Shower Scene



"Tommy: How was it? I heard there was an awesome shower scene.

Harry: Oh, yeah! But then this naked girl got in and you could barely see the shower."

- 3rd Rock from the Sun, "Indickscretion"

Exactly What It Says On the Tin: A character (usually someone designated a Mr. or Ms. Fanservice -- either in-universe or according to the fandom -- but an Innocent Fanservice Girl [or Guy] can be susceptible) takes a shower.

More often the person is female, but can also be done with men to appease the squealing fangirls (and gay fanboys).

Also known as the Obligatory Shower Scene. A Decontamination Chamber can be used as a variation of this in science fiction works.

One of the most common forms of Fan Service, this will usually involve frosted glass, Censor Steam, Censor Suds, or a Toplessness From the Back shot to appease the censors and get crap past the radar, if necessary.

If a waterfall is used in place of a shower for whatever reason (a character is out in the woods or the story takes place before indoor plumbing was common), then it's a Waterfall Shower.

Almost always used in conjunction with Modesty Towel, Censor Steam, Censor Suds (though that's more common for bath sceens), and Toplessness From the Back.

Subtropes include:
 * Shower of Angst (when a character showers to wash away shame, misery, or embarrassment by taking a shower -- either naked or clothed, depending on how messed-up the character is)
 * Shower of Awkward (when Hilarity Ensues when one character walks in on another showering)
 * Shower of Love (when two people make love while in the shower).

Compare Bathtub Scene.

