User blog comment:Monkey.D.Me/Fan-Service OVER 9000/@comment-3119203-20121023015339

If you look at Fairy Tail and Hiro Mashima's previous manga, Rave, little by little, fanservice increases. This is probably because at the beginning, fans (and editors/publishers) might be a little put off by this kind of image. But later, as the manga is solid and hard to discard, the author realizes he can get away with more stuff and therefore boost his fanbase. Great examples of this are some of my favorite series, Air Gear and History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, where some of the crap they put in is borderline pornography. One Piece is definitely getting worse about this, but I don't think it's ever going to get to the stage of Fairy Tail, where that is the only thing the author can do to keep fans (seriously, there was an entire chapter where Mira and that one chick were having a fashion contest, and most of the real fights are barely an entire chapter anymore).