All right, it's about time I stepped in and mentioned some things before this gets too out of hand. We can't have serious discussion of this caliber on this board.
First off I was asking more on what people felt about fanservice in AMVs rather than fanservice in ANIME. Hence the second post of the thread.
The thread started out after I saw a pretty good AMV which was pretty dang cool except several spots where there was excessive fanservice including some bare boobies and nipplage briefly (bout 5 seconds). And I thought to myself "Well, I'd love to show this to some friends, but oh what will they think of me if they see the panty shots and nipples?!"
And of course, considering the video's context and theme, the fanservice was unnecessary and IMO didn't even fit the video really.
Which is why I said "Don't put sexual fanservice in an AMV unless there's a specific reason". I should add a please there because it's up to the video editor, but I think there are videos out there that don't really need it. You wouldn't want to see a dramatic/romantic/sentimental video like Memories dance and have 20 panty shots in it.
But, since we're talking about fanservice in anime....
I'm not a huge fan of sexual fanservice. I'll come out and say I hate the enormous breasts of some characters as I'd perfer to see my anime females with more natural cup sizes. Panty shots don't do a lot for me either, for the most part. And this is coming from someone who has quite a bit of hentai and porn. But the thing is, the hentai and porn is created for a specific reason... to arouse and stimulate. The purpose of anime isn't to arouse and stimulate.
I'm not sure why Japanese creators put large boobs and panties in anime. Since most anime creators are males (and nerdy males at that), it could be just as a joke or just to throw something nice to the male fans, much as female manga/anime creators will throw in little things for females (shirtless bishys and maybe a homoerotic scene or two). Or it could be to try to get more people to watch, like the Salma Hayek Boobies scene in Ugly Betty. (and here's a good debate... are Salma's breasts REAL?)
A few sexual fanservice bits here and there are fine, although I wonder what my friends may think if I'm trying to convince them to start watching anime, and I wonder what to say if I let younger people watching it.
My biggest complaint though is towards excessive fanservice that serves no purpose than to attract more single horny males (or females, if it's yaoi) to watch the show. Example: I just watched the first few episodes of Burst Angel a few weeks ago, and decided I didn't feel like watching any more, because it was just an orgy of male fanservice with a plot that seemed to be very weak. Let's see...giant robots, girls with guns, crotch shots, jiggly big boobs, check! Shows like that turn me off a lot, since I look for good plot and character in my anime, not girls with jiggly tits. Like the anime my icon is from.... not a lot of fanservice (although Karen's boobs are rather large... :/ and there is that hotsprings episode), very awesome plot.
......
It seems I have caught the serious debate bug as well.
