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Mr. Fanservice

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"You know, it's really not fair. You've been dead for six months and you still look better than me."
Frohike to Mulder, The X-Files ("Three Words")

The Spear Counterpart of Ms. Fanservice, Mr. Fanservice provides similar eye candy for viewers who are into men. It can be an effective way to bring in female viewers, even in a series directed towards males.

In order for a man to qualify as Mr. Fanservice, just being attractive isn't enough. He needs to be shown in scenes intended as sexual fanservice. He can have anything between muscular limbs, broad shoulders and/or sculpted abs (between six-packs and eight-packs). The muscles can be either lean or chiseled; as long as you can see them, they count. He may also have long hair though it's not required. Most of the time, he has medium length hair, a swimmer's build, a smooth chiseled chest, washboard abs and no shirt on. However, if he's wearing a shirt, it's usually sleeveless or left totally unbuttoned.

He tends to be subjected to at least one Shirtless Scene, or he can take it a step further by deciding to forgo a shirt all the time—though a Mr. Fanservice can also have zero shirtless scenes. In the Beach Episode his choice of swimwear is likely to be a speedo (AKA swim briefs). Just like his aforementioned counterpart, he can wear tight clothing, which shows off his body without baring skin. He may wear a midriff-baring shirt, but it's rare because Bare Midriffs Are Feminine. He can wear anything (or nothing, that works too), as long as these clothes accentuate or reveal his muscles. In an action-driven story, glimpses of his physical assets may also be accomplished via clothing damage. If he wears some sort of skirt-like garment the female fans will be prone to ask if he wears anything underneath it. He can also gender invert the Reluctant Fanservice Girl, Shameless Fanservice Girl, and Innocent Fanservice Girl tropes.

An especially easy way to show off his figure would be through the Workout Fanservice, where he flexes his muscles via exercising. Hot Men at Work is when Mr. Fanservice is, well, at work, but distinctly lacking a shirt, regardless of health and safety issues. Bonus points if he's The Charmer. If he wears small underwear, you have Briefs Boasting.

It should be noted that the trope is not necessarily restricted to Hunk type characters either. Bishōnen and pretty boys can easily qualify as well, and are often intended as fanservice too (particularly in manga and anime, where they are rather common and video games, where they are not as common with some notable exceptions). A rarer type of the pretty boy subseries is the Biseinen - a Hunk but with the pretty face of a Bishonen. Biseinen are often unemotional but can still appear in comedic situations which can overlap with the gender-inverted Reluctant Fanservice Girl.

Either way, the camera seems to have the hots for him, and the viewing audience is expected to feel the same way. While the way a Mr. Fanservice is presented often comes across as sexist, there is nothing inherently wrong with the trope itself; the real trick is to give him a genuine, fleshed-out personality beyond being eye candy, instead of having him exist solely as a Flat Character. (Besides, being "flat" usually doesn't fit this type of character.) If the Mr. Fanservice has a particularly cruel personality (usually a villain), he also qualifies for Fan Disservice.

Because Most Writers Are Male who believe the majority of their audiences are also male, Mr. Fanservice is subjected to multiple Double Standard tropes in his favor compared to his female counterpart; he isn't subjected to as much scrutiny from the Moral Guardians who believe that All Men Are Perverts but not that All Women Are Lustful (neither generalization is true), and he tends to avoid falling victim to Best Known for the Fanservice. However, in recent years more people have at least become aware that a sexually appealing woman is no more or less problematic than a sexually appealing man, in fiction.

