For most of the animated adaptation and Himura’s early comics on Twitter, the focus is on a large-breasted high schooler known to the viewer/reader as Ai-chan and an unnamed salaryman, our perspective character. Outside visuals, the storylines of Tawawa also serve to diminish its sexiness – at least to an ordinary viewer. Thought is the inherent problem with Tawawa’s attempts at sexual fanservice. Thought is time diverted away from a reflexive aroused response, as well as an avenue for an image to be conceived in other ways outside of being sexy. Ultimately, this image and much of the sexual fanservice in Tawawa requires more thought in order to be erotic. Compared to the seductive pose of Himejima in Figure 2, the linkage between image and sensuality is weaker. Even so, this requires the viewer to automatically sexualise this innocuous image.
The male viewer has to replace the card scanner with himself, before imagining the sensation of his skin being pressed by the female character’s large breasts. Compared to the eyecatch from High School DxD, more effort is required to make this image erotic. Here we have a large-breasted office worker scanning her office pass by pushing her chest against a card scanner. Figure 3 is a generally representative image of how Tawawa depicts fanservice, both animated and in its comic format. The problem with Tawawa is that the fanservice it provides is not reflexively erotic for the viewer. Ideally, sexual fanservice merely latches onto what the viewers finds erotic and provides a sexually gratifying image to the viewer.įigure 3: A screenshot from the first OVA of the animated adaptation of Getsuyoubi no Tawawa No additional thought is required by the viewer. The presentation of sexual fanservice prompts the viewer to form a sexual image. This, in essence, is how sexual fanservice operates in anime. The thought of nudity – along with her suggestive facial expression – thus arouses the male viewer and allows sexual fantasies with Himejima to develop within the viewer’s mind. From her sultry expression to the exposure of most of her skin to the viewer, it is readily apparent that Himejima is one disrobement away from being completely nude. Her pose invites the male sexual gaze, with her large breasts covered by just her arm and her buttocks flaunted to the male viewer. The depicted female character, Himejima Akeno, is voluptuous and scantily dressed in a swimsuit. The sexual intent behind the image is clear. The first problem lies in its portrayal of sexual fanservice.įigure 2: An eyecatch from the animated adaptation of High School DxDįigure 2 is an image generally representative of sexual fanservice in anime, taken from an anime ( High School DxD) that mainly entertains through this visual device. Yet, Tawawa is a story I find difficult to be titillated by. Show its majority male viewers tits and asses, let particular sections of clothing reflexively tighten and Tawawa has fulfilled its mission.
With the concise nature of just a single page or a short episode under five minutes in length, there is no need or time to have a serious story. Ideally it is like High School DxD and other similarly ecchi anime, distilled to its purest form.
From the sizeable cleavage of the main female character Ai-chan that dominates the foreground, to the various men captivated by said sight, it is clear that Tawawa is a simple fanservice series. You might also want to catch up on the animated adaptation, since there will be some spoilers.įigure 1 is the 74 th instalment of the series, which Himura Kiseki posted on his Twitter account. _īefore I proceed, below is a quick introduction to the nature of Tawawa. This, I feel, will be a theme of my future articles on this blog. It has bothered me enough to make it the subject of my debut article on NUSCAST. It is a show that has bothered me since I watched the anime back in October 2016. Tawawa is the sort of story you read weekly whenever you have time to kill and quickly forget after a few days, or marathon in one hour and forget just as promptly. It, along with 2 Blu-ray exclusive shorts, can be found at your favourite anime fansub website.
The series also has an animated adaptation, in the form of 12 short episodes which ran online from October to December 2016 on Niconico. Getsuyoubi no Tawawa (Tawawa) is a series of one-page web comics posted on creator Himura Kiseki’s Twitter account, with a new comic uploaded every Monday.