Sex scenes that actually add to the work

[Weaver]

IMO in Katawa Shoujo some of them added to the game (though, some of them didn't).

 

[sumanoskae]

Sex scenes don't really affect me either way. I mean, people have sex, it's not always a major event. This is why I think the sex scenes in Dragon Age and Mass Effect are necessary, not because I think their revolutionary, but it would actually strike me as odd if nobody ever had sex.

Sex is a normal part of life, and I think it's a mistake to exalt or ignore it.

I suppose the best example is A Song of Ice and Fire, because the story doesn't treat all sex the same way. The characters approach sex like actual human beings; the nature of it depends on the situation.

Sometimes sex is emotional, sometimes it's just something people do for fun or profit. I think it would be kind of strange if in the vast world of ASoIaF nobody was ever seen having sex; there are countless people in real life having sex RIGHT NOW.

I can agree that many sex scenes are not beneficial, but they don't usually last that long, and they don't really bother me.

I suppose I should mention the one from Team America, if only because of how fucking hysterical it is.

 

[Majinash]

I guess it was different in the anime then, because from the manga I got the feeling it was totally gratuitous, and had nothing to do with the characters being in a confused and frightful situation, but rather because the main character saw a hot chick and got horny. There might be more under it if I read it again and thought about it more, but since the manga was a downward spiral from chapter ~100 onward, I'm not gonna bother.

I can't say for sure because I didn't read the manga but it was totally what I got from the anime. The protagonist was young, full of hormones and incredibly insecure of himself, in large part due to that only girl his age in their situation being attracted to his friend and not him. So you put this emotionally unstable adolescent into a life or death situation, who has never had sex before and was just rejected by what he assumed was his last chance, and add a much older woman to the mix and I totally understand why he did what he did, and how it showed just how much growing up he still has left.

The woman we don't know as well, and can't hear her inner monologue, so we really can't know why she does it. But I feel like from the theme of it she has similar reasons, and is there to show that despite age everyone involved in the whole Gantz situation makes a ton of bad choices, inside the death matches and out.

And the actual sex itself really showed nothing naughty, made it look like the boy had no idea what he was doing (he didn't) and made it look like the woman wasn't really getting enjoyment out of the action. It wasn't fan service because it didn't show anything, it felt "dirty" to me, and I think that was exactly what they were trying for.

 

[Thaluikhain]

But it's neat because he's not really a hero. Okay, he did rescue some people from a burning building with the help of a giant hovertank, but hovertank aside that's not an unbelievable level of heroism. Any of us could achieve the same level of heroism pretty easily. You know, if we had a hovertank.

Eh, I surpassed that level of heroism without getting out of bed. I successfully didn't fire a minigun in the middle of a big city.

Let's leave the trappings of the costume aside- if you can only achieve sexual climax by pretending to be a wholly different person, a shallow two-dimensional figure who has no real personality and pretty much just consists of a decorative motif, that's not a hero. That's someone with severe insecurity issues.

Eh, dunno, isn't that a common paraphilia?

 

[Thaluikhain]

How do you resist the temptation?

Might have been due to an effective police force. Also, those miniguns are like 6,000 RPM, that's expensive.

I'm not sure your comment actually disagrees with mine. Yes, it probably is a common paraphilia. That doesn't make it healthy. I mean, while they're neat fodder for all kinds of naughty websites, as I understand the technical definition of paraphilia they all seem pretty unhealthy. Because as I understand it the technical definition of a paraphilia is an external non-sexual object that is necessary for people suffering from that paraphilia to experience sexual climax. Which is what we saw in the movie. When you can't get off without pretending you're not you, that's not cool. That's when counseling is needed.

Hmmm...not sure, that seems like a value judgement there.

Which is what I liked so much about Watchmen. It took heroes and made them pathetic. That's awesome. As the man said, "Here's to the losers, Bless them all."

Oh, certainly, yes. Cape gets caught in a revolving door, and heroes can be victims of hate crimes.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

I dislike the sex scenes in Game of Thrones: most of the times they add nothing to the whole show. I don't remember that the books had this much sex in them...
A show that has probably even more sex scenes than Game of Thrones is Californication. In here it's perfectly fine, because the main character is some sort of sex addict, so it simply underlines his f*cked-up way of life.