See also Eating the Eye Candy, Cast Full of Pretty Boys, and Bishōnen Jump Syndrome which can sometimes be the reason for its existence.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • Both lampshaded and played straight at the same time in this Old Spice commercial on Isaiah "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Mustafa.
  • The entire purpose of the Netflix commercial Show, Don't Tell. Judging by the reaction to it on the internet, it's very effective.
  • This Breast Cancer awareness ad specifically says, "If women are more likely to watch a video featuring a hot guy..."
  • Johann in the Gevalia Coffee ads.
  • Kraft had a series of commercials for their salad dressings that featured actor Anderson Davis. He would talk seductively about cooking, the camera focused routinely on his biceps and butt, and he almost never makes it through a single commercial without losing all his clothes from the waist up (and possibly down; unfortunately, we never get to see). The commercials have all been included on one Youtube video for our convenience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-RFCM5QoOI
  • Hefty trash bags took John Cena's Mr. Fanservice status from his professional wrestling career and ran with it.
  • One ad campaign for Diet Coke featured a group of female office workers eagerly anticipating "break time," wherein they would flock to a window overlooking a construction site and watch as, in slow motion, a hunky, sweaty construction worker would go on break, peeling off his shirt and drinking his Diet Coke, apparently oblivious to all the spectators Eating the Eye Candy above him.
  • Model-turned actor Evan Evagora (who portrayed Elnor on Star Trek: Picard) was once bare-chested for a 2018 Australian commercial.

    Fan Works 
  • The Bolt Chronicles: An In-Universe example occurs in "The Baseball Game," by which time Bolt and Mittens have become a romantic couple. When Penny dresses the dog in a baseball cap and jersey, Mittens finds him even more attractive than usual — sufficiently so that she comes on strongly to Bolt and they dash off for a lovemaking session.
    Mittens: Y'know, they're right. There really is something about a guy in uniform, isn't there?
  • A Dance on the Mats: Anon is described as being made of muscle, due to being a trained and skilled fighter. Applejack at one point muses that Rainbow loses her friendly spars with Anon because she was distracted by his muscles.
  • In Euro Spy, we have a very handsome Hungarian spy named Gabor. He attracts many girls.
  • The author of Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità sure went out of her way to describe Italy dressed as Sailor Moon.
  • In My Huntsman Academia, Izuku's toned and cut muscles (which are frequently covered up by his choice of clothing) are frequently discussed among his female friends. His chiseled six-pack abs get special attention, but he's also said to have solid pecs, bulging arms, and a nice tush that you wouldn't expect from a mousy guy like him. At one point, he decides to prank Yang by flashing his abs at her in a photo booth, only to find that she's utterly mesmerized by them until he snaps her out of it. Yang even brings this up when Team MNVW and Team TABY ask her to stop staring at Izuku so much.
    Yang: Okay, fair, but can any of you actually blame me? [all the girls go silent and Yang nods approvingly]
  • Not the intended use (Zantetsuken Reverse): This trope is discussed when Soma complains about how hard it is to swim with his Badass Longcoat on. Mina's response it to take it ALL off.
    Mina: Go kill monsters wet and shirtless. Fulfill some fangirl's dreams. And take pictures while you're at it.
    Soma: If you want to see shirtless guys, Naoki's always up for it.
  • Vale's Underground:
    • Lie Ren gets a rather detailed description of what he looks like when he's wearing only boxer briefs. And Nora says she likes it because it helps "advertise the merchandise" — said "merchandise" is noted to be eight inches (something the writer admits isn't really relevant to the plot but couldn't help but admit).
    • Mercury Black gets a bit of this as well. His described muscular figure and his apparent status as a Sex God certainly help with that.
    • Sun Wukong still reprises his role as this in canon after Chapter 18. When he visits Yang, she is practically drooling over the sight of his abs.

