice kids – dynamic action, lighthearted comedy, and vibrant, adventurous characters. Yet, the series' portrayal of women doesn’t line up with its kid-friendly aspects. Starting with the hero’s love interest Miu and getting more explicit with other female side characters, the show sexualizes every girl it features, deliberately dressing them in revealing, skin-tight outfits and drawing attention to their curvaceous figures.
Being the most prominent female character in the series, Miu is used for fan service the most, with countless scenes depicting her partially undressed, clad in ripped scraps of clothes, or conveniently flashing the audience.
1 One Piece
The standing king of the shonen genre, One Piece is enjoyed by kids and adults alike, with countless adult fans citing it as the series that got their generation hooked on shonen anime. Famous for its diverse character designs, One Piece doesn’t showcase as much variety with its female cast, who mostly look identically alluring to be easily exploited for fan service.
The unattainably thin and shapely heroines of One Piece have been subjected to relentless criticism, as well as the characters who shamelessly prey on them. Yet, while One Piece features over-the-top fan service, it never takes away from the excellent character development of the show’s female cast.
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