Despite being most commonly associated with action-heavy, protagonist-centric plots, shonen anime has long demonstrated its aptitude for more light-hearted elements. However, despite the breadth of material covered by the genre, one aspect remains a constant throughout the vast majority of its titles: fan service.

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Although various anime titles frequently include fan service, a few select shonen series stand out as being particularly heavy-handed with their usage. Anime watchers haven't positively received the employment of the concept, yet for some series, it has become an integral part of their overall experience. For better or for worse, these shonen anime are infamous for their commitment to pandering to their audiences.

Updated on April 28, 2023, by Kennedy King: Fan service remains as big a part of the shonen genre as ever, and as a result, each passing year brings forth a new crop of anime that rely on various overused tropes. While many of these series are justified in their popularity, they're still guilty of participating in one of the genre's most unsavory practices.

15 Demon Slayer (2019)

Total Episodes: 47 (Ongoing)

In virtually every regard, Demon Slayer is wonderfully produced — the show's visual quality and storytelling approach set the standard for the modern generation of shonen anime. However, there are still plenty of instances where the series takes a moment to partake in some out-of-place fan service.

Demon Slayer's protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, is almost always respectful towards women, but a few females — namely Daki and Mitsuri Kanroji — are regularly over-sexualized. While this makes some sense in the case of Daki, who works as a prostitute, the show's obsession with showing off the body of Mitsuri Kanroji is fairly over-the-top.

14 Naruto (2002)

Total Episodes: 720

Naruto helped establish many of shonen anime's most common tropes, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the series also paved the way for fan service. Jiraiya, also known as the Pervy Sage, might be the best-known example, but Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden are full of scenes and characters that push the boundaries.

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In addition to Jiraiya, Naruto, and Konohamaru also spawn plenty of fan service, due in large part to their infamous technique, Sexy Jutsu. The jutsu even appears during the climactic battle against Kaguya at the end of Naruto: Shippuden — much to the chagrin of many fans.

13 My Hero Academia (2016)

Total Episodes: 138 (Ongoing)

Compared to most popular shonen, My Hero Academia is relatively tame regarding fan service. However, while the element is compartmentalized to minor characters like Camie and Midnight, it still pops up with enough regularity that it's hard to ignore.

Since Midnight works as a teacher at U.A. High School, her BDSM theme appears in over 40 episodes throughout the series. This and Himiko Toga's nudity-related gag and Mt. Lady's overemphasized disproportionality are clear examples of My Hero Academia's reliance on one of shonen's most common tropes.

12 Black Clover (2017)

Total Episodes: 170 (On-Hiatus)

The Black Clover anime is currently on hiatus, but the series' stock has never been higher. With a feature-length film set to debut in June 2023 and the final saga of the manga currently in production, fans can expect a heavy dose of Clover Kingom-related content in the near future.

However, along with new Black Clover material comes the inevitable sexualization of its female characters. Vanessa, the Black Bulls' Thread Magic user, spends most of the series in her undergarments, but she's far from the only witch depicted in this manner. The series includes several gratuitous bath scenes and questionable character designs that, while brief, sometimes take away from the show's narrative.

11 Dragon Ball (1986)

Total Episodes: 153 (Complete)

The Dragon Ball franchise is easily the most storied in shonen history. It played a major role in the genre's development since the mid-80s, and in the eyes of many, it also helped inspire an entire generation of gags relating to fan service.

Given the series' age, some of Dragon Ball's fan service scenes — most of which relate to Master Roshi — would definitely be deemed inappropriate by modern standards. Bulma is only 16 years old when she first encounters Goku, but she's regularly made the target of Roshi's inappropriate inclinations. Even though Dragon Ball usually punishes him anytime he oversteps her boundaries, the series was smart to deemphasize his distasteful gimmick in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.

10 Bleach (2004)

Total Episodes: 379 (Ongoing)

As one of anime's "Big 3," Bleach once vied for the title of "world's most popular shonen"; however, after it went on hiatus in 2012, the show quickly lost steam, resulting in a production break that lasted just over a decade. Thankfully, it's slated to return in October 2022 and will finally cover Ichigo Kurasaki's final act: the Thousand-Year Blood War arc.

Given Bleach's original release date, it only follows suit that the series would feature large amounts of fan service. Its voluptuous character designs, sexually-charged novelty characters, and hilarious filler scenes — beach episode included — are all reminiscent of a not-so-distant era.

9 Sword Art Online (2012)

Total Episodes: 49 (Complete)

Produced by A-1 Pictures (the studio behind Fairy Tail, The Seven Deadly Sins, and countless others), Sword Art Online quickly rose to fame following its release in 2012. With a great concept, beautiful art, and a pleasant overall tone, it won over mainstream fans and cemented itself as one of the most popular anime of the 2010s.

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Despite Sword Art Online's popularity, the series is not without fault, suffering from a trope plot, boring characters, and over-the-top fan service. The series has struggled to retain the fans it earned from the initial pop surrounding its release.

