Anime fans’ biggest fear, besides their favorite show going on hiatus, is someone else walking into the room at the wrong time. Before the great shift, people outside of anime culture could usually only piece together a few thoughts about anime: “Kamehameha,” “Goku,” “Naruto,” “Super Saiyan,” “Boobs,” and “Tentacle P*rn.” Nothing more, nothing less.

These days, things are a bit different. Anime has become huge in the West. Several companies are investing in the industry, including Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Burger King, Lego, Puma, Vans, Fortnite, the MLB, the NFL, and that’s just to name a few.

The current crop of Shonen manga is leaning away from the traditional usage of fan service (sexually suggestive or explicit scenes, such as views of nude or scantily clad characters, that are included primarily to titillate the audience). Finally, Western anime fans may be able to enjoy their favorite shows without the fear of looking like complete creeps in front of guests (at least Shonen fans).

Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece — known as “The Big 3” — are famous for featuring big-breasted heroines. Of course, having big breasts or showing some skin doesn’t necessarily equal sexualization. It’s the context that makes it fan service. For example, Naruto’s “Sexy Jutsu,” which he uses to transform himself into a naked woman, is explicitly designed to titillate his opponent and, by extension, the audience. Yes, Naruto had a jutsu dedicated entirely to fan service. The controversial move even inspired videos years later.

Bleach is notorious for its breast-first approach to depicting women. The creator, Tite Kubo, has even inspired jokes about the pronunciation of his name. The official pronunciation is “Ti-te,” but the humorous pronunciation is “Ti-tay” due to the voluptuous figures he has drawn over the years. The most famous example is his character Orihime Inoue, who is only 15–17 years old.

However, it’s not exclusive to her. Yoruichi is famous for her pose on all fours, which has yet to be animated.

One Piece may be the worst offender when it comes to female body image. Eiichiro Oda has been criticized in the past for his lack of variety in female body types. In One Piece, women generally fall into one of two categories: perfect hourglass or super-sized. There is rarely an in-between. Despite the copious amounts of skin shown, One Piece doesn’t feature much sexual suggestion.

The closest thing is the occasional pervy moment from Sanji, but those never go too far. Oda even researched butts to draw “erotic” ones for the Egghead arc, which features the majority of the female characters in panties. All these years, the fan service has been purposeful. However, the current crop of shonen writers is tackling fan service differently.

Jujutsu Kaisen, the best-selling media franchise in Japan for 2024, features little to no traditional fan service. One could count on one hand the amount of fan service in the series. The most notable example is in Volume 12, where Mei Mei graces the cover, partially nude with part of her breasts showing. That is the most vulgar the series gets, which is tame compared to stories like One Piece, where such exposure is common on a chapter-by-chapter basis.

Gege Akutami’s female characters all wear extremely conservative outfits, with one exception: Uro, who appears in the upcoming Culling Games arc, is completely naked and uses the sky to cover her most private parts when necessary. Besides her, every other woman is fully covered.

There are no boobs flying out during fights or sexually suggestive scenes. The closest thing to that is the controversial, incestually suggestive scene between Mei Mei and her younger brother, Ui Ui, which creeped out fans near the end of the Shibuya arc.

In fact, there is more skin shown by the men in Jujutsu Kaisen than by the women, by a wide margin.

• Sukuna, the main antagonist, is notorious for ripping off his shirt and showing off his intense tattoos.
• Todo rips off his shirt and flexes his muscles in every fight.
• Hanami is seen exclusively shirtless.
• Mahito is also known to ditch his clothes.
• Yuji loses his shirt at the end of the Shibuya arc.

• Choso shows off his chiseled abs during his fight with Yuji.
• Dagon loses his clothes after evolving.
• Naobito gets his shirt ripped off by flying fish.
• Not even Mahoraga wears a shirt.
• Geto has a shower scene in the flashback arc where he’s completely nude.
• To top it all off, the objectively most beautiful person in the series is Gojo Satoru.

I call this phenomenon “man service.” It’s when the fan service of a series primarily aimed at men is more male-oriented.

Another hot series right now is Dandadan. If you’ve only seen the first season, you might think this series is full of fan service. However, as someone who has read ahead and caught up with the manga, I can assure you that is not the case.

Even during Season 1, there was man service to balance out the blatant fan service.

• Momo gets stripped down to her underwear, and then Okarun strips down to his underwear to give her his clothes.
• During the second Serpoian attack, Momo and Aira strip down at the end, but it’s Okarun who is completely nude the entire time.
• In the Season 2 trailer, Okarun is seen shirtless.
• There’s also another shirtless man shown from a downward POV.

Kagurabachi began its run in Weekly Shonen Jump on September 17, 2023. With 1.3 million copies sold, it still features absolutely no traditional fan service. The closest thing is Sojo rising from a bathtub, exposing his bare bottom. There’s another scene with Sojo naked, sitting on a stool, which also shows his bum.

Both instances are man service.

Most characters in Kagurabachi are covered head-to-toe in elaborate outfits. The main character sports a trench coat with a sweater underneath and presumably a shirt under that. 

Many of the female characters can only be differentiated from men by dialogue, eyelashes, long hair, or the fact that they wear heels. 

There are absolutely no boobs in Kagurabachi — not even curves. With the series positioned to be the future of the magazine, its lack of fan service is telling of a trend: busty babes aren’t needed to captivate fans.

I have no statistics to back up my claim that fan service is out and man service is in, but as an avid manga consumer — and someone who even hosts a podcast dedicated to the craft — I can see a shift happening.

I’m not entirely sure what’s causing this change, but if I had to guess, I’d say it might be tied to Japan having the world’s most rapidly declining population.

Perhaps physical attraction isn’t as much of a selling point anymore, or maybe mangakas are simply less interested in drawing suggestive content. Whatever the reason, the West thanks you.

Subscribe to us on YouTube for more content – Weekend Weebs Youtube

Follow Our Podcast for weekly content – Weekend Weebs Podcast