Anime & Manga

 * Kallen's shower scene in Code Geass. Yeah, there was Pixellation, too, but apparently the viewers still got to see the good stuff.
 * Versions exist without the pixels. Specifically, the Youtube versions.
 * Parodied in the Giant Robo "side stories" when we get a classic anime shower scene, camera panning up a shapely pair of legs and buttocks... only for the old, bearded and male bad guy Shocking Alberto to turn to the camera and ask the audience if they were expecting someone else. Nice ass.
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS has one involving nearly all the trainees, minus Erio who had to wait for his turn outside.
 * An earlier one takes place in Subaru and Teana's time with the academy, in which Subaru talks with Teana about her admiration for Nanoha, and Teana tells her somewhat coldly that she has no interest in becoming friends with her (she later changes her mind).
 * In Black Cat, to celebrate the tenth issue we're treated to Rinslet taking a shower.
 * In the anime, Train also gets his in episode 14.
 * Fire Candy doesn't bother to censor, well, anything in Yukito's shower scene.
 * Due to the nature of the curses, these are a dime a dozen in ~Ranma ½~: cold showers for turning into the cursed form, hot baths for changing back.
 * Tieria Erde's shower scene in Gundam 00 is a very rare and completely humourless male example of this trope, random as it may have been.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima has one of these early on. Negi tries to help Asuna by enchanting her brushes. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Later on, more Hilarity Ensues when Asuna and Makie are getting Negi cleaned up in a girl's locker room, and have to hide him when Class Representative Ayaka, fellow student Natsumi and Hot Teacher Shizuna enter (Makie shouldn't have tempted fate with her loud thinking).
 * Dana Sterling has a couple of them in Robotech.
 * Yellow Belmont (Lancer in the Robotech version) also gets one. which demonstrates that he's a guy, but is as gratuitous as most female shower scenes.
 * Used for comedy in Axis Powers Hetalia, where Ludwig/Germany's first love declaration to Feliciano/North Italy happens when the latter bursts into the first taking a shower and demands to have him say "I love you".
 * Joe gets one in the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman OAV series. If you thought the original series' Joe was Mr. Fanservice...
 * Matsuya gets one in the last episode of Excel Saga. That Kabapu was spying on.
 * Simoun had several.
 * A terrifying subversion occurs in Naruto: a shower scene featuring Orochimaru and his decaying arms. Considering that he's the main villain of the series at that point, and his generally high levels of creepy, it's really creepy. Added to the mix is the fact that Kabuto was apparently in the room the whole time.
 * Don't forget the infamous Waterfall scene with Hinata.
 * In The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan, there is a brief Shower Scene Ã la Yuki Nagato, notable for its departure from the series' usual Super Deformed character design in favor of a more realist rendering.
 * Kaiser gets one in Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
 * Mai Shiranui has one in the second Fatal Fury OAV.
 * Director Masami Ohbari provided us another one in the Battle Arena Toshinden OAV.
 * In a scene in the manga Ichigo Mashimaro, Miu spies on Ana to see if she's actually as... developed... up top as the way her clothing lays on her suggests, i.e. moreso than Miu. Apparently so. She's 11, though, and Barbie Doll Anatomy is employed (no chest features are drawn), so whether it's hot or just cute is up to the reader.
 * Fushigi Yuugi puts Miaka in one of these (among other bathing scenes in the series), where the camera pans sloooooooowly from her butt up.
 * The first movie of Macross Frontier had three shower scenes -- Alto, Sheryl and Grace. Alto had a scene where it was even angled from above, much to the joy of fangirls everywhere; and Grace displayed everything in full view of the viewers.
 * The series itself even had a few, featuring characters like Sheryl, Nanase, Ranka, and even the micronized Klan.
 * Gren gets a plot-relevant one in Cowboy Bebop. Faye gets a fanservice one in the movie.
 * Shizuka is never without one in Doraemon.
 * Honoka from The Third gets one in episode 3.
 * Nami's had a few in One Piece.
 * Including one with a groping and licking by an invisible lion man.
 * In Bleach, we get a shower scene of Mayuri Kurotsuchi, of all people. However, this scene showed us that under all that make up/war paint, he's actually quite attractive.
 * Bulma in Dragonball while camping in the desert in Oolong's double decker camper. Yamcha accidentally saw her showering while trying to invade their camp.
 * Vegeta has a scene at the start of the cell saga.
 * In Death Note, Halle Lidner has just had Mello, a wanted criminal, turn up on her doorstep and hold her at gunpoint. She then proceeds to willingly hide him in her bathroom, and take a shower in front of him. The scene is basically the entire foundation for the Mello/Lidner pairing- something that is helped by the downright alluring glances Halle keeps sending his way.
 * Played straight in the anime series Initial D, both Extra Stage 1 and 2 involve Mako in a shower scene.
 * Happens in Fullmetal Alchemist to Edward not long after he escapes from Gluttony's stomach, where he spent a fair amount of time ankle-deep in blood.
 * We also see Riza Hawkeye in the shower, along with a plot-relevant Toplessness From the Back shot.
 * Andromeda Shun from Saint Seiya has a random one in the anime, while the bad guy Lizard Misty gets a similarly-framed "bathing in the ocean" scene. Throw in the fact that Pisces Aphrodite takes a bath in one of the movies and you start to wonder if the animators weren't trying to prove that they were male.
 * In Durarara, we get one of Celty early on. Shinra pokes his head in to "check on her".
 * Shinra attempts the same thing in the second arc, but this time it's his dad in the shower. Oops.
 * Shinra himself got a brief one in episode 6. It wasn't as detailed though, much to the fangirls' disappointment.
 * At least one example in Sailor Moon, in episode 184.
 * Happens so often in Maicchingu Machiko Sensei that it is even featured in the opening credits... Barbie Doll Anatomy averted completely. Also: kid's show.
 * Yuri Petrov gets one in the sixteenth episode of Tiger and Bunny. It turns out to be rather plot important, as.
 * Rayflo gets one right in the first chapter of Vassalord, just to make it clear what kind of series this is.
 * In episode 9 of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, being the only time you see Yoko with more skin showing than in her usual clothing is during her own Shower Scene. But let's just say it's not really the best moment for the fans to be happy... Tears are shed.
 * The manga version of this scene in chapter 16 gives us some nice detail of Yoko's body which we don't see in the anime's counterpart.
 * Sha Gojyo of Saiyuki gets two shower scenes - one in the series, one in the movie (Requiem).

Films -- Animation

 * Chun-Li has an extensive shower scene in the Street Fighter II animated movie. It's followed by a fight with Vega, which has her fighting in nothing but a bathrobe and lingerie.
 * Although, in the censored dub version, the scene only lasts a couple of seconds and only her butt is seen.
 * Jay gets one in Sky Blue, but we only see her face.
 * Doris Lang takes one in Vampire Hunter D.
 * Maki has one in an RV in the original Burn Up.

