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I always hear fan service in manga reviews. I understand the term's meaning
based on inference -to mean some sort of ecchi. But does anybody know where
the term started?


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anime-history
Where did the term fan service came from?


> Fan service (ファンサービス fan sābisu?), fanservice, or service cut (サービスカット
> sābisu katto?),[1][2] is a term originating from anime and manga fandom for
> material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience.[3]
> It is about "servicing" the fan[4] - giving the fans "exactly what they
> want".[5] Fan service usually refers to "gratuitous titillation", but can
> also refer to intertextual references to other series -
> [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service)

That just about describes fan service... and to answer your question

> Keith Russell regards the beginning of fan service as taking place in a
> permissive context, when "kids were just doing kids' stuff", which he
> believes allowed authors some latitude in regards to their subject
> matter.[17]
>
> Beginning in the 1970s with Cutey Honey, and continuing later with other
> magical girl shows, fan service became more risqué. By the 1980s full
> frontal nudity and shower scenes became standard content for fan
> service.[8][22] Later, Hideaki Anno who had promised Neon Genesis Evangelion
> would give "every episode...something for the fans to drool over" began
> removing the fan service imagery in later episodes. Those later episodes
> that did contain fan service elements juxtaposed them with imagery of the
> character in some kind of emotional trauma. Since then, fan service rarely
> contains full nudity.[22]
>
> Excessive content is now usually considered gratuitous regardless of its
> justification in relation to the narrative in which it takes place.

To expand -

> Origination of Fan Service
>
> a/o 26 September 2003...
>
> The term "fan service" goes back to the late 80's at minimum. However, Dirty
> Pair was done in 1985 and clearly had fan service in mind even if they
> didn't expressly use the term then. The term "Gainax Bounce" has been
> described as fan service since their title Top wo Nerae! came out in 1988
> (1). Gainax's anime parody of their own rise called 1982 Otaku no Video and
> 1985 Otaku no Video refers to fan service (2).
>
> **The first use of "fan service" on Usenet as refering to its current
> meaning was in 1994 by Hitoshi Doi (3). The actual first use of the term
> "fan service" on Usenet was done in 1991 by Tonghyun Kim and has a different
> context (3).** _(emphasis added by me)_
>
> By the time Gainax released Shin Seiki Evangelion in 1995, the term "fan
> service" was well known. This explains why on the previews for the next
> episode, Misato often called for more "service" or promised more "service".
> - [source](http://anime.mikomi.org/wiki/FanService)


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