8 To LOVE-Ru (2008)

Total Episodes: 38 (Complete)

Rarely does a shonen anime series come under fire for its explicit nature, but that is precisely the case for To LOVE-Ru. Technically denoted as a harem anime, this lewd title presents itself as a light-hearted adventure in which its main character, Rito Yuuki, attempts to navigate his accidental engagement to a freshly-landed alien.

The authors of To LOVE-Ru admitted that they wanted to test the boundaries of what would be allowed in a shonen manga — consequently, To LOVE-Ru became their vessel for this experimentation. Its hastily cobbled-together plot simply serves as a medium for what is quite possibly the most gratuitous fan service in the entire genre.

7 Highschool Of The Dead (2010)

Total Episodes: 12 (Complete)

Highschool of the Dead combines two fairly standard tropes of anime storytelling: zombies and unbelievably capable high school students. The series, released by Madhouse, revolves around teenagers Takashi Komuro and Rei Miyamoto as they attempt to adapt to the rapidly collapsing society around them.

Despite the grave circumstances of Highschool of the Dead's characters, the series still carves out plenty of time to provide its audience with obligatory fan service. For fans of guns, busty women, and zombie apocalypses, this title should be more than up their alley.

6 Fairy Tail (2009)

Total Episodes: 328 (Complete)

Fairy Tail is representative of the trends used in shonen media — perhaps more than any other show in the genre. The derivative series doesn't necessarily suffer from a lack of originality — its enjoyable cast of characters helps with that — but it doesn't pave any new ground, either.

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Fan service has long been a prominent aspect of shonen, so it's only natural that it would be frequently utilized in Fairy Tail. Lucy, Erza, and the series' other female characters are subjected to a variety of suggestive gags on an episode-by-episode basis, especially during scenes that include Erza's ability to magically (and scantily) change her armor.

5 Soul Eater (2008)

Total Episodes: 51 (Complete)

Almost every single shonen released in the late 2000s includes some sort of consistent fan service — 2008's Soul Eater is no exception. A product of the Bones animation studio, this action/comedy was heralded for its jovial tone and stylish aesthetic. It combines Bleach's urban art style and more cartoonish designs akin to series like Shaman King.

Soul Eater is geared towards a slightly younger demographic than more serious shonen, resulting in a similar, juvenile sexualization of its female characters compared to light-hearted series like Fairy Tail. Many of these scenes are focused on Blair, the show's adorable cat witch, and although they don't necessarily hold the show back, they are overwhelmingly present.

4 The Seven Deadly Sins (2014)

Total Episodes: 100 (Complete)

A-1 Pictures has proven its penchant for anime that heavily rely on fan service, but out of everything the company has worked on, The Seven Deadly Sins may be its most egregiously guilty title. The series was initially well-received after being announced as Netflix's second exclusive anime. However, production issues surrounding its third season were only accentuated by the hyper-sexualization of its female characters, resulting in the series falling out of favor with a decent portion of fans.

Meliodas, the protagonist of The Seven Deadly Sins, frequently gropes his love interest, Elizabeth, to an uncomfortable degree — throw in the show's proclivity for objectifying its giant female, Diane, and the result is a hyper-masculine shell of a series that can't help but shoot itself in the foot.

3 Food Wars! (2015)

Total Episodes: 86 (Complete)

Food Wars! is among the most eccentric anime to be released in the last ten years, blending comedy, cooking, and loads of fan service into one neat shonen package. Its narrative centers around Souma Yukihara, a sous chef determined to reach the pinnacle of culinary prowess.

While Food Wars!'s emphasis on cooking may be uncommon for the shonen genre, its dogged commitment to absolutely outrageous fan service is not. The show is no stranger to promiscuous character designs, but what reinforces its absurdity are its characters' borderline-orgasmic reactions after tasting various dishes.

2 Fire Force (2019)

Total Episodes: 48 (Ongoing)

Released by David Production, the studio behind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fire Force received solid reviews upon its release in 2019. It quickly capitalized on this success with another well-regarded season in 2020, establishing its main character, Shinra Kusakabe, as one of the torchbearers of the new generation.

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Arguably the most dated part of Fire Force is its determined commitment to including fan service. Tamaki, a prominent secondary character, is afflicted with what she calls "Lucky Lecher Lure Syndrome," which more or less amounts to her frequently ending up in wardrobe malfunctions — not so lucky, depending on who is asked.

1 One Piece (1999)

Total Episodes: 1059 (Ongoing)

One Piece is soon to hit 25 years of syndication, and despite the long-awaited conclusion of the Wano arc, author Eiichiro Oda is showing no signs of slowing down. The endgame for Monkey D. Luffy and his crew may be just around the corner, but with seemingly unavoidable stops at Elbaf, Lodestar Island, Laugh Tale, and (potentially) God Valley, who knows when the series will actually draw to a close.

Although One Piece doesn't ever commit to the more gratuitous, sexually charged scenes that are present in some other series, its female character models are perhaps the most fan service-oriented of any major shonen. Impossibly curvy and disproportionately slender, Oda's approach to drawing women only became more exaggerated post-time-skip.

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