Films -- Live Action

 * The Spy Who Loved Me. Considering that this takes place on a U.S. submarine and involves Barbara Bach, it gives a whole new meaning to the Navy expression "Hollywood shower".
 * For the ignorant, a Hollywood shower is a long, luxurious shower, where you let the water run for the whole shower. By contrast, a Navy shower consists of running the water, cold, long enough to get wet, turning it off and soaping up, and running the water, still cold, long enough to rinse the suds off. The water is on for no more than two minutes in total. For obvious reasons, Hollywood showers are used as rewards.
 * Starship Troopers (co-ed!)
 * Also notable in that, unlike most shower scenes, it showed full frontal nudity as opposed to just back shots.
 * Apparently there were quite a few guests on set the day the shower scene in American Psycho was filmed.
 * Lara Croft Tomb Raider has two, male and female. Leading to a Crowning Moment of Funny when some teenage audiences started cheering for the second shower scene, only to awkwardly peter out once the camera revealed it wasn't Angelina Jolie.
 * Every Women in Prison movie has at least one. Black Mama White Mama has a particularly good one right at the beginning.
 * The shower scene in the first Joshuu Sasori film subverts this rather well. It starts with a shoulders-up shot of the protagonist's ally, complete with full nudity of extras in the background, displaying all the signs of being a standard shower scene. Then it turns into a psychedelic fight scene; we never see the protagonist's ally below the shoulders, and the protagonist stays clothed. But Joshuu Sasori isn't your typical women in prison film.
 * Psycho (dramatic chords)
 * Sixteen Candles, of all things, contains an obvious bit of Fan Service: the high school's designated Hot Chick is spied upon by Molly Ringwald's character, a Naive Everygirl who kvetches about her own lack of mammarial development in comparison.
 * I, Robot: Two different ones, with Bridget Moynihan and Will Smith.
 * There was a shower scene in Road Trip, described by one of the characters and shown to the viewer... put on pause when someone questioned it, the question is Handwaved and we review to naked goodness.
 * The first Resident Evil movie has the female protagonist taking a shower, only to be knocked unconscious by gas coming from the showerhead. As the scene was filmed in Germany some critics felt this had Unfortunate Implications.
 * Arachnophobia has a female secondary character taking a shower, not noticing a poisonous spider crawling around in the shower with her. However, she sees the spider before it can bite her, she screams, and (somehow) Hilarity Ensues.
 * Case in The Unborn gets a shower scene, but you mostly see only her back, and the side shots employ strategic camera angling to avoid the good bits, sadly.
 * Screaming Mimi, based on the Frederic Brown novel.
 * The Seventh Victim
 * Harrison Ford's character in Witness walks in on his Amish hostess giving herself a sponge bath.
 * Cruel Intentions 2 has a shower scene with twins, which, incidentally, is the only thing people remember about the film.
 * And Amy Adams would like to keep it that way.
 * The Film of the Book of The Outsiders has a gratuitous scene with Sodapop.
 * James Bond and Wai Lin share an outdoor shower (both clothed) in Tomorrow Never Dies, leading a combination Shirtless Scene / Wet Sari Scene.
 * Seen in Whiteout with Kate Beckinsale's character, despite the water restrictions existing on a real life base in Antarctica which would prevent the above-mentioned 'Hollywood Shower'.
 * Lampshaded in PCU. "Shower sceeeeene..."
 * Zooey Deschanel has had two, one in Elf, and one in ~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~. Now everybody, have you heard... Nothing dirty is seen, but still.
 * Maid Marion accidentally stumbles upon the naked Robin Hood, bathing under a waterfall in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves -- and thoroughly enjoys the view.
 * American Beauty shows us Kevin Spacey jerking off in the shower through frosted glass at the beginning of the film. Later, there's also a Dream Sequence revolving around Mena Suvari's character in the bath.
 * Abigail Whistler's bloody post-battle shower scene in Blade: Trinity interspersed with flashbacks of her dad, is the closest the movie comes to being emotionally resonant. It's also pretty much the only bit of Character Development she gets.
 * Porky's has a shower scene where the guys are watching the girls shower. One bold boy puts his penis through the hole only to have the female gym teacher grab it.
 * "God damn it, would you move it, you lard-ass?"
 * In Two Moon Junction, April (Sherilyn Fenn) reverses the roles and watches the guys shower at the country club.
 * In GI Jane, the title character showers while the male senior chief talks to her.
 * Carrie has a shower scene at the beginning of the movie with several girls, including Carrie, after gym class.
 * Weird Science has a scene where Gary and Wyatt shower with Lisa. They're later mocked by mutant bikers because both boys wore their shorts jeans in the shower with Lisa being the only one naked.
 * In Tank Girl, Lori Petty has a waterless shower with some kind of white powder used to clean her body.
 * The Final Girl in The Funhouse is introduced to us this way.
 * Helen Hunt takes a shower in Twister. Storm-chasing is no doubt dirty, gritty work with the high winds and all, but the scene itself is entirely gratuitous.
 * Beverly D'Angelo makes National Lampoon's Vacation a better movie with a delightfully gratuitous topless shower scene.
 * Maggie Gyllenhaal gets a bathtub scene in Secretary, and a post-shower scene in Sherrybaby. Both are glorious.
 * Matthew Broderick's character in The Cable Guy.
 * The B-horror flick Abominable has a shower scene with Tiffany Shepis, which is worth the price of admission alone. Subverted in that it's quick, as opposed to the usual Hollywood Shower, but that also means there's a lot of "movement".
 * Considering that Risky Business was basically a movie revolving around teenage wet dreams, it is no surprise that it gives us this trope at the beginning of the movie involving a dream Tom Cruise's character has about a hot girl showering.