    Tabletop Games 
  • D&D 3e had Hennet the sorcerer, who ran around with his sinewy tattooed chest exposed.
  • Mutant Chronicles: The official art of Nick Michaels. A Tall, Dark, and Handsome man with long black hair and a pouty Troubled, but Cute expression, wearing a kilt, and a leather jacket with nothing beneath to better show off his rippling abs. Which fanservice buttons have we not pushed?
    • Pathfinder continues Hennet's proud tradition with Sajan the monk and Seltyiel the magus, who both happily expose their toned abs at every opportunity.
  • Scion has Eric Donner right on the cover, a red-headed, muscular demigod with extensive tattoos. His pictures in the book (especially his character portrait) usually depict him as shirtless.
  • Most, if not all of the Primarchs of Warhammer 40,000 are described as being extremely handsome individuals, if you can get over the fact that they're about twice your height; Sanguinius and Fulgrim are especially, with both being described as beautiful to the point of severe distraction. Their father, the Emperor of Mankind, is supposed to be the embodiment of the perfect human- although to call him 'intimidating' could be putting it lightly... And he's very, very old. And above such things.

    Theatre 

    Visual Novels 
  • Adastra features a few, being a Bara furry Visual Novel where a total of 2 main characters actually have a shirt on.
    • The "main attraction" himself, Amicus is a very muscular Big Beautiful Man wearing nothing but a shoulder cape, which covers nothing but half a pectoral, and very tight denim pants that do nothing but accentuate his bulge. This being a Furry Visual Novel, he also happens to be a large humanoid wolf whose cute and funny expression bring even more appeal to the mix.
    • Neferu is such a Shameless Fanservice Guy that, in a story full of shirtless men, he manages to be the person with the least amount of clothes on in any scene he's in, if he has any on. This allows him to show off almost every inch of his physique, which is muscular and, unlike the chub on the other guys, is absolutely chiseled, all while still being curvy on the lower half. Neferu's tendency for flirting most any time certainly helps.
    • Contributing to this VN reaching the Big Beautiful Man quota, Cato shares Amicus' muscular build and also has quite the gut on him, with the added potential appeal of being a Silver Fox. Unfortunately, Cato later devolves into a Mr. Fan Disservice when he turns out to be horribly disfigured under his visor...and that's the least of what makes him repulsive as he's also a complete psychopath on the inside and tries to forcefully marry the much younger Virginia.
  • Amorous is an erotic dating simulator for Furries, with a nude setting to boot, so of course it has its share:
    • The bird Coby is the robust Flirty Step-Brother to the protagonist and has a very voluptuous figure.
    • The cat Seth is an Adorkable Twink who turns out to have a decently manly, but still curvy build.
    • The lion Dustin is muscular, chiseled, stylish and very frisky.
    • The dragon Zenith is The Big Guy, a Gentle Giant and easily the most muscular character in the whole Visual Novel, with his abdomen being just slightly chubby enough to be an appealing dad bod. The shirt he wears is obviously too small for him and hides nothing of what's underneath.
    • The gecko-chameleon hybrid Jax has a very voluptuous frame and he's also the bartender to an erotic club, so of course he dresses in a very Stripperific manner with nothing but a waistcoat and a thong.
    • The dog Lex is non-binary, but, depending on the player's choice, they'll either function as this or as a Ms. Fanservice.
  • Echo:
    • Leo Alvarez is a tall, muscular and confident red wolf who's also got a bit of a dad bod. His clothes certainly help with how tight they are, as protagonist Chase describes how much Leo's shirt compliments his large biceps while his pants have a noticeable bulge to them.
    • Flynn Moore is slightly less approachable with his Perpetual Frowner lizard face, but is also a tall, robust man whose shirt is always half unbuttoned on the front. Fan Disservice kicks in as him and Carl jokingly discuss the former's reptile genitalia and also when we see the depraved meetings Flynn attends.