To say something about this in anime: I don't watch anime often, but too much fanservice (and sex) destroys these shows for me. Elfenlied was the very first 'grown up' anime I tried to watch, but that was just ridiculous.

first of all, you have been watching the wrong shows, second here is a list of great ones either without fan service or very little fan service. anything by Satoshi Kon, anything by Studio Ghibli, Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo (it has light fan service but it isn't too bad at all), Black Lagoon, Psycho_Pass, Ghost in the Shell (the main character wears some skimpy outfits but they are practical for the job she is trying to achieve), Eureka 7 is really good, Last Exile. there are much more anime that doesn't rely on cheap fan service, you just have to look. Elphen Lied didn't really have anything too servicy... most of the nudity had an actual point to it, and was there to help make the scene more unnerving. the anime ended on a cliff hanger, so I would recommend you read the manga, but I doubt you would. I have read other works by the same mangaka, and wile there is some light fan service, it's wasn't too much and was used to move the character's development forward or show more about the character. for example, in Brunhilder into Darkness, there is a character constantly fawning over the main character, but the reason for this is because her dream is to have a child before she is killed by the organization that is trying to hunt her and the rest of the girls down. actually in that series only one character is only there for fan service, and that is only because the characters mention her big boobs a lot, the actual character is pretty powerful, or was... I think she was killed off...

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

I think my favorite sex scene that enhanced the plot was the one where the milk man shoves one of the bottles... oh wait you mean non porn shows and films. let me think about this one... OH! I know, the one if Perfect Blue, the whole scene was meant to be unnerving, because the actress is playing a character who is supposed to get ganged rapped, and there is this stalker who kills each of the men who took part in the scene later one, but the actual scene is very hard to watch even though she isn't actually being raped.

 

[leberkaese]

snip

Actually, Black Lagoon probably is my favourite anime. And who wouldn't like Studio Ghibli? Also, I cherished Attack on Titan for not having even the slightest fanservice.
But with this short list I covered half of the anime I watched, like I said, I don't watch that very often

 

[L. Declis]

House of Cards had some pretty good sex scenes that were used more to show who had power over who; for example, in one of the really early episodes, Frank performs oral sex on another person to show that even as she spoke to her father, he was simply had power of her and she submitted to him as a man more than her own father... or something, I just watched the episode a few days ago.

The Fitz and the Fool books by Robin Hobb tend to have a lot of sex that help characterization, including one night stands to full relationships. Sex is treated very normally, and love is also handled very well.

 

[JemothSkarii]

I'm gonna step in and say Grisaia no Kajitsu. They all had a place in the story (and the level of gratuitousness change with the routes) and added to relationships/characters. What I also felt is that they did try to make them feel different for each girl and succeeded quite well.

You'd lose some impact without them on some routes too thinking about it.

 

[Tono Makt]

I'm going to go with Mass Effect 1 and 2's love scenes. They fit into the narrative as set up AND they don't automatically exist - you have to work at them to get them to come up. It adds a small bit of realism to both games and are done rather nicely (if tamely; would it hurt to show a little nudity, even if it's just a boob? I dunno, just a hang up of mine when it comes to media sex scenes and women regularly leaving their bra's on.).

(hoping this post goes through; I can't seem to quote anyone, pull up spoilers or see posts that users were warned/banned for. It's really odd.)

 

[sageoftruth]

I liked how they were done in the comic Empowered by Alan Warren. Being a comic about a superheroine's discomfort with being the "eye candy" character, pretty much all of the sex scenes (and practically anything else that's fanservicey about the comic) serve a purpose of some sort, depending on what's happening in the current volume.

 

[gagagaga]

I'm surprised your female friend likes Fate/Stay Night, since in the main character's view, women should be molested in order to teach them femininity. I'm not exaggerating, that is literally what he says.

Anyway, I've heard the scenes in Katawa Shoujo are good, and in fact are a very mature view on sexuality.