Live Action TV
"Naked!Chloe: Eli, I'm getting dressed. Wait up.
 * NCIS: A number, including one where Gibbs, Tony, Kate and McGee all have to take one after a powder release in the office. Kate's rear has suds on it.
 * Also subverted: A woman turns on her shower, Dress Hits Floor, her boyfriend puts on mood music, and then blood starts spurting from the showerhead. That must have killed the mood.
 * Primeval Season 2: Stephen Hart comes home to find Helen Cutter in his shower: "Hope you don't mind. I got slimed in the Devonian and the smell would make your eyes water. Now stop staring and pass me a towel."
 * The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a couple of these, one by Sarah and one by Derek. The former is also a Shower of Angst, while the latter is most definitively a Shirtless Scene.
 * I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here had Mylene Klass showering in a bikini. She came second. You do the math.
 * Twisted slightly in Babylon 5 when someone asks about Commander Susan Ivanova. Cut to a person in a shower who quickly turns out to be Captain John Sheridan. But it's still a shower scene, ladies. Enjoy.
 * Kate has had several shower scenes on Lost. She also had an underwear-clad bathing scene in the pilot episode.
 * Dollhouse has one roughly every other episode. Coed showers for groups of people.
 * In "Stop-Loss" non-doll Adelle steps into one to sober up (and for the view, presumably.)
 * Also turned into a plot point when one of them started having man-reactions.
 * The Bill had one during an episode when one of the female officers went undercover in a women's prison.
 * Common in Oz.
 * Star Trek Enterprise. Captain Archer takes a shower, but the Artificial Gravity goes off. Unfortunately for female viewers, he doesn't float up enough to show anything besides his chest.
 * Greys Anatomy had one of the most blatant examples with a season two episode that opens with Izzy, Meredith and Christina taking a very steamy (yet somehow non-wet) shower together. It turned out to be just a dream sequence which served absolutely no purpose to the plot, to the characters or to anything else but drawing in male viewers. While they did do a non-sexy "reprise" to "justify" the whole thing, it still made no sense whatsoever and was completely pointless.
 * House gets a few bath scenes, and one shower scene in "Distractions" which leads into a weird acid-trip sequence in which he is still dripping wet.
 * Speaking of Hugh Laurie, in Jeeves and Wooster Bertie seems to get a bath-scene every other episode. Always with Jeeves in the room, too.
 * Inara gives herself a ritual sponge bath in the pilot Firefly,.
 * The Third Doctor's debut.
 * The Eleventh Doctor also gets one of these in the episode "The Lodger.". There were many ways they could have done this scene. They opted for the sexiest option. And the Fandom Rejoiced.
 * Chuck, Sarah, Devon (Captain Awesome) and Ellie. Casey did have a shower scene but remained more or less fully clothed because he was in medical distress (no fanservice for the ladies... yet).
 * Lexx had a few, sometimes including frontal nudity (depending on what country you were in).
 * Thankfully, these were included on the DVD release. Some of these include:
 * A scene with Zev on the Lexx with Stanley watching.
 * A scene with Bunny getting some assistance from Kai.
 * A scene where Zev is taking a bath and some vampire girls intend to scare her by dangling a live rat over her face. The plan backfires when Zev eats the rat, tail and all.
 * Red Dwarf: "And now, Krytie TV presents... Women's Shower Night!"
 * Once upon a time (1981-1987) in France, there was a fitness show whose entire closing credits was a shower scene with the two female leads. It was changed for a time, before being reverted due to fan outcry.
 * Kate Beckett gets one in the season 2 episode of Castle. "Tick...Tick...Tick...".
 * Used in the Stargate Universe episode "Darkness", when Chloe and Eli discover the only working showers on the ship. Unfortunately for Chloe, the power goes out right in the middle and she's left soaking wet, in nothing but a towel. Needless to say, Eli is slightly distracted.

Eli: Sure!

(beat)

Chloe: Turn around!

Eli: Right, right! Sorry!"