    • For those who prefer Twinks, there's the lynx TJ Hess, who is sensitive, friendly and The Cutie and is smaller and slimmer than the other characters. However, TJ is still an athlete, and is very much fit and even somewhat chiseled the few times we get to see him in just his underwear.
  • Far Beyond the World is similar to Adastra above in how hard-pressed you'd be to find a fully-clothed male character:
    • Ranok is the humanoid wolf that protagonist Caelan (and, in theory, the reader) ends up falling for, and his kindness, skills and bravery aren't the only reasons. He is the definition of manly, looking svelte but also huge, with muscles befitting a marble sculpture and, being the protagonist's roommate, more underwear and naked scenes than any other character. To Caelan's dismay (and joy), Ranok will often use his good looks to tease him and his Big Ol' Eyebrows are basically a character of their own.
    • One of the reasons Ranok manages to look svelte despite being covered in a lot of muscles is that he's often right alongside his friend Vulgor, who manages to be even larger and more muscular than Ranok, and by a lare margin too, with much a more rugged appearance to boot. The fact Vulgor's good looks are matched with a wrathful personality bordering on Psychopathic Manchild is probably intended as Fan Disservice more than anything, but you'd be surprised just how many of the fans actually don't mind it at all that Vulgor would strangle them with no hesitation...yeah...
    • Those more into Silver Foxes and Big Beautiful Men have the muscular Vithyr, whose shoulder cape doesn't hide his pectorals and abdomen which are in the process of becoming a gut and, looking down, you'll probably wonder how blood can flow through his legs when his pants are that tight.
    • The wolves' village is, again, filled to the brim with muscular, shirtless Proud Warrior Race Guys, to the point where even Tano, considered by others to be a runt, could probably down a lot of real life body builders.
    • When it comes to more Twinkey male characters, concept art depicts the human protagonist Caelan with a fit physique, and the bunny Tryst, who looks muscular but is surrounded by men (and even some women) who make his figure look downright feminine. then there's a wolf even runtier than Tano, the slender Talisin, who is implied to be liked by the Bisexual Erof for this reason.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry: Keiichi. Aside from his various… interesting (and quite exploitative) outfits, he gets a now-quite-infamous Guy on Guy Is Hot scene between him and Satoshi in the Kira OVA, which is drooled over In-Universe by the female cast. Apparently, his dad is also one in the manga.
  • Lyre is a furry, queer Visual Novel feauturing the anthropomorphic wolf Lyall Reed, captain of the royal guards. He is big, muscular and gets more than one scene to fully show it off along with his manhood and buttocks, to the joy of the main character. Add this to the fact that he is as fluffy and adorable as a wolf warrior with a scar over his eye could ever look and you can see why he's the Visual Novel's de facto mascot.
    • The human main protagonist himself, Richter (or whatever the reader chose to call him), gets more chances to show off his good looks than most Visual Novel POV characters do. He has chiseled facial features, a nice tanned skintone, a stubble and long hair he often keeps tied up. when it comes to his phisique, he's fit and decently hairy, to the point where he at one point contemplates how attractive he is in a mirror and his eventual boyfriend Lyall certainly agrees he looks stunning. A testament to how handsome Richter is is the fact that, even after weeks of imprisonment in a miserable cell and, later, days of actual torture, the man manages to come out of it still being an attractive kind of rugged.
  • Minotaur Hotel: Once he's fully healed, Asterion is a big muscular bull-man that you can see naked whenever you're deciding his clothes, and although he cannot wander the hotel naked, he's willing (or not) to wear some more fanservice-y outfits later on in the game. Luke and Storm are also no slouches in that department.

