I sort of went over services in general, so I hope you understand how I use the same idea here is rational, in that it is rational to pander. It is a no brainer that there is a maid bloom over at Akiba, and it is not really news–it’s just an obvious trend. People squirm, either in displeasure or euphoria, for whatever reason, at the obviousness of it all. In the grand scheme of things, it’s very Japanese.
Looking back at Black Lagoon, it is a rather Hellsing-esqe series where the key difference is only in the original concept. As much as it doesn’t look it, Black Lagoon has some kind of core, character-driven story idea behind it; Hellsing only gives us that initial setup which carries it until the mangaka figures out something better and more interesting later on.
What do I mean by Helling-esqe anyways? Cool action, old school wetworking? Maybe. Badasses, girls with guns? Lots of other stuff have that too. In as much as ink is black and most manga are inked, the paintbrush of what is cool and what are services to the audience is really broad, after you’ve been at it for a while.
In that sense, it makes Black Lagoon the anime so much sharper and powerful than Hellsing the anime. Re-scrambling, we now have the Hellsing OAV which recaptures what was euphoric about that delightful coolness which surrounds the manga series. I am guessing that was the difference.
Perhaps it is good to step back and realize that a good story is still the bedrock foundation of good telling of stories? I’m not a big fan of calligraphy, but to me that’s high art; yet the same ink, the same words, the same people use the same tools to communicate the most mundane things. No matter if you’re a doujinshi artist, a race queen, or MAKO doing a sitcom skit over the internet, it’s the same rationale going forth. Without that bedrock, it’s just spilling ink in vain.
Where fanservice intersects with narrative, there is hope, love, faith for the genre and goodness. Anime is now Japanese, omo gets excited, money exchanges hands, blog posts written. Lesser is when a story exist in vacuum–it becomes something you google up, and maybe read once, or hear others retell it better. Worse is when fanservice exists in a vacuum: it’s pornographic, cheap, boring, and beneath notice.
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