Index 3 Funny and Fan Service
Fanservice has always been a controversial topic within anime, manga and light novels. Light novels especially have become synonymous with this and ecchi moments. This is because of the target demographic of the light novels in Japan. It is to keep the male teenage boys happy. That is why when they flick through a novel to see the pictures they will see lolis and be hooked. Of course this isn't the case with all light novels such as Baccano, but Index falls under the category of having fanservice.
The problem critics have with fanservice is that it is unnecessary and deviates from the story or the tone. It is instances where women are sexualised for our entertainment! I will say that if a character has a naturally attractive or sexualised appearance I do not count that as fanservice unless they are purposely drawing attention to it (although it's hard not to considering the personalities of other characters). Oriana wears little clothing at times but we see this majority of the times she appears. Some people would naturally consider this to be fanservice, but the alternate is having no characters wear revealing clothing at all. It's like a character at a beach wearing a swimsuit would be classed as fanservice. It is only when attention is drawn away from the plot and to the boobs, then it is fanservice as it is deviating from the progression of the plot. Otherwise to avoid all sexualisation we would have to have all female characters wearing bukhas or whatever that Muslim clothing is called. Would a completely naked girl class as fanservice then? Perhaps because it is so attention drawing that it would contradict my opinion about bikini girls, heh.
So you may ask yourself, how is Index different to a fanservice heavy series like Highschool DxD? How will I excuse the fanservice in Index to convince you it is a masterpiece? Firstly, the amount of fanservice in Index compared to DxD is low. In Index there are only about 3 fanservice scenes every volume or less while in DxD it is practically every single scene. Also when reading a light novel, you cannot see boobies and the fanservice scenes unless they are illustrated, meaning when compared to the anime there will be less fanservice scenes in front of you as imaging something is different to seeing it in front of you. Next, Index's fanservice scenes do not distract from the main plot, they are done within a matter of a few lines and it's back to the story. Plus Index's story has depth unlike DxD's which is escapism fantasy bullshit. But even if this is the case, what purpose does the fanservice have? I consider Index to be a wide variety of genres mixed into one series. It isn't just an action series, or a sci-fi series, or a fantasy, or a drama, or a slice of life, or a comedy, or a romance etc. It encompasses aspects of all of these.
The fanservice scenes (dare I say it) are used in clever ways to give examples of Touma's misfortune. "But Touma isn't unlucky! He gets to see naked girls that's great!" It may be dumb comedy scenes, but at least a purpose other than to please the readers is there. The fanservice scenes with Hamazura on the other hand had me dying with laughter, mainly due to how funny Hamazura is in general.
"So if fanservice scenes make you laugh then it's excusable?". Yes when handled correctly. Look at Golden Boy for example. The amount of fanservice it had was insane, although Golden Boy never had a complex plot so calling it fanservice is debatable. Nevertheless, the fanservice in that made me laugh and since it's a comedy it is fine because it is there for a reason. Like with Index it has a reason, a basic and perhaps unconvincing reason but still a reason. That concludes my thoughts on this.
Source: https://aminoapps.com/c/anime/page/blog/fanservice-in-the-index-novels/dxtb_u2PzxnqnvMoZJoE0w4lP8M4Pg