    Web Original 
  • Exploitation video reviewer The Cine-Masochist is tall, muscular and handsome, wears tight fitting t shirts (and one time wore one made of MESH), wore heavy eyeliner on more than one occasion and most recently had a gratuitous shirtless scene as "Random Naked Serbian Indian", implying that he was completely nude.
  • Killer from the fanfic Crossover Chaos gets turned into this after the first Time Skip in v1. Jamie from the same story also applies, and that overlaps with Silver Fox. Also overlaps with Author Appeal for both of them.
  • Quinn from Demo Reel. Most of his scenes consisted of him in the background, half-dressed, showing off his muscled arms and snarking in an Irish accent.
    • Speaking of well-muscled, Tacoma was a fit black man with camera-focused long eyelashes, a ridiculous amount of flirting back with Donnie, and spent his his last couple of episodes in a Belle dress that demonstrated how nice his shoulders were.
    • Donnie DuPre. Wears a lot of t-shirts that show off his arms, gets objectified by Carl's camera to make a Male Gaze point, wears eyeliner and lipstick without making a fuss, asks for slash from the fandom, uses his best physical traits to get what he wants and the people who he hits on are mostly other men. Oh, and did we mention he's also a Fantine-level woobie sweetheart?
  • Leonidas from Epic Rap Battles of History. Much like in the movie he was based on, he's a Tall, Dark, and Snarky muscular man who is a Walking Shirtless Scene. The same can be said for Shaka Zulu.
  • Bladezz from The Guild, especially in the music video. In-universe, he's even a model.
  • Hazbin Hotel:
    • Angel Dust is a Pretty Boy, flirts with everyone he finds attractive, dresses in short shorts, shows off a lot of cleavage, and even dresses in sexy clothes while dancing as a stripper. This is part of his job.
    • Alastor is the radio demon with attractive looks such as a slim handsome face with big eyes, a sly grin, shoulder length hair, and a snazzy suit. He’s also quite charismatic with a interesting voice and true Creepy Awesome form.
  • Hero House has He-man, who is treated as this in-universe.
  • Corin Deeth the III of Kakos Industries falls neatly into this category for his wonderfully deep voice alone though it's what he says and how he says it that has drawn in more than a few admires within and beyond the show. Even the official website describes him of "sounding dreamy".
  • Jonas Wharton from lonelygirl15, an orphaned Lonely Rich Kid hero who appears shirtless regularly with little provocation.
  • The Nostalgia Critic will frequently get shirtless, is a Wholesome Crossdresser occasionally, be the Reluctant Fanservice Boy when he's made to by other people, has given blowjobs to joysticks and is the master of The Immodest Orgasm.
  • Many of the leads of Pretty Dudes, namely Sunji and Ellington, though Jay and Alexander have their moments depending on the episode.
  • Random Assault: Most photographs of Matt have him naked or topless at the very least.
  • The React series have Tom, Labib, the original Jake, Shant, Ethan James, Kostas, and Eric, who are all very nice to look at and will occasionally turn up in vests or very short sleeved t-shirts. In a particular example, 90% of the comments on the Outlast series draw attention to Tom's good-looks.
  • Blaine Gibson is Rooster Teeth's resident Hot Guy, as he never passes up the opportunity to show off his jacked body, including his official 2020 company portrait. In fact, before he was officially hired, he was known to the community as "The Hot Intern". His character in Eleven Little Roosters is obsessed with being one.
  • Sun Wukong of RWBY. Monty has stated that only one word was used to describe Sun to the concept artists: ABS. Also, his pose on his valentine. When his team is introduced to the crowd at the tournament, someone can be seen holding up a placard of his chest, with a heart-shape surrounding his abs.
  • Anthony of Smosh gets way more shirtless scenes than Ian, and is often the one who crossdresses and wears tight skimpy outfits in most of the videos.
    • Around 2015, Shayne became the new Mr Fanservice, especially after Anthony's departure.
  • Carlos the Scientist from Welcome to Night Vale is an in-universe example; we never actually see him (because it's a sound-only series) but most characters who do see him generally treat him like a Living Aphrodisiac, most notably Cecil (who borders on being a Stalker with a Crush up until he and Carlos become an item) and Old Woman Josie (who gushes over Carlos' perfection along with Cecil).
    • Cecil Baldwin (the voice of in-universe Cecil Palmer) once suggested that Carlos would look something like a "Brazilian supermodel".

 
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Alternative Title(s): Guy Candy, Estrogen Brigade Bait, Manservice

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Han Cho Bai is the best

In his first scene we learn that he dresses well, carries an impressive array of personal weapons, is very fit and comfortable with nudity, is well versed in protocol, has origami skills, and can kill you with a piece of paper if you're dumb enough to hand him one.

How well does it match the trope?

4.9 (10 votes)

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