 * Glee has one with Finn singing loudly into a bar of soap as he showers.
 * Several times with Sam, including a singing scene a la Finn.
 * M* A* S* H has several shower scenes and even a few bathtub scenes.
 * Queer As Folk: So. Many. Showers.
 * A staple in a lot of Korean Series, usually the male leads:
 * 49 Days: The Scheduler when he goes to a public pool to collect a soul. Hey, he's still wet and hot.
 * Best Love: Dokko Gin
 * Scent Of A Woman: Ji Wook
 * You Are Beautiful: A whole locker room of guys...

Theater

 * In The Women, Crystal has the curtains drawn before actually taking a shower, but before that is sitting in the bathtub naked for most of the scene.

Video Games

 * Parasite Eve 2.
 * The 3rd Birthday takes it to another level though, it makes the scene in PE 2 look arguably classier.
 * Persona 3. Not altogether willingly. Creates a bit of Fridge Logic (if not outright Plot Hole) in that the water is perfectly clean, even though it was stated and shown repeatedly that all water turns to blood during the Dark Hour.
 * James Bond: Agent Under Fire had one in the fourth mission. Turned out it was actually R.
 * "Ah! The latest in holographic technology. I thought that would catch your eye, 007."
 * Mona in Max Payne 2 bared her back through censor steam in the 3D cutscene and donned a towel in the comic panels. A cheat code to unlock Mona's hidden model showed that her nude body was fully rendered from all directions.
 * Shion had a nice steamy one in Xenosaga III.
 * In No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, the Save Point is a toilet when you're playing as Travis. During the sequence you play Shinobu, it's a shower. Much like Travis can always find functional toilets, she can always find surprisingly elegant showers.
 * All three playable characters have one in Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy. Carla is the only one whose character model is actually naked during the scene (Lucas and Tyler's boxers are sometimes visible).
 * Madison's shower scene in Heavy Rain. Or Ethan Mars' (which was considerably less fan service-y in that regard).
 * Subverted in the second Tomb Raider. After clearing the Bonus Level, which consists of Lara shooting thugs while dressed in a bathrobe, it looks like you're gonna get a Shower Scene for your efforts... But then Lara says "Don't you think you've seen enough?" and shoots the camera.
 * Possible to invoke in Endless Ocean: Blue World if you use the shower facilities behind the cabin of Nineball Island.
 * In Mass Effect 3, Female Shepards have the option to offer Specialist Traynor a shower in their private cabin. And then join her.

Web Comics

 * Angels 2200 has lots of shower scenes for its Improbably Female Cast.
 * Last Res 0 rt does one... sadly, it's only a one-panel gag.
 * Freefall has one of these in a sub-arc, starting here. Since then there have been several more, mostly played straight. The one for the Oct 24, 2011 strip, however, subverts the usual Fan Service purpose:
 * The Whiteboard: Done as part of the 2007 April Fools Day strip, here. And again in 2012.
 * The KA Mics? Check!

Web Original

 * The menu for the second TGWTG DVD involves The Nostalgia Critic getting barged in on by his brother while he's in the shower. He's rather questioning of this.

Western Animation

 * Several characters in Code Lyoko at one time or another, but always with Censor Steam or careful frame cutting.
 * At least three instances: Ulrich in "Routine", Milly in "Attack of the Zombies" and Aelita in "Fight to the Finish".
 * Winx Club had three brief shower moments in season two: Tecna in episode five, Flora in episode seven, and Professor Avalon in episode nine. Flora's and Avalon's were the most fanservice-y; Flora's whole silhouette was shown in the shower, and Avalon was lounging in the steam with a towel wrapped around him for modesty.
 * Kim Possible: Bonnie goes to take a shower, which doubles as a tribute to Psycho when Kim deliberately uses all the hot water.
 * Larry of Ka Blam! got one of these in an early episode (shown from the waist up). How the fangirls went Squee!
 * The boys of South Park got one in "'Lil Crime Stoppers." However, unlike the previous examples, no attempt was made at preserving their modesty: in fact, a full-frontal shot of Stan, Kyle, and Cartman was used in the opening credits for several years afterward.
 * In episode 22 of Wakfu, a sunstroke-suffering Sadlygrove has an hallucination of Evangelyne showering, with Censor Steam around.
 * In Batman the Animated Series, Bruce Wayne is sometimes shown stepping into the shower after working out, and later stepping out of the shower as he talks to Alfred about the latest thing that is troubling him.
 * On King of the Hill, Bobby accidentally catches Luanne in a camp shower. (Bobby's form provided modesty.)

Music

 * In the music video for Jewel's song Stand spends at least half of it with her in the shower.
 * Alizée's song "J'en ai marre". Cute French girl, fully dressed, in a giant glass cube, water pouring over her half the time. Oh, and the song is quite catchy too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi4ncdWdSv8